President Joe Biden said that new footage of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection shown at Wednesday’s Senate impeachment trial may have changed some opinions on whether former President Donald Trump should be convicted.
Biden told reporters Thursday morning that he “didn’t watch any of the hearing live,” but had seen media coverage.
“My guess is some minds may be changed,” he said.
House impeachment managers presented new security footage Wednesday that hadn’t been made public before, which underscored how close rioters got to lawmakers. Rioters got within 100 feet of Vice President Mike Pence and were “just feet” from the Senate chamber, impeachment manager and Del. Stacey Plaskett said Wednesday.
It’s funny how change happens. You thought the big change came on Election Day, when the incumbent president lost, but that turned out to be nothing compared to the change that came two months later.
On Jan. 6, supporters of Donald Trump swarmed the Capitol building. Some forced their way inside, and Washington has never been the same. It may never be the same. As a result of what happened on Jan. 6, your descendants will live in a very different country. Some in Congress have compared that day to 9/11. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has likened it to Pearl Harbor, which spurred America’s entry into the Second World War.
Every day we hear new and more florid comparisons from Democratic partisans. But Tuesday night, CNN outdid all of them by comparing what happened Jan. 6 to the Rwandan genocide.
Keep in mind that close to a million people were murdered in Rwanda in 1994, about 70% of all ethnic Tutsis in the country. Entire towns were hacked to death with machetes. People were set on fire and crushed alive by bulldozers. Hundreds of thousands of women were raped. It was among the most horrifying crimes in human history.
How does a country recover from something like that? Well, first, obviously, you punish the guilty quickly and severely. Then, and this is more important, you set about reordering your society from top to bottom to make certain nothing like that ever happens again. So you purge the military, suspend basic civil liberties, send troops to the capital, tear down the old, destroy all vestiges of the past in order to save the future.
However, before we remake America to prevent future genocide at the Capitol, maybe we should know a little bit more about the crime that occurred on Jan. 6, if only to understand the justification for overturning our lives permanently. What exactly did happen that day? You may be surprised to learn how little we know, even now. In fact, it’s remarkable how many of the most basic questions remain unanswered more than a month after the fact.
Let’s start with the headline of the day: Five Americans died on the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6. You’ve heard that, but it doesn’t really tell you very much. It’s the details, as always, that matter. Who were these people and how did they die? That’s how you understand what actually happened.
DEMOCRATS PLAY PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED POLICE COMMUNICATIONS FROM CAPITOL RIOT
So with that in mind, here are the facts: Four of the five who died that day were Trump supporters. The fifth was a Capitol Hill police officer who apparently also supported Donald Trump. Why is this relevant? Of course, the political views of the deceased shouldn’t matter, but unfortunately, in this case, they do. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and many other elected Democrats claim the mob was coming for them that day. Yet the only recorded casualties on Jan. 6 were people who voted for Donald Trump.
The first among them was a 34-year-old woman from Georgia called Rosanne Boyland. Authorities initially announced that Boyland died of a “medical emergency”. Later video footage suggested she may have accidentally been trampled by the crowd. We’re still not sure, but that’s the best guess.
The second casualty was 55-year-old Kevin Greeson, who died of heart failure while talking to his wife on a cell phone outside the Capitol. “Kevin had a history of high blood pressure,” his wife later said, “and in the midst of the excitement, suffered a heart attack.”
The third was 50-year-old Benjamin Phillips of Ringtown, Pa. Phillips was a Trump supporter who organized a bus trip to Washington for the rally that day. He died of a stroke on the grounds of the Capitol. There is no evidence that Phillips rioted or was injured by rioters or even went inside the Capitol building.
INVESTIGATORS ADVISE NO CHARGES FOR CAPITOL POLICE OFFICER WHO SHOT ASHLI BABBITT
The fourth person to die, the only one from intentional violence, was 35-year-old Ashli Babbitt, a military veteran from San Diego. Babbitt was wearing a Trump cape when she was shot to death by a Capitol Hill police lieutenant. Babbitt’s death was caught on video, so hers is the best-documented death that took place that day. Yet it is surprising how little we know about it.
