E. Jean Carroll loses more credibility ... and CNN tries to cover it up, twice

E. Jean Carroll, who accuses President Trump of rape, or assault, or something, is out promoting her book with such accusations on television, and is starting to lose credibility. She gave a 11-minute-plus interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper, and eventually began to say erratic things. She lost her thought at one point and Cooper just let her get away with it. The worst was when the interview ended with her declaration that rape is "sexy" and CNN immediately cut away to a commercial. Not only did CNN cut away at that low point to make her look less strange, it deleted that most-interesting section of the interview from its posted account on YouTube. That's two cover-ups. Obviously, the network that tried to foist Michael Avenatti on us as president earlier is not about to get into reporting for wherever the facts lead. Here's what they have up. We learn a bit about one element of her claim, which CNN and other media are reporting as a Trump falsehood, that the two of them knew each other. Carroll confirms that the two met only "briefly" once, in a social party setting, something Trump, with his massive social life, is very likely to have no memory of. Cooper then cites it as reason to assert that they knew each other. Not even Carroll admitted that.

She came off as an attention-seeking self-aggrandiser, with some saying she flirted with Cooper (I didn't catch this) but pretty obviously someone looking for some kind of affirmation about her own attractiveness. Cooper spoke of something I had noted earlier here, and which Trump himself later brought up -- that Carroll was hardly the kind of woman Trump would have sought out in 1995 or 1996 in his "not my type" argument, a credible one given his well-known fascination at the time with models and beauty queens. While Carroll is not bad-looking, she didn't come anywhere near that category. But she wants Cooper to know this: That she was "probably the most attractive woman at Bergdorf." Then several times, she wanted Cooper to know: "I'm so glad that I'm not his type," and "I love that I'm not his type," kind of killing her own credibility about her attractiveness after making her argument about her looks. If she wasn't his type, why would he be coming onto her, especially since they didn't know each other? Now, there is a category of rapist out there, usually the lurking stranger, who will rape any kind of woman - old, young, doesn't matter - using rape as an instrument of power. To make the argument that Trump is in that category, which Carroll seems to argue at some points, defies credibility. If he really were that, it's hard to think he wouldn't have been caught and locked up long ago, and such a fact would have been known. He's been guilty of extramarital affairs, and he's come on to women in the past, as I noted here. Two things about this are known: That he's only shown interest in extremely attractive women, and more important, he's backed off when his interest wasn't returned. Both of those details go against the claims of Carroll. She did support that Trump had exacting standards for female beauty, complaining that he called then-Miss Universe Alicia Machado, who got very fat indeed during her term, of being "fat." But contrary to Carroll's assertion that this was outrageously false, she really was fat and Trump kicked up a fuss because it was Machado's job to be the beauty queen. Trump could be quite particular about things like this. I remember how they had to cover up Machado's weight issues with a black long-sleeved gown and dark lighting on her final runway walk. That's an argument again about Trump's obsession with attractiveness and Carroll not being his type. Trump supposedly complained about her being "so old" at age 52, which would confirm the "not my type" argument, too. She shifted her story a bit about the Bergdorf lingerie department, which I pointed out earlier, didn't exist on a floor with evening gowns in the way that a Macys store usually is. She said the floor had bathing suits and cruise wear, leaving off the evening gowns this time, and instead of all the dressing room doors being open, there was just one. Hmmm, now her memory is suddenly clear? Cooper sure as heck wasn't going to probe on that. How does she defend her credibility? By pointing out that 15 other women have made accusations against Trump. By her logic, since they made all those unproven charges, then she must be believed? That's not a reason. She also says she flirted with Trump and stated she wanted to "dine out" on the experience of shopping with him, "the best New York moment," hoping he'd try on lingerie for her so she could tell her friends about it, again suggesting something entirely different that might have went on, if indeed it was Trump at all. In any case, the worst element was the end when she said rape is "sexy." CNN knew that was a problem and darted to the commercial. Then they cut that part off from their posted YouTube. Obviously, they're looking for another means of taking down Trump, refusing to let facts go where they may. They may just be getting themselves into another Avenatti dilemma for it. Image credit: CNN screen shot, via shareable YouTube video