Andrew Egger: “In a way, Donald Trump and his allies have spent their entire political lives preparing for this moment. The whole miserable decade of ‘alternative facts,’ of witch hunts, of flooding the zone with shit—it all amounted to a long, powerful education for his base. It’s a training in a certain kind of zen meditation, in which stories damaging to Trump pass from the eyes and ears directly out of the body without ever intersecting the brain. By now, the base has gotten in their 10,000 hours. They’ve become masters of the craft. They can perform all sorts of remarkable feats—the media-cope equivalent of lying on beds of nails while cinderblocks are smashed on their chests. These cinderblocks, they whisper serenely, are just a liberal plot. If I pay attention, the Democrats win.”
“This Epstein story might as well be their final test. They’ve clamored for years for more information about Epstein’s sexual-deviant associates—and here Trump is, wallowing in that muck of perversity, clear as day. Trump plainly thinks he’s got them well trained enough that he doesn’t even need to find a good cover story. They’re ready to excuse him all on their own.”
