(The Hill) The Jan. 6 Select Committee has signaled it intends to explore potential criminal wrongdoing by formerPresident Trump, marking a significant escalation for the investigationthat could put pressure on the Biden administration.

The panelhas said it could referTrump to the Justice Department for prosecutionif it finds damning evidence, in what would be seen as an open invitation to Attorney GeneralMerrick Garlandto be more aggressive towards the former president than he has been in his tenure thus far.

Rep.Liz Cheney(R-Wyo.), the select committees vice chair, gave the first indication at a hearing earlier this month that the panel is examining whether Trump committed a crime.

Quoting the statutory text for a felony obstruction offense, Cheney said that a key question for the select committee investigation is, Did Donald Trump, through action or inaction, corruptly seek to obstruct or impede Congress official proceedings to count electoral votes?

Obstruction of an official proceeding is a charge that carries a maximum possible sentence of 20 years in prison. Federal prosecutors have wielded it against hundreds of rioters alleged to have participated in the attack on the Capitol.

But bringing the same charge against a president who never set foot in the building would require far more complex legal and political calculations.

The challenge isthis undefined territory of the circumstances under which an executive official crosses the line between exercising executive power to actual obstruction of justice, said Daniel Hemel, a University of Chicago law professor.

The comments about Trumps potential wrongdoing come after months of growing frustration among Democrats and Trump critics that Garland and the DOJ arent doing enough to address potential illegal activity in the highest levels of the previous administration.

Any criminal referral from the select committee alleging that Trump violated the law would be an overt escalation of lawmakers efforts to pressure the Biden DOJ into being more aggressive towards the former president.

But criminal referrals from congressional investigators have no legal weight to compel federal prosecutors to bring charges, unlike the criminal contempt of Congress referrals that must be approved by a floor vote in the House and have already resulted in charges againstSteve Bannon, Trumps former White House strategist who pleaded not guilty last month to a pair of misdemeanors for defying the select committees subpoenas.

Jeff Robbins, a former federal prosecutor who has also served as an investigative counsel on two Senate committees, said that in order for such a referral to be persuasive to federal prosecutors, it must be backed up by solid evidence that would not only support bringing charges but show evidence of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

A committee that wants to make a persuasive referral will be as specific and as detailed and as evidence-based as possible, delivering something as close to a basis for an indictment on a silver platter as can be provided, he said.

Robbins said that any referral involving a former president would be held to an even higher standard, but added that the committees credibility would support its findings in the eyes of the Justice Department.

There will be an inclination to review very, very, very carefully any criminal referral involving Donald Trump, to kick the tires again and again and again, Robbins said. But on the other hand, theyll treat a criminal referral by this committee given its leadership and the quality of the lawyers as a serious document if thats what blows its way.

Throughout the first year of the Biden administration, Garland has sought to keep politics at arms length as he inherited a department that had been repeatedly used to further Trumps political ends and protect his personal interests over the previous four years.

In some high-profile cases, Garlands DOJ has backed the legal positions pushed by the department during the Trump administration, including defending the former president in a defamation suit from E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of raping her in the 90s, and arguing that an internal DOJ memo clearing him of wrongdoing in connection with the Mueller investigation should remain under wraps.

The department has shown little sign that its pursuing a criminal investigation into Trump.

Its going to be really hard to convict him here in part because I dont think we have a Nixon Watergate-style smoking gun, Hemel said, noting that even if a jury is filled with people who hate Trump with every bone in our body, they might be hesitant to convict him of obstructing an official proceeding.

And pursuing charges against Trump could be a fraught undertaking beyond the political implications. Such a prosecution would be unprecedented and could be undermined by legal uncertainties surrounding whether a president could be charged with a crime for actions he took while in office.

The obstruction charge that federal prosecutors have brought against many of the rioters in what is considered to be a novel interpretation of the statute has so far survived a series of legal challenges from defendants, but it remains to be seen whether juries will find the obstruction cases persuasive.

The courts have made clear in at least three different rulings that the rioters on the ground can be prosecuted for conspiracy charges; there is no reason to believe, evidence permitting, that the former president cant be similarly charged, Bradley Moss, a national security law expert, told The Hill by email.

If DOJ is to take this politically-explosive step, they no doubt have identified admissible evidence that Trump intended to obstruct the certification proceedings, that his actions in recommending the mob march on the Capitol was more than a mere throwaway line, and that he was aware of efforts by his war room to intervene if the mob did in fact prevent Congress from completing its certification process.

But Hemel sees the downside of losing the case being a far worse outcome, arguing an unsuccessful criminal prosecution of Trump would only strengthen the former president and heighten the threat he poses to American democracy.

There was a lot of criminal activity on Jan. 6. Are they building a case against President Trump? I dont think so. And, gosh, I think Im glad that DOJ isnt devoting resources to a fools errand effort to tear the country further apart and further elevate the political profile and demagogic myth of Trump, Hemel said.

Its unclear what evidence, if any, the committee has gathered to support a criminal referral aimed at the former president. But if the lawmakers are able to make a persuasive public case that Trump violated the law, some believe it would be important for the DOJ to follow through in order to send the message that nobody is above the law.

Katherine Hawkins, a senior legal analyst at the nonpartisan Project on Government Oversight, believes its important for the select committee to reach its own conclusions about whether Trump violated the law and, if it finds that he did, to clearly articulate the case against him.

Hawkins said that the DOJs inclination to defend the legality of executive branch actions makes the congressional investigation even more crucial. She pointed to the Senate Intelligence Committees investigation into the CIAs torture practices, a portion of which was made public in 2014 that found that the agency had exceeded the legal justification for the practices and engaged in a cover-up. Despite the Senate panels findings, the DOJ never prosecuted anyone for their role in torturing terror suspects.

I think that the committee should seriously consider making a well-supported referral, because otherwise we just get silence from DOJ, which could be [doing a] diligent investigation, theoretically, but given how the torture investigation went, how the Department of Justice approaches executive law breaking in general and what weve seen from Garland, I doubt it, Hawkins said.

She added that the committees findings will be valuable even if they make a referral that the DOJ chooses not to act upon.

Just getting the truth out is valuable in itself, Hawkins said. Knowing how close we came and what mechanisms could be in place to prevent that from happening again is really important. But also if theres evidence of unaddressed crimes that we dont know if the Department of Justice is going to investigate, I think its definitely appropriate for the committee to put that at the DOJs feet and say, What are you doing with this? Whats going on here?

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Jan. 6 panel signals interest in whether Trump committed crime - NewsNation Now

Expectation is growing that Donald Trump might face charges for trying to obstruct Congress from certifying Joe Bidens election this year as a House panel collects more evidence into the 6 January attack on the Capitol, former prosecutors and other experts say.

Speculation about possible charges against the former US president has been heightened by a recent rhetorical bombshell from Republican representative and 6 January panel vice-chair Liz Cheney suggesting the House panel is looking at whether Trump broke a law that bars obstruction of official proceedings.

Former prosecutors say if the panel finds new evidence about Trumps role interfering with Congress job to certify Bidens election, that could help buttress a potential case by the Department of Justice.

In varying ways, Cheneys comments have been echoed by two other members of the House select committee, Republican Adam Kinzinger and Democrat Jamie Raskin, spurring talk of how an obstruction statute could apply to Trump, which would entail the panel making a criminal referral of evidence for the justice department to investigate, say DoJ veterans.

Cheneys remarks raising the specter of criminal charges against Trump came twice earlier this month at hearings of the committee. Experts believe the charges could be well founded given Trumps actions on 6 January, including incendiary remarks to a rally before the Capitol attack and failure to act for hours to stop the riot, say former justice department officials.

Based on what is already in the public domain, there is powerful evidence that numerous people, in and out of government, attempted to obstruct and did obstruct, at least for a while an official proceeding i.e., the certification of the Presidential election, said former DOJ inspector general and former prosecutor Michael Bromwich in a statement to the Guardian. That is a crime.

Although a House panel referral of obstruction by Trump would not force DOJ to open a criminal case against him, it could help provide more evidence for one, and build pressure on the justice department to move forward, say former prosecutors.

Attorneygeneral Merrick Garland has declined to say so far whether his department may be investigating Trump and his top allies already for their roles in the Capitol assault.

The panel has amassed significant evidence, including more than 30,000 records and interviews with more than 300 people, among whom were some key White House staff.

The evidence against Trump himself could include his actions at the Stop the Steal rally not far from the White House, where he urged backers to march to the Capitol and fight like hell [or] youre not going to have a country any more. Trump then resisted multiple pleas for hours from Republicans and others to urge his violent supporters to stop the attack.

Recent rulings by Trump-appointed district court judges have supported using the obstruction statute, which federal prosecutors have cited in about 200 cases involving rioters charged by DOJ for their roles in the Capitol assault that injured about 140 police officers and left five dead.

Still, experts note that the House panels mission has been to assemble a comprehensive report of what took place on 6 January and work on legislation to avoid such assaults on democracy. They caution that any criminal referral to DOJ documenting Trumps obstruction of Congress will take time and more evidence to help bolster a DOJ investigation.

Some DOJ veterans say that any referral to DOJ by the House panel for a criminal case against Trump and perhaps top allies such as ex chief of staff Mark Meadows, whom the House last week cited for criminal contempt for refusing to be deposed might also include Trumps aggressive pressuring of federal and state officials before 6 January to block Bidens win with baseless charges of fraud.

Bromwich stressed that the evidence is steadily accumulating that would prove obstruction beyond a reasonable doubt. The ultimate question is who the defendants would be in such an obstruction case. Evidence is growing that, as a matter of law and fact, that could include Trump, Meadows and other members of Trumps inner circle.

Cheney teed up the issue about Trumps potential culpability first at a House panel hearing last week, when she urged that Meadows be held in contempt for refusing to be deposed, and then hit Trump with a rhetorical bombshell.

We know hours passed with no action by the president to defend the Congress of the United States from an assault while we were counting electoral votes, Cheney said.

Did Donald Trump, through action or inaction, corruptly seek to obstruct or impede Congress official proceeding to count electoral votes?

Cheneys comments about Trump were very precise, including language from the criminal obstruction statute, and she stated that her question is a key one for the panels legislative tasks.

Raskin too has told Politico that the issue of whether Trump broke the law by obstructing an official proceeding is clearly one of the things on the mind of some of the members of the committee.

The possibility of obstruction charges is legally valid, said Paul Rosenzweig, a former DOJ prosecutor who worked on Ken Starrs team during the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton, noting that two district judges appointed by Trump have recently said that the statute covers the efforts on January 6 to stop the electoral count.

For instance, Judge Dabney Friedrich in a recent opinion rejected the claim by some defendants who were challenging the DOJ view that the 6 January meeting of Congress fit the legal definition of an official proceeding.

Rosenzweig posited that given Trumps various attempts before 6 January to undermine the election results, a broader conspiracy case may be another option for prosecutors to pursue. Should DOJ look at broader conspiracy charges, Trumps persistent pressures on acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen and his top deputy for help blocking Bidens victory wouldprobably be relevant, say ex-prosecutors.

On one call on 27 December 2020, Trump pressed Rosen and his deputy to falsely state the election illegal and corrupt despite the fact that the DOJ had not found any evidence of widespread voter fraud.

