The Massachusetts Democrat pointed out that the chamber has “become a place where trivial issues get debated passionately and important ones not at all.”
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Jim Jordan’s conspiratorial quest for power
The New Yorker’s Jonathan Blitzer on how the Ohio Republican built an insurgent bid for Speaker on the lies of Donald Trump.
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McCarthy’s fall from speakership was sudden but no surprise
“Power and responsibility didn’t remold the man, or summon deep reserves of character and wisdom,” The Los Angeles Times’ Mark Barabak writes. “There is a hollowness at McCarthy’s core, which has long been evident, and it left him empty and bereft as he fought to stay in power.”
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Clarence Thomas secretly participated in Koch network donor events
“Thomas has attended at least two Koch donor summits, putting him in the extraordinary position of having helped a political network that has brought multiple cases before the Supreme Court,” ProPublica reports.
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What Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orbán understand about your brain
“[T]hroughout history, speeches by dictators and autocrats have one thing in common: they use dehumanizing metaphors to instill and propagate hatred of others,” Marcel Danesi writes.
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Donald Trump is likely to be indicted soon related to classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. Here’s what he may be charged with.
From Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington: “The FBI and Department of Justice routinely prosecute individuals, including high-level officers like former CIA Director David Petraeus, for misusing classified documents. There are several criminal provisions that may be implicated, depending on the exact contents of the documents.”
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Can you govern on a lie? House Republicans give it a try.
“After the chaos of the first week of the 118th Congress, many Americans wondered: If it took them 15 ballots just to choose a speaker, how could Republicans possibly govern? Now we know. They are going to govern by fantasy and legislate on the basis of fiction,” Dana Milbank writes.
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A majority of Republican nominees — 299 in all — deny the 2020 election results
“Experts say their dominance in the party poses a threat to the country’s democratic principles and jeopardizes the integrity of future votes,” Amy Gardner reports for The Washington Post.
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The idea that letting Trump walk will heal America is ridiculous
“The only way out is through. Fear of what Trump and his supports might do cannot and should not stand in the way of what we must do to secure the Constitution from all its enemies, foreign and domestic,” writes Jamelle Bouie.
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Oh, how the powerful wail and whine – The Washington Post
“No one stormed into Trump’s home unannounced with guns blazing, awakening him from a sound sleep and scaring him into paralysis,” Robin Givhan points out.
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Jonathan Pie: Bye Bye Boris
Watch a British humorist react to the news that Boris Johnson is resigning as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
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Newly enacted Courthouse Ethics and Transparency Act will subject judges and Supreme Court justices to new financial disclosure requirements
“The legislation was introduced after the Wall Street Journal reported in September that more than 130 federal judges had violated U.S. law and judicial ethics by overseeing court cases involving companies in which either they or members of their family owned stock,” Time’s Madeleine Carlisle explains.
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Ray Luján: Don’t let Republicans off the hook for their obstruction
“I don’t think the attention should be taken off of those that are causing obstruction, especially those Republican members that were once on board with some of these policies,” the New Mexico senator said.
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“This was Trump pulling a Putin”
“Amid the current crisis, Fiona Hill and other former advisers are connecting President Trump’s pressure campaign on Ukraine to January 6th. And they’re ready to talk,” writes Robert Draper.
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Boris Johnson, facing omicron and scandal, is in trouble
“A brinkman seeing how far he can go, he is too preoccupied with his survival,” writes Tanya Gold in a guest essay for The New York Times.
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How Mitch McConnell, one of Washington’s longtime power players, succumbed to the preeminence of Trump
“He clearly doesn’t care about being labeled a hypocrite. It just doesn’t bother him. He is brazen about it. That’s one of the cynical sides of Mitch. He doesn’t care. If it’s expedient, he’ll do it,” U.S. Representative John Yarmuth said.
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‘Bipartisanship’ is dead in our nation’s capital. That’s fine.
“Why the halo around an idea that barely worked when it existed? The best way to pass legislation is to win more seats. If you believe in majority rule, forget about making converts: Assemble a majority and start ruling with it,” Jack Shafer writes.
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Oregon Republican Mike Nearman charged with letting rioters breach state Capitol
The lawmaker has been charged with misdemeanor counts of first-degree official misconduct and second-degree criminal trespass, according to court documents.
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White House releases new official portraits of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris
Take a look at the images that will serve as the photographic representations of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris through the end of their current terms.
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Hundreds of legal scholars say Senate must not acquit Trump over constitutionality issue
Read a letter from hundreds of legal scholars (including several conservative scholars) calling on the United States Senate to decide whether Trump is guilty or not based on the actual evidence before the Senate.
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Reflections on four weird years fact checking every word from Donald Trump from CNN’s fact checker
CNN has published a look back at the Trump error from its senior fact checker Daniel Dale, who got his start debunking Trump’s 2016 campaign claims.
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