After a special counsel to Donald Trump said that legally, a man cannot rape his wife, the presidential candidate on Tuesday distanced himself from his lawyer’s comments.
“He’s speaking for himself. He’s not speaking for me, obviously,” Trump told CNN about his lawyer, Michael Cohen.
Cohen made the comments while defending his boss from allegations made by Trump’s ex-wife that he once sexually assaulted her.
“You’re talking about the frontrunner for the GOP, a presidential candidate, as well as a private individual who never raped anybody. And, of course, understand that by the very definition, you can’t rape your spouse,” Cohen told the Daily Beast, which resurfaced the claims made by Trump’s ex-wife, Ivana Trump, on Monday night. “You cannot rape your spouse. And there’s very clear case law.”
Cohen apologized for his comments about marital rape on Tuesday, calling his remarks “inarticulate.”
Though Trump said he “disagreed” with Cohen, he told CNN that he would not be fired and defended Cohen’s anger in reacting to the Daily Beast’s questions about the rape allegations.
“Michael was extremely angry because he knew it never took place. He knew this website was a joke — considered a joke. And he was very angry, and maybe he didn’t even understand the question,” Trump told CNN on Tuesday.
Trump has denied the allegations, and Ivana Trump has defended her ex-husband since making her initial statements about sexual assault.
Oh, this whole thing is getting blown out of proportion anyway. Trump says it didn’t happen, the wife says it sort of didn’t and sort of did, the divorce was going on, emotions running high, and the whole original story of violent hair-pulling and rape was based on nothing but sworn testimony in a deposition and you know how those things are, depositions, everyone’s sitting around and the stenographer is writing down what you say verbatim and people say any crazy thing, it’s like a locker room, you know? Nobody takes it seriously, come on.
What does understanding the question have to do with it? Regardless anything else said or quoted Cohen flatly stated current law decreed marital/spousal rape was not a crime. In or out of context, he said what he said. There’s no wiggle room to reframe it.
Whether the rape happened or not (it probably did) this guy Cohen is a piece of work. According to the Daily Beast, when their reporter was trying to get a comment about the charges, Cohen said: "I will make sure that you and I meet one day while we’re in the courthouse. And I will take you for every penny you still don’t have. And I will come after your Daily Beast and everybody else that you possibly know,” Cohen said. “So I’m warning you, tread very fucking lightly, because what I’m going to do to you is going to be fucking disgusting. You understand me?”
I smell future Secretary of State in the Trump administration.
Trump was overheard bragging the buffet spread he arranged during a break in proceedings was the MOST FABULOUS food & drink ever served in divorce deposition history!!
You scared me for a second, Poe’s law and all. I had to get to the end to get it.
I heard it pointed out last night that after her multimillion dollar settlement, she signed a non-disclosure agreement.