Yvonne Abraham is a brilliant columnist for the Boston Globe. She watched the impeachment hearings and found it ironic that the party defending the most divisive president in memory defends his seditious actions and language by appeals to “unity.”
She writes:
Unity. Seriously?
One after the other, the president’s defenders rose to the podium in the House chamber on Wednesday, trying to head off an inevitable vote for impeachment with one of the most transparently cynical gambits in recent memory.
We can’t impeach a president who incited a violent insurrection in which five people died, they argued, because it would further divide us, and what the nation needs now is to heal, to move on, to come together. Not by holding the inciter-in-chief accountable for sending a deadly mob to the Capitol and forcing some of these very legislators to flee for their lives, but by yet again letting him escape any consequences for his heinous actions.
The very leaders who refused to accept the results of a free and fair election, who themselves trucked in the falsehoods and debunked conspiracy theories about a stolen vote and oncoming tyranny — the lies that fueled the Capitol assault — were now preaching the gospel of unity. And they did it with straight faces.
For example, Madison Cawthorn, the newly elected congressman from North Carolina, urged Democrats to “vote against this divisive impeachment and realize that dividing America will not save this republic.”
That is pretty rich, given that MAGA diehard Cawthorn was all-in on the effort to overturn the results of the presidential election, even helping to whip up the mob at the rally before the insurrection. His first tweet after winning his House seat was “Cry more, lib.”
Here’s the thing about unity: To achieve it, you have to believe in a common good. And most members of this Republican Party have demonstrated over and over that they simply don’t.
She goes on to describe the loathsome behavior of the Republicans who were in hiding with Democrats. Some refused to wear face masks.
“It wasn’t all Republicans, just the organizers of the revolt,” said Representative Seth Moulton, who was one of the last to arrive in the room where hundreds took refuge. “They were clearly proud not to be wearing masks.”
Unity? Seriously? Don’t ask for if you don’t believe in it yourself.
I am still incredulous that so many Republicans defended a president who put their lives in danger and did nothing to protect them, no matter how many calls he received from top Republicans begging for protection from the mob he incited.
And this too.
https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-reports/president-trump-legacy-corruption-3700-conflicts-interest/
President Trump’s legacy of corruption, four years and 3,700 conflicts of interest later
George: Go to a site where your comments are appreciated. Diane Ravitch is extremely intelligent.
Hopefully this trial will be conducted fairly. The last impeachment trial was a scam. What kind of trial allows no documents, evidence or speakers and then concludes that Trump was innocent?
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From Axios:
Trump impeachment trial to start week of Feb. 8, Schumer says
The Senate will begin former President Trump’s impeachment trial the week of Feb. 8, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Friday on the Senate floor.
The state of play: Schumer announced the schedule after reaching an agreement with Republicans. The House will transmit the article of impeachment against the former president late Monday.
Why it matters: Trump is the only president in U.S. history to be impeached twice. The House voted to impeach the former president on Jan. 13 on a single charge: incitement of insurrection for the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol, which resulted in five deaths.
Details:
The House will deliver the article of impeachment to the Senate at 7 p.m. ET on Monday. Senators will be sworn in for the trial Tuesday.
The former president has until Feb. 2 to respond to the article…
https://www.axios.com/trump-impeachment-trial-senate-fd5bf1fa-b2c2-4225-bf33-462272201963.html?utm_campaign=organic&utm_medium=socialshare&utm_source=email
George: “The base became increasingly reactionary and populist, anti-elite and anti-establishment, disdainful of science and reason, consumed by grievances and fear.”
George, you and many people have been conned by an expert.
Another example of his con is the number of people who thought their lives would improve if they attended Trump University. Many spent their life savings or went into debt and got nothing.
The GOP has raised hypocrisy and cynicism to a high art. The Republican legislators, with a few rare exceptions, are without shame, principles or ethics. They have sold their souls to Trumpism, which means lie, lie, lie and attack, attack and attack some more.
Lets make this simple. For the sake of unity, “lock them all up”. Everyone does not get a “participation trophy” for insane conspiracy, outright lies and treasonous insurrection.
