US Politics

Joe Biden has accused Republican lawmakers of ‘holding the economy hostage’. Speaking at New York’s Hudson Valley in an appeal to lift the country’s debt limit, Biden said: ‘They’re literally, not figuratively, holding the economy hostage by threatening to default on our nation’s debt.’ Biden added: ‘There is no reason to put all this at risk, to threaten a recession, to … undermine America’s standing in the world’ More

A 79-year-old advice columnist – along with a handful of other brave women who testified in her case – has done what legal and political institutions have not yet managed: held the former president Donald Trump accountable in law for his actions, and for his lies.In finding that he sexually abused E Jean Carroll in the 1990s, and subsequently defamed her, albeit not finding him liable for rape, the jury in her civil suit laid down an important marker.Though it awarded $5m (£4m) to Ms Carroll, money cannot erase the initial attack, the intrusive memories she has endured or her continued avoidance of romantic or sexual relationships. Mr Trump compounded the damage when he attacked her as a “wack job” pursuing a “hoax” after she described what had happened.It required courage to take on a man who was one of the most powerful people in the world, who may be so again, and who attracts and encourages irrational and aggressive support. She has received death threats, and the judge advised jurors to remain anonymous “for a long time”. Asked if she regretted bringing the case, Ms Carroll replied: “About five times a day.”It is too easy to write off this hard-earned victory by focusing solely on the fact that its impact on voters is likely to be limited. No one imagines it will sink Mr Trump’s political fortunes. His ability to float past or even capitalise upon his worst acts, transmuting them into fundraising and campaigning capital, is both remarkable and depressing. His support has proved resilient through impeachment, indictment and general disgrace. But this verdict stands on its own merits, in curtailing the impunity he has enjoyed for too long.It would be wrong to imagine that any case could fix a broken political system, or, indeed, root out entrenched misogyny. It is a sign of just how bad things are that it is entirely likely that the Republicans will go into the 2024 presidential election with a candidate found by a court to be a sexual abuser – and that, if they do, he may well win.Mr Trump was elected in 2016 even after the emergence of the Access Hollywood tape in which he boasted that “When you’re a star, they let you do it … Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.” At that point, Republicans attacked him over his words. On Tuesday, most were silent about his deeds. Though the tally of women accusing him of assault has risen to at least 26, his share of the female vote actually rose in 2020, with an outright majority of white women backing him. Nonetheless, he did not want this trial, still less this outcome, and has said he will appeal, claiming the case to be part of “the greatest witch-hunt of all time”.This was a victory for Ms Carroll and, as she has said, for other women. It reflects the legacy of the #MeToo movement, sometimes written off as a blip due to the backlash against it. The journalist herself credited the flood of allegations about powerful, predatory men with persuading her to speak out. It also led to the New York law that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations on such allegations, making her case possible.Change does not always come in immediate, dramatic and decisive fashion. It may be slow, halting, partial and unsatisfactory, yet nonetheless real and significant. Mr Trump now faces mounting jeopardy on multiple legal fronts. Whatever the outcome of other cases, this one still counts.
