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This is a challenging edition of Wide World of News to write.
I watched the 1/6 committee hearing, I looked at the Blue coverage, the Dominant Media coverage (not quite the same thing as the Blue coverage, but pretty close), and the Red coverage.
I think there are primarily four ways to look at both the hearing and the political reality of where we are in its wake:
1. From the point of view of accountability and American history, I am reasonably confident that Kevin McCarthy (if he were being honest) would join Mitch McConnell (and 90% or so of all congressional Republicans) in agreeing with the framing of the New York Times’ Peter Baker:
As the committee portrayed it during its prime-time televised hearing, Mr. Trump executed a seven-part conspiracy to overturn a free and fair democratic election. According to the panel, he lied to the American people, ignored all evidence refuting his false fraud claims, pressured state and federal officials to throw out election results favoring his challenger, encouraged a violent mob to storm the Capitol and even signaled support for the execution of his own vice president.
All those things were obvious to anyone paying attention before Thursday’s hearing, but history now has a more clear accounting, which will be buttressed by the committee’s future work.
Regarding the events leading up to and around 1/6, Donald Trump’s conduct was egregious, reflecting a cynical elevation of his own interests over those of the nation (a practice he continued with his Thursday statement). And the committee has documented what happened more clearly than has been done to date.
2. The Dominant Media’s coverage of all this – both the underlying events and the committee’s competence and message – demonstrates which side it is on and serves to unite the “reasonable” congressional wing of the Redlands with its rank-and-file.
Here, speaking for the Dominant Media’s point of view, is that same Peter Baker:
In the entire 246-year history of the United States, there was surely never a more damning indictment presented against an American president than outlined on Thursday night in a cavernous congressional hearing room where the future of democracy felt on the line.
Other presidents have been accused of wrongdoing, even high crimes and misdemeanors, but the case against Donald J. Trump mounted by the bipartisan House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol described not just a rogue president but a would-be autocrat willing to shred the Constitution to hang onto power at all costs….
Some of the new revelations and the confirmations of recent news reports were enough to prompt gasps in the room and, perhaps, in living rooms across the country….
Mr. Nixon faced hearings during Watergate not unlike those that began on Thursday night and was involved in other scandals beyond the burglary that ultimately resulted in his downfall. But the brazen dishonesty and incitement of violence put on display on Thursday eclipsed even his misdeeds, according to many scholars.
Do I need to lay out how those words will be received on the right? (I do not….)
The right’s reaction to Baker’s type of framing, reflective of the overall view held in the Redlands, will inspire the same response in the brains of all but the most bipartisan members of Congress, Jim Jordan, Sean Hannity, and most anti-Pelosi/Schumer WWoN readers.
In other words, elites on the right are not going to be won over by these hearings, in part because of the shared anger/dismissiveness at how the probe is being conducted, casting them as both hyperbolic overreach and poorly executed.
Speaking for this point of view:
1. Kim Strassel in the Wall Street Journal:
What’s actually missing in this special sauce of prime TV hours, slick videos and positive press is the one ingredient truly vital for public interest: credibility. If huge swathes of America ignore the committee’s work, it will be because the committee itself—through its construction and through its actions—made it easy.
2. Gary Abernathy in the Washington Post:
There are more hearings to come, but for now, those who hoped that Thursday’s prime-time production would elevate the events of Jan. 6 in the eyes of more Americans as a calamity on par with Watergate or 9/11 — and a major step toward leaving Trump on the ash heap of history — will probably be greatly disappointed.
3. I get what the committee was trying to do with its opening statements, videos, and initial two witnesses: tell a clear story of high stakes and humanize the narrative to break through.
I can say with some confidence – and without any reflection on my view of the seriousness of the events of 1/6 and the implications of Donald Trump’s conduct – that there were minimal gasps in living rooms across the country last night, despite Peter Baker’s speculation.
4. The line of counterattack that most unites elite Republicans, that gives them the most confidence that the hearings will not cause the party political damage in the midterms, and that reflects what is likely their most effective case is that in the same news cycle in which the hearings are dominating the news, the real-world political health of Team Biden remains weak.
