The controversy over President Trump’s alleged affair with Stormy Daniels reached new heights on Sunday evening when CBS’s “60 Minutes” aired an interview with the adult-film star.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, detailed the sexual liaison she says she had with Trump in 2006.
The White House has said that Daniels and other women who have made allegations about Trump’s behavior — allegations that range from consensual extramarital sex to sexual assault — are lying.
What were the main takeaways from the Daniels interview?
1. It’s deeply embarrassing — and tawdry — for Trump
It’s true — but beside the point — that many of the details in the Daniels interview had already been reported second hand.
By telling her story on camera, on a top-rated network television show, Daniels changed everything.
The interview will become “watercooler news” in a way that is not generally true of Trump’s White House personnel changes or of his battles with special counsel Robert Mueller.
Therein lies the peril for the president, who often displays a thin skin in response to criticism or ridicule.
Daniels said she asked Trump to take his pants down so she could spank him with a magazine with his face on the cover — and that he did so. The clip will likely be played on a cable news loop for at least the next 24 hours.
Another eyebrow-raising detail is Daniels’s claim that Trump told her “You remind me of my daughter” — presumed to be a reference to Ivanka Trump. Daniels had offered similar recollections to a magazine for a 2011 interview that was not published until earlier this year by In Touch. But “60 Minutes” is a far more prominent platform.
There were also awkward allegations about Trump’s marriage to Melania Trump.
At the time of the alleged affair with Daniels, in 2006, Melania Trump had recently given birth to the couple’s son, Barron Trump.
But on “60 Minutes,” Daniels told interviewer Anderson Cooper, “He brushed it aside, said, ‘Oh yeah, yeah, you know, don’t worry about that. We don’t even— we have separate rooms and stuff.’ ”
2. Daniels says she was threatened to keep quiet
Daniels’s lawyer, Michael Avenatti, had previously suggested his client had been threatened but she told the story for the first time on Sunday.
In her account, the incident happened in 2011, after she had agreed to tell her version of the alleged affair to a magazine.
She said she was in a parking lot, about to go to a gym in Las Vegas, when an unknown man walked up to her and said, “Leave Trump alone. Forget the story.”
Daniels told Cooper the man also looked at her young daughter, said she was beautiful and added, “It’d be a shame if something happened to her mom.”
Daniels said that she “absolutely” took those words as a direct threat.
The ominous, movie-like scenario is sure to command media attention and be the focus of further journalistic digging.
That alone ensures the story won’t be disappearing anytime soon.
