Skip to main content

Home/ History Readings/ Group items tagged Inauguration

Rss Feed Group items tagged

martinelligi

What Biden Is Doing On His 1st Day As President : Inauguration Day: Live Updates : NPR - 0 views

  • Just hours after being sworn into office on Inauguration Day, President Biden has signed three of 17 planned executive actions to try to hit the ground running on his top priorities — and to roll back some of former President Donald Trump's initiatives in those areas.
  • Biden wants to build momentum on his plans to address the COVID-19 crisis, the economy, racial justice and climate change. Among many measures, he plans to revoke Trump's travel ban affecting Muslim-majority nations and extend the moratoriums on evictions and foreclosures as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
  • "The president-elect has promised to root out systemic racism from our institutions," said Susan Rice, Biden's domestic policy adviser, ahead of Biden's inauguration. "This initiative is a first step in that historic work. Delivering on racial justice will require that the administration takes a comprehensive approach to embed equity in every aspect of our policymaking."
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Biden plans to take immediate steps to rejoin the World Health Organization. Trump pulled the U.S. out of the WHO during the pandemic, accusing the organization of being too deferential to China.
ethanmoser

Kremlin counts days to Trump's inauguration, blasts Obama | Fox News - 0 views

  • Kremlin counts days to Trump's inauguration, blasts Obama
  • Exulted by Donald Trump's victory in the U.S., the Kremlin is counting the days to his inauguration and venting its anger at Barack Obama's outgoing administration, no holds barred.
  • Trump's open admiration of Putin has brought wide expectations of improved Moscow-Washington relations, but Trump has not articulated a clear Russia policy.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • Careful not to hurt chances for a thaw in U.S.-Russia relations, President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials have deferred questions about their plans for future contacts with Trump and any agenda for those talks until he takes office on Friday.
  • Moscow calls Obama's team a "bunch of geopolitical losers" engaged in a last-ditch effort to inflict the maximum possible damage to U.S.-Russia ties to make it more difficult for Trump to mend the rift.
  • His Cabinet nominees include both a retired general with a hawkish stance on Russia and an oil executive who has done extensive business in Russia.
  • While Putin and his lieutenants hope Trump will open up to Russia, they know any attempt to fix ties will face massive obstacles, including possible strong resistance in the U.S. Congress.
  • The complexity of the conflict in Syria — where opposition groups backed by regional players are pitted against Assad's troops and often fight each other — makes hopes for quick progress elusive.
  • Putin has pushed for the U.S. to recognize Moscow as an equal global heavyweight and to acknowledge that Russia's ex-Soviet neighbors are in its sphere of "vital interests" — demands rejected by the West. Many in Russia hope that Trump could be more inclined to strike a "grand bargain" with Putin, carving up spheres of influence and helping cement Russia's role as a global power.
  • U.S. intelligence officials' accusations that Russian hackers — acting on Putin's orders — interfered into the vote to help Trump win have put the U.S. president-elect in a difficult position. Trump has grudgingly conceded that Russia was likely responsible for hacking the Democratic National Committee, but emphasized there was no evidence that hacking affected the U.S. election results. The Kremlin has rejected the hacking accusations and also hotly denied reports that it has collected compromising information about Trump.
  • Obama's administration still has a few days left to "destroy the world," Zakharova wrote.
ethanmoser

Gambia president-elect in Senegal until inauguration | Fox News - 0 views

  • Gambia president-elect in Senegal until inauguration
  • Gambia's President Yahya Jammeh, in power for more than 22 years, refuses to cede power, calling Dec. 1 elections invalid.
  • ECOWAS has said it will consider military intervention if Jammeh tries to prevent the inauguration. Senegal and Nigeria are contributing to a standby force.
draneka

Trump-Lewis row: Democrat inauguration boycott grows - BBC News - 0 views

  • The number of Democratic members of Congress saying they will boycott Donald Trump's inauguration on Friday has increased to 26.
  • Mr Trump lashed out at Mr Lewis on Twitter on Friday after Mr Lewis said he was not a "legitimate president".
  • Mr Lewis was a prominent member of America's civil rights movement and is a hero to many Americans. He was among those beaten by police during the infamous Selma-Montgomery voting rights march of 1965.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • The president-elect's insults, made just days ahead of Martin Luther King Day, were the final straw for a number of Democrats who will break with tradition by missing the inauguration ceremony on Frida
  • "When you insult Rep. John Lewis, you insult America," said Yvette Clarke, one of five representatives for New York who will boycott the event. There are 535 members of Congress, across both houses.
  • California representative Ted Lieu said: "For me, the personal decision not to attend Inauguration is quite simple: Do I stand with Donald Trump, or do I stand with John Lewis? I am standing with John Lewis."
  • "I could not look my wife, my daughters, or my grandson in the eye if I sat there and attended, as if everything that the candidate said about the women, the Latinos, the blacks, the Muslims, or any of those other things he said in those speeches and tweets, and that all of that is okay or erased from our collective memory," Mr Gutierrez told the House.
  • Mr Lewis' announcement of his own boycott in an interview with NBC News, in which he said that Mr Trump was an illegitimate president, prompted the outburst from the president-elect.
  • "You cannot be at home with something that you feel that is wrong," he told NBC News.
malonema1

