The Mueller Report, Bolton's book, and countless other books haven't had the political impact such revelations would have had on any other presidency. Part of this can be blamed on the Republicans in the US Senate who have abdicated the obligation to keep the president accountable.
So, why should we expect this book to be any different? Well, this book was written by a man who participated in and witnessed the president's regular violations of the law as well as moral norms that have been important to this nation.
Second, I think that although the various books that have been published haven't had the impacts of Nixon's tapes, they each caused a little more erosion in Trump's support.
The link below takes you to the book's site. Not the publisher's site. The publisher isn't mentioned. You can order an autographed copy for $40. You can order a plain hardback addition for $32. It says a portion of the price will go to an unnamed non-profit organization. Nor is there information on when it is due to come out, though other reports say, "soon." I assume that means before the election. I also assume that the Southern District of New York already has most if not all the allegations that will be in the book, plus evidence that Trump's lawyer had.
Here are some experts from the Forward of Michael Cohen's forthcoming book Disloyal:
"To half of Americans, it seemed like Trump was effectively a Russian-controlled fraud who had lied and cheated his way to the White House; to the other half of Americans, to Trump’s supporters, the entire Russian scandal was a witch hunt invented by Democrats still unable to accept the fact that Hillary Clinton had lost fair and square in the most surprising upset in the history of American presidential elections.
Both sides were wrong. I knew that the reality was much more complicated and dangerous. Trump had colluded with the Russians, but not in the sophisticated ways imagined by his detractors. I also knew that the Mueller investigation was not a witch-hunt. Trump had cheated in the election, with Russian connivance, as you will discover in these pages, because doing anything—and I mean anything—to “win” has always been his business model and way of life. Trump had also continued to pursue a major real estate deal in Moscow during the campaign. He attempted to insinuate himself into the world of President Vladimir Putin and his coterie of corrupt billionaire oligarchs. I know because I personally ran that deal and kept Trump and his children closely informed of all updates, even as the candidate blatantly lied to the American people saying, “there’s no Russian collusion, I have no dealings with Russia…there’s no Russia.”
He doesn't mince words or downplay his own corrupt role in the Trump empire - though Trump would argue, I'm sure, that Cohen overestimates his role.
"When Trump wanted to reach Russian President Vladimir Putin, via a secret back channel, I was tasked with making the connection in my Keystone Kop fashion. I stiffed contractors on his behalf, ripped off his business partners, lied to his wife Melania to hide his sexual infidelities, and bullied and screamed at anyone who threatened Trump’s path to power. From golden showers in a sex club in Vegas, to tax fraud, to deals with corrupt officials from the former Soviet Union, to catch and kill conspiracies to silence Trump’s clandestine lovers, I wasn’t just a witness to the president’s rise—I was an active and eager participant.
To underscore that last crucial point, let me say now that I had agency in my relationship with Trump. I made choices along the way—terrible, heartless, stupid, cruel, dishonest, destructive choices, but they were mine and constituted my reality and life. During my years with Trump, to give one example, I fell out of touch with my sisters and younger brother, as I imagined myself becoming a big shot. I’d made my fortune out of taxi medallions, a business viewed as sketchy if not lower class. On Park Avenue, where I lived, I was definitely nouveau riche, but I had big plans that didn’t include being excluded from the elite. I had a narrative: I wanted to climb the highest mountains of Manhattan’s skyscraping ambition, to inhabit the world from the vantage point of private jets and billion-dollar deals, and I was willing to do whatever it took to get there. Then there was my own considerable ego, short temper, and willingness to deceive to get ahead, regardless of the consequences."
And a warning to us all. A warning I wish my Republican representatives in the Senate and the House would take more seriously than they do.
"Now, sitting alone in an upstate New York prison, wearing my green government-issued uniform, I’ve begun writing this story longhand on a yellow legal pad. I often wrote before dawn so not to be disturbed in my thoughts when my fellow inmates awoke. I had to report to the sewage treatment plant where some of us worked for a wage of $8 a month. As the months passed by and I thought about the man I knew so well, I became even more convinced that Trump will never leave office peacefully. The types of scandals that have surfaced in recent months will only continue to emerge with greater and greater levels of treachery and deceit. If Trump wins another four years, these scandals will prove to only be the tip of the iceberg. I’m certain that Trump knows he will face prison time if he leaves office, the inevitable cold Karma to the notorious chants of “Lock Her Up!” But that is the Trump I know in a nutshell. He projects his own sins and crimes onto others, partly to distract and confuse but mostly because he thinks everyone is as corrupt and shameless and ruthless as he is; a poisonous mindset I know all too well. Whoever follows Trump into the White House, if the President doesn’t manage to make himself the leader for life, as he has started to joke about—and Trump never actually jokes- will discover a tangle of frauds and scams and lawlessness. Trump and his minions will do anything to cover up that reality, and I mean anything."
None of this is surprising to me or even new. Anyone who paid attention over the last four years understands this about Trump. It's why we are so alarmed. It's really hard for me to understand how a person can act like Trump. I can talk about it, but I can't really feel it, can't put myself into his head. When I read, as a younger man, stories about the Gulag, about the Holocaust, and about other instances of torture, what I always wanted to know more about was the mind of the torturers. I couldn't understand their behavior. What Cohen offers me in this book is a peek into the mind of a monster.
"As you read my story, you will no doubt ask yourself if you like me, or if you would act as I did, and the answer will frequently be no to both of those questions. But permit me to make a point: If you only read stories written by people you like, you will never be able to understand Donald Trump or the current state of the American soul. More than that, it’s only by actually understanding my decisions and actions that you can get inside Trump’s mind and understand his worldview. As anyone in law enforcement will tell you, it’s only gangsters who can reveal the secrets of organized crime. If you want to know how the mob really works, you’ve got to talk to the bad guys. I was one of Trump’s bad guys. In his world, I was one hundred percent a made man."
Ah, yes. I remember one of the lessons of becoming a community organiser back in the 70s was to finally understand some folk see your actions in line with what they would do. There was a fellow who was openly suspicious of all my work because I was unpaid.
ReplyDeleteWhen I finally understood that -- why he opposed me in meetings so often -- I told him in confidence that I was hoping someday to run for elective office so I had to do this work.
That made him a friend -- I was in it for myself, after all. People. Sigh.