Trump蘑菇视频 Stormy Tuesday
Even though the president of the United States of America has, in effect, admitted he’s committed felonies, his loyal supporters, and most of the Republicans in Congress, still support him.
Last Tuesday, when his former campaign chairman was convicted of eight felonies and his longtime personal attorney (Michael Cohen) pleaded guilty to his own set of felonies, Donald Trump hatched a plan.
He’d deny that any of it had anything to do with him.
It’s true, that Paul Manafort’s convictions on bank fraud, and tax fraud charges, don’t directly involve Trump.
Except, Trump bragged that he only “hires all of the best people” – but he hired Manafort, and five other people (Rick Gates, Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos and Michael Cohen) who’re now guilty of felonies.
Of the eight felony counts Cohen pleaded guilty to last Tuesday, two are directly tied to Trump.
He freely admitted in federal court that he arranged illegal hush money payments from Trump to an adult film actress and a Playboy Playmate just before the 2016 presidential election.
Cohen’s exact words were that he had acted “in coordination with, and at the direction of a candidate for federal office,” meaning his boss – Donald J. Trump.
Trump denied ever having made those payments. Then he admitted making them – but that the money came from him, not from his campaign – so that’s OK.
Well, it’s not OK.
Paying money to somebody to keep them quiet before an election is a violation of federal campaign laws.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked repeatedly about those payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, and she said the same thing – seven times.
“The President did nothing wrong. There are no charges against him. There is no collusion.”
The president has already admitted he’s done something wrong; the reason there aren’t any charges (yet), could be because Trump has just publicly admitted he engaged in the payments; and Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort’s cases had nothing to do with collusion.
Sanders is the best flinger of red herrings in the history of red herrings.
Sanders is paid to fling red herrings.
Republicans in Congress aren’t paid for that. They’ve been hired to serve in the best interests of the American people.
It’s hard finding one of those Republicans these days.
By Wednesday, reporters were pressed to get answers to questions about Cohen’s guilty plea.
Some Republicans who did answer those questions – questioned Cohen, not the role of the president in paying off people to help prevent voters from learning that he’s a serial philanderer.
Which is really my main point.
The fact is, that Trump is a philandering scoundrel, who repeatedly cheated on his wife, and who paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep those dalliances quiet.
Remember when Republicans claimed they were the party of “family values”?
After Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about his tryst with Monica Lewinsky, that became their loud battle cry.
Republicans are now suffering from a massive case of political amnesia, because they’re ignoring the fact that Trump not only cheated on his wife, but that he did it with two women, and then he decided to bribe the participants.
There were a few Republicans who were willing to speak after last Tuesday’s decisive court cases.
They’re pretty much in agreement that Cohen is the real culprit, because they say he’s a serial liar.
But none of them has mentioned how unwilling the president is to tell the truth – about anything.
Or, that we now have a president who has admitted that he’s broken federal laws, or, more importantly, that he’s anything but a poster boy for “family values”.
Meanwhile, Trump’s fervent supporters aren’t paying much attention to the dark cloud that’s engulfing the Trump presidency.
So what, they ask, if five of his associates are now guilty of serious federal crimes?
And besides, so far there’s still “no collusion”.
Collusion, I might add, could be the least of Trump’s problems.
Collusion isn’t necessarily a federal crime.
Breaking federal campaign finance laws is.
Edward A. Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter and anchor for Entertainment Tonight and 20-year TV news veteran. Email him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.