Donald Trump is having his worst week yet
“President” Donald Trump’s little world is crashing down upon him by the moment. Sometimes, karma works as it should, and it’s leaving Trump up Schitt Creek. According to various media outlets including CNN, Michael Cohen has turned over evidence of an offered pardon from Trump. Even as attorney Robert Costello claims the emails reference a Garth Brooks song and Trump tries to change the narrative, the emails are damning.
I doubt very seriously that Cohen merely thought Trump was “mad at him.” That sounds like some type of high school nonsense. Cohen worked with Trump for ten-plus years. Surely, Trump knew about Cohen’s penchant for recording conversations and keeping paperwork (which all lawyers do). It makes perfect sense that Trump was trying to buy his silence.
The real fireworks from Trump’s scandals involve Matthew Whitaker, who now appears to have “dropped a dime” on Trump. While Republican Congressman Doug Collins claims that Whitaker said “he did not talk to the President about Mr. Cohen at all,” Democratic Chairman Jerry Nadler, appearing on MSNBC, stated: “Unlike in the hearing room, Mr. Whitaker did not deny that the President called him to discuss Michael Cohen—the Michael Cohen case and personnel decisions in the Southern District. Two, while he was acting attorney general, Mr. Whitaker was directly involved in conversations about whether to fire one or more of the U.S. Attorneys, and three, while he was acting attorney general Mr. Whitaker was involved in conversations about the scope of the Southern District of New York U.S. Attorney Berman’s recusal and whether the Southern District went too far in pursuing the campaign finance case in which the President was listed as Individual No. 1.”
Nadler was followed by Adam Schiff, who pointed out that Jeff Sessions was fired because he recused himself on the advice of ethics lawyers at the Justice Department and that “Matthew Whitaker was hired because he talked about how he could privately cripple the Mueller investigation and because I’m sure the President was confident he would not recuse himself. The ethics lawyers urged him to do so. He refused.” I think we can safely expect more explosions involving Whitaker in very short order.
Finally, Trump has been handed the first veto situation of his “presidency” with the passage of the resolution to stop his “emergency” declaration. While the Democrats needed only four Republican Senators to vote with them, they ended up with twelve: Mike Lee, Rand Paul, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Pat Toomey, Roger Wicker, Marco Rubio, Jerry Moran, Rob Portman, Lamar Alexander, Roy Blount, and Mitt Romney.
If that’s not a rebuke of Donald Trump, then the Republican-led Senate voting, for the second time, to end aid to the Saudis in Yemen surely is. According to the New York Times, the vote stems from Trump’s defense of the Saudis in the Khashoggi murder. One might like to think the Republicans are finally “getting” it, but let’s not be too premature. There are still many who support him unconditionally even when he’s wrong, and he is consistently wrong. For Trump, this week gives true meaning to “thank God it’s Friday.” He’d better rest up; his chickens are coming home to roost.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years