Sooner or later, all of us raging Trumpophobes will arrive at the same place, the same question. “How,” we will ask, “is Trump like O.J.?”
Remember how, after about a month into O.J.’s trial, we all knew who killed Ron and Nicole? Well, most of us. It wasn’t a real tough call. All that remained to be hammered out was the human story, the story of the lawyers, the cops, the jury and the judge, and how it would all conclude. Pretty shockingly, as I recall.
I’ve got pretty much the same feeling now about Trump and Russia. We’ve been getting steady tidbits of Twitlerian coverups, mischief, skullduggery—all of which have been bonded together by a stunning parade of lies, lies, lies for about eight months. We’ve seen how Trump has been schmoozing with Russian money, leaders and oligarchs for the last five to seven years. And now, we’ve finally seen how the Trump campaign eagerly sought and accepted Russian assistance, a revelation that instantly exposed their denials of collusion as yet another barrage of lies. We’ve also seen that more than one Russian intelligence officer dropped sneaky, prescient hints during the spring of ’16 about how Russia was now ready to give a little hot foot to arrogant America and—nudge, nudge, wink, wink—it’s gonna be a good one. We’ve seen for weeks how Trump and his lackeys, minions and sycophants (one year ago, Kellyanne Conjob was working for Ted F. Cruz!) are utterly defenseless in the face of a furious and relentless media, how all they can do is prop up their precious base of MAGAns with howls of Fake News! And that, now, Trump has blown on that particular trumpet so much it’s utterly worthless, its spit valve clogged beyond repair. Ever hear the story of the boy who cried wolf, Dum Dum?
We all know by now that they are, the lot of them, guilty as sin, as guilty as fucking O.J. The only thing we don’t know at this time is how yuge this outlandish conspiracy truly is. Does this web of espionage and treasonous bullshit include McConnell? Ryan? Who would be surprised? Who would dare to be shocked? But no more talk of coincidences. No more talk of “benefit of the doubt.” We’re so far past those courtesies it’s literally not funny. The NYT, WaPo, et al will merrily continue to pound nail after nail into Dum Dum’s coffin over the next few months, until Mr. Mueller finally gets around to soaking that foul box in gasoline and dropping the match.