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US Monthly Headline News January 2022
Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large

(CNN) Congress has been talking about reforming the 1887 Electoral Count Act for a while now. Donald Trump may have (unwittingly) given elected officials the boost they needed to get something done. "If the Vice President (Mike Pence) had 'absolutely no right' to change the Presidential Election results in the Senate, despite fraud and many other irregularities, how come the Democrats and RINO Republicans, like Wacky Susan Collins, are desperately trying to pass legislation that will not allow the Vice President to change the results of the election," Trump asked via a statement from his Save America PAC on Sunday night. "Actually, what they are saying, is that Mike Pence did have the right to change the outcome, and they now want to take that right away. Unfortunately, he didn't exercise that power, he could have overturned the Election!" Whoa boy. At issue here is what role the vice president actually is supposed to play in the counting of the Electoral College votes from the states -- and whether the current language of the law leaves too much to interpretation. more...
By Chandelis Duster, CNN

(CNN) Texas Sen. Ted Cruz called President Joe Biden's commitment to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court "offensive" and said that by doing so the President is telling other Americans "you are ineligible." "The fact that he's willing to make a promise at the outset, that it must be a Black woman, I gotta say that's offensive. You know, you know Black women are what, 6% of the US population? He's saying to 94% of Americans, 'I don't give a damn about you, you are ineligible'," Cruz said on an episode of his podcast "Verdict with Ted Cruz" that was released on Sunday. In 2019, Black women represented 7% of the US population, according to the US Census Bureau. The Republican continued, "And he's also saying -- it's actually an insult to Black women. If he came and said, 'I'm gonna put the best jurist on the court and he looked at a number of people and he ended up nominating a Black woman, he could credibly say, 'OK I'm nominating the person who's most qualified.' He's not even pretending to say that he he's saying, 'If you're a White guy, tough luck. If you're a White woman, tough luck. You don't qualify.'" more...
Trump wants to pardon the insurrectionists who sacked the capitol.

CBS News

Conroe, Texas — Former President Donald Trump is dangling the prospect of pardons for supporters who participated in the deadly January 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol if he returns to the White House. "If I run and if I win, we will treat those people from January 6th fairly," Trump said Saturday night during a rally in Conroe, Texas. "And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons because they are being treated so unfairly." The offer represents an attempt by Trump to further minimize the most significant attack on the seat of government since the War of 1812. Participants smashed through windows, assaulted police officers and sent lawmakers and congressional staff fleeing for their lives while trying to halt the peaceful transition of power and the certification of President Biden's victory. more...
Taylor Hatmaker

Spotify’s Joe Rogan headache is about to get a lot worse. Earlier this week, musician Neil Young announced that he would pull his music from the streaming service to protest Spotify’s relationship with Joe Rogan, who the company brought under its wing in an exclusive $100 million deal two years ago. In a post to her website on Friday, Joni Mitchell announced that she would “stand with Neil Young” and remove her catalogue from the streaming platform. “I’ve decided to remove all my music from Spotify. Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives,” Mitchell wrote. “I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue.” more...

CNN's Jim Acosta calls out Fox host Tucker Carlson for his pro-Russia remarks and how those, among other misinforming comments, are putting the US democracy in peril. video...
Meaghan Ellis, AlterNet

Former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson offered a damning assessment of the network as she explained just how bad its spread of conspiracy theories and misinformation has become. During an appearance on the CNN segment, "Democracy in Peril," Carlson discussed many aspects of Fox News' critical role in the spread of misinformation and falsehoods. Since former President Donald Trump took office, conspiracy theories have been on the rise and Fox News has become a driving force for it. Conservative primetime news anchor Tucker Carlson has been at the center of misinformation and the power of his opinion has begun to influence Republican members of Congress. “This is the result of fake news,” Carlson said. “You know, we're seeing not only the fallout from fake news during the Trump era, but what happened with the insurrection on January 6th. Now it's moving into other areas. Not just news, now it’s hitting science with vaccines, and now it’s into Cold War politics.” more...
Axios - Jonathan Swan, Andrew Solender

Republicans running in high-profile primary races aren't racing to defend Ukraine against a possible Russian invasion. They're settling on a different line of attack: Blame Biden, not Putin.

What's happening: Leery of the base, they are avoiding — and in some cases, rejecting — the tough-on-Russia rhetoric that once defined the Republican Party. GOP operatives working in 2022 primary races tell Axios they worry they'll alienate the base if they push to commit American resources to Ukraine or deploy U.S. troops to eastern Europe.

Why it matters: Any assistance President Biden provides to Ukraine could grow instantly into an ideological war back home. more...
‘Siding with Joe Rogan over Neil Young has to be history’s greatest L,’ one fan tweeted
Roisin O'Connor

Furious Neil Young fans are backing the singer and pledging to cancel their Spotify subscriptions after the streaming service refused to back down over its Joe Rogan podcast. The 76-year-old’s music has been removed from Spotify after he protested against the spread of misinformation about coronavirus on The Joe Rogan Experience, which is one of the platform’s most popular shows. more...
NBC News

Michael Avenatti, the attorney who represented adult film actress Stormy Daniels, is now facing his own criminal trial. NBC News’ Tom Winter reports on how Avenatti will be representing himself during the wire fraud trial with former client Daniels. video...
by Jake Offenhartz

Sarah Palin is not letting COVID-19 stop her from enjoying New York City’s culinary offerings. The former Alaska governor returned to Elio's restaurant Wednesday night and dined outdoors just days after it was revealed she tested positive for COVID-19. Palin, who has touted the fact that she is not vaccinated, was seen dining inside the Upper East Side Italian restaurant on Saturday, before her diagnosis. The city requires proof of vaccination to eat indoors. And WNYC/Gothamist confirmed the former vice presidential candidate dined al fresco Tuesday night at Campagnola, another Italian restaurant in the area. more...
By PAUL WISEMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy grew last year at the fastest pace since Ronald Reagan’s presidency, bouncing back with resilience from 2020′s brief but devastating coronavirus recession. The nation’s gross domestic product — its total output of goods and services — expanded 5.7% in 2021. It was the strongest calendar-year growth since a 7.2% surge in 1984 after a previous recession. The economy ended the year by growing at an unexpectedly brisk 6.9% annual pace from October through December as businesses replenished their inventories, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. more...
Since last summer, the conservative campaign against vaccination has claimed thousands of lives for no ethically justifiable purpose.
By Kurt Andersen

