New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is facing calls for an investigation and even impeachment after a top aide said the administration delayed the release of data on Covid-19 deaths of long-term care facility residents because of concerns about a potential federal investigation. CNN's Athena Jones reports.
Former President Donald Trump on Saturday, after the Senate acquitted him of the impeachment charge against him, teased a return to the political arena in his post-presidency -- but he may still face efforts to punish him for the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by his supporters.
Don’t waste time mourning the Senate’s failure to convict Donald Trump for crimes so dramatically and painstakingly proven by the House impeachment managers. The cowardice of the vast majority of Republican senators was both predicted and predictable.
Instead, ponder how to build on the genuine achievements.
Never a good sign when a lawyer has to tell a jury: “I don’t know why you’re laughing at me. ... I haven’t laughed at any of you.” 😂 😂 😂
‘A moment of truth’? After years of Trump’s lies, amplified by MAGA media, that proved impossible for most Republicans
“Democracy needs a ground to stand upon — and that ground is the truth,” lead House impeachment manager Jamie Raskin said in his opening statement, quoting his father, the political activist Marcus Raskin.
This Senate trial would not be a contest among lawyers, or between political parties, said the Maryland Democrat, who led the prosecuting team trying to make the case that the 45th president had incited the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
No, the trial would be, and should be, “a moment of truth for America.”
“After campaigning last year on a message of law and order, most Republican lawmakers decided not to apply those standards to a former commander in chief who made common cause with an organized mob.” https://t.co/kO22Lzih2r
An incomparable historic rebuke of a president by his own party
The final chapter of Donald Trump’s presidency was written Saturday, leaving no question about how it will be perceived by history. Seven senators from his own party voted to convict him on an article of impeachment alleging that he incited an insurrection against the government, a condemnation unlike any other in American history. Trump’s second impeachment came much closer to conviction than either his first or that of Bill Clinton in 1999, precisely because so many Republicans supported the move.
The ultimate acquittal was expected. As we reported this week, only three members of the Republican caucus represent states that didn’t vote for Trump in last year’s election. Only about a third of the caucus faces reelection in 2022, which might have been expected to motivate them to appeal to a Republican base that is still strongly loyal to the former president.
Yet five Republicans from states that backed Trump supported conviction. The seven Republicans joining all 48 Democrats and the Senate’s two independents were Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah). Of those seven, only two — Burr and Toomey — have announced plans to retire, and only Murkowski faces reelection in 2022.
Lost the House. Lost the Senate. Lost the White House with a twice-impeached one-term President that lost broad GOP support. Where is the winning. https://t.co/3u8razNYfQ
Trump left them to die. 43 Senate Republicans still licked his boots.
Her account wasn’t seriously or substantively refuted. On Saturday afternoon, senators agreed that Herrera Beutler’s statement would be entered into the trial record as evidence.
Even knowing this, most Republican senators, as long expected, voted to acquit Trump, a craven surrender to the political imperative not to cross the demagogue. But the impeachment trial was not in vain, for it revealed the ugly truth: Trump knew lawmakers’ lives were in danger from his violent supporters, and instead of helping the people’s representatives escape harm, Trump scoffed.
the action on the covid package has been in the house, which has been making great progress during the trial period. in fact i would argue the impeachment has helped to this point - it has kept the spotlight off of covid while it chugs along and united democrats.
Trump escapes conviction but even his allies say he’s damaged
The former president may be out for revenge after his acquittal. But beyond that, his future is uncertain.
Without the legal protection against federal criminal prosecution afforded sitting presidents, Trump faces a web of investigations into his conduct in office and business practices beforehand. Just this week, Georgia prosecutorsannounced a new probe into Trump’s myriad attempts to overturn the state’s 2020 election results, including during a threatening phone call on Jan. 2 with GeorgiaSecretary of State Brad Raffensperger. The investigation could open the door for criminal charges against the former president by state and local authorities.
