Donald Trump

Did Trump Forget the Golden Showers, His Briefing, Or Both?

Written by SK Ashby

I'm hesitant to seriously question the mental competency or health of others because mental illness comes in many forms from minor to major, but in Trump's case I'm going to raise the question.

Immediately after CNN reported that despot-elect Donald Trump was briefed on Russian efforts to compromise him, and after the Golden Showers memo was published by Buzzfeed, Trump propagandist Kellyanne Conway was asked about the report by Late Night host Seth Meyers.

Here's what she had to say.

She said Americans "should be concerned that intelligence officials leaked to the press and won't go and tell the president-elect or the president of the United States himself … they would rather go tell the press."

"But the report was that about them going to the President-elect," Meyers said.

"And it says that they never briefed him on it, that they appended two pages to the bottom of his intelligence briefing," Conway responded.

"I believe it's that they did brief him on it," Meyers corrected.

"Well, he says he's not aware of it," she said.

For the record, intelligence officials did not leak the report to the press. In fact, the report had been circulating among the press for over six months before Buzzfeed published it for the public to see. Everyone in the news business from CNN to the New York Times saw the report months ago, but they were afraid to publish it. It's not as if it was a vague, shadowy email.

As for Trump's claim that he wasn't "aware" of being briefed that Russian intelligence has video of him watching prostitutes piss on each other, here's what we now know: FBI director James Comey personally briefed Trump.

A senior U.S. official said that it was FBI Director James Comey himself who pulled Trump aside after the briefing and spoke with him one-on-one about the so-called "dossier," 35 pages of memos prepared by a former British spy for an anti-Trump client prior to last year's election.

There are several possible explanations for this contradiction.

It's possible, maybe even likely, that Kellyanne Conway lied to Seth Meyers. If Conway's mouth is moving, there's usually a lie coming out of it.

It's also possible Trump lied to Conway. Trump is a compulsive liar.

The last possibility, and maybe the most troubling one, is that Trump does not remember being briefed.

I would say Trump's racist rhetoric, his complete lack of experience in government, his conflicts of interest, and his boasts of sexual assault make him unfit for office, but it's also possible he's not mentally fit for office.

It may not be the first time in recent history that a Republican with a possible impairment sat in the White House.