‘Catch-and-kill” and “flipping” were two valuable lessons politicos and news junkies took last week from the president, a Republican who did not summer as a child in a tent under pine trees near a pond with a dock. With Donald Trump as president, summer camp is gritty and urban and dazzlingly dangerous.
“Catch-and-kill” is when a publication like the National Enquirer buys the rights to a damaging story like the one of former Playboy model Karen McDougal for the purpose of sitting on it and keeping that story out of the news. Reporters from the Enquirer reel in big stories using a big check as bait and then lock the story up in a safe like a fish on ice in a cooler.
People from Maine and elsewhere who camp know these kinds of stories will eventually stink, but likely few imagined the high value of tawdry tales about a big whale. Forget elvers. Lesson No. 1: Give a man a fish and feed him for a day; teach a man to catch-and-kill and feed him for life.
“Flipping” is the skill that any camper yearning for that stack-o’-blueberry-pancake-breakfast nostalgia needs to have, but did you know that during Rudy Giuliani’s days as a U.S. attorney in New York, his office was labeled the “House of Pancakes” for the parade of suspects who “flipped” to try to reduce their prison sentences? Giuliani, President Trump’s current lawyer was a master flipper, according to The New York Times.
As explained by the president last week in an interview with “Fox and Friends” host Ainsley Earhardt, flipping happens all the time in the president’s circles, but it should be against the law.
“This whole thing about flipping, they call it, I know all about flipping. For 30, 40 years I’ve been watching flippers. Everything’s wonderful and then they get 10 years in jail and they – they flip on whoever the next highest one is, or as high as you can go.
“It – it almost ought to be outlawed. It’s not fair. Because if somebody’s going to give – spend five years like Michael Cohen or 10 years or 15 years in jail because of a taxi cab industry, because he defrauded some bank – the last two were tiny ones.
“You know, campaign violations are considered not a big deal, frankly. But if somebody defrauded a bank and he’s going to get 10 years in jail or 20 years in jail but if you can say something bad about Donald Trump and you’ll go down to two years or three years, which is the deal he made.
“In all fairness to him, most people are going to do that, and I’ve seen it many times. I’ve had many friends involved in this stuff. It’s called flipping and it almost ought to be illegal.”
There you have it, folks, Lesson No. 2 –The new moral order.
In all fairness: If, by his own blustering admission, Donald Trump can spot a flipper with his eyes closed, how did he fall in so easily with the crowd now flipping like flapjacks? Michael Cohen, Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos, Richard Gates – these guys are just a few of the big fish who flipped, and time will tell whether Republican U.S. Reps. Duncan Hunter and Chris Collins, Trump supporters also recently indicted, will flip, too.
Hunter and Collins may decide to go the way of Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, who was convicted by a jury on eight counts of criminal activity and might get rewarded for his “loyalty” and refusal to flip with a presidential pardon. Or maybe they will be offered immunity like David Pecker, catch-and-kill CEO of the Enquirer and longtime friend of Trump.
There’s so much to look forward to and learn, but this summer of criminal camp feels sort of like two-a-day preseason high school sports practice, right? Ridiculous? A little too much, too soon? Well, toughen up. The bruising season is just beginning and the president is charging ahead.
Earhardt: “What grade do you give yourself so far?”
Trump: “So I give myself an A-plus. I don’t think any president has ever done what I’ve done in this short – we haven’t even been two years, biggest tax cuts in history. Soon to be two unbelievable Supreme Court justices.”
On Wednesday, the president told reporters that Manafort was a “good man” and that he felt sorry for him.
“Catch-and-release” according to Camp Trump coming soon.
Cynthia Dill is a civil rights lawyer and former state senator. She may be contacted at her website:
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