HOLMES: “I’ve never seen anything like this, someone calling the President from a mobile phone at a restaurant, and then having a conversation of this level of candor, colorful language. There's just so much about the call that was so remarkable that I remember it vividly.” (p54)
“Now what led you to believe the President didn’t give a shit about Ukraine?” (p.55)
Holmes describes telling his deputy chief of mission about the Sondland lunch — “for months we’d be hearing about things like the Biden investigation... So it had a ring of truth to it.” (p. 57)
“I’ve never been through an impeachment before.”
Holmes describes his uncertainty about coming forward with his account of the lunch, and eventually did so after he “started hearing there was not a lot of first-hand information.” (p. 62-3)
Holmes challenging main WH/GOP talking point that Zelensky felt no pressure from Trump—
“I think the Ukrainians gradually came to understand they were being asked to do something in exchange for the meeting and the security assistance hold being lifted.” (p. 157)
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Biden, after noting progress of his first seven months, offers some realism: “We’re in the tough stretch. And it could last for a while.”
And he frames vaccines as a matter of not just health but civic responsibility:
“The vast majority of Americans have done the right thing.”
Biden, expressing the frustration of the vaccinated: “A distinct minority…are preventing us from turning the corner.”
To the 80 million who’ve “failed” to get vaccinated, Biden says “the time for waiting is over” as he announces new vax mandates for large businesses and federal workers.
“This is not about freedom and personal choice. It’s about protecting yourself and the people around you.”
MCCONNELL says “January 6 was a disgrace” and that Trump’s rhetoric was “a disgraceful dereliction of duty.”
“There’s no question he is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day.”
McConnell says Trump tried to use his 74 million votes as “a shield” from criticism.
“That’s an absurd deflection. 74 million Americans did not invade the Capitol.”
Now here’s the “but...” — the constitutionality question (that the Senate settled).
McConnell, who as then-Majority Leader singlehandedly ensured the trial was delayed until Trump was out of office, says he voted to acquit BECAUSE Trump was out of office and thus “constitutionally ineligible.”
"It is existential," John Kerry says about the climate crisis. Biden, he says, is 'totally seized" by the urgency and knows "Paris alone isn't enough."
Kerry says Biden's EO will bring 17 U.S. intelligence agencies together to assess the national security implications of climate change.
"This is an issue where failure, literally, is not an option," Kerry says.
Full clemency list from the White House is 143 people (73 pardons, 70 commutations). Broidy and Bannon are listed back to back.
Kwame Kilpatrick "has served approximately 7 years in prison for his role in a racketeering and bribery scheme while he held public office. During his incarceration, Mr. Kilpatrick has taught public speaking classes and has led Bible Study groups with his fellow inmates."
Duke Cunningham, "a former California Congressman, was sentenced to over 8 years’ imprisonment for accepting bribes while he held public office."
Biden, at the Lincoln Memorial, says we have to remember the 400K dead from Covid to heal: "It's important to do that as a nation."
This marks the first truly public memorial to these deaths by a national figure to date in a pandemic, as we noted in May, in which the deaths remained abstract, the grief hidden and not shared.