I have a hard time remembering the last crisis - The Wolf book - all but forgotten after 48 hours. That was going to bring him down then this last thing sucked the air right out of that.
These things usually bury a story before it gets traction. Look to appointments, executive orders, and agency actions.
In this case though, I suspect he trusted the congressional folk to keep things mostly confidential, and allowed
himself to speak more freely. I haven't gotten a whiff of anything that needed covering up. I guess the pornstar
payoffs, but that isn't the kind of thing that needs a diversion - rather it IS one.