Donald Trump's defense attorney in rape trial may have accidentally revealed the motive

[marmar]

Donald Trump's defense attorney in rape trial may have accidentally revealed the motive
Joe Tacopina showed E. Jean Carroll embarrassed Trump at Bergdorf Goodman. Humiliation famously triggers his rage

By AMANDA MARCOTTE
Senior Writer
PUBLISHED MAY 1, 2023 6:00AM (EDT)


(Salon) The common wisdom in the post-#MeToo era is that bullying an alleged rape victim is a bad look. So many legal experts were surprised when Donald Trump's defense attorney Joe Tacopino tore in E. Jean Carroll on the witness stand Thursday, during a defamation and rape civil trial of the former reality TV host-turned-fascist coup leader. There wasn't a misogynist rape myth that Tacopino left untouched. His browbeating got so bad that Judge Lewis Kaplan was forced to repeatedly interrupt and reprimand Tacopino.

"Tacopina was derisive, derogatory and dismissive," former federal prosecutor Mitchell Epner wrote at the Daily Beast.

"Not exactly the impression Team Trump wanted the jury to be left with on the way home," defense attorney Robert Katzberg wrote at Slate.

Tacopino fell "into this other trap," former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance said on MSNBC on Saturday, "of putting the jury on her side and willing to listen to her testimony."

It may be ill-advised, but it's not a surprise that Trump would hire a lawyer committed to the strategy of pure misogyny. This is the same Trump who pushed Justice Brett Kavanaugh towards the whining-and-shouting response to similarly credible allegations of attempted rape. Trump has always thought it looks "tough" to be a coward who only bullies people who can't fight back. ..............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2023/05/01/donald-defense-attorney-in-rape-trial-may-have-accidentally-revealed-the-motive/

[Girard442]

1. Geez. A guy flirts with a woman and is deflected by humor.

Laugh at the joke to show you're a mensch and get on with your life, like a normal person would do.

[dlk]

2. The operative word is normal...

[msfiddlestix]

7. Editing. (was) I missed the joke.. is it in this excerpt?

The joking bit from the testimony excerpted below... didn't see it before I posted the question.

[Danascot]

3. Trump's motive is identified later in the article:

The crucial moment came during a back-and-forth between Carroll and Tacopino about a seemingly irrelevant detail from the day. In her original recounting, Carroll described Trump asking her to try on lingerie, and her teasingly countering with, "You try it on" and "it's your color."

Carroll was using a standard bit of feminine self-protection, deflecting sexual overtures with jokes. She said as much on the stand. "Laughing is a very good—I use the word weapon—to calm a man down if he has any erotic intention”

As I was reading this baffling exchange, I couldn't help but start picturing how Trump, who we all know has a tissue-thin ego, would react to having a pretty, witty woman tease him with jokes about putting on a teddy. There's no question about it. He would have felt emasculated. He would have been furious. He would have grown angrier and angrier as she kept the banter up. She probably thought they were having fun. In reality, she was dealing with a short-tempered narcissist who cannot take a joke.

Trump felt humiliated by Carroll's teasing. He wanted to put her in her place.

[The Magistrate]

5. Well Observed

[Mr. Ected]

6. She probably didn't realize that Trump is genetically incapable of humor

So her remarks in self-defense were perceived as attacks on his masculinity rather than taken lightly and with a smile like any other person would take them.

Reminds me of Obama's jokes at the press dinner that set off Trump years ago.

[oldsoftie]

8. And now we're stuck with a mental image of trump in a teddy.

Probably would've fit loose in the groin......

[msfiddlestix]

9. thank you.

That's the very interesting bit. that explains a lot.

[Alice Kramden]

10. Very likely this WAS the motive

Thanks for posting

[True Blue American]

16. So true!

And the Attorney made a big mistake. He has Trumps personality, too. To think he could brow beat her on the stand. Any woman in the jury would see that! I could see it in his actions first time I watched him.

[70sEraVet]

4. The article is exactly on-point, not only about the trial, but about trump's twisted personality!

[Farmer-Rick]

13. Yeah, the "joke" to Trump

Was an insult.

He was going to show her who the top dog was. And that no woman would ever be able to get away with insulting him, otherwise he would rape them.

What a disgusting, ugly piece of crap our capitalist society has elevated to president. He is the face of the filthy rich.

The next time you hear how a filthy rich guy is just so special, remember he knowingly looked at Trump and purposely picked him to represent them all.

[70sEraVet]

14. Apparently, many rich people do not approve of Trump. Richard Branson for instance

I remembered Branson's description of a lunch that Trump invited him to:
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/10/richard-branson-tells-world-about-his-weird-vindictive-lunch-donald-trump/

[musclecar6]

17. Branson

is correct about Trump being a very vindictive person. Which is nothing new to those of us that hang out on here. To all the dumb fucks that voted for this guy before and they’re gonna do it again, well it won’t do any good to point that out to them because most of them are just as bad as he is. Trash voting in trash and in this case, Donny can’t wait to get another crack at terrorizing our country, and becoming the modern day Adolf Hitler, that he’s always wanted to be.

Then he can really get even with all the people that have slighted him when he starts unleashing some of the same remedies that his buddy Adolf did back in the day.

[Hekate]

12. KnR

[NJCher]

15. the first time I heard this:

"You try it on" and "it's your color."

Alarm bells went off all over the place.

I thought that was very dangerous. Of course, E. Jean Carroll did not know, nor did most people, what a sick bastard he is.

"When you're famous, they let you do it."

Well, EJC didn't and it infuriated him.

[Hela]

18. On another note...

I find any insinuation that rape is associated with lust or love or attraction to be completely inappropriate. As something every girl/young woman has to learn about, I was taught that rape is about anger and violence, and I was a teenager in the mid-1970's, so it's not like that's something new. How is it even possible that this article is making it sound like it could be one or the other?

Rape is always an act of violence towards women, no matter what triggers it. This case seems almost classic, where a man thinks he's god's gift, makes overtures to a woman who deflects it either directly or through humor (which, no matter how it's couched, is a rejection) and the insecure man who feels like he has to prove something or has no self-control reacts with violence.

I hope EJC gets everything and then some.