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It is the worst of times and the best of times for Donald Trump. On Tuesday, he suffered another legal defeat. A federal jury found him liable for the sexual abuse, forcible touching, and defamation of E Jean Carroll. She was awarded $5m in damages.The 45th president, however, escaped liability for rape. He also leads Joe Biden in their latest hypothetical match-up, while Ron DeSantis fades in the rearview mirror.The midterms in November 2022 ended with an underwhelming GOP performance, DeSantis emerging triumphant in his reelection bid, and Trump licking his wounds. Not any more. He’s back.The public judges Biden to be less than sharp, and his stewardship of the economy similarly lacking. Record low unemployment has failed to dissipate the stings of inflation, high interest rates and an underperforming stock market. Retirement accounts have taken a hit. Food prices are high. Folks are angry.Meanwhile, Hunter Biden, the first son, faces the prospect of indictment on tax and gun charges. Biden professes that the boy has done nothing wrong, but even if he escapes prosecution, the sins of the son will likely be visited upon the father. It feels incestuous.Given this tableau, the impact of the Trump sexual assault outcome is likely to be muted, which is not to say that this latest loss won’t bring fallout.In the run-up to the verdict, the court released a deposition video that showed Trump unable to identify Carroll in a photograph. Instead, he confused her with Marla Maples, his second wife. In that moment, he put the lie to his non-denial-denial that Carroll wasn’t his “type”.The potential for fall debate drama over Trump’s brain fog is high. Remember when he bragged about his performance in a cognitive test (“Person, woman, man, camera, TV”)? His mental acuity, too, is now likely to become a campaign issue. Turnabout is fair play. Biden isn’t the only one with issues.Still, Trump has already survived the infamous Access Hollywood tape. “When you are a star, they let you do it … You can do anything,” he cackled back in the day.“I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK,” Trump mused seven years ago. He was definitely on to something.For many Republicans, Trump is their Caesar, a cultural avatar and warrior who possesses license to flout and defy convention. Conversely, the GOP primary field is too timid to comment, let alone criticize or condemn Trump.For rivals purportedly wedded to law and order, their silence is both deafening and unsurprising. Apparently, the wrath of Trump loyalists far exceeds any possible political benefit.Mike Pence still won’t go full bore at his ex-boss over the events of January 6. The former vice-president tiptoes around the topic. The fact that Trump was unperturbed by the mob’s calls for Pence to be hanged apparently warrants no further discussion.Then there’s DeSantis. Bashing Disney is one thing; trashing Trump is another. Glaringly, he failed to use the Carroll trial to further his own ambitions: he didn’t dispatch his wife, Casey DeSantis, there to offer thoughts and prayers for the plaintiff or Melania Trump.The cameras would have been rolling and DeSantis would have been credited for surgically wielding a scalpel instead of crudely brandishing his usual axe. Instead, DeSantis went overseas in a vain bid to grow foreign policy credentials.In London, he fell on his face as he attempted to woo the titans of British industry. “Ron DeTedious: DeSantis underwhelms Britain’s business chiefs”, the headline at Politico blared. “UK captains of industry lambast ‘low-wattage’ US presidential hopeful.”Low wattage is the new low energy. Once upon a time, Jeb Bush was Florida’s governor. The song remains the same.DeSantis also met Israel’s beleaguered Benjamin Netanyahu – who failed to release a photo of their meeting. At this juncture, DeSantis’s anticipated announcement feels stale and overdue.His purported legislative accomplishments have earned him the title of “2024’s Ted Cruz”; the most rightwing GOP contender, little else. He makes Wall Street’s Republicans uncomfortable. Once again, the non-Trump challenger is a mirage.Looking ahead Trump’s future is muddled. He remains under criminal indictment. Grand juries in DC and Georgia proceed apace. Separately, an October trial date is set in the $250m civil fraud action commenced by New York state against him, his three older children and the Trump Organization.It’s too soon for Trump to gloat, but he can definitely smile.
Lloyd Green is an attorney in New York and served in the US Department of Justice from 1990 to 1992 More