In the early phases of the pandemic, as the coronavirus spread in the United States and doctors and pharmacists and supermarket clerks continued to work and risk infection, some commentators made reference—metaphorical reference, fast and loose and over the top—to ritual human sacrifice. The immediate panicky focus on resuming business as usual in order to keep the stock market from crashing was the equivalent of “those who offered human sacrifices to Moloch,” according to the writer Kitanya Harrison. That first summer, as Republicans settled into their anti-testing, anti-lockdown, anti-mask, nothing-to-worry-about orthodoxy, Representative Jamie Raskin, a Democrat, said it was “like a policy of mass human sacrifice.” The anthropology professor Shan-Estelle Brown and the researcher Zoe Pearson wrote that people who continued to do their jobs outside their homes were essentially victims of “involuntary human sacrifice, made to look voluntary.” Meanwhile, people on the right likewise compared the inconvenience of closing down public places to ritual sacrifice. more...
By Christina Ruffini, Nicole Sganga

With more than 100,000 Russian troops poised at the Ukrainian border, the Department of Homeland Security is warning that Russia could conduct a cyberattack against the United States if it feels threatened by further actions the U.S. takes in response to a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to a DHS Intelligence and Analysis bulletin sent to law enforcement partners nationwide, the U.S. government assesses that Russia would consider a cyberattack if "a US or NATO response to a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine threatened its long-term national security." more...
The city's mayor, Sam Liccardo, said a new fee for gun owners would go toward supporting “evidence-based initiatives to reduce gun violence and gun harm.”
By Chantal Da Silva

The California city of San Jose is set to become the first in the United States to enforce an ordinance requiring most gun owners to pay a fee and carry liability insurance. In a statement on Tuesday night, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said the city's council had voted in favor of both measures, which are aimed at reducing the risk of gun harm and relieving taxpayers of the financial cost of gun violence. The council overwhelmingly approved the measures despite opposition from gun owners who said it would violate their Second Amendment rights and promised to sue. The ordinance still needs approval at a final reading next month before it can take effect in the Silicon Valley city in August. more...
NPR's Washington Desk

The Superior Court of Fulton County in Georgia has granted a request by the local district attorney to impanel a special grand jury for the DA's investigation into former President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election in the state. Last week, Fulton DA Fani Willis requested the special grand jury, which has subpoena power and the authority to obtain documents. Willis said several witnesses or potential witnesses — including Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — have refused to cooperate with the probe absent a subpoena. A special grand jury is also devoted to just one case. In its response Monday, the court said the special grand jury would begin on May 2 and continue for up to 12 months. Willis is investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the election, including the infamous call to Raffensperger to "find" the needed votes. more...
Critics of the Republican Senate Minority Leader accused him of "saying the quiet part loud," after remarks in Dan MacGuill

In January 2022, online observers, principally left-leaning or those critical of the Republican party, seized upon what appeared to be a racially offensive remark made, in passing, by U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. For example, on Jan. 19, journalist Pablo Manríquez tweeted out an excerpt of his question-and-answer exchange with McConnell at a news conference earlier that evening: Asked [McConnell] about concerns voters of color have about voting rights. “The concern is misplaced,” said McConnell, “because if you look at the statistics, African-American voters are voting in just as high a percentage as Americans.” more...
The worsening trend is another hurdle in the nation's supply chain crisis as the ports in LA and Long Beach attempt to rebound after a backlog caused largely by COVID-19.
USA Today

LOS ANGELES – Blue surgical masks and cotton balls. Car parts, pieces of tools and dozens of new toner cartridges for laser jet printers. Boxes from Macys, Bath and Body Works and Amazon – all empty with postmarks to addresses across the county. The railroad tracks in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Lincoln Heights look as though a twister swept through, with thousands of boxes, bags and trash littering the rails for blocks. For months, residents in the area say they've watched the chaos unfold at all hours. more...
Matthew Chapman

On Friday's edition of CNN's "The Situation Room," chief political analyst Gloria Borger and chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin discussed the biggest legal liabilities to former President Donald Trump. "What do you make of this draft executive order instructing the Defense Secretary to actually go out and seize voting machines?" asked anchor Wolf Blitzer. "Well, it is more evidence about what the state of mind was inside that White House. It is more evidence pointing to the fact that people were interested in promoting a coup," said Borger. "When you look at what happened this week, Wolf, take a look at the committee. Winning that really important case in the Supreme Court. Getting the 700 packages of documents. I'm told there's possibly more to come from archives. This is a committee trying to reconstruct what happened the day before January 6, for those 187 minutes on January 6 before Donald Trump acted and the aftermath of January 6." more...
Lauren Frias

Former President Donald Trump campaign officials, with Rudy Giuliani at the helm, coordinated the scheme to put forward illegitimate pro-Trump electors in December 2020, CNN and The Washington Post reported Thursday. The report further reveals the lengths the Trump campaign went to overturn President Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election. In March 2021, American Oversight, a DC-based watchdog group, obtained the seven phony certificates of pro-Trump electors in seven battleground states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — in a failed attempt to falsify that Trump won the majority of votes in the state. more...
Clea Skopeliti

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell has provoked anger after he appeared to imply that African Americans were not Americans in remarks about Black voters. Speaking to reporters after Republicans once again blocked the Democrats’ voting rights legislation, McConnell said: “The concern is misplaced, because if you look at the statistics, African American voters are voting in just as high a percentage as Americans.” Studies suggest that voting restrictions disproportionately obstruct people of colour. Several Democrats called out the comments, which quickly went viral online, with Democratic Illinois congressman Bobby Rush tweeting: “African Americans ARE Americans. #MitchPlease.” Meanwhile, Malcolm Kenyatta, a Democratic Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, described McConnell’s remarks as a “dogwhistle”. more...
GOP officials in five states illegitimately claimed to be qualified to declare Donald Trump the winner in 2020. And Trump allies were openly involved.
By KYLE CHENEY and NICHOLAS WU

As Capitol attack investigators dig into efforts by state-level Republicans to send Congress “alternative” slates of 2020 presidential electors, they're zeroing in on the involvement of Donald Trump's White House and campaign operations. As presidential electors gathered in December 2020 to affirm Joe Biden’s victory, the Republicans who would have been Trump’s electors in several states that Biden won gathered anyway to cast unofficial votes. In five of those states — Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan and Georgia — those electors then signed certificates claiming they were “duly elected and qualified” to represent their states. more...
The ecological impact of so much freshwater along the South Georgia island coast remains unknown.
By George Dvorsky

