So, at some point, “Extra” host Mario Lopez took a smiling selfie with reality television star Donald Trump (and, for the record, with Hillary Clinton as well). And we had, like. A thought or 33 about it all.
1. We really hope they took a face swap version of this.
2. Or took this to Snapchat with the puppy face filter.
3. God, that filter is so goddamn flattering.
4. Anyway. Yeah, what Ana Ortiz said. Double-you. Tee. Eff.
5. Like. What exactly is going on here?
6. What’s with making candidates seem like a friend or someone you’d ever want selfies with?
7. Hell, we don’t want a president to be our friend, ever.
8. We want one who is, like, way too smart to want to hang out with us. Who’s out there, like, doing equations for fun.
9. Or whatever super smart people do.
10. Mario, show off your dimples if you need us to come rescue you!
11. (Ah. HA! We knew it.)
12. Wow. Mario really doesn’t age at all, does he?
13. It’s almost like he made some kind of blood sacrifice to a demonic entity, thus preserving his eternal youth.
14. It’s always interesting to see who does an open mouth smile versus closed mouth.
15. Like Trump is very much all about the patented Olsen “prune”:
21. We also kind of felt bad for Mario when he started seeing the online backlash to his selfie, specifically the one with Trump. He made a video explaining the he wasn’t, like, “hanging out” with the candidates, he was just doing his job:
The second day of Donald Trump’s historic second impeachment is highlighting the rhetoric that led to the horrific insurrection on the U.S. Capitol building on Jan 6. House impeachment managers have laid out a timeline linking Trump and his words to the attack. U.S. Virgin Island Delegate Stacey Plaskett made it all real clear.
The second day of Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial brought to light more violence.
WATCH: House impeachment manager Neguse displays criminal charging documents that state that Capitol rioters would have killed VP Pence and Speaker Pelosi. pic.twitter.com/Fkc2znCAEL
Rep. Joe Neguse highlighted a threat that come from an affidavit highlighting a selfie video. The video was recorded by Dawn Bancroft and threatened direct violence against Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
“We were looking for Nancy to shoot her in the friggin’ brain, but we didn’t find her,” Bancroft said in the video, according to the affidavit.
The impeachment managers really drove home the point that Trump’s attempt to overturn the election laid the groundwork for the coup.
The Democratic impeachment managers are doing a great job today of showing how the insurrection was the culmination of a months long attempted coup.
Trump's efforts to overturn the election became violent after his months of legal and political efforts had failed.
The Trump campaign spent months trying to overturn the election with numerous lawsuits in key swing states. All of the lawsuits were thrown out but that didn’t stop Trump and his campaign from pushing rhetoric that cast doubt on the democratic process. The focus weighed heavily on Michigan.
“Think about it. The President of the United States was calling public officials, calling from the White House, inviting them into the Oval Office, telling them to disenfranchise voters of her state, telling them to overturn the will of the American people,” Rep. Madeleine Dean, a House impeachment manager, said on the Senate floor. “All to take the election for himself.”
Stacey Plaskett caught everyone’s attention with her cape and recalling the Texas highway tape.
I know this is superficial as hell, but I’m kind of loving that House Manager, @StaceyPlaskett, showed-up wearing a cape to defend our democracy. pic.twitter.com/QIHaOCMFeC
There is a lot of talk on Twitter from women celebrating Plaskett for wearing a cape to defend democracy. The first-ever delegate to be a House impeachment manager recalled the video of vehicles with Trump flags trying to run a Biden/Harris bus off the road in Texas.
Trump and other Republicans celebrated the caravan of vehicles that tried to run the Biden/Harris bus off the road. It was a moment in American political history that showed the worst of American voters. Trump tweeted the video the following day saying “I LOVE TEXAS!”
Plaskett took the hand of everyone watching her speak and led them from the Texas highway incident right to the Capitol attack.
This is an extraordinary piece of research in the impeachment manager's case, among many others: @StaceyPlaskett explains the same extremists who terrorized a Biden/Harris bus in October in Texas organized the insurrection at the capitol. pic.twitter.com/vTll8iw0LO
Plaskett did not hold back and showed how the attack was coordinated and anything but a secret. The U.S. Virgin Islands representative laid out the path from the caravan to the people who orchestrated the violent attack aiming to overturn a free and fair election.
She also highlighted how the Trump administration was not in the dark about the planned attack. According to Plaskett, the Trump administration was monitoring websites where the attack was being planned. The day before, the FBI sent a warning of a credible threat from extremists in the U.S. Yet, the Trump administration did nothing to stop the attack.
“They posted exact blueprints of the attack openly, loudly, proudly – and they did this all over public forums,” Plaskett said during her remarks. “These were not just hidden posts and dark websites that Trump would not have seen. Quite the opposite. We know President Trump monitored these websites. We know this because his advisers confirm it.”
Original: Former President Donald Trump is making history as the only president in American history to be impeached for a second time. This time, the Senate, with Democrats in the majority, is bringing a full trial against the former president. The historic impeachment started with a startling video of the Jan. 6 insurrection.
The second impeachment trial against former President Donald Trump started with a chilling video of the insurrection.
