Sarah Huckabee Sanders is notorious for going on camera and defiantly declaring that up is down and black is white. That’s pretty much her job. But she won’t say unequivocally that there’s no tape of Trump using a racial slur because she’s knows there’s a distinct possibility the tape will surface:
.@kwelkernbc: "Can you stand at the podium and guarantee the American people they'll never hear Donald Trump utter 'the n word' on a recording, in any context?"
Sarah Sanders: "I can't guarantee anything… I can tell you I've never heard it." pic.twitter.com/rSDj4ctA5a
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) August 14, 2018
The Trump people must be shitting themselves, wondering what bit of audio Omarosa Manigault Newman will drop next. She already caught Katrina Pierson in a big fat lie today.
Meanwhile, Manigault Newman claims she’s been interviewed by Mueller and says Trump definitely knew in advance about the hacked emails from the Clinton campaign:
WOW — Omarosa claims Trump had foreknowledge of WikiLeaks' activities during 2016 campaign, including when stolen emails would be published.
Trump's own intelligence chiefs have accused WikiLeaks of serving as a Kremlin cutout. pic.twitter.com/Nba8Goay3O
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 14, 2018
It would be hilarious and fitting if an ugly beef with his former reality TV villain — plus an association with living comic book villain Roger Stone — is what finally brings Mango Mussolini down. I don’t say it will — just that it would be both hilarious and fitting.
In related news, the Manafort trial is almost over — the defense rests without calling any witnesses, and Manafort declined to testify, so only closing arguments are left (I think). Any predictions?
Open thread.
Corner Stone
The judge becomes the biggest villain in America, either way the verdict goes. He should probably stick to writing poetry, if you ask me.
Roger Moore
I think I would go with “virtual certainty” rather than “distinct possibility”. There’s every reason to think Trump uses that racist slur regularly in private, and I don’t think Omarosa would be promising a recording of him using it if she didn’t have one. It’s only a matter of timing its release.
JPL
@Corner Stone: Maybe both sides can agree that life time appointments are a mistake.
Corner Stone
I honestly don’t know why she would care. Just say the lie you’re paid to say and who gives a shit what happens when the tape comes public.
rikyrah
skeptical brotha ? (@skepticalbrotha) Tweeted:
the silence of the Republican leadership on the Trump-Omarosa row speaks volumes. Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn, Kevin McCarthy, Steve Scalise R all silent in the face of Trump’s unseemly meltdown & racist dog whistles. even the Senate GOP’s token Negro is silent. https://twitter.com/skepticalbrotha/status/1029406011612962817?s=17
JPL
@Roger Moore: Trump is a racist pig, and I’m not sure what the tape would prove.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: Dog whistles? T’s bigotry is a bull horn.
Major Major Major Major
I can’t be the only one who’s just sort of ignoring the Omarosa sideshow until it inevitably goes away. There’s a small chance it will matter, but it just doesn’t seem super worth the time right now.
Elizabelle
@ the Beth Macy book signing. Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring is here. The big guns are out.
bigly truly
unless there’s tape of Trump openly bragging he fucked a ten-year-old on a church altar he’s not going anywhere.
Tokyokie
@JPL:
All it would do is make it more difficult for his supporters to deny that he’s a racist piece of crap. Sure, that’s the main reason they support him, but they like to delude themselves that their motives are nobler.
kindness
Manifort is swinging for the Pardon fences. Trump is so stupid he’ll give him one without realizing Manifort won’t be able to use the 5th to get out of answering any difficult questions in future legal cases.
We are both blessed and cursed by the enemies we keep.
Yarrow
I cannot stand Omarosa but her taunting Trump and then producing receipts is hilarious. Do not trust her at all, but it certainly is fun to watch them panic.
rikyrah
@IamGMJohnson: Omarosa is a Spades player. She set this up knowing this part would happen.
She is obviously holding the Big joker and… https://twitter.com/IamGMJohnson/status/1029397391097643008?s=17
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: Same here.
debbie
Have the evangelicals proclaimed their continued loyalty to this pig yet?
Yarrow
@kindness: Trump is all about Trump. His lawyers will tell him that pardoning Manafort is bad for Trump. I expect that part to sink in and he won’t pardon Manafort.
Omnes Omnibus
OT: On my way to vote.
debbie
@Major Major Major Major:
No, it won’t matter, but the turmoil is a real joy to behold. I hope they’re all more miserable than they usually are.
