By: KDKA-TV News Staff

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning for most of Western Pennsylvania, including the Pittsburgh area.

RELATED: Police: Man In Critical Condition After Being Stabbed In The Neck

The warning will be in effect from 1:00 a.m. on Monday through 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday.

Significant snowfall and ice accumulation from freezing rain (the icy glaze) is expected from this storm .

(Photo Credit: KDKA Weather Center)

Portions of southwestern and western Pennsylvania, east central Ohio, and the northern and northern panhandle areas of West Virginia are included in the warning area.

RELATED: Judge: Pennsylvania Woman Ordered To Jail Pulled Knife, Stabbed Herself

There is also a winter weather advisory for Fayette, Monongalia and Preston Counties.

There will still be travel issues there, but not to the extent of the issues created by the ice and snow in the Warning Areas.

The upcoming storm is expected to bring heavy snowfall accumulation as well as the potential for ice accumulation.

(Photo Credit: KDKA Weather Center)

Public Works crews from the City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County say they are preparing to have salt and plow trucks out on the road ahead of the upcoming storm.

MORE: City Of Pittsburgh, Allegheny Co. Public Works Crews Preparing For Upcoming Winter Storm

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Source Article from https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2021/02/14/winter-storm-warning-issued-for-pittsburgh-area/

Biden in the past has negatively compared the Conservative Party leader to former President Donald Trump. Pressed by host Margaret Brennan on whether he was concerned the two had gotten off on the wrong foot, Johnson did not answer directly.

“I’ve had, I think, already two long and very good conversations with the president and we had a really good exchange, particularly about climate change and what he wants to do,” he responded.

Trump touted comparisons between himself and the British prime minister, who assumed office in 2019 amid turmoil over Britain’s Brexit efforts — and who had the U.S. president’s support on that nettlesome issue.

But the former president also tested the so-called special relationship with the U.K., withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate agreement, despite continued British buy-in on both.

Johnson highlighted climate change and Iran policy as areas where the two countries could work together.

“I think some of the stuff we’re now hearing from the new American administration and from the new White House is incredibly encouraging,” Johnson said.

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/14/boris-johnson-uk-us-relationship-469019

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Source Article from https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/02/white-house-deputy-press-secretary-ducklo-resigns.html

Del. Stacey Plaskett, one of the House managers in former President Donald Trump’s Senate trial, defends the decision not to call witnesses. “As all Americans believed at that moment, the evidence was overwhelming,” she says.

Win McNamee/Getty Images


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Del. Stacey Plaskett, one of the House managers in former President Donald Trump’s Senate trial, defends the decision not to call witnesses. “As all Americans believed at that moment, the evidence was overwhelming,” she says.

Win McNamee/Getty Images

Just before voting Saturday to acquit former President Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial, the Senate seemed to reverse course with a decision not to call witnesses.

Del. Stacey Plaskett, a Democrat from the U.S. Virgin Islands who was one of the House impeachment managers, is defending the agreement between House managers and Trump’s attorneys not to call witnesses after all.

“We had no need to call any witnesses at the end of the trial because, as all Americans believed at that moment, the evidence was overwhelming,” she said in an interview Sunday with NPR’s Weekend Edition.

The Senate voted 57-43, including seven Republicans, to hold Trump guilty on an impeachment charge of inciting an insurrection. But that was short of the two-thirds, or 67 votes, needed to convict.

“I know that people have a lot of angst and they can’t believe that the Senate did what they did. But what we needed were senators, more senators with spines, not more witnesses,” Plaskett said.

She said the House managers wanted to enter into the record the statement of Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., about a conversation Beutler had with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., regarding a call he had with Trump on Jan. 6.

After an agreement was reached to read Herrera Beutler’s statement in the record, Plaskett says, there was no need to call her as a witness.

“Individuals do not come to the Senate floor, raise their hand and testify. Individuals are depositioned, videotaped, and that tape is then played before the Senate,” Plaskett said.

“We wanted the testimony and the statement of our colleague Jaime Herrera Beutler, who is a tremendous patriot to put herself out there. And we were able to get that,” she said.

Plaskett denied that she and other House managers were pressured by Senate Democrats not to call witnesses.

“No. We made a decision,” Plaskett said. “And again, it was not a reverse course. We got in what we wanted, which was the statement of Jaime Herrera Beutler. And that completed even more so our case. The evidence was overwhelming when we closed and all Americans believe that we had closed our case.”

Asked about Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s scathing statement Saturday that Trump “is practically and morally responsible for provoking” the Capitol insurrection, Plaskett said that it showed “we proved our case and it’s obvious from his statement that [McConnell] believed what we said.”

“Those 43 who voted to acquit the president did so because they were afraid of him, because they were more interested in party and in power than they were in our country and in duty to their Senate oath,” she added.

Plaskett said Trump “will be forever tarnished” by the impeachment.

“I think it leaves him for all history — our children and my grandchildren will see in history that this was the most despicable despot attempting to become a fascist ruler over a country that was founded in democracy,” she said.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/sections/trump-impeachment-trial-live-updates/2021/02/14/967827857/stacey-plaskett-trump-trial-needed-more-senators-with-spines-not-more-witnesses

Omitted doses, uploading errors, lag times and software mishaps. California’s vaccine rollout has been plagued by data issues, leaving the state unable to keep track of how many doses of the lifesaving COVID-19 vaccine are available at any one time.

The implications are far-reaching: Gov. Gavin Newsom has pushed to speed up inoculations, in part because the state’s data appeared to show vaccine providers were sitting on doses, prompting the governor to threaten to take supplies from those not moving quickly enough. Now county officials say they are worried the data accuracy issues will cause future allotments to be curtailed based on flawed conclusions from faulty figures.

“We’ve been pointing out that their data is bad since the end of December,” said Fresno County Supervisor Ernest Mendes.