It is the worst of times and the best of times for Donald Trump. On Tuesday, he suffered another legal defeat. A federal jury found him liable for the sexual abuse, forcible touching, and defamation of E Jean Carroll. She was awarded $5m in damages.The 45th president, however, escaped liability for rape. He also leads Joe Biden in their latest hypothetical match-up, while Ron DeSantis fades in the rearview mirror.The midterms in November 2022 ended with an underwhelming GOP performance, DeSantis emerging triumphant in his reelection bid, and Trump licking his wounds. Not any more. He’s back.The public judges Biden to be less than sharp, and his stewardship of the economy similarly lacking. Record low unemployment has failed to dissipate the stings of inflation, high interest rates and an underperforming stock market. Retirement accounts have taken a hit. Food prices are high. Folks are angry.Meanwhile, Hunter Biden, the first son, faces the prospect of indictment on tax and gun charges. Biden professes that the boy has done nothing wrong, but even if he escapes prosecution, the sins of the son will likely be visited upon the father. It feels incestuous.Given this tableau, the impact of the Trump sexual abuse outcome is likely to be muted, which is not to say that this latest loss won’t bring fallout.In the run-up to the verdict, the court released a deposition video that showed Trump unable to identify Carroll in a photograph. Instead, he confused her with Marla Maples, his second wife. In that moment, he put the lie to his non-denial-denial that Carroll wasn’t his “type”.The potential for fall debate drama over Trump’s brain fog is high. Remember when he bragged about his performance in a cognitive test (“Person, woman, man, camera, TV”)? His mental acuity, too, is now likely to become a campaign issue. Turnabout is fair play. Biden isn’t the only one with issues.Still, Trump has already survived the infamous Access Hollywood tape. “When you are a star, they let you do it … You can do anything,” he cackled back in the day.“I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK,” Trump mused seven years ago. He was definitely on to something.For many Republicans, Trump is their Caesar, a cultural avatar and warrior who possesses license to flout and defy convention. Conversely, the GOP primary field is too timid to comment, let alone criticize or condemn Trump.For rivals purportedly wedded to law and order, their silence is both deafening and unsurprising. Apparently, the wrath of Trump loyalists far exceeds any possible political benefit.Mike Pence still won’t go full bore at his ex-boss over the events of January 6. The former vice-president tiptoes around the topic. The fact that Trump was unperturbed by the mob’s calls for Pence to be hanged apparently warrants no further discussion.Then there’s DeSantis. Bashing Disney is one thing; trashing Trump is another. Glaringly, he failed to use the Carroll trial to further his own ambitions: he didn’t dispatch his wife, Casey DeSantis, there to offer thoughts and prayers for the plaintiff or Melania Trump.The cameras would have been rolling and DeSantis would have been credited for surgically wielding a scalpel instead of crudely brandishing his usual axe. Instead, DeSantis went overseas in a vain bid to grow foreign policy credentials.In London, he fell on his face as he attempted to woo the titans of British industry. “Ron DeTedious: DeSantis underwhelms Britain’s business chiefs”, the headline at Politico blared. “UK captains of industry lambast ‘low-wattage’ US presidential hopeful.”Low wattage is the new low energy. Once upon a time, Jeb Bush was Florida’s governor. The song remains the same.DeSantis also met Israel’s beleaguered Benjamin Netanyahu – who failed to release a photo of their meeting. At this juncture, DeSantis’s anticipated announcement feels stale and overdue.His purported legislative accomplishments have earned him the title of “2024’s Ted Cruz”; the most rightwing GOP contender, little else. He makes Wall Street’s Republicans uncomfortable. Once again, the non-Trump challenger is a mirage.Looking ahead Trump’s future is muddled. He remains under criminal indictment. Grand juries in DC and Georgia proceed apace. Separately, an October trial date is set in the $250m civil fraud action commenced by New York state against him, his three older children and the Trump Organization.It’s too soon for Trump to gloat, but he can definitely smile. This article was amended on 11 May 2023. The text and headline were amended as Donald Trump was found liable of sexual abuse, not sexual assault as an earlier version said.
Lloyd Green is an attorney in New York and served in the US Department of Justice from 1990 to 1992 More

Donald Trump has boasted about grabbing women by the pussy without their consent. He has made innumerable misogynistic comments. He has been accused of sexual misconduct by at least 26 women. He has suggested that some of the women who have accused him of misconduct were too unattractive to assault. And, until this week, he has managed to get away with all of it. Trump has faced no meaningful consequences for his actions; he has given every impression of being above the law.Until this week. It may have taken decades, but the law has finally caught up with Trump. On Tuesday, a jury in New York found that the former president sexually abused the advice columnist E Jean Carroll in the changing room of a department store 27 years ago. It was a civil case, so Trump hasn’t been taken away in handcuffs, but his reputation and his wallet have suffered a blow. While the jury did not find that Trump raped Carroll, its verdict brands him a sexual predator. Carroll was awarded $5m (£4m) in total: $2.02m in compensation and damages for her battery claim and $2.98m in compensation and damages for defamation, as a result of Trump calling her a liar.