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yehbru

Jan. 6 Commission Fails In Senate Following GOP Opposition : NPR - 0 views

  • Bipartisan legislation to establish an independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has failed in the Senate, as Republicans staged their first filibuster since President Biden took office to block the plan.
  • "I do not believe the additional, extraneous commission that Democratic leaders want would uncover crucial new facts or promote healing," the Kentucky Republican said. "Frankly, I do not believe it is even designed to."
  • The proposed commission was modeled on the one established to investigate the 9/11 terror attacks, with 10 commissioners — five Democrats and five Republicans — who would have subpoena powers
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  • The final vote Friday was 54-35, but Republicans withheld the votes necessary to bring the bill up for debate. Just six GOP senators joined with the Democrats, leaving the measure short of the 60 votes needed to proceed.
  • "A lot of our members ... want to be moving forward," the South Dakota Republican told CNN last week. "Anything that gets us rehashing the 2020 elections is, I think, a day lost."
  • The Washington, D.C., medical examiner said last month that Brian Sicknick died from a series of strokes, but the Capitol Police still consider his death one that came in the line of duty. The officer is one of five people who died either during the attack or shortly afterward.
anonymous

How Republicans Fanned the Flames Before US Capitol Building Riot - The New York Times - 0 views

  • “Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass,” said Mr. Brooks, Republican of Alabama. “Are you willing to do what it takes to fight for America? Louder! Will you fight for America?”
  • Hours later, urged on by President Trump at the same rally, rioters stormed the Capitol, where Congress was meeting to formalize Mr. Biden’s election, chanting “Hang Mike Pence,” threatening to shoot Speaker Nancy Pelosi and forcing lawmakers to evacuate the building in a scene of violence and mayhem.
  • But a handful of Mr. Trump’s most loyal allies in the House had gone even further in the days and weeks before the riot, urging their supporters to come to Washington on Jan. 6 to make a defiant last stand to keep him in power.
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  • “We four schemed up of putting maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting,” Mr. Alexander said in a since-deleted video, “so that who we couldn’t rally, we could change the hearts and the minds of Republicans who were in that body, hearing our loud roar from outside.”
  • As rioters laid siege to the Capitol, Mr. Gosar posted a message of calm on Twitter, telling his followers, “Let’s not get carried away here.”
  • Their comments have raised questions about the degree to which Republicans may have coordinated with protest organizers.
  • Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Lauren Boebert of Colorado, first-term lawmakers who ran as outspoken defenders of Mr. Trump, referred to the day as Republicans’ “1776 moment.”
  • “I make no apology for doing my absolute best to inspire patriotic Americans to not give up on our country and to fight back against anti-Christian socialists in the 2022 and 2024 elections,”
  • “We’re going to need to take a broader look at members of Congress who may have encouraged or even facilitated the attack on the Capitol,”
  • Other House Democrats were pushing to invoke Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, added after the Civil War, which disqualifies people who “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the United States from holding public office.
  • Representative Cori Bush, Democrat of Missouri, introduced a resolution on Monday with 47 co-sponsors that would initiate investigations for “removal of the members who attempted to overturn the results of the election and incited a white supremacist attempted coup.”
  • “Even if it’s just a few, we have to make sure the message is clear that you cannot be a sitting Congress member and incite an insurrection and work to overturn an election,”
zoegainer

These Businesses and Institutions Are Cutting Ties With Trump - The New York Times - 0 views