Trump could also face criminal charges in Washington, D.C., if the city’s attorney general, Karl Racine, decides to pursue a case against Trump for his alleged role in the Capitol riots. Racine was reportedly weighing the move even before the Senate voted to acquit Trump on Saturday.
Threatening a potential Senate witness with the wrath of “Trump’s loyal 75 million” kind of helps prove the House Manager’s case pic.twitter.com/PrmaBCXYRm
G.O.P. lawmakers were unlikely to convict Trump. But a different approach to impeachment would have been more difficult for them to ignore.
The House should have crafted its impeachment resolution to avoid a legalistic focus on the former president’s intent. This could have been done by broadening the impeachment article. The charges should have encompassed Mr. Trump’s use of the mob and other tactics to intimidate government officials to void the election results, and his dereliction of duty by failing to try to end the violence in the hours after he returned to the White House from the demonstration at the Ellipse.
Whether or not Mr. Trump wanted his followers to commit acts of violence, he certainly wanted them to intimidate Vice President Mike Pence and members of Congress. That was the whole point of their “walk,” as Mr. Trump put it, to the Capitol. The mob was not sent to persuade with reasoning or evidence.
Also another signal that while the bulk of the GOP remains under Trump's control, there's a not-significant slice (in this case, 14% of the GOP Senate) of the party now in open rebellion. How that segment acts over the next two to four years will be a critical story
At the bizarre trial of Donald Trump, the Maryland Congressman, law professor, and grieving father was the man of the hour.
Then Raskin closed, explaining the impact of the attack on the Capitol on him and his family. He had invited his daughter and son-in-law to be present to witness the certification of the election—as much, it seems, to distract him and them from the funeral the day before of Raskin’s beloved son Tommy who had committed suicide. While Raskin was hustled to a different location, they were locked in the majority leader’s office—and, like most others, trapped by the mob, anticipating imminent violent death.
When they were reunited, Raskin said to his daughter that the next time she came to the Capitol would not be so bad. “I don’t want to come back to the Capitol,” she said.
At this point, Raskin’s voice broke.
That moment is what anyone who watched will remember, not just during the trial but for years to come. Aristotle wrote in Rhetoric that forensic rhetoric had three aspects—the logos, or the validity of what was said; the ethos, or the implication by the speaker that he or she is the kind of person whom the listener should listen to; and the pathos, or the emotional content of the speech and of the issue it concerns.
Trump's two impeachments hold same lesson: Republicans can't be trusted with our democracy
Democrats have less than 2 years to make sure America never has another president who would incite a mob against his own government. End the filibuster.
And there was the pandemic that left more than 400,000 Americans dead on Trump’s watch, with 40% of those deaths being avoidable, according to the recent findings of a Lancet Commission.
So it’s hard to tell exactly what made this country reject Trump’s GOP so quickly. What is clear is Democrats now have less than two years to do everything they can to make sure America never faces another president who would turn a deadly mob on his own running mate and our government.
We have now seen the limits of the Republicans who believe they have any responsibility to govern, especially when a Democrat is president: exactly seven Republicans. But to make almost anything happen in Congress, you need 10 Republican senators because of the Senate filibuster. Actually, let’s be precise. Because of Mitch’s Filibuster™.
Lost the House. Lost the Senate. Lost the White House with a twice-impeached one-term President that lost broad GOP support. Where is the winning. https://t.co/3u8razNYfQ
The North Carolina Republican Party will reportedly hold a vote Monday to decide whether Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) should be censured after he voted to convict former President Trump in his second Senate impeachment trial....
