Poised to impeach President Donald Trump for an unprecedented second time, the U.S. House is speeding ahead to try to oust him from office.
Trump is to face a single charge — “incitement of insurrection” — over the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol, Lisa Mascaro, Bill Barrow and Mary Clare Jalonick report.
Democrats are pushing first for the vice president and Cabinet to invoke their constitutional authority to remove Trump from office.
If that fails, impeachment proceedings are set for Wednesday. Pence met with Trump last night for the first time since the Capitol attack, and the vice president has shown no inclination to invoke the Constitution's 25th Amendment to push Trump out.
President-elect Joe Biden said that those who “engaged in sedition” must be held accountable.
VIDEO: House looks to oust Trump after US Capitol riot.
Analysis: Trump’s days in office are literally numbered. But he’s already stopped doing much of his job. In the last three weeks, a bomb went off in a major city and the president said nothing about it. The coronavirus surged to horrifying new levels of illness and death in the U.S. without Trump acknowledging the awful milestones. A violent mob, incited by the president’s own words, chanted for Mike Pence’s lynching at the Capitol and Trump made no effort to reach out to his vice president. The transgressions, big and small — of norms, of leadership, of human decency — cast a pall, and, in the view of even close advisers speaking privately, have indelibly stained his legacy. Zeke Miller writes. Read more at AP
Trump will travel to Texas today to tout one of the pillars of his presidency: his campaign against illegal immigration. The trip is part of an effort by aides to try to salvage a Trump legacy, Jill Colvin reports. Read more at AP
The FBI has warned of plans for armed protests at all 50 state capitals and in Washington, D.C., leading up to President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration.
The stark warning comes just days after the bloodshed during last week’s deadly siege at the U.S. Capitol.
An internal FBI bulletin warns that the nationwide protests may start later this week and extend through Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration, Colleen Long, Michael Balsamo and Michael Kunzelman report.
Two law enforcement officials read details of the memo to the AP. The officials were not authorized to speak publicly. The officials say investigators believe some of the people planning protests are members of extremist groups.
Statehouses: Capitols across the country are under heightened security after the siege of last week and the FBI warning. State capitols were reinforced with extra police officers and National Guard units as some legislatures returned to business. Fencing had already gone up in some cities during racial injustice protests last summer, and it is being added at others. In Michigan, where armed demonstrators against virus restrictions entered the capitol last year, a state commission voted to ban the open carrying of weapons in the Capitol building, David A. Lieb reports.
Explosives: As thousands of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, last week federal agents were working to detonate two pipe bombs found just blocks away at the offices of the Republican and Democratic national committees. The focus on the insurrection shifted public attention away from the explosives threat, which experts say remains a primary concern for law enforcement ahead of next week’s inauguration.
Nation's Capital Security: The mob attack strongly highlighted a longstanding local security paradox: The District of Columbia government lacks authority over much of the area within its borders. Now as the city braces for a nerve-wracking time ahead of Biden's inauguration, its mayor is seeking increased security and better coordination among the multiple law enforcement agencies involved. In the long term, the security debacle has lent momentum and urgency to the longstanding effort for D.C. to gain direct authority over its National Guard — and the parallel campaign to make it the 51st state, Ashraf Khalil reports.
EXPLAINER: Why National Guard's role was limited during riot. Read more at AP
Biden's inauguration planners step up security. Organizers of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration and federal officials are boosting security in response to growing concerns after last week’s attack on the Capitol by a mob of supporters of President Trump. Biden said he isn’t concerned about his safety: "I am not afraid to take the oath outside." Read more at Wall Street Journal
In the span of four days, President Trump’s family business has lost its online store, the buzz from Mr. Trump’s promotional tweets about its luxury resorts and bragging rights as host to one of the world’s most prestigious golf tournaments.
The mob attack on Congress last week by Mr. Trump’s supporters has spurred a reckoning for the Trump Organization by businesses and institutions, at a scale far greater than his previous polarizing actions.
