The Stormy Daniels Saga So Far
The President just put a price tag on sex and believe me, it’s bigly.
There is a stunning case of hypocrisy between what right-wing politicians in US politics say and what they do. Evangelical leaders, a demographic that polls suggest voted overwhelmingly at 80 percent for Donald Trump in 2016’s Presidential Election, will recoil in horror and disgust at the very uttering of the tainted phrase extramarital sex. Just look at what Amy DeRogatis, professor of religion and American studies at Michigan State University says on the subject in her book, uniquely titled Saving Sex: Sexuality and Salvation in American Evangelicalism. Christianity Today (an international, Evangelical magazine founded in 1956) herald DeRogatis’ claim that God wants people to embrace sex — but not just any sex — amazing sex in marriage. Christianity Today seemingly takes DeRogatis’ claim to reach the (apparently very logical) conclusion that better sex is guaranteed when you use your trustworthy copy of the Holy Bible as your primary guide.
And in case you’ve forgotten, let’s make the Bible’s take on sex crystal clear:
‘Let marriage be held in honor among all and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous’ — Hebrews 13:4
So why then, are pew fulls of Evangelicals tripping over themselves to defend the now President Trump and his adulterous relationship with porn star Stormy Daniels? You can’t forget a verse like ‘ God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous’. And you certainly can’t mistake what it is trying to say. In fact, it could not be any clearer that through the Holy verse of the Bible, God is communicating to us that sex with someone you are not married to is wrong. Could it be that Evangelical leaders, like Tony Perkins who recently stated that Evangelicals will continue to support the President, are hypocrites?
At this point, I need to make it clear that my issue is not that Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump have had a relationship with each other. What they do is between them and unlike the Bible, I don’t make it my business to regulate the behaviour of others. I don’t make a habit of yelling ‘you can’t have sex with this person’ or ‘you can’t have sex with that person’. My issue is with the ‘hush money’ the President’s lawyer is reported to have paid to Daniels, and the concerns that arise about his character.
The ‘Hush Money’
The relationship is alleged to have occurred back in 2006, the same year that Trump’s third wife, Melania, gave birth to their youngest son, Barron. Fast forward 10 years to 2016, to the time that Donald Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, is reported to have paid Daniels $130,000 as ‘hush money’ to keep quiet during the election campaign. This is where things get odd. On Tuesday 30th January, Stormy Daniels appeared on the Jimmy Kimmel show for a short interview that coincided with the President’s State of the Union Address. At the start of the interview, Kimmel read the following statement, published surprisingly close to the time they went on air:
The fact of the matter is that each party to this alleged affair denied its existence in 2006, 2011, 2016, 2017 and now again in 2018. I am not denying the affair because I was paid ‘hush money’ as has been reported in overseas owned tabloids. I am denying this affair because it never happened’ — Stormy Daniels
As is shown above, the statement Kimmel read is allegedly signed by Stormy Daniels. But, as Kimmel shows, this signature does not match that of any used ever before by Daniels. This causes an interesting exchange, where Kimmel asks Stormy if she really did, in fact, sign the statement, to which after an appropriately awkward pause, Daniels replies ‘I don’t know. Did I?’ If Daniels did not sign this statement, which she certainly doesn’t appear to remember doing, it wouldn’t be the first time an official statement has seemingly been signed on her behalf on this matter. TYT’s Cenk Ugyur jokes that Daniel’s original statement is full of Trumpisms such as ‘I tremendously deny these allegations, big league! Believe me!’, that could come from none other than Trump himself.
The issue here is that if Trump really did pay Stormy Daniels hush money, then who else has dirt on the President of the United States that could influence the way he behaves or the policies that he implements? How far is he willing to go to make sure these stories don’t get out?