Woohoo! I've got my Millard Fillmore tree set up, Andy Williams' classic It's the Most Executive Branchful Time of the Year is playing on the Victrola, and all my coupons are clipped for BIG Pre$ident$' Day $ale-a-bration $aving$ on every mattre$$ in the $tore! Here's your annual quiz, which you may now complete to the best of your ability. Good luck:
1. Who claimed that God didn’t intend for humans to travel on trains at the "breakneck speed" of 15mph?
a) Van Buren b) Jefferson c) Washington d) Buchanan
2. Name the president who liked to take his pet raccoon for walks around the White House grounds:
a) J.Q. Adams b) Garfield c) Coolidge d) A. Johnson
3. Who said, "That [George Washington] was not a scholar is certain. That he was too illiterate, unread, unlearned from his station and reputation is equally past dispute"?
a) Madison b) J. Adamsc) Hoover d) Hayes
Continued on page 46...
4. Who was attacked during his campaign for not drinking enough liquor?
a) Garfield b) Truman c) Arthur d) Polk
5. Whose high school football coach called him "one of the best pass receivers I had in 16 years as a coach"?
a) Kennedy b) Ford c) Biden d) L. Johnson
This needs Biden added. His predecessor, not so much.
6. Who said of himself, "I always figured the American public wanted a solemn ass for president, so I went along with them"?
a) Monroe b) Coolidge c) B. Harrison d) Tyler
7. This president said, "Soup is bipartisan. We can all agree on soup."
a) George H.W. Bush b) Cleveland
c) Nixon d) Obama
8. Whose chief of staff was upset to find that his boss hadn’t opened a critical briefing the night before because "The Sound of Music was on"?
a) Reagan b) George W. Bush c) Clinton d) Kennedy
9. Who was ranked by the American people as the worst president in U.S. history in the latest YouGov poll?
a) Buchanan b) Harding c) Trump d) Pierce
10. Twelve instruments—including four acoustic guitars, two ukuleles, and two mandolins—were made as part of a "legacy collection" using wood from this president's own Paulownia trees:
a) Eisenhower b) McKinley c) Carter d) Jackson
ANSWERS: 1) a 2) c 3) b 4) d 5) c 6) b 7) d 8) a 9) c 10) c
Note: Due to the Presidents' Day holiday, C&J will appear as scheduled. We regret the inconvenience. —Mgt.
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By the Numbers:
3 days!!!
Days 'til the Mars probe Perseverance lands: 3
Percent approval for President Biden in the latest Ipsos poll: 57%
Percent of the country that'll need to be vaccinated before stringent Covid-prevention measures can be scaled back, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci: 75-80%
Rank of NV (60%), RI (45%), CO (44%), NM (44%), and ME (43%) among states with the highest share of women legislators: #1-5
Rank of LA (18%), SC (18%), MS (17%), TN (17%), and WY (16%) among states with the lowest share of women legislators: #46-50
Number of presidents born before the U.S. became a country: 8
Number of presidents who fought in the Civil War, all for the Union: 7
JEERS to pulling your punches. When word came down from CNN Friday night that Republican witnesses could personally attest that President Trump deliberately sat on his hands during the January 6 Capitol insurrection, it was quite a bombshell. (Even Rachel Maddow was like, ”Whaaa…???”) On Saturday morning, when a 55-46 vote formally green-lit the deposition of those witnesses, who would tell the chamber that Trump's actions literally put the assembled House and Senate leaders—and also his Vice President—in mortal danger, it seemed like a gift from the gods. Instead, I think you can guess what happened next:
That momentary glow on the horizon wasn’t a sunrise after all. Just a candle that’s already blown out.
On the whole, history will remember the Democratic impeachment managers as true patriots.
Democrats folded after winning the vote to have witnesses. When Republicans held the majority last year, they took every possible step to help Trump evade justice. This year, after the tireless work of millions put Democrats in charge … they still would not call a witness.
The Senate, you see, wanted to get to work immediately on President Biden's agenda. So the witness thing was scuttled, the vote to convict was 57-43 (all Dems plus 7 GOPers), Trump is free to run for office again, and now the Senate can get to work immediately on—[checks notes]—a week-long vacation. And our republic lived shakily ever after. The End.
