Timothy Ryback: “Ninety-two years ago this month, on Monday morning, January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed the 15th chancellor of the Weimar Republic. In one of the most astonishing political transformations in the history of democracy, Hitler set about destroying a constitutional republic through constitutional means.”

“What follows is a step-by-step account of how Hitler systematically disabled and then dismantled his country’s democratic structures and processes in less than two months’ time—specifically, one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours, and 40 minutes. The minutes, as we will see, mattered.”

President Trump announced that he’ll declassify any remaining files from the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, CBS News reports.

He signed an executive order at the White House Thursday.

“It’s weird to find solace in the Civil War, or the Great Depression, or the beginning of World War Two, but my whole optimistic temperament depends on saying that we will get through it and emerge stronger.”

— Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, in an interview with the Financial Times.

“The five living presidents are making a rare simultaneous appearance on Thursday at former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral,” the New York Times reports.

“It is unusual for five living presidents to be together in one place. Before 1991, there was only one other period in United States history, around 1861, when more than five presidents were even alive at the same time.”

Michael Shear: “President-elect Trump has been talking almost nonstop to former President Barack Obama since the two sat down next to each other a few minutes ago. The conversation seems to be mostly one sided, with Obama listening and responding with shorter answers.”

“A weeklong series of tributes to former President Jimmy Carter culminates on Thursday with a solemn state funeral in Washington that will bring together all five of the nation’s living presidents, who will temporarily put down their partisan swords to bid farewell to one of their own,” the New York Times reports.

Playbook: “Whatever your opinion on Carter’s presidency, his widely regarded decency in life is enough in death to briefly unite a divided national capital at odds on any number of issues.”

Washington Post: “With a storm just passed and snow blanketing the region, scores of onlookers flanked Pennsylvania Avenue NW, bathed in icy air and waning sunshine, as a military procession escorted the caisson up Capitol Hill from the U.S. Navy Memorial — a mile-long solemn march that recalled a walk of triumph by the 39th president on a similarly cold and bright afternoon nearly half a century ago.”

“Former President Jimmy Carter, who disavowed the trappings of the imperial presidency and never gave up his humble Georgia roots, will nonetheless be given an elaborate national send-off starting on Tuesday when he is brought to Washington for three days of tributes,” the New York Times reports.

President Biden warned Americans not to forget the violent attack that took place at the Capitol four years ago, and he accused President-elect Donald Trump and his supporters of trying “to rewrite — even erase — the history of that day,” the New York Times reports.

Wrote Biden, in the Washington Post: “To tell us we didn’t see what we all saw with our own eyes. To dismiss concerns about it as some kind of partisan obsession. To explain it away as a protest that just got out of hand. This is not what happened.”

New York Times: “The president-elect and his allies have spent four years reinventing the Capitol attack — spreading conspiracy theories and weaving a tale of martyrdom to their ultimate political gain.”

Wall Street Journal: “A cache of client files stamped ‘American blacklist,’ a designation for those financing or trading with Nazis or Axis partners, was recently found by independent investigators probing Credit Suisse, one of Switzerland’s biggest banks and now part of UBS.”

“The investigators, who studied dusty ledgers and pored over microfilm that hadn’t been part of earlier reviews into the dark chapter, found something else, too: signs of a coverup.”

Russell Berman: “Until November 5, Cleveland held the distinction of being the only U.S. president to regain the office after voters turned him out: He won the White House in 1884, lost his reelection bid in 1888, and then won again in 1892. Donald Trump matched Cleveland’s achievement by winning last year’s presidential election, robbing him of his exclusive claim to history but also renewing interest in a president whom time has largely forgotten.”

“The two men share little else in common. Cleveland curtailed government corruption, adhered to a restrictive view of presidential authority, and opposed expansionism; Trump flouts ethical norms left and right, chafes at limits to his power, and wants to buy Greenland. Yet their new bond could reshape Cleveland’s legacy.”

“President Jimmy Carter had no idea what he was going to do next when he delivered his farewell address to the nation in January 1981. Defeated after a single term by Ronald Reagan, he simply told Americans that he would leave the White House and ‘take up once more the only title in our democracy superior to that of president — the title of citizen,'” the New York Times reports.

“Forty-four years later, there is little question among historians that Citizen Carter carved a new mold for life after the Oval Office and that his post-presidency was the most consequential in modern history. But his impact was felt more strongly overseas than at home — especially in the realm of public health.”

Todd Purdum: “In part that’s because his post-presidency was the lengthiest on record—more than four decades—and his life span of 100 richly crowded years was the longest of any president, period.”

“But it’s also because the strain of basic decency and integrity that helped get Carter elected in the first place, in 1976, never deserted him, even as his country devolved into ever greater incivility and division.”

“Former Vice President Walter Mondale thought he would still be around to speak at the funeral for Jimmy Carter, who was a little more than three years his senior,” the New York Times reports.

“But even though Mr. Mondale died first, in 2021, he left behind the eulogy he planned to deliver, which will be read at Mr. Carter’s memorial service at Washington National Cathedral on Jan. 9 by his son Ted Mondale.”

Paul Krugman: “Jimmy Carter was a very good man — something that seems especially poignant to think about as we enter an age of kakistocracy, in which being a terrible person seems to be a necessary qualification for high office. And he was surely the best ex-president we’ve ever had. But his presidency itself is widely regarded as a failure.”

“I don’t think that’s fair. Carter wasn’t a Harry Truman, a great president whose greatness only came to be recognized many years later. But was he a bad president? Not in any way I can see. He was just a victim of time and chance… The truth is that luck plays a much bigger role in politics than we like to think.”