In a day before this presidency, perhaps either story would have exploded all over the news. Evidence of crime, graft and corruption by a president should do that. Outrage should fly. Scandal, scandal.
But, in the age of Trump, this was just another day. Two should-be-blockbuster stories rippled the news, but neither busted the seams. I don't know that anyone called for Trump's impeachment.
Tried that, done that, didn't work. So, don't go trying again. You bore me. Quit picking on the president. You're just out to get him.
Story One, In 2018, Trump allegedly asked the ambassador to Britain to get the British Open to be played at Trump Turnberry resort in Scotland. The ambassador's deputy warned against it, pointing out that it would be unethical use of the presidency for private gain.
Trump denied that he asked the ambassador to make such a pitch for him.
Story Two, Michael Cohen was ordered back out of federal confinement by a judge upset with what had sent him back to that confinement. Cohen had tweeted that he was finishing a tell-all book about Trump. About a week later, Cohen's probation officer came along and asked him to sign a nondisclosure agreement that would keep him free. All he had to do was not speak on social media, and not publish the book against Trump. A gag agreement, then. It amounted to, Don't disparage the president or we will send you straight back to jail.
"I've never seen such a clause in 21 years of being a judge and sentencing people," the judge who freed Cohen said. "How can I take any other inference but that it was retaliatory?"
Has ever in America's history a person been sent to jail for disparaging the president? We are not talking of revealing classified information, here. We are just talking of saying disparaging things about the president. Freedom of speech? freedom of the press? The right to criticize government? These are our among our most fundamental freedoms. In America -- circa 2016 and earlier -- this wouldn't have happened.
Then came Trump.
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