Donald Trump in a video on the Truth Social platform after he was found guilty of sexual assault and defamation of E. Jean Carroll, May 9, 2023


UPDATE, MAY 11:

I returned to Talk TV on Wednesday afternoon for further analysis of the guilty verdict in E. Jean Carroll’s civil case against Donald Trump for sexual assault and defamation.

The other guest is Republican operative Greg Swenson and the host is Vanessa Feltz.

The interview is also notable for Swenson’s sudden abandonment, mimicking the lines of Trump and his attorneys, of attacks on Carroll and the US justice system.

On Wednesday morning, he had appeared on Talk TV, fellow right-wing UK outlet GB News, and Times Radio. He slandered Carroll by implying that her claims were false, and proclaimed that the case was a “weaponization” to take down Trump’s 2024 Presidential campaign.

So I was surprised when Swenson immediately dropped those allegations hours later. In a rambling statement, he distanced himself from Trump — framing his sexual assault as an “unseemly behavioral flaw” — and promoted alternatives such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, and former US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley.

Of course, that didn’t stop me from calling out his earlier distortions and attacks on behalf of Trump — and indeed seven years of diversionary rhetoric about the “progressive left” and false proclamations of “hoax” and “witch hunt” to support the reality TV star.

I’m thankful to Greg that he did not repeat his attack on the judge, the jury, and the US justice system. I’m thankful that he did not repeat his slander of E. Jean Carroll.

I’m glad that he finally recognizes the facts of this case and how serious this is: first and foremost for E. Jean Carroll but also as she says, for all women who have been sexually assaulted.


ORIGINAL ENTRY, MAY 10: I joined Talk TV’s Julia Hartley-Brewer on Wednesday morning to explain the significance of Donald Trump’s guilt in the sexual assault and defamation of writer E. Jean Carroll.

I lay out the facts of the jury awarding Carroll $5 million. I avoid any prediction about Trump’s political future, while noting that the verdict will further split the Republican Party and complicate Trump’s 2024 Presidential campaign.

See also Trump Guilty of Sexual Assault and Defamation of E. Jean Carroll

And at the end, I return to the priority:

I am not thinking first and foremost about Donald Trump today.

I am thinking about E. Jean Carroll, the woman who said she was emotionally broken by what happened in that department store in 1996, who was told that Trump would “bury her” if she ever challenged him — but finally chose to do so.

That’s the person who is first in mind.