Seth Meyers says even Fox News thinks Trump needs to shut up
‘Even Fox News, the network that gives Trump unfiltered airtime, is telling him to shut up,’ Mr Meyers said
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Even Fox News thinks Donald Trump needs to be quiet, according to late-night host Seth Meyers.
On Monday night, while discussing the E Jean Carroll defamation trial, in which Mr Trump was ordered to pay the writer $83m in damages for his defamatory statements about her, Mr Meyers played footage from a Fox News interview with George W Bush-era deputy assistant attorney general John Yoo, who had some strong words to share about the former president.
“The whole point of this, this enormous damages, unprecedented damages now, is to tell Donald Trump to shut up,” Mr Yoo said.
“Stop attacking people who are no longer public citizens, stop attacking people when you’ve already lost and the court has already said what you’ve done is liable. By continuing to defy the court by saying these things he’s showing a fundamental disrespect for the justice system and for the views of his fellow citizens, the jurors,” he added.
“I mean, it’s not a judge who is punishing him. This is a randomly selected jury of his peers.”
Mr Meyers appeared taken aback by the comments, responding: “You know it’s bad when even Fox News, the network that gives Trump unfiltered airtime, is telling him to shut up.”
The late-night host added that the unprecedented sum that Mr Trump was ordered to pay is a whopping three times what the alleged market value of Mar-a-Lago would be.
“Trump would have to sell Mar-a-Lago three times” to pay off the damages, Mr Meyers said, joking that the only person who would be gullible enough to buy Mar-a-Lago three times is Mr Trump’s former lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who recently filed a complaint against the former president for “unpaid legal fees” after filing for bankruptcy last month.
“He doesn’t have the money either,” Mr Meyers assured his audience.
A nine-member jury awarded Ms Carroll $65m in punitive damages in addition to more than $18m in compensatory damages last week after Mr Trump was found to have defamed the writer.
Ms Carroll sued then-President Donald Trump in 2019 for defamation after he denied her allegation that he raped her in a department store dressing in the 1990s.
The lawsuit alleged Mr Trump’s reaction to her allegations caused her “emotional pain and suffering at the hands of the man who raped her, as well as injury to her reputation, honour and dignity.”
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A jury found Mr Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation and awarded Ms Carroll $5m in damages.
Ms Carroll then filed another lawsuit seeking additional damages in response to Mr Trump’s insults, in which she was awarded $83 million in damages.
The former Elle magazine columnist said she is going to spend her winnings on “something Trump hates”.
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