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The Guardian - US
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Maanvi Singh (now), Adam Gabbatt and Martin Belam (earlier)

Trump impeachment: defense wraps up, claiming free speech is at stake –as it happened

Summary

Here’s a recap, from me and Adam Gabbatt:

  • Donald Trump’s legal team laid out their defense argument in the impeachment trial. The former president’s lawyers said he was protected by the right to free speech.
  • Lawyers for Trump played a video showing out-of-context clips of Democratic lawmakers – and for some reason, Madonna – using the word “fight” repeatedly. They then accused Democrats of hypocrisy for criticizing Trump’s speech to supporters on 6 January, and faced ridicule for an argument that amounted to peak whataboutism.
  • Before adjourning for the night, the Senate unanimously approved awarding officer Eugene Goodman with a gold medal for his bravery during the 6 January attack. “Officer Goodman is in the chamber tonight. Officer Goodman, thank you,” said Chuck Schumer, before senators stood to applaud the officer.

The impeachment trial resumes tomorrow – come back for live Guardian coverage.

Updated

Report: Trump berated House Republican leader while Capitol was under seige

Based on interviews with multiple Republicans briefed on the matter, CNN is reporting new details about Donald Trump’s call to House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy to castigate him during the 6 January attack on the Capitol.

From CNN:

In an expletive-laced phone call with House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy while the Capitol was under attack, then-President Donald Trump said the rioters cared more about the election results than McCarthy did.

“Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are,” Trump said, according to lawmakers who were briefed on the call afterward by McCarthy. McCarthy insisted that the rioters were Trump’s supporters and begged Trump to call them off. Trump’s comment set off what Republican lawmakers familiar with the call described as a shouting match between the two men. A furious McCarthy told the President the rioters were breaking into his office through the windows, and asked Trump, “Who the f--k do you think you are talking to?” according to a Republican lawmaker familiar with the call.

The newly revealed details of the call, described to CNN by multiple Republicans briefed on it, provide critical insight into the President’s state of mind as rioters were overrunning the Capitol. The existence of the call and some of its details have been previously reported and discussed publicly by McCarthy. The Republican members of Congress said the exchange showed Trump had no intention of calling off the rioters even as lawmakers were pleading with him to intervene. Several said it amounted to a dereliction of his presidential duty.

Read more here.

Analysis: Fight, fight, fight: Trump lawyers subject senators to repetitive strain

Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight. The first rule of Fight Club is just keep bashing your audience with the same word ad nauseam.

A video in which Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and other Democratic politicians uttered the word “fight” 238 times, according to a count by the MSNBC TV network, was the most bizarre turn yet at Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.

The montage was played by Trump lawyer David Schoen on Friday in an attempt to demonstrate that such language is common in today’s political discourse, and protected by the first amendment to the constitution, so Trump’s call for his supporters to “fight like hell” should not be blamed for the insurrection at the US Capitol.

“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Schoen told senators, many of whom had seen themselves on TV screens inside the chamber. “It’s a word people use, but please stop the hypocrisy.”

He was not wrong that it’s a word people use. Hillary Clinton, who was seen in the video, made Fight Song the theme of her ill-starred 2016 campaign against Trump. The world champion “fighter” is surely Senator Elizabeth Warren, who sprinkles the word in interviews liberally and wrote a book called This Fight is Our Fight.

But what Schoen was also doing was displaying whataboutism in its purest form – a wonder to behold, like a flawless diamond or pristine snow.

Whataboutism is a dodge often seen in rightwing media. If allegations are made against Trump’s connections in Russia, respond: what about Clinton’s emails? If Trump’s family are accused of exploiting their position, respond: what about Joe Biden’s son Hunter? If white supremacists are running riot, respond: what about antifa? It doesn’t matter if the equivalence is false because it’s all about attacking the opponent in order to muddy the waters.

The Trump legal team’s relentless “fight” video was a case in point. Some of the Democrats were quoted out of context due to selective editing. We heard Biden, for example, say “never, never, never give up this fight” but did not hear the full quotation: “I looked into the eyes of people who survived school shootings, and I made each of them a promise: I will never, never, never give up this fight.”

(Speaking of hypocrisy, Schoen accused the impeachment managers of “manipulating video” during his presentation.)

In addition, these Democrats were urging supporters to fight for a political cause. Trump was urging supporters to fight against democracy: his cause was based on the mendacious claim of a stolen election. And as the impeachment managers laid out on Thursday, he had spent years deploying incendiary rhetoric and demonising opponents.

Still, the Trump defence cleared the very low bar set by their opening Laurel-and-Hardy gambit on Tuesday. On Friday they provided talking points for rightwing media, straws for Republican consciences to clutch at and a boost for Trump’s spirits after some very grim days.

Read more:

Senate honors Eugene Goodman, adjourns trial for the day

The Senate unanimously approved awarding officer Eugene Goodman with a gold medal for his bravery during the 6 January attack.

“Officer Goodman is in the chamber tonight. Officer Goodman, thank you,” said Chuck Schumer, before senators stood to applaud the officer.

Here’s more on Goodman:

The trial has adjourned until tomorrow.

Updated

Bruce Castor has made yet another head-scratching argument:

“There is no January exception to impeachment,” he said, adding that private citizens are subject to criminal prosecution.

This runs counter to the defense’s argument that the trial is not constitutional. Castor also did not clarify whether Trump should face criminal charges.

Updated

Things got heated there for a minute.

Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, who has hinted at some mild hesitation in siding with most of his GOP colleagues to acquit Trump, asked about Trump’s tweets castigating Mike Pence, even after reports that Alabama senator Tommy Tuberville told Trump that Mike Pence had been pursued by rioters and evacuated.

“Unfortunately we’re not going to know the answer to the facts of this proceeding, because the House did nothing to investigate what went on,” said Van der Veen, without directly responding to the substance of the question.

