“That one minute represents a fraction of the time that Ahmaud Arbery was running in Satilla Shores,” Walmsley said, before going silent.
The pursuit of Arbery occurred for about five minutes, the judge said once he resumed speaking, as father and son Gregory and Travis McMichael and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan Jr. chased the 25-year-old Black man in their neighborhood outside Brunswick, Georgia.
The men believed Arbery had committed a crime in their neighborhood, they told police. The McMichaels were armed and gave chase, and Bryan later joined the pursuit, recording it from his pickup. Bryan’s video shows Travis McMichael exiting his truck and confronting Arbery, who tussles with Travis over a shotgun before the younger McMichael fatally shoots him.
“I do want to put that time period in context, and the only way I could think to do so — it may be a little theatrical, but I think it’s appropriate,” Walmsley told the court. “I want us all to get a concept of time. So what I’m going to do is, I’m going to sit silently for one minute.”
Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, bowed her head during the silence, according to a pool reporter present in the courtroom. The silence was broken only by the sound of journalists typing, the reporter said.
“When I thought about this, I thought from a lot of different angles,” Walmsley said, “and I kept coming back to the terror that must have been in the mind of the young man running through Satilla Shores.”
Walmsley sentenced Travis McMichael and Gregory McMichael to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He sentenced Bryan to life in prison with the possibility of parole. Bryan will be eligible for parole under Georgia law only after he has served 30 years in prison because he was convicted of serious violent felonies.
Walmsley drew attention for other comments he made earlier in the trial, perhaps most notably at the conclusion of the jury selection process. At the time, Walmsley said there appeared to be “intentional discrimination” when the chosen panel of 12 people included just one Black member.
The two-and-a-half-week selection process ended in mid-November with prosecutors accusing defense attorneys of disproportionately striking qualified Black jurors and basing some of their strikes on race.
While he ultimately ruled the case could go forward since the defense could provide “valid reasons, beyond race, for why the jurors were dismissed,” Walmsley said, “This court has found that there appears to be intentional discrimination.”
CNN’s Eliott C. McLaughlin contributed to this report.
The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction on Friday updated its COVID-19 quarantine rules for school children and staff exposed to the virus.
Students vaccinated against COVID-19 and staff who have received their booster shots will not have to quarantine away from school after being exposed to someone with the virus. Students and staff who have had COVID-19 within the last 90 days are also exempt from quarantining after exposure.
Additionally, if the student or staff member exposed to COVID and the person with COVID were wearing masks at the time of their contact, those students and staff will not be subject to quarantine.
CHICAGO PARENTS FILE LAWSUIT AGAINST TEACHER’S UNION: ‘RUG RIPPED RIGHT OUT FROM UNDER THEM AGAIN’
“Research and lived experience in this pandemic have shown it is essential we do everything we can to safely keep our students in the classroom,” North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) Chief Deputy Secretary Susan Gale Perry said in a Friday statement. “In-person learning is more than academics, it’s also children interacting with their peers, getting healthy meals and accessing critical support services.”
Elementary students wearing masks in the classroom (iStock)
The NDHHS also reduced the amount of time a person must spend away from school after testing positive for the virus to five days if they are asymptomatic in alignment with new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Those who get repeat negative PCR tests within 24 to 48 hours after testing positive may return to school.
PHILADELPHIA CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL SUPPORTS IN-PERSON EDUCATION
Those who return to school without symptoms five days after contracting the virus or after repeatedly testing negative must wear a mask for at least five days upon their return.
Leah Lefkove, 9, covers her face as her dad Dr. Ben Lefkove gives her the first COVID-19 vaccine at the Viral Solutions vaccination and testing site in Decatur, Ga. (AP Photo/Ben Gray)
Similarly, students and staff who have not been tested for COVID but are experiencing symptoms must quarantine for five days and experience no fever for at least 24 hours before they can return to school. They must show a negative test before returning and will have to wear masks for at least 10 days after they return.
The NCDHHS continues to advocate for mask-wearing for at-risk individuals, people with symptoms and those recently recovered from COVID-19, but the Department only requires masks in counties with substantial transmission rates.
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“Protecting our students and staff requires layers of protection to stop the spread of COVID-19,” State Health Director and NCDHHS Chief Medical Officer Dr. Elizabeth Cuervo Tilson said. “In addition to vaccines and masks, Test-to-Stay is another proven tool that can help minimize the spread of COVID-19 while also maximizing time in the classroom.”
President Biden and the American Academy of Pediatrics continue to support in-person learning.
Florida officials admitted on Thursday that they had up to a million coronavirus test kits stored in a warehouse that expired just before New Year’s Eve. The statement comes as Florida continues to be among those hardest hit by COVID-19, with some residents saying they are “desperate” to find tests.
Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, a Democrat running for governor, first accused current Governor Ron DeSantis of stockpiling tests on December 30, saying that the Department of Health had a “significant number” of tests set to expire.
“With Omicron infections exploding throughout Florida, I beg of him to release these tests immediately to local counties and cities, and to stand up state-sponsored testing sites,” Fried had said. “To let these tests expire while Floridians anxiously wait for hours in testing lines is negligent at best, and heartless at worst.”
It’s come to my attention that @HealthyFla has a significant number of #COVID19 tests stockpiled and set to expire.
I beg of @GovRonDeSantis: release these tests immediately to local governments, and set up state-run testing sites.