After being pushed to make public more information on the progress counties were making in their vaccination efforts, the state published a dashboard to “make vaccine data transparent and accessible to all Californians.”

But the dashboard was so riddled with errors — including displaying a handful of doses from counties in Arizona and other states — that Kat DeBurgh, executive director of the Health Officers Assn. of California, said she initially told the state it should be taken down. Officials in smaller California counties also reported that the dashboard was drastically underreporting doses for them.

“When it first went up it was extremely inaccurate,” DeBurgh said, “but [the dashboard] looks much better now.”

The accuracy of the state’s vaccine data overall is improving, which has helped California raise its national ranking for doses administered, but the effort has often been a manual and painstakingly slow process, said California Department of Public Health spokesman Darrel Ng.

And the work is not done. Aimee Sisson, Yolo County public health officer, told lawmakers during a hearing Wednesday that uploading errors had caused the state’s database to undercount the vaccines administered in that county by nearly 30%.

“Neither the number received nor the number administered being reported by the state matches what we know to be true in Yolo County,” Sisson said. “Yolo County staff have been working with a state contractor to troubleshoot the discrepancies, to no avail.”

With California warning providers that a failure to administer vaccines fast enough could result in the state taking back doses, Sisson emphasized that the data the state relied on needed to be accurate.

“If the state uses its current data to determine future allocations,” Sisson said, “Yolo County could be penalized for what the state sees as an administration rate of 5`1% but is actually an administration rate of 74%.”

The data problems have made it appear that counties have been slow to get doses out to the public, Sisson said, prompting the state to look for new ways to speed up administration. Newsom said the state will sign a contract with Blue Shield of California to overhaul the way the state allocates vaccines and to improve data collection. That contract is expected to be released this week.

Some county officials have expressed concerns about retooling the state’s vaccine delivery system, saying the issues are with the state’s data collection, not with how doses are distributed.

“The system isn’t broken,” Sisson said. “It just looks like it is because doses being administered aren’t showing up.”

Part of the issue with the state’s data is the large number of vaccine providers entering information using different types of software. At times, the errors and delays have been the result of the software itself, some county officials have said. Other times the state’s immunization registry indicates the dose information has been uploaded, but then fails to update the totals, according to county officials.

“I’m hearing from multiple local health departments in the greater Sacramento region that they’re experiencing the same issue with missing doses [in the state registry],” Sisson said during the hearing. Dr. Paul Simon, chief science officer for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, added that “we’re seeing the same thing here in Los Angeles.”

The Urban Counties of California legislative advocacy organization wrote in a letter to Newsom this month noting that its member counties were “significantly challenged by the lack of accurate data at the state level.”

Last month, Newsom touted how far the state had come in increasing daily vaccination numbers, but said the “two-, three-day data lag … is killing us in terms of some of the national numbers.”

California’s significant vaccine data collection problems were first exposed when Newsom told Californians to “hold me accountable” to a goal of administering 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine in 10 days. After that deadline passed, state officials said coding errors and data lags made it difficult to say whether Newsom met the goal.

The state’s pandemic response has been hampered in other ways by poor or outdated data systems, including the August discovery that a public health computer database failure rendered numbers unreliable and prompted second-guessing about actions taken to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

Facing criticism from county officials about the persisting vaccine data issues, Dr. Tomás Aragón, director of the California Department of Public Health and state’s public health officer, told lawmakers during Wednesday’s hearing that there is an “incredibly intense focus” on “cleaning up the data, improving the quality.”

“We have to improve the data,” Aragón said.

Source Article from https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-02-14/california-covid-19-vaccine-data-collection-confusion

Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana voted Saturday to convict former President Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial. Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana voted to acquit.

“Our Constitution and our country is more important than any one person. I voted to convict President Trump because he is guilty,” the state’s senior senator, a Republican, said.

Trump was acquitted on a 57-43 vote; a two-thirds vote is needed to convict in impeachment.

Cassidy was one of seven Republicans to cross party lines and vote “guilty.” 

Kennedy, also a Republican, made four main points in explaining his vote:

  • “The merits of the Democrats’ case were not even close.
  • “The president is no longer the president. We were asked to impeach a guy in Florida.
  • “The Democrats charged President Trump with inciting a riot through his [Jan. 6] speech, but then the Democrats introduced evidence that the riot was pre-planned. The Democrats disproved their own case.
  • “Both parties should be big tents, but those big tents should each have a big door to kick out extremists who exist on both sides.”

The House of Representatives impeached Trump for allegedly inciting the riot in the U.S. Capitol building last month that killed five people and interfered with the certification of the presidential election results. 

Cassidy, who handily won re-election last year, drew fierce criticism from many Republicans in Louisiana earlier this week when he voted to proceed with the impeachment trial. And some Louisiana Republicans swiftly condemned is vote to convict Saturday.

“You no longer represent the majority of people in Louisiana who recently voted you into office,” State Rep. Blake Miguez, R-Iberia/Vermillion and head of the House Republican caucus tweeted at Cassidy. “You are part of the problem with DC. Don’t expect a warm welcome when you come home to Louisiana!”



Source Article from https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/article_3286079e-6e3c-11eb-a414-a3c89814cc79.html

Just hours after pulling together a surprise 55-45 vote in favor of calling impeachment witnesses, Democrats struck a deal with former President Donald Trump‘s lawyers to avoid any in-person testimony —a move widely derided by left-leaning pundits and sitting Democratic lawmakers alike.

Democratic House impeachment managers and senators are being ridiculed for “capitulating” to Republicans after they threatened to filibuster all Senate business— including COVID-19 relief—if the trial proceeded with witnesses. Some senators said witnesses were unlikely to change the minds of the 17 Republicans needed to convict, but many Trump critics accused Democrats of blowing their last chance to grill the Trump insiders and “show the world what he did on January 6,” as political writer Rachael Blade remarked Saturday. Even some GOP lawmakers reacted with shock at the last-minute backtrack by Democrats, many of whom fought hard and failed to get witnesses during Trump’s first impeachment trial.

