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The unprecedented second Senate impeachment trial of disgraced former president Donald Trump has begun, with the first day’s proceedings focused on the constitutionality of the trial itself—or on the unrivaled radiance of U.S. senators, depending on when you happened to tune in.
- Lead impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) kicked off the opening arguments by summing up the absurdity of the question at hand: “Their argument is that if you commit an impeachable offense in your last few weeks in office, you do it with constitutional impunity.” House managers wasted no time before playing a 13-minute video of the violence on January 6 juxtaposed against Trump’s remarks egging on the mob, before launching into historical precedents for trying former officials, and citing conservative legal scholars who have argued that Trump’s post-presidency trial is constitutionally kosher.
- In their final brief on Tuesday, House managers asserted, generously, that Trump’s lawyers were relying on “flawed legal theories” and trying to dump the full blame onto his supporters because they had “no good defense” for his incitement of an insurrection. Trump attorney Bruce Castor, best known for refusing to prosecute Bill Cosby, promptly proved them wrong by spending much of his opening speech rambling about, uh, how smart and beautiful senators are. Even Alan Dershowitz, who’s never met a bad legal argument he couldn’t happily make worse, thought Castor tanked it.
- Trump attorney David Schoen accused Democrats of dividing the country with their “insatiable lust for impeachment,” which Democrats somehow satiated with just two impeachments in the span of four catastrophic years. Schoen also attacked House Democrats for not transmitting the article of impeachment before the end of Trump’s term, omitting the fact that then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to reconvene the Senate. This feels like a good time to mention that one of the other lawyers on Trump’s hastily scavenged team, Michael van der Veen, sued Trump last year and accused him of making repeated claims about mail-in voter fraud despite having “no evidence.” Should be a fun-filled week of Trump lawyers saying things they do not believe!
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As expected, the Senate voted to allow the impeachment trial to proceed, though just six GOP senators joined all 50 Democrats in rejecting Trump’s made-up unconstitutionality defense.
- Starting on Wednesday, each side will have 16 hours to present their cases, and if Democrats decide against calling witnesses, the whole trial could be over by early next week. In an indication of how eager Trump is to get this thing over with, Trump attorney David Schoen, who initially asked the Senate to pause the trial if it continues through Saturday to respect his observance of Shabbat, sent a last-minute letter to senators withdrawing that request. (Jewish law famously stipulates that one may violate the sabbath in order to save a life, or when Donald Trump is mad.) President Joe Biden, meanwhile, has firmly committed to an “I don’t know her” stance on the impeachment proceedings.
- Even before the substantive part of the trial has gotten underway, Trump’s legal team’s wild distortions illustrated the case for calling witnesses. In their Monday brief, Trump’s defense team claimed that he was “horrified” when violence broke out at the Capitol, and took “immediate steps” to get the situation under control. White House aides and even his close allies in Congress have told reporters that Trump was distractedly and excitedly watching the riot unfold on television, had to be begged to tell his supporters to stand down, and was not involved in the efforts to send in reinforcements. Trump’s defenders are increasingly ready to rewrite recent history—Michigan state Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey went so far as to claim that the insurrection wasn’t carried out by Trump supporters at all, but was “staged” and “a hoax.” Democrats may never have a better platform to reinforce the truth.
The nearly party-line vote on the constitutionality of the impeachment trial drove home the reality that Republicans will almost certainly protect Trump from a conviction, no matter how pathetic his defense. The question is whether Democrats can draw Americans’ attention to the full horror of that fact in the meantime.
