I watched the interview (below) where Ari Melber knew in advance what Trump’s former campaign staffer, White House special assistant, and graduate of Georgetown law school Boris Epshteyn (Wiki profile) was going to say about why the Senate trial of his former boss or guru. It’s hard to say which word applies.
If you missed it I think you find it is well worth the seven minutes it will take to watch it.
Epshteyn began by saying there were three elements to his contention that the upcoming Senate trial was essentially a shame (my term). Melber was prepared with compelling counter-arguments for each one and had video clips to demonstrate his reasons.
Epshteyn’s three elements were that 1) it is unconstitutional to try a former president, 2) Trump was right to insist there was election fraud, and 3) he couldn’t have incited the mob because he used the word “peaceful” when he suggested the crowd march to the Capitol.
He objected to the clip Melber played showing all the other incendiary things Trump said in the June 6th rally. Epshteyn’s primary version Trump’s defense seems to boil down to the word “peaceful”. Melber said that the fact that this one word cancelled everything else he said out was like Tony Soprano ordering a hit and then saying be peaceful.
Epshteyn told Melber he should fire whoever made the clip of the incendiary things Trump said for leaving out the “be peaceful” comment and the quick thinking Melber, the chief legal correspondent at MSNBC who earned his law degree at Cornell Wikipedia, retorted that he wasn’t telling Epshteyn who on his staff to fire. That was a gem.
All in all, if this is the totality of Trump’s defense it is a flimsy one at best.
But this isn’t what struck me the most in the interview.
The screen grabs shown in my illustration are of Epshteyn reacting to something Melber said which I think shows that Epshteyn shows by his expressions that he knows damn well he is building a case made of a tissue of lies and untenable interpretations of the truth.
There was one moment when Epshteyn revealed even more clearly how he really feels by actually laughing when Melber interrupted him and said “I want you to hold on, this is serious business” (below).
Boris Epshteyn knows that the only serious thing about this is the business aspect. It’s his job to lie like a rug. He doesn’t even do it well. I don’t think he believes a word he is saying. I think he is well aware he’d get an F if he presented these defenses in this manner in law school moot court if he was on the defense team.
Trump seems to have two categories of defenders. The first are the sycophants and toadies who worship the ground he walks on, and the second are the opportunists. It may be argued that there can be overlap or mixed motivations. However, on a motivational level I think they are in general mutually exclusive. Either the Trump supporters and defenders have succumbed to the je ne sais quoit of Trump’s power over people or they see allegiance with him as a way they can advance their own careers. They see through Trump, they know he is a mentally unstable if not totally deranged man, but they are total opportunists.
I put Epshteyn in the later category.
What do you think?
Afterword:
Fans of Ari Melber know he has a voluminous knowledge of rap lyrics with he often references on his show. I thought I might get his attention if I put one in this tweet to him:
I found it here:
Notorious B.I.G. - "Who Shot Ya?"
"I can hear sweat trickling down your cheek/Your heartbeat sound like Sasquatch feet/Thundering, shaking the concrete."
By magnifying usually unnoticeable phenomenon like the sound of sweat trickling and a heart beating, Biggie suggests either that his foes are in a supernatural state of fear or that he's an extraordinary predator. Either way, it's pretty terrifying. I certainly wouldn't want to be his prey, and it's understandable why 2Pac flipped his wig after hearing this.