To let them expire is negligent, or heartless. pic.twitter.com/VF2T8w1HCo
— Commissioner Nikki Fried (@NikkiFriedFL) December 30, 2021
She told CBS News on Friday that when COVID started to surge in the state around December 20, she began discussing the situation with other local leaders. Soon after, she spoke with an individual who she described as “pretty high up in the governor’s office.”
That person, she said, told her about the tests, and did not want their name used “because of the fact this governor has a tendency to have revenge and they would most likely lose their job,” Fried said.
DeSantis’ office denied the accusation in an email to CBS affiliate WTSP earlier this week. But on Thursday at a press conference in West Palm Beach, DeSantis and other officials admitted to the expired tests.
“We had between 800,000 and a million test kits — Abbott test kits — in our warehouse that did expire,” Kevin Guthrie, director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management, said at the conference. “We tried to give them out prior to that, but there wasn’t a demand for it.”
Guthrie said the state received a three-month extension for the kits that expired between December 26 and 30, roughly a week after Fried first learned of the tests.
“Prior to that date, we did ask Abbott and the federal government for another three-month extension on those, so we could use those tests,” Guthrie said. “We’re still waiting to hear about that from HHS.”
WEB EXTRA: Gov. DeSantis News Conference In West Palm Beach by
CBS Miami on
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DeSantis then said that the state doesn’t want “to send out inaccurate tests.”
“They already were extended in September. There wasn’t a lot of demand for them,” DeSantis said. “They’ve been sending them out as requested. There was no withholding anything. It’s just the FDA hasn’t gotten back to DEM about whether you can still send.”
Jeremy Redfern, the health department’s press secretary, tweeted Thursday that Fried was just “big mad” that the state was “over-prepared for another wave of COVID-19.”
He told CBS News that it’s “simply false” to suggest the state “waited around for these test kits to expire,” and that the pre-packaged kits have to be administered by “trained individuals,” as they are not designed for individual use.
“The FDA granted the test manufacturer a 3-month extension in May of 2021,” Redfern told CBS News. “The original expiration of the test kits in question was September 2021. The manufacturer has also informed us that they have submitted another extension request.”
DeSantis said the state had wanted to provide “a bunch” of the stockpiled tests to long-term care facilities when they received them, but that the facilities claimed they didn’t have staff on hand to administer them.
He pointed to Omicron for Florida’s test shortage, saying there “wasn’t a lot of COVID going around,” in the summer and fall, prompting “low demand.”
“Florida had one of the lowest COVID rates in the country during fall, so the demand for testing was correspondingly low,” DeSantis’ press secretary Christina Pushaw told CBS News. “Though tests went unused due to insufficient demand, as the governor said: it’s better to be overprepared than underprepared.”
Yet, at the beginning of August, Florida reported 21,683 new cases of COVID-19 — which, at the time, was the most infections in a single day since the start of the pandemic. Infections in the state are now surging, with a record of nearly 77,000 new cases reported on Friday.
The state currently has the second-highest 28-day COVID case average in the U.S., with more than 745,200 reported cases in that time frame, according to Johns Hopkins University, and 615 deaths. The state has had nearly 4.5 million cases since COVID first hit the nation.
Many Florida residents have questioned DeSantis’ claim of “low demand” for the tests.
In the week leading up to December 30, there were more than a million COVID tests performed in Florida, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and more than 3 million in the month leading up to that date.
“I have spent the last 4 days crawling up the state trying to find [over the counter] test for my whole family who is sick,” one person tweeted this week. “Cant find any. You cant even book a drive thru appointment for 2 weeks.”
So Florida doesn’t really think they have a Covid problem.
NEWSFLASH, I have spent the last 4 days crawling up the state trying to find OTC test for my whole family who is sick. Cant find any. You cant even book a drive thru appointment for 2 weeks.
Wake Up. It’s a problem. pic.twitter.com/dwytnJkoMh
— Jake Jordan (@JakeTheBillsFan) January 4, 2022
“Spoke with a friend in Florida. He is desperate,” another person tweeted on December 30. “He needs to get his 90 year old mom a Covid test and he can’t find any at home test, the line for PCR is over 4 hours long.”
Florida resident Ryan Prem told CBS News that when he and his wife were attempting to get tested the week before Christmas, their local testing site had a walk-up line of about 100 people. When they went back to the site closer to Christmas and New Year, he said, “it seemed like double.”
“I can only imagine how many people were testing positive,” he told CBS News. “I personally know about 15 people who just in the past 2-3 weeks tested positive, though a majority of them were previously fully vaccinated.”
The long lines and difficult-to-find tests are not new in the state, and people have expressed their frustrations with the process for months. In November, one person tweeted they “can’t find a covid test anywhere.”
Fried told CBS News that she had asked the governor to reopen state-run testing sites, which have been closed since May, before she found out about the stockpile.
“As of today,” she said on Friday, “we still don’t have any state-sponsored testing sites.”
“The lines wrapped around for hours upon hours, that start before the crack of dawn,” Fried said. “People are sitting in these cars and in these lines to get tests, and to say that there’s no demand — I don’t know where the governor was, but all he had to do was drive around any part of our state and would have seen the demand on the ground.”
Fried tweeted Thursday that the administration’s inaction on the expired tests is “a complete failure.” Officials, she said, should have distributed the tests to facilities throughout the state.
Just held an emergency press conference to address the secret stockpile of about one million COVID tests Ron DeSantis didn’t distribute, let expire, and then attempted to cover up when I called him out for it.
