Stormy Daniels Is a Master Troller

60 Minutes

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Am I obligated to write about the Stormy Daniels interview on 60 Minutes last night? I am? Fine: I didn’t really learn anything new. She mostly repeated the basic story that InTouch published a couple of months ago, and added that she never wanted to go public but was forced to after the Wall Street Journal published a story about the hush money agreement. After that, well, if you’re going to go public, you might as well do it right. And she’s doing it right: the ratings for 60 Minutes were up 111 percent last night compared to last week.

In any case, there was really nothing new to learn anyway. At this point, I don’t think anyone doubts that the affair happened or that Donald Trump was well aware of the hush money agreement. However, we did get our first sustained look at Daniels in an interview. And she did well. She doesn’t sound rehearsed or evasive and she doesn’t sound embarrassed. She mostly sounds annoyed about the whole thing.

In any case, the great thing about the Stormy Daniels story is that Trump has really met his match. She’s trolling him just as loudly and just as relentlessly as Trump trolls everyone else. She’s not intimidated and she doesn’t really seem to care that Trump is president of the United States. What’s more, her lawyer seems like an easy match for Trump fixer/lawyer Michael Cohen, who is surely one of the more obnoxious figures to invade our TV screens in recent memory. Inae Oh has more about that here. Apparently he’s promising everything short of a blue dress to prove that Stormy Daniels is telling the truth. I guess we should all keep our popcorn poppers warmed up.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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