CHEERS to an opposing viewpoint. No one will remember or care about what happened at the last minute, even if it was clumsy, chaotic and confusing. So now that the “political” trial is done, it’s time let fly the criminal charges. Where shall we start: the tax fraud, real estate fraud, bank fraud, election fraud, the porn-star hush money, attempted rape, or the insurrection? Somebody spin the wheel.
JEERS to that thing that's still with us over a year later. With one week before we start to see the results of the "Super Bowl Party Bump," let's check in and see how the Covid-19 pandemic numbers are doing. Worldwide there are now over 109 millioncases—over a quarter of them in the U.S. Here are this week's domestic numbers for the C&J historical record, courtesy of the most depressing tote board in the world, as our death toll now exceeds the population of America’s 38th-largest city Kansas City, Missouri:
6 months ago: 5.5 million confirmed cases. 173,000 deaths.
3 months ago: 11 million confirmed cases. 251,000 deaths
Biden scores TWO. HUNDRED. MILLION. of these babies.
1 month ago: 25 million confirmed cases. 407,000 deaths
This morning: 28 million confirmed cases. 496,000 deaths
But given that we're now living under the stable leadership of Democratic President Joseph R. Biden, there's really good news: the president just secured a deal for 200 more million vaccine doses, meaning we could wrap this thing up before the first leaves of autumn start falling. If you're wondering how he pulled that off, it's pretty simple: he read all the how-to tips in The Art of the Deal and then did the exact opposite.
CHEERS to previews of coming attractions. As mentioned up top in “By the Numbers,” glorious United States Space Probe of Superior Victory for Homeland Perseverance will be landing on Mars this week. At the same time, glorious Peoples’ Republic of China Space Probe of Superior Victory for Homeland Tianwen-1 is making its own bit of history as it establishes orbit around the Red Planet. Here’s the dramatic footage released Friday of the big event taking place 295,000,000 miles away:
JEERS to the preparing for The Apostrolypse. To help solve the mystery of how, exactly, one punctuates today's holiday, over the weekend I performed my annual ritual of consulting the blizzard of ads appearing in The Portland (Maine) Press Herald and online to get some clarity. This year's batch:
Tempur-pedic: Presidents Day
LaZBoy: Presidents Day and President's Day
8Sleep.com: Presidents Day
Hannaford Supermarkets: Presidents' Day
Hub Furniture: Presidents Day
Oy.
Amazon.com: President's Day
Home Depot: Presidents' Day
Bed, Bath & Beyond: Presidents' Day and Presidents Day
Overstock.com: Presidents Day
USA Today: Presidents Day and Presidents' Day
Press Herald Auto Section: Presidents Day
Appliances Connection: President's Day
Staples: Presidents' Day
MattressFirm: Presidents Day
Macy's: Presidents' Day and Presidents Day
Our 2021 “12 Months of Squirrels” Wall Calendar: President's Day
We trust this clears up any confusion for at least another year.
JEERS to incivility. On this date in 1798, the House of Representatives was the site of the first congressional brawl, when much knocking of noggins occurred after a hurling of insults followed by Rep. Matthew Lyon (Democratic-Republican-VT) spitting in the face of Roger Griswold (Federalist-CT). Among the weapons that were wielded: fireplace tongs. Based on his expression, the guy recording the minutes just got tonged in the crotch...
And if you look in the lower left corner, you’ll see a dog is present in the chamber. That would be Thaddeus T. Woofington from the great state of New York. He only lasted one term. Once he got tax cuts for the Wilson company passed, he spent the rest of his life working a cushy job at a pro-tennis-ball think tank.
