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WASHINGTON (AP) President Joe Bidens nominee for attorney general says the Justice Department must ensure laws are fairly and faithfully enforced and the rights of all Americans are protected, while reaffirming an adherence to policies to protect the departments political independence.

Judge Merrick Garland, who is set to appear Monday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, plans to tell senators that the attorney general must act as a lawyer for the people of the United States, not for the president. The Justice Department released a copy of Garlands opening statement late Saturday.

If confirmed, Garland would inherit a Justice Department that endured a tumultuous time under President Donald Trump rife with political drama and controversial decisions and abundant criticism from Democrats over what they saw as the politicizing of the nations top law enforcement agencies.

It is a fitting time to reaffirm that the role of the attorney general is to serve the Rule of Law and to ensure equal justice under the law, Garland says in his prepared statement.

The previous attorney general, William Barr, had also sought to paint himself as an independent leader who would not bow to political pressure. But Democrats repeatedly accused Barr of acting more like Trumps personal attorney than the attorney general. They pointed to a number of controversial decisions, including overruling career prosecutors to recommend a lower sentence for Trump ally Roger Stone and moving to dismiss the criminal case against former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn after he had twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

Barr resigned in late December, weeks after he told The Associated Press that the Justice Department had found no evidence of widespread voter fraud that would change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, countering Trumps baseless claims of election fraud.

In his prepared remarks Garland, a federal appeals court judge who was snubbed by Republicans in 2016 for a seat on the Supreme Court, lays out his plan to prioritize the departments civil rights work after the nationwide protests last year over the deaths of Black Americans by police. He highlights a key mission for the division: to protect the rights of all Americans and particularly the most vulnerable.

That mission remains urgent because we do not yet have equal justice. Communities of color and other minorities still face discrimination in housing, education, employment and the criminal justice system; and bear the brunt of the harm caused by pandemic, pollution and climate change, Garland says.

Garland also addresses domestic terrorism and rising extremist threats, pointing to his prior work in the Justice Department supervising the prosecution following the 1995 bombing in Oklahoma City.

And as federal prosecutors continue to bring cases following the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, Garland calls the insurrection a heinous attack that sought to distrust a cornerstone of our democracy: the peaceful transfer of power to a newly elected government.

So far, the Justice Department has charged more than 200 people with federal crimes in connection with the riot, including members of extremist groups accused of conspiracy and other offenses.

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Garland says laws must be 'fairly and faithfully enforced' - The Associated Press

New details emerged on Democrats' efforts to prevent Donald Trump from stealing the 2020 election in anew reportby Jane Mayer for The New Yorker.

Mayer reports that former Solicitor General Seth Waxman assembled the team after Trump's comments in March that the only way he could lose the election if there was fraud.

Waxman started brainstorming the "doomsday scenarios" that could occur, finally assembling a "three-and-a-half-page single-spaced list of potential catastrophes."

"Eleven months before the Senate impeachment trial exposed an unprecedented level of political savagery, Waxman quietly prepared for the worst. He reached out to two other former Solicitors General, Walter Dellinger and Donald Verrilli, who served as the Clinton and the Obama Administrations' advocates, respectively, before the Supreme Court. By April, they had formed a smallswatteam to coordinate with the Biden campaign. They called themselves the Three Amigos, but the campaign referred to them as SG3. Their goal: safeguarding the election," Mayer reported.

"Coordinating with the Biden campaign's lawyers, each of the Three Amigos headed up a separate task force. Verrilli rounded up volunteer legal teams to address the ways in which Trump might try to use his executive powers to disrupt voting. Dellinger focussed on what could go wrong after the electors cast their ballots, in December. Waxman handled everything else, including potentially rebellious state legislatures, which they considered the most likely threat. By May, he had twenty legal teams on it," The New Yorker reported.

The Biden campaign created hoodies reading "Team SG3" for the team.

Despite Biden been sworn-in as president, they are still worried about the future.

"The lesson we learned," Waxman said, "is that the state of our democracy is perilouseven more so than we thought. I am very, very worried."