Paul Pelletier, a former acting chief of the fraud section at DOJ, said that Cheneys statements were carefully crafted and obviously based upon evidence the committee had seen. Should Congress ultimately refer the case to DOJ for investigation and prosecution, the DOJs investigation would not be limited to a single obstruction charge, but would more likely investigate broader conspiracy charges potentially involving Trump and other key loyalists.

The panel has accelerated its pace recently by sending out dozens of subpoenas for documents and depositions, some to close Trump aides. Meadows has become a central focus of the inquiry, in part over tweets he received on and near the insurrection that are among approximately 9,000 documents he gave the panel, much to Trumps chagrin.

As Trumps efforts to thwart the panel from moving forward have had limited success, he has relied on sending out splenetic email attacks, including one last month that read: The Unselect Committee itself is Rigged, stacked with Never Trumpers, Republican enemies, and two disgraced RINOs, Cheney and Kinzinger, who couldnt get elected dog catcher in their districts.

Despite Trumps angry attacks on the panel, some ex-prosecutors say that prosecuting Trump if enough evidence is found to merit charges is important for the health of American democracy.

Former Georgia US attorney Michael J Moore told the Guardian: I hate to think of a legal system that would allow the most powerful person in the country to go unchallenged when he has abdicated his highest priority, that being to keep our citizens safe. Trumps conduct that day was not unlike a mob boss.

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Trump could face charges for trying to obstruct certification of election, legal experts say - The Guardian

DONALD Trumps NYC restaurant turned away a group of anti-vaxxers on Thursday for refusing to show proof of vaccination.

The diners tried entering Trump Grill, located within the former presidents Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, according to video from the scene.

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We came to Trump Tower because we thought Donald Trump was supposed to be for America, he said hes against vaccine mandates, one unmasked protester said.

I thought as a man, whos for America, he would stand up, pay a $1,000 fine, and let us eat freely you know the mans a billionaire, he can afford a $1,000 fine.

It would make him look good. But instead, hes had his people not serve us and it just exposed him as a fraud, the anti-vaxxer said. All talk but no action.

In New York City, anyone who is five years or older and wants to dine indoors, see a performance, or go to the gym needs to show proof that theyve had at least one Covid vaccine dose.

But the group outside of Trump Tower this week wasnt having it even as a police officer explained the rules to them.

Prove to us that we are a threat, one protester said to the cop, while another said: The burden of proof is on them because they are assuming that we are a threat because we don't have a vaccine. Well, prove to me that we are a threat.

The cop explained that Trump Grill didnt have to prove anything to the protesters.

You can make 10 reservations, that doesn't guarantee [anything.] It's not a constitutional right, the officer said of dining at a restaurant.

Days ago, during a live interview with Bill OReilly, Trump revealed he had received his Covid booster shot and was booed by the crowd.

Dont! Dont! Dont! Dont! Dont! Trump told the crowd, waving off their reaction with his hand.

While Trump has expressed opposition to vaccine mandates, he has long taken credit for the vaccines developed during his presidency.

The Big Apple has launched some of the most aggressive measures to combat the spread of coronavirus.

About 5.9million adults have gotten at least a first dose, out of seven million people age 18 and up roughly 84 percent while 5.8million New Yorkers of all ages are fully vaccinated.

Last week, Mayor Bill de Blasio said of possible business closures because of the recent Omicron variant surge: Adamantly I feel this: No more shutdowns.

Weve been through them. They were devastating. We cant go through it again.

On Thursday, it was announced the citys annual Times Square celebration would be scaled back from what would usually accommodate about 58,000 people to about 15,000.

Everyone there must show proof of vaccination and wear a mask.

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Expert studies have shown that the risk of severe illness from Covid-19 is reduced by 90 percent or more among people who are fully vaccinated.

While there are breakthrough cases of Covid among people who are vaccinated, they are rare.

In the event of a breakthrough case, victims are highly unlikely to be hospitalized with severe or deadly symptoms from the virus.

Health officials have advised that the Omicron variant is more infectious and could lead to further breakthrough cases.

Yet the spread can be offset by all vaccinated Americans receiving a booster shot.

Current vaccines are expected to protect against severe illness, hospitalizations, and deaths due to infection with the Omicron variant.

With other variants, like Delta, vaccines have remained effective at preventing severe illness, hospitalizations, and death.

Studies have also shown that side effects from the vaccine are extremely rare.

Source: Centers for Disease Control.

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Donald Trumps NYC restaurant turns away anti-vaxxers for refusing to show proof of Covid vaccination... - The US Sun

Trump winning kind of showed, Hey, anybody can do this, said Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), a former college football coach elected in 2020. President Trump opened the doors for a lot of people. Hes not a lawyer. He hadnt been in politics before. Hes an outsider. So that influenced my decision.

I started a trend, didnt I? Tuberville quipped.

Missouri's Roy Blunt, the No. 4 Senate GOP leader, took the well-traveled route to the upper chamber spending nearly a decade and a half in the House before moving up, with leadership credentials to boot. But Blunt said he's not surprised that Trump's background has inspired more celebrities to mull runs for office.

The logical response to President Trumps election would be people running who dont have political experience but have wide recognition, said Blunt, who is retiring next year. Two House Republicans are vying in the primary to replace him, but they're currently trailing the state's former governor and sitting attorney general.

Running as a household name certainly has its perks, particularly in a costly statewide race. Besides the obvious name recognition, they can raise money more easily or tap their own personal fortunes to fund their campaigns than their competition while claiming the outsider status often coveted in congressional runs. And with the wide reach of cable talk shows, already well-known candidates can communicate to voters fairly easily without paying for advertisements.

On the other hand, celebrity candidates can be unaccustomed to the intense vetting and media scrutiny that comes with running for office.

I joke that the most expensive walk in Washington is from the House to the Senate, said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), another onetime House member. Celebrity gives you an instant attention, but it also has a downside. You have to prove that youre more than a celebrity.

Walker, for one, is facing questions about his marital history and academic credentials in the Georgia Senate race. Oz has to battle skepticism about his promotion of scientifically dubious remedies on his show, not to mention his Pennsylvania residency given his years living in New Jersey.

The celebrity doctor has emphasized that he grew up in the Philadelphia region, votes in the state and went to graduate school there. Oz has also defended his medical advice. He told a Senate panel that he has given the products he promotes to his family, but also said he recognized that oftentimes they don't have the scientific muster to present as fact.

Theres also the stark knowledge gap that virtually any candidate who came to Congress through entertainment or sports would confront when it comes to writing legislation. Longtime lawmakers warn that the resulting erosion of policy prowess could lead to further partisanship in a chamber thats already bitterly divided.

These celebrities dont come here with an interest in legislating. They come here with an interest in grandstanding and getting TV clips, because thats what theyve spent their entire career doing, said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who also began his career in the House after time in the state legislature.

My worry is that as you get more people here who have no experience in cutting a deal, it makes a place thats already pretty dysfunctional even worse," Murphy added.

That shift away from Hill deal-cutting practice could be dramatic in the next Congress: All five of the Senate Republicans who've announced their retirements next year are former House members, with collective decades of bipartisanship under their belts.

And the Senate GOP conference could see several new members with zero legislative experience. In addition to Oz and Walker, author J.D. Vance is mounting his own campaign in Ohio.

A spokesperson for Oz said in a statement that he has "spent his career empowering patients and audiences alike to change their lives for the better and is "an outsider." The spokesperson added that "it's that outside the Beltway, people-first mentality that Dr. Oz champions and will make D.C. more accountable when he becomes the next Senator for Pennsylvania."

Fame outside of politics "gets your foot in the door, that gets eyeballs on you, but you still got to perform, said Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), the current frontrunner in his party's primary to capture that Buckeye State Senate seat next year.

Trump had that. He obviously was able to convince a large part of the country that he was the real deal, said Ryan, who's spent 18 years in the House. But he warned that "when the lights come on, youve got to be able to perform. People are gonna love you if you're a celebrity, and it's more romanticized. But then they take a good close look at you, and you're gonna pass muster or not.

Democrats have seen celebrity candidates on their side of the aisle, too.

Most recently, there was billionaire Mike Bloomberg, whose bid for president tanked but not before racking up endorsements from Hill Democrats. (Bloomberg also served as New York City mayor.) Perhaps the most famous examples are former Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), a Saturday Night Live comedian turned political activist, and pro basketball player turned senator, Bill Bradley of New Jersey.

And some Democratic candidates have achieved rock star status just by running repeatedly for higher office; former Rep. Beto ORourke recently launched a campaign for Texas governor after two consecutive unsuccessful bids for the White House and the Senate.

It can be hard to go from a position where people like you and say kind things to you and then when you become a candidate and your words get dissected and it actually matters how youre able to handle that is, I think, important , observed Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). Im not suggesting that a football star or a TV personality cant do that, but I do think that sometimes its just harder for them.

Walker and Ozs candidacies, of course, dont quite mean that celebrity will become a requirement for GOP Senate viability. GOP Reps. Vicky Hartzler and Billy Long are trying to replace Blunt in Missouri, while Rep. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) has Trump's backing in the race to succeed retiring Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.). And first-term Republican Sens. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Roger Marshall of Kansas are all former House members.

Despite his own roots in the House, Cramer said hes come to appreciate higher-profile Senate candidates for at least one reason: Being elected to Congress isnt the biggest thing thats ever happened to them. And I think thats sort of nice.

Theres no question that Donald Trump broke the mold, Cramer added. I dont know that hes the new mold, but he certainly broke the old one.

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Senate GOP feels another Trump effect: The rise of celeb candidates - POLITICO

In this daily series, Newsweek explores the steps that led to the January 6 Capitol Riot.

At 5:30 a.m. on December 25, Christmas Day, a large mobile home detonated on a deserted stretch of 2nd Avenue North in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, nearly collapsing one building and damaging 41 others, shattering windows and sending shrapnel into the early morning street. Trees were knocked to the ground, and Second Avenue took on the charred look of a battleground.

Eight people were injured, including three bystanders who were hospitalized. Two Nashville police officers who had just arrived in the area after the RV broadcast warning messages also received minor injuries.

The message broadcast loudly was "This area must be evacuated now. If you can hear this message, evacuate now."

The RV was parked in front of 166 2nd Avenue, right outside an AT&T telephone exchange, also serving as a switching and transmission center. An AT&T spokesman said the company's network hub was damaged and cellphone and Internet services in the Nashville area, middle Tennessee and Kentucky were affected, reaching as far south as Alabama. 911 emergency services were disrupted in numerous cities and towns.

"Given the damage to our facility, it will take time to restore service," AT&T posted on its website. "We have already rerouted significant traffic from this facility and are bringing in other equipment, including numerous portable cell sites to the area."

Nashville Mayor John Cooper signed an executive order declaring a state of civil emergency and enacting a 4:30 p.m. curfew within the downtown area.

K-9 teams searched around the area for bombs. Radiation monitors were brought in. Public transportation was suspended. Due to telecommunications outages, the FAA temporarily halted flights in and out of Nashville.

"Intentional bombing" said local NewsChannel 5.

"Some investigators are asking if there is a relationship between the Nashville bombing and the broader right-wing insurgent cause," terrorism analyst Laurie Mylroie wrote.

