This has certainly been a week for Trump lies to meet their final resting place. Bob Mueller ended any remaining doubt that the Russians were all-in for Trump’s candidacy with his indictment of thirteen Russians from the Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg. Any idea that Trump could lead Congress to any solution on DACA, let alone a just one, died in the Senate. And, least importantly to anyone not named Melania, Trump’s lies about his affairs with porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy centerfold Karen McDougal exploded in his face.
Probably the most significant thing about McDougal’s account is that is jibes with the accounts of several women who have accused Trump of unwanted sexual advances or assault. It’s also consistent in important details with the story Stormy Daniels has told in the past. Mainly this is a commonality of locations (e.g. a private bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel), behavior and diet (a lot of television, meat and potatoes, and no alcohol), and pick-up lines and promises (condos and apartments, career opportunities). The overall effect is to bolster the assault allegations, even if both the Daniels and McDougal affairs were completely consensual.
In light of all the other scandals swirling around the White House, his sexual peccadilloes will get short shrift, but they really shouldn’t since they provide evidence of the types of behavior (if not crimes) for which men are losing their jobs and reputations left and right in this country.
It’s a welcome thing that men are suddenly being held to account for behavior that has been tolerated for too ling, but there’s something wrong with a situation where the president is immune to the kind of accountability that others are facing.
It’s also a problem that the White House continues to deny that these two affairs took place when it’s plain as the nose on Trump’s face they he and they are lying through their teeth. There’s even a potential criminal component to the way the two women were paid off (in Daniels’s case) or tricked in silence (in McDougal’s). If the payments involved can be considered undisclosed campaign contributions, then they’re lying about a potential legal matter.
So, while we’re all taking about Russia, people without proper security clearances and wife beaters in the Oval Office and DACA, we shouldn’t forget that Trump has been caught in a series of lies about his sexual behavior and that there are many ways in which this should matter.
