BTRTN: It's Different When Coats Turns on the Turncoat

Born to Run the Numbers on the Helsinki fall-out, and the out-sized significance of Dan Coats' condemning tweet:

http://www.borntorunthenumbers.com/2018/07/btrtn-its-different-when-coats-turns-on.html

Excerpts: "There’s a clear pattern now. There are people that Trump is afraid to go to war with. People who Trump knows are not the least bit afraid of him. Quite the opposite: these are people who terrify Trump. These are the people who never get degrading nicknames. People who Trump can’t buy, can’t smear, can’t kill, and can’t beat. It’s a very short list, with the names Mueller and Putin on top. And now you can add Coates to the list. The difference is that Dan Coats is one of Trump’s own. He is of the base, from the base, and by the base. That’s what’s new...

"Deep down, Dan Coats is the kind of narrow-minded, omni-phobic slanderer of liberals that Trump’s base counts as one of their own. Dan Coats was not one of the sixteen midgets who said vicious things about Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign, only to morph into toadies when vanquished. Coats did not come from Exxon Mobil and label Trump a moron. He did not get himself on the cover of Time Magazine in an attempt to usurp credit for victory from Trump. He is not Corker, Flake, McCain, or anybody named Bush. Dan Coats has held an extremely senior position in the White House from Day One without a whiff of confrontation or controversy. Dan Coats has weapons-grade conservative bona fides and no axe to grind. But that, indeed, is the point. That’s the good news... The base is now hearing it from one of their own."