{"id":61458,"date":"2018-03-27T04:41:15","date_gmt":"2018-03-27T04:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=61458"},"modified":"2018-03-27T04:50:24","modified_gmt":"2018-03-27T04:50:24","slug":"not-in-a-punch-back-mode-why-trump-has-been-largely-silent-on-stormy-daniels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/not-in-a-punch-back-mode-why-trump-has-been-largely-silent-on-stormy-daniels.html","title":{"rendered":"Not in a punch-back mode’: Why Trump has been largely silent on Stormy Daniels"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not in a punch-back mode’: Why Trump has been largely silent on Stormy Daniels<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

The counterpuncher, so far, has held his punches.<\/span><\/p>\n

President Trump exercised uncharacteristic public restraint Monday following an interview on CBS\u2019s \u201c60 Minutes\u201d in which adult film star Stormy Daniels described, in vivid detail, a consensual sexual encounter with Trump \u2014 a relationship the president has repeatedly denied.<\/span><\/p>\n

But privately, the president has lobbed sharp attacks at Daniels and her media tour, calling her allegations a \u201choax\u201d and asking confidants if the episode is hurting his poll numbers. The president even has griped to several people that Daniels is not the type of woman he finds attractive.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump \u2014 who was among the estimated 22 million Americans who watched the Daniels interview that aired Sunday night \u2014 asked staff in the White House if they, too, had watched and wondered what they thought of it, someone who has spoken to him said. The president said that he personally did not think Daniels appeared credible, added this person, who has talked to the president about his interactions with the pornographic film star and did not want to be identified discussing them.<\/span><\/p>\n

But publicly, Trump was uncharacteristically silent after the \u201c60 Minutes\u201d interview, in which Daniels recounted having unprotected sex with Trump in 2006 and described being verbally threatened five years later by a man she didn\u2019t know to stay silent about her allegations. Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford and who was 27 years old during the alleged encounter, also said that she did not find Trump, then 60, attractive and that she viewed the encounter simply as a \u201cbusiness deal.\u201d She said that Trump had floated the idea of her appearing on his reality TV show, \u201cThe Apprentice.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Experts say any possible legal danger for Trump stemming from the alleged affair could come from the nondisclosure agreement that his longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen, executed with Daniels shortly before the 2016 presidential election. In exchange for her silence, Cohen facilitated a $130,000 payment to Daniels in October 2016 \u2014 which, if deemed an in-kind contribution to the Trump campaign, would violate federal law.<\/span><\/p>\n

The president and his White House staff have hewed to a remarkably disciplined and restrained playbook \u2014 a departure for the normally brash Trump, who is usually reluctant to let a slight go unanswered.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump has not personally addressed the matter in recent weeks, and while his spokesmen have broadly denied the allegations on his behalf, they have declined to publicly litigate Daniels\u2019s specific claims.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe president strongly, clearly and has consistently denied these underlying claims,\u201d Raj Shah, the principal deputy White House press secretary, told reporters Monday. \u201cThe only person who\u2019s been inconsistent is the one making the claims.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The closest Trump skirted to weighing in came in a tweet Monday morning that did not reference Daniels or the interview but generally decried what he said were a spate of false media reports. \u201cSo much Fake News,\u201d Trump wrote. \u201cNever been more voluminous or more inaccurate. But through it all, our country is doing great!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Lanny Davis, a former White House special counsel who helped President Bill Clinton navigate the Monica Lewinksy scandal, said Trump is sending a message with his lack of direct engagement.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHis absence of comment, to me, was a concession to a not very shocking or newsworthy conclusion, which is that he carried on extramarital affairs,\u201d said Davis, a partner at the law firm Davis Goldberg Galper. \u201cHe was silent and wasn\u2019t attacking or criticizing or contradicting her.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But Daniels has been on Trump\u2019s mind. Over the weekend at his private Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., he talked to friends and club members about the controversy, and on Saturday he dined with Cohen.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s friends and advisers have been cautioning him that he has little to gain by getting into a back-and-forth with Daniels.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s really not in a punch-back mode,\u201d said one friend who has discussed the matter with the president in recent days and spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid. \u201cEveryone is telling him, look, you can\u2019t win here, so just do nothing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump has calculated that the salacious details from Daniels and other women now surfacing publicly will not erode his political support in any meaningful way. The president has convinced himself, said one Republican in frequent touch with the White House, that the scandal will blow over \u2014 in part because, for decades, Trump deliberately presented himself as a Manhattan millionaire playboy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe president, when he used to be plain old Donald Trump, used to say all publicity is good publicity,\u201d said Louise Sunshine, a former longtime executive at the Trump Organization. \u201cHe used to enjoy negative publicity because he said even that is good publicity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump also believes his base of loyal supporters, including Christian conservatives, will not abandon him, just as they stuck by his side after the \u201cAccess Hollywood\u201d tape was reported in The Washington Post in October 2016.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe president is correct believing that his solid group of supporters, including evangelicals and Protestants, are not going to leave him on this issue,\u201d said Sam Nunberg, a former Trump campaign aide. \u201cHe\u2019s delivered for them on judges, which is really the most important issue, and on life\u201d \u2014 a reference to abortion policy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nunberg added, \u201cI don\u2019t think anybody believes that they elected Saint Joseph.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Still, Trump\u2019s friends say that the allegations \u2014 not only from Daniels, but also from Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who has alleged a nearly year-long affair with Trump, and from Summer Zervos, a former \u201cApprentice\u201d contestant who is suing Trump for defamation \u2014 have caused a strain in his marriage.<\/span><\/p>\n