DeSantis’ disclosure of the expired tests came the same day the Florida Department of Health changed its testing guidance to “maximize the benefits” of COVID testing. The new guidance says that those who are not at increased risk of severe illness from COVID, including those older than 65, with underlying health issues, or pregnant, should “consider” getting tested after they get symptoms and only seek medical treatment if necessary.
For those who have been exposed to COVID but have no symptoms, the guidance says, “testing is unlikely to have any clinical benefits.”
“If you get symptoms, you should avoid contact with others,” a press release on the guidance says. “A positive COVID-19 test result will not change this recommendation.”
Li Cohen
Li Cohen is a social media producer and trending reporter for CBS News, focusing on social justice issues.
In the first moments of his presidency, Joe Biden called on Americans to set aside their deep divisions inflamed by a predecessor he intentionally ignored. He emphasized national unity and appealed to Americans to come together to “end this uncivil war”.
Nearly a year later, as a divided nation reflects on the first anniversary of the January 6 assault on the US Capitol, the uncivil war he sought to extinguish rages on, stronger than ever. In a searing speech on Thursday, Biden struck a different tone.
He said he was “crystal clear” about the dangers facing the nation, and accused Donald Trump and his political allies of holding a “dagger at the throat of America, at American democracy.” In the course of the 21-minute speech, delivered from the US Capitol, Biden offered himself as a defender of democracy in the “battle for the soul of America.”
“I will stand in this breach,” he promised. “I will defend this nation.”
That moment of visceral speech-making marked a shift in strategy for how Biden has chosen to engage Trump – whose name he never uttered but instead taunted as the “defeated former president”.
The decision to break his silence about Trump comes at a challenging moment in Biden’s presidency, with his Build Back Better agenda stalled, the Covid-19 pandemic resurgent and economic malaise widespread. It also reflected the reality that, far from being shunned, Trump remains the most powerful force in the Republican party and a potential rival to Biden in 2024.
Confronting Trump was a calculated risk. Trump seized the opportunity to hurl all manner of insults and accusations at his successor, whose remarks he said were “very hurtful to many people”.
But Biden’s speech was an acknowledgement that there were dangers in continuing to ignore Trump and what Biden called his “web of lies”. Recent polling suggests the vast majority of Republicans believe Trump’s unsubstantiated claims about the election fraud while a growing percentage of Americans are willing to tolerate political violence in some instances.
Republican-controlled states are pursuing a raft of new voting restrictions, motivated in part by the doubts they sowed about the 2020 election results. At the same time, Republicans are passing laws that inject partisanship into the administration of elections and vote-counting while stripping power from and driving power from election officials who resisted pressure to throw out votes or overturn the elections in their state.
“It was essential to be specific about the problem, and the source of the crisis,” said Julian Zelizer, a historian at Princeton University. “Otherwise the vague rhetoric, without agency, that we hear about polarization misses the way in which Trump and the GOP are the source of so much instability.”
But he warned that a speech can only do so much. “Without holding people accountable for Jan 6 and the campaign against the 2020 election, and without real legislation to protecting voting rights and the electoral process, the ‘dagger at the throat of democracy’ won’t go away.”
A candlelight vigil on the National Mall on the first anniversary of the Capitol attack. Photograph: Tom Brenner/Reuters
In his remarks, Biden argued that protecting voting rights was paramount to safeguarding American democracy. He sought to connect the dots between Trump’s promotion that the 2020 election was tainted by fraud and Republicans’ coordinated effort to “subvert” and undermine the electoral process in states where they control the levers of power.
“Right now, in state after state, new laws are being written – not to protect the vote, but to deny it; not only to suppress the vote, but to subvert it; not to strengthen or protect our democracy, but because the former president lost,” he said.
Biden will follow up on the theme on Tuesday when he delivers another consequential speech on voting rights. In Atlanta, Biden and vice-president Kamala Harris will call for the passage of two voting rights bills that face daunting odds in the US Senate: the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
The issue of voting rights has taken center stage after hopes of passing Biden’s sweeping domestic policy agenda were dashed by the opposition of senator Joe Manchin, the conservative Democrat from West Virginia. So far Republican opposition has blocked passage of the legislation in the evenly divided chamber, where Democrats lack the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster.
Manchin again holds the keys on voting rights legislation, which he broadly supports. But his opposition to eliminating the filibuster has forced Democrats to pursue other avenues such as creating an exception in the rules for certain legislation. Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said that he would schedule a vote on easing the filibuster rules not later than 17 January, which is Martin Luther King Day.
Biden has faced immense pressure from civil rights leaders and voting rights advocates frustrated with his handling of the issue, seen as critical to the president’s legacy. Indeed, a coalition of Georgia-based voting rights groups warned Biden and Harris not to bother coming to the state unless they delivered a concrete plan to move forward, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters this week that Biden planed to stress the “urgent need to pass legislation to protect the constitutional right to vote and the integrity of our elections”.
Spencer Overton, an election law expert and the president of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, hopes Biden will use his bully pulpit to explain why passing federal voting rights legislation is so essential to combatting the pernicious lies and conspiracies undermining faith in the nation’s system of government.
“Those lies have real consequences,” said. “Sometimes they’re graphic, as we saw a year ago on 6 January, but sometimes they silently erode democracy by preventing average citizens from participating in our democracy, and exercising their freedom to vote.”
