January 8, 2021

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Staffers: Bosses Edited Our Reporting to Be More Pro-Trump

The Daily Beast
Reporters told The Daily Beast that the papers’ editors are “manipulating reality” on behalf of an ownership family that is rabidly Trumpist and believes the election was stolen.

Maxwell Tani
Media reporter
Updated Jan. 08, 2021 12:25PM ET
Published Jan. 08, 2021 12:16PM ET

Journalists at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and sister publication the Toledo Blade say the papers’ top bosses edited coverage of this week’s right-wing riot on Capitol Hill to appear more favorable to Donald Trump, reflecting ownership’s rabid support for the outgoing president.

“You have management manipulating reality, and it’s just so unbelievably unethical,” Jay Skebba, a reporter at the Blade, told The Daily Beast in an interview on Thursday evening. “To know that managers in the newsroom with decades of experience would ever allow something like that to happen is so embarrassing. I’ve worked here for seven years, today was the most upsetting.”

In a news conference on Friday organized by the NewsGuild, the union representing staff at both outlets (as well as others like The New York Times and The Daily Beast), Blade reporters said their editors made specific changes to soften language about the outgoing president’s involvement in inciting Wednesday’s riots on the Capitol, which left five people dead, including one police officer.

According to Skebba, the paper could not refer to the rioters as “Trump supporters,” or “Trump protesters,” which reporters viewed as an editorial attempt to distance the president from the riots that followed an event in which he encouraged his fans to march to the Capitol and “fight” for him.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/pittsburgh-post-gazette-and-toledo-blade-staffers-bosses-edited-our-reporting-to-be-pro-trump?ref=home

They fired their cartoonist a while back too.

January 8, 2021

White House in "crisis management" as it consults with lawyers about potential rapid impeachment pro

White House in “crisis management” as it consults with lawyers about potential rapid impeachment process
CNN
From CNN's Jim Acosta

Outside lawyers are being sought for consultation by the White House about the prospect of a last minute, rapid impeachment of President Trump, a source familiar with the matter said.

The source said at this point lawyers advising the White House believe there is not enough time logistically for Democrats to move articles of impeachment out of the House and into the hands of Senators for a speedy removal of the president before January 20th. But the source said lawyers for the president have started to game out the impeachment possibility as the likelihood of the vice president and Cabinet invoking the 25th Amendment seems remote.

The source added the President’s attorneys have been consulted about the language used in Trump’s video messages in the aftermath of the Capitol riots. During that process, White House counsel Pat Cippolone and chief of staff Mark Meadows went to Trump to urge him to record the videos to save his presidency and hold off efforts to remove him from office.

The White House is in “crisis management” mode following the siege at the Capitol, the source said.

“The lawyers are involved,” the source said.

Meetings have been almost non-stop inside the White House to hash out plans to bring the Trump presidency to an end in the least chaotic way possible, the source said.

“Can you land the plane with 12 days left,” the source said, summing up the goal of the remaining staffers and advisers around the president.

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/washington-dc-riots-trump-news-friday/index.html

January 8, 2021

59 Democrats call on Pelosi to reconvene House 'to reckon with the assault on our democracy' - CNN

59 Democrats call on Pelosi to reconvene House ‘to reckon with the assault on our democracy’
By Colby Itkowitz

Dozens of House Democrats sent leadership a letter on Thursday making the case for calling the House back into session to “to reckon with the assault on our democracy that we experienced on January 6th.”

The 59 lawmakers said they should show the American people that they are working to hold accountable those responsible for the attack on the Capitol. The House is currently recessed until Jan. 19, the day before Biden’s inauguration.

“We can and should demonstrate continuity of government at a moment when the President is incapable of leading and the executive branch is in total disarray,” they wrote. “We are the only branch of government that is capable of governing this country and led by sane and competent people. Going home and staying home until the eve of President Biden’s inauguration should not be an option.”

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/washington-dc-riots-trump-news-friday/index.html?tab=all

January 8, 2021

Trump calls his supporters 'great American Patriots,' says they will have a voice into the future

Washington Post

A day after finally acknowledging a new president will take office on Jan. 20, Trump gave a nod to his supporters Friday, calling them “great American Patriots” and promising they will have a voice “long into the future.”

“The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future,” Trump tweeted. “They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!”

In a video distributed on Twitter on Thursday night, Trump promised a smooth transition and said that his supporters had pursued post-election challenges in good faith, but “now tempers must be cooled and calm restored.”
AD

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/08/capitol-biden-trump-live-updates/

Someone please duct-tape this monster's fat mouth

January 8, 2021

Pelosi orders flags flown at half-staff following death of Capitol Police officer

By John Wagner and Peter Hermann

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Friday ordered flags at the U.S. Capitol flown at half-staff following the death of a Capitol Police officer from injuries he suffered in the attack on the Capitol by a violent pro-Trump mob.

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/washington-dc-riots-trump-news-friday/index.html?tab=all

January 8, 2021

Parler is a national security threat and needs to be shut down immediately

Other sites where these traitors are celebrating and plotting need to be shut down too, IMHO.

