"Law enforcement officials testify on security failures during siege at U.S. Capitol" PBS NewsHour 2/23/2021
Excerpt
SUMMARY: The men who were in charge of security during the U.S. Capitol assault told their stories in public on Tuesday for the first time. Their testimony at a Senate hearing was a tale of bad communications, bad intelligence, and blame-laying. Lisa Desjardins reports, and Yamiche Alcindor joins Judy Woodruff to discuss.
"Sweeping new report examines the roots of the U.S. Capitol attack" PBS NewsHour 2/1/2021
Excerpt
SUMMARY: The storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 was a shocking moment for many Americans, but new details are emerging about who was involved and how it was planned. A New York Times report examines the role former President Trump and his allies played in the crucial weeks leading up to the attack. Jim Rutenberg, a writer-at-large for the Times, joins Amna Nawaz to discuss some of the key points.
"What consequences have rioters faced for the Capitol attack?" PBS NewsHour 2/4/2021
Excerpt
SUMMARY: One month ago this Saturday, a mob of Americans stormed the U.S. Capitol in a failed attempt to deny Joe Biden's presidential victory in the November election. Since then, the Department of Justice has arrested and charged more than 180 rioters, and the Biden administration has launched a review of what it calls domestic violent extremism. Nick Schifrin reports.
"How Americans can coexist after the deadly insurrection" PBS NewsHour 2/4/2021
Excerpt
SUMMARY: In the aftermath of the attack at the Capitol many Americans continue to be distrustful of the election results despite it being free and fair, raising the question of where the U.S. goes from here as a country. Anne Applebaum, a staff writer at The Atlantic, joins Yamiche Alcindor to discuss.
IMHO: There are Republican members of Congress who are traitors, some even cheering on the Insurrectionists, who should be removed from Congress and tired as traitors.
"How Congress is addressing the Jan. 6 insurrection" PBS NewsHour 1/31/2021
Excerpt
SUMMARY: Former President Donald Trump, charged with inciting the January 6 insurrection, is facing his second impeachment trial amid ongoing investigations by Congressional committees and federal agencies into the events that led to the attack. New York University School of Law Professor and Co-Editor-in-chief of Just Security Ryan Goodman joins Hari Sreenivasan to discuss.
"Brooks and Capehart on Biden’s first full week and the state of the Republican Party" PBS NewsHour 1/29/2021
Excerpt
SUMMARY: New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week in politics, including President Biden's use of executive actions, Biden's $1.9 trillion relief package, and the state of the Republican Party after former President Trump.
Judy Woodruff (NewsHour): And now it's time for our Friday analysis with Brooks and Capehart. That is New York Times columnist David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart, columnist for The Washington Post.
Very good, as always, to see both of you on this Friday night.
David, I'm going to start with you.
President Biden's been in office, what, all of nine days now, maybe nine-and-a-half. A flurry of executive orders, almost several a day. What do you make of all this? What stands out to you the most about what's happened so far?
David Brooks, New York Times: I'm sort of struck by the fact that Donald Trump didn't do a lot of legislating. And so he did a lot of stuff by executive order, leaving the Paris climate accord, the Keystone pipeline, a lot of stuff on the border.
And Biden has pretty much rolled it back. And so what Trump signed in, Biden is signing out. And, to me, it strikes me this is — mostly, it's standard Democratic policy. Some of it, I think, is quite good, the racial equity stuff that he's put throughout the government.
I was struck, though, that my newspaper, my colleagues on the editorial board, which I'm not part of, wrote an Friday editorial saying they were over relying on the executive orders, and they should ease up a little.
And I noticed every single member of the Biden administration, down to the people who opened the door, went on Twitter to argue back against the editorial. And I think they were thrilled to be accused of moving too fast.
(LAUGHTER)
David Brooks: And so they wanted — they loved having that fight. That was my impression.
I think — as I said last week, I don't love executive orders. Nobody does, because what gets signed in can get signed out. But, so far, it seems they're mostly doing what any Democratic President would do right now.
Judy Woodruff: Jonathan, over-relying on executive orders and executive actions?
Jonathan Capehart, The Washington Post: I don't think so.