  • A growing number of companies and institutions have taken actions against President Trump and his associates since the deadly rampage at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday by the president’s supporters.
  • Facebook’s announcement came four days after it banned Mr. Trump from posting on its platform at least through the end of his term — after years of defending its hands-off approach.
  • And several digital platforms — including Snapchat, YouTube, Twitch, Reddit and Twitter — also recently limited or suspended Mr. Trump on their services.
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  • The P.G.A. of America announced on Sunday night that its board of directors had voted to terminate an agreement to play the P.G.A. Championship — one of golf’s four prestigious global major men’s championships — at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., in 2022.
  • Citigroup, which gave $1,000 in 2019 to the campaign of Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, one of the senators who voted against the certification of the Electoral College results, said it had paused all campaign contributions until March.
  • Morgan Stanley said it suspended contributions to members of Congress who voted against certifying the results of the election, but has not suspended contributions across the board.
  • Deutsche Bank, which has been Mr. Trump’s primary lender for two decades, and Signature Bank, are also seeking distance from him and his business.
  • “Last week’s attempts by some congressional members to subvert the presidential election results and disrupt the peaceful transition of power do not align with our American Express Blue Box values,”
  • The New York State Bar Association has started an inquiry into whether Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, should be removed from its membership
  • AT&T, Amazon, Comcast, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Ford, Best Buy and Marriott International also said they had suspended or ended contributions to members of Congress who voted against the certification of the Electoral College vote last week.
  • Hilton said it had already suspended its political contributions because of the impact of the pandemic, and that, because of the Capitol Hill violence, it would keep its PAC suspended indefinitely.
  • Wagner College on Staten Island also said on Friday that its board of trustees had voted to rescind the degree it gave to Mr. Trump in 2004.
  • In 2017, both Lehigh and Wagner considered revoking the degrees after Mr. Trump said there were “very fine people on both sides” who violently clashed in Charlottesville, Va. The schools later decided to let Mr. Trump keep the degrees.
  • The P.G.A. of America announced on Sunday night that its board of directors had voted to terminate an agreement to play the P.G.A. Championship at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., in 2022.
  • The hotel giant Marriott International said it was taking similar action.
  • Four of the country’s largest banks, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley, said they would temporarily stop sending donations from their political action committees.
  • The banks have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and donated to candidates of both parties
  • The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association announced on Friday that it was suspending political contributions to Republicans in Congress who tried to block the electoral vote tallies for President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.
  • The association is one of the nation’s largest federations of insurance companies, which provide health insurance to about 109 million Americans.
  • The decision to strip Mr. Trump’s resort of hosting the second of four major tournaments on the tour’s calendar was a heavy loss to a president who has emphasized his portfolio of golf resorts and spent significant time on the course while in office.
  • Lehigh University in Pennsylvania awarded Mr. Trump a degree in 1988, after its president called the real estate developer a “symbol of our age — all the daring and energy that the word tycoon conjures up.” On Friday, two days after the attack on the Capitol, the university said in a statement that its board of trustees had “voted to rescind and revoke the honorary degree.”
  • Wagner College on Staten Island — the New York City borough where Mr. Trump has remained popular — announced on Friday that its board of trustees had voted to rescind the degree it gave to Mr. Trump in 2004. No explanation was given.
  • On Sunday, Laurie L. Patton, president of the college, said it had initiated the process to consider revoking that degree because of Mr. Giuliani’s role in “fomenting the violent uprising against our nation’s Capitol building,” which Ms. Patton called “an insurrection against democracy itself.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story
  • The online payment platform Stripe will no longer process payments for Mr. Trump’s campaign website, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.
  • Under the terms of that policy, Stripe users must agree not to accept payments for “high risk” activities, including for any business or organization that “engages in, encourages, promotes or celebrates unlawful violence or physical harm to persons or property.
woodlu

Inside the Capitol for Impeachment: National Guard in Every Corner - The New York Times - 0 views

  • Throngs of armed, camouflage fatigue-clad members of the National Guard ringed the Capitol and lined its halls on Wednesday,
  • It evoked reminders of the rioters who just one week earlier had stormed the complex as its terrified occupants took shelter inside the barricaded House chamber and secure locations across the Capitol
  • “I hate the idea that we’re going to change in a way, be harder more difficult or more cumbersome for people to come enjoy the historic monument that this is because of what happened last week,”
rerobinson03

Biden Denounces Storming of Capitol as a 'Dark Moment' in Nation's History - The New Yo... - 0 views

