Politico reports that the residents of the Trump White House are quivering in fear. Fear that another tape recorded by Omarosa Manigault Newman will be released, and they will be displayed in an unpleasant light. Such as making them look like they associate with a tax-dodging, pussy-grabbing, racist, sexist, serial liar who genuinely thinks an orange spray tan looks cool. But Politico also has a go-to reference for what this situation is just exactly like.
Omarosa Manigault Newman’s slow release of secretly taped conversations from inside the Trump campaign and White House is having the same effect on staffers as the daily dumps from WikiLeaks had on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign …
The result is the same type of psychological warfare that gripped the Clinton campaign two years ago …
Like the WikiLeaks dump — which severely damaged the Clinton campaign by taking it off message …
Yes, one woman who pressed the voice recorder app on her phone is exactly like a concerted effort by the Russian government using hundreds of technical assets to break in and steal documents from multiple sources and distribute those documents through a pipeline that not only took the information straight to the front page of every paper, but right to the podium of Trump’s rallies where he daily read aloud from the latest releases. An effort that was backed up by the coordinated use of everything from pop-up news sites, millions of ‘bots churning social media, and AstroTurf rallies.
Except no. A outright attack by a foreign government investing millions and being amplified by not just the media but the coordination of the Trump campaign is not like one angry black woman. And actually, Politico agrees. Because they go to great lengths to explain how the Omarosa crisis is much, much worse.
“Nobody had to be worried that there was an email where Hillary used the N-word,” she said. “And John doesn’t say crazy stuff.”
That’s right. The Omarosa recordings are so much harder for the Trump White House. Than anything that ever happened to the Clinton campaign. Because the Trump White House is filled with people who are so much worse.
They genuinely do have to worry that their boss spilled (more) racial slurs of every description. And they know they can count on a solid majority of Trump’s cabinet to produce “crazy stuff” on any given day.
Some members of the Clinton team attempted to point out to Politico that perhaps, just perhaps, this wasn’t the greatest comparison they might be able to find. Especially when they’re dealing with a man who already has his own scandal involving a tape that came out of a reality TV scandal, which might make a lot more sense as a reference.
Clinton adviser Neera Tanden: Unless Omarosa is a Russian plant, these are night and day.
But Politico had settled on WikiLeaks as their it’s-just-like-that, and so to Wikileaks they went. Enough times that Hillary Clinton appears on their Omarosa article more often than Omarosa.
There’s another difference worth considering. Politico points out that the Clinton team started every day by looking at the latest WikiLeaks releases and determining how they would respond. But when it comes to Omarosa, the Trump strategy is to throw a few racist tweets and ignore everything else. Which only works if the media lets it work.