Babbitt was shot as she tried to crawl through a broken window into the Speaker’s Lobby within the Capitol, and that’s essentially the extent of what we know. Authorities have refused to release the name of the man who shot her or divulge any details of the investigation they say they’ve done. We may never know exactly why this unnamed Capitol Hill police officer took her life.
According to that officer’s attorney, “There is no way to look at the evidence and think that he is anything but a hero.” Of course, we can’t actually look at that evidence, because they’re withholding it. We can’t even know his identity. Killing an unarmed woman may be justified under certain specific circumstances, but since when is it heroic? When the dead woman has read QAnon websites? Republicans aren’t asking that question.
Rep. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., has said he immediately hugged the officer who shot Ashli Babbitt and told him, “Listen, you did what you had to do.” Did the officer really have to do that? We don’t know. We do know that Ashli Babbitt was not holding a weapon when she was killed. Nevertheless, at the impeachment trial this week, Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., described what happened at the Capitol as “an armed insurrection.”
Her body was found Sunday along an Interstate 80 eastbound ramp in Pennsylvania’s Union County. She was wearing maternity jeans and a purple shirt with a black leather jacket.
(CNN)President Joe Biden said at the start of his administration that family conflicts of interest would not be tolerated in his White House, but not two weeks into his presidency, his brother’s actions as a part of his employment at a law firm in Florida are raising questions about how he’ll implement that pledge.
Francis “Frank” Biden, the President’s brother, was hired as a non-attorney, senior adviser for Berman Law Group, a Boca Raton law firm in 2018. The firm frequently touts Frank Biden’s ties to the President, featuring Frank and his family connections prominently on their website, in ads and on social media.
As Frank Biden was with his brother in Washington for the inauguration last month, the firm placed a two-page “advertorial” in a local Florida newspaper emphasizing the shared values between “the two Biden brothers.” With Frank Biden’s image placed prominently in the center of the ad, it also mentioned the firm’s lawsuit against sugar cane growers “filed against the backdrop of incoming President Joseph Biden Jr.’s commitment to environmental and social justice(.)”
Last week, the White House said that it is its policy to not let businesses imply they have Biden’s support or endorsement. But they declined to comment on the record specifically about the advertisement.
On Wednesday, a White House official told CNN that there is currently a process in place that involves the White House Counsel’s Office and family representatives to address issues as they may arise any questions of potential conflicts of interest.
In their prosecution of Donald Trump for inciting the 6 January attack on the United States Capitol in Washington DC, Democratic impeachment managers have focused on videos of the event, including previously unseen footage.
The managers, who act as prosecutors in the case, have shown clips to their audience of senators, who are in effect acting as jurors.
Three people believed to have been stranded on an uninhabited island in the Bahamas for 33 days have been rescued, the US Coast Guard says.
An aircrew was on a routine patrol when it spotted the group frantically waving a makeshift flag on Anguilla Cay.
The Cuban nationals told officials they had survived largely on coconuts.
One of the crew members involved in the rescue efforts told the BBC he was “amazed that they were able to survive for so long”.
The group was first spotted on the island located between the Florida Keys and Cuba on Monday.
Coast Guard official Riley Beecher told the BBC that he was out on patrol when “something caught the attention of my eye”. When he came back round at a lower altitude, he realised that there were people on the island in distress.
The crew was not equipped to carry out an immediate rescue, but food, water and a radio were dropped to them so they could communicate.
“Unfortunately we didn’t have any fluent Spanish speakers but in my broken Spanish I was able to discern that they were from Cuba and that they needed medical assistance. They made sure to stress that they had been on the island for 33 days,” Lt Beecher said.
DALLAS (WBAP/KLIF) – The National Rifle Association is searching for a new home in Texas.
The organization has hired Colliers International to help it search for a new headquarters in the event it decides to relocate from Northern Virginia.
The nonprofit hasn’t said for sure it will move, only that it plans to. According to reports, Dallas-Fort worth will most likely be the area it selects.