Journalist Arrested During Trump Inauguration Faces New Felonies That Carry Decades in ... - 0 views

  • Journalist Arrested During Trump Inauguration Faces New Felonies That Carry Decades in Jail
  • Journalist Aaron Cantu made an initial court appearance Friday to face new criminal charges that could carry decades in prison for alleged rioting and property destruction during President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Cantu, who works for the Santa Fe Reporter and has had articles published by Vice, The Nation, The Guardian and The Intercept, declined to comment inside a courthouse in the nation’s capital. His attorney Chantale Fiebig also declined to comment on the case, which the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has criticized. Cantu, wearing a suit and tie, appeared alongside more than three dozen other defendants crowded in a horseshoe around Judge Lynn Leibovitz. He accepted an Oct. 15, 2018 trial date and entered a not guilty plea for three separate rioting charges and five felony destruction of property charges.
mattrenz16

Fact-checking Sidney Powell's claim Trump could be reinstated - CNNPolitics - 0 views

  • Months into President Joe Biden's first term, supporters of former President Donald Trump are still touting the "big lie" that Trump actually won the 2020 election. One of the prominent supporters of these theories is Trump's former lawyer Sidney Powell, who is facing a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit for promoting the big lie. In defending herself against the lawsuit, Powell has argued that no reasonable people would have believed her assertions of fraud.
  • During an event in Dallas on Sunday that was also attended by prominent peddlers of the QAnon conspiracy theory, Powell suggested Trump could be reinstated as president even now, saying that "it should be that he can simply be reinstated, that a new Inauguration Day is set."
  • Ratified in 1933, the 20th Amendment established Inauguration Day as January 20.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Per the 20th Amendment, the only way someone else could serve as acting president is if Congress determined that neither the president-elect nor vice president-elect has qualified by Inauguration Day. However, seeing as the results of the election declaring Biden victorious were certified, the window for such a possibility has closed.
woodlu

Rare Pentagon Mission: Armed Troops in Capital - The New York Times - 0 views

  • the Defense Department crossed a Rubicon that for the last six months Pentagon officials have tried to avoid: potentially pitting armed military forces against American citizens in the streets.
  • History has shown that such events never go well,
  • the most famous military confrontation with American citizens dates to 1932, when President Herbert Hoover ordered Army troops to clear more than 40,000 people
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • the Pentagon is going where before it feared to tread. And it is some of the very same people — Democrats — who have in the past warned against a muscular response to past protests, now pushing for an armed military.
  • the acting police chief in Washington, Robert J. Contee III, announced Wednesday that an additional 5,000 National Guard troops would be deployed to the city to support local law enforcement providing security for Mr. Biden’s inauguration,
  • More than 3,000 National Guard troops, rotating in 12-hour shifts, will provide security in and around the Capitol at any given time.
  • Foreign interference that may be masked as domestic unrest is another point of concern
  • law enforcement officials expressed concern that the police and National Guard troops had inadequate time to coordinate and fully understand the complicated chains of command in Washington’s overlapping local and federal jurisdictions.
  • need for good planning and coordination
  • Members of the Guard at the Capitol will be equipped with M9 sidearms and some will carry automatic rifles and shotguns.
  • The planning has gone beyond Washington, officials say, as Mr. Biden’s aides try to understand the plans for the capitals of all 50 states, where there is also fear of violence or attacks on State Capitol buildings or federal facilities.
  • the goal of the police and National Guard should be “prevention and de-escalation” of any violence.
  • Department of Homeland Security officials are worried they may turn to cyberinterference, in an effort to black out Mr. Biden’s first words to the nation, and the world.
  • similar concerns about infrastructure attacks,
  • vast majority of military forces in Washington will be National Guard
  • Pentagon officials express deep worry about protests that are planned for the inauguration. Some 16 groups
  • law enforcement agencies are planning for a range of outcomes, including a worse-case scenario in which people with firearms try to attack dignitaries, “suicide type aircraft”
  • try to fly into the Capitol’s restricted airspace and even remote-controlled drones that could be used to attack the crowd.
aleija

Inaugural Security Is Fortified in D.C. as Military and Police Links Are Eyed in Riot -... - 0 views

