A cornered animal

A cornered animal is a dangerous thing. It needs to be handled very delicately, as the animal is scared, even from those trying to help. The end result may be the same for the intervener, whether he or she is malevolent or benevolent to the animal. Or, in the case of people, the malevolence to the cornered one may because of the harm being done to many others by the animal itself.

What we are witnessing the past few weeks is the US President is like a cornered animal. He has gone full bore in trying to protect himself lashing out at anyone or any entity standing in his way. The simple reason is all the havoc he has wrought is starting to cave in on him. And, he is reverting to a basic survival instinct which is particularly vehement given his narcissistic nature. “It cannot be me, it is all those folks out to get me. The bad news about me is all fake.”

The President knows the further Robert Mueller and his team look, the more they will find. When one’s history has lacked a due diligence to work with people of integrity and is replete with untruthfulness, one should be afraid. Not working with people of integrity was the gist of a Newsweek piece on Trump well before the election. But, the fear is this goes deeper in that there may be unhealthy relationships with Russian and other nefarious actors that could be revealed.

To me, the President is guilty of obstruction of justice. He did not want people looking into his affairs, whether there is criminality or not. He took strides to prevent the investigation and actually made it worse. As Rep. Trey Gowdy said if the President is innocent, he needs to start acting like it. And, per the testimony of all our intelligence leaders, at a minimum, Trump is guilty of being an unwitting participant in Russian meddling. His echoing the words prepared by Russian hackers was gold for the intruders, which he did more than a few times.

Yet, it goes further than this. Admiring pretty women is not a crime. Neither is having extramarital affairs, although evangelicals would concur that is a sin, especially when the affairs are plural. What is a crime is sexually assaulting women. What is a crime is sexually harassing them. What is crime is using money that could be construed as campaign money to pay off women he has wronged to be quiet.

So, not only is the President being cornered on one side by Robert Mueller, his past sexual misconduct is cornering him as well. He has called one woman a liar and she is allowed to proceed with a lawsuit of defamation of character. That makes three lawsuits on sexual misconduct. But, the first defamation lawsuit may lead to others coming forward as there are sixteen or so women who have claimed sexual harassment or assault by the President.

So, my guess is this will get even more ugly in the next few months. That will make all those Republican leaders who look the other way regret not standing up to this man. And, the scarier part is this does not include his ongoing style of governance where the truth does not matter, good counsel is ignored and demeaning others who disagree is modus operandi. As the rollercoaster operator says “buckle up as it is going to be a bumpy ride.”