Raskin did not appreciate that line of argument. “Rather than yelling at us and screaming about, ‘We didn’t have time to get all of the facts about what your client did,’ bring your client up here and have him testify under oath,” he said.

Updated

Hi there, it’s Maanvi Singh – taking over the blog.

Donald Trump’s defense would not answer a question from Bernie Sanders on whether they believe Trump won the 2020 election.

“My judgment. Who asked that? My judgment is irrelevant in this proceeding,” Trump attorney Van der Veen said.

Elizabeth Warren, Democratic senator from Massachusetts, asks a question. She notes that the defense pointed out that Democrats have objected to electoral college results before, and asks if they have ever done so hours after an insurrection at the Capitol?

No one really answers it but Warren is getting a lot of fire emoji tweets on Twitter.

Updated

Democratic senator Ed Markey asks when Trump learned of the breach at the Capitol, and what he did about it. (It’s the same question Collins and Murkowski asked earlier.)

Stacey Plaskett, a House delegate from the Virgin Islands and an impeachment manager, says we do not know. “The reason this question keeps coming up is because the answer is nothing.”

Mitt Romney, Republican senator and Trump foe, asks if Trump knew whether Mike Pence had been removed from the Senate when the president criticized him in a 2.24pm tweet.

Defense lawyer Van der Veen says “the answer is no, at no point was the president informed that the vice president was in any danger”. Van der Veen then criticizes the House impeachment managers for rushing the trial.

I don’t see the connection.

Updated

Republican senator Tim Scott has a question: “Isn’t this simply a political show trial that is designed to discredit President Trump [...] and shame the 74m Americans who voted for him?”

Bruce Castor, for the defense: “Thats precisely what the 45th president believes this is about.”

Castor says the purpose of the trial – which is actually related to an insurrection that left five people dead – is to “embarrass” Trump.

A question for the defense team, from GOP senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski:

“Exactly when did President Trump learn of the breach of the Capitol” and what actions did he take to bring the riot to an end?

Van der Veen, for the defense, doesn’t give a proper answer.

Collins and Murkowski are believed to be swing voters on whether to convict Trump.

Senator Lindsey Graham has a question for the defense. The question is on behalf of Graham, Senator Ted Cruz, and others – all ardent Trump defenders.

“Does a politician raising bail for rioters encourage more rioting?” the defense is asked.

One of the defense lawyers – I think it’s Castor says: “Yes.”

This is part of the Republican strategy to compare the Capitol rioters to Black Lives Matter protesters.

Updated

“Isn’t it the case that the attack [on January 6] would not have happened if not for Donald Trump?” was the first, strangely worded question. It’s posed by Democratic senators to the House impeachment managers (essentially, the prosecution.)

Rep Joaquin Castro, one of the impeachment managers, answered. Castro said – essentially – yes.

He said Trump, as far back as mid-December, directed his supporters to travel to the Capitol on January 6. Once there, Trump told his supporters to “fight like hell”, and told them “they could play by different rules”, Castro said.

The impeachment trial has restarted shortly. In the next phase, Senators will have four hours to ask the defense and the prosecution questions.

It’s not clear how late they’ll run tonight. There’s a dinner break scheduled for 5pm, but the questioning could resume after. The Senate will reconvene at 10am ET Saturday, and a final vote could take place later that day, at 3pm.

Trump’s legal team has wrapped up its defense

That was a bit of an anti-climax. Castor finished by pivoting back to the free speech argument Trump’s lawyers made earlier – that Trump’s speech to his supporters on January 6 was protected under the first amendment.

“This trial is about far more than President Trump,” Castor said. He said the trial is instead about canceling speech that “the majority does not agree with”.

“Are we going to allow canceling and silencing to be sanctioned in this body?” Castor asked.

Trump’s defense argument seems to hinge both on a) Trump’s speech on January 6 did not incite the riot (although the defense team did not address Trump’s previous statements) and b) in any case, what Trump said is protected by free speech laws.

Updated

Castor suggested that Trump’s speech on January 6 did not incite the riot

The lawyer hasn’t addressed the broader issue of whether Trump’s months-long tirade against the election result had anything to do with it.

“The January 6 speech did not cause the riots,” Castor said.

Castor then moved onto the January phone call between Trump and Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger. During that call Trump pressured Raffensperger, a Republican, to “find” votes so that Trump could be announced the winner in Georgia.

Georgia prosecutors have opened a criminal inquiry into Trump’s call.

Castor read from a transcript of the call and said Trump was expressing legitimate concern over the election result.

For some context, here is some of what Trump said in that Georgia phone call:

“So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state.”

Updated

Bruce Castor continues. He says the House impeachment managers “manipulated” Trump’s words when they presented their case.

Castor then speaks Latin for a little bit and suggests House impeachment managers are “trying to fool you”.

“President Trump was immediate in his calls for calm,” Castor says. (Trump wasn’t.)

“President Trump’s words couldn’t have incited the events at the capitol,” Castor said, because people were already gathering at the Capitol before Trump gave his speech at the Ellipse, which a 15 minute walk away.

https://twitter.com/AndrewDesiderio/status/1360315113731989504

Updated

Castor began his defense by showing a video, most of which is cribbed from the video Trump’s legal team played earlier.

It contrasts Democrats defending Black Lives Matter protesters, spliced in with selected clips of violence at some of the BLM demonstrations, with Trump talking about “law and order”. Law and order is frequently used as a racist dog whistle.

“January 6 was a terrible day for our country,” Castor conceded, but he continued: “President Trump did not incite or cause the horrific violence.”

This tactic from the defense – that Trump’s supporters storming the Capitol was bad, but it wasn’t Trump’s fault – is something we expected.

Castor added: “Political hatred has no place in the American justice system, and certainly no place in the congress of the United States.”

Donald Trump’s legal team has resumed their defense. Bruce Castor, who reportedly left Trump furious after a lackluster performance earlier this week, will handle the next section.

