This Just In – Apparently Former President Trump is a fibber. Who knew?
Everybody knew. Before I launch into what would seem a partisan assault, let me just mention that in 1992, the electorate was pretty clear on the fact that Bill Clinton was what is politely called “a player.”
It drove Republicans absolutely crazy that Clinton egregiously chased women without suffering the consequences that they could expect for the same low life behavior. Also outrageous to the GOP was the fact that Clinton’s White House was more like a frat house in its culture and work environment than a serious policy and governance shop.
There were late night pizza parties and less than methodical access to the boss. That staff was young. The president was young. The inexperience was conspicuous, but it was largely written off as being due to youth. At least he never wore a tan suit.
Those seem like pretty innocent days by comparison. The GOP used the tools at its disposal to discredit and damage Clinton politically. It’s so important to remember … they never wanted to remove him from office – just “dirty him up” and hope the stench of scandal would help their chances in the 2000 contest.
The impeachment of Bill Clinton was, therefore, never an effort to give us a President Gore to run for election in his own right in 2000. That’s an important strategy point.
Had either of the two impeachments of the 45th president delivered unto us a President Pence for the balance of his 2017-2021 term, Democrats might squirm a bit, but the removal of 45 from America’s landscape of elective service would be a benefit to national security and very possibly a maneuver that could save the Republican party from extinction. Democrats used the impeachment process to make a case for its intended purpose – removing a corrupt and dangerous president (and disqualifying him from future federal office).
Now comes the New York Attorney General with a massive fraud case that feels a lot like a seminar for law students. Fraud so egregious, documentation so massive that two unusual things happened:
- The defendant put up no defense and
- The plaintiff (the attorney general) asked for and received a summary judgment against the defendant (Trump, his sons and his company).
Now, it’s all about collecting the damages and liquidating the company in New York.
When you have a 10,000+ square foot apartment in Manhattan and you lie to secure loans and insurance and say it’s about 30,000 square feet, you’re making clear that your willingness to lie is unchecked.
While I appreciate the work of the NY Attorney General Tish James and her staff, I’m left wondering (though not much) about her predecessors. Andrew Cuomo and Elliot Spitzer had to have known that wildly obvious overstatements of the “real estate developer” Trump extended into the arena of fraud. It took Tish James about five minutes to bring a case against “Trump University” and shut that down. Equally obvious, the fake charity that had son Eric raising money for sick children and keeping it. James slammed the door on that, too.
Now it’s a giant case against Trump, LLC that will likely lead to the sale at auction of Trump Tower on 5th Avenue. Calling all of this a house of cards is too small a term.
Gee whiz, how did Spitzer and Cuomo miss it? Easy. Both of them were disgraced and left public life because they could not get away with behaving like Bill Clinton … and Donald Trump. Their own conduct was so similar to Trump’s, they were plainly too close to the heat source to call out “fire!”
As Democrats are clearing their throats and trying to make the argument (or avoid doing so) for why New Jersey’s indicted Senator Bob Menendez should resign, they will do well to realize that the coverup is so often as bad or worse than the crime.
Step back, y’all. Don’t let that stink get all over you.
Jean Bolduc is a freelance writer and the host of the Weekend Watercooler on 97.9 The Hill. She is the author of “African Americans of Durham & Orange Counties: An Oral History” (History Press, 2016) and has served on Orange County’s Human Relations Commission, The Alliance of AIDS Services-Carolina, the Orange County Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, and the Orange County Schools’ Equity Task Force. She was a featured columnist and reporter for the Chapel Hill Herald and the News & Observer.
Readers can reach Jean via email – jean@penandinc.com and via Twitter @JeanBolduc
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