While the GOP always embraces the concept of personal responsibility, the Republicans in Congress never got the memo. When members of Congress were sequestered in small quarters during the riot, one representative was handing out masks which Republicans refused to wear. Biden later blasted them in his speech telling them to “grow up.” It would have been a perfect moment to demonstrate personal responsibility, if the Republicans actually had any. Some members of Congress have now tested positive for the virus.https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/15/biden-anti-mask-gop-congress-459739
In an interview with AOC, she felt threatened during the attack because she did not trust some of the people with whom she was sequestered. Some of them were on their phones, and she worried that one of them might be giving away her location to the mob. It is a sad state of affairs if elected members of Congress do not feel safe in the company of members of the opposition party.
Any Congress person who voted to not accept the election results should be kicked out of office…for the same reason Trump was impeached. They are helping to lead a revolt against our country.
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Biden wins wide approval for handling of transition, but persistent GOP skepticism on issues will cloud the opening of his presidency, Post-ABC poll finds
Biden enters office with 49 percent of Americans confident that he will make the right decisions for the country’s future, compared with 50 percent who take the opposite view. The 49 percent represents much greater trust than Trump’s 38 percent mark four years ago but much lower than the 61 percent who expressed trust in Barack Obama’s decisions on the eve of his inauguration in 2009.
The equally divided result on the broad question about confidence in Biden’s leadership and decision-making is mainly the result of strong distrust among Republicans about the incoming president, a finding that persists throughout the poll and underscores the degree to which the deeply polarizing presidential campaign — along with Trump’s baseless claims about a stolen election — have shaped Republican attitudes…
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/poll-biden-trump-republicans/2021/01/16/5e41c9ba-575b-11eb-a08b-f1381ef3d207_story.html
I sincerely hope Biden and Harris do great work together to get the virus under control and get the economy moving. Biden has already stated that he has list of executive orders and legislation he will propose. if anyone can talk sense into Republicans, it is Biden, as he had long standing relationships in the Senate.
It’s just a stolen talking point, no more.
TheLeoTerrell (@TheLeoTerrell) Tweeted:
I demand your resignation because you are a Socialist.
Contrition, cleaning up their own house, and redemptive acts starting with teaching their adherents some ugly truths. Once those are done, check back with us about unity.
Well said!
In 1978, Tennessee gov-elect Lamar Alexander was sworn in early because his predecessor, a guy named Ray Blanton, was selling pardons to criminals. This morning it was reported trump was doing the same thing.
Time for Republicans to act. This president must be taken down in a bipartisan effort before any unity will arise from it. Lamar has. O thing to lose. Let him speak up. Let all good people have the political courage to eradicate hatred. Then and only then will we have unity.
Lamar has said nothing. Nothing about the siege of the Capitol. He declined to hear evidence in first impeachment trial. At that time, he said that the charges were proven (using military aid to compel a weak country to dig up dirt on the Biden’s) but not impeachable. So future presidents can do the same with impunity. Lamar won’t speak up now.
Lame(R)
(i know it’s a low kind of humor, but then it’s a low kind of pol)
At least George W. Bush has repudiated the Cheeto Chief. Why do we have so many traditional Republicans that continue to suggest “I don’t like Trump, but the Democrats are all socialists. “?
Unity? I have never felt such fear and hate in my life. Before “conversations” about unity please look at these posts.
One is a detailed timeline of Trump’s insurrection and this starts well before the event. It also exposes the difference between official messages from the DOD and White House and events on the ground. https://billmoyers.com/story/insurrection-timeline-first-the-coup-and-then-the-cover-up-updated/
The other is new video from the New Yorker. CNN received permission from the New Yorker to broadcast 12 minutes of video journalism by Luke Mogelson. One segment shows a cultish religious ceremony in the Senate chambers with the insurrectionists in prayer. This video footage shows the invasion of two different entrances to the capitol. Some of the insurrections were enjoying the process of recording each other’s theatrics. Others were rummaging through the desks of Senators for “evidence” and making photos of specific documents thought to be of use well beyond the theatrics. https://www.newyorker.com/news/video-dept/a-reporters-footage-from-inside-the-capitol-siege
Laura H. Chapman: I noticed that one of the protestors said to the police, “We are listening to Trump, your boss.”