Iceberg A-68a—the sixth largest in recorded history—released a hideous amount of freshwater near an ecologically sensitive island, according to new research chronicling the berg’s life. Iceberg A-68a disintegrated in early 2021, but not before captivating the world with its eventful three-and-a-half year life. In a new paper published in Remote Sensing of Environment, researchers with the British Antarctic Survey and the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling chronicle the ‘berg’s life using satellites. more...
By Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON, Jan 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected former President Donald Trump's request to block the release of White House records sought by the Democratic-led congressional panel investigating last year's deadly attack on the Capitol by a mob of his supporters. The decision means the documents, held by a federal agency that stores government and historical records, can be disclosed even as litigation over the matter continues in lower courts. Trump's request to the justices came after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Dec. 9 ruled that the businessman-turned-politician had no basis to challenge President Joe Biden's decision to allow the records to be handed over to the House of Representatives select committee. more...
By Jack Turman, Melissa Quinn

Senate Republicans blocked Democrats from moving forward on voting rights legislation, and Democrats failed to get 50 votes to change the Senate rules to move forward with the legislation with a simple majority. The dramatic night started with the Senate first voting on whether to end debate on the voting rights legislation, a move that failed to get the 60 votes needed to move the bill forward. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer then brought up a vote on a rules change to move the legislation forward with a one-time exemption, which was fiercely opposed by Republicans and two members of his own party, Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. Democrats' frustration with Manchin and Sinema was apparent, with Senator Bernie Sanders saying after the vote that Manchin and Sinema have "forced us to go through five months of discussions which have gotten absolutely nowhere." more...
Cindy Carey

While majority of the United States residents are fighting racism in every type and form, it’s getting pretty complicated when police officers or public figures end up being involved in racial type of situations and we all remember very well what had happened with the George Floyd incident nearly two years ago. Several law enforcement agencies are being sued by a Black man who was wrongfully arrested and spent a total of six days in prison after he was arrested on warrant for a White man, who had the same name and ‘similar’ body description with the victim in the case. more...
By Kara Scannell, CNN

(CNN) New York Attorney General Letitia James' office says it needs the testimony of former President Donald Trump and two of his adult children to determine their knowledge of what investigators say they have identified as numerous "misleading statements and omissions" in tax submissions and financial statements used to obtain loans. In a court filing late Tuesday, investigators stated the office "intends to make a final determination about who is responsible for those misstatements and omissions," adding that "OAG requires the testimony and evidence sought herein to determine which Trump Organization employees and affiliates — and which other entities and individuals — may have assisted the Trump Organization and Mr. Trump in making, or may have relevant knowledge about, the misstatements and omissions at issue." They write that "witnesses closest to the top of the Trump Organization have asserted their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. Certain others have professed faulty memories or asserted that they were following instruction from more senior employees." more...
Matthew Chapman

According to newly filed court documents, Eric Trump sat for an interview with New York State investigators who are probing the Trump family businesses for tax violations and other financial crimes — but he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination over 500 times during the six-hour span of the interview. The news of Eric Trump's repeated silence prompted immediate mockery from commenters on social media — some of whom referred to former President Donald Trump's longstanding assertion that only people who have some sort of criminal behavior to hide ever assert their constitutional rights in criminal investigations. more...
The requirements make "workplaces safer for workers as well as for customers."
By Oren Oppenheim

The Supreme Court's decision to block the Biden administration's vaccine-or-test requirement for large private businesses is a "setback for public health," United States Surgeon General Vivek Murthy told "This Week" co-anchor Martha Raddatz on Sunday. "Well, the news about the workplace requirement being blocked was very disappointing, Martha. It was a setback for public health. Because what these requirements ultimately are helpful for is not just protecting the community at large but making our workplaces safer for workers as well as for customers," Murthy said. more...
Harvard researcher says developing a vaccine or treatment for Epstein-Barr infection ‘could ultimately prevent or cure MS’
By AFP

WASHINGTON — Multiple sclerosis, a neurodegenerative disease that has no cure and affects some 2.8 million people in the world, is largely driven by infection with the Epstein-Barr virus, according to a new paper by Harvard University researchers. Their findings, published in the journal Science this week, appear to settle a long-standing but hard to prove hypothesis, and were welcomed by outside experts who said attention should now turn to preventions and cures. “This is the first study providing compelling evidence of causality,” said Alberto Ascherio, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and senior author of the study, in a statement. more...
The satellite TV provider notified One America News Network that it would not be renewing its distribution agreement.
By Jody Serrano

Former president Donald Trump, known for his gluttonous diet of TV news, is going to have trouble finding one of his favorite far-right channels, One America News Network, in a few months. Satellite TV provider DirecTV, OAN’s largest distributor, said it was dumping the news network on Friday, Bloomberg reported. DirecTV’s decision is a huge blow to OAN, which is not available on any other major U.S. TV provider, but it’s not exactly a shock. OAN basically sued its way onto DirecTV in 2017 and has come under increased scrutiny since then for spewing lies, promoting conspiracy theories, and fomenting violence. more...
Jacob Pramuk

A lawyer for Tesla asked a law firm to fire one its attorneys or risk losing its work for the electric automaker led by Elon Musk, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. The lawyer that Tesla wanted Cooley LLP to fire previously worked at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The attorney interviewed Musk in the agency’s probe into the Tesla CEO’s 2018 claim that he obtained funding to take Tesla private, according to the publication. The investigation led to a settlement under which Musk agreed to pay a $20 million fine and step down as Tesla chairman. Tesla’s lawyer late last year asked Cooley to fire the attorney who worked on the SEC investigation, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The firm did not remove the associate. more...
Hansi Lo Wang

Former President Donald Trump's administration alarmed career civil servants at the Census Bureau by not only ending the 2020 national head count early, but also pressuring them to alter plans for protecting people's privacy and producing accurate data, a newly released email shows. Trump's political appointees at the Commerce Department, which oversees the bureau, demonstrated an "unusually" high level of "engagement in technical matters, which is unprecedented relative to the previous censuses," according to a September 2020 email that Ron Jarmin — the bureau's deputy director — sent to two other top civil servants. more...
By Katelyn Polantz, Hannah Rabinowitz, Holmes Lybrand, and Tierney Sneed, CNN

(CNN) The Justice Department has charged 11 defendants with seditious conspiracy related to the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, including the leader of the Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes. The new indictment, handed down by a grand jury on Wednesday and made public Thursday, alleges that Rhodes and his co-conspirators engaged in a conspiracy to "oppose the lawful transfer of presidential power by force, by preventing, hindering, or delaying by force execution of laws governing the transfer of power." The latest court filings revealed that Oath Keeper Thomas Caldwell, who was arrested in January, claimed to take a reconnaissance trip to Washington, DC, before January 6. The indictment also surfaces previously unknown communications Rhodes is alleged to have sent that prosecutors say encouraged the use of force to oppose the lawful transfer of power. more...
By Laura Studley, Laura Dolan and Mallika Kallingal, CNN

