Coop Scoop: "Lordy, I Hope There Are Tapes"

Turns out there are. Very damning ones for Mr. Trump

July 28, 2023

By Marc Cooper

It’s taken a few years, and they are not precisely the tapes that Jim Comey was hoping for.  But they will do just fine.

We’re talking video tapes from Donald Trump’s own surveillance cameras at Mar-A-Lago.  Tapes that the Special Counsel Smith did not discover for some time. Now they have.

And they represent perhaps the most damning evidence against the former president that has surfaced to date in his various entanglements with the justice system.  The tapes reportedly show a couple of Trump’s flunkies, scurrying around the property, and on direct orders of “The Boss,” straining to move and hide more than two dozen office boxes full of those hot secret docs. 

And now a new series of federal felony charges against Trump related to the Mar-A-Lago case: conspiracy to hide and destroy evidence.  This is deadly serious business for Trump who now is getting pinned to the wall.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to see those tapes.  Maybe I can get former Director Comey to come by with some buttered popcorn to watch it together.  And how much fun is it going to be hear testimony from so-called Employee Four, the Trump guy who refused to join the conspiracy and because he was the IT guy, he’s probably the primary reason the damning tapes were never destroyed.

I also can’t wait to hear what the corps (or is it corpse) of elected Republicans will have to say about Trump’s case now aping and eclipsing Dick Nixon’s erasure of 18 minutes of audio tape 50 years ago.  On a podcast last nite, I heard aspiring Quislings Nikki Haley and Tim Scott mumble on about January 6 and Trump, refusing to truly condemn either, and instead trying to change the subject to Hunter Biden.  Both said they would also vote for Trump if he winds up as the nominee.  More than Quislings, they’re human salamanders who are a disgrace to the entire American political class.

How you beat a demonic, demagogic, psychopath by defending him is a trick I have yet to learn or ever see after 72 years on earth.  Clowns like Scott, Haley and the other ten dwarves stand zero chance of being nominated unless The Boss suddenly spontaneously bursts into flames ( which I guess should not be 100% ruled out).  It’s one thing to downplay Trump’s violation of campaign finance law as in the case in the Manhattan prosecution.  I suppose if you try hard enough and close your eyes tight enough, you might be able to shrug off Trump hoarding secret documents as trophies and conversation pieces.

It's quite another to defend a former president caught red-handed, backed up by several witnesses and a batch of video tape, hiding evidence from federal investigators and participating in a well=documented conspiracy to obstruct justice?  Good luck on that one, Mr. McCarthy.

Watergate? Well, by contrast with the Trump Crime Spree,  the Nixon affair was indeed a walk in the park.  I can also guarantee you that this sordid current chapter of American history is not going to end with all of us singing Kumbaya and agreeing that pardoning DJT was a good idea.  So to paraphrase an iconic quote, is there not a single Republican Senator who has marshalled enough dignity to stand up and lead a movement to dump Trump?  Is Chris Christie, who resided in Trump’s colon for a couple of years, really the best we can do?

It’s impossible today to predict the final act of this story.  We do know, however, it is going to be explosive to say the least.  Let’s review a couple of scenarios. 

Trump’s current core strategy, apart from the ongoing public disinformation coming from his camp followers, is to simply delay everything until after the election.  It’s going to be a close call calendar-wise but it’s a good bet the only trial that will take place is the Manhattan one on campaign finance violations.  And even a conviction in that case will have little impact.

If Trump wins – which I humbly stake at about 3% chance—he would be able to quash any and all federal action against him but he cannot save himself from a state-based conviction from Georgia.  Except, there is that Office of Legal Counsel memo ( and it is just a memo) barring trial of any sitting president.

Much more likely, Trump will not win the general election, and provided a possible stack of four criminal indictments just maybe will stop him before he gets nominated.  Though I doubt it. My fellow Americans: Just take note.  One of America’s two major political parties is now preparing to run a presidential candidate while facing four legal confrontations that could land a regular old citizen in the clink for 25 years or so. 

Talk about American Exceptionalism!  The only thing that beats that scenario is Trump actually getting convicted on serious federal charges before the election but still running while appealing his sentence.  Fricking surreal!

But what about the more realistic scenario of losing – be it the primary or the general?  If Trump blows the nomination, I would think there is a 90% chance he will run as a third party candidate or as an independent – a choice I would wholeheartedly support as it would decimate the Republican Party.  Of course, if he is the nominee and if he loses the general, knowing next stop is a a couple of federal court rooms, you can expect a repeat of sorts of 2020. Stop the Steal! Smash the Deep State! “I wus robbed!”  It’s gonna be real ugly.  Best to prepare for a solid year of total turmoil beginning any day now.

BRIEFS

·      The No Labels idiots are clearly preparing to run a third party candidate who, far from uniting the country, will only help re-elect Donald Trump.  So far, the best idea they can come up with is to run “moderate” Democrat Joe Manchin as president along with a yet to be named “moderate” Republican woman.  Eva Braun?  I’ve a modest proposal for this folks.  How about you change your name to The No Marbles Party and run a woman-led bi-partisan ticket of Feinstein-McConnell—aimed directly at the Zombie vote?  They certainly are no more than moderately functional so they should be easy to deal with.

·      We saw Oppenheimer and Barbie on two succeeding days.  There’s a lot of carping on the Left about the flaws in Oppenheimer: not clear enough that the bomb was designed to wipe out the Nazis not the Japanese – who were basically defeated by August 1945.  Not enough emphasis on how the nuclear strikes were really aimed more at intimidating the Soviets than crispy frying a couple hundred thousands Japanese.  Yada yada.  Hey, folks, it’s a movie! For mass consumption. And it does a great job of bringing home the major lessons we should have learned from Trinity, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  For those who are frustrated, pick up Kai Bird’s book that the movie is based on and all your carping will come to an end.

America is a very weird place.

·      I found Barbie to be way too political in quite a sophomoric way.  It was visually compelling and certainly took an innovative approach to making a film that should be applauded.  And while I am opposed to patriarchy in principle, I am more opposed to having airhead actors like America Ferrera denounce patriarchy as “patriarchy” like four times during the film. And Barbie as the vanguard of 60’s feminism? Hmmm.  An interesting theory with some very minor validity but most certainly not the most outstanding effect of Mattel’s golden hen on American society. Watch it for free when it streams in a couple of weeks.  ++

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