On the best days, Trump’s team appears to be a poorly managed circus, but on Monday one of the clowns broke free and went raging across news-space. Subpoenaed to appear before Robert Mueller’s Grand Jury with emails and texts from a list of current and former Trump staff, Sam Nunberg instead called the subpoena “ridiculous” and went on to carve a zig-zag course through hours of news coverage that managed to be two parts jaw-droppingly ignorant, and one part sadly ignorant.
Nunberg: Screw that. Why do I have to go? Why? For what?
Nunberg began his tour with a call to the Washington Post, where he proclaimed that he would not show up for his Grand Jury appearance on Friday, or provide the records that were demanded by subpoena. He repeated his rant on MSNBC, then jumped to CNN for a trio of interviews, then it was back to MSNBC. During the course of the day, Nunberg made claims that were bound to have sounded emergency klaxons at the White House, as he declared that Trump had known about the infamous Trump Tower meeting in advance and that Trump’s visit to Moscow really had included at least an offer of prostitutes. As the hours passed, Nunberg managed to insult Cory Lewandowski, Carter Page, Hope Hicks, and Trump. And while he claimed he was doing it all to protect his “mentor” Roger Stone, Nunberg also let slip that Stone “may have lied” to investigators.
Astonishingly, Nunberg seemed to believe that he could avoid the Grand Jury just by refusing to cooperate, on no more basis than he didn’t want to, or that it would take him 40, 50, or 80 hours to go through his emails. He made repeated statements that he didn’t believe he would be arrested, which gradually faded to questioning the hosts about whether they thought he would be arrested. On multiple shows, Nunberg asked “What do you think Mueller will do?”
It was, all-in-all, a trainwreck of epic proportions—and probably the biggest ratings booster for CNN and MSNBC in years that didn’t involve the word “shooter.”
But, as the day wore on, Nunberg’s certainty wore down. And during his last two performances, the idea that he was facing actual arrest seemed to get through to him. At the end of the day, Nunberg left his actions in doubt, but seemed to be leaning toward showing up after all.
Many of the newscasters Nunberg spoke with seemed at least as concerned about his health as they were about getting more information. Even in the face of former aide spilling stories on Trump, Keith Schiller, Lewandowski, Hicks and others, anchors on both CNN and MSNBC cut Nunberg off to tell him that what he was doing didn’t seem like a great idea, and that he really should comply with the subpoena.
In an afternoon appearance on CNN, anchor Erin Burnett said what many people had been suggesting.
Burnett: We talked earlier about what people in the White House were saying about you ... Talking about whether you were drinking or on drugs or whatever had happened today. Talking to you, I have smelled alcohol on your breath.
Nunberg: Well, I have not had a drink.
Burnett: Because it is the talk out there, I know it's awkward, let me just give you the question so you can categorically answer. No, you haven't had a drink today?
Nunberg: My answer is no I have not.
Burnett: Anything else?
Nunberg: Nothing besides my meds. Anti-depressants. Is that OK?
If Nunberg’s actions weren’t a meltdown compounded of stress, drugs, and alcohol, they were certainly a very convincing imitation. And while it was easy to wince at Nunberg’s apparent brain-chemistry failure, his day long ramble also provided a reminder of why Nunberg was fired from the Trump campaign. Talking to Katy Tur, Nunberg insisted that, had he and Roger Stone been left in charge of Donald Trump’s campaign, they would have produced “Bill Clinton’s illegitimate black child.” Sam Nunberg’s departure from the Trump campaign was made after it was noticed that his Facebook page was filled with racist statements.
Finding sympathy for a Roger Stone acolyte who was dismisse—from the Trump campaign—for his overly racist views, may be a little difficult. But as Nunberg blundered from one studio to the next, it seemed clear that he was not anywhere near his rocker. At the end of the day’s adventure, MSNC’s Ari Melber met Nunberg with a pair of legal experts, both of whom seemed to be present not to dissect anything Nunberg had said, but to convince him that, yes, failure to obey the subpoena would likely result in his being jailed for months. Perhaps longer.
Nunberg also seemed disappointed to learn about the case of Susan McDougal, who spent 18 months in prison for failing to cooperate with the Whitewater jury. Throughout the day, Nunberg had made statements such as “No one has ever done this” and asked hosts “Am I the first one?” Learning that he wasn’t the first person to defy a Grand Jury, and the consequences, seemed to remove some wind form his already drooping sails.
Nunberg did manage to drop multiple bombshells during the day. Asked about the Trump Tower meeting with Russian operatives, Nunberg claimed that Donald Trump knew about the meeting well in advance.
"No. You know he knew about it. He was talking about it a week before...I don't know why he went around trying to hide it."
Nunberg also said that his impression from his time being interviewed by Mueller was that the special counsel had something on Trump.
"I think he may have, he may have done something during the election.”
He went on to repeat the events of the Miss Universe weekend in Moscow, but claimed that despite an offer of prostitutes, Donald Trump was “too smart” to have women sent up to his room. Nunberg said he’d been told this by Trump bodyguard Keith Schiller.
Several of the statements Nunberg made concerned events that happened after he supposedly left the Trump campaign. Which suggests that either Nunberg was speaking only of things he’d learned second hand, or that he and Roger Stone had been more involved with the campaign than Trump publicly admitted.
The reason for Nunberg’s day long rant are still uncertain, as are his actions, but Friday isn’t that far away. However, there’s one thing that Nunberg’s on-screen melt-down really did seem to show: Robert Mueller isn’t looking for small players on the edges of the campaign, he’s gunning for Trump, and he’s coming at him from every angle.
