Steve Bannon appears to have run out of options in his effort to resist testifying before a House committee examining the 1/6 insurrection against the federal government.

The former Donald Trump senior adviser had been hiding under a phony executive privilege claim. Trump pulled it away, even though he couldn’t have used executive privilege anyway as a ploy to keep Bannon from talking to the committee.

So, what does Bannon do? Rather than face prison time in a trial that is about to commence, Bannon has told the committee he is willing to talk to the panel about what he saw and heard on the day of the traitorous attack on our nation’s Capitol Building.

If I were a betting man, I would wager that Bannon’s agreeing to testify signifies very bad news for Donald Trump, who reportedly had hoped that his No. 1 attack dog would stand tall for the ex-POTUS.

Apparently … not!

The bottom line, though, appears to be this point: a legally constituted congressional committee is well within its authority to order people to testify before it. Bannon at first refused. Congress issued a contempt citation against Bannon, who then was preparing to go to trial in just a matter of days.

Congress had the goods on Bannon, who then stands a serious chance of being convicted and spending some time in prison.

It’s been a fascinating evolution to watch. A man who seemed to lead with his chin by declaring all hell would break loose on the eve of the insurrection has now become an apparently willing witness who well might drive yet another spike into the proverbial heart of POTUS 45.

The dude knew the insurrection would occur. He needs to answer for what he knew, when he knew it and what — if anything — he did to stop it.

There appears to be no way out for this one-time White House hotshot.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

You are entitled to take this straight to the bank … which is that I will go to my grave wondering how on God’s good Earth does Donald John Trump remain relevant to any political discussion.

But … he is. Relevant. He is a player. He remains in the news each day. Do the media ignore him? No. They can’t. Why? Because he is — after all — a former president of the United States. He sat in the Oval Office for four years and during that time he had access to every national security secret imaginable.

Public opinion polling continues to suggest that Trump remains the favorite among Republicans to run for POTUS again in 2024. That fills me with a mix of chills and absolute rage.

This individual was impeached twice on allegations that he committed crimes against the government. He wiggled free both times because too few Republicans voted to convict him in either Senate trial.

Now we have the 1/6 House committee, the one looking into the insurrection — that Trump incited and resulted in the second impeachment. The signals are beginning to suggest that the bipartisan committee likely could seek a criminal indictment from a federal grand jury.

Yes, the former POTUS could be indicted by the Justice Department on myriad charges relating to his involvement with the insurrection. Will it happen? Beats the daylights out of me. I do have hope that DOJ will seek accountability by the president of the United States.

With all of that, all that immense baggage, Donald Trump remains a player in the U.S. political game.

What in the world has happened to this country, to a once-great political party, and to our national sense of right and wrong?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

First, an admission: I had trouble understanding when I first heard about it why Donald Trump waived any claims of executive privilege that sought to keep former White House senior adviser Steve Bannon from testifying before the House 1/6 select committee.

Then I heard the story behind the story. Trump wants his attack dog Bannon to go toe-to-toe with the committee, that he was angry that others on the White House staff testified already, only to tighten the screws around Trump’s involvement in inciting the 1/6 insurrection.

Bannon, according to reports, might sing a different tune when he speaks to the panel. Oh, I hope so. I also hope the committee is ready for the lies, the bob-and-weave, the obfuscation that is likely to come from Bannon’s pie hole.

The Hill’s Morning Report — Can the Jan. 6 panel connect the dots? | The Hill

Bannon is a bad dude. He is on record declaring in advance of the 1/6 attack on the Capitol that something “big” was going to happen. He knew in advance … the son of a bitch. He didn’t counsel Trump to call it off, unlike Trump’s children and others close to him in the White House and even some of his lapdogs in the House of Representatives.

I believe we’ll get to see just how prepared the House committee, chaired by Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., is in preparing for this showdown.

My hunch is that they’ll be ready to rumble.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

A strange story is developing in several of our United States as the 2022 midterm election inches ever closer.

It involves the possibility that the Republican Party, once thought to be a shoo-in to capture both congressional chambers, could be on the verge of blowing that opportunity in the U.S. Senate.

Wyoming GOP Sen. John Barrasso fielded a question today on Fox News Sunday about the idea that his party’s nominees for at least three key Senate races might be too, um, incompetent, crooked or corrupt to win their races. Barrasso shrugged it off, sticking to the party line.

But wait …

Herschel Walker is the GOP nominee in Georgia; he is running against Sen. Raphael Warnock. Walker is a former football player … and a damn good one, too! He also has a lot of issues to face down as he runs against the man who preaches in the same pulpit where the great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once stood.

Walker has fathered four children with four women, none of whom were married to him. He also is facing accusations of domestic abuse. Oh, and listen to some of the rambling answers he gives to policy questions; it’s as if he took a few too many hits to the head during his gridiron days.

Then we have Mehmet Oz, who’s running in Pennsylvania, where he doesn’t even reside, for the Senate seat against Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman. I’ll just say this out loud: I believe Oz is a medical quack. He built his reputation as a celebrity physician. The man got endorsed by Donald J. Trump (who also endorses Walker).

He also is full of nutty statements and he also has developed a strange relationship with Turkish dictator Recep Tayyip Erdogan, one of the world’s most brutal despots.

One more GOP nut case is Eric Grietens, a former Missouri governor who resigned that office in 2017 after a woman he was dating accused him of abusing her. His ex-wife has made a similar complaint. Moreover, he has conducted a patently stupid campaign, including a gun-centered ad that portrays him as urging voters to go “RINO hunting” for Republicans In Name Only.

Fox News Anchor Asks GOP Senator if Party is on the Verge of Blowing Midterms Thanks to Herschel Walker, Eric Greitens, and Dr. Oz (msn.com)Fox News Anchor Asks GOP Senator if Party is on the Verge of Blowing Midterms Thanks to Herschel Walker, Eric Greitens, and Dr. Oz (msn.com)

The stakes are huge. The Senate is split 50-50. Warnock seeks to hold his seat; Oz wants to succeed GOP Sen. Pat Toomey; Greitens looks to succeed GOP Sen. Roy Blunt.

Meanwhile, another formerly vulnerable Democrat, Sen. Mark Kelly in Arizona, appears to be solidifying his lead out there.

Sen. Barrasso wouldn’t take the bait laid before him by Fox News Sunday, which is what one would expect from a MAGA-loving Republican.

The Republican Party is fully capable of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory by running certifiable nut jobs for public office. It has done so again.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com