Summary
- The House impeachment managers rested their case, after two days of presenting arguments for convicting Donald Trump. The former president’s lawyers will present their case for acquittal tomorrow, and a final vote in the trial could come as soon as this weekend.
- Lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin described Trump’s incitement of the 6 January insurrection as “an assault on the first amendment”. The former president’s lawyers have insisted that Trump’s speech to supporters on 6 January was protected by the first amendment, but Raskin said Trump’s lies about the November election were actually depriving the millions of Americans who voted for Joe Biden of their first amendment rights.
- The managers argued the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol believed they were acting on Trump’s orders. The managers quoted insurrectionists who said they thought the then-president was calling on them to rise up against the injustice of widespread fraud in the November election, which did not occur. “They came because he told them to,” representative Diana DeGette said.
- The managers warned that more political violence could occur if Trump is not held accountable. Lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin challenged senators on whether they honestly believed Trump would not incite more violence if he became president again. “Would you bet the lives of more police officers on that?” Raskin asked senators. “Would you bet the safety of your family on that?”
- The Biden administration has finalized an order for 200m more vaccine doses by the end of July, the president said in a speech at the National Institutes of Health today. Biden celebrated the progress his administration has made on distributing vaccines while criticizing Donald Trump’s approach to the pandemic. “My predecessor, to be very blunt about it, did not do his job,” Biden said.
Joe Biden is taking a hands-off approach to the second impeachment of Donald Trump.
During a brief appearance alongside senators in front of reporters on Thursday, Biden was asked if he had been watching any of the impeachment trial taking place on Capitol Hill this week.
He said he hadn’t but “my guess is some minds may be changed” based on the presentation by the House impeachment managers.
Separately, in an interview with NBC about those remarks, the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said Biden “knows there’s a role for Congress to play and a role for him to play, and his role in this process is to be president of the United States and to govern for all of the American people”.
During a White House press briefing this week, Psaki was pressed on whether Biden would weigh in on the impeachment.
“Well, first, the president himself would tell you that we keep him pretty busy, and he has a full schedule this week, which we will continue to keep you abreast of,” Psaki said.
Psaki went on to say that Biden’s schedule included a visit to the Department of Defense, meetings with business leaders, governors and mayors, and a heavy focus on a Covid relief plan seen as vital to the nation’s fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
“So he … I think it’s clear from his schedule, and from his intention, he will not spend too much time watching the proceedings,” Psaki continued. “He will remain closely in touch with [House] Speaker Pelosi, Leader [Chuck] Schumer, a range of officials on the Hill about his plan. And that’s exactly what they want him to do, is to remain focused on that.
“And he will leave the pace and the process and the mechanics of the impeachment proceedings up to members of Congress.”
Instead, Biden officials and the president himself are stressing that their focus is on passing a large Covid relief bill. What Congress does is up to Congress, they argue.
Biden echoed Psaki’s remarks during an appearance in front of the press while meeting with business leaders. He said he would not be watching the trial.
Read more:
But the Capitol police force has also come under fire for its conduct during the riots.
Officers were filmed taking selfies with rioters, and helping the attackers. Several officers have been suspended, and more than a dozen are under investigation. Critics have pointed out that the officers’ treatment of the armed attackers stands in stark contrast to their treatment of peaceful protesters.
During a 2017 protest at a Senate hearing on replacing the Affordable Care Act, officers forcibly removed disability rights activists outside Mitch McConnell’s office, in some cases without their wheelchairs.
Experts have long documented ties between police across the country and white supremacist groups and warned that law enforcement’s acceptance of far-right beliefs “helped lay the groundwork for the extraordinary attacks in the American capital” as my colleague Sam Levin has reported.
Updated
In a letter to her colleagues in Congress, Nancy Pelosi has called on representatives to introduce legislation awarding the Congressional gold medal to the Capitol police.
The request comes as impeachment managers in the House have emphasized the bravery of some officers in fighting off the Trump supporters who attacked on 6 January. Three officers died as a result of or in the aftermath of the attack: Brian Sicknick, Howard Liebengood, Jeffrey Smith, and more than 140 were injured.
“This week has been a historic one for the country and the Congress,” Pelosi wrote. “We have been reminded of the extraordinary valor of the United States Capitol police, the men and women who risked and gave their lives to save ours, becoming martyrs for our democracy.”
Updated
Congresswoman and Jonestown survivor Jackie Speier: ‘Trump is a political cult leader'
On 6 January, Jackie Speier was one of scores of members of Congress threatened by the mob of violent Trump supporters and white supremacists who stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to overthrow the results of the presidential election.
Along with her peers, she was told to wear a gas mask and ordered to lie prostrate on the marble floor as the baying crowd pounded on the chamber door and the sound of gunfire rent the air. The terror of that day induced in her a flashback, to the events that brought her into politics in the first place when she lay bleeding from five gunshot wounds in the Guyana jungle, not knowing whether she would live or die.
It was 18 November 1978, and she had travelled to Guyana as part of a congressional investigation into the Jonestown settlement and its cult leader, Jim Jones. The fact-finding group of 24 were ambushed by cult members on a jungle airstrip; the congressman for whom Speier then worked, Leo Ryan, and four others were murdered.
Speier, shot five times and left for dead, had to wait 22 hours for help to arrive. She told herself as she lay on the tarmac that if she survived the ordeal she would devote herself to public service.
That devotion, born of her bullet wounds, can be traced in a direct line from the Jonestown massacre, through the insurrection at the Capitol on 6 January, to her renewed efforts today to protect the United States from the threat of violent extremism. She is determined to strengthen safeguards against cults – whether of the Jonestown or Donald Trump variety and the white supremacist sedition he unleashed.
“Jim Jones was a religious cult leader, Donald Trump is a political cult leader,” Speier told the Guardian. “As a victim of violence and of a cult leader, I am sensitive to conduct that smacks of that. We have got to be wary of anyone who can have such control over people that they lose their ability to think independently.”
Speier stood for her first election soon after the Jonestown massacre. Since 2008 the Democratic congresswoman has represented most of the district in California that her gunned-down mentor, Ryan, served before his death.
The formative experience that gave rise to her political career gives Speier an unusually sharp perspective on the danger posed by the Capitol insurrection. She thinks of it as “groupthink”, saying that “when the groupthink is about overthrowing the government, then we’ve got a serious problem.”
Since 6 January, Speier has used her political muscle as a member of the House armed services and intelligence committees to press for urgent reforms designed to shore up protections against white supremacist and extremist violence. Last month she wrote to Joe Biden and his newly confirmed defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, calling for a “new sense of urgency” following the “appalling events at the Capitol”.
In her letter, Speier told the president and defense secretary that she had become “increasingly alarmed” about the connections between violent extremist groups and military personnel. She warned them that current efforts to contain the problem were “insufficient to the threat from these extremist movements”.
In her Guardian interview, Speier said that the current crisis of white supremacy and the military has been brewing for many years. “I thought it was urgent a year ago when I held a hearing on violent extremism in the military and was astonished at the number of service members who are recruited in part because of their training to these extremist groups.”
She added: “It’s not as though we haven’t been given a heads-up.”
Read more:
Here’s a review of some of the most shocking videos that the House impeachment managers presented as they made their case.
Previously unseen videos shown by the managers included several examples of just how close lawmakers were to danger.
Some Democrats have told reporters that they don’t see a need to call witnesses.
“I feel satisfied that the House managers have made their case,” said Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
Kristin Gillibrand, of New York, said; “I feel like we’ve heard from enough witnesses.”
If no witnesses are called, a final vote on conviction could come this weekend.
Updated
A New York Times report has found that Donald Trump may have been more gravely affected by Covid-19 than the administration let on.
Trump was sicker with Covid-19 in October than publicly acknowledged at the time, with extremely depressed blood oxygen levels at one point and a lung problem associated with pneumonia caused by the coronavirus, according to four people familiar with his condition.
His prognosis became so worrisome before he was taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center that officials believed he would need to be put on a ventilator, two of the people familiar with his condition said.
The people familiar with Mr. Trump’s health said he was found to have lung infiltrates, which occur when the lungs are inflamed and contain substances such as fluid or bacteria. Their presence, especially when a patient is exhibiting other symptoms, can be a sign of an acute case of the disease. They can be easily spotted on an X-ray or scan, when parts of the lungs appear opaque, or white.
