A friend told me about your Baby Steps program. I have one question, though. I noticed that according to your plan, saving for retirement should come before saving up a college fund for your kids. Why is this?

In short, college funding is not a necessity. Being able to set aside money for college is a great thing to do if parents can afford that sort of thing. But you can fund your&nbsp;<a href="https://www.daveramsey.com/recommends/student-loan-refinancing" target="_blank">education</a>&nbsp;in other ways. There are loads of scholarships out there just for getting good grades. You can also work while you’re taking classes. And one of the biggest things when it comes to getting an education is choosing a school or training program you can afford. Trust me, I believe in education. But there are lots of ways to get a college degree, or other career training, without your parents having to foot the bill or taking out&nbsp;<a href="https://www.daveramsey.com/student-loan-payoff-calculator" target="_blank">student loans</a>.

Another reason I advise this approach is because everyone is going to retire someday—unless, unfortunately, they happen to die before reaching&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chrishogan360.com/riq/" target="_blank">retirement</a>&nbsp;age. Retiring and eating are necessities. College is a luxury. Lots of people succeed in life without going to college, and thousands have worked their way through college. I worked 40-plus hours a week in college, and still graduated in four years. The only good way to retire is by planning for it years ahead of time, and that means saving and investing.

Sure, you should try to help your kids with their educations if you can. Even a little bit each month over the course of several years can help a lot. But some&nbsp;<a href="https://www.daveramsey.com/askdave/debt/parents-need-to-parent" target="_blank">parents</a>&nbsp;might not be able to put a dime toward their kids’ educations after high school. That doesn’t make them bad people&nbsp;or&nbsp;bad parents. And it doesn’t mean their kids can’t still go to college,&nbsp;and&nbsp;avoid debt doing it!

<a href="https://www.daveramsey.com/" target="_blank">Dave Ramsey</a>&nbsp;is a seven-time No. 1 national best-selling author, personal finance expert, and host of&nbsp;The Ramsey Show, heard by more than 16 million listeners each week. He&nbsp;has appeared on Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, Today Show, Fox News, CNN, Fox Business, and many more. Since 1992, Dave has helped people regain control of their money, build wealth and enhance their lives. He also serves as CEO for Ramsey Solutions.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/8/1596845065840.jpeg" alt="Dave Ramsey" />
 <figcaption>Dave Ramsey</figcaption>
 </figure>Dear Dave,A friend told me about your Baby Steps program. I have one question, though. I noticed that according to your plan, saving for retirement should come before saving up a college fund for your kids. Why is this?NatalieDear Natalie,In short, college funding is not a necessity. Being able to set aside money for college is a great thing to do if parents can afford that sort of thing. But you can fund your&nbsp;<a href="https://www.daveramsey.com/recommends/student-loan-refinancing" target="_blank">education</a>&nbsp;in other ways. There are loads of scholarships out there just for getting good grades. You can also work while you’re taking classes. And one of the biggest things when it comes to getting an education is choosing a school or training program you can afford. Trust me, I believe in education. But there are lots of ways to get a college degree, or other career training, without your parents having to foot the bill or taking out&nbsp;<a href="https://www.daveramsey.com/student-loan-payoff-calculator" target="_blank">student loans</a>.Another reason I advise this approach is because everyone is going to retire someday—unless, unfortunately, they happen to die before reaching&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chrishogan360.com/riq/" target="_blank">retirement</a>&nbsp;age. Retiring and eating are necessities. College is a luxury. Lots of people succeed in life without going to college, and thousands have worked their way through college. I worked 40-plus hours a week in college, and still graduated in four years. The only good way to retire is by planning for it years ahead of time, and that means saving and investing.Sure, you should try to help your kids with their educations if you can. Even a little bit each month over the course of several years can help a lot. But some&nbsp;<a href="https://www.daveramsey.com/askdave/debt/parents-need-to-parent" target="_blank">parents</a>&nbsp;might not be able to put a dime toward their kids’ educations after high school. That doesn’t make them bad people&nbsp;or&nbsp;bad parents. And it doesn’t mean their kids can’t still go to college,&nbsp;and&nbsp;avoid debt doing it!Dave<a href="https://www.daveramsey.com/" target="_blank">Dave Ramsey</a>&nbsp;is a seven-time No. 1 national best-selling author, personal finance expert, and host of&nbsp;The Ramsey Show, heard by more than 16 million listeners each week. He&nbsp;has appeared on Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, Today Show, Fox News, CNN, Fox Business, and many more. Since 1992, Dave has helped people regain control of their money, build wealth and enhance their lives. He also serves as CEO for Ramsey Solutions.

DAVE SAYS: Retirement funding comes before college savings

<a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?508743-1/impeachment-trial">CLICK here&nbsp;</a>to watch replay of Day 3 of the trial

WASHINGTON (AP) — Dire harm from Donald Trump’s false and violent incitements will vex American democracy long into the future unless the Senate convicts him of impeachment and bars him from future office, House prosecutors insisted Thursday as they concluded two days of emotional arguments in his historic trial.

Making their case, they presented piles of new videos of last month’s deadly Capitol attack, with invaders proudly declaring they were merely obeying “the president’s orders” to fight to overturn the election results as Congress was certifying his defeat to Democrat Joe Biden. Trump is accused of inciting the invasion, which prosecutors said was a predictable culmination of the many public and explicit instructions he gave supporters long before his White House rally that unleashed the Jan. 6&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege">attack.</a>

“If we pretend this didn’t happen, or worse, if we let it go unanswered, who’s to say it won’t happen again?” argued prosecutor Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo. Even out of office, Democrats warned, Trump could whip up a mob of followers for similar damage.

Trump’s defense will take the Senate floor on Friday, arguing that as terrible as the attack was, it clearly was not the president’s doing. The proceedings could finish with a vote this weekend by the senators who are sitting as impeachment jurors.

The Democrats, with little hope of conviction by two-thirds of the evenly divided Senate, are also making their most graphic case to the American public, while Trump’s lawyers and the Republicans are focused on legal rather than emotional or historic questions, hoping to get it all behind as quickly as possible. Five people died in the Capitol chaos and its aftermath, a domestic attack unparalleled in U.S. history.

Trump’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-capitol-siege-biden-cabinet-trials-acquittals-d82d5aa64d4988ec92860d4729dfc9f8">second impeachment trial,</a>&nbsp;on a charge of incitement of insurrection, has echoes of last year’s impeachment and acquittal over the Ukraine matter, as prosecutors warn senators that Trump has shown no bounds and will pose a continuing danger to the civic order unless he is convicted. Even out of the White House, the former president holds influence over large swaths of voters.

The Democratic House members acting as prosecutors drew a direct line Thursday from Trump’s repeated comments condoning and even celebrating violence — praising “both sides” after the 2017 outbreak at the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia — and urging his rally crowd last month to go to the Capitol and fight for his presidency. He spread false claims about election fraud and urged his supporters to “stop the steal” of the presidency.

Prosecutors used the rioters’ own videos from that day to pin responsibility on Trump. “We were invited here,” said one. “Trump sent us,” said another. “He’ll be happy. We’re fighting for Trump.”

“They truly believed that the whole intrusion was at the president’s orders,” said Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado. “The president told them to be there.”

At the White House, President Biden said he believed “some minds may be changed” after senators saw chilling security video Wednesday of the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/78104aea082995bbd7412a6e6cd13818">deadly insurrection at the Capitol</a>, including of rioters searching menacingly for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence.

Biden said he didn’t watch any of the previous day’s proceedings live but later saw news coverage.

Though most of the Senate jurors seem to have made up their minds, making Trump’s acquittal likely, the never-before-seen audio and video released Wednesday became a key exhibit.

Senators sat riveted as the jarring video played in the chamber. The footage showed the mob smashing into the building and rioters engaging in hand-to-hand combat with police, with audio of officers pleading for backup. Rioters roamed the halls chanting, “Hang Mike Pence,” and eerily singing out, “Where are you, Nancy?” in search of Pelosi.

Videos of the siege have been circulating since the day of the riot, but the graphic compilation offered a moment-by-moment retelling of one of the nation’s most alarming days. And it underscored how dangerously close the rioters came to the nation’s leaders, shifting the focus of the trial from an academic debate about the Constitution to a raw retelling of the assault.

