Still Climbing a Mountain of Anti-Trump Books
13th May 2022
Mark Esper, President Trump’s last confirmed Secretary of Defense, has been the toast of all the networks this week for his new memoir, starting with the high-profile debut on “60 Minutes” with CBS anchor Norah O’Donnell. Then came CNN and MSNBC and PBS and NPR and Fox News.
That doesn’t even count the massive sharing of soundbites from these interviews, mostly dedicated to the unending hunger for “tell us all the crazy crap Trump said next” anecdotes. The last president’s failure to accept the certified election results and his failure to call off January 6 rioters may be the craziest stuff.
Other than Bret Baier of Fox News – surely the most skeptical of the lot – the toughest question Esper faced was how could he stand ever taking a job with Trump, and why on Earth did he hang around?
Put that parade aside for a minute for a much more general point about “tell-all books.” Try for a few minutes to remember the tell-all books that emerged from Bill Clinton’s cabinet and White House inner circle. Maybe you can come up with Locked in the Cabinet by Labor Secretary Robert Reich (1997). That wasn’t a rip-roaring “tell-all.” Then there’s All Too Human by George Stephanopoulos (1999). The network interviewers threw questions about how he looked like an “ingrate” and a “backstabber,” inquiries which aren’t often thrown at Republican tattlers. But by that time, he was an ABC News star.