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sabra's JournalTrump has no legal team or strategy for Capitol riot impeachment trial
Source: CNBC
Ex-President Donald Trump is not prepared for his Senate impeachment trial despite the fact that it could begin as early as next week.
Trump, who is charged with inciting the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol by a mob of his supporters, still has not assembled a group of lawyers to defend him at what will be his second impeachment trial, NBC News reported.
He also has no clear legal strategy for the trial, according to NBC. Democratic senators, and likely a number of Republican ones, hope to convict Trump and then vote to bar him from becoming president ever again.
The failure to prepare for the trial is consistent with Trump’s behavior this month, where he did little actual work related to the presidency.
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/21/trump-not-prepared-for-senate-impeachment-trial-for-capitol-riots.html
Doctor that promoted false hydroxychloroquine claims arrested in connection with Capitol riot
Source: The Hill
Federal officials this weekend arrested the head of a fringe medical group that has promoted false claims about vaccines and the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine in connection with the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
The Justice Department said in charging documents that it had charged Simone Gold, head of America’s Frontline Doctors, with violent entry, disorderly conduct and entering a restricted building. John Strand, the group’s communications director, was also charged in connection with the riot, with the Justice Department including images of both inside the building.
Gold confirmed to The Washington Post on Jan. 12 that she was present at the riot and does "regret being there,” but told the newspaper, “I can certainly speak to the place that I was, and it most emphatically was not a riot.” However, the affidavit indicates that a video of a police officer who was pulled down by a member of the mob during the riot landed in front of Strand and Gold.
In 2020, the group was one of the most vocal in promoting the unproven use of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the coronavirus, a claim then-President Trump repeatedly hyped. Numerous studies have indicated the drug is not effective against the virus.
Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/535202-head-of-fringe-medical-group-who-met-with-pence-arrested-in-connection-with
GOP Lawmakers Praise Biden's Message of Unity
Source: WSJ
Republican lawmakers praised the message of unity in President Biden's inaugural address Wednesday and said they hoped the parties can find a way to work together.
"I thought it was very strong and, and very much needed," said Sen. Mitt Romney (R., Utah), a vocal critic of former President Donald Trump. "We as a nation come together if we are told the truth. And if we have leaders who stand for enduring American principles."
He added: "Whether here or abroad, when there has been disunity or fear or a sense of weakness and malaise, great leaders have come forward to bring people together, whether it's Churchill or Lincoln or Reagan....I hope this president is able to achieve that, and that we as people throughout our society will rise to the occasion as well."
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska) also praised Mr. Biden's focus on unity. "I thought it was very well done. I thought it was what we needed."
Read more: https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/biden-presidential-inauguration-2021/card/8WKkDvksuMtYRhcJKaX4?mod=e2tw
Proud Boys organizer Joe Biggs charged in Capitol riot
Source: NBC News
Proud Boys organizer Joseph Biggs was arrested in Florida on Wednesday in connection to the riot at the Capitol earlier this month, adding to the growing list of federal cases against those who took part in the mob.
Biggs, an organizer of the far-right, all-male group of self-described "Western chauvinists," was identified through multiple videos and photos, according to a criminal complaint signed by an FBI agent who worked the case.
The charges say he was one of the first to enter the Capitol building, through a door that was opened by a small group that got in by breaking a window with a police body shield.
In an interview with the FBI on Monday, Biggs admitted to investigators that he entered the Capitol building but denied forcing his was through.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/proud-boys-organizer-joe-biggs-charged-capitol-riot-n1254999?cid=sm_npd_ms_tw_ma
Some QAnon followers lose hope after Inauguration
Source: NBC News
Some QAnon conspiracy theorists, in public and private internet forums and chat rooms, were despondent Wednesday as their prophecy of an Inauguration Day coup to keep Donald Trump in power failed again as President Joe Biden was sworn into office.
The situation left some QAnon adherents with no choice but to write off the conspiracy theory entirely, though others continued to maintain that it was still developing.
QAnon supporters believed Wednesday’s inauguration was an elaborate trap set by the former president, wherein Democrats would be rounded up and executed while Trump retained power. Various other doomsdays theorized by the QAnon community have also come and gone without incident.
But unlike those past days, Biden's inauguration leaves the community with little daylight. As their predictions failed, radicalized QAnon members expressed their betrayal on messaging apps like Telegram and forums named after their failed doomsday scenario, The Great Awakening.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/some-qanon-followers-struggle-inauguration-day-n1255002
States report vaccine shortages and cancel appointments
Source: AP
NEW YORK (AP) — The push to inoculate Americans against the coronavirus is hitting a roadblock: A number of states are reporting they are running out of vaccine, and tens of thousands of people who managed to get appointments for a first dose are seeing them canceled.