Trump attorney David Schoen took issue, saying that the presentation was “offensive” and that the Democrats “haven’t tied it in any way to Trump.”

He told reporters Thursday at the Capitol that he believed Democrats were making the public relive the tragedy in a way that “tears at the American people” and impedes efforts at unity in the country.

And by Thursday, senators sitting through a second full day of arguments appeared somewhat fatigued, slouching in their chairs, crossing their arms and walking around to stretch.

One Republican, Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, said during a break: “To me, they’re losing credibility the longer they talk.”

The goal of the two-day presentation by prosecutors from the House, which impeached the outgoing president last month a week after the siege, was to cast Trump not as an innocent bystander but rather as the “inciter in chief” who spent months spreading falsehoods and revving up supporters to challenge the election.

“This attack never would have happened but for Donald Trump,” Rep. Madeleine Dean, one of the impeachment managers, said as she choked back emotion. “And so they came, draped in Trump’s flag, and used our flag, the American flag, to batter and to bludgeon.”

Trump’s lawyers are likely to blame the rioters themselves for the violence.

The first president to face an impeachment trial after leaving office, Trump is also the first to be twice impeached.

His lawyers say he cannot be convicted because he is already gone from the White House. Even though the Senate rejected that argument in Tuesday’s vote to proceed to trial, the issue could resonate with Senate Republicans eager to acquit Trump without being seen as condoning his behavior.

While six Republicans joined with Democrats to vote to proceed with the trial on Tuesday, the 56-44 vote was far from the two-thirds threshold of 67 votes needed for conviction.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump incited a deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol, put his own vice president in danger and later expressed solidarity with rioters who attempted to overturn the 2020 election in his name, Democrats argued Thursday as they wrapped up opening arguments in Trump’s impeachment trial.

Over two days of testimony, the Democrats asserted that Trump deliberately ordered his supporters to “fight like hell” and “go by very different rules” or they “wouldn’t have a country anymore.” They bolstered their case with accounts from the rioters themselves, some of whom said they were acting on Trump’s orders.

The former president’s defense team insists Trump’s speech near the White House was protected under the First Amendment. And they argue he shouldn’t be on trial in the Senate because he is no longer in office — an argument Democrats reject.

“The First Amendment does not create some superpower immunity from impeachment,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat who is leading the prosecution. “If you don’t find this a high crime and misdemeanor today, you have set a new terrible standard for presidential misconduct.”

“Fight for Trump.” “Trump sent us.” “We are listening to Trump.” “We wait and take orders from our president”

Democrats focused intently on words offered by rioters to rationalize their storming of the Capitol. It was part of a broader effort to directly link the president’s call for his loyalists to “fight like hell” with the death, destruction and mayhem that followed his speech on Jan. 6.

In many cases, rioters, who sought to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory, explained that they were acting at Trump’s behest.

To underscore their point, Democrats showed videos using rioters own words. Among them was Jennifer Ryan, a Texas real estate agent who was criminally charged but insists she was just “following my president.”

One video showed a man in the Capitol during the siege, who suggested to his friends that they pick up an office phone and call Trump to say, “We love you, bro!”

Another captured a man shouting at police: “We were invited here.”

Democratic impeachment managers also noted that many left after Trump released an online video hours after the attack, urging them to go home.

“Today is ours. We won the day,” a man with a bullhorn can be heard saying in one clip. He then added that Trump wanted “everybody to go home.”

The violence at the Capitol shocked the nation. But Democratic impeachment managers said that, in hindsight, it should have been no surprise.

Ever since Trump descended a golden escalator in his New York tower to launch his presidential bid in 2016, he has openly stoked and incited his supporters to violence, they said. Then they showed an exhibit cataloging his past incendiary remarks.

When Trump supporters attacked a protester at a 2016 campaign rally, the then-candidate called it “very, very appropriate.”

Another time, he urged supporters to “knock the crap out of” a protester and promised to pay their legal fees.

In 2017, after a woman in Charlottesville, Virginia, was stuck and killed by a car driven by a white supremacist during violent clashes, Trump said there were “fine people on both sides.”

And last year, after armed protesters surged into the Michigan statehouse to protest pandemic lockdown measures, he criticized Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and tweeted “LIBERATE MICHIGAN.”

“These are very good people but they are angry. They want their lives back again,” Trump said.

The FBI later broke up a plot to kidnap Whitmer by anti-government extremists upset over coronavirus restrictions she had imposed in the state.

“The siege of the Michigan statehouse was effectively a state-level dress rehearsal,” Raskin said. “It was a preview of the coming insurrection.”

Trump attorney David Schoen said Thursday that the defense’s case should go quickly on Friday, making clear they have no intention of using the 16 hours available to them.

“There’s no reason for us to be out there a long time,” Schoen said during an appearance on Fox News before blasting Democrats for the “harm this is causing to the American people.”

Schoen told reporters that the Democrats’ video presentations during the trial were “offensive” and that they “haven’t tied it in any way to Trump.” He said he believed Democrats were effectively making the public relive the tragedy in a way that “tears at the American people” and impedes efforts at unity in the country.

Trump senior adviser Jason Miller said he expects the defense will wrap up in less than a day.

Many Senate Republicans have indicated they will not vote to impeach Trump, a sign of cooling of emotions that had run hot just over a month ago.

As Democrats look to secure the 67 votes needed for a conviction, they used a slideshow presentation on Thursday to remind Senate jurors of the widespread outrage voiced in the wake of the attack, when many in the party directly blamed Trump — including Republicans who had worked for him.

“Today’s violent assault on our Capitol, an effort to subjugate American democracy by mob rule, was fomented by Mr. Trump,” read a statement issued by James Mattis, Trump’s former secretary of defense, hours after the attack.

Another slide showed a statement from John Kelly, Trump’s former chief of staff, who said the violence was “a direct result of (Trump) poisoning the minds of people with the lies and the fraud.”

“The invasion of our Capitol by a mob, incited by lies from some entrusted with power, is a disgrace to all who sacrificed to build our Republic,” read another, which showed a tweet from former Republican House Speaker John Boehner.

Democrats also showed a chart of the 16 administration officials and Cabinet members who resigned in the aftermath of the attack on the Capitol, including Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

“There is no mistaking the impact your rhetoric had on the situation, and it is the inflection point for me,” DeVos said at the time.

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats prosecuting President Donald Trump’s impeachment have wrapped up their opening arguments.

Rep. Jamie Raskin implored senators in his closing speech to exercise “common sense about what just took place in our country” and find Trump guilty of inciting an insurrection. Raskin is the lead prosecutor for the House.

He said senators have the power under the Constitution to find Trump guilty of having betrayed the oath of office the nation's founders wrote into the Constitution.

Another impeachment manager warned senators that acquitting Trump could have lasting consequences for the country. Rep. Joe Neguse said that “if we pretend this didn’t happen, or worse, if we let it go unanswered, who’s to say it won’t happen again.”

Trump’s lawyers will begin their arguments when the trial resumes at noon Friday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic prosecutors in Donald Trump's impeachment trial say rioters believed they were are acting on the “president’s orders” to storm the Capitol to undo Joe Biden's election victory. 

The House is ready to wrap up opening arguments. Biden says he believes “some minds may be changed” after the previous day's gripping video of the deadly siege The Democrats are laying out the physical and mental harm caused by the Capitol attack and discussing Trump’s lack of action as it unfolded. Thursday's session follows the previous day's raw and visceral video of last month’s deadly insurrection. 

The Trump legal team gets its chance to make its case Friday and Saturday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic prosecutors in Donald Trump's impeachment trial say rioters believed they were are acting on the “president’s orders” to storm the Capitol to undo Joe Biden's election victory. The House is ready to wrap up opening arguments. 

Biden says he believes “some minds may be changed” after the previous day's gripping video of the deadly siege The Democrats are laying out the physical and mental harm caused by the Capitol attack and discussing Trump’s lack of action as it unfolded. Thursday's session follows the previous day's raw and visceral video of last month’s deadly insurrection. The Trump legal team gets its chance to make its case Friday and Saturday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House managers are continuing their case Thursday in the historic impeachment trial. Trump’s lawyers are expected to launch their defense by week’s end.

