Not sure if it's ego or an insatiable sex drive, but many politicians are willing to risk their reputations and careers for a few moments of sexual gratification.
That's been proven in the case of Donald Trump, who now must pay a total of $88.3 million to former writer E Jean Carroll as a result of his alleged sexual attack on her at Bergdorf Goodman's Fifth Avenue Manhattan store in 1996.
On Friday, January 26, a jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll $83.3 million because of his continued social media attacks over her claims that he sexually assaulted her in the department store dressing room. Earlier, another jury awarded her $5 million for sexually abusing Carroll.
“Absolutely ridiculous!” Trump said after the verdict. “Our Legal System is out of control, and being used as a Political Weapon.”
Well, Donald, if you kept your zipper zipped and didn't believe you could do whatever you want to whoever you want whenever you want, perhaps you wouldn't now be scrambling to figure out what assets you'll sell to pay off the now 80-year-old Carroll.
That $83.3 million verdict came down two days after we produced an episode of the Dixie Dems on the Lean to the Left podcast that includes discussion of two other separate political sexual escapades involving the now former Republican chair in Florida and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is leading the prosecution of Trump and others for interfering in Georgia's 2020 presidential election.
Early in January, the Florida GOP fired Chairman Christian Ziegler as police investigate a rape accusation against him, which Ziegler has denied. However, Ziegler and his wife, Bridget, admitted to police that they previously had a consensual three-way sexual relationship with Christian Ziegler's accuser.
Meanwhile, in Georgia, Willis has been accused of having an inappropriate relationship with Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor she hired to handle the elections case against Trump. She has defended her hiring of Wade and has not directly denied a romantic relationship. A Trump defense attorney is seeking to use that accusation to have Willis and Wade removed from the case and the indictment thrown out.
"From what I understand, Trump's current fixer Is the one that drummed all this BS up and it's enough BS to where they got it in front of the right judge and apparently they're going to go back and pull some stuff out of a divorce decree or whatever, but literally it's the same old MO," says Robert Thompson, founder of Peach News Now and its opinion podcast, Got Damn Liberals," on the episode. "You've got Trump just trying to find a fixer just to shed any sort of doubt on anything that's going on. Good luck."
Joining Thompson and me as part of the Dixie Dems is Arthur Hill, vice chair of the Brunswick County, NC, Democratic Party.
"They might have turned a few heads and they might have swayed some public opinion and so on, but justice still marches on here, doesn't it? It doesn't stop the case," Hill says on the show.
Trump, Sex & Politics
Other highlights in the Trump, Sex and Politics edition of the Dixie Dems:
Trump runs roughshod over GOP candidates, leaving former SC Gov. Nikki Haley as the only remaining challenger.
What are Haley's chances?
Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), a previous Trump challenger gets engaged, and tells Trump now that he "loves" him. (Guess that could have gone in the sex discussion above).
South Carolina cross burning prompts calls for a hate crime law.
SC Democratic primary coming Feb. 3. GOTV drive underway.
SC GOP primary is Feb. 24; Trump's big lead over Haley.
Trump says electric vehicles "don't go far." Evidence shows EVs help reduce ailments caused by pollution.
Biden's achievements, despite criticisms.
"The stock market hit another all time high. Unemployment is low. Inflation has slowed down. We're getting 5 percent interest on our savings account to combat inflation to encourage people to save money," says Thompson. "So when Biden got elected, what were they wanting to happen beyond what has happened?"
Download the transcript: