thependulumswings

In 1980 Robert De Niro starred in the box office hit and critically acclaimed Raging Bull.  In 1998 the film critic website Rotten Tomatoes reviewed the movie.

The review’s first sentence proclaims “The film is a complex portrait of a man consumed by his rage, jealousy, and paranoia.”

The film grossed 23.4 million box office bucks.  That’s roughly the same cost of taking a family to the cinema today, but we digress.

It’s odd that a movie is reviewed 18 years after it debuted.   It’s also odd that the now 80-year-old actor took his unfettered rage, perhaps jealousy, and certain paranoia to the streets of New York yesterday.

He arrived wearing an N95 mask, but quickly dispatched it as he must have sensed everyone within social distance guidelines was as healthy as he is.  We digress again.

With the cameras rolling across the street from the latest Trump trial, De Niro stuck to his script until he didn’t.

After calling Trump a clown, he bellowed, “I love this city. I don’t want to destroy it. Donald Trump wants to destroy not only the city but the country, and eventually he can destroy the world.”

“I don’t mean to scare you. No, no, wait — maybe I do mean to scare you,” De Niro continued. “If Trump returns to the White House, you can kiss these freedoms goodbye that we all take for granted. And elections — forget about it. That’s over; that’s done. If he gets in, I can tell you right now, he will never leave.”

Sounds ominous.

This was a planned event by the Biden campaign who previously ensured that they were keeping their distance from Trump’s trials to avoid the appearance that they were in any way politically motivated.

This ended that.

A top Biden adviser said they weren’t there to talk about the trial but rather to exploit the large media focus on the legal proceedings.

Isn’t the omnipresent media available for any president to “exploit?”  All Biden needs to do is call for a presser anytime and anywhere and the exploitation can begin.

“We’re not here today because of what’s going on over there,” Biden campaign communication director Michael Tyler told reporters, gesturing toward the courthouse. “We’re here today because you all are here.”

Truer words were always spoken.

Trump may be a clown, but the Biden/De Niro move was a circus outside a court filled with jesters.

And the Trump campaign shot back.  Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s press secretary, called the Biden campaign “desperate and failing” and “pathetic” and said its event outside the trial was “a full-blown concession that this trial is a witch hunt that comes from the top.”

This “witch hunt” trial goes to the jury deliberation phase today.  Can Trump “the Clown” avert a verdict that will stop the show before the next three rings are placed under the tent? That one is the Mar A Lago classified documents case.  Or, will Fani and her lover boy try to get the tour to stop back in Atlanta?

A guilty verdict could put the man with orange hair in an orange jumpsuit.

It could also ensure his return to the White House.

If that happens De Niro said he was moving to Mars.

That’s better than Uranus.