Public Lies. Private Truths.

In two hours, we’re going to learn that inflation is not transitory and is, in fact, not fading as the President and Secretary of Treasury said to expect. You won’t hear a lot about that today, however, because the press insists last night’s hearing is the only thing that matters.

I watched the January 6th hearing so you didn’t have to. First, Liz Cheney should be running it. Congressman Thompson’s fifteen-minute-long speech was condescending and boring. People were tuning in for the much-hyped never-before-seen videos and testimony, not his speech.

Liz Cheney’s opening was more prosecutorial and professional. There was the text, interwoven with video testimony and clips of the riot, and the subtext of “Attorney General, why won’t you prosecute Trump?”

I like Liz Cheney. I’d vote for her in Wyoming. Some of my friends are going to send me hate mail now and, ironically, it’ll be from my friends who pride themselves in standing up to GOP leadership. That’s what she is doing and I think she genuinely cares about what happened and is not driven by the cynicism so many of her critics are. But I think she has a tendency in interviews to come off as ready to strike a match and burn her party to the ground instead of trying to focus on the facts of January 6th. That provides ammunition to her critics.

The opening statements were too long and I suspect a lot of people tuned out before the videos started. They should have started with the chronological video as a cold open and gone from there. Maybe this explains ABC News in the past few years.

As for the evidence, the most important thing is this — from Sean Hannity to Mark Meadows to Ivanka Trump and so many points in between, they all knew the election was not stolen. So much of the public bravado over the election being stolen was a lie. In private, in their text messages, or under oath, they knew it was not stolen. So many people have been so misled by a few people who wanted to be close to fading power.

The next most important thing was pushing back on the revisionism of that day. There were many peaceful Americans who wandered into the Capitol and got caught up in something they did not understand. But there were also a sizable number of malcontented, angry people who rioted and broke into the Capitol to cause harm. They should be prosecuted and I continue to believe the Capitol Police should have been more aggressive in the beginning, including using deadly force to protect the Capitol.

Next, I was a bit disappointed in the hype. Much of what was new had already been leaked and aired. From the revelations about Mike Pence calling in the Guard to what Bill Barr said, it wasn’t really new and never before heard or seen. To start the hearing with Thompson’s 15 minute opening that revealed almost nothing and then to revisit previously leaked information as if it was new made it all seem anti-climatic.

I was left on the first night to wonder why Congress had not just let a prosecutor build this case. This is the impeachment case Congress could have made after January 6th and the Democrats refused. Now it is the case a prosecutor could build instead of being aired out with leaks to news organizations ahead of time pre-empting the impact.

My daughter started watching with me. She came in just before the chronological video of events. As we watched, I told her this is what happens when people trade religion for politics and God for government. We saw a cult storming the Capitol for their cult leader. We saw them starting chanting to hang Mike Pence as, in real time, Donald Trump tweeted out how betrayed he felt by Pence. The bastard love child of L. Ron Hubbard and Jim Jones took over.

Lastly, this is the biggest story in Washington, D.C. The press is going to be consumed with it. Much of the pundit class will be bullied into accepting how big a deal it is. And maybe, just maybe, it’ll persuade some people to vote Democrat in November. Maybe, just maybe, it will persuade Republicans to finally move on from humping Donald Trump’s leg and find a candidate for 2024 who could serve eight lawful years instead of just four.

But Democrats, as multiple news outlets are pointing out, really want to use this to reset their 2022 chances. Unfortunately for them, they’ll have to compete with a bigger story. Below is a friend’s picture of diesel in Northern California. Voters are going to still deal with gas prices long after these hearings conclude. The press’s coverage of the January 6th hearing is designed and packaged to be all that matters, including overshadowing a would-be assassination attempt on a member of the Supreme Court. In the press’s bubble, this hearing is the only story that matters. But gas is what will matter more to voters. Well, gas and the inflation report that is coming two hours from now.

In November, the GOP will take back both houses of Congress despite the January 6th hearings. The press and Democrats will blame the public and drip with contempt for the voters. By March, a recession will hit. Joe Biden will not run for President. Kamala Harris will be challenged. The Democrats will be in disarray pulled further left in the power vacuum. The GOP will expand its Senate margin and win the White House in 2024. We will move beyond January 6th, but don’t be surprised if you see Democrats act like a lot of Republicans did in 2020. Only much of the press that is now condemnatory will give them a pass. All you have to do is look at the press’s treatment of Stacey Abrams and Bret Kavanaugh’s would-be assassin.