It looks like the #MeToo movement has breached the White House front door and is forcing it's way right into the Oval Office, in not one, not two, but three separate and equally dangerous cases for Donald Trump.
First, they tackled the headline about Stormy Daniels passing the lie detector test.
TUR: Ari, we have an MSNBC news article that has the headline: "Lie detector test that shows Stormy Daniels truthful about Trump affair." How valuable is a lie detector test in the court of law?
MELBER: Not very valuable in court, not typically admissible. It shows a couple of important things. Number one, this occurred back in 2011. That is potentially helpful to Miss Daniels because it shows she was doing this prior to any politics, campaign stuff, potentially even separate from the counter-allegations from the trump folks that this was all only about money from her. And number two, it shows a high probability of her being truthful, according to this lie detector test. When you look at experts, they say these things are 70 to 90% accurate.
Ok, so on one hand it is may not be admissible in court, but on the other hand Ari does make a very good point - the fact that the lie detector test was done back in 2011, prior to Donald Trump being elected, shows that her answers had a high probability of being truthful. Point one.
We then moved on to why the White House is so desperate to keep these women quiet with NDA's. What is so devastating? We all know Trump is a cheater, womanizer and all around disgusting guy. So what else is it?
TUR: Phil Rucker, our big question today is why won't the White House let these women talk. Why is the President and the President's team paying women off to keep silent? Do you have any idea about that?
RUCKER: Well, I know the White House wants to have nothing to do with this. They continually, for weeks now, have tried to refer a lot of these questions to the president's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, who in some moments has referred questions to his lawyer. But there's an effort to really distance the President from this. You know, but if these accusations are not true, if the President says, I don't know why he wouldn't mind letting these women tell their story, there seems to be a very deliberate and concerted effort to keep them quiet, keep them from going public with their accounts of what happened and I assume that's going to continue.
Of course the White House wants nothing to do with this. It is disgusting. Moving on...
Tur: Phil, we have Stormy Daniels, the polygraph test, also, ex-playmate, who's now suing to break her silence. Summer Zervos, who can sue now for defamation, according to a judge in Manhattan supreme court. It feels like the women in Donald Trump's past are now fighting back. They're coming out and they're refusing to be silenced or at least they're refusing to stay silent while they're being silenced.
Rucker: That's exactly right. This is the me too movement coming right to the oval office here. It could have a powerful effect, we can see. But it's clearly bothering the White House, it's bothering the White House. Sarah Sanders does not want to be dragged into this. Does not want to have to be answering questions about this. And this is something I think, frankly, the President thought he had cleaned up and put aside before he came into the White House with these contracts and with these payments. But these women are coming forward now, eager to tell their stories. And I think there's a real movement here in the country that feels like they should be able to tell their stories.
If these NDA's start getting thrown out, the proverbial shit is going to hit the fan.
And, of course, back to Stormy:
Tur: Ari, yesterday, Stormy Daniels' lawyer was on your show, Michael Avenatti, and he said that by entering the lawsuit, President Trump has come to grips with the fact that he knew about this nondisclosure agreement. What does that mean for the President moving forward?
Melber: Well, this is the most fascinating part of all of this. I can show from this filing on Friday, it's just remarkable. And I don't think it's got a lot of attention, because a lot of other remarkable news that has broken. But let me read from this suit. Mr. Trump intends to pursue his rights to the fullest extent permitted by law. That is Donald Trump entering a case that is, as you know, the White House and many insisted he was not involved in. Michael Cohen went rogue. Michael Cohen facilitated $130k, yada yada yada, as we say in federal court. And Friday night, while a lot of other stuff is going on, including the removal of the Deputy FBI Director, Donald Trump is personally in it. I'm holding it here. This but for everything else that's breaking, this would be the country. And this is, on page two, the new lawyer, Charles Harder, who's known to be, by the way, a very excellent lawyer and plays hardball, attorney for defendant Donald J. Trump. That is Donald J. Trump entering the Stormy Daniels litigation on his own behalf. How rogue does Michael Cohen look now?
It's amazing that Donald Trump literally admitting to not only the affair itself, but also somehow being involved in the $130,000 payment, is somehow being ignored. But Ari is right - with the avalanche of news coming at rapid fire pace, it is hard to keep up with that happened just this morning. When Stormy Daniels' 60 Minutes interview comes out this Sunday, I suspect a lot more details will see the light of day and this case may pick up even more speed. Will the #MeToo movement take down Donald Trump? Will the ex-Playboy playmate get her NDA thrown out? What will happen with Summer Zervos case?
