9/11 Commission Chair Tom Kean "the idea that a mob could invade the center of democracy while the legislators were doing their job is so terrible..we better find out why it happened, how it happened..so we can..make sure it never, ever happens again" pbs.org/newshour/show/…
the Republican frmr NJ Governor adds "The people who are appointing..in the Congress have got to make sure this is people (with) no ambitions, who are not overly partisan, who can reach across the aisle, who can work with each other,who have the confidence of the American people"
more Tom Kean "the 41 recommendations we made in the 9/11 Commission were the basis for a whole redrafting of national security in this country. And we still have not had another attack comparable to 9/11...If these commissions are done right, they can work..." 3/4
.."And so my sense is, if we do this right, we can make the Congress stronger, we can make national security stronger, and we can make sure that nobody in 10 or 20 years is saying, how did this happen again?" former NJ Governor & 9/11 Commission Chair Tom Kean 4/4 @NewsHour
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the terror of January 6th, told for 1st time by @PattyMurray "this vision of my husband putting his foot against a door, like he might be able to hold down this loud, angry mob outside..was beyond belief.. terror in his eyes was something I have not seen" pbs.org/newshour/show/…
more @PattyMurray "That kind of fear is horrible. I was in the Capitol on 9/11..I was in an office looking out across the Mall towards the Pentagon..all of a sudden, I could see the smoke rise..That's the only other time I ever felt I was not safe in the Capitol, until January 6"
Murray adds: "today, when I see some members of Congress wanting to dismiss this or wanting to say put it in the past or move on, they're being instilled by fear...We cannot allow that to be what runs our country. We have to be a country that runs by strength, not by fear."
here is a thread with remarkable comments from respected former Missouri Republican Senator John Danforth about what's happened to his party: "It's losing its grip on the country as a whole. It's becoming increasingly a regional party... we're in decline." pbs.org/newshour/show/…
more Danforth "the Republican Party today is not just different from what it had been. It's the opposite of what it had been. America needs a strong, responsible conservative party. That has been the Republican Party. It is neither strong, nor responsible, nor conservative today"
"former President Trump lost in 2016 by 3 million votes...he lost in 2020 by 7 million votes. We're going in the wrong direction. But the worst thing is we have become a kind of grotesque caricature of what the Republican Party has traditionally been."
Merrick Garland, @JoeBiden's pick to be Attorney General: "the rule of law is not some lawyer's turn of phrase, it is the very foundation of our democracy..the essence is that there be not one rule for Republicans, one for Democrats; one for friends, one for foes..." 1/4
more Merrick Garland "...one for the powerful, one for the powerless...different rules depending on one's race or ethnicity..." 2/4
3/4 Merrick Garland: "ensuring civil rights and the rule of law are the great principles upon which the Department of Justice was founded and they echo today, in ensuring racial equity in the justice system and meeting violent extremism."
Chicago Mayor @LoriLightfoot "The truth is where we're seeing greatest challenges is in people's homes, in social settings not public.. So I'm not sure we're reaching the right people with the restrictions to be imposed by the state...that's my concern." pbs.org/newshour/show/…
as for White House outreach on Covid relief @LoriLightfoot "From the very beginning of this pandemic (we) have reached out to the president, to the vice president. They have ignored us at every turn. It's a total missed opportunity, unfortunately, I think lives have been lost"
this, after Acting Dir of White House Domestic Policy Council Brooke Rollins, told me one reason #Covid relief plan has been held up, is: "the idea of sending 100's of billions of $$ to bail out states and cities that have been poorly run isn't fair to the American taxpayer."
Judge Amy Coney Barrett begins her opening statement repeating what she said when announced, that she's "used to being in a group of nine," w/several sentences on each of her 7 children, as well as mentions of her six sisters, and her parents, who she says are watching from home
Judge Barrett: "...courts are not designed to solve every problem or right every wrong in our public life." "..policy decisions and value judgments...must be made by the political branches"
Barrett adds "I would be the first mother of school-age children to serve on the Court"
now @SenatorDurbin charges Republicans with a “shameless, self serving, venal reversal” in pushing Barrett nomination with only 22 days before 2020 election, after they denied Merrick Garland a hearing 269 days before 2016 election
followed by @SenMikeLee who says the Constitution works best when “each of us reads it and understands it”, reminding that he too served as a clerk on the high court
.@SenMikeLee, in the Senate bearing room, is 10 days out from testing positive for Covid. Chair @LindseyGrahamSC compliments his presentation, says he seems “fully recovered”