Romney Asks For Investigation Of Trump Rape Allegation

Sen. Mitt Romney asked for an investigation regarding a sexual assault allegation columnist E. Jean Carroll made against President Donald Trump.

Carroll accused Trump of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman’s dressing room in New York in 1990s, according to an excerpt from her book in New York Magazine on June 21.

“It’s a very serious allegation,” Romney told CNN Tuesday. He said that it required more “evaluation.” The Utah Republican didn’t specify who, or what, should lead the investigation. “Whether it’s Congress or whether it’s another setting, I’m not sure,” he said.

Trump denied the encounter happened. “It never happened, O.K.?” Trump told The Hill in an exclusive interview Monday.

Carroll told Anderson Cooper during a CNN segment Monday that the alleged assault was “not sexual.”

Romney’s not alone in the Republican Party. “We have to find out — are these accusations, is there a grave truth, is there not?” Iowa GOP Sen. Joni Ernst said according to the Washington Post.

Ernst, who has said she was raped in college, is also urging for further investigation. “I think anybody that makes an accusation like that, they should come forward,” Ernst told CNN. “They need to interview her. They need to visit with him.”

Generally, though, Trump’s GOP allies are defending him.

“He’s denied it, and that’s enough for me. Until somebody comes up with something new,” Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told CNN.