You might think Ken Starr the puritan would be a strange fit with Trump the libertine. Actually, not so much:
This piece by Max Brantley in the Arkansas Times from 2016 shows exactly why:
Kenneth Starr, whose persecutorial past need not be repeated here, gave an extensive interview yesterday with Evan Smith of the Texas Tribune and, boy, was it a corker.
The real victim of the sexual assault scandal at Baylor University while Starr was president was ousted football Coach Art Briles, a molder of young men in Starr’s view. He got a raw deal, Starr said. R
The rape victims? He had little to say about them and avoided use of words like rape and assault. He did haveadvice, as reported by Dead Spin:
Starr reserved his fierce sympathy for Briles and discussed the victims of the sexual assaults only in passing. Much as Briles did in his interview with College GameDay two weeks ago, Starr shied away from any mention of the terms “sexual assault” and “rape,” instead choosing the language of “interpersonal violence” and “unpleasantness.”
This choice of diction, perhaps, made it easier for him to assert that a culture of sexual assault was not endemic at Baylor, particularly as the reported incidents that laid the foundation for Baylor’s scandal occurred off-campus rather than on. Starr offered a convenient solution for any students frustrated by their university’s demonstrated disregard for their humanity:
“My encouragement to students is—don’t go to these off-campus parties. Just don’t go.”
A woman who goes to an off-campus party is just asking for it?
Of course, Starr is most famous for the sexually explicit romance novel he called an impeachment referral against President Bill Clinton. It was written with the intent to both titillate and shock the public with prurient details of a sad, inappropriate consensual affair. He and his accomplices pretended to be appalled by Clinton’s behavior on a deeply personal, moral level.
Then he left and got involved in yet another scandal, this time one about the sexual harassment and assault of young women on the campus he led. He covered it up and was fired for it.
He is a very slimy political operator and always has been. He has no ethics. He is perfect for Trump.