Musings —05.03.2018 08:08 AM
—“Played no roll in this transaction.”
Last night, the Mango Mussolini’s own lawyer did him in.
Appearing on Fox, Rudy Giuliani said Trump was the one who paid a porn star hush money, not his attorney – as he’d previously claimed. In so doing, Rudy tossed his client under the Campaign Finance Laws bus, big time. A panicked Trump thereafter went on a Twitter-Tourette-like Tweetstorm.
Mr. Cohen, an attorney, received a monthly retainer, not from the campaign and having nothing to do with the campaign, from which he entered into, through reimbursement, a private contract between two parties, known as a non-disclosure agreement, or NDA. These agreements are…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 3, 2018
…very common among celebrities and people of wealth. In this case it is in full force and effect and will be used in Arbitration for damages against Ms. Clifford (Daniels). The agreement was used to stop the false and extortionist accusations made by her about an affair,……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 3, 2018
…despite already having signed a detailed letter admitting that there was no affair. Prior to its violation by Ms. Clifford and her attorney, this was a private agreement. Money from the campaign, or campaign contributions, played no roll in this transaction.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 3, 2018
He is now officially up Shit Creek without a paddle. And – amazingly – it increasingly looks like he will be taken out not by a former G-man named Robert Mueller, but by a porn star named Stormy Daniels.
Best part: even when fighting for his life, he can’t remember how to spell “role.”
Doesn’t this move the payment away from the campaign finance laws as Cohen under retainer is making the payoff for his client.
What matters is if it was for the benefit of the campaign. To quote Trump’s lawyer, “Imagine if that came out on October 15th, 2016, in the middle of the, you know, last debate with Hillary Clinton.”
It just means Trump was in on the illegal campaign contribution.
Yes, exactly. That was the whole point of the tweet explaining it. Anyone now claiming it was an “illegal campaign contribution” should either offer some proof or stop embarrassing themselves.
In other news, Trump’s approval rating is now at 49%, and the Democrats are losing the support of the millennials. Wow…
RealClearPolitics average is 43.6% approve, 52.6% disapprove. The only one near 49% is Rasmussen, which has him at 50, and Rasmussen is a notable outlier, and always is. It’s true his ratings have improved lately, but he was starting from historically very low levels, compared to all of his predecessors.
I agree that the economy and North Korea are definitely two things working in his favour. And critics of the Democratic Party are absolutely correct that they cannot simply rely on being anti-Trump. They have to come up with a program that they can talk positively about. Coming up with a realistic plan on immigration would help, because right now a lot of average middle Americans think (with some justification) that the Democratic Party in in favour of illegal immigration. The Sanctuary Cities thing understandably seems to suggest that.
“Coming up with a realistic plan on immigration would help, ”
Absolutely, because their current plan of screaming “RACIST!” at anyone daring to suggest that there might be a problem doesn’t seem to be working anymore. I have to wonder about our own government’s recent actions (or lack thereof) in that regard as well; are we seriously now inviting people to cross our borders illegally?
.. did Giuliano cop to this to cover something more dangerous .. or is he a simplistic idiot on a similar level to El Trumpo ? Neither are the sharpest knife in the drawer.. sack of hammers a better analogy .. but we need to lower our expectations of North American public servants.. we need manure spreaders to get to where these folks thrive
I think part of the strategy (not saying it’s smart overall) here is to get Trump out of a potential perjury trap. It was going to come out eventually that Trump paid Cohen and had some knowledge of this arrangement with Stormy. So from a protection-from-perjury perspective, the thing to do is admit the original lie, which at least wasn’t perjury, because Trump wasn’t under oath. If Trump had persisted in this lie, then if he ended up testifying under oath, he might be tempted to commit perjury.
On the other hand, he’s now still insisting the affair with Stormy never happened . . .
Good analysis, Doc. Fits the available facts, postulates a plausible motive and explains Guiliani’s apparent ‘mistake’ (yeah, right).
A bit surprised at how many people here have fallen for this so easily.. Remember, “if it looks too good to be true, is probably is.”
Plausible deniability. Giuliani had quite a shopping list of Clinton crimes also, of course that won’t be mentioned here or anywhere else in mainstream media.
Bottom line, the only reason Trump is in the WH is the fact that Clinton was awarded the nomination by hook or by crook. Mostly by crook.
As for Trump, his supporters knew what they were voting for, most are not surprised by his personal peccadillos and also don’t care. Taxes, immigration, energy independence, deregulation, jobs, foreign policy etc. Those are the real
Headlines.
But . . . but . . . Hillary!
But…but…Hillary turned out to the be the only Democrat that couldn’t defeat Trump by a large margin. She was that bad of a candidate and is now blaming capitalism for her defeat.
I absolutely agree that Hillary Clinton was a terrible candidate, with gobs of bad baggage and huge negatives that any good pollster or political advisor should have seen. The problem was the problem that comes up a lot — way too often — in party politics, where a certain candidate has control of the party machinery, and as a result feels “entitled” to the nomination and gets it. That all has nothing to do with popular will. It also happened to the Democrats in 1980 with Carter and in 1984 with Mondale. They also lost those elections.
That all said, “but . . . but . . . Hillary” refers to this inane thing that Trump supporters do when anyone lobs any criticism at Trump. It’s a lame, transparent attempt at deflection. The fact that Hillary was a bad candidate and did bad stuff does not excuse or exonerate Trump for being a narcissistic, personality disordered asshole. Which he proves he is virtually every day.
The timing of this reversal is curious. It happened a) just as Giuliani joined Team Trump, and b) when it emerged that the FBI had been wiretapping Cohen for weeks and had intercepted at least one phone call between Cohen and the White House.
NBC has since corrected its “wiretapping” story. It was actually call logging, not wiretapping, which is significantly different.
Sean Hannity to Rudy Giuliani.
“God, how many women did our buddy Cohen pay off for Trump?”
Giuliani. Oh, 911 give or take.”
badaboom.
Best part: even when fighting for his life, he can’t remember how to spell “role.”
I love this.
This is the unpresidented President of the United States; a borderline illiterate f*ck-wit, just bumbling through life like a buffoon as on-lookers mock.