We know who incited it. Who planned it?

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The first month of 2021 felt like the longest year. But, glimmers of hope are shining as February begins. President Biden has agreed to meet with Republicans today about Covid relief, a sign he's walking the talk of his commitment to working across the aisle. Further, it's encouraging to witness the political fortitude displayed by sitting Republicans Sen. Mitt Romney and Reps. Liz Cheney, Peter Meijer, and Jaime Herrera Beutler, and select few others in the GOP, in the face of significant hostility. Rep. Adam Kinzinger has taken a particularly bold step, launching from within Congress an organization to take on the growing and normalized group of conspiracists in the GOP. While too many of his colleagues have taken a "do nothing" approach that has done us all grave harm, Kinzinger is offering exactly the kind of leadership the Republican Party needs right now. —Mindy Finn

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** 'We get our president or we die'
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FBI agents around the country are working to unravel the various motives, relationships, goals, and actions of the hundreds of insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. A top priority is to determine the extent to which that violence and chaos was preplanned and coordinated. There's a critical distinction between gathering like-minded people for a 1st Amendment-protected political rally and organizing an armed assault on the seat of American government. The agents' task is to distinguish who belongs in each category, and who played key roles in committing or coordinating the violence. —The Washington Post ([link removed])
* — Trump fundraiser turned event coordinator. At least one major organizer of the rally at which the former president spoke on Jan. 6 was Caroline Wren. Wren previously served as a deputy at Trump Victory, a joint presidential fundraising committee during the 2020 campaign. She oversaw logistics, budgeting, funding, and messaging for the rally at the Ellipse that preceded the attack on the Capitol. —ProPublica ([link removed])
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* — "Stand down and stand by." The Justice Department has charged two men identified as members of the far-right Proud Boys with conspiracy and other criminal charges for their role in the insurrection. The Proud Boys are a self-proclaimed "Western chauvinist" movement that featured prominently in the riot and have attracted increased attention during the investigation. —Al Jazeera ([link removed])
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* — "A threat to our security within our security forces." Active military personnel and veterans are over-represented among the first 150 people to be arrested for participating in the insurrection. Records show that 21 of the 150, or 14%, are current or former members of the military—more than double the proportion of servicemen and women and veterans in the adult U.S. population. —CNN ([link removed])

MORE: 77 days: The campaign to subvert the election —The New York Times ([link removed])


** Hatt: Impeachment is a strike against white supremacy
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"[W]e must understand that simply convicting Trump is not the end goal, but it is, instead, a powerful first step toward tackling white supremacy on a systemic level. As we turn the page on the past, and President Biden installs the most diverse administration in U.S. history—led in part by the first female, Black vice president—the drive and desire to crush white supremacy is there. Now we need to act on it." —Ben Hatt on The Hill ([link removed])

Ben Hatt is the speechwriter for the executive team at the Center for American Progress.

MORE: Jennifer Rubin: Republicans should police their own. Then we can talk about unity —The Washington Post ([link removed])


** 'Republicans must say enough is enough'
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Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump last month, has launched a political action committee, Country 1st, to challenge the former president's wing of the GOP caucus. Kinzinger said the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol served as an inflection point, providing a stark divide between those who want to continue a path toward autocracy and those who want to return to traditional conservative values. "It's time to unplug the outrage machine, reject the politics of personality, and cast aside the conspiracy theories and the rage," he says. Indeed. —The Washington Post ([link removed])

MORE: Former Bush officials leave GOP over failure to disown Trump: report —The Hill ([link removed])


** Biden meets with Republicans on Covid relief
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A group of 10 Republican senators is meeting with President Biden today to propose an alternative COVID-19 relief package, as the White House and congressional Democrats prepare to move forward with Biden's $1.9 trillion plan with or without GOP support. Led by Sen. Susan Collins, the group wrote to Biden yesterday requesting a meeting, and the White House quickly extended an invitation to meet with the president for a "full exchange of ideas." The offer floated by the group totals $600 billion—less than a third of the size of the package Biden is seeking. —CBS News ([link removed])
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** NYT Ed Board: If Marjorie Taylor Greene isn't beyond the pale, who is?
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"The silence from Republican leaders has been deafening. That can't continue if the party has any hope of reclaiming conservatism from nihilistic rot—something every American should be rooting for to maintain a healthy two-party system. Rep. Greene is now a member of the House of Representatives, with a prominent platform and real power to have impact on people's lives. She has a responsibility to act—and speak—in the best interests of the American public and of the Constitution she has sworn to serve and defend. Peddling grotesque lies, cheering talk of political violence (which she claims to oppose), and fomenting sedition run counter to her oath of office." —The New York Times ([link removed])

