On Wednesday, the Democratic National Committee’s opposition research manual on Trump leaked online, days after Russian hackers breached the DNC. Unless the DNC has gotten its hands on some juicy goss since the 200-page binder was compiled in December of last year, it’s safe to say that the DNC doesn’t know anything about Donald Trump that we don’t.
The opposition research is almost entirely familiar. Aside from an item Gawker flagged from 1989 in which Trump says he “doesn’t believe in reincarnation, heaven, or hell,” it’s mostly well-trod territory. There are items about Trump’s unpredictable temperament, his divorces, his exaggerated business acumen, his misogyny, his racism, his selfishness, his general shittiness as a person—subjects we’ve examined ad nauseam for the past year.
Opposition research may be a political dark art, but its impact can also be vastly overstated, especially in the internet era—it looks like reporters have done a pretty decent job when it comes to Trump. This could mean, too, that we’re heading toward an election with few bombshells: Trump and Hillary Clinton are two of the most scrutinized candidates in the history of politics, which may help explain why a lot of people hate both of them.