Mr. Trump’s blood oxygen level alone was cause for extreme concern, dipping into the 80s, according to the people familiar with his evaluation. The disease is considered severe when the blood oxygen level falls to the low 90s.
Trump, who repeatedly undermined and downplayed the severity of the pandemic and its soaring death toll, at times suggested that his own recovery was proof that the virus was not as big a threat as public health officials made it out to be.
Upon returning to the White House after his illness, Trump told supporters: “You’re going to beat it [coronavirus] … As your leader, I had to do that. I knew there’s danger to it, but I had to do it. I stood out front, and led.”
Not long after Trump’s recovery, the US entered its most deadly stage of the pandemic.
Updated
Today so far
That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- The House impeachment managers rested their case, after two days of presenting arguments for convicting Donald Trump. The former president’s lawyers will present their case for acquittal tomorrow, and a final vote in the trial could come as soon as this weekend.
- Lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin described Trump’s incitement of the 6 January insurrection as “an assault on the first amendment”. The former president’s lawyers have insisted that Trump’s speech to supporters on 6 January was protected by the first amendment, but Raskin said Trump’s lies about the November election were actually depriving the millions of Americans who voted for Joe Biden of their first amendment rights.
- The managers argued the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol believed they were acting on Trump’s orders. The managers quoted insurrectionists who said they thought the then-president was calling on them to rise up against the injustice of widespread fraud in the November election, which did not occur. “They came because he told them to,” representative Diana DeGette said.
- The managers warned that more political violence could occur if Trump is not held accountable. Lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin challenged senators on whether they honestly believed Trump would not incite more violence if he became president again. “Would you bet the lives of more police officers on that?” Raskin asked senators. “Would you bet the safety of your family on that?”
- The Biden administration has finalized an order for 200m more vaccine doses by the end of July, the president said in a speech at the National Institutes of Health today. Biden celebrated the progress his administration has made on distributing vaccines while criticizing Donald Trump’s approach to the pandemic. “My predecessor, to be very blunt about it, did not do his job,” Biden said.
Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Updated
US finalizes order for 200m more vaccine doses, Biden says
Joe Biden is now speaking at the National Institutes of Health, touting his administration’s early efforts to expand access to coronavirus vaccines.
The president criticized Donald Trump’s strategy for distributing vaccines, saying the last administration did not order enough doses or mobilize enough people to administer shots.
“My predecessor, to be very blunt about it, did not do his job,” Biden said.
President Biden goes off on Trump about vaccine program:
— The Recount (@therecount) February 11, 2021
• “The vaccination program was in much worse shape than my team and I anticipated.”
• “It was a big mess … It’s gonna take time to fix.”
• Trump “did not do his job.” pic.twitter.com/CmP0ka3pwT
The president confirmed his administration has finalized an order for 200m more vaccine doses – 100m doses each from Pfizer and Moderna – to be delivered by the end of July.
Biden also celebrated that the country is on track to exceed his goal of 100m vaccine doses distributed over his first 100 days in office, but he emphasized Americans still had to take precautions to limit the spread of the virus.
“Mask up, America. Mask up,” Biden said.
Updated
Anti-government Oath Keepers militia members devised elaborate plans in the weeks after the November election to invade the US Capitol on 6 January and plotted to have an armed “quick reaction force” staged outside Washington DC, ready “to fight hand-to-hand” if ordered by the former president, Donald Trump, prosecutors said on Thursday in a court case taking place at the same time as the impeachment trial in the US Senate.
Reuters reports:
In a 21-page court filing, prosecutors offered more details than previously known about the alleged planning, training and coordination that some members of the Oath Keepers undertook after Trump lost the November election.
In it, they ask a federal judge to detain Jessica Watkins, whom they describe as the leader of an Ohio-based militia tied to the Oath Keepers, saying she harbors extreme views that the Biden presidency poses an “existential threat” and actively recruited people to participate in a coup.
Prosecutors quote her on November 17, days following the election as telling a recruit that if Biden was president, then “our Republic would be over. Then it is our duty as Americans to fight, kill and die for our rights.”
More than 200 people have been charged in connection with the riots.
Thursday’s detention memo for Watkins suggests that some of Trump’s most fervent supporters believed he sought to signal them into action.
In the memo, prosecutors say Watkins exchanged texts with another co-defendant and other unidentified contacts about coordinating a “quick reaction force” (QRF) which would be there as back-up with guns if needed on Jan. 6.
“(W)e can have mace, tasers, or night sticks. QRF staged, armed, with our weapons, outside the city,” she wrote, noting the armed team would be “outside DC with guns, await ... orders to enter DC under permission from Trump.”
Watkins is imprisoned awaiting trial, has yet to enter a plea and could not be reached for comment. The court docket does not list a lawyer for her.
FBI investigations have focused on members of far-right extremist groups who may have plotted to take over the Capitol and stop the election certification process.
Updated
Lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin concluded his team’s presentation with about four to five hours to spare.
The impeachment managers and Donald Trump’s lawyers were given 16 hours each to present their arguments in the Senate trial.
But the impeachment managers did not use all their time, and Trump’s lawyers have already said they will not use all of their allotted time either. The former president’s team intends to rest their case tomorrow evening, a Trump adviser said today.
Unless the impeachment managers request to call witnesses, which seems unlikely at this point, a final vote on conviction will likely happen this weekend.
Impeachment managers rest their case
The impeachment managers have now rested their case, after two days of presenting their argument for the conviction of Donald Trump.
Lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin concluded the managers’ case by quoting Thomas Paine, whose 1776 pamphlet Common Sense urged the United States to become an independent nation.
“We need to exercise our common sense about what happened,” Raskin said of the 6 January insurrection.
The Senate has now officially adjourned until 12pm tomorrow, when Trump’s lawyers will present their case for acquitting the former president.
Updated
As he prepared to rest the impeachment managers’ case, congressman Jamie Raskin noted that his team asked Donald Trump to testify for this trial, but the former president refused to do so.
The lead impeachment outlined the questions that the managers would have asked Trump if he had testified, such as:
- Why didn’t Trump try to get his supporters to stop the attack on the Capitol as soon as he learned of it?
- Why did he wait at least two hours to send help to the Capitol?
- Why didn’t Trump condemn the violent insurrection on 6 January?
- If a president did indeed incite a violent insurrection, would that count as a high crime and misdemeanor?
Updated
Lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin is now delivering the closing argument for convicting Donald Trump of incitement of insurrection.
Raskin began his closing statement by thanking his fellow managers for being so focused in their arguments over the past two days.
The congressman noted the team of managers is concluding with about five to six hours to spare, given that they were given 16 hours to present their case.
Updated
Congressman Joe Neguse argued Donald Trump’s behavior in the hours after the insurrection started was evidence of his guilt.
In a video he shared on 6 January, the then-president described the rioters as “very special”, and he told them, “We love you.”
“He issued messages in the afternoon that sided with them,” Neguse said. “The insurrectionists who left police officers battered, bloodied. He reacted exactly as someone would react if they were delighted.”
The impeachment manager urged senators to convict Trump for the charge that he is “overwhelmingly guilty of”, incitement of insurrection.
“Because if you don’t, if we pretend this didn’t happen, or worse if we let it go unanswered, who’s to say it won’t happen again?” Neguse said.
Updated
Congressman Joe Neguse dismissed claims from Donald Trump’s allies that he could not have foreseen the violence of 6 January.
“When President Trump stood up at that podium on January 6, he knew that many in that crowd were inflamed, were armed, were ready for violence,” Neguse said.
The impeachment manager noted that local officials and law enforcement leaders had expressed concern about potential violence on the day of the pro-Trump march in Washington.
Neguse said, “There can be no doubt that the risk of violence was foreseeable.”
Updated
Acquittal will 'set a new, terrible standard for presidential misconduct', Raskin says
Lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin said Joe Neguse would present a summary of their case and then the managers will rest.
“We’re almost done,” Raskin said, meaning the managers will not use all 16 hours available to them to make their case.
Before handing over to Neguse, Raskin repeated his opening comments from Tuesday, when he argued that Donald Trump’s actions were the definition of an impeachable offense.
