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While the House of Representatives was in the process of voting to direct Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and relieve the nation of the burden of Donald Trump, Pence was rejecting the effort in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “I do not believe that such a course of action is in the best interest of our Nation or consistent with our Constitution,” he wrote, and went on to literally equate illegally overturning the election with invoking the 25th Amendment. “Last week,” he wrote, “I did not yield to pressure to exert power beyond my constitutional authority to determine the outcome of the election, and I will not now yield to the effort in the House of Representatives to play political games at a time so serious in the life of our Nation.”

He went on to actually reiterate Trump’s latest threats: “I urge you can every member of Congress to avoid actions that would further divide and inflame the passions of the moment.” He said that. “Work with us to lower the temperature and unite our country,” he writes. After Trump sicced his mob ON PENCE. After Trump tried to get HIM killed. Pence’s slavish devotion to the guy who put a hit out on him did not deter the House from passing the resolution, 223-205.

In addition to that, the House passed, in the rule for the resolution, a requirement that every member of the House wear a mask on the House floor. They will be fined $500 the first time they expose their colleagues on the House floor by not wearing a mask, and $2,500 the second time, with the money being withheld from their pay. They will not be able to pay the fines from either expense accounts or campaign funds. So far, three Democrats have tested positive for COVID-19 after sheltering with maskless Republicans during the January 6 siege.

The House unveiled another initiative Tuesday night, attempting to enforce the rule that weapons not be allowed on the House floor by installing metal detectors at the entrances to the chamber. “Effective immediately, all persons, including members, are required to undergo security screening when entering the House chamber,” the members were advised in a memo from the House Sergeant-at-Arms office. House reporters (see thread) watched many Republicans blow past the metal detectors, plowing over and around the Capitol Hill police, the police who put their lives on the line last Wednesday to save their sorry asses. This is the group that keeps demanding “unity” and that Trump not be impeached.

Speaking of impeachment, the process for that starts Wednesday at 9:00 AM ET, and should move quickly, relative to how House votes usually go. Once Pence’s letter was in hand, Pelosi announced the impeachment managers:

Congressman Jamie Raskin, Lead Manager: Congressman Jamie Raskin is a member of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, where he serves as Chair of Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and on the Judiciary Committee, where he serves as Vice Chair of the Subcommittee on the Constitution.  He also serves on the Rules Committee and the Committee on House Administration, where he is Vice Chair.  Prior to his time in Congress, Raskin was a three-term State Senator in Maryland and a professor of constitutional law at American University’s Washington College of Law for more than 25 years.

Congresswoman Diana DeGette: Congresswoman DeGette serves on the Energy and Commerce Committee as Chair of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.  She is serving her thirteenth term in office.  Before serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, DeGette was an attorney focusing on civil rights before being elected to serve two terms in the Colorado House, including one term as Assistant Minority Leader.

Congressman David Cicilline: Congressman Cicilline is a member of the Judiciary Committee, where he serves as Chair of the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law.  He also serves on the Foreign Affairs Committee.  He is serving his sixth term in Congress.  Early in his career, Cicilline served as a public defender in the District of Columbia.  Cicilline served two terms as Mayor of Providence and four terms in the Rhode Island House of Representatives.

Congressman Joaquin Castro: Congressman Castro serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and on the Foreign Affairs Committee, where he is also Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.  He is serving his fifth term in Congress.  Prior to his election to Congress, he served five terms in the Texas Legislature and served as a litigator in private practice.

Congressman Eric Swalwell: Congressman Swalwell serves on House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where he chairs the Intelligence Modernization and Readiness Subcommittee, and on the Judiciary Committee.  He is a former prosecutor and is the son and brother of law enforcement officers.  He is serving his fifth term in Congress.

Congressman Ted Lieu: Congressman Lieu serves on the Judiciary Committee and the Committee on Foreign Affairs.  He is a former active-duty officer in the U.S. Air Force who served as a prosecutor in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, and currently serves as a Colonel in the Reserves.  He is serving his fourth term in Congress.

Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett: Congresswoman Plaskett serves on the House Ways and Means Committee.  Before she was elected to Congress, she served as an Assistant District Attorney in the Bronx District Attorney’s Office and as Senior Counsel at the Department of Justice.  She is serving her fourth term in Congress.

Congressman Joe Neguse: Congressman Neguse is a member of the Judiciary Committee, where he serves as Vice Chair of the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law.  Congressman Neguse also serves on the Natural Resources Committee and the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.  Early in his career, Neguse was a litigator in private practice.  He is serving his second term in Congress.

