“I don’t really hate anyone, and yeah, in a way, I do feel sorry for him,” Stormy Daniels told Piers Morgan this week of her opinion of the now-indicted Donald Trump. “It wouldn’t surprise me if it would come out that he’s been manipulated a lot more than we think, or that based on the things that have happened to me in the last five years, things I thought would never be possible, there could be something that we don’t know.”
“I’m so torn between being snarky and, you know.. just tell the truth,” Daniels went on to offer as advice to the ex-POTUS, who is facing felony charges from the Manhattan D.A., plus probes into election interference in Georgia, his role in the January 6 attack on the Capitol, and rape claims in a separate New York civil case.
“Like, you do have a daughter, you do potentially have granddaughters and women, and if you continue to do this you are setting a precedent where people think that they won’t be held accountable and there will be… I’m afraid there’s gonna be a lot of people hurt,” Daniels added in her sit-down with Apprentice alum Morgan that aired online today.
In a back and forth that is likely to be one of the major takeaways from Morgan’s big get, Daniels told the host she doesn’t think Trump’s “crimes” against her are “worthy of incarceration.” However, in what may be overlooked by some, Daniels then shifted to larger matters on Trump’s legal horizon and if the 45th president should be jailed. “I feel like the other things he has done, if he is found guilty, absolutely.”
“Those are such more significant crimes,” she added. “I mean January 6th, look how many people got injured or you know what I’m saying? It just seems like that’s a bigger thing but if this is what leads to it – I can’t help but wonder if there’s something we don’t know.”
Filmed Wednesday and seen in clips on Fox News today, the much-hyped interview was shown in full starting on streamer Fox Nation in the U.S., on TalkTV in the UK, and Sky News Australia – all Rupert Murdoch-owned outlets. Carved right out the classic sit-downs that Barbara Walters and Oprah perfected, Morgan rightly read the room in this one. To that, the past CNN host toned down his usual bruiser technique and turned up his empathy count.
After the interview aired, Daniels took to social media to joke that it was “accurate” the nearly 90-minute chat was the longest time she had ever been on camera and not had sex. “I think it was the most extensive one I’ve ever done and it laid to rest a lot of misinformation,” she added of the interview.
Coming two days after the former Celebrity Apprentice host was in court on 34 felony counts stemming in part from a $130,000 payoff to Daniels in 2016 over the duo’s 2006 affair, the interview was originally scheduled for last week but was postponed at the last minute over “security reasons,” it was said at the time.
Spawning a series of lawsuits from both sides, the payoff to Daniels by then Trump right-hand man Michael Cohen, became public in 2018. Though an elaborate process of sleight of hand has gone into seemingly covering up the payment, Trump has denied any affair with Daniels, though he admits to meeting her – as photographs of the two together make obvious. On another front, Daniels is fighting a judge’s order that she pay over $500,000 in Trump’s legal fees for a civil suit of hers that went south.
In the interview, Daniels also told Morgan about how threats against her and her family have taken on a much uglier form since the grand jury began clearly moving against again-candidate Trump in past weeks. “They’re a lot more passionate,” Daniels said of the death threats and more she has been getting online and otherwise. “Enthusiastic with their threats and they’re not hiding.”
“They are way more specific and graphic, and just, instead of some babbling person, like, ‘You’re gonna burn in hell’, that kind of thing, they seem to be more… serious,” Daniels said. “They’re not hiding. It used to be if they were going to do something, they would do it from a blocked number or from a fake Twitter account. These people are using their actual phone numbers and their actual emails and their actual Twitter accounts, which then makes it worse because they actually have followers.”
In and out of processing and an arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court after a few hours Tuesday, Trump has attacked Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg and the judge personally and turned the spectacle to his financial and political advantage.
For Daniels, who was set to go before the grand jury at one point and says she will gladly testify if summoned, the indictment became a bit of non-event. “When I found out that it was coming or potentially coming, I thought that I would feel excited and vindicated, but it was kind of anti-climactic.”
“Part of me was finally like he had to go in and be under the rules of someone else,” she told Morgan. “He has to obey the judge and walk through like… the King has been dethroned. He’s no longer untouchable. And nobody should be untouchable. … But the other side of it was like this is someone that our country elected and chose. Was there no better option?”
Donald Trump on Tuesday
Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images
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