:rolleyes:
We’ll see.
I think it’s very safe to say that Trump doesn’t just have “a few unsavory moments” buried in his past, but truckloads of them.
And, if you have to work that hard to “clean up your past,” then maybe you should not be running for high political office. Just maybe. :smack:
No Trump fan, but I get a double standard kind of vibe from the whole McDougal story. ‘America is so puritanicaly obsessed with sex why can’t we be more like the Europeans’? Those comments seem less common when it’s Trump.
Likewise less outrage at ‘slut shaming’ ‘sex workers’. If Trump thought McDougal was basically a prostitute (and she kind of is, from her lack of strong reaction to Trump treating her like one among other things), so what? Her body her right. Again that kind of comment seems less common if it’s related to Trump.
I’m not getting that this shows anything that relevant about Trump as a public figure from a ‘modern, liberated’ POV, certainly not anything new. Not the original affair anyway.
In the other direction, I think it’s reasonable to point out the hypocrisy of people who throw fits over Democrats’ consensual affair ‘scandals’ but not Trump’s. Though of course no two cases are ever exactly alike (eg. ‘power differential’ which Lewinsky herself now apparently sees as a problem in that case, and is generally with rich and powerful guys who get laid because they’re rich and powerful; or what laws were bent or broken covering up legal sexual escapades like perjury or shady hush money deals; or who gets trashed as a ‘stalker’ etc in the damage control phase).
I’d be a bit more sympathetic if Stormy and McDougal hadn’t happily taken the money a few years ago.
Now, they want to break a legally binding contract and cash in. Books, interviews, and probably a movie deal.
I lived through the chaos of Watergate. I know the damage it caused. Nixon’s resignation had a profound effect on my 12 year old self. The public distrust lasted over a decade. The public cynicism has never gone away. It’s one reason our nation’s voting turnouts are so embarrassingly low.
The public needs to think carefully what impeaching a President will do to this country. The scars and pain will never go away.
Is it really worth it? Can’t we put up this clown and kick his ass out of office in the next election?
There’s such a rush to find any straw to take Trump down and I see no discussion about the lasting consequences.
Trump is such an idiot they probably will find enough dirt to take him down. I just hope the damage to our Nation is worth it.
She seems to have spent most of her life selling her beauty. Then she has a long term relationship with a married man who offers her money for her ‘services’ and boasts of his infidelity.
She’s no angel and Trump can shtup whomever he wants. Per kenobi 65, if he was trying to white-wash his slutty past and crossed a few criminal lines attempting to do so, so he could attempt to present himself as more Presidential (oy!) then that should be investigated.
Olive Oy(l)?
In the eyes of probably over half of Americans, Trump’s presidency itself is already seriously damaging America.
If there was lasting damage to American from Watergate, it wasn’t due to the investigation and the impeachment proceedings, it was the revelation of just how corrupt and immoral Nixon was.
Also, upon further reflection:
If you are in a marriage or committed relationship, and you decide to have an extramarital affair, then while you and your mistress may well be consenting adults, your partner is, let’s say, a very interested party in the relationship.
Unless you and your partner have actively agreed to an open relationship, then he or she is likely not a consenting adult in your affair. And, the fact that you have to go to lengths to keep your spouse from finding out about it should be a huge flashing red light that what you are doing is immoral, if not illegal. (Actually, adultery is still on the books in New York State as a crime, so there’s that, too.)
Again, this isn’t just a “youthful indiscretion.” It’s a lifelong pattern with Trump, and one that he used to brag about, but which he’s now using his lawyers and friends to deny and cover up.
WTH? You think Watergate was someone else’s fault?
If providing factual information about Trump brings down Trump’s Presidency, that’s Trump’s fault, just like Watergate was Nixon’s fault. Not Stormy & McDougal, not Woodward & Bernstein & Felt.
You must be joking. Yes it’s worth it. I don’t give a shit about the sex ‘scandal’ stuff, but it MUST be shown that we shouldn’t elect criminals that don’t give a shit about anyone but themselves to ANY office.
Sheeesse.
We’re undermining our Democracy and we’re playing right into Putin’s hands.
This chaos is exactly what Russia hoped to achieve. They’ve been watching our democracy unravel for twenty years. The gridlock in Washington. Partisan politics that achieves practically nothing. Even getting a budget passed has become an ordeal.
Now we want to impeach a President and he’ll be replaced by a guy that was a very unpopular Governor.
Yes, I would rather grit my teeth and wait until the election to dump Trump.
Russia gives us Trump to fuck things up, and it’s our fault for hating Trump?
Impeaching Trump is not the end game. Soaking him in tar and coating him in feathers is.
I think everyone agrees Trump is a disaster.
The question is whether a couple adult porn stars takes him down now or if we wait until the election.
He’ll be gone either way. I see no way in the world that incompetent idiot could be reelected.
Another point regarding this:
If Trump has done things that he doesn’t want to have made public (and is doing things like having NDAs signed, and apparently encouraging the Enquirer to buy exclusive rights to stories and burying them), what he’s also doing is opening himself up to extortion. And that is dangerous.
It’s a big part of the reason why many people are so concerned about his and his campaign’s ties to Russia. It’s one thing to say that a porn actress has secrets about you that you don’t want made public…and, relatively speaking, her leverage over him probably isn’t that big.
But, part of the equation is this: how far is Trump willing to go to ensure that any particular unsavory detail about his past remains buried? It’s one thing to pay “hush money,” it’s another when the other party (or a third party that’s obtained the information) starts asking for other concessions in return for keeping the details quiet.
This is why some parts of the Russia story are so concerning. For the sake of argument, let’s say that some of the details in the Steele Dossier (e.g., the infamous “pee tape”) are accurate. Sexual conduct between consenting adults? Possibly. Something that a foreign government can use to exert leverage against our government? Also very possible, and this should be even more alarming to you than “Watergate II.”
The porn star and the playboy bunny aren’t going to take him down. Everything else may, or may not. Time will tell. The incompetence and possible crimes are much more important.
But, there’s no reason not to push his nose in some of this shit.
I’m slightly with you, I generally don’t care who he has had consensual sex with. Yet, if he’s crossing legal or ethical lines to silence people, that does matter. Remember, it’s not the blow job, it’s the perjury.
I selfishly agree. If that were to come about I could pick up a lot of DC real estate cheap at abandoned property auctions.
Jaded? Nah, not me.
I’m not totally clear on the details, but that seems to be McDougal’s argument - she had sold the exclusive rights to her story to a third party, and that party never published it. In the interview last night, they were referring to it as “catch and kill.”
Now she’s offering the same amount (she says she only received 55% of it, but she’ll pay 100% of it), to buy the rights back.
It was The National Enquirer. The head of the parent company, the aptly named James T. Pecker, is a friend of Trump’s. I can only assume that the “T” stands for “The”.
What do you mean, “where is it coming from”? As far as I can remember, Americans have been obsessed with other people’s sex lives.