During the break, Democratic senators lined up to pan the defense.

“Donald Trump was told that if he didn’t stop lying about the election people would be killed,” Senator Tim Kaine told reporters, according to the Washington Post. “He wouldn’t stop, and the Capitol was attacked and seven people are dead who would be alive today.”

Senator Richard J. Blumenthal said the Trump defense team is “trying to draw a false, dangerous and distorted equivalence”, the Post reported.

“And I think it is plainly a distraction from Donald Trump’s inviting the mob to Washington, knowing it was armed; changing the route and the timing so as to incite them to march on the Capitol; and then reveling, without remorse, without doing anything to protect his own vice president and all of us,” Blumenthal said.

“I think that the case is even more powerful after this very distorted and false argument.”

Afternoon summary

  • Donald Trump’s legal team has set out their defense in the former president’s second impeachment trial.
  • The defense has centered largely on two themes: that Trump is protected by the right to free speech, and that Democrats are guilty of hypocrisy.
  • Lawyers for Trump played a video showing various Democrats using the word “fight”, as they accused Democrats of hypocrisy for criticizing Trump’s speech to supporters on 6 January.
  • The video, or a version of it, was played at least four times by Trump’s legal team. But the film lacked key context – at no point were Democrats speaking to an angry, pugnacious crowd, and at no point did those Democrats urge their supporters to march on the US Capitol.
  • In a separate argument, lawyers seemed to suggest that Trump’s speech, whether it was dangerous or not, was protected by the first amendment.

Updated

It’s not for me to say Trump’s lawyers have run out of ideas, but we’ve now seen the fight video, or a version of it, at least four times.

The video cuts crucial context from Democrat’s remarks. Trump discussed fighting on January 6 after he had whipped up a crowd with false claims of election fraud, then he urged them to march on the US Capitol, where he implied more fraud was about to occur.

None of the Democrats ever did that.

Updated

Van der Veen is quoting former Associate Justice James Wilson, who died in 1798, then loops in some of the other ‘founding fathers’. He is still on the subject of freedom of speech.

“If the house managers had their way they would ignore all of the constitution,” Van der Veen said. He then added something about the impeachment being “anti-American”, and moved on to quoting case law from the 1960s.

Here’s a little more on Van der Veen, who is usually a personal-injury lawyer:

Updated

Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic senator from Massachusetts, is among those using the word “fight” in this video that Trump’s legal team keeps rolling out. Here’s some context:

More video! Trump’s defense team plays clips of Democrats – and, weirdly, Madonna – using pugnacious language. Joe Biden’s always curious claim that he’d like to take Trump “behind the gym” is included.

“This is not what about-ism,” Van der Veen said. “I show you this video because all robust speech must be protected.”

That video was almost identical to the two videos Trump’s lawyers have already shown.

Van der Veen then showed the text of the first amendment on a big screen. The free speech part of Trump’s defense continues.

Updated

This happened at Mar-a-Lago, the private club where Trump is living, apparently indefinitely:

Michael Van der Veen, the Trump lawyer who kicked things off for the defense, has returned to the podium.

Van der Veen brought up the “free speech” defense that we heard Trump’s legal team would use.

“Mr Trump’s speech deserves full protection under the first amendment,” Van der Veen said.

Meanwhile, a Republican senator has apparently just told CNN there is “real concern” about the quality of the Trump team’s defense today:

The senator, who has been among those paying far closer attention to the proceedings in the chamber than many colleagues, said there is no question the House impeachment managers’ presentation will almost certainly be stronger that the defense presentation. But the senator said Republicans hope the defense is presented “in a professional and serious way – unlike the rambling show” from the first day of the trial.

More video from Trump’s legal team, as the defense ticks past the one hour mark.

This video shows clips from Black Lives Matter protests over the summer. It’s another attempt to compare protests against racism to a bunch of Trump supporters smashing their way into the US Capitol and threatening to kill politicians.

Here’s some takes on Twitter:

Trump’s legal team has played another video. The video, like one earlier, shows a number of Democrats using the word “fight” during political interviews and at rallies.

A key difference is that none of the Democrats used the word fight as they amped up their supporters then urged them to march to the US Capitol, where the result of a presidential election was about to be formalized. In some cases the Democrats were talking about fighting for policy changes or fighting for healthcare coverage. (Trump’s legal team clipped out those bits, just leaving the word ‘fight’.)

The Trump legal case so far seems to be: a) Democrats rushed the impeachment hearing, which seems irrelevant, b) the impeachment is unconstitutional, which is wrong, and c) some Democrats have used the word sometimes used the word “fight”, but – as far as I can tell – none of them ever used the word in the same volatile circumstances Trump faced on January 6.

Updated

Schoen, being done no favors by the top-down camera angle in the Senate chamber, continued to talk about the second impeachment of Trump being rushed. He claims impeachment managers “manufactured evidence”.

He claimed that two tweets, gathered by House impeachment managers as evidence that rioters were incited by Trump, were not posted on January 6. This is kind of irrelevant, because those tweets – as Schoen pointed out – were not part of the impeachment managers’ case.

Schoen then plays longer versions of Trump videos that impeachment managers played. Schoen claimed that impeachment managers cut the videos to remove context.

One video showed Trump’s infamous “very fine people on both sides” remarks about a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville. I’m not sure the longer video helps Trump’s case.

Donald Trump’s defense attorney David Schoen.
Donald Trump’s defense attorney David Schoen. Photograph: Getty Images

Updated

David Schoen said he wants to discuss the “hatred” and “vitriol” that Democrats have for Donald Trump. He then proceeded to discuss neither.

Schoen, who previously represented the one-time convict, and some-time Trump associate Roger Stone, instead suggested the impeachment was rushed.

The impeachment seeks to bar Trump from holding public office again, Schoen said, and also seeks to disenfranchise “75m voters”.

