asked why he's leaving NIH in the middle of a raging pandemic...Dr. Francis Collins says after a decade, he needs "to give Pres Biden a chance to nominate a new Director" and adds the people leading the effort on #Covid are not going anywhere @NewsHour Dr. Collins, asked if there's anything he wishes NIH had done: "maybe we under-invested in research in human behavior..I never imagined a year ago that there would be 60 million people who refused/declined to get the vaccine because of misinformation & disinformation" @NewsHour

"it's about life and death" President Biden just now on Covid and people's refusal to be vaccinated "with freedom comes responsibility...almost every day a foreign leader calls me, asking for more vaccines..it's a blessing we have them for each & every American..it's such a shame to squander that blessing" Pres. Biden now

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan: "the U.S. has really messed it up in Afghanistan, you see first of all, they try to look for a military solution in Afghanistan when there never was one. " @NewsHour tonight more Prime Minister Imran Khan: "when they finally decided that there is no military solution, unfortunately, the bargaining power of the Americans or the NATO forces had gone...the Taliban thought they had won."

.@amyewalter on persistent denials by former Pres Trump & others that Pres Biden won: "once you undermine faith in democracy, once losers believe that they only lost because it was unfair, you have lost everything." 1/3 pbs.org/newshour/show/… more @amyewalter "Our system works as well as it does because losers know at some time they are going to be winners, and winners know at some point they are going to be losers, and that balances this out." 2/3

"I'm 39 years old, never before called a N_____ to my face, & was called 'traitor,' various epithets...as bad as it looks on film, believe me it was worse, much worse in person than anything you see on film." Capitol Police Officer James Blassingame on Jan 6 @LisaDNews @NewsHour and "I've never been in a situation where I've had to use my weapon, the only reason I didn't, is 'this is a 4 alarm blaze and if I use my weapon, it's like pouring kerosene on it'..and I probably wouldn't make it out alive." Capitol Hill Police Ofcr James Blassingame @NewsHour

"the obstacles are many...the American people will see families reunited now at a quicker pace" @SecMayorkas on the Biden administration announcement it is reuniting 4 immigrant families out of some 1,000 still separated, since the Trump administration @NewsHour "because of the cruelty that precedes us..given the mistrust that was sown...many of these familes are reluctant to come forward" @SecMayorkas @NewsHour

tonight on @NewsHour Senate Repub @LeaderMcConnell says #CovidReliefBill signed today by @POTUS is far too much government money just as the economy is "about to come roaring back," he charges "the administration is trying to get in front of the parade." Reaction fm @ChrisCoons .@ChrisCoons answers @LeaderMcConnell "saying the American people should simply wait around & hope our economy is going to recover...is just..wrong" pbs.org/newshour/show/…

my thanks to @gregorymoore & @radhikajones for a thoughtful conversation about the current tumult in American journalism: a broken business model, a political divide that erodes trust in reporters & a need for more inclusion and transparency 1/3 .@radhikajones says trust in the media can be rebuilt:the more we can reestablish that people in the media are not the enemy..are holding powerful people to account..providing clarity, providing a service, the more we make decisions in transparent ways, the better off we will be"

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"

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"

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"

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

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"

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"

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

President Trump extends period of social distancing guidelines for another month, until April 30 Dr. Anthony Fauci "the decision to extend this period..for another month was a wise and thoughtful decision"

so striking that Joseph Maguire the acting head of U.S. National Intelligence says "the greatest challenge (U.S. faces) is not a kinetic strike from a foreign adversary...but to maintain the integrity of our election system. There are foreign powers now challenging this...." more from Maguire, the country's top intelligence official "our first job is to protect the sanctity of the election system at the national, state and city level"

"I was probably his most favorite subordinate" says Army Colonel Kathryn Spletstoser of her working relationship with General John Hyten before she says he began to make a series of sexual advances and eventually sexual assault"
in an interview tonight @NewsHour @NewsHour Spletstoser describes a series of encounters where Gen. Hyten physically imposed himself on her in 2017, including one emotional exchange where he was crying. She says she always pushed him away, expected it would stop...