Courage in a Time of Conflict
E. Jean Carroll refused to remain silent and stood up to Trump, providing a lesson in bravery despite the dangers
In the overwhelming and accelerated flood of our daily news cycle, it’s possible you didn’t pause to reflect on the extraordinary courage of E. Jean Carroll (once again). The $83.3 million jury judgement Friday represents a hopeful sign that subsequent juries will not ignore the damaging consequences of Donald Trump’s despicable contempt for the rule of law, our system of justice and his myriad victims.
E. Jean Carroll is more than a winner in the courtroom. She is showing all of us the power of refusing to be intimidated into silence by the violent threats and lies of Trump and his marauding band of hate-mongers, always ready to attack their malignant leader’s chosen targets. "This is a great victory for every woman who stands up when she's been knocked down, and a huge defeat for every bully who has tried to keep a woman down," Carroll said in a statement after the jury's decision.
When we see these courageous Americans surrounded by lawyers and the protection of a courtroom and its organized proceedings, it’s easy to gloss over the scale of chaos and conflict, violence and sheer hatred that so many have faced as a result of Trump’s vicious incitements and of the angry cultists slavishly committed to doing his bidding. Up against the feral followers’ death threats and other abuse, it can sometimes feel quaint to stand up for the truth.
Listen to a few of the examples Carroll was reminded of while on the stand. “Rape Jean rape jean,” one read. “I hope you die soon,” said another. “I hope someone really does attack, rape and murder you.”
Beyond the frequent acts of defamation by Trump, Carroll told the jury about what else triggered these attacks. Trump, she said, “asked if anyone had any information about me, and if they did, to please come forward as soon as possible, because he wanted the world to know what’s really going on—and that people like me should pay dearly.”
But she didn’t back down from taking on her abuser, even though it meant getting an enthusiastic pit bull to patrol her home and keeping a loaded pistol by her bed. Carroll is among an inspiring—and let’s hope growing—club of courageous women who have refused to remain silent and just take it.
Women like Ruby Freeman and Cassidy Hutchinson, both of whom have had to fear for their lives because a man who occupied the highest office in our land—the ultimate position of public service, we should never forget, that should be imbued with the most serious sense of duty to do good—exploited his power in the worst possible ways.
Don’t doubt the high price this courage requires. Ruby Freeman suffered threats of lynching and other racist taunts after Trump surrogate Rudy Giuliani spread false claims about her and her daughter Shaye Moss’ vote counting as temporary election workers in Georgia in 2020. Strangers came to her house with bullhorns, banged on her door, threatened her life.
“I took it as though they were going to hang me with their ropes on my street,” she said during their defamation trial in December against Giuliani. “I was scared. I didn’t know if they were coming to kill me.” Freeman was forced to sell her home and go into hiding. Her daughter suffered nightmares, panic attacks and depression as a result of the flood of racist garbage heaped upon her and her mother.
Consider some of the abuse that White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson faced after testifying publicly before the House Jan. 6 committee. “She’d be fun to smash…with a hammer,” wrote one abuser. “cassidy hutchison [sic] must get the death penalty that is all,” said another person on a pro-Trump forum. “Ropes, folks, more ropes,” said a third who reportedly claimed he was heading to Hutchinson’s home.
Is it any surprise that she too had to go into hiding and move because of the threats of violence? Is there any doubt that this is exactly the kind of violent climate that a wannabe fascist dictator—bent on keeping his perceived political enemies and the judicial system itself on edge—craves?
While we can take inspiration from acts of courage, let’s also keep in mind the acts of cowardice, particularly among elected Republicans who are frightened by Trump and his cult. That’s a story more than seven years in the making, of course, with recent examples like South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott who humiliated himself after exiting the GOP race and endorsing Trump. (“I just love you,” he told Trump on primary night, gazing into his eyes.)
But the latest cynical iteration shows what anyone who genuinely loves America and hopes for a better future can’t avoid being disgusted by. Several months ago, a bipartisan group of senators got together with the backing of President Biden to work out a deal on immigration that would both address the border and ensure that billions in funding for Ukraine and Israel would not be quashed by Republicans who were demanding that the two are tied together. By all accounts, the negotiations are close to yielding a deal.
Then along came Trump, whose purpose never extends beyond serving himself, determined to blow up the bipartisan deal to deny Biden a win and exploit the immigration crisis for his campaign. Never mind that Republicans have claimed that they actually care about solving the problems at the border.
“As the leader of our party, there is zero chance I will support this horrible open borders betrayal of America,” Trump told a rally crowd in Las Vegas on Saturday. “I’ll fight it all the way.” (The week earlier he posted that Republicans shouldn’t do a border deal “at all, unless we get everything.”)
On Friday, Biden put out a statement saying that he would support and sign a reform package to secure the border, including to “shut down the border when it becomes overwhelmed” if Congress passes the plan. “For too long, we all know the border’s been broken,” he said. “It’s long past time to fix it.” Biden called the plan, which reportedly also includes making it harder for migrants to seek asylum, the “toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border we’ve ever had in our country.”
Cue the cowards more interested in kowtowing to Trump than their faux claims of concern about border security. Here’s how Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, the chief Democratic negotiator, explained it yesterday: It “shouldn’t be a shock to anybody that Donald Trump doesn’t want to fix the border” because he and “a lot of Republicans” are used to seeing it as “a political issue, not an actual policy problem.”
There are rays of hope here, though, as some Republican senators are refusing to take the politically cynical path. Hear this from Utah Sen. Mitt Romney: “The fact that [Trump] would communicate to Republican senators and Congress people that he doesn’t want us to solve the border problem—because he wants to blame Biden for it—is really appalling.”
And this from North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis: “I didn’t come here to have the president as a boss or a candidate as a boss. I came here to pass good, solid policy.”
Still, let’s not overstate the “courage” it takes to actually do your job, versus the real courage E. Jean Carroll has demonstrated. Here’s how I put it last May at the end of the first defamation trial, before he defamed her again and again:
E. Jean Carroll is a brave woman who was not going to remain silent in fear of the power and public aggression of the sexual predator and violent abuser Donald Trump. So many others have understandably feared this man’s threats and violence and his sociopathic readiness to destroy the lives of anyone who crosses him. But Carroll was determined to tell the truth no matter how much hatred and lies were rained down upon her.
The months ahead will be a vivid display of the battle between the courageous and the cowardly. Let’s do what we can to sing the praises of those who refuse to be brought down by the efforts to stoke fear, including election workers who remain committed to doing their part to support free and fair elections. As for the cowards, well, we can ensure in November that their days are numbered.
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She...an 80 year old woman...accomplished what all the elected MAGAs and their enablers cannot: hold him responsible and accountable for his actions. Bravo!
Ms Carroll stood up to the bully and showed him the metal with which she is made. All he can do is denigrate those who attempt to stand up to him. He’s a loser in every sense of the word and I can only pray that he will never sit in the highest office of the land.