It’s unclear what, if anything, Democrats got in return for the no-witness deal with Trump’s lawyers. Democratic Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley told NBC News it’s part of a plan to move past impeachment and bring Republicans onboard with President Joe Biden‘s agenda. But others said it’s just the latest fold by weak Democratic lawmakers.

I don’t know how to talk about the Dems failure to call witnesses in a way that won’t get me banned from Twitter.

Suffice to say: this is why we fail.

— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) February 13, 2021

“I don’t know how to talk about the Dems failure to call witnesses in a way that won’t get me banned from Twitter. Suffice to say: this is why we fail,” remarked The Nation justice correspondent Elie Mystal. My god people, if “will it convince Republicans” was your standard for all of this, THEN WHY HAVE THIS TRIAL AT ALL?…If you thought there was any POINT to impeachment, then there was a point to call witnesses.”

“So just so I’m clear: A President inciting an insurrection against our own government isn’t a big enough deal for witnesses. Do I have that right?” remarked former GOP congressman and vocal anti-Trump critic Joe Walsh.

“It is truly madness that they did not call witnesses. It guarantees Trump walks,” tweeted author Don Winslow.

The House Judiciary GOP on Saturday flipped the call for witnesses back on Democrats, accusing Representative Jamie Raskin of being afraid to hear House Speaker Nancy Pelosi give testimony. Republican Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who expressed his shock that Democrats were even able to secure witness testimony in the 55-45 vote, had warned that he would call Pelosi to testify on lax Capitol security leading up to the attacks.

Pundits and political strategists from both sides of the aisle blasted the Democrats for not allowing people like House GOP Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to testify, particularly after reports of a furious January 6 phone call between himself and Trump during the Capitol attacks. As a result of the deal between Democratic impeachment managers and Trump’s attorneys, phone call information is set to be added to the official record without having to wait weeks for witnesses like McCarthy to testify. It also avoids potential grandstanding by GOP Senators Lindsey Graham and Rand Paul.

“Chaos at the impeachment trial. Dems had agreed to know witnesses, then House managers changed their mind this morning. [Senate Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer blindsided. Pandemonium,” Cruz tweeted, going on to joke about some of the questions he would hypothetically asked Democrats had he been able to call them as witnesses.

Some Democratic figures offered support for the the move not to call witnesses, characterizing it as a means of moving past a trial where conviction is not even remotely likely to occur.

“I know I’m in the minority right now, but this is not a disaster. Nothing anyone said in Senate was going to change a vote. But with so much no unknown, the DOJ will have to investigate and provide real answers and the Justice that Trump and team deserve,” tweeted former White House Press Secretary under Bill Clinton, Joe Lockhart.

Newsweek reached out to Schumer and Raskin’s offices for addition remarks Saturday afternoon.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (R) (D-NY) speaks with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (L) (D-CA) during a ceremony presenting two United States Capitol Police with the U.S.C.P. Medal of Honor at the U.S. Capitol November 9, 2011 in Washington DC. Special agent David Bailey and special agent Crystal Griner were instrumental in responding to an active shooter firing on members the House Republican baseball team, where Rep. Steve Scalise was seriously wounded in June 14, 2017.
WIN MCNAMEE / Staff/Getty Images

Source Article from https://www.newsweek.com/this-why-we-fail-democrats-accused-caving-trump-impeachment-trial-witnesses-1569147







Oath Keepers guarding Roger Stone on Jan. 5 …

Roger

Stone

Oath

Keeper

Oath

Keeper

… and participating in the

Capitol attack on Jan. 6

Oath Keeper

Oath Keeper

Oath Keepers guarding

Roger Stone on Jan. 5 …

Roger

Stone

Oath

Keeper

Oath

Keeper

Oath

Keeper

Oath

Keeper

… and participating in the

Capitol attack on Jan. 6

At least six people who had provided security for Roger Stone entered the Capitol building during the Jan. 6 attack, according to a New York Times investigation.

Videos show the group guarding Mr. Stone, a longtime friend of former President Donald J. Trump, on the day of the attack or the day before. All six of them are associated with the Oath Keepers, a far-right anti-government militia that is known to provide security for right-wing personalities and protesters at public events.

Mr. Stone, a convicted felon who was pardoned by Mr. Trump, has a long history as a self-proclaimed “dirty trickster” political operative who has lived by the edicts of attack, admit nothing, deny everything, and counterattack. He posted a message online denying involvement in “the lawless acts at the Capitol.”

We combed through hundreds of videos and photos, and drew on research from an online monitoring group called the Capitol Terrorists Exposers to track the security team that surrounded Mr. Stone on Jan. 5 and 6.

Here’s how they went from guarding him to standing inside the Capitol building on Jan. 6.

Guards With Stone

On Jan. 5, the day before the Capitol attack, Mr. Stone makes two public appearances in Washington in support of Mr. Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud. Six of the individuals we focus on are providing security for Mr. Stone. Five of them are seen with Mr. Stone in the video below.

On the afternoon of Jan. 5, after a speech at the U.S. Supreme Court, Mr. Stone is driven around by one of the six Oath Keepers in question, as others in the group keep the crowd at bay.

That evening, Mr. Stone speaks at another rally near the White House, in which he proclaims that “We will win this fight or America will step off into a thousand years of darkness.” Several of the Oath Keepers we tracked continue to provide security for him at this event.






Roger

Stone

1

Oath

Keeper

2

Oath

Keeper

Oath

Keepers

1

2

Roger

Stone

On the morning of Jan. 6, Mr. Stone is spotted outside the Willard InterContinental hotel, a block away from the White House. Guard 6 is seen with Mr. Stone here.

This is the last time Mr. Stone is seen that day in any of the footage reviewed by The New York Times. He continues promoting speeches and rallies online that he says he will make near the Capitol that afternoon. But he never appears. He now says he simply stayed at the hotel.