<a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?508743-1/impeachment-trial">CLICK here </a>to watch Day 3 of the trial

President Joe Biden said&nbsp; he believes “some minds may be changed” in former President Trump’s&nbsp; trial after the display of <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?508741-101/senate-impeachment-trial-day-2-part-2">searing, graphic videos</a> of the assault on the U.S. Capitol.

Biden told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday that he didn’t watch any of the previous day’s proceedings live but later saw news coverage. The Democratic House impeachment managers used security video as part of their case, and the violent images of the riot shook senators and TV viewers alike.

Biden has steadfastly refused to weigh in on the trial and again on Thursday said his focus was on fulfilling his campaign promise to battle the coronavirus pandemic. Biden says the nation has “to move on.” Aides have said Biden will address the proceedings after a verdict is reached.

Trump’s lawyers are expected to launch their defense by week’s end.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/2/1613085041579.png" alt="In his final remarks, House impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said&nbsp;“The First Amendment does not create some superpower immunity from impeachment." -photo courtesy CSPAN" />
 <figcaption>In his final remarks, House impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said&nbsp;“The First Amendment does not create some superpower immunity from impeachment." -photo courtesy CSPAN</figcaption>
 </figure><a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?508743-1/impeachment-trial">CLICK here&nbsp;</a>to watch replay of Day 3 of the trialWASHINGTON (AP) — Dire harm from Donald Trump’s false and violent incitements will vex American democracy long into the future unless the Senate convicts him of impeachment and bars him from future office, House prosecutors insisted Thursday as they concluded two days of emotional arguments in his historic trial.Making their case, they presented piles of new videos of last month’s deadly Capitol attack, with invaders proudly declaring they were merely obeying “the president’s orders” to fight to overturn the election results as Congress was certifying his defeat to Democrat Joe Biden. Trump is accused of inciting the invasion, which prosecutors said was a predictable culmination of the many public and explicit instructions he gave supporters long before his White House rally that unleashed the Jan. 6&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege">attack.</a>“If we pretend this didn’t happen, or worse, if we let it go unanswered, who’s to say it won’t happen again?” argued prosecutor Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo. Even out of office, Democrats warned, Trump could whip up a mob of followers for similar damage.Trump’s defense will take the Senate floor on Friday, arguing that as terrible as the attack was, it clearly was not the president’s doing. The proceedings could finish with a vote this weekend by the senators who are sitting as impeachment jurors.The Democrats, with little hope of conviction by two-thirds of the evenly divided Senate, are also making their most graphic case to the American public, while Trump’s lawyers and the Republicans are focused on legal rather than emotional or historic questions, hoping to get it all behind as quickly as possible. Five people died in the Capitol chaos and its aftermath, a domestic attack unparalleled in U.S. history.Trump’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-capitol-siege-biden-cabinet-trials-acquittals-d82d5aa64d4988ec92860d4729dfc9f8">second impeachment trial,</a>&nbsp;on a charge of incitement of insurrection, has echoes of last year’s impeachment and acquittal over the Ukraine matter, as prosecutors warn senators that Trump has shown no bounds and will pose a continuing danger to the civic order unless he is convicted. Even out of the White House, the former president holds influence over large swaths of voters.The Democratic House members acting as prosecutors drew a direct line Thursday from Trump’s repeated comments condoning and even celebrating violence — praising “both sides” after the 2017 outbreak at the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia — and urging his rally crowd last month to go to the Capitol and fight for his presidency. He spread false claims about election fraud and urged his supporters to “stop the steal” of the presidency.Prosecutors used the rioters’ own videos from that day to pin responsibility on Trump. “We were invited here,” said one. “Trump sent us,” said another. “He’ll be happy. We’re fighting for Trump.”“They truly believed that the whole intrusion was at the president’s orders,” said Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado. “The president told them to be there.”At the White House, President Biden said he believed “some minds may be changed” after senators saw chilling security video Wednesday of the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/78104aea082995bbd7412a6e6cd13818">deadly insurrection at the Capitol</a>, including of rioters searching menacingly for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence.Biden said he didn’t watch any of the previous day’s proceedings live but later saw news coverage.Though most of the Senate jurors seem to have made up their minds, making Trump’s acquittal likely, the never-before-seen audio and video released Wednesday became a key exhibit.Senators sat riveted as the jarring video played in the chamber. The footage showed the mob smashing into the building and rioters engaging in hand-to-hand combat with police, with audio of officers pleading for backup. Rioters roamed the halls chanting, “Hang Mike Pence,” and eerily singing out, “Where are you, Nancy?” in search of Pelosi.Videos of the siege have been circulating since the day of the riot, but the graphic compilation offered a moment-by-moment retelling of one of the nation’s most alarming days. And it underscored how dangerously close the rioters came to the nation’s leaders, shifting the focus of the trial from an academic debate about the Constitution to a raw retelling of the assault.Trump attorney David Schoen took issue, saying that the presentation was “offensive” and that the Democrats “haven’t tied it in any way to Trump.”He told reporters Thursday at the Capitol that he believed Democrats were making the public relive the tragedy in a way that “tears at the American people” and impedes efforts at unity in the country.And by Thursday, senators sitting through a second full day of arguments appeared somewhat fatigued, slouching in their chairs, crossing their arms and walking around to stretch.One Republican, Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, said during a break: “To me, they’re losing credibility the longer they talk.”The goal of the two-day presentation by prosecutors from the House, which impeached the outgoing president last month a week after the siege, was to cast Trump not as an innocent bystander but rather as the “inciter in chief” who spent months spreading falsehoods and revving up supporters to challenge the election.“This attack never would have happened but for Donald Trump,” Rep. Madeleine Dean, one of the impeachment managers, said as she choked back emotion. “And so they came, draped in Trump’s flag, and used our flag, the American flag, to batter and to bludgeon.”Trump’s lawyers are likely to blame the rioters themselves for the violence.The first president to face an impeachment trial after leaving office, Trump is also the first to be twice impeached.His lawyers say he cannot be convicted because he is already gone from the White House. Even though the Senate rejected that argument in Tuesday’s vote to proceed to trial, the issue could resonate with Senate Republicans eager to acquit Trump without being seen as condoning his behavior.While six Republicans joined with Democrats to vote to proceed with the trial on Tuesday, the 56-44 vote was far from the two-thirds threshold of 67 votes needed for conviction.-----WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump incited a deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol, put his own vice president in danger and later expressed solidarity with rioters who attempted to overturn the 2020 election in his name, Democrats argued Thursday as they wrapped up opening arguments in Trump’s impeachment trial.Over two days of testimony, the Democrats asserted that Trump deliberately ordered his supporters to “fight like hell” and “go by very different rules” or they “wouldn’t have a country anymore.” They bolstered their case with accounts from the rioters themselves, some of whom said they were acting on Trump’s orders.The former president’s defense team insists Trump’s speech near the White House was protected under the First Amendment. And they argue he shouldn’t be on trial in the Senate because he is no longer in office — an argument Democrats reject.“The First Amendment does not create some superpower immunity from impeachment,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat who is leading the prosecution. “If you don’t find this a high crime and misdemeanor today, you have set a new terrible standard for presidential misconduct.”Highlights from the trial on Thursday:‘WE WERE INVITED HERE’“Fight for Trump.” “Trump sent us.” “We are listening to Trump.” “We wait and take orders from our president”Democrats focused intently on words offered by rioters to rationalize their storming of the Capitol. It was part of a broader effort to directly link the president’s call for his loyalists to “fight like hell” with the death, destruction and mayhem that followed his speech on Jan. 6.In many cases, rioters, who sought to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory, explained that they were acting at Trump’s behest.To underscore their point, Democrats showed videos using rioters own words. Among them was Jennifer Ryan, a Texas real estate agent who was criminally charged but insists she was just “following my president.”One video showed a man in the Capitol during the siege, who suggested to his friends that they pick up an office phone and call Trump to say, “We love you, bro!”Another captured a man shouting at police: “We were invited here.”Democratic impeachment managers also noted that many left after Trump released an online video hours after the attack, urging them to go home.“Today is ours. We won the day,” a man with a bullhorn can be heard saying in one clip. He then added that Trump wanted “everybody to go home.”___A HISTORY OF VIOLENCEThe violence at the Capitol shocked the nation. But Democratic impeachment managers said that, in hindsight, it should have been no surprise.Ever since Trump descended a golden escalator in his New York tower to launch his presidential bid in 2016, he has openly stoked and incited his supporters to violence, they said. Then they showed an exhibit cataloging his past incendiary remarks.When Trump supporters attacked a protester at a 2016 campaign rally, the then-candidate called it “very, very appropriate.”Another time, he urged supporters to “knock the crap out of” a protester and promised to pay their legal fees.In 2017, after a woman in Charlottesville, Virginia, was stuck and killed by a car driven by a white supremacist during violent clashes, Trump said there were “fine people on both sides.”And last year, after armed protesters surged into the Michigan statehouse to protest pandemic lockdown measures, he criticized Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and tweeted “LIBERATE MICHIGAN.”“These are very good people but they are angry. They want their lives back again,” Trump said.The FBI later broke up a plot to kidnap Whitmer by anti-government extremists upset over coronavirus restrictions she had imposed in the state.“The siege of the Michigan statehouse was effectively a state-level dress rehearsal,” Raskin said. “It was a preview of the coming insurrection.”___A QUICK DEFENSETrump attorney David Schoen said Thursday that the defense’s case should go quickly on Friday, making clear they have no intention of using the 16 hours available to them.“There’s no reason for us to be out there a long time,” Schoen said during an appearance on Fox News before blasting Democrats for the “harm this is causing to the American people.”Schoen told reporters that the Democrats’ video presentations during the trial were “offensive” and that they “haven’t tied it in any way to Trump.” He said he believed Democrats were effectively making the public relive the tragedy in a way that “tears at the American people” and impedes efforts at unity in the country.Trump senior adviser Jason Miller said he expects the defense will wrap up in less than a day.___POST RIOT RESIGNATIONSMany Senate Republicans have indicated they will not vote to impeach Trump, a sign of cooling of emotions that had run hot just over a month ago.As Democrats look to secure the 67 votes needed for a conviction, they used a slideshow presentation on Thursday to remind Senate jurors of the widespread outrage voiced in the wake of the attack, when many in the party directly blamed Trump — including Republicans who had worked for him.“Today’s violent assault on our Capitol, an effort to subjugate American democracy by mob rule, was fomented by Mr. Trump,” read a statement issued by James Mattis, Trump’s former secretary of defense, hours after the attack.Another slide showed a statement from John Kelly, Trump’s former chief of staff, who said the violence was “a direct result of (Trump) poisoning the minds of people with the lies and the fraud.”“The invasion of our Capitol by a mob, incited by lies from some entrusted with power, is a disgrace to all who sacrificed to build our Republic,” read another, which showed a tweet from former Republican House Speaker John Boehner.Democrats also showed a chart of the 16 administration officials and Cabinet members who resigned in the aftermath of the attack on the Capitol, including Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.“There is no mistaking the impact your rhetoric had on the situation, and it is the inflection point for me,” DeVos said at the time.WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats prosecuting President Donald Trump’s impeachment have wrapped up their opening arguments.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/2/1613077374687.png" alt="House impeachment manager Rep. Joe Neguse of Colorado during his presentation Thursday afternoon." />
 <figcaption>House impeachment manager Rep. Joe Neguse of Colorado during his presentation Thursday afternoon.</figcaption>
 </figure>Rep. Jamie Raskin implored senators in his closing speech to exercise “common sense about what just took place in our country” and find Trump guilty of inciting an insurrection. Raskin is the lead prosecutor for the House.He said senators have the power under the Constitution to find Trump guilty of having betrayed the oath of office the nation's founders wrote into the Constitution.Another impeachment manager warned senators that acquitting Trump could have lasting consequences for the country. Rep. Joe Neguse said that “if we pretend this didn’t happen, or worse, if we let it go unanswered, who’s to say it won’t happen again.”Trump’s lawyers will begin their arguments when the trial resumes at noon Friday.WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic prosecutors in Donald Trump's impeachment trial say rioters believed they were are acting on the “president’s orders” to storm the Capitol to undo Joe Biden's election victory. The House is ready to wrap up opening arguments. Biden says he believes “some minds may be changed” after the previous day's gripping video of the deadly siege The Democrats are laying out the physical and mental harm caused by the Capitol attack and discussing Trump’s lack of action as it unfolded. Thursday's session follows the previous day's raw and visceral video of last month’s deadly insurrection. The Trump legal team gets its chance to make its case Friday and Saturday.---------<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/2/1613061767146.png" alt="<a href="https://www.c-span.org/series/?theSenate">The Senate</a>&nbsp;impeachment trial of former&nbsp;<a href="https://www.c-span.org/person/?donaldtrump">President Donald Trump&nbsp;</a>continues Thursday with House managers presenting more of their case.-image courtesy CSPAN" />
 <figcaption><a href="https://www.c-span.org/series/?theSenate">The Senate</a>&nbsp;impeachment trial of former&nbsp;<a href="https://www.c-span.org/person/?donaldtrump">President Donald Trump&nbsp;</a>continues Thursday with House managers presenting more of their case.-image courtesy CSPAN</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic prosecutors in Donald Trump's impeachment trial say rioters believed they were are acting on the “president’s orders” to storm the Capitol to undo Joe Biden's election victory. The House is ready to wrap up opening arguments. Biden says he believes “some minds may be changed” after the previous day's gripping video of the deadly siege The Democrats are laying out the physical and mental harm caused by the Capitol attack and discussing Trump’s lack of action as it unfolded. Thursday's session follows the previous day's raw and visceral video of last month’s deadly insurrection. The Trump legal team gets its chance to make its case Friday and Saturday.---------WASHINGTON (AP) — The House managers are continuing their case Thursday in the historic impeachment trial. Trump’s lawyers are expected to launch their defense by week’s end.<a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?508743-1/impeachment-trial">CLICK here </a>to watch Day 3 of the trialPresident Joe Biden said&nbsp; he believes “some minds may be changed” in former President Trump’s&nbsp; trial after the display of <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?508741-101/senate-impeachment-trial-day-2-part-2">searing, graphic videos</a> of the assault on the U.S. Capitol.Biden told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday that he didn’t watch any of the previous day’s proceedings live but later saw news coverage. The Democratic House impeachment managers used security video as part of their case, and the violent images of the riot shook senators and TV viewers alike.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">The &#39;Not Guilty&#39; vote is growing after today. I think most Republicans found the presentation by the House Managers offensive and absurd.&mdash; Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) <a href="https://twitter.com/LindseyGrahamSC/status/1359695883906998277?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 11, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>Biden has steadfastly refused to weigh in on the trial and again on Thursday said his focus was on fulfilling his campaign promise to battle the coronavirus pandemic. Biden says the nation has “to move on.” Aides have said Biden will address the proceedings after a verdict is reached.Trump’s lawyers are expected to launch their defense by week’s end.

