Breaking the news on the show.

View in Browser | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book.

Friday, June 28, 2019

Listen to the latest episode »

The Times reporter Megan Twohey in the studio, after she spoke with E. Jean Carroll and her two friends. Michael Barbaro/The New York Times

Michael Barbaro

In the fall of 2016, a woman named Jessica Leeds wrote an email to The Times, claiming that, decades earlier, Donald Trump had sexually assaulted her during a flight. The email was forwarded to my colleague Megan Twohey and me, and we set about trying to report the story. Trump would later deny the allegations.

In our reporting, Megan and I were struck by Jessica's explanation for why she did not report the alleged assault to any authorities or airport employees at the time. She was a working woman in a man's world. Unwanted advances were a fact of life.

"We accepted it for years," Jessica said of the conduct. "We were taught it was our fault."

But Jessica did tell her friends and family — not right away, but well before she had contacted us. We reached out to them, one by one, to confirm the details she had conveyed to them, and cross-referenced those details.

They were not witnesses, but the conversations they had with Jessica gave readers a new way to assess the credibility of her accusations, something Megan and I discussed on an episode of "The Run-Up" podcast a few weeks before the 2016 election.

Three years later, as Megan reported on the accusations of E. Jean Carroll, who claimed that she, too, had been sexually assaulted by Trump, she sought out the same kind of accounts from friends. Megan found two of them. At first, they spoke anonymously. But by Wednesday morning, Megan had persuaded them to speak on the record, using their names.

We typically time our episodes with the publication of articles by our colleagues. This was different. The news would be made on the show.

E. Jean and her two friends, Carol Martin and Lisa Birnbach, told their story on "The Daily." The result was a powerful conversation about assault, memory, friendship and a bygone era in New York that all three women had inhabited.

At the end of my interview with Megan, both of us realized we were thinking back to the same story we had worked on years earlier, about Jessica Leeds. Like Jessica, E. Jean did not report her allegations to the authorities. Like Jessica, E. Jean had experienced unwanted touching from men before. And like Jessica, she was inclined, at first, to blame herself, not the men she said had assaulted her.

But over time, the world changed, and so did they. And these two women decided they had to tell their stories.

Talk to Michael on Twitter: @mikiebarb.

Why now?

E. Jean Carroll called two friends years ago, saying that Donald Trump had attacked her. "I think he raped you," one said. The two are speaking out for the first time, in the conversation with Megan Twohey you heard on Thursday's episode.

Why did E. Jean finally speak up about President Trump? #MeToo happened. When news of sexual assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein broke in 2017, E. Jean was driving. "I just kept pulling over to see the story," she said. "And I couldn't help but think of men in my own life."

Read more about her decision to come forward, and how her friends are sticking by her.

Tomorrow, a special episode about Pride

The Christopher Street Liberation Day March, the first Pride march in New York, in 1970. Michael Evans/The New York Times

Fifty years ago today, a riot following a police raid on the Stonewall Inn in Manhattan became a milestone of the L.G.B.T.Q. Pride movement. The events catalyzed a tradition of Pride marches, many of which will be taking place around the world this weekend.

But continuing disagreements over corporate and police presence at Pride have opened up a rift ahead of the marches. On a special Saturday episode of "The Daily," we'll look at how these divisions are playing out, and what the idea of inclusion means for Pride in this moment. Look out for the episode in your podcast feed or at nytimes.com/thedaily.

On 'The Daily' this week

Sudan's military helped pro-democracy protesters topple a dictator. Then it turned against them. Declan Walsh explains what happened.
Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren on the possibility of impeachment: "It doesn't assist us in doing anything but creating additional division and conflict in the country, and so there's no need to use the 'I-word' until we're ready to proceed."
Ahead of the Democratic debates, Alex Burns walked us through what the presidential candidates will be fighting over throughout the campaign.
E. Jean Carroll told two women that Donald Trump assaulted her in the 1990s. In an exclusive interview with Megan Twohey, the women discuss it publicly for the first time.
There are a "whole lot of cultural and policy questions up for grabs in this Democratic primary." Alex Burns on the differing visions for the future put forth by 20 Democratic presidential candidates in the debates.