Schoen then complained that the previously unseen footage Democrats released yesterday – which showed members of Congress, and the vice-president, fleeing for their lives – should have been given to Trump’s legal team first.

Schoen continued with the theme that the impeachment was rushed. He played a clip showing impeachment managers quoting news reports as examples that evidence that Democrats cannot be trusted.

The impeachment case is “preposterously wrong on the facts”, Van der Veen said. He added, for the second time, that the impeachment trial is “plainly unconstitutional”. (Again, the Senate, including six Republicans, found this week that the trial is constitutional.)

This trial is “constitutional cancel culture”, Van der Veen said, a phrase that possibly sounded better in his head. Van der Veen then tags in his colleague, David Schoen.

Van der Veen, Trump’s lawyer, posted a video mash up of Donald Trump calling for law and order at certain times over the past four years, contrasted with some Democrats using words like “fight”.

Van der Veen continued by claiming: “One of the first people arrested was the leader of Antifa.” Van der Veen was referring to the anti-facist movement that does not have a leader.

Trump’s lawyer continues by drawing a false equivalence between Trump’s supporters seeking to attack politicians as they besieged the US Capitol, and Black Lives Matter protesters who have held demonstrations demanding equal rights and an end to racism.

Van der Veen blamed a “small group” for the riot, not Trump, and claimed most protesters on January 6 were peaceful.

Michael Van der Veen, a lawyer for Donald Trump, kicked off Trump’s defense by railing against the impeachment trial.

The trial, according to Van der Veen, is an “unjust and blatantly unconstitutional act of political vengeance”. This argument overlooks the fact that the Senate, including a number of Republicans, voted at the start of the week that the trial is constitutional.

Anyway – the impeachment of Trump, who is accused of inciting an insurrection also “further divides our nation”, Van der Veen said.

“No thinking person could seriously believe” Trump’s speech to his supporters on the morning of the Capitol riot “was in any way an incitement to violence or insurrection,” Van der Veen said. Democrats have argued the opposite.

Van der Veen said: “The president’s remarks explicitly encouraged those in attendance to exercise their rights peacefully and patriotically”.

Trump’s defense team expected to push for swift conclusion of trial

•The impeachment trial of Donald Trump continued on Friday, as lawyers for the president began to present their defense.

•That defense is not expected to last very long. Trump’s lawyers are expected to use about four hours of their possible sixteen – apparently the defense team believe they have enough Republican votes to avoid a conviction.

•Lawyers for Trump will reportedly concede that Capitol riot was traumatic and unacceptable, but claim that Trump was not responsible for the actions of his supporters.

•House impeachment managers rested their case against Trump on Thursday. Democrats argued that the US Capitol riot was a direct result of Trump’s rhetoric, not just on January 6, but throughout his presidency.

•Joe Biden has been reluctant to weigh in on the impeachment, but said on Friday: “I’m just anxious to see what my Republican friends do, if they stand up.” Biden told reporters he did not plan to call any Republican senators.

Updated

Mike Pence has “no plans to condemn Trump or to speak out during the Senate impeachment trial”, the Washington Post reported, despite the near miss the former-vice president experienced on January 6.

Video shown by impeachment managers this week showed Pence fleeing as Trump’s supporters broke into the Capitol, but the close call was apparently not enough to spur Pence into action.

According to the Post:

[Pence] is still operating from a playbook of obsequiousness that has become second nature — never airing grievances publicly, and delivering his often rose-colored counsel to Trump only in private, one-on-one settings.

Pence has received praise from some for not attempting to break the law on January 6 – when he did not block the results of the presidential election. That praise seemingly overlooks Pence’s four years of not doing anything in the face of Trump’s most egregious policies.

Updated

As we gear up for Trump’s lawyers to present their defense, here’s a handy clip of congressman Jamie Raskin, the lead impeachment manager, making the case that Trump incited his supporters on January 6.

Yesterday Raskin wrapped up the House’s case against the president, asking senators:

“If you think this is not impeachable, what is? What would be?

Raskin added: “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.”

Trump’s legal team will kick off their defense at 12pm ET, and are expected to wrap up their arguments today.

Updated

Some people online are getting very excited about events at the White House, where Jill Biden has installed some heart-shaped signs ahead of Valentine’s Day.

Some of the signs bear traditional Valentine’s messages like “love”, but others have messages saying “strength” and “healing”, possibly so single people don’t feel left out.

If you like that kind of thing, here’s a video of Joe Biden, wearing jeans and a leather jacket, and Jill Biden, in smarter attire, walking among the signs this morning. Their dogs are there too:

Updated

Donald Trump’s lawyers have injected “searing criticism of Democrats” into their arguments, Associated Press reports – doing so at the behest of their client.

According to AP Trump’s team is hoping “to convince not only GOP senators but also viewers of the trial around the country that Trump’s second impeachment is fueled by ‘hatred’ of the former president”.

To that end the lawyers are expected to call out Democrats they say similarly incited violence in cities around the country.

We heard earlier that Trump’s legal defense will center on the argument that the former president had nothing to do with the riot itself, but lawyers for Trump also seemed determine to damage Democrats as much as possible as they lay out their arguments.

David Schoen, a member of Trump’s legal team, said he believed Democrats were effectively making the public relive the tragedy in a way that “tears at the American people” and impedes efforts at unity, AP reported.

This is Adam Gabbatt taking over from Martin Belam.

The US Interior Department will start consultations with Native American tribal leaders next month on Covid-19, economic security, racial justice and climate change, report Reuters. It is part of efforts py President Joe Biden to get more tribal input in federal policy deliberations.

Biden issued an executive order on 26 January aimed at strengthening relations between the federal government and Native American tribes.

The Interior Department, which oversees the country’s tribal and federal lands, will be led by New Mexico Representative Deb Haaland, who would become the first Native American to head a cabinet-level agency if she is confirmed by Congress.

Some tribes felt sidelined after major decisions by former president Donald Trump’s administration, such as approving the Dakota Access Pipeline and drastically reducing the size of the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah that had been created with input of an inter-tribal council.

