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House Impeachment Manager Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) walks on the Senate Side of the U.S. Capitol Building on Thursday, February 11, 2021 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
WATCH LIVE: House Democrats Present Closing Arguments on Day 3 of Trump Impeachment Trial
The House impeachment managers are expected to focus on the former president's complete lack of remorse for his behavior that incited the deadly insurrection.
Feb 10, 2021
House impeachment managers on Thursday kicked off their third and final day of arguments in support of convicting Donald Trump for inciting a deadly insurrection against the U.S. government, with their presentation expected to focus largely on the former president's complete "lack of remorse" for his rhetoric and actions that sparked the mob attack.
Thursday's proceedings will be followed Friday by counter-arguments from Trump's attorneys, which could spill into the weekend.
"Is there any political leader in this room who believes that if he is ever allowed by the Senate to get back into the Oval Office, Donald Trump would stop inciting violence to get his way?" Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the lead impeachment manager, asked at the start of his presentation Thursday.
Watch live:
An Unconstitutional Rampage
Trump and Musk are on an unconstitutional rampage, aiming for virtually every corner of the federal government. These two right-wing billionaires are targeting nurses, scientists, teachers, daycare providers, judges, veterans, air traffic controllers, and nuclear safety inspectors. No one is safe. The food stamps program, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are next. It’s an unprecedented disaster and a five-alarm fire, but there will be a reckoning. The people did not vote for this. The American people do not want this dystopian hellscape that hides behind claims of “efficiency.” Still, in reality, it is all a giveaway to corporate interests and the libertarian dreams of far-right oligarchs like Musk. Common Dreams is playing a vital role by reporting day and night on this orgy of corruption and greed, as well as what everyday people can do to organize and fight back. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
House impeachment managers on Thursday kicked off their third and final day of arguments in support of convicting Donald Trump for inciting a deadly insurrection against the U.S. government, with their presentation expected to focus largely on the former president's complete "lack of remorse" for his rhetoric and actions that sparked the mob attack.
Thursday's proceedings will be followed Friday by counter-arguments from Trump's attorneys, which could spill into the weekend.
"Is there any political leader in this room who believes that if he is ever allowed by the Senate to get back into the Oval Office, Donald Trump would stop inciting violence to get his way?" Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the lead impeachment manager, asked at the start of his presentation Thursday.
Watch live:
House impeachment managers on Thursday kicked off their third and final day of arguments in support of convicting Donald Trump for inciting a deadly insurrection against the U.S. government, with their presentation expected to focus largely on the former president's complete "lack of remorse" for his rhetoric and actions that sparked the mob attack.
Thursday's proceedings will be followed Friday by counter-arguments from Trump's attorneys, which could spill into the weekend.
"Is there any political leader in this room who believes that if he is ever allowed by the Senate to get back into the Oval Office, Donald Trump would stop inciting violence to get his way?" Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the lead impeachment manager, asked at the start of his presentation Thursday.
Watch live:
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LATEST NEWS
GOP Congressman Wants to Impeach Judge Behind 'Alien Enemies' Order Trump Defied
"The U.S. continues its racist slide toward authoritarian practices," Amnesty International USA said of the administration ignoring the court decision.
Mar 16, 2025
As part of elected Republicans and billionaires' assault on the federal judiciary, a GOP congressman on Saturday night pledged to file articles of impeachment against a chief judge who issued an order against U.S. President Donald Trump's invocation of an 18th-century wartime power—a court decision that the administration intentionally ignored.
In a post on X—the social media platform owned by Trump's billionaire adviser Elon Musk—Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) shared the New York Post's coverage of the Saturday court order and said, "I'll be filing articles of impeachment against activist Judge James Boasberg this week."
Gill's post garnered support from multiple other Republicans in the House of Representatives as well as Musk, who has endorsed GOP lawmakers' previous efforts to impeach other federal judges who have ruled against his and Trump's agenda.
Boasberg on Saturday issued a nationwide temporary restraining order in response to legal groups challenging Trump's attempt to use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 for deportations. The judge, who was appointed to the district court in Washington, D.C. by former President Barack Obama, ordered any planes in the air to turn around.
However, "the Trump administration says it ignored a Saturday court order to turn around two planeloads of alleged Venezuelan gang members because the flights were over international waters and therefore the ruling didn't apply," Axios reported Sunday, citing two senior officials.
While leading legal groups argue that Trump's attempted use of the law—previously invoked to send thousands of people to internment camps during World War II—is illegal, a senior White House official told Axios: "This is headed to the Supreme Court. And we're going to win."
Axios' reporting came after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele's signaled early Sunday on X that despite Boasberg's order, hundreds of alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua were sent to El Salvador—which the Trump administration will pay $6 million a year to imprison them, according to The Associated Press.
Also sharing the Post reporting on Boasberg's order, Bukele wrote, "Oopsie… Too late," with an emoji crying from laughing. Separately, the Salvadoran leader posted a video of the prisoners' arrival—which Rubio responded to, saying, "Thank you for your assistance and friendship, President Bukele."
Bukele and Rubio noted that the Trump administration also sent to El Salvador over 20 alleged members of the gang MS-13.
