There is more than a touch of irony in the fact that Lanny Davis is leading the crusade to expose “the truth” about Donald Trump. That is what he said yesterday during an interview with Megyn Kelly on “The Today Show” in a segment devoted to what deep dark secrets former Trump personal counsel Michael Cohen is willing to divulge now that he’s pled guilty to a host of criminal charges.
Before the segment ended, Davis made an appeal to viewers to send their dimes and nickels to the the “Michael Cohen Truth Fund,” which he set up on GoFundMe. The request was met with snickers from the audience, prompting Davis to submit that maybe those in the studio “are not as interested in getting the truth out about Donald Trump as many other people in the country.” Watch:
The audience on Megyn Kelly Today laughed at Lanny Davis when he asked Americans to help raise money for Michael Cohen. Classic. pic.twitter.com/KBqQiBYjje
— Adam Best (@adamcbest) August 22, 2018
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What makes this all so spectacularly ludicrous is that Davis was previously hired to obscure ‘the truth about the president.’ It was a different president of course — Bill Clinton — but the job description was clear: to run interference for Clinton as special counsel and spokesperson on matters concerning campaign-finance investigations and other legal issues, including Clinton’s impeachment.
When the American public learned during the run-up to the 1996 election that Clinton had rented overnight stays in the Lincoln Bedroom on 938(!) occasions in exchange for campaign contributions, Davis was Johnny-on-the-spot, twisting the facts. He did the same during the Lewinsky scandal, urging his client to claim he “did not have sex with that woman.” When asked about Juanita Broaddrick, a story that surfaced in 1999, Davis said the FBI itself had found her claims unreliable. This was another lie, but what else is new?
An added irony is that Davis is terrible at his job. He has been so inept at winning hearts and minds that liberal writer Jonathan Chait dubbed him a “buffoon” and “sleaze-merchant” in a 2012 article in New York magazine.
Now that is back in the limelight, he is earning a new round of descriptors. The Federalist’s David Harsanyi writes:
… Davis can be properly described as a personification of the cliché, “everything that’s wrong with Washington.” Cringingly slavish to those in power, a consigliere, fundraiser, surrogate, and cheerful liar, Davis was a perpetual presence on cable TV during the Clinton scandals. Few men in history have ever been able to summon his kind of loyalty in the pursuit of shameless, transparent deceit and corruption.
There may well be secret tapes incriminating Trump, as Davis now promises, but if I were a betting man I’d want to see proof before laying my money down.
