A Marine stands this week outside the entrance to the West Wing of the White House, signifying President Trump is in the Oval Office.
The House is set to vote today to impeach President Trump for the second time. The single article of impeachment charges Trump with “incitement of insurrection” following last week’s Capitol breach. With the House’s Democratic majority and the votes of at least five Republican members who have said they will join the impeachment effort, the measure is certain to pass. That will make Trump the first US President to be impeached twice. Just like before, the article will then move to the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has so far been silent on its prospects in his chamber, but he has indicated he believes impeaching Trump will make it easier to rid the Republican Party of his influence. The House also voted last night to approve a resolution calling for Trump to be removed from office through the 25th Amendment, but Vice President Mike Pence, whose power is needed for such a move, has made it clear he will not invoke it. Read more at CNN
Officials have opened more than 170 subject files and charged over 70 cases in their expansive investigation into the Capitol riot, according to yesterday’s stunning Justice Department news conference. The acting US attorney in Washington said the scope of the crimes is “mind-blowing” and could include charges of sedition and conspiracy -- serious crimes that could result in up to 20 years in prison. Other officials described rioters engaging in open-handed combat with police officers and confirmed there were pipe bombs planted outside Republican and Democratic headquarters. New threats of terrorism are also rolling in ahead of Joe Biden's inauguration, including a plot described by a member of Congress in which thousands of armed extremists would surround the Capitol and prevent Democrats from entering. Read more at CNN
ALAMO, Texas (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday took no responsibility for his part in fomenting a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last week, despite his comments encouraging supporters to march on the Capitol and praise for them while they were still carrying out the assault.
“People thought that what I said was totally appropriate,” Trump said.
He made the comments during his first appearance in public since the Capitol siege, which came as lawmakers were tallying Electoral College votes affirming President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. Trump arrived in Texas on Tuesday to trumpet his campaign against illegal immigration in an attempt to burnish his legacy with eight days remaining in his term, as lawmakers in Congress appeared set to impeach him this week for the second time.
In Alamo, Texas, a city in the Rio Grande Valley near the U.S.-Mexican border — the site of the 450th mile of the border wall his administration is building, Trump brushed off Democratic calls on his Cabinet to declare him unfit from office and remove him from power using the 25th Amendment.
“The 25th Amendment is of zero risk to me, but will come back to haunt Joe Biden and the Biden administration,” Trump said. “As the expression goes, be careful of what you wish for.”
The rampage through the halls of Congress sent lawmakers of both parties and Trump’s own vice president into hiding, as crowds called for Mike Pence’s lynching for his role overseeing the vote count. The scene also undermined the hallmark of the republic — the peaceful transition of power. At least five people died, including one Capitol Police officer.
“It’s time for peace and for calm,” Trump said Tuesday, less than a week after egging on the mob that descended on the Capitol. He added, “Respect for law enforcement is the foundation of the MAGA agenda,” referencing his campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”
In the days leading up to the Jan. 6 certification vote, Trump encouraged his supporters to descend on Washington, D.C., promising a “wild” rally in support of his baseless claims of election fraud, despite his own administration’s findings to the contrary. Speaking for more than an hour to a crowd on the Ellipse, Trump encouraged supporters to “fight like hell” and suggested that Republican lawmakers would need “more courage not to step up” and overturn the will of voters to grant him another term in office. He also suggested he would join them in marching on the Capitol.
As Trump wrapped up, thousands of his supporters were already heading to the Capitol, where lawmakers convened to count the electoral votes. As rioters were still in the building and lawmakers sheltered in secure locations, Trump, at the urging of aides who were shocked by the violence, released a video seemingly excusing the events, saying of the rioters: “We love you. You’re very special. Go home.”
Speaking Tuesday, Trump said the “real problem” was not his rhetoric, but the rhetoric that Democrats used to describe Black Lives Matter protests and violence in Seattle and Portland this summer.
“Everybody to the ‘t’ thought it was totally appropriate,” Trump said of his own comments.
