Donald Trump had he likes Elon Musk and met with him recently, but disagrees with him on electic cars and their implementation.
“What did @ElonMusk tell you? Do you think you will eventually get his support in some way, whether it's just verbal or monetary?” @JoeSquawk asks @realDonaldTrump: pic.twitter.com/ZUpkCg8hgy
— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) March 11, 2024
CNN anchor Kasie Hunt defended Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) by stating it gives her the right to question why she would stand behind someone “who commits those kinds of crimes” in response to her widely shared altercation with George Stephanopoulos via Mediaite.
Following two E. Jean Carroll civil trial victories confirming that, as Judge Lewis Kaplan described it in a verdict, “Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape,'” Mace and Stephanopoulos became viral for their support of former President Donald Trump. Indeed, the jury concluded that Mr. Trump had indeed done just that, as the trial’s evidence—which is summarized below—makes evident.
On Monday morning’s edition of CNN This Morning, Hunt offered a unique defense of Mace, saying that Mace’s experience as a rape survivor shouldn’t “dictate who commits those kinds of crimes” and asking it it’s “okay to let the rapist have that kind of power over her future life?”:
KASIE HUNT: Nancy Mace has said herself that she was a victim of rape. It’s something she didn’t talk about for quite some time. She eventually did reveal it in public. Watch how this exchange played out.
REP. NANCY MACE: Any rape victim will tell you. I’ve lived for 30 years with an incredible amount of shame over being raped. I didn’t come forward because of that judgment and shame that I felt. And. 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. You’re asking me a question about my political choices, trying to shame me as a rape victim, and I find it disgusting.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: I’m questioning your political choices.
REP. NANCY MACE: Because you’re hurting me.
KASIE HUNT: So just to be clear, Michael, the question was, as to how could she support, Donald Trump, who has been found civilly liable for sexual assault and rape? He said rape. And the question, considering her own history was what was your takeaway from this exchange?
MICHAEL SMERCONISH: Okay. Well, I appreciate the fact that you were much more precise than was George Stephanopoulos, because I watched it.
And then early this morning, I pulled the verdict slip. I have it in my hand. He wasn’t found to have raped Jean Carroll. It was sexual abuse that he was found civilly responsible for.
By the way, if you’re differentiating between rape and civil and sexual abuse, like you’re losing, none of these are a good thing. Let’s acknowledge that.
KASIE HUNT: Yes, Thank you for that. Yes.
MICHAEL SMERCONISH: So I thought that the way in which the question was asked was imprecise, and I thought that she was evasive.
Of course, I’m sympathetic to her as a rape victim, but despite the fact that she’s a rape victim, she should have answered the question he was asking, which is how can you, of all people, be comfortable supporting him?
KASIE HUNT: Well, so wait here’s–.
MICHAEL SMERCONISH: Given the outcome of this case.
KASIE HUNT: Here’s the thing where I get hung up on it, though, Michael, and I think this is what she was trying to say, is that just because she happens to be the victim of rape doesn’t mean that she needs to let that victimhood define her and her future choices, regardless of what anybody else thinks, about how she should feel about someone who commits those kinds of crimes, right?
Like does–. Do you think it should be, you know, okay to let the rapist have that kind of power over her future life?
MICHAEL SMERCONISH: So if if it weren’t Nancy Mace that we were talking about, and it were other, any other individual a female member of the House, Republican, supportive of Donald Trump, is it a fair question to say, in light of the Jean Carroll civil verdict, how are you comfortable in supporting him?
I think that’s a totally appropriate. In fact, it’s an appropriate question for man, woman, anybody to ask. So now.
KASIE HUNT: Yes.
MICHAEL SMERCONISH: Kasie, I say, well, okay. Given her history, is it unfair to ask her? I don’t think that it is. I don’t think she she gets a pass from asking the question because of her unfortunate history.
KASIE HUNT: Yeah, well, I mean, I think it’s just that the fact that it was put in those terms, like, as a rape victim, how could you? But but fairness, I take your point.