  • Dozens of people in Washington on the day of the attack on the Capitol were said to be on a terrorism watch list.
  • Thousands of armed National Guard troops were on their way to Washington to bolster security for next week’s inaugural celebration as federal investigators turned their attention to the difficult question of how many military and police personnel took part in the violent attack on the Capitol, a law enforcement official said on Thursday.
  • Most were suspected white supremacists, according to The Washington Post, which earlier reported on their status on the list.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Investigators are eager to determine whether any of these plotters were working together or had ties to law enforcement or the military.
  • The Pentagon was sufficiently concerned that members of the military might have taken part in the attack — or at least supported it — that the Joint Chiefs of Staff issued an unusual message to all military personnel this week, reminding them that President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. would soon be their commander in chief and that they were duty bound to defend the Constitution.
  • “We know who you are, if you’re out there, and F.B.I. agents are coming to find you,” Mr. Wray said, adding, “Anyone who plots or attempts violence in the coming week should count on a visit.”
  • “Everybody in there is a treasonous traitor,” Mr. Stager said, in an apparent reference to the Capitol, according to a video obtained by the F.B.I. “Death is the only remedy for what’s in that building.”
katherineharron

Tommy Tuberville, meet the Constitution. Constitution, Senator Tuberville. - CNNPolitics - 0 views

  • Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville has an idea about how to make next week's inauguration as safe as possible: Just move it to a few weeks later!
  • "We probably could have had a swearing-in and inauguration later after we got this virus behind us a little bit," Tuberville suggested in an interview
  • Er, so, this is awkward, senator, but the whole Inauguration Day thing isn't, um, movable?
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • See, there's this document called the Constitution -- it's kind of a big deal -- which makes very, very clear that the transfer of presidential power has to happen on January 20 at noon. It's all right there in section I of the 20th Amendment; "The terms of the President and the Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January." It was ratified by the states in 1933. Which was 88 years ago.
  • This isn't the first time that Tuberville, who beat Democratic Sen. Doug Jones in November, has shown a, um, lack of familiarity with the Constitution.
  • "Our government wasn't set up for one group to have all three branches of government — wasn't set up that way," Tuberville said, adding: "You know, the House, the Senate, and the executive."
  • First, the three branches of government are the executive, the legislative and the judicial. Second, the judicial branch isn't a partisan body where Republicans and Democrats fight for control.
  • Now, there's no requirement that you have to know the ins and outs (or even the basics) of the Constitution in order to hold an office. But one might also reasonably conclude that if you did happen to be elected to the United States Senate, you would want to buff up any weak(er) spots in your knowledge about the country's fundamental governing document.
  • Not so apparently with Tuberville, who came to the Senate having never run for any elected office before -- his formative professional experience was as the head coach of the Auburn football team -- and whose first two votes in Congress were to object to the Electoral College counts in Pennsylvania and Arizona.
  • Tuberville regularly touted his lack of political experience on the campaign trail as evidence he wasn't beholden to the permanent political class in Washington. "I'm tired of seeing the kickbacks and the swamp," he told an audience in 2019. "This is not an ego trip. I have money in the bank. I want this job."
carolinehayter

