FEATURING BILL BLUM – President Donald Trump’s clear direction of the January 6th rioters to attack the Capitol and delay the certification of the 2020 election appears evident to anyone who has been watching the Senate impeachment trial. It could not be clearer that Trump repeatedly exhorted his supporters to overturn the election and told them when and where to show up and watched with glee as they went hunting for lawmakers and then-Vice President Mike Pence. But many GOP Senators, who are de facto jurors in this trial appear unmoved. That is perhaps unsurprising given that lawmakers like Senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz were actively enabling Trump’s coup attempt. 

Bill Blum, Lawyer, retired judge, novelist, writer and and lecturer at USC Annenberg School of Communications, and UCLA.

FEATURING ETHAN ZUCKERMAN – Public trust in the federal government of the United States has been low for years now. But during the pandemic it fell even lower. Just 20% of Americans as per the latest Pew survey in Fall 2020 said they trusted Washington to “do the right thing” just about always or most of the time. 

My guest writes that in spite of the dangers of mistrust in institutions, the loss of public faith can be an important first step in transforming those institutions for the better.

Ethan Zuckerman is the founder of the Institute for Digital Public Infrastructure at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and associate professor of public policy, information, and communication. His new book is called Mistrust: Why Losing Faith in Institutions Provides the Tools to Transform Them. 

Thursday marked the third day of the Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump as House managers spent hours wrapping up their prosecution to make the case that the former President incited a violent insurrection against the Capitol on January 6th. Lead impeachment manager Representative Jamie Raskin challenged those still intent on exonerating Trump even after seeing harrowing videos of violence on prior days of the hearing. As he and other House managers were presenting their last hours of evidence, the Justice Department in a court filing against one of the January 6th rioters named Jessica Watkins, wrote, “As the inauguration grew nearer, Watkins indicated that she was awaiting direction from President Trump.” It was the most direct link so far that federal prosecutors have made between Trump and the rioters. 

On Wednesday, the hearings were focused on never-before-seen surveillance footage from the Capitol building that revealed for the first time just how close several lawmakers came to the violent mob that broke in. Senators Chuck Schumer and Mitt Romney, and former Vice President Mike Pence were just a few feet away from rioters when they were shuttled away to safety by law enforcement. Here is House impeachment manager Stacey Plaskett presenting evidence of Mr. Pence’s close encounter with the mob.  Also showcased was the audio of a phone call from Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani to Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville asking him to slow down the election certification process. On Wednesday evening Senator Tuberville told reporters that he spoke to Trump by phone and informed him that Pence was in personal danger and had just been whisked away to safety. Trump then issued a damning tweet egging on his supporters against Pence which Representative Joaquin Castro presented as the President directly instructing the rioters. 

In another harrowing video from January 6th Rep. Plaskett showed how Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Congressional aides barricaded themselves in an office and just moments later rioters stormed in and tried to break down the door. Representative Madeleine Dean linked the threads of Trump’s words to his supporters’ actions. In spite of the powerful evidence Trump is likely to be acquitted as many have pointed out, he is being tried by a jury that includes his co-conspirators. 

Meanwhile Trump himself, who has been silenced by social media companies, is

FEATURING MICHAEL HUMPHREY – As the second day of Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment hearing wraps up prosecutors among the House managers made compelling arguments with plenty of evidence that the former President repeatedly and consistently told his supporters that he could not lose the November 2020 elections and that if he did it would be because the race was rigged. Considering that he convinced so many tens of millions of Americans to vote for him after 4 years of corrupt, demagogic, racist, criminally negligent and inept leadership is a testament to Trump’s communications skills. Today we turn to one academic who analyzed more than four years of Trump’s tweets and found striking patterns. 

Read Humphrey’s analysis of Trump’s tweets here.

Michael Humphrey, Assistant Professor in the Department of Journalism and Media Communication at Colorado State University. He specializes in Digital Storytelling. 

FEATURING JERRY GREENFIELD – It has been many months since the videotaped police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis that sparked the latest chapter of the Black Lives Matter movement and catapulted the basic idea of equal treatment into mainstream consciousness. Activists have now unveiled a new campaign aimed at one very specific aspect of racist police brutality and that is the legal doctrine of “qualified immunity” that has undermined accountability for cops who brutalize and kill.

Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of Ben and Jerry’s and co-Chair of the Campaign to End Qualified Immunity. 

The second day of the Senate impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump commenced on Wednesday with prosecutors building a compelling case of how he incited violence at the capital in January. House Impeachment manager Jamie Raskin offered a powerful metaphor for what he says Trump did, which was far worse than the proverbial “shouting ‘fire’ in a crowded theater.”  Representative Joaquin Castro of Texas pointed out that for months before the election Trump repeatedly told his supporters that the only way he would lose would be if the election was stolen from him. House impeachment manager Joe Neguse drew the line between Trump and the January 6th rioters in their own words, introducing a new video during the hearing.  Ahead of the second day’s hearing one Congressional aide said, “We’ll be using footage never seen before that shows a view of the Capitol that is quite extraordinary, and a view of the attack that has never been public before, which you will see for the first time, starting today.”