I think President Biden made a lot of promises about what he was going to do on day one, two, three, and now nine or 10. And he's following through. I agree 100 percent with David. What President Biden is doing is basically canceling out the executive actions and orders that were put in place by President Trump.
But in a perfect world, or, actually, in a functioning world, Congress would be making laws. And one of the things I took issue with, with the New York Times editorial saying that the President should ease up on executive orders is, they use the example of DACA.
And what I found interesting is that they didn't go the extra step of saying why President Obama used executive action in the first place. It was because years of trying to work with Congress, work with Republicans in Congress to get comprehensive immigration reform done failed.
And so, with people in the immigrant community, Latino community saying, hey, do something, use executive action, and President Obama coming back and saying, no, I can't do that, and then, in 2012, doing it, and then trying to do it again in 2014, that's what got that particular ball rolling.
If the House and the Senate were to actually start legislating, then chief executives, whether it's President Trump or President Biden, wouldn't have to rely, to use that word, on executive actions to actually do something to help the American people.
Judy Woodruff: Well, speaking of legislating, David, we're hearing today from President Trump (sic) — and I was just speaking with Brian Deese, who runs the national — chairs the National Economic Council.
They are — it looks as if they're prepared to move ahead on their big COVID relief package, $1.9 trillion, through this, without getting into the weeds, budget reconciliation, basically meaning they do it with — they could do it without Republican votes, if necessary.
Is that — are they giving up too soon? What do you think?
David Brooks: It's hard to read.
There are certainly a lot of Republicans who like a lot of parts of what's in there. There are probably no Republicans who like the $1.9 trillion price tag.
I do think he [Biden] ran a unity campaign. And I think, if that means anything, he has to give it every single shot.
But part of what they're doing is just threatening Republicans, saying, hey, we're leaving without you if you're not on board. So, you work.
What strikes me about shaping the Democratic Party on this is how much the echo of 2009 is here. A lot of Democrats look back on the Obama stimulus, and they think Obama paid too much attention to deficits, he worked — tried to work too much with Republicans, and he didn't go big enough.
And so what they're going to do is, they're going to go big. And it's a gigantic fiscal experiment. Economists have always worried about overheating the economy, pumping too much federal money in, so you get — you overheat the economy, you get inflation, you may spur — spark an up and then a crash.
And they have decided that those rules, that too much fiscal stimulus will create inflationary pressure, they have decided those rules are off. And maybe they're right. Jerome Powell, the Fed chairman, seems to think they're right.
But it is a gigantic fiscal experiment, where I don't really trust anybody actually knows what's going to happen if we spend this much, on top of $900 billion from December.
Judy Woodruff: How do you see this, Jonathan? How risky is what they're doing, do you think?
Jonathan Capehart: Well, I take two things from the interview with Mr. Deese.
One, I think that the Biden administration is working under the pressure of deadlines in March when it comes to unemployment insurance and also moratoriums on evictions. And so that is a forcing mechanism.
The other thing that I take away from this, in terms of not ruling out using reconciliation, it goes back to a conversation that we all had last week about whether President Biden was ready to or willing to fight, whether he had it in him to fight to get things done.
And I think, by dangling, as David said, threatening Republicans, by using the reconciliation tactic, that is showing that President Biden is — unity and kumbaya and working together will only take you so far. And so when you take the willingness to fight and the pressure of the March deadline that's there for millions of American people, I think that is what's pushing and driving the Biden administration to at least not take reconciliation off the table.
Judy Woodruff: Well, meanwhile, let's talk for just a few minutes, David, about the Republicans and what's happened to your party.
President Trump's been out of office, what, nine or 10 days. You have already seen the House minority leader fly down to Palm Beach, apparently to make nice, the president — former President Trump invited to speak at the Republican National Committee coming up.
You have got all this — just a lot of anger and frustration, and worse than that, flying around between Democrats and Republicans over security, over Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.
What's going on inside the Republican Party?
David Brooks: Yes, first, if it was my party, I'd be running it a hell of a lot better than they're doing right now.
(LAUGHTER)
David Brooks: So, what's happening is, there were a couple days after the Trump — January 6, then when Trump left, where I thought the party was really going to shake off a bit of Trump, obviously not all, but at least have two wings, at least have a wing that says, Trump was one thing, but we still have our conservative beliefs, and we're going to try to work with that other wing, and we will fight with the other wing.
