Trump Mocks E. Jean Carroll at Town Hall, as His Fans Cheer Him On

Nikki McCann Ramirez
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carroll-trump - Credit: Kena Betancur / AFP; Drew Angerer/Getty Images
carroll-trump - Credit: Kena Betancur / AFP; Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Donald Trump has been accused of sexual misconduct by a slew of women during his decades of prominence as a public figure. On Tuesday, for the first time, a jury ruled that the former president was liable for sexual battery against author E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of having raped her in the dressing room of a New York Department store in the Nineties.

During a town hall event hosted by CNN on Wednesday, during which Trump reiterated his unfounded claims of election fraud before a friendly crowd of Republican-leaning voters, the former president attacked Carroll, and insisted the claims made against him were fabricated.

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When host Kaitlan Collins, who struggled to counteract the former president’s ramblings during questioning, asked Trump to address the verdict, the crowd laughed.

“I swear on my children, which I never do, I have no idea who this woman — this is a fake story, a made-up story,” retorted Trump.

He mocked the allegations Carroll made against him, claiming that he was too famous to hang around department stores. “I was very famous then and I owned the Plaza Hotel right next door and I owned the buildings around it — I’m not going into a dressing room of a crowded department store,” Trump said.

The former president went on to defend comments he made in the infamous Access Hollywood tape, during which he bragged that “when you’re a star, [women] let you do it. You can do anything. … Grab ’em by the pussy.” Trump was also asked about the comments in his deposition to Carroll’s attorneys and refused to disavow his previous statements.

“I can take it back if you’d like to, but if you’re a famous person, if you’re a star — and I’m not referring to myself — I’m saying people that are famous, people that are stars, people that are rich, people that are powerful. They tend to do pretty well in a lot of different ways, okay?” he told Collins. “You would like me to take that back, I can’t take it back because it happens to be true. I’ve said it’s been true for 1 million years, approximately 1 million years, perhaps a little longer than that.”

The audience whooped and applauded in response.

After the event aired, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blasted CNN for platforming Donald Trump and letting him lie on national television for nearly an hour and a half.

“What we saw tonight was a series of extremely irresponsible decisions that put a sexual abuse victim at risk, that put that person at risk in front of a national audience,” said Ocasio-Cortez. “And I could not have disagreed with it more. It was shameful.”

Yesterday, Trump responded to the verdict with a seething rant on social media.

“I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHO THIS WOMAN IS,” the former president raged minutes after news of the verdict broke. “THIS VERDICT IS A DISGRACE – A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!”

“WHAT ELSE CAN YOU EXPECT FROM A TRUMP HATING, CLINTON APPOINTED JUDGE, WHO WENT OUT OF HIS WAY TO MAKE SURE THAT THE RESULT WAS AS NEGATIVE AS IT COULD POSSIBLY BE, SPEAKING TO, AND IN CONTROL OF, A JURY FROM AN ANTI-TRUMP AREA WHICH IS PROBABLY THE WORST PLACE IN THE U.S. FOR ME TO GET A FAIR ‘TRIAL,’” he later added.

Normal stuff when it comes to Trump, who has indicated through his attorneys that he plans to appeal the ruling.

In 2016, when the former president ran his successful campaign for office, his history of sexual misconduct was at the forefront of criticism of his candidacy.

When questioned during a GOP primary debate by Fox’s Megyn Kelly about comments he’d made about women in the past, Trump was enraged. Days later, the former president told CNN’s Don Lemon days later that Kelly had had “blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her… wherever,” when she’d questioned him. Trump refused to participate in a subsequent debate featuring Kelly as a moderator.

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