And now we are supposed to believe that Trump didn’t cause this because he asked for peace? We are supposed to forgive and want unity?
In an appearance on Fox Nausea, Lindsey Graham had the gall to blame nancy Pelosi for the breach of the Capitol! This shameless opportunist and toady keeps getting elected by the voters of SC. What is the matter with these people?
Odd, but the ones telling me I have to unify with the Republicans are the Democrats….
??
Aren’t you already unified with the Republicans? I thought you all agreed that nonsensical attacks on Biden and other democrats are 100% true and backed up with endless and incontrovertible evidence, but all criticisms of Trump are just made up and there is absolutely not one smidgeon of evidence that supports the criticisms. Don’t you remember that you already unified with Republicans about the “nothing burger” Mueller Report and you already unified with Republicans about the “politically motivated” wrongful impeachment of a president who had done nothing worse than all the democrat presidents did?
Are you hearing voices telling you that they are democrats who are telling you to unify with Trump supporters against Biden?
You can’t kick someone in the teeth, & then when they sue you for damages, say, “Oh, come on, brother, you don’t need to sue me. This is a time for healing!”
Get that lazy, incompetent traitor!!!!
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Dems building case against Trump
Prosecutor: Senate trial ‘should be coming up soon’
BY LISA MASCARO AND MARY CLARE JALONICK
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — The lead prosecutor for President Donald Trump’s historic second impeachment began building his case for conviction at trial, asserting Sunday that Trump’s incitement of the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol was “the most dangerous crime” ever committed by a president against the United States.
A Senate trial could begin as soon as this week, just as Democrat Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th president.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., did not say when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., will send the single article of impeachment against Trump — for “incitement of insurrection” — to the Senate, which will trigger the beginning of the trial. But Raskin said “it should be coming up soon” as Pelosi organizes the formal transfer.
The House voted to impeach Trump last Wednesday, one week after the violent insurrection that interrupted the official count of electoral votes, ransacked the Capitol and left Congress deeply shaken. Before the mob overpowered police and entered the building, Trump told them to “fight like hell” against the certification of Biden’s election win.
“We’re going to be able to tell the story of this attack on America and all of the events that led up to it,” Raskin said. “This president set out to dismantle and overturn the election results from the 2020 presidential election. He was perfectly clear about that.”
Democrats and the incoming administration are facing the challenge of reckoning with the Capitol attack at the same time that Biden takes office and tries to move the country forward. They say the Congress can do both, balancing a trial with confirmations of the new president’s Cabinet and consideration of his legislative priorities.
Raskin said Congress cannot establish a precedent where “we just want to let bygones be bygones” just because Trump has left office…
http://digitaledition.chicagotribune.com/infinity/article_share.aspx?guid=82f15898-e1f7-496d-95ea-b7d7ed76d9b9
Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney, was spotted at the White House on Saturday and told ABC he was likely going to join Trump’s impeachment defense team. He suggested he would continue to spread claims of election fraud on the Senate floor.
He is a clown. Hoping he is disbarred.
It was reported today that when Barr and the Idiot had their final falling out, Barr characterized the legal team and challenges as “clownish.”
How far has this country traveled since 1956 when King made this statement:
“If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in your struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness, and your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos,” Martin Luther King, Jr. said in 1956.
Here is something to think about today…and every day.
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Video: The Power of One
The Power of One is a wonderful reminder that one person can make a difference. Maybe what you do won’t change the world but it could change one person’s world. Much like a drop of water that ripples outward a simple act of kindness from one person to another can make the world a better place for everyone.
Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson: Trump’s Life About to Become “A Burning Hell”
Jan 8, 2021
Amanpour and Company
As rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan’s efforts to send in state police and the National Guard were blocked by the federal government for a full 90 minutes. Now, Hogan – a Republican – is calling for President Trump to resign or be removed from office. Joining these calls is the Lincoln Project, the anti-Trump Republican group formed in 2019. Its co-founder Rick Wilson calls the violence “sedition and insurrection,” and speaks with Hari Sreenivasan about what’s at stake. Originally aired on January 8, 2021.
