Trump at the top would be a disaster: Claudia J. Kennedy

In 1996, a fellow officer and U.S. Army general sexually assaulted me. I decided to handle it quietly. But three years later, when that same man was tapped for a position that would put him in charge of sexual assault investigations of general officers, I spoke up. I could not stand by as he took the reins of the very organization that might have investigated him only years before.

How senior leaders act, who they are and what they say profoundly affects a command climate. Their example is contagious. Over my 32 years in the Army, I learned that much. When leaders behave in reprehensible ways it affects the entire hierarchy — from generals to privates. Bad leadership gives bad apples the permission they need to embrace their worst selves, and it disheartens those who might otherwise be a bulwark against it.

What is true for military brass is also true for our commander in chief. The president’s example sets the tone for the nation and the entire armed forces. When he or she speaks, soldiers, airmen, coasties, Marines, and sailors listen. What he or she does ripples outward, emboldening some and chastening others.

So if the ultimate commanding officer demonstrates that women are little more than sexual objects to be rated on a scale from one to 10 and groped with impunity, people will learn from that horrifying message. That’s why, as someone who has been a victim of sexual assault in the military, I know Donald Trump would be a disaster both for our military and national culture.

The Access Hollywoodtape of Trump from 2005 is sickening. I have watched and listened to it and I am appalled. Even worse, multiple women have now come forward with stories of assaults at Donald Trump’s hands that match those he bragged about in the video. And even worse than that, Trump insists they are all lying.

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Trump claims that good leaders require discipline, and he’s right. But Trump himself has none. If you listen to the most recent tapes, you know that for a fact. You know that he cannot be our next president.

Trump has smeared veterans. He has reveled in racism. He has even attacked a Gold Star mother whose son was killed in combat. Now Trump has shown his true colors once more: He is a sexist and chauvinist who dehumanizes women, and is possibly a sexual predator as well.

When Trump tweets that sexual assault is the result of men and women serving in the same units, he excuses a repugnant crime. When he glosses over the 75 years of service women have given to the armed forces, he attempts to revise history. And when he speaks about women in sexually violent terms — in a way that denigrates them and embarrasses decent people everywhere — he normalizes the unimaginable.

Then, when he tries to explain away the worst of this as “locker room talk,” he diminishes the pain of thousands of men and women in and out uniform who know the real-world consequences of words and ideas like his.

Leaders’ actions matter. But their words matter, too. I remembered that well after I became a victim of sexual assault myself. At the time, I approached a senior leader about what happened. I was worried about how he would react. I worried about what would happen to me and to the Army — an institution that I love.

But I needn’t have.

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After listening to my story, he told me without hesitation that what I had experienced was sexual assault. He then apologized and told me that I did not deserve what happened to me. That I should have never gone through the ordeal that I had.

That officer treated me as a soldier. He treated me with respect. He was sober and serious — the perfect response for an issue of that magnitude. I went back to work knowing that justice would be done, and that leaders who would stand tall during difficult times were taking charge. His words set the tone, and like his actions, inspired confidence.

That is what we need in a president. We need someone who will not use the power of his or her words to demean and bully. We need someone who will empower the best angels of our nature, while stifling the worst. And we need someone who will use the bully pulpit of the Oval Office to make progress, not drag us back to the dark ages.

You don’t have to be a woman or have a sister, wife, or daughter to be disgusted by Trump. You don’t have to serve in the military. You certainly don’t have to be a Democrat. No, to turn your back on Donald Trump, you simply have to be decent human being.

Retired Army lieutenant general Claudia J. Kennedy was the first woman in the U.S. Army to hold three-star rank. In 1996, a male general tried to grope and kiss her inappropriately. An Army investigation confirmed the charges in 2000.

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