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What Matters: What will Biden do first and how will he do it? - CNNPolitics - 0 views

  • With the drama of Donald Trump's last presidential gasps -- and the urgency of his pending post-presidential impeachment trial for inciting insurrection -- it's been easy to gloss over the fact that in four days there will be a new president with very different priorities.
  • He gave a prime-time address from Wilmington, Delaware, on Thursday and laid out the first of his relief plans: a $1.9 trillion package of temporary measures and help for the unemployed attached to a permanent hike in the minimum wage to $15 per hour.
  • A second speech on Friday outlined his plan to ramp up the production and distribution of vaccines.
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  • There are clear political ramifications to all this. Biden promised to administer 100 million shots in his first 100 days and his team knows they will be swiftly judged by their ability to hit that target.
  • He'll need Congress to help with that and other plans. He's also inheriting some headaches, especially when it comes to foreign policy. On Taiwan and China, Cuba and Yemen, the Trump administration is handing Biden major policy changes he doesn't agree with but that he'll have trouble undoing.
  • The list of promises is long and ranges from climate change policy and union rights to trust in government and foreign policy issues like rejoining the Paris climate accord and rescinding Trump's targeted travel bans. Right now, it's a little unclear what exactly Biden will sign on Day One. What is clear: He made a lot of promises, so January 20 could be a very busy day.
  • The plan would send $350 billion to state, local and territorial governments to stem public-sector job losses, add $15 billion to an existing grant program to help child care providers and provide $15 billion to create a new grant program for small business owners, but much of that is in response to the coronavirus crisis and less of a permanent response.
  • This stood out as a very un-Trumpian thing for Biden to say: "There will be stumbles," Biden said on Thursday of his Covid plan. "But I will always be honest with you about both the progress we're making and what setbacks we meet." Trump would never admit to failings of his own administration.
  • Biden privately resigned himself to the fact that impeachment will be yet another issue facing his incoming administration. It certainly seems like he would rather have avoided the issue, especially because he regularly promised to "turn the page" from Trump. But that ship has sailed, and now Biden is pushing for a bifurcated approach to impeachment -- meaning the Senate would focus on impeachment for half the day and confirming his top administrative posts for the other half of the day.
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Biden to sign executive orders rejoining Paris climate accord and rescinding travel ban... - 0 views

  • President-elect Joe Biden plans to sign roughly a dozen executive orders, including rejoining the Paris climate accord and ending the travel ban on predominantly Muslim countries, on his first day in office, according to a memo from incoming chief of staff Ron Klain.
  • He'll also sign orders halting evictions and student loan payments during the coronavirus pandemic and issuing a mask mandate on all federal property in an effort to either roll back moves made by the Trump administration or advance policy in a way that was impossible in the current administration.
  • Beyond executive actions in his first days in office, the memo outlines that Biden plans to send Congress a large-scale immigration plan within his first 100 days in office. The plan would offer a pathway to citizenship for the millions of undocumented immigrations currently in the United States.
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  • Biden rolled out his first legislative priority this week, announcing a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package that included direct payments to Americans. Biden made clear during a speech on the plan that he wanted it to be the first issue Congress takes up after he is inaugurated on January 20.
  • "Full achievement of the Biden-Harris Administration's policy objectives requires not just the executive actions the president-elect has promised to take, but also robust Congressional action," Klain wrote.
  • And on January 22, Biden will direct his Cabinet agencies to "take immediate action to deliver economic relief to working families bearing the brunt of this crisis," Klain writes.
  • Biden will also order the federal government to determine how to reunite children separated from their families at the US-Mexico border, as well sign additional orders aimed at tackling climate change and expanding access to health care.
  • "Of course, these actions are just the start of our work," Klain writes. "Much more will need to be done to fight COVID-19, build our economy back better, combat systemic racism and inequality, and address the existential threat of the climate crisis. But by February 1st, America will be moving in the right direction on all four of these challenges — and more — thanks to President-elect Joe Biden's leadership."
  • Because Biden routinely promised to take action on "Day One" of his administration, hosts of interest groups and advocacy organization have put public pressure on Biden to live up to his promises.
  • "There is a lot riding on Biden ending the ban on the first day of his presidency because this is something he has campaigned on," said Iman Awad, national legislative director of Emgage Action, an advocacy organization for Muslim Americans. "With that, we understand that we are facing so much during this political moment: A current president making this transition nearly impossible, the insurrection, and the pandemic. Nevertheless, Muslim American communities are hopeful that the Biden Administration will fulfill that promise, despite the crises happening."
  • For climate change activists, Biden's promise to take swift action on an array of climate issues was a key part of why progressives rallied around Biden once he cleared the Democratic field, said Jared Leopold
  • "I do expect that the Biden-Harris administration will take affirmative steps within the first day or so of taking office to satisfy their campaign pledges," David said in an interview with CNN, highlighting the need to "ensure that the rights of LGBTQ students are enforced under Title IX."
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Opinion | When Biden Becomes … Rooseveltian! - The New York Times - 0 views