Former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe told CNN that an explosion of this size would be investigated as a possible act of terrorism. He speculated that police might have been the target of the explosion because of the broadcast. A Nashville police hazardous devices unit was on the way to the site before the RV exploded.

Bill Ryan, a retired detective and former member of the New York Police Department arson and explosions task force, told Fox News that the Nashville blast could be a "trial run" for a larger attack or "a standalone explosion."

The many threats to the telecommunications infrastructure, particularly 5G wireless technology, was the main hypothesis of FBI and homeland security analysts, given the conspiracy theories that had been voice connecting 5G to COVID.

"The anti-5G movement is strong, and its meld with anti-vaxxers and MAGA supporters is sure to cause many headaches in the months and years ahead," a homeland security analyst told Newsweek at the time.

Responding to the explosion, the U.S. Park Police in Washington DC wrote in an internal briefing: "While the exact motive behind the bombing remains unknown, there have been some social media postings concerning conspiracy theories stating that election data stored at the AT&T building was targeted by the bomber. ... the 25 December bombing should act as a vivid reminder as to the despair and the dedication to act that exists from a small minority of individuals concerning recent social and political events."

"One more event in Nashville's 2020," Mayor Cooper said. Nobody wanted more bad news for Christmas, that terrorism might be accompanying the "recent social and political events." A new consensus was emerging that conspiracy believers, COVID deniers and pro-Trump forces were terrorists or potential terrorists, particularly when these broad groups were seen as a unified mass of gun-owning white supremacists.

Enormous resources were devoted to investigating the Nashville bombing, with over 250 FBI agents on the scene by the weekenda reminder that, after the fact, the FBI and other domestic agencies were very good at their job.

Forensic tests of human remains recovered from the RV, as well as the VIN number of the mobile home, confirmed that Anthony Quinn Warner, 63, of Antioch, Tennessee, was the likely perpetrator. He had died in the explosion.

The FBI would later say that Warner's actions "were determined to not be related to terrorism."

"Based on analysis of the information and evidence gathered throughout the investigation, the FBI assesses Warner's detonation of the improvised explosive device was an intentional act in an effort to end his own life, driven in part by a totality of life stressorsincluding paranoia, long-held individualized beliefs adopted from several eccentric conspiracy theories, and the loss of stabilizing anchors and deteriorating interpersonal relationships," the FBI said. "The FBI's analysis did not reveal indications of a broader ideological motive to use violence to bring about social or political change, nor does it reveal indications of a specific personal grievance focused on individuals or entities in and around the location of the explosion."

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Christmas Day Bombing Raised Fears of Donald Trump Conspiracists as Terrorists - Newsweek

In this daily series, Newsweek explores the steps that led to the January 6 Capitol Riot.

Donald Trump entered the holiday season as fixated as ever on overturning the results of the election. "VOTER FRAUD IS NOT A CONSPIRACY THEORY, IT IS A FACT!!!" he tweeted on December 24.

The night before, Trump flew to Florida to spend the holidays at his Mar-a-Lago home. Flying with him on Air Force One: Rudy Giuliani, the president's Number One cheerleader, who was spending Christmas with the Trumps.

Upon arriving at his golf club that Thursday, the president "received a warm welcome from members," according to CNN. Fellow golfers were excited that Trump wasn't giving up the fight.

Vice President Mike Pence was on Trump's mind, though. The two men were fundamentally different. Pence, deeply conservative and a conscientious holder of his office, was never close to or buddies with the showman.

Donald Trump tweeted on Christmas Eve: "Mike Pence MUST do this ... defend our Constitution from our enemies: Foreign: China, Russia, Iran..." This was the only way for Trump to directly communicate; their meetings at this point were formal and perfunctory.

Pence was reaching out to everyoneConstitutional lawyers, former vice presidents, Congressional leadersand every one of them told him he had no role to play in the vote count on January 6, other than the pro forma ceremonial role. The Constitution was clear: Congress certified the electoral votes that had already been counted. As president of the Senate, Pence presided. But he didn't have to. Vice President Hubert Humphrey didn't preside, turning over the duties to the President Pro Tempore, the senior member.

Trump and his supporters, of course, had their own theory of what was possible, the Pence could reject the electors in swing states, substituting in Trump electors. It was preposterous, but Trump and the campaign produced their own experts, lawyers, and kibitzers who happily contradicted the facts, making up their own path to reversing the election when the Joint Session of Congress met.

What was Donald Trump to think? Though Pence, by all accounts, was struggling with the personal and ethical dilemma of making the final break with Donald Trump, he also continued to publicly support the president, creating the illusion that he might come through. Speaking to a group of young conservatives in Florida earlier in the week, Pence exhorted the crowd to "keep fighting until every legal vote is counted" and "every illegal vote is thrown out."

"Stay in the fight for election integrity. Stay in the fight to defend all we've done," Pence said. "Four more years!"

"Stop the steal!" the crowd chanted.

Official Washington"the swamp," the high-and-mighty, as John Bolton called them, the lawyers and lobbyists, the bureaucracyconcluded overwhelmingly that the election was over. Donald Trump and his supporters were merely bellowing conspiracies and fantastic claims, they thought. It was all theater to stoke the president's ego. Donald Trump was responsible for riling people up, they thought, dismissing the 70 million who had voted for him as ignorant, illiterate, ridiculous.

And yet, outside Washington, the national angst was deep and there was genuine confusion and concern. It wasn't just a group of young Republicans. It wasn't just Trump's golf club. Take, for instance, the experience of Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, when he went back to Utah for Christmas.

According to Bob Woodward and Robert Costa's "Peril," Senator Lee "began hearing from friends, neighbors, family members about the election being stolen ... People who would not be regarded as being on the fringe of societymayors, city council men, county commissioners, sheriffssaid that were expecting to go back to Washington and 'stop the steal.' Text messages, social media posts, people who got his phone number wanting to know what was going on. How was the election stolen? What are you going to do?"

"Cancel culture" Trump tweeted, railing against Twitter for "going wild with their flags, trying hard to suppress even the truth. Just shows how dangerous they are, purposely stifling free speech. Very dangerous for our Country."

"This is how Communism starts," Trump raged.

Donald Trump's army was ready to go to war for their president, to prevent communism, to defend the nation. They sought a sense of patriotic duty, expressed in their quasi-military pretensions and even their dress.

"Who wants to go to dc?" Christopher Quaglin posted on Facebook on December 24, "I have an extra double twin bed available."

"Driving in with my wife from Berryville VA," Donavan Ray Crawl posted on Facebook. "Meeting up with Oathkeepers from North Carolina and Patriot group from the Shenandoah Valley."

Ronald Mele posted on Facebook that he and three friends were thinking of renting a car to drive cross-country, "arriving January 5 to support our President on the 6th and days to follow just in case." The following day, he explained in another Facebook post that he was "going to rent a suburban. Team of four rotating eight hours each. Need room for the 'gear.'"

"[I]t is IMPERATIVE that we let our elected federal officials know in both the Senate and the house that we will not be voting for them again if they do not support our President Trump on January 6th when they are counting Electoral College votes ..." Kenneth Reda posted.

Benjamin Burlew spoke to a family member on a call that day as well, saying he planned to "storm the Capitol."

"By bullet or ballot," Ryan Taylor Nichols posted on Facebook. "Restoration of the Republic is Coming."

"That's my basement gun room," Quaglin captioned a photo. "I have been planning for this since fucking Bush left office and Obama came in"

All six were later arrested for their roles on January 6.

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Mike Pence Fed the Illusion that Donald Trump Might Prevail - Newsweek

Donald Trump appeared on Fox Business this week and was asked about recent developments on Capitol Hill. Predictably, the former president complained that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is "a disaster," condemned the popular new infrastructure law, and whined that Republicans didn't go far enough to threaten the United States with default before raising the debt ceiling.

But before moving on, Trump also emphasized what he saw as his most pressing concern.

"And we have a bigger problem, because they have a so-called voting rights bill, which is a voting rights for Democrats, because Republicans will never be elected again if that happens, if that passes."

The on-air comments came on the heels of a related written statement from two weeks ago in which he said the Freedom to Vote Act would "make it almost impossible for Republicans to get elected in the future."

To the extent that reality still has any meaning, these claims are demonstrably absurd. Virginia, for example, implemented some important and progressive voter-access reforms in recent years, and Republican candidates nevertheless scored major victories up and down the ballot in last month's elections.

But factual details aside, consider the subtext of Trump's arguments: The more Americans are allowed to participate in their own democracy, the more difficult it is for Republicans to win elections. It's both a recipe for partisan voter-suppression tactics, and a subtle acknowledgment that, from Trump's own perspective, the American mainstream isn't eager to buy what the GOP is selling.

As for the voting rights legislation the former president is eager to derail, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer continues to make new strides, endorsing a plan this week to advance the Freedom to Vote Act by creating an exception to the chamber's filibuster rules. As NBC News reported, the New York Democrat addressed the strategy again last night during a special conference meeting.

Schumer said on the call that the Senate would vote on a revised version of the Build Back Better Act and a potential rules change if Republicans do not drop the filibuster early in the new year.... Changing the filibuster rules would allow a vote on sweeping legislation to expand access to the ballot box and safeguard against election subversion.

Before wrapping up for the calendar year, there was evidence of meaningful momentum among Senate Democrats for protecting voting rights, even if that means creating a carve-out to the institution's existing filibuster rules. Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona continues to stand in the way of progress, but Schumer is clearly determined to push forward anyway.

Watch this space.

Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MSNBC political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "The Impostors: How Republicans Quit Governing and Seized American Politics."

Here is the original post:

Trump says more than he intended while slamming voting rights bill - MSNBC

When Facebook and Twitter barred Donald J. Trump from their platforms after the Capitol riot in January, he lost direct access to his most powerful megaphones. On Friday, Facebook said the former president would not be allowed back on its service until at least January 2023, citing a risk to public safety.

Since his ban and President Bidens inauguration, he has posted statements online far less often. But some of his statements have traveled just as far and wide on social networks.

The First Lady and I tested positive for COVID-19 ...

Both President Trumps own posts and those directly

quoting him were liked and shared 4.6 million times

on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

I WON THIS

ELECTION, BY

A LOT!

Donald Trump

banned from

social media

To all of those who have

asked, I will not be going

to the Inauguration on

January 20th.

This has been yet another

phase of the greatest

witch hunt in the history

of our Country...

Posts quoting this Trump

statement on his second

impeachment got 2 million

likes and shares, even

without Mr. Trump being

able to post it himself.

The First Lady and I tested positive for COVID-19 ...

Both President Trumps own posts and those directly

quoting him were liked and shared 4.6 million times

on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

I WON THIS

ELECTION,

BY A LOT!

Donald Trump banned

from social media

To all of those who have

asked, I will not be going

to the Inauguration on

January 20th.

This has been yet another phase

of the greatest witch hunt in the

history of our Country...

Posts quoting this Trump statement

on his second impeachment got

2 million likes and shares across social

media, even without Mr. Trump being

able to post it himself.

Donald Trump banned

from social media

The First Lady and I tested positive for COVID-19 ...

Both President Trumps own posts and those directly

quoting him were liked and shared 4.6 million times

on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!

This has been yet another phase of the greatest

witch hunt in the history of our Country...

