The momentary calm before this week’s upcoming Donald Trump Russia scandal hurricane
Do you hear that? It’s the sound of nothing happening in the public eye today when it comes to the Donald Trump’s Russia scandal. Listen carefully, because it’s quiet. Way too quiet. And that’s what stands out. Since the Trump-Russia scandal went into overdrive last month, there hasn’t been a day where another shoe hasn’t dropped. Until, suddenly, the silence of this moment. That’s because the Trump-Russia hurricane is in the process of imploding.
When we last left our unrealistic and poorly plotted airport gift shop spy novel, Reince Priebus had been caught obstructing justice by unsuccessfully pressuring the FBI over the Trump-Russia investigation, which naturally leaked on Thursday. Then someone in the White House (probably also Priebus) was caught successfully pressuring officials from other intel agencies, along with two Republicans in Congress, to mislead the media over Trump-Russia. That also leaked, this time on Friday, because everything leaks in this age.
And then on Friday night we were left with the cliffhanger: Congressman Darrell Issa realizing the shit was about to hit the fan and making the calculated move of publicly calling for a Trump-Russia special prosecutor. Here was one of the most nakedly partisan Republicans in Congress, finally giving the Democrats something they wanted, because he knows something we don’t, and he suddenly wants to distance himself as far from Trump as possible. This was, in metaphorical parlance, a rat fleeing a sinking ship while screaming “THE SHIP IS SINKING” into a megaphone. And then today… nothing.
Even a befuddled Donald Trump seemed to preemptively try to fend off today’s latest Trump-Russia bombshell by announcing that he won’t attend the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in April — only to then realize he’d created the distraction for nothing, because there was no bombshell today. Nothing happened. This is one of the quietest days the Trump-Russia scandal has had in a month. And when things have progressed this far, a total lack of noise on the outside is because there’s too much transpiring on the inside, and no one wants to talk about it until their ducks are quite lined up.
Ask yourself, for instance, what the odds are that Priebus still has a job by end of day on Monday. Trump’s pattern, whether it’s Paul Manafort or Michael Flynn, is that anyone caught red handed in the Russia scandal gets thrown overboard. And yet there are only so many times you can use that trick until you’ve run out of bodies to toss, or toss one who’s angry enough to start blabbing. So there are some interesting discussions going on right now in the West Wing about who takes the fall this time. Last time we went through a weekend like this, Flynn ended up resigning late Monday night after figuring out during the course of the day that he’d run out of support.
And speaking of Priebus and Flynn, now that the FBI probably has the former on obstruction and definitely has the latter on lying under oath, no wonder they haven’t leaked anything to the outside lately; they’ve nailed the insiders. Which of them is more likely to sing first? Or has one of them sung already?
And you just know that as we speak, news outlets like the New York Times and Washington Post are pursuing their latest leaked story that they’ve been gifted by the intel community. There’s no rush since it’s the weekend. They’ll dig as deep as they can into what they’ve been given, and then publish the bombshells late on Sunday night, as is their custom.
Oh, and what are the odds that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton both just happened to re-enter public life the day before the Democratic National Committee election? They’ve surely been chomping at the bit to carve out their unofficial roles in the anti-Trump resistance, but felt they needed to let a little time pass. Perhaps they’ve decided that their party having new official leadership means the time is right. So the clock is now ticking on whatever they’ve each been cooking up.
And yet at this precise moment the entirety of the political news realm feels like one big tease. So many shoes are about to drop, you’ll end up concluding they must have belonged to a centipede. But for today at least, everyone on the inside is just kind of teasing you. Where is Reince Priebus hiding? What does Darrell Issa suddenly know that we don’t? And why was President Obama seen walking the same New York street that Trump lives on?
There’s a Trump-Russia hurricane coming this week. You can feel it. It’s just not making landfall today. Saturday Night Live can’t even be bothered to be live tonight; it’s a repeat. Even Donald Trump is looking around right now at the lack of Russia scandal developments today, confused, wondering why he bothered shouting all that nonsensical distraction this afternoon. In hindsight, he should have saved it for Monday. That’s when he’s likely to need it.
