The Gathering Crowd:Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the political independent who was squeezed out by the Democratic leadership cabal in 2016, announced that he’s running again for president.

  Sanders is a democratic socialist who calls for “Medicare for all,” a $15 minimum wage, and tuition-free public college.

  “Three years ago, during our 2016 campaign, when we brought forth our progressive agenda we were told that our ideas were ‘radical’ and ‘extreme,’” Sanders said this morning in an email to supporters. He said his ideas about healthcare, climate change, and taxing the wealthy are even more popular today.

Sanders is one of the most outspoken politicians about President Trump. He told John Dickerson of CBS News, “It is unacceptable, and un-American to be frank with you, that we have a President who is a pathological liar, and it gives me no pleasure to say that, but it’s true. We have a President who is a racist, who is a sexist, who is a xenophobe, who is doing what no president in our lifetimes has come close to doing, and that is trying to divide us up.”

State of Emergency:Protesters all over the country yesterday marched and chanted in protest of President Trump’s declaration of a National Emergency at the southern border, and his treatment of illegal immigrants.

Slogans are not likely to sway the President, but 16 states yesterday joined in a lawsuit to block Trump’s declaration made to speed the construction of his promised border wall. Trump faces a legal, if not a constitutional challenge to the extent of his power.

  California Attorney Gen. Xavier Becerra told The NY Times, “Probably the best evidence is the president’s own words,” referring to Trump’s emergency announcement when he said, “I didn’t need to do this, but I’d rather do it much faster.”

  Becerra may think there’s no emergency, but the question of whether there actually is one might never be decided by a court. There’s no law that defines a national emergency. The only question may be whether Trump has the authority to make the declaration and plunder other parts of the budget to build his wall.

  Conservative Valkyrie Ann Coulter, who has slashed Trump in recent weeks, said, “The goal of a national emergency is for Trump to scam the stupidest people in his base for 2 more years.”

The Second Front:Trump was on a Twitter rampage yesterday over the interview former FBI Director Andrew McCabe gave to Scott Pelley of “60 Minutes.” After the firing of Director James Comey, McCabe opened an investigation into whether Trump may have been a stooge of the Russians trying to kill the investigation into election influencing.

  Trump tweeted, “Wow, so many lies by now disgraced acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe. He was fired for lying, and now his story gets even more deranged. He and Rod Rosenstein, who was hired by Jeff Sessions (another beauty), look like they were planning a very illegal act, and got caught.”

  The President said it was a plot to overthrow a popular president — himself — by people disappointed with the outcome of the election. “This was the illegal and treasonous ‘insurance policy’ in full action!”

What Goes Around:Republican leaders in recent years have campaigned about voter fraud, which is rare, but the biggest case is unfolding within their own party.

  A political operative for North Carolina Republican Mark Harris schemed to falsify absentee ballots in the 9th Congressional District last year, state election officials said yesterday.

  That conclusion opened a hearing in Raleigh yesterday in which the North Carolina State Board of Elections began hearing testimony to decide whether there were enough phony ballots to sway the outcome of the 9th District election. The board must decide whether to call for a new election or certify the November results. Harris leads Democrat Dan McCready by just 905 votes.

The Obit Page:Karl Lagerfeld, the prolific designer whose work spanned two centuries and helped define the luxury fashion industry, died in Paris at age 85. In his later years Lagerfeld always dressed in black, contrasting with his silver hair. He wore big sunglasses indoors. Anna Wintour, editor of American Vogue, once said of Lagerfeld “More than anyone I know, he represents the soul of fashion: restless, forward-looking and voraciously attentive to our changing culture.” — Don Bragg, who dominated pole vaulting in the 1950s and won gold at the 1960 Rome Olympics, has died at age 83 in California. Bragg was a vaulter in the days of stiff aluminum poles, before the bendy fiberglass that launched athletes to new heights. The stiff poles required enormous body strength over technique.

  Bragg said he grew up playing Tarzan in the woods and dreamed of playing the ape man in movies. He came close a couple of times, but never made it to the screen. — The sailor photographed celebrating victory over Japan by kissing a dental assistant in Times Square has never been identified for certain, but George Mendonsa of Middletown, RI, has maintained that it was him. He has died at age 95.

  Life magazine, which published the Alfred Eisenstadt photo in 1945, has never officially recognized that Mendonsa was the sailor. Researchers who used facial recognition technology say it was. One verifier is that his date was standing in the background smiling as he kissed the stranger dressed in a white nurse’s outfit. He married his date.

  Mendonsa, who made his living as a fisherman, once told a reporter, “And when I get through showing you the photos … if you don’t admit that, I’d say you’re a phony bastard.”

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