But, as far as I can tell, the normal wing has collapsed. We have a party right now where you have Mary Taylor Greene. It's easier to be a Republican and be Mary (sic) Taylor Greene than it is to be Liz Cheney.
And so a normal Republican is — now has her [Liz Cheney] job threatened, and the other one is now taking over the publicity wing of the party. You see the loss. You see Matt Gaetz, the very Trumpy guy, going to Wyoming to run against Liz Cheney, where Rob Portman, who's a normal human being, a very smart human being, and, frankly, a very good human being, a senator from Ohio, decides to retire, because he can't get anything done.
Then you see — I'm forgetting his name — Madison Cawthorn, a young freshman from — a Republican, who says — he writes an e-mail to his staff saying: I'm putting all my staff into communications, not into legislation.
And a lot of these Trumpy Republicans, they run for office so they can get on FOX News, not to pass things.
And so what we're seeing is a party that is, as one person said, on fire, and going, in my mind, in the complete opposite direction, which makes life pretty easy for Joe Biden.
Judy Woodruff: What does it look like from where you are, Jonathan?
Jonathan Capehart: Well, I — I don't know if it makes life easy for Joe Biden.
Sure, it does if all he wants to do is executive actions. But in order to make lasting policy change, you have to pass legislation. And the only way you can pass legislation is if Democrats and Republicans can work with each other to get bills passed out of their chambers and onto his desk to sign.
But when you have, as David described, the intraparty warfare among Republicans, and then with Democrats, you have lots of Democrats who feel unsafe working with some of the Republicans who are there on Capitol Hill, I wonder how anything is going to get done.
I mean, we talk all the time about partisan gridlock in Washington stymieing — being able to govern this nation. I don't know what to call this now. I don't know what you call it when American legislators are fighting with each other or fearful of each other. Where does that leave governing? Where does that leave the American people in the end?
Judy Woodruff: David, what's it going to take to fix this?
David Brooks: Yes, well, I'd like to see an intraparty warfare.
I — the problem is, the normal Republicans are so far just taking this lying down. They're laying low. I think they're — some of them are afraid of death threats. Some of them just don't want to get in the way of the Trump train.
But you look at people like John Thune, you look at people like Susan Collins, you look people like Mitt Romney, who's been a tower of courage, by the way, over the last several months. Somehow, that wing of the party has got to get itself together, so it can stand against the wing that is very proud and loud right now.
And if we don't have some sort of rivalry over the soul of the party, it's not only the Rob Portmans of the world who are going to leave it. It's suburban voters. There are a lot of voters on that side who do not like what happened on January 6, and they're not going to stay for long.
So, the survival of the party depends on the rallying of what we used to think of as normal Republicans. And so far, they have — they have been — they have stuck their head up here and there, but there's been no rallying, no organization, not much of a caucus.
And so there has to be at least the fight to defend the party.
Judy Woodruff: In 10 seconds, Jonathan, anything Democrats can do as all this is going on?
Jonathan Capehart: I have no idea, other than stand back and watch.
(LAUGHTER)
Judy Woodruff: On that note, Friday night.
Jonathan Capehart, David Brooks, thank you both.
Jonathan Capehart: Thanks.
David Brooks: Thank you.
IMHO: Republicans may be a lost cause. They have sold their souls to Donald Trump for power, all they want is an advantage in future elections by pandering to Trump's base. Problem is Trumps' base have proven themselves to be undemocratic and launched an insurrection against our American government, is that the image the GOP really wants?
"With Trump out of office, the Republican Party is having an identity crisis" PBS NewsHour 1/28/2021
Excerpt
SUMMARY: The Republican Party is out of power on Capitol Hill and deeply divided on issues from the attack on the Capitol to the impeachment of former President Trump. Denver Riggleman, a former Republican congressman and chief strategist at the Network Contagion Research Institute; and Whit Ayres, the president of North Star Opinion Research, join Judy Woodruff to discuss.
"Brooks and Capehart on the Capitol attack and Trump’s impeachment" PBS NewsHour 1/8/2021
Excerpt
SUMMARY: New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week in politics, including the rampage at the Capitol, President Trump's potential impeachment, and the future of the Republican Party.
