Controlling the Conversation
Say what you will about a possible indictment of former President Trump…he certainly has controlled the conversation on the issue.
Recall that while this New York grand jury investigation was sort of bumping along in the background…it was Trump himself on his Truth Social platform Saturday morning announcing that he believed he would be arrested three days later. And look what happened to the news cycle for the weekend…and even since, to a large degree.
All the talk, all weekend, was Trump being arrested…and note, he used that word and not “indicted” because he knew what power it would have with his audience.
Normally, a grand jury hands down an indictment and the prosecutor holds a grand news conference announcing it…but Trump beat them to the punch.
Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg probably even bought a new suit for the occasion…but Trump has stolen his thunder, relegating him to merely a sound bite…a minor part of what normally would be his bright moment in the sun.
I don’t buy those who say Trump did this to influence the grand jury…I think he just wanted to take advantage of steering the narrative his way. Say what you will, but when the matter is a criminal indictment, it’s not easy to spin it positively…but that’s really what Trump did.
I could have done without the call for protests…all that did was compare anything that might happen to January 6, and no one needs that. And as it turns out, at this point anyway, there have been more protestors calling for his arrest than protesting it…which perhaps he had a sense would happen.
In any event, regardless of your views of Trump himself…he did it again, and crawled further inside the heads of liberals, progressives, Democrats…and not a few so-called Republicans.
