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That's what I'm getting at: they can't say "the girls were 13" because they weren't ('Katie Johnson' aside), but if it's "yeah he foozled around with hot 17 year olds" that's nothing really. It might be grubby, but if it's generally considered that 14 year olds can be mature enough to decide to have sex and go on birth control, it's tough to argue that 17 year old is too young to have sex.
But the insinuation that "Epstein liked 'em very very young, and Trump was a big best pal of Epstein's and liked to party with him, so you know what that means" is what they're going for to do the damage.
With each other.
With someone much older.
You may or may not think this distinction relevant, but it is drawn by those advancing the aforementioned propositions.
Not just with each other, with someone X amount of years older than them, the precise number of years depending on the state and the law.
If 14 is old enough to decide to have sex, then by 17 you've been sexually active for three years, making decisions about your fertility, and should be experienced enough to decide if you want to sleep with a 30 year old, right?
That's the equivocation that sticks out like a sore thumb to me: 6 year old Johnny or Susie is old and mature enough to have a solid grip on their gender identity and know if they're really a boy or a girl; under-18 year old Susie is mature enough to decide for herself to have sex and can get a judge's decision to circumvent parental notification laws if she needs an abortion; 22 year old Susie was a poor helpless immature girl coerced into an unequal power-level relationship by wicked 28 year old Johnny!
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