(CNN)The chief prosecutor for the city of Baltimore has been indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts of perjury and two counts of making false statements on loan applications for the purchase of two vacation homes in Florida, according to court documents filed Thursday. State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby, who gained national attention in 2015 for charging officers in the in-custody death of Freddie Gray, now herself faces perjury charges over documents she submitted to apply for loans against her retirement plan in 2020, according to the indictment. In doing so, Mosby, whose term in office ends this year, allegedly used a withdrawal option created under the CARES Act, passed to help people who were financially impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. more...
By Ali Zaslav and Lauren Fox, CNN

(CNN) Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona reiterated from the Senate floor Thursday that she is not backing off her position to uphold the filibuster, less than an hour before President Joe Biden arrived on Capitol Hill to pitch Democrats on eradicating it. She said removing the filibuster would not guarantee "that we prevent demagogues from being elected" and that getting rid of it would merely be treating the "symptom" of partisanship and not the underlying problem. Sinema said while she continues to strongly back Democrats' elections legislation she will not support "separate actions that worsen the underlying disease of division infecting our country ... There's no need for me to restate my long-standing support for the 60-vote threshold to pass legislation." more...
From CNN's Ariane de Vogue

The Supreme Court blocked President Biden’s vaccine or testing requirement aimed at large businesses, but it allowed a vaccine mandate for certain health care workers to go into effect nationwide. On Friday, the court heard arguments for almost four hours as the number of infections is soaring and 40 million adults in the US are still declining to get vaccinated. The three liberal justices on the court expressed clear approval for the administration's rules in both areas. more...
By Jonathan Stempel and Chris Prentice

Jan 13 (Reuters) - Navient Corp, one of the largest U.S. student loan companies, has reached a $1.85 billion settlement with most U.S. states to resolve accusations it made predatory student loans and steered struggling borrowers into costly repayment plans. The accord with 38 U.S. states and Washington, D.C. requires Navient to cancel $1.7 billion of student debt, and resolves probes and lawsuits into practices dating back to 2009, when the company was known as Sallie Mae. In agreeing to settle, Navient denied breaking any laws or causing harm to borrowers, saying the matter was "based on unfounded claims." The states accused Wilmington, Delaware-based Navient of steering borrowers into high-cost loans it knew they might have trouble repaying. more...
Alex Woodward

White House press secretary Jen Psaki dismissed Republican criticism of President Joe Biden’s remarks condemning the GOP’s efforts to restrict ballot access and change the rules of election administration. “I know there’s been a lot of claim of the ‘offensive’ nature of the speech yesterday, which is hilarious on many levels given how many people sat silently over the past four years for the former president,” Ms Psaki told reporters on 12 January, referring to Donald Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric. “What is far more offensive is the effort to suppress people’s basic right to exercise who they want to support and who they want to elect. That’s not a partisan thing,” she said. more...
Graeme Massie, Andrew Naughtie, John Bowden, Shweta Sharma, Matt Mathers

The House select committee investigating the 6 January insurrection has requested “voluntary cooperation” from House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy to provide information about his conversations with former president Donald Trump during the worst attack on the Capitol since 1814. However, McCarthy has refused to cooperate with the committee, citing the “illegitimate” investigation by the panel, in a statement hours after the request. Liz Cheney, one of the panel’s only two Republicans, said her party’s House leader is attempting to “cover up” what happened on 6 January 2021 and that the committee would evaluate other options for obtaining his testimony. “I wish that he were a brave and honorable man,” she told CNN. more...
By Kenneth Garger

An Illinois judge is facing heat for reversing an 18-year-old man’s sexual assault conviction at the teen’s sentencing last week — saying the 148 days he spent in jail since his arrest was enough, reports said. Adams County Judge Robert Adrian issued the stunning reversal last Monday after finding Drew Clinton guilty of one count of criminal sexual assault at an October bench trial, the Herald-Whig reported. “Mr. Clinton has served almost five months in the county jail, 148 days,” Adrian said, according to a court transcript obtained by the newspaper. “For what happened in this case, that is plenty of punishment. That would be a just sentence.” Clinton was convicted of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl at a graduation party last May. more...
Sky Palma

In a heated exchange during a Senate hearing this Tuesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci fired back at GOP Sen. Rand Paul's accusations that he used his alleged media connections to smear scientists who disagreed with his approach to tackling the covid pandemic. During the exchange, Fauci held up a screenshot of a "Fire Fauci" fundraising link Paul uses to solicit donations -- a link Fauci said shows that Paul is using the pandemic for political purposes. more...
John Wright

House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy's testimony is key to the Capitol riot probe because he has "direct evidence" about former president Donald Trump's role in the attack, according to MSNBC analyst Tim Miller. On Wednesday, the House select committee investigating the insurrection sent a letter to McCarthy requesting his voluntary testimony. Moments later, Miller explained on MSNBC that while many people believe Trump was at least partly responsible for the insurrection, McCarthy "is different because he has direct evidence that Donald Trump knew he was responsible." Miller pointed to McCarthy's phone call to Trump when lawmakers were hunkered down in the Capitol during the attack. According to Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA), McCarthy pleaded with Trump to call off his supporters. more...
By Gino Spocchia

Senator Rand Paul has been seen in a resurfaced video admitting to spreading misinformation and says “misinformation works”. The Kentucky senator, who has been accused of issuing an “unbalanced” and “delusional” attack on Dr Anthony Fauci , had on Tuesday been accused of “distorting” information about Covid-19 and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and of issuing “misinformation”. A video shared to Twitter by Federation of American scientists epidemiologist Dr Eric Feigl-Ding appeared to show Mr Paul in 2013 admitting to telling medical students at the University of Louisville, “misinformation works”, as The Atlantic reported at the time. “We spread the rumor that we knew what was on the test and it was definitely going to be all about the liver,” said the senator of his medical studies. “We tried to trick all of our competing students into over-studying for the liver and not studying the kidney and very other organ.” more...
By Ryan Bort

Dr. Anthony Fauci has had enough of “misinformed” Republicans. The nation’s top infectious disease expert was caught on a hot mic calling Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) a “moron” during a Senate hearing on Tuesday. “Jesus Christ,” Fauci added. The comments came after a heated exchanged in which Marshall blasted Fauci for concealing his financial disclosure, which is supposed to be public. The only issue, as Fauci pointed out, is that his financial disclosure is public. “You are totally incorrect,” said a flabbergasted Fauci. more...
By Suzanne Malveaux and Chandelis Duster, CNN

