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NEW YORK (AP)

Two Central Park ice rinks are set to close after Sunday because New York City is cutting ties with the Trump Organization that operates them.

Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasios administration announced last month it would terminate business contracts with President Donald Trump after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

As a result, Wollman Rink and Lasker Rink will close after Sundays sessions, CBS News and the New York Post reported.

Eric Trump, executive vice president of the Trump Organization, called the move purely a political stunt that only hurts New Yorkers.

Instead of focusing on a dying city which everyone is leaving because of rising crime, high taxes, closed businesses and totally incompetent leadership, the Mayor is painting signs in front of Trump Tower and trying to destroy the only outdoor activity available to children during a pandemic, Trump said in a statement.

De Blasio said the Trump Organization earns about $17 million a year in profits from its contracts to run the skating rinks, as well as a carousel in Central Park and a golf course in the Bronx.

He said the city would seek new vendors for all the attractions.

We are working diligently through our competitive RFP process to secure new operators for these great amenities so as not to impact the respective seasons, Parks spokeswoman Crystal Howard told the New York Post.

The rinks are used by youth skating and hockey programs.

Everyone was absolutely devastated, every kid, their parents, their coaches, Malik Garvin, director of Ice Hockey in Harlem, told CBS. Kids are paying the price for something they had nothing to do with.

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NYC ice rinks to close as city cuts business ties with Trump - Associated Press

As Congress looks to set up an independent outside panel to investigate the Capitol siege, Democrats and Republicans both have pointed to the 9/11 Commission as a model of bipartisan cooperation.

But 20 years later, veterans of the commission's investigation into the 2001 terror attacks worry that it will be challenging to keep politics out of an inquiry into the Jan. 6 attack that led to President Donald Trump's unprecedented second impeachment, on charges he incited the riot.

Trump was acquitted last week. His lawyers argued he wasn't responsible for the violence at the Capitol and against the propriety of convicting a former president. Seven Republicans joined all 50 Democrats in the 57-43 vote, short of the two-thirds majority needed for conviction.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has shared proposed legislation to set up the panel with Republicans after seeking input from lawmakers, relevant committees and leaders of the 9/11 Commission, including former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean, Lee Hamilton, the former Indiana congressman who served as co-chair, and Tim Roemer, another former Democratic congressman.

Security forces respond with tear gas after the US President Donald Trump's supporters breached the US Capitol security in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021.

In interviews with ABC News, Kean, Hamilton and Roemer said they told Pelosi a successful commission would require appointing members who can avoid the partisan fray, supplying them with adequate resources and providing enough time to investigate on their own timetable, rather than one laid out by Congress or the White House.

"You cannot have people on the commission whose job is to defend the president or defend the speaker," said Kean, a Republican, and chair of the 9/11 Commission. "You've got to have people who follow the facts."

To blunt partisanship on the panel, Kean established a strong relationship with Hamilton and didn't hire any staff who'd recently worked on a political campaign.

The composition of the committee is essential to its success, added Roemer, who has been consulting with Pelosi and her staff over the past two weeks on the drafting of the legislation. Roemer added that the commissioners must have experience in complex areas of policy, from cybersecurity and law enforcement to racial issues and disinformation campaigns.

"You need to pick people who have worked across the aisle and have deep experience in the issue areas involved. The commission will likely be 10 or 11 people, with the president getting to pick the chair and the leadership selecting other people," Roemer said.

The 9/11 Commission faced resistance from the Bush White House as it explored what intelligence was known about the plot before the attack, and it was pressured to conclude its investigation before the 2004 election, Kean recalled.

Pelosi, in a statement on Monday, said the commission would "investigate and report on the facts and causes relating to the January 6, 2021, domestic terrorist attack upon the United States Capitol Complex" relating to "the interference with the peaceful transfer of power, including facts and causes relating to the preparedness and response of the United States Capitol Police and other Federal, State, and local law enforcement in the National Capitol Region."

At an earlier press conference, Pelosi said the new panel would have "nothing to do with President Trump" but would focus on Capitol security, along with white supremacy and anti-Semitism.

"The mandate, the remit, the purpose section of the legislative needs to be specific, it needs to be precise and it needs to be crystal clear," Roemer said. "It should not be only about how to protect the Capitol complex or how high the walls should be, it should also include what led to attacks and how to strengthen the institutions of our representative democracy."

