With so many crazy things happening, sometimes things fall through the cracks. Here are some headlines that you may find interesting and worth discussing.
The Biden Administration and Congress:
- “The residence has life in it again,” a White House source told CNN of the energy inside. “It’s the honeymoon period where everything feels new.”
- There were nighttime movie binges in the White House movie theater, complete with snacks from the White House kitchen cooks, many of the Bidens’ five older grandchildren piling into the seats to watch, said another source familiar with the activities. The increased activity was met with pandemic precautions, including mask wearing.
- The Senate overwhelmingly approved Janet Yellen as treasury secretary Monday, making her the first woman in U.S. history to hold the job.
- President Joe Biden said Monday that he expects that the US will soon be able to vaccinate 1.5 million people a day, raising the bar by roughly 500,000 more vaccinations than its target of 1 million per day in his first 100 days in office. He said that the US could surpass that initial target in about three weeks.
- U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) reintroduced a constitutional amendment, S.J.Res 4, that would limit the Supreme Court of the United States to nine justices. Senators Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Todd Young (R-IN), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Pat Toomey (R-PA), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Rob Portman (R-OH), John Cornyn (R-TX), and Mike Braun (R-IN) joined Rubio in reintroducing the constitutional amendment, which was first introduced on March 25, 2019. The Supreme Court has had nine seats since 1869.
- “Packing the Supreme Court is a radical, left-wing idea that would further undermine America’s confidence in our institutions and our democracy,” Rubio said. “As a candidate, President Joe Biden promised to unify America, and even said he was ‘not a fan’ of packing the Supreme Court, a radical proposal he once referred to as a ‘bonehead idea’ when he served in the Senate. If he is sincere about healing our country and protecting our institutions, he will support this effort to protect the Supreme Court.”
Impeachment:
- A portion of these videos have not been seen widely before, including video footage largely from the platform Parler showing how the crowd reacted in real time to some of the most potent lines in Trump’s speech at the Ellipse. The videos, along with other information in the public record, provide strong evidence of a causal link between Trump’s messages to his supporters and their dangerous, illegal conduct.
- Fight for Trump’ video evidence:
- Chief Justice John Roberts will not be presiding like he did for Trump’s first impeachment trial, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Instead, Sen. Patrick Leahy, the president pro tempore of the Senate, is expected to preside, the sources said. The Constitution says the chief justice presides when the person facing trial is the current president of the United States, but senators preside in other cases, one source said.
Other headlines:
- Protests erupted late Sunday in Tacoma, Wash., in response to an incident a day earlier in which a police officer used his patrol vehicle to plow through a crowd, hitting several people and injuring at least two.
- The families of four Black girls mistakenly detained by suburban Denver police at gunpoint last year after they were suspected of being in a stolen car sued police and the city of Aurora on Monday — claiming the officers’ actions permanently traumatized them and are part of a pattern of racial biased treatment against Black people.
White Isis:
