Politics Now - USA

After five of his lawyers quit last week, former President Donald Trump announced a new legal team headed by Bruce Castor Jr. and David Schoen. Schoen represented Roger Stone in his Mueller investigation trial, and was set to represent disgraced billionaire Jeffrey Epstein before he died by suicide. Castor was criticized for declining to prosecute Bill Cosby in 2005 when he was DA of Montgomery County, PA. Trump's previous legal team parted ways with the president over differences in strategy. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Just days after five members of former President Trump's impeachment legal team quit over a disagreement on strategy, two new lawyers — David Schoen and Bruce Castor Jr. — have been added to the roster. The pair are expected to take the lead when Trump's impeachment trial for inciting the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol begins on February 8. Castor served as the District Attorney of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, from 200

Video recently surfaced of Georgia U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s 2019 verbal harassment of David Hogg outside the U.S. Capitol. The anti-handgun young man had survived the 2018 mass shooting attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. In the video, the young man just ignores the thoughtless representative. Yet, our country gets what it deserves by electing people such as Rep. Greene. John Russo, Bay Village

Rep. Adam Kinzinger said the GOP party is "not a Trump-first party" but a "country first party" in an interview with Chuck Todd on "Meet the Press" on Sunday. His remarks came in response to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's visit to the former president Donald Trump's home in Flordia last week. Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois is one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump after the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger said the GOP is not a "Trump-first party" in response to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's visit to the former president's home on Thursday. "The former president is desperate to continue to look like he's leading the party. And the problem is until we push back and say, you know, this is not a Trump-first party, this is a country first party," Kinzinger told Chuck Todd in an interview on Meet the Press on Sunda

Two people familiar with the discussions preceding the departure of the original legal team said that Trump wanted them to make the case during the trial that he actually won the election. To do so would require citing his false claims of election fraud — even as his allies and attorneys have said that he should instead focus on arguing that impeaching a president who has already left office is unconstitutional. AD AD That approach has already been embraced by many Republican senators, many of whom cited it when they cast a test vote against impeachment last week. Trump’s lawyers had initially planned to center their strategy on the question of whether the proceedings were constitutional and on the definition of incitement, according to one of the people, who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the internal conversations. But the former president repeatedly said he wanted to litigate the voter fraud allegations and the 2020 race — a

Washington (CNN) The Department of Homeland Security said Sunday that Transportation Security Administration workers now have the authority to enforce President Joe Biden's transportation mask mandate "at TSA screening checkpoints and throughout the commercial and public transportation system." Acting Secretary David Pekoske on Sunday signed a Determination of National Emergency , which said the TSA can "take actions consistent with the authorities" of its federal jurisdiction so it can enforce the mask mandate order laid out by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention late Friday. "This includes supporting the CDC in the enforcement of any orders or other requirements necessary to protect the transportation system, including passengers and employees, from Covid-19 and to mitigate the spread of Covid-19 through the transportation system, to the extent appropriate and consistent with applicable law," Pekoske wrote. The CDC order issued last wee

The silence from Republican leaders has been deafening. That can’t continue if the party has any hope of reclaiming conservatism from nihilistic rot — something every American should be rooting for to maintain a healthy two-party system. Ms. Greene is now a member of the House of Representatives, with a prominent platform and real power to have impact on people’s lives. She has a responsibility to act — and speak — in the best interests of the American public and of the Constitution she has sworn to serve and defend. Peddling grotesque lies, cheering talk of political violence (which she claims to oppose) and fomenting sedition run counter to her oath of office. With each new revelation, the calls to discipline Ms. Greene grow louder. Representative Jimmy Gomez, a Democrat from California, plans to introduce a resolution calling for her expulsion from Congress, which had at least 50 members signed on as of Friday. This approach is unlikely to succeed. While the Constitution gives both

From inciting insurrection to suddenly seeking new representation. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images Donald Trump named a new impeachment legal team on Sunday night, one day after all five lawyers who had been set to represent him in next week’s Senate trial reportedly left on account of the former president wanting to use his baseless stolen-election claims as part of his defense. Attorneys Bruce Castor and David Schoen will now lead Trump’s defense, spokesperson Jason Miller said in a statement on Sunday. The statement also seemed to signal that Trump’s defense strategy will aim to prove that the impeachment is unconstitutional now that he is out of office. Castor is a former district attorney and longtime Republican politician in Pennsylvania best known for declining to charge comedian Bill Cosby with sexual assault a decade before the accused serial rapist was finally brought to justice. In 2005, when Castor was district attorney in Pennsylvania’s Montgomery County, he

