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NAZARETH, Pennsylvania — When a New York City jury found former President Donald Trump guilty of sexual abuse earlier this month, it was the first time he has been held accountable for conduct committed by more than one person over many decades dozen women was claimed. But would his supporters, especially women, care?
Days after the verdict, more than a dozen women interviewed in Swing County, in the important contested state of Pennsylvania, said they were mostly unfazed by the news. Some shrugged it off because men were men. Others dismissed it as part of a broader attempt by Democrats to overthrow Trump. And some found the verdict troubling but were willing to look the other way.
Former advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, who received a $5 million judgment in her civil lawsuit against Trump for sex abuse and defamation, amended her lawsuit last week, seeking additional damages after the former president dismissed her following the verdict in the mocked national television. But the new allegations are unlikely to change the minds of women who support Trump.
If the election were between Trump and President Biden today, most women would say they would vote for Trump, citing a deep dislike for Biden and economic issues as reasons for their choice.
Laurie Toth, 54, who works in a body shop, was not impressed by the allegations against Trump. Outside a Target parking lot here in a working-class, white neighborhood of Northampton County, Toth said she believes Trump is held to higher standards than other politicians.
She said that former President Bill Clinton also committed sexual misconduct, “and nobody made a big deal out of it.” Indeed, Clinton has been vilified by the right for his affair with 20-year White House intern Monica Lewinsky and accused of lying under oath. “I think all men do that, know what I mean?” Toth said.
When asked about Trump’s sex abuse verdict, Toth said she was skeptical and questioned the timing of the trial. “Why wait until now? I think people don’t want him running for president and the government will come up with some lies.”
Carroll alleged in 2019 that Trump had raped her in a department store dressing room decades earlier, motivated by the #MeToo movement to expose the alleged trauma she had previously shared with only a few close friends. She later sued him for assault and defamation after he accused her of lying about the encounter. Carroll announced this week that she is suing Trump again over new defamation allegations after he made remarks during a CNN roundtable on May 10 calling her account a “fake story, fabricated story” and saying she was a “Dumbass”. Some in the town hall audience laughed and cheered, giving a glimpse of his supporters’ take on the jury’s decision.
Melissa Deckman, CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute, which studies the role of gender in shaping public opinion, said the reaction of Trump’s female voters mirrored their reaction to the now infamous Access Hollywood video in which he bragged about women to grab by the genitals.
“Partisanship is a very powerful drug in American politics that we are willing to ignore or downplay [sexual misconduct] because voting for someone from the other party is far worse,” Deckman said. “I do think that E. Jean Carroll’s verdict after 2016, after the Access Hollywood tape where he literally said it’s okay to sexually abuse women, if that doesn’t change anything, it’s not going to change anything.”
In December 2017, at the height of the #MeToo movement, a Quinnipiac University public poll found that 43 percent of women enrolled in the GOP said they had been sexually abused at some point in their lives. The same poll found that 55 percent of Republican women approve of the way Trump is handling sexual harassment and assault, and 60 percent of them disagreed that Congress should investigate allegations of sexual misconduct against Trump.
A willingness to overlook Trump’s behavior is a dynamic the Republican former president has benefited from since the early days of his political career. As he said at a campaign rally in early 2016, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot someone and I wouldn’t lose voters.”
Although Trump has not been accused of shooting anyone, he has been embroiled in numerous scandals. Since losing the 2020 election, Trump has falsely claimed the vote was stolen and sought to overturn the results. He is accused of instigating an angry mob that led to a deadly riot in the US Capitol and has been indicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records in New York, and is under investigation for other potentially illegal acts, such as the Safeguarding classified documents and asking a Georgia elections official to get the votes he needed to overturn the state’s election results.
Still, his Republican approval ratings remain high, and public polls suggest Republican voters favor him as their 2024 presidential nominee for now.
Northampton voters, who had twice backed Barack Obama as a presidential nominee, voted for Trump over Hillary Clinton in 2016, a victory that helped the former reality TV star win in Pennsylvania. Four years later, voters here sided with Biden by just over 1,000 votes, helping him secure the pivotal swing state that ultimately gave him the presidency. To hold the White House in 2024, Biden must win over the populous swing counties in Philadelphia’s sprawling media market, including Northampton, and particularly the women in the suburbs.
On a recent evening at a Northampton County Republican women’s dinner as part of a training seminar on conservative activism, Mary Eckhardt, 81, offered the opening prayer. “Father God, we ask you to give us wisdom as to whom we choose. We ask that they be honorable people who will keep their promise to worship you.”
Sitting at a table with her husband and two other women, Eckhardt said she hopes Trump will run again but worries he might survive the general election.
“I like Trump, I like him a lot. I know he could win the primary,” she said. “But you know, he ruled beautifully. He has. And our country was doing wonderfully.”
At the other table, Susan Cowell quickly intervened and named Trump as her preferred candidate.
Neither Eckhardt nor Cowell said they were bothered by the president’s behavior toward women. Cowell, who believes the 2020 election was stolen — although no state has found evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 election — called the Carroll ruling a “smoke screen” and moved on to talking about Hunter Biden. Republicans have repeatedly attempted to link Hunter Biden’s business dealings to his father. The President’s younger son is under investigation by the Justice Department on tax and gun violations, and a decision on whether to indict him is expected shortly.
Even those who expressed contempt for Trump’s behavior said they would vote for him in a duel against Biden.
Melissa Dennis, a 33-year-old mother of two who works as an EMT, said she was put off by Trump’s ego, calling his treatment of women “disgusting” and “seedy.” Dennis, a Republican, considered backing Trump again. (She endorsed Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson in 2016 and Trump in 2020.)
When forced to choose between Trump and Biden, she was quick to say, “Definitely Trump,” but added that she doesn’t like either of them and hopes a third choice will arise. For them, it’s all about the economy.
“I think the reason Trump failed as president wasn’t because of what he did, but because I honestly believe he did a lot of good for the country, especially financially,” she said. “But I think his ego alone put people off. But I think he did a lot of good for the country. For example, I know that my husband and I both work very hard. We work really hard and our money kept flowing when Trump was President.”
In some ways, the economy is doing better during the Biden administration than it did during the Trump presidency. The economy added more jobs in Biden’s first two years in office than any other president in U.S. history, and the unemployment rate is at its lowest in decades.
However, with inflation rising significantly over the past two years, many voters still see the situation as worse. There are signs that inflation has cooled in recent months, but prices are still rising more than they normally would in a healthy economy, putting a lot of pressure on households and businesses.
Arlene Pasternak, 54, who has one daughter and works in radiology, said she doesn’t like Trump’s personality and wouldn’t choose him as a boyfriend. She called him a “fool”. She also said if Trump sexually assaulted writer Carroll, she hopes he will be held accountable. But none of that affects whether she believes he should be president.
“He’s an absolute idiot. I hate him as a person. I honestly do,” Pasternak said. “But I’m more worried about the economy and you can hardly afford to live at the moment. I went to college, got my degree, and I’m struggling all the time.”
E. Jean Carroll’s lawsuit against Trump
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