It's not yet clear whether Republicans will back the speaker's effort. At least 10 Republicans will need to support any proposal in the Senate to clear the 60-vote filibuster threshold in the chamber to pass the legislation.

Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi responds to questions on the creation of a commission to investigate the January 6 attack on the Capitol, during a news conference in Washington, Feb. 19, 2021.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was noncommittal in a statement to ABC News, and pointed to the commission legislation proposed by House Republicans several weeks ago.

"It is our responsibility to understand the security and intelligence breakdowns that led to the riots on January 6 so that we can better protect this institution and the men and women working inside it," his statement read. "A commission should follow the guidance of Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton to be 'both independent and bipartisan,' and to preserve that integrity it must be evenly split between both parties."

Some of Trump's top allies in Congress have tried to shift blame to Pelosi -- questioning her handling of Capitol security before the attack -- and could bristle at any closer examination of Trump.

"I want to look at what Pelosi knew, when she knew it, what President Trump did after the attack, and on the Senate side, was Senate leadership informed of a threat?" Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said on "Fox News Sunday."

"For this to work," Pelosi said during a press conference on Thursday, "it really has to be strongly bipartisan. You have to have subpoena power."

"That is the solution to getting access to people and information in this case," Roemer told ABC News. "Getting access to the material that was out there when President Trump was in office and the cooperation of key witnesses subpoenaing those people who were there. Others may be absolutely willing to come in without a subpoena."

Initial Democratic and Republican proposals for the commission differ on the scope of the inquiry, whether members of Congress could serve on the panel, and whether it would explore issues like online disinformation.

Police clash with supporters of President Donald Trump who breached security and entered the Capitol building in Washington Jan. 06, 2021.

Philip Zelikow, a professor at the University of Virginia who served as the executive director of the 9/11 Commission and helped author its bestselling report, told ABC News that the ongoing FBI investigations into Capitol rioters could create "lots of hindrances and potential delays" along with any investigations into Trump's phone call with Georgia's secretary of state.

At least 237 people are facing federal charges stemming from the Capitol riot, according to an ABC News review of charging documents.

"We did mutually benefit from a colossal FBI investigation," he said of the 9/11 Commission. "But the FBI investigation was not in the process of being presented to a grand jury."

John Farmer, a former attorney general of New Jersey who served as senior counsel on the 9/11 Commission, told ABC News that the panel should be able to confer immunity to witnesses in exchange for help, to incentivize cooperation, although that could complicate ongoing criminal investigations and future inquiries into holding people accountable for the attack.

"A judgment will have to be made in some cases whether a full account of what happened on Jan. 6 is more important than individual culpability," Farmer said.

At least seven House and Senate committees also are conducting their own investigations into the attack, seeking records and testimony from senior congressional security officials, the FBI and social media platforms, such as Parler, that authorities say were used by rioters to communicate ahead of the siege.

On Friday, the FBI and National Counterterrorism Center produced records to the House panels as part of their inquiry into what federal intelligence agencies knew about the potential for an attack ahead of Jan. 6, a House committee official told ABC News. The Department of Homeland Security is expected to produce records for the committees in the coming weeks.

Several House and Senate panels plan to hold the first public hearings on the Jan. 6 attack, featuring current and former congressional security officials, next week.

Hamilton, the 9/11 Commission co-chair, said the most difficult work will be making sure that any recommendations the commission ends up making are passed into law.

"There isn't any magic here, no formula, just common sense and the political will to do it," he told ABC News.

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Congress aims to avoid politics with independent Jan. 6 investigation - ABC News

It started with a ride down an escalator in 2015, and escalated rapidly. From the first cries of "rapists" invading our country to dog whistles like "Stand back, stand by," Donald Trump's dangerous delusions of power and control brought this country to the brink of collapse, and everyone who allowed that to happen is an enabler and a collaborator.

From White House cronies and sycophants who shared in Trump's power fantasies and deep contempt for large swaths of Americans, to his equally evil children and Republicans in the Senate led by Mitch McConnell, to America's attorney general, to the doctors at Walter Reed who agreed to lie for the president and to sign non-disclosure agreements, thereby violating their Hippocratic oath, to the ICE bullies who separated infants and children from their parents and incarcerated them in cold, filthy camps, to the former heads of the CDC and FDA who caved after White House pressure, to irresponsible media moguls, they are all responsible for the terrifying threat of autocracy we faced, and the increase in violence that culminated at the U.S. Capitol on Jan.6.