  • President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. denounced the storming of the Capitol on Wednesday as the violent expression of President Trump’s refusal to accept his defeat, calling it “an assault on the citadel of liberty” and saying the president had stoked the mob with his brazen and false claims that the 2020 election had been stolen.
  • “a dark moment” in the nation’s history,
  • “It’s disorder. It’s chaos. It borders on sedition and it must end now.”
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  • The day had started as one of triumph for Mr. Biden and his party, with Democrats coming off elections the day before that sealed control of the Senate by picking up two seats in Georgia and Congress scheduled to clear away the last formal Republican objections to his victory by certifying the Electoral College outcome.
  • Filling out his cabinet, Mr. Biden chose Judge Merrick B. Garland, whose Supreme Court nomination Republicans blocked in 2016, to be attorney general, placing the task of repairing a beleaguered Justice Department in the hands of a centrist judge.
  • The assault on the Capitol by pro-Trump demonstrators devolved into a physical confrontation that halted the process of certifying the Electoral College outcome
  • It’s not protest. It’s insurrection.
  • Other interest groups quickly seized on the Georgia results to ratchet up the pressure on Mr. Biden to make good on his campaign promises.
  • “The work of the moment and the work of the next four years must be the restoration of democracy, of decency, honor, respect, the rule of law,” he said, adding later: “We must step up
  • Mr. Biden’s advisers are deep into the process of developing policy proposals to deliver to Congress in the coming weeks, starting with another stimulus package
  • Shortly after, Mr. Trump posted on Twitter a one-minute video in which he empathized with the rioters because “we had an election that was stolen from us,” but then urged them to “go home now. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order.”
  • The Democratic victories in Georgia put Mr. Biden’s party in control at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue and reduced the risk of total partisan gridlock in Congress, at least for two years.
  • “With Schumer in control of the calendar, he’s got the opportunity to do some really substantial things.”
  • The Biden team is also drafting proposals to implement the president-elect’s “Build Back Better” campaign agenda, including new government spending on clean energy, infrastructure, health care and education, financed by tax increases on the rich and corporations.
  • Mr. Biden’s allies in the Senate expressed optimism that, armed with committee chairmanships and control of the legislative calendar, they could advance the president-elect’s policy goals.
  • “We need to fix a lot of the damage Trump’s done, and then there’s pent-up demand for a whole lot of things — what do we do about climate and about racial inequality, about wealth inequality, about structural racism,” said Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who is set to be the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee.
  • Mr. Biden has also proposed the most ambitious climate agenda of any president in history, including $2 trillion in spending on green initiatives. A majority in the Senate gives Mr. Biden options to make some of that happen.
  • But Mr. Biden’s agenda will be constrained by the Democrats’ narrow advantages in the House and in the Senate, where moderate Democrats such as Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona will wield vast power over which plans can pass.
  • Before the outbreak of violence on Capitol Hill, Mr. Biden signaled on Wednesday morning that despite the shift of Senate control to Democrats, he would still attempt to build legislative coalitions with Republicans on his top priorities
  • A high-profile business lobbying group that has long supported many Republicans, the National Association of Manufacturers, denounced Mr. Trump on Wednesday for inciting the violence and suggested it was time for his administration to invoke a constitutional provision to remove him
Javier E

Republicans Created the Chaos Outside the U.S. Capitol - The Atlantic - 0 views

  • It was a grave moment for American democracy, and a clarifying one as well: Today was one of the few times that Trump’s most extreme supporters actually encountered the Republican lawmakers who have stoked their anger and encouraged their delusions for years.
  • The politicians who enabled Trump did not expect the president’s followers to ever break through the glass windows of the Capitol and ascend the Senate dais. They did not anticipate that a man wearing a Camp Auschwitz shirt or others, with Confederate flags or dressed as fur-clad Vikings, would breach the building; that a woman would lie dying by one of the building’s entrances, shot by Capitol Police. Trump, for them, has been a blunt instrument they can use to retain power, appoint conservative judges, and pass tax cuts. Today, these Republicans finally confronted the monster they’ve created.
  • Some Trump supporters, recognizing that their rally had turned into something more sinister, left the area. (“I was just trying to demonstrate peacefully,” I heard a man tell his female companion as the two quickly fled the scene.) But many others moved in closer, pulling gas masks out of their backpacks, apparently well prepared for this moment.
clairemann

Outgoing U.S. Capitol Police Chief Accuses House, Senate Officials Of Blocking His Effo... - 0 views

  • The outgoing chief of the U.S. Capitol Police said House of Representatives and Senate security officials had thwarted his efforts to call in the National Guard, contradicting assertions from other officials who said the force had not asked for help.
  • Sund’s remarks were in contrast with those from officials in other branches of government, who said after Trump’s supporters stormed into the Capitol building last Wednesday that they could have provided more people to secure it – but no one from the Capitol Police asked.
  • Sund told the newspaper in an interview he had asked House and Senate security officials for permission to request that the National Guard be placed on standby in case he needed quick backup but his request was turned down.
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  • “If we would have had the National Guard we could have held them at bay longer, until more officers from our partner agencies could arrive,” he told the newspaper.
  • Trump, who has without evidence challenged the validity of Biden’s election victory, initially praised his supporters but later condemned the violence.
katherineharron

GOP senators signal they plan to acquit Trump despite visceral presentation by House De... - 0 views