And the Trump brand, premised on gold-plated luxury and a super-affluent clientele, may not fully recover from the fallout of his supporters violently storming and vandalizing the U.S. Capitol, hospitality analysts say and some people close to the business acknowledge. Other companies linked with the Trumps, including Deutsche Bank, the president’s largest lender, and Signature Bank, are also seeking distance from him and his business. Read more at New York Times
Facebook removes "stop the steal" content. The phrase is popular among supporters of Trump’s unproven claims of election fraud. Twitter also removed more than 70,000 accounts that spread the QAnon conspiracy theory, as tech giants announced a number of new measures in an effort to deter further unrest. Read more at Wall Street Journal
The Capitol riot is shaking up the world of political fundraising, as major companies like Google, Coca-Cola and UPS all have pledged to suspend contributions across the board. Other companies are focusing on lawmakers they view as complicit in Trump's effort to disrupt the affirmation of Biden's election win. PR and lobbying experts wonder whether the upheaval is temporary or represents a permanent political shift. More companies are also creating policies in response to last week’s violence. GoFundMe says it will no longer allow people to fundraise for travel expenses used for potentially violent political events, and Airbnb says it will attempt to restrict violent Capitol rioters from making reservations in the DC area during the inauguration. Parler, the social media app that serves as a safe space for the far-right, sued Amazon for deplatforming it on grounds the app encourages and incites violence. Read more at CNN
We’re not going to be done with social distancing any time soon. The World Health Organization has warned that herd immunity won’t happen in 2021, and social distancing measures will need to stay in place "for the rest of this year," despite vaccine progress. In the US, more than 200,000 new coronavirus cases have been reported every day for a week. In the UK, health officials say the country is entering the "worst point" of the pandemic, as cases rise and deaths increase. Malaysia has announced more restrictions, and South Africa has closed its land borders to curb the spread. At the San Diego Zoo, there's a new complication: At least two gorillas have tested positive for Covid-19, the first known cases among great apes. Read more at CNN
HHS today will recommend opening up the vaccine process to everyone older than 65 — and will also aim to move doses out the door rather than holding back second doses, Axios health care editor Sam Baker writes.
President-elect Biden plans that same approach.
Why it matters: The early phases of the vaccination effort were designed to put the highest-risk people at the front of the line, but the pace of inoculations has frustrated experts and everyday Americans.
The Trump administration is making three big changes:
Recommending that states open the vaccination process to everyone older than 65 and to adults of all ages who have a pre-existing condition that puts them at greater risk for serious infection.
Expanding the venues where people can get vaccinated to include community health centers and more pharmacies.
Getting all available doses out the door now. Both of the authorized vaccines require two shots; the government will no longer hold back doses for the second shot, but will instead try to get today’s doses into people’s arms now, trusting that supplies will increase rapidly enough to provide second shots.
The bottom line: These changes reflect a changing consensus about how best to distribute the vaccines — from a strict risk-based prioritization system, to getting as many shots into as many arms as possible, as quickly as possible. Read more at Axios
Two Democratic congresswomen tested positive for COVID.
Both — Rep. Pramila Jayapal (Wash.) and Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (N.J.) — think they got the virus while locked down during the siege with maskless Republicans.
Jayapal: "[S]everal Republicans not only cruelly refused to wear a mask but mocked colleagues and staff who offered them one." Read more at Axios
The estimate published Tuesday by the Rhodium Group warned that the steep drop was the result of extraordinary circumstances. Experts said that the country still faced enormous challenges in getting its planet-warming pollution under control. Read more at New York Times
New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick has turned down an opportunity to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Donald Trump.
The six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach said in a statement released Monday night that while he was “flattered” by the offer, “the tragic events of last week occurred, and the decision has been made not to move forward with the award.
“Above all, I’m an American citizen with great reverence for our nation’s values, freedom and democracy,” he said.
Belichick has been a longtime Trump supporter, even writing a letter of congratulations that Trump displayed on the campaign trail before he was elected president in 2016. Belichick has also served on the president's Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition since 2018.
However, when word of Trump’s plans to award the Patriots coach the Medal of Freedom was first reported by Politico on Sunday – just four days after thousands of Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol in a clash that resulted in five deaths – Belichick began facing significant public pressure to turn down the honor.
Golfers Gary Player and Annika Sorenstam received the Medal of Freedom on Thursday in a private White House ceremony. But Belichick ultimately declined.
“One of the most rewarding things in my professional career took place in 2020 when, through the great leadership within our team, conversations about social justice, equality and human rights moved to the forefront and became actions,” Belichick said. “Continuing those efforts while remaining true to the people, team and country that I love outweigh the benefits of any individual award.” Read more at USA Today
The Arkansas man who was photographed sitting at a desk in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office after the storming of the Capitol by a mob of President Donald Trump's supporters will make his initial appearance in federal court Tuesday, according to a statement from the Department of Justice. Richard Barnett, 60, of Gravette, Arkansas, is charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds; and theft of public money, property, or records. If he is convicted, he faces up to one year in prison. Barnett, who has identified himself on social media as a Trump supporter and gun rights advocate, turned himself in to FBI agents at the Benton County Sheriff's Office in Bentonville, Arkansas, an FBI spokesman said. Read more at USA Today
As thousands of President Donald Trump's supporters swarmed Washington last week, one hacker archived their posts on Parler to help reconstruct the role the social media platform played in the deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol.
The hacker, who goes by @donk_enby on Twitter, said her goal was to preserve every post from Wednesday's Capitol breach before the Parler platform was taken down, like "a bunch of people running into a burning building trying to grab as many things as we can."
Parler and @donk_enby didn't immediately respond to USA TODAY's requests for comment.
