From Watergate to Trump Jnr’s emails: how the search for a smoking gun defines US political scandals
For now, many Trump enthusiasts in the conservative media are standing with the president – and placing the blame for the rough first six months of the administration squarely on the news media
Every great American scandal follows a similar arc, historians say. One side smells nefarious behaviour. The other side contends there’s no there there. Shreds of evidence and whispers of proof energise one side and appal the other. This goes on for a long time.
Sometimes, the scandal talk fizzles out. And sometimes, something comes along that changes everything – the smoking gun.
In one America, the answer was a pretty solid yes. Slate, Politico, Vanity Fair and some Democrats straight-out declared the president’s son’s email the “smoking gun” in the investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to take down the Clinton candidacy. Many other news organisations hedged a bit, attaching a question mark to the smouldering term.
But in Trump Country, the gun wasn’t smoking – it was just one more toy gun masquerading as the real thing, just one more burst of the same noise that has been cluttering up this presidency since its inception.
Watch: Trump Jnr defends Russia meeting in interview