Overview:
By now the bombshell verdict in the E. Jean Carroll defamation and rape civil trial against Donald Trump is old news
By now the bombshell verdict in the E. Jean Carroll defamation and rape civil trial against Donald Trump is old news. So is his lie, “I never even met her,” despite evidence to the contrary. On Wednesday, another serial liar, 1st term Congressman George Santos, aka Anthony Devolder, was indicted by the DOJ on 13 counts of wire fraud, and financial crimes including money laundering and unlawfully receiving $17,000 in unemployment benefits while he maintained a $170,000 a year job. He plead not guilty, posted a $500,000 bond and, like a “mini-me”Trump, called the charges “a witch hunt.”
Wednesday was the day after a jury of six men and three women unanimously ruled Trump to be liable for sexual abuse and defamation and ordered him to pay Carroll $5 million. Wednesday evening the twice impeached former president and the only president to lose the popular vote twice, appeared in a CNN Town Hall in New Hampshire where he continually talked over moderator Kaitlin Collins. Unfortunately, the audience laughed at Trump’s crude jokes and dismissive comments about Carroll which only encouraged him.
Trump once again refused to admit that he lost the 2020 presidential election and said he thinks anyone who believes the results of the election is “very stupid.” He also refused to say on whose side he was on in the Ukraine War but he did say that if elected, “I would settle it within 24 hours.” He reiterated that the Carroll trial was a hoax but never forget he also called COVID a “hoax” and it caused over one million deaths in the U.S.
When he was first accused of raping Ms. Carroll, Trump didn’t say “I would never rape women!” Instead he said, “She’s not my type!” As if she were his type it would have been okay? During Trump’s disastrous Carroll deposition Trump told E. Jean’s highly regarded lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, “You’re not my type either.” (I hoped she would counter, “With your orange face and yellow hair I can’t imagine you being anybody’s type, unless they were sexually attracted to clowns.”)
Kaplan asked Trump if his three wives had been “his type” to which he responded, “Of course.” While Trump insisted he’d never met Carroll, Kaplan showed him a photo of the two. As he stared at it he mistakenly identified E. Jean as his second wife, Marla Maples. (So evidently E. Jean was his type after all!)
This snafu might have been embarrassing to a normal person but Trump, if he’s anything, he’s shameless. He called the photo “blurry,” when the only thing that was blurry was Trump’s cognitive skills.
Trump, like all bullies, is a coward. While in Scotland days before the end of the trial, Trump announced he was returning to New York to defend his good name. For 60% of the country Trump doesn’t have a good name, nor, as it turns out, did he have the courage to face the jury in person.
Trump has been accused of sexual misconduct by twenty-six women, many during the 2016 campaign. Vengefully he swore that he would sue them all but naturally he hasn’t even sued one. If he did he’d have to undergo depositions and would either commit perjury or unintentionally confess to being a sexual predator. This is exactly what he did in the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape in 2005 and which surfaced during the 2016 campaign when he bragged, “When you’re a star you can do anything, you can even grab them by the pu**y!”
In the Carroll deposition Trump revealed his misogyny even further when he said, “Historically, for over a million years, stars have grabbed women, fortunately or unfortunately.” Apparently to historian Trump there were Neanderthal “stars” grabbing women by their private parts. (Although who knows what he meant by “fortunately or unfortunately.”)
It’s mind-boggling that the GOP which, for so many decades stood for family values , has as its leader a sexual predator. And going back to Ronald Reagan, Republicans always stood firmly against the fascistic U.S.S.R. On June 17, 1987 in a historic speech at the Berlin Wall, Reagan challenged the late Mikhail Gorbachev, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
To Trump, however, Putin is “a genius” and “savvy” for his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. Reagan would have likely called Putin a “war criminal.” And on March 17th, 2023 that’s what the I.C.C., the International Criminal Court in the Hague did when they issued an arrest warrant against Putin.
The E. Jean Carroll jury essentially labeled Trump a loser and a liar. And yet he’s by far the leading candidate for the GOP Presidential nomination. But, as written in the Washington Post about Trump, “Sometimes a life of immorality and callous disregard for others comes back to harm you.” Admittedly biased, I certainly hope so.
Jack is at: facebook.com/jackneworth, twitter.com/jackneworth and jackdailypress@aol.com