Trump angrily lashed out at lawmakers’ push for his second impeachment this week, claiming, “It’s causing tremendous anger and division and pain far greater than most people will ever understand, which is very dangerous for the USA, especially at this very tender time.”
Alamo is named after the San Antonio mission where a small group of Texan independence-fighters fended off Mexican forces during a 13-day siege. Most of them died, but the mission became a symbol of resistance for Texans, who eventually defeated the Mexican army.
Trump’s visit there — no doubt a symbol of the president’s defiance — comes as he spends the final days of his presidency isolated, aggrieved and staring down the prospect of a second impeachment. Read more at AP
Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, told associates that Trump had committed impeachable offenses, and that he was pleased that Democrats are moving to impeach him. McConnell believes impeachment will make it easier to purge Trump — whom he blames for Republican losses — from the party, according to people familiar with his thinking. Read more at New York Times
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has announced it will require a negative Covid-19 test from all air passengers entering the United States starting January 26. The measure is intended to curb rising coronavirus numbers, which seem to be setting new records every day. The US yesterday recorded more than 4,300 coronavirus deaths -- a new daily high. Things are so bad in Ontario, Canada, the province is under a stay-at-home order, and officials have warned of a total collapse of health care systems. Japan has increased its state of emergency to seven more regions, and Ireland now has the world’s highest Covid-19 rate. How did it happen? Irish health officials say the seasonality of the virus, plus holiday gatherings, have led to inconceivable numbers of cases and deaths. Read more at CNN
Walmart, Disney and a pharmaceutical lobby joined the list of corporate groups suspending donations to lawmakers who voted against certification. Read more at New York Times
Google's YouTube has blocked President Donald Trump's official channel from uploading new content for at least a week, citing the potential for violence following the deadly Capitol siege.
In a video of remarks made to reporters that was uploaded to Trump's YouTube channel Tuesday, the president said that impeaching him for inciting violence at the Capitol would be "very dangerous for the USA." YouTube removed the video.
"After review, and in light of concerns about the ongoing potential for violence, we removed new content uploaded to Donald J. Trump’s channel for violating our policies," the company tweeted late Tuesday.
YouTube will also indefinitely disable comments on Trump's channel "given the ongoing concerns about violence," the company said.
The suspension is the latest by one of the nation's leading social media platforms which have removed nearly all of the president's online megaphones that allowed him to directly reach Americans. Read more at USA Today
In response to the crackdown on far-right extremism and conspiracy theories on Facebook and Twitter, some right-wing extremists are opting to use the encrypted app Telegram, which is based in Dubai, and discussing violence against government officials on Inauguration Day. Some people on the app are sharing knowledge of how to make, conceal and use homemade guns and bombs. White supremacists, conferring in chat rooms, have increased their chatter since being forced off other platforms following violence at the Capitol. Read more at NBC News and Mother Jones
Arrests: On Jan. 7, the FBI arrested a Georgia man who had traveled to Washington, D.C., and was suspected of planning to kill Pelosi as part of the Capitol siege. After searching Cleveland Grover Meredith Jr.’s truck, trailer, hotel room and cellphone on a tip while Meredith was still in Washington, agents found handguns, an assault rifle and "hundreds of rounds" of ammunition, according to documents seeking charges of threatening to kill the Speaker and possession of illegal firearms. Read more at CBS News.
In November — as President Trump began his effort to overturn the election he had lost — his longtime friend Tom Barrack called him with advice: Stop, for the sake of your business.
The Trump Organization was already struggling, hurt by political backlash and coronavirus-related closures, facing huge unpaid loans. Barrack told Trump that he could help that business — as well as his aides, and the country itself — by ensuring a peaceful transition, according to a person familiar with the conversation.
An “elegant” exit, Barrack said, could preclude what could be a painful future: millions of dollars in legal costs, rampant investigations and more boycotts of his businesses.
Trump did not follow Barrack’s advice.
