There are plenty of things in Donald Trump’s past that he’d rather forget. In fact, the last three decades have been so shady, even words he didn’t say look right when you superimpose them on a photo of him:
Those are, of course, not the words of the president, and I am a horrible person for repeating them again. The words are true, but they’re not him, and I should definitely be flogged for resurrecting the meme.
You know what words are true, though? The ones he said to Charlie Rose back in 1992. In November of that year, Rose interviewed Trump about his “comeback” — Trump was nearing bankruptcy, had just divorced Ivanka’s mother, and was on the record as being the total jackass we knew he was even back then.
In James Comey’s testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, the former FBI Director said a lot of things we already knew. But it was the fact that he said them under oath that made them official. When Comey testified that Trump had demanded loyalty from him, the president outright called the testimony a lie. But everyone close to him knows that he does require loyalty — as he has publicly said himself — and the recently resurfaced footage of this Charlie Rose interview drives the point home:
Comey knew what Trump meant. From Trump in 1992: “I would have wiped the floor with the guys that weren’t loyal” pic.twitter.com/Z6WQFqTyug
— RiotWomenn (@riotwomennn) June 11, 2017
How can Trump back away from such damning video? He doesn’t admit mistakes, which means he has to stand by his statements. Which are awful:
Some of the people that were least loyal to me are people, I think I would’ve treated them differently. I think I would’ve treated different guys differently. I would’ve wiped the floor with the guys that weren’t loyal, which I will now do. Which is, you know, I love getting even with people…If given the opportunity, I will get even with people who were disloyal to me.”
“How do you define disloyalty,” asks Charlie:
They didn’t do small things that would’ve helped.”
“Give me one example.”
…except this one particular person said ‘I don’t want to leave.’ He told my people ‘I don’t wanna leave.’ When I heard about it, I went nuts, and I blasted him, and all of a sudden he left.”
That sounds familiar.
Featured image via video screen capture
