The Diddy trial remains to be unfolding, however Invoice Maher believes it has already proven {that a} “new rule” needs to be imposed for sexual assault circumstances almost eight years after the beginning of the #MeToo motion.
In his end-of-show monologue Friday (watch it above), Maher used the prosecution of Sean “Diddy” Combs as a prism for the way sexual misconduct is seen in society and within the justice system. “Rather a lot has modified” for the reason that preliminary wave of allegations in opposition to Harvey Weinstein and lots of others in 2017, he maintained.
“We have to preserve two ideas in our head on the identical time: One, Diddy is a nasty dude – actually dangerous. Like, the worst factor in rap since Hammer pants. A violent, sick f-ck – I’m sorry, an alleged violent, sick fuck. And we should always lock him up and throw away the newborn oil,” Maher stated. “And two, issues have modified sufficient that shifting ahead, the rule needs to be, for those who’re being abused, you’ve received to go away instantly.”
The host identified what he sees as inconsistencies within the testimony of Cassie Ventura, Diddy’s former girlfriend.
“It’s not victim-shaming to count on girls to have the company to go away poisonous relationships. Fairly the opposite, to not count on that’s infantilizing,” Maher stated. “If Diddy walks free, it is going to as a result of his legal professionals can level to an countless stream of texts from Cassie expressing what’s usually referred to as ‘enthusiastic consent’ to their intercourse life. If you happen to’re ‘MeToo-ing’ somebody, it’s not useful to your case for those who texted him, ‘me too!’”
A graphic on the display screen subsequent to Maher displayed textual content messages from Ventura to Combs offered at trial, together with one which learn, “I’m all the time able to freak off.”
Years in the past, “when girls felt, for good motive, that ‘OG predators’ like Invoice Cosby and Harvey Weinstein would by no means be held accountable, why not at the least get one thing out of it?” Maher stated. Many of the initially accused perpetrators had been surrounded by “all types of enablers” (assistants, cops, brokers, “cowards” afraid to defy the individual signing their paycheck), Maher recalled. In that period, “it was not illogical for an abused lady to say, ‘Nicely, if I can’t get justice for my ache, can I at the least get a receipt? A coupon?’”
Maher did acknowledge, “as counter-intuitive because it appears, why an abused lady would ship complimentary textual content.” In contrast to in previous eras, although, he argued, “We’re not within the ‘nobody listens to girls or takes them significantly’ period anymore. Operators are literally standing by to take your calls.”
Statistics present extra girls have reported claims of abuse and mistreatment over the previous seven-plus years, Mager identified.
“I perceive why it may be tough for girls to go away an abusive relationship,” he stated. “However this needs to be society’s new grand cut price. We take each allegation significantly, however don’t inform me anymore about your contemporaneous account that you simply stated to 2 pals 10 years in the past. Inform the police instantly. Don’t wait a decade. Don’t journal about it. Don’t flip it right into a one-woman present. And most significantly, don’t preserve f–cking him. Your solely contemporaneous notes about what he did needs to be a police report.”
The show-business sparkle of the music enterprise can also’t be eradicated from the Diddy scenario or others which have performed out in Hollywood, Maher continued. “If we’re going to have an trustworthy dialog about abuse, we additionally must have an trustworthy dialog about what persons are prepared to do for stardom. If you would like a No. 1 report so dangerous you’ll take a No. 1 within the face, a few of that’s on you,” he stated. “And for those who’re doing it for love, effectively, c’mon, Oprah and Dr. Phil and each podcaster on the earth by now have performed 1,000,000 exhibits about ‘abuse isn’t love’ and abusers don’t change.”
R&B singer Ike Turner “was a psycho, similar to Diddy,” Maher stated. “However in an period when there was no motion to assist her, Tina Turner in some way received away and she or he did it with 36 cents in her pocket and a cell card.”