The now all-too-familiar litany of troubles is not taking a holiday while Liz Cheney makes her case.
It is pretty safe to say that items in this toxic brew have not gotten better and are unlikely to get better before November: bad economic conditions (led by rising prices), pessimistic consumers, disdainful business leaders, low presidential poll numbers, increasingly desperate (and outspokenly critical) congressional Democrats, and an administration and president that are seen in some corners (including some Blue quarters) as incompetent, paralyzed, out of touch, and focused less on solving problems than finger pointing and there-is-nothing-we-can-do exasperated shrugs.
Here are some things the 1/6 hearing will not change:
The Port of Los Angeles is a testament to President Joe Biden’s unrewarded efforts to address what he calls his top economic priority: inflation.
Biden will speak at the port, America’s busiest, on Friday with inflation persisting as a problem that has eluded his policy tweaks, deals brokered with the private sector, infrastructure spending and regulatory actions.
* An essential reading Wall Street Journal piece rounding up the unhappiness of Capitol Hill Democrats with the lack of boldness and achievements from Joe Biden, a point of view that stretches across the party from the most moderate to the most progressive.
The story quotes from Mr. Biden’s inaugural address “(“It is a time for boldness, for there is so much to do. And this is certain. We will be judged, you and I, for how we resolve the cascading crises of our era.”) and then proceeds to list all the ways that the president has fallen short.
*.Continued hideous poll numbers, as chronicled by one of the squadron of Washington Post writers/analysts who lean left but posture as neutral but have largely abandoned the efforts to prop up anyone who opposes Donald Trump:
President Biden is an unpopular president. And the thing is: That’s not unusual in the modern era. Presidents are generally unpopular these days. Biden’s numbers are somewhat below average, but the average is a minority of Americans approving of a president.
But even Biden’s overall numbers undersell his political troubles. And some new polls drive that home.
An NPR/PBS/Marist College poll released Thursday shows Biden with his lowest approval rating to date, at 38 percent. Similarly, a Quinnipiac University poll released this week showed Biden tying his previous low of 33 percent. (Quinnipiac is often one of Biden’s worst polls.)….
But dig a little deeper, and you’ll see something even more troublesome for Democrats: Biden looks to be a leader largely without a base of devoted supporters. Those who dislike him overwhelmingly feel strongly, but those who like him overwhelmingly … don’t….
Making things worse, Biden has been sliding into this position for a while now, with no signs that this is as temporary as it has been for his predecessors who have found themselves in comparable positions. Perhaps the slide will be arrested if inflation is alleviated. But that’s not something that happens overnight. And for now, there are no easy answers.
And another new round of gruesome polling from Morning Consult:
President Joe Biden’s job approval rating has reached a new low, according to Morning Consult/Politico tracking, slipping below 40% for the first time since he entered office….
For comparison, Biden’s latest numbers are worse than Donald Trump’s were at this time four years ago, when 45% approved and 52% disapproved of the former president. Biden’s popularity, or lack thereof, mirrors Trump’s standing in June 2020, when the nation was grappling with the twin crises of the pandemic and the response to the murder of George Floyd.
* The inflation data coming Friday morning is not going to enhance Joe Biden’s poll standing:
As the national average for a gallon of gas climbs toward $5, new government data to be released Friday is expected to show that inflation remained at a 40-year high in May. (Washington Post)
* Gas, gas, gas:
As U.S. gasoline prices approach a record average of $5 a gallon, fuel costs are rippling through almost every corner of business, with signs emerging that the rising expenses are beginning to alter consumer behavior. (The Wall Street Journal)
* Malaise, via the Washington Post:
Most Americans expect inflation to get worse in the next year and are adjusting their spending habits in response to rising prices, according to a poll conducted by The Washington Post
In conclusion, I find the reaction to the hearing from the usual suspects to be as depressing as it was predictable.
Democrats feel righteous and Republicans feel undeterred and Donald Trump remains more likely to be his party’s nominee for president in 2024 than Joe Biden is likely to be reelected president in 2024.
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