Together, they are responsible for militias that felt emboldened in their militarism and for bad cops who mercilessly shoot to death Black and brown men and women. They are responsible for the resurgent KKK and groups like the Proud Boys. They are responsible for federal courts being packed with ultra-conservative lifetime judges, and a Supreme Court that saw the demure but deadly Any Comey Barrett added to its ranks. In short, they are responsible for the near-demise of democracy.

Adding to why we are on the edge of another Great Depression, and responsible for America's damaged standing in the world, Donald Trump's enablers and collaborators aided and abetted the disasters in our health, educationand infrastructure systems, the filth in our water and the comeback of chemicals in our food. They are responsible for the deaths of almost half a million Americans who died needlessly because the super-spreader in chief just didn't give a damn.

Indeed, they are responsible for the Mussolini moment" we witnessed on the balcony of our dictator's palace, and they, like him, bear the guilt of negligent homicide and crimes against humanity.

They also exemplify the "banality of evil" that philosopher Hannah Arendt warned us about when she reported on the trial of Adolf Eichmann, a major architect of theHolocaust. Eichmann was, he insisted to the court in Jerusalem, simply following orders.

So were White House staff, Secret Service officers who vowed to give their life for the president (but not in a hermetically sealed vehicle),employees of government agencies who didn't speak up or quit their jobs in order to save the country, business moguls who didn't end their major donations to a corrupt fraud, and Fox News, which wouldn't stand up to a lunatic when he blamed everyone else for our disasters and incited violence. So too are the voters who inexplicably still stood with their man in greater numbers the second time around even though everything he does hurts them the most.

Every one of these people is the banality of evil personified. Every one of them became what Arendt called a "leaf blowing in the whirlwind of time." Now every one of them bears responsibility for what could lie ahead.

Of course, some brave souls did stand up to the president. And every one of them did it knowing that they would be punished mightily.Think about those who gave testimony beforeCongress, the lawyers and doctors who wrote letters and petitions, the activists who marched and were willing to suffer the consequences, including injury, arrest and jail time, the Capitol Police who tried to stop a violent coup. They are our national heroes, the ones for whom new monuments should be built.

As for the rest of us, we must remember and own the fact that a great malignancy metastasized within our national body and many of us let it happen. We watched it ravageus and slowly terrorize us. We let it kill people we knew and loved. We looked the other way, always sure that it couldn't get worse.

Now we need to understand that the "silence of one good man" can spell disaster for all good people. Each of us who remained passive as our impending disaster continued might have been the one "good man" who didn't act, didn't speak out, didn't resist, while men like Jeff Sessions, Stephen Millerand Donald Trump insisted that infants be ripped from their mothers' breasts. Men who didn't care that innocent people were dying from gun violence, a plague, hungerand violence, which they fostered. Men who didn't care about pre-existing conditions or elders who rely on Social Security to survive. Men who didn't care that women would be catapulted back to the Dark Ages.

The question is: Why didn't we stop them? Why didn't we act in larger, more effective, timely ways? Why did we let them continue for four devastating years, like the blind, chained inhabitants of Plato's allegorical cave, unable to escape their isolation because, trapped by ignorance and darkness, they couldn't know the truth?

Can we now remove our blinders and see clearly the dawning truth in time to break our silence, reject the banality of evil, refuse to be a leaf blowing in the whirlwind of time?

What awaits us if we do not?

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Escaping the "Mussolini moment": Trump's enablers and the banality of evil - Salon

Donald Trump has been acquitted by the Senate in his second impeachment trial for his role in the 6 January attack on the US Capitol a verdict that underscores the sway Americas 45th president still holds over the Republican party even after leaving office.

After just five days of debate in the chamber that was the scene of last months invasion, a divided Senate fell 10 votes short of the two-thirds majority required to convict high crimes and misdemeanors. A conviction would have allowed the Senate to vote to disqualify him from holding future office.

Seven Republicans joined every Democrat to declare Trump guilty on the charge of incitement of insurrection after his months-long quest to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden and its deadly conclusion on 6 January, when Congress met to formalize the election results.

The 57-43 vote was most bipartisan support for conviction ever in a presidential impeachment trial. The outcome, which was never in doubt, reflected both the still raw anger of senators over Trumps conduct as his supporters stormed the Capitol last month and the vice-like grip the defeated president still holds over his party.

Among the Republicans willing to defy him were Richard Burr of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.

