Former President Donald Trump will be joined at his rally next week in Nebraska by Republican gubernatorial candidate Charles Herbster, who has been accused by eight women of uninvited touching.
Herbster’s appearance means that both headliners at the April 29 rally in Greenwood will be accused sexual assailants. Trump, of course, has been dogged by allegations raised by dozens of women.
Herbster, a corporate CEO, is on the ballot for Nebraska’s Republican primary on May 10. Trump endorsed Herbster in October and announced on Tuesday, days after the groping scandal erupted, that he’d be holding a rally with the candidate. Trump’s endorsement has not carried as much of an advantage for his picks this year as in the past.
A disturbing report by the Nebraska Examiner last week detailed stories of eight women, including Republican state Sen. Julie Slama, who say Herbster groped them.
Slama told the paper that Herbster reached up her skirt in the middle of a crowded ballroom as she walked by him during an event in 2019. A witness to the incident and two other people said they also watched Herbster squeeze another woman’s butt at the event.
Several other women told the Examiner Herbster groped them ― “grabbed, not inadvertently grazed,” the paper reported ― at the same event, the Douglas County Republican Party’s annual Elephant Remembers dinner.
The attacks allegedly happened when the young women were saying hello or goodbye to Herbster, who was seen interacting with men by giving them simple handshakes.
One other woman told the Examiner that Herbster once cornered and kissed her without permission.
For Trump, sexual harassment and assault accusations span decades, from 1970s groping to a mid-1990s department store rape.
A 2005 audio recording of Trump bragging that he can get away with any conduct with women, no matter how unwanted, sparked widespread condemnation before the 2016 election.
“When you’re a star, they let you do it,” Trump infamously said. “You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.”
Trump and Herbster both deny the misconduct allegations.