Charles Krauthammer: Bungled collusion is still collusion
I was puzzled. Lots of coverup, but where was the crime? Not even a third-rate burglary. For six months, smoke without fire. Yes, President Trump himself was acting very defensively, as if he were hiding something. But no one ever produced the something.
My view was: Collusion? I just don’t see it. But I’m open to empirical evidence. Show me.
The evidence is now shown. This is not hearsay, not fake news, not unsourced leaks. This is an email chain released by Donald Trump Jr. himself. A British go-between writes that there’s a Russian government effort to help Trump Sr. win the election, and as part of that effort he proposes a meeting with a “Russian government attorney” possessing damaging information on Hillary Clinton. Moreover, the Kremlin is willing to share troves of incriminating documents from the Crown Prosecutor. (Error: Britain has a Crown Prosecutor. Russia has a Prosecutor General.)
Donald Jr. emails back. “I love it.” Fatal words.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bungled-collusion-is-still-collusion/2017/07/13/68c7f72a-67f3-11e7-8eb5-cbccc2e7bfbf_story.html
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to its devotees, but we have hints at a slight dose of reality being introduced in their commentary. None of their loyal viewers will budge from their firm conviction thst tRump is being treated "unfairly" by the other news organizations until they are spoonfed some truth for a change. They have been carefully cultivated for years so the truth will have to be broken to them in increments. And yet, if their hero, tRump, continues to lie to them, they will resist turning against him. No one wants to hear they have been duped and admit that they were gullible enough to discount EVERY OTHER news outlet in order to believe lies.
What does it take to destroy a beloved figure? One you trust and even admire. I think of someone like Bill Cosby. He was a well known comedian with a long history of entertaining people with his humor and television show for decades. Families felt comfortable bringing him into their homes via television, knowing it was good, clean fun. His recorded stand up routines could be found in the record collections of many, many fans---including my own. I bought the first one ("Wonderfulness"
when I was still in high school.
But where does Cosby rank today in the court of public opinion? I think most people now understand that the man we admired on TV was a fake, an act. Behind the scenes he was a different man who took advantage of many women who were eager to advance their career and believed he could help them. The crazy thing is that many of them would have consented to sex with him, thinking it was expected of them to get favors. (Not saying this was right---just that apparently was common thought on getting ahead in show business.) But he took it a step further by giving the women drugs that effectively incapacitated them from giving formal consent to what they did. So for the ones who were NOT willing to go that far, they were effectively denied that opportunity to say so.
So what was it that finally tipped the public into understanding what their icon probably did? It was the steady drip, drip of information from women coming forward to say they were victimized by Cosby. Ultimately something like 50 women identified themselves as having had similar encounters with Cosby. Then Cosby gave a deposition admitting he used drugs to make the women easily come under his command. All combined, it made a compelling picture of a man who fooled millions of people.
tRump needs to take a lesson from Cosby's example. He thinks he is invincible but he is wrong. The steady drip, drip of lies and compounded lies is going to take its toll. A tipping point will come. Not all will believe and convert to being a former follower, but enough will to destroy his political career and possibly the tRump brand. I am hoping that day comes sooner rather than later.
