OPINION: Why Stormy’s story still matters
Approximately 22 million viewers tuned in to “60 Minutes” on March 25 to watch as Anderson Cooper interviewed Stephanie Clifford. Clifford, better known as adult film actress Stormy Daniels, alleges that she had an affair with now-President Trump in 2006.
Daniels is currently in the midst of an escalating legal battle with the president and his hapless Attorney Michael Cohen. She alleges that the latter paid her $130,000 to sign a non-disclosure agreement about the relationship in the lead-up to the 2016 election, but that the agreement is invalid because Trump himself never signed it — now leaving her free to share the story. While her latest recounting included some explicit details of the encounters themselves with Trump, it also including harrowing aftereffects, including an ominous threat made against her in a parking lot.
It is a peculiarity of the age of Trump that such an extraordinary saga is given only a portion of the news cycle rather than exhaustive, wall-to-wall coverage. But even with the relatively limited conversation around Daniels’ story, many among the liberal commentariat — particularly men — have been quick to wave it away entirely, or clarify that they are interested not in the sordid details, but only anything pertaining to some kind of legal impropriety on the president’s part.