Whos' That Girl?  🌻🌻🌻

Girl Interrupted:  Cassidy Hutchinson was a rising star, a New Jersey girl who unlike the many Ivy league lawyers who remain unwilling or too deluded by the FG aura to speak truth to power, attended Christopher Newport University, a public college in Virginia.  Despite her relatively young age, the 26 year old has an impressive resume, assuming that you buy that interning for Senator Ted Cruz and Minority Whip Steve Scalise are good things.  After those stints she went on to serve as staff assistant at the Office of Legislative affairs before being promoted to special assistant and then executive assistant to former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows who brought her along to almost all of his meetings, empowering her to serve as his intermediary. For a long time she was another member of the FG cult, but apparently somewhere along the line, possibly around the time that the FG flung a ketchup filled plate against the wall in fury over former Attorney General Bill Barr’s public assertion that the 2020 election had not been fraud ridden, she stopped slugging Jell-O shooters and saw the light.  Yesterday Hutchinson relayed some of the more notable low points of her White House experience.  Among other things, we learned that on January 6 Mark Meadows doom scrolled through his phone, the modern day equivalent of fiddling while Rome burned.  Hutchinson reports that Meadows was frozen, unwilling to do anything to try to convince the increasingly crazed FG to put a halt to the events of insurrection day, even unconcerned that the life of his good buddy Gym Johnson might be in jeopardy.  Among the disturbing snippets that she relayed was that the FG, upset that his crowd wasn’t sufficiently large, wanted the protective “mags” (magnetometers) removed so that his supporters, some of whom were carrying AR 15s and an array of other dangerous weapons, could join in on the day’s “festivities” because after all he had nothing to fear from those armed goons given that their targets were his enemies including the likes of VP Pence, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer rather than him. She also testified that the FG was so furious that the Secret Service wouldn’t allow him to accompany the increasingly dangerous crowd from his speech at the Ellipse to the Capitol that she was told that he tried to physically accost the agent driving his SUV chariot to get him to follow his expletive ridden demands. After her Committee appearance the press reported that “unnamed sources” at the Secret Service acknowledged that the FG was desperate to get to the Capitol but disputed her claim about him grabbing one by the clavicle. A few things about that denial are notable: first the official spokesperson for the Service says that the Service is cooperating with investigators and second, the agents in question, Tony Ornato and Robert Engel, are known to be FG loyalists who supported his big lie. In fact at one point Ornato actually moved from the Service to become a member of the  White House staff, rejoining the Service only after the FG’s loss became undeniable.  Moreover Alyssa Farah, the CNN correspondent who worked in Communications for the FG White House, says she believes Hutchinson’s account in part because Ornato “disputed” parts of her Committee testimony that painted the FG in a bad light as well.  Reportedly Ornato and Engel now say that they want to present their version of the “truth” under oath but then again just a week or so ago Ginni Thomas, who once said the same sent a lawyer’s letter to the Committee asserting that on further reflection she sees no reason to cooperate with the Committee so who’s to say if the questionably loyal Agents will really show and tell.  In any case the details regarding the ride represent only a small portion of what Hutchinson had to say and other than the FG going with his usual “he hardly knew her” and that from what he did know she was “bad news,” just some of the frantic “Truths,” he sent out yesterday, most who worked with Hutchinson find her highly credible. A few other things about yesterday’s hearing, former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone who was frequently cited for his efforts to shut the FG down, looks increasingly weak for not testifying himself especially given Hutchinson’s bravery.  And the biggest bombshell of the day was provided by Committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney’s in her closing remarks when she relayed that one or more, with the emphasis on more, of those who’ve cooperated with the Committee report that they were warned to keep quiet with messages from as at least one still unnamed FG loyalist who represented that he or she was acting at “his” direction to tell them that “staying” on Team FG would keep them in good standing with the Mango Maniac but that straying from the cult would have consequences.  The last time Liz dropped a bombshell it was about members of Congress seeking pardons, something that Hutchinson says Meadows did too.  Liz later delivered the pardon details so it’s fair to assume we’ll be hearing more about the FG and his team’s efforts to engage in witness tampering. Tune in in July.

Primarily Politics:  Yesterday was a mixed bag, some of the FG’s endorsed candidates won and others did not.  In New York, where he didn’t endorse anyone Congressman Lee Zeldin won the Republican nod over Rudy spawn Andrew and will face off against Governor Kathy Houchul who together with former Congressman Antonio Delgado easily won the Democratic nominations for Governor and Lieutenant Governor respectively. Delgado’s easy victory is notable because despite progressive darling AOC’s endorsement of her preferred left wing candidate, New York State while mostly blue remains relatively moderate, especially outside of the confines of NYC and Buffalo.   In Colorado MAGA gunslinger Lauren Boebert beat off her competitors and in all likelihood will be back in Congress next term.     

And:  The FDA recommended that the next COVID boosters, hopefully available in the Fall, be formulated to attack one or the other of the Omicron variants.  The question now is which variants will be targeted, whether it will be the older Omicrons or the newest B4 and B5 ones that are now dominating, as well as how long it will take to get the new shot to market.  On the international front, it looks like Putin’s efforts to keep NATO membership at its current size hasn’t worked as planned.  Yesterday hold out NATO member Turkey signed off on Sweden and Finland joining the alliance and so they will.