A C-SPAN caller said former President Donald Trump should be jailed because he's an alleged rapist who incited a riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
On Monday's edition of Washington Journal, a Democrat named Susan called to discuss the "absolute criminal that's able to run for office."
"I'm not clear how this is happening, but he has managed to have our Capitol attacked, which I find to be the most disgusting thing that has happened in this country," she said. "You know, there's real hostages in Gaza and other parts of the world, and he's calling those monsters that went into our Capitol hostages."
"You know, all he does is promote violence, criminal acts," she continued. "He's a rapist. And now he wants to sell a Bible. How can such a violent man, trying to destroy a country, sell a Bible and add things to it? That's blasphemy."
The caller said it was "insane" that Trump is allowed to run for office.
"The fact that all of these trials he has managed to manipulate, he's just taken our system and made a mockery of it in general for America," she complained. "And what happens if it's not him? And all of these followers that have these violent tendencies, including hog-tying the president of the United States, how is this legal?"
The caller concluded: "The threats to our courts, the threats to all of these people, it's enough. Democracy has to win. Trump has to be jailed for this."
In a 2023 court case, Judge Lewis Kaplan made a significant statement regarding Trump and writer E. Jean Carroll. Carroll accused Trump of raping her in the mid-1990s. In May of last year, a jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and battery against Carroll and for defaming her in 2022. Trump was ordered to pay Carroll about $5 million in damages.
However, Trump's team requested a new trial, arguing that the damages were too high since the jury did not find that Trump "raped" Carroll. They focused on the technical legal definition of "rape" in New York law, which is narrower than the common understanding of the term.
Kaplan rejected Trump's request for a new trial. He stated that the jury's finding did not depend on the narrow legal definition of "rape" but on the common understanding of the word.
Kaplan emphasized that, based on the evidence, the jury indeed found that Trump raped Carroll, as most people understand the term. This decision means that, legally speaking, it is accurate to describe Trump as a rapist according to the common definition of the word.
