AOC Shocks By Calling Trump a ‘Rapist’ in Tweet About Epstein Files
AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) did not hold back in a tweet Friday afternoon that took a swipe at the White House turmoil over the Epstein files — and directly called President Donald Trump a “rapist.”
Years of conspiracy-infused accusations about convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s purported client list and other damaging information he and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell supposedly knew about rich and influential men — fueled by promises from people now in very high positions in the Trump administration — drove MAGA anticipation to a fever pitch. Accusations about whose names might be in the hypothetical “Epstein files” have even featured prominently in multiple internecine MAGA civil wars, mostly fought on social media.
The White House has been rocked by seething rage and disappointment from his supporters after the DOJ not only failed to produce the damning list of powerful pedophiles Trump’s supporters were expecting, but instead released a memo saying no such client list existed and a video of Epstein’s prison cell that has been challenged as possibly doctored or edited. The internal strife has reached a point where it’s being reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino’s jobs are in jeopardy — either because Trump might fire them or they might decide to quit. As of Friday afternoon, Bongino is reportedly demanding that the Trump administration cut Bondi loose or he’ll resign.
Trump’s critics have unsurprisingly expressed delight and karmic satisfaction watching the whole mess explode, and Ocasio-Cortez was no exception.
“Wow who would have thought that electing a rapist would have complicated the release of the Epstein Files?” she tweeted on Friday.
Friday’s tweet is not the only time Ocasio-Cortez has publicly called Trump a “rapist,” and the question of whether or not he can legally be called a “rapist” has been the subject of much debate over the past few years. The key issue stems from the civil lawsuits filed against him by E. Jean Carroll, in which he was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation. A ruling by Judge Lewis Kaplan during the litigation described the difference between “sexual abuse” and “rape” in the context of this incident as legal hair-splitting.
“The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was ‘raped’ within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.’ Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that,” Kaplan wrote.
Several proposed Community Notes on the tweet are battling it out over whether or not Trump can be called a rapist, whether the tweet is just an opinion — and also pointing out that she never mentioned the president by name or even said which elected office she meant, so it’s the people replying to her that are associating the word with Trump.
Ocasio-Cortez’s tweet drew predictable reactions from both partisan sides of the online chattering class.
Democrats and Never Trump conservatives cheered her on and added their own schadenfreude-fueled mockery. Republicans were outraged, calling for Trump to sue the New York congresswoman, some citing the settlement paid by ABC News over comments made by anchor George Stephanopoulos. (It should be noted that the consensus among many legal experts was that Trump’s case was weak and ABC had a strong First Amendment defense, but the case settled because the network decided it wasn’t worth the headache and expense to keep fighting.)
A sampling of reactions to Ocasio-Cortez’s tweet, which has racked up about 3 million views at the time of publication, is below:
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