“I filed this lawsuit against Donald Trump to clear my name and to get my life back,” Carroll said on Tuesday. “Today, the world finally knows the truth. This victory is not just for me but for every woman who has suffered because she was not believed.”It is hard to overstate just how profound it is to see one of the world’s most prominent men finally held accountable for his actions – and at a time when women’s rights in the US seem to be going backwards. “The verdict in this case is important to survivors of sexual abuse,” says the trailblazing equal rights lawyer Gloria Allred. “It will cause many of them to believe that if they are sexually abused and defamed by a rich, powerful and famous man that they may be able to fight back and win in a civil lawsuit, even if it is too late for a criminal case to be filed or even if no police report is ever made.”The activist Shannon Coulter says that the verdict feels deeply personal. “Ever since the release of the Access Hollywood tape [in which Trump made his “Grab ’em by the pussy” remark], I’ve been on this journey of understanding my own rage around the words Donald Trump said on it,” Coulter says. “This journey included confronting the sexual assault I experienced as a younger woman at the hands of a powerful man. With E Jean Carroll’s victory today, something has come full circle for me. I feel more peaceful. Less angry. I feel that some small amount of justice has, at last, been served, not just to Donald Trump, but to any man who believes that power eclipses consent.”Carroll’s victory came at a high price. First, there was the assault itself: the panicked minutes spent trapped alone with Trump, struggling as she tried to push him off. When she spoke publicly about the assault for the first time, in an article in New York magazine in 2019, Carroll wrote: “I have never had sex with anybody ever again.” Then there was the aftermath: being forced to relive the assault again and again, having every detail poked, prodded and scrutinised.Why did she take so long to come forward? Because, Carroll wrote in her essay, she knew exactly what the response would be; every woman does. “Receiving death threats, being driven from my home, being dismissed, being dragged through the mud, and joining the 15 women who’ve come forward with credible stories about how the man grabbed, badgered, belittled, mauled, molested, and assaulted them, only to see the man turn it around, deny, threaten, and attack them, never sounded like much fun,” she wrote.Of course, everything that Carroll expected to happen when she came forward happened immediately. Trump’s defence was steeped in sexism and victim-blaming; it was a masterclass in misogyny. In video testimony in October, Trump claimed that Carroll was a “nut job” who had “said it was very sexy to be raped”. In fact, what she had said was that some other people “think rape is sexy”. Meanwhile, Trump’s lawyer Joseph Tacopina called Carroll’s case “a scam” and accused the writer of “minimising real rape” and trying to profit from her accusations.What constitutes “real rape”, according to Tacopina? Well, it’s not rape if there is no screaming, he appeared to insinuate. At one particularly gruesome point in the trial, Tacopina repeatedly asked Carroll why she didn’t scream during the assault. “I was in too much of a panic to scream,” Carroll replied. Tacopina kept pushing the issue. Why hadn’t she screamed? Why hadn’t she behaved in the manner that he, Trump’s lawyer and an apparent expert on assault, expected a rape victim to behave? “I’m telling you he raped me whether I screamed or not,” an exasperated Carroll replied. “One of the reasons women don’t come forward is because they’re always asked: ‘Why didn’t you scream?’ Some women scream. Some women don’t. It keeps women silent.”“Rape myths – myths that allegations of sexual assault are uniquely untrustworthy, that women have to perform victimhood in a certain way to be credible, or that women should not be believed if they are imperfect human beings – are still powerful in our culture,” says Emily Martin, a spokesperson for the National Women’s Law Center Action Fund. “They often show up in courtrooms. We saw some of them in this trial. E Jean Carroll’s courage reaffirmed the power of survivors’ voices to create change. But no one should have to be this courageous or face the misogynistic vitriol she has faced in order to get some measure of justice. Our legal systems – and our media narratives – often fail survivors.”This trial is over, but the misogynistic vitriol directed at Carroll isn’t. Trump doesn’t take losing well and responded to the verdict in his usual restrained and eloquent manner, smearing Carroll as a liar. “I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHO THIS WOMAN IS. THIS VERDICT IS A DISGRACE – A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!” he wrote on his social media platform.Trump has repeated the assertion that he doesn’t know who Carroll is multiple times, despite the fact that a photograph taken in 1987 shows them together with their then spouses. He has also said that she isn’t his “type”, despite once mistaking a picture of her for his second wife, Marla Maples.What does Trump plan to do now? Hours before the verdict was announced, Trump said he would appeal. He repeated this intention to Fox News Digital after the verdict. “We’ll appeal. We got treated very badly by the Clinton-appointed