Has Stormy Daniels spanked Trump at his own game?
Those who say the Stormy Daniels interview Sunday on "60 Minutes" contained nothing new missed the historical importance of what they were viewing: How Daniels has become President Donald Trump's kryptonite.
Throughout his political rise we have seen former reality TV star Trump use every available form of threat, insult, lawsuit and bombast to silence his opponents and frighten off future opposition, if they couldn't be quietly bought off.
And now along comes Stephanie Clifford, known professionally as Stormy Daniels, who has alleged that Trump engaged in an extramarital fling with her, that his minions intimidated her legally and physically to prevent her public disclosure of the affair and that just before the 2016 election Trump's fixer paid her $130,000 in hush money to keep her silence.
What's downright historic here is how she not only refused to stay bought, but actually strategically turned the tables on Trump to beat him at his own game.
The result is an odd moment in which a porn star has more credibility than the nation's president.
Sixty-three percent of Americans surveyed in a new CNN poll, taken before Sunday's "60 Minutes" broadcast, say they believe women who have come forward with allegations of extramarital affairs with Trump. Only 21 percent say they believe the president and, as hard as it may be for me to believe, 16 percent claim to have no opinion on the matter.
Indeed, one wonders how much moral issues matter anymore at a time when partisan and tribal loyalties persistently outweigh such quaint old-fashioned concerns as public moral character.
Yet, far beyond the point at which Trump would have rebranded other attackers with an impolite nickname and other withering insults, he's been no more eager to mention her name than he has been to slime Vladimir Putin.
Trump's usual defenses simply don't work on her. She has taken an important source of Trump's rhetorical power, a lack of shame, and turned it into his kryptonite.
Let me count the ways:
...continued
(c) 2018 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