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Biden had a secret elite legal team to stop Trump from stealing the election: report - Salon

Akron Beacon JournalFreedom of speech afterTrump

This is regarding the Jan. 20 commentary "To begin de-Trumpification, start with elite institutions," in which writer David Kaye argues high-profile peoplewho supported President Donald Trump should be shunned as they are obviously "liars," "sycophants" and "cynical enablers."

This shunning and de-Trumpification would mean that Trump supporters would be denied employment or teaching opportunities in universities until the de-Trumpification process was complete, lest students be exposed to ideologies that differ from the progressive viewpoint.

This term reinforces the thinking expressed by liberal members of Congress, most cable news networks, and notables like Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Katie Couric, Michelle Obama and Chuck Schumer. These people suggest that Trump supporters are cultists, deplorables, borderline insane, and are brainwashed and must be re-educated, de-programmedand made to understand the correct way of thinking.

It is a slippery slope for our nation when only one thought process is tolerated by a ruling party and its followers and multiplied by a biased media while demonizing all those who don't agree with their narrative.

Re-education camps are found in places like China and North Korea, not in the United States. May our Constitution protect diversity of thought and the sanctity of free speech.

William Connor, Tallmadge

The Biden administration has beenpushing to raise the legal minimum wage to $15 per hour. This, of course, will not change the real (true) minimum wage, which is zero.

And this (zero) is how much people will be able to earn if the Biden government is successful, because no employer is going to pay $15 per hour to anyone whose labor services are not worth that much to him.

Dave Garthoff, Stow

With so many individuals encountering difficulty with scheduling COVID-19 vaccinations elsewhere, Veterans Affairs is to be commended for their handling of the entire process. I received an email inquiry mid-December asking if I wanted the vaccination. I responded and immediately received confirmation that I was registered and would be contacted to schedule the vaccinations. I received a phone call the week of Jan. 25and in minutes I was scheduled for the two vaccinations at the Waterloo Roadfacility. I received my first vaccination Feb.5 and was in and out in about 20 minutes, with 15 of those minutes spent waiting for any adverse reactions. Thank you, VA.

Brian Hoffman, Akron

I just wanted to thank the Beacon Journal from the bottom of my heart for thewonderful, wonderful "Hallowed Sound" special section on Feb. 7. It brought back so many cherished songs and performers that I havestored in my heart for all these years oh, the memories and the tunes that flooded my mind as I went through the entire section. I remembered each group, and the music and the words came flooding in, along with some "happy" tears. "These were the good old days" and the talented artists did shape our history.

Martha Hudson, North Canton

More here:
Letters to the editor: Remember the Constitution and don't silence Donald Trump's advisers - Akron Beacon Journal

(WTRF) According to Newsweek, QAnon followers are posing a new threat and have marked March 4th as a very significant date in their calendar.

QAnon who gained attention during the Capitol Insurrection on January 6th believes this is the day Donald Trump will return to power as president.

Newsweek is also reporting that the FBI is listing this as a domestic terrorist threat.

Experts say QAnon followers latest theory will cause further humiliation for the radical group when their threat fails.

QAnon believes a secret law that was actually passed back in 1871 changed the United States into an actual corporation.

In essence, to these followers, all presidencies after Ulysses S. Grant have been illegitimate.

This would make former President Donald Trump the 19th president instead of the 45th.

The reason behind the March 4th date is that this is when presidential inauguration ceremonies used to take place before it was moved to January 20th in 1933.

Both Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Departments are continuing to monitor potential threats and are aware of the significance of QAnons March 4th date.

Original post:
Report: QAnon believes Donald Trump will be reinstated as president - MyStateline.com

Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., is one of seven Republicans who voted to convict former President Donald Trump during the most recent impeachment trial. Pool/Getty Images hide caption

Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., is one of seven Republicans who voted to convict former President Donald Trump during the most recent impeachment trial.

Sen. Ben Sasse is one of seven Republicans who crossed party lines to vote to convict former President Donald Trump during his historic second impeachment trial.

