Stormy Daniels has compared Donald Trump’s supporters to “suicide bombers” during an interview on The View on Thursday.
Daniels, who is at the center of Trump’s criminal case in Manhattan into an alleged hush money payment made during his 2016 presidential campaign, addressed harassment from the former president’s supporters, saying they have become “more vicious” because they have been “encouraged and commended” ever since he was indicted last year.
“I said in some interview or somewhere, I believe, that they’re more like suicide bombers this time around, where they honestly and truly believe they are being patriotic, and that I am like the devil,” Daniels said.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged Trump with allegedly falsifying business documents in relation to a $130,000 payment allegedly made to Daniels in October 2016, just weeks before the election. The payment was allegedly made to prevent her from publicly discussion her claims that she had an affair with Trump.
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Trump has denied that he ever had an affair with Daniels. He pleaded not guilty to the charges in the case, as he has in each of his criminal cases, accusing Bragg of targeting him for political purposes.
Daniels said that when news broke about her alleged affair with Trump, the attacks she received from his supporters were more frequent but more “superficial,” usually attacks about her profession as an adult film actress or accusing her of being a “gold-digger.”
“This time around, it’s not as many but they’re worse,” she said. “And they’re not hiding. I’ve had people text me from their actual phone number, and I’m just like, of course you’re a Trump supporter, because you’re not even being good at being bad.”
Newsweek reached out to Trump’s campaign and Daniel’s public relations team for comment via email.
Daniels’ interview on The View coincides with her new documentary Stormy, which debuted on Peacock this week.
In that documentary, Daniels is seen speaking about fearing for her life ahead of the 2016 election. She alleged that, at one point, a stranger threatened her when she was with her daughter in a parking lot and ordered her not to sell her claims about Trump to media outlets.
In August 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including campaign finance violations tied to his arrangements for the payment to Daniels and a similar payment to another woman. Cohen said in court he made these payments “in coordination with and at the direction of” a candidate for federal office, implicating Trump without naming him directly.
Trump and his legal team initially denied knowledge of the payment but later acknowledged that Trump reimbursed Cohen for the payment through a retainer fee.
In Bragg’s case against Trump, the former president’s lawyers claimed presidential immunity should shield him from these charges because some of the evidence and alleged acts in the hush money case, including social media posts from his presidency, constituted official acts.
However, this claim was rejected by a federal judge.
Trump’s attorneys want to wait until the Supreme Court rules on his immunity case, which is expected to happen in April. Judge Juan Manuel Merchan instituted a 30-day delay on the case to allow Trump’s attorneys to review more evidence, meaning the trial will not begin until at least April 15. The trial was initially scheduled to begin on March 25.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.