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Ten years ago in C&J: February 15, 2011
JEERS to queries that make me queasy. Talk about railroading your viewers! A CNN reporter yesterday looked in the camera and asked her viewers to go to her site and answer the question: "What would it take to convince Americans to cut Social Security and Medicare?" What??? Talk about injecting your own personal bias into a question. Might as well ask, "What would it take to convince Americans to live their senior years in poverty and treat their cancer with gumdrops?" Gee, what would it would take to convince Americans to get your ass fired, anchor lady? More poll questions like that one, I expect.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to hole foods. Now that our 45th president and his cabinet of villains is long gone, we can slowly get back to the important issues that got swept aside for things like kids in cages, the attempted destruction of our health care system, and a lunatic having possession of the nuclear codes. Topping the list: America's best doughnuts. USA Today is on it:
The Dutch brought an ancestor of the modern doughnut to America in the early 19th century, in the form of deep-fried dough balls called olykoeks (literally "oily cakes"). A sailor named Hanson Crockett Gregory is credited with first putting holes in the oily cakes, either to avoid leaving a raw doughy middle when they cooked or so that he could store them on the spokes of his ship's wheel for convenient snacking. […]
There are said to be more than 13,000 doughnut shops in the U.S. currently, counting both chains and independents. … According to Yelp, Boston is the per capita doughnut shop capital of America, with one such place for every 2,400 inhabitants. But every state has plenty of doughnut shops of its own, and 24/7 Tempo has compiled a list of the best example in every state, concentrating on independents and small chains.
You can find your state's top doughnut joint here.My partner Michael can confirm under oath that The Holy Donut, dangerously located less than a mile from C&J HQ, is the best donut hole-in-the-wall in Maine. Their secret ingredient: mashed potatoes, which "gives the donuts a delicious moist texture that makes them just melt in your mouth." Hey, want to secure your reelection in a landslide, Joe? Include a guaranteed monthly income to every American of one box of doughnuts. (I'll waive my usual consulting fee—I just want what's best for America. Which is doughnuts.)
Have a tolerable Monday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial
"So let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is getting stuck in an elevator with Bill in Portland. I mean, amiright, people? Amiright???"
The North Carolina Republican Party will meet Monday to vote on whether to censure Sen. Richard Burr for his vote to convict former President Donald Trump during his second impeachment trial -- a move that would make him the latest GOP senator to be reprimanded by his state party for siding with Democrats in the trial.
At first, his colleagues thought he made a mistake. Rep. Tom Rice, a South Carolina Republican, voted to impeach former President Donald Trump on January 13, a week after objecting to his defeat, the only member of Congress to do so.
The Democratic House members who prosecuted the case against former President Donald Trump last week say they’ve been laser-focused on his trial.
But as their speeches were being piped into Americans’ homes 24-7, they also elevated their national profiles — in some cases, generating considerable buzz about their prospects for higher office.
Rep. Madeleine Dean is being talked about as a potential candidate for the open Senate seat in Pennsylvania in 2022, a top priority for the party. Democratic strategists are speculating that Rep. Joaquin Castro, relatively well-known before the impeachment trial, further distinguished himself as an impeachment manager, advancing talk of a statewide bid in Texas. And an ex-Jeb Bush aide went so far as to say that Colorado Rep. Joe Neguse gave his “2004 convention speech” — a nod to former President Barack Obama’s breakout moment in politics.
For the lawmakers who have been able to use this moment to boost their name recognition and grow their fan bases, they’re following in the footsteps of Democratic and Republican impeachment managers who have shone in the past.
"I remember Lindsey Graham as an impeachment manager,” said Tom Lopach, former executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “It is rare to have a congressional hearing or session of such import that it is on throughout the day. You have to go back to Watergate, you go back to the Iran-Contra hearing, you go back to the Clinton impeachment and Trump's impeachment.”
Graham, who was an impeachment manager during former President Bill Clinton’s 1999 trial, ran for the Senate and won just a few years later in 2002. Asa Hutchinson, another then-House member who made the case against Clinton, is now the governor of Arkansas. Bill McCollum, also on the impeachment team against Clinton, went on to become Florida’s attorney general.
