Why Stormy Daniels matters in 2024 [View all]

[marmar]

"He was bigger and blocking the way": Stormy Daniels takes the stand and reminds people who Trump is
Daniels tells a story that echoes what E. Jean Carroll told the jury in Trump's sexual assault trial

By AMANDA MARCOTTE
Senior Writer
PUBLISHED MAY 8, 2024 6:00AM (EDT)


(Salon) "The people call Stormy Daniels."

Even though Donald Trump's former lawyer and longtime fixer Michael Cohen is a more important witness in the former president's ongoing criminal trial in Manhattan, the press is just as interested in Tuesday's testimony from the adult film actress at the center of his election interference case. No doubt much of the fascination is salacious, due to the nature of her job and her allegations of a disturbing sexual encounter with Trump in 2006. But much of it is due to Daniels herself, who has proved to be surprisingly charismatic, if at times chaotic, even as she faces a staggering amount of negative attention.

Mostly, however, Daniels matters for reasons outside of the courtroom and the specifics of this hush-money trial. Daniels' story is yet another reminder of what may prove to be Trump's electoral downfall: His bottomless misogyny.

....(snip)....

Following Daniels' testimony on Tuesday, I was struck by how much it has in common with what E. Jean Carroll described in her two recent civil trials, where both juries found that Trump had sexually assaulted her in the 90s. Carroll, too, told of a random encounter with Trump she initially thought to be flirty but not sexual. Like Daniels, Carroll describes teasing Trump, who famously has no sense of humor about himself. In both cases, the women describe Trump becoming aggressive after the light mockery. In Carroll's case, the judge described what happened after as what "many people commonly understand the word 'rape.'" Daniels, to be clear, frames her encounter with Trump differently.

....(snip)....

To feminists, it's obvious that there's a connection between Trump's abusive and predatory behavior towards individual women and his willingness to ban abortion. Forced sex and forced childbirth are on a continuum, rooted in the assumption that a woman has no bodily autonomy worth respecting. But to people who are less well-versed in feminist theory, there's often an assumption that someone as sexually self-indulgent as Trump isn't "really" opposed to abortion. Daniels testified on Tuesday that Trump didn't use a condom. So it's not unreasonable for people to assume he may have relied on legal abortion so women can clean up the messes of his carelessness. ................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2024/05/08/he-was-bigger-and-blocking-the-way-stormy-daniels-takes-the-stand-and-reminds-people-is/