Leigh Ann Caldwell/NBC:
House Democrats draw the line: No bipartisan cooperation with Republicans who questioned the election
After the Jan. 6 riot, some Democrats say they simply can't work with anyone who voted against certifying the election.
Democratic lawmakers are each drawing their own lines, and some are finding that it means there are colleagues whom they once worked with to craft bipartisan legislation but with whom they now are unable, or unwilling, to collaborate.
Tim Miller/Bulwark:
Leadership Lessons From A Scandal-Ridden Governor
Dems show how the GOP should have treated Trump. Plus: Q-A-Mom?
A popular leader massively botches a crisis and covers up his mistakes. He is credibly accused by multiple women of inappropriate behavior. And yet the voters stick with him.
Sound familiar?
Well here is where the story changes a bit.
The party leaders rebuff their voters. They declare that no matter the level of popular support, someone who has committed such unacceptable acts has lost the ability to govern and should be removed from office.
What a concept!
I can understand if this series of events might be disorienting. After-all this is what a properly functioning democratic republic—one with properly functioning political parties—looks like. The GOP should take note.
Rebecca Traister/New York:
Andrew Cuomo’s governorship has been defined by cruelty that disguised chronic mismanagement. Why was that celebrated for so long?
Four years later, and one year after he began his star turn as “America’s Governor,” steering his state through COVID via daily, reassuringly matter-of-fact press briefings, Andrew Cuomo’s third term as governor of New York is suddenly deeply imperiled. In January, State Attorney General Letitia James released a report showing that his administration had underreported COVID deaths in nursing homes by as much as 50 percent. In February, liberal State Assembly member Ron Kim, who had criticized the governor in the wake of that report, spoke publicly about how Cuomo called him at home and threatened his career. Then the floodgates opened: His adversary Mayor Bill de Blasio called the bullying “classic Andrew Cuomo”; state legislators Alessandra Biaggi and Yuh-Line Niou began openly suggesting that the governor’s hard-knuckled approach to politics is simply abusive. And since last month, when Cuomo’s former aide and candidate for Manhattan borough president, Lindsey Boylan, published an article on Medium accusing him of sexually harassing and kissing her against her will, five more women have come forward with tales of harassment, objectification, and inappropriate touching. As of publication, dozens of Democratic members of the State Assembly and Senate, and 11 Democratic members of Congress, have called for his resignation.
Joyce White Vance/WaPo:
Civil suits may pry out the information we need to hold Trump accountable
The former president faces at least 10 lawsuits, and procedural rules he can’t dodge
Civil cases differ from criminal cases in obvious ways: They seek money damages; no one goes to prison; and plaintiffs establish their claims by a preponderance of the evidence, not “guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.” But civil cases differ in another way, too. They have extensive pretrial discovery. Nothing in a criminal case — or impeachment, for that matter — compares to civil discovery, the process of scooping up evidence from depositions of parties and witnesses, requests for documents, and written questions answered under oath. Discovery is more regimented in criminal cases; it primarily involves the prosecution sharing with the defense the evidence it will use at trial, as well as exculpatory evidence. Civil discovery, in short, can lead to the mother lode.
Trump is a defendant in at least 10 civil cases, including his niece’s. A reckoning awaits — one that will require his personal participation in instances where he has no Fifth Amendment privilege to assert, and it is likely to be speedier and more direct than any criminal reckoning.
Margaret Sullivan/WaPo:
Online harassment of female journalists is real, and it’s increasingly hard to endure
Julia Carrie Wong remembers a time, years ago, when she felt that being a part of digital culture was fun.
“I used to really enjoy online spaces, having a personality and a voice,” recalled the 37-year-old technology reporter for the Guardian.
That changed radically several years ago after she wrote on Twitter in support of a journalist who had been targeted by a white-nationalist site.
The trolling began. Wong had once described herself, in a first-person story, as half-Chinese American and half-Jewish, so her online attackers blasted vicious slurs against both parts of her heritage. They circulated photos doctored to show horns on her head. They talked about where she lived.
It has only gotten worse since then. In 2019, Wong wrote a story about the man accused of killing 23 people at an El Paso Walmart after allegedly penning a missive posted to 8chan, an anonymous discussion board. Swarms of toxic online denizens of that site and others came after her, bombarding her with death and rape threats.
Salone Dattani/New Statesman:
Where will the next pandemic come from and how can we prevent it?
From factory farming to climate change, the connections between humanity and nature carry increasing risk.
Over a hundred thousand people have now died of Covid-19 in the UK alone; people around the world have been separated from their family and friends, and entire economies have come to a standstill. All of which raises an important question: how can the world prevent another pandemic?
The obvious place to start is at the beginning – before a pathogen has been seeded around the world and serious damage has been caused. If we can predict where the next pandemic will come from, perhaps we can stop it at its source.
John Harwood/CNN:
Biden's toughest test on economic inequality will be reinvigorating the labor movement
His aspiration to be "the most pro-union president you've ever seen" stems from his upbringing in post-World War II Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he witnessed the early stage of Rust Belt decline. Labor movement experts see early evidence of commitment in
a recent video he recorded affirming the right to organize as Amazon workers in Alabama vote on whether to form a union.
"Arguably the most pro-union public statement by a president...in the entirety of American history," tweeted Erik Loomis, a labor historian at the University of Rhode Island.