The video puts Trump's vulgarity in our faces. The video puts the obscene on stage.
I think it is a disaster for Trump and it will further distract this campaign from actual issues on the future of the country.
Somewhere in the back of our minds we knew that Trump was a thrill seeking playboy with a sense of entitlement and love for the company of beautiful young women. We saw Trump from the outside and from tabloid photos of Trump living the high life, dating models, moving from Ivana to Marla and from Marla to Melania. We knew it, but it was off stage. We heard his public tabloid voice but not his "inner voice".
The shock of the video is that we appear to hear the internal and unfiltered mind of Donald Trump. It had the reality of the voice of Holden Caufield, from Catcher in the Rye, but this is Trump at age 58, a privileged horn dog, married, bragging about kissing women and the ease of finding sex. The vulgarity is surprising because the words are crude and Trump uses them so casually. Trump is in our faces in a way that even the Starr report on Bill Clinton's sexual behavior with Monica Lewinsky was not. Starr reported on what Bill did--received oral sex, and inserted a cigar. It was a third person description. Clinton did this. She did that.
The video tape reveals Trump in the first person.
Here it is: Click Here for the Video
Trump: "I moved on her and I failed. I'll admit it. I did try to fuck her. She was married. . . " [as was Trump, newly married to Melania.]
Listen for yourself.
This video is a excuse to change ones mind, for a Trump supporter to admit they just cannot support him. It is a straw to break the camel's back. It may move the polls enough to put the election away for Hillary
It will back Trump into a political corner and I expect him to come out swinging at the debate tomorrow, as did Thad Guyer in his comment to a post I filed late last night. He will accuse Bill Clinton of the same or worse.
And there is a second, perhaps longer and more important effect, both for the election and for the aftermath, when the GOP attempts to clarify what it stands for. Trump personally led the Trump realignment of the goals and principles of the Republican Party, and this tape gives Republican officeholders "cover" for stepping back from Trump personally, and thereby Trump-ism.
The video reveals attitudes and behavior, indefensible for a professional politician. I cannot imagine a Republican congressman standing in a Town Hall in front of an district audience and TV cameras and simply saying that what Trump said was not that important. It must be condemned. Partisans can argue that those were past attitudes, now abandoned--which Trump did. Partisans can argue that the attitudes are irrelevant--which Corey Lewendowski did: "We're not choosing a Sunday School teacher."
The fact that the video is in our faces confronts supporters with an action forcing decision. You have to decide how to handle it. If you are a voter you can decide in private. If you are a Republican candidate or office holder you need to manage an awkward situation.
GOP politicians are constrained by their past public comments. Prudent ones will attempt to avoid 100% provable hypocrisy. Videotape of what they said about Bill Clinton is still out there. Prudent ones will attempt to avoid publicly voicing support for the unsupportable. (Kelly Ayotte had to walk back a comment she had made saying Trump was a role model--and this was before the revelation of this tape.)
Some GOP leaders will use this as the excuse for bailing on Trump. Talk show host Hugh Hewitt said he should drop out. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert and US Rep. Jason Chaffetz (Chair of the House Oversight Committee and a frequent guest on Fox) rescinded their support. Former Utah Governor Huntsman called for Trump to withdraw. Speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader McConnell and RNC chair Reince Priebus issued strong condemnations. "Repugnant and unacceptable under any circumstances," McConnell said. Illinois Senator Mark Kirk said Trump should drop out.
This feeds the Hillary Clinton message that Trump is not a "normal" Republican. He is special and out of the mainstream, she says. You can be a good Republican and vote for her. Only half of Trump supporters were deplorable. She said the other half understand Trump for what he is, an aberration, a mistake, a con man, and an undisciplined middle school boy full of testosterone and itching for excitement.
This tape confirms that message. That is who Trump is--or at least was eleven years ago--and he is still someone who gets up at 3:00 a.m. to tweet. The debate tomorrow will be ugly because Trump cannot deny what was in our face. He needs to show that what we did not see back in 1998 in the Clinton White House was just as bad, just as ugly.