Posts quoting this Trump statement on his second

impeachment got 2 million likes and shares across social

media, even without Mr. Trump being able to post it himself.

To all of those who have asked, I will not be

going to the Inauguration on January 20th.

The First Lady and I tested positive for COVID-19 ...

I WON THIS ELECTION,

BY A LOT!

Both President Trumps own posts and those

directly quoting him were liked and shared

4.6 million times on Twitter,

Facebook and Instagram.

Donald Trump

banned from social media

This has been yet another phase of the greatest

witch hunt in the history of our Country...

Posts quoting this Trump statement on his second impeachment

got 2 million likes and shares across social media, even without

Mr. Trump being able to post it himself.

To all of those who have asked, I will not be

going to the Inauguration on January 20th.

Tallies of likes and shares come from the 100 most highly liked and shared posts on Facebook and Instagram for each Trump statement. (In most cases, there were fewer than 100 posts quoting each statement.) On Twitter, any posts quoting a given Trump statement that had at least 10 retweets were included.

The New York Times examined Mr. Trumps nearly 1,600 social media posts from Sept. 1 to Jan. 8, the day Mr. Trump was banned from the platforms. We then tracked the social media engagement with the dozens of written statements he made on his personal website, campaign fund-raising site and in email blasts from Jan. 9 until May 5, which was the day that the Facebook Oversight Board, which reviews some content decisions by the company, said that the company acted appropriately in kicking him off the service.

Before the ban, the social media post with the median engagement generated 272,000 likes and shares. After the ban, that dropped to 36,000 likes and shares. Yet 11 of his 89 statements after the ban attracted as many likes or shares as the median post before the ban, if not more.

How does that happen?

Mr. Trump had long been his own best promoter on social media. The vast majority of people on Twitter and Facebook interacted directly with Mr. Trumps posts, either liking or sharing them, The Times analysis found.

But after the ban, other popular social media accounts often picked up his messages and posted them themselves. (Last week, Mr. Trump shut down his blog, one of the places he made statements.)

On Oct. 8, Mr. Trump tweeted that the then-Democratic presidential candidate Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his running mate, Kamala Harris, lied constantly. The post was liked and shared 501,000 times on Facebook and Twitter.

On March 21, Mr. Trump published a statement on his website saying that his administration had handed over the most secure border in history. He went on to criticize the Biden administrations handling of the border crisis. Our Country is being destroyed! Mr. Trump said. The statement was liked and shared more than 661,000 times.

An Oct. 8, 2020 statement with

about half a million total likes and shares

Facebook

250,000 likes and shares on 57 posts

Donald J. Trump post

253,000 likes and shares

Twitter

250,000 likes and retweets on 2 posts

@realDonaldTrump post

248,000 likes and retweets

A March 21, 2021 statement with

about half a million total likes and shares

Facebook

390,000 likes and shares on 100 posts

President

Read more from the original source:

What Happened When Trump Was Banned on Facebook and Twitter - The New York Times

The Justice Department under President Donald Trump obtained a gag order that kept top CNN executives from disclosing the governments pursuit of reporter Barbara Starr email and other records as part of an apparent leak investigation.

According to CNN, the effort started in July of last year and was only revealed until Wednesday, when a federal judge unsealed parts of the case. CNNs general counsel David Vigilante went on air to explain that he was unable to reveal details of the case even to Starr herself. She and reporters from The Washington Post and The New York Times were informed last month that the government had seized their records without their knowledge.

Vigilante described a protracted legal battle that ultimately resulted in the DOJ agreeing to a much narrower disclosure of records, after the tens of thousands originally sought over a span of two months in 2017.

Related StoryJoe Biden White House Says It Wasn't Informed About Justice Department Move That Could Lead To Dismissal Of Defamation Case Against Donald Trump

Its still not clear why the government was seeking the records, but the DOJ said last month that Starr was not a target of an investigation. During the time frame that the government sought the records, Starr, their Pentagon correspondent, had reported on North Korea, Syria and Afghanistan.

We were completely deprived of our right to defend ourselves, Vigilante said on CNN on Wednesday.

There has been concern that the Biden Justice Department continued to pursue the cases rather than immediately suspend the pursuit of reporters records. After Starr received her letter, CNNs chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins asked Biden about it, and he said that the practice was simply, simply wrong. The White House and the Justice Department announced over the weekend that they would end the practice of subpoenaing journalists phone and email records as they conducted leak investigations.

Vigilante said that representatives from the network, as well as the Times and Post, would meet on Monday with Attorney General Merrick Garland.

While it is not uncommon for media organizations to receive subpoenas for information in court cases, what was particularly unusual about this instance was the ability of the DOJ to obtain a secrecy order. That kept the circle of people at the network who knew about what was going on to Vigilante and other attorneys for the network, while CNN President Jeff Zucker was given limited details, the network reported.

For a news organization it is incredibly unusual, Vigilante said. It has never happened to us before.

On Friday, The New York Times reported that while the Trump administration never informed the Times about its pursuit of records from four reporters, the Biden administration did, but they imposed a gag order to prevent that papers top lawyer, David McCraw, from disclosing it to all but a small group of top executives.

In The Washington Post this week, publisher Fred Ryan wrote that Trumps actions, and the expansion upon them during the Biden administration, pose a grave threat to our ability as a nation to keep powerful officials in check. With the revelation that the Justice Department has secretly obtained phone and email records at multiple news organizations to sniff out the identities of journalists sources, government employees who would otherwise come forward to reveal malfeasance are more likely to fear exposure and retaliation, and therefore to stay silent.

Ryan called for clear and enduring safeguards to ensure that this brazen infringement of the First Amendment rights of all Americans is never repeated.

Vigilante also called for some rules around this to make sure that it doesnt happen again. He still isnt sure of just what the government was seeking. Candidly, to this day, I dont know because it was such an opaque process, he said.

At a hearing on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Garland said that the president has made very clear his view of the First Amendment and it coincides with mine. It is vital to the functioning of our democracy. That extends to the need for journalists to go about their work disclosing wrongdoing and error in the government. That is part of how you have faith in the government, by having that transparency.

He said that these were decisions made under a set of policies that have existed for decades, that continuously with each new administration racheted up greater protections. But going forward, we have adopted a policy which is the most protective of journalists ability to do their jobs in historyWe will not use compulsory process in leak investigations to require reporters to provide information about their sources when they are doing their job as reporters.

View original post here:

Donald Trumps Justice Department Obtained Gag Order On CNN Attorney To Keep Secret Its Pursuit Of Reporters Email Records - Deadline

Donald Trump has appeared to drop his strongest hint yet at another presidential run in 2024, responding to news of his two-year ban from Facebook on Friday by saying he would not invite Mark Zuckerberg to dinner next time Im in the White House.

It has also been widely reported this week that Trump believes he will be reinstated in the presidency by August.

He will not. But in his statement on Friday he did not say if he thought he would return to the White House because he would be reinstated or because he would run for the Republican nomination again and then defeat Joe Biden or another Democrat.

Trumps statement read: Next time Im in the White House there will be no more dinners, at his request, with Mark Zuckerberg and his wife. It will be all business!

Trump has a history of using public statements to troll his opponents and a long record of lies and exaggerations and promoting baseless conspiracy theories. At the same time Trump has maintained a strong grip on the Republican party and there is intense speculation about whether or not he would run for the presidency again.

Nick Clegg, the former British deputy prime minister who is now Facebooks vice-president of global affairs, announced the social media websites ban on Trump until 2023.

It follows the recommendation of Facebooks oversight board. Trump has been suspended from the social media site since January, when he incited supporters to attack the US Capitol in service of his lie that his defeat by Joe Biden was the result of electoral fraud.

In a first statement on the suspension, Trump said it was an insult to those who voted for him in the rigged presidential election and said: They shouldnt be allowed to get away with this censoring and silencing.

Amid striking polling about support for his lies among Republican voters, Trump still dominates polls of possible contenders for the partys nomination in 2024.

Trump appears to be convincing himself the election was stolen and that some mechanism exists by which he might be reinstated, a belief apparently stoked by Mike Lindell, the chief executive of MyPillow and a hardline Trump supporter.

According to CNN, which confirmed reporting by Maggie Haberman of the New York Times and by the conservative National Review, Trump has asked advisers: What do you think of this theory?

A source also told CNN: People have told him that its not true.

See the original post:

Donald Trump responds to Facebook ban by hinting at return to White House - The Guardian

WASHINGTON Donald Trump falsely boasted during his campaign last fall that hed won Texas by a landslide in 2016, and on Saturday night, he told another whopper about his popularity in Texas this time about his performance in the 2020 campaign.

We won Texas by a lot, he claimed at a North Carolina GOP dinner.

Thats revisionist history, pure and simple.

Trump carried Texas in November by a margin of just 5.6 percentage points even worse than his 9-point margin in Texas over Hillary Clinton four years earlier.

Only two GOP nominees have won Texas by a smaller margin since 1976, when President Gerald Ford lost the state and the White House to Democrat Jimmy Carter, 51-48.

Trump also lagged other Republicans running statewide in November, notably Sen. John Cornyn, who topped MJ Hegar by 9.6 points. Railroad Commissioner Jim Wright won by nearly as much.

So, its not as though Trump had coattails in Texas to brag about last fall, either.

His Texas margin of victory did seem like a lot compared with early July polls, which showed a 5-point deficit. But that was Joe Bidens high point in Texas and he effectively abandoned the state to focus elsewhere.

Texas had not been a battleground in decades before Trumps anemic showing in 2016.

The single-digit victory margin put a scare into Republicans, who have no viable path to the White House without Texas because of Democratic dominance in California and New York.

Democrats smelled opportunity for the 2018 midterms, when Beto ORourke held Sen. Ted Cruz below 51%, the worst showing for any statewide Republican nominee since 1994.

As for the purported landslide over Clinton in 2016, Trump occasionally liked to make that claim, as he did while stumping in Ohio six weeks before Election Day last fall.

Theres no precise definition, but political scientists and campaign experts reserve the term landslide for an overwhelming victory, especially one that exceeds expectations and demoralizes the losing side.

A 9-point win is a comfortable margin. In 2016, Trump carried battlegrounds Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin by less than 1 point.

But in Texas, which still hasnt elected a Democrat statewide since 1994, its not a margin for a Republican presidential nominee to brag about.

Trumps 9-point win over Clinton was 7 points smaller than Mitt Romneys victory margin in Texas four years earlier and the lowest for a Republican nominee since Bob Doles 5-point squeaker in 1996 though both Romney and Dole lost despite the support from deep red Texas.

Originally posted here:

No, Donald Trump didnt win Texas by a lot in 2020; it was among the worst GOP victory margins in decades - The Dallas Morning News

(Want to get this briefing by email? Heres the sign-up.)

Here are the weeks top stories, and a look ahead

1. Donald Trump began his next act Saturday night at the North Carolina Republican convention.

In a 90-minute speech, Mr. Trump ran through a litany of conservative culture war issues and ended with an extended frontal attack on voting and American democracy in which he endorsed a long list of Republican voter suppression proposals.