Roger Moore
@JPL:
I think the N-word can still shock people. Heck, most people are afraid even to say which word they’re talking about because they think it’s that bad. There are still a fair number of people who think you aren’t a racist unless you drop N-bombs, so a tape where Trump drops them might be enough to get people to start saying “racist” rather than “racially insensitive” or whatever polite euphemism they would otherwise substitute. It might also be especially bad if he uses them to talk about somebody he’s nominally supposed to like, like Ben Carson or Tim Scott.
tobie
@kindness: I’ve alway wondered: what would happen if Manafort were pardoned and yet lied when asked to testify in other legal cases about federal offenses he may have committed or witnessed? What would the punishment be? Would there be any legal consequence? I get that he would be immunized through the pardon, but he may still have no intention of telling the truth. Pardon’s can’t be revoked like immunity agreements can be.
HeleninEire
He said it. About 300 times. He’s a racist asshole. I am tired talking about this. Because it does not make a difference. His base will still love him. Haven’t looked yet, but how many “She’s a dog is not racist because she’s really a dog” tweets have there been today? Imma say a million. To anyone who is shocked that he said it; you’re a racist asshole too.
debbie
Wow, NPR’s just reported 300 diddling priests in Pennsylvania alone.
Baud
@HeleninEire: All true. I think the interest here is more about how the media handles it.
NotMax
Know next to nothing about this Omarosa woman, but from what have read here she strikes me as also being an extreme narcissist.
Whole thing a case of the ‘Screaming ME MEs.’
:)
He will not be carried out of the court on the shoulders of the spectators.
Patricia Kayden
Add that she’s a Black woman and the cake sweetens given Trump’s hatred of all people Black and female. I still wouldn’t care much for Omarosa but if she brings this Orange Bigot down, she will need to have her picture placed in the African American National Museum as a flawed heroine.
ruemara
Predictions… I think there’s clear evidence of fraudulent activities. I can’t say for sure if he’ll be convicted. We have a very complicit republican base. Not judges, not lawyers, the actual segment of the population. If there’s enough of them on the jury, mistrial. If he gets convicted, pardon rumblings.
We really have to win as much as possible in November. I can’t state this enough. The courts are already tainted. We don’t take back the house completely and add some senate & governor seats – the courts will be utterly fucked for a good 20 years or more. They’re picking them young and evil where ever possible. Selling out to the Russians to maintain the mythology of white supremacist America won’t be a crime if they’re left in charge.
@Patricia Kayden: No. She’s still a kapo. No laurels for a mess you created and then cleaned up. A lighter sentence, maybe.
Baud
@Patricia Kayden: Agreed.
eclare
@tobie: I’ve wondered that too.
Roger Moore
@tobie:
AFAIK, a pardon can only be issued for past behavior, not for future behavior, so it wouldn’t affect any penalties for stuff he does after he’s pardoned. If he lies under oath, he could still be charged with perjury. Of course perjury is hard to prove, so it would be an uphill fight, but it’s at least theoretically open.
debbie
@Patricia Kayden:
I’m sure Trump’s thought a number of times that he made Omarosa who she is. Unfortunately, he hasn’t yet realized that he also made her what he is, a vengeful bully who never forgets even the slightest slight. May they duke it out for eternity.
Archon
A tape coming out with Trump using the N word would be very, very bad for America. It would be so bad I’m actually not sure it should come out even if it’s exists.
OzarkHillbilly
Guilty.
randy khan
@ruemara:
The particular district where the case is being heard probably is one of the ten worst for Manafort. The jurisdictions with nearly all of the population went hard from Clinton in 2016. Of course, the venue for his next trial is even worse – D.C.
jacy
@Major Major Major Major:
On the contrary. You’ve got to remember that Omarosa is a Trump disciple of long standing. She knows exactly how this works. I see a distinct pattern here. She says something, she gets the person she said it about to deny it. Then she produces a tape that makes that person a liar. Nobody knows what all she taped. It’s already Lord of the Flies inside the White House. Nobody trusts anybody. They’re all stabbing each other in the back, lying, plotting. This turns up the burners. I don’t think it’s necessarily worth paying attention to — because most of this shit isn’t — but I think it’s going to be an important ingredient in causing things to spin out of control faster, and hence bring about the downfall of this whole, rickety, rain-soaked house of cards sooner.
