(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., called out former Bill Clinton political strategist and ABC talking head George Stephanopoulos for attempting to shame her support of former President Donald Trump as a rape victim.
Stephanopoulos opened the Sunday interview with Mace on ABC’s This Week by asking about her endorsement of Trump after a civil court found him liable for sexual assaulting New York socialite and serial rape-accuser E. Jean Carroll in an encounter some 30 years ago.
The case came after New York’s legislature specially changed the law to reopen the statute of limitations on such cases—a move some suspect was specially designed to target Trump.
Carroll, who frequently made light of rape in previous remarks, first made her accusation in a memoir during Trump’s presidency, and her testimony revealed several inconsistencies, as well as gaps in her memory.
The left-leaning Manhattan jury determined, nonetheless, that there was sufficient evidence in the civil trial to award Carroll a $5 million verdict for sexual assault.
After Trump continued to deny the charge, she sued for defamation and got a predetermined guilty verdict from Judge Lewis Kaplan, the former mentor of Carroll’s own lead attorney, who went on to award an $83 million settlement.
Despite the absurdities of the lawfare attack, Stephanopoulos—who once worked to help silence and blacklist Clinton’s more credible rape accusers—insisted that Mace justify her reasons for siding with the Republican presidential candidate over his unhinged accuser.
Mace fired back, responding firmly, clearly and calmly to let Stephanopoulos know he was out of line:
“I was raped at the age of 16,” she said.
“… I’ve lived for 30 years with an incredible amount of shame over being raped,” she continued. ” … It’s a shame that you will never feel, George, and I’m not going to sit here on your show and be asked a question meant to shame me about another potential rape victim.”
Stephanopoulos insisted that the question was not about shaming her, but about shaming Donald Trump instead.
He also insisted that the civil case made Trump liable for the alleged rape, neglecting to make the distinction between a criminal and a civil case and implying that Trump’s conviction carried the same evidentiary standard of “beyond a reasonable doubt” that applies to criminal cases.
He further failed, as many on the Left have, to make the important legal distinction between “rape” and “sexual assault.”
The jury’s verdict explicitly said that Carroll did not prove Trump raped her, although Kaplan refused to allow Trump’s defense to raise that point in his subsequent defamation trial.
— LOVtheCOV (@LOVtheCOV) March 11, 2024
The judge later found Trump liable for and unspecified, undefined form of “sexual abuse,” which may have been as little as an unwanted kiss on the cheek.
Throughout the course of the interview, Stephanopoulos said Trump was “found liable for rape,” 10 times.
“You’re asking me a question about my political choices, trying to shame me as a rape victim, and I find it disgusting,” Mace said.
Stephanopoulos struggled to regain his footing in the interview, obviously flustered by Mace’s response. The back-and-forth went on for several minutes.
After Mace explained why the question was offensive, Stephanopulos changed the subject to Jan. 6.
Mace responded to questions in a separate interview on Fox New’s The Faulkner Focus, according to The Hill.
“I wasn’t brought on to talk about my own rape. I didn’t agree to any of that,” she said.
“And he shares the speech I gave, impassioned speech five years ago about telling my story for the first time,” she added. “It’s very difficult for me to watch that speech. It’s painful.”