Stone’s Guards Inside the Capitol

Near one of the Capitol entrances, some of the security team taunt the police, who are trying to guard the building.

Videos then show all six of the security guards inside the Capitol building during the attack. Some meet up with fellow Oath Keepers, including two who have been charged with conspiracy. Others are seen in the hallways.






In a Capitol hallway

Outside the Rotunda

1

3

Near the eastern entrance to the Capitol

4

2

Inside the Rotunda

In a Capitol hallway

5

6

In a Capitol hallway

Outside the Rotunda

1

3

Near the eastern entrance to the Capitol

4

2

Inside the Rotunda

5

6

In a Capitol hallway

On Feb. 10, Mr. Stone posted a statement online saying he “saw no evidence whatsoever of illegal activity by any members” of the Oath Keepers, and that if there were proof, “they should be prosecuted.”

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/02/14/us/roger-stone-capitol-riot.html

It always seemed unlikely that Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate Republican leader, would vote to convict the disgraced ex-president who, even from exile in Mar-a-Lago, holds sway over most of his party.

But the justification McConnell offered when announcing his vote for acquittal Saturday was an act of political cynicism and a weaselly evasion of the main issue the Senate was asked to decide: whether Donald Trump bears responsibility for the sacking of the Capitol on Jan. 6.

McConnell has already said what he thinks about the facts: Trump is guilty of incitement, at least under a common-sense definition of the word.

“The mob was fed lies,” McConnell said in a Senate speech last month. “They were provoked by the president and other powerful people, and they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding” — the certification of President Biden’s election — “which they did not like.”

For the usually sphinx-like McConnell, that was a moment of stunning clarity — as close to an act of courage as we’ve seen lately in a party whose members are alternately enthralled or terrified by Trump.

Senators’ bipartisan 57-43 guilty vote Saturday fell short of the threshold to convict President Trump of inciting last month’s Capitol insurrection.

More Coverage

But McConnell then retreated, voting to spare Trump from being held accountable — not because he is innocent, but on narrow procedural grounds.

“While a close call, I am persuaded that impeachments are a tool primarily of removal, and we therefore lack jurisdiction,” he wrote to other senators before the vote.

Even though Trump was impeached when he was president, McConnell argued, he cannot be put on trial after the end of his term.

Most legal scholars, conservatives and liberals alike, believe that argument is wrong. In past centuries, the Senate has tried at least two officials who were no longer in power. And last week, by a bipartisan vote of 56 to 44, the Senate upheld those precedents.

The motive for McConnell’s retreat is clear: He wants to give his Republican colleagues a cover story, a technical excuse to vote against impeachment so it doesn’t come back to haunt them. Most Republican primary voters remain loyal to Trump, often fiercely so.

But the reason McConnell is providing is so flimsy that it’s unlikely to stand up well in the eyes of history.

McConnell’s dodge wasn’t the only weak excuse GOP senators reached for as they searched for reasons to acquit a defendant many of them privately believe to be guilty.

Some engaged in old-fashioned tit for tat: Sure, Trump riled up the mob, but didn’t some Democrats do the same thing when they made excuses for violence on the fringes of Black Lives Matter protests?

“You had a summer where people all over the country were doing similar kinds of things,” Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri said. So what’s the big deal about Trump encouraging the people who sacked the Capitol and threatened to kill the vice president?

Equally weak was the assertion that the impeachment was “just politics,” a product of hatred for Trump and his followers.

“This is about humiliating the individuals that supported President Trump,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee argued.

Leave aside that 10 House Republicans, including Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, considered the charges serious enough that they joined Democrats to vote in favor of impeachment.

Then there’s the 1st Amendment argument: the notion that holding Trump accountable for the effect of his words is a violation of his rights.

That’s simply wrong. The 1st Amendment protects Citizen Trump’s right to speak his mind. It doesn’t protect former President Trump from losing his job — or being barred from holding it again — if Congress decides that he has committed crimes against the Constitution. And the 1st Amendment doesn’t protect incitements to violence.

And that brings us to the substantive charge against Trump — the one Republicans keep trying to evade.

The evidence has made it clear that Trump not only encouraged the mob; when they rampaged through the Capitol, he waited hours before telling them to go home.

The president’s defenders want senators to judge Trump’s guilt of incitement under the standard of criminal law, which requires showing that he knowingly and directly caused the riot.

But impeachment isn’t a criminal proceeding. It’s the process by which Congress can remove a high official who has violated his oath and disqualify him from holding office in the future.

The senators who voted to acquit need to say clearly whether they believe Trump incited the mob or not. McConnell said Trump was “practically and morally responsible” for the events of Jan. 6 but let him off on a technicality. Most other Republicans haven’t even gone that far.

History will remember their votes as their judgments on Trump’s words and actions — not as a decision about whether officials are exempt from impeachment trial for actions in their final month in power.

They should consider how their short-term political calculation may look years from now, including to voters in coming elections.

On Saturday, Trump claimed his acquittal as a victory and promised his followers that he will remain politically active. “Our historic, patriotic and beautiful movement to Make America Great Again has only just begun,” he said.

In the months ahead, new evidence may emerge to show whether Trump connived directly with the extremists who assaulted the Capitol. As we heard Saturday, Trump seemed unconcerned that members of Congress were in mortal danger that day.

And if Trump survives all the investigations into his conduct, maintains his grip on the GOP and wins his party’s presidential nomination in 2024, his loyalists in the Senate will bear responsibility — even though they may pretend it wasn’t their doing.

McConnell, no fan of Trump, seems to be gambling that the former president will naturally fade away and that his hold on the Republican Party will weaken. He and the GOP have to hope they’re right.

Source Article from https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2021-02-14/gop-cowardice-trump-impeachment

The verdict, on a vote of 57-43, is all but certain to influence not only the former president’s political future but that of the senators sworn to deliver impartial justice as jurors. Seven Republicans joined all Democrats to convict, but it was far from the two-third threshold required.


