‘Yeah I Don’t Get It’: CNN’s Paula Reid Baffled By Trump Showing Up To Rape/Defamation Trial Jury Selection
CNN Senior Legal Affairs Correspondent Paula Reid and anchor Phil Mattingly were baffled by former President Donald Trump’s decision to show up for jury selection in the defamation trial brought by E. Jean Carroll, the woman a court says he defamed and sexually abused.
Trump showed up at the courthouse Tuesday morning, where a jury will be elected in a trial that will decide how much money Trump will have to pay Carroll — who is seeking $10 million in damages — for defaming her while he was president. That’s on top of the $5 million she was awarded in the first trial she won against Trump, and includes additional damages for statements he made in a CNN town hall.
On Tuesday morning’s edition of CNN This Morning, CNN covered Trump’s motorcade to court, and Reid and Mattingly expressed confusion over why Trump would draw attention to the case without any opportunity to perform for cameras as he did in his fraud trial:
PHIL MATTINGLY: Paula, I understand the courthouse campaign kind of confluence that we’ve seen over the course the last couple months. I don’t understand it in this case.
PAULA REID: Yeah, I don’t get it either!
PHIL MATTINGLY: Okay, good! (laughs)
PAULA REID: He’s setting himself up for some disappointment. I think this is going to be a lot more like what we saw last week with the federal appellate argument, where you didn’t see him go in, you didn’t see him when he was inside. There was no role for him.
And then he had this kind of hastily arranged press conference to get some attention.
He’s not going to get the return on investment here that he got last week in the New York civil case, where there are cameras in the hall. When you walk in, there’s cameras. When you walk out. He got a chance to talk. There’s a pool spray. You have none of that here.
And of course, he didn’t participate in the first phase of this trial last year, so he may not fully understand just how little attention there is to garner right now, especially today with jury selection. There’s no role for him.
POPPY HARLOW: The core of this case, which I think is so interesting, is about how much he will have to pay for what he said. And remember, after he was found liable, he went on air with Kaitlan Collins on CNN and again. According to E. Jean Carroll’s team, defamed her once again after that.
PAULA REID: Yeah, it’s surprising that he’d want to bring so much attention to this case, right? The facts have mostly been decided where once again, talking about damages and sort of an inability to show any remorse or change.
So again, I don’t think there’s a great return on investment in terms of the whole “Let’s bring the campaign to the courthouse” for this particular case, and especially in this format. This is a federal courthouse. They don’t play. There are no cameras.
Watch above via CNN This Morning.
