Donald Trump has always bragged that he could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and kill someone without anyone caring, that there would be no consequences. The paradox is now what happened in a dressing room of a shop on that emblematic avenue in New York it could complicate his competition for the White House.
More than a dozen women he has been accused of some other form of sexual misconduct and has always denied it. But this is the first time the former president has been convicted of sexual abuse and, while he won’t go to jail because it was a civil trial, the verdict puts him in a more than awkward position in the middle of the election campaign for the 2024 presidential election.
There is still a long way to go, but Trump is marching into the competition today with the wind at his back. He is the big favorite in Republican polls and doubles down on his immediate party follower, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, in voting intentions.
But also, in a general election 44% of Americans say they would vote for him todayagainst 38% who would favor the Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, according to a poll published Sunday by ABC-The Washington Post.
complications
On the trial front, however, the prospects are starting to get complicated for the Republican. The majority of respondents (between 52 and 56%, depending on the case) said that Trump should be convicted of obstructing elections, assaulting Congress and hiding confidential documents, the top three lawsuits following him.
There is one reality: Trump’s staunchest supporters They’ll think this Tuesday’s verdict is a witch hunt and a plot by Democrats to stop his arrival at the White House, as the former president has said in this case and others. His staunchest, mostly white men, believe him without cracks and won’t change their view of his candidate.
However, Trump has had issues – seen in the last 2020 election and deepened in legislatures – with women and the more moderate and independent sectors being key to winning any election. The advance on the right to abortion and the abortion pill -incited by the Republicans- he was mostly not welcome in those groups.
The Carroll case will have an even greater impact on those industries.
what’s coming
The writer’s main defense strategy was to prove that he sexually assaulted her in the same method that he had publicly boasted of practicing in the past because he was famous: “I start kissing them,” he said. “It’s like a magnet. I just kiss. I don’t even wait”He added. “I grab them by the vagina,” Trump continued. “You can do anything.”
That’s exactly what he did with Carroll in a dressing room of a luxury Fifth Avenue store, as predicted by the jury that heard the case and unanimously convicted Trump in just 3 hours.
To prove this point, Carroll’s lawyers last week called to testify two women who claimed they were sexually abused by Donald Trump: Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff.
The first, a retired stockbroker, said Trump began kissing and groping her in first class on an airplane until she switched seats. The second, a former journalist, said she was invited to Trump’s house in Florida to write an article and told how he invited her into a room, closed the door and kissed and groped her, pushing her against a wall.
Even if they didn’t take him to court, in both cases the tycoon denied the facts saying they were “not his type”. As with Carrol.
All of this has been reflected in the press and shows Trump in his darkest dimension. He is more than a year away from the elections and it is true that the economy always weighs. But Trump will now have to spend much more time winning back the moderate vote, especially the feminine.
Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.