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
I only care in the detached way of watching two people I already hate fight with each other. It’s mildly amusing but doesn’t really affect me.
zhena gogolia
@Archon:
How could it be worse for America than him and his cronies sitting in all the seats of power and destroying us from within every single day?
ruemara
@randy khan: I’m hopeful for drawing & quartering.
schrodingers_cat
I have never watched Omarosa on TV so I don’t get all the hate. Of all the people Dollhands has fired, has she been the only one that has taken him on? If so, more power to her. If we are waiting for angels to rescue us, we will be waiting forever.
Anonymous At Work
Reporter: Has Trump committed any acts of beastiality?
SHS: The President has only the deepest respect for barnyard animals…
Wapiti
@Roger Moore: I’m going to laugh and laugh and laugh when the N-tape surfaces and not only is Donald saying it, he’s saying it in a conversation with Huckabee-Sanders.
Chyron HR
@debbie:
Somewhere in Vermont, an angry old man can be heard screaming “ECONOMIC ANXIETY!!”
Corner Stone
@Archon:
Can you explicate a little more on this? Because when the tape(s) come out 1)Trump’s peeps will love him for it and 2)Trump will just say it’s Fake News and that what you’re seeing and what you’re reading isn’t real.
TS (the original)
@Corner Stone: By resting the case the defense has avoided the treatment the prosecution got from the judge & the jury is left with debating the case between the judge & the prosecution, rather than considering the defense. Smart move.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@jacy:
Please please please let me get what I want. Let the Executive Office of the President organizationally collapse already.
OzarkHillbilly
@tobie:
Prison.
Prison.
Prison.
No, one can not be pardoned into perpetuity. Hence he would be compelled to tell the truth.
Wapiti
@Archon: Why? I assume everyone already knows he’s a nasty racist who says nasty things about people. That’s who he has always been. Who can it possibly shock?
MJS
@OzarkHillbilly: I agree. I think the defense’s closing argument, which can only be “forget everything you saw and heard in this trial, except that Gates is a scumbag” will be insulting to the jury.
Ruckus
@NotMax:
Seems like most everyone who works at the WH has a touch of the narcissism. OK some a touch and some acquired the massive size pack. And swallowed it all.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@TS (the original):
IANL, but it seems desperate on their part.
Chetan Murthy
@zhena gogolia: @Archon: I agree with zhena, but [for clarity] maybe the argument for why it’d be bad for America is that so far, we’ve toddled along under the -illusion- that America isn’t a racist country? That it’s better to leave these deplorables with a shred of dignity, with the pretense of being decent people?
[I’m betting z g agrees] I don’t buy it. They know their time is up with getting away with stomping on minorities and women. And they’ve let their freak flag fly. No hiding, no dissembling: they’re loud and proud racists, misogynists, fascists. Every decent person who by some chance has been misled and still hasn’t woken up to the truth, needs it smacked in their face, 24/7, until they realize what he and his feculent horde are.
I want *every* tape to come out. I want *every* accusation to come out. I’m sad that that woman who was raped at age 13, was terrorized into withdrawing her suit. Sad for her, for what she’s gone thru, and also sad for the country. But it shouldn’t be up to her, a -victim- of a horrific crime, to go public. *everyone* who can go public with something, needs to go public. *everyone*.
And yeah, if Omarosa plays a part in giving him a fucking stroke (boxed-in syndrome, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you!) (per @Patricia Kayden) “she will need to have her picture placed in the African American National Museum as a flawed heroine.”
patrick II
@Tokyokie:
Also, there is the cumulative effect. We heard about Benghazi every day for years, and then emails everyday for more years. Neither, in reality, was important, but the constant repetition made it seem so. It is a lesson Avenatti and now Omarosa are teaching us. Let it out a little at a time I let them lie, and thenshow them to be liars. A little bit every day. It adds up.
Archon
@zhena gogolia:
There’s still a veneer of plausible deniability that the Trump era isn’t what we think it’s about. If that tape comes out and Trumps numbers don’t move, the veneer will be gone, and there will be major social and political consequences to the fact that 40% of the country in 2018 supports a proven, beyond any reasonable doubt racist as President.
zhena gogolia
@Archon:
I don’t see the veneer any more. But I do think his numbers would move. I’m more optimistic than you are.
