Putin: "Situation in Donbas is becoming critical, and today I am addressing you directly. Not only to discuss what is happening, but to inform you about decisions we are making...in this regard". Putin: "Modern Ukraine was completely created by Russia, to be more exact by Bolshevik Communist Russia".

Kozak asks Putin directly: "Do we annexe Donbas or not?" Putin demurs. Moves on to next speaker.
Absolute kabuki. Putin: "Now we need to ask the question....about recognizing the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic". Accuses the west of "threats and blackmail".

Am spending the weekend simultaneously trying to make some travel plans for the summer, and also digesting the latest Covid-19 situation on both sides of the Atlantic. So bear with me here while I rant. And yes, I understand all this stuff is complicated and takes time. But… I’m now fully vaccinated. According to recovery boosters, I should be ripping my face-mask off, not hesitating to head to my favorite restaurant, or jump on the nearest airplane to take me somewhere warm and sunny. Yes @DLeonhardt @BrianStelter and @EliLake, I’m looking at you.

. @LindseyGrahamSC : "The first thing that stands out to me is how embarrassed and disgusted I am that the US Capitol can be taken over by domestic terrorists". Calls them "terrorists not patriots". Graham: "It is mind-boggling" that the Capitol could be briefed. "Anyone in charge of defending the Capitol failed in their duties...the first thing that has to happen is to hold accountable those people".

Pelosi says the chief of the Capitol Police force is resigning. Pelosi says the Chief of the Capitol Police "hasn't even called us" since yesterday's outrage occurred.

Trump: "All of gathered here today do not want to see our elections stolen....we will never give up, we will never concede, it doesn't happen . You don't concede when there is theft involved. Our country has had enough. We will not take it any more...we will stop the steal". Trump, falsely: "We won this election and we won it by a landslide. This was not a close election....the second one I won much bigger than the first".

Trump concedes that "legally, I can" order a national shutdown. But "from a moral. constitutional standpoint" he won't be doing it. Trump: "Boris was looking at if differently. He was looking at it earlier, he was looking at riding it out...but then you see what happens and the numbers become monumental....so he waited a little while...he made a decision very quickly thereafter to do what they did".

Trump: American students stuck in Peru are coming home. (Kudos to @MichLKosinski for raising their profile on here). Trump announces a military action was taken somewhere to get someone home "who was being accosted horribly". Unclear where, when, or why. Trump calls social distancing guidelines "so important....defeating this unseen enemy requires the commitment of every single American".