The shock of the video is that we appear to hear the internal and unfiltered mind of Donald Trump. It had the reality of the voice of Holden Caufield, from Catcher in the Rye, but this is Trump at age 58, a privileged horn dog, married, bragging about kissing women and the ease of finding sex. The vulgarity is surprising because the words are crude and Trump uses them so casually. Trump is in our faces in a way that even the Starr report on Bill Clinton's sexual behavior with Monica Lewinsky was not. Starr reported on what Bill did--received oral sex, and inserted a cigar. It was a third person description. Clinton did this. She did that.
The video tape reveals Trump in the first person.
 |
| Live microphone |
Trump: "I moved on her and I failed. I'll admit it. I did try to fuck her. She was married. . . " [as was Trump, newly married to Melania.]
Listen for yourself.
This video is a excuse to change ones mind, for a Trump supporter to admit they just cannot support him. It is a straw to break the camel's back. It may move the polls enough to put the election away for Hillary
It will back Trump into a political corner and I expect him to come out swinging at the debate tomorrow, as did Thad Guyer in his comment to a post I filed late last night. He will accuse Bill Clinton of the same or worse.
And there is a second, perhaps longer and more important effect, both for the election and for the aftermath, when the GOP attempts to clarify what it stands for. Trump personally led the Trump realignment of the goals and principles of the Republican Party, and this tape gives Republican officeholders "cover" for stepping back from Trump personally, and thereby Trump-ism.
The video reveals attitudes and behavior, indefensible for a professional politician. I cannot imagine a Republican congressman standing in a Town Hall in front of an district audience and TV cameras and simply saying that what Trump said was not that important. It must be condemned. Partisans can argue that those were past attitudes, now abandoned--which Trump did. Partisans can argue that the attitudes are irrelevant--which Corey Lewendowski did: "We're not choosing a Sunday School teacher." The fact that the video is in our faces confronts supporters with an action forcing decision. You have to decide how to handle it. If you are a voter you can decide in private. If you are a Republican candidate or office holder you need to manage an awkward situation.
GOP politicians are constrained by their past public comments. Prudent ones will attempt to avoid 100% provable hypocrisy. Videotape of what they said about Bill Clinton is still out there. Prudent ones will attempt to avoid publicly voicing support for the unsupportable. (Kelly Ayotte had to walk back a comment she had made saying Trump was a role model--and this was before the revelation of this tape.)Some GOP leaders will use this as the excuse for bailing on Trump. Talk show host Hugh Hewitt said he should drop out. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert and US Rep. Jason Chaffetz (Chair of the House Oversight Committee and a frequent guest on Fox) rescinded their support. Former Utah Governor Huntsman called for Trump to withdraw. Speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader McConnell and RNC chair Reince Priebus issued strong condemnations. "Repugnant and unacceptable under any circumstances," McConnell said. Illinois Senator Mark Kirk said Trump should drop out.
This feeds the Hillary Clinton message that Trump is not a "normal" Republican. He is special and out of the mainstream, she says. You can be a good Republican and vote for her. Only half of Trump supporters were deplorable. She said the other half understand Trump for what he is, an aberration, a mistake, a con man, and an undisciplined middle school boy full of testosterone and itching for excitement.
This tape confirms that message. That is who Trump is--or at least was eleven years ago--and he is still someone who gets up at 3:00 a.m. to tweet. The debate tomorrow will be ugly because Trump cannot deny what was in our face. He needs to show that what we did not see back in 1998 in the Clinton White House was just as bad, just as ugly.
# # #
Attorney Thad Guyer and I do a podcast that shares our take on the election.
October 2 Podcast: The Truths that Hillary and Trump know full well, but must not say
This October 2 podcast talks about the polls, about Trump's self-inflicted wounds, and about the things that Trump and Hillary know full well to be true, but must not admit. The podcast is a spirited conversation between me and Thad Guyer, an attorney who represents whistleblowing employees, with an international practice. He watches the election from home base in Saigon.
No comments:
Post a Comment