“Totally clears the President. Thank you!” That was Trump’s initial Twitter response to two documents published by the Justice Department’s Southern District of New York and Robert Mueller’s team with regard Michael Cohen’s upcoming sentencing hearing. Chances are that most of Trump’s base will stick with him despite the fact that SDNY criminal sentencing memo outlines how Trump committed two felonies by directing Cohen to break federal campaign laws by paying hush money a crucial point in the campaign to a porn star and a Playboy model in order to hide his sexual affairs from the voting public.
The memos also revealed that that Trump repeated lied to American voters during the campaign by again and again claiming that he had no dealings with Russians. Throughout much of Republican primary campaign, and even to the point when Trump was the presumptive Republican nominee, at his direction Cohen was working with Russian businessmen and contacts in the Russian government to build a Trump Tower in Moscow which, if realized, could have earned millions of dollars for Trump’s business.
That helps, but not totally explains why Trump was so friendly towards Putin and Russians during the campaign. Mueller’ memo states, “The fact that Cohen continued to work on the project and discuss it with Individual 1 (Trump) well into the campaign was material to the special counsel investigation, particularly because it occurred at a time of sustained efforts by the Russian government to interfere with the U.S. presidential election.”
Also revealed in Mueller’s memo, “Cohen provided the SCO (Special Counsel) with useful information concerning certain discrete Russia-related matters core to its investigation that he obtained by virtue of his regular contact with (Trump’s) Company executives during the campaign.“ This is a new investigative avenue which we are hearing about for the first time.
Yet again, despite all of this derogatory information which would destroy any other politician, I am sure the vast majority of the Trump’s base will continue to support him. I regularly check Nate Silver’s website for Trump’s popularity ratings. I consider the polling composite put together by Silver’s team to be the most accurate available because it not only combines a large number of polls by many polling organizations, but also because each poll in the composite is corrected for known biases.
Since May of this year Trump’s support as measured by this composite poll as remained in the 42% range, varying only by a few tenths of a percent from day to day. While low for a sitting president, Trump’s support remains solid despite the day to day calamities which are the hallmark of this administration.
Is it because his supporters are ignorant or brainwashed and/or is it because they just don’t care that the man they helped put in the White House is a criminal, a habitual liar and quite possibly a traitor to their country?
Perhaps it is because in large part they are truly ignorant, or more precisely brainwashed. If they are getting all of their “news” poured through the truth distorting filters of Fox and Friends, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Tucker Carlson, their perceptions of the true nature of Trump’s presidency is sure to be much more positive than yours or mind. For instance, according to Sean Hannity, apparently the only information to be learned from the Cohen sentencing memos is that it a crime to be too close to Donald Trump. Hannity began his show by asking “Is it dangerous to be friends with Donald Trump?” Then he went to state, “We will call out the corruption of the justice system.” Later Mark Levin, a frequent guest on Hannity’s show stated, ““I want the news media to understand: You know what took place in the Southern District of New York? Nothing that matters.”
However, even the most politically ignorant of Trump’s supporters cannot be totally clueless about the disasters which have become characteristic of the Trump administration or the damaging drips and drabs which have emerged from the Mueller investigation. Even the simple minded among them must occasionally marvel how the Fox News hosts often contort themselves into pretzels in their attempts to defend Trump.
They only believe what they are told because they want so very much to believe any justifications of the behavior of the man they have given their souls to support. They are like sports fans who are the first to condemn the criminal actions of a player of a rival team but become the biggest defenders of a player on their favorite team who is guilty of the same offense. In their mind Trump may be criminal, a habitual liar and possibly even a traitor, but he is their criminal, liar and possible traitor and they will defend him until it is no longer possible.
Cajun 12/10/2018