“This is the most important legislation in Congress now,” he added. “There’s just no benefit in waiting. The moment is now.”
After days of blistery cold conditions, Chicago will soon see relief as it relates to temperatures, but the winter weather troubles won’t subside just yet.
If the bone-chilling weather wasn’t enough, freezing drizzle is expected through portions of the weekend, resulting in potentially-hazardous road conditions.
Drizzle and light rain are poised to arrive in the afternoon to evening hours throughout the region, according to the National Weather Service.
A winter weather advisory has been issued from 1 to 9 p.m. Saturday for DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall and LaSalle counties as well as portions of Cook and Will counties in Illinois, the NWS stated. The advisory also includes Jasper, Lake, Newton and Porter counties in northwest Indiana.
With temperatures below freezing, drizzle will likely make for icy conditions, particularly on sidewalks, parking lots, bridges, overpasses and secondary roads.
While air temperatures are set to climb above freezing in the evening, ground and payment temperatures may not increase as quickly, resulting in icy conditions on untreated areas, forecasters said.
Drivers are encouraged to plan for extra travel time, check conditions before driving and slow down while on the road.
Once the weather system moves out, the Chicago area will have one more day of well-below-average temperatures.
Highs will once again be in the teens on Monday, but then temps will slowly begin to warm up, likely reaching back into the 30s by Wednesday.
Staffing shortages are growing as frontline health care workers — who are at a higher risk of exposure — are infected and need to quarantine at a time when the spread of the Omicron variant is driving more people to hospitals.
In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom said late Friday that more than 200 National Guard members will be deployed to dozens of testing sites, joining other states that have mobilized National Guard members for medical and non-medical tasks to help overburdened health care facilities.
“It really is, right now, a viral blizzard because there’s a lot of infections,” said Dr. Samer Antonios, chief clinical officer at Ascension Via Christi Health in Kansas, where Gov. Laura Kelly signed a state of disaster emergency this week due to Covid-19 challenges.
Nearly 132,000 Americans are hospitalized with Covid-19, according to Department of Health and Human Services data Friday, an increase from around 45,000 in early November.
As more patients need care, many people with possible Covid-19 symptoms have been left wanting as tests remain hard to find, and doctors have asked those who suspect they are positive to isolate at home with or without confirmation of infection.
Long lines have been par for the course at many testing facilities since the holidays. Starting Saturday, four state-operated testing sites in Utah that experience some of the “highest demand and longest wait times” will be available by appointment only due to surging demand, Utah’s health department said Friday.
To try and increase the supply of tests, the Biden administration has pledged to distribute 500 million free rapid tests nationwide. Officials have offered few details, but they expect to launch a website this month where people can sign up for the tests online and then receive them via mail.
The first contract to procure tests has been signed and more are expected in the coming weeks, officials told CNN on Friday.
Vaccine requirements changing
Nearly two-thirds of Americans eligible to receive a vaccine — anyone ages 5 and up — have been fully vaccinated, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Yet the number of those inoculated and boosted is far lower, with 22% of the total population having done so.
The US Food and Drug Administration on Friday amended the emergency use authorization for Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine, shortening the period of time between initial vaccination and the booster shot from at least six months to five months for those over the age of 18.
“Vaccination is our best defense against Covid-19, including the circulating variants, and shortening the length of time between completion of a primary series and a booster dose may help reduce waning immunity,” said Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.
The FDA has already shortened the time needed before receiving a booster shot of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine from six to five months. The Pfizer booster is authorized for everyone age 12 and older.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Friday that she is mandating all healthcare workers to get a Covid-19 booster shot within two weeks of eligibility.
“Healthcare workers will be asked to do this with no exemptions other than a medical exemption and no test out options,” Hochul said. All healthcare workers were previously required to be fully vaccinated in September.
Neighboring Connecticut issued a similar order Thursday, as long-term care staff and hospital employees are mandated to receive booster doses in the upcoming weeks.
Debate over Covid-19 safety measures in schools
With child hospitalizations hitting new records, concern over student safety remains sky-high. Yet disputes over whether in-person learning is ideal during the Omicron surge are playing out in various school districts this week.
Nearly 13% of New York City students tested positive for Covid-19 over a 24-hour period, according to sample testing from the city’s department of education Thursday. No schools are closed at this time due to Covid-19 cases, according to additional DOE data, but six school classrooms remain closed.
The Chicago Public Schools system has canceled classes since Wednesday due to a dispute between city officials and the teachers union over returning to the classroom, and Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she wants a deal between the two parties completed this weekend.
“Our kids need to be back in school. Schools are safe,” she told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
The Chicago Teachers Union had voted to teach remotely due to the Covid-19 surge, but the school district canceled classes, saying it wanted in-person learning.
In Georgia, public school teachers who test positive for Covid-19 no longer must isolate before returning to school, and contact tracing in schools is no longer required, according to a letter to school leaders released Thursday from Gov. Brian Kemp and public health commissioner Kathleen Toomey.
The Georgia Department of Public Health posted an updated administrative order Wednesday allowing teachers and school staff — regardless of vaccination status — to return to work after a Covid-19 exposure or a positive Covid-19 test if they remain asymptomatic and wear a mask while at work.
“Students, parents, and educators have made it clear to us that they want to be in the classroom, and we are looking into many methods to continue safe, in-person learning — including updated quarantine and isolation protocols, reduced contact tracing requirements, and augmented testing opportunities,” the letter from Kemp and Toomey said.