  • even after witnessing the deadly violence firsthand, and being reminded of it again at the scene of the crime, many Republican senators appeared no closer on Wednesday to convicting former President Donald Trump on the charge of "incitement of insurrection."
  • these Republicans said that the House Democrats did not prove Trump's words led to the violent actions. They compared the January 6 riot to last summer's racial justice protests and criticized how the trial is being handled.
  • "I think there's more votes for acquittal after today than there was yesterday," the South Carolina Republican said.
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  • And Sen. Ted Cruz said a direct link from Trump to the pro-Trump riot was "strikingly absent." The Texas Republican claimed that "there's not a political candidate in the country," including "every single one of the Democratic senators," who hasn't used the same language as Trump, who told his supporters "to fight like hell."
  • The comments are the latest indication of the high hurdles Democrats face in getting the 67 votes needed to convict Trump -- with 17 Republicans needed to break ranks if all 50 Democrats vote to convict the former President and then bar him from ever serving in office again.
  • "I think you get at best six Republicans -- probably five and maybe six," GOP Sen. Tim Scott told CNN when asked if the video and footage changed his mind on convicting Trump.
  • In a speech before the Capitol rampage, Trump urged his supporters "to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard" but also to "fight like hell," "never give up" and "never concede." A couple days earlier, he tweeted that "The 'Surrender Caucus' within the Republican Party will go down in infamy as weak and ineffective 'guardians' of our Nation, who were willing to accept the certification of fraudulent presidential numbers!" He repeatedly told his supporters to "stop the steal!"
  • South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the minority whip and a member of GOP leadership, said that the House managers did an "effective job" and were "connecting the dots" from Trump's words to the insurrection.
  • Romney, the only Republican to vote to convict Trump in his first impeachment trial last year, was shown on screen during the managers' presentation fleeing the Capitol after Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman urged him to run in the opposition direction of where he was heading.
  • "Obviously very troubling to see the great violence that our Capitol Police and others are subjected to," Romney said. "It tears you at your heart and brings tears to your eyes. That was overwhelmingly distressing and emotional."
  • For most Republican senators, Wednesday's presentation did not seem to affect how they'll vote. Many are on record decrying the trial as unconstitutional since Trump is now a former president, and the punishment for conviction is removal.
delgadool

Pelosi Vows to Move Forward With Independent Inquiry Into Capitol Riot - The New York T... - 0 views

  • Calls have grown for a bipartisan, independent investigation into the law enforcement and administrative failures that led to the first breach of the Capitol complex
  • “There’s still more evidence that the American people need and deserve to hear,” Senator Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware, said over the weekend on ABC’s “This Week,” adding that a commission would “make sure that we secure the Capitol going forward and that we lay bare the record of just how responsible” Mr. Trump was for the attack.
  • Ms. Pelosi said the panel would be assigned to “investigate and report on the facts and causes relating to the Jan. 6, 2021, domestic terrorist attack upon the United States Capitol complex” as well as “the interference with the peaceful transfer of power.”
lilyrashkind

"I hope your family dies": Lawmakers worry for their safety as violent threats surge - ... - 0 views

  • The threats ramped up after then-President Donald Trump verbally attacked her and her late husband John at a campaign rally in December 2019, the Michigan Democrat said. 
  • "He made very public comments about John looking up from hell. And I was just stunned by it," Dingell said. It's not only verbal abuse.  "I had men in front of my house with assault weapons after [Fox News host] Tucker Carlson had done a rant on me," she said. In November, her Dearborn office was vandalized.
  • "Hey, Cynthia dumb a**," said a voicemail left for Senator Cynthia Lummis, a Wyoming Republican, after she voted against impeaching Trump. "You f***ing committed treason. You f***ing committed sedition. And I will f***ing kill you. I will. I will f***ing kill you." 
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  • The threats have had an impact on her and she worries that speaking out about it could make her more of a target. Other lawmakers declined to speak with CBS News because they didn't want to normalize the violent threats. "I'm trying not to let it get to me," Dingell said. "But it doesn't mean that some nights when you're home and alone and you don't have the husband you love anymore, you don't get scared."A year after the January 6 riot, the Capitol Police says the threats to lawmakers are at an all-time high. Roughly 9,600 threats were referred to the agency in 2021, about 100 more than in 2020. 
  • "We're being stretched. Let's be blunt. We're being stretched. We're keeping up, but this is not an ideal situation," he added. Capitol Police flagged about 460 threats against lawmakers' lives last year. 
  • Threats against lawmakers rise when members of Congress take rhetorical aim at colleagues, according to Scalora. After Colorado Republican Lauren Boebert likened Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar to a suicide bomber, both received threats.
  • The Capitol Police is now looking to investigate more of those threats itself and rely less on other agencies. Manger's intelligence unit has doubled the number of analysts available to monitor the threat landscape, especially online. The department is also looking to add 280 new officers this year and is opening field offices in California and Florida to investigate these threats more efficiently. 
edencottone