What We Know About Security Response At Capitol on January 6 : NPR - 0 views

  • The Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was a security failure, an intelligence failure — or both. How could security forces in the nation's capital be so swiftly and completely overwhelmed by rioters who stated their plans openly on a range of social media sites? President Trump had even tweeted on Dec. 19: "Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!"
  • In a letter to the Justice Department, Bowser says "we are mindful" of events in 2020 — likely referencing the June 1 clearing of peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square by Park Police and other federal law enforcement that not answerable to the city.
  • And then there is the National Guard. In the 50 states and Puerto Rico, the Guard is under the command of the governor. In Washington, D.C., however, the Guard is under the command of the president, though orders to deploy are typically issued by the secretary of the Army at the request of the mayor.
  • ...38 more annotations...
  • The Department of Homeland Security produces a threat assessment — but it is an overview, a DHS spokesperson told NPR, focusing on the "heightened threat environment during the 2020-2021 election season, including the extent to which the political transition and political polarization are contributing to the mobilization of individuals to commit violence."
  • This raw intelligence — bits and pieces of information scraped from various social media sites — indicates that there will likely be violence when lawmakers certify the presidential election results on Jan. 6.
  • But the DHS and the FBI do not create an intelligence report focused specifically on the upcoming pro-Trump rally.
  • These threat assessments or intelligence bulletins are typically written as a matter of course ahead of high-profile events. It's not clear why this didn't happen.
  • The Metropolitan Police Department arrests Enrique Tarrio, leader of the far-right Proud Boys group. He is charged with destruction of property and possession of high-capacity firearm magazines. He's released the next day and told to leave Washington.
  • U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund asks permission from House and Senate security officials to request that the D.C. National Guard be placed on standby in case the protest gets out of control. The Washington Post reports: "House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving said he wasn't comfortable with the 'optics' of formally declaring an emergency ahead of the demonstration, Sund said. Meanwhile, Senate Sergeant at Arms Michael Stenger suggested that Sund should informally seek out his Guard contacts, asking them to 'lean forward' and be on alert in case Capitol Police needed their help."
  • The FBI Field Office in Norfolk, Va., issues an explicit warning that extremists have plans for violence the next day, as first reported by the Post. It releases its advisory report after FBI analysts find a roster of troubling information including specific threats against members of Congress, an exchange of maps of the tunnel system under the Capitol complex and organizational plans like setting up gathering places in Kentucky, Pennsylvania and South Carolina so extremists can meet to convoy to Washington.
  • The head of the FBI's Washington Field Office, Steven D'Antuono, later says that information is shared with the FBI's "law enforcement partners" through the bureau's Joint Terrorism Task Force. That includes the U.S. Capitol Police, U.S. Park Police, D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and other agencies.
  • Officials convene a conference call with local law enforcement to discuss the Norfolk warning.
  • Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser announces that the MPD will be the lead law enforcement agency and will coordinate with the Capitol Police, Park Police and Secret Service.
  • The Metropolitan Police Department has jurisdiction on city streets; the U.S. Park Police on the Ellipse, where Trump's rally took place; the U.S. Secret Service in the vicinity of the White House; and the U.S. Capitol Police on the Capitol complex.
  • That day appears to have profoundly influenced the mayor's approach to the Jan. 6 events. In her letter, Bowser describes the difficulty and confusion of policing large crowds while working around other law enforcement personnel without proper coordination and identification.
  • Bowser requests, and receives, a limited force from the D.C. National Guard. The soldiers number 340, though they are unarmed and their job is to help with traffic flow — not law enforcement — which is to be handled by D.C. police.
  • Trump begins to address the crowd at the Ellipse, behind the White House. He falsely claims that "this election was stolen from you, from me, from the country." Trump calls on his supporters at the rally to march on the U.S. Capitol, saying he will walk with them. Instead, he returns to the White House.
  • "We see this huge crush of people coming down Pennsylvania Ave. toward the Capitol," reports NPR's Hannah Allam. "We follow the crowd as it goes up to the Hill, toward the Capitol. There's scaffolding set up for the inauguration already," she adds. "But as far as protection, all we really saw were some mesh barriers, some metal fencing and only a small contingent of Capitol Police. And we watched them being quickly overwhelmed." The FBI says multiple law enforcement agencies receive reports of a suspected pipe bomb at the headquarters of the Republican National Committee. Fifteen minutes later, there are reports of a similar device at the Democratic National Committee headquarters.
  • Mayor Bowser asks Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy for additional Guard forces
  • Capitol Police Chief Sund speaks with the commanding general of the D.C. National Guard Maj. Gen. William Walker by phone and requests immediate assistance.
  • White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany says on Twitter that the National Guard is on its way at Trump's direction.
  • Capitol Police send an alert that all buildings in the Capitol complex are on lockdown due to "an external security threat located on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol Building. ... [S]tay away from exterior windows and doors. If you are outside, seek cover."
  • The House and Senate abruptly go into recess.
  • On a conference call with Pentagon officials, D.C. Mayor Bowser requests National Guard support and Capitol Police Chief Sund pleads for backup.
  • Trump tweets criticism of Vice President Pence: "Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!"
  • From inside the House chamber come reports of an armed standoff at the door to the chamber. Police officers have their guns drawn on someone trying to get in.
  • Acting Defense Secretary Miller determines that all available forces of the D.C. National Guard are required to reestablish security of the Capitol complex.
  • Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam tweets that his team is working closely with Mayor Bowser, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to respond to the situation.
  • Moving to the Senate terrace, they see protesters smashing the door of the Capitol to gain entry, as Capitol Police inside work to push them back.
  • rump tweets a video downplaying the events of the day, repeating false claims that the election was stolen and sympathizing with his followers, saying: "I know your pain, I know you're hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side. But you have to go home now. We have to have peace. ... You're very special. You've seen what happens. You see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel, but go home, and go home in peace."
  • Acting Defense Secretary Miller authorizes the mobilization of up to 6,200 National Guard troops from Maryland, Virginia, New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania, according to the Pentagon.
  • Trump tweets a message to his supporters. "These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!"
  • Capitol Police, MPD and the D.C. National Guard establish a perimeter on the west side of the Capitol.
  • The Capitol is declared secure. Members of Congress return to complete the opening and counting of the Electoral College votes.
  • Pence affirms that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have won the Electoral College: "Joseph R. Biden Jr. of the state of Delaware has received for president of the United States, 306 votes. Donald J. Trump of the state of Florida has received 232 votes."
  • The FBI formally warns local law enforcement that armed protests are being planned for all 50 statehouses and the U.S. Capitol. The warning says an unidentified group is calling on others to help it "storm" state, local and federal courthouses, should Trump be removed as president before Inauguration Day.
  • Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, says two Capitol Police officers have been suspended. One of the suspended officers took a selfie with a rioter. The other put on a MAGA hat "and started directing people around," says Ryan.
  • The U.S. Justice Department says it has received more than 100,000 pieces of digital information in response to its call for tips about those responsible for the Capitol riot. The Justice Department says MPD acted on its intelligence to arrest the Proud Boys' Tarrio before the protest, and federal officials interrupted travel of others who planned to go to D.C.
  • The secretary of the Army announces that as many as 20,000 National Guard troops are expected to be deployed to D.C. for the inauguration. Some will be armed, while others will have access to their weapons but will not carry them.
  • FBI Director Christopher Wray says the bureau has identified more than 200 suspects from the Capitol riots and arrested more than 100 others in connection with the violence. "We know who you are if you're out there — and FBI agents are coming to find you," he warns.
  • U.S. Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz announces his office will begin "a review to examine the role and activity of DOJ and its components in preparing for and responding to the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021." Horowitz said his review will coordinate with IG reviews in the departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Interior.
anonymous