Atlanta (CNN) Civil rights leaders were pleased with President Joe Biden's call on Tuesday to change Senate filibuster rules to pass voting rights legislation, but insist they will not be satisfied until a bill is passed. "We are tired of (Biden) being quiet," Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, told CNN at Martin Luther King Jr.'s birth home in Atlanta, where he and others at the forefront of the voting rights fight gathered following the President's speech. Civil rights leaders have urged Biden to take action on two voting rights bills that have stalled in the Senate, while Republican-led states have moved to enact restrictive voting laws that have raised the stakes. But Democrats don't have the votes to pass either bill without changing the filibuster, which requires 60 votes to end debate on legislation. And, as of now, they don't have the votes in their own party to change those rules to push through voting overhauls. more...
David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement

George Conway, the well-known legal expert who successfully argued and won a unanimous verdict at the Supreme Court, is tossing cold water on Sean Hannity‘s attorney’s claim that the January 6 Committee requesting his voluntary cooperation “would raise serious constitutional issues, including First Amendment concerns regarding freedom of the press.” Sean Hannity is the Fox News host who at times has claimed he is a journalist while often saying he is not. Fox News itself has refused to call him a journalist when pressed. On Tuesday the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack made public a letter it sent him, detailing his stunning texts to then-Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. The Committee wrote: “At this time, we are specifically focused on a series of your communications with President Trump, White House staff and President Trump’s legal team between December 31, 2020, and January 20, 2021.” Hannity has no right to complain about his First Amendment freedoms being violated. more...
His remarks appeared partly aimed at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, who has so far refused to directly answer questions about whether he has had a booster shot.
By Rebecca Shabad and Marc Caputo

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized politicians who refuse to say whether they’ve received a Covid booster shot. In an interview with far-right cable channel One America News, Trump said he received the booster and has seen politicians get asked in interviews whether they’ve also gotten a third shot. “They don’t want to say it because they’re gutless,” Trump said. “You gotta say it, whether you had it or not. Say it. But the fact is that I think the vaccines saved tens of millions throughout the world. I’ve had absolutely no side effects.” Trump said that the Covid vaccine largely prevents people from being hospitalized or dying from the disease. “If they get it, they’re not going to hospitals for the most part and dying,” Trump said. “Before it was a horror, and now they’re not.” more...
John Wright

Prosecutors in Georgia likely informed Donald Trump's lawyers during a meeting last month that the former president is about to be indicted, according to former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner. On Monday, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow broke the news that Trump's lawyers met with Georgia prosecutors who are investigating him for election meddling, based at least partly on phone calls he made to the governor and secretary of state demanding that they overturn President Joe Biden's victory. Maddow linked the meeting to an unhinged statement Trump issued on Dec. 18, alleging among other things that "all Democrats do is put people in jail." more...
NPR’s Steve Inskeep repeatedly told the former president that his election claims were not true before Trump lost his cool.
Jamie Ross News Correspondent

Donald Trump abruptly ended an interview with NPR on Tuesday after he was repeatedly called out on his baseless claims of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election. A video of the interview, published Wednesday morning, shows Trump becoming increasingly irritated as NPR’s Steve Inskeep asks him why he’s still pushing debunked conspiracy theories about his 2020 defeat. After Inskeep told the ex-president that his fraud claims have repeatedly been proven false, the reporter asked Trump if he’ll refuse to endorse any Republican candidates who dispute his lies about the 2020 election. Then, Trump ended the call. more...
Facing a lawsuit for his Jan. 6 attack speech, Rep. Mo Brooks has put himself in a bind of his own creation: He potentially violated his oath—or misused congressional resources.
Jose Pagliery Political Investigations Reporter

Someone may need to tell Rep. Mo Brooks to stop talking. The Republican congressman from Alabama keeps defending himself in court against accusations that he helped incite the Jan. 6, 2021 riot—and it’s not helping the former prosecutor in the slightest. The particular defense Brooks has chosen seems aimed at having Justice Department lawyers mount a legal defense for him. He is arguing that his incendiary speech on Jan. 6 was part of his official duties as a congressman, a crusade he continued in federal court on Monday. If that is the case, Brooks may have opened himself up to potential removal from office. And if it’s not the case—as prosecutors are trying to prove—then Brooks has handed prosecutors all the ammunition they’d need to charge him with misusing congressional resources. more...
By Jack Turman, Adam Brewster

Republicans on Tuesday issued a stark warning to President Joe Biden and Senate Democrats: change the Senate rules at your peril. Mr. Biden on Tuesday endorsed changes to the Senate filibuster, the rule that requires 60 votes to advance legislation, so that just a simple majority of votes would be needed to pass two pieces of voting rights legislation that have been a top priority for national Democrats. "To protect our democracy, I support changing the Senate rules whichever way they need to be changed to prevent a minority of senators from blocking actions on voting rights," Mr. Biden said. more...
Investigation reveals that Louis Lozano and Eric Mitchell heard the call but ignored it in favor of pursuing a nearby Snorlax
Adam Gabbatt

Two Los Angeles police officers were fired for ignoring a robbery call so they could attempt to catch a character in a game of Pokémon Go, according to court documents. Louis Lozano and Eric Mitchell were asked to respond to a robbery in progress with “multiple suspects” at a Macy’s in south-west LA, but failed to respond to radio calls. An investigation revealed that Lozano and Mitchell heard the call but chose to ignore it in favor of pursuing a nearby Snorlax, a Pokémon character. A video system in the pair’s car revealed that Mitchell managed to capture the Snorlax before the pair drove to a location where the Togetic character had been spotted. On arrival, both Lozano and Mitchell managed to capture the Togetic. more...
Axios

The Department of Justice is opening a new unit to investigate acts of domestic terrorism, a top national security official said during a Senate committee hearing on Tuesday.

Why it matters: The FBI and Justice Department warned repeatedly last year that the threat of and investigations into acts of domestic terrorism have increased since 2020. While there is no specific federal domestic terrorism statute, the federal government defines domestic terrorism as criminal acts dangerous to human life that appear to be intended to intimidate or coerce civilians or the policy of a government. It can also use other criminal charges when pursuing domestic terrorists. more...
Bob Brigham

Florida's autocratic shift under Gov. Ron DeSantis was blasted by a former prosecutor who served on the GOP governor's Judicial Nominating Commission. Ron Filipkowski noted on Twitter a blind quote by Florida-based Politico reporter Gary Fineout. "They are not going to embarrass Ron DeSantis. Ron DeSantis is essentially the speaker of the House, the president of the Senate and the chief justice of the Supreme Court right now," a Republican legislator said. Filipkowski noted, "there is a word for that." "FL no longer has a functioning, separation of powers, checks and balances, Republic. The elected representatives of the party in power are so intimidated by the bully in the Governor’s mansion that we are now essentially an autocracy," he wrote. more...
Why do Republicans continue to put Americans lives at risk?