Now, the Trump Organization is facing the consequences: In the past week, it has lost a bank, an e-commerce platform and the privilege of hosting a world-famous golf tournament, and its hopes of hosting another have been dashed. In the future, the Trump Organization also could lose its D.C. hotel and even its children’s carousel in Central Park, if government landlords in Washington and New York reevaluate their contracts with Trump.
Trump lost a much bigger broker relationship Tuesday night when real estate giant Cushman & Wakefield told The Washington Post it would no longer work with him. The company has handled an array of business for Trump for many years, including office leasing at Trump Tower and 40 Wall Street, and retail leasing in Chicago. It means that Trump’s company will quickly have to find someone else to handle lease negotiations at some of his most prominent properties.“Cushman & Wakefield has made the decision to no longer do business with The Trump Organization,” the company said in a statement. Read more at Washington Post
Former Michigan governor Rick Snyder (R) and several former officials are expected to be indicted in connection with the 2014 Flint water crisis that led to at least 12 deaths and dozens of illnesses in the predominantly Black city, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.
Snyder, his former health department director Nick Lyon and former adviser Rich Baird were among those notified by the office of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) of the pending indictments and advised to expect imminent court dates, the AP reported, citing unnamed sources familiar with the prosecution.
The nature of the criminal charges were not immediately clear. Read more at Washington Post
The first woman in 67 years was executed by the federal government early Wednesday, after hours of uncertainty. Lisa Montgomery, 52, was executed by lethal injection at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. Her time of death was 1:31 a.m., seven and a half hours after her originally scheduled time of execution, according to the Associated Press. Montgomery was convicted of killing 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant, in Missouri in 2004. Authorities say she cut the baby from Stinnett's womb before attempting to pass the girl off as her own. Montgomery, who has a history of brain damage and being beaten, raped and trafficked, was put to death a day after a federal judge in Indiana halted the execution over concerns of her deteriorating mental health. Kelley Henry, Montgomery's federal public defender, said the federal government violated the Constitution, federal law and its own regulation to put her client to death. Read more at USA Today
The Supreme Court has granted the Trump administration's request to reinstate longstanding restrictions for patients seeking a drug used for abortions early in pregnancy. This was the first abortion-related case to come before new Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and it all but confirms abortion rights activists’ fears that she will be a deciding conservative factor in such cases. The FDA restrictions require an in-person visit with a medical professional to pick up the medication, a measure federal courts previously blocked, citing pandemic concerns. Courts have been fighting over the medication abortion rule since last summer. Read more at CNN
The military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff sent a message to American armed forces reminding them to defend the Constitution — and that Biden would soon be their commander in chief. Read more at New York Times
National Guard troops at the Capitol for Inauguration Day will carry weapons, Defense Department officials said. Read more at New York Times
Pompeo snubbed? U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s final overseas trip, due to take place today, has been abruptly cancelled, reportedly due to lack of interest from the European officials he was scheduled to meet.
Reuters reports that Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn declined to meet with Pompeo in a possible reaction to last Wednesday’s Capitol Building riot. Asselborn had called Trump a “political pyromaniac” on local radio last Thursday.
The U.S. State Department maintains that the last-minute cancellation was due to a focus on working with the Biden transition team one week before the handover of power. The same excuse was given for the sudden cancellation of U.S. United Nations Ambassador Kelly Craft’s trip to Taiwan, also scheduled for today.
