POLITICO Playbook: Democratic impeachment managers feeling muzzled  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  Democrats who've struggled for years to hold DONALD TRUMP accountable are at a crossroads again: Do they go all out to convict Trump by calling a parade of witnesses to testify to his misdeeds?

Rep. Ron Wright dies after battle with COVID-19  —  Reelected in November, the Republican lawmaker had been fighting cancer. … U.S. Rep Ron Wright of Arlington died Sunday night after a battle with COVID-19.  He was 67.  —  His family and spokesperson confirmed Wright's death Monday morning.

Review: Andy Ngo's new book still pretends antifa's the real enemy  —  Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy  —  There is an alternate universe out there in which we never have to ponder, let alone read, “Unmasked,” provocateur Andy Ngo's supremely dishonest new book …

Republican Sen. Richard C. Shelby announces he will retire in 2022  —  Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), a fixture of the Senate who chaired the powerful Appropriations Committee, announced Monday that he will retire when his term ends in 2022.  —  Shelby, 86, was first elected to the House …

Jared and Ivanka made up to $640 million in the White House … Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump reported between $172 million and $640 million in outside income while working in the White House, according to an analysis of financial disclosures by CREW.  It is impossible to tell the exact amount …

“I Think People Will Get Tired of Him”: For Donald Trump, Sarah Palin's Fall Shows the Limits of Media Obsession  —  The former Alaska governor dominated coverage while she was seen as a GOP kingmaker and potential presidential candidate—until reality (or at least reality TV) set in.

Manafort Can't Be Prosecuted in New York After Trump Pardon, Court Rules  —  The Court of Appeals let stand a lower-court ruling that the Manhattan district attorney's prosecution of Paul Manafort was barred by the double jeopardy rule.  —  The Manhattan district attorney's attempt …

The Republican Party is radicalizing against democracy.  This is the central political fact of our moment.  Instead of organizing its coalition around shared policy goals, the GOP has chosen to emphasize hatred and fear of its political opponents, who—they warn—will destroy their supporters and the country.

Inside Bidenworld's plan to punish the GOP for opposing Covid relief  —  Democrats are plowing forward with plans to pass a massive Covid-19 relief package.  And if Republicans don't join them, they won't forget it.  —  Already, there's talk about midterm attack ads portraying Republicans …

Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen, once foes, talk Trump  —  NEW YORK (AP) — When he was Donald Trump's attorney, Michael Cohen was hellbent on silencing Stormy Daniels, even arranging a hush-money payment to the porn actress that landed him in federal prison.

The 3 Worst Things About That Terrible Jeep Super Bowl Ad  —  How could a major corporation not see how propagandistic it comes off to suggest that when Republicans win a national election, that's divisive, but when Democrats win one, that's unifying?  —  In a generally weak year …

John Fetterman launches Senate bid in Pennsylvania  —  Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman launches his Senate bid Monday, making him the first major candidate to enter what is all but certain to be a highly expensive and competitive race for the open seat.

Trump legacy: Personal responsibility is for suckers and GOP means ‘Grievances On Parade’  —  Trump's Senate impeachment trial and fake victims Josh Hawley and Marjorie Taylor Greene symbolize the Republican descent into whiny entitlement.  —  It seems like every day is Festivus in today's Republican Party.

Describing a Slur Is Not the Same As Using It  —  In 2019, New York Times reporter Donald McNeil Jr., working as a tour guide for high school students traveling to Peru (a service apparently offered by the paper), got into an argument with several of them.  The debate centered around whether …

Reaching Billions of People With COVID-19 Vaccine Information  —  We're running the largest worldwide campaign to promote authoritative information about COVID-19 vaccines by:  — Helping people find where and when they can get vaccinated — similar to how we helped people find information about how to vote during elections

His Biz Is Shunned, She Resigned, and Everyone Is Being Sued: What Became of Trump's Election Dead-Enders  —  BIG MISTAKE.  HUGE.  —  Much of the current ruin of Trump's hardcore election dead-enders came as a direct result of their decisions to become major players in Trump's failed endeavor to cling to power.

The Neoracists  —  A new religion is preached across America.  It's nonsense posing as wisdom.  —  2 hr ago  —  [Excerpt from his new book, The Elect: Neoracists Posing as Antiracists and their Threat to a Progressive America]  —  One can divide antiracism into three waves.

BIDEN'S VIETNAM: 60K Americans Dead from COVID-19 in First Three Weeks of Presidency  —  More Americans have died from COVID-19 in the first three weeks of Joe Biden's presidency than during the entire Vietnam War, a grim milestone for a leader who vowed to make ending the pandemic …

Is this how I die?  —  Scenes from the day a pro-Trump mob broke into the Capitol  —  Joshua Replogle is a photojournalist for CNN.  He has worked as a reporter for several local television stations and the Associated Press.  He was working inside the Capitol on January 6 …

Hygiene Theater Is Still a Huge Waste of Time  —  Six months ago, I wrote that Americans had embraced a backwards view of the coronavirus.  Too many people imagined the fight against COVID-19 as a land war to be waged with sudsy hand-to-hand combat against grimy surfaces.

Our Animal Farm  —  The Left's 1960s dream is America's 2021 nightmare.  —  George Orwell published Animal Farm in August 1945, in the closing weeks of the Pacific War.  Even then, most naïve supporters of the wartime Soviet-British-American alliance were no longer in denial …

In America's ‘Uncivil War,’ Republicans Are The Aggressors  —  In his inaugural address, President Biden described America as in the midst of an “uncivil war that pits red against blue, rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal.”  His invocation of a civil war and the American Civil War was provocative.

Civil-Liberties Groups Ask Biden Justice Dept. to Drop Julian Assange Case  —  A Friday deadline in the London extradition case may force the Biden administration to decide whether to keep pursuing a Trump-era policy.  —  WASHINGTON — A coalition of civil liberties and human rights groups urged …

Law Professor Cited 15 Times by Trump's Legal Team Says Impeachment Memo Was Filled with ‘Flat-Out Misrepresentations’ of His Work  —  Donald Trump's defense team was accused of flagrantly misrepresenting the work of a constitutional scholar when asserting that the former president's impeachment is unconstitutional.

Democratic lawmakers splinter over criteria for $1,400 stimulus payments as Biden relief bill advances  —  Democratic lawmakers are increasingly divided over the criteria for the next round of stimulus payments, splintering the caucus even as they aim to quickly pass President Biden's $1.9 trillion relief package.

Several of D.A. George Gascón's reforms blocked by L.A. County judge  —  A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge on Monday granted a petition sought by the union that represents county prosecutors that will bar Dist.  Atty. George Gascón from implementing policies that would end …

AP-NORC poll: Few in US say democracy is working very well  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — Only a fragment of Americans believe democracy is thriving in the U.S., even as broad majorities agree that representative government is one of the country's bedrock principles, according to a new poll …