Currently, the NRA is going through Chapter 11 reorganization in Dallas.
The NRA is widely recognized as a major political force and as America’s foremost defender of Second Amendment rights. NRA-ILA, the lobbying arm of the NRA, is involved in any issue that directly or indirectly affects firearms ownership and use.
Larry Flynt, the “Hustler” magazine founder and outspoken first amendment activist who built an adult entertainment empire, died Wednesday at his Hollywood Hills home, his nephew, Jimmy Flynt Jr., tells CNN. He was 78.
President Biden’s son-in-law’s investment in a health care company involved in the coronavirus vaccine effort is raising eyebrows in ethical circles after the president pledged that family members would have no influence in government matters, according to a report Tuesday.
President Biden is pledging that his administration will follow tough ethics regulations and that no family members will be involved in government or foreign policy decisions.
In his first interview since entering the White House, Biden, sitting next to his wife, Jill, was asked about the allegations surrounding his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine and China and what kind of guardrails he would put up for family.
“We’re going to run this like the Obama-Biden administration. No one in our family and extended family is going to be involved in any government undertaking or foreign policy. And nobody has an office in this place,” he told People magazine in an interview.
Yosi Health CEO Hari Prasad created software that would help make the vaccine process more efficient and sought help from one of his company’s first investors, StartUp Health, which employs Biden son-in-law, Howard Krein, as its chief medical officer, ABC News reported.
Prasad sought help from StartUp Health in December to pitch their software platform to government health officials, the report said.
The decision of an International Criminal Court panel to clear the way for a potential war crimes investigation of Israel is forcing the Biden administration to wade into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict much earlier than anticipated.
Why it matters: The ICC ruling infuriated the Israeli government — and it also underscored their reliance on the Biden administration, senior Israeli officials tell me. After the decision was announced on Friday, Israel immediately opened urgent consultations with U.S. officials.
On Monday morning, the U.S. chargé d’affaires in Jerusalem met Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi to discuss the matter.
Hours later, Secretary of State Tony Blinken spoke with Ashkenazi and reassured him the U.S. would help Israel oppose the ICC ruling, Israeli officials tell me.
The big picture: Unlike the Obama and Trump administrations, the Biden administration doesn’t see the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a foreign policy priority and has little expectation of progress.
On CNN on Monday, Blinken summed up President Biden’s initial approach to the issue as “do no harm” — to ensure that neither side takes unilateral steps that would further obstruct a path toward peace.
Biden doesn’t think there’s a realistic chance of renewing negotiations between the parties anytime soon and therefore isn’t planning to appoint a special envoy for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
But just three weeks into Biden’s term, Israeli officials are warning of a deep crisis in Israeli-Palestinian relations if the ICC prosecutor takes up the war crimes investigation, which was initially requested by the Palestinian government.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now desperately needs Biden’s backing on an issue of acute importance to Israel.
The State Department has already disputed the ICC’s decision that it has jurisdiction to investigate the matter.
The Israeli government is now hoping the Biden administration will pressure the court’s member states and the prosecutor not to pursue the probe.
What to watch: That reliance could give the U.S. leverage when it seeks to deter the Israeli government from taking provocative steps like further settlement building, or it could gain Israeli approval for the reopening of the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem.
But the ICC ruling could also complicate the Biden administration’s efforts to renew ties with the Palestinians — in particular, the plan to reopen the PLO office in Washington, which the Trump administration closed in 2018.
An existing U.S. law requires the secretary of state to certify to Congress that the Palestinian Authority is not pursuing action against Israel in the ICC in order for the PLO to be permitted to have an office in Washington.
The state of play: Palestinian leaders have welcomed the ICC ruling and called for an investigation as soon as possible. It’s unclear whether the Biden administration has had any talks with Palestinian officials on the issue.
Barak Ravid is a Contributing Correspondent at Axios based in Tel-Aviv. He covers everything that matters from Cairo to Tehran. Barak also writes for Walla News in Israel.
Federal officials said that a massive, 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck east of Australia Wednesday morning posed no threat to the West Coast after reviewing available data.
