XPost: soc.retirement, alt.politics.trump, sac.politics   
   XPost: alt.politics.republicans   
   From: ross@gerberkawasaki.com   
      
   Stormy Daniels' lawyer succeeded in hyping his client's "60   
   Minutes" appearance into the must-watch TV episode of the   
   season—the show’s biggest ratings in a decade.   
      
   But there was substantial pushback yesterday against the former   
   porn actress, and against her attorney Michael Avenatti for   
   overselling the interview.   
      
   We all knew what Daniels was going to say in advance, that she   
   had a one-time, consensual sexual encounter with Donald Trump   
   back in 2006.   
      
   (We didn't know she would say she wasn't attracted to him and   
   didn't want to sleep with him. I took some flak for describing   
   her as a no-nonsense businesswoman, but was trying to convey her   
   lack of warmth, unlike Karen McDougal, the former Playboy model   
   also interviewed by Anderson Cooper, who kept saying she'd been   
   in love with Trump.)   
      
   But on every other point, Stormy was cloudy when it came to   
   providing evidence.   
      
   Most symbolic, perhaps, was Daniels refusing to comment on any   
   photographic or text evidence she might have, after Avenatti had   
   tweeted a picture of a CD to build suspense for the interview.   
      
   Daniels also spoke to CBS about a physical threat, but a key   
   element was missing.   
      
   She said a man confronted her in a parking lot in 2011—as she   
   was preparing to tell her tale to a magazine—and "leaned around   
   and looked at my daughter and said, 'That's a beautiful little   
   girl. It'd be a shame if something happened to her mom.'"   
      
   Pretty chilling stuff. But Daniels says she can't identify the   
   man, and that she never went to the police. So it's impossible   
   for others to verify her account.   
      
   The same goes for Daniels' contention that she was pressured   
   into releasing statements, as recently as January, denying any   
   affair with Trump.   
      
   "As a matter of fact," she told Cooper, "the exact sentence used   
   was, 'They can make your life hell in many different ways.'"   
      
   And who is "they"?   
      
   "I'm not exactly sure who they were," Daniels acknowledged. "I   
   believe it to be Michael Cohen."   
      
   But that's speculation—and brought a strongly worded denial from   
   the president's personal lawyer, along with a cease-and-desist   
   letter sent to Daniels.   
      
   And by the way, while Cohen admits his $130,000 payment to her   
   in late 2016 was meant to buy her silence, Daniels said on CBS   
   that she wanted the deal because she didn't want the story to   
   come out and hurt her family.   
      
   The bottom line is that Stormy Daniels didn't really advance the   
   story. It's embarrassing for Trump and his family, but so far   
   not especially damaging.   
      
   At the White House, deputy press secretary Raj Shah seemed   
   determined to give the shortest possible answers and not mention   
   Stormy's name. He said Trump has "clearly and consistently   
   denied these underlying claims, and the only person who's been   
   inconsistent is the person making the claims."   
      
   What Bill Clinton did was far worse, because he was president at   
   the time and sullied the White House, while Trump was a   
   celebrity businessman with almost no involvement in politics.   
      
   Another key difference: While some vilified Monica Lewinsky,   
   there was public sympathy for her as a young White House intern   
   dealing with predatory behavior by her boss. With a porn actress   
   and a Playboy model who used their sexuality professionally, not   
   so much.   
      
   http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/03/27/why-stormy-daniels-   
   didnt-move-needle-on-60-minutes.html   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)