Local school districts may still develop and follow their own quarantine and isolation requirements, according to the order.
CNN’s Naomi Thomas, Deidre McPhillips, Kaitlan Collins, Chris Boyette, Michelle Watson, Carma Hassan, Laura Dolan, Steve Almasy, Raja Razek and Rob Frehse contributed to this report.
Laura Ingraham highlighted parts of the Supreme Court hearing involving the NFIB-supported case against President Biden’s edict mandating that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration can fine businesses if their employees do not submit to being vaccinated.
“The OSHA rule states that businesses with more than 100 or more workers must either require employees to be vaccinated or submit to weekly testing and masking in the workplace,” Ingraham said Friday on “The Ingraham Angle.”
“Opposing this mandate are 27 states and The National Federation of Independent Businesses. The fact is, long before the vaccine debate, federal agencies like OSHA wielded way too much power. This is why Donald Trump wanted so much of these burdensome rules axed from the federal register altogether.”
She said terms like “health” and “safety” are too broad to the point that politicians like Biden can use them to his liking without regard to the autonomy of the American citizen.
JUSTICE SONIA SOTOMAYOR ROASTED FOR FALSE INFORMATION ABOUT CHILD COVID HOSPITALIZATIONS
“Their meanings can be stretched to prohibit or require just about anything. That’s when the court is usually asked to step in.”
One Obama-appointed justice made headlines Friday for spreading an unsubstantiated claim that there are 100,000 children dealing with coronavirus and that many of them require ventilators to breathe.
“Omicron is as deadly and causes as much serious disease in the unvaccinated as delta did,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor claimed in a recorded session. “We have over 100,000 children, which we’ve never had before, in serious condition and many on ventilators.”
Ingraham noted that the omicron variant has been shown exponentially less deadly than the delta variant, albeit potentially more transmissible.
“It’s hard to believe someone so misinformed sits on the court, but that’s where we are — 100,000 kids are not in ICUs or on ventilators. That’s about 30-fold more than reality per the HHS,” she said. “Even Anthony Fauci admits that most kids are hospitalized with COVID, not because of COVID.”
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Ingraham pointed out that Sotomayor had made further proclamations, including when she compared humans “spewing a virus” to workplace implements spewing sparks.
“What’s the difference between this and telling employers where sparks are flying in the work place, your workers have to wear a mask?” Sotomayor, 67, asked NFIB attorney Scott Keller.
“When sparks are flying, there is a machine unique to that workplace,” Keller replied.
“She is like a machine spewing idiocy,” Ingraham remarked in response. “I hope she’s not contagious.”
Later she highlighted Clinton-appointed Justice Stephen Breyer claiming a delay in the Biden mandate could lead to thousands of more COVID infections.
“When they issued this order, there were approximately 70-something-thousand new cases. Yesterday, there were close to 750,000. If we delay it a day, if it were to have effect, then 750,000 more people will have COVID who otherwise, if we didn’t delay it, wouldn’t have,” Breyer, 83, claimed.
Associate Justice Stephen Breyer. (Erin Schaff/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo)
Ingraham responded:
“Wait, so in Breyer’s warped thinking, if OSHA’s mandate is upheld, all infections would be eliminated?”
“Who said you need basic logic and math skills to be a Supreme Court justice.”
“You don’t. We are repeatedly told that the liberals on the court are some of the brightest legal minds in the country,” she said. “I’m beginning to have my doubts, especially after hearing th[o]se words leave Justice Sotomayor’s mouth.”
NEW YORK (AP) — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz had desperation written on his face.
The conservative ideologue and potential 2024 presidential contender appeared on Fox News Channel’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight” show Thursday to apologize for describing the Jan. 6 insurrection as “a violent terrorist attack on the Capitol” a day earlier, the eve of its anniversary.
“The way I phrased things yesterday, it was sloppy and it was frankly dumb,” Cruz told Carlson, a powerful voice in GOP politics whose show is among the most-watched on cable news.
Cruz insisted that he had misspoken, though he has consistently described the riot by Donald Trump supporters as a terrorist attack in interviews and statements over the last year.
But Cruz’s capitulation to outrage from the Republican Party’s far right flank underscores the power it increasingly holds over leading GOP politicians and the influence held by conservative TV hosts like Carlson, who reach millions of viewers every night. And it shows how lawmakers like Cruz, who was once considered one of his party’s most conservative voices, now face pressure from a new guard of hard-liners who swept into power with the backing of Trump’s base.
Cruz has been increasingly open about his interest in mounting another run for the GOP presidential nomination, noting that historically “the runner-up is almost always the next nominee.”
Carlson had used his previous night’s show to excoriate Cruz for his “terrorist” comment. Others piled on.
“Shame on Ted Cruz,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a first-term lawmaker and Trump supporter who has peddled numerous conspiracy theories and was recently barred from Twitter for her anti-vaccination comments. She called Cruz’s initial comments “irresponsible” and disrespectful of “MAGA patriots.”
“I’m so done with Ted Cruz,” echoed Trump ally Sebastian Gorka on Twitter.
Cruz, along with other Republican Party leaders, had previously described the events of Jan. 6 as “terrorism” without blowback.
“The attack at the Capitol was a despicable act of terrorism and a shocking assault on our democratic system,” Cruz said in a statement released by his office a year ago Friday. “The January 6 terrorist attack on the Capitol was a dark moment in our nation’s history, and I fully support the ongoing law enforcement investigations into anyone involved,” he said May 28.