A 2019 Government Accountability Office report found serious lapses in outreach to tribes, especially on infrastructure projects.

Native American tribes have also been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic due to health disparities and higher rates of poverty. Under Trump tribes received $8 billion in coronavirus aid, but only after major delays caused by a legal dispute.

The consultations will take place by video in the week of March 8.

“Meaningful consultations ensure we center Tribal voices as we address the health, economic, racial justice and climate crises – all of which disproportionately impact American Indian and Alaska Natives,” said Ann Marie Bledsoe Downes, the department’s designated Tribal Governance Officer and Deputy Solicitor for Indian Affairs.

Haaland is awaiting her confirmation hearing, which has not yet been scheduled.

A few western state Republican senators have said they are likely to oppose her because of her support for policies like the Green New Deal championed by the progressive Left, but she is still expected to have enough support to be confirmed.

In states across the US legislation from Republican lawmakers seeking to undermine abortion rights is on the move. For anti-abortion activists, the goal has long been to challenge the supreme court decision that gave pregnant people the right to abortion 48 years ago: the landmark Roe versus Wade.

Each spring, especially in the last decade, Republicans have introduced restrictive abortion laws tailored to challenge that supreme court precedent by creating test cases. In 1973, Roe versus Wade provided women with a right to abortion up to the point the fetus can survive outside the womb, generally understood to be 24 weeks.

Abortion restrictions investigate the outer limits of that right, by creating laws that provoke reproductive rights advocates to sue, and for courts to consider their legitimacy.

“The more ambitious a restriction the court upholds, that will greenlight even more restrictions in the states,” said Mary Ziegler, a Florida State University law professor whose recent book, Abortion in America: A Legal History, tracked the history of the nation’s most important abortion cases.

“What we’ve been seeing is not what anti-abortion lawmakers want, but it’s been tailored to what they think the supreme court wants,” said Ziegler.

This effort is not meant to reflect the will of the majority of Americans, 77% of whom believe the supreme court should uphold Roe v Wade. The effort is meant to please a motivated, religious voter base, who have helped power Republican victories since the Reagan era. Trump played for the same “social conservatives” when vowing to appoint supreme court justices who would overturn Roe. But since Trump rose to power, exactly how to do that has become a vexing question for the Republican party.

Bills that ban abortion, demand doctors perform the impossible and “reimplant” ectopic pregnancies, punish women and doctors under murder statutes and whose authors believe the fundamental legal principle of precedent should not apply to their cases have all shown up in state legislatures in the last couple years.

Bans in recent sessions have been “extremely aggressive”, said Hillary Schneller, a senior staff attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights, and who is now fighting a Mississippi law that could ban abortion at 15 weeks. The state has appealed to the supreme court.

Recent bans have been, “saying the quiet part out loud – that they’re not just restriction abortion, they want to end access to abortion entirely”, said Schneller.

Read more of Jessica Glenza’s report here: Republicans employ new ‘extremely aggressive’ tactics to ban abortion

US fast food workers hold Black History Month strike to demand $15 an hour

Fast-food workers in 15 cities will hold a Black History Month strike on Tuesday to demand that the McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s restaurant chains pay them $15 an hour.

The action comes as Congress prepares to debate a federal rise in the minimum wage to $15 from its current rate of $7.25, the first federal raise since 2009.

Workers in cities including Atlanta, Charleston, Chicago, Detroit, Houston and St Louis will be joined by home care and nursing home workers in support of a $15 minimum wage and the right to join a union.

Joe Biden pledged to increase the minimum wage during his election campaign but has recently suggested the increase may not make it into the $1.9tn coronavirus relief package he is trying to push through Congress. Biden has said the increase is central to his pledge to narrow racial economic inequality.

“This Black History Month, we have a chance to make our own history by winning a living wage of at least $15 an hour and lifting millions of families out of poverty,” said Taiwanna Milligan, a McDonald’s worker from Charleston, South Carolina.

Milligan added: “For decades, McDonald’s has made billions in profit off the backs of workers like me, paying us starvation wages. I’m striking today because I need at least $15 an hour to survive and because I know the only way to make change is to stand up, speak out and demand it.”

Read more of Dominic Rushe’s report here: US fast food workers hold Black History Month strike to demand $15 an hour

Biden has more important things on his mind than Valentine’s Day, as this report from Mike Memoli and Carol E. Lee at NBC News sets out:

Even before he has secured his first major legislative priority, President Joe Biden is crafting the pitch for his second: an even larger spending plan that the White House is billing as the infrastructure package long sought by both parties.

Biden has already begun wooing Republicans over his infrastructure push, which is likely to be the focus of a historically late first address to Congress, probably sometime in March. But even as he courts Republican support, White House officials have already begun discussing the possibility of moving ahead without it, just as Democrats appear poised to do with pandemic relief.

Biden outlined a more than $2 trillion infrastructure plan during the presidential campaign, saying at the time that it would be the “largest mobilization of public investment since World War II.” The plan and a similar framework that passed the Democratic-led House in the last Congress are the basis of what Biden will propose.

Beyond just repairs or new construction of roads and bridges, the plan included expanding broadband access, as well as an ambitious climate agenda.

Read more here: NBC News – Biden prepares to move to next phase of his agenda with infrastructure push

As well as Lunar New Year celebrations, this weekend also sees Valentine’s Day, and Dr. Jill Biden has decorated one of the White House lawns for that, with hearts bearing messages like ‘compassion’, ‘unity’, ‘healing’ and ‘love’. The Bidens – and their dogs – have just been out to have a look at them.

Trump advisor: legal team expected to use just four hours today in Senate for defense

Two more little snippets of detail about the defense legal team’s plans today, courtesy of Trump advisor Jason Miller appearing on Newsmax. Their presentation will last about four hours out of their possible sixteen, and Bruce Castor, a man whose performance was widely questioned on Tuesday, will get a do-over.

