These people are garbage

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When you have strong political views, it’s all too tempting to tell yourself that the politicians on the “other side” are monstrously evil people, in addition to having lousy political stances. Sometimes that ends up being true, sometimes not. But when it comes to Donald Trump and the people he’s chosen for his political team, we keeping seeing more proof each day that these people are, in fact, garbage.

Donald Trump’s deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates testified yesterday that, in addition to all the financial crimes he committed with Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort, he also turned around and stole some money from Manafort, and he used it to bankroll an affair he was having. Gates then said he wasn’t sure whether or not he stole money from the inaugural fund, presumably because he’s committed so many financial crimes, he can’t remember them all. And yet Gates has turned out to be one of the least awful of the bunch.

At least Rick Gates decided to come clean in the end, even if he only confessed to his crimes in order to receive a reduced prison sentence. Manafort has lived an even more cartoonishly criminal life, having conspired with the Kremlin to install a murderous regime in Ukraine. Manafort is facing three hundred years in prison, based on the sentencing guidelines, to give you an idea of just what a piece of crap he is. Yesterday we also learned that Trump’s longtime “lawyer” Michael Cohen is now being investigated for tax fraud as part of his taxi cab company. This is in addition to illegal payoffs he’s made to Trump’s mistresses.

Then there’s Donald Trump’s oldest friend Roger Stone, who in addition to having conspired with Russian hackers to rig the election, is also being investigated for a scandal involving a convicted prostitution ringleader and an alleged sheriff’s office bribery scheme. Just to rub it in, Trump’s most influential remaining White House adviser Stephen Miller suggested yesterday that immigrants who have used social services shouldn’t be allowed citizenship. These people aren’t the exceptions; they’re the rule. Everyone surrounding Trump is, objectively speaking, garbage – and that’s not a coincidence.

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