Yesterday, the American people voted for Donald Trump to become the next President of the United States. It’s an historic turn of events, as he becomes the first-ever convicted felon to be elected to office.
Trump is also the first president-elect to have a civil conviction for sexual assault, and the first to have been impeached twice.
While he awaits sentencing for charges stemming from hush money payments made to adult film actor Stormy Daniels, several criminal cases against him are still pending.
The Trump campaign has been rife with misogyny, hatred, and racist rhetoric, yet despite everything there is to know about the former president, he was chosen by the American people above his opponent, Democrat Kamala Harris.
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“They knew exactly what he was made of this time. They might not in 2016, but everyone knew this time that he was a felon, an adjudicated rapist, all those things we know about him, but they voted for him,” says Kathy Sheridan on The Irish Times Women’s Podcast.
“I’m thinking of all the men and women who ignored the civil case in which a jury found Trump to be a rapist, the dozens of women who have accused him of sexual assault and his deep friendship with Jeffrey Epstein,” she adds.
Joined by co-presenter Róisín Ingle, Sheridan asks, ”So what could it be that half of America looked at Trump, bigoted, misogynistic, wannabe dictator? All I can think of is that they’d looked at him and liked what they saw”.
Later in the podcast, poet Donna Ashworth joins us to talk about her upcoming trip to Dublin. The Scottish poet will be flying over to appear as a special guest at Jan Brierton’s Wild Words, an evening of poetry and spoken word at the Ambassador Theatre on November 28th.
In this conversation, Ashworth also reacts to yesterday’s election result and reads a poem from her latest collection, Growing Brave: Words to Soothe Fear and Let in More Light.
You can listen back to this episode in the player above or wherever you get your podcasts.