Congresswoman Madeleine Dean: Congresswoman Dean is a member of the Judiciary Committee, where she serves on the Subcommittee on Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.  She is serving her second term in Congress, before which she served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for four terms and was a lawyer in private practice.

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Newly elected Democratic Representative Cori Bush of Missouri came into office with the energy demanded of her by her constituents. She has been very clear that she does not care for conservative feelings of persecution, telling the public that her job is “trying to save lives.” From the moment she stepped onto the pavement of Washington, D.C. she has had to face the tone deaf, casual racism of the most privileged class of white American—Republican Congressional officials. Rep. Bush has no time for that and has not been elected to let people’s bad behavior slide just because they’re playing politics with people’s lives.

On Tuesday, Republicans who want to continue with either the charade of a coup d’etat, or just have a continuing intention to overthrow our government, showed how much respect they have for blue lives by arguing and dismissing attempts by Capitol police to have all members of Congress pass through metal detectors on the way into the House chamber. Considering that (mostly) GOP representatives have openly boasted of carrying and conceal carrying firearms inside of the Capitol building—something that is still only legal outside of the chamber—and considering that many of those very same Republican representatives have called for the overthrow of our elections—their refusal to walk through the metal detector is dangerous and shameful. Rep. Bush was on Chris Hayes’ news show on Tuesday night, and when Hayes asked her about the whining and refusal by GOP officials to pass through the security checks at the Capitol building, she pulled less than zero punches.

Rep. Bush said that when she was entering the chamber there was no issue in the line she was in to enter the chamber and she missed the hoopla. But she heard about members that did make a big todo about the new safety measures, and she had this to say:

First of all, we’re talking about your job. Let’s just look at it from the most basic level. If you work at McDonald’s, you have to wear the uniform or you’re not working today! Wherever you are, when you’re told this is what you have to do, this is what you have to do or you’re not working. I don’t know, have they ever had a job before?

Also, how do you get on a plane? You have to go and say this is against your rights? Do you rush through and not go through the metal detectors before you get on the plane? This is them trying to push the limits as far as they can. We have Congress members who have said they want to carry their guns on the House floor. We have Congress members who bring their guns to our office buildings. This is where we should feel safe, but you’re bringing your guns to the office building. I don’t feel safe around that. Many people don’t feel safe with that, and you know what, if you won’t abide—if they won’t abide by the simple things this job calls for—then go find another one.

That’s all there is to say about that.

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The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is investigating a report that a manatee was discovered this weekend with “TRUMP” scratched on its back. The animal was filmed in the Homosassa River in Florida. The Citrus County Chronicle was the first to report the story, speaking with senior federal wildlife officer Craig Cavanna, who said he could not comment on an ongoing investigation. He did say that the manatee is protected by the Endangered Species Act, which would make harassment of the animal a “federal criminal offense punishable by a $50,000 fine and/or up to one-year in federal prison.”

The manatee was discovered on Sunday and recorded, photographed, and reported to authorities by Hailey Warrington. Warrington is a boat captain for a fishing charter company. Warrington told local news that she was “sickened, her stomach turned” when she found the animal. West Indian manatees are seasonal visitors to the coast. Warrington says she believes that there were no superficial wounds to the animal, a silver lining in a truly deplorable act.

The New York Times reports that the Center for Biological Diversity is offering $5,000 for information that would lead to a conviction “for the cruel and illegal mutilation” of the manatee. Fish and Wildlife says that there are around 6,300 manatees in and around Florida. More importantly, the slow-moving creatures are very prone to scarring, as run-ins with boats and other scarring occurrences have long been used by marine biologists and others to identify different manatees when researching and counting them.

By the time they are adults, many, maybe most, manatees have at least one permanent identifying mark, primarily a scar or mutilation from being hit by a boat. In clear waters like Crystal River, the evidence of repeated strikes [boats] is especially apparent.

However, while there have long been environmentalists working on creating safer speed laws for boats in the areas animals like manatees use, there is no work-around for some worthless vandal who decides to attack them to promote a failed dictator.

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CNN anchor Don Lemon obviously didn’t have time for the usual Fox News claims of President Donald Trump’s superiority on Monday, less than a week after Trump instigated an attempted coup at the Capitol because he lost an election. Lemon called Trump the “biggest snowflake” and the “biggest loser” after the president’s campaign spokesman Hogan Gidley gave a ridiculous answer to a question about whether Trump felt “emasculated” after Twitter banned him. “Look, I wouldn’t say emasculated. I mean, the most masculine person I think to ever hold the White House is the president of the United States,” Hogan said.