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On today's Pod Save The People, DeRay, Kaya, Sam, and De’Ara dive into the underreported news of the week, including academic racism, vaccine hunters, medical distribution issues, and replacing the police with healthcare workers. Netta Elzie gives an update on what’s happening with the nationwide protests, and DeRay sits down with Tishaura O. Jones, who is running for mayor of St. Louis. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your pods →
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The U.S. has seen anti-Asian violence surge during the pandemic. Back in September, NYPD data showed that there had been a 1,900 percent increase anti-Asian hate crimes in New York City over the past year, and an August U.N. report found that there were 1,800 racist incidents against Asian Americans in the U.S. over an eight-week period in the spring. That violence has continued into 2021: On January 31, an 84-year-old Thai American man, Vicha Ratanapakdee, was shoved to the pavement and killed in San Francisco. On February 3, Noel Quintana, a 61-year-old Filipino American man, was slashed in the face while riding the subway in New York. The same day, a 64-year-old Vietnamese American woman was assaulted and robbed as she left a bank in San Jose. Asian Americans have stepped up calls for awareness of the hateful attacks, which Trump almost certainly fueled by embracing racist anti-Asian rhetoric to deflect from his disastrous coronavirus response. President Biden took a first step to address the problem in January, signing an executive order denouncing the discrimination directed at the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, and issuing guidance on how the Justice Department should respond.
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- The Justice Department has asked U.S. attorneys appointed by former president Donald Trump to submit their resignations, as is routine when the White House changes party hands. The two prosecutors overseeing the Hunter Biden tax probe and the politically-motivated investigation into the origins of the Russia probe will remain in their posts.
- A 67-year-old Minnesota man shot and wounded five people at a Minnesota health clinic, where police also found a suspicious package. The man had a history of dissatisfaction with the health care he received at clinics in the area.
- The real-estate investment trust Vornado, which is run by a longtime pal of Donald Trump, has begun looking for ways to end its partnership with the Trump Organization.
- Facebook will finally ban vaccine misinformation, after only a year of letting coronavirus anti-vaxx content proliferate unchecked. A company with its finger on the microchipped pulse.
- Alan Dershowitz used his access to Trump to get pardons and commutations for his clients, including George Nader, who pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography and sex trafficking a minor, and then got to leave jail on a private plane.
- Former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell dodged Dominion's legal team for weeks as it tried to serve her in a defamation lawsuit, forcing the company to hire private investigators and chase her across state lines. No one steal our movie idea, Catch Me If You Kraken.
- New coronavirus variants (and rule-breaking students) have already fueled outbreaks on college campuses, in spite of beefed-up testing protocols.
- The self-described “centrist” group Purple America paid for social media promotion from right-wing influencers ahead of the Capital siege.
- The helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant and eight others was caused by the pilot going against his training and flying into thick clouds, where he became disoriented, according to National Transportation Safety Board investigators.
- Stricter car emissions rules have pushed up the prices of the precious metals used in catalytic converters, fueling a catalytic converter black market. If someone steals your catalytic converter, know that you are not alone, and also that you blame climate change.
- A man who left his wallet in Antarctica in 1968 has gotten it back. Again, everyone can stop looking for Paul Grisham's wallet, it was in Antarctica.
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The armed protests in Michigan last spring helps contextualize how and why GOP party leaders began aligning themselves with paramilitary groups. Michigan has a long history of tolerating militia groups, and as the Republican Party has drifted to the right, they’ve found ideological common ground—mostly around the second amendment. When then-President Donald Trump tweeted in support of the armed protesters who occupied Michigan’s Statehouse last spring, Michigan Republicans who had been wary of linking up with militias suddenly had permission (and a big political incentive) to form an alliance. That explicit acceptance—the Michigan Republican Party donated $600,000 to a group fighting coronavirus restrictions—helped pave the way both for the attack on the Capitol on January 6, and for the new democracy-rejecting face of the GOP. On Saturday, Meshawn Maddock, who started the anti-lockdown protests and organized a militia-heavy effort to disrupt ballot-counting in Detroit, was elected co-chair of the state Republican Party.
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The Biden administration will begin sending vaccine doses directly to community health centers next week.
House Democrats have rejected a proposal to further means-test direct payments in the next coronavirus relief package. (That’s still subject to change, but a promising sign!)
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer have announced funeral benefits for low-income New Yorkers who have lost a loved one to coronavirus.
The National Museum of African American Music has opened in Nashville, TN, devoted to celebrating African American contributions to American music.
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