Top Items:
Politico:
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?
RELATED:
Nicholas Fandos / New York Times:
Trump Team Offers a Deeper Look at His Impeachment Defense — Former President Donald J. Trump's lawyers asserted in a new filing that Mr. Trump's speech just before the attack “did not direct anyone to commit unlawful actions,” and that he deserved no blame for the conduct of a “small group of criminals.”
Discussion:
Newsmax, Washington Post, Politico, CBS News, The Hill, Washington Examiner, Associated Press, CNN, The Independent, KTLA, IJR and Los Angeles Times
Michael S. Schmidt / New York Times:
Breaking With G.O.P., Top Conservative Lawyer Says Trump Can Stand Trial — Charles J. Cooper, a stalwart of the conservative legal establishment, said that Republicans were wrong to assert that it is unconstitutional for a former president to be tried for impeachable offenses.
Discussion:
Insider, Deadline, Raw Story, Boston Herald, Progressive Eruptions, New York Post and Political Wire
Chuck Cooper / Wall Street Journal:
The Constitution Doesn't Bar Trump's Impeachment Trial
The Constitution Doesn't Bar Trump's Impeachment Trial
Discussion:
Politico, Washington Post, The Hill, HotAir, CNN, Mock Paper Scissors, Raw Story, The American Independent, The Week, Vox and Political Wire
Andrew McCarthy / Fox News:
Trump impeachment trial - what you need to know, what may surprise you
Trump impeachment trial - what you need to know, what may surprise you
Discussion:
Politico, CNN, New York Times, New York Post, New Republic, The Nation, InsideSources and Reuters
Gromer Jeffers Jr / Dallas Morning News:
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.
Discussion:
Axios, Politico, Washington Examiner, National Review, Talking Points Memo, Mediaite, Townhall, Mock Paper Scissors, Raw Story and UPI
RELATED:
Gallup:
Americans' Views of Impeachment, Trump's Record on Issues — WASHINGTON, D.C. — As former President Donald Trump's second Senate impeachment trial is about to begin, a new Gallup poll finds a slim majority of Americans (52%) saying they would like their senators to vote to convict him.
Discussion:
Forbes, The Daily Caller, The Hill, Washington Post and Fox News
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Andrew Desiderio / Politico:
Where Democrats and Republicans agree on Trump
Where Democrats and Republicans agree on Trump
Discussion:
Washington Post, USA Today, CNN, The Guardian, Associated Press, The Sun, Hackwhackers, New Republic, NOQ Report, The Week, ABC News and Raw Story
Tyler Olson / Fox News:
Trump impeachment conviction? ‘Zero chance,’ Republicans say, as Dems move forward with case
Trump impeachment conviction? ‘Zero chance,’ Republicans say, as Dems move forward with case
Discussion:
Axios, RedState, National Review and Raw Story
Associated Press:
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 …
Discussion:
USA Today, ABC News and Political Wire
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Mollie Hemingway / The Federalist:
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 …
Discussion:
CNN, National Review, HotAir, alicublog, Instapundit, The Mary Sue, The Moderate Voice and Detroit News
Politico:
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 …
Jim Mustian / Associated Press:
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.
Discussion:
The Hill, The Daily Caller, Towleroad Gay News, JONATHAN TURLEY and Insider
Perry Bacon Jr / FiveThirtyEight:
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.
Judd Legum / Popular Information:
The MyPillow guy made a movie of lies about the election. These corporations beamed it into millions of homes. — Mike Lindell, the founder and CEO of MyPillow, created a two-hour movie that uses discredited conspiracy theories to claim that Trump was the real winner of the 2020 election.
Chris Stirewalt / The Dispatch:
The Dangers of the Derp State — How we became a nation of so many dupes and fools is a matter at least as complicated as the causes of Donald Trump's presidency. — 1 hr ago — One of the aphorisms of our populist era goes that Donald Trump is more of a symptom than a cause. Fair enough.
Discussion:
Raw Story
John McWhorter / Persuasion:
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.
The Daily Beast:
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.
Discussion:
New Republic, CNN, Wall Street Journal, Israpundit, Bloomberg and Mediaite
David Marcus / The Federalist:
This Impeachment Is A Disgraceful Sham — Your betters want to decide who you can and cannot vote for. You should be angry. — So the petty little fascists in the Democratic Party have decided that their first order of business is telling you who you are allowed to vote for in the future.
Discussion:
Fox News, IJR and Florida Politics
Jewish Currents:
How the ADL's Israel Advocacy Undermines Its Civil Rights Work — This report will appear in our Spring 2021 issue. Subscribe now to get a copy in your mailbox. — IN THE SUMMER OF 2016, a handful of senior Anti-Defamation League (ADL) staff members and executives in New York and Washington …
Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:
The Forces That Stopped Obama's Recovery Will Not Stop Biden's — Joe Biden assumed the presidency confronting an economic crisis reminiscent of the one that faced him when he and Barack Obama took office 12 years earlier. But it is already apparent that the political atmosphere surrounding Biden is unrecognizable.
Washington Post:
Confusion and chaos: Inside the vaccine rollout in D.C., Maryland and Virginia — The first precious boxloads of the frozen elixir arrived in December, bearing great promise for curtailing the pandemic that has paralyzed the region and the world. — Nurses and firefighters got injections on live TV.
Paul Rosenzweig / USA Today:
Party-line views of presidential misconduct started with Democrats and Clinton impeachment — Trump's assault on the result of a democratic election is a far graver threat than Clinton's perjury. But both are crimes of national significance. — Sometime in the next week or two …
Discussion:
New York Post, Reason, RedState and Mediaite
Peter Beinart / The Beinart Notebook:
Why Matt Duss Matters — Christian hostility to Jews draws more attention than Jewish hostility to Christians. And for good reason. Christian hostility has produced millennia of persecution. Jewish hostility, for the most part, hasn't produced much more than the occasional nasty line in a prayerbook …
Discussion:
Common Dreams
Chris Hayes / The Atlantic:
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.
Discussion:
Roll Call
Hannah Knowles / Washington Post:
Uproar over Dominion voting machines in one Ohio county shows Trump's falsehoods linger — Late last year, amid rampant false claims of a stolen presidential election, officials in a Trump-loving county in Ohio took a stand: They voted 4 to 0 to buy Dominion voting machines.
Discussion:
Raw Story
Dana Goldstein / New York Times:
The Union Leader Who Says She Can Get Teachers Back in Schools — In cities and suburbs where schools remain closed, teachers unions are often saying: not yet. Can Randi Weingarten change that? — Randi Weingarten, the nation's most powerful teachers union president, has a message …
Discussion:
The Atlantic
Wall Street Journal:
Capitol Riot Warnings Weren't Acted On as System Failed — The federal security apparatus retooled after 9/11 fielded intelligence on the Jan. 6 rally but didn't mobilize to prevent the violence — The elaborate national security network set up after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to identify …
Discussion:
Mock Paper Scissors
Justine Coleman / The Hill:
AFL-CIO head said he wished Biden hadn't canceled Keystone XL on his first day — AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said he wished that President Biden hadn't canceled the Keystone XL pipeline project on his first day in office and instead paired it with an announcement about job creation …
Discussion:
Washington Examiner and National Review
Karen Heller / Washington Post:
Bruce Castor is a magnet for controversy. Naturally, he's Trump's impeachment attorney. — “I don't think the case is particularly complicated,” said Bruce L. Castor Jr. on Thursday, while driving his Corvette back to his suburban Philadelphia home after being inside the U.S. Capitol for the first time in 15 years.
Discussion:
Raw Story, The Week, New York Times and NBC News