The Washington Post has a great column by Philip Rucker today asking why, if he’s not guilty of anything, President Trump keeps using the language of guilty denial in his public statements. The topic of what to say, and not to say, comes up all the time in every high-profile investigation, and there’s none higher … More Signs of a Guilty Conscience?
I must confess to rubbing my hands together and snickering with glee when I heard that The Mooch had posthumously released his master plan for fixing the White House Communications Office. After his frothing attacks on his brand-new colleagues led to his immediate ouster, I figured his “plan” would be an exercise in utter bluster and machismo. … More Unpacking The Mooch’s White House Communications Memo
The national media convulsed last week with the leaked revelation to the Washington Post that President Trump was seeking guidance from his legal advisors about whether he could pre-emptively pardon his close associates and family as a way of shutting down the Russia investigation. Even better, he was exploring the possibility of SELF-pardons. Now, there … More The Real Reason Trump Won’t Pardon His Friends and Family.
Managing social media reputation is a question that comes up a lot whenever I speak to new clients or the public. And it’s a good question to ask. Social media is incredibly powerful, as witnessed by the recent and well-deserved beating United Airlines has taken at the hands of a general public armed with nothing … More Fly the Friendly Skies of Social Media
This 6-minute video does an excellent job explaining the basic techniques of evasion and confusion used by Presidential advisor Kellyanne Conway every single time she’s interviewed on TV. My only disagreement is that Vox appears to believe she’s good at it. Where I’m of the opinion that if you can see the card tricks, the … More Great Breakdown of Kellyanne Conway Interview Tricks
President Trump gave his first television interview to David Muir of ABC News yesterday. Muir should win an Emmy for his poker face during this interview, and he asked the president a very important question: DAVID MUIR: Let me just ask you, you did win. You’re the president. You’re sitting … PPRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s … More Why Presidential Words Matter More
I don’t see many comparisons being made (yet) between the Watergate Scandal and Trump’s strange reactions to the CIA conclusions that Russia hacked the DNC email system and leaked info to influence the US presidential election. Trump is a weird guy with strange reactions to almost everything, but his response to this news was beyond … More Watergate: More Timely now than Ever
I’m not a huge Twitter user, probably because I stink at being succinct. But every once in a while a Twitter thread comes along that uses brevity to its advantage. Take the 5 minutes to read through this one. I’m linking first to The Stranger article that published the relevant part rather than directly to … More Fantastic Twitter Thread Explaining How We Got Here
I’m glad to see my friend and client Robin Raphel getting some justice in this WSJ feature story after the FBI and DOJ went after her for doing her job as one of the top experts and diplomats dealing with Pakistan. I fear we’re entering an era where old-school diplomacy is even more of a … More The Last Diplomat
Right up until about 11 PM last night I never imagined that a self-confessed serial abuser of women could become the president of my country. For all of his many other shortcomings as a potential leader, I thought Trump’s overt contempt for women would be his undoing. I believed that regardless of what men did, … More After the Grenade Goes Off
The Original Spin 