‘Trump’ In Play
When 45 vacates the set, much is revealed.
Above: Boris Epshteyn, 45 surrogate, The Beat with Ari Melber, January 25. Screenshot courtesy of CNN.
“45” (1) doesn’t like laws. It’s not that 45 can’t avoid breaking them. It’s just that they aren’t about him.
Aren’t we ‘over’ 45?
Apparently not, as political commentary after political commentary try to square the self-induced perjury of 45 and his confidants in real-time. ‘Did they really say that… what they claimed 5th Amendment protection before the January 6 Committee? Hours before…?’ (2)
And then there is the matter of ‘spreading a lie.’
A rally here… a rally there… a video op here… a video op there: the lies’ ripple effects wash over the public square:
Well the Democrats really pulled off a fast one by using COVID-19 as an excuse to roll out absentee ballots, which everyone knows can be tampered with… (can’t they)?
-recent Chuck Todd interview with Tom Reed, Republican Congressman from New York, and former 45 Campaign co-chair, who is retiring (3).
Retiring?
45 speaks little ‘of substance’ these days: his social media platforms are scrubbed; his kids are pleading the fifth; attempts at reinventing new platforms sputter; he is dependent on fifth estate flame throwing; his legal fees keep climbing. What keeps 45 in motion is what keeps his allies in motion — not self-respect, but donor dollars.
Prime- time MSNBC anchor Ari Melber can’t raise ‘money’ on air… but 45 surrogate Boris Epshteyn can.
Replayed several times on The Beat with Ari Melber’ was the following exchange (4):
Epshsteyn: ‘You called them fraudulent electors (at the start of the segment)… they are alternate electors. And that is how we proceeded: providing states with fraudulent returns the opportunity to install alternate electors.’
In other words, all very ‘above board…’ the Democratic way.’
Ka-ching.
Republican Party donors in Wyoming whoop it up for ‘45.’ Photo courtesy of Kim Raff for the NYTimes, Feb. 9
Contrast this obfuscation with a January 9 interview on NPR: much is revealed when 45 stops talking and exits the square.
Steve Inskee, NPR political reporter and interviewer, started the segment with a series of benign questions about the seeming defection of some Republican supporters and whether the former President will continue to demand fealty from his Party to the claim that the election “was stolen.”
A string of non-sequiturs, ad hominems, public defamations, and nonsense followed. Eventually 45 surmised that his disingenuous palavering and incendiaries were being obscured by good background reporting.
There was nobody to sue. No one to defame.
After Inskee shared on air, “I guess he left,” several questions surfaced:
Why NPR? Why cut short this interview? A sign of desperation or opportunity? Perhaps both: look the maligned-persecuted and the come-back kid in real-time. (5) Send a message to your warblers that you are still in the game.
Why fall for being outed? The interviewer raised that ‘not one court decision but every single one went against you.’
Why duck the obvious for the lie? Inskee’ s questions introduced, inferred ambiguity. ‘Well if you are correct in saying the election was fraudulent, then why did you lose your case every single time, in every single state?’
Why label Sen. Mitch McConnell as a loser?
Who is still in power? You or McConnell?
Finally, why scamper out after you ran out of dodges?
Smart thugs scamper out before running.
Much will not be revealed by expanding the ‘donor platform.’
‘Much will be revealed’ by turning the noise off.
January 26, updated February 9
Footnotes
1-10 Reasons Why I Stopped Using “President Trump,” Oct. 12, Medium
2-All in with Chris Hayes, MSNBC, January 25
3-https://www.foxnews.com/media/msnbcs-chuck-todd-grows-heated-anniversary-trump
4-https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/22/politics/boris-epshteyn-trump-campaign-fake-electors/index.html
5-Kate Bohner with Donald J. Trump, The Art of the Comeback (1997).
