During Monday, January 29, episode of “The Five,” Fox News Channel host Greg Gutfeld battled with one of his leftist co-hosts on “The Five,” Jessica Tarlov. The fight came when the co-hosts discussed the Friday, January 26, verdict in the defamation case brought by Jean Carroll against former President Donald Trumpover comments he made about her when denying her rape allegations about him.
As background, the jury settled on a jaw-dropping $83.3 million in damages for Ms. Carroll. Of that gargantuan sum, $11 million is meant for a public “reputation repair” campaign for Carroll, $7.3 million is meant to atone for the emotional harm that former President Trump’s 2019 statements caused Carroll, and the remaining $65 million is in punitive damages.
In any case, the spat on “The Five” came when Gutfeld pushed the discussion away from Taylor Swift and the NFL and toward the defamation case. Turning to Jessica Tarlov, the token liberal on the program, Greg Gutfeld asked her for her thoughts, saying, “Let’s talk about that [Trump] lawsuit then. Go ahead Jessica, what are your thoughts?”
Firing back, Tarlov went all in on the Trump hate and siding with the shocking jury verdict. Snapping her answer at Gutfeld, Tarlov said, “My thoughts are that you shouldn’t sexually assault people and then you shouldn’t defame them.”
That then sparked a debate over what Trump was actually found guilty of in the Jean Carroll cases. In the first case, he was found guilty of “sexually abusing” Carroll, though the jury there found that he did not rape her. In the more recent civil case, Trump was found guilty of defamation of Carroll, and the jury did not address the sexual assault issue.
Fighting with Tarlov over what those verdicts mean and what the cases were about, Gutfeld fired back, “Okay, was he found guilty of sexual assault?” Tarlov stuck to her guns on the issue, insisting that the jury found him guilty of that crime. She said, “Yes, he was. He was by a jury.”
Pressing her further and getting her yet more angry and indignant, Gutfeld asked, “Was it criminal?” Not giving a direct answer, Tarlov snapped back, “Civil. Oh, that means it doesn’t count?!” Explaining what it actually means, Judge Jeanine Pirro told the co-hosts, “It means it’s not a guilty verdict.”
Gutfeld then took the opportunity to move the co-hosts away from the topic, saying, “Yeah. Anyway, it’s always nice to bring something up that has nothing to do with the topic.” That wasn’t enough of an end for Tarlov, however, who snapped at Gutfeld as he tried wrapping up the discussion. Gutfeld laughingly told her to stop interrupting.
Watch them here:
Trump, for his part, responded to the January 26 verdict in a post on Truth Social. He wrote, “Absolutely ridiculous! I fully disagree with both verdicts, and will be appealing this whole Biden Directed Witch Hunt focused on me and the Republican Party. Our Legal System is out of control, and being used as a Political Weapon. They have taken away all First Amendment Rights. THIS IS NOT AMERICA!”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
