Steve Baker and the high five that wasn't

If we had to choose a single moment that captures just how serious and sober-minded Steve Baker was about covering the events of January 6 — and there are many to choose from — the high five that wasn’t would be illustrative.

Right there, in the CCTV footage of Baker’s snoozer of a day in the Capitol, is the benign offer of a high five to Steve — from someone I assume to be an enthusiastic Trump supporter. The gesture was offered to Baker as he calmly entered the premises ... through an already opened door, for the record.

In the perverse minds of a Washington, D.C., jury, the high five would’ve been worth an extra 10 years.

(At time of publication, we’re not sure whether the New York Times reporter who slithered through a broken window was offered a high five, or a middle finger, or whether he reciprocated. Of course, we haven’t seen the Times reporter in leg irons, either.)

Clearly laser-focused on a journalistic mission, Baker did not respond. The guy offering the high five probably thought, “What a jerk.” Baker is not MAGA by any means, and neither am I, but I cannot imagine myself not returning the gesture purely out of rote. High five? Sure, why not? Boom. We’ve all returned such gestures just out of our American bonhomie and polite nature. Kind of second-nature stuff, not a political statement.

It’s as if God whispered to Steve, “Don’t do it, or they’ll give you a blindfold and a cigarette after a show trial.”

And the feds would like to do just that. The charges trumped up against him, after all, are knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.

You know, the kind of stuff that earns Black Lives Matter and Antifa accolades and no jail time.

A reciprocated hand slap, in the self-righteous “good German” stance of federal prosecutors, would certainly lend credence and multiplying malignancy to all those charges. In the perverse minds of a Washington, D.C., jury — you know, the kind that Democrat lawfare expert Marc Elias openly brags about — the high five would’ve been worth an extra 10 years.

"See, Steve is really MAGA. That high five is his dog whistle! INSHURRREKSHUN! Get the rope!"

Now, taken alone, these few seconds mean nothing. In context, however, perhaps they mean everything. And the proper context is that Steve Baker was a single-minded person intent on covering the events of January 6, wherever they took him.

Why so laser-focused?

In the big picture, he was absorbed in a later life reinvention, given that COVID-19 had destroyed six streams of income in various aspects of live music. The elitist jack***es at NBC thought it would be a flex to expose Baker, among other things, as playing David Bowie in the tribute band the American Bowie Experience.

Well, ground control to Major Tom, so what?

Steve is more interesting and talented than you are. What’s your point, NBC? He’d still be doing Bowie if the world wasn’t stopped due to the Wu flu — in no small measure due to the propaganda from your outlet and other like-minded apparatchiks of the state.

As it happens, Steve’s band was on the verge of the big time. He also managed and played in four other event bands and was involved with some Nashville act management. Not everybody can do that. Not many people can do any of this, let alone all of it.

Steve can, and he has.

The point is that Steve really was very seriously reinventing his career as a journalist, ironically a move made necessary thanks to the same absurd COVID policies that the media supported so enthusiastically. He and I discussed all of this often over sushi and single malt, with a liberal sprinkling of the consonant F in a sexual verb we all now use as an adverb of irritation.

And it isn’t like he wasn’t writing prior to January 6. He had been on Facebook and Twitter for years and was published at American Thinker going back to 2013. He has a lot of not-so-friendly words about Trump in that writing history, too. He’s a longtime libertarian, and he’s fed up with all parties, including the Libertarian Party.

To reinvent oneself is not easy. To do so at 60 is extremely difficult. Steve was embarking on that frightening journey on January 6 out of necessity. At 60, he wasn’t playing around. He wasn’t tiptoeing into this new venture. He was very serious.

After observing the Oath Keepers' trials, something that “real journalists” refused to do, Steve became even more passionate about getting to the bottom of the story. And so impressed were they with his steadfastness and acumen, a dream team of Oath Keepers’ attorneys have rushed to Steve’s defense. None of them will take a dime for doing so.

That’s the Steve Baker I know: meticulous, dedicated, and intelligent enough to inspire a whole team of attorneys to help him. Seriously, cogitate on that for just a minute. This is not normal. And Glenn Beck called him one of the nicest, gentlest souls he’s ever met. For the record, no one ever ascribed such to me.

It’s no surprise to me he’s a natural as a reporter. He’s the son of a private investigator on top of everything else. And it follows naturally that Blaze Media and all these attorneys have rallied around him. It’s predictable the feds fear what he can disclose, too.

He is fearless, intelligent, diligent, and methodical, and having a 40-year music career ruined broke his “give-a-damn.” He’s not going away. He won't back down. He won’t even be distracted by a high five. What a jerk.

Exspiravit Scriptor is the nom de plume of a political ghost writer, author, satirist, and longtime friend of Steve Baker.