This is not how the Arlington incident should have ended - at least by half

Two ways this odious affair should not have ended.

1. "The unidentified female staff member has declined to press charges due to concern over retaliation." (The Army said in a statement that the staffer, despite being "abruptly pushed aside … acted with professionalism and avoided further disruption.")

Astounding, is it not? An Army lady overseeing a cemetery has infinitely more character than a man who could possibly become the next president of the United States. If Trump had been treated that way? He'd be suing Biden, Harris, Walz, every "weaponized" government department from Defense to Health and Human Services and filing assault & battery and attempted murder charges.

2. "The Army said in a statement Thursday morning that it considers the matter closed." And a "Pentagon official said the department is not taking any legal action against the Trump campaign at this time."

Why? For sure, Trump & Co. is ignorant but ignorance of the law is no excuse, as many judges have had to inform far less blame-worthy subjects. Yet the Trump campaign can't even plead its usual condition of being grossly unenlightened. 

Politico: "Army officials say they fully informed the Trump team about a federal law prohibiting the filming of partisan political advertisements at national cemeteries." Yes, and Willie Sutton was fully informed about the feds frowning on bank robbery. Your point being? he asked. Speaking of career criminals ...

I once maintained that the vilest creature in Trump's circle of hell is Boris Epshteyn. He bears a creepy resemblance to Al Capone and has a thuggish, reptilian brain to match. Boris has been twice arrested for barroom bashfests, which Al once did for a living; he was "Co-Conspirator 6" in one of Trump's many indictments, and he's now under an indictment of his very own in Arizona. 

At any rate, Mr. Epshteyn has made himself scarce of late, which has mitigated the appeal of hating his guts even more than others ... bear with me; there is a point to this .... but, through immense serendipity, Steven Cheung quit as Goldfinger's caddy to become Trump's, and otherwise sit in for Epshteyn as the vilest among the vile as the campaign spokesman.  

A reporter once described the modus operandi of this professional guttersnipe and cheapest-of-shots artist as "You come at us and we’re going to kick you in your fucking teeth." Keyboard jockeys who brandish feigned tough-guy talk generally wind up in real trouble. And so what I can't understand is how Cheung has managed to keep his facial oriface relatively unmutilated.

Had he said something along the teeth-kicking line not to Arlington's woman but to a male Army staffer, he might have soon been collecting his from the cemetery's nicely mowed lawn. If not for that, for damn sure he would have after "abruptly pushing aside" the Army dude. Violating a law is one thing; physical assault quite another.

But as the classic bully-as-coward, Cheung, from the bodily safety of his campaign cubical, did what he spends each day doing — defaming someone. And in this case he defamed the Army lady who had been abused, alleging she was “clearly suffering from a mental health episode," just for the exhilarating fun of it, one supposes.

Again, an Army spokesperson was too gentle, saying only that it's "unfortunate that the ANC employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked."

And that brings us back to "it should not have ended this way" #1. Although the U.S. Army considered "the matter closed," the "unfortunate" ANC employee had the granddaddy of all defamation lawsuits to bring against Cheung and the Trump campaign. That her identity will be exposed is a given, thus real harm was done to her reputation.

In addition, with better guidance, the prospect of "retaliation" from the Trump syndicate would have inspired rather than discouraged the woman from pressing charges against the abusive campaign member. Through Cheung, Trump Inc. had already played out its hand, exposing itself to considerable legal liability by subjecting her to public ridicule via the false accusation of her suffering from a psychoneurotic state. "Female hysteria," it was once called.

No, the Arlington incident should not have ended this way. The U.S. Army and Pentagon would have been abundantly justified in treating this as an open matter and bringing charges. Yet unlike Trump, they operate in the real world, whose politics barred such actions. Ethically, their dispositions of the incident were wrong, but realistically inevitable. 

Not so with the Arlington employee. Dismissing the incident and thus shelving it along with Trump's innumerable other crimes, public obscenities and cynical mockeries of the law were improper and far from inescapable. The woman may have been pressured from above to just drop it. If so, I'd be sympathetic but not quite understanding.

The appropriate action was to nail his and his campaign's ass to the wall — through the media, accompanied by a pledge that proceeds from a legal settlement would go to Arlington. America needs good inexpensive cigars and more E. Jean Carrolls. If "the system" can't bring down Trump, perhaps each of his victims, individually, can. 

Comments

[Anne J]

Meanwhile, Trump gets to publish his campaign video taken there as a campaign ad, and no one stops even that. Families of people buried there saw their loved ones' gravestones published on social media without consent. But as women who have been assaulted by Trump, whether physically or verbally can tell you, he doesn't ever take no for an answer.

He acts like the little king of everything and everything around him is his to grab as he pleases.