“If you think this is not impeachable, what is? What would be?” Raskin said. “If you don’t find this a high crime and misdemeanor today, you have set a new, terrible standard for presidential misconduct in the United States of America.”
Updated
Lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin quoted Voltaire as he condemned the lies that Donald Trump and his allies told about the presidential election.
“Anyone who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities,” Voltaire once said.
Raskin condemns Trump's election lies as 'an assault on the first amendment'
Lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin argued Donald Trump’s baseless claims of widespread election fraud were actually an attack on free speech.
The impeachment managers are attempting to preemptively push back against arguments from the former president’s lawyers that his speech on 6 January was protected by the first amendment.
Raskin noted that the insurrectionists who were incited by Trump came to the Capitol to disrupt the certification of the results of a free and fair election.
By doing so, the insurrectionists were blocking the first amendment rights of tens of millions of Americans who voted for Joe Biden, Raskin argued.
“If anything, Donald Trump’s conduct was an assault on the first amendment,” Raskin said.
Updated
Lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin noted that the first amendment does not provide legal protection for inciting lawlessness.
The Democratic congressman argued that free speech does not excuse Donald Trump’s actions on 6 January because his speech to supporters directly caused the violence and destruction at the Capitol, which resulted in five deaths.
“This is a classic case of incitement,” Raskin said.
Updated
Congressman Joe Neguse took direct aim at arguments from Donald Trump’s lawyers that his 6 January speech is protected by the first amendment.
“To hear his lawyers tell it, he was just some guy at a rally expressing unpopular opinions,” the impeachment manager said. “They would have you believe that this whole impeachment is because he said things that one may disagree with. Really?”
Lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin picked up that argument, saying that free speech is not a defense when a president commits an impeachable offense.
Updated
Impeachment manager Joaquin Castro is warning the US Senate that “the world is watching” to see whether justice will be done in Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.
“The world is watching and wondering whether our constitutional republic is going to respond in the way it should. Will the rule of law prevail over mob rule?” Castro asked rhetorically.
Joe Neguse is on his feet now, the youngest impeachment manager, as the afternoon’s proceedings continue.
Updated
The police officer who killed George Floyd, former Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin, was reportedly ready to plead guilty to murder – until Donald Trump’s attorney general weighed in.
The Associated Press reports today that:
Chauvin was prepared to plead guilty to third-degree murder in George Floyd’s death before then-Attorney General William Barr personally blocked the plea deal last year, officials said.
The deal would have averted any potential federal charges, including a civil rights offense, as part of an effort to quickly resolve the case to avoid more protests, after protests damaged a swath of south Minneapolis, according to two law enforcement officials with direct knowledge of the talks.
The officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the talks.
Barr rejected the deal in part because he felt it was too soon, as the investigation into Floyd’s death was still in its relative infancy, the officials said.
That Chauvin had been in plea talks has been previously reported, and those talks appear to have delayed a May 28 news conference called by the US attorney in Minneapolis for nearly two hours as they were ongoing.
But the detail on Chauvin agreeing to plead guilty to a specific charge are new and was first reported late Wednesday by The New York Times.
Floyd, a Black man who was in handcuffs at the time, died May 25 after the white officer kneeled on his neck for [many] minutes even as Floyd cried out that he couldn’t breathe.
Widely seen bystander video sparked protests in the city, including violence, arson and theft, and quickly spread around the country.
Chauvin was fired soon after Floyd’s death. He is scheduled for trial March 8 on charges including second-degree murder and manslaughter.
Three other officers at the scene, also since fired, are scheduled for trial later this year.
Updated
Today so far
The impeachment trial is now taking its first short break of the day. Here’s where today’s proceedings stand so far:
- Impeachment managers argued the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol believed they were acting on Donald Trump’s orders. The managers quoted insurrectionists who said they thought the then-president was calling on them to rise up against the injustice of widespread fraud in the November election, which did not occur. “They came because he told them to,” congresswoman Diana DeGette said.
- The managers warned that more political violence could occur if Trump is not held accountable. Lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin challenged senators on whether they honestly believed Trump would not incite more violence if he became president again. “Would you bet the lives of more police officers on that?” Raskin asked senators. “Would you bet the safety of your family on that?”
- Trump’s legal team will conclude its presentation tomorrow night, an adviser to the former president confirmed. Trump’s lawyers do not intend to use all of the 16 hours available to them to present their case, meaning a final vote on acquittal could come as soon as this weekend.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Impeachment manager David Cicilline asked senators to consider the thousands of lives put at risk on January 6 when they cast their votes in the trial.
“These people are in deep pain because they showed up to serve,” the Democratic congressman said.
Cicilline also noted that the insurrectionists repeatedly referred to Capitol Police officers, who risked their lives to defend lawmakers, as “traitors”.
Impeachment manager David Cicilline played clips of lawmakers and their staffers recounting the terror of January 6.
One staffer said he is still haunted by the sounds of insurrectionists breaking into the Capitol.
“These workers are the lifeblood of the legislative branch,” Cicciline said.
The Democratic congressman also quoted a CNN reporter, who tweeted about her intense fear that day, as she attempted to contact her coworkers scattered across the Capitol amid the riot.
@kristin__wilson 's personal account of the attack was just featured in the impeachment trial pic.twitter.com/3JOOGXjKcK
— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) February 11, 2021
DeGette warns violence could happen again: 'This must be our wake-up call'
Congresswoman Diana DeGette closed her comments by warning that more political violence may occur if the Senate does not hold Donald Trump accountable.
“We are not here to punish Donald Trump,” the impeachment manager said. “We are here to prevent the seeds of hatred that he planted from bearing any more fruit.”
Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO): "Impeachment is not to punish, but to prevent. We are not here to punish Donald Trump. We are here to prevent the seeds of hatred that he planted from bearing any more fruit." pic.twitter.com/iGhL6sNAOu
— The Recount (@therecount) February 11, 2021
DeGette argued that, unless Trump is convicted, he will have a platform to continue stirring up hatred and inciting violence among his supporters.
“This must be our wake-up call,” DeGette said. “We must condemn it because the threat is not over.”
The Democratic congresswoman asked what “unfathomable horrors” may await the country if the Senate does not take a stand against Trump.
“We will act to make sure that this never happens again,” DeGette said.
Congresswoman Diana DeGette played a video of Cowboys for Trump leader Couy Griffin, who has been charged in connection to the Capitol insurrection.
Rep. DeGette's presentation turns to 'Cowboys for Trump' leader Couy Griffin, who was charged in connection with the U.S. Capitol siege and threatened "blood running out" of the building if he returned.
— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) February 11, 2021
She gives a primer on him and Trump.
ICYMI, story: https://t.co/H9Zo89pabP pic.twitter.com/OJazODmPtb
After the riot, Griffin warned that there would be “blood running out of” the Capitol if he returned to the building.
“Thank God there wasn’t an insurrection sequel here on January 20th,” the impeachment manager said.
DeGette noted Griffin said in a previous video that “the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat”.
That video was retweeted by Donald Trump last year.
Updated
Congressman Ted Lieu warned that Donald Trump could incite this kind of violence again if he is allowed to run for president in 2024.
The impeachment manager pushed back against arguments from Trump’s team that Democrats are pursuing the former president’s conviction simply because they are afraid of his political strength.
“I’m not afraid of Donald Trump running again in four years,” Lieu said. “I’m afraid he’s going to run again and lose – because he can do this again.”
Updated
Congressman Ted Lieu noted that dozens of senior Trump administration officials resigned in the days after the January 6 insurrection.
“They saw the clear link between President Trump’s conduct and the violent insurrection,” the impeachment manager said.
Why did they all resign if Trump's rhetoric had nothing to do with it? pic.twitter.com/Rb6gAM7JKs
— Matt Lewis (@mattklewis) February 11, 2021
Lieu showed a graphic listing some of the administration officials who resigned last month, including then-transportation secretary Elaine Chao.
Chao is married to Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, who is a juror in this trial.
Impeachment manager Ted Lieu noted that Donald Trump did not attend the funeral of Brian Sicknick, the Capitol Police officer who died of his injuries from the January 6 insurrection.
The then-president also did not lower White House flags to half-staff in Sicknick’s honor until three days after his death.
