For most of my early years of basement Sunday school, I was told sin is sin before graduating to the adult section in the first-floor glow of stained glass windows. In contrast, there are degrees of criminal sin for the self-anointed party of God. Last week Donald Trump’s newest lawyer Joe Tacopina forgot his first-year law class by admitting his client lied. A first-year law student knows the difference between a lie and perjury, from the child covered in chocolate saying they did not eat the fudge to a bank robber covered in red dye telling the cops it wasn’t me. A lie remains a lie even said outside of a courtroom. Tacopina tried his best attempt at circumlocution with MSNBC host Ari Melber explaining why a lie is not a lie if it is not given under oath. Mr. Tacopina seems to have not done minimal research into Melber’s background—Ari Melber is not only a tv host but a lawyer.
Excerpted from Melber’s show The Beat:
TACOPINA: Ari, that’s — that’s what you’re going to consider a lie? A lie to me is something material, under oath, in a proceeding.
MELBER: Oh, I didn’t say perjury. I said a lie.
TACOPINA: But that’s not a lie.
MELBER: That’s not a lie?
TACOPINA: Here’s why it’s not a lie … Because it was a confidential settlement. So if he acknowledged that, he would be violating the confidential settlement. So, is it the truth? Of course, it’s not the truth. Was he supposed to tell the truth? He would be in violation of the agreement if he told the truth. So by him doing that, he was abiding by, not only his rights, but Stormy Daniels’s rights.
What set off Tacopina’s tap dance was a recording played by Melber of Trump denying the payment of 130,000 dollars to adult star Stormy Daniels(nee Stephanie Clifford), later discovered to be a lie in a story broken by the Wall Street Journal. Aside from Mr. Trump paying hush money amid a presidential campaign, it is alleged it was paid with campaign funds. That brings us to Manhattan, NY, District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is not only investigating but expected to bring an indictment against the former president. One would think Republicans learned their lesson when Mr. Trump set an insurrectionist mob upon Congress on January 6. Despite the warnings before the riots and threats to kill the Vice President of the United States, we are again allowing the GOP to set the narrative.
This time Mr. Trump all but said, nice country you got here; too bad if something happened to it.
The GOP cowardice is showing again with Republican leaders belittling charges they have not seen. Either trying to get out in front of his possible arrest, extorting the judicial system, or both, Mr. Trump is calling for another protest, much like he did on 1/6. “Protest, take our nation back!”the former president wrote Saturday. Again the GOP is walking the line. Although House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is publicly speaking out against the protest, he is stooping to Trump’s supporters, tweeting, “Here we go again — an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump,”McCarthy tweeted on Saturday.
Despite New Hampshire’s Republican Governor Chris Sununu’s warning about the continuation of the “political circus” and presidential candidate Nikki Haley calling for a new direction, Trump is the ringmaster of the Republican party. Until the GOP decides to close down the big top, do not sniff the lapel flower; you will get a face full of Trump.
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