ABC “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos asked Republican Rep. Nancy Mace a reasonable and legitimate question: why she, as a victim of rape, is supporting Donald Trump, whom a jury had been found guilty of sexually assaulting writer E. Jean Carroll. Rather then answer the question, Mace shrieked that Stephanopoulos was trying to “shame me as a rape victim” and then tried to rape-shame Carroll for “joking” about it. Unsurprisingly, the Media Research Center glommed into Mace’s self-proclaimed victimhood over being asked a question, as Jorge Bonilla hyped (with added 30-year-old Clinton whataboutism) in a March 10 post:
George Stephanopoulos’ recent interview with U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) proves the extent to which the media, rather than reporting facts and allowing informed viewers to decide for themselves, have devolved into partisan Maoist apparatchiks bent on punishing dissent. There is no other explanation for Stephanopoulos’ disgusting attempts to shame Mace, a survivor of sexual assault, for her support of former President Donald Trump.
Mace, to her credit, resisted Stephanopoulos’ multiple attempts to shame her. Here’s how the interview began[.] […]
It bears noting that Stephanopoulos first came to prominence by working for noted accused rapist Bill Clinton, who he enabled throughout his presidency and admitted, when it was convenient to do so, that he “didn’t want to know” what Clinton was really up to. Today’s disgusting interview did not escape the notice of Clinton’s most prominent victim, Juanita Broaddrick, who alleges to have endured similar rape-shaming by Stephanopoulos:
[…]What Nancy Mace resisted was much more than the political shaming of a rape victim due to her political choices. It was a Maoist struggle session, intended to shame a class-traitor. The class, in this instance, being rape victims which, per Stephanopoulos’ sick logic, Mace betrays by endorsing Trump over Biden.
And because Stephanopoulos viewed Mace as a class traitor, he found it entirely appropriate to lead with the question you saw in the video above. This is what immediately jumped out at me after years of watching Univision’s Jorge Ramos ask Hispanic conservatives some variant of “why do you endorse Trump despite his calling immigrants rapists and criminals?”
Mace, to her great credit, shut that nonsense down and threw it right back in Stephanopoulos’ face- which often flummoxed him and left him grasping to get back on track. Once he realized Mace wasn’t going to be shamed into submission, he let his contempt fly freely.
At no point does Bonilla explain why, exactly, this was such an unreasonable question or why Mace shouldn’t have to answer for her support of such an odious man — or why he himself blindly does the exact same thing. She invoked the victim narrative, and that’s all that matters to Bonilla. And of course, he offers no substantiation for his weird ramblings about Stephanopoulos viewing Mace as a “class traitor” — sounds like something left over from a previous right-wing indoctrination he underwent.
Alex Christy further touted Mace’s victimhood narrative in a March 16 post:
Republican Rep. Nancy Mace joined Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna on Friday’s edition of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher where she tussled with the pair over her take on her Sunday interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. Mace accused Stephanopoulos of “rape shaming” her for supporting Donald Trump, which she had no patience for considering he is “a guy who covered for the Clintons.”
Mace, who was raped when she was 16, gave her take on the interview where she was asked about Trump, her support of him, and E. Jean Carroll:
[…]Mace interjected to add, “It was a political hit job,” as Maher continued, “it was related to something with Donald Trump and Donald Trump—I mean, you went to The Citadel, right?”
After confirming that she did, Mace added, “I will say George Stephanopoulos wouldn’t last 30 seconds at The Citadel, that place made me tough, I will answer all the questions—”
[…]Khanna’s ramblings complete, Mace was able to more clearly repeat her earlier point, “It was more than that, and you know it was, it was a political hit job, it was bullying and it was rape shaming was what it was. Asked by George Stephanopoulos, a guy who covered for the Clintons for years and called women ‘bimbos.’ Like, no, thank you. No, thank you.”
Mace’s appearance on Real Time showed she was willing to answer questions about Trump and Carroll, but it also shows why ABC hiring a former Clinton operative to be their main newsman is fraught with all sorts of problems.
Christy wasn’t going to mention that Mace never actually answered Stephanopoulos’ question — or that the only actual rape-shaming that happened here was committed by Mace toward Carroll.