08-24-2018, 06:08 PM
...This is not tongue-in-cheek humor. The conservative editorial board of the Chicago Tribune has had it with the President.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opini...story.html
Quote:When your strongest statement of support for a president is that “there are no charges against him,” you’ve described a presidency under siege. So it is for the reign of President Donald Trump, who came into office a whirling, undisciplined outsider and is now paying the price for his unseemly behavior.
Trump “did nothing wrong,” spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Wednesday. She was in full damage control after an incendiary accusation by Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney, that Trump was involved in hush payments to two women who said they had affairs with Trump.
The legal risk to Trump is the timing and purpose of 2016 payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal. If the money was spent to protect Trump’s campaign from embarrassment, these were de facto campaign contributions and should have been treated as such. Cohen on Tuesday pleaded guilty to two violations of campaign finance laws; in doing so he implicated Trump by claiming Trump directed Cohen to make the payments. The president denies the accusation, saying he learned of the deals “later on.”
There’s a lot more to uncover about what transpired between Trump and Cohen, so no point in rendering final judgment here. The same is true about the question of Russian interference in the election. Special counsel Robert Mueller will conclude his independent investigation and determine, among other things, whether Trump obstructed justice by firing FBI Director James Comey. Trump’s presidency may survive these travails. Let’s see what happens.
There is something we can say now: Trump’s tenure in the White House is a disappointment and a disgrace. Presidents are elected to lead and achieve — to work tirelessly toward a vision of a better America. What we have with Trump is a distracted, ill-mannered figure who spends more time bashing perceived enemies on Twitter than uniting a nation that faces serious challenges at home and abroad.
The connection between Trump’s nasty streak and his potential legal jeopardy is his impetuous nature. Trump is a brash bully who sees himself as a political street fighter, a great counter-puncher, as he puts it. His pride in being a tough guy displays a recklessness that has no place in the Oval Office. The president who invited court fights by ordering an ill-considered immigration ban and insisted there were “some very fine people on both sides” of a violent white supremacy rally is now caught up in legal battles over his behavior that imperils his presidency.
Defending himself in a Fox News interview, Trump sounded like a nervous hoodlum as he attacked Cohen for “flipping,” that is, telling prosecutors what they want to hear in exchange for a lenient sentence. “I’ve had many friends involved in this stuff,” Trump said. “It’s called flipping and it almost ought to be illegal.”
No surprise, really. Trump, who had never been accountable to the voting public, showed his colors on the campaign trail. Voters were attracted to his populist message and embraced, or looked past, his rough persona. In our view — expressed early on — he was unqualified for the presidency. He ceded moral authority last year when he failed to call out neo-Nazis. We judge his performance as president based on policy work, but Trump’s behavior continually undermines his ability to get things done.
Did Trump conspire to violate campaign finance laws? Did he obstruct justice by firing Comey? We’ll see.
Just as we’ll see whether he retains or loses control of his presidency.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opini...story.html
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.