The former president is both a diminished figure and an oversized presence, our White House correspondents write. He shut down his blog after hearing from friends that the site was getting little traffic and making him look small and irrelevant, according to a person familiar with his thinking. But he remains the front-runner for the Republican Partys 2024 presidential nomination in every poll, and believes he could be reinstated to the White House in August.

If youre a one-term president, you usually go quietly into the night, said a presidential historian. He sees himself as leading the revolution, and hes doing it from the back of a golf cart.

Newly uncovered emails provided to Congress show that during Trumps final weeks in office, Mark Meadows, his chief of staff, repeatedly pushed the Justice Department to investigate unfounded conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

2. The U.S. appears to be trying to close the curtain on the pandemic. Across the ocean, in Britain and the European Union, it is quite a different story. Above, Parisians getting coffee last month after the countrys lockdown measures had been eased.

America has essentially lifted all rules for people who are vaccinated, while parts of Europe are maintaining limits on gatherings, reimposing curbs on travel and weighing local lockdowns even as infection levels plunge. The split is particularly stark in Britain, which is facing the spread of Delta, a new variant first detected in India.

Thailand is one of many Southeast Asian countries suffering a late-breaking wave. Two nightclubs are at the epicenter of its biggest and deadliest surge.

3. Calling it a failed experiment, a federal judge overturned Californias 32-year assault weapons ban.

The judge, Roger T. Benitez, wrote in his ruling that the firearms banned under the states law were fairly ordinary, popular, modern rifles, describing the AR-15 assault rifle as a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment. Above, AR-15 style rifles at a gun store in Oceanside, Calif. in April.

The judge granted a 30-day stay to allow the states attorney general to appeal the decision, where it is likely to join a number of other closely watched gun rights cases on appeal. The judges vividly worded opinion, comparing military-style firearms to Swiss Army knives, underscored the growing boldness of gun rights advocates.

4. For the first time in a generation, workers are gaining the upper hand.

Companies are becoming more willing to pay a little more to train workers, to take chances on people without traditional qualifications and to show greater flexibility in where and how people work, our senior economics correspondent writes. Above, Adquena Faine, a former ride-hailing driver who is now building a career as a cloud storage engineer.

The share of job postings that say no experience necessary is up two-thirds over 2019 levels, according to one firm. The shift builds on changes already underway in the tight labor market before the pandemic, when the unemployment rate was 4 percent or lower for two straight years.

But polls suggest Americans remain divided on whether President Bidens policies are helping or hurting the recovery. Progressive activists contend that the enhanced pandemic unemployment insurance, which Republicans and many employers decry, is giving workers a bit more leverage. The White House is emphasizing that the benefit will expire in September, as planned.

5. A severe drought of historic proportions has much of the Western half of the U.S. in its grip.

Nearly all of California, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and North Dakota are in drought, and in large areas of those states conditions are severe or exceptional. Above, water-intensive almond trees are removed from an orchard in Snelling, Calif.

Wildfires of a size normally seen in summers have already occurred in California, Arizona and New Mexico. Experts are concerned that this summers wildfires will be severe and widespread. Reservoirs in California hold about half as much water as usual for this time of year.

On the other side of the Pacific, the annual summer monsoon in South Asia begins this month. A million years of data suggests global warming is likely to make monsoons worse.

6. President Biden will head to England this week for a Group of 7 summit and will later hold meetings with European leaders.

Ahead of the summit, finance ministers agreed to back a new global minimum tax rate of at least 15 percent that companies would have to pay regardless of where they are based. Officials said the agreement could reshape global commerce and solidify public finances after more than a year of combating the pandemic.

As E.U. leaders prepare to welcome Biden, the simple fact that he regards Europe as an ally and NATO as vital is almost a revelation. Yet the Trump administration has left scars that some experts say will not soon heal, and there are serious issues to discuss: the withdrawal from Afghanistan, cyberwarfare, trade disputes, vaccines.

Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris is embarking on her first international trip, to Guatemala and Mexico, to address migration to the U.S. by seeking to improve conditions in those countries.

7. At the U.S. Womens Open, a 17-year-old amateur put herself in competition.

Nearly eliminated in qualifying, Megha Ganne, above, a Stanford-bound high-school junior from New Jersey, rose to the top of the leaderboard after two rounds. One of her most famous competitors, Michelle Wie West, 31, wouldnt be in the tournament if crude comments from Rudy Giuliani hadnt inspired her comeback.

8. Stonehenge, Angkor Wat in Cambodia, above, and the Taj Mahal: Demand for once-in-a-lifetime travel is high.

Last year, travelers had to put aside their bucket-list dreams of trekking to Mount Everest base camp or visiting the wonders of the ancient world. Now, as vaccines are available and countries open to visitors, tour companies are reporting a resurgence in interest for summer and fall trips from those hoping to get to these iconic sites.

If youre more of a lounging type, these aerial photographs of pools around the world are soothing, and so are these ideas for do-it-yourself rain gardens.

9. As spring turns to summer, hope blooms at prom.

There were custom-made masks to match outfits. There were silent discos to encourage social distancing. There was dancing, outdoors, on the football field. And there was joy, as American high school rites of passage proved durable, flexible, pandemic-proof. We went to four California high schools to report on Covid-influenced proms.

For more big looks and glam dresses, meet Symone the drag queen persona of Reggie Gavin, winner of this seasons Ru Pauls Drag Race.

10. And finally, relax and read.

The mystery of the $113 million deli. The life and death of your jeans. Kate Winslet, above, without a filter. Find these and more in The Weekender.

Link:

Donald Trump, Assault Weapons, Prom: Your Weekend Briefing - The New York Times

Trump

MyCityRocks, an online ticket exchange founded by former Houstonian Dr. Cliff Kurtzman, will be selling tickets for Donald Trump's upcoming tour with Bill O'Reilly. But Dr. Kurtzman isn't happy about it.

In a statement released Tuesday, Dr. Kurtzman says he is "incredulous" that "major venues across America are offering Donald Trump a platform to rewrite history and continue to spread lies and disinformation as he attempts to undermine the stability of our government and bring an end to free and fair elections along with many of the other democratic principles that have been an American foundation for nearly 250 years."

PREMIERE: Houston band The Wheel Workers calls out LGBTQ+ hate

Trump and O'Reilly have a Dec. 18 date at Toyota Center. It's dubbed The History Tour -- not to be mistaken for Michael Jackson's 1996-97 trek of the same name.

MyCityRocks has dubbed it the Rewriting History Tour and will provide a full refund "if the event should be cancelled because one of the speakers is unable to appear because they find themselves incarcerated."

"If it has ever been someone's dream to participate in an insurrection and overthrow the government of the United States, or to engage in practices such as racism, treason, sedition, sexual harassment and rape, while also attempting to avoid going to jail, this is their chance to learn from some of the top experts in these subjects," Dr. Kurtzman continues.

"We wish to make it very clear that tickets to these particular events will primarily appeal to those who support someone who is seeking to destroy American democracy, along with those who study sociopathic, psychopathic, abusive and criminal behavior, cult behavior and extreme narcissistic and antisocial personality disorders."

MyCityRocks will donate any proceeds from ticket resales to Fair Fight, the national voting rights organization founded by former Georgia state Rep. and voting rights activist Stacey Abrams.

MyCityRocks was founded in 2005 in Houston by Dr. Kurtzman, who worked with a commercial space engineering startup called Space Industries. He's now based in California.

Joey Guerra is the music critic for the Houston Chronicle. He also covers various aspects of pop culture. He has reviewed hundreds of concerts and interviewed hundreds of celebrities, from Justin Bieber to Dolly Parton to Beyonce. He's appeared as a regular correspondent on Fox26 and was head judge and director of the Pride Superstar singing competition for a decade. He has been named journalist of the year multiple times by both OutSmart Magazine and the FACE Awards. He also covers various aspects of pop culture, including the local drag scene and "RuPaul's Drag Race."

Excerpt from:

If Donald Trump goes to jail, MyCityRocks will offer refund for tour tickets - Houston Chronicle

Seven months after Election Day, former President Donald Trumps supporters are still auditing ballots in Arizonas largest county and may revive legislation that would make it easier for judges in Texas to overturn election results.

In Georgia, meanwhile, the Republican-controlled state legislature passed a bill allowing it to appoint a board that can replace election officials. Trump loyalists who falsely insist he won the 2020 election are running for top election offices in several swing states. And after a pro-Trump mob staged a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol to halt the certification of Democrat Joe Bidens election victory, Republicans banded together to block an independent investigation of the riot, shielding Trump from additional scrutiny of one of the darkest days of his administration.

To democracy advocates, Democrats and others, the persistence of the GOPs election denial shows how the Republican Party is increasingly open to bucking democratic norms, particularly the bipartisan respect traditionally afforded to election results even after a bitter campaign. Thats raising the prospect that if the GOP gains power in next years midterms, the party may take the extraordinary step of refusing to certify future elections.

We have to face the facts that Republicans obviously with exceptions have become an authoritarian party, said Steven Levitsky, a Harvard political scientist and co-author of the book How Democracies Die. Its impossible to sustain a democracy in a two-party system when one of the parties is not willing to play by the rules of the game.

Republicans have already offered a preview of how they might operate. On Jan. 6, the day of the Capitol riot, a majority of House Republicans voted to overturn Bidens victories in Arizona and Pennsylvania. Biden still would have won an Electoral College victory without those states, but the move signaled how the traditionally ceremonial congressional certification process could be weaponized.

For his part, Trump continues to push Republicans to embrace his election lies. Hes criticized his former vice president, Mike Pence, for fulfilling his constitutional duty to preside over the congressional certification of Bidens victory. And Trump has gone a step further recently by giving credence to a bizarre conspiracy theory that he could somehow be reinstated into the presidency in August, according to a longtime Trump ally who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Theres no constitutional or legal mechanism for Trump to return to the presidency absent winning another election in 2024. Trumps argument that the last election was tainted has been roundly rejected by federal and state officials, including his own attorney general and Republican election leaders. Judges, including those appointed by Trump, also dismissed his claims.

But Levitsky and others warn there are several weak points in the U.S. system where a political party could simply refuse to allow its opponent to formally win a presidential election.

Im more concerned about this now than I was on Jan. 7, said Edward Foley, a law professor at The Ohio State University who studies election disputes. It seems that, over the months, the lesson has not been never again, but how to be more effective next time.

Still, even critics of the former president and the election paranoia he spread in his party say its important not to blow risks out of proportion.

This strikes me as being overblown, said Trey Grayson, a former Kentucky secretary of state and a Republican who has been sharply critical of Trumps election fraud claims.

Grayson said a comparable worry is that voting procedures have become a partisan issue like taxes and abortion, fomenting suspicion of election results. Both sides are really amping up their rhetoric to amp up their bases, Grayson said, acknowledging that theres clearly a lot more bad stuff going on on my side now.

Nonetheless, democratically elected officials were able to withstand that bad stuff in 2020, despite Trumps pressures. When it came time for Republicans to do something in the 2020 election, most of those in power did the right thing, said Rick Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California-Irvine.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Gov. Brian Kemp acknowledged Bidens win and resisted Trumps entreaties to overturn it. Republican Gov. Doug Ducey did the same in Arizona. And Mitch McConnell, who controlled the Senate on Jan. 6, gave a scorching speech condemning Trumps efforts to overturn the election. Only a handful of Republican senators voted to reverse Bidens victories in Arizona and Pennsylvania.