  • Soon after Franklin Roosevelt was inaugurated in 1933, a visitor assessed the stakes of his New Deal proposal.
  • “Mr. President, if your program succeeds, you’ll be the greatest president in American history,” the visitor told him. “If it fails, you will be the worst one.”“If it fails,” Roosevelt responded, “I’ll be the last one.”
  • Countless numbers believe QAnon nonsense that leading politicians are Satan-worshiping child-traffickers or think coronavirus vaccination is a plot by Bill Gates to plant computer chips in people.
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  • This is not the Great Depression today, but we face the worst economic crisis since that time, plus about 4,000 Americans dying daily from the worst pandemic in a century, plus an insurrection incited by the lame-duck president, plus an undercurrent of national delusion that fuels division and violence
  • This is Big Policy. You might even call it Rooseveltian.
  • To me, the single most exciting element of the Biden proposal is one that has garnered little attention: a pathbreaking plan that would drastically cut child poverty.
  • Perhaps a third example is the New Deal itself. Results of Roosevelt’s boldness included Social Security, rural electrification, jobs programs, networks of hiking trails, the G.I. Bill of Rights and a 35-year burst of inclusive growth that arguably made the United States the richest country in the history of the world.
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How Joe Biden was Donald Trump's kryptonite - CNNPolitics - 0 views

  • President Donald Trump seemed to be a teflon president. It didn't matter how big things seem to get -- Trump's political career seemed to be impermeable. That was until Trump ran into President-elect Joe Biden.
  • Biden proved to be Trump's kryptonite and helped himself tremendously by doing something very simple: allowing Trump to be Trump. The President hogged the spotlight as he worried about Biden potentially defeating him.
  • First, there was the 2019 impeachment of Trump. It largely stemmed from him wanting Ukraine's president to investigate Biden ahead of the 2020 election.
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  • Trump likely was looking at polling data that showed Biden, among the top contenders in the Democratic primary, was beating Trump in a general election matchup by the most and was better liked than Trump's 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton.
  • What perhaps Trump didn't realize was that he was playing right into Biden's hands. His efforts seem to prove an important point for Biden: Biden was the Democrat Trump feared most at a time when Democrats were more likely than ever to prioritize electability over issue agreement.
  • Second, Biden defeated Trump in his re-election attempt. Biden did so by doing minimal campaigning, as Trump seemingly went everywhere during the coronavirus pandemic.
  • Biden seemed to learn the lesson of Clinton's campaign. Studies showed that Trump polled best when the media spotlight was not on him because he is not a popular politician. His best path to winning was by making the contest a lesser of two evils in the eyes of voters, which he failed to do in 2020.
  • Third, Trump was impeached a second time after an insurrection that he incited last week over outrage of the 2020 election results. Trump just couldn't seem to believe that he lost the election to Biden, which many of his supporters couldn't as well.
  • Trump it seems, couldn't stand not to be the center of attention, which is unusual for an outgoing president.
  • Meanwhile, Trump's overall approval rating has dropped below 40%, the worst for any president after one term and his approval rating among Republicans has dipped below the 80% mark for the first time in a long time.
  • Biden, it seems, not only won the election, but he won the transition period as well.
  • President Donald Trump seemed to be a teflon president. It didn't matter how big things seem to get -- Trump's political career seemed to be impermeable. That was until Trump ran into President-elect Joe Biden.
  • Biden didn't do anything directly to cause Trump to commit the actions that led to his impeachment.
  • Trump appeared in the top paragraph of stories nearly 80% of the time that had either Biden or Trump in them during the general election campaign, according to NewsLibrary.com. Inversely, Biden was in a little more than 20%. The same measurement found Trump was only in about 60% of them during the 2016 general election campaign in a similar reading of Clinton vs. Trump media mentions.
  • For example, so far since December 20, Trump got about 70% of the news mentions. To give you an idea of how unusual that is, every single outgoing president in the internet era (since Bill Clinton in 2001) had gotten fewer media mentions than the president-elect in the month leading up to inauguration
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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.
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In pictures: Troops guard US Capitol, one week after riots - BBC News - 0 views

