Ronna McDaniel predicts E. Jean Carroll verdict will not hurt Trump in 2024

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel predicted that Tuesday’s verdict in the E. Jean Carroll case against former President Donald Trump will not hurt his chances in 2024.

McDaniel claimed that because the election was so far away, voters would not want to hear about the verdict or any other legal problems the former president faces by the time of the Republican primaries in March.

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“I think we’ve got a long way until the primary process begins,” McDaniel told Fox News host Martha MacCallum. “We’ve got debates in August. As a suburban woman myself, I think a lot of women right now are looking at the Biden administration and saying, ‘Our kids are still struggling in school. Our kids are being used as pawns on TikTok as China is gathering their data.”

McDaniel listed topics like inflation, high crime rates, border issues, and gas prices as topics that will still be relevant ahead of the election next year that would be bigger concerns to voters than Trump’s legal battles.

FILE – Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel speaks at the committee’s winter meeting in Dana Point, Calif., Jan. 27, 2023. Republican presidential candidates will be blocked from the debate stage this summer if they do not sign a pledge to support the GOP’s ultimate presidential nominee, according to draft language set to be adopted when the RNC meets next week. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

Jae C. Hong/AP

“People want closure, they want to move on, and they want to talk about what is happening in their lives,” McDaniel said. “I think a lot of Americans want the focus to come back to them and the issues that matter in their lives. They don’t want to see … investigation after investigation after investigation that we have now seen for over six years.”

The GOP leader’s comments come after a jury ordered Trump to pay $5 million to Carroll, who claimed the former president raped, sexually abused, and defamed her. The jury ruled that Trump was liable for the defamation and sexual abuse but not for the rape allegation.

The standard for the jury to make the determination in civil cases, the preponderance of the evidence, is lower than in criminal court, where the jury must find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

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Tuesday’s verdict is only the latest in a series of legal issues pending against Trump. He is also facing a civil lawsuit against himself and his company for fraud and is being investigated for possibly obstructing the investigation into the classified records recovered from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. He has also been indicted on 34 charges related to the alleged falsifying business records for hush money payments he had paid to porn star Stormy Daniels.

Trump will be appealing Tuesday’s verdict, a statement from the former president’s campaign said.