Common Sense: House managers drew a logical line between statements made by the President Trump and Capitol Hill rioters who believed they were doing his bidding and said so.

  “They truly believed that the whole intrusion was at the president’s orders — and we know that because they said so,” said one of the House managers, Rep. Diana DeGette, Democrat of Colorado, 

  DeGette showed several video clips of rioters saying they were answering Trump’s call, one of them telling a police officer, “We are listening to Trump — your boss.”

  While this was being presented to the Senate, Trump was playing golf. The House managers completed their case and the defense begins today.

  There seems to be little hope that enough Republicans will be swayed to convicted Trump. The House managers are hoping as much as anything to sway public opinion and put Trump on the trash heap of history. They used Trump’s own words against him; “Remember this day forever!”

  Lead manager Jamie Raskin of Maryland said, “We saw how Trump spent months cultivating America’s most dangerous extremist groups. We saw how he riled them up with corrosive lies and violent rhetoric so much so that they were ready and eager for their most dangerous mission, invalidating the will of the people to keep Donald Trump in office.”

  Raskin went on, “January 6th was a culmination of the president’s actions, not an aberration from them. The insurrection was the most violent and dangerous episode so far in Donald Trump’s continuing pattern and practice of inciting violence.”

  Raskin cited several occasions in Trump speeches and rallies when he encouraged violence against protesters, dissenters, a journalist, and even the governor of Michigan.

  “Trump knew exactly what he was doing in inciting the January 6th mob,” Raskin said. “He sent a clear message to his supporters. He encouraged planning and conspiracies to take over capital buildings and threaten public officials who refuse to bow down to his political will.”

  David Frum writes for The Atlantic that, “The remorseless, crushing power of the House managers’ evidence, all backed by horrifying real-time audio and video recordings, shuttered any good-faith defense of Trump on the merits of the case.”  He wrote, “There is no defense. There is only complicity, whether motivated by weakness and fear or by shared guilt. And the House managers forced every Republican senator to feel that complicity from the inside out.”

  On the Senate floor, Raskin appealed for a conviction that would block Trump from ever making a political comeback. “President Trump declared his conduct totally appropriate. So if he gets back into office and it happens again, we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves.”

I Will Come: One of the participants in the insurrection was Jessica Watkins, a member of the Oath Keepers from Ohio who had once told an associate she was “awaiting direction from President Trump” about what to do about the results of the November election. She’s one of roughly 200 people who’ve been charged.

  Court documents say that Watkins wrote, “POTUS has the right to activate units too. If Trump asks me to come, I will.”

  It’s an example of how rioters believed they were answering the call of President Trump. Watkins showed at the Capitol January 6^th in full combat gear, including a helmet.

  “Biden may still be our president,” the court documents quote Watkins writing on Nov. 17. “If he is, our way of life as we know it is over. Our Republic would be over. Then it is our duty as Americans to fight, kill and die for our rights.”

 She wrote, “We plan on going to DC on the 6^th because “Trump wants all able bodied Patriots to come.” 

Not Another Brick: President Joe Biden yesterday cancelled the national emergency Donald Trump declared to justify his southern border wall.

  “I have determined that the declaration of a national emergency at our southern border was unwarranted,” Biden wrote in a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi. 

  “I have also announced that it shall be the policy of my administration that no more American taxpayer dollars be diverted to construct a border wall, and that I am directing a careful review of all resources appropriated or redirected to that end.”

Oops He Did it Again: In the long-running soap opera of singer Britney Spears, a judge has denied a request by her father for more power over her finances. Jamie Spears will have to continue sharing power with a financial institution.

  The elder Spears was awarded control in 2008 because he convinced the court that his daughter was mentally unhealthy and unable run her own affairs. Her lawyer says Britney is afraid of her father and wants her freedom. She’s been on a performance boycott for two years, refusing to do concerts until the conservatorship is lifted.

  The whole mess is examined in the new documentary, Framing Britney Spears, which was produced by The New York Times. 

Crash: Six people were killed and 65 injured yesterday at dawn in a 130-vehicle pileup involving several 18-wheelers on an elevated highway near downtown Ft. Worth. Some people had to be cut out of the wreckage.  

Viral News: President Trump was sicker than publicly acknowledged when he had Covid-19, coming close to being put on a respirator, The NY Times reports according to unnamed sources.

  Trump’s blood oxygen level alone dipped into the 80s, the Times reports. The disease is considered severe when the blood oxygen level falls to the low 90s. At age 74 and overweight, Trump was at high risk.

 “Don’t let it dominate you. Don’t be afraid of it,” Trump said returning to the White House in October.

  Since that day, 262,668 Americans have died.

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