According to the Atlantic Council, Parler is one of the social media platforms popular with conservatives and extremists that was used to plan last week's riots. Others cited include Gab and MeWe. Read more at USA Today
Dept. of resignations: Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf became the latest Trump administration official to resign on Monday as part of the exodus following last week’s pro-Trump mob at the Capitol. Wolf’s departure comes nine days before the inauguration, which has been designated as a national special security event.
Wolf, who overstayed his legal timeline to head the department as the White House withdrew his nomination to permanently head the department last week, said in a statement his successor will be Pete Gaynor, previously director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Read more at Axios
A federal judge halted the execution of Lisa Montgomery, the only woman on federal death row, just hours before she was scheduled to die. Montgomery, who was sentenced to death in 2008 after murdering a woman and kidnapping her fetus, will now be subject to a competency hearing. Montgomery was one of three people scheduled to die by federal execution during the remainder of President Trump’s time in office. The Trump administration revived the federal death penalty last year. Before then, there hadn’t been any federal executions since 2003. Since July, the federal government has executed 10 people, more than in any presidency since 1896. Read more at CNN
More than 7,300 law school alumni and students have signed a petition calling for the disbarment of Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) over what it says were their “efforts to undermine the peaceful transition of power after a free and fair election.”
Hawley and Cruz led efforts in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday to stop the counting of electoral votes certifying the victory of Democrat Joe Biden over President Trump in the November election.
Critics are accusing the senators of using rhetoric that helped inflame a pro-Trump mob that engaged in acts of insurrection at the U.S. Capitol as the vote-counting was underway. Both have rejected the accusations. Read more at Washington Post
Alabama coach Nick Saban is soaked with a Gatorade tide. Photo: Wilfredo Lee/AP
The final game of a college football season in a pandemic — a season that was uncertain to be played in the summer, then filled with disruptions — ended in the most predictable fashion: Alabama (13-0), under coach Nick Saban, is national champion for the sixth time in the past 12 years, AP's Ralph Russo writes.
The Crimson Tide routed No. 3 The Ohio State University 52-24, before a pandemic-thin crowd at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens. Washington Post
The Trump administration has designated Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism, complicating any efforts by the future Biden administration to repair relations with the former Cold War foe. President Obama removed Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism in 2015, but Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the new designation was given for "repeatedly providing support for acts of international terrorism in granting safe harbor to terrorists." A top Cuban called the move hypocritical and an act of "political opportunism." Cuba now joins three other countries on the list: Iran, North Korea and Syria. Read more at CNN
Downloads have surged for messaging apps that are securely encrypted or designed to cater specifically to the ultra-conservative user, Kyle Daly and Sara Fischer write.
Why it matters: The online purge of far-right figures and platforms that followed last week's Capitol insurrection looks to be driving radicalized users into darker corners of the internet, which are even harder to monitor. Read more at Axios
The way people determine what's true and what's false, especially online, relies heavily on trusting sources of information over substance, Sara Fischer and Alison Snyder write.
Rather than trying to fact-check everything, experts say, people use heuristics — a kind of mental shortcut for fact-checking that can rely on cues like whether the information is coming from people they think they can trust
"We think that we are rational creatures who analyze everything in front of us," said Gaurav Suri, an experimental psychologist and computational neuroscientist at San Francisco State University. "The truth is, we hardly do that ever." Read more at Axios
Iraq's Women;Growing numbers of Iraqi women are finding some good under the movement restrictions imposed because of the pandemic: They're starting their own businesses from home. Using online shopping, social media and delivery services, they can bypass some of the discrimination and harassment that often come with working in Iraq's male-dominated, conservative society, Abdul Rahman Zeyad reports. Read more at AP
Trump hits Cuba with new terrorism sanctions in waning days
The Trump administration has re-designated Cuba as a “state sponsor of terrorism" in a move that hits the country with new sanctions shortly before President-elect Joe Biden takes office. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the step, citing Cuba's continued harboring of U.S. fugitives as well as its support for Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. It's among the latest last-minute moves the Trump administration is making before Biden takes office. Removing Cuba from the blacklist had been one of former President Obama's main foreign policy achievements. Read more at AP
A Moscow kebab shop named after Soviet leader Joseph Stalin has closed after just 24 hours of opening after a string of complaints from angry residents. In its brief existence Stalin Doner served items like “Stalin with double meat” and “Beria with tkemali sauce”—a reference to Stalin’s notorious secret police chief.
The shop’s owner, Stanislav Voltman, was interviewed by police for three hours following complaints. “They asked me if my head was screwed on straight,” Voltman told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. “It’s not like I had Hitler as the face of my brand,” Voltman said.
Despite public outcry about the kebabs, support for Stalin is on the rise in Russia. A Levada Center poll in 2019 found that 70 percent of Russians think Stalin played a completely or relatively positive role in the life of the country. Read more at Foreign Policy
Lives Lived: Television viewers met Pat Loud in 1973 as the loving, boisterous, witty, resilient and sometimes angry and hurt matriarch at the center of what is now considered the first reality TV show: “An American Family,” on PBS. She died at 94. Read more at New York Times
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