“There was no national strategy or plan for vaccinations… We’re starting from scratch.”
— Vice President Kamala Harris, in an interview with Axios.
The GOP Doesn’t Care About National Public Opinion
David Leonhardt: “The Republican Party of the past won elections by persuading most Americans that it would do a better job than Democrats of running the country. Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon and Dwight Eisenhower each won at least 57 percent of the vote in their re-election campaigns. George W. Bush won 51 percent, largely by appealing to swing voters on national security, education, immigration and other issues. A party focused on rebuilding a national majority probably could not stay tethered to Trump.”
“But the modern Republican Party has found ways other than majority support to achieve its goals.”
“It benefits from a large built-in advantage in the Senate, which gives more power to rural and heavily white states. The filibuster also helps Republicans more than it does Democrats. In the House and state legislatures, both parties have gerrymandered, but Republicans have done more of it. In the courts, Republicans have been more aggressive about putting judges on the bench and blocking Democratic presidents from doing so. In the Electoral College, Democrats currently waste more votes than Republicans by running up large state-level victories.”
Support for Third Party at High Point
A new Gallup poll finds 62% of U.S. adults say the “parties do such a poor job representing the American people that a third party is needed.”
Most Say Trump Should Have Been Convicted
A new ABC News/Ipsos poll finds 58% of Americans say that Donald Trump should have been convicted at his impeachment trial.
Trump’s Non-Vindication
A Wall Street Journal editorial urges Republicans to move on from Donald Trump:
“Mr. Trump may run again, but he won’t win another national election. He lost re-election before the events of Jan. 6, and as President his job approval never rose above 50%. He may go on a revenge campaign tour, or run as a third-party candidate, but all he will accomplish is to divide the center-right and elect Democrats. The GOP’s defeats in the two Jan. 5 Georgia Senate races proved that. The country is moving past the Trump Presidency, and the GOP will remain in the wilderness until it does too.”
Republicans Back Biden Relief Bill, Just Not In Washington
Washington Post: “Republicans in Congress overwhelmingly oppose the relief bill, casting it as bloated and budget-busting, with some heaping particular scorn on a measure to send $350 billion in assistance to states and cities. Should Biden go ahead without their approval, GOP leaders say, it will prove that his mantra of bipartisanship rings hollow.”
“But to many Republicans at city halls and statehouses across the country, the relief package looks very different. Instead of the ‘blue-state bailout’ derided by GOP lawmakers, Republican mayors and governors say they see badly needed federal aid to keep police on the beat, to prevent battered Main Street businesses from going under and to help care for the growing ranks of the homeless and the hungry.”
The Hard Part of Erasing Trump’s Legacy Begins
Washington Post: “Now that Biden has undone the most easily reversible Trump policies, the hard part begins — especially after the impeachment trial hampered early Senate action. While liberals are pushing Biden to do more, goals such as expanding health care and strengthening gun control would probably require new laws, which are much harder to enact.”
“The coming months will tell how much of his predecessor’s legacy Biden can erase and how much of Trump’s imprint, despite his chaotic style, will endure.”
Biden Agenda Faces GOP Seeking to Unify in Opposition
“The end of the Senate impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump sets the stage for his successor to pursue his agenda with a Congress no longer encumbered by the wrenching task of accounting for the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The reality for President Biden, however, is that in pursuing priorities from pandemic relief to measures to address climate change and infrastructure renewal, he will have a difficult time achieving the bipartisanship the Senate showed in the trial that failed to convict Mr. Trump.”
New York Times: As impeachment trial ends, Biden takes center stage with stimulus bill.
Obamacare Enrollment Period Open Again
“Uninsured Americans who want to buy Affordable Care Act coverage have another three months to do so, thanks to an executive order President Joe Biden signed last month,” CNN reports.
Impeachment Isn’t Final Word On Capitol Riot
“Donald Trump’s acquittal at his second impeachment trial may not be the final word on whether he’s to blame for the deadly Capitol riot. The next step for the former president could be the courts,” the AP reports.
