Republicans continue defending Trump after he was found liable for sexual assault

Republicans on Tuesday defended former President Donald Trump after a Manhattan jury found him liable for sexually assaulting and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll and ordered him to pay Carroll $5 million in damages.

The defenders run the gamut from lawmakers on Capitol Hill and Republican gubernatorial candidates to Trump’s fellow 2024 hopefuls in the GOP presidential primary.

Igor Bobic of HuffPost tweeted that Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville said the verdict “makes me want to vote for him twice.”

Many of Trump’s defenders blamed the verdict on the fact that the trial took place in New York.

“When it comes to Donald Trump, the New York legal system is off the rails,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) tweeted.

According to Bobic, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said, “If someone accuses me of raping them and I didn’t do it, and you’re innocent, of course you’re going to say something about it. … It was a joke.”

Asked during a Kentucky Republican gubernatorial debate about the verdict, candidate Daniel Cameron, who has been endorsed in the race by Trump, said, “Well, I don’t know the specifics of the civil complaint, and I understand it was something that involved something thirty years ago, but I’m honored to have President Trump’s endorsement.” Cameron then tied the verdict to Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who charged Trump and obtained an indictment against him on charges connected to alleged hush money payments made during the 2016 campaign, even though Bragg had nothing to do with Carroll’s lawsuit.

“I do know that Alvin Bragg in New York has weaponized the political system and the judicial system to try to destroy President Trump,” Cameron said. “But he’s endorsed my campaign for governor, he is a fighter, and I am a fighter and am going to continue to fight for the working men and women of this commonwealth.”

Meanwhile, former Vice President Mike Pence, who is rumored to be running for president, said he never witnessed Trump, whom he called “my old running mate,” sexually assaulting anyone.

“I would tell you, in my four-and-a-half years serving alongside the president, I never heard or witnessed behavior of that nature,” Pence told NBC News Tuesday night.

Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel said of the verdict during an appearance on Fox News, “I do think the American people, though, are going to be focused on what’s happening on our southern border, what’s happening with inflation, what’s happening in their lives under the Biden administration, and that’s where I think the focus is going to continue to be for people looking at 2024 and ahead.”

Not every Republican lawmaker asked about the verdict defended Trump.

Even Republican lawmakers who did not defend Trump only issued tepid criticism, focusing not on the fact that he was found by a jury to have sexually abused someone but instead on the fact that such a verdict would make it harder for him to get elected in 2024.

“I don’t think he can get elected,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) told CBS News after the verdict.

“I think there’s going to be an ongoing drumbeat over the next couple years as [Trump] is a candidate. People are gonna have to decide if that’s a factor,” Sen. John Thune (R-SD) told reporters. “For a lot of voters, it’s gonna be.”

Democrats criticized the Republican Party for continuing to stand by Trump after the verdict.

“A jury just found Donald Trump liable for sexually assaulting E. Jean Carroll. The Republican party will STILL eagerly stand by him to prop him up while they offer their unwavering support,” Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) tweeted. “Their subservience is a slap in the face to survivors and all women.”

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.