  • The images, showing a heavy security presence inside and outside the building, are a complete contrast to the scenes of chaos broadcast around the world last week.
  • Mr Trump was impeached for "incitement of insurrection". Ten Republicans from his own party joined the opposition Democrats to vote in favour of charging him
  • At least 10,000 members of the National Guard will be in Washington DC by Saturday and police officials say that number could be more than doubled for Joe Biden's inauguration next week.
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  • The House of Representatives is meanwhile introducing fines for members who refuse to go through metal detectors installed after last week's violence. They will have to pay $5,000 (£3,660) for the first offence, and $10,000 for a second.
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Solo Extremists Might Pose Higher Risk Than Organized Groups - WSJ - 0 views

  • As Washington, D.C., and state capitals enact security measures, solo actors may pose a threat in coming weeks as extremist groups are advising followers to avoid large rallies but remain opposed to the incoming administration, according to people who track such groups.
  • Nonetheless, extremism watchdog groups and former law-enforcement officials say there is still a threat from lone-wolf extremists who are inspired by such groups. The far-right groups, which don’t accept the legitimacy of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory over President Trump, could become more aggressive in the coming months after security is lowered, the watchdogs and ex-officials said.
  • “These are people that honestly are intent on doing what it is they’re going to do under the cover of darkness. They’re going to do it in a way that people are not going to see them coming.”
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  • In Washington, D.C., the National Mall is ringed by tall metal fencing. Army trucks and police cars, lights flashing, are parked perpendicular at intersections, closing off streets in swaths of the city.
  • Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who was recently the target of an alleged kidnapping plot by an antigovernment group known as the Michigan III%ers, called the action “a good start” but said she wanted to see a ban on all weapons at the Capitol.
  • on Robinson, a former supervisory agent for the FBI who specialized in domestic extremist groups and now works as an independent consultant, said he sees the risk across a range of potential actors. “Once the finality of Biden’s inauguration hits them I’m worried that some will act out violently,” said Mr. Robinson. “If one target is a hardened U.S. Capitol they may just seek out another venue.”
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Harris Will Balance Roles as Counselor to Biden, Tiebreaker in Senate - WSJ - 0 views