Still, Hasen said he doesnt want to sugarcoat things. There are a lot of warning signs, he said. It is a very dangerous moment for democracy.

Trump has sought revenge against Republicans who didnt back his attempt to overturn the election. Hes backed GOP primary challengers to Kemp and Raffensperger the latter is being challenged by Rep. Jody Hice, whom Trump recruited into the race and who voted to overturn the election in the House of Representatives.

Georgias new elections bill strips Raffensperger of some of his election duties and gives the GOP-controlled state legislature the ability to replace local election officials. Arizonas Republican-controlled legislature is pushing to strip Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs of her ability to defend election lawsuits, and state Rep. Mark Finchem, who was at the Jan. 6 rally outside the Capitol and is a central proponent of the Arizona audit, is running for her position.

Levitsky said the United States complex electoral system stands out among international democracies by vesting oversight of elections in local, partisan officials. We rely a lot on local officials, and if one party decides not to behave, we are in for a world of trouble, he said.

Still, that system has worked for more than 200 years. There are a lot of safeguards, Grayson said. Now, we can blow through those safeguards and, if it comes down to one state like in 2000, you dont have all 50 safeguards.

Grayson also noted that voters make the final decision. The secretary of state candidates who argue Trump actually won in 2020 will have to win a Republican primary, then a general election to gain power. Congressional candidates may have to answer questions about whether they would seat a president of the opposite party.

We are going to have these elections, and the voters are going to have to weigh in, Grayson said.

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Donald Trump reportedly thinks hell be reinstated as president - AL.com

Donald J. Trump speaks with reporters on Sept. 10, 2020, when he was still president. (Official White House Photo by Tia Dufour)

Former President Donald Trump has issued a media statement saying Sen. Lisa Murkowski is responsible for the Biden administrations decision to suspend action on drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Senator Lisa Murkowski has cost the great people of Alaska billions and billions of dollars by voting for Radical Left Biden appointees, which in turn led to the revocation of ANWR drilling, which Alaskans have been fighting to see happen for six decades, his statement says, under a Save America banner.

Save America is a political action committee established to promote Trump.

He also renewed his pledge to work for Murkowskis defeat, suggesting hed go to Alaska for it next year.

I think she will be met very harshly by the Alaska voters in 15 months, and I will be there to campaign against her! he wrote.

Murkowski, when she was a key Senate swing vote in 2017, got ANWR drilling added to the Republican tax bill. The Trump administration held the first lease sale in the refuge in the final days of his administration, though they attracted little interest from oil companies.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland last week suspended those drilling leases.

Murkowski voted for Haalands confirmation. Trumps statement doesnt mention it, but Sen. Dan Sullivan also voted to confirm Haaland. Congressman Don Young crossed the Capitol to urge senators at her confirmation hearing to support her. All of them are ardent supporters of drilling in the refuge.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to campaign against Murkowski. She was one of the Republican senators to vote to convict him at his second impeachment trial. His angle Monday taking credit for allowing oil drilling in the refuge while blaming Murkowski for the Biden administrations anti-drilling agenda echoes an opinion piece in the Anchorage Daily News last week, authored by Kelly Tshibaka, a Republican who has filed for Murkowskis Senate seat.

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Trump accuses Murkowski of killing ANWR; 'I will be there to campaign against her!' he vows - Alaska Public Media News

On her last day at the justice department in 2017, Vanita Gupta considered taking a picture as she left the agencys headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue. But she decided against it. Gupta, the outgoing head of the departments civil rights division, once described as the crown jewel of the agency, didnt really want to remember the moment, she told a reporter who was shadowing her for the day.

Jeff Sessions, then the incoming attorney general, was poised to unwind much of the painstaking progress Gupta, 46, and her colleagues had spent the previous four years building. It was no secret that Sessions opposed the kind of court agreements the justice department used to fix unconstitutional policing policies across the country (dangerous and an exercise of raw power in Sessions eyes). Nor were there any illusions that Sessions would try very hard to enforce the Voting Rights Act, already on its last legs after the supreme court gutted a key provision in 2013 (Sessions described the landmark civil rights law as intrusive).

Many of those concerns came to pass. Trumps justice department not only did little to enforce some of the countrys most powerful civil rights protections for minority groups, but in several cases it opposed them. It filed almost no voting rights cases and defended restrictive voting laws, tried to undermine the census, challenged affirmative action policies, sought to roll back protections for LGBTQ+ Americans, and limited the use of consent decrees to curb illegal policing practices. Gupta took a job as the head of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition of civil rights groups across the country, where she became one of the leading figures pushing back on the Trump administration.

Joining Gupta in that effort was Kristen Clarke, a 47-year-old former justice department lawyer who leads the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, founded in 1963 to help attorneys in private practice enforce civil rights. As her group filed voting rights and anti-discrimination lawsuits across the country over the last few years, Clarke spent hours nearly every election day briefing journalists on reports of incoming voting problems. Reports of long lines, voting machine malfunctions, translator issues no problem was too small. The monitoring sent a message that civil rights groups would move swiftly against any whiff of voter suppression.

Now, after years of leading the fight for civil rights from outside the justice department, both women are poised to return to its top levels, where they can deploy the unmatchable resources of the federal government. Last month, Joe Biden tapped Gupta to serve as his associate attorney general, the No 3 official at the department, and Clarke to lead the civil rights division. If confirmed by the Senate, Gupta would be the first woman of color to be the associate attorney general; Clarke would be the first Black woman in her role.

They are both independently legit civil rights champions with a long deep history, said Justin Levitt, who worked with Gupta at the justice department and knows both women well. Theyre going to make a really spectacular, really powerful team.

Picking two career civil rights lawyers for two of the top positions at the justice department sends an unmistakable signal that civil rights enforcement will be a top priority for the agency over the next four years. Civil rights leaders said they could not remember a prior administration in which two of the departments highest positions were filled by civil rights attorneys, especially two such as Clarke and Gupta.

Its going to be really important and energizing and exciting to be able to be in conversation and discussion with people who understand the departments role in civil rights enforcement, said Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF), who has worked closely with both women. But its also going to be exciting, and as a matter of resources, to have the department actually do civil rights enforcement.

Born to Jamaican immigrant parents, Clarke grew up in Brooklyn and attended the Choate Rosemary Hall boarding school as an alumna of Prep for Prep, a program that places talented students of color from modest backgrounds in elite private schools.

Its a dichotomy that I think about all the time: what does it mean to be without access to opportunity and to be given a shot? she told ABC News in January.

At Choate, she joined the wrestling team the only girl to do so. The boys on the Choate team accepted me, while the boys on the opposing team sometimes chuckled, she said in 2017. It was empowering having this unintended opportunity to challenge gender stereotypes about what girls were supposed to do.

One year in high school, Clarke and about a half dozen of her classmates piled into a van and drove to see a court hearing in Sheff v ONeill, a landmark school desegregation case. It was a moment in which the seeds of interest in civil rights lawyering were planted and it sparked a deep curiosity about the power of lawyers as agents of social change. It nagged at me from the very moment that I left Choate until the moment I started law school, she said in 2017.

That curiosity stuck with Clarke through college at Harvard and law school at Columbia. As a young lawyer, she joined the justice department, where she worked on prosecuting police misconduct, brutality and hate crimes, as well as on voting rights issues. She went on to work at the LDF the same civil rights group that helped file the ONeill case before leading the civil rights bureau in the New York attorney generals office. She took over the Lawyers Committee in 2016.

Shes dedicated to the cause of equal justice and racial justice and voting. Shes unrelenting in terms of her sticking to the task, said Ezra Rosenberg, co-director of the Voting Rights Project at the Lawyers Committee.

As a lawyer, Clarke is fearless and thinks outside the box, Ifill said. When the Proud Boys, a far-right group, vandalized a historically Black church in Washington DC last year, Clarke and the Lawyers Committee sued them for damages. And in 2017, when Trump launched a White House panel to investigate supposed voter fraud, Clarke quickly began pushing her organization to find ways to challenge it, said Jon Greenbaum, the groups chief counsel.

The Lawyers Committee wound up being one of the first groups to challenge the commission. Relying on a little-known statute, the Federal Advisory Committee Act, the group forced the White House to produce records showing conservative commissioners on the panel were communicating privately. It was a critical piece of evidence that suggested the panel was not operating transparently, enraging fellow commissioners, and proved to be one of the threads that helped bring down the commission.

During the Trump administration, the civil rights division also played a key role in trying to get a citizenship question added to the 2020 census. At the Lawyers Committee, Clarke pushed to aggressively challenge Trumps efforts to undermine the 2020 census in court. One of the suits blocked the administration from ending the census early and probably helped thwart an effort to have the Census Bureau compile citizenship data.

Rashad Robinson, the president of Color of Change, a civil rights group, also said it would be significant to have a Black woman like Clarke leading the civil rights division for the first time (there is already a bubbling conservative effort to try to sink her nomination).

Its important that we dont just say the word intersectionality Kristen is not going to have to read about it in a textbook. Shes not going to have to be given a long fact sheet, he said.

Gupta arrived at a moment of intense scrutiny in the fall of 2014. Two months before she started, Darren Wilson, a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, had killed Michael Brown, an unarmed Black teenager. There was widespread public outcry after a local grand jury declined to bring charges against Wilson, escalating pressure on the justice department to bring federal charges against him.

But there is a high bar for federal civil rights charges and an FBI investigation found little evidence to bring them against Wilson, putting Gupta and other DoJ officials in the difficult spot of having to choose whether to bring a potentially weak case. Ultimately, the department chose not to bring federal charges against Wilson, instead releasing a searing report about unconstitutional police practices and securing a consent decree to reform the Ferguson police department. It was a move that did not produce a sexy headline or satiate public outrage, but one that would lead to institutional change.

It took not a small amount of courage, Levitt said. The departments response to Ferguson for Vanita was among the best examples that I can give of how rigorous and how sort of do the right thing regardless of the political context. The Obama justice department would enter 15 consent decrees with police departments across the country, including major ones Gupta oversaw in Baltimore and Chicago.

Guptas difficult decision in Ferguson came after more than nearly a decade of civil rights work. Born in Philadelphia to immigrants from India, Gupta spoke during her nomination announcement about eating in a McDonalds with her family when she was four and being harassed by skinheads at the next table who shouted ethnic slurs and threw food at them.

That feeling never left me. Of what it means to be made to feel unsafe because of who you are, she said.

She went to college at Yale and then graduated from New York University School of Law before taking her job at LDF. She later took a job at the ACLU, where she stayed focused on criminal justice issues, starting the organizations smart justice initiative, focused on mass incarceration.

Shes a tremendous lawyer, a tremendous advocate and shes clear about having a racial justice lens when reviewing policy, said the Rev William Barber, a well-known North Carolina civil rights leader.

In 2003, as a young lawyer at LDF and fresh out of law school, she earned national attention for her work overturning convictions in Tulia, Texas, where dozens of people were arrested in a sting operation based on unreliable testimony from an undercover officer. She collected so many documents she had to buy a new suitcase to bring them all back from a visit to the city, she said in an NYU alumni interview.