judge,” Trump complained. “And [Carroll] is a Clinton person, too.” He then added: “I have no idea who this woman is.”If Trump does appeal, his argument will probably be that the case was an attempt to stop him from winning the presidency in 2024. A statement sent to reporters by the Trump campaign, for example, alleged that the trial was a “political endeavour targeting President Trump because he is now an overwhelming front-runner to be once again elected President of the United States”. That last bit isn’t bombast: Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination and a Washington Post/ABC News poll released this month showed Biden trailing Trump by six percentage points in a theoretical rematch. Some analysts have questioned the methodology of that poll, but the fact remains: Trump should be taken seriously as a 2024 contender.Could the Carroll verdict hurt Trump’s political future? In a sane world, this wouldn’t even be up for debate. In a sane world, having a jury of nine people deliberate for just three hours before finding unanimously that you sexually assaulted a woman and defamed her should end your career. But, as has been demonstrated time and time again, the rules work differently when it comes to Trump. During the trial, Carroll’s attorney Michael Ferrara asked the writer why she didn’t go public with her allegations when Trump first ran for president. “I noticed that the more women who came forward to accuse him, the better he did in the polls,” she said.“Trump has always made the ability to have anyone he wants and do anything he wants with impunity part of his brand,” says Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a historian who writes about authoritarianism, democracy protection and propaganda. “When the Access Hollywood tapes came out right before the 2016 election, most people thought that would be the end of him – but it was the opposite.”This verdict won’t necessarily hurt Trump, Ben-Ghiat believes; he will just spin it so that it fits the tried-and-tested narrative that he is a victim of the liberal elite. “Trump is a superb propagandist and for years he’s pushed the narrative of himself as the victim of a witch-hunt and pushed the idea that the deep state is after him,” she says. It’s important to remember, Ben-Ghiat says, that “Trump is not a normal politician – he’s a cult leader. We’ve already seen how he managed to indoctrinate tens of millions of people into discarding the facts in front of them and believing that he didn’t lose the 2020 election.”If you need any more evidence that Trump isn’t a normal politician, look at the extraordinary advice that the US district judge Lewis Kaplan gave jurors in the Trump-Carroll case. They have had their identities kept secret, due to Kaplan’s concerns that they might face “harassment … and retaliation” from Trump supporters. After the verdict, Kaplan told the jurors that they were now allowed to identify themselves if they wished, but strongly suggested that they didn’t. “My advice to you is not to identify yourselves. Not now and not for a long time,” Kaplan said.To repeat: a judge warned a jury that they might face violence from Trump supporters. It’s the sort of warning you expect in the trial of a mob boss, not a former president. “These jury instructions show again that he’s not a normal politician – he’s a violent cult leader,” Ben-Ghiat says.Of course, while Trump may have a cult-like following, he is not omnipotent. The manner in which he is able to spin the Carroll verdict to his followers depends on what media platforms he is given and how journalists challenge his narrative about the trial. The first big test of this will be Wednesday’s live town hall forum on CNN, the first major television event of the 2024 presidential campaign. In a social media post on Tuesday, Trump seemed ambivalent about his big return to primetime. “Could be the beginning of a New & Vibrant CNN, with no more Fake News,” Trump wrote. “Or it could turn into a disaster for all, including me. Let’s see what happens?” More

Every day 343 workers die from hazardous working conditions in the US. In 2021, the latest year with data available, 5,190 workers in the US were killed on the job and an estimated 120,000 deaths were attributed to occupational diseases.Since 1970, more than 429,000 workers have been killed on the job, but only 128 of those cases have been criminally prosecuted under the Occupational Safety and Health Act (Osha).Now a new report and reintroduced federal legislation is pushing to modernize Osha.Democratic congressmen Joe Courtney and Bobby Scott have co-authored the Protecting America’s Workers Act, which was reintroduced to Congress on 28 April, on Workers’ Memorial Day.“The history of Osha shows that there really is a systemic problem in terms of that mission of getting the rules aligned with the evolving technology that goes into a whole host of sectors in the US economy, whether it’s home construction, healthcare settings, manufacturing, the new processes, the new chemicals, the new machinery that as part of a very dynamic economy, it’s just kind of rocketed past the Osha rules that are in place to protect people,” said Courtney.