How can Mr. Trump still lead?
Will no offense to the law, much less decency, diminish Republican support of so noxious a candidate?
The finding by a jury last year that Donald Trump sexually assaulted writer E. Jean Carroll presented an off-ramp to normalcy for any Republicans looking to distance themselves from the former president. A new verdict by a different jury offers 83 million more escape routes.
But so far at least, Mr. Trump’s unapologetic cheerleaders in the political world seem unbothered that the man they stand behind is an adjudged rapist.
No, Mr. Trump was not criminally convicted of rape in the civil suit brought by Ms. Carroll. But a jury last year found that he had indeed attacked her sexually in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York City in the mid-1990s, forcing his fingers into her vagina. While there may have been some argument around whether the details technically constituted rape under state law back then, a new statute dubbed the “Rape is Rape” bill and signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul last week makes it clear that such contact is, indeed, rape.
Add that to a resume that includes insurrectionist, fraudster and welldocumented liar.
For attacking Ms. Carroll and then defaming her by publicly asserting she was lying, he is now on the hook for $88.3 million in compensatory and punitive damages, comprising the $5 million judgment last year and the latest $83.3 million award.
It’s important to note that he might have gotten off with far less if he hadn’t continued to defame her once the first verdict was in. His utter lack of selfcontrol and his defiance of potential consequences ought to be even more reason for Republicans to not want to inflict on America a presidential candidate of such low character.
Yet unless upcoming polls signal a monumental shift in the GOP electorate, Mr. Trump remains the leading contender for the
Republican presidential nomination. And few leaders in his party will demonstrate even a smidgeon of leadership and dare to so much as wonder how the GOP can stand behind him.
Certainly we’re not seeing such courage from Rep. Elise Stefanik, an unabashed sycophant of Mr. Trump’s who is auditioning on a virtually daily basis to be his vice presidential running mate. She has enthusiastically joined Mr. Trump’s relentless attack on the American justice system, calling the verdict in the Carroll case “outrageous” and characterizing it as mere political retribution by Democrats.
No, Ms. Stefanik. This was a jury of his peers holding a bully accountable for his vile actions and defamatory words. He was entirely deserving of punishment. And so, by the way, were the hundreds of people convicted for storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, at Mr. Trump’s behest, in an effort to overturn the 2020 election.
They are not, as you and Mr. Trump so sympathetically call them, “hostages,” but insurrectionists who attacked our very democracy in support of an attempted coup.
Shame on you — an elected official who swore an oath to defend the Constitution — for putting your unbridled political ambition above the just and well-considered rulings of our courts.
And where are all Ms. Stefanik’s New York colleagues, those in less “safe” districts around the state? In denial, too, avoiding the topic for the most part, as if not mentioning Mr. Trump excuses their failure to renounce him.
If not a slew of pending criminal charges, if not dishonesty, if not fraud, if not treason, if not rape, just what will it take for would-be Republican leaders — and the rank and file, and millions of voters — to reject Donald Trump? The unanswered question hangs over the party, the election, and most of all, America.