Porn star Stormy Daniels testifying this week in the hush money case against former President Donald Trump marked an extraordinary moment in U.S. politics and presidential elections.
Never before has a former president faced a criminal trial after leaving office, and now, thanks to Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, never before has the public had to grapple with a porn star’s graphic descriptions of a sexual affair with a former president.
Yet despite the spectacle of the trial, Republicans don’t appear to be swayed by what Daniels had to say.
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Republicans still contend the trial over whether Trump signed off on a $130,000 hush money payment by former lawyer Michael Cohen is a “sham.”
“I don’t know what her testimony is,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), a potential vice presidential candidate for Trump, told the Washington Examiner. “I think people for the most part, even many Democrats I talked to, will tell you that this trial in New York is a sham. It’s an embarrassment.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a top Trump surrogate, gave a succinct response when asked if Daniels’s testimony would hurt Trump’s reelection bid: “No.”
House Republicans were no more impressed than their Senate counterparts and downplayed what impact the trial would have.
“If you look at the key players in that, they’re all Democrat operatives or donors to the Democrat party,” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), another key Trump acolyte, said. “So it’s clearly rigged.”
Mace was likely referencing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, who is trying the case against Trump as well as Judge Juan Merchan’s daughter, Loren, who has worked at a firm that has worked with Democratic candidates.
In April, Merchan expanded a gag order against Trump after he disparaged Loren Merchan on social media. He fined Trump $9,000 for nine separate violations of the gag order last week and then fined him $1,000 this week after he violated the order again.
During her testimony this week, Daniels described to the 12-member jury in New York that Trump went without a condom when the pair allegedly had sex and that Daniels kept her bra done during the deed.
Trump continues to deny any involvement with Daniels and was seen by reporters on Tuesday muttering “bulls***” to Daniels’s claims.
Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche claimed that Daniels’s testimony should lead to a mistrial, however, his request was denied. “This is the kind of testimony that makes it impossible to come back from,” Blanche said on Tuesday.
Legal experts wondered why Trump’s defense didn’t intervene more against Daniels’s testimony.
“My response to that is why didn’t you object?” Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor, said in an interview with the Washington Examiner. “If you have a problem, you gotta object. You can’t, like, let it all come out.”
“I think that Trump’s lawyers are going to have to come out much more aggressive than they have now,” John Yoo, a former Justice Department attorney, told Fox News. “So far, the cross-examination hasn’t raised doubts about the facts of Daniels’s encounter with President Trump again.”
Yoo claimed the testimony would likely reverberate beyond the courtroom.
“She has accused the former president of the United States of raping her, and she said it under oath,” Yoo continued. “I think if you’ve got two days where this is going to be out there, it’s not just having an effect in the court and before the jury, it’s going to have an effect in the political world and the public world.”
While Daniels didn’t explicitly use the word rape in her testimony, she did say the encounter left her “shaking,” and while she did not feel physically or verbally threatened, she did note a perceived power imbalance and that Trump had a bodyguard outside of the hotel room where the encounter took place.
Rahmani compared the details from Daniels’s testimony to disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
“These really kind of sorted details came out. There’s this threat that a guy in the parking lot. There’s Trump kind of Harvey Weinstein style, big guy in the hotel room like she felt afraid,” he said. “At least politically, it seems like not good for the former president at all.”
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), another rumored Trump running mate contender, disagreed with the legal experts, telling the Washington Examiner the testimony from Daniels would not harm Trump’s campaign.
“Everybody knows that this whole thing is a joke. It’s a travesty,” Donalds said. “People are going to move on and look at what’s happening in their lives.”
Polling, however, indicates that voters care about the New York case. A Reuters-Ipsos poll last month showed 64% of registered voters described the charges as “somewhat serious.” The poll also found that nearly four in 10 Republicans considered the charges to be serious, as did two-thirds of independents.
Blanche again requested a mistrial for a second time on Thursday claiming the second testimony from Daniels on Thursday was prejudicial. Juan Merchan denied the motion.
Juan Merchan also denied a request from Blanche to amend the gag order so Trump could respond to Daniels.
Other Republicans such as outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) refused to weigh in on Daniels’s relationship with Trump.
“I’m not going to be commenting on the presidential election,” McConnell said during a GOP leadership press conference on Wednesday. “I’m going to concentrate on trying to turn this job over to the next majority leader of the Senate.”
President Joe Biden’s campaign has opted not to directly comment on the minute details of Trump’s hush money trial case and instead contrast Biden’s campaign events as Trump is stuck in court.
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In a similar fashion, Democrats tend to want to move on from the case when questioned by reporters.
“I am fundamentally uninterested in the reason why Donald Trump paid Stormy Daniels,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said. “I would rather that this country’s conversation be consumed by something other than what was going on inside Donald Trump’s head when he wrote a big check to Stormy Daniels.”
Kaelan Deese contributed to this story.
