Tell her, “OK, so you’re a bigot, and you don’t care if the USA burns to the ground under Trump. You are certainly no patriot”.
At that point, no conversation with her will be constructive. I mean she cries when she hears “Christmas Shoes” because of “how beautiful it is.”
You should her listen to Patton Oswalt’s NSFW take on the song.
I believe that Bill Clinton developed and demonstrated the tactic of the slow leak and how it deflates any political pressure against the target.
To me, the slightness of the content - much of which appears to Michael Wolff making aspersions of unknown validity - just makes this feel like it helps the President to cast the release as illegitimate character assassination. Not to mention the whole issue of the slow leak being, fundamentally, protective of the accused, not damning.
To be sure, the question of what VICTIM and Trump did together is intriguing, but without any true detailed information it’s a rather meaningless release that does more harm than good, so far as I see it.
Agreed! He could stick a knife in somebody’s back on national TV and get away with it. Didn’t Trump himself say he could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and wouldn’t lose any voters? He was right. He wouldn’t lose the Supreme Court or Congress, either.
I have. Many times
God, I hope he didn’t tutor her.
Could someone help me understand Michael Wolff’s motivations? Sounds complicit in the scandal, not just some a Biographer. Is he just another opportunist? I’ve been watching him on The Daily Beast YouTube channel. He’s literally suggesting strategies to Epstein.
Republicans won’t turn on him either. MAGA is the vast majority of Republicans. The miniscule number of non-MAGA Republicans would still rather "own the libs"anyway. They might dislike Trump the man, but he’s enacting the policies they’ve worked their while lives to see come to fruition. The buyer’s remorse isn’t that strong.
FAKE NEWS! Obvious, of course! All those rumors and pictures and videos and emails are fake news!!!
Because now, unfortunately, technology has changed so that it actually is rational to suspect that the pics and videos are fake.
Over the past 12 months or so, there have been vast improvements in AI.(Everybody uses chatGPT ).
And everybody knows that it is easy to fake a realistic video.
So Trump has an easy excuse. He can just state that the video of him in bed with a girl is AI.
And if Trump says it, it is true. Period.
A year ago, the public wouldn’t accept this excuse. People still believed every video clip on the internet was real.
But now, everybody has seen clips on Tik Tok and yahoo shorts that are obviously fake but have totally realistic backgrounds. (silly stuff such as cats dancing while standing on two legs, or babies speaking like adults–but set on a background which is totally realistic)
So for a Maga person who has personally seen AI fake videos, it will be easy to believe that a clip of Trump naked on Epstein’s island was also faked by AI. They will say “It’s obviously a conspiracy against Trump, produced just last week by the Soros-funded Antifa-Democrat party.”
So why get excited about releasing the Epstein files–it won’t change anything. A year ago, yeah maybe something would have happened, because the files would have been undeniable evidence. But now, it’s too late.
His supporters seem very comfortable with using violence to cause pain and disruption, too. If they impeach him, I think we will see more of that than we do now (and we see enough of that now). Congress saw assassinations etc., after he was re elected, when the supporters should have been satisfied. So, I don’t think they will do impeachment. Too dangerous for them and for the country (though I believe the latter cuts no ice with many of them).
I may be too optimistic, but I think this is going to lead to a quick downfall. Republican pols know he is a moron and corrupt and incompetent and rash and bigoted and crooked, but they’re terrified of his base who worship the ground he walks on. If there are smoking guns that come out and prove him to be a pedophile, enough of his base will abandon him that the GOP will finally rid themselves of this shitstain on the national underwear.
Considering the coverage of this over here in the UK I came onto the board today expecting hundreds of posts about the release of the files today. Is it not big news today?
The files claim that Trump spent hours with a “victim”, Epstein is quoted as saying “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is Trump”.
We’re getting closer to a smoking gun here.
The White House is right now sitting in emergency meetings and trying to work out how to talk around one of the Republican co-signatories of a petition to release the remainder of the files with Trump saying “only a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that trap" of supporting further Epstein inquiries.
Is this exploding in the US, or is it somehow a nothingburger?
One issue is that Trump is willing to burn it all down. If the Dems dominate in 2026, there is no way that the Pubs will be able to convince him to quietly serve out a lame duck term and try to salvage 2028.
Not exploding yet. Still overshadowed by the fade-out of the shutdown.
I’ve only heard very superficial summaries, but while a smoking gun might be nigh … it doesn’t appear to be here yet.
Imagine if his downfall comes by way of…emails.
Maybe he can try bleaching some computers or throw some magnets at an iPhone to make it all go away.
I see talk that he tried (and failed) to get Nancy Mace and Loren Boebert to change their vote.
The White House is definitely taking this seriously.
Btw, Threads is full of people sharing photos of released Epstein emails. One email has someone call Trump gross. Epstein replies with “even worse in real life and upclose [sic].” Another one has Epstein describing a time Trump was so focused on the young women in Epstein’s pool he walked into a door and left a greasy nose print in the glass.
I suspect worse ones will follow and I’m totally here for it.
If Trump can’t get Lauren Boebert’s support on this considering she is representing Colorado District 4, he is going to lose big on this.
You should be clear about what you mean by a smoking gun.
If Trump knew that one of his associates was boinking 12 year olds in 1996, but only ever did something about it in 2009, by reaching out to the girls’ attorney - never once mentioning the issue to law enforcement during the intervening decade despite serving as an informant for the FBI - then he’s fully and unquestionably complicit.
Not to say that there can’t be a video of Trump in bed with a girl, himself, but if y’all are going to give the guy a pass for anything short of personal pederasty then you’re unintentionally forgiving a wide swath of deplorable and criminal behavior. You can’t complain about MAGA overlooking smoking guns of most criminality if you’re also ready to overlook nearly all of it as well.