Donald Trump in 1994: I tell my friends to “be rougher” with their wives

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump once told an interviewer that he advises his friends to “be rougher” with their wives, and that he sometimes goes “through the roof” when he comes home and dinner isn’t ready.

“Psychologists will tell you that some women want to be treated with respect,” Trump told Nancy Collins in a previously unreleased 1994 transcript from ABC’s Primetime Live. “I tell friends who treat their wives magnificently, get treated like crap in return, ‘Be rougher and you’ll see a different relationship.'”

Donald Trump’s threat to sue the New York Times for defamation, explained by legal experts

Possibly laughable, however, is that the letter never gave a declarative statement that Trump never did these things (although it called them false), it never offered language for a retraction (which is usually what these letters do), and, most notably, it used language that seemingly misunderstood how defamation suits work when the plaintiff is a public figure — like a presidential candidate.

.. Say Trump — knowing all this — is still headstrong about suing the Times for defamation. This could lead to what is called a period of discovery — which, just as it sounds, is a process in which both parties try to gather as much information as possible to prove their side. This could be more damaging for Trump in the long run, assuming there are more tapes like the one that has already leaked out there.

.. “There would be depositions of the reporters and the editor, and of these women, but also of Trump, and he would have to prove by clear and convincing evidence that these allegations would be false, which I don’t know how he would do that,” Seager explained.

But even before discovery, Seager says the New York Times could file a motion to dismiss, pointing out that Trump hasn’t provided any sufficient allegations in the complaint — the letter to the Times — to show he has evidence that they published the story knowing it was false. Remember, the letter didn’t actually state why these statements were false, either.

.. Trump’s greediest lawsuit was his $5-billion libel lawsuit filed in 2006 against Timothy O’Brien for saying in his book TrumpNation, The Art of Being The Donald, that Trump was at best worth $250 million, not the billions Trump claimed.

A Jersey court dismissed the case because Trump failed to prove O’Brien had “any actual doubts” about the accuracy of his book and Trump lacked any “reliable” evidence that he was worth billions, admitting his net worth is “based on [his] … own feelings.”

.. Trump has an affinity for waging lawsuits — or, rather, threatening to wage them. But according to an investigation from USA Today, which studied more than 4,000 of Trump’s lawsuits (yes, that is a really big number of lawsuits), he’s rarely followed through when the suit involved journalists.

.. “Donald Trump has a horrible record on libel cases,” Seager said. “He bluffs a lot. He threatens a lot, but when he sues, he mostly loses.”

Trump Time Capsule #143: Rigged

The American fabric of peaceful-transfer-of-power is taken for granted in the U.S. and elsewhere but is more fragile than it seems. As I noted back ininstallment #139, nearly every presidential inaugural address through U.S. history has emphasized how unusual and crucial this civic ritual is. For an example you might not have been expecting, I give you Richard Nixon, in the opening of his first inaugural address in 1969:

My fellow Americans, and my fellow citizens of the world community:

I ask you to share with me today the majesty of this moment. In the orderly transfer of power, we celebrate the unity that keeps us free

.. Gore had every reason imaginable to challenge Bush v. Gore and the whole circumstances of the election. He was half a million votes ahead in the nationwide popular vote, and for more than a century the popular-vote winner had become president. The Florida secretary of state, who was in charge of the recount, was co-chairman of the Bush campaign in Florida. The governor of the state, Jeb Bush, was his opponent’s brother! The reasoning of the Supreme Court’s ruling was so nakedly results-oriented that the Court itself said that it should not be taken as a precedent in any future rulings.

Now the U.S. Supreme Court has spoken. Let there be no doubt, while I strongly disagree with the court’s decision, I accept it. I accept the finality of this outcome, which will be ratified next Monday in the Electoral College. And tonight, for the sake of our unity as a people and the strength of our democracy, I offer my concession.

I also accept my responsibility, which I will discharge unconditionally, to honor the new president-elect and do everything possible to help him bring Americans together in fulfillment of the great vision that our Declaration of Independence defines and that our Constitution affirms and defends.

.. The logic of “birtherism,” with Donald Trump as its most prominent exponent, was that Barack Obama had an illegitimate claim on office.

.. A textbook example is provided by President George Bush Sr., whose concession speech included the following statement: “Here’s the way we see it and the country should see it—that the people have spoken and we respect the majesty of the democratic system. I just called Gov. Clinton over in Little Rock and offered my congratulations. He did run a strong campaign.”

In making this statement, President Bush signaled that the election was over and he lost fair and square.