Though in-person gatherings might be limited across the world, millions are still celebrating Lunar New Year today and ushering in the year of the ox.

Based on a traditional calendar observed by China, South Korea, Vietnam and others, this year’s new year and spring festival comes with its own specific significance. “The ox, in Chinese culture, is a hardworking zodiac sign. It usually signifies movements so, hopefully, the world will be less static than last year and get moving again in the second half of the year,” said Thierry Chow, a Hong Kong-based feng shui master, in a CNN interview.

Meanwhile, some are encouraging the celebration as a means of diplomacy. Australia’s prime minister Scott Morrison encouraged federal politicians to celebrate the Lunar New Year to help foster good relationships with Chinese people in the country, despite ongoing political tension with Beijing, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Others are highlighting the recent racism and attacks against Asian American people in their posts about the festival.

Here in New York, organizations in the city are holding both in person and virtual events in a year like no other.

Lunar New Year decorations are displayed in Chinatown on the eve of the Lunar New Year in New York.
Lunar New Year decorations are displayed in Chinatown on the eve of the Lunar New Year in New York. Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Trump's laywers expected to concede violence was traumatic and unacceptable, but argue Trump had nothing to do with it

The Senate will reconvene today for the impeachment trial at noon EST (1700 GMT). Bearing in mind that he will almost certainly be acquitted by enough Republican senators to make it immaterial anyway, the Associated Press have this rundown on what to expect from Trump’s defense team later today.

They report that after a prosecution case rooted in emotive, violent images from the Capitol siege, his lawyers will make a fundamental concession and agree that the violence that day was every bit as traumatic, unacceptable and illegal as Democrats say.

But, they will say, Trump had nothing to do with it.

The move is meant to blunt the visceral impact of the House Democrats’ case and quickly pivot to what they see as the core — and more winnable in the public eye — issue of the trial: whether Trump can be held responsible for inciting the deadly 6 January riot.

The argument is likely to appeal to Republican senators who themselves want to be seen as condemning the violence without convicting the president.

“They haven’t in any way tied it to Trump,” David Schoen, one of the president’s lawyers, told reporters near the end of two full days of Democrats’ arguments aimed at doing just that.

He had already previewed the essence of his argument on Tuesday, telling the Senate jurors: “They don’t need to show you movies to show you that the riot happened here. We will stipulate that it happened, and you know all about it.”

Democrats used the rioters’ own videos and words from 6 January to pin responsibility on Trump. “We were invited here,” said one. “Trump sent us,” said another. “He’ll be happy. We’re fighting for Trump.”

The prosecutors’ goal was to cast Trump not as a bystander but rather as the “inciter in chief” who spent months spreading falsehoods and revving up supporters to challenge the election.

But Trump’s lawyers have made clear their position – that the only people responsible for the riot are the ones who actually stormed the building and who are now being prosecuted by the Justice Department.

Updated

Georgia officials investigate groups that mobilized Black voters in state crucial to election outcome

The Georgia state election board referred two cases to prosecutors on Wednesday connected to organizations that helped mobilize a record number of voters in the state during the 2020 election, a move critics say is an intimidation effort.

One case involves the New Georgia Project (NGP), the group founded by Stacey Abrams in 2014, that helps mobilize voters of color. In 2019, investigators allege, the group violated state law by not handing in 1,268 voter registration applications within the 10 days required under state rules. The named respondent in the matter is Senator Raphael Warnock, who the group says was serving as the chairman of its board at the time, but was incorrectly listed on documents as the group’s CEO, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“The February 10th State Election Board meeting was the first time NGP heard about the allegations regarding NGP’s important voter registration work from 2019,” Nse Ufot, who has served as the group’s CEO since 2014, said in a statement. “We have not received any information on this matter from the Secretary or any other Georgia official so we will have no further comment on the investigation.”

The episode marks the latest example of Republicans targeting the group. In 2014, Brian Kemp, then the state’s top election official, announced an investigation into allegations of forged registration materials but found no widespread wrongdoing. Late last year, the secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, accused the group of soliciting people from outside of Georgia to register in the state – which the group denied.

Those investigations force the organization to allocate resources towards lawyers it says could otherwise be invested in voter registration.

“Every dollar that we have to spend to defend ourselves against the nuisance and partisan investigations is a dollar that we aren’t able to put into the field to register new voters and have high quality conversations about the power of their vote and the importance of this moment,” Ufot told the Guardian last year.

Read more of Sam Levine’s report here: ‘Intimidation tactic’: Georgia officials investigate groups that mobilized Black voters

Asylum-seekers waiting in Mexico to be allowed into US while cases proceed in reverse of Trump policy

The Biden administration has announced its plans for tens of thousands of asylum-seekers waiting in Mexico for their next immigration court hearings to be allowed into the United States while their cases proceed.

The Associated Press report that the first of an estimated 25,000 asylum-seekers in Mexico with active cases will be allowed in the United States on 19 February, authorities said. They plan to start slowly with two border crossings each processing up to 300 people a day and a third crossing taking fewer.

The move is a major step toward dismantling one of Trump’s policies to deter asylum-seekers from coming to the US. About 70,000 asylum-seekers were enrolled in “Remain in Mexico,” officially called “Migrant Protection Protocols,” since it was introduced in January 2019.

On Biden’s first day in office, the Homeland Security Department suspended the policy for new arrivals. Since then, some asylum-seekers picked up at the border have been released in the US. with notices to appear in court.

Biden is quickly making good on a campaign promise to end the policy, which exposed people to violence in Mexican border cities and made it extremely difficult for them to find lawyers and communicate with courts about their cases.

“As President Biden has made clear, the US government is committed to rebuilding a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system,” said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in a statement. “This latest action is another step in our commitment to reform immigration policies that do not align with our nation’s values.”