  • Upon being sworn in as vice president Wednesday, Kamala Harris will have to balance multiple roles: as a counselor to President-elect Joe Biden, the Senate tiebreaker and the potential standard-bearer for the Democratic Party whose current leaders are in their 70s or 80s.
  • While Mr. Biden, 78, is in good health, he will be the oldest president to be sworn into office, putting the role of Ms. Harris, 56, as next in the line of succession and as a party leader into greater focus. Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader from New York, is 70, while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, of California, is 80.
  • Ms. Harris, who officially resigned from her Senate seat Monday, is expected to model her vice presidency after Mr. Biden’s, according to her aides. The president-elect also started his tenure, after serving in the Senate, in the midst of an economic crisis in 2009. Mr. Biden came to be seen as a loyal ally to President Barack Obama and led congressional negotiations on key legislation though sometimes exasperated Mr. Obama and his aides by straying from the administration’s message.
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  • Ms. Harris faces the prospect of being called on to break ties on confirming Mr. Biden’s cabinet nominees, some of whom have drawn GOP criticism and would likely have to be confirmed on party-line votes. She is also expected to be a negotiator—and potentially a tiebreaking vote—for the administration’s legislative priority: passing a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package.
  • Mr. Biden, who served in the Senate for 36 years, has a long and respectful relationship with GOP leader Mitch McConnell.
  • North Dakota GOP Sen. Kevin Cramer said Senate Republicans have a cordial relationship with Ms. Harris and will have to be open to working with her. “I think the fact that she was a senator is helpful—both to her and to us,” he said. “Because she understands the culture of the Senate and personality of the Senate.”
  • “I became confident then that she was running for president,” said Sen. Mike Lee (R., Utah) of Ms. Harris’s questioning of Mr. Kavanaugh in 2018.
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Amid Crises, Biden and the Establishment Step Back In - WSJ - 0 views

  • One started in Washington when Richard Nixon was president, the others when Ronald Reagan was. They have seen it all: wars, recessions, control by one party and then another, terrorist attacks, and, now, a pandemic.
  • They are, respectively, President-elect Joe Biden ; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ; Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer ; and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. They have known one another for decades, so there will be no surprises. They will be overseeing a Washington where the Senate is perfectly divided between the two parties and the House nearly so—a power alignment that, at least in theory, ought to draw them all a bit closer together near the political center.
  • ; Mr. Biden will attempt to be the establishment unifier, and hope that is what the nation wants. His best hope may be to build a personal popularity that overcomes other structural obstacles, yet many Americans wonder whether he is too old or insufficiently in command of the party around him to do so.
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  • The pending impeachment trial of President Trump in the Senate has the potential to be both an enormous distraction and deeply divisive at the outset of the Biden term.
  • And if he seeks to do deals, he will have to contend with whatever continuing resistance Mr. Trump is able to exert from the outside, and with a handful of Republican senators interested in running for president in 2024, in part by playing to the Trump base.
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Democratic Lawmaker Sees 10-12 House Republicans Voting For Trump Impeachment : House I... - 0 views

  • Up to a dozen House Republicans are likely to join Democrats on Wednesday in voting to impeach President Trump for inciting the attack on the U.S. Capitol one week ago
  • During the debate on the House floor on Tuesday, Democrats made it clear they blame Trump for inciting an insurrection. Some Republicans agreed, but others claim the move to impeach Trump a second time will only further divide the country.
  • "I represent a Trump-voting district. This is not what the average person wants," Slotkin said
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  • You've said you support impeachment and that you came to this decision after conversations with some Republican colleagues, which you called particularly hard. Can you tell us about those conversations, both in Congress and in your district?
  • We're learning that at least three House Republicans, the No. 3 Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney, Congressmen John Katko and Adam Kinzinger, they've all said they will vote to impeach the president. Based on these conversations that you're having, do you think there are more to come?
  • Your district, as you've mentioned, is a purple one. The president did so well there and in both 2016 and 2020. What are your constituents saying to you?
  • We're a week away from President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration. Are you concerned at all that these impeachment proceedings will interfere with his agenda?
  • You're a former CIA analyst. What more needs to be done at a federal and local level to ensure security at the Capitol?
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YouTube Suspends Trump's Account Over Concerns About Violence : Insurrection At The Cap... - 0 views

