President Trump on Tuesday fired the Department of Homeland Security official who had rejected Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud.

Trump announced on Twitter he was firing Chris Krebs, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and directly tied it to Krebs’ statement that said there “is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”

“The recent statement by Chris Krebs on the security of the 2020 Election was highly inaccurate, in that there were massive improprieties and fraud,” Trump said in a tweet before repeating multiple baseless conspiracy theories about the election. “Therefore, effective immediately, Chris Krebs has been terminated as Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.”

Source:CNN

Donald Trump left Washington DC almost a week ago, but he continues to cast a long shadow over the Republican Party in Congress.

In the first on-the-record test of support for conviction on impeachment charges that Trump incited his supporters to mount an insurrection at the US Capitol, 45 out of 50 Senate Republicans voted to consider stopping the trial before it even starts.

After the vote Rand Paul, who pushed for the dismissal, crowed that the impeachment article delivered by the House on Monday was “dead on arrival”.

He’s probably right.

It would take 17 Republican senators breaking ranks and voting alongside the 50 Democrats to convict the president and, with a subsequent up-or-down vote, prevent him from ever running for federal office again.

Tuesday’s vote shows there are definitely only five who even want to consider the evidence – Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Ben Sasse and Pat Toomey.

The rest contend that presidents can’t face impeachment trials once they’ve left office.

“My vote today to dismiss the article of impeachment is based on the fact that impeachment was designed to remove an officeholder from public office,” Senator Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia said in a statement released after the vote. “The Constitution does not give Congress the power to impeach a private citizen.”

Democrats will surely find that a very convenient way of not having to pass judgement on the president’s behaviour.

They’ll also point out that while there is no historical precedent for such proceedings on the presidential level, a cabinet secretary in the 19th Century faced a Senate impeachment trial on corruption charges even after he resigned from office.

Regardless of the explanations and justifications, the procedural vote is just the latest, clearest sign of fading Republican support for finding Trump responsible for the Capitol riot three weeks ago.

Shortly after the incident, Lindsey Graham – one of the president’s closest allies in the Senate – said the president’s actions “were the problem” and that his legacy was “tarnished”.

Then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell reportedly was “pleased” with the House’s impeachment efforts and said just last week that the mob that attacked the capital was “fed lies” and “provoked” by president.

Both Graham and McConnell voted on Tuesday to move towards ending the impeachment trial.

The Republican Party’s evolving views on the president’s culpability are probably best captured by the shifting comments of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

During the impeachment debate in the House of Representatives two weeks ago, McCarthy said Trump “bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack by mob rioters” and recommended that he be formally censured by the chamber.

Last week, he said he didn’t believe Trump “provoked” the rally and then, a few days later, that “everybody across this country has some responsibility” for creating the political environment that led to the insurrection.

Meanwhile, those who spoke out against the former president and haven’t walked back their comments are facing growing calls for political retribution from within their own party.

Liz Cheney, who forcefully criticised the president and was one of 10 Republicans to vote for impeachment in the House, is facing an attempt to remove her from her party leadership post.

Others are being threatened with primary challenges if they run for re-election next year.

Following Tuesday’s vote, the Senate will go into a holding pattern on the matter for two weeks, while the House impeachment managers and Trump’s legal team prepare their cases.

Given the apparent disposition of the Republican senators, the Democrats’ only strategy may be to make an acquittal vote, even if it is a fait accompli, as uncomfortable as possible.

They’ll do their best to remind the 100 senators of the fear, confusion and anger they felt on 6 January, as they fled the chamber in the face of an angry mob.

They’ll try to lay responsibility for the riot at the feet of a president who spent two months questioning the outcome of the election and chose to hold a protest rally within walking distance of the Capitol on the day Congress gathered to certify that election.

And then they’ll have to hope that history – and American voters – are willing to assign guilt, even if the Senate isn’t.

Source: BBC

A Pennsylvania judge ruled in favor of the Trump campaign Thursday, ordering that the state may not count ballots where the voters needed to provide proof of identification and failed to do so by Nov. 9.

State law said that voters have until six days after the election — this year that was Nov. 9 — to cure problems regarding a lack of proof of identification. After the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that mail-in ballots could be accepted three days after Election Day, Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar submitted guidance that said proof of identification could be provided up until Nov. 12, which is six days from the ballot acceptance deadline. That guidance was issued two days before Election Day.

“[T]he Court concludes that Respondent Kathy Boockvar, in her official capacity as Secretary of the Commonwealth, lacked statutory authority to issue the November 1, 2020, guidance to Respondents County Boards of Elections insofar as that guidance purported to change the deadline … for certain electors to verify proof of identification,” Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt said in a court order.

Source: Fox News

A Michigan judge’s decision to send a 15-year-old girl to juvenile detention for violating her probation by not completing her online schoolwork during the coronavirus lockdown has prompted protests and calls for her release.

The African-American teenager has reportedly been detained since mid-May.

Hundreds of students gathered outside her school and the court to show their support for the girl known as “Grace”.

The state’s supreme court said on Thursday it would review her case.

ProPublica highlighted Grace’s case in a report earlier this week . Following interviews with Grace’s mother, the news site described how the teenager had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and had already been struggling with behavioural issues.

She had been placed on probation in mid-April via a zoom juvenile court hearing after facing an assault and theft charge last year; one of the terms of the probation was a requirement to do her schoolwork.

ProPublica report that the start of Grace’s probation coincided with the first days of remote schoolwork, and she quickly became overwhelmed without the in-person support of her teachers.

At a mid-May hearing at the Oakland County Family Court Division to decide whether Grace had violated her probation, Judge Mary Ellen Brennan found the girl “guilty on failure to submit to any schoolwork and getting up for school” and called Grace a “threat to the community” because of the previous charges against her, ProPublica reports. Judge Brennan has so far not commented publicly on the ruling.

Fellow students and her teachers at Groves High School, in the Detroit suburb of Beverly Hills, came out in her support at a rally on Thursday, and several thousand people have signed online petitions calling for her release.

A lot of people were behind on their work this semester, no one had motivation to do anything because the teachers weren’t teaching and we were all online. I know so many people that didn’t do their homework,” 18-year-old student Prudence Canter told Reuters news agency.

Social studies teacher Geoff Wickersham told Reuters: “It didn’t seem like the judge or the caseworker knew how grades and due dates and things were structured during the pandemic shutdown in the spring. I think this is a huge injustice.”

“Black Lives Matter” signs were held up alongside “Free Grace” signs.

“I know if Grace was a 15-year-old white girl she would not be sitting in juvenile detention right now,” a mother, Sheri Crawley, told local TV news station WDIV.

Michigan’s Supreme Court said on Thursday it would review Grace’s case after lawyers for the teenager filed a motion seeking an emergency review.

“The State Court Administrative Office is working with the Oakland Circuit Court to examine the processes in this case,” John Nevin, the court’s communications’ director, said in a statement.

Source: BBC News