While I agree with all the comments in the article, I need to point out a small fact that is also part of the Trump framing problem. The "hush money" case is actually not about hush money. It's about the fact that Trump mischaracterized payments to Michael Cohen as ordinary work compensation when he was actually secretly paying him back for the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels. In the context of influencing the 2016 election, Trump's making that secret payment was election interference, which is a felony. Had Trump made the hush money payment himself, which might have been revealed prior to the election, that act, while despicable, would not have constituted a crime.
The framing problem is that nearly everyone, including the MSM, talks about the case as a "hush money" case, which gets front page coverage and clicks for their online articles. This gives Trump and his cronies the ability to characterize the case as trivial, when it is not, and allows his millions of supporters to think that Trump was "just protecting his family".
Thank you so much for this. It answers the question I've been wrestling with for ages -WHY - are supposed Christians throwing their lot in with this evil conman. Your article puts it all into perspective and makes total sense. I'm going to make a small appeal to your readers that if they know any US citizens living abroad, send them to https://votefromabroad.org to request their overseas ballots. There are 6.5million of us and we can vote!
It would be very good if people would NOT refer to the current trial as a “hush-money case.” That simple supports Trump’s false claims. Instead, refer to it as a criminal case, an election-fraud case. PLEASE!!!!!
Pedantic, unimportant grammarian notes error “…Christian Authoritarians, like Mike Pence before Trump tried to have he and his family lynched…” Should be “…him and his family lynched…”
While I agree with all the comments in the article, I need to point out a small fact that is also part of the Trump framing problem. The "hush money" case is actually not about hush money. It's about the fact that Trump mischaracterized payments to Michael Cohen as ordinary work compensation when he was actually secretly paying him back for the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels. In the context of influencing the 2016 election, Trump's making that secret payment was election interference, which is a felony. Had Trump made the hush money payment himself, which might have been revealed prior to the election, that act, while despicable, would not have constituted a crime.
The framing problem is that nearly everyone, including the MSM, talks about the case as a "hush money" case, which gets front page coverage and clicks for their online articles. This gives Trump and his cronies the ability to characterize the case as trivial, when it is not, and allows his millions of supporters to think that Trump was "just protecting his family".
Thank you so much for this. It answers the question I've been wrestling with for ages -WHY - are supposed Christians throwing their lot in with this evil conman. Your article puts it all into perspective and makes total sense. I'm going to make a small appeal to your readers that if they know any US citizens living abroad, send them to https://votefromabroad.org to request their overseas ballots. There are 6.5million of us and we can vote!
It would be very good if people would NOT refer to the current trial as a “hush-money case.” That simple supports Trump’s false claims. Instead, refer to it as a criminal case, an election-fraud case. PLEASE!!!!!
Pedantic, unimportant grammarian notes error “…Christian Authoritarians, like Mike Pence before Trump tried to have he and his family lynched…” Should be “…him and his family lynched…”