“It’s just really trying to get a system of workforce protection that is really connected to the actual workplaces that people are going to every day in the 21st century.”The bill includes expanding Osha coverage to the estimated 8 million state and local government workers in 24 states not currently covered by Osha, reinstating an employer record-keeping rule of illnesses and injuries rolled back under the Trump administration, providing authority for increased civil penalties for serious Osha violations, and authorizing felony penalties against employers who knowingly commit Osha violations that result in the death or serious harm of a worker. The bill would also establish rights for families who lose a loved one to a workplace fatality and require Osha to investigate all cases of death or serious injury that occur in a workplace.The AFL-CIO’s Death on the Job 2023 report, released on 26 April, outlines the “toll of neglect” that comes from inadequately addressing workplace safety issues amid aggressive opposition from industry groups and employers against improving and enforcing workers protections.The report cites low civil penalties for safety violations issued by Osha, understaffing and underfunding at Osha, the millions of workers who are currently not covered under Osha which include independent contractors and federal, state and local public workers, inadequate retaliation protections for workers to speak out and report safety issues, and the need to improve and expand data on worker injuries and illnesses.For Black workers, the workplace fatality rate increased from 3.5 per 100,000 workers in 2020 to 4.0 in 2021, the highest rate in a decade, while Latino workers currently have a worker fatality rate of 4.5 per every 100,000 workers, 25% higher than the national average.Younger and older workers are at higher risk for workplace fatalities. Three hundred and fifty workers under the age of 25 died on the job in 2021, while workers over 65 have a risk of 2.3 times higher than other workers of dying on the job.Courtney cited a 2010 incident in Connecticut where six workers were killed in an explosion at a Kleen Energy Systems power plant during cleanup of debris in pipes as an example of an avoidable and tragic workplace fatality incident.“As the process of an investigation went on, it was clear that what caused that was really very well known, unsafe practices, that the Chemical Safety Board, which is a sort of an arm of OshaA, had long identified as being the wrong way to clean the tubes,” he said.The legislation has been introduced numerous times in Congress over the past two decades. Senator Pat Murray of Washington called the legislation “long overdue” when she was reintroducing it in 2013. Joe Biden was a co-sponsor of previous versions of the bill while serving in the Senate.In 2009 testimony in support of the bill, Osha’s assistant secretary David Michaels said the 1970 Osha Act was “tragically outdated and inadequate”, and yet few to no changes or updates have been made in over 50 years since its passage.Courtney noted the political challenges faced in passing the Protecting America’s Workers Act given the current House is under Republican control. But a companion bill in the Senate will be introduced and Courtney said it was important to keep introducing the bill to keep the issues visible.“I think that at some point, the external pressure is going to reach the breaking point in terms of getting this place to move,” he said. More

Last week, Serbia experienced two separate mass shootings that killed more than a dozen people, including children. Serbia, a nation tied for the third highest rate of gun ownership in the world, was shaken by this violence. Unlike here at home, mass shootings are not a daily occurrence.It did not take long for the Serbian president, Aleksandar Vucic, to take swift action. A mere day after these senseless shootings, Vucic announced several measures that would prevent further tragedy. The measures include a ban on new gun permits, tougher penalties for illegal weapons possession, psychological checks of gun owners and an amnesty for the surrender of illegal weapons.It only took two days, after two horrific mass shootings, for Serbia to act. Why, after more than 200 mass shootings in 2023 alone, has the United States failed to take similar sweeping action, or much action at all?Day after day, the US experiences senseless gun violence and yet it’s generally accepted that lawmakers will do little to prevent the next mass shooting. This is despite Americans making it clear they don’t want empty chairs at their dinner tables, and don’t want their children to share experiences and trauma with war veterans. Simply put, most Americans want action to be taken on gun violence.The difference between Serbia’s action and the US’s inaction boils down to the gun industry’s political influence. The US can’t take the sweeping actions favored by the majority of Americans, including even universal background checks, because a small – but powerful – minority of lawmakers have adopted the gun lobby’s complete opposition to sensible gun laws and regulations. The gun lobby – and not just the NRA – has spent decades making this possible by funneling endless supplies of donations to political candidates as well as by creating an extremist view of the second amendment that is antagonistic towards any and all firearm restrictions and safeguards.The gun lobby