January 7, 2018

After the explosive preview articles and a rushed publish date, there was little question that this week's bobbleheads would have little else to discuss but Michael Wolff's "Fire and Fury".

But here's the thing about the book: for as much as the Trump administration lashes out and denies it, Wolff isn't writing anything that hasn't been written before and largely understood by pretty much everyone in Washington DC, politician and pundit alike.

There are no new revelations to be found in that book. We have seen Trump exactly as he's described.

But what makes Wolff different is that he's willing to say out loud the EXACT SAME THING that's being discussed at all those Beltway cocktail parties and golf foursomes, but off the record. I promise you, Chuck Todd himself has made snarky comments in the NBC News offices about it being time for a "25th Amendment Solution" despite his pearl-clutching.

MICHAEL WOLFF: It’s that bad. I mean, it's an extraordinary moment in time. And the last several days focused on my book I think are proof of this. This is what happened here, what's going on here. This is, you know, I think not an exaggeration and not unreasonable. It's not unreasonable to say this is 25th Amendment kind of stuff.

CHUCK TODD: Did anybody say that in the West Wing to you?

MICHAEL WOLFF: All the time.

CHUCK TODD: 25th Amendment? They would bring up the 25th Amendment?

OF COURSE THEY WOULD. Because they can see what we all see: Donald Trump is a deeply unstable, unintelligent, incurious, pathologically narcissistic and possibly in the throes of dementia man way out of his depth in the most important job in the nation and who endangers the safety of this nation and the entire world. And you know it, Chuck.

And more importantly, every damn Republican who comes on camera and gaslights the entire nation on what a "stable genius" Trump is, every one of the treasonous Republican congressional majority who deflects questions on Trump's fitness knows it too. And they're perfectly willing to risk all of our lives rather than admit it openly.

MICHAEL WOLFF: John Kelly said, was, was questioned about these, these wackadoo tweets, and he said, “Oh, I didn’t see them.” I’m going to just say, “Like hell he didn’t see them.” And that’s what goes on in the White House all the time. It’s how to look away. It’s how not to confront.

CHUCK TODD: They’re putting their head in the sand purposely?

MICHAEL WOLFF: Yes. Absolutely. It’s how to rationalize this and how, and you can’t confront it. You can’t say, you know, what, this is, this is, this is a moment a time. This is a breakdown.

Mark Leibovich (author of "This Town", another telling book on the symbiosis between politicians and Beltway journalists) admitted later on the MTP panel, there's no politician in DC who is willing to go on record to admit that Donald Trump is a danger to the nation.

Where I am is first of all, is it possible to go any higher than number one on Amazon if you're going to write a book? I mean, this is just, it's incredible. I do think, look, I think both of these things can be true. I think there are very significant journalistic critiques that you can throw at this book. But I also think the "it rings true" truth about this is absolutely valid. And part of it is what Michael Wolff has said and will say again I'm sure is that this is exactly how people around him, or many people around him at the White House, certainly Republicans on the Hill speak privately. Now, if you were to ask, probably I would say 80% of elected Republicans on the Hill, "What do you think of the president's fitness for office?" The first thing you will hear, I guarantee you, is, "Can we go off the record?" I mean, that's just the two-step that we're dealing with here. And I think that this, in a way, gives truth to the other part of the two-step.

The truth is THEY ALL KNOW. And they care less for our lives than their livelihoods.

Don't forget that for one second come Election Day.

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