As Jeffrey Lewis writes in Foreign Policy, Pompeo’s final days in office may be more about bluffing his way to a legacy. Read more at Foreign Policy
Detection rejection: The House on Tuesday added new security for lawmakers on the House floor. Timothy Blodgett, the acting House sergeant-at-arms, said in a statement that magnetometers were placed at multiple entrances to the House chamber, requiring lawmakers to be screened before entering. Blodgett noted that guns are barred and members are only permitted to keep weapons in their offices. His efforts were greeted with howls of protest from some conservative lawmakers, who refused to be scanned, walked in defiance around the machines and blustered on Twitter about purported “unconstitutional” searches. Read more at The Hill
Meanwhile in the Senate, Schumer called on the FBI to prevent some of last week’s identified rioters from traveling by air by adding them to the federal no-fly list, a designation that brands suspects as posing “a threat of committing terrorism.” Read more at Axios
Mississippi has raised its new flag over the state Capitol for the first time. Gone is the Confederate imagery, and in its place, a white magnolia. Read more at USA Today
A landmark report out of Ireland reveals thousands of mothers and babies died in church-run institutions known as “mother and baby homes” between 1922 and 1998. Such homes were places where unwed women and girls were sent, often against their will, to deliver their children in secret. In all, around 56,000 people, sometimes as young as 12, were sent to the 18 institutions investigated in the report. One in seven of some 57,000 children born in these institutions didn’t survive long enough to leave. Irish Prime Minister Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the report "opens a window onto a deeply misogynistic culture in Ireland over several decades" and said he is planning an official state apology to survivors. Read more at CNN
Uganda imposes social media blackout. Uganda’s communication regulator has ordered internet service providers to block all social media platforms until further notice, just two days ahead of the country’s presidential election. President Yoweri Museveni has defended the move, saying it was retaliation for Facebook removing accounts affiliated to his National Resistance Movement party. Facebook said it had removed the network because they breached rules on coordinated activity and the use of fake accounts. Read more at Foreign Policy
Indian farmers granted reprieve. India’s Supreme Court has stayed the implementation of controversial agricultural reforms that have prompted weeks of protests from the country’s farmers. The court has appointed an independent committee to attempt to broker a deal between farmers unions and the Indian government, who have already held eight rounds of talks.
Balbir Singh Rajewal, a leader of one of the unions, called the committee formation a government tactic, citing the committee members’ previous public statements in support of the new laws. “We have decided that our agitation will continue,” he said. Read more at Foreign Policy
Vaccines for Africa. The African Union will announce today the procurement of 300 million coronavirus vaccine doses for the continent, although the suppliers are not yet known. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, the current AU chair, is expected to officially break the news.
Nicaise Ndembi, senior science adviser for the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the vaccines were acquired independently of the COVAX initiative. Read more at Foreign Policy
Mexican marijuana. Mexico’s health ministry published new rules on Tuesday regulating the study and cultivation of medical marijuana, as the country moves toward full legalization. The rules lay out strict controls for companies wishing to conduct research, which will be overseen by the Mexican health regulator.
Lawmakers are expected to vote on a bill allowing recreational use once Congress reconvenes. If passed, Mexico would become the world’s largest legal cannabis market. Read more at Foreign Policy
Germany to push Biden on corporate tax. German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said he will attempt to reach an agreement with the incoming Biden administration on a set of global corporate tax rules for multinationals first put forward by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The new rules would aim to raise an additional $100 billion in revenues by levying taxes based on the country the profit was generated in—rather than where the company is headquartered—as well as applying a global minimum corporate tax rate. Read at Foreign Policy
87 — Sheldon Adelson’s age when he died on Tuesday. The chairman of Las Vegas Sands had an estimated fortune of $35.9 billion after building a casino empire. He was a major supporter of Trump and other Republicans as well as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Read more at Wall Street Journal
2.4% — The percentage by which the death rate from cancer dropped in the U.S. from 2017 to 2018, the biggest single-year decline on record. Cancer is consistently among the leading annual causes of death in the U.S. In recent years, advancements in treating lung cancer have driven down the cancer mortality rate. The latest decline left it at 149 deaths for every 100,000 people in the general population in 2018. Read more at Wall Street Journal
Top Republicans want to bury President Trump, for good. But they're divided whether to do it with one quick kill via impeachment, or let him slowly fade.
A House impeachment vote, which would make Trump the first president to be impeached twice, is expected mid-afternoon.
Sources tell me Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would be more likely than not to vote to convict Trump — a green light for other Republican senators to follow.
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy would love a Trumpless world, but doesn't want to knife him with fingerprints. This school of thought wants to let Trump do himself in, without a big party fight over his sins and sentence.
