It has become a standard conservative talking point to refer to that dossier with the adjective “discredited” attached, but I can’t think of any part of it that has actually been discredited, while several parts, including these, have been confirmed.
What about the famous pee tape?
My opinion is that it either exists or did at one time. I base that on this:
“President Trump reportedly told former FBI Director James Comey that he was considering asking Comey to investigate the infamous ‘pee tape’ in order to prove that the alleged recording — one of the more salacious items in the ‘Steele dossier’ — did not exist.”
If you think about it, Trump would never have considered asking Comey to investigate if he had been absolutely certain that he had never done anything like that in the first place, because in such a case he would be 100% certain that no such tape could exist.
Of course there is also the point that no investigation can ever prove universal or absolute non-existence. Think about it. How could anyone possibly prove that a tape does not exist? What would be the standard of proof? “We looked at every square inch of the planet Earth and frisked all seven and a half billion people. It wasn’t there.” If Trump had followed up on this discussion with an order to Comey, he would have been sending the FBI on a snipe hunt, but that’s not really evidence of Trump’s guilt or innocence. It is, however, strong evidence of his dim-wittedness.
Mind you, I don’t give a damn whether such a tape exists. I can’t see how that could have any bearing on a man’s ability to govern. Consider the rankings of Presidents. You can bet that high-rated presidents like JFK (top 15) and Jefferson (top 5) did a lot kinkier shit than that, while low-rated chief execs like Nixon and Jimmy Carter (both bottom 10) stuck to the missionary position with their wives.
(Just in pursuit of fairness, here is a more complete list of Presidential rankings.)