wants Americans to believe that there is no legislative or regulatory remedy to gun violence. Its loudest voices are telling Americans they’re not “praying enough” for mass shootings to stop. They blame mental health. They point their fingers at everything and everyone except the actual cause of gun violence in the US. While they do everything to distract, one thing is clear, the carnage is caused by ample and easy access to guns.How do we know it’s gun access? Because when governments, particularly state governments, put into place commonsense safeguards, we see fewer killings, less death and less trauma.Much like Serbia, other countries have sprung into action immediately in the wake of mass shootings. It only took one mass shooting in Australia for the government to ban assault weapons, and in the decades since the rate of deaths by firearms has plummeted in the country. The UK has not experienced a mass shooting since 1996, when it acted to ban certain guns in the wake of a shooting in which 16 school children and one adult were killed in Dunblane. After the Christchurch shooting in New Zealand, the government offered a buyback program and removed almost 60,000 firearms from circulation.Here at home, we’ve seen improvements after states such as California, Colorado, Maryland and Michigan took action to fill gaps left by legislators at the federal level. These states recognize that when an assault weapon or a high-capacity magazine is used in a public mass shooting, nearly 14 times as many people are injured and twice as many people are killed. In doing so, they have made their states safer, but a lack of federal action still leaves them vulnerable to guns brought in from other states. Despite that, California now has the seventh lowest firearm death rate in the country, while states with weaker gun laws, such as Mississippi, Louisiana and New Mexico, have among the highest. This is not a coincidence. When states put more stringent safeguards into place, fewer people die by firearms.Serbia has clearly taken note from the successes of these other nations that put people over guns. What will it take for the American legislators beholden to the gun lobby’s money and influence to do the same? It doesn’t have to be like this. Americans don’t have to live paralyzed in fear of whether our schools, our places of worship, our healthcare facilities or our malls will be the stage of the next national tragedy. The US government can in fact stop gun violence like other countries have, but only if our policymakers start answering to the people, not the industry.Other nations have experienced mass shootings, but in the US too many of our legislators are dependent on gun industry donations and support to take the bold action needed to save lives.
Kris Brown is an activist, lawyer and president of the Brady Campaign More

When E Jean Carroll, a magazine writer, came forward to describe how she was sexually assaulted by Donald Trump in a Manhattan department store in 1996, Trump called her claim “a complete con job” and accused her of making it up to sell books. But on Tuesday, a New York jury – in a civil, rather than criminal, case – disagreed. They found that he was liable for sexual abuse and defamation – and ordered him to pay her $5m (£4m) in damages.The jury did not find that Trump had raped Carroll, as she alleged. But it said he was shown by a preponderance of the evidence to have sexually abused her, and then told a malicious falsehood about her that did serious damage to her reputation. After years of credible allegations of sexual misconduct against Trump, Tuesday’s verdict is the first time that a court has said that such a claim has been proven to be true.Here’s a summary of the case.How E Jean Carroll came forwardCarroll, a writer and advice columnist, first went public with her accusations against Trump in 2019, in the aftermath of the revelations about Harvey Weinstein that sparked the #MeToo movement. In a book excerpt published in New York magazine, Carroll wrote that after a chance encounter at the Bergdorf Goodman department store, Trump forced her against a wall and pulled down her tights before pressing his fingers into her vagina and raping her.She had never come forward before, she said, having seen the treatment handed out to other victims and concluding that it “never sounded like much fun”. And, she said, “I run the risk of making him more popular by revealing what he did.”Because the statute of limitations had expired, there was no prospect of Trump facing criminal charges over her allegations. But last year, New York state passed the Adult Survivors Act, allowing victims a one-year window to file a sexual assault lawsuit over older cases. That is how the case wound up in a Manhattan courtroom for the last two weeks.The case against Trump – and what the jury saidBecause the trial in New York was a civil rather than criminal case, Trump faces only a financial sanction and has not been convicted of anything. Carroll’s lawsuit sought damages for battery – a technical term for her claims that he “forcibly raped and groped” her – as well as for defamation after he responded to her 2019 allegations by calling her a liar. A summary of the key evidence heard by the jury is here.Carroll told the jury: “I’m here because Donald Trump raped me, and