The Trump administration's defiance of the judge's directive sparked fresh warnings about what lies ahead. Amnesty International USA said Sunday on X that "the United States is defying a court order in order to accelerate the complete erosion of human rights for Venezuelans seeking safety."
"This is yet another example of the Trump administration's racist targeting, detaining, and deporting of Venezuelans—many of whom haven't even been ordered deported—based on sweeping claims of gang affiliation," the human rights group added. "The U.S. continues its racist slide toward authoritarian practices."
Even before the defiance this weekend, the pro-democracy group Free Speech for People argued that the administration's recent "oversteps of the judiciary branch" provide new grounds for Congress to launch another impeachment investigation in the twice-impeached president.
Trump went into the weekend doubling down on his attacks on the judicial system with Friday remarks at the U.S. Department of Justice that triggered widespread alarm. ACLU executive director Anthony Romero—whose group is involved in the challenge against the 1798 law—said in a statement about the president's speech that "it's increasingly clear that we're entering a modern McCarthy moment. When the government is targeting a former ambassador, a legal permanent resident, law firms, and even universities and treating them like enemies of the state, it is a dark day for American democracy."
AOC to Join Western Stops of Sanders 'Fighting Oligarchy' Tour
"While Republicans try to gut Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security to pay for tax cuts for billionaires, people across the country are standing up against these attacks on the working class," the congresswoman said.
Mar 16, 2025
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is set to join five stops of Sen. Bernie Sanders' "Fighting Oligarchy" tour this week.
Sanders (I-Vt.), who mobilized working-class voters nationwide during his 2016 and 2020 runs for the Democratic presidential nomination, launched the tour in the Midwest last month. Thousands of people have attended his events in cities across Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
"Today, the oligarchs and the billionaire class are getting richer and richer and have more and more power," Sanders said in a Friday statement. "Meanwhile, 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and most of our people are struggling to pay for healthcare, childcare, and housing. This country belongs to all of us, not just the few. We must fight back."
Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) are set to join the senator on Thursday, March 20 at the East Las Vegas Community Center, for an event scheduled to begin at 1:30 pm local time. From there, Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders plan to head to Arizona State University in Tempe for a 6:00 pm stop.
The pair has two more events on Friday: A 1:00 stop at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley and a 5:00 pm stop at Civic Center Park in Denver. They are slated to wrap up the trip on Saturday with Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar (D-Texas) at an 11:30 am event at Catalina High School in Tucson, Arizona.
"While Republicans try to gut Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security to pay for tax cuts for billionaires, people across the country are standing up against these attacks on the working class," said Ocasio-Cortez. "They deserve representation that is willing to stand with them. I look forward to hitting the road with Sen. Sanders."
Since Sanders announced the new tour stops and guests on Friday, Republicans and a handful of Democrats on Capitol Hill have given them some new developments to discuss on the road. Ahead of a potential government shutdown on Friday, 10 members of the Senate Democratic Caucus—including Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)—helped GOP senators advance a stopgap measure that critics warn will further empower President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk's attacks.
Schumer's "gutless" handling of the situation sparked calls for him to step down as Senate minority leader and for Ocasio-Cortez to launch a primary challenge against him in the 2028 cycle—something the congresswoman has not ruled out.
As the Senate was sending the stopgap bill to the president's desk, Trump was at the U.S. Department of Justice, delivering a speech that sparked widespread alarm. As Lena Zwarensteyn, senior director of the fair courts program and an adviser at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, summarized, he "sought to undermine faith in our judicial system, attacked lawyers who support due process and the rule of law, and made it clear that he expects the attorney general and other leaders to use the full force and resources of the Justice Department to roll back our civil and human rights, target his enemies, and operationalize a worldview that perpetuates white supremacy."
On Saturday, Trump bombed Yemen and revealed that he was invoking the Alien Enemies Act for deportations. The 1798 law was used during World War II to force thousands of people of mostly German, Italian, and Japanese descent into internment camps.
Meanwhile, Sanders wrote in a Saturday email to supporters that from the tour stops so far, "what I have found is that in these districts, and all across the country, Americans are saying loudly and clearly: NO to oligarchy, NO to authoritarianism, NO to kleptocracy, NO to massive cuts in programs that working people desperately need, NO to huge tax breaks for the richest people in our country."
"There must be meetings and rallies in all 50 states, and they should take place over and over again. And when those rallies are over, we need to organize the people who attend to mobilize in their communities and be in touch with their members of Congress. But that is not all," he wrote. "We need progressives to run for office at all levels. I am talking about school boards, city councils, state legislature, and the races that are not in the news but make a tremendous difference in local communities."
"We need to build community and bring people together even when it isn't about politics first. The Republican Party is always trying to divide us up based on race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and more... we need to come together as one," he continued. "We need to elect a U.S. House and a U.S. Senate that will prioritize the needs of the working people in this country."
Sanders concluded that "we need to be looking for new and creative ways to educate each other in a world where nearly the entire media and communications infrastructure is owned and controlled by the wealthiest people in this country. If there was ever a time in American history when we need to come together, this is that time."