By Devan Cole, CNN

Washington (CNN) Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson urged large businesses in the state not to comply with the Biden administration's Covid-19 vaccine mandate, saying employers should not follow the "oppressive" rule hours before the order is set to partially go into effect. "They should wait until they get the Supreme Court decision, and of course that's an individual business decision," Hutchinson, a Republican, told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union" Sunday when asked if large businesses should comply with the rule, which his state and others are challenging before the nation's highest court. "This mandate of (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration), the federal government, needs to be struck down and that's why we're fighting against it," he added. "I expect the Supreme Court hopefully to rule against the Biden administration on that oppressive vaccine mandate." more...
At least 57 individuals who played a role in the day’s events — including some who were arrested on charges related to the Capitol attack — are running for office in 2022.
By BRITTANY GIBSON

The Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol is remembered as one of the darkest and most shameful episodes in American history. But at least 57 individuals who played a role in that day’s events — either by attending the Save America rally that preceded the riots, gathering at the Capitol steps or breaching the Capitol itself — are now running for elected office. Rather than disqualifying them from public service, the events of Jan. 6 appear to have served as a political springboard for dozens of Republicans who will be on the ballot this year for federal, state and local offices. It’s difficult to state with precision just how many of those who participated in the rally on the Ellipse, marched to the Capitol or stormed the building will be on the ballot in 2022 — in many states, candidate filing deadlines are months away. more...
Associated Press in Las Vegas

The life of the former Senate majority leader Harry Reid was celebrated by two presidents and other Democratic leaders in Las Vegas on Saturday. Biden on Thursday offered himself as a defender of democracy in the ‘battle for the soul of America’. President Joe Biden, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, were scheduled to speak at a memorial for the longtime Senate leader, who died on 28 December at home in Henderson, Nevada, at 82 and of complications from pancreatic cancer. Barack Obama, who credits Reid for his rise to the White House, was scheduled to deliver the eulogy. more...
Ted Cruz accidentally told the truth about the Jan. 6 attack, and then ran to Fox News' Tucker Carlson to beg the right for forgiveness.
By Steve Benen

In "1984," George Orwell wrote a memorable paragraph about a character who succumbed to party pressure. "He became simply a mouth that uttered, a hand that signed, whatever was demanded of him," the book read. "His sole concern was to find out what they wanted him to confess, and then confess it quickly, before the bullying started anew." This came to overnight as Republican Sen. Ted Cruz debased himself for the most pitiful of reasons. Politico reported: more...
Cheryl Teh

Trump allies like Roger Stone, Lin Wood, and Seb Gorka are laying into Ted Cruz for the latter's comments. The Texas senator received harsh rebukes from the right after he was heard on the Senate floor calling the January 6 riot a "terrorist attack." Fox News host Tucker Carlson was one of the first to lash out at Cruz. Rep. Matt Gaetz followed, taunting the Texas lawmaker during a press conference on Thursday, saying that Cruz may "bend over" for the GOP establishment, but "they'll never love you." Cruz went on Carlson's show on Thursday night and walked back his description of the Capitol riot. Speaking to Carlson on the Fox star's show, Cruz repeatedly said that he made a "mistake" because of "sloppy and frankly dumb" phrasing. more...
CNN

CNN's Brianna Keilar rolls the tape on Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) after he appeared on Fox's "Tucker Carlson Tonight" to walk back comments he made on Wednesday calling the January 6 riot a "violent terrorist attack on the Capitol." video...
BY EWAN PALMER

Senator Ted Cruz is being condemned by conservatives for describing the Capitol riot as a violent terrorist attack on the eve of its one-year anniversary. The Texas Republican made the remarks on Wednesday at a Senate Rules Committee hearing about the apparent security failures that allowed a mob of Donald Trump supporters to storm the building on January 6, 2021. "We are approaching a solemn anniversary this week," Cruz said. "And it is an anniversary of a violent terrorist attack on the Capitol, where we saw the men and women of law enforcement demonstrate incredible courage, incredible bravery, risk their lives to defend the men and women who served in this Capitol. more...
Newsroom

Former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) were the only two Republicans on the House floor during a remembrance of the January 6th riot. CNN's Manu Raju reports. video...
CBS News

One year after a mob of rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an effort to overturn the 2020 election, officers are calling for accountability and recounting their trauma. Another three officers are suing former President Donald Trump related to the insurrection. CBS News senior investigative correspondent Catherine Herridge joins "CBSN AM" to discuss her interview with a veteran Capitol Police officer who was there and more. video...
Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large

(CNN) In the moments after President Joe Biden concluded his speech commemorating the one-year anniversary of the January 6 riot at the US Capitol, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham leapt at the chance to offer his own response. "What brazen politicization of January 6 by President Biden," tweeted Graham. "I wonder if the Taliban who now rule Afghanistan with al-Qaeda elements present, contrary to President Biden's beliefs, are allowing this speech to be carried?" Words fail. In case you forgot -- as Graham appears to -- what happened on January 6 was this: more...
He was the oldest living man to have won Best Actor
Jacob Stolworthy

Sidney Poitier has died, aged 94. The Hollywood star was known for films including Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, In the Heat of the Night and Lilies of the Field, for which he became the first Black and Bahamian man to win a Best Actor Oscar. The news was announced by the Bahamian Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell, prompting tributes from the world of entertainment. Bahamian-American star Poitier was automatically granted US citizenship after being unexpectedly born in Miami while his parents were visiting in February 1927. He grew up in the Bahamas but moved to America when he was 15, scoring his first lead film role just one year later in 1955’s Blackboard Jungle. more...
Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large

(CNN) "You can't love your country only when you win." That's President Joe Biden during a speech he gave Thursday morning to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the US Capitol riot. It's not only a memorable line -- it's likely to be the one that gets repeated the most today and in the days to come -- but also a hugely important one if we hope to fully come to grips with what happened last January 6 and everything that led to that moment. At the heart of the line is the idea of patriotism. Remember that Donald Trump ran for president in 2016 expressly on the idea of putting "America first." The idea that animated both his campaign and his four years in the White House was that the United States was exceptional in the world and that, for too long, American leaders had been afraid to loudly and proudly proclaim that fact, choosing instead to make America subservient to lesser countries around the world. "The future doesn't belong to globalists," Trump said in a 2019 foreign policy speech at the United Nations. "The future belongs to patriots." more...
Graeme Massie, Namita Singh

