Biden is right: Trump is a rapist and it’s long past time the media use that word!

Time to take the fight to Trump!

President Biden is not playing. He came out Friday and delivered what even the awful NY Times dubbed a “fiery” speech before a boisterous crowd in Michigan where thousands cheered: “Don’t you quit!” and “We’ve got your back!” The audience laughed at Biden’s barbs about Trump’s failed businesses, declaring Trump “even went bankrupt running a casino – I didn’t think that was even possible. Doesn’t the house always win in a casino?!” And when Biden touched on Trump being a convicted felon, the crowd organically chanted, “Lock him up!”

But it was Biden’s line rightfully calling Trump a “rapist” that needs to be repeated by Democrats to force the media to cover this fact so that it becomes a visible part of the 2024 election. And that was Biden’s very point, as he called out the corporate media’s failure to cover so much about Trump while instead dissecting every syllable uttered by the President.

As Biden correctly told the excited crowd, the media has been holding him to a different standard by ignoring Trump’s crimes, etc. But Biden defiantly declared that was going to end now: “No more free passes!” Biden continued, “Today we’re going to shine a spotlight on Donald Trump. We’re going to do what the press so far hasn’t” adding, “We’re going to say who he is.”

That is when Biden leaned into Trump being found liable for rape in the civil case brought by journalist E. Jean Carroll.  Biden told his throngs of supporters: “Donald Trump was found liable for sexual assault by a judge, who told us not to be fooled by Trump brushing it off.” The President continued, “Here’s what the judge wrote. Quote, the judge in that case wrote, quote, ‘Mr. Trump attempted to minimize sexual abuse, finding it frivolous. Mr. Trump raped her.’ That’s the judge’s language, not mine.” Adding, “Raped her, as many people understand the word rape.”

That is correct and it deserves far more coverage. Donald Trump is a rapist as a federal judge determined after reviewing the evidence and jury verdict.

As a quick reminder, E. Jean Carroll had stated that Trump had sexually assaulted her in 1996 while she was in a dressing room in an upscale department store.  Carroll sued Trump in this case for both the attack and for defamation because he called her a liar, publicly ridiculed her as making up the story to sell books and more causing damage to her reputation and inflicting emotional distress.

In May 2023, a federal jury unanimously found that Trump—who was represented by well-known lawyers in the trial—had “sexually abused” Carroll and did defame her, thus, awarding her $5 million. The jury did not, however, find that Trump had “raped” her in the narrow definition of the NY Penal law, but this was not a criminal trial, only a civil one seeking damages. (You can read the actual jury verdict form here.)

What Biden was referring to as Trump being adjudicated a rapist comes from what the federal judge presiding over the case, Lewis A. Kaplan, ruled in July 2023 in response to Trump’s motion to set aside the verdict. Judge Kaplan wrote in his decision (which you can read here) that what Trump did was in fact rape, as commonly understood.

As the judge explained, “Carroll failed to prove that she was “raped” within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump “raped” her as many people commonly understand the word “rape.” Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.”

The judge continued, “Trump’s argument therefore ignores the bulk of the evidence at trial, misinterprets the jury’s verdict, and mistakenly focuses on the New York Penal Law definition of “rape” to the exclusion of the meaning of that word as it often is used in everyday life and of the evidence of what actually occurred between Ms. Carroll and Mr. Trump.”

In support of that point, the Judge included portions of the court transcript of Carroll’s testimony:  

“He [(Mr. Trump)] immediately shut the [(dressing room)] door and shoved me up against the wall and shoved me so hard my head banged.”

 “I pushed him back, and he thrust me back against the wall again, banging my head again.”

“He put his shoulder against me and hold [sic] me against the wall.”

“[I was] [s]tamping and trying to wiggle out from under him. But he had pulled down my tights and his hand went -- his fingers went into my vagina, which was extremely painful, extremely painful. It was a horrible feeling because he curved, he put his hand inside of me and curved his finger. As I’m sitting here today, I can still feel it.”

“Then he inserted his penis.”

The judge continued: “After a day and a half of direct testimony, Ms. Carroll was subjected to a lengthy cross examination during which she testified:

“Q. It’s your story that at some point you felt his penis inside of you?

A. Yes.”

The judge later in his opinion emphasized that: “Trump did not deny specifically “raping” Ms. Carroll or specifically penetrating her with his penis as opposed to with another body part in his 2022 statement. He instead accused her of lying about the incident as a whole, of “completely ma[king] up a story” that was a “Hoax and a lie.”

To sum up, Judge Kaplan wrote, “The jury’s finding of sexual abuse therefore necessarily implies that it found that Mr. Trump forcibly penetrated her vagina,” calling it the “only remaining conclusion.”

In simpler terms:  It’s 100% accurate to say Trump is an adjudicated rapist. He violently attacked and sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll—as a federal jury unanimously concluded.

Biden calling this out is vitally important because it’s the only way the corporate media will cover it. Indeed, there are many articles today in corporate news outlets reporting Biden calling Trump a rapist.

My hope is from here Biden extends this line of attack to this: “Donald Trump is a rapist who ended the constitutional right of women to have an abortion if raped.”

As we all have learned first-hand, the corporate media is not on our side. But we need to use them to get our message out. We cannot count on the corporate media to fact check on their own, amplify Trump’s crimes, etc.  But if the President of the United States raises an issue—like Biden did with Trump being a rapist—it will get press. Now it’s up to Team Biden to repeat this over and over from now to election day.   This is part of the strategy for how we win in November!

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