Lemon paused, then annihilated Trump and his enablers.

“I‘ve heard a lot of pathetic things from this White House, this one really takes the cake,” Lemon said. “A big tough guy who incited a riot and then hid in the White House for five days, and still refuses to take responsibility.” Lemon told Hogan to “shut up” in a word of simple yet brilliant advice. “He is the biggest snowflake of them all, the biggest one,” Lemon said then mocked Hogan. “’I don’t want to hear about your feelings. Give me facts and not feelings.’ Why are you coddling his feelings all the time? Why are you coddling all of these people’s feelings?”

Lemon cited as an example of Republicans coddling their supporters’ feelings one of the rioters who wore costume horns complaining through his mother that he’s not eating in lockup because staff members won’t serve him an all organic meal. Jacob Anthony Chansley, of Arizona, was arrested Saturday on federal charges of “knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority” and violent entry, and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.

“It is alleged that Chansley was identified as the man seen in media coverage who entered the Capitol building dressed in horns, a bearskin headdress, red, white and blue face paint, shirtless, and tan pants,” the Department of Justice said in a news release. “This individual carried a spear, approximately 6 feet in length, with an American flag tied just below the blade.”

“Snowflakes,” Lemon called him and others. “Cowards. The president’s legacy will be not the most masculine president but the biggest loser we have ever had as president. Maybe that should’ve been the name of his show instead of The Apprentice, The Biggest Loser. Look where he has led the Republican party. Look where he has led this country. Look where we are right now. This country is in flames.”

Trump told his supporters just moments before they violently stormed the Capitol to “fight much harder,” to “walk down to the Capitol” and “show strength.” He hung his own vice president, Mike Pence, out to dry, claiming, “when you catch somebody in a fraud, you are allowed to go by very different rules.” It’s no wonder the angry mob that attacked the Capitol reportedly yelled: “Hang Mike Pence.” It got its marching orders from Trump.

“We will never give up,” the president told supporters. “We will never concede. It doesn’t happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved. Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore, and that is what this is all about. And to use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with, we will stop the steal.”

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Despite more than four years of racism, violence, and other threats perpetrated by Donald Trump, tech and social companies took no action to impose restrictions on Trump and his followers. But after the Jan. 6 riots and insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, multiple companies including Google, Amazon, Apple, Airbnb, GoFundMe, and social media platforms all imposed restrictions on Trump and his allies. The restrictions follow the spread of false information and efforts to spread more violence in the days leading to the 2021 presidential inauguration. 

According to the Associated Press, Washington, D.C. city officials requested companies including Airbnb take down their listings until the inauguration was over. “There’s no way to guarantee that your guests are not coming to incite violence,” Janeese Lewis George, a Washington city council member, said on Twitter. “Please protect your neighbors and the District from more attacks.” While Airbnb has actively removed guests who have been known members of hate groups since 2017, the company announced on Monday that it is reviewing reservations in the Washington, D.C. area and will ban any guests associated with hate groups or violent activity. 

Additionally, Airbnb warned guests that legal action may be taken against them if they are members of hate groups or plan violent activities during their stay. The company banned anyone confirmed to have engaged in the failed coup at the Capitol and is using cross-referencing arrest records to determine who should be removed, the AP reported. The number of those banned to date has not been released.

In a similar announcement, GoFundMe said it will no longer allow individuals to fundraise for travel expenses to potentially violent political events. “Due to the violence, GoFundMe has removed numerous fundraisers intended to raise money for travel expenses,” a spokesperson for the company told CNN. The spokesperson added that fundraisers “that attempt to spread misinformation about the election, promote conspiracy theories and contribute to or participate in attacks on US democracy” will also be continuously removed.  

GoFundMe isn’t the only company that has restricted fundraising or donations towards violent pro-Trump individuals. Stripe, a payment company, also announced that it would no longer process Trump campaign donations.

Amazon followed suit and announced Monday it will also pause donations from its Political Action Committee (PAC) to lawmakers who voted against the certification of the presidential election results. “We intend to discuss our concerns directly with those Members we have previously supported and will evaluate their responses as we consider future PAC contributions,” an Amazon spokeswoman said in a statement, according to CNBC News. According to records from the Federal Election Commission and the Center for Responsive Politics’ OpenSecrets website, Amazon’s PAC contributed to Ted Cruz’s senate campaign in 2017 and 2018, in addition to supporting other legislators who voted against the certification of the presidential election result. Facebook and Google also have paused PAC contributions while policies are reviewed.  

