MSNBC’s Symone Sanders-Townsend said Sunday morning that comments George Stephanopoulos made about President-elect Donald Trump that resulted in him and ABC News settling a defamation suit were valid.

Sanders-Townsend said that in her estimation, language from Stephanopoulos that Trump had been found liable for the rape of E. Jean Carroll appeared to her to be factually accurate.

On Saturday, ABC agreed to pay Trump $15 million and apologized for comments Stephanopoulos made earlier this year during an interview with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC).

Mace and Stephanopoulos discussed the Carroll-Trump defamation civil suit, in which Trump was found liable and ordered to pay out millions. Stephanopoulos referred to the outcome of the trial as Trump having been adjudicated a rapist by asking Mace – among others – the following questions:

“How do you square your endorsement of Donald Trump with the testimony we just saw?”

“You’ve endorsed Donald Trump for president. Judges and two separate juries have found him liable for rape and for defaming the victim of that rape.”

Trump sued, arguing those and other such statements were made with “malice” and with a blatant disregard for the truth – which he said was the civil jury in the case did not find by a preponderance of the evidence Trump had committed rape. Trump’s argument has been disputed by the judge in the case.

On MSNBC’s The Weekend Sunday, a panel discussed the defamation suit and whether it would be damaging to a free press. During one exchange, Sanders-Townsend noted the facts of the case and concluded:

I would just say, I mean, this feels like it has a real chilling effect. Like, I mean, shout out to the standards department standards is always making sure that we are keeping the bar high and substantive and accurate. But what George Stephanopoulos said in that interview, I mean, it seems to hold up, what the judge said after the back and now he’s news organization and himself, George Stephanopoulos himself is paying $1 million of his own money to the lawyers and ABC and $50 million. It’s insane.

Watch above via MSNBC.

The post MSNBC Rips ABC-Trump Defamation Case Settlement, Says Comment for Which ABC Paid Trump $15 Million ‘Seems to Hold Up’ first appeared on Mediaite.

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