Hi clo,
Parsing the quality of different memories is the kind of argument a lawyer who knows little about how memory works would make.
The fact that a person doesn't report a humiliating experience for 40 years isn't remotely unusual. It is seeing the person responsible treated as if they are a man of sound character which likely triggered Ford's response. It may have recalled the humiliation in a person who now has the maturity to think their response through.
Trump, of course, knows nothing and lacks all sensitivity so can be disregarded as a source of sensible conversation.
I haven't ruled out the possibility of Ford being an opportunist or lying Trump hater. But there's no evidence of it that has been brought to this board, even if folks on the right, giving the appearance of defamatory intent, seem willing to invent it out of nothing. Folks who make assertions of that type need to bring support for their statements. Or get out of Dodge.