In addition to pausing PAC contributions, Facebook joined Twitter in barring Trump from its platform and announced that it would begin removing all content that includes the phrase “stop the steal,” NBC News affiliate WTVA reported. The announcement follows Twitter’s ban on at least 700,000 accounts since Friday for promoting QAnon theories.

While it is great that Twitter finally took the action to ban Trump, one cannot help but ask why it took so long. Trump has repeatedly posted violent and false information on the platform and has for years been known to incite violence. The company justified its ban by stating that Trump’s tweet claiming he would not attend Joe Biden’s inauguration could be interpreted as encouragement of violence; however, other tweets have said worse and been more evident of his support of violence.

As The New York Times noted after the invasion of the Capitol last week, companies are now acting “as if ‘don’t incite an insurrectionist mob’ had been in the community guidelines all along.” The timing of when companies decided to act on the request politicians and activists have been making for years is interesting.

 “It has not escaped my attention that the day social media companies decided there actually IS more they could do to police Trump’s destructive behavior was the same day they learned Democrats would chair all the congressional committees that oversee them,” Jennifer Palmieri, a political adviser and former White House communications director for the Obama administration, said on Twitter.

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Democrats currently hold a 5-2 majority on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, but they could strengthen their grip further in November because Republican Justice Thomas Saylor will hit the mandatory retirement age of 75 this year, creating an open seat.

At least two Democrats and one Republican who currently sit on the Superior Court, the more prominent of the state’s two intermediate appellate courts, are already running for Saylor’s seat, while the AP reports that one GOP judge on Pennsylvania’s other appellate court, the Commonwealth Court, is considering. Primaries are scheduled for May 18, though state parties will convene before then to consider endorsements, which could clear the field on either side.

Democrats won a trio of races to flip the court in 2015, which opened the way for a string of decisions protecting voting rights, including a major ruling in 2018 that struck down the state’s GOP-drawn congressional map as an illegal partisan gerrymander. Those rulings have, however, ignited unending fury from Republicans, who have abandoned the compact at the heart of every democracy and ceased to regard the court as legitimate.

To strike back, they’ve proposed an amendment to the state constitution that would effectively gerrymander the Supreme Court as well as the Superior and Commonwealth courts by electing judges via districts—that they would draw—rather than statewide. There’s a good chance Republicans will place the measure on the ballot this year, though even if voters pass it, it would not impact elections this fall.

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Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is spending its final days under the Trump administration continuing to protect agents who were part of the racist and vile Facebook group exposed by ProPublica a year and a half ago. House Oversight and Reform Chair Carolyn Maloney said this week that the agency has continued to fail to fully comply with a subpoena demanding agency documents.

“The committee remains extremely concerned by the lengths to which the Trump administration is going—even in its final days—to place the interests of employees who made racist and sexually depraved posts ahead of the wellbeing of the children and families they interact with every day,” Maloney wrote to Acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan. Her office warned that because the subpoena is now expired, “a new subpoena would be issued this Congress if CBP continues to refuse to comply.”

ProPublica had reported that CBP had been refusing to provide probe findings to congressional investigators including who was behind the gross posts, or even the names of the few agents who were disciplined for their participation in this group where members mocked the death of a teenaged boy in the agency’s custody in 2019, among many other vile and sickening acts. Of the nearly 140 employees who were ultimately investigated, only a handful were fired. 

An internal document revealed by the House Oversight Committee also showed the agency in fact negotiated a deal to protect agents who had been recommended for termination. “In one case, an employee who was recommended for removal had their penalty reduced to a seven-day suspension,” Maloney said at the time.

“CBP concealed the identities of employees who were disciplined, the specific abuses they committed, their roles and responsibilities, and other critical information,” she slammed in her letter to Morgan this week. “As a result, the committee is unable to determine who was fired, who was suspended, who had their punishments reduced or eliminated entirely and why, and whether any of these employees continue to work with immigrant children or families.”

“There is no legitimate basis for CBP’s position that Congress may not know the identity of federal employees—paid with taxpayer funds—who engage in abuses for which they are fired, suspended, or otherwise disciplined,” she continued. She’s absolutely correct, and the fact is that federal immigration agencies like CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have felt unaccountable to no one in the Trump era.

