Not Looking Good: Former President Donald Trump spent more than three hours during the Capitol insurrection watching Fox News in the dining room off the Oval Office without calling the military or law enforcement and refusing pleas by his staff to call off the rioters, according to testimony last night before the House January 6^th committee.

  Even while Vice President Mike Pence was under threat, Trump refused to act. Committee members concluded that the evidence proves that Trump was guilty of dereliction of duty. 

  In an effort to convince the country that this was not a partisan witch hunt, the committee was careful to present a lineup of witnesses who had all been Trump loyalists.

  Appearing live before the committee Sarah Matthews, who was a deputy press secretary, and Matthew Pottinger, who worked in national security, both said they resigned as a result of Trump’s ultimate message to the rioters telling them “we love you, you’re very special.”

  Matthews said, “That was very disturbing to me,” and that she resigned because as a press aide she would have had to defend it.

  After a tweet criticizing Pence, Pottinger said, “I was disturbed and worried that the president was attacking Mike Pence for doing his  constitutional duty.” Pottinger resigned later that night.

  Matthews also told about how Trump didn’t want to use the word “peace” in any of his messages. She said Kayleigh McEnany “looked directly at me and in a hushed tone shared with me that the president did not want to include any sort of mention of peace in that tweet,” Matthews testified.

  The committee also showed outtakes from the President recording his video message on January 8^thin which he refused to admit the election was over. Eliminating the line he said, “I don’t want to say the election is over.”

  One of the shocking revelations of the evening was that some members of Vice President Mike Pence’s Secret Service detail thought they might be about to die as rioters chanting “Hang Mike Pence!” assaulted the Capitol. An anonymous official whose identity was not revealed testified by audio that some members of the detail even called their families to say goodbye.

  That revelation came in answer to a question about a Secret Service transmission in which an agent said, “The Capitol does not look good right now.” A questioner asked what that meant and the answer was that the agents thought they were facing death. 

  Summing up at the end of the evening, Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney said, “Donald Trump knows that millions of Americans who supported him would stand up and defend our nation were it threatened. They would put their lives and their freedom at stake to protect her.” But, she continued, on January 6th, 2021, Trump “turned their love of country into a weapon against our Capitol and our Constitution.”

Public Opinion: In a poll conducted before last night’s hearing, a majority of Americans say they are paying attention and blame former President Donald Trump for the events of January 6^th, but don’t think he will be prosecuted.

  Fifty-seven percent told the NPR/PBS News Hour/Marist poll that Trump is largely to blame for the Capitol riot, including 92% of Democrats and 57% of independents. Only 18% of Republicans say so. 

  Half of respondents said they think Trump should be charged with a crime, including 9 in 10 Democrats, but only 10% of Republicans. And 60% said they don’t think Trump will face any charges.

 The Trump Following: In an example of the kind of people that surrounded Donald Trump when he  was president, former White House aide Garrett Ziegler used a live stream to denounce the House January 6^th committee. “They’re Bolsheviks,” he said in the stream after he had been interviewed by the committee, referring to the communists who led the Russian Revolution. He went on, “so, they probably do hate the American founders and most White people in general. This is a Bolshevistic anti-White campaign. If you can’t see that, your eyes are freaking closed. And so, they see me as a young Christian who they can try to basically scare, right?”

Viral News: In what might have been the lead story any other day, President Joe Biden, who is fully vaccinated and has had two booster shots, tested positive for Covid-19. The White House says he’s experiencing mild symptoms.

  Vice President Kamala Harris tested negative.

  At 79, Biden is in the high risk group for Covid. With the highly contagious variants rapidly spreading, people Biden’s age and older are the majority of patients dying of Covid.

The War Zone: The Ukraine military claims to have blown up six Russian ammunition depots, five troop strongholds and several command posts. They appear to be laying the groundwork for a major counter-offensive.

     In what would be a critical economic development for Ukraine, Turkey says a deal will be signed today with Russia to unblock the 20 million tons of grain locked in Black Sea ports by the war. The blockage has hindered international food supply and aggravated starvation in Africa.

The Spin Rack: The Department of Homeland Security ordered the Secret Service to stop its internal investigation into missing electronic messages surrounding the January 6^th insurrection because DHS is now conducting a criminal investigation. — New York candidate for governor Lee Zeldin was attacked yesterday at a campaign event by a man wielding a two-pointed weapon over his knuckles. Zeldin was able to grab the man’s wrist and avoid injury. — Actor ben Affleck and Mrs. Ben Affleck are honeymooning in Paris.

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