The Memo: Center-right Republicans fear party headed for disaster  —  The Republican Party is riven by internal tensions, and moderate voices fear it is headed for disaster at the hands of the far right.  —  The centrists' worry is that the party is branding itself as the party of insurrectionists and conspiracy theorists.

Many of my fellow politicians won't tell voters the truth.  The result was Jan. 6.  —  Telling the public only what it wants to hear is no way to keep democracy going  —  In the fall of 2013, in the middle of what was at the time the second-longest government shutdown in American history …

‘The perfect target’: Russia cultivated Trump as asset for 40 years - ex-KGB spy  —  The KGB ‘played the game as if they were immensely impressed by his personality’, Yuri Shvets, a key source for a new book, tells the Guardian  —  Donald Trump was cultivated as a Russian asset over 40 years …

Pipe bombs found near Capitol on Jan. 6 are believed to have been placed the night before  —  The two pipe bombs that were discovered on Jan. 6 near the U.S. Capitol shortly before a mob stormed the building are believed to have been planted the night before, according to a law enforcement official familiar …

Single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine 66 percent effective against moderate and severe illness  —  A coronavirus vaccine with less onerous storage and administration requirements could be a ‘game changer’  —  A single-shot coronavirus vaccine from pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson …

Brian Williams Deadpan Trolls Trump, McCarthy With ‘Exclusive Video’ Of Meeting  —  The MSNBC host promised “exclusive” footage of the former president's time with the House Republican leader — then cut to something hilariously different.  —  MSNBC's Brian Williams poked fun …

Public Statement  —  Statement of Acting Chair Lee and Commissioners Peirce, Roisman, and Crenshaw Regarding Recent Market Volatility  —  Acting Chair Allison Herren Lee Commissioner Hester M. Peirce Commissioner Elad L. Roisman Commissioner Caroline A. Crenshaw

NEW THIS AM: Warren Calls on the SEC to Address Stock Market Gamesmanship Amid Volatile GameStop Trades  —  “The recent chaos reveals a clear distortion in securities markets, with benefits accruing to investors that do not clearly benefit the company's workers, consumers, or the broader economy.”

Republican Ties to Extremist Groups Are Under Scrutiny  —  A number of members of Congress have links to organizations and movements that played a role in the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol.  —  WASHINGTON — The video's title was posed as a question, but it left little doubt about where the men who filmed it stood.

Crime In America: Study Reveals The 10 Most Unsafe Neighborhoods  —  While data shows that crime is actually down in the U.S. in recent years, many Americans believe that the country is becoming more violent than ever—and high-profile incidents like mobs rioting at the U.S. Capitol …

Conservatives warn culture, political wars will worsen  —  The verdict is clear: The vast majority of Republicans will stand firm with former President Trump.  The next phase is clear, too: Republicans are rallying around a common grievance that big government, big media and big business …

POLITICO Playbook: My wild day in Wyoming with Matt Gaetz  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  TARA WRITES FROM CHEYENNE, Wyo. — When the opportunity arose to fly across the country to see whether a slick-suited, 30-something congressman from Florida could stage a substantial rally in the name of DONALD TRUMP …

Famed GameStop bull ‘Roaring Kitty’ is a Massachusetts financial advisor  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A YouTube streamer who helped drive a surge in the shares of GameStop Corp is a 34-year-old financial advisor from Massachusetts and until recently worked for insurance giant MassMutual, public records and social media posts show.

An Interview With Sen. Rob Portman  —  The Republican from Ohio discusses his retirement, the current political environment, and impeachment.  —  6 hr ago  —  On Thursday, I interviewed Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, who recently announced his retirement.  We discussed the lack of civility in politics …

Red Alert: The Return of Cass Sunstein  —  Cass Sunstein, pictured during his tenure as director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, March 16, 2011  —  When I wrote a piece last spring called “The Biden Do Not Reappoint List,” it did not even occur to me to include Cass Sunstein …

Trump Impeachment Lawyer Removed A Black Juror He Said ‘Shucked And Jived’  —  The South Carolina Supreme Court called attorney Greg Harris' use of a racial stereotype “troublesome.”  —  One of the attorneys on former President Donald Trump's second impeachment trial team previously used racial stereotypes …

Finally, Gov. Cuomo is called to task  —  There's a truth that the media and others who fawned over Gov. Cuomo didn't want to hear: that his executive orders were one of the biggest reasons why so many of our parents and grandparents died of COVID in their eldercare facilities.

Ex-FBI lawyer spared prison for altering Trump-Russia probe email  —  The only person charged in the Justice Department's investigation into the origins of the probe of former President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign and its ties to Russia was spared prison time for altering an email used to support a surveillance application.

Washington: A Love Story  —  How Republican lies are killing the city I once loved.  —  1. The Capitol  —  I'd like to tell you a story.  —  I took my first grown-up, unsupervised trip to Washington in the spring of 1996.  I was a college senior in Baltimore and during the pause before finals …

Arizona GOP lawmaker introduces bill to give Legislature power to toss out election results  —  The Republican chair of Arizona's state House Ways and Means Committee introduced a bill Wednesday that would give the Legislature authority to override the secretary of state's certification of its electoral votes.

‘Trump Just Used Us and Our Fear’: One Woman's Journey Out of QAnon  —  During the political fallout after four years of Donald J. Trump, one question is what will happen with the followers of conspiracy theories that bend Americans' perceptions of reality.  —  WASHINGTON — In the summer of 2017 …

D.C. area awaits biggest snowstorm in two years; snowfall starts Sunday, possibly lasting to Tuesday  —  Four to eight inches of snow is most likely, although substantially more or a bit less cannot be ruled out  —  This article has been updated with Capital Weather Gang's snowfall forecast map (above).

The Vaccines' Race Against Time  —  As the virus adapts, these months may be the hardest of them all.  —  One strange aspect of plagues is that they often finish strong.  I learned this the hard way last time around.  Many people have a general sense of AIDS being terrible in the 1980s …