Republicans downplay Trump’s $83m defamation verdict

Republicans are falling over themselves attempting to downplay the verdict that former President Donald Trump must pay writer E Jean Carroll $83.3m in damages for defamation after he repeatedly rejected her claim that he sexually abused her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the mid-1990s.

The verdict was handed down last week after a previous jury found Mr Trump liable for sexual abuse, meaning that this most recent trial was only intended to establish damages.

Appearing on NBC’s on Sunday, Mr Trump’s last remaining challenger in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, his former UN, called her former boss “unhinged” but still downplayed that her opponent was found liable for sexual abuse.