1/ After 30 years of political, government, advertising, and crisis management experience for politicians, corporations, political parties, PACs (Super and otherwise) and associations I've internalized some hard and fast rules.
2/ Good leaders react to a crisis swiftly and honestly. Bad leaders blameshift, like, cover, and lawyer up.
Terrible leaders pretend there is no crisis, lie to their stakeholders, the press, and the public. They are frequently shocked how bad it really looks from the outside.
Terrible leaders pretend there is no crisis, lie to their stakeholders, the press, and the public. They are frequently shocked how bad it really looks from the outside.
3/ The current crisis will test three groups of leaders. First, Trump and his WH. He wants to destroy Mueller desperately, passionately, and instantly. His staff, such as they are, are simply among for the ride, oblivious to their historical and legal liabity
4/ They have eyes on the crisis, and know that the CEO of this particular operation is out of his goddamn mind. But not one of them will quit. Not one of them will speak out on the record. Not one of them will stand up no matter how dangerous the path Trump puts them on.
5/ Obviously, the coming moment will test the Republican Congress hardest. They will display both but the terrible kinds of leadership. They will pretend they had nothing to do with it, it never happened, they're mere particles in a dance of chaotic forces beyond their control.
6/ The thick, grunting Trumphadis and the Dunning-Kruger test case wannabe players in the great game will pretend the laws don't matter, Fox News can fix it, and that if only we got Hillary's emails we find the real killetd. Same show, different day.
7/ I will remind them for the hundredth time that in 1973 Nixon's fans or exactly where they were. Stubborn, confident, screeching about fake news and liberal media conspiracies. In November of 1974 57 of them, 49 in the house and 8 in the Senate were out of a job.
8/ There's a difference between now and then, however. The difference is Nixon did not have a cadre of Republicans in the house aggressively seeking to obstruct justice, and to end the Watergate probe.
9/ Sadly, Paul Ryan will go down in history as a Speaker who presided over the utter collapse of a Republican caucus and even when the crisis Peaks and Trump starts firing people he will do nothing. He will sit, passive and terrified.
10/ The next group is crisis will test is the Democrats. can they keep your eye on the ball? Can they actually work a problem? can they get through an election season without squandering the opportunity of the century? Or will they run down dumb issue rabbit holes?
11/ can they pretend for once not to be like a cat chasing a laser pointer?
Can they get on, and stay on a unified message, for once?
Can they get on, and stay on a unified message, for once?
12/ Finally, the media is going to be tested like never before. Donald Trump is a weaponized distraction machine, and the more desperate he becomes the more absurd and dangerous the distractions will be. The media saw very clearly...
13/ ... in two major recent stories that Donald Trump is not immune when you focus. On both child separations and Helsinki, Trump completely lost control of the media narrative and for just a moment Americans opened their eyes again.