🎥  Impeachment Day 3 Highlights: Convict or face dire democracy damage

<a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?508741-1/impeachment-trial">CLICK here</a> to watch a replay of Day 2 of the impeachment trial.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivVOPWrFfW4&amp;feature=youtu.be">Click here </a>to watch the video shown by House Impeachment managers of the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats opened their first day of arguments in former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial Wednesday with searing footage of the U.S. Capitol riot as they painted Trump as an “inciter in chief” who systematically riled up his supporters and falsely convinced them the election had been stolen, culminating in the deadly attack.

“He assembled, inflamed and incited his followers to descend upon the Capitol,” said the lead impeachment manager, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md.

As she presented harrowing footage of the siege, Del. Stacey Plaskett, a Democrat representing the U.S. Virgin Islands and one of the prosecutors, said Trump had “put a target” on the backs of then-Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who were leading the certification of President Joe Biden’s election victory. “His mob broke into the Capitol to hunt them down,” Plaskett said.

Highlights from the first full day of arguments:

Trump’s voice rang out in the Senate Chamber as Democrats aired video from his rallies and other remarks to supporters. Interspersed throughout were slides of Trump’s tweets contesting the election and promoting the Jan. 6 rally in Washington, which he promised would be “wild.”

The impeachment managers put Trump’s rhetoric on trial, from the months he spent laying the groundwork to contest the election results to the speech he delivered outside the White House egging his supporters to “fight” before they stormed the Capitol.