  • YouTube, citing "the ongoing potential for violence," has suspended President Trump's account for at least a week
  • The social media platform is the latest to take action against Trump following a riot at the U.S. Capitol last week organized by the president's supporters.
  • As the nation prepares for President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration next week, law enforcement officials have said there are credible threats of more acts of violence from supporters of Trump.
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  • The suspension of Trump's channel came after comments the president made at a news conference on Tuesday that streamed on the platform
  • Trump's channel is prevented from uploading new videos or livestreams for a minimum of seven days, which could be extended.
  • A first strike for a YouTube account leads to a one-week suspension, a second strike results in a two-week suspension, and a third strike will result in channel termination.
  • "After careful review, and in light of concerns about the ongoing potential for violence, we removed new content uploaded to the Donald J. Trump channel and issued a strike for violating our policies for inciting violence,"
  • "We are also indefinitely disabling comments under videos on the channel, we've taken similar actions in the past for other cases involving safety concerns,"
  • Twitter and Facebook removed Trump's accounts following the clash at the U.S. Capitol and have taken down content supporting last week's siege. Amazon, Google and Apple have also removed the Parler app, which is reportedly used by many of Trump's supporters.
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How Le Pen, Baudet and More in Europe Are Looking Away From Trump - The New York Times - 0 views

  • But his refusal to accept defeat and the violence that followed appears to have damaged the prospects of similarly minded leaders across the continent.
  • “What happened in the Capitol following the defeat of Donald Trump is a bad omen for the populists,” said Dominique Moïsi, a senior analyst at the Paris-based Institut Montaigne. “It says two things: If you elect them, they don’t leave power easily, and if you elect them, look at what they can do in calling for popular anger.”
  • Heather Grabbe, director of the Open Society European Policy Institute in Brussels, said the unrest showed how the populist playbook was founded on “us versus them and leads to violence.”
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  • “When you’ve aroused your supporters with political arguments about us versus them, they are not opponents but enemies who must be fought with all means, and it both leads to violence and makes conceding power impossible.”
  • In France, Marine Le Pen, head of the far-right National Rally, is expected to mount another significant challenge to President Emmanuel Macron in the 2022 election. She was firm in supporting Mr. Trump, praised his election and Brexit as precursors to populist success in France and echoed his insistence that the American election was rigged and fraudulent.
  • after the violence, which she said left her “very shocked,” Ms. Le Pen pulled back, condemning “any violent act that aims to disrupt the democratic process.
  • Thierry Baudet, another high-profile Dutch populist, has aligned himself with Mr. Trump and the anti-vaccination movement, and in the past has called the independence of the judiciary and a “phony parliament” into question.
  • Even if populist leaders seem shaken by the events in Washington and nervous about further violence at the inauguration on Jan. 20, there remains considerable anxiety among mainstream politicians about anti-elitist, anti-government political movements in Europe, especially amid the confusion and anxiety produced by the coronavirus pandemic.
  • “Now the most pressing issue is Covid-19, but it’s not at all clear how politics will play out post-pandemic,” he said. “But,” he added, “the fear of the worst helps to avoid the worst.”
  • If economies tank and populists gain power in France or Italy, he said, “God forbid when Europe faces the next crisis.”
  • In Poland, the government has been very pro-Trump and public television did not acknowledge his electoral defeat until Mr. Trump did himself, said Radoslaw Sikorski, a former foreign and defense minister who is now chairman of the European Parliament’s delegation for relations with the United States.
  • “With Trump’s defeat, there was an audible sound of disappointment from the populist right in Central Europe,” Mr. Sikorski said. “For them, the world will be a lonelier place.”
  • Similarly, Prime Minister Victor Orban of Hungary, a firm supporter of Mr. Trump, declined to comment on the riot. “We should not interfere in what is happening in America, that is America’s business, we are rooting for them and we trust that they will manage to solve their own problems,”
  • Enrico Letta, a former prime minister of Italy who is now dean of the Paris School of International Affairs at Sciences Po, said that Mr. Trump “gave credibility to the disruptive attitudes and approaches of populist leaders in Europe, so having him out is a big problem for them.” Then came the riot, he said, “which I think changed the map completely.”
  • Now, like Ms. Le Pen, Italian populist leaders have felt “obliged to cut their ties to some forms of extremism,”
  • “We even start to think that Brexit has been something positive for the rest of Europe, allowing a relaunch,” Mr. Letta said. “Nobody followed Britain out, and now there’s the collapse of Trump.”
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'The president's words matter': Former acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf - ABC News - 0 views