As recently as December, in an interview with The Associated Press, Cruz said that on Jan. 6, 2021, “we saw a terrorist attack on the Capitol.”
He went on to say “anyone who commits a crime of violence should be prosecuted, and that anyone who violently assaults a police officer should go to jail for a very long time. That’s true whether you’re right wing, left wing or you got no wings whatsoever.”
Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell has described the attack in similar terms. “American citizens attacked their own government,” he told the Senate after it acquitted Trump in its impeachment trial. “They used terrorism to try to stop a specific piece of domestic business they did not like.”
There is nothing surprising about that characterization. The FBI defines domestic terrorism as “Violent, criminal acts committed by individuals and/or groups to further ideological goals stemming from domestic influences, such as those of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature.” In the Jan. 6 attack, Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an effort to halt the peaceful transition of power and certification of President Joe Biden’s win.
But many, especially on the right, have resisted attempts to label violence as terrorism, especially when it is committed by white people.
Carlson, who has promoted the racist “Replacement Theory” that elites are trying to replace majority white populations with nonwhite immigrants, pressed Cruz on his characterization of the Capitol assault.
“You called this a terror attack when by no definition was it a terror attack,” he said. “That’s a lie. You told that lie on purpose and I’m wondering why you did.”
Cruz said he had long used the term to describe anyone who attacks police.
“It was a mistake to use the word yesterday because the Democrats and the corporate media have so politicized it,” he said.
Carlson and others have noted that no one in the assault has been charged with “terrorism.” But there is no federal law that provides for an explicit charge of domestic terrorism.
Federal law makes it a crime to give material support to designated foreign terrorist groups, which gives law enforcement agencies the ability to arrest people who donate money or otherwise aid such organizations, even if they haven’t harmed anyone or threatened violence themselves. No comparable law exists for people aligned with U.S.-based extremist groups, which enjoy expansive free speech protections.
Members of two extremist groups, the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, face the most serious conspiracy charges in the Jan. 6 riot. Individual rioters have been charged with assault and other violent crimes for their attacks on law enforcement. More than 100 police officers were injured, some critically.
Republicans have also taken issue with “insurrection” to describe the events of the day, because none of the rioters so far has been charged with treason or sedition, crimes that would fit with an insurrection attempt.
Those charges are extremely rare. Prosecutors may be reluctant to bring them because of their legal complexity and the difficulty in securing convictions. Overzealousness in applying such charges historically has also discredited their use.
___
Associated Press writer Colleen Long contributed to this report from Washington.
Judge sentences Gregory and Travis McMichael to life for murder of Ahmaud Arbery
Gregory and Travis McMichael, white father and son convicted of murdering Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery, have been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus 20 years.
A judge handed down the sentences in Glynn County, Georgia, on Friday afternoon. The McMichaels’ neighbour and co-defendant William “Roddie” Bryan Jr was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after 30 years served.
The sentence came nearly two years after the three men chased Arbery, who was unarmed, through a neighbourhood in their trucks before shooting him in February 2020. The attack was captured in footage filmed by Bryan Jr.
All three men stood trial in November on nine charges: one count of malice murder, four counts of felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault, one count of false imprisonment and one count of criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment.
Travis McMichael was convicted of and received the top sentence for malice murder, while Gregory McMichael and Bryan Jr received their top sentences for felony murder.
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Arbery’s death ‘should force us to consider what a neighbour may be’ – judge
In his comments during sentencing, judge Timothy Walmsley referred to a statement made by Arbery’s mother at court on Friday.
“They chose to target my son because they didn’t want him in their community,” Wanda Cooper-Jones, Arbery‘s mother, had said earlier. “When they couldn’t sufficiently scare him or intimidate him, they killed him.”
In his sentencing, the judge quoted the mother’s remarks, saying they struck him as “very true”.
“At minimum, Ahmaud Arbery should force us to consider expanding our definition of what a neighbour may be and how we treat them,” the judge said.
Read more about Ms Cooper-Jones’ victim’s statement here:
Adam Withnall8 January 2022 05:05
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Family rejects plea deal for three killers’ federal hate crime charges
Ahead of Friday’s sentencing, it was revealed Arbery’s family rejected a plea deal that would have seen his killers spend 30 years in prison for federal hate crime charges.
The Department of Justice approached Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, earlier this week about the deal, under which Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael and William “Roddie” Bryan Jr would be sentenced to three decades in prison if they admitted they were motivated by hate when they shot dead the Black jogger.
Ms Cooper-Jones told CBS News she rejected the deal because she wants the men to face those charges in court.
The Independent’s Rachel Sharp has more:
Megan Sheets8 January 2022 04:00
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ICYMI: Victim impact statement from Arbery’s mom
Arbery’s mother Wanda Cooper-Jones said her son would have cut his toenails “if he knew he would be murdered that day” as she delivered an emotional victim impact statement at the sentencing of his three murderers.
Ms Cooper-Jones referenced comments made by one of the defence attorneys at trial where they described her son’s “long, dirty toenails”, sparking outcry over the attempt to paint Mr Arbery as a criminal and not as the victim.
“Turning Ahmaud Arbery into a victim after the choices that he made does not reflect the reality of what brought Ahmaud Arbery to Satilla Shores in his khaki shorts with no socks to cover his long, dirty toenails,” Gregory McMichael’s lawyer Laura Hogue said in closing arguments.