MORE: 'It was a drug': Capitol riot exposes reach of QAnon disinformation —CBS News ([link removed])


** Focus on global democracy
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If you thought QAnon was an exclusively American phenomenon, you'd be wrong. Before Twitter purged 70,000 QAnon-related accounts last month, one of the most influential promoters of the conspiracy theory globally was Japanese Twitter user Eri Okabayashi, who enabled the conspiracy to adopt local features and helped make Japan one of the most active QAnon hubs outside the U.S. Some officials say there are disturbing parallels between QAnon and Aum Shinrikyo, the cult behind the 1995 sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway. —The Diplomat ([link removed])
* — Hong Kong. Thousands of Hong Kongers have moved to Britain since China imposed a strict national security law on the Chinese territory last summer. Some are leaving because they fear punishment for supporting the pro-democracy protests that swept the city in 2019. Others say China's encroachment on their way of life and civil liberties has become unbearable, and most say they don't plan to return. —ABC News ([link removed])
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* — Myanmar. Myanmar's military staged a coup today, detaining senior politicians including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi. According to a military statement, Gen. Min Aung Hlaing is taking charge of the country for one year because the government had not acted on the military's claims of fraud in the Southeast Asian country's November elections, and because it allowed the election to go forward despite the coronavirus pandemic. President Biden has threatened sanctions. —Associated Press ([link removed])
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* — Russia. Chanting slogans against President Vladimir Putin, tens of thousands of Russians took to the streets yesterday across the country to demand the release of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, keeping up nationwide protests that have rattled the Kremlin. More than 5,100 people were detained by police, and some were beaten. —Associated Press ([link removed])

MORE: Jackson Diehl: Democracy is in a shambles. Biden has to build it back —The Washington Post ([link removed])


** Mikva: Christians must reject Christian nationalism
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"[F]aithful Christians are among those mobilizing to stop a Christian takeover of the nation. In July 2019, the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty launched Christians Against Christian Nationalism, identifying it as 'a distortion of the gospel of Jesus and a threat to American democracy.' Given their early persecution in this country, Baptists recognize that religion is a dangerous business...when coupled with state power." —Rachel Mikva in USA Today ([link removed])

Rachel Mikva is the Herman Schaalman professor in Jewish studies and senior faculty fellow of the InterReligious Institute at Chicago Theological Seminary.

MORE: Secretive Ethics panel will judge Hawley and Cruz —Politico ([link removed])
"The heaviest penalty for declining to rule is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself."
—Plato in "The Republic"
He probably doesn't want the job, and he might not get nominated, much less elected, but now that Rob Portman has decided not to seek re-election to the Senate from Ohio, there would be no one better to represent Ohio, and in a broader sense, America, than former Gov. John Kasich.

Kasich has always been both principled and conservative. His experience dwarfs that of not only anyone in Ohio, but also in America: 18 years in the House, where he worked with the Clintons to balance the budget and (very liberal) Congressman Ron Dellums to scrap an unnecessary, overpriced bomber. Kasich also served two terms as governor of a large and multi-ethnic state, where he often formed unlikely but effective alliances to pass vital legislation.

Joe Biden has often spoken of the need to reach across the aisle to find bipartisan solutions to America's problems. If John Kasich were a senator from Ohio, Mitch McConnell might technically be the Republican leader of the Senate, but John Kasich might be the guy President Biden (God, I love typing those words) and New York Sen. Chuck Schumer would seek out to actually get things done.

Did you see the video of the meeting Kasich and Biden had at Biden's institute in Delaware? No sniping or bickering or posturing. Just two nice guys with blue-collar roots in different parts of Pennsylvania, whose biggest disagreement might come if Biden's Philadelphia Eagles met Kasich's Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl.

John Kasich will turn 70 in 2022, making him a mere whippersnapper by current Washington standards, where 70 is the new 40. After a long and distinguished career, he doesn't need the Senate. But boy does the Senate need him. —Jim V., New York
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** 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.
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