This Sean Hannity clip is getting huge play today. (You can see it below the fold.) Hannity tells Trump during their interview, I can’t imagine you’d ever say bring me those documents we took from the White House. Trump responds no I can totally do that, I would do that. Hannity says, okay let’s move on, but Trump persists. It’s Hannity at his journalist-as-defense counsel best.
Anti-Trump types delight in these videos, and for good reason. It’s nice seeing someone admit their crimes on national television. But it’s not just impulsivity or not staying on message.
This captures a more basic contradiction. When you’re trying to beat a criminal charge you need to persuasively argue you didn’t do it. But Trump’s brand is heavily bound up on the proposition that he can do anything. And he can only fully demonstrate that by demonstrating that.