President Biden on Sunday sent a letter to congressional leaders reversing former President Trump Donald TrumpKelli Ward rejects request for Arizona GOP race audit Gun sales on the rise amid pandemic uncertainty, Biden's vow for gun reform Top Trump impeachment lawyer Bowers leaves team: reports MORE's last-minute attempt to freeze $27.4 billion in government programs. Trump had moved, with less than a week left in his term, to freeze the billions in federal funding using a budget maneuver called rescission. “I am withdrawing 73 proposed rescissions previously transmitted to the Congress,” Biden said in the letter. ADVERTISEMENT The 73 budget reductions that Trump had called for were spread across almost every Cabinet-level agency and mostly lined up with his proposed cuts to domestic program spending in the 2021 federal budget that were rejected by Congress. Trump had sent a letter to congressional leadership on Jan. 14 asking for the rescissions, including for the Environment

WASHINGTON — Top Trump officials actively lobbied Congress to deny state governments any extra funding for the Covid-19 vaccine rollout last fall — despite frantic warnings from state officials that they didn’t have the money they needed to ramp up a massive vaccination operation. The push, described to STAT by congressional aides in both parties and openly acknowledged by one of the Trump officials, came from multiple high-ranking Trump health officials in repeated meetings with legislators. Without the extra money, states spent last October and November rationing the small pot of federal dollars they had been given. And when vaccines began shipping in December, states seemed woefully underprepared. advertisement The previously unreported lobbying efforts underscore that even after the Trump administration spent billions helping drug makers develop Covid-19 vaccines, it not only dismissed states’ concerns about the help they would need to roll them out, but actively undermined their e

Trump was a serial violator of his oath—as evidenced by his continual use of his office for personal financial gain—but focusing on three crucial ways in which he betrayed it helps clarify his singular historical status. First, he failed to put the national-security interests of the United States ahead of his own political needs. Second, in the face of a devastating pandemic, he was grossly derelict, unable or unwilling to marshal the requisite resources to save lives while actively encouraging public behavior that spread the disease. And third, held to account by voters for his failures, he refused to concede defeat and instead instigated an insurrection, stirring a mob that stormed the Capitol. Many chief executives have failed, in one way or another, to live up to the demands of the job, or to competently discharge them. But historians now tend to agree that our worst presidents are those who fall short in the second part of their pledge, in some way endangering the Constitution. An

The pattern seems to repeat itself endlessly. Once again, a Democratic president has to take over and fix the mess left behind by his Republican predecessor. And once again, Republicans are trying to prevent the Democratic president from taking effective action by pretending at bipartisanship, hamstringing efforts at relief through scare tactics over the deficit and moral hazard. FDR faced the same challenge in fixing the Great Depression after Hoover, Obama faced it in dealing with the Great Recession after Bush, and now Biden is dealing with the same challenge after Trump’s disastrous failure to respond to the pandemic. The Biden plan to secure COVID relief is appropriately aggressive. It asks for $1.9 trillion to get people and businesses direct relief, implement vaccines and improved public health, help patch up ruined state and local budgets, assist beleaguered schools in reopening, raise the federal minimum wage, and assist struggling parents. This plan will not have difficulty p

This is what a nightmare scenario looks like. With the party reeling in the wake of its 2020 unraveling — when it lost too many centrist voters — state Republicans now worry Greene will emerge as the face of the GOP, tainting the entire ticket with a stamp of conspiracy theory and extremism in the run-up to the 2022 midterms. “If you have any common sense, you know she's an anchor on the party. She is weighing us down,” said Gabriel Sterling, a Republican election administrator who became a leading voice criticizing the baseless election conspiracy theories espoused by Trump and his supporters like Greene. “Some people are saying maybe [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi will throw her out” of Congress, Sterling said, referring to the House speaker. “The Democrats would never throw her out. They want her to be the definition of what a Republican is. They’re gonna give her every opportunity to speak and be heard and look crazy — like what came out Wednesday, the Jewish space laser to start

"There's nothing scarier than a white mob. Especially in the United States." These are the words of Democrat Congressman Ruben Gallego, who was evacuated from the US Capitol as a violent, angry mob closed in on January 6. A former US Marine, Mr Gallego was ready to fight his way out of the chamber. He says if the mob had got hold of members of Congress that day, they likely would have tried to kill them. Democrat Congressman Ruben Gallego instructed people how to put on their gas masks when the Capitol building was under siege. ( Getty Images ) Watching the coverage of the Capitol Hill insurrection from Australia, you could be forgiven for seeing an element of pantomime in the events: costumes and crude levity among the rioters, a file of protestors walking almost dazed between velvet ropes in the Capitol rotunda. But that ignores the real threat the mob posed. Mr Gallego sees race as one of the key motivators. "There is a population of this country that has gotten u