Judy Woodruff (NewsHour): We mark this momentous week with the next chapter in a "NewsHour" tradition. That is Brooks and Capehart.
Joining our longtime Friday analyst, David Brooks, New York Times columnist, is Jonathan Capehart, columnist for The Washington Post and anchor of "The Sunday Show" on MSNBC, and successor, I should add, to Mark Shields.
Jonathan Capehart, welcome to the "NewsHour," to Friday nights. And it is a long tradition.
And you join us, we are sad to say, on a week that's probably one of the worst, certainly in Washington history, and American history, with this assault on the Capitol.
And I want to start with you, Jonathan. How are you processing what happened?
Jonathan Capehart, The Washington Post: Well, first, Judy, thank you very much for the welcome.
And I also want to thank Mark Shields for setting an incredible example that I hope to meet every Friday.
This has been an incredible week. I am still processing what happened. I'm not surprised by what happened, given who the President of the United States is and his track record over the last four years, in terms of inciting passions in people that go way beyond what they should be.
But I will admit that I was shocked to see a marauding band of — and I will use this phrasing — domestic terrorists storming the citadel of American democracy, brazenly breaking into the United States Capitol, breaking into the Senate chamber, and then that iconic photo that was on the front page of The Washington Post, and I'm sure other papers around the country, of law enforcement officers inside the House of Representatives pointing their guns at the doors, and seeing the faces of the people trying to burst inside.
These are images and pictures that the American people never thought they would see in their country and in their nation's capital.
Judy Woodruff: And, David Brooks, as you're reflecting on this, what are you thinking?
David Brooks, New York Times: Well, it felt like a desecration to me. I mean, this is our holy of the holies. This is where America comes, usually in awe.
You go in that building. I remember the first time I went in, 14, and I was in awe. And you go in there with a sense of reverence and respect. And to see it just trashed, both physically and morally, is just — it produces a — sort of a bone-wearying sadness, as desecration tends to.
And I — Jonathan's right to pick up on the images, the images of the guns on the floor, the images of that wolf man shaman guy, people scaling the walls in the chamber, the Confederate Flag being carried down the hallways of the U.S. Capitol.
These are just shocking images, the result of four years of what has been a — four years of moral degradation for the country and humiliation.
And I only end on the upbeat note that one of the reporters saw some National Guardsmen in the Rotunda today. And this one had been their first time in the Capitol. And these guys were in awe. They were young men, and they'd never been there. And they were just so proud of their democracy.
And so that's what America really is, I hope, I hope.
Judy Woodruff: Well, it's good to be able to pick out something to — as you say, that's uplifting, as we move on from this.
But the repercussions, Jonathan, are enormous, condemnation raining down on President Trump for calling for his supporters to come to Washington, for urging them to take on the Capitol, to turn over the — reject the election results.
I will just say quickly, we had a — we joined with Marist in a poll, and NPR. We asked people if President Trump is to blame. Among national adults, the result, is he to blame, a great deal, a good amount, 63 percent, not very much, not at all, 35 percent.
And I should say, even 30 percent of Republicans agreed that the President is to blame.
Where do we go from here? As you know, there's talk of impeachment, serious talk, starting in just a couple of days, invoking the 25th Amendment. What should happen?
Jonathan Capehart: Something should happen. The President needs to be held accountable.
It does not matter that he has 12 days left in office. He needs to be held accountable for what he incited on Wednesday. He needs to be — and if that means removing him from office using the 25th Amendment, so be it. It doesn't look like that that's going to happen. The vice President has sort of made it clear, from reports I have seen, that he's not terribly interested in that.
So, then you remove him or try to remove him by impeachment. But, as House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn said in the interview with you, the emphasis, at least in the House is on impeachment.
And impeaching President Trump for the second time in his first term, I think, is a humiliation and a branding, a negative branding of his administration that would be well-deserved, precisely because of what he did to trash the United States Capitol, trash our American democracy, and once again show that he has neither reverence for or respect for the Constitution or the office of the presidency.
Judy Woodruff: David, how do you see this question of what should happen with the President?
David Brooks: Yes, I don't support the 25th Amendment. That's for incapacitation. The problem is, he's not incapacitated.