Here's part of an article from Salon, via RawStory this morning:

On Parler, the MAGA social media platform, Trump supporters are ready for insurrection

https://www.rawstory.com/parler/

On Thursday morning, the phrase "#Twexit" — a portmanteau of "Twitter" and "exit" — trended on Parler, the so-called "free speech" social media platform that has become an online hub for Trump supporters and conservatives to meet online.

The site, which visually resembles Twitter or Facebook, became a haven for many pro-Trump types after many of them were banned or blocked from other major social media sites. Whereas posts on Twitter are called tweets, on Parler they are known as "parleys."

The trending hashtag was the unintended consequence of Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube's Wednesday crackdown on Trump himself, who was banned or restricted from posting on most major platforms after some of his supporters broke into the U.S. Capitol and ransacked it, an invasion that resulted in four deaths. In an attempt to calm his supporters who falsely believe the 2020 presidential election was "rigged," Trump posted a video spewing misinformation about the election, and called the people participating in Wednesday's riot "very special."

January 8, 2021

House Judiciary aides working with representatives on impeachment articles in preparation of potenti

House Judiciary aides working with representatives on impeachment articles in preparation of potential vote

From CNN's Jeremy Herb and Lauren Fox

House Judiciary Committee aides are consulting with the authors of one of the Democratic impeachment resolutions – Reps. David Cicilline, Jamie Raskin and Ted Lieu – in order to prepare for a potential impeachment vote on the House floor next week, according to three sources.

The aides are helping to edit and fine-tune the impeachment resolution, the sources said, which includes the charge of “inciting an insurrection.”

Some background: The aides are helping to ready the impeachment resolution so House Democrats can move quickly to the floor if they decide to move forward and vote to impeach President Trump following the Trump-incited riots at the Capitol.

The resolution from Cicilline, Raskin and Lieu appears to be the vehicle that would be used for impeachment, and it has 120 co-sponsors so far. House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler said Thursday that he supported bypassing his committee and moving impeachment articles straight to the floor.

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/washington-dc-riots-trump-news-friday/index.html

And Raskin just lost his son... can't imagine how stressed and upset he must be.

January 8, 2021

CNN Some Republicans will consider voting for second Trump impeachment

Some Republicans will consider voting for second Trump impeachment

From CNN's Jamie Gangel, Lauren Fox and Manu Raju

Republican sources have told CNN they do want President Trump removed before President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration on Jan. 20. Two members have told CNN they would consider voting for impeachment if the articles of impeachment seem reasonable.

“We experienced the attack; we don’t need long hearings on what happened," one of those sources said.

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/washington-dc-riots-trump-news-friday/index.html

January 8, 2021

One insurrectionist needed a Russian interpreter

Washington Post article
Dozens arrested after mob storms Capitol; officials vow that more will be charged
Third paragraph down:

One person arrested was charged with possessing a “military style automatic weapon” and 11 molotov cocktails, prosecutors said. Another defendant was charged with assaulting a police officer with a hockey stick. Yet another, who needed a Russian interpreter, told a judge, “I don’t know what unlawful entry you are referring to.” (my boldface)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/capitol-siege-arrests/2021/01/07/661292a2-5105-11eb-bda4-615aaefd0555_story.html

January 8, 2021

CNN: Several Cabinet secretaries informally discuss invoking 25th Amendment but Pence "highly

From CNN's Katelyn Polantz, Jim Acosta, Jeremy Diamond and Zachary Cohen

A source close to Vice President Mike Pence said inquiries about invoking the 25th Amendment have been coming into Pence advisers and those discussions have been under way.

But the source said it is “highly unlikely” that Pence would pursue that path at this point, given that the effort is expected to be unsuccessful. And an administration official tells CNN that Pence himself has not discussed invoking the 25th Amendment with any Cabinet officials.

However, three senior administration officials also tell CNN that two Cabinet secretaries have called fellow members of the Cabinet to take their "temperatures" about demanding a Cabinet meeting with the President to confront him about his behavior.

The two Cabinet secretaries discussed the possibility of demanding the President deliver a public address committing to a peaceful transfer of power, which Trump did Thursday evening.

Hanging over the meeting would be the possibility that a majority of the Cabinet could invoke the 25th Amendment and strip Trump of his power as president.

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/washington-dc-election-riots/index.html

Chiefs of staff of federal departments have also been calling each other to discuss the possibility.

Some of the secretaries are hesitant to agree to a meeting because of the risk an attempt to invoke the 25th Amendment would face, or that they would draw Trump's ire.

Some officials were also concerned about the optics of holding a cabinet meeting amid national discussions about the 25th Amendment. "Why take the risk?" one senior official said.

On Thursday night, Trump released a pre-recorded video that said he would not serve a second term. It's not known yet if that was enough assuage Cabinet members' concerns and took the discussions of the table.

A White House adviser in discussions with senior officials said Trump only recorded the video released this evening because his presidency is currently threatened by looming resignations and potential impeachment.