President Trump's worst character traits are his lack of empathy, his disregard for women, and his logorrhea, including on social media. Those three flaws combined this morning to produce the worst of his many bad tweets.

I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her or her loving parents. I ask that she bring those filings forward so that we can learn date, time, and place! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 21, 2018



The implication is that any woman or girl who doesn't go to the police or have her parents do so probably wasn't assaulted.

This is a completely thoughtless, callous, and false assertion. It may be trivial for me to note that I know of at least two women were sexually assaulted as minors and never told the police, and who either never or belatedly told their parents. That's trivial, because it probably happens a million times a year. Half of the story of the Catholic Church's scandals is boys not coming forward with their stories of abuse for years, if ever.

There are scores of books on this, but you don't need to read them to understand why a woman or girl might not go to the police or to her parents. You need a modest capacity for empathy. Putting yourself in the place of such a victim, you might be able to imagine a misplaced sense of shame or guilt (particularly for a teenage girl who was drinking at a party full of older boys). You could also imagine a woman wanting to bury the memory.

Trump clearly can't imagine these things, probably because he lacks both empathy and due respect for women. Many young men and teenage boys lack due respect for women. You would hope a grandfather would have it. What he was caught on "Access Hollywood's" live mic saying, combined with his lack of contrition for it showed his disregard for women pretty clearly.

He may literally be the worst person in America to comment on thorny sexual assault matters. Throw in his tendency to spout off whatever ill-considered nugget comes to his mind, and you've got this perfect storm of bad tweeting.

We've long known Trump's flaws. Now we're seeing again why they matter.

[Related: Poll: Voters split on Kavanaugh]

----

UPDATE 10:46 am: I've expanded this piece a bit from its original 10:00 am post.