“President Trump, who was commander-in-chief at the time, did not attend and pay respects to the officer who lay in state in the very building that he died defending,” Lieu said.
Rep. Lieu: "A violent mob murdered a police officer. It took Pres. Trump three days before he lowered the flag."
— ABC News (@ABC) February 11, 2021
"And Pres. Trump, who was commander-in-chief at the time, did not attend and pay respects to the officer who lay in state in the very building he died defending." pic.twitter.com/xhccQt87PA
Lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin argued that Donald Trump “knew exactly what he was doing in inciting the January 6th mob, exactly”.
Raskin then challenged senators on whether they honestly believed Trump would not incite more violence if he became president again.
“Would you bet the lives of more police officers on that?” Raskin asked senators. “Would you bet the safety of your family on that? Would you bet the future of your democracy on that?”
Lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin argued that Donald Trump’s actions in the years leading up the Capitol insurrection had encouraged his supporters to resort to violence.
Raskin played footage of some of Trump’s most controversial comments, dating back to his 2016 presidential campaign, that he argued demonstrated a pattern of inciting violence.
Among other examples, Raskin played the clip of Trump saying there were “very fine people on both sides” of the 2017 neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Raskin also played the audio of then-congressional candidate (and now governor) Greg Gianforte body-slamming former Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs in 2017.
Trump's legal team will conclude arguments tomorrow, adviser confirms
A senior adviser to Donald Trump has confirmed that the former president’s legal team will conclude its presentation in the impeachment trial tomorrow.
“We will finish up our presentation tomorrow/Friday,” adviser Jason Miller said in a tweet, before going on to attack CNN for its reporting about Trump’s team.
The impeachment managers will conclude their presentation later today, and Trump’s team will start their arguments tomorrow afternoon.
Each team has 16 hours to present their case, but Trump’s lawyers had already signaled they likely would not use all the time available to them.
After the arguments conclude, the impeachment managers will have the chance to request witnesses, but it’s unclear whether they will choose to do so.
If witnesses are not called, then the trial could wrap up as early as this weekend.
DeGette: Insurrectionists came to the Capitol because Trump 'told them to'
Congressman Diana DeGette pointed to the insurrectionists’ own words to demonstrate how Donald Trump pushed them to storm the Capitol.
DeGette noted that the insurrectionists chanted phrases like “Fight for Trump!” and “Stop the steal!” that referenced the former president’s baseless claims of widespread election fraud.
“They came because he told them to,” DeGette said.
The impeachment manager also underscored the profound impact of that violent day, which has been felt around the world.
DeGette said members of the Capitol Hill community are “traumatized to this day” because of the insurrection, and she said the riot had done “damage to other nations, who have always seen us as a bastion of democracy”.
Congresswoman Diana DeGette cited several news reports that quoted insurrectionists who argued they were carrying out the wishes of Donald Trump by storming the Capitol.
The impeachment manager noted that some insurrectionists even questioned why Capitol Police officers were trying to block them from entering the building, when they were following the instructions of the commander-in-chief.
A BuzzFeed News reporter confirmed that he heard this line of thinking from many insurrectionists on the day of the riot.
Impeachment manager Dianna DeGette just now says several people storming the Capitol expressed confusion that police were even pushing back, given they were there on behalf of the president.
— Paul McLeod (@pdmcleod) February 11, 2021
This is something I heard many times from the crowd that day.
The opening prayer of Senate chaplain Barry Black seemed intended to remind senators of the great responsibility facing them.
Kicking off the third day of the impeachment trial, Black said in his prayer, “Almighty God, our shelter from the storms, give our Senate jurors discernment that will rescue our nation from ruin.”
Black added, “Remind them that the seeds they plant now will bring a harvest.”
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said the schedule for today’s proceedings would mirror yesterday’s.
Impeachment managers will have eight hours to present arguments, and the Senate will take a break every two to three hours, with a longer break for dinner around 6 pm ET.
Congresswoman Diana DeGette is now speaking for the first time as an impeachment manager in this Senate trial.
The Colorado Democrat is making the argument that the Capitol insurrectionists clearly believed they were taking orders directly from Donald Trump.
Impeachment trial resumes, as managers prepare to show Trump's 'lack of remorse' over riot
The Senate has convened, and the third day of Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial is now officially underway.
Today, the House impeachment managers will finish their presentation on why Trump should be convicted of incitement of insurrection.
The Senate has convened as a Court of Impeachment.
— Senate Cloakroom (@SenateCloakroom) February 11, 2021
Senior aides to the managers said today’s proceedings will focus on the the former president’s “lack of remorse” about inciting the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
The managers are also expected to introduce more new footage from the riot, a day after they showed chilling footage demonstrating how close the insurrectionists got to lawmakers on that violent day.
One of Donald Trump’s lawyers, David Schoen, was asked whether he and his colleagues plan to use all 16 hours available to them to present their arguments.
“Hope not,” Schoen told reporters on Capitol Hill.
Reporters asked Trump lawyer David Schoen if he planned on using the full 16 hours the legal team has to make their case. "Hope not," he replied.
— Grace Segers (@Grace_Segers) February 11, 2021
Trump’s legal team is scheduled to start presenting their arguments tomorrow. They could theoretically continue their presentation on Saturday, but it’s unclear whether they will do so.
If Trump’s team wraps up early and impeachment managers choose not to call any witnesses, the trial could theoretically conclude on Sunday or Monday.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi disparaged arguments from some of Donald Trump’s allies that the impeachment trial is unconstitutional because he has already left office.
The Democratic speaker noted that the House approved the article of impeachment when Trump was still in office. At that time, the Senate was out of session, and then-majority leader Mitch McConnell declined to hold an emergency session to begin the trial.
“We were ready. They said ‘no,’” Pelosi said. “It’s a little disingenuous.”
The Senate held a vote on Tuesday over whether the trial was constitutional, and senators voted 56-44 to reject the jurisdictional argument from Trump’s lawyers.
Shifting back to the coronavirus relief package, Nancy Pelosi was asked whether the House legislation would include the proposal to raise the minimum wage to $15.
“Yes, it will,” the Democratic speaker said.
Pelosi said the chamber was “very proud” of the minimum wage hike, which would result in a raise for millions of Americans, most of whom are women.
Progressive lawmakers have insisted that the relief package include a minimum wage increase, but some Democrats, including Joe Biden, have voiced skepticism that the proposal will meet the requirements for reconciliation.
Pelosi says Capitol Police will receive Congressional Gold Medal
House speaker Nancy Pelosi acknowledged that this week has been “such a sad time for us,” as the Capitol Hill community has relived the trauma and violence of January 6 through the impeachment trial.
The Democratic speaker said the evidence presented by the impeachment managers demonstrated “the extraordinary valor of the Capitol Police”.
The speaker announced she planned to introduce a resolution to award the Capitol Police with a Congressional Gold Medal for their brave actions on that horrible day. The award is the highest honor that Congress can bestow.
“They are martyrs for our democracy, martyrs for our democracy, those who lost their lives,” Pelosi said.
The Capitol Police officer who died as a result of his injuries from the insurrection, Brian Sicknick, was honored with a ceremony at the Capitol last week.
Two other police officers who were present for the insurrection, one from the Capitol Police force and another from the Metropolitan Police Department of DC, have died by suicide since January 6.
Updated
Pelosi holds first press conference since impeachment trial started
House speaker Nancy Pelosi is now holding her weekly press conference, her first one since the impeachment trial started on Tuesday.
“Quite a week,” the Democratic speaker said at the start of the press conference.
Pelosi then pivoted to discussing the need for Congress to pass another coronavirus relief package.
The speaker reiterated her hope that the House will pass a relief package by the end of the month, ideally allowing Joe Biden to sign the legislation before expanded jobless benefits expire on March 14.
On the Guardian’s “Politics Weekly” podcast, Jonathan Freedland is joined by Professor Sarah Binder of the Brookings Institution and George Washington University to look at what has happened in the Senate impeachment trial so far, and what is most likely yet to come.
Joe Biden also told reporters that he spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping for two hours last night.
At the start of his meeting with senators about his infrastructure proposals, the US president recounted his call with the Chinese leader.