As inauguration nears, law enforcement scrutiny drives U.S. extremists into internet's ... - 0 views

  • Shortly after rampaging Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, a fan of the president posted a message on the pro-Donald Trump website TheDonald.win. Inspired by the mob’s attempt to stop lawmakers from confirming President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral win, user CONN_WYNN said in an all-caps message, replete with an expletive, that it was “TIME TO LEAVE THE KEYBOARD” and “FIGHT FOR MY...COUNTRY.”
  • Before the Capitol attack, such a post may not have elicited a follow-up visit. But in the aftermath of the riot, which left five people dead, federal law enforcement agencies have intensified their scrutiny of extremist chatter online, activity that officials warn could be early warning signals of planned attacks around Biden’s inauguration in Washington on Jan. 20.“You don’t want to be the ones to have FBI agents knocking on your door at 6 a.m.,” Director Christopher Wray said on Thursday during a televised briefing with Vice President Mike Pence. “Anybody who plots or attempts violence in the coming week should count on a visit.”
  • Extremists seeking a politically motivated civil war and those seeking a race war “may exploit the aftermath of the Capitol breach by conducting attacks to destabilize and force a climactic conflict in the United States,” officials wrote in a joint bulletin issued on Wednesday by the National Counterterrorism Center and the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security and seen by Reuters
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • The upside of driving extremists underground, Sena said, is that it is harder for them to radicalize others when they do not have access to more mainstream platforms.Law enforcement is also in the difficult position of determining whether people saying “despicable” things online intend harm or are “just practicing keyboard bravado,” Steven D’Antuono, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington field office, told reporters on Tuesday.
aidenborst

Trump's final full week in office ends with the nation in disarray - CNNPolitics - 0 views

