Now what?

Donald Trump's impeachment trial could begin on Inauguration Day, just as President-elect Joe Biden takes the oath of office, in an ever-more-dramatic end to the disgraced president’s tenure in the White House. The timing remains fluid and depends heavily on when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi decides to transmit the article of impeachment to the Senate. Democrats hope to avoid an extended legislative interruption as they prepare to address Biden's agenda at the critical start of his term. Biden yesterday urged the Senate to conduct the impeachment while simultaneously working on other key issues. —Associated Press

• — "I unequivocally condemn the violence." Less than two hours after he was impeached, Trump appeared in a video addressing the deadly attempted coup at the Capitol last week. He said "no true supporter" of him or his "movement" could "endorse political violence." Keep in mind that Trump's first video address, released on Jan. 6, referred to the insurrectionists as "very special," and he has personally condoned violence at his rallies multiple times. —Business Insider
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• — Not his choice. Not surprisingly, it wasn't Trump's choice to make the video. Reportedly, he was talked into it by his son-in-law, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner. In fact, the president had to be "dissuaded" from heading to the House floor directly yesterday to defend himself against the impeachment charges in person. —The Daily Beast
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• — Isolated and angry. Kicked off of Twitter and impeached for a second time, Trump is reportedly increasingly isolated, sullen, and vengeful. He's especially furious with his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. Trump has even instructed aides not to pay Giuliani's legal fees and has demanded that he personally approve any reimbursements for expenses Giuliani incurred while traveling on his behalf to challenge election results in key states. —The Washington Post
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• — A shoutout to the good ones. The 10 Republicans who voted to impeach the president are House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney, Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, Rep. John Katko, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, Rep. Peter Meijer, Rep. Dan Newhouse, Rep. Tom Rice, Rep. Fred Upton, and Rep. David Valadao. Not everyone is pleased with them however. Several are facing heat from their state Republican parties for how they voted. —The New York Times
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• — The terrorists who came to town. Dozens of people on a FBI terrorist watch list were in Washington, D.C., for pro-Trump events on Jan. 6. The majority of the watch-listed individuals in the capital that day are suspected white supremacists whose past conduct so alarmed investigators that their names had been previously entered into the national Terrorist Screening Database. —The Washington Post
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• — IED threat in D.C. The National Guard is preparing for the possibility that improvised explosive devices will be used by individuals plotting to attack the Capitol in the days surrounding the inauguration. Law enforcement officials believe the planting of IEDs last week at the Republican and Democratic national headquarters was not an isolated incident, and whoever was responsible for planting the bombs has not yet been apprehended. —Politico

Abraham: Calls for unity strike a cynical note

"Those who refused masks in that crowded room clearly don't care to grapple with how their decisions affect others. Just as they don't care to grapple with how undermining our democracy with lies leads to insurrection and lasting damage to their fellow Americans. When your entire philosophy consists of staying in power and owning the libs—even when that turns deadly—you forfeit the right to make appeals to unity and healing." —Yvonne Abraham in The Boston Globe

Yvonne Abraham is a political columnist at The Boston Globe.

MORE: The first step toward unity is honesty —The New York Times

Insurrection shows rise of anti-Semitism

The presence of anti-Semitic symbols and sentiment at the U.S. Capitol insurrection last week have raised alarms among Jewish Americans and experts that track discrimination who see it as part of an ongoing, disturbing trend. The insurrection was just "the latest explicit example of how (it) is part of what animates the narratives of extremists in this country," says Oren Segal, vice president of the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism. Indeed, anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. hit a four-decade high in 2019, according to the ADL's internal tracking. As the threat of further chaos lingers, the ADL and other anti-hate organizations are calling for more forceful rejection of the conspiracy- and falsehood-driven worldviews on display among the mob. —Associated Press

MORE: "No one took us seriously": Black cops warned about racist Capitol police officers for years —ProPublica

Shafer: How should we think about the insurrectionists?

"The point here isn't to sympathize with the rioters, or even seek to 'understand' them, but to see them as they are and to prepare ourselves for future confrontations. How are we to deal with them as a country? I want to believe the intruders who now say they regret their actions of Jan. 6. That's exactly the sort of response you would hope to hear from an otherwise lawful American. But for every such apology we can be certain at least one person—and likely more—have been radicalized, maybe irreversibly, by the events." —Jack Shafer in Politico

Jack Shafer is Politico's senior media writer.

MORE: Stephen D. Smith: Patterns of history —Newsweek

Thompson & Warzel: How Facebook birthed an insurrection

"Facebook's algorithms have coaxed many Americans into sharing more extreme views on the platform—rewarding them with likes and shares for posts on subjects like election fraud conspiracies, COVID-19 denialism, and anti-vaccination rhetoric. ... The influencers amass followers, enhance their reputations, solicit occasional donations, and maybe sell a few T-shirts. The rest of us are left with democracy buckling under the weight of citizens living an alternate reality." —Stuart Thompson and Charlie Warzel in The New York Times

Stuart Thompson is a writer and editor and Charlie Warzel is at writer-at-large at The New York Times.

MORE: Amazon reveals violent content, death threats that led to Parler's suspension —ABC News

Justice at last in Flint?

Former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has been charged with willful neglect of duty after an investigation of ruinous decisions and subsequent inaction by his office that left the city of Flint with lead-contaminated water and a regional outbreak of Legionnaires' disease, leading to 12 deaths. Revealed in an online court record, the charges—misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine—are groundbreaking: no governor or former governor in Michigan's 184-year history has been charged with crimes related to their time in that office. —Associated Press

Sterling: A mockery of faith on display

"It is time for us to be Americans, whatever our party affiliation or views on specific issues. It is also time for those of us who are Christians to speak out against the misuse of Christianity as a legitimating force for evil. Democracy is a treasured value and quite fragile. We need to protect it, and given last week's events, we need to pray for it." —Gregory Sterling on CNN

Gregory Sterling is the dean of Yale Divinity School.

MORE: Bobby Ross Jr. & Hamil R. Harris: Flags, faith, and fury —The Christian Chronicle

It's too soon to do anything, let's just move on. Sound familiar? Some in the GOP have been saying this since terrorists, who happen to be their supporters, stormed the Capitol where people died, and many more would have died, regardless of party, had the terrorists found them.

If the statement above sounds familiar, it's because it is all too familiar. They use it after every mass shooting. Solving problems for them is too hard, and it would take too much time to do anything. So they call for doing nothing and moving on. Which means, as is usual, they'll be calling for tax cuts for the super-rich soon, so they can run up the deficit and blame others for it. —Bill T., Arizona

The views expressed in "What's Your Take?" are submitted by readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff or the Stand Up Republic Foundation.