ABC News agreed to fork over $15 million for falsely claiming that President Donald Trump had been found “liable for rape” of E. Jean Carroll, it was revealed in a settlement agreement publicized on Saturday.
“Donald Trump has been found liable for rape by a jury. Donald Trump has been found liable for defaming the victim of that rape by a jury,” ABC host George Stephanopoulos falsely claimed in an interview with Rep. Nancy Mace in March. He was referring to a case in which writer E. Jean Carroll accused Trump of assaulting her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room, made loads of money selling a book about it, and then sued Trump for defamation when he insisted on his innocence.
In the civil lawsuit, for which the standard of proof is “more likely than not,” the jurors explicitly found that Trump had not raped Carroll but punished him for “sexual abuse.” Carroll herself has publicly declined to use the word “rape,” and told The Hollywood Reporter that it would be “disrespectful to the women who are down on the border who are being raped around the clock” to press rape charges against Trump.
Stephanopoulos had no such reservations about the term, and ABC is paying a pretty penny to the Trump presidential library for it. But he’s not the only one who used the defamatory phrase on-air. Here are three times CNN hosts and guests aired the same phrase, and five times it happened on MSNBC.
Abby Phillip on CNN
“I’ll take those concerns seriously if you also express concerns about the allegations — he’s been found liable for rape! Donald Trump has,” CNN “NewsNight” anchor Abby Phillip said on her show in October.
“Sexual assault,” a panelist off camera corrected her, before another one jumped in to say, “That’s the same thing!”
“Not in the state of New York,” the other panelist muttered as Phillip moved on.
Rep. Greg Landsman on CNN
“Trump is unfit for office. He tried to overturn an election. That alone is disqualifying, and, not to mention the fact that a court held him liable for rape,” said Rep. Greg Landsman, a Democrat from Ohio, on CNN’s “Laura Coates Live” in July. Coates let the remark stand without correction.
George Conway on CNN
“If you don’t want to be held liable for rape, like Donald Trump has, don’t grab the woman’s genitalia,” said Never-Trumper and founding Lincoln Project member George Conway on “CNN This Morning” in May. “If you don’t want to be held liable for defaming the woman that you raped, don’t keep lying about what you did.”
Instead of correcting Conway’s error, host Kasie Hunt punted to commentator Scott Jennings to respond to Conway.
Liz Plank on MSNBC
“This is now different from 2016 ’cause he has been found liable for rape, so it’s a different scenario,” said MSNBC columnist Liz Plank in September. She continued to speak uncorrected by host Ayman Mohyeldin, who transitioned to a commercial break with the equally false assertion: “Please stick around, we’re going to discuss how pregnancy is now a crime, depending on where you live in America.”
Ameshia Cross on MSNBC
“What we know from Donald Trump is that he has over two dozen credible allegations of sexual assault. We know that he was found liable for rape,” said Democrat strategist Ameshia Cross on MSNBC in October.
When corrected by the host, Cross doubled down, insisting that “the judge said that it was rape. I didn’t say that, that came from the judge.”
“Right, but legally speaking, I just wanted to clarify,” the host responded.
Denver Riggleman on MSNBC
“Do you want to vote for a felon? Do you want to vote for somebody, you know, who said awful things about women and has been held liable for rape?” former Rep. Denver Riggleman.
Host Yamiche Alcindor, the 2020 recipient of the White House Correspondents Association’s Aldo Beckman Award for Overall Excellence in White House Coverage, moved on without correcting him.
Charlie Sykes on MSNBC
“I do think the Democrats also need to look at him and go, why are we not beating this guy?” said former Bulwark Editor-in-Chief Charlie Sykes on MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House” in July.
“Why is this convicted felon, this man who’s been found liable for rape, why is this ranter and raver, why is he leading in the polls?” he continued, uncorrected.
Brittney Cooper on MSNBC
“Why do we have a significant swath of the country that is so ready to give the democracy away for a man who is a, you know, criminal, you know, has been held civilly liable for rape,” said Rutgers University professor Brittney Cooper on MSNBC’s “The Beat with Ari Melber.” Jason Johnson, who was guest-hosting for Melber, did not correct her.
Elle Purnell is the elections editor at The Federalist. Her work has been featured by Fox Business, RealClearPolitics, the Tampa Bay Times, and the Independent Women’s Forum. She received her B.A. in government from Patrick Henry College with a minor in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @_ellepurnell.
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