President Biden on China: "Last night I was on the phone for two straight hours with Xi Jinping...if we don't get moving they're going to eat our lunch." pic.twitter.com/Slog8wdyyr
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 11, 2021
Biden noted that he “spent a lot of time” with Xi over his eight years as vice-president, and he warned against the dangers of China’s economy outpacing America’s.
“If we don’t get moving, they’re going to eat our lunch,” Biden said. “We just have to step up.”
Biden reacts to Capitol riot videos: 'Some minds may have been changed'
Joe Biden is now meeting with senators in the Oval Office to discuss the president’s plans to bolster US infrastructure.
Reporters were taken into the Oval Office for the start of the meeting, and one of them asked Biden about the searing videos shown by impeachment managers yesterday.
NEW: Pres. Biden says he didn't watch impeachment trial live yesterday but saw news reports.
— ABC News (@ABC) February 11, 2021
"My guess is some minds may have been changed, but I don't know." https://t.co/7xmIdV5DpN pic.twitter.com/9LijEqVq0H
The president acknowledged he didn’t watch any of the proceedings live yesterday but saw the videos when he watched news coverage of the trial this morning.
“My guess is some minds may have been changed, but I don’t know,” Biden said.
During yesterday’s proceedings, the impeachment managers played previously unseen videos from Capitol Hill security cameras that demonstrated just how close lawmakers came to danger.
One of the videos showed Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman directing Senator Mitt Romney away from the rioters and instructing him to take cover.
Updated
Repairs continue at the Capitol to address the destruction carried out by the insurrectionists who stormed the building on January 6.
An NBC News reporter shared a photo of Capitol employees replacing a window pane in a set of glass doors that the insurrectionists had broken.
The Architect of the Capitol is changing out the last busted pain of glass in the center doors. That pane was the most dramatic reminder of what happened that day (now vs Jan 7 below) pic.twitter.com/iArKefITJw
— Leigh Ann Caldwell (@LACaldwellDC) February 11, 2021
Impeachment managers to demonstrate Trump's 'lack of remorse' over riot
The impeachment managers will conclude their prosecution of Donald Trump on Thursday, arguing that he is guilty of “the most grievous constitutional crime ever committed by the president” of the United States.
The managers on Thursday will focus on four areas, senior aides to the impeachment managers told reporters before the Senate convened. They will provide more evidence of Trump’s role in the lead up to and the aftermath of the attack; harm caused by the insurrectionists, not only including the physical injuries, as well as Trump’s “lack of remorse” and the relevant legal issues that apply to the case.
“The facts are clear. The case is strong. The evidence is overwhelming,” said an aide. “The Senate must convict and disqualify Donald Trump.”
The Democrats appeared confident in their presentation. Despite few indications that enough Republican senators will vote to convict Trump, an aide said they “remain convinced that that evidence has the power to change minds.”
Several of the aides worked on Trump’s first impeachment trial and said the tone and tenor of the senators, seated as jurors, is radically different.
“It’s really hard to think of a moment from the first trial where all 100 senators sat at attention and were as rapt and challenged by the evidence as we saw yesterday,” an aide said.
Asked to respond to criticism from Trump’s defense that the managers are simply “playing to the cameras” and appealing to senators’ still-raw emotions from the day, an aide replied that they wouldn’t “make any apologies for making a powerful visual presentation. That’s the job.”
Trump’s legal team is expected to launch its defense beginning on Friday. The team is not expected to use all 16 hours allotted to the parties under an agreement struck by the Senate leaders. Depending on whether the managers attempt to call witnesses, the trial could conclude as early as Sunday.
Updated
The swearing-in of Republican Claudia Tenney this morning means that the House is now made up of 221 Democrats and 211 Republicans, with three seats vacant.
Democrats had expected to pick up seats in the 2020 elections, but Republicans instead chipped away at the Democratic majority by flipping a dozen seats.
Democrats have now been left with the narrowest House majority margin in modern history, and Republicans need to flip just five more seats next year to take the majority. They have high hopes of doing so, given that the president’s party usually loses seats in midterm elections.
Politico has more details on Republicans’ strategy for flipping the House next year:
[The chair of House Republicans’ campaign arm] charted out his road map for the 2022 midterms, which includes a list of 47 Democratic seats to target and a messaging blueprint: Tag Democrats as jobs-killing socialists and stress the GOP’s commitment to reopening schools and protecting the gas and energy sector. ...
But GOP leaders, while quietly confident that history is on their side, know there are still plenty of landmines ahead — especially with the potential for Jan. 6 to leave a lingering black mark on the party and the coronavirus still threatening to scramble the political terrain.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi administered the oath of office to Claudia Tenney this morning, three days after the New York Republican won her drawn-out House race.
@SpeakerPelosi administered the oath of office to Claudia Tenney (R), NY. The Speaker announced that the whole number of the House is now 432 (221 Democrats and 211 Republicans.)
— House Press Gallery (@HouseDailyPress) February 11, 2021
Tenney was declared the winner of the race to represent New York’s 22nd congressional district on Monday, following months of legal challenges over the results.
The New York supreme court ruled earlier this week that the state was free to certify Tenney as the winner over Anthony Brindisi, a freshman Democratic congressman, by a margin of 109 votes.
“My one disappointment is that the court did not see fit to grant us a recount,” Brindisi said in his concession statement. “Sadly, we may never know how many legal voters were turned away at the polls or ballots not counted due to the ineptitude of the boards of election, especially in Oneida County.”
With Tenney seated, the House now has 432 members and three vacancies.
This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Martin Belam.
The second impeachment trial of Donald Trump resumes today, with impeachment managers continuing their arguments for convicting the former president.
Yesterday, the impeachment managers presented previously unseen security footage from the Capitol insurrection, demonstrating just how close lawmakers came to danger.
One video showed Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman, who had already been hailed as a hero for directing rioters away from the Senate chamber, pointing Senator Mitt Romney out of harm’s way.
The footage was chilling and effective, and the managers may present more today. They have eight hours left to make their case to senators.
The trial will resume in a few hours, so stay tuned.
Number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits down slightly
The number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits inched down last week, consistent with a recent stalling in the labor market recovery.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits totalled a seasonally adjusted 793,000 for the week ended 6 February, compared to 812,000 in the prior week, the Labor Department said. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 757,000 applications for the latest week.
Claims remain above their 665,000 peak during the 2007-2009 Great Recession. They are, however, well below the record 6.867 million reported last March when the coronavirus pandemic hit the US.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged yesterday that the “improvement in labor market conditions stalled” in the past few months because of a resurgence in coronavirus infections, which weighed heavily on restaurants and other consumer-facing businesses.
The government reported last Friday that the economy created only 49,000 jobs in January after losing 227,000 in December.
Francine Prose has written for us today, arguing that the Capitol attack film was brutal and that’s why it must be watched:
When the film of the 6 January Capitol insurrection was shown to the US Senate on the first day of Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial, the TV station I watched ran a warning in the upper right-hand corner. Explicit video. After a few minutes, I began to think that explicit was an understatement, that we should have been warned that what we’d be seeing was brutal.
In the aftermath of the 6 January riot, I – like many Americans, I imagine –watched plenty of footage of the riot. It was horrifying, for obvious reasons, and also mysterious, because I found it hard to understand exactly what, in addition to Donald Trump’s urging and the fake claims of a stolen election, had unleashed such murderous rage in so many people.
But as the film that was shown at the impeachment trial makes clear, I – and many Americans – had seen a somewhat denatured version of the truth, a toned-down report on what happened that day.
Part of the difference between what we’d grown used to seeing and what was revealed in the trial video was simply a matter of length. The video at the hearing lasted 13 minutes, and though shots of the rioting were intercut with clips of Trump speaking and the Senate convening to certify the 2020 election, most of the film showed the mob swarming the Capitol steps, smashing windows and doors, surging through the halls and onto the floor of the Congress, chanting and demanding, “Where are they?” I realized that much of what I had seen was in fragments – a minute here, another few seconds there – without the sustained increasing impact the film gathered as it went on.