I would, I think, on the merits completely support impeachment. If interfering with an election certification by sending an invading force is not an impeachable offense, I don't know what is. And so I do support that.
I think it would be very useful. Even if the House did it, and the Senate was deliberating, it would be an act of discipline. It'd be a sword hanging over his [Trump's] head, which may restrain him in his final 12 days of office. I think it's highly unlikely the Senate would ever convict.
The fallback position could be censuring him under Article 3 of the 14th Amendment, which prevents someone who's taken part in an insurrection against the United States from ever running for federal office.
And that's important, I think, because it would reduce his role as an intimidator in the Republican Party and reduce the possibility that he runs for office in 2024, which I do not think he has — deserves the standing to do right now.
Judy Woodruff: Well, I should add that the social media platform Twitter has already stepped in tonight. We have just learned that they have permanently blocked President Trump. He will not be able to use Twitter anymore.
I know some people are asking, why now, after four years? But this is a step that Twitter has taken.
And, Jonathan, I mean, it leads us to asking about the other Republicans. So many Republicans in the House of Representatives, 138 of them, voted to block election — electoral vote results that had Joe Biden winning the election, in other words, rejecting Biden's win.
This is part of the fallout from all this. Where does this leave the Republican Party? Where does it leave the Biden presidency with this kind of rejection of him as he takes office?
Jonathan Capehart: Well, where it leaves the Republican Party is destroyed.
Yes, 138 House Republicans voted in — voted for the objection. But the key thing is, they voted for that objection after the Capitol was invaded by seditionists. And so that tells me a lot about those people who are sitting in the House.
And then there are the, I believe, it's eight senators who voted for the objections after what happened earlier that day on Wednesday. And Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley especially should be ashamed of what they did to that chamber and to — and to our democracy by doing what they're — doing what they did, and doing what they're doing.
So, when it comes to the Republican Party, they have a lot of soul-searching to do.
When it comes to President Biden, or now still President-elect Biden, regardless of what happened — let's say Wednesday had not happened — he still would be dealing with a 50/50 Senate, with his vice President, Kamala Harris, casting the tie breaking vote, the smallest majority, Democratic majority in the House in a very, very long time.
So, his governing ability was already going to be constrained. But if there's one possible silver lining that could come out of what happened on Wednesday, is that what happened on January 6 was so shocking to the conscience of more than a few Republicans on Capitol Hill, that it will shock them into getting back to work, because this nation has a lot of issues that need to be attended to, least among them — actually, top of mind, the coronavirus pandemic, as we keep breaking…
Judy Woodruff: Yes.
Jonathan Capehart: … death toll averages every day, including today.
Judy Woodruff: And, David, touching on what Jonathan just said, Lisa Murkowski, the Republican senator from Alaska, saying today she's considering whether she should even stay in the party.
But what about where this leaves the Republican Party and where our government, as Joe Biden prepares to take office?
David Brooks: Yes, here, Jonathan and I are going to have our first disagreement.
I don't think the party is destroyed. I think it's a 50/50 country. There are going to be 50 senators. There were — an extremely narrow minority in the House.
And I — my hope is that we break the fever here. This is a couple days in which Lisa Murkowski, Chris Christie, a bunch, three Republican governors have called for the resignation. We had The Wall Street Journal editorial page calling for the resignation of a Republican President.
There's — John Thune is coming out. Mitt Romney was heroic Wednesday. Ben Sasse is coming out.
I think, finally, at this late hour, after having their offices invaded, a lot of Republicans, not all, but a lot of Republicans are saying, this has gone crazy.
And I do think, finally, at this late hour — and they will get no praise and courage from this — but they are saying, we have got to redirect our party.
And the number of people who are even thinking about cooperating with an impeachment hearing on the Republican side surprises me. I think I read correctly in our PBS poll 80 percent of Republicans opposed what happened on Wednesday, which is at least good news.
Judy Woodruff: Right.
David Brooks: And so I do think this is not the end of the Republican Party, but I hope it's the moment when the Trumpist fever broke.
Judy Woodruff: We will see.
And, Jonathan, I'm going to give you the last word on that in about 30 seconds, because I just keep thinking back to what Jim Clyburn, the House majority whip, said, one of his enduring memories from Wednesday is seeing Nancy Pelosi and Mitt Romney huddled together talking about what to do to get back to work.
