General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNew Revelations Suggest a President Losing Control of His Narrative
By PETER BAKERMAY 3, 2018
As of last week, the American public had been told that President Trumps doctor had certified he would be the healthiest individual ever elected. That the president was happy with his legal team and would not hire a new lawyer. That he did not know about the $130,000 payment to a former pornographic film actress who claimed to have had an affair with him.
As of this week, it turns out that the statement about his health was not actually from the doctor but had been dictated by Mr. Trump himself. That the president has split with the leaders of his legal team and hired the same new lawyer he had denied recruiting. And that Mr. Trump himself had financed the $130,000 payment intended to buy the silence of the actress known as Stormy Daniels.
Even in the current political environment that some derisively call the post-truth world, the past few days have offered a head-spinning series of revelations that conflicted with the version of events Mr. Trump and his associates had previously provided. Whether called lies or misstatements, Mr. Trumps history of falsehoods has been extensively documented, but the string of factual distortions that came to light this week could come back to haunt him.
The shifting statements also illustrated starkly why some of the presidents lawyers have urged him not to submit to an interview by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, who is investigating whether Mr. Trumps campaign cooperated with Russia during the 2016 presidential election and whether the president obstructed justice to thwart that investigation. Those lawyers have said Mr. Mueller is setting a perjury trap for Mr. Trump. What they do not say publicly is that they worry the president would be unable to avoid contradicting himself.
more
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/03/us/politics/trump-revelations-narrative.html
GeorgeGist
(25,317 posts)nothing new.
Orsino
(37,428 posts)Any serious scrutiny was always going to be able to puncture it. It's just that for decades Trump has coasted on being a private citizen, and because he's a cheap motherfucker his secrets weren't well-protected. He's a sitting duck for a professional like Mueller, so generally incompetent that he's unable to shield himself and such a weasel that few have any degree of loyalty.
Fox News, though, stands ready to swear that up is down and black is white, even just to buy him more time.