Donald Trump hesitated and initially refused to tweet the words “stay peaceful” when his supporters breached the Capitol building and attacked police officers on 6 January last year, it is claimed. A former aide of the president, who wished to remain anonymous, told CNN that Mr Trump was “very reluctant to put out anything when it [the Capitol riot] was unfolding.” The aide used to work in the White House’s West Wing, the broadcaster said, and was reportedly close to the messaging that was being put out during the riot. Meahile, Joe Biden gave his much-trailed speech marking the anniversary of the deadly riot at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 – a searing address in which he condemned Donald Trump for watching TV during the insurrection as his supporters attacked Congress. He also dismissed the idea that the insurrectionists were “patriots” as he urged Americans to protect democracy. more...
Odette Yousef

Even the vigils speak to our differences. As the nation reflects on the year since a violent mob attempted to stop the certification of election results, there will be gatherings for those who believe the attack was an attempted coup and who are alarmed by the passage of restrictive voting rules in several states. There will also be events for those who falsely maintain that former President Donald Trump won the 2020 election and who consider those arrested in connection to the riot "political prisoners." Whatever hopes Americans may have held that 2021 would be a year of healing across the political divide have turned out quite differently. Instead, surveys indicate rising alarm over a democracy in crisis, the birth of a mass movement sympathetic to insurrection and growing support for political violence. more...
"He can't accept he lost," the president said without mentioning his predecessor in a speech at the Capitol.
By Lauren Egan

WASHINGTON — In one of the most forceful speeches of his political career, President Joe Biden took sharp aim at former President Donald Trump on Thursday, accusing him of inciting the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol last year with a “web of lies” about the 2020 election because he could not accept his legitimate defeat. Speaking from Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol on the anniversary of that riot, Biden said the former president and his followers had "held a dagger at the throat of democracy."

"They didn't come here out of patriotism or principle. They came here in rage,” Biden said. He refuted the lies that Trump and other Republicans have spread about the 2020 election, bluntly criticizing his predecessor without ever mentioning his name. "We must be absolutely clear about what is true and what is a lie," Biden said. "A former president of the United States of America has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election. He's done so because he values power over principle, because he sees his own interest as more important than his country's interest and America's interest." more...
BY JASON LEMON

Aprominent Missouri newspaper criticized GOP Senator Josh Hawley for his actions on January 6, 2020—calling him a "pretend" revolutionary and referencing the expensive suit he was wearing that day. The Kansas City Star's editorial board published the op-ed on January 5, just ahead of the one-year anniversary of former President Donald Trump's supporters' attack on the U.S. Capitol. The newspaper blasted Hawley, a Missouri Republican, for raising his fist in support of pro-Trump rioters that day and for promoting Trump's baseless allegations about the 2020 election. "And that picture again: Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, raising his fist like a pretend 1960s revolutionary in a $7,000 suit, aiding and abetting the worst attack on American democracy in memory," the newspaper's editorial board wrote. more...
By DAVID BAUDER

NEW YORK (AP) — For years, Sean Hannity has skirted ethical boundaries with his role on a television network with “news” in its name. Yet it’s never been as stark as now, with the committee investigating last year’s Capitol insurrection seeking his testimony. The Jan. 6 select committee has revealed a series of texts where Hannity privately advised former President Donald Trump before, during and after the assault, and is seeking his insight about what happened in those days.

The popular Fox News Channel prime-time host hasn’t said what he will do, but he’s slammed the congressional probe as a partisan witch hunt. His lawyer has raised First Amendment concerns about the request. It’s not unheard of for journalists to offer advice to politicians — history records Ben Bradlee’s friendship with former President John F. Kennedy — but such actions raise questions about their independence and allegiance to the public interest, said Jane Kirtley, director of the Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law at the University of Minnesota. more...
Future variants could combine the most dangerous traits of older COVID lineages—to devastating effect.
David Axe

Even as daily new COVID cases set all-time records and hospitals fill up, epidemiologists have arrived at a perhaps surprising consensus. Yes, the latest Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus is bad. But it could have been a lot worse. Even as cases have surged, deaths haven’t—at least not to the same degree. Omicron is highly transmissible but generally not as severe as some older variants—“lineages” is the scientific term. We got lucky. But that luck might not hold. Many of the same epidemiologists who have breathed a sigh of relief over Omicron’s relatively low death rate are anticipating that the next lineage might be much worse. more...
“I went to at least a dozen superspreader events and people died at almost all of them.”
The Daily Beast

When Amanda Moore lost her job, she decided to go undercover in MAGA land, attending QAnon events and CPAC, hanging with neo-Nazis and “blood-and-soil fascists,” and palling around with Proud Boys at Harry's Bar in the lead-up to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. But what her new compatriots didn’t know was that she was often recording them, and the result is a chilling portrait “of what the right looks like from the inside.”

Moore joined Fever Dreams co-hosts Asawin Suebsaeng and Will Sommer to talk about the one-year anniversary of the Capitol attack and what she saw during her stint masquerading as a fellow traveler. Or perhaps not exactly masquerading, because wearing a mask at Stop the Steal rallies became quite dangerous for Moore. Eventually she had to ditch the face covering for her own protection as “the acceptance and escalation of violence between November [2020] and December” became more aggressive and raw—culminating in the storming of the Capitol, which “people [still] talk about it as though it was something that the right did, that the right should be proud of.” more...
For most Democrats, the biggest affront wasn’t even the violence by Donald Trump’s supporters. It was the votes more than 140 of their GOP colleagues took afterward.
By SARAH FERRIS

The violent attack on the Capitol cost lives, threatened the transition of presidential power and forever changed the way Congress does its work. One year later, we at POLITICO are looking back at those changes and how Washington is moving forward. Rep. Cheri Bustos still remembers her husband’s warning after she and her colleagues were trapped in the House chamber by violent rioters. “‘It is not going to get better out there,’” the Illinois Democrat recalled her county sheriff spouse telling her. The following year proved him right, Bustos added: “It’s only gotten worse.” Bustos is one of several retiring Democrats who told POLITICO that the insurrection, and the months of personal vitriol in the House that followed, propelled their decision not to seek reelection next November. more...
Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump are now respondents in the civil case.
By Aaron Katersky

