E. Jean Carroll, the long-time columnist who has accused President Donald Trump of rape, said in an interview published Friday that she has begun sleeping with a loaded gun by her bed for the first time due to death threats.
"I'm not stupid," Carroll said regarding sleeping with the gun, in a two-hour sit-down interview with the Guardian at her cabin in upstate New York.
Carroll, a journalist and advice columnist, alleged last month that Trump raped her in the Bergdorf Goodman department store in the 1990s in Manhattan. They are the most serious sexual assault allegations against the president to date. Carroll said she has been "forced to stop looking at her social media feeds" and "had bullets loaded into the handgun in her bedroom."
E Jean Carroll, who has accused @realDonaldTrump of raping her, now sleeps with a loaded gun by her bed. I know so - I saw it and she waved it around in front of mehttps://t.co/whKdmgWLHv
— Ed Pilkington (@Edpilkington) July 12, 2019
However, Carroll said that hearing support from many women was the upshot.
"The mailbag is huge, I can't begin to get through it," Carroll said. "Women are telling me their stories—and that's the biggest thank you you can get."
Carroll detailed her alleged encounter with Trump in her new book What Do We Need Men For?. She claims that she and Trump talked, that he tried to get her to wear lingerie, that she told him to do so instead and that he then attacked her after they went into a small dressing room. Though Carroll did not use the word "rape," she has said the incident fit the legal definition of rape.
Trump denied Carroll's allegations, said he did not know her, and that "she's not my type."
Carroll said she hesitated about going public with her allegations not only because she was afraid of what could happen, but also because she felt that it could actually make him stronger politically.
"It's the image of a male leader—think Alexander the Great, think Genghis Khan. Think John F Kennedy. Great leaders take what they want without asking," Carroll said, adding about the 2020 election: "No matter what anyone does, Trump will win. I think he's got it sewn up."
Carroll is not the only woman who has said she has felt the need for a gun after making allegations about Trump and subsequently receiving death threats. [just tweaked this a little]
Adult film star Stormy Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, alleged she had an affair with Trump just months after his wife Melania Trump gave birth to their son. The story emerged after Trump won the presidency due to a hush payment, and the president denied the allegations.
"Yes, I have a gun at home," Daniels said in an ITV interview in August 2018, adding that "yes," her bodyguards are "armed."
"Some days I can slip out and go about my day and almost feel normal then I look round and there's two big bodyguards," Daniels said. "Other days I get crazy hate mail and death threats."