when I wrote about it, he said it didn’t happen. He lied and shattered my reputation. I’m here to try and get my life back.”The jury was asked to reach a decision on the basis of the “preponderance of evidence” standard that applies in civil cases – that is, that the claims were more likely to be true than false. (You can see how her lawyer defined that here.) The judge told them to put “beyond reasonable doubt” out of their minds.The jury of six men and three women found that Carroll had not proved rape by that standard. But they said that she had shown that Trump had sexually abused her, and that she was injured by his conduct.They also found that Trump defamed her by claiming that her allegations were a hoax. They ordered him to pay her just over $2m in damages over sexual abuse, and almost $3m over the defamation.Carroll’s evidenceIn her testimony, Carroll gave a detailed account of the incident, and how it has affected her life. Ever since, she said, she has found it impossible even to smile at a man she was attracted to, adding: “It left me unable to ever have a romantic life again.”Carroll’s case was bolstered by evidence from two friends of hers confirming her account that she had immediately told them about the incident. Another significant plank of Carroll’s case was the evidence from two other women – Natasha Stoynoff and Jessica Leeds – who say that they were sexually assaulted by Trump,, and described incidents of forcible groping and kissing 36 years apart.The jury were also played the infamous Access Hollywood tape, made public during the 2016 election campaign, in which Trump said: “When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything … Grab ‘em by the pussy.” Carroll’s lawyer argued that the evidence revealed that Trump was a “predator” with a “playbook” for sexual assault.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionTrump’s evidenceDespite claiming that Carroll was the perpetrator of a malicious hoax against him, and saying on a visit to Scotland that he was “going to go back and I’m going to confront this woman”, Trump did not testify in the case. Nor did his lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, call any witnesses. Tacopina claimed that this was because “Donald Trump doesn’t have a story to tell here, other than to say it’s a lie”.While Trump didn’t appear in person, the jury did see footage from a deposition he gave in the case. (You can watch it here.) He denied Carroll’s accusations by saying that she was “not his type” – but also mistook her in a photograph for his ex-wife, Marla Maples. Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan – who Trump volunteered was also “not his type” – suggested that his confusion undermined his claim that he was not attracted to Carroll.On his remarks in the Access Hollywood tape that famous men can grab women’s genitals, Trump said that “historically, that’s true with stars … unfortunately or fortunately”, and said that he considers himself a star. Kaplan said he had in effect been “a witness against himself”.When cross-examining Carroll, Tacopina took an approach that Chris McGreal wrote had “​​raised more than a few eyebrows in the legal community and left some spectators in court aghast”, casting doubt on the plausibility of her evidence not to have screamed or have called the police. Carroll replied: “One of the reasons women don’t come forward is because they’re always asked: ‘Why didn’t you scream?’ Some women scream. Some women don’t. It keeps women silent.”The consequences for Trump’s political careerIn 2016, Trump famously boasted: “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters.” Now a version of that question appears central to his prospects of another shot at the White House.In the aftermath of the verdict, Trump’s supporters variously focused on the fact that he had not been found liable for rape, ridiculed the standard of proof applied in the case (as is quite typical in civil suits), and made dark claims of political conspiracy. Trump himself claimed that he got “treated very badly by the Clinton-appointed judge”, called the case “a continuation of the greatest witchhunt of all time”, and said he had “no idea who this woman is”.Trump is likely to appeal, though most legal analysts see few plausible grounds to do so. The first live forum in which he is likely to face questions over the case comes on Wednesday, in a town hall event for CNN.Given Trump already has a variety of other legal cases hanging over him, and has faced multiple allegations of sexual misconduct in the past, it seems unlikely that his avowed supporters will see much in the verdicts to persuade them to change their minds. Even his rivals for the nomination will probably perform verbal gymnastics to avoid directly criticising him over the outcome, lest they alienate the Republican base.There was “no chorus of Democrats and Republicans calling for Trump, 76, to drop out of the primary”, David Smith writes in his analysis. Trump is seven points ahead of Joe Biden in the most recent poll. But there is already plenty of electoral evidence that swing voters have been put off by the allegations that have long been attached to him – and the jury’s finding in this case is arguably the most concrete proof of bad character that he has ever had to face. More