It was a decent night’s sleep, according to reports from across the nation and as far away as Australia.
We did not know how it was going to go as our last act of the day was to attempt to absorb the address from the Oval Office about the assassination attempt that has roiled us all for three days. There seems to be general consensus on the messaging streams. This is not an attempt to ascertain the truth of anything, but rather to reflect the maturation of the streams of information.
First: The coverage we have is derived from NPR, which is a reliable left-center source. They presented a well-presented figure who did a credible job in reading whatever was on the invisible teleprompter that provided the text of the remarks. One of the differences in watching reflects the change of the last two weeks. We listened to the words, of course, but looked more closely at the dilation of the eyes and the small precise jerks of the motion as they read the words on a screen we could not see.
The text? It was a call for unity, welcome of course, but an interesting change from the rhetoric prior to the shooting. So, what did the teleprompter want us to understand? Apparently, the push to remove the incumbent from within his own party is over, and it may be that the election has been generally conceded to the challenger.
That is still early, and it may take more sampling groups and creative sessions to figure out a campaign against a man who has now actually shed blood for his rhetoric.
As to that matter, there are some general streams of information in play.
In the Who-What-Where-Why part of it, there is general agreement on the “who,” and we will not repeat the name of the young man. There is general consensus that it was a bad act from a deranged single gunman,
It is a familiar one, since we have heard that message before, and in fact heard it for sixty years about something else. So, the message from the Oval Office was
After his normal working hours were closed, Mr. Biden said “we can’t, we must not go down” the road of political violence in America. He then said “hate must have no safe harbor,” and urged Americans to “get out of our silos” to listen to one another.
The messaging had evolved since the shooting. In his first response, he had termed the shooting “an incident,” rather than an “assassination attempt,” and later, added that he and first lady Jill Biden were praying for the family of the person killed at the rally and als that he was sincerely grateful that Trump is “doing well and recovering.”
Since this may become of the iconic photos of a generation, we will not run it as the lead to this edition of unfolding messages. It is quite striking in all the elements).
This morning, the messaging about that included the incredible montage of a bloodied Trump, fist raised under a cloudless blue sky and an American flag draped in a manner suggesting the blue stars were on the bottom left, the international signal for distress.
Other messaging streams emerged. The one about the spectator who was killed is one of heroism, as he reportedly leapt to protect his family as he was killed. That covered the “where component,” and the diagrams proliferated of the roof where the shooter established his firing position, the angle to where Mr. Trump stood, and the topography of the site.
Corey Comperatore, a former volunteer Fire Chief from his Facebook site.
Another messaging stream picked up amplitude in assigning blame, which would enable completion of the old journalistic standards.
The Shooter is dead, so that is not an avenue for discussion from first person. The family- the one in which the father legally purchased the rifle- is under discussion and no commentary has been seen yet if the weapons was common household property or purloined from storage, secured or not. So, that aspect of the “why,” aside from the intital report that he was a registered Republican viter and had donated $15 dollars to a voting rights group on the day of Mr. Biden’s inauguration.
But that leads to an emerging messaging stream that appears to have some factual basis, but may prove to be useful in the partisan struggle. We have heard that there was resistance from the DHS folks about providing additional Secrt Service protection to both RFK Jr. and Mr. Trump.
This morning? The swirl of messaging appeared to provide an opportunity to end one that has been progress for years. Reports today are that Judge Aileen Cannon of Florida granted the defense’s motion to dismiss something called “the superseding indictment’ citing a violation of the appointments clause in the seating of Special Council Smith.
That was the matter of the “illegal retention of classified documents after leaving the White House and storing them at his Mar-a-Lago resort.”
There had been four matters under dispute. The one in New York about “hush money” produced 34 felony verdicts on an expired misdemeanor charge and is under appeal. This one was hanging, with additional court appearance pending before the election. The dismissal apparently signifies the collapse of the lawfare strategy as part of the campaign.
There is, of course, more to come on the one case that is still pending sentencing, the appeals process and whether there is the inclination to continue to flog that horse.
So, that is a quick recap of messaging as the GOP convention starts this week. Every time we lurch to one of these moments in message transition in our accelerated news-cycle, we are startled by how fast it moves, and what they are attempting to get us to think about it from moment to moment.
The story unfolding now? It appears to be about weaknesses in the Secret service protective detail that permitted the shooting to occur. Amplification to this stream is based on the assertion that requests from RFK, Jr, and Trump’s security for additional Secret Service support were denied. This morning, we find some agents were diverted from Trump’s Butler appearance to support one by Dr. Jill.
In view of that shortfall, Butler PA local law enforcement were assigned some of the responsibility. One sheriff apparently engaged with the shooter on the roof and retreated from the scene as the weapon was brandished against him.
So, with two anti-sniper teams from the Secret Service apparently in place prior to the shot and able to take immediate response, why didn’t they?
This strand will play out in the background of the convention messaging, and it is potentially one with some duration. Already in play are the denials of requests for additional support, the qualifications of the special Agent in Charge of the detail, communications on the ground during the event, and the circumstances by which only an act of God prevented even more horrific bloodshed.
We won’t attempt to troll any of that here this morning. It will play out in a fight that could be over now about the impending election, or preparation for another larger surprise to distract us from likely outcomes and produce others. Some are in play already.
We need to go look at the array of players in the final four or five to determined who could be the likely new second in command of the United States Government. The one we used to understand.
Copyright 2024 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com