I just got an email telling me that I can now get a FREE wrist watch with Trump’s photo and 2024 on the face of the watch. I can’t stand to look at him.
Who is funding all of these free gifts?
…………………………………….
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What a bunch of hooey. How much does Trump care about the children who were taken from their parents and will never be reunited? How much does he care about children who are in camps without decent clothing or the necessities to survive? How much does he care about children who have no healthcare or are starving and homeless?This is just propaganda so that the ‘get that fetus born’ crowd will continue to praise his holy name, Donald the Chosen One.
Notice that this proclamation comes on Jan. 22, 2021, after Biden is president.
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I thought you would like this story from breakingchristiannews.com
‘Listen to the Sound of Silence Caused By a Generation Lost to Us’: President Trump’s Proclamation on National Sanctity of Human Life Day, 2021
…Since the beginning, my Administration has been dedicated to lifting up every American, and that starts with protecting the rights of the most vulnerable in our society—the unborn. On National Sanctity of Human Life Day, we promise to continue speaking out for those who have no voice. We vow to celebrate and support every heroic mother who chooses life. And we resolve to defend the lives of every innocent and unborn child, each of whom can bring unbelievable love, joy, beauty, and grace into our Nation and the entire world.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 22, 2021, as National Sanctity of Human Life Day. Today, I call on Congress to join me in protecting and defending the dignity of every human life, including those not yet born. I call on the American people to continue to care for women in unexpected pregnancies and to support adoption and foster care in a more meaningful way, so every child can have a loving home. And finally, I ask every citizen of this great Nation to listen to the sound of silence caused by a generation lost to us, and then to raise their voices for all affected by abortion, both seen and unseen…
https://?ID=32016
The Big Lie and truth are in an epic battle for the soul of America – The media and brave politicians hold the key
By Thom Hartmann
New The media and brave politicians hold the key
The media must explode this generation’s Big Lie: Donald Trump’s assertion that he really won the election and “voter fraud” handed a false victory to Joe Biden.
Trump and his handmaids on Fox, et al, have pushed his Big Lie so hard and so far that more than half of Republicans fully believe it -thus some are predictably acting on it, from the January 6th failed coup to armed protests at state capitols all around the nation. As long as they believe the Lie, they’re not going to stop or go away.
If our media keeps failing to point out that voter fraud largely doesn’t exist in America, and that Biden won by about 7 million votes fair and square, our political crisis will slide from bad to worse, more blood will be shed, and our republic may never recover.
The media must point out the fact that Trump is simply repeating the old fascist Big Lie playbook that, 80 years ago, brought the world to its knees, and nearly shattered our federal government.
They must tell the truth to the two-thirds of Republicans who fully believe the election was stolen by voter fraud.
Trump’s Big Lie is now so widely believed among Fox-watching, Limbaugh-listening, Facebook-reading police and military members that the Secret Service is vetting individual soldiers coming into DC for the inauguration out of fear that Big Lie true believers among the National Guard may use their weapons to make a second try at an internal coup or even attempt to assassinate President Biden or Vice President Harris.
Trump brought us this, but it’s not new.
Adolf Hitler rolled out his Big Lie at the 1924 Beer Hall Putsch, claiming that Germany didn’t actually lose World War I, but that a premature surrender negotiated by Jews and communists prevented Germany’s final and inevitable victory.
He fired a shot into the ceiling of a busy Munich beer hall to get everyone’s attention, gave a fiery hour-long speech that whipped the crowd into a frenzy, and ordered them to march to the nearby seat of Bavaria’s government to invade the building and seize the state. It was the failed coup attempt that landed him in prison.
But even in prison, Hitler continued to preach his Big Lie. He said the disastrous inflation and national humiliation caused by the French occupation of Germany’s industrial heartland (the Ruhr), and the World War I (the “Great War”) surrender under the punishing terms of the Treaty of Versailles were not the fault of Germans and were not accepted by most Germans.