Jonathan Capehart: Yes.
And I hope they do get back to work. Again, this country has a lot of issues and a lot of problems that need to be worked on. And from the coronavirus pandemic, to the economy, to infrastructure, to the climate — to climate change, there's a lot of work to do.
And so, if Nancy Pelosi and Mitt Romney can sit and talk with each other, then I hope that that's something that happens with more frequency and more publicly, so that there is a signal that is sent to the entire nation that we're going to work together and we're going to get through this.
Judy Woodruff: All right.
And I'm being told that I misheard Congressman Clyburn, that he actually said, Nancy Pelosi is talking with Mitch McConnell, and not with Mitt Romney.
Jonathan Capehart: Even better.
Judy Woodruff: So, that's my bad. And I misheard it.
But thank you. I think — I think the point is pretty much the same.
But thank you both very much, Jonathan Capehart, David Brooks.
Thank you.
Jonathan Capehart: Thanks.
MY OPINION: No matter what others say, what happened at our U.S. Capitol on 1/6/2021 is Insurrection, plain and simple. The people who did this were driven by the lies of the psychotic, self-centered, Fascist Donald J. Trump and his Four Horsemen.
It has not escaped me that these people are threatened by the changes in America especially since the election of President Obama. Their version of America of white privilege and supremacy has changed, especially since non-white (both actual and those who do not identify by skin color) citizens now out number 'white' citizens. They are angry, but that does not give them a right to attack our democracy and 'The People's House.' These people need to be caught, arrested and charged under law.
"Mayhem erupts in the U.S. Capitol as Congress certifies electoral votes" PBS NewsHour 1/6/2021
Excerpt
SUMMARY: The nation on Wednesday witnessed a grave breach of its democratic traditions. For the first time in American history, supporters of the losing presidential candidate have forcibly disrupted the official counting of electoral votes. John Yang reports.
"Lawmakers continue vote count after violent incursion on Capitol Hill" PBS NewsHour 1/6/2021
Excerpt
SUMMARY: In a historic and tragic day, lawmakers returned late Wednesday to continue certifying electoral votes in the 2020 presidential election, a process that was disrupted by a chaotic scene, as protesters broke into the U.S. Capitol. One woman was fatally shot by police in the violent intrusion. Lisa Desjardins, Yamiche Alcindor and Amna Nawaz join Judy Woodruff to break down the latest.
"Trump’s false election claims are ‘red meat’ for extremist groups" PBS NewsHour 1/6/2021
Excerpt
SUMMARY: Hours after a pro-Trump mob broke into the U.S. Capitol Wednesday, the President continued to make false claims about the election results. Mary McCord, former acting assistant attorney general for national security at the Department of Justice [DOJ]. She now teaches at Georgetown Law School, and joins Judy Woodruff to discuss some of the extremist elements of his base.
"A day after rioters seized symbol of democracy, the fallout begins on Capitol Hill" PBS NewsHour 1/7/2021
Excerpt
SUMMARY: The fallout from a day of fury in Washington was still very much in the air on Thursday. While Congress has confirmed Joe Biden's election as President, many questions linger about the assault on the U.S. Capitol and about what price President Trump might pay. John Yang reports.
"Calls for Trump’s removal from office grow louder across the political spectrum" PBS NewsHour 1/7/2021
Excerpt
SUMMARY: Rep. Madeleine Dean, a Democrat from Pennsylvania and a member of the House Judiciary Committee, is among a growing number of lawmakers calling for President Trump’s Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove him from office, or for Congress to impeach him again, and this time convict him. She joins Judy Woodruff to discuss.
"Lax security at the Capitol prompts widespread demand for answers" PBS NewsHour 1/7/2021
Excerpt
SUMMARY: There were serious questions Thursday about security in and around the Capitol and why there weren't better preparations ahead of time. William Brangham reports.
"Former head of Homeland Security on the dangers of Trump’s rhetoric" PBS NewsHour 1/7/2021
Excerpt
SUMMARY: Questions continued Thursday over President Trump's actions -- about how he stoked the mob at the Capitol and whether he's a danger as he continues to hold power. Kevin McAleenan was acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security under the Trump administration until November 2019. He joins Amna Nawaz to discuss how he sees this moment and the road ahead.