That must change when the new administration takes office next week. In his immigration plan released during this campaign, President-elect Joe Biden said that he’ll “increase resources for training and demand transparency in and independent oversight over ICE and CBP’s activities. Under a Biden administration, there will be responsible, Senate-confirmed professionals leading these agencies, and they will answer directly to the president.”

But as aggressive as CBP has been, the Biden administration must be as aggressive—and then double that—in demanding accountability. Trump is continuing to rile up the agency by visiting the border as his administration is set to end in just a few days—and as his supporters, egged on by him, ransacked the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

“This final calling card from Trump should be a wake up call for President-elect Biden to end CBP’s role in detention and in processing of people seeking asylum, limit CBP’s use of force, and create new mechanisms to ensure that CBP’s abuses are promptly investigated,” American Civil Liberties Union Director of Border Strategies Jonathan Blazer said in a statement received by Daily Kos. “We need a reckoning on the role and power of CBP, now.”

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Georgia Republicans celebrated the start of the legislative session on Monday with several attempts to chip away at the state’s absentee voting process, and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s response was disappointing as ever. While Kemp said he was “reserving judgment” on specific proposals to make absentee ballots less accessible, he was all too willing to back an added photo ID requirement to vote by mail, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. “It’s a simple way to make sure that type of voting is further secured, and it’s a good first place to start,” Kemp said: “It’s completely reasonable in this day and time, and in light of what’s going on, it would give all voters peace of mind and wouldn’t be restrictive.”

Translation: Rather than believe Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s repeated assurances that there was no widespread voter fraud in the state, Kemp’s priority is appeasing terrorists who would sooner overthrow their own government than accept the fact that President Donald Trump legitimately lost an election.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. There is no evidence or reason to believe our signature match system is insecure,” state Rep. Josh McLaurin told the AJC. He plans to introduce legislation to allow those convicted of felonies to vote before they’ve completed their sentences. “Being convicted of a crime doesn’t make you less of a citizen,” he said in a tweet Monday. “Let’s end felony disenfranchisement.”

Meanwhile, Republicans have put forth legislation to end “no excuse” absentee voting, ban mailers with unrequested absentee ballot applications, and banish drop boxes, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “When you don’t have a secure chain of custody, particularly with drop boxes, there’s no reason for that to be in the process,” GOP Georgia Sen. Burt Jones told the newspaper. “You’ve got three weeks of early voting and Saturday voting. You’ve given ample time and opportunities for people to get the effort to go in to vote.”

He and state Sen. Brandon Beach lost their Senate appointments to lead committees as chairmen after they “aggressively pushed to overturn Georgia’s election results,” AJC reporter Greg Bluestein tweeted Tuesday. “[Others who also aggressively promoted Trump’s falsehoods have kept theirs,]” he added.

Jones, Beach, and three other Republican Georgia senators signed a letter to Vice President Mike Pence pressuring him to push back congressional certification of electoral votes “to allow for further investigation of fraud, irregularities, and misconduct” in the state’s election, the AJC reported.

In the witch hunt of sore losers calculating their own political futures, the senators wrote: “We have identified a team of experts who are able to examine the ballots and the voting and counting equipment to determine whether or not the integrity of the vote was violated.”

Beach, Jones, Matt Brass, Greg Dolezal, and William Ligon signed the letter. Jones told the AJC he still has the original copy, which was never delivered to Pence because “we saw the writing on the wall.” Yet the push to suppress the vote in Georgia based on Trump’s unfounded claims of voter fraud lives on.

RELATED: Georgia GOP looks to deliver powerful blow to absentee voting days after Loeffler and Perdue concede

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A Black woman was attacked, pepper-sprayed, and beaten when a crowd of President Donald Trump’s supporters closed in on her in downtown Los Angeles. They ripped a wig she was wearing off her head and used a tool shaped like a metal flagpole to hit her shoulder, Berlinda Nibo told the Los Angeles Times. The attack happened the same day terrorists attempted a coup at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. “It seemed like these people were trying to kill me,” Nibo, 25, told the Los Angeles Times. “To use me to make some kind of statement or something.”

She told the newspaper she came across a “Stop the Steal” rally while she and a friend were on their way to breakfast. She noticed a crowd of what police estimated to be 200 protesters and stopped out of curiosity. She wondered why there would be a Trump rally when the election had ended, but realizing there were no other Black people there, she soon decided to leave instead, the Los Angeles Times reported. Nibo only changed her mind when she noticed her friend’s phone was lost. The two separated to find it, and it didn’t take long before the crowd began targeting Nibo. “Do you know who Joe Biden is?” one person reportedly asked her. She pretended not to. “Did you vote for Donald Trump?” another demonstrator reportedly asked. Nibo answered that question.