The quake, which struck in an area southeast of the Loyalty Islands, was measured at a depth of just over 6 miles beneath the surface of the ocean, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Shortly after the quake was recorded, officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said there was “no tsunami warning, advisory, watch or threat” to California, Oregon, Washington state, Alaska and British Columbia, Canada.
NOAA issued a tsunami warning, however, for the South Pacific Ocean nation of Vanuatu and for Fiji.
At least four other moderate quakes hit near the Loyalty Islands Wednesday, USGS data show, each measured around 6 in magnitude.
A winter weather advisory has been issued for Fayette, Greene, Indiana and Westmoreland counties from 4 p.m. Wednesday to 9 a.m. Thursday. (Click here to read the alert for your county.)
The chance for snow remains in the forecast Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.
High temperatures are also expected to mainly remain in the 20s and lower 30s for the next several days.
People who had elevated blood levels of a toxic chemical called perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA) had an increased risk of a more severe course of COVID-19 than those who did not have elevated levels, according to a new study led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. PFBA is part of a class of man-made chemicals known as perfluorinated alkylate substances (PFASs), which have previously been shown to suppress immune function.
The study, published December 31, 2020 in PLOS ONE, was led by Philippe Grandjean, adjunct professor of environmental health.
PFASs have water- and grease-resistant properties and are used in a wide variety of products, including nonstick cookware, waterproof clothing, food packaging, and firefighting foams. PFBA, more than other PFASs, is known to accumulate in the lungs, according to the study.
Bruce Springsteen is facing a drunken driving charge in New Jersey.
Springsteen was arrested Nov. 14 in a part of the Gateway National Recreation Area on the New Jersey coast, a spokesperson for the National Park Service confirmed Wednesday.
The park is on a narrow, beach-ringed peninsula, with views across a bay to New York City. It is about 15 miles north of Asbury Park, New Jersey, where Springsteen got his start as a musician and bandleader and later made famous with his debut album, “Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.”
Springsteen received citations for driving while under the influence, reckless driving, and consuming alcohol in a closed area. The spokesperson said Springsteen was cooperative.
On Feb. 8, Gov. Tom Wolf (D-York) held a press conference to reaffirm his belief in increasing the minimum wage in Pennsylvania, and outlined a plan that would incrementally raise minimum wage to $15 an hour, from its current rate of $7.25 an hour.
At his press conference, Wolf emphasized that $7.25, which a press release called “embarrassingly low,” can no longer be considered a livable wage, as the cost of food, gas, housing, and other essential services have gone up. Pennsylvania’s minimum wage was last increased in 2009, when the federal minimum wage requirement increased.
“Too many essential workers are earning poverty wages while putting themselves at risk to keep our society running,” said Wolf in a press release. “They keep food on shelves, move crucial supplies, take care of our children, and support people with disabilities. And thousands of them earn poverty wages. These hardworking people deserve better. They deserve a living wage.”
Teachers in Chicago, home to the nation’s third-largest school district, are set to return to classrooms this week after striking a deal with the city on health and safety standards, capping months of tense negotiations that raised the specter of a strike during a school year that has already seen repeated disruptions.
Chicago Teachers Union officials accepted the agreement begrudgingly after concluding that they would be unlikely to extract any more concessions from the city. Nearly 70 percent of members who cast ballots endorsed accepting the agreement, less than a day after union brass had passed a vote of “no confidence” in Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D).
The National Transportation Safety Board announced the probable cause of the helicopter crash that killed basketball legend Kobe Bryant, his daughter and seven others in the hills north of Los Angeles last year. Federal investigators said the pilot, Ara Zobayan, became disoriented in the clouds. CBS News’ Chris Martinez reports from Los Angeles.
Juneau, Alaska (KINY) – Alaska State Troopers have released additional information on the bear attack Saturday near Chilkoot Lake, about ten miles northwest of Haines.
The dispatch says the group of three hikers unknowingly happened upon a den containing a brown bear and an unknown number of cubs.