“He truly made his base believe that the only way he could lose was if the election were rigged,” said Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, another one of the prosecutors.

Trump, the House impeachment managers argued, whipped his supporters into a frenzy with the “big lie” that their votes had been stolen, and urged them to fight.

“This attack never would have happened but for Donald Trump,” said Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., choking back emotion. “And so they came, draped in Trump’s flag, and used our flag, the American flag, to batter and to bludgeon.”

There was no widespread fraud in the election, as has been confirmed by election officials across the country and former Attorney General William Barr. Dozens of legal challenges&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-losing-election-lawsuits-36d113484ac0946fa5f0614deb7de15e">to the election</a>&nbsp;put forth by Trump and his allies were dismissed.

To reconstruct the siege for senators, Democrats aired never-before-seen security footage from inside the Capitol that showed the attack unfolding. Their presentation included chilling video of the rioters rampaging into the building and audio of distressed police officers who tried in vain to keep them out. “We have been flanked and we’ve lost the line,” one frantic officer could be heard saying.

The presentation also showed the perilous moments when lawmakers and others, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Pence, were rushed to safety; body cam footage of an officer being beaten; the sounds of crunching, breaking glass; profane screams and violent threats; and cries as the rioters streamed into the building, some carrying riot shields and weapons.

“Where do they count the f—ing votes?” one member of the mob could be heard shouting. “You work for us,” one yelled at officers. “Where’s that meeting at?”

Democrats warned that many of the scenes would be hard to watch, including the horrifying screams of an officer being crushed in a doorway and video of one of the rioters, Ashli E. Babbitt, being shot to death by U.S. Capitol Police.

Also never before seen: Footage of Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman, who has already been hailed as a hero, warning Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, that the mob was headed his way. Romney turned and dashed in the other direction.

“I did not know that was Officer Goodman,” Romney told reporters after seeing it. “I look forward to thanking him when I next see him.”

Goodman also directed the mob away from the Senate Chamber and toward other officers.

While the Democrats excoriated Trump, they lavished praise on an unlike figure: former Vice President Pence, outlining in exacting detail how his life had been put in physical danger and hailing him as a “patriot” for defying Trump’s pressure campaign to overturn the election results.

“Vice President Pence had the courage to stand against the president, tell the American public the truth and uphold our Constitution. That is patriotism,” said Plaskett, whose presentation included previously unseen footage of Pence and his family being evacuated from the Senate chamber as rioters spread through the Capitol.

Other footage showed the rioters chanting “Hang Mike Pence!” as others searching for him. At one point, Plaskett said, the rioters were within 100 feet of where Pence was sheltering with his family.

“They were talking about assassinating the vice president of the United States,” she said.

Many Republicans had been appalled by Trump’s treatment of his most loyal soldier during his final days in office. And the focus appeared to be a tacit acknowledgement of the Democrats’ intended audience as they try to convince Senate Republicans — many of whom are close with Pence — that Trump deservers to be punished for what happened.

“Mike Pence is not a traitor to this country. He’s a patriot,” said Castro. “And he and his family, who was with him that day, didn’t deserve this, didn’t deserve a president unleashing a mob on them, especially because he was just doing his job.”

They were merely observers as Democrats had the floor. But members of Trump’s legal team indicated they would stay the course despite a flood of criticism, both from Republican senators and the former president, about their performance during procedural arguments Tuesday.

“Not at all,” said attorney Bruce Castor when asked by reporters whether there would be any changes to their strategy. “No, I don’t anticipate any,” echoed David Schoen, another attorney.

Both Castor and Schoen said they had spoken to Trump on Tuesday, but Castor denied that the former president had expressed displeasure to him.

“Far from it,” he said, even as Schoen allowed there was room for improvement after Republican senators panned their performance as disjointed and unhelpful.

“To the extent they were critical of anything that I did, I just want to try to do a better job then,” he said.

“Bottom line is I think his team will do better, can do better,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, D-S.C., a close ally of the president, after the two had spoken. While he acknowledged there was “room for improvement,” Graham said he’d tried to tell Trump that “the case is over. It’s just a matter of getting the final verdict now. ” All but six Republican senators voted Tuesday against moving forward with the trial.

Dean described the House Chamber descending into chaos as she stood with colleagues in the gallery above the floor and made panicked calls to her husband and sons.

“Someone shouted up to us, ‘Duck!’ then ‘Lie down!’ then ’Ready your gas masks!” she remembered. “Shortly after there was a terrifying banging on the chamber doors. I will never forget that sound.”

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., described the text he sent to his wife telling her to hug their young children.

“On Jan. 6,” said Castro, “President Trump left everyone in this Capitol for dead.”

Throughout the proceeding, the House managers served as personal witnesses of the horror and repeatedly invoked the word “us” as they appealed to fellow lawmakers targeted in the attack.

“He was coming for you, for Democratic and Republican senators. He was coming for all of us, just as the mob did at his direction,” said Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., after describing Trump’s rhetoric.

There appears little chance enough Republicans will break with Democrats to convict Trump at the end of the trial. And some of them appeared indifferent to the proceedings and unmoved by the evidence Wednesday.

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, who led the Senate challenge to the election along with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, said the prosecutors’ case was “predictable” and included information that was already public.

The video evidence was “nothing new here, for me, at the end of the day,” said Hawley, who maintains the trial is unconstitutional.

Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, another close ally of Trump, predicted the remainder of the trial was “going to be pretty tedious” and said the two sides would be better served if they just made their cases “in a couple hours” and be “done with this.”

And Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who sat with his back to the screen, writing notes on a pad, walked out in the middle of Plaskett’s description of the threats against Pence.

It was a notable contrast with Democrats like Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, who described the prosecutors’ presentation of evidence as “painful” to watch.

While it forced them to relive a traumatic moment, “it also helps to bring closure, so I think it’s something that we have to go through,” said Cardin, who described Jan. 6 as “one of the roughest days of our life.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Prosecutors in Donald Trump’s impeachment trial said Wednesday they would prove that Trump was no “innocent bystander” but the “inciter in chief” of the deadly attack at the Capitol aimed at overturning his election loss to Joe Biden.

Opening the first full day of arguments, the lead House prosecutor said promised to lay out evidence that shows the president encouraged a rally crowd to head to the Capitol, then did nothing to stem the violence and watched with “glee” as&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege">a mob stormed the iconic building.&nbsp;</a>Five people died.

“To us it may have felt like chaos and madness, but there was method to the madness that day,” said&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-capitol-siege-politics-impeachments-trump-impeachment-878fc4adba85111cec52f1e8ebd20d77">Rep. Jamie Raskin,&nbsp;</a>D-Md.

The day’s proceedings were unfolding after an emotional start to the trial that left the f<a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-capitol-siege-florida-impeachments-trump-impeachment-54837c716ae5267f91e861ff9aedc31f">ormer president fuming</a>&nbsp;Tuesday when his attorneys delivered a meandering defense and failed to halt the trial on constitutional grounds. Some allies called for yet another shakeup to his legal team.

Trump is the first president to face an impeachment trial after leaving office and the first to be twice impeached. The Jan. 6 Capitol riot followed a rally during which Trump urged his supporters to “fight like hell,” words his lawyers say were simply a figure of speech. He is charged with&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-impeachments-united-states-constitutions-capitol-siege-8c5849fb738765a5c467044498356e1c">“incitement of insurrection.”</a>

Senators, many of whom fled for safety the day of the attack, watched Tuesday’s graphic videos of the Trump supporters who battled past police to storm the halls, Trump flags waving. More video is expected Wednesday, including some that hasn’t been seen before.

The prosecutors are arguing that Trump’s words weren’t just free speech but part of “the big lie” — his relentless efforts to sow doubts about the election results. Those began long before the votes were tabulated, revving up his followers to “stop the steal” though there was no evidence of substantial fraud.

Trump knew very well what would happen when he took to the microphone at the outdoor White House rally that day, almost to the hour that Congress gaveled in to certify Biden’s win, said Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo.

“This was not just a speech,” he said.

Trump’s supporters were prepped and armed, ready to descend on the Capitol, Neguse said. “When they heard his speech, they understood his words.”

Security remained extremely tight Wednesday at the Capitol, fenced off with razor wire and patrolled by National Guard troops.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden would not be watching the trial.

“Joe Biden is the president, he’s not a pundit, he’s not going to opine on back and forth arguments,” she said.

