Top Items:
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:
Politico, Axios, Washington Examiner, Roll Call, National Review, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Mediaite, Townhall, Mock Paper Scissors, Raw Story and UPI
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Chad Pergram / Fox News:
Republican Texas Rep. Ron Wright dead at 67, sources say — Wright, who had been hospitalized in September due to cancer treatment complications, announced Jan. 21 that he had tested positive for COVID-19 — Fox News Flash top headlines for February 8 — Rep. Ron Wright, R-Texas …
Discussion:
The Texas Tribune, Washington Post, Vox, The Verge and HotAir
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?
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Politico:
Trump lawyers rip impeachment case as ‘political theater’
Trump lawyers rip impeachment case as ‘political theater’
Discussion:
CBS News, Washington Post, Forbes, HotAir, The Independent, The Federalist, Truthout, The Week, Associated Press and WABC
Nicholas Fandos / New York Times:
Trump Team Offers a Deeper Look at His Impeachment Defense
Trump Team Offers a Deeper Look at His Impeachment Defense
Discussion:
Morning Consult, Washington Post, Politico, Reuters, Newsmax, Vox, CBS News, Insider, The Hill, Washington Examiner, CNN, Associated Press, Al Jazeera, New York Post, Washington Times, KTLA, IJR, Townhall and Los Angeles Times
Michael S. Schmidt / New York Times:
Breaking With G.O.P., Top Conservative Lawyer Says Trump Can Stand Trial
Breaking With G.O.P., Top Conservative Lawyer Says Trump Can Stand Trial
Karen Heller / Washington Post:
Bruce Castor is a magnet for controversy. Naturally, he's Trump's impeachment attorney.
Bruce Castor is a magnet for controversy. Naturally, he's Trump's impeachment attorney.
Discussion:
New York Times, The Daily Caller, Raw Story, The Week and NBC News
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:
The Daily Caller, Forbes, The Carpentariat, 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, National Review, NOQ Report, New Republic, Hackwhackers, The Week, ABC News and Raw Story
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, New York Times, CNN, New York Post, New Republic, The Nation, InsideSources and Reuters
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, Fox News, National Review, HotAir, Instapundit, alicublog, 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 …
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, HotAir, ABC News and Political Wire
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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, TheGrio, 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.
Colorado Public Radio:
What We Know About Lauren Boebert's Campaign Payments To Herself For Driving 38,000 Miles … Congresswoman Lauren Boebert's campaign paid her $22,259 in mileage reimbursements, effectively claiming that Boebert had driven 38,712 miles during the course of her campaign in 2020.
Erica Werner / Washington Post:
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 …
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, Politico, Washington Examiner, Axios, Associated Press, National Review, Roll Call and Townhall
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
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.
Holly Otterbein / Politico:
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.
Discussion:
New York Times, Insider, Townhall, The Daily Caller, Forbes and Crooks and Liars
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Chris Brennan / The Philadelphia Inquirer:
John Fetterman makes his U.S. Senate campaign official as a competitive, expensive race begins
John Fetterman makes his U.S. Senate campaign official as a competitive, expensive race begins
Discussion:
CNN
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
Derek Thompson / The Atlantic:
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.
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.
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.
Tyler Van Dyke / Washington Examiner:
Democratic $15 minimum wage proposal would reduce employment by 1.4 million: CBO — The Biden administration's proposal to increase the minimum wage to $15 would contribute to a net loss of 1.4 million workers by 2025, according to a report from the Congressional Budget Office.
Discussion:
Axios, Politico, Washington Times and National Review
Andy Kessler / Wall Street Journal:
Mediocrity Is Now Mandatory — From stimulus to school admissions, leaders act as if ease is the only worthy goal. — Has an era of American mediocrity begun? In January the College Board announced it would eliminate the essay portion of the SAT, as well as all of the separate SAT subject tests.
CNN:
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 …
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