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Stormy Daniels’ testimony against former President Donald Trump on Tuesday received less-than-stellar responses from some pundits and legal analysts, who suggested her descriptive answers and open dislike of Trump may have damaged her credibility as a witness.
Daniels has been a vocal critic of Trump and a liberal media darling since claiming she was paid to stay silent about an alleged affair with the future president in 2006. Daniels even had a 2024 “Peacock” documentarymadeabout her life following the scandal.
But her performance on the stand earlier this week did not garner the same praise one would expect of a Trump critic on major liberal network shows.
Here are five of the harshest things the mainstream media had to say about Daniels’ testimony.
STORMY ALLEGES ONE-NIGHT STAND WITH TRUMP, AGREED TO LIE FOR HER $130,000 PAYOFF
CNN analyst says testimony will ‘backfire’ on Daniels
Daniels was described in trial media reports this week as talking too fast, making jokesandoften continuing beyond the questions shewas askeddirectly. She offered a highly detailed account of her alleged sexual experience with Trump that she says occurred in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, in July 2006.
CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams saidon Wednesdaythat Daniel may have inadvertently harmed the case against Trump and suggestedher statements may be usedto support the defense’s closing statements.
CNN justice correspondent Evan Perez added, “I think she may have done damage to the prosecution’s caseby virtue of the fact thatshe just couldn’t stop saying stuff, and so that’s going to backfire on them.”
Pundits and legal analysts in the media criticized testimony given by Stormy Daniels in the Donald Trump hush money case. (CURTIS MEANS/POOL/AFP/Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
FLASHBACK: STORMY DANIELS AND TRUMP: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
CNN’s Elie Honig said Daniels’ responses were ‘disastrous’
During the same conversation with Williams, CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig offered hisownopinion about Daniels taking the stand. Honig claimed that cross-examination by Trump’s team had successfully brought up the topic of her credibility.
“Her responses were disastrous,” Honig said, referringalsoto the moment when Daniels said she hated Trump.
“When the witness hates the person whose liberty is at stake, that’s a big damn deal!” Honig said. “And she’s putting out tweets, fantasizing about him being in jail. Thatreallyundermines the credibility.”
‘The View’ co-host admits Daniels lost some credibility
“The View” co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former Trump aide who is now a strong critic, also questioned Daniels’ credibility.
“Iactuallydon’t believe she needed to go into salacious detail.I would have liked to hear from Stormy,who isamom,who wants to live a private life, wants to put this behind her,hasbeen exploitedby countless men in her life,” Griffin said.”She was there under subpoena just to confirm what sheis able to.”
“I think it hurt her credibility, and she is a credible person,” Griffin said before noting she believed Daniels’ story.
The other co-hosts of “The View” argued Daniels’ testimony was credible.
Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump. (Getty Images)
MSNBC legal analyst says Daniels is a ‘risky witness’ that could hinder the case
MSNBC legal analyst Danny Cevallos said Daniels’ testimony turned the trial of former President Donald Trump “into a quasi-sex assault case,” giving his legal team an opening for appeal.
“You always ask the question, can you get this information from a less risky witness?” he said.
“Stormy Daniels is one of those witnessesthattendsto not just answer the questionasked,but add herowneditorial.And that isa really dangerousthing, I promise you.The prosecutionis sittingat their desk saying, ‘Justanswer the question, please.Just answer the question,'” Cevallos continued.
Cevallos also said her testimony could have been accomplished by her saying just three words, “We had sex,” and added the rest was likely unnecessary.
STORMY DANIELS CLAIMS SHE NEVER TRUSTED ATTORNEY MICHAEL AVENATTI, WHO ‘USED HIS POWERS FOR EVIL’
Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump looks on in the courtroom, as his criminal trial over charges that he falsified business records to conceal money paid to silence porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016 continues, in New York City, U.S., May 7, 2024. (REUTERS/David Dee Delgado/Pool)
Former federal judge tells CNN Daniels has a ‘motive’ to ‘get Trump’
Former U.S. District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin told a CNN panel on Tuesday that the multiple objections by the judge in the New York Trump case showedthat there wasa “real problem” with Daniels’ testimony.
“The material that came in wasnot relevantto this criminal caseat all.And I think it shows thatshewas trying to get Trump. Iactuallythought there was a motive there,” Scheindlin said.
“She said she hates him. She said she’d like to see him in prison. I think she was purposely throwing out this stuff to make sure the jury — jurors were prejudiced, particularly the women jurors, but probably half of the mentoo, werereallyput off. But they may have been put off with her because she was too obvious in her efforts to get at him,” she added.
Trumpis chargedwith falsifying business documents related to an alleged hush money payment to Daniels about the affair, which Trump denies happened.
Daniels has never alleged Trump forced himself on her, but she testified there was a power imbalance when they had sex and she was left “shaking” afterward.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records related to the alleged payments to Daniels.
Nikolas Lanum is an associate editor for Fox News Digital.