"Police response at the Capitol brings claims of ‘white privilege’" PBS NewsHour 1/7/2021
Excerpt
SUMMARY: The treatment of the violent mob at the Capitol by law enforcement versus the heavy-handed tactics employed on peaceful protests over racial justice has been widely talked about since Wednesday. Amna Nawaz spoke with Ibram X. Kendi, director of the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University, to learn more.
"Insurrection at Capitol draws condemnation across the globe" PBS NewsHour 1/7/2021
Excerpt
SUMMARY: For years American adversaries argued democracy is too messy to be trusted, and Wednesday’s events gave them new ammunition. But while many U.S. allies lauded that democracy has prevailed after Joe Biden was certified as the next President, some were worried about the fragility of freedom. Nick Schifrin reports on reactions to the Capitol attack from around the globe.
"Momentum builds to remove President Trump from office" PBS NewsHour 1/8/2021
Excerpt
SUMMARY: The chaos that engulfed Washington, D.C. this week has taken a tragic new turn. And with it, momentum is building to oust a sitting President in the final days of his term. Lisa Desjardins and Nick Schifrin join Judy Woodruff to discuss.
"Rep. James Clyburn: Impeachment ‘a tool for protecting the integrity of our democracy’" PBS NewsHour 1/8/2021
Excerpt
SUMMARY: Momentum is building on Capitol Hill for impeaching President Trump for the second time. House Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat, joins Judy Woodruff to discuss bipartisan calls for impeachment and the integrity of democracy.
"There’s an ongoing battle of words to describe Jan 6, 2021. Here’s why it matters" PBS NewsHour 1/9/2021
Excerpt
SUMMARY: Was it an insurrection? A coup? Should we call it domestic terrorism? Or just a peaceful protest gone awry? As a battle of politics becomes a battle for words to describe what happened in the capital and on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021, Christopher Booker speaks to Joanne Freeman, a history professor at Yale University about why words used to describe the event today will shape its history.
"Dan Rather on the Capitol attack, the state of our nation and ‘What Unites Us’" PBS NewsHour 1/10/2021
Excerpt
SUMMARY: The January 6 attack on The U.S. Capitol was the staggering culmination of years of political division and misinformation. Now, as debate rages over if President Trump should be held accountable for inciting the riot, President-elect Biden prepares to take the helm of a deeply divided country in a matter of days. Former CBS anchor, host of the Big Interview with Dan Rather, and author of the new book “What Unites Us,” joins Hari Sreenivasan to discuss how we move forward.
"Capitol riot: The ‘third world’ trope offends, misreads history" PBS NewsHour 1/10/2021
Excerpt
SUMMARY: Condemning the Capitol Hill riot, President George W. Bush and Senator Marco Rubio likened it to political upheavals in “Banana Republics” and the “third world.” But Lucia Dammert, a Wilson Center Global Fellow and Professor at the University of Santiago of Chile objects to the comparison to the Global South -- adding that the U.S. has played a key role in sparking the turbulence, especially in Latin America. NewsHour Weekend’s Ivette Feliciano reports.
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| Man with the plan.....Sen. Josh Hawley (R) |
"The Republicans Have an Insurrectionist Caucus" by Jordan Weissmann, Slate 1/7/2021
After a mob of Donald Trump’s supporters invaded the U.S. Capitol building on Wednesday to stop the certification of November’s election results, smashing windows and storming offices while forcing lawmakers to cower in hiding, Republicans had to confront a simple question: Were they with the insurrectionists or against them?
Going into the day, 14 GOP Senators and more than a 100 House members had announced that they would object to the Electoral College count, on the baseless premise that there were unanswered questions about voter fraud, helping to ensure that the ordinarily ceremonial event would become another flash point in Trump’s flailing efforts to retain power.
