Happy Wednesday,

We begin with news from Mar-a-Lago, where Donald Trump will now not hold a press conference Thursday (the first anniversary of the Capitol insurrection). He said: “In light of the total bias and dishonesty of the January 6th Unselect Committee of Democrats, two failed Republicans, and the Fake News Media, I am canceling the January 6th Press Conference at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday.” Donald Trump showing restraint? You have to wonder what the real reason is.  

Maybe he senses the wagons circling. Attorney General Merrick Garland is holding a press conference Wednesday to update America on the progress, if that’s the word, of the Justice Department’s investigation into the insurrection. The remarks are slated to begin at 2:30 p.m. The big question here: Will DOJ bring criminal charges against the high-up plotters, including Trump himself?

There is ample basis on which to do so. Washington attorney and former State Department official Jonathan Winer makes a lengthy case in The Washington Spectator, citing two federal civil rights criminal statutes Trump could be charged with violating:

“Both of these civil rights federal criminal statutes have extensive histories; violations of the former statute are punishable with a sentence of up to 10 years in prison and of the latter statute just one year but increased to 10 years when someone has been injured. The sentences can extend to life imprisonment or even capital punishment when someone has been killed in connection with such crimes. To that point, five people died during or as a consequence of the January 6 insurrection, including Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, while more than 140 police suffered concussions, rib fractures, burns, and bodily mutilation.”

What will Garland do? Most people think not much. Neal Katyal, a lawyer who served as acting solicitor general in the DOJ under Obama, said on MSNBC Tuesday that if there were a full-throttle investigation of Trump and his confederates, we’d probably have some sense of that. It’s true that most experts think proving a criminal case against Trump would be hard. But inaction implies that Garland is content to do nothing as our democracy is destroyed.

Keep an eye on Chicago, where a major showdown looms between Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the city’s school district and teachers’ union. School officials have canceled in-person instruction, defying Lightfoot’s demand that the schools remain open. Coronavirus cases in Chicago are at their highest since the pandemic began. Lightfoot, according to The New York Times, countered by calling off school altogether. 

And needless to say, there is Joe Manchin news. Or maybe Joe Manchin non-news. He reiterated Tuesday that he’s not budging for now on Build Back Better, and he’s not in favor of doing much of anything about the filibuster with respect to voting rights. Chuck Schumer insists he’s pressing ahead with votes on both matters. Which are presumably going to fail. Then what? Joe Manchin is exposed to ridicule? In West Virginia, he’ll be a hero. Cal Cunningham, you idiot, why did you lose that Senate race?

At NewRepublic.com today, read the riveting excerpt from Jamie Raskin’s new book, Unthinkable, describing the events of last January 6 (and of course you should read my profile of Raskin if you haven’t). We’ve also posted Daniel Strauss’s feature from the new issue looking at whether the Democrats can beat the man who is probably Senate target number one, Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson. Can suicide be linked to climate change? Eleanor Cummins considers the evidence. And finally, we’ve revamped what we call the front of the book in the print magazine, giving it a new name (State of the Nation) and adding (gasp!) a little humor. Check out Who Said It: Rand Paul or Dr. Leo Spaceman?

Hang in there,

Every day, our journalists are exposing the right’s assaults on our democracy—and pushing the Democrats to go bold to preserve the republic. Here’s a special offer from The New Republic so you won’t miss their scoops and sharp analysis.

Yesterday’s political history question: On this date in 1965, Lyndon Johnson delivered his State of the Union address to Congress, outlining some specifics of the Great Society programs Congress would pass that year. How large were the Democrats’ congressional majorities in that eighty-ninth Congress—that is, how many senators and House members were Democrats?

Answer: The eighty-ninth Congress opened with 68 Democrats in the Senate and 295 in the House. That’s compared to 50 and 221 now. Some of those Democrats were pretty conservative. But by the same token, a number of Republicans were pretty liberal. No wonder all that stuff passed. 

Today’s political history question: Continuing on the LBJ theme, and speaking of attorneys general: Johnson had two of them, and both made for a pretty stark contrast with Merrick Garland in the way they fought for civil rights. Who were they?