Late last week, Donald Trump was talking smack about being endorsed by former heavyweight fighter and convicted rapist, Mike Tyson. Trump placed him in the category of all the “tough guys” who were supporting him.

The Republican presidential front-runner told supporters in Indiana on Wednesday that he had the support of the former world heavyweight champion.

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“But Mike said: ‘I love Trump. I endorse Trump,'” Trump said Wednesday. “And that’s the end. I’m sure he doesn’t know about your economic situation in Indiana. But when I get endorsed by the tough ones, I like it, because you know what? We need toughness now. We need toughness.”

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“I love it. He sent out a tweet. Mike. Iron Mike,” Trump said. “You know, all the tough guys endorse me. I like that, OK?”

Carly Fiorina disagreed

“Sorry, I don’t consider a convicted rapist a tough guy,” Fiorina told reporters. “And I think it says a lot about Donald Trump’s campaign and his character that he is standing up and cheering for an endorsement by Mike Tyson.”

Presumably, “tough” in Donald Trumps’ world means that you are violent towards women, like his “bodyman”, the vicious niblet Corey Lewandowski.

Trump was on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace and the subject came up

WALLACE: It’s interesting. The Cruz campaign is making an issue of your support for Mike Tyson back during the time of the rape conviction in 1992. Your reaction to that? TRUMP: It just shows what a liar he is. So, Mike Tyson over the Internet endorsed me. He said, “I endorse Mr. Trump.” He said that. That was it. No big deal, I didn’t have a meeting or anything, I haven’t seen Mike in years, but he said he endorsed me. So, Cruz is now saying, oh, he was a rapist. This guy is a real liar. That’s why we call him Lyin’ Ted Cruz. I mean, the greatest liar that I’ve ever lived, except he gets caught every time.

There a a few salient points here.

The most important one is that Mike Tyson is a convicted rapist. He raped a 19 year old woman. Mike Tyson is a registered sex offender:

There was never even a question about the rape. This is a rapist who said he wanted to rape the victim again because she complained

Now Tyson Says He Wants to Rape Victim | From Associated Press Mike Tyson hasn’t lost his penchant for saying the outrageous. In a television interview scheduled for broadcast tonight, Tyson again denied he raped Desiree Washington in 1991 in an Indianapolis hotel room. But he said the burden of being labeled a convicted rapist makes him want to do it now. “I just hate her guts. She put me in that state, where I don’t know,” Tyson said. “I really wish I did now. But now I really do want to rape her.”

And this rapist has endorsed Donald Trump. The fact that Trump cheerfully touts the endorsement leads to the second point. Donald Trump believes that sexually assaulting women, whether the 19-year old brutally raped by Tyson or the 13-year-old girl that Trump is accused of raping or any of the young women raped by Trump buddy Jeffrey Epstein (Epstein took the Fifth when asked if he had ever seen Trump having sex with women under 18, make up your own mind what that means). Trump tried to broker a deal whereby Tyson would make a cash payment to Washington in exchange for her dropping charges so Tyson could fight at Trump’s casino.

In fact, Trump is on the record saying that he thinks Washington was basically begging for it

So, whatever you may think of Ted Cruz, the points he made are incontrovertible. Tyson endorsed Trump. Tyson is an unrepentant rapist who also beat his wife. Trump boasted about the endorsement. There is no lying or shading of the truth by Cruz. On the other hand, Trump clearly is saying that Tyson is NOT a rapist. This is a baldfaced lie.

What is shameful here, though, is Chris Wallace and his beast-like subservience to Trump. Note the way he smirks his way through the question? Like he’s saying, “I really can’t believe a political candidate would object to a rapist endorsing him, can you Boss Trump, sah?” There is no follow up at all on Trump’s well known defense of Tyson and his attempt to let Tyson buy his way out of a rape conviction. No mention of Trump saying she deserved what she got. In fact, the whole interview is the same way. If you want to see how Wallace questions Ted Cruz, Cruz and Trump are in the same program. You can read the questions for yourself.