In a fascinating new interview, Politico’s Ryan Lizza sits down with J Michael Luttig, a former appeals court judge and conservative legal thinker who played a central role in the behind-the-scenes wrangling between Trump and then vice president Mike Pence over whether a vice president could overturn the results of the election.
Luttig was categorical in his analysis: the answer was no.
Pence’s team wanted to leverage Luttig’s conservative credentials to counter the argument being made by his former clerk, John Eastman, that the vice president could unilaterally overturn the election results in his role as president of the Senate.
Luttig was eager to help. But he first needed to figure out how to send a Tweet.
Spoiler alert: Luttig figured out how to send a Tweet, and Pence cited his analysis in a fateful letter published before he went to the Capitol on 6 January that stated he did not have the authority to reverse the electoral results.
“I understood the gravity of the moment and the momentous task that I was being asked to help the vice president with. I had been following all of this very closely in the days leading up to it,” Luttig said. “It was then — and may forever be — one of the most significant moments in American history.”
To the wider world, Nascar driver Brandon Brown is perhaps better known for inspiring, unwittingly, the vulgar anti-Biden chant “Let’s go Brandon” than for his fearsome driving.
Writing for the Guardian, Andrew Lawrence explores how the viral moment has put Brown in a difficult position, as the driver tries to balance profits and politics with marginal success.
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14:56
The “Freedom Convoy” of trucks, which began as a protest against a government vaccination mandate and grew into a wildly disruptive demonstration that included all manner of political grievances, has drawn praise and support for some of the leading conservative figures in the US.
Donald Trump hailed the Canadian truckers and said “we are with them all the way.” Fox News’ Sean Hannity has provided viewers with nearly wall-to-wall coverage of the protests. On -air he called the truckers “brave” and sent his “solidarity, love and support.” Texas senator Ted Cruz hailed them as “heroes” while Kentucky senator Rand Paul urged them to drive south and “clog up” US cities.
The Republicans’ support of the overwhelmingly white trucker protest has drawn accusations of hypocrisy and racism after the very same conservative leaders forcefully denounced the Black-led racial justice protests that spread across the world in the wake of the murder of George Floyd.
At the time, law enforcement in Washington tear gassed peaceful protesters to make way for Trump’s photo-op at a church, part of a deliberate show of force against demonstrators. Republicans pushed legislation to punish the protestors while conservative media figures condemned the them using derogatory language.
In a new report, Sergio Olmos examines the starkly divergent responses through the example of Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who last year signed an anti-rioting law that stiffened penalties for protesters who blocked roads.
Draft legislation from DeSantis – seen by many as the leading heir to Donald Trump – was even more draconian. He initially sought to extend “stand-your-ground” laws that would have granted legal immunity to drivers claiming to have unintentionally killed or injured protesters disrupting traffic.
Yet DeSantis has thrown his support behind conservative trucker convoys using similar tactics to protest against vaccine mandates that for weeks have blocked roads between Canada and the US, stalling trade between the two nations and leading to disruptions to the global supply chain. He also announced Florida’s attorney general would investigate GoFundMe after it dropped the page for donations to Canadian truckers.
In the piece, Jared Holt, a researcher of extremism, tells Olmos that Republicans’ are far more concerned with obstructing the Biden presidency than ideological consistency.
“I think the hypocrisy on display makes evident that this kind rhetoric is best understood as a piece of a broader project and not a hard ideological stance,” said Holt, resident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s digital forensic lab, a non-profit that monitors and combats disinformation online.
Read the full report here:
14:20
Canadian police move in to arrest protesters from Ottawa trucker convoy
Canadian Police began arresting protesters on Friday in an effort to break up the “freedom convoy” that has for weeks paralyzed Canada’s capital, snarled traffic and disrupted business on both sides of the border.
Reporting from Ottawa, Leyland Cecco writes that “dozens of police moved in on the protest camp near Parliament Hill on Friday morning, arresting protesters and attempting to remove people from the vehicles that have blockaded the city since late January.”
A police drone hovered overhead as the officers, some carrying automatic weapons and dressed in helmets and grey fatigues, moved in on the camp.
Canada was warned before protests that violent extremists infiltrated convoyRead more
Some protesters surrendered and were taken into custody; others were seen being led away in handcuffs.
14:02
Senate passes measure to avert shutdown
Hello live blog readers. It’s Friday! You made it through the week. I’m Lauren Gambino in Washington.
The Senate scrambled to avert a government shutdown, passing a short-term funding bill last night before skipping town for the President’s Day weekend. The measure, which funds the federal government for just three short weeks, heads to Joe Biden desk for signature ahead of the midnight deadline tonight. Expect a repeat of the drama when Congress returns from their recess. Who says Washington is broken?
Biden has nothing on his public schedule. He will host a phone call with Transatlantic leaders this afternoon to discuss “Russia’s buildup of military troops on the border of Ukraine and our continued efforts to pursue deterrence and diplomacy,” according to a White House official.
Vice President Kamala Harris is in Munich, where she is holding a whirlwind round of talks with world leaders, including Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday. Earlier on Friday, she met with Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg at the Commerzbank.
We remain, of course, supportive of diplomacy as it relates to the dialogue and discussions we’ve had with Russia, but we are also committed to taking corrective actions to ensure there will be severe consequences in terms of the sanctions we have discussed,” Harris said during their bilateral talks.
Read our sister blog for the latest updates on the escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine.