Faulty reasoning signals

• Confirmation Bias - 18.9% (109 hits)
• Anchoring Bias - 6.1% (35 hits)
• Availability Heuristic - 15.3% (88 hits)
• Representativeness Heuristic - 3.8% (22 hits)
• Hindsight Bias - 0%
• Overconfidence Bias - 4% (23 hits)
• Framing Effect - 11.1% (64 hits)
• Loss Aversion - 0%
• Status Quo Bias - 0%
• Sunk Cost Effect - 0%
• Optimism Bias - 11.3% (65 hits)
• Pessimism Bias - 0%

Article text

George Conway Flat Out Brands Trump a ‘Rapist’ — Argues It’s Time for Americans to ‘Stop Pretending’ Otherwise

George Conway accused President Donald Trump of being a “rapist” on Tuesday, which he said is a “fact” that Americans need to “stop pretending” isn’t true.

Conway made the claim in a lengthy X post on Tuesday.

It came in response to a post from conservative radio host Erick Erickson, who had told another X user that Trump could sue them for “actual defamation” because they had branded Trump an “adjudicated rapist.”

Conway responded by saying Erickson was wrong and the anonymous user — going by the name Abe’s Cat on X — was spot on.

“It is not defamation.

Not even close,” Conway replied.

“It is not false to state that a man who forcibly inserted his fingers into a non-consenting woman’s vagina has raped her.”

He then pointed to E.

Jean Carroll's civil court victory against Trump in 2023, after she accused him of raping her in a Manhattan department store at some point in the 1990s; Carroll could not remember the exact year.

Trump was found liable for sexually abusing Carroll and ordered to pay her $5 million.

The president has repeatedly denied the rape charge.

“I’ll say it with great respect: Number one, she’s not my type,” Trump said in 2019.

“Number two, it never happened.”

Conway continued on Tuesday:

> That’s because, as the distinguished district judge in Carroll v.

Trump explained more than once, and as dictionaries confirm, the word “rape” is broad enough to encompass forcible, involuntary penetration of the vagina or anus by fingers or some foreign object, even if under the specific criminal code provisions of some (but not all) jurisdictions, non-penile penetration is categorized as sexual abuse or sodomy.

>

> It is therefore not defamation to state that a man who, like [Trump], was found unanimously by a federal jury to have forcibly inserted his fingers into a non-consenting woman’s vagina, is an adjudicated rapist.

Because he is.

His accusation stands out, not only because Conway was married to Trump's former counselor Kellyanne Conway until 2023.

Trump sued ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos when he said the president was found “liable for rape” on air.

In fact, Trump was found liable for sexual abuse in civil court, which carries a different definition in New York.

ABC apologized and paid $15 million to settle Trump's lawsuit in late 2024.

Conway's X post on Tuesday went on:

> But even if the word “rape” were categorically defined to exclude non-penile penetration (which it is not), the description of Trump as an adjudicated rapist would not be actionable under the defamation-law doctrine of “substantial truth,” which provides that, if the gist, or sting, of a challenged statement is not significantly different in reputational effect from the actual facts, there can be no liability.

>

> And here there can be no serious argument that committing forcible sexual abuse is any less morally reprehensible or reputationally damaging than committing forcible rape.

So it’s a fact and not defamatory to state that Donald Trump is an adjudicated rapist.

>

> He may be an adjudicated digital rapist, to be more precise, but he’s still a rapist, and it’s long past time that people stop pretending that he isn’t and wasn’t found to be one—or that forcible sexual abuse is somehow more tolerable than forcible rape.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.