Ms Cooper-Jones, who was wearing a badge with a photo of her son, choked back tears as she referenced the derogatory comments about her son.
The Independent’s Rachel Sharp has more:
Megan Sheets8 January 2022 03:00
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ICYMI: Judge’s remarks at sentencing
Before delivering his sentencing decision, Judge Timothy Walmsley asked the court to sit in silence for one minute, saying it was a “fraction of the time that Ahmaud Arbery was running in Satilla Shores”.
“The chase in Satilla Shores went on over around a five minute period,” he said, saying he has been thinking of “the terror that must have been in the mind” of Mr Arbery during that time. As we all now know based upon the verdict in November, Ahmaud Arbery was murdered,” he said.
“It’s a tragedy, a tragedy on many, many levels. As we understand it, he left his home going for a run and ended up running for his life.”
The judge said he reached his decision to grant a lower sentence for Bryan because he believes he “stands in very different shoes” to the McMichaels.
He said he believes Bryan has shown remorse following the murder in his actions in the aftermath.
“He took steps early on in this process that demonstrated he had grave concerns that what occurred should not have occurred,” he said. “It does make Mr Bryan sit differently.”
However, he said that the verdict reached by the jury could not be disputed based on the evidence and that the outcome of the day could have ended differently if he hadn’t joined in the chase in his pickup truck.
By contrast, Judge Walmsley said that “very early on Gregory McMichael tried to establish a narrative” about the murder.
He quoted some of the 66-year-old’s statements in the aftermath including: “If I could have got a shot at the guy I would have shot him.”
He also pointed to Travis McMichael’s comments that it was the “worst day of my life”, pointing out the impact on so many other lives for the murder.
The footage of Travis McMichael “lifting the shotgun to fire at Ahmaud Arbery” showed a “truly disturbing scene” of a man who was “hunted down and shot”.
“And he was killed because individuals here in this courtroom took the law into their own hands,” he said. “When Ahmaud Arbery fell the McMichaels turned their backs.”
Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley
(REUTERS)
Megan Sheets8 January 2022 02:00
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RECAP: The sentences
Travis McMichael, 35, was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole plus 20 years on nine charges including malice murder after he shot Mr Arbery twice at close range with a shotgun.
Gregory McMichael was handed life without the possibility of parole plus 20 years on eight charges including felony murder. The 66-year-old armed himself with a firearm and jumped in his truck with his son that day, chasing him “like a rat” and threatening “stop or I’ll blow your f***ing head off!”
Bryan, 52, was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after being found guilty on six charges including felony murder after jurors heard how he spotted his neighbours chasing Mr Arbery and jumped in his own truck to join in. He then used his vehicle as a “5,000-pound lethal weapon” to corner and attempt to strike the unarmed Black man.
All three were effectively handed life sentences as, under state law, life with the possibility of parole means parole can only be considered after 30 years in prison.
The Independent’s Rachel Sharp has more:
Megan Sheets8 January 2022 01:00
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Ahmaud Arbery’s mother ‘very thankful’ for life sentences
Wanda Cooper-Jones told CNN that her family was “very thankful” after the three men who killed her son were sentenced to life in prison.
“They got what they truly deserved today. I think we finally got justice for Ahmaud,” she told the news network.
Graeme Massie8 January 2022 00:36
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Arbery’s parents cry as sentences are handed down
A string of images captured Ahmaud Arbery’s family’s reaction to Friday’s sentencing.
Ahmaud Arbery’s mother Wanda Cooper-Jones, center, reacts as Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley sentences Greg McMichael, his son, Travis McMichael, and a neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan in the Glynn County Courthouse on Friday
(AP)
Ahmaud Arbery’s father Marcus Arbery reacts as Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley sentences Greg McMichael, his son, Travis McMichael, and a neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan in the Glynn County Courthouse on Friday
(AP)
(Getty Images)
Ahmaud Arbery’s father Marcus Arbery holds hand with supporters on Friday
(AP)
Megan Sheets8 January 2022 00:00
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Prosecution asks to bar defendants from profiting off killing
After the sentences were handed down, prosecutor Linda Dunikoski asked the judge to bar the defendants from making any money off of their convictions or trial – including from book or movie deals.
She said such a ruling would ensure the men “do not reap any sort of benefit from their actions”.
Ms Dunikoski added that should the defendants make any money off of this ordeal, the profits would be directed to the Arbery family.
Bryan Jr’s attorney responded by saying: “When the court does that, my only concern is how that would impact Mr Bryan’s ability to raise money for his defense, for his appeal. I wouldn’t want to be in a situation where he couldn’t do that inadvertently because of a sentencing condition.”
Megan Sheets7 January 2022 23:00
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ANALYSIS: What comes next?
Almost two years after Ahmaud Arbery was chased through a neighbourhood by three men in pickup trucks and shot dead in the street, his killers were told today they would spend the rest of their lives behind bars.
Travis McMichael, 35, and his father Gregory McMichael, 66, were both sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Their neighbour William “Roddie” Bryan Jr was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
However, the sentencing of the three murderers does not mark the end of the case.
All three men are expected to file appeals against their convictions. Meanwhile, they are also due to stand trial on federal hate crime charges in February.
The first district attorney to handle the case is also facing criminal charges over her handling of the initial investigation.