More recently, Democratic representatives such as Adam Schiff, Jerry Nadler and Val Demings served as impeachment managers during Trump’s first trial, burnishing their national profiles. Schiff is now looking to be appointed California’s next attorney general. Demings, a Florida congressmember, made it to President Joe Biden’s vice-presidential shortlist.
Some of the impeachment managers for Trump’s second trial include Democrats who have considered or ran for higher office before, such as 2020 presidential candidate Eric Swalwell and Castro, who has eyed bids for the Senate. One Democrat who isn’t able to run for the Senate, Virgin Islands Del. Stacey Plaskett, has some Democrats wishing that she could after her steady performance.
Though impeachment is an inherently political process, elected officials typically don’t like to admit that working as a manager can come with electoral benefits. They wererequired to walk a careful line, especially when making the case that Trump incited a mob to attack the U.S. Capitol. Still, strategists from both sides of the aisle acknowledged that their roles likely furthered their careers.
“When you’re part of impeachment proceedings and you’re in a managerial position, of course you’re going to have better name ID. You’re on camera all this time, bringing incredible evidence,” said Sonia Van Meter, a former campaign consultant to Castro. “And anyone who’s paying attention to these proceedings is going to get to know your face.”
For some of the managers, their presentations were shared widely on social media. Neguse, who is an attorney and the youngest impeachment manager, won acclaim for his compelling and high-minded arguments. Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, the lead manager, poignantly talked about his daughter and son-in-law fearing for their lives during the insurrection only a day after he buried his son. Dean, who previously ran for lieutenant governor, grabbed viewers’ attention when she teared up recounting the day of the attack.
“The part where she showed emotion, that was very real and it gets to who she is,” said Larry Ceisler, a public relations executive based in Pennsylvania. “Obviously she’s raised her profile in the caucus, with political people, and maybe some people who don’t know her. When you distinguish herself as she has, people are going to mention her for the Senate opening.”
Ceisler added that her performance was likely influenced by her past experience as an executive director of the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association: “She has at her fingertips some very good legal minds in Pennsylvania … and my guess is, knowing Madeleine, she didn’t go at this on her own, she would ask advice.”
Van Meter said the trial is “upping Joaquin Castro’s name ID and certainly Stacey Plaskett’s.”
She has also worked as a campaign adviser to Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), a manager during Trump’s first impeachment, who she said has been invited onto TV and quoted in articles more often since the trial.
Jon Seaton, a former senior adviser to Graham during his 2016 presidential campaign, said the South Carolina Republican’s sense of humor during the Clinton impeachment trial led to national attention and media clips. Graham was noticed ahead of the trial for asking, “Is this Watergate or Peyton Place?'” — a reference to a 1960s soap opera.
“I think it did help. I don’t know if it was determinative, but it certainly gave him a leg up,” Seaton said of Graham’s Senate bid shortly thereafter. “I just think he acquitted himself very well throughout the Clinton impeachment trial and I think people kind of liked him. And it’s always hard to break through, and that gave him an opportunity to break through that his opponents just didn't have.”
But some Democrats who earned the most praise this week will likely not be in a position to run for higher office for some time. Neguse’s home-state senators are both Democrats, and Michael Bennet has said he plans to run again in 2022, while John Hickenlooper is not up for reelection until 2026. Incumbent Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, also a Democrat, faces reelection in 2022.
Poor impeachment performances can also have a lingering effect. When Bruce Castor, a former acting attorney general of Pennsylvania, was named as one of Trump’s attorneys for the trial, it set off speculation that he was contemplating a bid for Senate or governor in 2022. But that chatter has died down after his initial speech last week was widely panned — including by Trump.
And sometimes, the volatile mix of electoral politics and impeachment can create uncomfortable moments. Dean’s son, former Obama aide Pat Cunnane, tweeted on Wednesday that Dean “seems comfortable in the Senate.”
Aware of the optics, Dean’s aides struck a different tone. “She’s focused on the trial,” said Dean’s spokesperson, Timothy Mack, when asked about Cunnane’s tweet.