After the mayhem, some chastened lawmakers had second thoughts, realizing that it might be best not to give any more oxygen to the delusions that had set in motion the attacks. “What we have seen today is unlawful and unacceptable,” Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who had previously planned to object, said in a statement. “I have decided I will vote to uphold the Electoral College results and I encourage Donald Trump to condemn and put an end to this madness.” Senators such as Georgia’s Kelly Loeffler, fresh off her runoff loss, and Oklahoma’s James Lankford, gave subdued speeches announcing that despite their concerns, they would drop their opposition to the results. “The events that have transpired today have forced me to reconsider, and I cannot now, in good conscience, object,” Loeffler said.
Meanwhile, Utah’s Mitt Romney, who has become the Senate’s principal voice of conservative never Trumpism, put the choice facing his colleagues as plainly as possible.
“Those who choose to continue to support his dangerous gambit by objecting to the results of a legitimate, democratic election will forever be seen as being complicit in an unprecedented attack against our democracy,” he said. “They will be remembered for their role in this shameful episode in American history. That will be their legacy.”
But most objectors shrugged and stuck to their plan. Even after the breach, eight GOP Senators and 139 representatives—a solid majority of the party’s House members—ultimately voted against certifying the results from either Pennsylvania or Arizona. It is hard to overstate just how frightening that end result is.
Up until the moment glass started to shatter, one could have at least made a case—albeit, a weak one—that objecting to the Electoral College results was nothing more than a symbolic gesture of loyalty to the President [Trump] and his base that would ultimately prove harmless. There was nothing Republicans could actually do on their own to overturn the election’s outcome, since throwing out a state’s Electoral College results would have required a majority vote in both the Senate and Democrat-controlled House. What’s more, small numbers of Democrats had pulled similar stunts in the past, objecting to certification after losing the 2000, 2004, and 2016 elections, and the republic hadn’t exactly collapsed as a result.
The obvious difference between those previous elections and this one is that the losing Democrats willingly conceded their races, while Donald Trump did not. Instead, he spent two months whipping his followers into a frenzy with lies about a stolen election in a haphazard, often cartoonish effort to cling to office, then gathered them on the National Mall for a demonstration on certification day. The chaos that ensued, in which four people ultimately died, illustrated in the bluntest terms possible that by fanning the flames of voter fraud conspiracies, the Republican objectors were playing a lethal game with American democracy.
And yet the vast majority of them decided to keep pumping away at the bellows. The lawmakers just shook their finger at the mob’s rampage, while denying any responsibility for egging it on. In a particularly brazen act of chutzpah, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, who kicked off the whole objection effort in the Senate, suggested that the attack actually showed why debating the election’s validity in Congress was a good idea in the first place, since it would be a nonviolent way to resolve concerns about fraud. (Never mind that politicians like Hawley helped conjure up those concerns in the first place.) “Our Constitution was built and put into place so that there would be, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, no appeal from ballots to bullets, which is what we saw unfortunately attempted tonight,” Hawley grandiloquently declared. “And that’s why I submit to my colleagues that what we’re doing here tonight is actually very important.“ Other Republicans, such as Reps. Matt Gaetz and Paul Gosar, just gunned it straight to Looneyville, repeating the fast-metastasizing conspiracy theory that the people who attacked the Capitol were actually left-wing antifa members masquerading as Trump supporters. One way or another, lawmakers found ways to justify themselves.
Ultimately, Wednesday night’s vote was another demonstration of how Trump has permanently reshaped much of the Republican Party in his own image. Yes, his attempt at the history’s dumbest autogolpe has finally caused some of his allies to crack and staffers to resign, as well as brought about rebuffs from the likes of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and erstwhile golf buddy Lindsey Graham, who seemingly declared his independence from the President (“Count me out, enough is enough,“ he said). But most of its House caucus is now made up of members who are either terrified that they will be primaried by a Trumpier-than-thou challenger from the right or who outright share his lunatic fantasies. Ambitious senators with their eyes on the presidency in 2024 know that for a large share of primary voters, the most important qualification may be loyalty to the current President. The result is a group of legislators who, after witnessing firsthand the dangerous fury that their party’s rhetoric unleashed, decided it was best to more or less just go along. Their ranks include not just rambling backbenchers and the newer class of QAnon-winking reactionaries, but also leaders like House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. What’s more, their ranks only seem likely to grow after redistricting this year, which will allow Republican legislatures to create a new batch of safe, Trumpified GOP seats. The Republican Party’s insurrectionist caucus is going to be with us for years to come.
