Jean Carroll said that "she loved being sexually assaulted by you?’

I suppose Trump's supporters will overlook this (& the verdict yesterday)? He once remarked (in 2016), "I could shoot somebody and wouldn't lose any voters". Hopefully, at some point, he'll be proved wrong. Sadly not before winning the GOP nomination in 2024.

‘It’s your testimony that E. Jean Carroll said that she loved being sexually assaulted by you?’

May 9, 2023 6:00 pm ET

From Donald Trump’s deposition in a lawsuit filed by E. Jean Carroll, in which Mr. Trump was found liable Tuesday for sexual abuse and defamation:

Attorney for Ms. Carroll: I was curious when I read this. So I looked up the word “swoon” in the dictionary, and under the dictionary, it means “to faint with extreme emotion.” That’s not what you meant here?

Mr. Trump: Well, sort of that’s what she said I did to her. She fainted with great emotion. She actually indicated that she loved it. Okay? She loved it until commercial break. In fact, I think she said it was sexy, didn’t she? She said it was very sexy to be raped. Didn’t she say that?

Attorney: So, sir, I just want to confirm: It’s your testimony that E. Jean Carroll said that she loved being sexually assaulted by you?

Mr. Trump: Well, based on her interview with [CNN’s] Anderson Cooper, I believe that’s what took place. And we can define that. You’ll have to show that. I’m sure you’re going to show that. But she was interviewed by Anderson Cooper, and I think she said that rape was sexy—which it’s not, by the way. But I think she said that rape was sexy, and it was—she actually said things that were very strange, and then she was a different person after the—when he said “We’ll take a break right now. We’re going to take a break right now,” he didn’t like what she was saying. He was very upset with what—and then she came back, and she was a much different woman in the second half, so to speak.

Trump Loses a Sexual Abuse Suit

A jury finds for E. Jean Carroll but will GOP voters care?

By The Editorial Board, WSJ

May 9, 2023 6:42 pm ET

Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump attends a campaign event in Manchester, N.H., April 27. PHOTO: BRIAN SNYDER/REUTERS

Does it matter politically now that a jury has found Donald Trump liable for battery and defamation against a woman who said he assaulted her sometime in the 1990s? In a better world it would matter, but in the debased and polarized American politics of 2023, it may not.

It’s impossible to know what really happened in the dressing room of the Bergdorf Goodman department store when Donald Trump met E. Jean Carroll. There were no witnesses, Ms. Carroll can’t recall the exact year it happened, and she waited until 2019 to go public with her story. Mr. Trump denies it happened and said Ms. Carroll isn’t his “type.”

We also know Ms. Carroll was coaxed to file a civil lawsuit by longtime opponents of Mr. Trump, including lawyer George Conway. And her suit was financed by another Trump opponent, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman. It’s plausible that the former President abused and defamed Ms. Carroll. It’s also plausible that he was falsely accused.

Yet it’s no small matter that the jury sorted the testimony and found against Mr. Trump on the preponderance of evidence standard that applies in civil litigation. (The criminal statute of limitations that requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt has long expired.) The jury rejected Ms. Carroll’s claim that Mr. Trump raped her. But they found it more likely than not that he sexually assaulted her and lied about it. The jury awarded her a more than token civil penalty of $5 million.

As is so often the case, Mr. Trump didn’t help himself with his videotaped deposition. Nearby we excerpt part of Mr. Trump’s exchange with a lawyer for Ms. Carroll in which Mr. Trump claims that Ms. Carroll had somehow said on CNN that she found rape to be “sexy.” He also reinforced the attitude he expressed in his “Access Hollywood” tape that emerged in October 2016 that as a famous man he could get away with grabbing and kissing women.

Question: “And you say—and again this has become very famous—in this video, ‘I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the p—. You can do anything.’ That’s what you said. Correct?”

Mr. Trump: “Well, historically, that’s true with stars.”

Q: “It’s true with stars that they can grab women by the p—?”

Mr. Trump: “Well, that’s what, if you look over the last million years I guess that’s been largely true. Not always, but largely true. Unfortunately or fortunately.”

Question: “And you consider yourself to be a star?”

Mr. Trump: “I think you can say that, yeah.”

A modicum of restraint, or twinge of regret about the accusation against him, might have put some doubt in the jury’s mind. Yet even when it’s in his legal interest, Mr. Trump can’t stop from justifying his crude behavior. This is the Donald Trump whose words and actions so often subverted his own Presidency.

Yet if most Republicans dismiss the verdict as one more political assault, Mr. Trump’s opponents and the press have themselves to blame. They also show no restraint. This lawsuit, like the two impeachments and the recent Alvin Bragg indictment that stretches the law, seems less an attempt to get at the truth than to find some way, any way, to disqualify him from ever becoming President again. Voters don’t like being told that a man they elected should be disqualified by members of the opposite party or the press.

Character matters in a President, however, and Republicans will want their presidential nominee to win in 2024 and then to govern successfully. The Carroll lawsuit, compounded by the liability judgment, is the kind of tempest that is Mr. Trump’s constant companion.

There may be more judicial challenges to come for Mr. Trump. GOP voters will have to decide if sticking it to Mr. Trump’s enemies is worth putting the country through that kind of Oval Office tumult for four more years.