Homeland Security said the move “should not be interpreted as an opening for people to migrate irregularly to the United States.” Administration officials have said repeatedly that the vast majority of people who cross the border illegally are quickly expelled under a public health order in place since the pandemic struck in March

Hearings for people enrolled in “Remain in Mexico” have been suspended since June due to the pandemic. Getting word out on when to report to the border for release in the United States may prove a daunting job.

Homeland Security said it would soon announce a “virtual registration process” available online and by phone for people to learn where and when they should report. It urged asylum-seekers not to report to the border unless instructed.
Asylum-seekers will be tested for Covid-19 before entering the US.

Updated

Alexander Bolton has some choice quotes from a Republican senator in his piece for the Hill today. According to Bolton one senator, after watching day two of the House managers’ presentation, said: “It just makes you realize what an asshole Donald Trump is.”

There will be some who suggest for this to be a revelation now raises questions about what the senator was watching for the last four years. Bolton’s piece outlines that while Trump will doubtless be acquitted, for some Republican senators, it does mean the possibility of any Trump comeback is dead in the water.

From the viewpoint of some Republican senators, the compelling case presented by House prosecutors carries a silver lining: It means they likely won’t have to worry about Trump running for president again in three years, while at the same time eroding his influence in party politics more generally.

Several Republican senators became irate watching videos of the violence and chaos inside the Capitol on 6 January, including footage of police officers being called “pigs” and “traitors” and one officer screaming as he was crushed by rioters battering a police line.

Other Republican senators, even those who have indicated they will vote to acquit, say it would be a good thing if the impeachment trial helps distance the party from Trump, who has thoroughly dominated GOP politics over the past five years.

“I can’t imagine the emotional reaction, the visceral reaction to what we saw today doesn’t have people thinking, ‘This is awful,’ whatever their view is on whether the president ought to be impeached or convicted,” said another GOP senator. “What would stand out to my colleagues is there was no rescue, there was nothing that came to put an end to it.”

Read more here: The Hill – Even with acquittal, GOP sees trial ending Trump’s shot at future office

On the Covid front, this morning Politico note that the Biden administration have been taking a gentle approach towards states relaxing restrictions, even as experts warn that there are still dangers ahead. They write:

Biden’s team has used its thrice-weekly Covid-19 press briefings to emphasize the need to uphold basic public health measures, including limiting travel and gatherings, in the face of the variant threat. But officials leading the administration’s pandemic response have shied away from criticizing specific states. And behind the scenes, the White House’s weekly calls with governors have largely focused on vaccine distribution, according to two sources on the calls.

Biden campaigned on promises he’d take strong action to bring the pandemic under control — and touted his skills as a negotiator. Now, public health experts say that the administration’s reticence to pressure states that are easing restrictions could jeopardize the fragile progress in reducing the rate of cases and deaths. If cases of variants begin surging, that could overwhelm hospitals and even undermine ongoing vaccination efforts by giving the virus more chances to mutate.

Roughly a year into the pandemic, at least 35 states mandate the use of masks. Others — including Iowa, Montana and North Dakota — have let their requirements lapse or rolled them back. The number of cases per day are higher now in many places than during strict lockdowns last spring and early fall. But with pandemic fatigue setting in and economies battered from months of restrictions, politicians in red and blue states alike are under pressure to loosen restrictions.

Read more here: Politico – White House tiptoes around governors relaxing coronavirus rules

Covid deaths in US now over 475,000 – but hospitalizations drop below 75,000

The number of people killed during the coronavirus pandemic in the US has now topped 475,000. There were 105,353 new cases yesterday, and 3,877 deaths.

Hospitalizations in the US have dropped to 74,225. It’s the first time the level has been below 75,000 since 16 November.

At least 35.4 million people have received a dose of the vaccine. 11.8 million of them have been fully vaccinated.

The government’s nationalized health insurance program for seniors, Medicare, has kept money at the back of Ellen’s mind while she struggles with long Covid. She pays $150 for the coverage each month and has spent less than $100 since she contracted Covid in April on prescription drugs.

But Ellen, who asked not to use her last name for privacy, has had Covid symptoms for 10 months – including 128 days of nonstop headaches.

“I still have fatigue, right now I am laying down in bed, a shower will wipe me out,” she said from her home in Littleton, Colorado. “I still have brain fog, after we have this talk, I will be exhausted.”

Ellen is just one of the people Amanda Holpuch has spoken to for us, investigating the financial cost of having Covid in the US.

Read more here: ‘I don’t make enough’: the financial cost of having Covid in the US

Trump advisor: lawyers will wrap up his defense in less than a day

One of Trump’s senior advisers yesterday said that his legal are expected to wrap up their defense in less than a day.

Mary Clare Jalonick reports for the Associated Press that Trump’s lawyers plan to argue their client’s innocence on multiple fronts. Their main arguments include that the trial is unconstitutional, that the insurrectionists who broke into the Capitol did so on their own accord and that Trump’s rhetoric to supporters was common political speech protected under the First Amendment.

Hoping that brevity will appeal to their restless Senate audience, and in the belief that there is very little chance of Republican Senators finding Trump guilty anyway, the lawyers are expected to keep their arguments short. Like the House prosecutors, Trump’s lawyers have up to 16 hours over two days to plead their case. Once the defense’s presentation is finished, senators will have time to submit written questions to both sides.

Trump’s lawyers have injected searing criticism of Democrats into their arguments, hoping to convince not only senators but also viewers of the trial around the country that Trump’s second impeachment is fuelled by what they say is “hatred” of the former president. They are expected to continue with that strategy on Friday, calling out Democrats they say similarly incited violence in cities around the country.

One of Trump’s lawyers, David Schoen, told reporters in the Capitol on Thursday that Democrats’ recounting of the riots on Wednesday — almost 90 minutes of brutal footage that saw the rioters injuring law enforcement and calling for the death of the vice president and the speaker of the House — was “offensive.”

