Since last week’s violent breach at the US Capitol, President Trump has been banned from Twitter and other social media outlets. Companies have also distanced themselves from him in other ways, and Trump is facing the very real possibility of becoming the first president ever to be impeached twice. Since there are only a few days left in his presidency, impeachment proceedings for Trump, led by House Democrats, could stretch into the Biden administration. Meanwhile, federal authorities are looking into the planning and coordination among Capitol insurgents, including members of law enforcement and the military. Officials are also planning for the possibility of more violence leading up to next Wednesday's inauguration, and as part of a security ramp-up, members of Congress will get increased security as they travel through airports. One more social media note: Parler, the alternative app favored by conservatives, has been booted by Amazon, Apple and Google for posts inciting violence. Read more at CNN
Federal authorities are expected to continue investigations Monday following a deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last week . At least 58 people have been arrested and charged for incidents in or near the Capitol, including two men accused of carrying plastic restraints and others who allegedly carried weapons or stole from the building. The Justice Department has filed more than 55 criminal cases related to the riot that left five dead. Among the charges: carrying a loaded hand gun and Molotov cocktails and making a threat against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "We are far from done. The rioting and destruction we saw will not be tolerated by the FBI ... We will continue to investigate all allegations of criminal activity," said Steven D'Antuono, assistant director of the FBI's Washington office. Read more at USA Today
As Trump enters the last days of his presidency facing a second impeachment and growing calls for his resignation, he will attempt to go on the offensive, with no plans of resigning. Instead, Trump is planning to lash out against the companies that have now denied him his Twitter and Facebook megaphones.
Aides hope he will spend his last days trying to trumpet his policy accomplishments, beginning with a trip Tuesday, to Alamo, Texas, to highlight his administration's contentious efforts to curb illegal immigration and border wall construction, Jill Colvin reports. Read more at AP
If the House impeaches President Trump this week, it will still have almost no effect on how long he remains in office. His term expires nine days from now, and even the most rapid conceivable Senate trial would cover much of that time.
But the impeachment debate is still highly consequential. The Senate has the power both to remove Trump from office and to prevent him from holding office in the future. That second power will not expire when his term ends, many constitutional scholars say. A Senate trial can happen after Jan. 20.
And disqualifying Trump from holding office again could alter the future of American politics.
It’s worth pausing for a moment to reflect on how radical a figure Trump is. He rejects basic foundations of American government that other presidents, from both parties, have accepted for decades.
He has tried to reverse an election result and remain in power by persuading local officials to commit fraud. He incited a mob that attacked the Capitol — and killed a police officer — while Congress was meeting to certify the result. Afterward, Trump praised the rioters.
This behavior was consistent with Trump’s entire presidency. He has previously rejected the legitimacy of election results and encouraged his supporters to commit violence. He has tried to undermine Americans’ confidence in the F.B.I., the C.I.A., the military, Justice Department prosecutors, federal judges, the Congressional Budget Office, government scientists, government health officials and more. He has openly used the presidency to enrich his family.
In the simplest terms, Trump seems to believe a president should be able to do whatever he wants. He does not appear to believe in the system of the government that the Constitution prescribes — a democratic republic.
Yet there is a significant chance he could win the presidency again, in 2024. He remains popular with many Republican voters, and the Electoral College currently gives a big advantage to Republicans. If he is not disqualified from future office, Trump could dominate the Republican Party and shape American politics for the next four years.
If he is disqualified, it’s impossible to know what would happen, but this much is clear: A singularly popular figure who rejects the basic tenets of American democracy would no longer be eligible to lead it.
Members of the National Guard outside the Capitol yesterday.Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times
What are the basics of disqualification?
Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution says: “Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.”
The Constitution does not specify whether disqualification requires a two-thirds Senate vote, as conviction in an impeachment trial does, or only a majority vote. The Senate has previously used a majority vote.
The Senate has barred three people, all federal judges, from holding future office: West Humphreys (in 1862, for waging war against the U.S.), Robert Archbald (in 1913, for corruption) and Thomas Porteous (in 2010, for bribery and perjury).
The Senate has tried a former War Department secretary — William Belknap, in 1876 — after he resigned. Both the House and the Senate decided that Belknap could be tried after he had left office.
Disqualifying a president from future office, because of the stakes and lack of precedent, would probably come before the Supreme Court. History suggests that the court would be more likely to uphold a bipartisan congressional vote than a largely partisan one.
For more: “If an impeachment begins when an individual is in office, the process may surely continue after they resign or otherwise depart,” Michael Gerhardt of the University of North Carolina School of Law writes in the online publication Just Security. Read more at New York Times
POLITICS
Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House would proceed quickly with both impeachment and a resolution asking Vice President Mike Pence and the cabinet to remove Trump from office using the 25th Amendment.
But James Clyburn, the No. 3 House Democrat, said the House might delay sending an impeachment article to the Senate to avoid getting in the way of Joe Biden’s early presidential agenda. Such a delay could undercut any momentum to convict Trump.
Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania became the second Republican senator to call for Trump to resign. Yet Toomey questioned whether the Senate could convict him after he left office. Read more at New York Times
In a shock to Washington Inc., several corporations are restricting or suspending political contributions after the Capitol siege:
JPMorgan Chase is pausing all giving to both parties for six months. "The country is facing unprecedented health, economic and political crises," said Peter Scher, chair of the Mid-Atlantic Region and head of corporate responsibility. "There will be plenty of time for campaigning later."
Citi's head of global government affairs, Candi Wolff, said in a letter to colleagues that the bank will pause all contributions in Q1, and that after that, "[W]e will not support candidates who do not respect the rule of law."
Marriott International said the hotel giant will pause donations "to those who voted against certification of the election."
Blue Cross Blue Shield Association said it will suspend contributions to "lawmakers who voted to undermine our democracy" by challenging Electoral College results.
Boston Scientific, the medical device maker, is pausing all federal gifts. Read more at Axios
First lady Melania Trump broke her silence on last Wednesday's violent storming of the U.S. Capitol by a mob of pro-Trump rioters, denouncing violence and urging Americans to "rise above what divides us." Read more at USA Today
Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Austrian-born "Terminator" actor and former California governor, released a 7½-minute video comparing the Capitol riot to a rampage that was a prelude to atrocity:
"Wednesday was the Night of Broken Glass right here in the United States."
In 1938, Nazis in Germany and Austria vandalized Jewish homes, schools and businesses during an attack that became known as Kristallnacht.
Schwarzenegger likened American democracy to his sword "Conan the Barbarian," which grew stronger when it was tempered. (AP)
The inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden is nine days away, and Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser has asked the Trump administration for emergency funding to bolster security ahead of the event. President Trump has said he will not attend, making him only the fourth President to boycott his successor’s inauguration. (The other three? Van Buren, Wilson and Nixon.) Mike Pence, however, has said he will attend, further underscoring the critical break between Trump and his VP. The event will be significantly pared down in the face of the pandemic. Usually, 200,000 tickets are offered up to spectators. But this year, the event will be largely virtual, and members of Congress will receive tickets for themselves and one guest only. Read more at CNN
Capitol Virus Spread: House lawmakers may have been exposed to someone testing positive for COVID-19 while they sheltered at an undisclosed location during the siege.
Lawmakers were taken to that location as a violent mob loyal to Trump ransacked the Capitol. The Capitol’s attending physician notified all lawmakers of the potential virus exposure and urged them to be tested. The infected individual wasn't named. Some lawmakers and staff were furious after video surfaced of Republican lawmakers not wearing their masks in the room during lockdown. Read more at AP
China allows WHO experts to investigate Covid-19 origins. Just days after the United Nations agency’s top official criticized Beijing for holding up the mission, China said WHO experts will start their mission on Thursday and will be working with Chinese scientists in studying the contagion’s origins. Read more at Wall Street Journal
The nation’s third-largest school district, Chicago Public Schools, will welcome some students to classrooms Monday for the first time since March . But the Chicago Teachers Union so far has opposed the move, saying it is not assured that conditions are safe enough to return to the classroom due to high coronavirus spread in the city. Last week, only about half of school staff required to report to buildings actually showed up. Negotiations between the school district and the union are scheduled to resume Wednesday. The U.S. has more than 22 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 371,600 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Globally, there are more than 89.3 million cases and 1.92 million deaths. Read more at USA Today
More than 80% of people in Japan who were surveyed in two polls in the last few days say the Tokyo Olympics should be canceled or postponed, or say they believe the Olympics will not take place during the pandemic. The polls were conducted by the Japanese news agency Kyodo and TBS — the Tokyo Broadcasting System. Read more at AP
Florida decided people 65 and older should get vaccinated first, but demand has overwhelmed supply. “It became sort of lawless,” one doctor said. Read more at New York Times
Pope Francis’s personal physician died from complications of the virus. Francis himself expects to be vaccinated as soon as this week. Read more at New York Times
Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency is still searching for some of the 62 people aboard Sriwijaya Air Flight 182, which crashed into the ocean Saturday shortly after taking off from Jakarta. Rescuers have located the black box flight recorder from the Boeing 737-500, but their recovery efforts have been largely hampered by debris in the water. The Boeing 737-500 model that crashed is not the same as the 737 Max, and it does not have the flawed cockpit software that contributed to two fatal 737 Max crashes. Still, the wreck is the latest tragedy to plague Indonesia's burgeoning airline sector. In 2007, the European Union banned all 51 Indonesian airlines from its airspace after a crash killed 140 people; the airlines were reinstated in 2018. Read more at CNN
Trump's N.J. golf course loses PGA 2022 championship. The PGA of America has stripped the tournament from the New Jersey course, an example of the economic consequences that may await the departing leader in the aftermath of the riot at the U.S. Capitol. Read more at Wall Street Journal
President-elect Joe Biden plans to nominate William J. Burns, a former career diplomat who has served both parties and won respect at home and abroad, to run a CIA that has been badly battered by the Trump administration.