Germany actually could have won the war, Hitler said, but Jews and socialists tricked German negotiators into surrendering to the Allies while there was still plenty of fight left.
The German defeat was a lie, Hitler preached, a massive hoax, and patriotic Germans must rise up, overthrow the traitors who’d engineered the German surrender, and thus make Germany “great” again.
The more often Hitler told his Big Lie, the more people believed it; soon he could easily win elections based on it.
And the German media ignored his Big Lie, even as it spread and grew, because they considered it so simplistic and absurd, so frankly banal, that it was beneath them to even bother to specifically address or try to rebut in detail.
Unfortunately, Hitler had no shortage of German politicians in the 1920s and early 1930s who were more than happy to use him and his Big Lie to advance their own careers.
They treated it like an innocent exaggeration; agreeing with it got them more followers and voters and increased their proximity to Hitler. They were pretty certain nothing bad could come from such an small misstatement or inaccuracy.
The Germany media also largely ignored Hitler’s Big Lie that Germany had been “stabbed in the back” by Jews and socialists, or just mildly called it an “exaggeration” or “untruth,” assuming that because it was a lie it would die out on its own.
Instead, it grew like a cancer and eventually devoured Germany itself.
Donald Trump started his own Big Lie in January 2016, three days after he was elected, saying that Hillary Clinton didn’t actually beat him by 3 million popular votes; those numbers, he said, were because of “voter fraud.”
Trump promoted his Big Lie at every rally and in every possible venue for all four years of his presidency; he said it literally thousands of times.
Hundreds of Republican elected officials repeated and amplified Trump’s Big Lie of voter fraud, both to ingratiate themselves to him and his followers, and to give their state legislatures an easy excuse to crank up voter suppression efforts.
The American media’s response to Trump’s Big Lie of voter fraud was to laugh at it. They showed pictures of the relative sizes of his inaugural crowds, or made snarky remarks about his claim of 3 million “illegal voters.” They gently snickered at his Big Lie or simply ignored it, as he repeated it day after day, month after month, year after year.
Meanwhile, tens of millions of Americans paid close attention to Trump’s stolen election/voter fraud Big Lie, just like Germans who felt humiliated by the loss of the Great War listened to Hitler’s Big Lie about traitorous Jews and socialists who’d “stolen” Germany’s victory.
Politicians like Georgia’s Brian Kemp, then the Secretary of State with oversight of his own state’s elections, used Trump’s Big Lie to justify throwing hundreds of thousands of mostly Black and Hispanic people off the Georgia voting rolls in the two years leading up to his beating Stacy Abrams in 2018 by about 50,000 votes.
Across the country, Republicans repeated Trump’s Big Lie, sometimes making their own variations on it, and a few, like Kansas’ Kris Kobach turned it into a mini-industry, charging big bucks for “consulting” while marketing his Interstate Crosscheck program. State after state made it harder to vote, always citing the Big Lie of voter fraud as the reason.
During that same time, year after year, right-wing media stars on talk radio and Fox News promoted Trump’s Big Lie, breathlessly focusing on every little anecdote about the rare examples of people who voted without legal authorization.
It became so fevered that two years ago a Texas mother of seven, Crystal Mason, thinking she could vote after she finished serving her time for a felony charge, was arrested and sent to prison for five years for casting a ballot that election officials had caught and rejected. Her vote was never counted, but she still went to jail, and national conservative media highlighted her incarceration as an example of a national crisis of voter fraud.
Not surprisingly, millions of Americans totally believed Trump, Fox hosts, right-wing talkers and Republican politicians. Then it became tens of millions. It’s probably now pushing over 100 million people, a bit less than a third of the population, who believe Trump’s Big Lie.
In an earlier rant, I pointed out that when people truly believe that an election’s been stolen, it’s not at all weird or unreasonable for them to get into the streets and protest in every way they can. Our country was founded, after all, on an illegal revolution that we celebrate every year on July 4th.
With a consistent message that voter fraud is rampant in America coming from virtually every Republican politician, all across Fox News, rightwing talk radio and from the President of the United States himself and echoed by his Vice President, only the most naïve could imagine there would be no consequence.