The 13-minute video shows the terrifying scene at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and includes parts of the former president’s speech that day during his Stop the Steal rally. The parts of the speech include him calling for the riled-up crowd to march down to the Capitol building while members of Congress were certifying the Electoral College votes.
The video shows Trump supporters fighting with police and causing complete pandemonium. The video is hard to watch and paints a picture of the Jan. 6 insurrection that Americans might not have seen. Using various videos, the impeachment manager, Rep. Jamie Raskin, created a montage of violent imagery with rioters calling for death of Congress members, destruction of the Capitol, and the violent overthrow of the U.S. government.
After the video, Rep. Raskin spoke about what it was like for him to survive the violent siege on the Capitol building. The representative’s son committed suicide one week before the attack and his daughter and son-in-law were with him in the Capitol building on Jan. 6. Like many people in the building during the violent attack, they believed they were going to die.
The opening video has struck a chord with Americans watching.
One of the more compelling and disturbing openings to any modern trial — impeachment or otherwise.
The insurrection stunned Americans when it happened. Images of elected officials running from the chambers to avoid violence and the threat of death circulated on social media. The impeachment video showed elected officials having to drop to the floor for fear that the terrorists would break through the House and Senate doors.
“People died that day. Officers ended up with head damage and brain damage. People’s eyes were gouged. An officer had a heart attack. An officer lost three fingers that day.,” Rep. Raskin said through tears after showing the video. “Two officers have taken their own lives. Senators, this cannot be our future. This cannot be the future of America. We cannot have presidents inciting and mobilizing mob violence against our government and our institutions because they refuse to accept the will of the people under the Constitution of the United States.”
This is a historic impeachment trial as there has never been a president impeached twice.
Asked if he will watch former President Trump's trial, President Biden tells us in the Oval that he has a job to do, which is getting people back to work, and the Senate has its job. "I'm sure they're going to conduct themselves well & that's all I have to say about impeachment."
Republican Congress members are determined to acquit Trump calling into question the constitutionality of the impeachment trial. Democrats are holding the line and demanding that he be held accountable for inciting the insurrection. Republicans and Trump’s attorneys claim that Democrats have no basis for the impeachment.
The impeachment trial is ongoing and we will update as the process continues.
Today, former “Saved By the Bell” cast members are grieving the lost of someone who once was an integral member of their team.
On Monday, Dustin Diamond, well known for playing the loveable, zany character Screech on “Saved by the Bell” passed away from carcinoma at the age of 44.
Mario Lopez, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Tiffani Thiessen, and Elizabeth Berkley all publicly eulogized Dustin Diamond on social media.
Dustin, you will be missed my man. The fragility of this life is something never to be taken for granted. Prayers for your family will continue on… pic.twitter.com/BnxY9XgN5g
It was just a few weeks ago that Diamond’s diagnosis was revealed to the public. His rep released the following statement:
“We are saddened to confirm of Dustin Diamond’s passing on Monday, February 1st, 2021 due to carcinoma. He was diagnosed with this brutal, relentless form of malignant cancer only three weeks ago. In that time, it managed to spread rapidly throughout his system;
His rep went on to say that Diamond’s death was quick and that he “did not suffer”.
I am deeply saddened by I the news of my old co-star @realdustindiamond passing. Life is extremely fragile and it’s something we should never take for granted. God speed Dustin. 💔 https://t.co/r3NVsWK2K4
As soon as the news of his death was announced, Diamond’s former “Saved By the Bell” co-star, Mario Lopez, took to Twitter to pay his condolences to Diamond’s family.
Lopez posted a picture of himself beside Diamond, along with the heartfelt note: “Dustin, you will be missed my man. The fragility of this life is something never to be taken for granted. Prayers for your family will continue on…”
Deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Dustin Diamond, a true comedic genius. My sincere condolences to his family and friends. Looking back at our time working together, I will miss those raw, brilliant sparks that only he was able to produce. A pie in your face, my comrade.
Later, Lopez spoke with Variety about how he was still struggling to “process” Diamond’s death.
“I actually just spoke with him a couple of weeks ago. He was reluctant to go in [to the hospital] for a while because he didn’t know if anything was going to get out,” Lopez revealed. “And I said, ‘Bro, that’s foolish, you’ve got to get in there and take care of yourself and forget what people are saying.’ Some people thought his illness was a joke, which is awful, but the internet always spills tales.
Lopez also revealed that he himself was sure that Diamond was going to pull through. “When all of this was happening, I was optimistic that he would make a recovery, but it was obviously too late,” he said.
Dustin Diamond and Mario Lopez may have had a somewhat complicated relationship, but they remained in touch years after the show ended.
In Mario Lopez’s 2014 book “Just Between Us,” he confirmed the long-standing rumors that Diamond wasn’t exactly beloved by the rest of the cast. “Not everyone got along with Screech AKA Dustin Diamond. I did, but maybe I was the exception,” he wrote.
“From when I found out he was sick to his passing, it’s been incredibly quick. It’s so fresh, it’s incredibly hard to process,” he revealed. “And it’s shocking because he was so young; he was only 44. I honestly thought, ‘There’s no way [he won’t make it]. It sucks, but he’ll bounce back.’”
And indeed, controversy followed Diamond long after he graduated from Bay City High.