The fade-away caucus sees a danger that the impeachment-conviction route is, as a prominent conservative put it, "making him Jesus. ... Truly stupid."
But an effort by McCarthy to push a lighter punishment for Trump censure has crumbled.
Republican sentiment turned swiftly against the unrepentant Trump yesterday, starting with a New York Times report that McConnell is "pleased" that Democrats are moving to impeach Trump.
That was followed by a stunning statement by House GOP Conference Chair Liz Cheney, the third-ranking House Republican leader, who said of Trump's abetting of the Capitol "mob": "There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution. I will vote to impeach the President."
Other Republican House members joining Cheney in supporting impeachment (via AP): Reps. John Katko of New York, a former federal prosecutor; Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, an Air Force veteran; Fred Upton of Michigan; and Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington.
McConnell, 78, knows this fight will be his legacy. "If you’re McConnell, you want to be remembered for defending the Senate and the institution," said a Republican familiar with McConnell's thinking.
McConnell is furious at Trump for his total lack of remorse for the Capitol siege, and believes that Trump could only be an impediment to Republicans regaining the Senate majority that they lost on the president's watch.
Trump pushback ... Trump senior adviser Jason Miller, citing a poll of battleground-state voters by John McLaughlin, said: "[I]f you’re a Republican who votes for impeachment, you’re likely serving your last term."
The bottom line ... The way one well-wired Republican put it: "People have been waiting for Trump to do himself in since the escalator ride. If we want him gone, Republicans are going to have to take him down." Read more at Axios
The National Hockey League is kicking off its 2020-21 seasonWednesday, playing five games of a 56-game season — including the Tampa Bay Lightning raising their Stanley Cup banner in a game against the Chicago Blackhawks. To minimize travel amid the coronavirus pandemic, and because of restrictions on movement across the U.S.-Canada border, the NHL set up an all-Canada division and realigned the other divisions. All regular-season games and the first two rounds of the playoffs will be played within the division, with the top four in each division going to the playoffs. The hope is for the league to get back on track for a normal 82-game season in the 2021-22 season, which will likely begin in October. Read more at USA Today
It happened a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. ... The oldest, most distant "supermassive" black hole and quasar in the universe have both been discovered, astronomers announced. At more than 13 billion years old, the black hole and quasar – a huge, incredibly bright celestial object located in the center of a galaxy – are the earliest yet seen, giving astronomers insight into the formation of massive galaxies in the early universe. Read more at USA Today
School segregation between Black and white students has returned to 1968 levels, even as the nation grows more diverse, Axios race and justice reporter Russell Contreras writes.
At the peak of desegregation in 1988, around 37% of Black students nationally attended schools with a majority of white students. Only 19% did so in 2018, according to a report from The Civil Rights Project at UCLA.
Why it matters: Black and white school segregation has deepened toward pre-Civil Rights Movement-era numbers despite decades of strides.
This places Black students into school districts with fewer resources than white students — but in more diverse settings than in 1968, since the percentage of Latino and Asian American students has skyrocketed. Read more at Axios
Americans are losing trust in leaders across every area of life — and the information coming from every source of news, Sara Fischer writesfrom the annual Edelman Trust Barometer, out today, which measures trust globally.
Why it matters: The sobering report shows that people crave facts more than ever. But most have bad habits and a growing distrust of everything from journalists to vaccines and contact tracing. Across every type of institution — media, government, business and NGOs — trust has fallen to historic lows.
Business is the only institution that is now perceived as being both ethical and competent enough to solve the world's problems, Edelman found in the survey, which covers 27 countries, with more than 1,000 respondents per country.
CEOs are the only societal leaders trusted to tell the truth and fix problems.
The trust deficit has gotten so bad that people don't know who or what to believe anymore, and they don't even trust themselves to get facts right.
A majority of people around the world believe that journalists, government leaders and business leaders are all purposely trying to mislead people by spreading misinformation.
Most people have terrible information hygiene, and admit that they don't actively verify information, avoid echo chambers or share things without first vetting information. Read more at Axios