A "modified limited hangout" didn't work during Watergate.
Trump is using it with his Jeffrey Epstein mess.
I think it will work for Trump.
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| House Oversight Committee releases documents |
Those of us who followed the news in 1973 and 1974 know the phrase "limited hangout." Sometimes there is a "modified limited hangout."
Often the first strategy in a scandal is for the target to deny everything. But as new facts get put into the public record it can be impossible to stick to denial. The situation then requires a cover story to account for the inconvenient known facts. Revealing the truth is the "hangout."
The first hangout wasn't the whole story in the Watergate matter. The whole truth was that Nixon was part of the coverup. The Nixon people attempted a limited hangout. But as yet more information leaked out it became a modified limited hangout. For a year or two in the mid-1970s, everybody in America knew the phrase "modified limited hangout." The phrase drew chuckles.
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| True? Half-true? Daily drips needed to be verified |
We are watching the evolution of a new limited hangout in the matter of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. The question isn't what Trump knew and when he knew it -- the Nixon question. The question is whether Trump performed transgressive sexual acts with very young girls, and whether Epstein made videotapes to document it. Trump and MAGA allies have been stewing about pedophile rings for a decade, looking for it in all the wrong places. It turns out that Trump has some explaining to do. He is stonewalling (another term from the Watergate era.) Stonewalling means not coming clean.
Wednesday the House Oversight Committee released emails between Ghislaine Maxwell (Gmax1) and Jeffrey Epstein (jeevaction) reporting that Trump had, indeed, spent private "hours" with a woman described as "Victim." That contradicts Trump's denials and claims of ignorance.
I think Trump's support would continue even if the worst rumored and suspected activity took place and could be documented. Republican voters don't care. They know that he is a playboy with Hugh Hefner tastes and exhaustive sexual experience with young models and entertainers. There is almost no mention of Epstein in conservative media, and when the subject is unavoidable, it is described as a Democratic hoax. Even if videotapes of Trump doing something illegal exist, they won't be shown. And if shown, they won't be believed. Artificial intelligence is the new alibi: you can't believe your eyes anymore.
But the conspiracy segment of Republicans remains, and Democrats can keep plinking away, hoping to embarrass Trump, a man who cannot be embarrassed. It is fun for Democrats, but it doesn't move the needle on Trump's support. Trump is shameless. Let people guess, wonder, assume the worst. Trump doesn't care. His base doesn't care. They like that he is deporting people and reversing DEI and making liberals angry.
Trump is not going away.
3 comments:
It won’t take him down, but it adds to the shame for “good “ Republicans to support him. 14 year old girls having sex with a 40 year old man is just …icky. What will take Trump down is his increasingly apparent dementia. It’s the drip, drip, drip of diminishing brain cells that work. Hence MRI looks to see how the brain is doing. More brain freeze moments. Biden would have beaten Trump again if he kept his brain. Death and taxes get us all.
Let's suppose the worst happens for Trump and he gets impeached and convicted and removed from the presidency because of something to do with Jeffrey Epstein.
Then you get President JD Vance. Is that strategically good for the Democrats? Giving Vance the opportunity to be the president for two years might actually make it harder for the Democratic candidate to beat him.
It ain't necessarily so. Like Trump, Vance's approval rating is about 40%.
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