We had been spared the most graphic moments: the hockey sticks, the police officer caught in the door. I was amazed, not only by what I was seeing, but also because I’d never seen it, not all of it, before. I realize that a film this long would take up a most of an evening news broadcast. Perhaps more significantly, a screaming man being squeezed in a door is the polar opposite of clickbait, at least for most of us. If that footage had been available to mainstream television producers, you can imagine them calculating how fast and how many viewers would grab for the remote. Yet seeing these new horrors, I felt that we had been cheated, the way you do when someone has told you a half truth.
Read more here: Francine Prose – The Capitol attack film was brutal. That’s why it must be watched
Fauci: increases in supply means April will be 'open season' for vaccine shots in US
Dr Anthony Fauci, science advisor to the Joe Biden administration, predicts that by April it will be “open season” for vaccinations in the US, as supply boosts allow most people to get shots to protect them against Covid-19.
Speaking to NBC’s Today Show, Fauci says the rate of vaccinations will greatly accelerate in the coming months. He credits forthcoming deliveries of the two approved vaccines, the potential approval of a third and moves taken by the Biden administration to increase the nation’s capacity to deliver doses.
He says, “by the time we get to April,” it will be “open season, namely virtually everybody and anybody in any category could start to get vaccinated.”
But, the Associated Press report, he cautioned it will take “several more months” to logistically deliver injections to adult Americans but predicted herd immunity could be achieved by late summer.
34.4 million people have received one or both doses of the vaccine in the US so far. One worry for experts has been vaccine reluctance, with a recent survey showing that around a third of US adults were reluctant to take a shot.
Of all the Senators in the Jury for the second impeachment trial, eyes are perhaps most firmly fixed on Bill Cassidy. The Louisiana Republican is the only Senator who switched his vote from declaring the trial unconstitutional when Kentucky’s Sen Paul Rand tried that back in January, to voting it was constitutional on Tuesday. Politico have this on Cassidy this morning:
No senator appears to be struggling with the trial as much as Cassidy. He is spending much of the trial furiously taking notes, pacing in the back of the room while listening to the managers, or sighing loudly in clear distress. He often shakes his head in dismay at video clips, or crosses his arms, clearly perturbed by what he is witnessing.
“I took an oath to uphold the Constitution,” Cassidy told the press pool Wednesday night. “A constitutional conservative takes that oath seriously. So, if I’m here to uphold the Constitution, I’m upholding it. I’m doing my job.”
Cassidy is now torn between what many of his constituents want — critics back home have dubbed him “Psycho Bill” — and what he feels is his duty.
Burgess Everett, who’s covered the senator for years, provides some perspective: “Cassidy, a doctor who treated uninsured patients for years in the state’s charity health care system, evaded easy typecasting during the Trump era. He’s not a loyalist like Lindsey Graham or Rand Paul. Nor is he a frequent critic of the ex-president like Mitt Romney or Bob Corker. But he’s a reliable conservative vote, close to party leaders.” Washington Post’s Paul Kane writes, however, that Cassidy has been signaling he wants to be more of an “independent force.” Is this his moment?
A reminder that the impeachment trial isn’t the only show in town today. The Senate reconvenes for that at noon, which is 5pm if, like me, you are in London.
Also today president Joe Biden and vice president Kamala Harris will be meeting senators – from both parties it appears – to discuss the need to invest in infrastructure at 10am. Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg will be dialling in virtually for that.
Later on the president receives his daily brief at 11.15am, then visits Viral Pathogenesis Laboratory at the National Institutes of Health. He’ll deliver remarks to staff there at 4.30pm EST.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki will give her daily briefing at 12.30pm.
Also making press appearances today, ahead of the Senate resuming the trial, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and Georgia senators Jon Ossoff and Rev Raphael Warnock will be holding a 10.30am livestream about how they are working to deliver to Covid-19 economic relief to Georgia families in the budget resolution. House speaker Nancy Pelosi has her regular press conference at 10.45am.
We should also get the latest figures on people claiming unemployment benefits in about an hour, so stay tuned.
This is what Zach Montague at the New York Times thinks we have in store for us today at Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial:
Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the lead House manager, suggested that his team intended to open its presentation on Thursday with still more [video footage], and might continue with the flood of uncomfortable memories for much of its remaining allotted time, up to eight hours. It may also be that Raskin simply hopes to summarize arguments made on Wednesday before resting his case. Either way, House managers are expected to present for several more hours.
The case presented by the managers has included numerous clips of Trump, in the weeks before the riot, in which he falsely claimed that the election was stolen from him and urged supporters to fight what he described as widespread voter fraud. If House managers choose to spend most of the day on Thursday focused on Trump and his fiery messaging, it may add to pressure on his lawyers to mount a fuller defense in coming days.
If they do, the lawyers are widely expected to argue that the comments were simply opinions protected by the first amendment, and that Trump was entitled to tell his supporters to fight in the name of election security or to express their own political views.
A reminder that the prosecution are arguing that while the first amendment may protect a private citizen from the government interfering with their free speech, that is not the same thing as somebody who has taken a federal oath – for example, the president of the United States – violating that oath by what they say – for example “if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore” while Congress is about to certify that your opponent has won an election against you.
Read more here: New York Times – What to watch for in the impeachment trial on Thursday
In their prosecution of Donald Trump for inciting the 6 January attack on the United States Capitol in Washington DC, Democratic impeachment managers have focused on videos of the event, including previously unseen footage.
The managers, who act as prosecutors in the case, have shown clips to their audience of senators, who are in effect acting as jurors.
The shocking footage shown on Wednesday revealed the full scale and danger of the attack on the Capitol, including threats to some senators sitting in the chamber during the trial.
US could have averted 40% of Covid deaths, says panel examining Trump's policies
The US could have averted 40% of the deaths from Covid-19, had the country’s death rates corresponded with the rates in other high-income G7 countries, according to a Lancet commission tasked with assessing Donald Trump’s health policy record.
Almost 470,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus so far, with the number widely expected to go above half a million in the next few weeks. At the same time some 27 million people in the US have been infected. Both figures are by far the highest in the world.
In seeking to respond to the pandemic, Trump has been widely condemned for not taking the pandemic seriously enough soon enough, spreading conspiracy theories, not encouraging mask wearing and undermining scientists and others seeking to combat the virus’ spread.
Dr Mary T Bassett, a commission member and director of Harvard University’s FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, told the Guardian: “The US has fared so badly with this pandemic, but the bungling can’t be attributed only to Mr Trump, it also has to do with these societal failures … That’s not going to be solved by a vaccine.”
In a wide-ranging assessment published on Thursday, the commission said Trump “brought misfortune to the USA and the planet” during his four years in office. The stinging critique not only blamed Trump, but also tied his actions to the historical conditions which made his presidency possible.
“He was sort of a crowning achievement of a certain period but he’s not the only architect,” said Bassett, “And so we decided it’s important to put him in context, not to minimize how destructive his policy agenda has been and his personal fanning the flames of white supremacy, but to put it in context.”
The commission condemned Trump’s response to Covid, but emphasized that the country entered the pandemic with a degraded public health infrastructure. Between 2002 and 2019, US public health spending fell from 3.21% to 2.45% – approximately half the share of spending in Canada and the UK.
To determine how many deaths from Covid the US could have avoided, the commission weighted the average death rate in the other G7 countries – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the UK – and compared it to the US death rate.
Read more of Amanda Holpuch’s report here: US could have averted 40% of Covid deaths, says panel examining Trump’s policies
Yesterday there were 94,704 new coronavirus cases recorded in the US, and 3,364 more deaths. The total death toll, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally is now at 471,221.
The number of people in hospital with Covid fell to 76,979, and the number of people who have had at least one dose of a vaccine rose to 34.4 million.
California has surpassed New York as the US state with the highest number of Covid-19 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. The state has now seen 45,351 Covid-19 fatalities.
“This is a heart-wrenching reminder that Covid-19 is a deadly virus, and we mourn alongside every Californian who has suffered the tragic loss of a loved one during this pandemic,” said Dr Mark Ghaly, California’s Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Christina Maxouris at CNN reports that more state leaders are loosening their Covid-19 restrictions, even as experts warn it may be too soon.
“It is absolutely essential that we continue to do steps beyond vaccination to keep this under control,” Dr. Richard Besser, former acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said. “The more this virus is allowed to spread in our communities, the more we’re going to see … variants spreading.”
