Cardi B didn’t defame Trump supporters by calling them racist, judge rules

Musician posted video of sister’s beachside argument with MAGA fans

Musician Cardi B and her sister didn’t defame a group of Trump supporters by calling them racist, a New York judge ruled on Friday.

Instead, Suffolk County judge William Condon wrote in his ruling: “The words uttered to plaintiffs do not arise to defamatory language, as they were merely general insults.”

The Grammy Award-winning artist, her sister Hennessy Carolina, and Ms Carolina’s girlfriend Michelle Diaz were sued for defamation in September 2020, after Cardi B posted a video on social media showing an altercation between the couple and a group of Trump supporters on a beach in the Hamptons.

In the suit, Peter Caliendo, Pauline Caliendo, and Manuel Alarcon, said Ms Carolina and her girlfriend threatened the group and called them racist amid an argument about parking on the sand.

The legal action also claimed Ms Carolina had assaulted the group because she “sprayed her copious spittle upon said plaintiffs as she raged,” and that she allegedly threatened to have people “beat your f******g a** for real,” and called the group “racist”.

The beachgoers were seen in video of the incident with a Trump Make America Great Again hat, and the original lawsuit also mentions them flying a Trump flag.

Though Cardi B wasn’t present during the Labour Day blowup on the beach, she posted video of the incident on her social media, as well as an audio recording of Hennessy Carolina describing her version of events, repeating the accusation the group was racist.

“My sister can’t go to the beach in the Hampton’s wit [sic] out trump supporters harassing cause they were by themselves & Santa Claus was harassing my sis GF all because they are a Afro/Hispanic gay couple,” she wrote on Twitter.

Hennessy Carolina elaborated in an audio recording shared in another Cardi B post.

“We moved out of respect,” she says. “Then you came, two men, to us, and yelled get out of here, go your f***ing country because you saw us parking here, and we’re speaking Spanish, and we’re mixed, and we’re a f***king mixed couple, and we’re lesbian, and you guys just ganged up and put the MAGA hat and the flag up.”

The lawsuit claimed the clips had been selectively edited to make the trio look racist.

Earlier this year, Cardi B won a $1.25m defamation suit against YouTuber Tasha K, who had claimed the artist used hard drugs, had been unfaithful, had STIs, and had performed graphic sex acts on stage.