On Tuesday, day 1 of the impeachment trial, 56 senators voted to allow the proceedings to continue saying it was indeed constitutional to try a former president if the “high crimes and misdemeanors” were committed while in office. Six Republicans, including Senator Bill Cassidy joined all 50 Democrats in voting yes. The highlight of the first day, aside from compelling testimony by Congressman Jamie Raskin and a powerful video timeline of the January 6th events, was the ineptness of Mr. Trump’s attorneys, in particular Bruce Castor. The lawyer’s rambling unfocused speech confounded even Republicans and enraged Trump. At one point Castor claimed that if Trump was guilty he would have been arrested by the Justice Department.  Mr. Castor also spoke out loud the words that his client had refused to say – that the former President was no longer in office because he lost the election. Pro-Trump attorney Alan Dershowitz who is not part of Trump’s legal team this time, reflected in an interview how poorly Castor did his job. 

Critics are pointing out that in order to have the most compelling prosecution, impeachment managers must call witnesses. The group Free Speech for People sent a letter to the managers suggesting that victims of the attack should testify as well as Senators themselves who said after the January 6th riot that they had attempted desperately to get Trump on the phone to call for help but were unable to reach him.

FEATURING STEVEN ROSENFELD – As the second Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump commences this week, much of the case against the former President relies on how he incited his supporters to attack the Capitol based on their sincere belief that the 2020 election was stolen from their leader. In one of the highest-voter turnout elections in more than a century, what was certain about last year’s race was that Americans exercised their democratic rights with enthusiasm. 

Rather than celebrate that enthusiasm, Republican controlled state legislatures are drawing the lesson that democracy ought to be curtailed if they are to win races. To that end the GOP has introduced bills in 33 states to make it harder for people to vote. The obvious pattern is that the party believes it will retain  political power if the right to vote is suppressed. 

Steven Rosenfeld, Editor, Chief Correspondent & Senior Writing Fellow for Voting Booth a project of the Independent Media Institute.

FEATURING ALICE L. BAUMGARTNER – Many of us with even a rudimentary knowledge of Black history have heard of the Underground Railroad, that route along with enslaved people from Southern states made the life-risking and harrowing journey North toward freedom. Less is known about enslaved people seeking freedom in Mexico, a country that had abolished slavery before the U.S. and declared as free people anyone who stepped foot on its soil. Telling that fascinating story in a new history book as well as how it is part of the story of the Civil War is Alice Baumgartner.

Alice L. Baumgartner is assistant professor of history at the University of Southern California. She received an MPhil in history from Oxford, where she was a Rhodes scholar, and a PhD in history from Yale University. Her new book is called South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War. 

The second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump officially began in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday. The first day’s agenda was to focus on the constitutionality of impeaching a President after they have left office. Taking the advice of his backers, Trump relented and directed his lawyers to first focus on the technical aspect of the trial. Some are pointing out that it was only a year ago that Trump himself suggested impeaching former President Barack Obama over some comments he made about health care. Impeachment manager Representative Jamie Raskin opened the Senate hearing saying there can be no “January exception” to impeachable offenses. Mr. Raskin played for Senators a detailed video timeline of how events transpired on January 6th as Senators gathered inside the Capitol building to certify the November 2020 election results while a massive and angry mob, egged on by Trump, gathered outside and eventually breached the building, chanting “Fight for Trump.”

In their 78-page memo submitted to the Senate on Monday, Trump’s lawyers attempted to make the case that it was unconstitutional to try a former President, citing extensively the work of a constitutional law professor named Brian Kalt at Michigan State University. But Professor Kalt in an interview on NPR explained that his lengthy article on the subject in fact came to the opposite conclusion: that it is in fact constitutional to impeach a former President. He said in his interview, “The worst part is the three places where they said I said something when, in fact, I said the opposite.” Meanwhile Illinois Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger who was among those that voted to impeach Trump, wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post saying, “My fellow Republicans, convicting Trump is necessary to save America.” A second poll this week found that a majority of Americans want to see Trump convicted of inciting insurrection on January 6th. The CBS-YouGov poll released Tuesday found 56% support a day after a Gallup poll found 52% support against Trump. 

Meanwhile in Georgia, officials have launched an investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the Presidential election results there. The investigation focuses on a phone call that the former president made to Georgia State Secretary Brad Raffensperger asking him in coercive tones to “find” enough votes in the state to overturn the results.  

The federal investigation into the January 6th Capitol riot that is at the heart of the Trump impeachment trial continues. One rioter was found to be a Georgia teenager named Bruno Joseph Cua became the youngest person at 18 years of age to be charged. His charges include assault against a police officer. Meanwhile another man named Thomas Edward Caldwell, a Navy veteran and a leader of the Oath Keepers hate group has been c...

FEATURING GUSTAVO ARELLANO – There was a time when the so-called “Latino paradox” as referred to in health care circles was an admirable community trait – a nearly 3-year advantage over whites in life expectancy rates, largely attributed to close family networks and other cultural hallmarks. Today, much of that life expectancy edge has all but vanished as the coronavirus pandemic rages through Latino communities, particularly in California, the new epicenter of the pandemic. 

Gustavo Arellano, columnist for the Los Angeles Times. He previously worked at OC Weekly, where he was an investigative reporter for 15 years and the paper’s editor for six. At the paper he also wrote a column called ¡Ask a Mexican! Which catapulted him to national fame. His books include “Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America.”