Thing One and Thing Two

In Watergate, the smoking gun tape revealed that Nixon wanted to use the CIA to interfere with an FBI investigation. Nixon used the following words to force CIA Director Richard Helms into compliance: "It's likely to blow the whole Bay of Pigs thing which we think would be very unfortunate for CIA."

In the Trump/Russia scandal, Der Donald wanted Comey to make a public statement exonerating the president. Trump finished this entreaty with these words: "“Because I have been very loyal to you, very loyal; we had that thing you know.”

I have a pretty good idea about what Thing One was. It certainly was not about the Bay of Pigs per se, since that scandal was hardly a secret, and had no connection to Watergate. It is widely thought that Nixon used that phrase as a kind of code for the JFK assassination.

What the hell is Thing Two? And just how had Trump demonstrated "loyalty"?

The speculation here seems insufficient. My gut tells me that Trump must be referring to some as-yet undisclosed secret -- the same secret lurking behind that mysterious tweet in which the president quasi-threatened Comey with "tapes." Comey, for his part, may be betting that revelation of this secret will hurt Trump more than it will hurt the former FBI Director.

Any ideas as to what that secret might be? I suspect that it is something big.

(I may update this post if the Comey's testimony tells us more about The Thing.)