  • The final full week of Donald Trump's presidency ended with a nation in disarray -- fearful about the threats surrounding Inauguration Day in a capital city that has become a fortress; unsettled by new details of the harm that rioters could have inflicted on lawmakers during last week's insurrection; and angry at the revelation that the administration's pledge to release a reserve of Covid-19 vaccine doses was hollow.
  • Trump's narcissistic detachment from the grief and fear gripping the nation, while all too familiar, was no less breathtaking in his final days after four years in which he has shirked the most solemn duties of the presidency. After these last days characterized by incompetence, poor planning, negligence and Trump's utter lack of contrition for the mob he incited to attack the Capitol, America finally seems ready to see him head for the exits.
  • His political capital has cratered. A Pew Research Center poll released Friday showed that 54% of Americans want to see Trump removed from office and 68% said they don't want to see him continue to be a major national political figure in the years to come. His overall approval rating fell to 29%, the lowest it has ebbed during his presidency in the Pew poll.
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • As Trump makes little effort to quiet the nerves of a rattled nation, details of what unfolded during last week's Capitol siege have become more unsettling by the day as federal authorities have raced to apprehend the most dangerous rioters while warning of plots for more violence next week when President-elect Joe Biden will be inaugurated. close dialogSign up for CNN's CNN's Chris Cillizza cuts through the political spin and tells you what you need to know. Sign Me UpNo ThanksBy subscribing, you agree to ourprivacy policy.Sign up for CNN's CNN's Chris Cillizza cuts through the political spin and tells you what you need to know. Please enter above Sign Me UpNo ThanksBy subscribing, you agree to ourprivacy policy.You're on the list for CNN'sCNN's Chris Cillizza cuts through the political spin and tells you what you need to know. close dialog/* effects for .bx-campaign-1245919 *//* custom css
  • The Washington Post was the first to report Friday that Pence and his family were whisked to safety in a nearby room mere seconds before Eugene Goodman led the mob away from some of the nation's top elected officials to another corridor where other officers arrived as backup.
  • Pence was clearly a top target in the riot; widely circulated video has shown the rioters chanting "hang Mike Pence" as they stormed the Capitol after Trump turned on his vice president by erroneously suggesting that he could have abandoned his duties and changed the outcome of the presidential election.
  • "Some guys started getting a hold of my gun and they were screaming out, 'Kill him with his own gun,'" Fanone, an officer for nearly two decades, told CNN.
  • "He was practically foaming at the mouth so just, these people were true believers in the worst way," Hodges told CNN.
  • "These men weren't drunks who got rowdy — they were terrorists attacking this country's constitutionally-mandated transfer of power," Sasse said in a statement. "They failed, but they came dangerously close to starting a bloody constitutional crisis. They must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The FBI is investigating widespread calls for violence across the country and every American has an obligation to lower the temperature."
  • Biden outlined his own plan to accelerate distribution of the Covid-19 vaccines on Friday. Though his proposal was short on details, he said he would expand eligibility for those 65 and up to get vaccinated -- a step the Trump administration also encouraged this week.
  • But several governors said they were furious Friday after learning that the federal government has no reserve of additional Covid-19 vaccine doses to distribute -- days after Trump administration officials announced with much fanfare that they planned to release a reserve of second doses to make more vaccine available to those 65 and older.
  • "It appears now that no reserve exists. The Trump administration must answer immediately for this deception," Inslee tweeted.
  • During a news conference, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown -- also a Democrat -- said she was "shocked and appalled" that the Trump administration set an expectation earlier this week, knowing that they could not deliver on it.
  • "Their empty promises are literally playing with people's lives," Brown said. "While the Trump administration pulled the rug out from under us like a cruel joke, let me assure you that Oregon's priorities, and my priorities have not changed. ... I remain committed to vaccinating our seniors quickly. But this failure by the Trump administration will unfortunately cause a two-week delay in beginning vaccinations for seniors quickly."
  • Pfizer has told CNN it has vaccine doses on hand to ship when they are requested by the federal government. "We are working around the clock to produce millions more each day," the company said in a statement.
aidenborst

Capitol riots unleashed long-term danger, experts warn - CNN - 0 views

  • The US Capitol is surrounded by fences and troops amid fear the January 6 riots could spark violence this weekend and leading up to Wednesday's inauguration. But experts worry the real threat may be what the attack unleashed for the long term.
  • In many messaging apps and boards, some are calling for a boycott of events this weekend and the inauguration. Michael Edison Hayden, the Southern Poverty Law Center senior investigative reporter and spokesperson, says high-profile names and podcasters Mike Peinovich and Nick Fuentes have told their followers not to go to rallies. The ADL says that White supremacist Peinovich, known as Mike Enoch, and the far-right Fuentes have been rallying voices of discontent for years.
  • They're also worried that the numbers of potentially violent extremists are growing. Social media giants banned President Donald Trump and others over fears their posts would continue to spark violence, which the experts said has led to a sympathetic and growing audience at risk of radicalization.
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • "Our moderators are reviewing an increased number of reports related to public posts with calls to violence, which are expressly forbidden by our Terms of Service," Telegram spokesperson Remi Vaughn told CNN in a statement on Wednesday. Vaughn added: "We welcome peaceful discussion and peaceful protests, but routinely remove publicly available content that contains direct calls to violence."
  • In public and private chats there are common messages about plotting to "take back America" or rallying together against supposed censorship, according to Angelo Carusone, president and CEO of Media Matters for America. Carusone and his team have been tracking extremist language and posting in a variety of media landscapes.
  • "The FBI cannot open an investigation without a threat of violence or alleged criminal activity. However, when that language does turn to a call for violence or criminal activity, the FBI is able to undertake investigative activity," the agency said.
  • "It is more and more important to know where they're going, especially if they're moving even further and further behind the veil," Carusone said. "If you lose track of them entirely, you lose that that information pipeline, you lose the ability to identify those indicators, which means it's harder to prevent harm."
  • "The plots of tomorrow are literally being hatched right now," Oren Segal, vice president of the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism, told CNN.
  • Segal said extremists might move cautiously in coming days, from both paranoia and knowing they're being watched.
  • "It's not before inauguration that we need to be concerned about them trying to spark another civil war -- it's after," Segal told CNN.
  • Trump was very much a part of that, too. He repeatedly criticized Gov. Gretchen Whitmer about her Covid-19 restrictions before and after the news of the plot against her.
  • Experts note that at the protests against her moves, there too was a cross-pollination of people who showed up -- self-declared militia members, anarchists, those with anti-government beliefs and anti-vaxxers.
  • Carusone says this is just the beginning of the country heading "into a buzzsaw" due to divisiveness, extremist actions and political rhetoric. "Trump has gift-wrapped the narrative for the next four years," Segal explains.
  • "All of those new people being brought into these communities creates new opportunity for expanding the ranks," Carusone said. "There's going to be a lot of new people ... organized and exposed to a set of prescriptions that ultimately bring us back to the same place ... leading up to the attack on the Capitol. "Except in this case, it'll be more of them."
katherineharron

