Ex-Trumpers Are Trying To Exonerate Themselves. We Must Not Let Them.

[Celerity]

Trump's former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham is attempting self-absolution by publishing a tell-all book.

https://thebanter.substack.com/p/ex-trumpers-are-trying-to-exonerate



WASHINGTON, DC -- Before we dig in today, a little about me: I truly despise contributing to a Trump loyalist’s attempt at self-absolution after four years of tyrannical idiocracy in the White House. Yet what we’re going to discuss here is too important to ignore. The aforementioned self-absolution is exactly what former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham is attempting to do with her new tell-all book about her time working for Trump, the first one-term loser in 30 years. We’ll cover a few revelations in the book that are noteworthy and, if true, add to the validity of what we’ve been saying about Grisham’s former boss for more than six years. Before we get to the big items, there are, of course, a few silly and bizarre things from the book:



The “uh, yes sir” is an example of the self-absolution I’m talking about here. It’s clearly an attempt by Grisham to backpedal away from her former boss. In this case, her nonplussed quote is meant to stir up empathy in the reader. “She sounds so confused and annoyed,” we’re meant to think. Meanwhile, Grisham discusses two instances in which Trump cozied up to dictators. First, the obvious linkage between Trump and Putin is further vindicated. During the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, Trump was due to meet in private with Vladimir Putin. But before they held their one-on-one meeting, Trump described his planned charade to the Russian autocrat: “Okay, I’m going to act a little tougher with you for a few minutes. But it’s for the cameras, and after they leave we’ll talk. You understand.” The most important phrases here are “act a little tougher,” which clearly underscores the fact that Trump’s true intention was to kiss Putin’s ass in the meeting, and “it’s for the cameras.” He might as well have belted out a rendition of “Memory” from Cats -- I mean, as long as he’s putting on a phony-baloney show, why not a shabby cat costume and a song, too?

Likewise, any perceived “toughness” was all an act -- a shitty, flimsy act since Trump was never, ever “a little tougher” with Putin. The closest he ever came was saying, “And probably no one has been tougher to Russia than Donald Trump,” which isn’t an indication of toughness at all, especially since he hedged with the “probably” tossed in there. Nevertheless, here we have a Trump White House insider further establishing that Trump was desperate to keep Putin as happy as possible, going so far as to tell Putin that even a minor display of toughness was all bullshit. Why? I think we all know, and hopefully the Department of Justice will get around to presenting Trump’s dozen instances of criminal obstruction of justice, per the Mueller Report, to a grand jury. Grisham also reported that Trump was obsessed with moving the press out of the James Brady briefing room in the West Wing. Obviously, Trump considers the press to be “the enemy of the people” and so on -- the same old “fake news” meme. But it was a trip to North Korea that ultimately “inspired” Trump to order Grisham to work on a new location. Yes, the oppressive communist dictatorship was inspirational to Trump, manifesting an attack against the free press clause of the First Amendment.

Accompanying the story is another one of Grisham’s attempts at self-absolution to reverse-thrusters away from Trump. In this case, she wrote: “I researched different places we could put them other than the press briefing room. Each time the president asked me about my progress on the matter, I let him know I was still working on options.” She gave him a non-answer answer, and as we all know, the press was never removed from the White House. To be clear: it’s critical that we continue to hear from former Trump staffers and especially reputable journalists like Bob Woodward and Robert Costa about what happened. At the very least, it’s a matter of writing the accurate history of this ongoing political emergency. But where were Grisham and the others while Trump was president? Why weren’t they brave enough to step forward with what they knew? The fullness of the historical record is crucial here, make no mistake, but waiting to go public after he’s gone (for now) only serves the self-interests of the author. Do not forgive or forget what co-conspirators and apparatchiks like Grisham helped to manifest. They’re speaking out now, but while they had a chance to make a difference, they refused to speak. After all, there’s book money to be made after the fact, right? As Ella Wheeler Wilcox wrote: “To sin by silence, when we should protest, makes cowards out of men.”

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