Germany’s media could have stopped Hitler’s Big Lie before it destroyed their nation, but failed to do so because they thought it was so obviously a lie there was no need to address it head-on, and rebutting it was a boring, wonky argument that required a lot of detail and history to debunk anyway.
American media has just a few months left to expose, once and for all, Trump’s Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him through voter fraud, before our political crisis becomes a full-blown disaster.
Time is running out, and surveys show that over half of all Republicans now fully believe Trump’s Big Lie that Black Democrats in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Phoenix, and Milwaukee stole the election for Joe Biden using voter fraud. Fully 68 percent of Republicansbelieve Trump was “robbed” of his rightful victory by voter fraud committed mostly in those inner cities.
Arresting people who acted out on Trump’s Big Lie is essential but – because they believed him, Fox’s hosts, and their local Republican politicians – it also creates new martyrs for Trump’s cause; for many, these absolutely necessary arrests strengthen their belief that something nefarious did, indeed, happen.
And that they can become the heroes of the Trump/Rambo/George Washington movie that’s playing out now in real time.
America’s media must get the message out now, loud and clear. With facts in easily understood format, complete with stories, pictures and graphs.
They could start by reading and amplifying this article in The Washington Post that summarizes nine major studies of billions of American votes over the past few decades, proving beyond any possible doubt that, outside of a few dozen exceptions-that-prove-the-rule per nationwide election, there really is no such thing as voter fraud in America.
As Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney told his colleagues in the Senate, “The best way we could show respect for the voters who were upset is by telling them the truth” that the election was not stolen.
Until the truth is so clearly and widely spoken in multiple venues that even hardcore Trump voters realize he’s been lying to them about voter fraud all along, America’s rightwing violence will metastasize to consume our nation in ways from which we may never recover.
We must kill the Big Lie.
-Thom
$50,000 for a handbag? How insensitive when many Americans are starving or don’t get healthcare. The Ice Queen lives.
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Millions of people, including 14 million children, said they didn’t have enough food to eat last year because of closed schools and lost jobs. Today, a 15 percent boost to one food program was one of President Joe Biden’s moves to try to blunt Covid’s economic fallout. Biden increased the amount of money families with children get through a pandemic program that replaces meals those kids used to get at school.
First lady Melania Trump sits as President Donald Trump speaks at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, Jan. 20, 2021.
REUTERS
In the final hours of her husband’s presidency, Melania Trump wore head-to-toe black while departing the White House.
The outgoing first lady, who often used her clothes to send messages during the Trump administration, donned the chic mourning look while boarding Marine One for Mar-a-Lago.
Noticeably, the first lady did not wear any American designers. Instead, she opted for a Chanel jacket, a Dolce and Gabbana dress and heels by Christian Louboutin. Her purse, a crocodile Birkin bag from Hermès, is worth upward of $50,000.
Neither Melania nor President Donald Trump wore masks…
The couple’s 14-year-old son, Barron Trump, was not seen….
https://nypost.com/2021/01/20/melania-trump-marks-end-to-donalds-presidency-in-high-priced-outfit/?utm_source=url_sitebuttons&utm_medium=site%20buttons&utm_campaign=site%20buttons
Compare this outrageous amount of money spent in an attempt to look fashionable to what Bernie did. Plastic Barbie, wife-trophy Melania sold her soul to the devil because money to her is important.
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Jen Ellis, a Vermont school teacher who’s getting a bit of fame for being the talented crafter behind the viral Inauguration Day mittens of Sen. Bernie Sanders. Ellis made the “smittens” (part sweater, part mittens) from repurposed wool sweaters and fleece lining made from recycled plastic bottles. Ellis gifted Sanders the mittens a few years ago on the campaign trail, and they’ve made a few public appearances before. But if you’re looking for your own pair, Ellis says she doesn’t make them anymore. She is a full-time teacher, after all. But, she notes, plenty of talented crafters on Etsy make their own versions. Ellis told CNN in a statement she’s glad the fashion moment has reminded people that they “make good mittens in Vermont … We have some good coats as well.” (And if you’ve ever been to Vermont, you know that is a humble understatement.)