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  • 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.
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Opinion | We Disagree on a Lot. But We Both Think Trump Should Be Convicted. - The New ... - 0 views

  • We have considerable political differences. But we firmly share a view that should transcend partisan politics: President Trump must be impeached again and tried as soon as possible in the Senate, either before or after Inauguration Day on Jan 20.
  • With the House set to impeach the president on Wednesday, there is no real reason that a full-fledged and scrupulously fair trial cannot begin the very next day in the Senate. This is not a complex case factually
  • Audio of Mr. Trump’s call to Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, is in the public record. So are the president’s videotaped words inciting his supporters to march on the Capitol. The violence that followed was on television for all to see.
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  • The Senate’s majority leader, Mitch McConnell, has said that he cannot commence an impeachment trial before Jan. 20, unless all members of the Senate agree to allow it sooner. In fact, as Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, has suggested, in emergency situations, the rules allow him and Mr. McConnell to reconvene the Senate immediately. Removing from power at once a president who has incited an attack on his own government certainly qualifies as an emergency situation.
  • We should not allow that to happen. He tried to steal the election and incited a mob to abet his wrongdoing. He is a danger to the nation and must be removed immediately and disqualified from ever holding public office again.
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Trump Polls: What They Say About Impeachment and His Possible Removal - The New York Times - 0 views

  • Three in four respondents to a nationwide CBS News/YouGov poll released Wednesday said it was at least somewhat likely that attempted violence could occur at President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s inauguration ceremony, which will take place on the Capitol steps just two weeks after armed extremists stormed the building.
  • Clear majorities in those and other nationwide polls said President Trump bore the blame for the rioting at the Capitol last week, and his approval ratings have fallen to historic lows in his final days in office. But support for impeaching and removing him is not as widespread, although some polls do show a slim majority of the country backing it.
  • This time, the country is more broadly in agreement on the dire nature of what Mr. Trump has been accused of. Roughly six in 10 Americans said in the CBS poll that they thought the president had encouraged violence at the Capitol. A PBS NewsHour/Marist College survey conducted by phone on the day after the attack found 63 percent of the country saying the president bore considerable blame for the chaos.
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  • While his unwavering support from about a third of the electorate has saved Mr. Trump from dipping into the 20s, where Richard M. Nixon and George W. Bush both were near the end of their presidencies, the latest numbers reflect his diminished support across the board, including among Republicans; his job approval among members of his own party, once almost universal, has dipped into the 70s.
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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.”
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U.S. Says Rioters At Capitol Aimed 'To Capture And Assassinate Elected Officials' : Ins... - 0 views