Ron Johnson says he didn't feel threatened Jan. 6. If BLM or Antifa stormed Capitol, he... - 0 views

  • In an interview on conservative talk radio, Sen. Ron Johnson, one of former President Donald Trump’s strongest supporters, said he didn’t feel threatened by rioters violently storming the Capitol. Instead, he said, he might have been scared if the participants were Black Lives Matter or Antifa supporters — a comment with strong racial overtones.
  • I knew those were people that love this country, that truly respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break the law, and so I wasn't concerned,”
  • "Now, had the tables been turned — Joe, this could get me in trouble — had the tables been turned, and President Trump won the election and those were tens of thousands of Black Lives Matter and Antifa protesters, I might have been a little concerned," Johnson said.
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  • The insurrection left several people dead and hundreds of people have been charged in connection to the events of Jan. 6.
  • "We’ve moved from just plain old fringe, extremist rants to fringe extremist and racist rants," Pocan said.
  • FBI Director Christopher Wray said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that there is "no evidence" Antifa had any role in the insurrection. MOST READ IRS partially shields some stimulus payments from debt reductions MAGA voters discovered a new home online. But it isn't what it seems. Newsom says California recall likely to qualify, tries to soften Feinstein stance McCarthy decries ‘political stunt’ after troops visit lawmaker’s office An unlikely Trump turncoat shows the GOP way to resist his influence
  • Johnson also has pushed the conspiracy theory that outside provocateurs were part of the riots, a claim Trump backers have often made.
rerobinson03

These Are the Republicans Who Supported Impeaching Trump - The New York Times - 1 views

  • The vote came exactly one week after the Capitol was breached by an angry mob of Trump loyalists.
  • In 2019, not a single Republican voted in favor of impeachment. House Republican leaders said they would not formally lobby members of the party against voting to impeach the president this time. Here are the Republicans who voted to impeach on Wednesday.
  • Not holding the president accountable for his actions would be “a direct threat to the future of our democracy,” he said.
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  • Representative John Katko of New York was the first Republican to publicly announce that he would back the impeachment proceedings.
  • Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the No. 3 House Republican, said on Tuesday evening that she would vote to impeach, citing the president’s role in an insurrection that caused “death and destruction in the most sacred space in our Republic.”
  • Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, a frequent critic of Mr. Trump, joined his Republican colleagues on Tuesday evening, saying the nation was in uncharted waters. He said that Mr. Trump “encouraged an angry mob to storm the United States Capitol to stop the counting of electoral votes.”
  • “There is no doubt in my mind that the president of the United States broke his oath of office and incited this insurrection,” he said
  • Representative Fred Upton of Michigan issued a statement saying that he would vote to impeach after President Trump “expressed no regrets” for what had happened at the Capitol.
  • Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington State said that she would vote to impeach because she believed that the president had acted in violation of his oath of office.
  • A sixth Republican, Representative Dan Newhouse of Washington State, announced his plans to vote for impeachment during a debate on the topic in the House on Wednesday.
  • Mr. Newhouse said that others, “including myself, are responsible for not speaking out sooner — before the president misinformed and inflamed a violent mob.”
  • What he concluded, he said, was that President Trump “helped organize and incite a mob that attacked the United States Congress in an attempt to prevent us from completing our solemn duties as prescribed by the Constitution.”
  • Representative Peter Meijer, a freshman congressman from Michigan, said in a statement that the president had “betrayed and misled millions with claims of a ‘stolen election’” and that during the riot at the Capitol he “shrank from leadership when the country needed it most
  • In a statement, Mr. Rice had a blunt critique of President Trump. “I have backed this President through thick and thin for four years,” he said. “I campaigned for him and voted for him twice. But, this utter failure is inexcusable.”
  • After casting his vote to impeach, Representative David Valadao of California said on Twitter that “President Trump was, without question, a driving force in the catastrophic events” that took place at the Capitol.
hannahcarter11

Lawmakers may have been exposed to the coronavirus while sheltering during the Capitol ... - 0 views