The verdict after the uprising leaves unresolved the nation’s wrenching divisions over Trump’s brand of politics that led to the most violent domestic attack on one of America’s three branches of government.


Full impeachment coverage


“Senators, we are in a dialogue with history, a conversation with our past, with a hope for our future,” said Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa.., one of the House prosecutors in closing arguments.


“What we do here, what is being asked of each of us here in this moment will be remembered. History has found us.”


Trump, unrepentant, welcomed the his second impeachment acquittal and said his movement “has only just begun.” He slammed the trial as “yet another phase of the greatest witch hunt in the history of our Country.”


Though he was acquitted, it was easily the largest number of senators to ever vote to find a president of their own party guilty of an impeachment charge.


Voting to find Trump guilty were GOP Sens. Richard Burr of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania.


The trial had been momentarily thrown into confusion when senators suddenly wanted to consider potential witnesses, an hours-long standoff Saturday that stalled the momentum toward a vote. Prolonged proceedings would be politically risky, particularly for Biden’s new presidency and his emerging legislative agenda. The trial came amid the searing COVID-19 crisis, and the Biden White House trying to rush pandemic relief through Congress.


Biden has hardly weighed in on the proceedings and was spending the weekend with family at the presidential retreat in Camp David, Maryland.


Many senators kept their votes closely held until the final moments, Republicans in particularly now thrust into minority status. Democrats took narrow control of the Senate with runoff elections in Georgia on Jan. 5, the day before the siege.





The nearly weeklong trial has delivered a grim and graphic narrative of the riot and its consequences in ways that senators, most of whom fled for their own safety that day, acknowledge they are still coming to grips with.


House prosecutors have argued that Trump’s was the “inciter in chief” stoking a months-long campaign, and orchestrated pattern of violent rhetoric and false claims that unleashed the mob. Five people died, including a rioter who was shot and a police officer.


Trump’s lawyers countered that Trump’s words were not intended to incite the violence and that impeachment is nothing but a “witch hunt” designed to prevent him from serving in office again.


Only by watching the graphic videos — rioters calling out menacingly for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence, who was presiding over the vote tally — did senators say they began to understand just how perilously close the country came to chaos.


Many Republicans representing states where the former president remains popular doubt whether Trump was fully responsible or if impeachment is the appropriate response.


In closing arguments, lead prosecutor Michael van der Veen fell back on the procedural argument that Republican senators have embraced in their own reasoning of the case what he said is a “phony impeachment show trial.”  



“Mr. Trump is innocent of the charges against him,” said Michael van der Veen. “The act of incitement never happened.”


The House impeached trump on the sole charge of incitement of insurrection one week after the riot, the most bipartisan vote of a presidential impeachment.


The delay Saturday came as senators wanted to hear evidence about Trump’s actions during the riot.


Fresh stories overnight focused onRep. Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington state, who said in a statement late Friday that Trump rebuffed a plea from House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy to call off the rioters.


Fifty-five senators voted for to consider witnesses, including Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Mitt Romney of Utah. Once they did, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina changed his vote to join them on the 55-45 vote.


But facing a prolonged trial with defense poised to call many more witnesses, the situation was resolved when Herrera Beutler’s statement on the call was read aloud into the record for senators to consider as evidence. As part of the deal, Democrats dropped their planned deposition and Republicans abandoned their threat to call their own witnesses.


Impeachment trials are rare, senators meeting as the court of impeachment over a president only four times in the nation’s history, for Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton and now twice for Trump, the only one to be twice impeached.


Unlike last year’s impeachment trial of Trump in the Ukraine affair, a complicated charge of corruption and obstruction over his attempts to have the foreign ally dig up dirt on then-campaign rival Biden, this one brought an emotional punch displayed in graphic videos of the siege that laid bare the unexpected vulnerability of the democratic system.


At the same time, this year’s trial carried similar warnings from the prosecutors pleading with senators that Trump must be held accountable because he has shown repeatedly he has no bounds. Left unchecked, he will further test the norms of civic behavior, even now that he is out of office still commanding loyal supporters.


“This trial in the final analysis is not about Donald Trump,” said lead prosecutor Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md. “This trial is about who we are.”

Source Article from https://kstp.com/politics/trump-impeachment-vote/6011544/

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Cloudy conditions Sunday will give way to two waves of snow heading our way over the 24-36 hours.

Sunday:

Much of the day will be cloudy and cold, with on and off flurries throughout the day. Highs top out in the upper teens and lower 20s.

Sunday night:

Winter storm warning will go into effect overnight for much of central and southern Indiana. A Winter Weather Advisory is in place for northern counties of central Indiana.

Winter storm closes in central Indiana, bringing the first of two waves of snow to the area just before Midnight. Expect steady snow showers through much of the overnight. Accumulations should be around 1-2″, with some areas hitting up to 3″ just in time for the morning commute.

Overnight lows fall to the middle teens.

Monday:

The first round of snow will taper off by early to mid-morning. We’ll likely have a few hours of quiet time before our second wave, which should have more of an impact, arrives by early afternoon. Expect steady, and at times heavy snow through the afternoon and early evening hours, before snow gradually tapers off by late night.

An additional 3-5″+ can be expected across central and southern Indiana with the second wave. This puts our total for the event at around 4-7″ across most of central Indiana, and up to 6-9″+ in southeastern portions of our state.

Highs on Monday top out in the mid-teens.

8 day forecast:

With the exception of a few light snow showers Tuesday morning, we’ll have a couple of days of quiet weather for Tuesday afternoon into Wednesday. Another potent system moves into the Midwest Thursday, bringing another chance for accumulating snow and possible mixed precipitation. We’ll remain cold through the end of the week, with the possibility of getting at or above freezing for the first time in over a week by the end of next weekend.