  • Members of the pro-Trump mob that staged an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last week intended "to capture and assassinate elected officials,
  • It notes Chansley's status as a "shaman" within QAnon, which the prosecutors variously define as "a dangerous extremist group ... founded on an imaginary conspiracy theory," and a cult that "preaches debunked and fictitious anti-government conspiracy theories that a deep state is out to take down the current administration."
  • The note was left at the spot where, moments earlier, Pence had been poised to preside over a joint session to certify President-elect Joe Biden's victory over President Trump. Chansley told the FBI he believes Pence is a "child-trafficking traitor."
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  • The U.S. attorney's office in Arizona filed the memorandum Thursday as part of its argument against releasing Chansley while his case proceeds.
  • Chansley is charged with two felonies: obstructing the conduct of a law enforcement officer and obstructing an official proceeding. Prosecutors say that as he committed those actions, Chansley was also carrying a dangerous weapon – specifically, "a six-foot spear."
  • Prosecutors say Chansley should remain in custody for a variety of reasons, including his part in the riot and his avowed intent to return to Washington to protest Biden's upcoming inauguration.
  • The U.S. attorney's office also says that Chansley would not likely conform to court-imposed conditions on his release, noting that while in custody, he has refused to eat anything other than organic food. Prosecutors also note that Chansley has shown he can travel without being traced. And because he is widely associated with the horns-and-fur costume and face paint he wore at the Capitol, prosecutors say, Chansley "is virtually unidentifiable when not wearing it."
  • The memorandum, like other documents prosecutors have filed in Chansley's case, notes he refers to himself and other rioters as "patriots."
  • Chansley wore horns, face paint and fur as he stood on the Senate dais – where he left a threatening note for Vice President Pence, prosecutors say."It's only a matter of time, justice is coming,"
  • "Strong evidence, including Chansley's own words and actions at the Capitol, supports that the intent of the Capitol rioters was to capture and assassinate elected officials in the United States Government. "
  • Prosecutors also note that Chansley sought to mislead officials about his drug use. While he allegedly claimed to be a weekly user of marijuana, they note, he has described using peyote and mushrooms in his podcast (on which he uses the name "Jake Angeli"),
  • "Chansley has spoken openly about his belief that he is an alien, a higher being, and he is here on Earth to ascend to another reality."
  • Chansley and dozens of others who breached security at the Capitol have been arrested in the past week. In many cases, they have been identified by citizens and authorities from photos and videos taken inside lawmakers' offices and other areas in the congressional complex.
  • The attack on the Capitol has been linked to five deaths, including U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick and a woman whom police shot as she climbed up a barricaded door.
  • "Media and FBI reports have detailed carefully-planned insurrection attempts scheduled throughout the country in the coming weeks at every state capital, including the [Arizona] capitol."
  • Arguing that Chansley poses a flight risk, the court filing says he does not have a stable job that would require him to remain in Arizona.
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Kim Jong Un Offers a Rare Sneak Peek at North Korea's Weapons Program - WSJ - 0 views

  • The North is developing military drones, a nuclear-powered submarine and surveillance satellites, Mr. Kim said. Missiles will get smaller and lighter. Others will fly farther.
  • At a Thursday night military parade celebrating the Workers’ Party meeting, the North put a host of military hardware on display, including a submarine-launched ballistic missile that state media touted as the “world’s most powerful weapon.”
  • Pyongyang has been on relatively good behavior, having held off on nuclear tests and ICBM launches for more than three years. The Kim regime was waiting to see if Mr. Trump, whom Mr. Kim met three times, would win re-election and deliver on his promise to quickly broker a denuclearization deal during his second term.
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  • The North test-fired a ballistic missile just three weeks after Mr. Trump’s inauguration four years ago
  • “Pyongyang is signaling that denuclearization is not on the cards and that it will continue to develop its nuclear program as long as there is no agreement with Washington to halt it,” said Ramon Pacheco Pardo, KF-VUB Korea chair at the Institute for European Studies in Brussels.
  • The details on weapons might be partially an attempt to grab focus away from the country’s economic woes. During the pandemic, North Korea sealed itself off from the outside world, letting border trade with China and foreign travel plummet and leading to what was likely the worst economic slide in a generation last year.
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Trump departs Washington a pariah as his era in power ends - CNNPolitics - 0 views