The 15 most notable lies of Donald Trump's presidency - CNNPolitics - 0 views

  • I fact checked every word uttered by this President from his inauguration day in January 2017 until September 2020 -- when the daily number of lies got so unmanageably high that I had to start taking a pass on some of his remarks to preserve my health.
  • Trump got even worse after November 3. Since then, he has spent the final months of what has been a wildly dishonest presidency on a relentless and dangerous lying spree about the election he lost.
  • The most telling lie: It didn't rain on his inaugurationclose dialogSign up for CNN What Matters NewsletterEvery day we summarize What Matters and deliver it straight to your inbox.Sign me upNo thanksBy subscribing you agree to ourprivacy policy.By subscribing you agree to ourprivacy policy.Sign up for CNN What Matters NewsletterEvery day we summarize What Matters and deliver it straight to your inbox.Please enter aboveSign me upNo thanksBy subscribing you agree to ourprivacy policy.By subscribing you agree to ourprivacy policy.Sign up for CNN What Matters NewsletterEvery day we summarize What Matters and deliver it straight to your inbox.bx-group bx-group-default bx-group-1245864-3DW
  • ...36 more annotations...
  • It rained during Trump's inaugural address. Then, at a celebratory ball later that day, Trump told the crowd that the rain "just never came" until he finished talking and went inside, at which point "it poured."
  • The President would say things that we could see with our own eyes were not true. And he would often do this brazen lying for no apparent strategic reason.
  • The most dangerous lie: The coronavirus was under control
  • This was more like a family of lies than a single lie. But each one -- the lie that the virus was equivalent to the flu; the lie that the situation was "totally under control"; the lie that the virus was "disappearing" -- suggested to Americans that they didn't have to change much about their usual behavior.
  • more than 386,000 Americans have died from the virus.
  • The most alarming lie saga: Sharpiegate
  • Trump tweeted in 2019 that Alabama was one of the states at greater risk from Hurricane Dorian than had been initially forecast. The federal weather office in Birmingham then tweeted that, actually, Alabama would be unaffected by the storm
  • Trump, however, is so congenitally unwilling to admit error that he embarked on an increasingly farcical campaign to prove that his incorrect Alabama tweet was actually correct, eventually showcasing a hurricane map that was crudely altered with a Sharpie.
  • The most ridiculous subject of a lie: The Boy Scouts
  • When I emailed the Boy Scouts of America in 2017 about Trump's claim that "the head of the Boy Scouts" had called him to say that his bizarrely political address to the Scouts' National Jamboree was "the greatest speech that was ever made to them," I didn't expect a reply. One of the hardest things about fact checking Trump was that a lot of people he lied about did not think it was in their interest to be quoted publicly contradicting a vengeful president.
  • A senior Scouts source -- a phrase I never expected to have to type as a political reporter in Washington, DC -- confirmed to me that no call ever happened.
  • The ugliest smear lie: Rep. Ilhan Omar supports al Qaeda
  • The most boring serial lie: The trade deficit with China used to be $500 billion
  • It was a problem for the country that the President was not only a conspiracy theorist himself but immersed in conspiracy culture, regularly stumbling upon ludicrous claims and then sharing them as fact.
  • So he said well over 100 times that, before his presidency, the US for years had a $500 billion annual trade deficit with China -- though the actual pre-Trump deficit never even reached $400 billion.
  • The most entertaining lie shtick: The burly crying men who had never cried before
  • according to the President, they kept walking up to him crying tears of gratitude -- even though they had almost always not previously cried for years.
  • The most traditional big lie: Trump didn't know about the payment to Stormy Daniels
  • he also lied when he needed to. When he told reporters on Air Force One in 2018 that he did not know about a $130,000 payment to porn performer Stormy Daniels and that he did not know where his then-attorney Michael Cohen got the money for the payment, it was both audacious -- Trump knew, because he had personally reimbursed Cohen -- and kind of conventional: the President was lying to try to get himself out of a tawdry scandal.
  • The biggest lie by omission: Trump ended family separation
  • ere's what he told NBC's Chuck Todd in 2019 about his widely controversial policy of separating migrant parents from their children at the border: "You know, under President Obama you had separation. I was the one that ended it." Yes, Trump signed a 2018 order to end the family separation policy.
  • The most shameless campaign lie: Biden will destroy protections for pre-existing conditions
  • When Trump claimed in September that Biden would destroy protections for people with pre-existing health conditions -- though the Obama-Biden administration created the protections, though the protections were overwhelmingly popular, though Biden was running on preserving them,
  • Trump himself had tried repeatedly to weaken them
  • The lie he fled: He got Veterans Choice
  • Trump could have told a perfectly good factual story about the Veterans Choice health care program Obama signed into law in 2014: it wasn't good enough, so he replaced it with a more expansive program he signed into law in 2018.
  • That's not the story he did tell -- whether out of policy ignorance, a desire to erase Obama's legacy, or simply because he is a liar. Instead, he claimed over and over -- more than 160 times before I lost count -- that he is the one who got the Veterans Choice program passed after other presidents tried and failed for years.
  • The Crazy Uncle lie award: Windmill noise causes cancer
  • At a White House event in 2019, Trump grossly distorted a 2013 quote from Rep. Ilhan Omar to try to get his supporters to believe that the Minnesota Democrat had expressed support for the terrorist group al Qaeda.
  • his 2019 declaration that "they say" the noise from windmills "causes cancer."
  • The most hucksterish lie: That plan was coming in two weeks
  • Trump's big health care plan was eternally coming in "two weeks."
  • My personal favorite lie: Trump was once named Michigan's Man of the Year
  • Trump has never lived in Michigan. Why would he have been named Michigan's Man of the Year years before his presidency?He wouldn't have been. He wasn't.
  • The most depressing lie: Trump won the election
  • Trump's long White House campaign against verifiable reality has culminated with his lie that he is the true winner of the 2020 presidential election he clearly, certifiably and fairly lost.
anonymous