  • While sheltering in a secure location as a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on Wednesday, House lawmakers may have been exposed to someone who was infected with the coronavirus, Congress’s Office of the Attending Physician said on Sunday.
  • In an email sent to lawmakers, Dr. Brian P. Monahan, the attending physician, said that while “the time in this room was several hours for some and briefer for others,” during that period, “individuals may have been exposed to another occupant with coronavirus infection.”
  • Congress has long struggled to stem the spread of the virus within its ranks, with mixed guidance and a delayed testing regimen.
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  • Dozens of lawmakers, staff members and reporters took shelter in the secure room on Wednesday, but a handful of Republicans refused to wear masks, one person there said, even as Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester, Democrat of Delaware, tried to pass out masks.
  • Before the mob breached the Capitol, Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, overseeing the certification of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory and debate over a Republican effort to subvert those results in certain states, admonished Republicans for having too many people on the floor and for some objectors refusing to wear masks as they spoke.
  • As the 117th Congress reconvened a week ago, multiple lawmakers tested positive for the coronavirus after taking their oath.
  • Because lawmakers qualified for early access to the coronavirus vaccine, many have received at least one shot of a two-dose vaccine, with some receiving both doses. Some congressional aides have been authorized to receive the two-dose vaccine.
xaviermcelderry

Capitol riots: Police describe a 'medieval battle' - BBC News - 0 views

  • Michael Fanone, a 40-year-old DC plainclothes narcotics detective who was told to wear his uniform that day, rushed to the West Terrace of the Capitol where he took turns holding back the crowd, and resting to rinse his face of the the chemical irritants that that crowd was spraying on police.
  • "We weren't battling 50 or 60 rioters in this tunnel," the MPD (Metropolitan Police Department of District of Columbia) veteran told the Washington Post. "We were battling 15,000 people. It looked like a medieval battle scene."
  • Robert Glover, the commander on scene for MPD, declared a riot at 13:50 local time, nearly two hours after Trump's speech at the White House where he instructed his followers to go to the Capitol.He quickly told officers to retake the inauguration bleachers, to stop the crowd from raining down heavy objects on officers from above.
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  • On Friday, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced General Russel Honoré would be leading an immediate investigation of the Capitol's security infrastructure.Video footage has also emerged showing an officer taking a selfie with a rioter inside the Capitol. Some officers reportedly gave directions to rioters telling them how to get to the offices of Democratic lawmakers.
martinelligi

McConnell Rebukes Trump For His Role In Capitol Riot : Insurrection At The Capitol: Liv... - 0 views

  • For the first time since the Jan. 6 mob attack on the U.S. Capitol, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell publicly denounced President Trump and his supporters for instigating the insurrection.
  • "They were provoked by the president and other powerful people, and they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding of the first branch of the federal government, which they did not like."
  • "Dozens of lawsuits received hearings and courtrooms all across our country. But over and over, the courts rejected these claims, including all star judges that the president himself had nominated," he said at the time.
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  • McConnell has not denied the possibility of voting against Trump at a potential Senate impeachment trial, precipitated by the House vote to impeach the president for an unprecedented second time over his role in the insurrection.
  • Incoming Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who will take over that role in less than 24 hours, said Tuesday the Senate will move ahead with an impeachment trial with a plan for a separate vote to bar Trump from holding any future federal office if the Senate votes to convict.
  • While millions wait for a life-saving shot, the U.S. death toll from the novel coronavirus continues to soar upwards with horrifying speed. Today, the last full day of Donald Trump's presidency, the official death count reached 400,000 — a once-unthinkable number. More than 100,000 Americans have perished in the pandemic in just the past five weeks.
  • In the U.S., someone now dies from COVID-19 every 26 seconds. And the disease is now claiming more American lives each week than any other condition, ahead of heart disease and cancer, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.
  • Given its relatively large population, the U.S. death rate from COVID remains lower than the rate in many other countries. But the cumulative death toll of 400,000 now exceeds any other country's overall mortality — close to double what Brazil has recorded, and 4 times the death count in the U.K.
  • Is there any way we can avoid half a million deaths before the end of February?" says Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health.
  • Certain parts of the country have a disproportionately high death rate. Alabama and Arizona, in particular, have experienced some of the highest death rates, given their populations. The virus continues to kill Black and Indigenous Americans at much higher rates than white Americans.
  • In rural America, the chance of dying from COVID-19 remains much higher than in the urban centers.
  • Vaccine rollout has yet to catch up with an accelerating mortality rate
  • So far, about 3 in every 100 people have gotten at least one dose of the vaccine, placing America ahead of many other countries, but behind the optimistic promises made in the early days of the rollout.
  • It is this polarity — the advent of a life-saving vaccine and hospitals filled with more dying patients than ever before — that makes this particular moment in the pandemic so confounding.
anonymous