OzarkHillbilly
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: They have no rebuttal. They are letting the evidence stand as introduced by their opponents They are hoping**************** they can cast enough doubt during the closing arguments.
**************************** “Hope” defined as some shit they throw at the wall sticking long enough to get a 2-1 vote in a Federal Appeals court.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Since iTrump being caught on tape saying the “N” word and it bringing him down sounds utterly absurd, I am betting that’s what’s going to do Trump in because everything else about about his admin is an utter farce.
I also predict that Trump won’t resign, runs off to Marlogo tweeting like mad and dies choking on a quarter pounder, Trump’s aids try to hide causing another scandal. The final act will be McDonald’s suing the Trump estate for product deformation and copying infringement on their chief spokesperson character. That and the Trump Presidential Library will set new records in graft when it’s built.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Roger Moore: True, what shocked quite a few folk about Nixon when the tapes were released was his foul language.
Chetan Murthy
@Archon:
It’s too late. A relative was stopped in the town/area she’s live since 1975 by a cop who asked for her proof of citizenship (citizen since 1982). I sat next to her as a nurse asked her “where are you really from?” (with black and filipina nurses in the background, I’m sure cringing). Sikhs are getting targeted & attacked -in- -California- (even one who was putting up posters for a fucking GrOPer, imagine that!) Our government is torturing immigrant children. Children. Children. Commiting crimes against humanity against *children*. And ALL OF THAT pales next to the TOTALITARIAN STATE in which our African-American fellow citizens have been living for centuries, including decades when supposedly there was no such thing. And now we know this, incontrovertibly, b/c of cellphone cameras.
The bandaid & scab have been ripped off the wound, and it’s bleeding freely. And the deplorables LIKE it. There’s no going back, only THRU this.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I doubt it on this one.
sukabi
@Roger Moore: would be outrageously hilarious if it turns out that Sanders has also been recording the trumps and it’s her recording that gets leaked of one of his ‘N’ laced tirades.
That’s probably why she won’t / can’t deny it.
TS (the original)
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: I’m sure it’s desperate – they’ve got nothing else.
daize
@OzarkHillbilly: The one time I served on a jury we were instructed not to consider opening or closing arguments when determining a verdict, as neither are evidence. But that doesn’t mean a jury cannot be swayed despite best intentions, I suppose.
Gelfling 545
@debbie: Aside from the horror of the situation which is appalling, I’m kind of surprised there are 300+ priests ( assuming there are some who are not implicated) in PA. Numbers have been dwindling for decades.
sukabi
@Anonymous At Work: and women..you forgot women. Trump only has the greatest respect for barnyard animals and women.
Gin & Tonic
@Archon: He’s been a proven beyond a reasonable doubt racist for a long time, Bucko.
Doug R
@Chyron HR: Why here’s the video of an old man yelling about economic anxiety.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sAELs42aZt4#
nasruddin
@Yarrow:
Caligula in I, Claudius: Find a dog who’ll eat a dog
nasruddin
@Archon:
What would we do? India – Pakistan mass migration and split up?
Chetan Murthy
@Archon: This seems relevant: High Trust, High Fear: Inside the Dystopian Hellhole of Trumpism
Marshall writes about live in the Trump swamp,using the language of international relations. But another way of describing it, more …. generically is via the “Prisoner’s Dilemma”. When you’re dealing with a player who *consistently* “defects” (rats you out) you can ONLY rat him out in return. It’s never useful to try to be decent — you’ll only get shat on. OTOH, if you think you can “teach” your counterparty to play nice, again as long as he rats you out, you need to do the same; but if he (for once) plays nice, you do the same in turn. This strategy is called “tit-for-tat” and it’s one of the known solutions to the Prisoner’s Dilemma.
I claim that you’re basically saying “our counterparty isn’t really an incorrigible defector”. And I’m saying both “yes he (the deplorables the GrOPers) is” and “every time we are decent to them, it only *encourages* them. It’s time to start paying tit-for-tat. Yeah, maybe it destroys the Republic. But if that happens, it was gonna happen anyway.
They’re not trustworthy counterparties. Only the heavy smack of hard punishment will reform them.
Gelfling 545
I can’t predict. The judge strikes me as somewhat of a contrarian and who can say how he’ll instruct the jury?
