MS Now anchor repeatedly corrects guest insistent on calling President Trump a ‘rapist’
Former Trump White House lawyer Ty Cobb was corrected on air by MS NOW anchor Jonathan Capehart after calling President Donald Trump a "rapist" during a live discussion on The Weekend. Capehart pointed out that this was legally inaccurate, as Trump has not been convicted of rape, prompting a back-and-forth in which Cobb insisted a federal judge had said Trump was "guilty of rape," while Capehart maintained the correct term was "sexual assault."
The exchange stems from the case brought by writer E Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of sexually assaulting her at a New York department store in the 1990s, an allegation Trump has always denied. A jury found in 2023 that Trump had sexually abused Carroll and ordered him to pay $5 million in damages, with a separate defamation case later adding $83 million; Trump has vowed to appeal both to the Supreme Court. Cobb also branded Trump a "malignant narcissist" and "convicted felon" during the segment, while the article notes Trump has faced sexual misconduct allegations from more than two dozen women, though the Carroll case is the only one to reach a jury.
In short
- Ex-Trump lawyer Ty Cobb called Trump a "rapist" on live TV.
- Anchor Jonathan Capehart repeatedly corrected the legal characterisation.
- Row centres on 2023 jury verdict in E Jean Carroll's sexual abuse case.
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Advocates for using the word "rapist" argue that precision should not be confused with euphemism: the presiding judge in the Carroll case explicitly stated that the jury's finding of sexual abuse met the everyday understanding of rape, even though New York's narrower legal definition of that specific charge was not satisfied. On this view, insisting on the softer term "sexual assault" obscures rather than clarifies what a jury actually found proven by a preponderance of evidence, and risks allowing a technical statutory distinction to launder the severity of the underlying conduct. Given the weight of the verdict and the judge's own characterisation, they contend that plain, direct language serves the public better than legalistic hedging.
The case against
Those defending the anchor's correction argue that words carry legal weight, and accuracy demands care: Trump has not been criminally convicted of rape, and the civil jury's verdict specifically used the term "sexual abuse" rather than "rape" under the applicable statute. On this view, a news anchor has a professional duty to hold guests to the precise legal record, both to protect the network from defamation risk and to preserve public trust that serious allegations are being reported accurately rather than rhetorically. They would argue that maintaining this distinction is not an attempt to minimise the seriousness of the finding, but a necessary discipline that applies equally regardless of who is being discussed.'
Explained simply
Ty Cobb, a former lawyer in Donald Trump's White House, appeared on the MS NOW programme The Weekend, where he called Trump a "rapist" while discussing the president. Anchor Jonathan Capehart challenged this description on air, leading to a live disagreement about the correct legal term to use.
The dispute centres on a case brought by the writer E Jean Carroll, who said Trump had sexually assaulted her in a New York department store in the 1990s, an allegation he has consistently denied. In 2023 a jury found that Trump had sexually abused Carroll and ordered him to pay damages, with a further sum later added in a related defamation case; no court has convicted him of rape, which is a distinct criminal charge decided under different legal standards. Trump has said he intends to appeal both rulings.
The exchange touches on a wider issue: the language used by media figures and commentators to describe unproven or civil-court findings against a sitting president, and the distinction in law between a civil jury's finding of sexual abuse and a criminal conviction for rape. Trump has faced sexual misconduct accusations from numerous women over the years, though the Carroll case is the only one that has gone before a jury.