Here’s how Susan Cornwell and Makini Brice at Reuters have summed up yesterday’s proceedings in the Senate – and a little of what we can expect to see from the impeachment managers today. They report they will focus on on the damage wrought by the riot, and the former president’s role in inflaming the rampage.
They spent much of Wednesday recounting the events that led to the riot and highlighting the threat to former vice president Mike Pence.
On Thursday, Democrats plan to illustrate the “terrible toll” of the riot and Trump’s “role in assembling, inciting and inflaming the insurrectionists,” a House aide said.
Senators on Wednesday were shown searing security footage the pro-Trump mob stalking the Capitol hallways chanting “Hang Mike Pence!”.
Previously unseen videos showed the view from inside the Capitol as rioters smashed windows and fought with police, coming within 100 feet (30 m) of the room where Pence was sheltering with his family. The mob had set up a gallows outside.
Trump had repeatedly said Pence had the power to stop the certification of the election results, even though he did not.
“The mob was looking for vice president Pence,” Rep Stacey Plaskett said, narrating footage that showed the crowd threatening Pence and searching for Pelosi. “President Trump put a target on their backs and then his mob broke into the Capitol to hunt them down,” she said.
Democratic Representative Joaquin Castro pointed out that during the rampage, Trump tweeted that Pence “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done.” A video showed rioters spreading word of Trump’s tweet to one another on bullhorns.
Having lost the Senate runoff races in Georgia in January, and with it control of the Senate, it seems Republicans in the state have settled on their strategy to win it back. At least according to this report from Max Greenwood in The Hill anyway:
Georgia Republicans are pushing a series of new voting rules that would clamp down on or roll back many of the policies that helped drive Democratic turnout in recent elections.
The measures being introduced in the GOP-controlled state legislature include efforts to ban automatic voter registration and the use of drop boxes for returning absentee ballots. Another proposal seeks to do away with a state law that allows voters to cast absentee ballots without an excuse for doing so.
Some calls for stricter voting requirements have already won support from top Republicans in the state, who argue they’re necessary to fight voter fraud and election malfeasance — despite the fact that Georgia officials, including Republican secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, have repeatedly debunked claims of systemic irregularities in the election.
One of the proposals recommended by the Georgia GOP’s election confidence task force calls for the state Elections Division to be placed under the purview of the state Elections Board, effectively stripping the secretary of state’s office of its elections oversight duties. Raffensperger ran afoul of Trump and his allies after defending the state’s handling of its elections and pushing back against the former president’s assertions that the presidential contest had been stolen from him.
Read more here: The Hill – Georgia GOP seeks to tighten voting rules after spate of losses
Kyle Rittenhouse, charged with killing two people during street protests in Kenosha last summer, faces a judge today with prosecutors asking that he be re-arrested.
Prosecutors say 18 year old Rittenhouse violated conditions of his $2 million bond by failing to inform the court of his current address. They’ve asked Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder to issue an arrest warrant and hike Rittenhouse’s bond by $200,000.
Rittenhouse’s attorneys say threats have forced him into hiding, and they say they offered to give prosecutors Rittenhouse’s current address if it stays under seal. Prosecutors have refused, saying the public is entitled to know where Rittenhouse is, and that the defense hasn’t presented any evidence of an immediate threat.
Rittenhouse came to Kenosha in August from nearby Antioch, Illinois, as hundreds of people were protesting the police shooting that left Jacob Blake, a Black man, paralyzed. Prosecutors say Rittenhouse, who is white and was 17 at the time, answered a militia group’s call to come to Kenosha.
Jonathan Allen at NBC News has this analysis of what the Democrats were trying to achieve in the trial yesterday – to make Republicans feel that Trump is a personal threat to them:
If Republican senators will not put the republic over their party, House impeachment trial managers suggested Wednesday, they should convict former President Donald Trump because of the personal threats he posed to their safety.
And by implication, their suggestion went further. Unless the Senate finishes off Trump with a conviction, their argument went, Trump will remain a threat to his party and the senators’ political futures.
Their daylong presentation of the case against Trump tilted heavily toward reminding Republican senators that Trump targeted them for years — showing the actual tweets that did so — and making it clear if he is not convicted and disqualified from holding future federal office, he will continue to dominate them politically and potentially with violence.
Rep Eric Swalwell, reminded senators that “you were just 58 steps from where the mob was amassing.”
Read more here: NBC News – Trump conviction rests on Republicans’ instinct for self-preservation
Last night the Washington Post editorial board came out with a piece saying that Republicans should convict their former president. The Post writes:
Before Donald Trump’s second Senate impeachment trial, members of both parties wondered whether it was worth the effort. Two days in, it is clear that the proceedings are essential for the nation, even if they do not end in a formal verdict against Trump. The House impeachment managers’ presentation before the Senate has crystallized in graphic and compelling detail the horror of the 6 January Capitol riot — and Trump’s deep responsibility for it.
On Wednesday, the managers demonstrated that the violence was predictable. Trump planned the rally with the organizers of the second Million MAGA March, a previous pro-Trump event that had turned violent. House members detailed how Trump fanatics openly planned the Capitol invasion on pro-Trump websites that the White House reportedly monitored, and how government officials warned about the threat of extremist violence. And they showed how Trump nevertheless told his mob, “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” His acolytes, the presentation documented, had been primed by his previous support for violent acts, such as a Trump caravan’s attempt to run a bus of Biden supporters off a Texas highway.
Most Republican senators nevertheless appear determined to acquit Trump, based on a flawed constitutional argument that former officials cannot be impeached. Senators will bring disgrace upon their chamber if they fail to hold the former president accountable. No reasonable listener this week could fail to find him culpable for the Capitol assault.
Read more here: Washington Post – Trump’s trial has crystallized the horror of 6 January. The Senate must convict him
Ed Pilkington has interviewed Congresswoman and Jonestown survivor Jackie Speier for us. She says “Trump is a political cult leader”:
“Jim Jones was a religious cult leader, Donald Trump is a political cult leader,” Speier told the Guardian. “As a victim of violence and of a cult leader, I am sensitive to conduct that smacks of that. We have got to be wary of anyone who can have such control over people that they lose their ability to think independently.”
Speier stood for her first election soon after the Jonestown massacre. Since 2008 the Democratic congresswoman has represented most of the district in California that her gunned-down mentor, Leo Ryan, served before his death.
The formative experience that gave rise to her political career gives Speier an unusually sharp perspective on the danger posed by the Capitol insurrection. She thinks of it as “groupthink”, saying that “when the groupthink is about overthrowing the government, then we’ve got a serious problem.”
In her Guardian interview, Speier said that the current crisis of white supremacy and the military has been brewing for many years. “I thought it was urgent a year ago when I held a hearing on violent extremism in the military and was astonished at the number of service members who are recruited in part because of their training to these extremist groups.”
She added: “It’s not as though we haven’t been given a heads-up.”
A recent analysis by CNN of the first 150 people to be arrested for participating in the Capitol insurrection found that at least 21 had military experience. Some were still serving, and eight were former marines with elite training in the art of warfare.
Speier said that such training spelled trouble for the nation. “With military training you become skilled at the use of lethal weapons and to ambush and gain control. The training is important to fight our enemies, but now it is being used as a recruitment tool for organisations engaged in violent extremism.”
Read more of Ed Pilkington’s interview here: Congresswoman and Jonestown survivor Jackie Speier: ‘Trump is a political cult leader’
Democrats will continue to prosecute their impeachment case in the Senate today, with the trial set to re-start at noon EST, which is 5pm in London. This CNN report underlines from the Republican reactions it quotes that they have an uphill battle to secure a conviction:
A number of GOP senators made clear Wednesday evening that they were shaken by what they saw, but still signaled they won’t change how they plan to vote as Trump appears headed toward acquittal at the conclusion of the trial.
Republican Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana called the video “riveting,” saying, “it’s just as kind of hard to take now as it was then.”
Asked if Wednesday’s presentation will impact how he will vote, Braun answered, “No, because I’ve seen, I think, most of it,” adding, “I think it’s good to review it, but I don’t know that that’s going to make a difference for any one senator just having it on a loop again.”
Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa said, “It’s kind of hard to describe” the videos shown in the Senate chamber, calling it a “horrendous situation.” But when asked if it would have an effect on his vote, he said, “Listen, you gotta weigh all the information together.”
