When I first saw the report, last night, that Michael Cohen claims to have helped Jerry Falwell Jr. “bury” some compromising, racy photographs, my reaction was “I speculated something like this was happening two years ago!” My real question is, who else is compromised?
From the start, the Falwell-Trump relationship bothered me. Not because I expect Falwell to be a paragon of Christian virtue; I do not. But Trump is aggressively, brazenly anti-Christian. He doesn’t just represent the gold standard in greed, dishonesty, carnality, and pride (for that matter, we could throw in envy, wrath, and sloth as well), but he REVELS in it. That a Falwell would support a right-wing quasi-Fascist was no surprise at all; I just figured it was a reach for Falwell because he would have a tough time selling it to his followers. I mean, think about it: the second generation “Moral Majority” folks who are primarily activated by their anti-abortion stance should have at least a little pause in being asked to support someone who up until actually running for president was Pro-Choice. Add in divorce, philandering, and “Two Corinthians” and you would think right-wing “evangelical” Christians should have gone with Jeb, or Rubio, or somebody. But then Jerry Falwell Jr. gave Trump his full-throated support. He endorsed him, gave him a platform, practically installed a stained glass depiction of Trump in the Liberty University Chapel. And now we know why. Maybe. I, for one, will be interested to see how all this shakes out.
Still, there are a few things we know. Trump has a longtime friendship with David Pecker, publisher of the National Enquirer. Does anyone REALLY think that Trump would hesitate to use compromising information on people to leverage their support and cooperation? My next nomination for “person this is likely to be happening to” is Lindsey Graham. At one time, Graham said that Republicans should have “basically kicked [Trump] out of the party.” Now, he’s one of Trump’s fiercest acolytes. Why? It’s certainly not because Lindsey Graham thinks Trump’s foreign policy is so wonderful. It’s not because of Trump’s grotesque behavior towards Graham’s friend John McCain. Is it “possible” that Trump holds some sway over Lindsey Graham that we don’t know about? Yes, I would say it’s possible. I said it about Falwell two years ago.
Are there others? Probably. I’m certainly not claiming that major chunks of the Republican establishment are in thrall to Trump because of naughty photographs. But I do think it is happening. I don’t agree with Lindsey Graham on much of anything, but I thought he was more principled than to support an ignorant, blustering fool. I have always thought Jerry Falwell Jr. is more about power and influence than the Sermon on the Mount, but I thought he was more principled than to support a serial sexual predator. And so, last night’s news didn’t surprise me. I remain convinced that Trump has been compromised by the Russians and that is why he will do nothing but praise Vladimir Putin, and I am just as convinced Trump has compromising information on some individuals and that explains their bizarre sycophancy. The Falwell compromising photographs story, if true, adds a lot of weight to this theory.