Top US general rejected Trump suggestions military should ‘crack skulls’ during protests last year, new book claims  —  General's response to Gaetz's question leaves him shaking his head  —  Washington (CNN)The top US general repeatedly pushed back on then-President Donald Trump's argument …

POLITICO Playbook: Graham: Biden made GOP look like ‘f—ing idiots’  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTION — President JOE BIDEN, Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER and Speaker NANCY PELOSI unveiled a rather daring new strategy Thursday for getting the president's agenda passed.

New Details Suggest Senior Trump Aides Knew Jan. 6 Rally Could Get Chaotic  —  Text messages and interviews show that Stop the Steal leaders fooled the Capitol police and welcomed racists to increase their crowd sizes, while White House officials worked to both contain and appease them.

Trump set to reemerge on the trail with revenge on his mind  —  Former President Donald Trump is bronzed, rested and politically bloodthirsty.  —  Having spent months in semi-retirement after his election loss in 2020, Trump is set this weekend to kick off a series of political events.

America's continued move toward socialism  —  Just half of younger Americans now hold a positive view of capitalism — and socialism's appeal in the U.S. continues to grow, driven by Black Americans and women, according to a new Axios/Momentive poll.  —  Why it matters: The pandemic …

They Seemed Like Democratic Activists.  They Were Secretly Conservative Spies.  —  Operatives infiltrated progressive groups across the West to try to manipulate politics and reshape the national electoral map.  They targeted moderate Republicans, too — anyone seen as threats to hard-line conservatives.

What I Saw in My First 10 Years on Testosterone  —  Mr. McBee is the author of “Amateur: A Reckoning With Gender, Identity, and Masculinity” and “Man Alive: A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness, and Becoming a Man.”  He writes for TV and film.  —  Ten years ago this month …

Bipartisanship Lives, and Biden Takes a Bow  —  Finally, Infrastructure Week is for real.  —  During a lifetime in politics, Joe Biden has delivered countless eulogies, many of them for Republican colleagues in the Senate.  Over the years, he has eloquently laid to rest John McCain …

Nearly all COVID deaths in US are now among unvaccinated  —  Nearly all COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. now are in people who weren't vaccinated, a staggering demonstration of how effective the shots have been and an indication that deaths per day — now down to under 300 — could be practically zero if everyone eligible got the vaccine.

Officer Fanone: Saying Jan. 6 was like a tourist visit is ‘just an out and out lie’  —  DC police officer Michael Fanone, who was beaten and tased in in the Capitol Hill riot, joins Andrea Mitchell to react to Speaker Pelosi's announcement that the House will form a Select Committee on January 6th …

Vatican ‘foreign minister’ doubts speaking out on Hong Kong ‘would make any difference whatever’  —  A senior Vatican official said Friday that he and many of his colleagues at the Secretariat of State have yet to be convinced that speaking out on the situation in Hong Kong “would make any difference whatever.”

More than 50 unaccounted for in deadly Surfside, Florida, building collapse, official says  —  Video shows moment building collapses in Florida  —  Surfside, Florida (CNN)An intense search and rescue effort is underway after part of a 12-story residential building collapsed early Thursday …

Wendy Davis, others sue law enforcement and Trump supporters over “Trump Train” harassing Biden bus in Texas  —  The plaintiffs argue the Trump supporters engaged in political intimidation when they surrounded the Biden campaign bus in October, in violation of the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 …

How I Liberated My College Classroom  —  I created a special seminar to discuss controversial issues freely, and the results were eye-opening.  —  Durham, N.C.  —  The conservative critique of American higher education is well known to Journal readers: The universities are run by intolerant progressives.

Tennessee locales rank poorly in analysis of best-run cities  —  A new report from WalletHub ranks Chattanooga, Tennessee, as the fourth-worst run large city in the country, behind Washington, D.C., San Francisco and New York.  —  Not far behind, at No. 133, was Memphis while Knoxville was 113th and Nashville ranked 111th.

Even the Taliban are surprised at how fast they're advancing in Afghanistan  —  WASHINGTON — The Taliban are advancing at lightning speed across Afghanistan as U.S. troops withdraw.  They now control a third of the country, are fighting for control of 42 percent more — and may even be slowing their advance on purpose.

Obama and the Broken Nation He Made Come Of Age  —  A generation doesn't remember life before the crises he created.  —  Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.

Florida cracks down on Sidney Powell and Michael Flynn's “deceptive” fundraising  —  A nonprofit run by the former president's lawyer Sidney Powell, pardoned felon former National Security Advisor Gen. Michael T. Flynn, and Flynn's brother Joseph all just got hit with an Administrative Complaint by Florida's statewide charity regulator.

Illinois Man Arrested for Assault on Law Enforcement, and First to be Arrested for Assault on Members of News Media during Jan. 6 Capitol Breach  —  Defendant Tripped and Pushed Officer to the Ground, Breached Media Staging Area and Tackled Cameraman  —  An Illinois man was arrested today …

The Perils of 180ism  —  Stop blindly opposing your adversaries.  Stick to your values and think for yourself.  —  A few months after I first moved to the United States, “The Colbert Report” premiered on television.  In his very first episode, in October 2005, Stephen Colbert defined “truthiness.”

How to call the GOP's bluff on its ‘election integrity’ talking point  —  One of the most worrisome scenarios involving the 2024 election is the possibility that one or more GOP legislatures could send rogue presidential electors to Congress, in defiance of their state's true popular vote.

EXCLUSIVE - 'You're a f***ing a**hole Rudy': Trump's top campaign lawyer Justin Clark screamed at Giuliani for accusing him of ‘lying’ about Georgia fraud claims during Oval Office phone call with the president  — Donald Trump's top campaign lawyer Justin Clark called Rudy Giuliani a 'f***ing …