Trump rape comment sends MS NOW host scurrying for clarification

A Saturday afternoon MS NOW interview with blunt-talking Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) ended with host Alex Witt quickly issuing a response to the lawmaker calling the president a rapist.

Brought on to talk about former Attorney General Pam Bondi’s appearance before members of the House Oversight Committee on Friday, where the fired former Trump official was described as “combative” and unwilling to talk about the president, the New Mexico Democrat also weighed in on reports that Trump’s DOJ is looking at investigating Trump sexual abuse victim E. Jean Carroll.

“What are your thoughts on this?” Witt prompted her guest.

“I mean, come on, Donald Trump, we all know that you are an adjudicated rapist, and now you're going after survivors that have held you accountable” Stansbury responded.

“All of this is an attempt to try to silence people and to try to intimidate them by using the United States Justice Department as a weapon against the American people,” she continued before recalling, “And that is exactly what Richard Nixon went down for. So we can see what's happening here.”

“Yeah,” the MS NOW host replied before quickly adding, “I just want to be careful because President Trump was not accused of rape, per se — he was accused of sexual abuse; so going by the proper terminology there.”

According to a report from the Washington Post, Judge Lewis Kaplan, who oversaw the trial, wrote, “The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was ‘raped’ within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.’ Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.”

- YouTube youtu.be