Source Article from https://www.wishtv.com/weather/winter-storm-warning-for-much-of-central-indiana/

WASHINGTON — The end of former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial opens a new chapter for his successor in the White House.

But while President Joe Biden and his team are eager to move past the impeachment, the bitterly partisan tone of the proceedings underscores the deep challenges ahead as the president and his party try to push forward their agenda and address historic crises.

Biden, who was at the Camp David presidential retreat when the Senate voted Saturday to acquit Trump, had acknowledged that Democrats needed to hold the former president responsible for the siege of the U.S. Capitol but did not welcome the way it distracted from his agenda.

The trial ended with every Democrat and seven Republicans voting to convict Trump, but the 57-43 vote was far from the two-third threshold required for conviction. Whether the seven GOP votes against Trump offered Biden any new hope for bipartisan cooperation within Congress remained an open question.

In a statement, Biden referenced those GOP votes in favor of convicting the former president — and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s own indictment of Trump’s actions — as evidence that “the substance of the charge,” that Trump was responsible for inciting violence at the Capitol, is “not in dispute.”

BIDEN ISSUES STATEMENT ON TRUMP IMPEACHMENT ACQUITTAL: SUBSTANCE OF CHARGE ‘NOT IN DISPUTE’

But he quickly moved on to the work ahead, sounding a note of unity and declaring that “this sad chapter in our history has reminded us that democracy is fragile” and that “each of us has a duty and responsibility as Americans, and especially as leaders, to defend the truth and to defeat the lies.”

“It’s a task we must undertake together. As the United States of America,” Biden said.

Biden made a point of not watching the trial live, choosing to comment only briefly on the searing images of the riot that gripped the nation. Though his White House publicly argued that the trial did not hinder their plans, aides privately worried that a lengthy proceeding could bog down the Senate and slow the passage of his massive COVID-19 relief bill. That $1.9 trillion proposal is just the first part of a sweeping legislative agenda Biden hopes to pass as he battles the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 480,000 Americans and rattled the nation’s economy.

“The No. 1 priority for Democrats and the Biden administration is going to be to deliver on the promises that have been made on the pandemic, both on the vaccine front and the economic front,” said Democratic strategist Josh Schwerin.

TRUMP CELEBRATES ACQUITTAL IN SENATE TRIAL, FORESHADOWS POLITICAL FUTURE: ‘MUCH TO SHARE’

The end of the impeachment trial frees the party to focus on less divisive and more broadly popular issues and policies, like the coronavirus relief package, which polls show has significant support among Americans.

Throughout his campaign, Biden worked to avoid being defined by Trump and his controversies and instead sought to draw a contrast on policy and competence, a guiding principle that he and his aides have carried over into the White House.

His team kept up a steady drumbeat of events during the trial, including an update on vaccine development and Biden’s first visit to the Pentagon as commander in chief. With the proceedings on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue now over, the White House plans to increase its efforts to spotlight the fight against the pandemic and push past Trump’s chaos.

Former Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota predicted that in a state like hers, where Trump won 65% of the vote, focusing on those urgent issues would make more headway with average voters now.

“What we have to be talking about is the economy — getting the economy back working, and turning the page” on the last administration, she said. “Good policy is good politics. We need to get back to that.”

Democrats have a decision to make in how to deal with Trump going forward. While the end of the impeachment trial offers a clear opportunity for the party to focus squarely on its own agenda, Trump can also be a potent political weapon for Democrats, not to mention a big driver of campaign cash.

After Saturday’s vote, American Bridge 21st Century, the Democratic Party’s opposition research arm, issued a statement calling out senators from Ohio and Florida, two states that Democrats are targeting in the 2022 election, for voting against convicting Trump.

“Ron Johnson, Marco Rubio, and nearly every other Senate Republican put their loyalty to Donald Trump ahead of the rule of law, the Capitol police officers who protect them every day, and the oaths they swore to uphold the Constitution,” said Bradley Beychock, the group’s president, calling the senators “spineless sycophants.”

Still, Schwerin cautioned that Trump can’t be Democrats’ “primary focus.”

“We shouldn’t ignore the fact that a lot of the problems that the country is dealing with are because of Trump’s failures, but he shouldn’t be the focus of every fundraising email and press release. We should be looking forward,” he said.

Biden plans to keep up a busy schedule focused on the coronavirus pandemic in the coming week.

The president will make his first official domestic trips this week: a TV town hall in Wisconsin on Tuesday to talk to Americans impacted by the coronavirus and a visit to a Pfizer vaccine facility in Michigan on Thursday.

White House legislative affairs staffers were poised to work with House committees on crafting details of the COVID-19 relief bill, which Democrats hope to vote on next month.

Still, some within the party aren’t finished with Trump. The Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a leading progressive advocacy group, issued a petition Saturday night encouraging supporters to call on attorney general nominee Merrick Garland to “investigate and prosecute Trump and his entire criminal network for law breaking.”

Biden is likely to continue to face questions about how his Justice Department will handle a number of ongoing federal and criminal probes into Trump’s businesses and his conduct as president.

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And his aides will be watching for Trump’s next moves, particularly if he claims exoneration and heats up his political activity and even points toward a 2024 campaign. The plan, for now, is to try to ignore the former president.

Former Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile warned that Trump won’t make it easy but Democrats need to avoid getting sucked back into his orbit.

“I don’t think Donald Trump is going to disappear from anyone’s lips any day soon, and that’s because Donald Trump will always seek to find ways to inject himself and serve himself,” she said.

“While Donald Trump is figuring out who he is going to go after next, Democrats are going to figure out how they’re going to lift people up and how they’re going to protect and help the American people.”

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-white-house-seeks-to-turn-page-on-trump

TOKYO — Residents in northeastern Japan on Sunday cleaned up clutter and debris in stores and homes after a strong earthquake set off a landslide on a highway, damaged buildings and parts of bullet train lines and caused power blackouts for thousands of people.

