Did you hear the audio recording of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump right before the 2016 election working out a payment that would keep a Playboy model quiet about an affair between the two?
Me neither. And neither did CNN, even though the network claims it has.
CNN late Tuesday aired what anchor Chris Cuomo called a “secret tape” in which Trump and his now-former lawyer Michael Cohen “discuss arrangements surrounding a payment to former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal, that was made by a third party, David Pecker, as head of the National Enquirer.”
McDougal alleges that she had an affair with Trump over the course of 10 months starting in 2006 and that the National Enquirer paid her for rights to the story ahead of the 2016 election, though the tabloid intentionally never published it.
The deal was apparently green lighted by Trump friend David Pecker, head of the tabloid’s parent company, American Media Inc.
Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, audio taped some meetings with Trump (for reasons thus far unknown) and Cohen’s own lawyer turned one of the recordings over to CNN.
But CNN isn’t even confident of what’s on the tape.
Before airing it on Tuesday, Chris Cuomo said, “I’m not including a translation of the tape because there is clearly a dispute about what is being said.”
There is “clearly a dispute” because nothing can clearly be heard.
CNN aired the tape countless times in 24 hours but never included subtitles of what the audience was supposed to be hearing.
The only intelligible portion on the three-minute tape is when Trump calls for someone to, “Get me a Coke, please.”
But here’s the part that’s supposed to mean something pertaining to the McDougal payment, as transcribed by the Washington Post:
COHEN: Um, I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend, David, you know, so that — I’m going to do that right away. I’ve actually come up and I’ve spoken —
TRUMP: Give it to me and get me a [UNINTELLIGIBLE].
COHEN: And, I’ve spoken to Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up with …
TRUMP: So, what do we got to pay for this? One-fifty?
COHEN: … Funding . . . Yes. Um, and it’s all the stuff.
TRUMP: Yeah, I was thinking about that.
COHEN: All the stuff. Because — here, you never know where that company — you never know what he’s —
TRUMP: Maybe he gets hit by a truck.
COHEN: Correct. So, I’m all over that. And, I spoke to Allen about it, when it comes time for the financing, which will be —
TRUMP: Wait a sec, what financing?
COHEN: Well, I’ll have to pay him something.
TRUMP: [UNINTELLIGIBLE] pay with cash …
COHEN: No, no, no, no, no. I got it.
TRUMP: … check.
Setting aside that this is an unbelievably generous transcript, considering that I can’t make out half of this listening on my own with the volume up and a cup held to the speakers, this should mean absolutely nothing to anyone.
For one, McDougal is never mentioned.
What does “transfer all of that info” mean?
Trump himself sounds confused about what the “financing” is for and whether it should be paid for with cash or a check.
Why should anyone assume that this is a sleazy conversation about an affair Trump wanted to keep quiet, other than because his former lawyer, bitter about having been alienated by the White House, says so?
Not that any of this is important to anyone. In the middle of the Stormy Daniels
extortion campaign
Maybe Trump did pay money to silence a nude model. But that’s not what CNN’s heralded tape shows.
