‘I just am not following it that closely’: Pelosi shrugs off questions about Trump assault allegation

Nancy Pelosi says it’s up to Republicans to investigate a recent sexual assault allegation against Donald Trump. It’s an unusual concession from the House Speaker, who has repeatedly insisted on investigating Trump for a host of alleged wrongs.

At her press conference Thursday, the California Democrat was asked about the allegation by author E. Jean Carroll that Trump assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room more than 20 years ago. Pelosi said that she wasn’t following the story closely and that the Republicans must decide whether to investigate.

“Lord knows, I respect the concerns that are expressed by women as they present their truth, their case,” Pelosi said. “I don’t know what Congress’s role would be in this. But in any of these things this isn’t about what Congress would do. This is about what the president’s own party would do. You’d really have to ask them.”

Pelosi: I’m busy

Pelosi’s remarks came amid a border funding battle in which she caved to Republicans Thursday, signing on with a bi-partisan $4.6 billion bill to fund care for immigrants in border shelters. The bill did not include many stipulations that progressives had sought.

“I’m busy worrying about children not being in their mother’s arms because of policies that we may have,” Pelosi said.

Pelosi put the burden on Republicans to investigate Carroll’s story, saying she wasn’t sure what role if any Congress had in looking into the matter. But she previously supported efforts by Democrats on the House Oversight and Reform Committee to investigate sexual misconduct allegations against Trump in 2017, when they were in the minority. Democrats have reportedly put those investigations on the “back burner” as they look to pursue Trump over the contents of the Mueller report, according to the Hill.

“I don’t think that a person who has been a sexual harasser should be president of the United States but there is — hopefully the committee will do the investigation,” Pelosi told reporters in 2017.

Coming from Pelosi, this sounds like a deflection. It’s unlikely the Democrat leader failed to catch wind of the story, which dominated the news cycle in recent days. What’s more, Pelosi has repeatedly accused Trump of criminal wrongdoing in recent weeks over the Mueller report and insisted on investigating him for various misdeeds.

Some Republicans, including Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) and Joni Ernst (R-IA), who said she was raped in college, have called for an investigation.

Magazine writer accuses Trump of rape

Many were left puzzled by Carroll’s interview with Cooper Monday. Her story was nothing if not confused. When Cooper asked Carroll if she felt she had been victimized, she insisted that her alleged rape was not a “sexual” act.

“I was not thrown on the ground and ravaged,” she said, denying she was a victim. “The word rape carries so many sexual connotations. This was not sexual. It just hurt.”

Carroll said that the attack was a “fight” and not rape, to which Cooper noted that most people think of rape as a violent attack. Things quickly got awkward when Carroll claimed that many people consider rape to be “sexy,” prompting Cooper to quickly cut to a commercial break.

“I think most people think of rape as being sexy. They think of the fantasies,” she said.

Trump has vehemently denied Carroll’s allegation. “I’ll say it with great respect: Number one, she’s not my type. Number two, it never happened. It never happened, OK?” he told the Hill on Monday.

Carroll published her account of the alleged incident in New York Magazine in an excerpt from her upcoming book, “What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal.”