'The president's words matter': Former acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf - ABC News - 0 views

shared by anonymous on 13 Jan 21 - No Cached
  • former acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said the president deserves some of the blame for the words he used last Wednesday before his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, but took no stand on removing him from office.
  • "The president's words matter and they do," Wolf told ABC News Wednesday. "He certainly has some level of responsibility for at least the words that he said."
  • Wolf, who is leaving the department this week, said when he first saw the images on TV of rioters at the Capitol, he though they were "sickening and disturbing" and that it reminded him "in a little different manner" of what occurred in Portland, Oregon, over the summer.
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  • "The individuals that (stormed the Capitol), they decided to partake in this or not. They act on their own accord and they decided to take criminal acts on their own, just like the individuals in Portland and around the country this summer," Wolf said, adding that he doesn't blame politicians on the other side of the aisle for what happened in Portland.
  • Wolf also said that the responsibility of the security of the U.S. Capitol is with Capitol Police but maintains that the department knew about the threat.
  • On the question of removing Trump from office over the riot, Wolf said that he defers to members of Congress because he is not an elected official.
  • Just ahead of the final vote, Pence announced in a statement that he would not follow through with Democrats' request of invoking the 25th Amendment and urged Congress to "avoid actions that would further divide and inflame the passions of the moment."
  • Wolf's abrupt resignation came ahead of schedule and as the nation faces a heightened terrorism threat ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.
  • However, Wolf told ABC News that he resigned in large part due to the several court cases that were pending on his appointment and said he didn't want to hinder the work that the department has done with him being in the acting secretary role.
  • He also said that the White House made a mistake in re-nominating him in early January, knowing that the Senate wasn't taking up confirmations and subsequently pulled his nomination a few days later.
rerobinson03

U.S. Authorities Warn That the Capitol Breach Will Be a 'Significant Driver of Violence... - 0 views

  • The deadly breach at the Capitol last week will be a “significant driver of violence” for armed militia groups and racist extremists who are targeting the presidential inauguration next week, according to a joint intelligence bulletin issued by federal authorities.
  • The “boogaloo,” a movement that seeks to start a second civil war, and extremists aiming to trigger 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,”
  • The federal officials wrote that extremist groups have viewed the breach of the Capitol as a success and have been galvanized by the death of Ashli Babbitt, a QAnon follower who was shot by the police as she tried to enter the heavily protected Speaker’s Lobby, just outside the House chamber. The extremists could perceive that death as “an act of martyrdom,” according to the bulletin.
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  • The federal officials also wrote that “the shared false narrative of a ‘stolen’ election,” the false claim perpetuated by President Trump, “may lead some individuals to adopt the belief that there is no political solution to address their grievances and violent action is necessary.”
carolinehayter

Pelosi Blasts GOP Leadership Over Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's Remarks : NPR - 0 views

  • House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took aim Thursday at Republican leadership, saying the GOP had ignored a wave of threats and comments by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., a promoter of QAnon and other conspiracy theories, and placed her on the House Education Committee despite her questioning of school shootings.
  • Some House Democrats have called for Greene to face repercussions amid the new reports over Greene's comments, including purported threats on Facebook against Pelosi in which she suggested the speaker be "executed for treason."
  • garnered fresh attention this week when CNN reported on a video showing her in 2019 accosting a survivor of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Greene has said that shooting, which left 17 dead, as well as the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which left 26 dead, including 20 children, were both staged events.
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  • Pelosi cited Greene's remarks in her criticism of the GOP leadership, calling it "absolutely appalling."
  • the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives who is willing to overlook, ignore those statements, assigning her to the Education Committee when she has mocked the killing of little children at Sandy Hook Elementary School, when she has mocked of killing of teenagers in high school at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School
  • "These comments are deeply disturbing and Leader McCarthy plans to have a conversation with the congresswoman about them," the spokeswoman said.
  • Hours after Pelosi's comments, acting U.S. Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman said that in the wake of the agency's security failures, they will ask for new measures, including a permanent fencing system and the availability of "ready, back-up forces in close proximity to the Capitol."
  • California Rep. Jimmy Gomez said Wednesday that he would introduce a resolution to expel Greene from Congress. Also Wednesday, Massachusetts Rep. Jake Auchincloss said that if Greene doesn't resign, she needs to be expelled.
  • "If you don't understand that calling for the murder of political rivals is a threat to democracy, you shouldn't be allowed to represent one," Auchincloss said in a tweet.
  • supplemental funding to raise security measures for lawmakers — to address new security concerns among members, especially "when the enemy is within the House of Representatives.
  • "It means that we have members of Congress who want to bring guns on the floor and have threatened violence against on other members of Congress."
  • "What could they be thinking?" Pelosi told reporters. "Or is 'thinking' too generous a word for what they may be doing?"
  • The union representing U.S. Capitol Police officers says the force's leadership failed to relay the known threat of violence adequately ahead of the Jan. 6 deadly riot, calling the acting chief's recent admission of prior knowledge of the threat to Congress "a disclosure that has angered and shocked the rank-and-file officers."
  • By January 4th, the Department knew that the January 6th event would not be like any of the previous protests held in 2020. We knew that militia groups and white supremacists organizations would be attending. We also knew that some of these participants were intending to bring firearms and other weapons to the event. We kne
  • event
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katherineharron