An appellate court has stayed the lethal injection of an Alabama inmate to consider claims that the state failed to give the man required assistance with forms impacting the timing of his execution.
The 11th US Court of Appeals issued the stay last night about 21 hours before Willie B. Smith, who has an IQ below 75, was scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection. The court stayed the execution to give a week to consider his claims. The court also issued a separate ruling on religious grounds saying Alabama cannot execute Smith unless they allow his personal pastor in the execution chamber.
Alabama is appealing both rulings to try to allow the execution to go forward. Smith III, 51, was scheduled to be put to death Thursday night at a south Alabama prison for the 1991 shotgun killing of Sharma Ruth Johnson.
Prosecutors said Smith abducted Johnson at gunpoint in October 1991 as she waited to use an ATM in Birmingham, forced her into the trunk of a car and withdrew $80 using her bank card. Prosecutors said he then took her to a cemetery where he shot her in the back of the head and later returned to set the car on fire.
If the execution goes forward, it would be the first death sentence carried out by a state in 2021 and one of the few at the state level since the Covid-19 pandemic began. It would be the first execution by a state since 8 July, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
After Alabama authorized nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method, the state gave death row inmates a brief window to select that as their execution method. Attorneys argued that the state did little to communicate that to inmates and that the prison system was required under the Americans with Disabilities Act to provide accommodation to intellectually disabled inmates when they handed out a form.
The Alabama attorney general’s office is disputing that Smith is disabled and called the argument an attempt to delay the execution.
The appellate court on Wednesday also reversed a district judge and said the state can’t execute Smith unless he has his personal pastor in the chamber.
Alabama previously placed a prison chaplain in the chamber who would pray with the inmate if requested. The state stopped that practice after Muslim inmates asked to have an imam present. The prison system said it would not allow non-prison staff in the chamber and ended the practice of having the prison chaplain present, which undercut claims of unequal treatment between inmates of different faiths.
Joe Biden has affirmed the US’s tough line on China’s human rights abuses and regional expansionism in his first phone call with president Xi Jinping since taking office.
Xi defended China’s policies as matters of sovereignty, but told the US leader confrontation would be “a disaster”, and called for the two sides to re-establish the means to avoid misjudgments, according to state media.
The call came just hours after the announcement of Biden’s establishment of a Pentagon task force on China and a senior state department official meeting in person with Taiwan’s representative to the US.
The US’s support for Taiwan, which is fending off aggression and threats of “unification” from Beijing, is one of the most sensitive issues in the US-China relationship, and one raised by Biden during the call.
“I spoke today with President Xi to offer good wishes to the Chinese people for lunar new year,” said Biden. “I also shared concerns about Beijing’s economic practices, human rights abuses, and coercion of Taiwan. I told him I will work with China when it benefits the American people.”
A White House account of the conversation said Biden also raised the crackdown in Hong Kong and human rights abuses in Xinjiang, and China’s “increasingly assertive actions in the region”. They also discussed global health security, climate change, and preventing weapons proliferation, the White House said.
Chinese state media said the two leaders had “exchanged greetings on the occasion of the Chinese New Year, and had an in-depth exchange of views on the bilateral relationship and major international and regional issues”. Xi also warned Biden to cautiously handle matters like Hong Kong, Taiwan and Xinjiang, which he said were “internal affairs” about China’s territorial integrity.
Read more of Helen Davidson’s report from Taipei: Biden raises Taiwan and human rights with Xi Jinping in first phone call
As the Senate moves forward with impeaching the 45th president a second time, the current president Joe Biden has opted to steer clear of involving himself too closely in the proceedings.
During a White House press briefing this week Jen Psaki, the Biden administration’s press secretary, was pressed on whether Biden would weigh in on the impeachment.
“Well, first, the president himself would tell you that we keep him pretty busy, and he has a full schedule this week, which we will continue to keep you abreast of” Psaki said.
Instead, Biden officials and the president himself are stressing that their focus is on passing a large Covid relief bill. What Congress does is up to Congress, they argue.
Biden echoed Psaki’s remarks during an appearance in front of the press while meeting with business leaders. He said he would not be watching the trial.
“I am not,” Biden said when asked if he was watching the impeachment proceedings. “Look, I told you before: I have a job. My job is to keep people … we’ve already lost over 450,000 people. We’re going to lose a whole lot more if we don’t act, and act decisively and quickly.”
Biden continued: “A lot of families are food insecure. They’re in trouble. That’s my job. The Senate has their job; they’re about to begin it. I’m sure they’re going to conduct themselves well. And that’s all I’m going to have to say about impeachment.”
Read more of Daniel Strauss’ report: Keeping his counsel – Biden stays quiet on Trump impeachment trial
Overnight Aaron Blake at the Washington Post pulled out his five key takeaways from yesterday’s session. He highlighted the way that the Democrats sought to paint a picture of a long build-up from Donald Trump to the events of 6 January, but also suggests it will cut no ice where it counts, with Senate Republicans:
“The evidence shows clearly that this mob was provoked over many months by Trump,” Rep Joaquin Castro said. “And if you look at the evidence, his purposeful conduct, you’ll see that the attack was foreseeable and preventable.”
Castro pointed to Trump’s tweets and comments saying that the only way he would lose the election was if it was rigged — despite polls at the time repeatedly showing his loss was likely. He played clips of Trump supporters who took that at face value. He also played clips of people, even as the votes were being counted, rising up in protest.
Trump’s response was delayed, even by the accounts of GOP senators and some former White House aides. He also offered words of praise for the rioters, expressing “love” for them as it was happening and later saying it would be a day for them to remember. But he did, in the same “love” video, tell them to go home peacefully.
Trump often mixes his messages like this, giving himself plausible deniability while seeming to send a deliberate message. His team will focus on the “go home” stuff rather than the “We love you” stuff. It’s up to Democrats to argue that his encouragement and negligence outweighed those messages.
Read more here: Washington Post – 5 takeaways from day 2 of Trump’s impeachment trial
Yesterday’s impeachment trial session featured police bodycam footage showing officers under attack at the US Capitol. Democrat congressman Eric Swalell played footage captured from the officer’s perspective showing the crowd attacking police with whatever items were at hand, including crutches and a Trump flag. Swalell also revealed footage showing the evacuation of representatives, including Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, being ushered away by security
We’ve gathered together here five of the most shocking videos of the Capitol attack that were shown at Trump’s impeachment trial yesterday:
Welcome to our live coverage of US politics for Thursday. It’s been a busy week. The Senate impeachment trial of former president Donald Trump is set to continue today, after yesterday Democrats set out their case to impeach him for ‘incitement of insurrection’. Here’s a catch-up on where we are, and what we might expect to see today…
- Yesterday in the Senate Democratic impeachment managers showed previously unaired footage from security cameras, which revealed just how close lawmakers and staffers were to the violent mob that attacked the US Capitol.
- Footage showed one law enforcement officer directing Sen Mitt Romney away from the path of the mob, while other clips showed Trump supporters trying to locate House speaker Nancy Pelosi.
- Impeachment managers emphasized Trump’s role and pointed out the number of attackers wearing or carrying Trump flags. “This attack never would have happened but for Donald Trump,” said Madeleine Dean.
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The trial is still unlikely to result in a conviction, with one Republicans senator describing it as a “waste of time”.
- Away from the Senate, president Joe Biden ordered new sanctions against the military regime in Myanmar. Biden announced an executive order that will block the country’s generals from accessing $1bn in assets in the US after they staged a coup.
- He also spoke with president Xi Jinping of China, raising issues of human rights abuses, tension over Taiwan and Chinese economic practices.
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The administration withdrew support for a challenge to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), telling the US supreme court that the healthcare law should stay. The lawsuit, led by Republican states and supported by the Trump administration, is seeking to strike down the ACA in its entirety.
- Joe Biden and vice president Kamala Harris have a meeting in the Oval office at 10am EST – that is 3pm in London – with senators from both parties on “the critical need to invest in modern and sustainable American infrastructure”. Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg will join virtually.
- Later Biden heads to the Viral Pathogenesis Laboratory at the National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda, Maryland. He’ll deliver remarks to staff at 4:30pm EST.