In the wake of the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, certain Republican members of Congress have been getting a lot of attention for being, at a minimum, fellow travelers with the rioters. The group includes four Representatives in particular: Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Paul Gosar (R-AZ) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO). All four have a history of hanging around with right-wing extremists. In far from a shocking revelation, the white supremacists and nationalists behind the attack on the Capitol aren’t just racists. They were also viciously opposed to LGBTQ rights. From offensive events like Straight Pride parades to acts of vandalism and outright violence, these extremists represent a threat to LGBTQ people, and the four members of Congress who are under scrutiny for their connections to the insurrectionists are no different. Related: Don’t be fooled. Mitch McConnell is still calling the shots in the Senate. Like them, the four Representatives all have their ow

click to enlarge mccv / Shutterstock.com President Joe Biden speaks during the 59th Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021. Joe Biden hadn't finished his first full day as president before Sean Hannity declared that he'd had a "disastrous first week." This blunt-force stupidity is nothing new for Donald Trump's lickspittle in chief, and not unexpected as Rupert Murdoch's Pravda struggles to claw back viewers from the conspiracy loons at Newsmax and OANN. What's interesting, however, is what prompted the Fox News host's snap judgment: Biden did what he promised. He brought the U.S. back into the Paris climate accord and the World Health Organization. He stopped the Keystone XL Pipeline and the border wall. He froze new fossil fuel extraction permits on federal lands. He rescinded Trump's travel ban and expanded protections for LGBTQ people. He paused most deportations and released a comprehensive immigr

Frenzy over GameStop shares that triggered a "short squeeze" and cost hedge funds big money is a reminder that Wall Street is a "rigged game," Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said on Sunday. Continue Reading Below "Let's start with the fact we actually don't know who all the players are in this, whether there is big money on both sides. That’s why we need an SEC investigation," Warren told CNN's "State of the Union." "What's happening with GameStop is just a reminder of what's been going on on Wall Street now for years and years and years. It's a rigged game. ... They've turned this stock market, not into a place where you get capital formation to support businesses, but more into a casino." ROBINHOOD CEO REFUTES 'CONSPIRACY THEORY' THAT HEDGE FUNDS PROMPTED GAMESTOP TRADING HALT "We need a market that is transparent, level and that is open to individual investors," Warren continued. "I

(CNN) Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said Sunday that he thinks there are enough Democratic votes to pass a massive Covid-19 relief package through a process known as reconciliation as the country grapples with the economic fallout of the pandemic. "I believe that we do," the incoming chairman of the Senate Budget Committee said when asked during an interview with ABC whether he thought there are enough Democratic votes. "All of us will have differences of opinions, this is a 1.9 trillion dollar bill, I have differences and concerns about this bill, but at the end of the day we are going to support the President of the United States," Sanders added. Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, has said that Democrats will use the move to pass the package by 51 votes in the Senate, rather than 60, if Republicans don't move the legislation. Republicans used the reconciliation process when they attempted to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act in 201

After just over a week we can safely say that Joe Biden is the greatest president in American history. I say that only because the last president, who shall remain nameless, repeatedly told us that he was the greatest president in American history. And Joe Biden is clearly better than he was. In fact, looking at the 30 executive orders produced by Biden, his vaccine plan, his restoration of normalcy to foreign policy, the efficiency and effectiveness of his administration to date, the diversity of his team, the transparency he has restored to the White House, the importance of some programs to which he has committed—from raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour to protecting our natural resources from commercial exploitation and systematically working to root out racially-driven inequity from our system—an objective observer would have to say that the Biden-Harris administration has done more good for the country in a week than the previous one had done in four years. OK, I admit it. Th

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont on Sunday told ABC host Martha Raddatz that there is a sufficient amount of support within the Democratic Party to pass President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package and warned that failing to immediately distribute aid to struggling households throughout the country would represent an unconscionable betrayal of the millions of voters who handed Democrats unified legislative and executive power with a directive to improve people's lives. "The question is not bipartisanship. The question is addressing the unprecedented crises that we face right now." —Sen. Bernie Sanders "We made promises to the American people," said Sanders. "We're going to keep those promises." "Does your party have the votes to pass the relief package through the reconciliation process, if you decide to go that route?" asked Raddatz. "I believe that we do," Sanders, an independent member of the Democratic ca

Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) called for Republican House leaders to take action against QAnon-supporting Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) over her violent and conspiratorial rhetoric, saying on Sunday that stripping her of her committee assignments would “send a message.” Appearing on CNN’s State of the Union, Portman—who recently announced that he will not seek reelection in 2022—spent much of the interview hemming and hawing over whether or not he’d support impeaching former President Donald Trump for inciting the insurrectionist Capitol riot earlier this month. “If you don’t vote yes aren’t you excusing it? You say it is inexcusable,” anchor Dana Bash confronted the outgoing senator. “If you don’t vote yes, one could argue you are doing just that. You are excusing the behavior.” Portman, meanwhile, contended that Trump’s actions “can be inexcusable and yet not be subject to a conviction,” adding that he isn’t sure that the Senate impeachment trial is constitutional since Trump is no lo