A day after inciting a mob, Trump attempts his version of normalcy - CNNPolitics - 0 views

  • President Donald Trump attempts a surreal return to normalcy a day after inciting a mob of his supporters to riot, culminating in the first breach the US Capitol in 200 years.
  • Trump's attempted return to business as usual comes amid the ongoing global pandemic and after a stunning siege he personally incited, leaving four dead and the Capitol building ransacked. In the aftermath, some Cabinet members have had discussions about invoking the 25th Amendment amid concerns about what could happen before Trump leaves office, multiple officials are offering resignations, and there are ongoing questions about what went wrong and what happens next with the presidential transition.
  • However, due to the fact that the RNC is currently an active crime scene after a pipe bomb was found outside on Wednesday, Trump was forced to cancel his planned Thursday evening video address. It was to be taped with RNC equipment currently inaccessible.
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  • Trump, an avid golfer himself, previously honored Tiger Woods with a Medal of Freedom. The President has spent 313 days during his time in office at a golf club.
  • With 13 days left in the Trump presidency, the White House has been inundated with requests for the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. Thursday's presentation was not listed on Trump's public schedule, which instead said Trump would have "many meetings" and "many calls."
  • Earlier this week, Trump bestowed the Medal of Freedom upon Capitol Hill ally Rep. Devin Nunes, and is expected to also honor another member of Congress, Rep. Jim Jordan, before leaving office.
clairemann

FBI Warns Of Potential Boogaloo Violence During Jan. 17 Rallies | HuffPost - 0 views

  • The situational information report produced by the Minneapolis field office of the FBI is based on information provided by what it describes as “collaborative sources,” and was issued the week before a mob of Trump supporters violently stormed the U.S. Capitol. It addresses concerns about rallies that the Boogaloos, a right-wing movement, plan to hold in cities across the country on Jan. 17.
  • “some followers indicated willingness to commit violence in support of their ideology, created contingency plans in the event violence occured at the events, and identified law enforcement security measures and possible countermeasures.”
  • Those rallies are part of what members of the violent far-right and libertarian boogaloo movement are hoping will be a nationwide “armed march” on Capitol Hill and all 50 state capitols next Sunday. Though it’s not totally clear how many people are expected to participate in the boogaloo-backed protests, the Jan. 17 events appear to be the next major organizing effort by extremist groups following last week’s riots at the U.S. Capitol, which left 5 people dead, including a U.S. capitol police officer. 
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  • “One Boogaloo movement follower indicated the building with the snipers would need to be blown up in order to protect Boogaloo fighters in the event of a gun battle during the event,” the report states. Another planned to “put colored duct tape on the back of his body armor to appear as law enforcement and cause confusion.”
  • “Boogaloo movement supporters believe an impending insurgency against the government is forthcoming and some believe they should accelerate the timeline with armed, anti-government actions leading to a civil war,” explained the alert issued by the FBI Minneapolis field office in December. 
  • The anti-government militia members arrested in October for allegedly plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer are also believed to have been tied to the boogaloo movement. 
  • “The idea behind it was to have a huge showing of firearms and...for it to take place all across the U.S.,” Holt told Yahoo News, adding that “this is among the first major national events that has come out of the boogaloo movement.”
  • “This is a boogaloo movement organized call to arms that’s been spreading with increasing velocity outside of its usual communities,” said Holt, noting that he’s recently observed flyers for the Jan. 17th rallies circulating among many militia groups online, as well as “some run-of-the-mill Trump supporting groups and, interestingly enough, re-open protest.” 
  • “I feel like the FBI and DHS completely fell down on the job before the sixth…which was embarrassing, frankly, given all the stuff that was on the web,” she said. “So I’m glad that they’re taking this seriously, because they need to.”
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