Fox News repeated a question asked by a Democratic strategist to Republican Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) wondering why Republicans were there to defend ex-president Donald Trump’s affair with a porn star.
Read the biggest developments from Michael Cohen’s testimony.
FOX: A Democratic strategist said, “why are they all there, defending his affair with a porn star.” Is that what you’re doing?
JD VANCE: No, not at all. I mean, look, I was there to support a friend. pic.twitter.com/nGmi4Xy4Rx
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 14, 2024
Vance also suggested that he and so many others “like what he stands for.”
FOX: a Democratic strategist said, you know, ‘why are they all they’re defending his affair with a porn star?’ Is that what you’re doing?
J.D. Vance: No, not at all. I mean, look, I was there to support a friend aside from the political implications of this trial, and we’ll certainly get to that. I think this is a very depressing way to spend five, six weeks of your life when you know that you’re innocent as Donald Trump knows that he is and so you know, recognizing that sometimes it’s a little bit lonely to sit up there by yourself. I offered to come in and maybe you know, just be a friendly face in the courtroom. And that’s all I wanted to do. And that’s what I think you see, so many people want to come and show their support for the President. Because they actually like what he stands for. They think that this trial is pathetic, and they want to show some support to a friend that I think that’s a good thing and an admirable thing. That’s certainly what I wanted to do up there.
Vance’s answer isn’t strong, so if Republicans are going to gaslight the country about this, they need to make some quick changes. One issue is, if J.D. Vance was there to support a “friend” on trial for 34 counts of falsifying business records for covering up an affair with a porn star, why are the taxpayers funding his time?
Donald Trump is now an adjudicated rapist, and he has been credibly accused of sexual misconduct by at least 26 women, dating back to the 1970s and through 2016. In other words, it’s a pattern. One he himself bragged about on the Access Hollywood tape – which, by the way, was taped in September of 2005, mere months after he married Melania Trump in January of that year.
In March of 2006, Melania gave birth to their only child, Baron. In June of 2006, Playboy model Karen McDougal claims her affair with Trump started and lasted for months. In July of 2006, Trump had an alleged affair with Stormy Daniels.
Just yesterday in court, Michael Cohen testified that Donald Trump wasn’t worried what Melania would think were she to find out about his affairs, because (paraphrase) ‘he wouldn’t be on the market for long.’
So the party that claims to be so cultishly “Christian” that they simply can’t tolerate abortion even when it would save the mother’s life or is from incest or rape — although the Bible does not actually directly address abortion — are fine with actual, repeatedly addressed Biblical sin of adultery.
Here’s just a few examples of what the Bible has to say about adultery:
Exodus 20:14: “You shall not commit adultery.
Hebrews 13:4: “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.”
How about this one?
Deuteronomy 22:22: “If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.”
The Bible is VERY clear about adultery, and yet these Christian Republicans are fine with adultery with a porn star and a Playboy model.
But these same Christian Republicans are NOT okay with the one thing NOT mentioned in the Bible at all. This one, the not mentioned thing, is the thing that Christian Republicans will put women’s and girls’ lives at risk over because they feel so strongly about it.
Here they are, led by Speaker Mike Johnson (whose son has had to monitor his porn use), who believes God chose him for this moment:
Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republicans visit ex-president Donald Trump during his hush money to a porn star criminal trial (via Fox News screengrab)
The common thread is that in both cases, these “Christian” Republicans side with men against women. It’s safe to guess they would not be standing by a woman who cheated multiple times on her husband, weeks after the birth of their child.
But here they are… just helping a “friend” — An excuse so flimsy it brings to mind parents asking their children if they would jump off of a bridge just because our friends did. Are these grown men so spineless? Do they have no values above their own ambition?
Let’s hand it to Fox News for asking a member of the party of forced birthers why they are supporting a man who had an affair with a porn star weeks after his wife gave birth. Women voters deserve to hear the answer to this question, because it goes right to the heart of how Republicans see women.
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Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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