The swift conclusion of the Senate trial, only the fourth presidential impeachment in American history and Trumps second in just over a year capped one of the most tumultuous chapters in the nations political history. Still shaken by the deadly riot that threatened Americas commitment to a peaceful transfer of power, senators of both parties were eager to turn the page.

Trumps acquittal came after grave warnings from the nine Democratic House impeachment managers, serving as prosecutors, that Trump continued to pose a threat to the nation and democracy itself.

If this is not a high crime and misdemeanor against the United States of America then nothing is, congressman Jaime Raskin, the lead manager, pleaded with senators in the final moments before they rendered their judgments as jurors and witnesses. President Trump must be convicted, for the safety and democracy of our people.

From the outset, Trumps allies in the Senate made clear they had no intention of convicting him. Though many Republicans explicitly supported or implicitly indulged Trumps baseless claim of a stolen election, few defended his actions during the trial. Instead, they relied on a technical argument, advanced by his attorneys and rejected by a majority of the Senate as well as leading constitutional scholars, that the proceedings were unconstitutional because Trump was no longer in office.

In a floor speech after the vote, Senator Mitch McConnell, the minority leader, said Trumps conduct preceding the assault on the Capitol amounted to a disgraceful dereliction of duty by the former president, who he held practically, and morally, responsible for provoking the events of the day

But McConnell concluded that the Senate was never meant to serve as a moral tribunal and suggested instead that Trump could still face criminal prosecution.

President Trump is still liable for everything he did while hes in office, McConnell said. He didnt get away with anything yet.

At a news conference after the vote, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, denounced as cowardly the Republicans who voted to spare Trump on procedural grounds and said she would refuse to entertain their calls for a censure.

We censure people for using stationery for the wrong purpose, she said, her voice rising in indignation. We dont censure people for inciting insurrection.

Moments after the not guilty verdict was announced, a defiant Trump thanked Republicans who stood by him and decried what he called yet another phase of the greatest witch-hunt in the history of our country.

In his statement, Trump expressed no remorse and made no mention of the violence that unfolded in his name, but signaled his desire to remain a political force within the party.

Our historic, patriotic and beautiful movement to Make America Great Again has only just begun, he declared triumphantly.

Trump was the first US president to be impeached twice and is now the first president to be twice acquitted. The decision leave him free to pursue another tilt at the White House in 2024, though polling suggests the violent end to his presidency left his reputation badly damaged.

The House impeached Trump in his final days in office, on one charge of incitement of insurrection of the siege on the US Capitol. He invited supporters to Washington on the day electoral college votes were being counted, told them to fight like hell and encouraged them to go to the US Capitol, Democrats charged.

Once the attack on the Capitol turned deadly, placing Vice-President Mike Pence, members of Congress and Capitol Hill employees in danger, Trump violated his oath of office by failing to defend the US government against an attack, the impeachment article alleged.

The attack came after Trump spent weeks trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Five people died as a direct result of the assault, including a police officer, and scores more were seriously injured.

During their two-day presentation, prosecutors played harrowing and never-before-seen security footage of the attack to bolster their case that Trump had deliberately fomented insurrection by whipping up his followers, who believed they were acting on his instructions.

Crucially, they argued, the Capitol siege was not just a result of the speech Trump gave on 6 January but a foreseeable result after he spent years sanctioning violence among his supporters.

In a chamber protesters breached, the Democrats case was by turns emotional and visceral. It offered new insight into the scope of the violence that transpired, and senators learned for the first time how close the nations political leaders came to the mob that hunted them.

The striking evidence presented was a notable contrast to Trumps first impeachment trial, which was built around documents and testimony regarding his effort to pressure Ukrainian officials to help him politically.

After Democrats concluded their arguments, Trumps lawyers used just a fraction of the 16 hours allocated for their case. They used a smattering of approaches, arguing Trump could not be tried because he had already left office and that his speech did not amount to an incitement of violence and was protected by the first amendment.

During their brief presentation on Friday, Trumps lawyers argued that he was using the same kind of rhetoric politicians frequently use and said the trial was a political witch-hunt and that Trump a victim of constitutional cancel culture.

Those arguments largely seemed to be an effort to distort the case against Trump and obscure the unique context under which he encouraged supporters to disrupt the activities of the US government as it facilitated the peaceful transfer of power.

