Today's Liberal News

The other crisis: As Trump incites insurrection in Washington, COVID-19 rampages everywhere

On the same day that Donald Trump sent his followers to capture the Capitol and threaten the lives of lawmakers in an attempt to overthrow the nation, COVID-19 killed over 4,000 American in a single day. The 4,100 who were tallied at WorldOMeters by the end of Wednesday was, by far, a new record. That record held all the way until Thursday, when 4,200 died. Thursday also brought 261,000 new cases in a single day, also a new record.

Had Republicans even shreds of principle or spine, they’d be joining calls for impeachment. As if.

A handful of elected Republicans—most notably Adam Kinzinger—have taken a stand in favor of giving the squatter in the White House the 25th Amendment treatment and ousting him from power. This is happening against the backdrop of some Cabinet members resigning to get themselves out of having to vote on the amendment so they can launch the process of scraping the Trump taint off their résumés and reputations.

Dark money group behind Republican state attorneys general organized protest before the insurrection

As more and more detail emerges about the events in the nation’s capital Wednesday, it becomes clearer that this was a planned revolt and that it was organized within the Republican establishment. So much so that the Republican Association of Attorneys General (RAGA)—the chief Republican law enforcement officers for their states—used its dark money group to help organize the mob.

Listen: John Bresnahan Helps Us Understand What the Hell Just Happened

John Bresnahan has covered Congress for decades, previously as Politico’s Capitol Hill bureau chief and now as co-founder of Punchbowl News. On the podcast The Ticket, he describes what he saw inside the building as a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol this week—and what implications the searing event could have going forward.

Listen: How Badly Is Vaccination Going?

Operation Warp Speed pledged to vaccinate 20 million Americans by the end of 2020. We fell far, far short of that. How worried should we be?Juliette Kayyem, a former assistant secretary of homeland security and an Atlantic contributor, joins staff writer James Hamblin and executive producer Katherine Wells on the podcast Social Distance. She explains what’s going on, what the problems have been, and why we shouldn’t be too concerned (yet).

The Atlantic Daily: The Week in Review

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.MIKE THEILER / REUTERSImpeachment calls grow. Donald Trump has been banned from Twitter (justifiably so). And those are just the latest developments in the fallout from the Capitol attack.Below, our writers and editors process what was only the first week of 2021.1. An attack on the U.S.

The Insurrectionists Would Like You to Know That They’re the Real Victims

History is rewritten by the self-styled victims.Even after more than four years of rationalizing and excusing every violation by the president, Donald Trump’s enablers have their work cut out for them this week, after a mob incited by Trump sacked the U.S. Capitol, disrupted constitutional order, and killed a police officer. But, undeterred, they are still energetically devoted to the task.

MAGA World Is Splintering

Bryson Gray, a 29-year-old rapper and Donald Trump superfan from North Carolina, wants to make one thing clear: It was a group of the president’s most loyal supporters that rioted in the U.S. Capitol building on Wednesday, and nobody else.

COVID Scientist Rebekah Jones Condemns Armed Police Raid on Her Home & Florida’s Pandemic Response

As Florida sets new records for daily coronavirus cases, we speak with a whistleblower who was fired in May from the Florida Department of Health after she refused to censor information about the state’s COVID-19 outbreak. Rebekah Jones is a data scientist who helped build Florida’s coronavirus tracking dashboard, and she says her termination came after she refused to manipulate data to support the state’s reopening.

Survival of the Fittest? Florida Seniors Forced to Camp Overnight in Cars, Hoping for Vaccine

As the United States reports record COVID-19 deaths, Florida broke the record for the highest single-day increase in new cases Thursday. Across the state, long lines to get vaccinations against COVID-19 left senior citizens camping in their cars overnight in cold weather, after Governor Ron DeSantis lowered the priority age to 65, 10 years below the CDC recommended age of 75. Those aged 79 and older are reportedly four times as likely to die from COVID.

“A Troubling History”: Biden’s AG Pick Merrick Garland Has Record of Not Holding Cops Accountable

Joe Biden has formally nominated Merrick Garland for attorney general. Garland has served on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals for over two decades and previously worked at the Justice Department, where he prosecuted the Oklahoma City bombing case. President Obama nominated Garland in 2016 to serve on the Supreme Court, but the nomination stalled after Republican senators refused to put it up for a vote.