Rewriting history can be challenging, especially for something as notorious as the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
It requires the balancing of risk and reward. Is the political blowback from people who remember that violent danger to democracy worth it when compared with seeking support (and money) from people who have let it all slip from memory?
Former President Donald Trump, who knows a thing or two about political messaging, might have finally gotten the message about how badly it plays when he glorifies his fans who stormed the Capitol, attacked police officers, shattered windows and looted and vandalized the seat of our government.
Trump, who for months has demanded the release from prison of the criminals he called "J6 hostages" and vowed to pardon them if elected again as president, tapered off from that talk about them just ahead of the Republican National Convention in July.
And a "J6 Awards Gala" scheduled for Thursday at Trump's golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, to raise money to support some people serving sentences for crimes they committed that day is now indefinitely postponed ‒ possibly until after the election.
Trump is in all things transactional. Rewriting the Jan. 6 history was good for him until it stopped being good for him. So now he's not talking about it.
The timing could not have been worse. Trump's lawyers are scheduled to appear at a federal criminal court hearing Thursday to discuss a superseding indictment released last week, charging him with attempting to interfere with the results of the 2020 election.
How's that for a look? His lawyers are in court to fight those charges while the supporters who tried to stop the certification........