Airbnb Canceling All D.C. Area Reservations For Inauguration Week : Insurrection At The... - 0 views

  • Airbnb says it is canceling reservations made in the Washington, D.C., metro area during inauguration week, citing various officials' requests that people not travel to the area during this time
  • The service will also block new bookings in the area during that period. Airbnb says it will refund guests whose reservations were canceled and reimburse hosts for the money they would have earned from the canceled reservations.
  • Additionally, we are aware of reports emerging yesterday afternoon regarding armed militias and known hate groups that are attempting to travel and disrupt the Inauguration."
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • The company said it has taken steps to "ensure hate group members are not part of the Airbnb community" — banning "numerous individuals" from using its platform if Airbnb has learned they "are either associated with known hate groups or otherwise involved in the criminal activity at the Capitol Building."
  • Neighborhood message boards in D.C. lit up in recent days with reports of shouting matches between pro-Trump Airbnb guests and D.C. neighbors, and of hosts hearing guests talking afterward about taking part in the riot.
  • Some neighbors urged D.C. Airbnb hosts to be careful who they rent to, while others cautioned hosts not to run afoul of nondiscrimination policies.
  • "Members of hate groups are never welcome on Airbnb," the company said,
Javier E

A Sneaky Peek at Obama's Inaugural Speech - NYTimes.com - 0 views

  • PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA’S Second Inaugural Address, revised for maximum honesty:
  • And oh, you centrist chin-strokers who kept saying I was no Clinton? You were absolutely right. I’m the liberal Reagan. Deal with it.
ecfruchtman

Trump drops inauguration announcer who's done them all since Eisenhower - 0 views

  •  
    The 89-year-old Brotman -- once the voice of the Washington Senators baseball team -- has announced every inauguration parade since Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1957. He told WJLA he was "heartbroken" and "destroyed" by the decision at first. "I've been doing this for 60 years," he told the Washington ABC affiliate.
marleymorton

With His Choice Of Inauguration Prayer Leaders, Trump Shows His Values - 0 views

  •  
    The six faith leaders President-elect Donald Trump has invited to pray at his inauguration come from diverse backgrounds, but they have something in common: All have personal ties to Trump or his family or have in some way signaled their approval of him, his politics or his wealth.
bodycot

Democrats plot their D.C. departures for Trump inauguration - POLITICO - 0 views

    • bodycot
       
      Democrats Not Going To The Inauguration.
davisem

The Growing List of House Dems Skipping the Inauguration - 0 views

shared by davisem on 17 Jan 17 - No Cached
  •  
    Up to about 40 Democratic members of Congress have announced they will skip Donald Trump's Friday inauguration. While some made their decision in previous weeks, several more have now come forward, citing the president-elect's perceived insult of Rep. John Lewis as the final straw.
‹ Previous 21 - 40 of 321 Next › Last »
Showing 20 items per page