First lady Melania Trump did not return to Washington with Trump on Sunday, instead remaining at Mar-a-Lago for what a White House aide called a previously scheduled \u201cspring break.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Sunshine, who said she thought Daniels was \u201cvery believable,\u201d said that based on her years working with Trump, she thought he would probably be most bothered by the scandal\u2019s impact on his family.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it probably would upset him because it would upset Melania, it would upset his daughter,\u201d Sunshine said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stephanie Grisham, a spokeswoman for the first lady, issued a public appeal for privacy that seemed to reference the president\u2019s 12-year-old son, Barron, who was born around the time of the alleged affair with Daniels. \u201cWhile I know the media is enjoying speculation & salacious gossip, Id like to remind people there\u2019s a minor child who\u2019s name should be kept out of news stories when at all possible,\u201d Grisham tweeted.<\/span><\/p>\n

Inside the West Wing, senior officials believe Daniels\u2019s account to be largely credible and consider it a serious news story that could deal real and lasting damage to the president, according to one of Trump\u2019s advisers.<\/span><\/p>\n

The White House communications team collectively monitors all Daniels developments but has largely tried to leave the official response to Trump\u2019s outside lawyers involved in the case, a White House aide said. There is little upside, this person added, in trying to respond to each new twist and turn.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t necessarily know exactly what happened and all the details, and trying to create a response based on a lack of knowledge is like flying blind,\u201d said the aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share private discussions. \u201cOnce the White House gets into the business of actually responding to it, we\u2019ll go down this rabbit hole of just being consumed with all things Stormy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At Monday\u2019s briefing, Shah was peppered with questions about Daniels. He tried to avoid answering with much detail and referred some questions to Cohen.<\/span><\/p>\n

Asked whether Trump had watched the \u201c60 Minutes\u201d interview, Shah said, \u201cI\u2019m not going to get into what the president may or may not have seen.\u201d He later added, \u201cThere are clips of it playing all over, in the morning news shows.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Pressed to explain the offer of compensation to Daniels to ensure her silence, Shah seemed to defend the move. \u201cFalse charges are settled out of court all the time. And this is nothing outside the ordinary,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s denials of Daniels\u2019s allegations have been consistent since his presidential campaign. In 2016, Trump acknowledged to some of his closest political advisers that he had met Daniels but repeatedly denied to them that he ever had a salacious encounter with her, two people familiar with the matter said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once, when the topic of Daniels came up on Trump\u2019s private plane near the end of the campaign, the candidate asked what year the encounter was said to have taken place, these people said. When he was told 2006, he simply shrugged and moved the conversation along, they added.<\/span><\/p>\n

The White House has largely adopted Trump\u2019s nothing-to-see-here posture. Republican allies say they have received little guidance, and no official talking points, on how to handle questions about Daniels or the other women.<\/span><\/p>\n

One Republican operative who works closely with the White House described the information vacuum strategy: \u201cIt\u2019s almost like it doesn\u2019t exist.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/not-in-a-punch-back-mode-why-trump-has-been-largely-silent-on-stormy-daniels\/2018\/03\/26\/a32ac7ba-3103-11e8-8bdd-cdb33a5eef83_story.html?utm_term=.b11fb417a0ea<\/span><\/p>\n

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