The January 6 Hearings - Part Two

Yesterday's January 6 hearing produced a new term - "team normal."

A hybrid of taped and live testimony centered on the comments of former Attorney General William Barr, Trump 2020 campaign manager Bill Stepien, former U.S. Attorney for Northern District of Georgia Byung Jin Pak, Republican election lawyer Ben Ginsberg (who represented George W. Bush on the 2000 Florida vote recount), and former Republican Philadelphia Commissioner Al Schmidt, who all looked into claims f afraid from Donald Trump at one time or another.  Among those testifying, Barr and Pak were Trump appointees, and Stepien joined the Trump 2020 presidential campaign late in the game to improve Trump's poll numbers against Biden.  All of them came to the conclusion that there was no fraud and that Trump. assuming he really believes he defeated Biden in the presidential election, doesn't know what he's talking about when he claims fraud.  These Trump aides and appointees were called "team normal" because they looked at the accusations of fraud objectively and thoroughly and ultimately told Trump what he didn't want to hear.  But "team normal" last to the crazies - including an inebriated Rudolph Giuliani - advising Trump.

Well, we all knew that.  We also knew, as former Fox News editor Chris Stirewalt testified yesterday, that once Biden won Arizona, there was no way Trump could win nationally.  So there were no bombshells today?  Well, there was this one.  January 6 Senior Investigative Counsel Amanda Wick revealed, in a pre-taped explanation, that Trump raised a quarter of a billion dollars off the lie that there was voter fraud and said it was going to fight voter fraud.  Instead, it went to conservative activist groups engaged in anything but that.

Everyone is calling yesterday a horrible day for Donald Trump.  But it was also a horrible day for President Biden - the Dow fell 876 points over worries of inflation and a possible recession.  To those worried that Trump might try to steal the 2024 presidential election - he actually might win it fair and square.

The danger on the rocks has surely not passed. 

One Hundred Days

Do you remember what you were doing on April 17 of this year?  Probably watching Andrew Cuomo on the news while staying home due to the pandemic, right?  You may at least remember that it was a Friday.  I ask because we are a hundred days after that date, and we are also a hundred days away from the presidential election, so Election Day, November 3, is no farther in the future than April 17 is in the past.

Joe Biden seems to be in control in the presidential campaign going into these last one hundred days.  But I'm worried.  Trump just hired a crackerjack numbers guy, former Chris Christie aide Bill Stepien, to run his campaign, and his efforts to get Trump to discipline himself and stay on message appear to be working. Trump is doubling down on law and order, and his new TV ads drive the point home like a hammer into a nail, and with just as much subtlety.  And while people are laughing at Trump's boasting of his ability to pass a cognitive test, Trump's recitation of five simple words in a predetermined order is a way of reminding voters that Biden has some trouble doing that. Not enough people seem to believe Biden's explanation that it's a stutter, least of all his most rabid detractors.  Trump supporters?  No - Bernie bros! And they're not completely sold on Uncle Joe either, despite Bernie Sanders' efforts to get them to vote for Biden.

I may be getting a little too anxious.  So far, there's no evidence that Trump's change of style and tone seem to be swaying enough voters to make a difference in the campaign.  While Bill Stepien seems to boast about Trump campaign' swagger and strength to the media, Biden's campaign staffers, led by campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon, have been working under the radar as if they're carefully plotting and strategizing out of sight and mind to avoid giving away too much. And they see Trump's campaign moves as clearly as anyone else while moving forward themselves. 

But a lot can still happen.  Even at this point, Biden still hasn't named a vice presidential running mate, which could work for or against him.  A major riot - no doubt one sparked by the Department of Homeland Security - could turn moderate votes against the Black Lives Matter movement and against Biden.  The COVID-19 crisis could ease well enough to improve Trump's standing.   Or, COVID-19 could affect the ballot process.  A natural disaster might alter the course of the campaign.  And a man-made disaster - say,  a classic Biden gaffe - might do the same.  And  Biden's low-key campaign strategy might no longer work as circumstances change.

Keep your fingers crossed day and night, boys and girls.  It's not over yet.  And don't put too much stock in the polls.