Crystal Mangum accused the Duke lacrosse team of raping her. Their lives were absolutely ruined. They were humiliated. They were lied about. They had to drop out of school. And now she says, oh, I made up that story. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know what I was doing. Really?
Transcript:
*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.
Mike Papantonio: Crystal Mangum accused the Duke lacrosse team of raping her. Okay. The wonderful documentary, I don’t know if you saw the documentary, but it’ll make you so angry to see what happened to these kids. Their lives were absolutely ruined. Two of ’em close to suicide. It was so bad. Their future was ruined. They were humiliated. They were lied about. They had to drop out of school. And this lying POS says now.
Farron Cousins: Whose in prison for murder.
Mike Papantonio: Whose in prison for murder. That’s right. Murdering her boyfriend. Stabbed him to death, her boyfriend. Yeah. And now she says, I almost can’t read this. It’s like, oh, I made up a story that I’m so sorry. I didn’t know what I was doing. Really? You changed these people’s lives in such a negative way that, I’m sorry, ain’t good enough. I don’t care if you’ve come to Jesus or what, I’m sorry is not good enough. And unfortunately in the process, think of the harm she’s done to other claimants.
Farron Cousins: Right.
Mike Papantonio: Just like, I thought to me, as soon as I read this story, you found this story, I thought it was a good story, I thought of Jussie Smollett. Okay. This big scam, this big fraud. Somebody tried to kill me. They wanted to kill me because I was gay. They wanted to kill me because I was African American. What does that do to people? Doesn’t it just invalidate claims?
Farron Cousins: Because he said it was Trump supporters that did it.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah. They were Trump supporters. So it invalidates the people that really do go through this. And these people that do this kind of thing, oh, I’m just so sorry. I’m just so sorry. Of course with Smollett, they bought into it because he was a celebrity. You had corporate media eating it up because you had rich white kids at Duke University versus, I mean, with her, with her.
Farron Cousins: Yeah. And look, the corporate media every night had these kids’ faces each in their own little blocks up on the screen. I remember that clear as day. And yeah, because at the time this seemed very credible. It seemed real. But then obviously the University did their own investigation after the fact, after all of this information had come out. And they said, no, these kids are innocent. But at the time, Duke lacrosse, they had to forfeit their entire season. The lacrosse program suffered just a reputational blow that’ll never recover. And of course, just the personal damage these individuals themselves have gone through and will continue to go through because this story of her coming out and saying, hey, by the way, I lied.
Mike Papantonio: I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.
Farron Cousins: This is not getting the coverage that those people got.
Mike Papantonio: No, exactly.
Farron Cousins: And that’s the problem.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah. They won’t talk about this story. Just like they’re really not, I come back to Jussie Smollett. That story really bothered me because this is a guy that was willing, he wanted to start a little mini race war right there in his backyard. You know, they did it to me because I was gay. They did it to me because I was African American. They were Trump supporters. They were MAGA. And all of a sudden, just like the Duke story, corporate media jumps all behind it. Now they did it with him because he had a TV show. They did it with her because she was African American versus rich white kids that had special treatment. Until we can stop this, until we can get media to be media again, report news. Give us the positives. Give us the negatives. This is gonna happen again and again. Don’t you think?
Farron Cousins: Yeah. And look, to me, one of the biggest issues with this as well that you kind of touched on there, is the fact that most women who are victims of sexual assault are terrified to come forward and they’re terrified to come forward because nobody’s gonna believe them. They’re gonna blame the victim. This is your fault. They’re gonna shame them through eternity. And stories like this make it less likely that real victims will come forward in the future.
Mike Papantonio: No question.
Farron Cousins: So this woman has ruined not just these young men’s lives, she’s ruined the lives of women that actually have gone through things like this, who now will not come forward because this story makes it seem like women are lying about these things. This needs to be bigger news than it is and it me off that it’s not.
Mike Papantonio: Well, your point is such a great point. We heard it every day.
Farron Cousins: All day.
Mike Papantonio: All day when they’re making these accusations. This is the background of this little white kid.
Farron Cousins: From this community. I mean, life stories of these people.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah. And now she comes out, I was lying. I’m such a POS that I was lying about it and nobody does anything about it.
Farron Cousins: Is it too late for these men to file defamation lawsuits? We’re almost 20 years past.
Mike Papantonio: Well, you know what, the defamation, best defamation cases were against the media. As a matter of fact, the media was, if you take a look at that documentary, a couple reporters that were right up there in North Carolina that had the inside that were just blowing everything. Female, I can’t think of her name right now. Female reporter, just taking it and turning it on its head, making it look like these were just evil little that set out to rape this poor African American woman. Every single day. Now that was the best case. I don’t know where it went. That was what I thought was the best case to sue her and sue that media organization. I hope they did. I don’t know the answer to that right now.
