Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s claim that Hillary Clinton laughed at a rape victim is a lie, because she actually laughed about getting an alleged rapist off, according to a fact checking website.
During the second presidential debate, Trump accused Clinton of laughing at a 12 year-old rape victim.
“One of the women, who is a wonderful woman, at 12 years old, was raped at 12. Her client she represented got him off and she’s seen laughing on two separate occasions, laughing at the girl who was raped,” Trump said.
The rape case in question featured a 41-year-old Thomas Alfred Taylor accused of raping a then 12-year-old Kathy Shelton. Clinton maintained that she tried to get off the case, but did it as a favor for prosecutor Mahlon Gibson.
During the case, Clinton accused Shelton of “seeking out older men” and claimed that she should go undergo a psychiatric examination to see if she was “mentally unstable.”
Trump’s claims is false, according to Politifact, because Clinton never laughed at the rape victim. She just laughed about other parts of the rape case.
“Trump is referring to an audio tape in which she does respond with amusement at her recollections of the oddities of the case, which involve the prosecution and the judge,” Politifact claimed. “At no point does she laugh at the victim.”
The fact check website used the Washington Free Beacon article as its starting place.
According to Politifact, Clinton laughed when she talked about the polygraph test she gave the alleged rapist.
“I had him take a polygraph, which he passed — which forever destroyed my faith in polygraphs,” Clinton said in the tapes, then laughing.
She also laughed when she recounted telling the prosecution that she was going to bring in an expert witness to testify “to prevent this miscarriage of justice,” Politifact said.
Because Clinton never actually laughed at the 12 year old rape victim, Politifact gave Trump’s claim a “False” rating.
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