“Now a private citizen, Trump is stripped of his protection from legal liability that the presidency gave him. That change in status is something that even Republicans who voted on Saturday to acquit of inciting the Jan. 6 attack are stressing as they urge Americans to move on from impeachment.”
Pennsylvania GOP Pushes for More Power Over Judiciary
“When the Pennsylvania Supreme Court unanimously rejected a Republican attempt to overturn the state’s election results in November, Justice David N. Wecht issued his own pointed rebuke, condemning the G.O.P. effort as “futile” and ‘a dangerous game,'” the New York Times reports.
“Now Pennsylvania Republicans have a plan to make it less likely that judges like Justice Wecht get in their way.”
“GOP legislators, dozens of whom supported overturning the state’s election results to aid former President Donald J. Trump, are moving to change the entire way that judges are selected in Pennsylvania, in a gambit that could tip the scales of the judiciary to favor their party, or at least elect judges more inclined to embrace Republican election challenges.”
Ambassador Sweepstakes Underway
Washington Post: “It is a sweepstakes that comes along every four or eight years — intense jockeying in public and private as the well-heeled and well-connected seek coveted positions that come with lavish housing, a staff of chefs and an expectation that the U.S. envoy will put the digs to use for parties.”
“With its mix of famous figures and exotic locales, the competition always attracts interest. But it is under more scrutiny than usual this year as Biden stresses his desire to repair international relationships that frayed under Trump, with ambassadors likely to play a key role in that effort.”
The Taliban Close In on Afghan Cities
“The Taliban have been encroaching on key cities around Afghanistan for months, threatening to drive the country to its breaking point and push the Biden administration into a no-win situation just as the United States’ longest war is supposed to be coming to an end,” the New York Times reports.
Cassidy Explains His Guilty Vote for Trump
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) writes in the Baton Rouge Advocate why he voted to convict former President Donald Trump in the Senate impeachment trial.
“I voted to convict former President Trump because he is guilty. That’s what the facts demand.”
“I have no illusions that this is a popular decision. I made this decision because Americans should not be fed lies about ‘massive election fraud.’ Police should not be left to the mercy of a mob. Mobs should not be inflamed to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power.”
North Carolina Republicans Move to Censure Burr
“North Carolina Republicans are moving to censure Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) for his guilty vote Saturday in the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump,” the Raleigh News & Observer reports.
Trump Lawyer Storms Out of Interview
Trump defense attorney Michael van der Veen stormed out of a live interview after angrily accusing the news anchor interviewing him of downplaying his claim that prosecutors “doctored evidence.”
Trump Looks to Reassert Himself
Associated Press: “Now acquitted in his second Senate impeachment trial, Trump is preparing for the next phase of his post-presidency life. Feeling emboldened by the trial’s outcome, he is expected to reemerge from a self-imposed hibernation at his club in Palm Beach, Florida, and is eyeing ways to reassert his power.”
“But after being barred from Twitter, the former president lacks the social media bullhorn that fueled his political rise. And he’s confronting a Republican Party deeply divided over the legacy of his jarring final days in office, culminating in the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol. Searing video images of the day played on loop during his impeachment trial, which ended Saturday.”
GOP Grapples with Future After Trump
“The dramatic shift in tone from Senate Republicans between two impeachment trials of former President Trump, just a year apart, reveals a party that has grown weary of defending its leader but lacks the fortitude to sever ties, with GOP lawmakers openly grappling this weekend with the difficult question of how to move forward after such a divisive trial,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“In the wake of Trump’s acquittal Saturday, Republicans are divided on the power Trump will — and should — command in the Republican Party, including in the 2024 presidential election. Seven Republicans voted for conviction, a number so large that the vote will go down as the most bipartisan presidential guilty tally in American history; even so, the GOP votes represented just 14% of the Senate conference.”