The difficulty facing Trump’s defense team became apparent at the start as they leaned on the process of the trial, unlike any other, rather than the substance of the case against the former president.

As the House impeachment managers described police officers maimed in the chaos and rioters parading in the very chamber where the trial was being held, Trump’s team countered that the Constitution doesn’t allow impeachment at this late date.

Even though the Senate rejected that argument in Tuesday’s vote to proceed to the trial, the legal issue could resonate with Senate Republicans eager to acquit Trump without being seen as condoning his behavior.

Defense lawyer&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-donald-trump-capitol-siege-elections-impeachments-13f27eab74b260d2a41b331e2adf3461">Bruce Castor</a>&nbsp;said Tuesday he shifted his planned approach after hearing the prosecutors’ emotional opening and instead spoke conversationally to the senators, saying Trump’s team would denounce the “repugnant” attack and “in the strongest possible way denounce the rioters.” He encouraged the senators to be “cool headed” as they assessed the arguments.

Trump attorney Schoen turned the trial toward starkly partisan tones, arguing the Democrats were fueled by a “base hatred” of the former president.

A frustrated Trump on Tuesday revived his demands to focus on his unsupported claims of voter fraud, repeatedly telephoning former White House aide Peter Navarro, who told The Associated Press in an interview he agrees. He is calling on Trump to fire his legal team.

“If he doesn’t make a mid-course correction here, he’s going to lose this Super Bowl,” Navarro said, a reference to public opinion, not the unlikely possibility of conviction.

Republicans made it clear that they were unhappy with Trump’s defense, many of them saying they didn’t understand where it was going — particularly Castor’s opening.

While six Republicans joined with Democrats to vote to proceed with the trial, the 56-44 vote was far from the two-thirds threshold of 67 votes that would be needed for conviction.

As the country numbs to the Trump era’s shattering of civic norms, the prosecutors sought to remind senators and the nation how extraordinary it was to have a sitting U.S. president working to discredit the election.

In hundreds of tweets, remarks and interviews as far back as spring and summer, Trump was spreading false claims about the election and refusing to commit to the peaceful transfer of power once it was over, they said.

As violence mounted in the states in the weeks and months before Trump supporters marched to the Capitol, he could have told loyalists to stand down. But he didn’t.

The mob “didn’t come out of thin air,” said Rep . Joaquin Castro, D-Texas.

The public scenes of attack were distilled in highly personal terms, first when Raskin broke down in tears Tuesday describing his family hiding in the Capitol that day. On Wednesday, Neguse, the son of immigrants, recalled telling his father how proud he was to return to Congress that night to finish the work of certifying the election. Castro said as a Democrat from Texas, he knew how hard it is to lose elections.

They also shared comments of the Capitol Police, including a Black officer who described racial epithets being hurled at him by the rioters.

“That’s the question before all of you in this trial, is this America?” Raskin told the senators.

It appears unlikely that the House prosecutors will call witnesses, and Trump has declined a request to testify. The trial is expected to continue into the weekend.

Trump’s second&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/trump-impeachment">impeachment trial&nbsp;</a>is expected to diverge from the lengthy, complicated affair of a year ago. In that case, Trump was charged with having privately pressured Ukraine to dig up dirt on Biden, then a Democratic rival for the presidency. It could be over in half the time.

The Democratic-led House impeached the president swiftly, one week after the attack. A Capitol police officer was among those who died.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Opening arguments begin Wednesday in Donald Trump’s&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/trump-impeachment">impeachment trial&nbsp;</a>after an emotional first day that wrenched senators and the nation back to the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Trump’s attorneys sought to halt the trial on constitutional grounds, but lost that bid on Tuesday. Their arguments were meandering at times,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-capitol-siege-florida-impeachments-trump-impeachment-54837c716ae5267f91e861ff9aedc31f">leaving Trump fuming</a>&nbsp;over his lawyers’ performance and allies questioning the defense strategy. Some called for yet another shakeup to his legal team.

House Democratic prosecutors are seeking to link Trump directly to the riot that left five people dead, replaying videos of the rioters trying to stop the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory and Trump’s statements urging them to fight the election results.

On Wednesday, they plan to use Capitol security footage that hasn’t been publicly released before as they argue that Trump incited the insurrection, according to Democratic aides working on the case.

Trump is the first president to face an impeachment trial after leaving office and the first to be twice impeached. The riot followed a rally during which Trump urged his supporters to “fight like hell,” words his lawyers say were simply a figure of speech. He is charged with&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-impeachments-united-states-constitutions-capitol-siege-8c5849fb738765a5c467044498356e1c">“incitement of insurrection.”</a>

“That’s a high crime and misdemeanor,”&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-capitol-siege-politics-impeachments-trump-impeachment-878fc4adba85111cec52f1e8ebd20d77">Rep. Jamie Raskin,</a>&nbsp;D-Md., declared in opening remarks. “If that’s not an impeachable offense, then there’s no such thing.”

On Wednesday and into Thursday, the managers plan to tell a “succinct” story, according to the aides, who were granted anonymity to discuss the upcoming arguments. They will start with Trump’s false claims that there was massive election fraud and build to the Jan. 6 riots as a “culmination” of his efforts to overturn his defeat.

The Democrats will argue that Trump inflamed and encouraged groups that had violent backgrounds, the aides say, and they will show how much worse it could have been. The aides said they will use the new Capitol security footage to make that case, but did not describe it.

Security remains extremely tight at the Capitol, fenced off with razor wire and patrolled by National Guard troops.

🎥 Trump impeachment Day 2 highlights: Harrowing video footage

Former&nbsp;President Donald Trump’s&nbsp;fiery Jan. 6 speech, made just before the U.S. Capitol riot began, led to his impeachment by the House of Representatives on a charge of “incitement of insurrection.”

But as the Senate prepares for Trump’s trial to resume Feb. 9, Harvard law professor&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsweek.com/impeachment-over-protected-speech-would-harm-constitution-opinion-1560512?amp=1" target="_blank">Alan Dershowitz</a>&nbsp;and other scholars have pointed to a 1969 Supreme Court decision that, in their view, gives First Amendment protection to speakers who urge listeners to use force in certain circumstances. The decision strictly defines the legal concept of “incitement.” It is&nbsp;certain to be invoked as a reason Trump could avoid conviction, assuming the trial touches on the riot, rather than other issues.

The case, titled&nbsp;<a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/395/444/" target="_blank">Brandenburg v. Ohio</a>, struck down a law that was used to prosecute&nbsp;Clarence Brandenburg, a Ku Klux Klan leader. Speaking at a rally in rural Ohio in 1964, Brandenburg said “revengeance” [sic] was needed against government institutions for suppressing the Caucasian race. Interestingly, he said that the “revengeance” would be wrought by “marching on Congress July the Fourth, four hundred thousand strong.”

The high court ruled that state laws making it a crime merely to advocate the use of violence violate the First Amendment. Only when the advocacy is aimed at inciting “imminent lawless action,” and is likely to succeed, may government prohibit it, the court stated unanimously.

Scholars who disagree that the Brandenburg ruling protects Trump argue he unequivocally incited imminent lawless action through comments he made shortly before the rally including, “You’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong,” and “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” Harvard Law School’s&nbsp;Einer Elhauge&nbsp;asserted in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/01/14/trump-brandenburg-impeachment-first-amendment/">Washington Post&nbsp;column</a>, “Trump’s conduct clearly meets the legal standard that Brandenburg set.”

As the sides invoke the ruling to support their positions in the coming days, here is a primer on Brandenburg v. Ohio.

IMPACT: The Brandenburg decision is seen as one of the most expansive interpretations of the First Amendment ever announced by the Supreme Court. The late&nbsp;New York Times&nbsp;columnist&nbsp;Anthony Lewis&nbsp;wrote that Brandenburg “gave the greatest protection to what could be called subversive speech that it has ever had in the United States, and almost certainly greater than such speech has in any other country.”

BACKGROUND: Following the assassination of&nbsp;President William McKinley&nbsp;in 1901 by an anarchist and the start of the communist movement in 1917, states began passing anti-sedition laws and so-called “criminal syndicalism” statutes. These laws, passed in 33 states, prohibited teaching or advocating the use of violence or crime to bring about political or economic change. The motivation behind the syndicalism laws in most cases was to discourage the spread of socialist or communist anti-capitalist views.