The 7.3 magnitude temblor late Saturday shook the quake-prone areas of Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures that 10 years ago had been hit by a powerful earthquake that triggered a tsunami and a meltdown at a nuclear power plant.

More than 140 people suffered mostly minor injures, many of them by falling objects and cuts while stepping on broken glass. Three people were confirmed with serious injures but there were no reports of deaths, Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said.

FOUR BACKCOUNTRY SKIERS DIE IN UTAH AVALANCHE

Evacuees shelter at a gym as an earthquake hit the area, in Soma, Fukushima prefecture, northeastern Japan, Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021. (Associated Press)

Tokyo Electric Power Co., the utility that runs the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant that was hit by the March 2011 disaster, said the water used to cool spent fuel rods near the reactors had spilled because of the shaking. But there were no radiation leaks or other irregularities, TEPCO said.

The quake did not cause a tsunami because the epicenter was deep at 55 kilometers (34 miles) beneath the ocean.

Noriko Kamaya, a Japan Meteorological Agency spokesperson, said in a news conference that the quake is considered to be an aftershock of the 9.1 magnitude quake in 2011.

A landslide caused by a strong earthquake covers a circuit course in Nihonmatsu city, Fukushima prefecture, northeastern Japan, Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021. (Associated Press)

Power had been restored by early Sunday, although some bullet train services were still halted. East Japan Railway Co. said the bullet train on the northern coast will be suspended through Monday due to damage to its facility.

TV footage and video shared on social media showed boxes, books and other items scattered on floors. In the northern Fukushima city of Soma, a roof at a Buddhist temple collapsed.

RESCUERS IN INDIA DIGGING FOR 37 TRAPPED IN GLACIER FLOOD

Workers were clearing up a major coastal highway connecting Tokyo and northern cities where a major landslide occurred. Several other roads were also blocked by rocks.

Collapsed rocks block a road after a strong earthquake hit Soma city, Fukushima prefecture, northeastern Japan, Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021. (Associated Press)

Saturday’s powerful rattling less than a month before the 10th anniversary of the 2011 triple disaster was a frightening reminder of the earlier tragedy for the residents in the region.

“It started with minor shaking, then suddenly became violent,” said Yuki Watanabe, a convenience store employee in the Fukushima town of Minamisoma, told the Asahi newspaper. “I was so frightened,” she said, adding it reminder her of the 2011 quake.

This photo shows a damaged entrance of a house in Kori town, north of Fukushima city, northeastern Japan, Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021, following an earthquake Saturday. (Associated Press)

As she ran outside, she heard banging noise coming from behind the store as glass bottles from the shelves smashed against the floor.

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Experts warned of more aftershocks. Many residents spent the night at evacuation centers, where tents were set up as part of coronavirus protection measures.

Yasutoshi Nishimura, the minister in charge of economic and fiscal policy, expressed sympathy for those who had suffered damage and injuries.

“The government will continue to do our utmost to respond,” he said.

Defense troops also were mobilized to provide water in some areas.

Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/world/powerful-japan-earthquake-sets-off-landslide-minor-injuries

“That’s why we should have impeached him before, back when I said we couldn’t,” he said. “I think he’s guilty as hell, and the worst person I ever met and I hope every city, county and state locks his ass up.”

Bennett then exhaled a long breath and declared, “God, that felt good. I’ve been holding that inside my neck for four years.”

Asked what he would now do in the Senate, Bennett replied, “I plan to reach my hand across the aisle and then yank it back and slide it across my hair and then say, ‘Too slow.’”

If you can afford a trendy Peloton exercise bike but have no interest in the relentlessly upbeat motivational messages from its onscreen product, “S.N.L.” may have a product that’s more your speed. It’s the Pelotaunt, which in this advertisement is billed as “the only exercise bike that provides you with personalized, at-home negative reinforcement and relentless criticism.”

Among its many modes of emotional manipulation are snotty disdain, insincere praise and avoidant attachment style. And if none of those settings gets you into shape, why not try a workout accompanied by the theme from “Curb Your Enthusiasm” or video of “an elderly woman who’s like 1,000 times better than you”?

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/14/arts/television/saturday-night-live-regina-king.html

TJ Ducklo resigned as White House deputy press secretary after he reportedly issued a sexist and profane threat to a journalist seeking to cover his relationship with another reporter.

Patrick Semansky/AP


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Patrick Semansky/AP

TJ Ducklo resigned as White House deputy press secretary after he reportedly issued a sexist and profane threat to a journalist seeking to cover his relationship with another reporter.

Patrick Semansky/AP

White House Deputy Press Secretary TJ Ducklo resigned on Saturday after a report emerged that he verbally threatened a reporter who was pursuing a story about his romantic relationship with another reporter.

Ducklo, who had been serving a week-long suspension without pay for the incident, posted a statement on Twitter confirming his resignation.

“No words can express my regret, my embarrassment, and my disgust for my behavior. I used language that no woman should ever have to hear from anyone, especially in a situation where she was just trying to do her job. It was language that was abhorrent, disrespectful, and unacceptable,” he said.

“I am devastated to have embarrassed and disappointed my White House colleagues and President Biden, and after discussion with White House communications leadership tonight, I resigned my position and will not be returning from administrative leave.”

He further said that he is determined to earn back the trust of everyone he let down due to his “intolerable actions.”

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki also issued a statement, accepting Ducklo’s resignation.

“We accepted the resignation of TJ Ducklo after a discussion with him this evening. This conversation occurred with the support of the White House Chief of Staff,” Psaki said. “We are committed to striving every day to meet the standard set by the President in treating others with dignity and respect, with civility and with a value for others through our words and our actions.”

On Friday, Vanity Fair published a report that described Ducklo lashing out at Politico reporter Tara Palmeri. Ducklo reportedly made derogatory and misogynistic comments toward Palmeri, vowing to “destroy” her if she published a piece about his romantic relationship with Axios political reporter Alexi McCammond.