Former President Trump’s eldest son and daughter have refused to comply with subpoenas issued by the New York State attorney general’s office as it conducts a civil investigation into the way the family real estate business valued its holdings. “A dispute has arisen between the OAG and the Individual Trump Parties regarding the Subpoenas,” a document filed Monday said. The document, filed jointly by New York Attorney General Letitia James and an attorney for the Trump Organization, said Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump will now be named as respondents in James’ ongoing inquiry, which parallels a criminal investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. more...
Washington Post releases survey showing ‘considerably higher’ number saying it is sometimes right to take up arms
Martin Pengelly

One in three Americans believe violence against the government is sometimes justified, according to a new Washington Post poll. The survey, with the University of Maryland, was released on New Year’s Day – five days short of a year since rioters attacked the US Capitol in an attempt to overturn Donald Trump’s election defeat by Joe Biden. According to the authors of The Steal, a new book on Republican attempts to fulfill Trump’s aim through legal action in key states, the rioters of 6 January 2021 “had no more chance of overthrowing the US government than hippies in 1967 had trying to levitate the Pentagon”. But it was still by far the most serious attack on the seat of federal government since the British burned Washington in 1814 and the Post poll comes amid a sea of warnings of growing domestic strife, even of a second civil war. more...
Joe Hernandez

Twitter has permanently suspended the personal account of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for "repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation policy." In an email to NPR, a spokesperson for the social media company said Twitter "had been clear that, per our strike system for this policy, we will permanently suspend accounts for repeated violations of the policy." On Saturday, Greene tweeted a thread about the public health measures imposed during the pandemic, criticizing many of the efforts health officials say were critical in preventing more deaths from the virus and slowing its spread in the U.S. The Georgia Republican's official government Twitter account is still active, the company confirmed. more...
At the time the episode aired, White set a record as the sketch show's oldest host
NBS New York

Fans mourning the loss of Betty White will get the opportunity to catch the actress back on TV Saturday night. The legendary comedian's episode of "Saturday Night Live" will re-air on NBC one day after news of her passing sent shockwaves through everyone who watched White on screen for decades. White hosted the show back in 2010 after a successful fan campaign on Facebook. She set a record that episode as the oldest person to host -- at the time she was 88. Jay-Z was the musical guest. The long-running sketch comedy show announced the tribute in a tweet Saturday afternoon, with the message "Rest in Peace, Betty White." more...
By Fatma Khaled

Retired Brigadier General Steven M. Anderson urged Donald Trump supporters to stop listening to baseless claims about 2020 presidential election fraud and suggested measures to avoid a potential insurrection in 2024. The former general spoke with CNN host Pamela Brown about solutions that would address the "extremism that has gone on within the military." He also warned against listening to conspiracists among many Republicans promoting baseless claims of election fraud, including MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. "We need to do what we can do now to identify those people [within the military], get them out of our ranks, and train the rest of the force on civics one on one about how our country is supposed to work, how elections work, stop listening to the pillow guy [Lindell] and start learning about our country and how it's actually supposed to run," Anderson said during his recent interview with CNN. more...
Lauren Hodges

"I was standing amid thousands of Trump supporters on the lawn rising up to the Washington Monument," says NPR's Tom Bowman. "Then Trump came on stage to raucous applause." Bowman was reporting from the "Save America" rally in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6. Up until the point when former President Trump began speaking, the rally held a festive air, almost like a football game, he said. "Some Trump supporters were singing YMCA but using the letters M-A-G-A." But things were different at the Capitol building, where I was standing with Hannah Allam, NPR's extremism reporter. The far-right group the Proud Boys had just shown up and were organizing a crowd to head for the rally. We had quietly embedded ourselves with them as they began to walk west on Pennsylvania Avenue. more...
The riot at the Capitol briefly looked like it had broken Trump's hold on the GOP. Instead, he has reaffirmed his dominion over the party.
By DAVID SIDERS

Donald Trump has already telegraphed the remarks he plans to give at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday, the anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. If he follows the script laid out in his announcement of the news conference, he will commit a whitewashing of the day, repeating the lie that the 2020 election was rigged and defending his part in fomenting the insurrection — all while a solemn prayer service is held at the Capitol, in a vivid split-screen moment. And, as Trump castigates Republicans not toeing his line, his event will also serve as a marker of Trump’s extraordinary dominion over the GOP. One year ago, many prominent Republicans predicted Trump’s behavior on and ahead of Jan. 6 would relegate him to the fringes of the right, shaming the GOP back into the mainstream. Instead, the opposite has happened. When Trump speaks, he will set the table for a midterm election year with him firmly at the Republican Party’s center. more...
By Christina Maxouris, CNN

(CNN) The US kicked off 2022 amid a massive Covid-19 case spike -- driven by the highly contagious Omicron variant -- that some experts warn will be different than any other time in the pandemic. "What we have to understand is that our health system is at a very different place than we were in previous surges," professor of emergency medicine Dr. Esther Choo told CNN on Saturday. "We have extremely high numbers of just lost health care workers, we've lost at least 20% of our health care workforce, probably more."  "This strain is so infectious," Choo added, "that I think all of us know many, many colleagues who are currently infected or have symptoms and are under quarantine." The high number of health care staff out with the virus will also have an impact on Americans' doctors appointments and could make for dangerous circumstances when people are hospitalized with Covid-19, Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of Baylor University's National School of Tropical Medicine, said Friday. "That's a different type of one-two punch: people going into the hospitals ... and all of the health care workers are out of the workforce," he told CNN. more...
The ground, typically moist from snow this time of year, was dry and flammable as a result of unusually warm temperatures and a lack of precipitation in recent months, experts said.
By Elizabeth Chuck

The rare December blaze that tore through Boulder County, Colorado, at frightening speed this week may not be that unusual in the future, wildfire experts are warning, as climate change sets the stage for more. Wildfires do not historically happen during the winter, particularly in areas like Boulder County, where the ground is normally moist from snow. But in recent months, Colorado has experienced a severe drought. From July 1 through Dec. 29, 2021, Denver recorded its lowest amount of precipitation by over an inch, with snowfall at record low levels, too. Meanwhile, Boulder, which typically sees about 30 inches of snow between September and December, received just one inch in that period leading up to the day of the fire. more...
by: Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Prince Andrew’s effort to immediately block the progression of a lawsuit by a woman who says he sexually assaulted her when she was 17 — on the grounds that she no longer lives in the U.S. — was rejected by a federal judge as oral arguments were set to proceed Monday on the prince’s request to dismiss the lawsuit. Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, in a written order Friday, told the prince’s lawyers they must turn over documents on the schedule that has been set in the lawsuit brought in August by Virginia Giuffre. Giuffre says she was abused by the prince on multiple occasions in 2001 while she was being sexually abused by financier Jeffrey Epstein. The prince’s attorney, Andrew Brettler, has called the lawsuit “baseless.” more...
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