Im definitely a magnet for the kinds of situations where youre not in a comfortable setting, a new setting, she told the New York Times in 2003, and youre trying to understand what the problem is and trying to solve it. (The same Times story noted there was speculation even then that Gupta, 28 at the time, could end up on the US supreme court.)

Gupta has used examples from her own life to advocate for criminal justice reform. In a 2013 op-ed arguing that the American criminal justice system was too focused on the wrong things, she wrote that her own grandmother had been murdered when she was 18 during a robbery in India.

The killing remains unsolved, and the anguish it caused my family will never fade away, she wrote. But in America, our criminal justice system has too often focused on vengeance and punishment (and racial suspicion) rather than on crime prevention, restitution for victims and the social and economic reintegration of released prisoners into our communities so that they do not turn to crime again.

Gupta has developed a reputation as someone who can find common ground across the political spectrum. At the ACLU, for example, she worked with the American Legislative Exchange Council, a group known for pushing a conservative agenda, on criminal justice issues, even over progressive objections. Vanita smiled and listened and said, I understand your concerns, but never wavered, Anthony Romero, the executive director of the ACLU, said in 2015. The conservative activist Grover Norquist and the former NRA president David Keene have been among her supporters.

She has this thing, this secret magic that allows her to talk to almost anyone, to gain their confidence, Ifill said. She just has this incredible ability and engenders the trust because she is a straight shooter. Its not manipulative or tactical. She just is very solutions-oriented while holding her ground for what is right.

Even though civil rights groups will have allies in two top justice department positions, they do not expect change overnight. The department is careful and deliberate in the matters it chooses to get involved in, part of the reason it has so much authority in court. Greenbaum, the Lawyers Committee attorney, said that redirecting the agencys vast bureaucracy can be a bit like turning around an aircraft carrier. Clarke, Gupta and the rest of the department will also face a federal judiciary dramatically reshaped by Trump that may be increasingly hostile to civil rights issues.

Advocates pointed to voting rights and policing as two areas where they expected a significant change in enforcement priorities. This year will also be the first time US states redraw district lines without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act a process likely to be closely watched by Clarke and voting section lawyers to ensure it is free of racial discrimination.

The first thing is to untangle and undo the kinds of efforts that the Trump administration engaged in that were anti-civil rights efforts, Ifill said. Then Vanita and Kristen have to take stock, they have to staff up, they have to take stock of what has happened in the building, they have to set a progressive agenda.

We dont just want restoration to the Obama years without a recognition of how much has changed. Things that may have felt like big steps in the Obama years, the country has moved as a result of so much new information, said Robinson. New data and the changing sentiment around criminal justice and policing what does it mean to truly hold police departments accountable?

It will also be an adjustment for civil rights groups, who will turn to lobbying the same people they fought with for four years to make systemic changes.

After Biden announced Guptas nomination last month, Robinson said, he had texted her with a note of congratulations and an eye towards the future. I hope you will remember fondly working closely with me and my warm smile and dimples when I am pushing back on and pushing hard on things we need to do, he wrote in the message.

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They took Donald Trump to task. Now they're ready to reshape the justice department - The Guardian

Throughout his presidency, Donald Trump crossed lines that no other president has come close to. And if there was ever any doubt, the final months of his presidency put that to rest.

From the moment President Biden was declared the winner, Trump refused to accept the results of the election, repeatedly dismissing them as rigged or fraudulent, even going so far as to pressure Republican officials, like Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, to overturn them. This culminated in the events of Jan 6. At a rally that day, Trump told his supporters that the election was being stolen and said, Now, it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy. And after this, were going to walk down, and Ill be there with you, were going to walk down, were going to walk down. A few hours later, some of those supporters stormed the Capitol, threatening officials and destroying property. They also disrupted the certification of the Electoral College vote, usually a ceremonial affair. Five people died.

Nevertheless, Trump still commands considerable loyalty within the Republican Party. Only 10 of 211 Republicans in the House voted to impeach him over what happened at the Capitol, and even though Trump is now facing a second impeachment trial, a procedural vote forced by Senate Republicans in late January indicates that there will not be enough votes to convict him.

This lack of a clean break among Republicans with Trump despite being the only president to be impeached twice raises an important question about the future of the GOP: To what extent does it remain Trumps party?

Given the ways in which Trump defied the norms of the presidency, it can be hard to compare his track record to other presidents. However, its still worth looking at the role that former presidents have traditionally played in their party once theyve left the White House, and how Trump does and does not fit into that mold.

Arguably no president in the modern era has left office with quite as much baggage as Trump, perhaps aside from former President Richard Nixon, who resigned from office rather than face his own impeachment. But even Nixon was able to partially rehabilitate his image post-presidency, eventually establishing himself as a foreign-policy expert whose advice was sought behind the scenes by other leaders.

Other presidents who have left the White House with a bit less baggage, like George W. Bush or Bill Clinton, have also had some success continuing to wield influence in their respective parties. Bush left with record-low approval ratings amid an economic crisis, while Clinton departed with high approval ratings but also with the scandal of impeachment. But since leaving office, both have engaged in humanitarian activities, attempting to burnish their respective reputations (perhaps with mixed success). To be sure, other voices have emerged that have led and defined their parties, but neither man has disappeared entirely from the limelight, with both Bushs brother and Clintons wife later seeking the presidency. A career in politics is one possible avenue for some of Trumps children, with rumors already swirling.

And some former presidents have had a lot of success in establishing themselves as major players in their parties. After his second term ended in 1989, Ronald Reagan remained an iconic figure among Republicans. And in the 2020 election, the Democratic Party at times seemed more and more like Barack Obamas party than Bidens. Obama reportedly played a pretty significant behind-the-scenes role in the primary and was a central figure at the Democratic National Convention. Part of this was because his former vice president won the nomination. But Biden also explicitly campaigned on the accomplishments of the Obama-Biden administration and chose a running mate who also reflects the image of a diverse, pragmatic Obama-style Democratic Party.

Whats difficult to say with Trump, however, is the extent to which future generations of Republicans will want to claim his mantle. On the one hand, its not actually clear that Trump had a winning electoral formula. In 2016, he built a coalition of more traditional Republican voters as well as white voters without college degrees, and that coalition was adequate for an Electoral College victory. But even growing that voter base in 2020 wasnt enough to win reelection. When you combine this with the Republican Partys losses in 2018 and its narrow loss of Senate control in the Georgia run-off elections in January, there are some reasons to believe that the Trump brand hasnt been entirely good for Republican political fortunes. In fact, a number of reports suggest that congressional Republicans, as well as party donors, blame Trump for the partys losses in Georgia.

The thing is, Trump does represent an idea that has appealed to some of his partys voters: politics based on grievance, especially when linked to white identity. Trump has emerged as a powerful leader to this movement, claiming that the 2020 election was stolen, that the media and tech companies seek to silence voices on the right, and that institutions no longer work for ordinary (read: white) Americans. And while many establishment GOP members dont agree with some of Trumps more extreme words and actions, they have continued to defend him, or, at the very least, not really distance themselves from him. The upcoming impeachment trial and the fact that most GOP senators are likely to vote against his conviction speak to a long pattern left over from when Trump was still in office: criticize Trumps actions, but ultimately dont disavow him.

But while the party has maintained its steady, if uncomfortable, pattern of loyalty to Trump, the sheer number of ambitious politicians seeking to succeed Trump may leave little room for him in the party. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Madison Cawthorn have already proven, for instance, that they can grab headlines with their extreme views and actions without Trump. (And as with Trump, the media coverage is not overwhelmingly positive, and they have drawn some criticism from within their own party.) Of course, there is still a key difference between them and Trump in terms of power and influence: A group of representatives can make up a faction of a party, but only the president serves as the partys mouthpiece.

There is another reason, though, to think that there might not be room for Trump in the Republican Party moving forward. Political science research has found that Republicans are actually quite successful in building a farm team in state and Congressional elections (compared to Democrats, who often struggle in this regard). This means that Republicans might not really struggle to find a replacement for Trump. Its not hard to imagine, for instance, that there will one day be other ambitious Republicans say, Sen. Josh Hawley or former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley seeking higher office while claiming that they are the real heir to Trumps legacy, even if they represent marked differences in style or approach. In fact, there are a number of signs that the party is already headed in this direction, trending away from more establishment GOP types and toward more Trump-style figures.

Yes, this speaks to Trumps continued influence on the party, but it also doesnt necessarily leave that much room for him. Its hard for a former president to both represent an idea and be involved in the daily politics of the party.

After the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, it seemed like some establishment GOP leaders were ready to make a break from the 45th president. But its telling that mainstream Republicans are still mostly reluctant to publicly criticize Trump or his actions leading up to that day. It may also be indicative of how the ideas Trump represents took hold before he was elected. His presidency gave new power to the anti-establishment wing of the party, even though the former president didnt create this faction. Right now, the GOP looks much more like Trumps party than that of any moderate or establishment GOP alternative. It may be up to other politicians not Trump to determine exactly what that means.

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The GOP Might Still Be Trumps Party. But That Doesnt Mean Theres Room For Him. - FiveThirtyEight

A pillow company CEO who has advised former US president Donald Trump has been cut off during an interview with one of the most Trump-friendly media networks in America.

A rowdy on-air argument ensued after Mike Lindell of MyPillow kept repeating baseless claims related to voting machines, leading the host of the segment to walk off the set.

It happened during a segment meant to discuss Mr Lindell being banned from social media platforms for expressing those exact same views.

Who would have thought he'd bring them up on air?

Newsmax, a minor cable news channel, which has risen to prominence after becoming more pro-Trump than Fox News, was suddenly faced with a very predictable predicament.

In a world that is post-Trump, post-inauguration of President Joe Biden and post-Capitol riots, how do Trump-aligned media networks like Newsmax deal with the stories they once gave air time to?

At two of America's fringe news organisations, Newsmax and One America News Network, covering a Biden presidency presents a huge challenge, when at times they promoted an alternate reality.

But the 'MAGA'-aligned cable news upstarts will be keen to find a way to continue the spectacular growth in audience and influence they've seen in the past 12 months.

In March last year, there was an extraordinary question asked to then-president Trump in the White House Press Briefing room:

"Is it alarming that major media players, just to oppose you, are siding with foreign state propaganda, Islamic radicals, and Latin gangs and cartels, and they work right here out of the White House with direct access to you and your team?"

This question, asked by a journalist holding a legitimate press pass, brought a smile to the face of Mr Trump.

It was not, however, a surprise to him, given the source: Chanel Rion, White House correspondent for OAN.

At the time she was building a reputation for taking Trump's side on every issue, and providing the President with opportunities to sound off at his political enemies while he was meant to be answering questions.

At a subsequent briefing she asked Mr Trump this question:

"Two-thousand, four-hundred and five Americans have died from coronavirus in the last 60 days. Meanwhile, you have 2,369 children who are killed by their mothers through elective abortions each day. That's 16-and-a-half thousand children killed every week... Do you agree with states who are placing coronavirus victims above elective abortions?"

It was the first time many Americans had heard of OAN, which launched in 2013.

Despite its low budget, it had distinguished itself by amplifying every pro-Trump conspiracy theory it could find.

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Mr Trump assisted their reach by amplifying their stories on Twitter at any opportunity.

