Previously on White House Apprentice, Donald Trump and his attorneys tried to stop Steve Bannon from saying bad things about the president and his family. At the same time, they tried to stop author Michael Wolff from publishing a book full of bad things that Bannon, among others, has said about the president and his family.
Long letters were sent. Crazy White House press secretary statements were made. It left this reporter curious as to whether there might actually be some truth to what Bannon and the others were saying. Why else would the president be so pissed?
Axios reports that Wolff has dozens of hours of taped conversations with top White House officials, including Bannon and former White House deputy chief of staff Katie Walsh.
Wolff is said to have been cleared for access to the West Wing fewer than 20 times, and he spent hours at a time in private areas, including the office of Reince Priebus when he was chief of staff.
Wolff also hosted a dinner for six at his New York townhouse. Invited guests included Bannon and the late Roger Ailes, the former chairman and CEO of Fox News.
It would appear that Bannon spilled the most tea. His index entry in Wolff’s book is quite lengthy:
After news of the Wolff tapes broke, Twitter was aflutter with people weighing in:
This tea is scalding.
Keep in mind that the District of Columbia has a one-party consent law as it pertains to recording conversations. So as long as Michael Wolff was a party to every conversation, he did not have to inform any of the other participants that he was recording.
That is going to make it harder for Trump and his sonnet-writing lawyers to fight back from that angle.
It also leads us back to the idea that there is truth in the things that were said. Again, if they were lies, there is a libel issue—and there are legal remedies for that.
If the things said in this book are, in fact, true, it makes it even more likely that the Robert Mueller investigation is going to take your president down.
The best part of this is that so many reporters were quick to call bullshit on Wolff’s claims in his book. The revelation that there are tapes to back up what he’s saying means that more than one person is going to have to eat a little crow.
Even if the things he wrote about are at some point proved to be totally false, he has evidence of who gave him that information and when they gave it to him. There is no malice on his part.
I love this song. So do many other people.
Wolff appeared on the Today show Friday morning to discuss his book. Of Trump he said, “This man does not read. Does not listen. He’s like a pinball, just shooting off the sides.”
Wolff’s book was released Friday, days ahead of schedule—and presumably in response to the fact that the president attempted to get it shut down.
Now we all need to just get our hands on a copy so we can read it together as a family.
I just ordered it on Kindle. I plan to read it this weekend.
Won’t you join me?