  • Donald Trump's era in Washington is over.
  • The President, addled and mostly friendless, will end his time in the capital a few hours early to spare himself the humiliation of watching his successor be sworn in.
  • He departs a city under militarized fortification meant to prevent a repeat of the riot he incited earlier this month. He leaves office with more than 400,000 Americans dead from a virus he chose to downplay or ignore.
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  • Trump's departure amounts to a blissful lifting of a four-year pall on American life and the end to a tortured stretch of misconduct and indignities
  • At least some of the 74 million Americans who voted for Trump in November are sad to see him go. Scores of them attempted an insurrection at the US Capitol this month to prevent it from happening at all. The less violent view him as a transformative President whose arrival heralded an end to political correctness and whose exit marks a return to special treatment for immigrants, gays and minorities.
  • In his final days, Trump has been surrounded by a shrinking circle of associates, many of them decades younger. Old friends who used to speak with him regularly said they can no longer reach him
  • The violent mob attack on the citadel of American democracy capped a presidency built upon disregard for democratic norms, antagonizing government institutions and willful ignorance of the far right's violent and racist tendencies.
  • There is no evidence the President has reckoned with the consequences of his actions; the opposite appears to be true. He came to regret a concession video he had recorded at the urging of his family and advisers, who told him he was seriously close to being removed from office.
  • Freshly impeached for a second time, this time with support from a few Republicans, Trump ends his term with the lowest approval rating of his tenure. Republicans remain divided on whether he represents the future of their party.
  • One thing Trump's presidency undoubtedly accomplished: revealing in stark fashion the racist, hate-filled, violent undercurrents of American society that many had chosen previously to ignore. It became impossible to overlook as Trump's presidency concluded with violent riots of White nationalists and neo-Nazis at the Capitol.
  • He even had a falling-out with his vice president, Mike Pence, whose characteristic fealty was severed after he heard nothing from Trump while mobs appeared to be hunting him during the insurrection attempt
  • They appeared to reconcile, but other senior Republicans began breaking with the President, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Rep. Liz Cheney, the No. 3 House Republican.
  • Ten Republicans voted for his impeachment in the most bipartisan impeachment vote in history.
  • Instead of attending his successor's inauguration, Trump is departing the White House early to attend a military-style sendoff at Joint Base Andrews. He balked at the idea of leaving Washington an ex-president and did not particularly relish the thought of requesting use of the presidential aircraft from Biden
  • Trump is the first president in 150 years to stage such a boycott. While Pence will attend Biden's swearing-in, other members of Trump's family, including wife Melania and daughter Ivanka, will be absent.
  • Trump enters his post-presidency facing swirling legal matters and with the fate of his business empire in doubt.
  • Without some of the protections afforded him by the presidency, Trump will become vulnerable to multiple investigations looking into possible fraud in his financial business dealings as a private citizen.
  • Even as he exits the White House, there is little question that Trump's shadow will cloud the capital for the foreseeable future. The matter of his impeachment still lingers in the Senate, which will begin a trial after Biden is sworn in. And Trump's influence on his party's direction going forward will amount to a reckoning for conservatives, who now must decide whether theirs is the party of a president who incited an insurrection on his way out of office.
  • Trump has left the Republican Party in civil war.
  • Trump has amassed hundreds of millions of dollars in a leadership PAC formed after the election that he will be able to use for future political activity, including boosting candidates. There are few restrictions on how the money can be used.
  • But since then, officials have cast doubt on his intentions, suggesting instead he was more interested in keeping the potential 2024 GOP field in limbo rather than seriously contemplating another run.
  • The results of Trump's presidency are not particularly mixed. While there have been some achievements -- a reshaped Supreme Court, a dismantled regulatory state and the brokering of diplomatic achievements in the Middle East -- Trump's overarching legacy is one of division and rancor capped by the catastrophic events of January 6, when he had 14 days left in his term.
  • "This is more work than in my previous life," he told Reuters 100 days into the job. "I thought it would be easier."
  • Trump had spent his previous decades cultivating a public profile as a savvy businessman and larger-than-life New York City mogul, despite a succession of bankruptcies and collapses. His second act as a reality television star with a penchant for race-baiting conspiracies (such as questioning President Barack Obama's birthplace) led into his third act as president, and along with it an eye toward artifice and spectacle.
  • Special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Trump's ties to Russia proved an immense distraction that preoccupied both the President and his White House. It resulted in the convictions of several Trump associates, many of whom he pardoned.
  • Instead of rising to the difficulties, Trump amended the job to fit his own liking. He mostly skipped reading lengthy intelligence documents, preferring in-person briefings that on some occasions left out important information about which Trump would later claim ignorance.
  • Most tragically, Trump showed little interest in leading the nation through the coronavirus pandemic, self-styling himself a "wartime leader" for a few days before reverting to downplaying the crisis and eventually pretending it did not exist
  • . A fateful invitation to attend Bastille Day in Paris in 2017 turned Trump on to the thrills of a military parade, which he unsuccessfully lobbied for in Washington for another three years.
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