O’Reilly accuser on why she changed her views on women who come forward

Impact

When the allegations against Fox News host Bill O’Reilly came out, President Donald Trump was quick to call his accusers liars. Juliet Huddy was one of them.

“Once it all went public and specifically Bill O’Reilly was being basically lambasted by the media, none other than Donald Trump started to spout off about the Bill O’Reilly saga and he called people like me, accusers, liars essentially,” Huddy said.

But Trump wasn’t the only one who didn’t believe Huddy: Fans of Fox News and Trump alike joined in.

“Everybody [was] calling me a liar and, you know, and this and that, and a slut, and a gold digger, and an exploiter and all this business,” said Huddy.

Huddy wanted people to believe her. But even she didn’t believe her colleagues when they came out with allegations against her then-family friend, Roger Ailes.

“When the allegations against [Roger Ailes] came out by Gretchen Carlson, I was one of, I think, the first people to go on Twitter and Facebook and go off on Gretchen,” Huddy said. “I immediately didn’t believe her because to me, Roger Ailes was a god.”

Huddy realizes that might seem contradictory to you — and therein lies what she calls the “conundrum that we’re all trying to deal with.”

In an exclusive video op-ed for Mic, Huddy details her realization about when we should believe women who come out with sexual harassment and assault allegations and the level playing field on which we should hold all perpetrators accountable. Watch above.