The effort fell 10 votes short of the 67 needed to convict but served to fortify the junior senator from Nebraska's bona fides as a conservative with an independent streak and put him further at odds with party leaders back home.

In a wide-ranging interview with NPR's Morning Edition on Tuesday, Sasse said the Republican Party is in a battle between what he calls "conservatism and short-term-ism."

He added that the GOP must plan for the future and how, in his view, impeachments are not about the individual office holder, but about the behavior the nation wants presidents to exhibit while occupying the White House.

"Not a 20-minute Twitter agenda"

"Is this still Donald Trump's party?" host Steve Inskeep asked Sasse.

"If you look at polling in the short-term, it surely appears that way," Sasse responded.

Sasse believes the party must take a broader view about where it ultimately wants to go.

"I think it's important to give a frank assessment of where the party of Lincoln and Reagan is right now," he added. "I think there's a whole bunch of stuff the party of Lincoln and Reagan needs to do to persuade people we have a 2030 agenda, not a 20-minute Twitter agenda."

On Trump's 57-43 acquittal over the weekend, the most bipartisan Senate impeachment vote in history, Inskeep asked the senator if the Constitution had been upheld.

Sasse side-stepped that direct question and said he wished more of his Republican colleagues would have voted to convict Trump. He then focused on what he believes the larger role impeachment trials serve.

"In my view, impeachment trials are not chiefly about one man. They are that, but they're primarily a public declaration of what the oath of office means and what kind of behavior we want of presidents in the future," he said.

Sasse leaves the chamber as the Senate voted to consider hearing from witnesses in the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump. J. Scott Applewhite/AP hide caption

Sasse leaves the chamber as the Senate voted to consider hearing from witnesses in the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump.

"Obviously there are a lot of people frustrated with me"

Prior to the impeachment vote, Sasse had already rubbed party leaders the wrong way in Nebraska. He released a video on Feb. 4 that took direct aim at the Nebraska GOP State Central Committee after reports surfaced that state party officials were considering censuring him, a formal and public measure of disapproval.

"Let's be clear, the anger in the state party has never been about me violating principle or abandoning conservative policy," Sasse, who was reelected to another six-year Senate term in the fall, said in the video. "The anger has always been simply about me not bending the knee to one guy."

Inskeep asked what else he's been hearing from constituents and GOP leaders in Nebraska.

"Obviously there are a lot of people frustrated with me in Nebraska, but I think a lot of them also have the six-and-a-half-year history with me where they know that though I'm a very conservative guy, I'm pretty independent-minded," Sasse said.

"I don't think they're very surprised, but obviously there is a move at county and state levels across the country to have the Republican party focus, even more, on the personality of Donald Trump. And I don't think that's healthy."

Domestic extremism and Trump voters

Sasse, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, was also asked about domestic extremism. And given that many Trump supporters believe the election was stolen, is the U.S. properly prepared for more attacks like what was carried out at the Capitol last month.

The senator was quick to note that he was not lumping "the hundreds of violent mob rioters" that attacked the federal seat of government with the 74 million Americans who cast ballots for the former president.

While Sasse acknowledged a "huge share" of Trump voters believe "the lie that the election was stolen," that does not mean Trump supporters are would-be insurrectionists.

More broadly, he said, with technological advances like smartphones, it is easier for people who follow fringe movements and were previously geographically isolated to "find communities with a lot more confirmation bias."

"I do think that domestic radicalization is an issue we have to look at," Sasse said.

"And I don't think it's primarily about an ideological spectrum. I think it's primarily about the decline of place and about the evaporation of thick communities of people you actually break bread with," he said. "So, I think there's a lot more work we need to do."

Sasse added that he believes there also needs to be better intelligence to filter out people who use heated rhetoric on social media, but are not inclined to act on those comments, from those who would carry out violence.

NPR's Catherine Whelan contributed to this report.

Original post:
Sen. Ben Sasse On The GOP's Future Beyond Donald Trump - NPR