Stormy Daniels came to Washington, and nobody really cared
- Stormy Daniels, the porn star who says she slept with President Donald Trump, performed multiple shows in Washington, D.C. this week.
- While Daniels's performances were widely covered by reporters, the Washington news cycle was just too fast for it to make a dent.
WASHINGTON - The porn star who says she had sex with Donald Trump in 2006 came through the nation's capital - and it was hardly the biggest thing to happen this week.
Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has been on a cross-country tour where she performs at strip clubs in major cities. But when she came to Washington for a round of shows on Monday and Tuesday, it did not draw much attention to what has previously been a media frenzy around her and her lawyer, Michael Avenatti.
Daniels's Monday show was covered by a big group of journalists, who were apparently the bulk of the crowd at a new strip club in Washington called "Cloakroom," a clear nod to the private chambers for members of Congress. It was a ticketed event, with general admission going for $50 a head and increased prices for additional VIP services.
Outlets such as the Associated Press and the libertarian Reason Magazine covered her Monday night performance, noting her dancing and how the crowd was mostly filled with other journalists and a few people looking to get a laugh out of it.
The Tuesday night show was similar. A few dozen patrons lined up early and went to the show. A handful were regulars at the club looking to see an extra special performance, while some wanted to bask in the "historical" nature of the show.
A patron, who would not give his name because, after all, he was at a strip club, told Business Insider that the building had historical value, because the previous location for the strip club collapsed in 2014 during a construction accident. He also said that Daniels's presence was historic because she was the "first porn star to sleep with a president."
But he seemed rather focused on waiting for Daniels's performance than partaking in traditional strip club activities. He even wore headphones and listened to an audiobook for the couple of hours prior to Daniels taking the stage.
Her performance, titled "All Things Revealed," was short, only a few songs, and relatively the same as the night before. The room was poorly lit and smelled like the perfume section of a mall, only much more pungent. The stage is atop the bar and there are booths around the walls for VIPs. Cash was thrown all over the place, with one customer using a small plastic gun that dispenses dollar bills at a rapid pace.
Daniels's performances were hardly the biggest thing in Washington this week, which had a lot more pressing news.
Trump nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court then left for a tumultuous NATO summit in Brussels, and Congress returned from recess with a laundry list of issues to tackle. Daniels even made bigger headlines upon leaving Washington, when she was arrested outside of similar performance in Columbus, Ohio on Wednesday night.
Daniels's ongoing legal fight with Trump and his former lawyer Michael Cohen had previously consumed media and Washington. But it appears the moment has passed and that this week there was little attention paid to a porn actress who says she slept with the president, whose lawyer had her sign a nondisclosure agreement days before he shocked the world and defeated Hillary Clinton. The news just moves too fast.