Rather than the Senate impeachment trial yesterday, president Joe Biden was preoccupied with the plan to vaccinate the nation against a Covid pandemic which has now cost over 475,000 lives.

Talking at the National Institutes of Health on Thursday, he spoke of the efforts his team had gone through to ensure high vaccination numbers and criticised Trump’s strategy for distributing vaccines. ‘My predecessor, to be very blunt about it, did not do his job,’ Biden said. ‘He didn’t order enough vaccines. He didn’t mobilise enough people to administer the shots’. He confirmed the country had ordered an additional 200m vaccine doses to be delivered by the end of July.

Here’s the analysis of those closing arguments yesterday from the House impeachment managers from NBC News overnight:

“He didn’t react to the violence with shock or horror or dismay, as we did. He didn’t immediately rush to Twitter and demand in the clearest possible terms that the mob disperse, that they stop it, that they retreat,” Rep Joe Neguse said. “Instead, he issues messages in the afternoon that sided with them, the insurrectionists, who had left police officers battered and bloodied.”

The managers made the case that the mob believed they were acting at the direction of president, citing many of the rioters’ own statements. They also cited the words of Republicans who publicly pleaded with Trump to call off his supporters as the siege was underway to bolster their argument that Trump was in control.

The House managers previewed likely arguments from Trump’s attorneys. The First Amendment would not protect Trump’s exhortations for the crowd to “fight” the acceptance of the presidential electoral votes before his supporters marched on the Capitol, the Democrats argued, comparing him not to the proverbial private citizen who falsely shouts “fire” in a crowded theater but to a fire chief who incites a mob to set the theater ablaze and then lets it burn.

Will it make any difference?

Sen Lindsey Graham had a one-word response when asked by NBC News whether anything he had heard had changed his mind: “Nope.”

Read more here: NBC News – House managers rest case, argue Trump could stoke more violence if not convicted

North Carolina man charged with phoning threats to Biden at the White House

Reuters report that a man in North Carolina has been charged with threatening president Joe Biden.

A federal criminal complaint against David Kyle Reeves, 27, was unsealed in federal court on Thursday, US attorney for the Western District of North Carolina Andrew Murray said.

The charge of making a threat against a US president carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, and a $250,000 fine.

Reeves, who was arrested last week, contacted the White House switchboard via telephone multiple times and made threats against Biden and others, according to allegations in the affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint.

Following a court hearing on Thursday, US magistrate judge David Keesler ordered that Reeves remain in custody, the department of justice said.

The development comes as the Seante has spent two days watching dramatic video footage of Trump supporters rampaging though the US Capitol, seeking out lawmakers.

Senators who amplified Trump's lies now get a say in his fate

A desk in the US Senate was notably empty for chunks of Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial on Wednesday.

Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, was instead lounging in the upstairs public gallery with a pile of documents. He explained to CNN: “I’m sitting up there A, because it’s a little less claustrophobic than on the floor, but B, I’ve also got a straight shot,” – a reference to his seating location that also conjured an unfortunate image.

But some critics would suggest that Hawley’s rightful place is in the dock, along with his colleague Ted Cruz of Texas and others who unabashedly endorsed Trump’s assault on democracy.

This week’s trial necessarily has a narrow focus on the ex-president but that means little scrutiny of Hawley, who was photographed saluting Trump supporters with a raised fist hours before the insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January.

The Kansas City Star newspaper in his home state wrote in an editorial: “No one other than President Donald Trump himself is more responsible for Wednesday’s coup attempt at the US Capitol than one Joshua David Hawley, the 41-year-old junior senator from Missouri, who put out a fundraising appeal while the siege was under way.”

Undeterred by the deadly violence, Hawley and Cruz were prominent among eight senators and 139 representatives who objected to certifying Joe Biden’s electoral college win. Both faced calls to resign. Yet now they get a say in whether Trump should be held accountable for his actions.

Hillary Clinton, a former secretary of state and first lady, tweeted on Thursday: “If Senate Republicans fail to convict Donald Trump, it won’t be because the facts were with him or his lawyers mounted a competent defense. It will be because the jury includes his co-conspirators.”

Read more of David Smith’s report here: ‘Accomplice’ senators who amplified Trump’s lies now get a say in his fate

House impeachment managers yesterday warned that more political violence could occur if Trump is not held accountable. Representative Diana DeGette argued the vote to impeach would make sure an attack like the 6 January Capitol riot would never happen again.

The managers rested their case on the third day of the trial after presenting arguments for convicting Donald Trump. They have stressed that by taking no action, the Senate will set a precedent that it is ok for an outgoing president to try and overthrow their election defeat with mob violence.

Welcome to our live coverage of US politics and the ongoing impeachment trial of former president Donald Trump. The Senate will reconvene at noon EST today – 1700 GMT – when his lawyers will begin to present their defense.

  • That defense may not last very long. Trump’s lawyers are pretty certain they have enough Republican jurors on their side to secure an early acquittal, and may not use all of their 16 allotted hours.
  • Yesterday Democrats rested their case that the commander-in-chief committed ‘incitement of insurrection’ with a warning that Trump remains a threat.
  • President Joe Biden has kept clear of commenting on the trial as it goes on, but said yesterday “my guess is some minds may be changed” based on the presentation by the House impeachment managers.
  • There were 105,353 new coronavirus cases in the US yesterday, and 3,877 further deaths.
  • Emergency crews in Richmond, California, are rushing to clean up an estimated 600 gallons of oil that spilled from a Chevron refinery into the San Francisco Bay.
  • Senior US lawmakers have called on the UK to live up to its “moral responsibility” and help end both countries “complicity” in Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen.
  • Today Biden and vice president Kamala Harris will meet with a bipartisan group of governors and mayors at 11.15am to discuss “the vital need to pass the American Rescue Plan”. Biden and Harris will also lunch together, and receive an Ovel office economic briefing from treasury secretary Janet Yellen.
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