The choice of Burns is the incoming administration’s last major personnel decision, and it highlights the qualities that characterize Biden’s foreign policy team. Burns is an inside player — brainy, reserved, collegial — and loyal to his superiors, sometimes to a fault, as he conceded in his 2019 memoir.
Though a diplomat, not a spy, Burns is a classic “gray man” like those who populate the intelligence world. And he has often served as a secret emissary: The title of his memoir, “The Back Channel,” refers in part to his role as the covert intermediary in the initial contacts with Iran that led to the 2015 nuclear agreement. Read more at Washington Post
Despite initial concerns the game would be postponed due to COVID-19 issues, Alabama and Ohio State will play for college football's national championship on Monday night, a matchup of two juggernauts with deep roots in the fabric of the sport and coast-to-coast appeal. According to the official records compiled by the NCAA, Ohio State ranks first in career winning percentage (73.1%) and Alabama second (72.9%) among programs with at least 25 years of FBS experience. But the clash at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, comes as the region has seen a "pretty substantial increase" in COVID-19 cases. The game will be aired on ESPN at 8 p.m. ET. Read more at USA Today
Republicans are losing power where power matters most at the national level: in politics, media, technology and the workplace.
Why it matters: Republicans often felt mistreated when they had real power in the form of the presidency and Senate. Watch Fox News or listen to Ben Shapiro, and you will see and hear how this new isolation will feed Republican worries and grievances in the months ahead.
Tucker Carlson warned on Fox: "Tens of millions of Americans have no chance — they’re about to be crushed by the ascendant left."
Democrats will soon control the White House, Senate and House. They already dominate most mainstream newsrooms, own Big Tech companies, and often band together inside corporations to force politically motivated decisions.
Republicans will be left with Mitch McConnell as party leader of a 50-50 Senate, prime time on Fox News and The Wall Street Journal editorial page.
Most importantly, the right has the Supreme Court, which might prove to be the one reliable counterbalance, and the majority of power at the state level.
Conservatives long ago lost so many key institutions that define the national conversation, including culture, media and higher education.
But since 1980, the party had political power and policy-making capability.
Now, President Trump has cost Republicans those tools, and the party will have to rebuild around new people and ideas. Read more at Axios
Government has done next to nothing to regulate misinformation on large tech platforms. Now, while belatedly and begrudgingly, large tech companies are creating de facto regulation policy in real time:
On many platforms, hate speech was always punishable.
Twitter and others, in banning President Trump, are suggesting that patterns of misinformation — even by the most powerful man in America — are grounds for disqualification and silencing.
Apple and Amazon Web Services are suggesting a minimum level of human moderation for using their services.
Between the lines, from Axios managing editor Scott Rosenberg: For years, tech companies improvised their own "regulations" via community standards and terms of service.
Go deeper: "Big Tech's free speech showdown"
🥊Stripe cut off payment-processing for the Trump campaign's website, for violating policies against encouraging violence, The Wall Street Journal scoops. Read more at Axios
Even in an unlikely "high growth rate" scenario, America's population will grow at the slowest rate since at least the 1930s, Axios' Stef Kight writes from Census Bureau projections.
Why it matters: America is aging. A growing number of people are out of the workforce, and a relatively smaller number of people are trying to support them. That could cripple programs like Social Security and slow economic growth.
What's happening: Americans aren't having as many babies as they used to, mirroring a trend in many developed countries.
In the lowest growth rate scenario, the U.S. could see the slowest 10-year increase in its population since at least the 1790s, according to a Brookings analysis. Read more at Axios
70% — How much returns of e-commerce packages increased by in 2020 from 2019, according to Narvar, which processes returns for retailers. More than half of the increase was due to higher e-commerce sales, while more than a quarter was because shoppers didn't want to return web orders to physical stores. Amazon, Walmart and other retailers have found it is often cheaper to refund the purchase price and let customers keep the products. Read more at Wall Street Journal
1,313 — The estimated number of rules published in the Federal Register as of Jan. 6 that could come under congressional review for repeal. Since Democrats now control both chambers of Congress, they could use the Congressional Review Act to overturn regulations finalized by the executive branch in the previous 60 legislative days using a fast-track process that requires a simple majority vote. Read more at Wall Street Journal
President Trump on Thursday will present the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the New England Patriots' Bill Belichick, the only coach to win six Super Bowls.—AP
The U.S. Department of State designated Yemen’s Houthis as a terrorist organization on Sunday, potentially complicating efforts by an incoming Biden administration to bring an end to a war that has become the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.
The move is part of a flurry of activity from U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the close of the Trump administration: On Saturday, Pompeo lifted restrictions on U.S. diplomats’ contacts with Taiwanese officials, and plans to name Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism soon, according to the Associated Press. Read more at Foreign Policy
Friday, Jan. 15, is the deadline for U.S. troop reductions in in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia. Approximately 700 U.S. troops in Somalia are slated to be withdrawn by this date, while only 2,500 troops each will remain in Iraq and Afghanistan. Read more at Foreign Policy
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