Trump spokeswoman says airplane armrests debunk sexual assault accusation

A Trump spokesperson denied allegations of assault on an airplane.
(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Donald Trump's surrogates have attempted to deny a torrent of accusations of sexual harassment and assault plaguing the Republican nominee, to varying degrees of success. One of the less impressive attempts came from Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson, who denied a story by The New York Times accusing Trump of groping a woman on an airplane because "we're talking about the early 1980s."

"Back then, you had planes, what, a DC-9, a DC-10, and MD-80, 707, and maybe an L-1011?" Pierson told Don Lemon. "First-class seats have fixed armrests … There are fixed seats on first class, so if it happened, it wasn't by Donald Trump."

The entire CNN panel snickered through Pierson's lame defense, with Lemon finally interrupting: "Okay Katrina," he said. "We'll get our aviation expert here to talk about the airplane."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

But before they could return to the question of armrests, the internet had already started to fact-check:

See more

It looks like Pierson memorized all those plane models for naught.

Continue reading for free

We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.

Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.

Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.