“I literally said, ‘Let’s move on,’ and then I moved on and moved away,” she told the Los Angeles Times. That’s when the racial slurs started. “I’m just thinking, like, wow, I am literally being targeted right now because I am the only Black girl here walking around, and to them I am easy prey because I’m a girl,” Nibo said.

Photojournalist Raquel Natalicchio started following Nibo when she noticed the woman was alone. “A mob of at least 20 Trump supporters circled her, beat her and maced her,” Natalicchio said in a tweet Wednesday. “It took two bystanders to pull her out. No arrests were made.”

The Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement released on social media that they had interviewed her and a “hate crime/battery report” was taken. “The individual seen in the images with his arms wrapped around her—per the victim’s statement—was determined to be a Good Samaritan that helped her get away from the hostile crowd, by carrying her to safety,” police said in the statement. “The LAPD is continuing to conduct a thorough investigation, and we encourage any witnesses or those with information on the suspect(s) to contact Central Area Detectives.”
 

It still remains to be seen just how much of a Good Samaritan Roy Ball is, but Nibo said he whispered in her ear after the attack: “It’s OK, it’s OK, it’s OK. Calm down. I’m not going to hurt you.” Her friend eventually caught up with her and helped her escape the crowd. Ball was fired from his job with Toyota USA for unknown reasons. “The actions in these photos are inconsistent with Toyota’s guiding principle of Respect for People. We do not condone this conduct,” the business tweeted the day after the protest.

Nibo told Buzzfeed News someone pepper-sprayed her as the man identified as Ball held her. And although Los Angeles police described how the man handled Nibo as a “bear hug from behind,” Nibo said he held her so tightly he left “red marks” on her body. “It was not fun. It was no bear hug. It was traumatizing,” she told Buzzfeed. Photojournalist Kate McTiernan told the Los Angeles Times police at the protest wouldn’t even look at video Nibo had taken on her phone. “It felt like they were avoiding trying to do anything,” McTiernan said.

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President-elect Joe Biden announced Monday that he has chosen a former career diplomat, William Burns, to head the Central Intelligence Agency. It’s a very smart move. First and foremost, elevating someone from outside of the CIA to lead it means that the new director won’t have been inculcated for decades with culture of the agency, a culture that’s been toxic for decades. In particular, this nominee has no taint of torture or torture apologism anywhere near him, which every other CIA director since the Bush/Cheney years has. He can clean house as necessary.

The Burns nomination is getting support from the diplomatic and intelligence communities. “Bill Burns gained deep familiarity with high-level intelligence during the top posts of his exemplary diplomatic career and, perhaps more importantly, his extensive management experience in the foreign policy realm provides him a strong foundation for this new role,” said David Priess, a former CIA officer and presidential briefer told the Washington Post. “This is a great pick,” Marc Polymeropoulos, a former senior CIA operations officer who worked in the Middle East and against Russia told NBC News. “He’s a titan of the foreign policy world, very well respected overseas, knows the intelligence community. Field officers really liked him.”

His other Foreign Service posts include: “executive secretary of the State Department and special assistant to former secretaries of state Warren Christopher and Madeleine Albright; minister-counselor for political affairs at the U.S. embassy in Moscow; acting director and principal deputy director of the State Department’s policy planning staff; and special assistant to the president and senior director for Near East and South Asian affairs at the National Security Council.” He has the institutional knowledge of decades of foreign policy, a key factor in restoring stability in the CIA.

When he retired from the Foreign Service in 2014, he didn’t cash in by exploiting his overseas connections with some multinational corporation, he joined the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, an international affairs think tank based in Washington, where he currently serves as president. From that vantage point, he blasted Trump in an interview with NPR in 2019. “In my experience, what animates American foreign policy at our best has been a sense of enlightened self-interest—in other words, the view that our self-interest as a country, which we always are going to put first, is best served by making common cause. I think what President Trump has done is turned that on its head, so enlightened self-interest is a lot more about the ‘self’ part than the ‘enlightened’ part.”

Another former CIA operations officer, John Sipher, told NBC that Burns is “respected by Biden and his team. He is a longtime practitioner and consumer (of intelligence). Knows all of our allies. Perfect choice.”