Of Course Trump Endorsed a GOP Candidate Accused of Groping More Than Half a Dozen Women

Donald Trump isn’t great at a lot of stuff (running successful companies, responding to global pandemics, speaking his native language), but one thing he absolutely excels at is endorsing horrible people for office. Since 2016, a who’s who of Trump-backed candidates has included Roy “Reportedly Banned From the Mall” Moore; Lauren “I’ll Carry My Glock to Congress” Boebert; Herschel “If Evolution Is Real, Why Do Apes Still Exist?” Walker; Ron “Don’t Say Gay” DeSantis; Mehmet “Have Some Snake Oil” Oz; Matt “Human Trafficking Is Fine” Gaetz; and Mary “Hitler Actually Had a Good Idea” Miller. In October, a guy running for Nebraska governor named Charles Herbster got himself added to the list, and if you’re wondering what terrible traits Trump saw in him, it seems that they were an interest in helping overturn the 2020 election and a habit of allegedly groping women.

The Nebraska Examiner reported on Thursday that eight women said Herbster “groped them,” writing that six women said he “touched them inappropriately when they were saying hello or goodbye to him, or when they were posing for a photograph by his side.” (A seventh accused the candidate of cornering her in private and forcibly kissing her.) All of the women told the outlet that they were intentionally grabbed, not “inadvertently grazed.” In one particularly gross incident, Republican state senator Julie Slama said that Herbster, in the middle of a crowded room at an annual event for the Douglas County Republican Party, reached up her skirt and touched her inappropriately without her consent. Another person who attended the event confirmed they saw Herbster reach up Slama’s skirt and claimed that he also groped another woman’s butt that same night.

Other than Slama, all of the women spoke on the condition that their names not be used, with several saying they “feared Herbster’s wealth and power”; three said they were worried about the impact on their careers if they reported the incidents, while others were worried about how their parents and churches would react. “Being a conservative Republican woman in politics, you just expect to be treated with respect. To be treated in that way in a public event, in front of everyone, just to prove, I believe, that he could get away with it, and not having recourse, it’s terrifying,” one told the Nebraska Examiner. “I’m scared for any young women that he would be dealing with in the future. Don’t send your daughters to work for this guy.” The outlet said it

“corroborated six of the women’s accounts with at least one witness to each incident,” adding that “the other two women told at least one person about the incident on the same day it occurred,” all of whom confirmed the accounts.

In a statement, Herbster’s campaign manager said that he denied the allegations “unequivocally,” calling the report “a political hit-piece built on 100% false and baseless claims.” The campaign manager claimed the “political establishment” is “smearing and trying to destroy [Herbster] with lies.” Nebraska governor Pete Ricketts, a Republican, denounced Herbster on Thursday, saying, “This is beyond horrible,” and adding, “Charles W. Herbster should beg forgiveness of the women he has preyed upon and seek treatment. Sexual assault is criminal behavior and should disqualify anyone from elected leadership.”

So far the allegations do not appear to have dampened the Trump family’s enthusiasm for the candidate. (The former president, of course, knows a little something about such matters, having been accused by more than two dozen women of sexual misconduct, including rape, which he obviously denies.) On Wednesday, Donald Trump Jr. was on the trail with Herbster for a three-city tour; neither father nor son has had anything to say publicly about the allegations.