The people told troopers the sow exited the den in a defensive manner and attacked one of them. They say the bear then ended the attack and left the area.
The party was in steep terrain at about the 1,600-foot level so a Coast Guard helicopter was called in to effect the rescue. The dispatch says the victim remains in stable condition in Anchorage.
Fish and Game Department biologists and Alaska Wildlife Troopers are investigating.
A White House spokesperson has responded to backlash over Joe Biden‘s executive order regarding transgender children competing in athletics in schools.
During a press briefing on Tuesday, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, was asked about what message Mr. Biden’s executive order should send to cis and transgender female athletes.
“The president believes that trans rights are human rights,” Ms Psaki responded before referring the reporter to individual institutions for how they’ll treat their athletic programmes.
The executive order under scrutiny, entitled the “Executive Order on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation”, was signed by Mr. Biden in January.
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – A man was killed and two firefighters were injured after a fire broke out at a home in Pittsburgh’s Allentown neighborhood.
Pittsburgh firefighters were battling a fire with heavy smoke at a home on Knox Avenue Tuesday afternoon. Pittsburgh Public Safety sent out an alert asking people to avoid the area.
The biggest issue fighting the fire was that the stairway to the second floor collapsed. Firefighters had to use a ladder to try to get to the man stuck on the second floor, but did not get to him in time.
Chief Darryl Jones says unfortunately firefighters found that man dead on the second floor. They can’t yet say how many people lived in the home, but know one woman did manage to escape.
More than 300 school closings and delays were reported as snow hit the Pittsburgh area on Tuesday morning.
Among the districts making changes were the McKeesport Area School District, which closed for a flexible instruction day and the Washington School District, which also opted for a flexible instruction day.
A complete list of school closings and delays can be found here.
Sen. Kevin Cramer made it clear Tuesday what he thought about the historic second impeachment trial of Donald Trump: “Welcome to the stupidest week in the Senate.”
Shortly before the trial was set to begin, the North Dakota Republican released a video statement criticizing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for using impeachment “flippantly” as a political tool.
“As a response to her view that Donald Trump demeaned the Office of the President, the House Speaker is now making a mockery of Congress and one of the most serious institutions in our country,” Cramer said. “It’s disgusting.”
“While Speaker Pelosi sent these backbenchers to tie up the Senate,” Cramer said, referring to the House impeachment managers, “she sent the rest of the House home instead of leaving them here to carry out the actual work of the American people.”
BUFFALO, Minn. (AP) — Multiple people were shot at a Minnesota health clinic on Tuesday and someone was taken into custody afterward, police said.
The shooting happened at an Allina clinic in Buffalo, a city of about 15,000 people roughly 40 miles (64 kilometers) northwest of Minneapolis, Kelly Prestidge, an office manager for the Buffalo Police Department, told The Associated Press.
Prestidge said one person was taken into custody, but that she didn’t know if it was the shooter. She also said she didn’t have further information on the attack, including how many people were shot or if anyone was killed.
Side streets were snow-covered in Pittsburgh on Tuesday morning.
Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 reporter Chandi Chapman found snow still covering roads on the South Side at 4 a.m.
Pittsburgh’s Department of Public Works said they were plowing and salting streets across the city with 45 trucks on the roads and drivers working 12-hour shifts.
It’s a debate with no clear-cut answer: Which Pittsburgh pizzeria rises above the rest?
Patch is celebrating National Pizza Day on Feb. 9 by asking people where they go for their favorite pie. What follows is a list of some of the more popular pizzerias in
town, but it isn’t meant to be inclusive. Feel free to mention your favorite place in the comments section even if it isn’t mentioned here.
On Feb. 8, Gov. Tom Wolf (D-York) held a press conference to reaffirm his belief in increasing the minimum wage in Pennsylvania, and outlined a plan that would incrementally raise minimum wage to $15 an hour, from its current rate of $7.25 an hour.
Sen. Kevin Cramer made it clear Tuesday what he thought about the historic second impeachment trial of Donald Trump: “Welcome to the stupidest week in the Senate.”
PITTSBURGH —