Arbery’s mother Wanda Cooper-Jones is also pursuing a civil lawsuit against police and prosecutors over their handling of the case.
Beyond this, many also feel the case could have far-reaching implications on so-called vigilante justice across America.
The Independent’s Rachel Sharp explains what to expect over the coming months:
Megan Sheets7 January 2022 22:24
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Arbery’s mother reacts to sentencing
The family of Ahmaud Arbery, whose killers were sentenced to life in prison without parole, thanked the outpouring of community support and commitment of civil rights advocates who have sought justice for his murder.
“I sat in that courtroom for five weeks straight,” his mother Wanda Cooper-Jones told reporters outside Glynn County Courthouse in Brunswick, Georgia on 7 January.
“But I knew we could come out with a victory,” she said. “I never doubted it. I knew today would come.”
She said the city of Brunswick “thought I would have to fight this fight alone, so they chose to ignore me.”
“They didn’t know I had you guys standing with me,” she added. “Thank you for standing with my family.”
The Chicago Public Schools system, which has canceled classes since Wednesday, said it hoped to have in-person learning again Monday.
“CPS is committed to working toward an agreement with the Chicago Teachers Union throughout the weekend, and we are dedicated to working day and night so we can get our students back to school next week, hopefully on Monday,” the statement said. “We know families need to plan ahead and we will be sending additional communication over the weekend with a status update regarding classes on Monday.”
Lightfoot told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that she wants a deal this weekend.
“Our kids need to be back in school. Schools are safe,” she said.
With classes just having resumed Monday after winter break, the Chicago Teachers Union voted to teach remotely, but the school district canceled classes, saying they want in-person learning.
The union has called conditions for in-person learning unsafe, citing inadequate staffing and testing as new Covid-19 cases and new hospitalizations among children in the city reached record highs.
Lightfoot told CNN if there is a need to shut down individual schools the city will do that.
“We have been doing that. And we have been doing that all year long,” she said. “So, this is an unnecessary and illegal work stoppage and I have drawn the line. We are not going to remote for the whole system. It’s completely unnecessary.”
While district officials call the standoff a work stoppage, the teachers union says it is a lockout, because they want to teach from home until the current surge peaks, but the district canceled classes entirely.
Union delegates and city officials have been negotiating conditions to get teachers back in their physical classrooms.
Union President Jesse Sharkey indicated Wednesday teachers might not return to classrooms until January 18 if the stalemate continues. Teachers may return earlier if the surge subsides or the union reaches an agreement with city officials, he said.
The rift between the nation’s third-largest school district and its teachers echoes a debate playing out across the country amid a Covid-19 surge fueled by the Omicron variant: When and how should students return to the classroom?
On Tuesday, the last day classes were held, the school system reported 422 new Covid-19 cases among students and 271 new cases among adults — both record highs for the academic year.
Teacher union organizer Tennille Evans told reporters Friday teachers are ready to work “under safe conditions” and they are asking for “testing, testing, testing” among other mitigation measures.
“All we are asking is that we would like our students to test negative before entering in the building,” teacher Briana Hambright-Hall said, adding “A two-week pause (in in-person learning) is not too much.”
Special education teacher Dawn Kelly said: “We need to get our testing in order, a real testing program, a real contact-tracing program.”
She said teachers continue to check in on their students and send them school work “anyway we can.”
Teachers are asking for basic safety measures, she said.
Second grade teacher Falin Johnson said she was concerned about conditions at the schools for students and staff.
“I want to make sure that they are safe. I want to make sure that I am safe,” she said. “I want to make sure my daughters and my elderly grandparents are safe as well.”
She also called for an emphasis on testing.
“So I want to know, when can we get these babies get tested? ‘Cause we’re ready to go back in person when we are able to see that they do not have Covid and they are not risking the lives of their classmates or ourselves.”
Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Allison Arwady told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Thursday while she understands teachers are worried, schools are not the source of Covid-19 spread.
Meanwhile, seven parents with children in Chicago public schools have filed a lawsuit against the teachers union, calling its actions this week an illegal strike and demanding the teachers return to work for in-person learning.
The complaint is asking for “damages in the form of lost income and the cost of securing childcare while CTU and its members were on strike.”
“The point of our lawsuit is that the union has engaged in an illegal strike, and therefore they have been, they get to be the sole decider of whether kids go to school or not, rather than an engaged community and parents getting their say,” senior attorney Jeffrey Schwab said.
“Obviously if there is a situation where a classroom or a school, it isn’t safe for them to go, I don’t think parents want them to go, but what the union has done in this case is they’ve unilaterally shut down the entire district,” he added.
The Liberty Justice Center is a nonprofit law firm focused on educational rights for students.
CNN has reached out to the Chicago Teachers Union for a response on the lawsuit.
White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters the Biden administration is in touch with Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Lightfoot to “assess their needs.”
“What we conveyed to you publicly and we conveyed to them privately, is that the President wants kids in school, and we have the resources to ensure that schools are safe for education … and students.”
Jean-Pierre pointed to funding under the administration’s American Rescue Plan earmarked for schools, including $10 billion for testing.
Lightfoot said the city would do its best to help with testing, given the current supply issues.
“We’re in a good place, I think, with both our Governor and the White House,” she said. “But fundamentally … as you know, there’s a shortage of testing nationwide. We are going to provide as much testing as we possibly can.”
CNN’s Adrienne Broaddus and DJ Judd contributed to this report.
