The week from April 30th to May 5th was a very controversial one within the Trump administration, taking to a new level the continuous chaos hallmark of this President’s administration.
Trump’s lead lawyer, John Dowd, a veteran advocate for white collar defendants, left his post in April and was replaced by former New York mayor and governor Rudy Giuliani, who in just a week foreshadowed the downfall of an administration that can’t keep a line between law and order.
Giuliani also represents an apparent shadow government of former Trump aides, Fox News conspiracy theorists and conservative millionaire donors; many of whom have the president’s ear and speak to him on phone calls about developing his agenda regularly.
During an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” the former New York City mayor and U.S. attorney said the money to repay Michael Cohen had been “funneled … through the law firm and the president repaid it.” Giuliani made the statements to Fox host Sean Hannity, who has his own connection to the case. His comments contradicted statements made by Trump several weeks ago, when he said he didn’t know about the payment to Daniels as part of a nondisclosure agreement she signed days before the presidential election.
Since then, an exposed web of lies of the Trump Administration has vindicated Trump’s critics, and has left his surrogates, staff, and aids speechless as the White House had always said Trump denies having a relationship with Daniels.
Probably, this sketch from Saturday Night Live’s latest episode where Ben Stiller, reprising his role as Michael D. Cohen, the personal lawyer to Trump, places a pay phone call to the president is the best example of the nonstop pattern of lies the media has tried to uncover since the campaign trail.
Watch: Michael Cohen Wiretap Cold Open – SNL
Picking up the best line from this sketch…
“Mr. President, I have lost all credibility,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, played by Aidy Bryant, told Alec Baldwin who plays the incarnation of Trump. “Did you lie to me about the Stormy Daniels affair?”
Baldwin said, “Yeah, that sounds like something I would do.”
Such is the case of Giuliani who is embracing his client’s preferred approach to challenges as he mounts Trump’s defense through the media. But it’s proving to be a bewildering display. He is delivering confounding and at times contradictory statements as he tries to lessen the legal burdens on his client from an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and a $130,000 hush payment to a porn actress.
In an interview Sunday with ABC’s “This Week,” Giuliani dismissed as rumor his own statements about Trump’s payment to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels, said he can’t speak to whether the president lied to the American people when he denied knowledge of the silencing agreement and wouldn’t rule out the president asserting his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in the Russia investigation. Giuliani also couldn’t say whether Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, had made similar payments to other women on the president’s behalf.
Giuliani said despite Trump’s openness to sit down with special counsel Robert Mueller in the Russia investigation, he would strongly advise Trump against it.
“I’m going to walk him into a prosecution for perjury like Martha Stewart?” Giuliani asked, referring to the lifestyle maven convicted in 2004 of lying to investigators and obstruction in an insider trading case.
Giuliani couldn’t guarantee that Trump wouldn’t end up asserting his constitutional right to refuse to answer any questions that might incriminate him.
“How could I ever be confident of that?” Giuliani said.
There will be consequences.
In an April 26-May 1 survey of 1,991 registered voters, 62 percent say the administration is running somewhat or very chaotically, a rise of 4 percentage points from a March 15-19 poll and 8 points from a March 1-5 poll. Those who say they think the administration is running very well or somewhat well fell to 32 percent from 36 percent in the mid-March poll.
I find it hard for the Trump administration to steer this ship out of troubled waters. So, like Stormy Daniels to Baldwin’s Trump: ‘Storm’s coming, baby’.
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The Exposed Web of Lies of the Trump Administration
