Former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg decided two things on Monday: 1) He wasn’t going to comply with special counsel Robert Mueller’s apparent subpoena in connection with the investigation into Russia’s attempted meddling in the 2016 election and 2) He was going to talk all about that decision on cable news.
And man, oh man, did he talk.
For many people, Nunberg’s decision to go public with his refusal to answer questions from Mueller was the definition of insanity. After all, Mueller can all but compel him to comply with the subpoena. And, no matter what, Nunberg is in real legal jeopardy.
Here’s why what Nunberg did on Monday makes total sense: This guy isn’t exactly an A-list political (or otherwise) talent.
The reality of Trump’s presidential campaign was that the only people willing to work for him at the outset — and, really, even when he became the Republican nominee — were people who Trump knew from other walks of life (Hope Hicks, Dan Scavino) or political types who didn’t have any other options (Corey Lewandowski, Nunberg).
The reality is that while, occasionally, you can find a diamond in the rough, the truth is that most people who are on the D list belong there.
Which brings me to Nunberg. No one with any political, legal or common sense would advise him to refuse to cooperate with a special counsel investigation and then to brag about it, repeatedly, on cable TV.
Why did he do it? For the same reason Carter Page, another former Trump aide in real legal jeopardy in regard to the 2016 campaign, keeps granting interviews. Because, I think, they like the attention and simply aren’t sophisticated enough to understand how much damage they are doing to themselves.
The Point: The only people willing to bet on Trump from the start were people who had nothing left to lose. No one should be surprised when those same people reveal themselves — in another context — as having nothing left to lose.