He also took a particular interest in Newsmax, which despite a history of being a reputable news network had become known as a landing ground for news personalities unable to find work at Fox.

By 2020, they were running shows by ex-Fox News host Bill O'Reilly and ex-ABC News America political editor Mark Halperin, who were both exiled due to sexual misconduct scandals.

They were also the home of Spicer & Co, hosted by the bumbling former Trump press secretary Sean Spicer.

As the 2020 election approached, Mr Trump began tweeting regularly that his followers should abandon Fox News for Newsmax and OAN, who up until this point had mainly found audiences on YouTube.

It wasn't particularly effective.

Fox News has an average primetime audience of 3.6 million Americans, meanwhile Newsmax was struggling to break 100,000 viewers (OAN has said it can't afford to sign up to get viewership data from TV ratings companies).

Though their content leaned further to the right than Fox News, they struggled to differentiate themselves enough to gain an audience.

While Fox News remained tethered in some sense to the reality that Joe Biden had defeated President Trump, OAN and Newsmax attached themselves to the conspiracy theory spread by Mr Trump and his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, that the election had been stolen by massive fraud.

Newsmax's top host, Greg Kelly, reached an audience of more than a million in his primetime slot, briefly out-rating Fox News.

OAN claimed to have seen a 40 per cent rise in viewership following the election.

It wasn't confined to traditional linear television though.

Their web content reached an even larger audience, posted on outlets like YouTube and Facebook and shared farther and wider than ever before.

Their reach became so significant that YouTube decided to censor some of their reports, arguing that they were spreading dangerous misinformation.

While the frenzy of post-election conspiracy theories seems to have cooled, bringing down their audience penetration with it, they successfully announced themselves as the home of unabashedly pro-Trump news content.

For years there has been speculation about whether a post-presidency Donald Trump may seek to gain a more permanent foothold in news media.

With his significant following across America, a Trump-branded TV network has been discussed, with the idea floated of a takeover or partnership between Mr Trump and either OAN or Newsmax.

Robert Herring Sr, the owner of OAN, denied the Trump family had been in talks with him about a partnership or acquisition.

Chris Ruddy, the owner of Newsmax, said that he has not closed the door on such a possibility.

But Mr Trump may be more interested in going it alone, reportedly suggesting that a Trump-branded subscription streaming service may be the best way of capitalising on his enormous national support.

Since leaving office, Mr Trump has been uncharacteristically quiet.

Despite his permanent ban from Twitter, he still has the option of calling friends at Fox, OAN or Newsmax to give his perspective on politics yet he has largely resisted flooding the airwaves just yet.

OAN and Newsmax may or may not be looking to do a deal with Mr Trump to give them exclusive access to his thoughts, feelings and supporters, but they are almost certainly hoping that he will break his silence soon.

They need something to talk about.

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The US media organisations loyal to Donald Trump could struggle to find the same oxygen under President Joe Biden - ABC News

Millions of Americans 88.7 million of them, to be precise have been waking up for the last three weeks with an unfamiliar sense of emptiness. Reaching for their phones for their accustomed fix of outrage and bemusement, an erratically capitalized, eccentrically punctuated guide to the obsessions and grievances that would drive the days news cycle, they are forced to acknowledge that the once unthinkable has occurred: @RealDonaldTrump is really gone for good from Twitter.

And not just Twitter: The man whose office refers to him as 45th President Donald J. Trump has been almost entirely silent in public since Jan. 20, when he became what the rest of the country knows as former President Trump. No raucous rallies featuring two-minute hates against the media. No impromptu tarmac question-and-answer sessions with reporters. No rambling phone chats with Fox News hosts, the ones that sometimes went on so long the interviewers had to gently cut him off by reminding him of how busy he must be. Even the 2024 campaign that he was widely expected to launch on Jan. 21 hasnt gotten off the ground, except for the part that involves raising money.

The once ubiquitous Trump has been plotting out his political future, Politico wrote not long after he went into his Florida exile. But without a social media loudspeaker through which to tease his plans, few know what to expect next, including his own former aides.

One person who has heard from Trump is the QAnon congresswoman, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who bragged about receiving a GREAT call from Trump on Saturday, as she faced calls for her resignation or removal from Congress in light of conspiratorial and anti-Semitic rantings that keep coming to light. She didnt specify what was great about the call, and Trump hasnt commented publicly.

The obvious explanation for Trumps unaccustomed reticence is that he is busy preparing his defense for his upcoming impeachment trial in the Senate. Part of his preparations involved replacing one set of lawyers over the weekend with new ones, including a former Pennsylvania district attorney best known for declining to prosecute actor Bill Cosby over allegations he drugged and sexually assaulted a woman, allegations that resurfaced years later and resulted in Cosbys conviction.

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Consistent with his refusal to concede defeat, Trump reportedly wants to base his defense on his own bogus claims that he actually won reelection, rather than the procedural argument that his impeachment was mooted when he left office. That is a claim that 45 Republican senators have already signaled they accept, which would give him an automatic acquittal. The case that the election was stolen from him by Democrats was raised in dozens of lawsuits filed by his campaign and other Republican officials in November and December and has been uniformly rejected in the courts. He will almost certainly be acquitted anyway it takes 67 senators for a conviction but for Trumps lawyers to try to make the case could just as easily call attention to how flimsy it was in the first place.

But theres not much evidence of activity on that front. Where are the investigators fanning out across the country looking for the legendary hordes of deceased citizens who cast votes on Nov. 3? The subpoenas for the Dominion voting machines that in Trumps fantasies were rigged against him? (His bulldog defender, Rudy Giuliani, has been sued for defamation by Dominion for an eye-catching $1.3 billion, which might largely have foreclosed that line of inquiry.) Indeed, Trumps insistent claim that the election was stolen from him which his supporters took as signifying license to steal it back by invading the Capitol is central to the case against him. Raising it as a defense runs the paradoxical risk of making the accusation seem more credible.

Another possible explanation for Trumps silence is that he is, belatedly, discovering the virtues of discretion particularly now that he no longer enjoys the immunities and perks of office, such as having the Department of Justice to do his bidding. The writer E. Jean Carroll, who claims Trump raped her in a New York department store dressing room years ago, is suing him for defamation because in denying her accusation he called her a liar. Under Attorney General William Barr, the Department of Justice undertook to defend the suit, but the Biden administration might not be so compliant.

Or maybe its just that Trump hasnt yet found a form of expression as convenient and congenial as Twitter. It is no exaggeration that Trumps political career owes as much to Twitter as to The Apprentice. He understood, better than any other political figure, that he could use that platform to reach voters directly, without the expense of buying TV commercials or the inconvenience of media fact-checkers or the awkward constraints of grammar or logic. It was a venue for him to feed his insatiable desire for approval (Do you think Putin will be going to The Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscow - if so, will he become my new best friend? he tweeted on June 18, 2013) and to boast about his television ratings, approval ratings, IQ, money, golf game (Just won The Club Championship at Trump International Golf Club in Palm Beach) and even his hair (retweeting a fan who wrote that his hair is magnificent. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.)

But above all, Twitters staccato, telegraphic style is the perfect medium for Trumps preferred form of discourse, the insult that gains force by sheer repetition, rather than, say, plausibility. Trump gleefully pursued grudges and resentments against enemies including Barack Obama, who was the subject of fully 1,686 of his posts nearly one out of 30 as recently as Dec. 30; Hillary Clinton (887, of which 366 refer to her as Crooked Hillary); Rosie ODonnell (66); and Fox News (348, which sequentially chart his delight at being interviewed on air, appreciation for their obsequious coverage and, more recently, outrage toward anchors he considered insufficiently fawning). The New York Times has compiled a comprehensive list of the hundreds of people, organizations, places and ideas Trump insulted on Twitter from when he declared his candidacy, in 2015, through Jan. 19, 2021, running alphabetically from ABC News (knowingly have a sick and biased AGENDA) through Kim Jong-un (I would NEVER call him short and fat), to media proprietor Mort Zuckerman (a dopey clown). You cant put out a press release under the letterhead of 45th President Trump just to insult Whoopi Goldberg (never had what it took), or maybe you can, but it lacks the emotional satisfaction of sending out a tweet and watching the likes and retweets pile up by the thousands.

In fact, as with so many things about Trump, an explanation rooted in the mans personality may be the simplest and closest to the truth, the implicit point of Mary Trumps biography of her estranged uncle, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the Worlds Most Dangerous Man. Mary Trump, a mental health professional herself, describes the 45th president as unstable, cruel, vain, greedy and as numerous armchair psychologists have discerned narcissistic, a personality type that reacts with rage and/or hurt withdrawal to any form of rejection. And what could be a greater rejection than losing a presidential election?

Author Laurence Leamer, a Palm Beach resident who wrote the 2019 book Mar-a-Lago: Inside the Gates of Power at Donald Trumps Presidential Palace, told the Associated Press that Trumps interest since leaving Washington is having sycophants stroke his ego.

He goes through his days and people tell him hes fantastic, hes great, hes unbelievable thats what he wants, Leamer said.

Its worth remembering that during the campaign Trump promised that if he lost, youll never see me again. Not many people believed him, but maybe we should have taken him at his word.

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When will we hear from Donald Trump again? - Yahoo News

SportsPulse: USA TODAY Sports' Nancy Armour asks Tom Brady if he thinks Black athletes have an equal amount of leeway when broaching political and controversial topics as white athletes do. USA TODAY

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady evaded a question about whether he's gotten a pass from criticism forsporting a Donald Trump hat in his locker in 2015 because he is white.

In a Jan. 26segment on Fox Sports, analyst Shannon Sharpe was critical of Brady's brief support of Trump. The six-time Super Bowl champion later backpedaled on his support of Trump, dismissing any political-oriented questions during the former president's campaign trail and presidency over the last four years. But Sharpe said Brady was given a pass as a white athlete that a Black athlete like LeBron James wouldn't have gotten.

"Lets just say for sake of argument, LeBron James says my friend is Minister (Louis) Farrakhan," Sharpe said, referring to the controversial Nation of Islam leader."How would America react? Blacks have always had to be very, very quiet about who our friends are. ...LeBron James can never say, a prominent black athlete can never say, Minister Farrakhan is just my friend. Theyd try to cancel anybody with the just mere mention of Mister Farrakhans name. Because we like Tom Brady."

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady playing against the Kansas City Chiefs in November.(Photo: Kim Klement, USA TODAY Sports)

Brady, in response to a question by USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on a Super Bowl news conference Monday, dodged a direct answer.

"I'm not sure how to respond to hypothetical like that," Brady said over Zoomduring Super Bowl media availability. "I hope everyone canwe're in this position like I am to, again, try to be the best I can be every day as an athlete, as a player, as a person in my community, for my team and so forth, so yeah, I'm not sure what else."

In Sharpe's initial comments on Fox Sports, he said: "I understood what Tom was for a very, very long time. He put that hat in there for a reason. 'Letting you know that I support my friend, Donald Trump, and no matter what he says, I support him.' ... If we like somebody, were more forgiving of their actions. Were more forgiving of their words, their deeds. If we dont like you, we will go to heaven and earth, well go back 15 years."

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Tom Brady dodges question about getting pass for supporting Trump because he is white - USA TODAY