Chekhov's Monster

(By American Zen's Mike Flannigan, on loan from Ari)

What Anton Chekhov famously said about his gun applies equally well to monsters in sci fi and horror movies. If you bring a monster to a ship or theater or anywhere out of its element, it must get loose. Otherwise, the promise and threat of danger is wasted and rendered irrelevant. Look at King Kong and Alien, for starters.

     Then at Donald Trump and CNN last night.

     New CNN head honcho Chris Licht thought he'd hit upon a stroke of genius when he invited Donald Trump to hold a town hall on his network and, not only that, to invite about 400 hooting and clapping lunatics to give the impression of consensus. Yeah, he was found liable for sexual assault and defamation just the day before but who cared? Certainly not Licht or the audience.

     Chris Licht did several things by hosting this Hindenburg of a town hall with a tailor-made audience that could've easily been culled from the DC jail where the rioters are being detained. First off, he plainly wanted to normalize Trump and his peculiar brand of lunacy. The problem with that is, as Trump's obvious dementia gets more pronounced, it becomes harder to mainstream him.

     I suppose another of Licht's motives for what was the most disastrous moment on TV since Geraldo and Capone's empty vault was to give Trump an opportunity to rake his old foil CNN over the coals. On that, he did. He called moderator Kaitlan Collins "a nasty person" because she insisted on fact-checking him for his brazen lies about the documents scandal.

     Licht must've known Trump would eventually go after Collins, which he typically did. Not long after the town hall started, it was obvious that Licht used Collins as his tethered goat and Trump was the raptor for the delight of his captive audience both at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire and the other lunatics watching at home.

     But, without meaning to, Licht had also opened Trump to fresh litigation as well as weakening his defense with his four pending criminal trials/investigations. For instance, Trump's town hall came a little over 24 hours after Trump was found liable for defaming and sexually assaulting E. Jean Carroll. Trump reiterated that he never met her, which seems to be his standard for whether or not they have any validity, despite the fact there's at least one picture out there of Trump standing just a foot from Carroll.

     And, as expected, he rehashed the usual tired insults Carroll's way, even to the point of claiming she lied, blah blah blah. Maybe what Licht wasn't factoring in was that, in letting Donald Trump rage on his network, he was not only exposing Trump to legal liability but CNN, too. I'm sure Fox can tell him all about that. And the people laughed and laughed because rape and sexual assault is so funny, don't you know?

 

 The Not So Great Ape

 

It was no coincidence that Trump spewed bullshit about virtually all the things for which he's been indicted, has been convicted of or is under investigation. Theoretically, he can be sued for defamation again by E. Jean Carroll just based on what he said about her last night. The prevailing opinion is she won't but she could.

     And if you were Jack Smith and his attorneys, you would've been fapping to beat the band after what Trump said about the stolen documents. After over a year of his lawyers claiming that Trump's theft of countless boxes of documents were accidental, Trump went on national TV last night to say he had a perfect right to them because the Presidential Records Act said he did.

    Of course, Trump lives in an alternate dimension in which water is dry and black is white. As Collins tried to tell him, the PRA mandates that he should've turned them over before leaving the White House. As we all know, he didn't, even after the DOJ subpoenaed him for them and he still ignored them for as long as he could. But, while claiming he was justified in stealing the records, he simultaneously asked Collins why they didn't raid Biden's or Obama's houses.

     Since, you know, they were also permitted to steal their records.

     And, of course, he told the usual, tired lies about January 6th, even to the point of saying he called out the National Guard (he didn't. Pence did.) because it was a day filled with love, don't you know? And the loving mob should've been pacified by Mayor Muriel Bowser and Nancy Pelosi because they have full control of the DC National Guard (they don't. Only the Commander in Chief does).

     Essentially, Trump confirmed for the two or three people in the country who had doubts and don't wear their red MAGA hats to bed that Trump was completely deranged and was taking on both sides of arguments and seemingly having neatly reconciled them in his Adderall-addled brain.

    So, even though to the more sane of us, Trump is human Ipecac, I'm sure Fani Willis, Jack Smith and all the other prosecutors who are chasing him were tuning in last night and taking notes. All so Chris Licht could impose on CNN some, dare I say it? Fairness and balance.

     Donald Trump is so deranged and unhinged these days that any network stupid enough to put him on and normalize his behavior is potentially on the hook for a defamation lawsuit just like Fox was and so many of Trump's allies. And you would think Chris Licht would know that.  But then again, right wingers like Licht aren't exactly renowned for their intelligence and survival instincts.