Trump's attorneys have tried to slut-shame and impeach the testimony of Stormy Daniels because her testimony is damaging to Trump and her story is exactly what he never wanted voters to hear in 2016: he's a creep, sex with him is coercive yet boring, and left her with bad feelings. If she was about to say, as Marla Maples was supposed to have said, it was the "best sex ever", he might once have thought that a very good advertisement (along with other stories about the Donald's social life, some very made-up). The Trump team's foolish tactics left them trying to get a mistrial because of testimony that they felt "went too far"--and they also asked to lift the gag order on Trump to let him respond to Daniels.
These requests were denied. One reason is that Trump only selectively chose Stormy Daniels as a witness he wanted the gag order lifted for, and behind that there is Trump's savage record of misogyny and his own stated tendency to want to destroy people he views as disloyal.
Daniels' Tweet, screen-capped above, sums up the irony of Trump's gag order complaints pretty nicely: "Real men respond to testimony by being sworn in and taking the stand in court. Oh...wait. Nevermind." Of course, this case is actually going to be decided by the jury, not the court of public opinion. Also, although I can't speak for MAGAs, his response is likely to be actually off-putting to regular people, because Daniels comes across as bright, attractive, funny and honest, and Trump comes off as...you know, a creep.
If Trump were to take the stand, I'm pretty sure it would be against the advice of counsel. It would open the door to the prosecution impeaching his testimony and bringing up things he should very much prefer not to have discussed in court. If he was ready to pay hush money not to have his name dragged during the 2016 contest, taking the stand would really not help him as a 2024 candidate. (A one-term, twice-impeached, four-times indicted, serial philandering, court determined sex pest who stole nuclear documents and incited an insurrection has to protect his good name, don't you know!)
Daniels is an honest porn star and film director who can hold her head high. Trump may have been president, but an association with him is a shame.
3 comments:
Boiled down to ones and zeros, all word salads aside: he raped her
That might fly with the pretend rednecks but real rednecks not so much. I've got a daughter that looks a lot like Stormy, about the same age, and I've already done time for putting the harm on someone who did her harm
The bigger story, ones and zeros, is he can't any on his own, has to pay for it, or steal it
And the thing about this is, aside from the slut shaming, that he paid to cover it up in order to win that election. The entire trial has turned into a did-he-or-didn't-he-and-how-might-he-have, when the exchange of money for silence had a purpose besides simple silence. I understand that this line of questioning had to take place, it's the coverage of this in the fashion it's been covered as opposed to the fashion of coverage of the paying for silence to win the election. Maybe news outlets will do better now that they've got the salaciousness out of the way. I certainly hope so.
(And my complaint is by no means about Strangely Blogged's clear and concise coverage. This is how it's done.)
Daniels herself talks about what happened as if she submitted because she should have known better to be alone with him--but it's clear to me she thought she had to lay with him because she understood what he would be like if she didn't. He felt completely entitled to her body and would have taken it anyway.
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