The vote on Saturday came after the proceedings were briefly thrown into chaos when the House managers unexpectedly moved to call witnesses, in an effort to shed light on Trumps state of mind as the assault unfolded. Caught off guard, Trumps legal team threatened to depose at least over 100 witnesses, and said Pelosi was at the top of their list.

After a frantic bout of uncertainty in which it appeared the managers request could prolong the trial for several more weeks, Senators struck a deal with the prosecution and Trumps lawyers to avert calling witnesses. Instead, they agreed to enter as evidence the written statement of a Republican congresswoman who had been told that Trump sided with the rioters after the House minority leader pleaded with him to stop the attack on 6 January.

Embracing Trumps combative and fact-bending approach, his lawyers declared him innocent of the charges against him and denounced the trial as a final, desperate attempt by Democrats to disqualify their most despised opponent from public office.

You do not have to indulge the impeachment lust, the dishonesty and the hypocrisy, Michael van der Veen, one of Trumps lawyers, told senators.

With the result a foregone conclusion, the Democratic managers summoned the weight of history, reminding senators of the consequential votes taken by their forebears in the same chamber from abolishing slavery, to passing the Civil Rights Act and imposing sanctions on apartheid South Africa. Difficult in the moment, the managers said, these votes defined their legacies and changed the course of American history.

There are moments that transcend party politics and that require us to put country above our party because the consequences of not doing so are just too great, said one of the managers, Joe Neguse. Senators, this is one of those moments.

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Donald Trump acquitted in second impeachment trial ...

Donald Trump spent the last four years committing numerous crimes big and small, the most serious one being his incitement of the violent mob that attacked the Capitol on January 6. Unfortunately, because of his inexplicable stranglehold on the Republican Party, hes gotten away with all of it. That has unsurprisingly left millions of people feeling variously disappointed, confused, and angry, with few ways to channel their feelings (aside from hoping hes hit with a never-ending tide of lawsuits and/or a prison sentence). Luckily, this week has fortuitously brought with it some much-needed catharsis, in the form of a Trump property being literally blown to smithereens.

On Wednesday morning, the derelict Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City was blown up before an audience of paying guests, after demolition crews placed approximately 3,000 sticks of dynamite around the structure to send its 34 stories crumbling to the ground. Its an end of a not-so-great era, Jennifer Owen, who bid $575 to win a front-row seat to the show, told The New York Times. If you werent able to make it down to A.C., dont worry, you can watch the implosion over and over and over again at your leisure:

Trump Plaza was one of a trio of casinos the ex-president owned before his gambling business went belly up and filed for bankruptcy, leaving, per The New York Times, a trail of unpaid contractors and suppliers. Opening day on May 14, 1984, reportedly involved malfunctioning slot machines and left two women injured when a faulty fire alarm caused a rush of gamblers trying to leave the building. In 2009, Trump resigned as chairman of the company, retaining just a 10% stake, and on September 16, 2014, the Plaza shuttered for good, closing out a run as the worst-performing casino in Atlantic City. After that, NJ Advance Media notes, the building sat vacant, sending pieces of debris flying onto the boardwalk every time noreasters traveled up the coast, which is clearly a metaphor for something. During his first State of the City in January 2020, Mayor Marty Small said it was his goal to tear Trump Plaza down, adding: Its an embarrassment, its blight on our skyline, and thats the biggest eyesore in town.

Trumps old casino wasnt the only thing getting the boot this week though. His Mar-a-Lago helipad is also in the process of getting the heave-ho. Per the Daily Mail:

Demolition crews have arrived at Mar-a-Lago to rip out Donald Trumps helipad after his exemption from Palm Beachs helicopter-free zone rule was revoked when he left office. Construction workers were seen at the former president's sprawling estate Tuesday with a red digger and concrete cutting equipment, demolishing the concrete helicopter landing pad set among the towering palm trees. Its removal, handled by contractor Pyramid Builders of Palm Beach, from the western lawn of the 17-acre property will cost in the region of $15,000, the permit shows.

Palm Beach does not allow helipads in its town but made an exception for Trump while he was president, on the condition it only be used for presidential business and be removed again when he left the White House. The town of Palm Beach issued a permit for the helipads demolition on February 2. Town Manager Kirk Blouin said there had never been any question that it would be removed as soon as Trump was no longer president, according to Palm Beach Daily News.

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Watch Donald Trumps Old Casino Be Blown to Smithereens, If Youre Into That Sort of Thing - Vanity Fair