E. Jean Carroll recently compared former President Donald Trump to “a walrus snorting” and “a rhino flopping his hands” on Monday during an interview with MSNBC host Rachel Maddow.
Speaking to Maddow after a New York jury ordered Trump to pay her $83.3 million for defamation, Carroll said:
I feel that this bodes well for the future. I think we planted our flag. I think we’ve made a statement that things are gonna be different, that there is gonna be a new way of doing things in this country because of this indestructible team of lawyers, Rachel.
I am sometimes 50 years older than some of the associates on our team. I’m 40 years older than Shawn, I’m 30 years older than Robbie, and together, this team of brilliant young people have, as you said, stood up to the man, who, by the way, Rachel, is not even there. He’s nothing.
Carroll told Maddow, “He is like a walrus snorting and like a rhino flopping his hands. It was– he is not there. That was the surprising thing to me.”
Maddow replied:
On that point, talking about being face-to-face with him, being in the same physical space with him for the first time since when you say he assaulted you in 1996, what you’re describing there in terms of him being nothing, him feeling like an animal, him feeling like not intimidating, was that a shock to you? Because I mean, your guts here, your bravery here includes the physical bravery about being around him again. It sounds like it didn’t go the way you expected it to once you were in the same room.
Carroll clarified, “No, Rachel, I was terrified. I was just a bag of sweating corpuscles as we prepared for trial, and three days, four days before trial, I had an actual breakdown. I lost my ability to speak, I lost my words, I couldn’t talk, and I couldn’t go on. It was– that’s how frightened I was.”
She continued:
But oddly, we went into court, [my attorney] took the lectern, I sat in the witness chair like this, and she said, “Ms. Carroll, good morning. Could you please spell your name for court?”
And amazingly, I looked out, and he was nothing. He was nothing. He was a phantom. It was the people around him who were giving him power. He himself was nothing. It was an astonishing discovery for me. He’s nothing. We don’t need to be afraid of him. He can be knocked down.
Trump was ordered to pay Carroll $83.3 million on Friday after a New York jury found him liable for defamation. In 2023, Trump was found liable for sexual assault against Carroll in the 1990s.