The Brandenburg case concerned not a communist, but a Klan leader. With the cameras of a local TV crew rolling, the red-hooded Clarence Brandenburg spoke to a Klan rally held at a farm in Hamilton County, Ohio, and made a threat laced with racist slurs: “We’re not a revengent organization, but if our president, our Congress, our Supreme Court, continues to suppress the white, Caucasian race, it’s possible that there might have to be some revengeance.” His pledge to march “on Congress July the Fourth” could not fit the definition of “imminent lawless action.”

Based on his speech, Brandenburg was convicted for violating the state’s criminal syndicalism law, fined $1,000 and sentenced to one to 10 years in prison. He appealed, challenging the law as a violation of his free speech rights. The Supreme Court of Ohio dismissed the appeal, setting the stage for U.S. Supreme Court review.

VOTE: Brandenburg won. The eight sitting justices at the time were&nbsp;Chief Justice Earl Warren&nbsp;and&nbsp;Justices Hugo Black, William O. Douglas, John M. Harlan, William J. Brennan Jr., Potter Stewart, Byron White&nbsp;and&nbsp;Thurgood Marshall. The ruling was issued unsigned, rather than under the name of a specific justice. There were no dissents.

Tony Mauro is contributing U.S. Supreme Court correspondent for the National Law Journal and ALM Media and a special correspondent for the Freedom Forum. This article includes excerpts from Mauro’s 2006 book, “Illustrated Great Decisions of the Supreme Court, Second Edition.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/2/1612670606619.jpeg" alt="Image courtesy Freedom Forum" />
 <figcaption>Image courtesy Freedom Forum</figcaption>
 </figure>By TONY MAUROFormer&nbsp;President Donald Trump’s&nbsp;fiery Jan. 6 speech, made just before the U.S. Capitol riot began, led to his impeachment by the House of Representatives on a charge of “incitement of insurrection.”But as the Senate prepares for Trump’s trial to resume Feb. 9, Harvard law professor&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsweek.com/impeachment-over-protected-speech-would-harm-constitution-opinion-1560512?amp=1" target="_blank">Alan Dershowitz</a>&nbsp;and other scholars have pointed to a 1969 Supreme Court decision that, in their view, gives First Amendment protection to speakers who urge listeners to use force in certain circumstances. The decision strictly defines the legal concept of “incitement.” It is&nbsp;certain to be invoked as a reason Trump could avoid conviction, assuming the trial touches on the riot, rather than other issues.The case, titled&nbsp;<a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/395/444/" target="_blank">Brandenburg v. Ohio</a>, struck down a law that was used to prosecute&nbsp;Clarence Brandenburg, a Ku Klux Klan leader. Speaking at a rally in rural Ohio in 1964, Brandenburg said “revengeance” [sic] was needed against government institutions for suppressing the Caucasian race. Interestingly, he said that the “revengeance” would be wrought by “marching on Congress July the Fourth, four hundred thousand strong.”The high court ruled that state laws making it a crime merely to advocate the use of violence violate the First Amendment. Only when the advocacy is aimed at inciting “imminent lawless action,” and is likely to succeed, may government prohibit it, the court stated unanimously.Scholars who disagree that the Brandenburg ruling protects Trump argue he unequivocally incited imminent lawless action through comments he made shortly before the rally including, “You’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong,” and “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” Harvard Law School’s&nbsp;Einer Elhauge&nbsp;asserted in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/01/14/trump-brandenburg-impeachment-first-amendment/">Washington Post&nbsp;column</a>, “Trump’s conduct clearly meets the legal standard that Brandenburg set.”As the sides invoke the ruling to support their positions in the coming days, here is a primer on Brandenburg v. Ohio.DATE: Decided June 9, 1969IMPACT: The Brandenburg decision is seen as one of the most expansive interpretations of the First Amendment ever announced by the Supreme Court. The late&nbsp;New York Times&nbsp;columnist&nbsp;Anthony Lewis&nbsp;wrote that Brandenburg “gave the greatest protection to what could be called subversive speech that it has ever had in the United States, and almost certainly greater than such speech has in any other country.”BACKGROUND: Following the assassination of&nbsp;President William McKinley&nbsp;in 1901 by an anarchist and the start of the communist movement in 1917, states began passing anti-sedition laws and so-called “criminal syndicalism” statutes. These laws, passed in 33 states, prohibited teaching or advocating the use of violence or crime to bring about political or economic change. The motivation behind the syndicalism laws in most cases was to discourage the spread of socialist or communist anti-capitalist views.The Brandenburg case concerned not a communist, but a Klan leader. With the cameras of a local TV crew rolling, the red-hooded Clarence Brandenburg spoke to a Klan rally held at a farm in Hamilton County, Ohio, and made a threat laced with racist slurs: “We’re not a revengent organization, but if our president, our Congress, our Supreme Court, continues to suppress the white, Caucasian race, it’s possible that there might have to be some revengeance.” His pledge to march “on Congress July the Fourth” could not fit the definition of “imminent lawless action.”Based on his speech, Brandenburg was convicted for violating the state’s criminal syndicalism law, fined $1,000 and sentenced to one to 10 years in prison. He appealed, challenging the law as a violation of his free speech rights. The Supreme Court of Ohio dismissed the appeal, setting the stage for U.S. Supreme Court review.VOTE: Brandenburg won. The eight sitting justices at the time were&nbsp;Chief Justice Earl Warren&nbsp;and&nbsp;Justices Hugo Black, William O. Douglas, John M. Harlan, William J. Brennan Jr., Potter Stewart, Byron White&nbsp;and&nbsp;Thurgood Marshall. The ruling was issued unsigned, rather than under the name of a specific justice. There were no dissents.Tony Mauro is contributing U.S. Supreme Court correspondent for the National Law Journal and ALM Media and a special correspondent for the Freedom Forum. This article includes excerpts from Mauro’s 2006 book, “Illustrated Great Decisions of the Supreme Court, Second Edition.”

FIRST FIVE: A First Amendment case that may be key to Trump's Senate trial

NEW YORK (AP) — Christopher Plummer, the dashing award-winning actor who played Captain von Trapp in the film “The Sound of Music” and at 82 became the oldest Academy Award acting winner in history, has died. He was 91.

Plummer died Friday morning at his home in Connecticut with his wife, Elaine Taylor, by his side, said Lou Pitt, his longtime friend and manager

Over more than 50 years in the industry, Plummer enjoyed varied roles ranging from the film “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” to the voice of the villain in 2009′s “Up” and as a canny lawyer in Broadway’s “Inherit the Wind.”

But it was opposite Julie Andrews as von Trapp that made him a star. He played an Austrian captain who must flee the country with his folk-singing family to escape service in the Nazi navy, a role he lamented was “humorless and one-dimensional.” Plummer spent the rest of his life referring to the film as “The Sound of Mucus” or “S&amp;M.”

“We tried so hard to put humor into it,” he told The Associated Press in 2007. “It was almost impossible. It was just agony to try to make that guy not a cardboard figure.”

The role catapulted Plummer to stardom, but he never took to leading men parts, despite his silver hair, good looks and ever-so-slight English accent. He preferred character parts, considering them more meaty.

Plummer had a remarkable film renaissance late in life, which began with his acclaimed performance as Mike Wallace in Michael Mann’s 1999 film “The Insider,” continued in films such as 2001’s “A Beautiful Mind” and 2009′s “The Last Station,” in which he played a deteriorating Tolstoy and was nominated for an Oscar.

In 2012, Plummer won a supporting actor Oscar for his role in “Beginners” as Hal Fields, a museum director who becomes openly gay after his wife of 44 years dies. His loving, final relationship becomes an inspiration for his son, who struggles with his father’s death and how to find intimacy in a new relationship.

“Too many people in the world are unhappy with their lot. And then they retire and they become vegetables. I think retirement in any profession is death, so I’m determined to keep crackin’,” he told AP in 2011.

Plummer in 2017 replaced Kevin Spacey as J. Paul Getty in “All the Money in the World” just six weeks before the film was set to hit theaters. That choice that was officially validated in the best possible way for the film — a supporting Oscar nomination for Plummer, his third. In 2019, he starred in the TV suspense drama series “Departure.”