Psaki subsequently suspended Ducklo for one week without pay.

She later had to defend her decision after reporters asked whether her suspension of Ducklo fell short of President Joe Biden’s message to his political appointees on Inauguration Day. Biden told staffers that he would fire them “on the spot” if they “treat another colleague with disrespect.”

Ducklo has apologized to Palmeri for his behavior, according to Psaki.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2021/02/13/967745623/white-house-press-aide-tj-ducklo-resigns-over-threats-against-reporter

NEW YORK (AP) — The Republican Party still belongs to Donald Trump.

After he incited a deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol last month, the GOP considered purging the norm-shattering former president. But in the end, only seven of 50 Senate Republicans voted to convict Trump in his historic second impeachment trial on Saturday.

For Trump’s loyalists, the acquittal offers a vindication of sorts and a fresh connection to the former president’s fiery base. And for Trump’s GOP antagonists, it marks another alarming sign that the party is lurching further in a dangerous direction with little desire to reconnect with the moderates, women and college-educated voters Trump alienated.

Ultimately, the resolution of the impeachment trial brings into clear relief a divide in the GOP that party leaders, donors and voters will have to navigate as they try to regain control of Congress next year and aim to retake the White House in 2024.

That tension was on display in the immediate aftermath of the vote. After supporting Trump’s acquittal, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., delivered a speech that echoed some of the very points Democratic impeachment managers emphasized in seeking Trump’s conviction.

The former president, McConnell said, was “practically and morally responsible for provoking the events” that led to the insurrection. But he argued that there were no constitutional grounds for the Senate to convict Trump now that he’s out of office, a procedural point embraced by many in the GOP.

The history books will show that 10 members of the president’s party in the House and another seven in the Senate ultimately believed that Trump’s behavior was egregious enough to warrant conviction — and even a lifetime ban on holding future office. Never before have so many members of a president’s party voted for his removal.

But by most objective measures, Trump’s grasp on the GOP and its future remains airtight.

Gallup reported last month that Trump’s approval among self-described Republicans stood at 82%. And more recently, Monmouth University found that 72% of Republicans continue to believe Trump’s false claims that President Joe Biden won the November election only because of widespread voter fraud.

Lest their be any doubt about Trump’s strength, House Republicans voted overwhelmingly last week to defend a diehard Trump loyalist, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., even after evidence surfaced that she had repeatedly embraced violence, bigotry and conspiracy theories on social media.

Just days after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy called Trump responsible for the violent attack, McCarthy reversed himself and made a personal visit to Trump’s Florida estate to ensure there was no lingering animosity.

Of the seven Republicans who voted to convict Trump on Saturday, only one faces reelection in the next four years. Indeed, in Trump’s Republican Party, there are very few willing to cross him if they harbor future political ambitions.

One of them, 2024 prospect Nikki Haley, who was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, drew attention this week after telling Politico that Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 attack essentially disqualified him from running for office again.

“He’s fallen so far,” Haley said. “He went down a path he shouldn’t have, and we shouldn’t have followed him, and we shouldn’t have listened to him. And we can’t let that ever happen again.”

Another Republican presidential prospect, Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., voted to convict Trump on Saturday, declaring that Trump’s “lies” about widespread voter fraud endangered “the life of the vice president” and are “bringing us dangerously close to a bloody constitutional crisis.”

While Sasse may run for president in 2024, he won’t face Republican primary voters in Nebraska again unless he chooses to run for reelection in 2026.

Similarly, GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana faced a censure by his state party after voting to convict Trump. But he won’t face voters again until 2026 so is relatively insulated from political consequences.

Despite McConnell’s criticism, Trump’s most vocal Republican opponents at this point will likely consist of a collection of retired Republicans on cable news and a “Never Trump” movement grappling with its own existential challenges.

The Lincoln Project, perhaps the most prominent and best-funded anti-Trump Republican group, is coming off a tumultuous week following revelations that its leaders knew about multiple allegations of sexual misconduct against a co-founder several months before acknowledging them publicly.

The self-described “senior leader” of the organization, veteran Republican strategist Steve Schmidt, stepped down from the board on the eve of the Senate impeachment vote, a day after the Lincoln Project announced plans to bring in an outside investigator.

The fallout threatens to undermine the organization’s fundraising appeal and its influence, even as the super PAC works to expand its reach through a popular podcast and expanding streaming video channel that drew more than 4 million views last month alone.

Even before the crisis, co-founder Reed Galen acknowledged that Trumpism was winning.

“The authoritarian side of the Republican Party is the dominant side,” he said. “They have the momentum. For now, they have the money.”

Sarah Longwell, a Republican strategist who leads the anti-Trump group known as Defending Democracy Together, said that “what the last two months have shown is if Donald Trump was a cancer on the country and the party, he’s metastasized.”

“I thought we could push past him,” she said. “But now I don’t think that.”

Still, the Republican Party faces tremendous political risks should its leaders continue to embrace Trump and his brand of norm-shattering politics.

Already, scores of Republican-friendly businesses have vowed to stop giving money to Trump’s allies in Congress, cutting off a critical revenue stream just as Republicans hope to reclaim the House and Senate majorities in next year’s midterm elections.

Trump’s critics in both parties are vowing to make sure the business community and voters alike do not forget what the former president and his allies did.

“We will remind voters that Republicans were willing to neglect their oaths of office all out of loyalty to one man, and that one man was more important than their constituents, more important than the Constitution of the United States, more important than the democracy that we have in this great nation,” said Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison.

But Trump himself is not going away. Immediately after his acquittal, he issued a written statement promising to reemerge “soon.”

“Our historic, patriotic and beautiful movement to Make America Great Again has only just begun,” Trump said. “In the months ahead I have much to share with you, and I look forward to continuing our incredible journey together to achieve American greatness for all of our people.”

Source Article from https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-capitol-siege-impeachments-acquittals-320809e943345d0a9ce57314f93d94af

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