I awoke this morning to seven e-mails from Trump backers telling me that the "golden showers" story about Trump has been thoroughly debunked and proven to be a hoax. The story most related to me about who perpetrated the hoax and how sounds to me like a hoax itself. As I said yesterday, the original story sounded like a hoax, too. I just watched some of Trump's press conference and most of it sounded like a hoax, as well.
At least two of the folks who wrote me, I recognize as having written me years ago telling me that there was definitely something to the story about Obama not being born in the U.S. There was no proof that was ever true just as there's no proof that Donald paid hookers to wee-wee for his enjoyment. But there's certainly some political advantage to keeping certain probably-false rumors in play. Trump did very well pushing the idea that he was just inches away from having solid proof that Obama was a Kenyan.
I understand why the Kellyanne Conways of the world go out and insist that every single negative thing you've heard about Trump is a blatant lie and every bad thing about his opponents has been proven beyond any doubt. She's being paid to do that and she surely sees great opportunities for career advancement if she does it effectively. I don't understand why some people are willing to abandon their credibility and their sense of what's true and isn't true without compensation.
I think Donald Trump is a terrible, uninformed and dangerous man who cares about the popularity and wealth of Donald Trump…and nothing else. His recklessness and his willingness to say and do just about anything makes it real easy to believe — or sell to anyone seeking more reasons why he is unfit for office — just about any story about him being a pig or a misogynist or a swindler. But they can't all be true. Not every bad thing said about any politician is true.
In Trump's case, I think those of us who want to argue that he's a terrible, uninformed and dangerous man have plenty to work with just from what he's actually said and done. There's no need to make stuff up or to believe unverifiable stories out of nowhere…especially if he keeps having press conferences like the one today.