The full explanation for the apparent mismatch between supply and demand was unclear, but last week the U.S. Health and Human Services Department suggested that states had unrealistic expectations for how much vaccine was on the way.
The shortages are coming as states dramatically ramp up their vaccination drives, at the direction of the federal government, to reach people 65 and older, along with other groups deemed essential or at high risk. More than 400,000 deaths in the U.S. have been blamed on the virus.
First-grade teacher Karen Stachowiak spent almost five hours on the New York state hot line and website to land an appointment set for Wednesday, only to have it canceled. The Buffalo-area resident and her parents were among several thousand people with canceled appointments in Erie County because of supply problems.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-vaccine-update-f1b8967b6a077d89d21134f4eac069f6
Trump issues last-minute pardon to Albert Pirro, ex-husband of Jeanine Pirro
Source: Yahoo News/Politico
In the closing minutes of his presidency, President Donald Trump issued a full pardon for Albert J. Pirro Jr., who was convicted in 2000 on conspiracy and tax evasion charges.
The pardon for Pirro, who has in the past worked for Trump, is the latest in a flurry of more than 140 last-minute pardons and commutations that the president issued overnight to loyalists, such as alt-right provocateur and former aide Steve Bannon, and celebrities, including rappers Lil Wayne and Kodak Black.
Pirro is the former husband of Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, who has staunchly supported Trump throughout his presidency. The couple divorced in 2013.
The action, possibly the last of Trump's presidency, was announced as the inauguration of Joe Biden was underway in Washington, D.C. Trump was not present, instead choosing to leave in the morning for Florida.
Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/trump-issues-last-minute-pardon-171550288.html?ncid=twitter_yahoonewst_sjwumo1bpf4
Eugene Goodman, Capitol officer who faced mob alone, escorts Kamala Harris at inauguration
Source: ABC7/WJLA
WASHINGTON (ABC7) — In his new role as acting Deputy House Sergeant at Arms, the man hailed as a hero for facing down a mob at the Capitol during the attack on January 6, is escorting Vice President-elect Kamala Harris during today's inaugural ceremonies, CNN reports.
Officer Eugene Goodman is being considered for a Congressional Gold Medal for luring a mob away from trying to enter the Senate chamber.
Goodman is an Iraq combat veteran and a member of the XVIII Airborne Corps. According to the Military Times, he served in the Army for four years and was deployed to Iraq with the 101st Airborne.
"Eugene was a hero long before last Wednesday. We celebrate his valor," the XVIII Airborne Corps tweeted last week.
Read more: https://wjla.com/news/local/capitol-officer-who-faced-mob-alone-escorts-kamala-harris-at-inauguration
US virus death toll tops 400,000 in Trump's final hours
Source: AP
The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus eclipsed 400,000 on Tuesday in the waning hours in office for President Donald Trump, whose handling of the crisis has been judged by public health experts a singular failure.
The running total of lives lost, as compiled by Johns Hopkins University, is nearly equal to the number of Americans killed in World II. It is about the population of Tulsa, Oklahoma; Tampa, Florida; or New Orleans. It is equivalent to the sea of humanity that was at Woodstock in 1969.
It is just short of the estimated 409,000 Americans who died in 2019 of strokes, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, flu and pneumonia combined.
...
While the Trump administration has been credited with Operation Warp Speed, the crash program to develop and distribute coronavirus vaccines, Trump has repeatedly downplayed the threat, mocked masks, railed against lockdowns, promoted unproven and unsafe treatments, undercut scientific experts and expressed scant compassion for the victims.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-public-health-tulsa-oklahoma-florida-56b56d4848bbe5b41060e7b3a5e459bb?utm_medium=AP&utm_source=Twitter&utm_campaign=SocialFlow
Pence, other GOP officials expected to skip Trump send-off
Source: The Hill
Romney calls for Senate to pass sanctions on Putin over Navalny poisoning
Vice President Pence is not expected to attend a send-off for President Trump at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday, joining a host of other GOP officials who have declined to see the president off for his official departure from the White House.
Trump will leave the base about 8 a.m. on Wednesday for Florida. Officials are planning a formal ceremony for the president, who is declining to attend his successor's inauguration in a break with more than a century of tradition.
Pence is slated to attend the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, and as a result will not be at the Air Force base. Officials cited the logistical challenges of getting between the two events. Biden is scheduled to be sworn in at noon Wednesday.
The top two Republicans in Congress — House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.) — are also not planning to attend Trump's send-off. McCarthy and McConnell have also been invited by Biden to attend a pre-inauguration church service Wednesday morning.
Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/534835-pence-other-gop-officials-expected-to-skip-trump-send-off
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