Trump's entire defense in the E. Jean Carroll rape trial: shameless misogyny (trigger warning)
Trump's entire defense in the E. Jean Carroll rape trial: shameless misogyny (trigger warning)
The entire article is a very difficult, disturbing, important read.
Lawyers can't deny Trump's a liar or sexual predator — all that's left is implying women aren't worth listening to
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Writer E. Jean Carroll (C) leaves the Manhattan Federal Court in New York on April 25, 2023 | Donald Trump (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images)
The most important thing to know about the E. Jean Carroll vs. Donald Trump trial is this: Carroll has been consistent in her telling of how Trump raped her in a department store dressing room in the 90s. Trump, on the other hand, can't keep his story straight. From the first time she spoke out, in 2019, about the alleged assault at Bergdorf Goodman, Carroll's story hasn't changed: She ran into Trump while she was out and about, and, as she knew him a little socially, she went shopping with him as a lark. She was flirting with him lightly but was shocked when he followed her into a dressing room, threw her against a wall, and raped her. She escaped. She told friends. They told her it was rape. She struggled with that word because she didn't want to seem like a victim. But now she has come to accept that "rape" is what it was. She repeated these details Wednesday in front of a jury in New York City, where she's suing Trump for battery and defamation.
"I'm here because Donald Trump raped me," she began. In a heart-wrenching testimony, Carroll told her story once again: She hung out with Trump on a whim. They bantered. Then he raped her. She was so scarred by the experience, she said, that she was "unable to ever have a romantic life again." This, too, is consistent with her first public recounting of this story, published in her book and in New York magazine in 2019: "I have never had sex with anybody ever again."
Trump, however, is all over the place. He claimed he never met Carroll — but then admitted he did when shown a picture of them together. He claimed she was not his "type" — but when he was shown a photo of Carroll from the time of the alleged assault, he mistook her for his second wife, Marla Maples. In response to the other two dozen accusations against him, Trump said "vicious claims about me of inappropriate conduct with women are totally and absolutely false," and swore he would soon provide proof exonerating himself. He has never produced this proof. But while claiming publicly to abhor sexual abuse, in private, Trump bragged about how he enjoys assaulting women. He famously said into a hot mic, "Grab 'em by the pussy" because "when you're a star, they let you do it." Sometimes he splits the difference between these "sexual assault is bad" and "sexual assault is good" views, by saying that his alleged victims are not attractive enough to attack. The implication is that it would be on the table if they were hotter.
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As Carroll herself repeatedly said both before and during her testimony, she mostly kept quiet not because she worried people wouldn't believe her. It's because she thought they would blame her. She spoke out after the #MeToo movement because she thought, for the first time, she might find sympathy instead of second-guessing. Certainly, her supporters were out in droves this week. But it remains to be seen if the shift to empathy instead of victim-blaming has permeated the culture enough to win over a jury.
https://www.salon.com/2023/04/27/e-jean-carroll-rape-trial-full-misogny/
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