As for Omarosa, what has she actually revealed?
That he’s a racist?
That he molests women?
That he has no idea what he’s doing?
That he’s a crude bully?
The man himself gives ample evidence of that daily.
Well, the eating paper thing was new to me but otherwise it’s stuff he flaunts daily.
Chetan Murthy
@Gelfling 545: I’m again impressed with Josh Marshall’s analysis (of Omarosa & Avenatti): Nemeses: The Rise of the Trumping Anti-Trumps
The whole thing is worth reading. Really, it’s worth it. These two are the only ones who are playing his media game. No, it’s got nothing to do with governing, nor with justice. But it’ll drive him mad, and that’s already a good thing.
opiejeanne
@Anonymous At Work: Has he ever been in Washington state, prior to 2006? Enumclaw in particular?
2006 was when WA decided it needed a law against bestiality.
Ohio Mom
@Gelfling 545: This isn’t a story I am following but maybe a number of the priests were just passing through. Isn’t transferring bad priests from one parish to another one far away a pretty typical strategy?
Ohio Mom
@Chetan Murthy: Another story I am not following very closely but I wonder if Avenatti didn’t sat he was interested in the presidency just to boost his brand a bit. It’s good for a news cycle.
Kathleen
@debbie: If NPR is reporting it the diddling priests must be Trump supporters. “How child diddling priests in Pennsylvania who supported Trump feel about.(insert NPR madlib here).
?BillinGlendaleCA
@opiejeanne: Oh no, not “The Claw”.
Chetan Murthy
@Ohio Mom:
I agree with everything you wrote, and quote this part to highlight it. Indeed. Indeed. He understands Trump’s game, and is the first to do so and play it well. And Omarosa is the second. And she’s got tapes!
TenguPhule
@bigly truly:
Jesus Tested, Mother Approved! //
TenguPhule
@debbie:
A shorter list would be all the ones who didn’t.
opiejeanne
@Ohio Mom: The headline I saw said the hiding of the kiddie-diddlers was spread out over 70 years.
opiejeanne
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Did you know about the Date-A-Farm-Animal scandal? I think the bigger scandal was when we learned there was no law against it.
TenguPhule
@OzarkHillbilly:
Just long enough for Manafort to commit suicide. By stabbing himself in the back and flinging himself off the roof of the nearest tall building.
TenguPhule
@Archon:
Fuck the veneer and civility. Mammon will know his own.
Ohio Mom
@opiejeanne: That is more believable, that comes to just four or five rotten priests on average a year. @Gelfling 545: ‘s question about how there could be so many bad priests in one state even as the number of priests is falling has been answered.
Ohio Mom
A bit off-topic but it’s so nice to have my nym and email remembered.
Mnemosyne
@Chetan Murthy:
Yep. All of this. The highlight of my Romance Writers of America conference was bestselling author Suzanne Brockmann standing up for her lifetime achievement award and saying that she’s sick and tired of having to coddle the feelings of racists and homophobes, and she refuses to do it any longer. She got at least 3 standing ovations for her speech, and a tiny trickle of maybe 10-15 white people walking out in a huff.
The worm has turned. The racists may be angry, but the rest of us are even angrier and we are sick of their shit.
jonas
= it’s pretty much like the “Hitler reacts to…” meme, but just with n-words.
OGLiberal
@debbie: I’m in the Diocese of Scranton. I’m an atheist but go to church with the kids because they like it to be a family thing. (was never Catholic…dabbled in United Methodist as a youth…my own choice) Priest today addressed it several times, immediately at the start and a few more times throughout. 59 priests and lay folks in this single diocese itself. Many are dead, out of the priesthood or past the statute of limitations. Local priest said both his high school principal and two priests he was an altar server under are on the list. (and this is the diocese approved list…in reality, probably longer) Former diocese bishop Timlin – who is apparently a big cheese – covered up a case where a priest raped a 17-year old, got her pregnant then forced her to have an abortion. Bishop paid family 75k but was most concerned about the mental state of the priest.
Bad stuff…the priest at the church we went to tonight is in his 50s so relatively young but could sed the older guys hunkering down against this “attack on the church”.
My son is an altar server. The amount of time he is alone with the priest is zero. Half the ecumenical ministers are women. The opportunities for shady stuff these days is very low but the past was decades of bad shit.