There were fallow periods in his career — a “Pink Panther” movie here, a “Dracula 2000″ there and even a “Star Trek” — as a Klingon, no less. But Plummer had other reasons than the scripts in mind.

“For a long time, I accepted parts that took me to attractive places in the world. Rather than shooting in the Bronx, I would rather go to the south of France, crazed creature than I am,” he told AP in 2007. “And so I sacrificed a lot of my career for nicer hotels and more attractive beaches.”

The Canadian-born actor performed most of the major Shakespeare roles, including Hamlet, Cyrano, Iago, Othello, Prospero, Henry V and a staggering “King Lear” at Lincoln Center in 2004. He was frequent star at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada.

“I’ve become simpler and simpler with playing Shakespeare,” he said in 2007. “I’m not as extravagant as I used to be. I don’t listen to my voice so much anymore. All the pitfalls of playing the classics — you can fall in love with yourself.”

He won two Tony Awards. The first was in 1974 for best actor in a musical for playing the title role in “Cyrano” and his second in 1997 for his portrayal of John Barrymore in “Barrymore.” He also won two Emmys.

Plummer was born Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer in Toronto. His maternal great-grandfather was former Canadian Prime Minister Sir John Abbott. His parents divorced shortly after his birth and he was raised by his mother and aunts.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/2/1612550038988.png" alt="Plummer from the cover of his autobiography <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Spite-Myself-Christopher-Plummer/dp/0345803221/ref=asc_df_0345803221/?tag=hyprod-20&amp;linkCode=df0&amp;hvadid=312174487654&amp;hvpos=&amp;hvnetw=g&amp;hvrand=6139120484327924993&amp;hvpone=&amp;hvptwo=&amp;hvqmt=&amp;hvdev=c&amp;hvdvcmdl=&amp;hvlocint=&amp;hvlocphy=9024462&amp;hvtargid=pla-525566511796&amp;psc=1">"In Spite of Myself"</a>" />
 <figcaption>Plummer from the cover of his autobiography <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Spite-Myself-Christopher-Plummer/dp/0345803221/ref=asc_df_0345803221/?tag=hyprod-20&amp;linkCode=df0&amp;hvadid=312174487654&amp;hvpos=&amp;hvnetw=g&amp;hvrand=6139120484327924993&amp;hvpone=&amp;hvptwo=&amp;hvqmt=&amp;hvdev=c&amp;hvdvcmdl=&amp;hvlocint=&amp;hvlocphy=9024462&amp;hvtargid=pla-525566511796&amp;psc=1">"In Spite of Myself"</a></figcaption>
 </figure>NEW YORK (AP) — Christopher Plummer, the dashing award-winning actor who played Captain von Trapp in the film “The Sound of Music” and at 82 became the oldest Academy Award acting winner in history, has died. He was 91.Plummer died Friday morning at his home in Connecticut with his wife, Elaine Taylor, by his side, said Lou Pitt, his longtime friend and managerOver more than 50 years in the industry, Plummer enjoyed varied roles ranging from the film “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” to the voice of the villain in 2009′s “Up” and as a canny lawyer in Broadway’s “Inherit the Wind.”But it was opposite Julie Andrews as von Trapp that made him a star. He played an Austrian captain who must flee the country with his folk-singing family to escape service in the Nazi navy, a role he lamented was “humorless and one-dimensional.” Plummer spent the rest of his life referring to the film as “The Sound of Mucus” or “S&amp;M.”“We tried so hard to put humor into it,” he told The Associated Press in 2007. “It was almost impossible. It was just agony to try to make that guy not a cardboard figure.”The role catapulted Plummer to stardom, but he never took to leading men parts, despite his silver hair, good looks and ever-so-slight English accent. He preferred character parts, considering them more meaty.Plummer had a remarkable film renaissance late in life, which began with his acclaimed performance as Mike Wallace in Michael Mann’s 1999 film “The Insider,” continued in films such as 2001’s “A Beautiful Mind” and 2009′s “The Last Station,” in which he played a deteriorating Tolstoy and was nominated for an Oscar.In 2012, Plummer won a supporting actor Oscar for his role in “Beginners” as Hal Fields, a museum director who becomes openly gay after his wife of 44 years dies. His loving, final relationship becomes an inspiration for his son, who struggles with his father’s death and how to find intimacy in a new relationship.“Too many people in the world are unhappy with their lot. And then they retire and they become vegetables. I think retirement in any profession is death, so I’m determined to keep crackin’,” he told AP in 2011.Plummer in 2017 replaced Kevin Spacey as J. Paul Getty in “All the Money in the World” just six weeks before the film was set to hit theaters. That choice that was officially validated in the best possible way for the film — a supporting Oscar nomination for Plummer, his third. In 2019, he starred in the TV suspense drama series “Departure.”There were fallow periods in his career — a “Pink Panther” movie here, a “Dracula 2000″ there and even a “Star Trek” — as a Klingon, no less. But Plummer had other reasons than the scripts in mind.“For a long time, I accepted parts that took me to attractive places in the world. Rather than shooting in the Bronx, I would rather go to the south of France, crazed creature than I am,” he told AP in 2007. “And so I sacrificed a lot of my career for nicer hotels and more attractive beaches.”The Canadian-born actor performed most of the major Shakespeare roles, including Hamlet, Cyrano, Iago, Othello, Prospero, Henry V and a staggering “King Lear” at Lincoln Center in 2004. He was frequent star at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada.“I’ve become simpler and simpler with playing Shakespeare,” he said in 2007. “I’m not as extravagant as I used to be. I don’t listen to my voice so much anymore. All the pitfalls of playing the classics — you can fall in love with yourself.”He won two Tony Awards. The first was in 1974 for best actor in a musical for playing the title role in “Cyrano” and his second in 1997 for his portrayal of John Barrymore in “Barrymore.” He also won two Emmys.Plummer was born Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer in Toronto. His maternal great-grandfather was former Canadian Prime Minister Sir John Abbott. His parents divorced shortly after his birth and he was raised by his mother and aunts.

Oscar winner, ‘Sound of Music’ star Christopher Plummer dies

The Salina Adult Education Center will have a sign up window for ESL/GED/College Prep Skill&nbsp; Building Classes Feb. 8 – 26.&nbsp; 

The Salina Adult Education Center will have a sign up window for ESL/GED/College Prep Skill&nbsp; Building Classes Feb. 8 – 26.&nbsp; Orientation will be held the week of March 8.&nbsp; Currently, classes are being held remotely.&nbsp; Remote adult education classes with SAEC entail students learning from their home environment with live instruction from SAEC instructors.&nbsp; Classes are available morning or evening and attended by students two days a week.&nbsp; Students will also have required out of class assignments to enhance learning, that are built for adult students who are working jobs, parenting or handling other life commitments.&nbsp; Planning for a few hours a week is helpful for SAEC students to complete those assignments.GED and College Skill Building classes focus on math, reading, writing and employment readiness.&nbsp; ESL classes focus on English language acquisition including speaking, listening, reading and writing.Onsite classes should resume at the SAEC location as Salina County COVID-19 numbers start to diminish.&nbsp; Those classes will also be two days a week, morning or evening.&nbsp; Keep in contact with SAEC staff for more information on when on site classes resume.Director of Adult Education Kelly Mobray encourages adults who need services to make sure the home environment is ready for them to be in class.&nbsp; Support with childcare is a critical aspect to think about as well as having a laptop and strong internet to attend live classes.&nbsp; Mobray wants those considering SAEC classes to know that the staff can definitely help students achieve their academic goals in order to be ready for college classes or obtain a better job.GED and College Skill Builders should visit&nbsp;<a href="http://www.305adulteducation.com/" target="_blank">www.305adulteducation.com</a>&nbsp;and complete the forms under the ENROLLMENT tab during the sign up window.&nbsp; SAEC staff will reach out to them once all forms are received.ESL students need to visit or call the main site at 309.4660.&nbsp; The center is located at 2620 Centennial&nbsp; Road.&nbsp; This is on the south side of the Salina Area Tech College campus.&nbsp; Mobray can be reached for further information or questions at 309.4660 or&nbsp;<a href="mailto:kelly.mobray@usd305.com" target="_blank">kelly.mobray@usd305.com</a>.