If the events she described are accurate, I cannot possibly see how they don’t qualify as rape. This is a very fine hair you’re splitting here.
I wondered about that but thought I was missing some particular form of sarcasm.
After reading this twice to make sure you meant what you wrote I’m still aghast anyone would put this out there. Don’t presume to speak for ‘us’.
Cohen sounds like perhaps an even bigger asshole than Trump. If that’s who he chooses to speak for him and afterwards does nothing to soften or clarify his remarks then he’s also got no business making choices on a Secretary of State, Defense, hell even a press secretary.
If she was accurate when she said it wasn’t criminal then it’s not rape. That’s not a fine line. And since she cried rape and then said it wasn’t rape I wouldn’t believe anything else she said. I doubt anyone would be taking these claims seriously if they weren’t directed at an asshole like Trump.
I don’t know why we’re willing to give her the authority of what “criminal rape” is. For all we know, she was under the same misunderstanding of the law as Trump’s lawyer, i.e., you can’t rape your spouse. If it’s “rape,” it’s “criminal.”
Or it was rape but she was intimidated into recanting by that nice Mr Cohen. Or something else.
Back up a minute…Trump had*** plastic surgery ***on his hair???
Well, now we know who’s doing the raping, Don.
If anything about this story is true at all, and regardless of whether a criminal offense occurred (although at least simple assault on Ivana seems like it would have been a slam dunk if she had chosen to pursue it), these do not strike me as the actions of someone we would want having the authorities of a President.
Of course, it’s not like I thought Mr. Trump was a prince among men before this came out. Nevertheless, I’m going to not vote for him even harder than I was not voting for him previously.
For all we know she made it up to get leverage in her divorce settlement. This is an old story, previously dismissed. So far it is nothing but the words of an ex-spouse. It’s not like I think much of Trump, it wouldn’t surprise me if it was true, but I don’t think people are applying the same standard as they would with a candidate they liked.
You need to watch more late-night tv ads about hair replacement surgery.
That’s probably true. Bill Clinton was certainly accused of a lot of terrible things. My point is only that it either happened or it didn’t. Her characterization of it as “not criminal” just carries no weight in my mind. If she wants to say it didn’t happen, or if he wants to say she’s lying, that’s fine.
She’s had plenty of time to come out and say it really was rape. And I’ll go with it happened or it didn’t, and I don’t see anything that tells me it actually happened, or didn’t, so I won’t assume it did. I’m not voting for the guy anyway so I don’t need this story to help me make that decision.
She said it was rape while she was under oath, and I wouldn’t doubt that she later said it wasn’t because she was worried he might sue her. Anyway, we’d definitely be taking rape claims seriously regardless of which candidate they were about. Mark Sanford and any number of other pols lost their careers because of consensual sex.
I’d like a word.
No. Trump isn’t denying the story. He (and his lawyer) are just saying it doesn’t qualify as rape. Ivana eventually claimed she just meant that Trump didn’t treat her with the usual tenderness that he showed. But the facts of what happened, as described in the book, Last Tycoon, are not in dispute.
I’m going to quote that passage again, as described in the Daily Beast, since you seemed to have missed it.
That’s rape, no matter what the rapist and his lawyer want to call it.
By way of Talking Points Memo, Ivana says no.
I see. Well, ok. It sounds like Ivana actually is saying it didn’t happen?
Here’s her statement from ABC -
So the statements attributed to her are without merit? Is she saying she lied under oath? Or just repeating that he raped her, but he didn’t rape-rape her?
I guess if she’s not going to stand by the story, I can’t either.
Link (scroll down) - The Note: Mike Huckabee Steals The Spotlight From Trump - ABC News
We can only guess at this point, it really wouldn’t surprise me if her original story was true and it was simply more beneficial to drop it than pursue it. But yeah, if the victim is retracting her story there is no point in pushing this.
Trump raping over bad hair replacement? I don’t know whether this was true or not, but that scene Merneith quoted from the book reads like bad satire written by the ghost of Hunter S. Thompson.