As Trump-Musk Target Social Security, Seniors Share Stories of Benefit Cutoffs
"Elon Musk and Donald Trump are stealing seniors' hard-earned benefits. It's already happening, and it'll get worse if they go through with closing branch offices and cutting staff."
Mar 16, 2025
"DOGE is a disaster of incompetence."
That's how one political scientist responded to Saturday reporting about a Washington state man fighting for his Social Security benefits as U.S. President Donald Trump and the head of his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), billionaire Elon Musk, attack the federal bureaucracy, including the agency that administers payements to seniors like Leonard "Ned" Johnson.
Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat shared the story of 82-year-old Johnson. In February, his wife received a notification from their bank that the Social Security Administration (SSA) requested a return for benefits paid out after the supposed death of her husband. She figured it was a scam—as Johnson was alive—but the request was real and $5,201 was pulled from their account.
As Westneat detailed, after making multiple calls to SSA, during which Johnson was "put on hold and then eventually disconnected," and securing an appointment that was ultimately rescheduled for next week, "he went to the office on the ninth floor of the Henry Jackson Federal Building downtown," one of several sites across the United States that DOGE wants to shut down.
According to the columnist:
After waiting for four hours, Johnson admits he jumped the line: "I saw an opening and I kind of rushed up and told them I was listed as dead. That seemed to get their attention."
Once in front of a human, Johnson said he was able to quickly prove he was alive, using his passport and his gift of gab. They pledged to fix his predicament, and on Thursday this past week, the bank called to say it had returned the deducted deposits to his account. As of Friday morning he hadn't received February or March's benefits payments.
"When I was in that line, I was thinking that if I was living solely off Social Security, I could be close to dumpster diving about now," he said.
Author Jeff Nesbit, the public affairs chief for five federal agencies or departments—including SSA—under four presidents, shared the article on the Musk-owned social media site X, saying: "So incredibly sad that Musk/DOGE are now preying on people like this. I hope older Americans understand the assault underway against Social Security right now."
Progressive political consultant Matt Herdman similarly said: "Elon Musk and Donald Trump are stealing seniors' hard-earned benefits. It's already happening, and it'll get worse if they go through with closing branch offices and cutting staff."
I cannot imagine how many seniors, lacking the acuity and means of the man in this story, will be left destitute bc of the whims of some of the richest people on the planet www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...
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— Josh Kovensky ( @joshkovensky.bsky.social) March 16, 2025 at 7:46 AM
Johnson isn't the only senior who has had to fight for his Social Security since Trump returned to office in January and installed various billionaires to key positions in the federal government. James McCaffrey, a 66-year-old retiree in Oklahoma City, told his story to NBC affiliate KFOR earlier this week.
McCaffrey learned that his Social Security benefits were suspended when he received a notice saying that he needed to pay $740 or he was going to lose Medicare, health insurance for seniors. After multiple phone calls and hours on hold, he finally got through. He then quickly received the missing payment, but never got an explanation—and SSA refused to give one to the news station.
However, McCaffrey believes his trouble may stem from the fact that he was born on a U.S. military base in Germany—and Musk's recent Fox Business appearance, during which he claimed that undocumented immigrants are receiving benefits. That came shortly after a podcast interview, during which a billionaire called Social Security a "Ponzi scheme."
McCaffrey is now concerned about other seniors facing similar issues. As KFOR reported:
He worries about people who may not have the time and resources he had to get to the bottom of what happened and get his benefits back.
"I’ve been a diligent Boy Scout type, I prepared," he said. "But, no, I shouldn't have to."
He also worries about people who may not share the same savings or the same financial cushion [that] he had to fall back on. "And you interrupt that for seven days, two weeks or even longer, and they're in bad trouble," he said. "They could be out of the house. They could be out of food. I don't know."
In response McCaffrey's experience, Ashley Schapitl, a public relations professional who previously worked for Senate Democrats and the U.S. Treasury Department, said, "Picture thousands of Social Security beneficiaries having their benefits canceled with no explanation and limited recourse to get them reinstated."
Two stories today about different people wrongly thrown off Social Security, one marked dead, the other seems to be because he was born outside the U.S. on a U.S. military base. First effects of DOGE on SSA. This will get worse. www.wkrn.com/news/nationa... www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...
— Max Kennerly (@maxkennerly.bsky.social) March 15, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Trump and Musk's recent moves and remarks have fueled fears that they are working to privatize Social Security.
U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) laid out a potential GOP "attack plan" for the program on X Friday:
One: Trump and his vassals tell lies that there's no plan to cut Social Security.
Two: Trump and Musk lie loudly about imaginary Social Security "fraud" to lower public confidence in the program.
Three: Musk sends his nasty Musk-rats in to Social Security to damage administration of the fund, leading to "interruption in benefits."
Four: Trump then declares emergency and hands administration of Social Security to private equity and tech bros to fix problem they created.
Five: Republicans declare victory that they "saved Social Security" by handing it to private equity/tech bros, and put Trump's name on checks.
The advocacy group Social Security Works took note of Whitehouse's thread and said: "Everyone needs to read this. Musk and Trump are breaking Social Security so they can turn it over to Wall Street."
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