'New lows in gutlessness': Trump's GOP rivals shredded for silence after sexual abuse verdict

Former President Donald Trump's presidential rivals ought to be capitalizing on the verdict holding him liable for $5 million over sexual abuse and defamation in the E. Jean Carroll civil rape trial, wrote MSNBC columnist Michael A. Cohen on Wednesday — not only because it's the right thing to do, but because it should be beneficial to them politically.

Instead, he wrote, in a display of "new levels of gutlessness," most of them are downplaying or dodging the issue, too afraid of angering the primary electorate that still supports the former president.

"Former Vice President Mike Pence told NBC News that 'in my 4½ years serving alongside the president, I never heard or witnessed behavior of that nature,'" wrote Cohen. "It was a notably different tone from Pence's remarks in October 2016, when the infamous Access Hollywood tape was released. 'As a husband and father, I was offended by the words and actions described by Donald Trump,' Trump’s running mate said at the time, even canceling a campaign appearance. 'I do not condone his remarks and cannot defend them.'"

Other candidates have a similar attitude. Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy said the verdict "seems like just another part of the establishment’s anaphylactic response against its chief political allergen: Donald Trump." Others simply pleaded ignorance; Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), consistently second place to Trump in national polls, said he has no opinion on it because, “I’ve been pretty busy"; and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley said she's “not going to get into” the verdict. The only prominent GOP Trump rival actually calling him out appears to be former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who slammed Trump's “cavalier and arrogant contempt for the rule of law” and called his conduct with women "indefensible."

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Carroll has alleged that the former president raped her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s, though she couldn't remember the exact date. Trump has claimed he doesn't even know who Carroll is, but refused to testify in his own defense.

"Perhaps Republicans hope that the accumulation of anti-Trump stories or legal losses will dim his support in the party, but how has that worked out so far?" concluded Cohen. "Others seem to cling to a morbid hope that Trump will disappear from the national political stage … er, permanently. But that’s more a prayer than a strategy. If Republicans want to rid themselves of Trump, they need to grow a backbone and actually call out his litany of offenses. If they won’t, why bother running for president?"