Summary
That’s all for today!
- Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are rolling out plans and policies ahead of inauguration day. Biden plans to unveil a slew of immigration reforms and cancel the Keystone XL pipeline permit, among other things.
- Harris formally resigned from the US Senate. In an op-ed for the San Francisco Chronicle, she wrote: “This is not goodbye. As I resign from the Senate, I am preparing to take an oath that would have me preside over it.”
- Experts predict that half a million people in the US will die of Covid-19 by the end of February. The pandemic has continued to ravage the country at a runaway pace, with air quality guidelines in Los Angeles amended to allow for more cremations as the death toll rises.
- Donald Trump is planning an inauguration day sendoff event for himself at a military airfield in Maryland. He reportedly wants an ostentatious military parade and a large crowd of supporters.
- Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, will not be a part of Trump’s defense team during the Senate trial for his second impeachment, per reports. The timeline and logistics of Trump’s impeachment trial, which is likely to kick off after Biden’s inauguration, remain TBD. Lawyers have been shying away from defending Trump as he continues to deny responsibility for the deadly attack on the US Capitol.
Updated
Trump to hold early morning sendoff ceremony on Biden inauguration day
Joanna Walters in New York and Martin Belam in London report:
Donald Trump is planning an early morning sendoff event for himself at a military airfield in Maryland on Wednesday several hours before his successor, Joe Biden, is inaugurated as the 46th US president at the Capitol in Washington DC.
For his last presidential ceremony, Trump reportedly wants an ostentatious military parade and an official armed forces farewell as the commander-in-chief, as well as a large crowd of supporters, selected backers and current and former officials in his administration and their guests at a huge red-carpet affair.
But latest reports indicate that Trump, who is facing an impeachment trial in the Senate and a number of criminal and civil investigations, will not be afforded a big military sendoff just two weeks after a deadly insurrection at the US Capitol that followed his exhorting supporters to fight to overturn the election.
Invitations have been issued from the White House for an event taking place at Joint Base Andrews, the military base in Maryland used by Air Force One, at 8am on Wednesday – four hours before Biden will take his oath.
Many details of the ceremony are not yet clear, although attendees will have to make a pre-dawn start and have been told to arrive by 7.15am, when temperatures are forecast to be below freezing.
Attendees may not bring items including firearms, ammunition, explosives, laser pointers or toy guns.
In his last few hours as president, Trump will fly to his private Mar-a-Lago resort and residence in Palm Beach, Florida, aboard the Air Force One jumbo jet for the last time in a presidential capacity, ensuring he and his wife Melania are almost 1,000 miles away from the White House and Capitol when Biden takes over.
Air Force One will then be at the disposal of Biden. Trump would have had to have permission from the Democrat who defeated him to use it if he had waited to leave Washington until Biden was sworn in.
Read more:
The Biden administration plans to keep in place travel restrictions between the US and Brazil, the UK, Ireland, and Schengen countries, spokesperson Jen Psaki says.
Reuters reported that Donald Trump rescinded entry bans from the above countries effective 26 January. But by then, Biden will be in the White House. “On the advice of our medical team, the Administration does not intend to lift these restrictions on 1/26,” Psaki said. “In fact, we plan to strengthen public health measures around international travel in order to further mitigate the spread of COVID-19.”
On the advice of our medical team, the Administration does not intend to lift these restrictions on 1/26. In fact, we plan to strengthen public health measures around international travel in order to further mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
— Jen Psaki (@jrpsaki) January 19, 2021
Updated
Trump administration to deport man to Haiti who has never been there
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) is to carry out a final deportation flight of the Trump era on Tuesday, with a plane bound for Haiti whose passengers include a man who is not a Haitian citizen, and who has never been there.
Paul Pierrilus, a 40-year-old financial consultant from Rockland County, New York, was born in the French Caribbean territory of Saint Martin, according to a birth certificate supplied by his family, who said he came to the US with his parents when he was five. His sister and parents are US citizens.
He was picked up on 11 January, as part of what human rights advocates say is a last sweep of black migrants in the final days of the Trump administration. He has told his family he was being transferred to an Ice holding facility in Alexandria, Louisiana, which is a typical precursor to deportation.
According to his sister, Neomie, he was seized when he went to an immigration office on Federal Plaza in Manhattan on 11 January, for what he thought would be a routine visit.
“He went there for the appointment and while he was there, he was detained, and he was informed that they have documents stating that he’s a Haitian citizen,” Neomie Pierrilus said.
She said their parents were Haitian but never applied for Paul’s Haitian citizenship. “We don’t really understand how documents were obtained to say that my brother was a citizen of Haiti.
“My brother has never even been to Haiti,” she said. “He has the bare minimum of the language, he doesn’t know the culture, he doesn’t know anyone there. So my brother cannot go there.”
Neomie Pierrilus supplied copies of emails last year from the then Haitian ambassador, Hervé Denis, confirming that her brother was not a Haitian citizen. Nor did Paul’s birth in Saint Martin confer French citizenship, making him stateless.
Guerline Jozef, head of the community group Haitian Bridge Alliance, said that the intense level of political violence in Haiti represented a serious threat to Pierrilus’s life.
“Sending him to Haiti, first of all, is not legal,” Jozef said. “And with what’s going on in Haiti right now, there is no way they should be deporting people there period, especially him because he is not Haitian, has never been there and has no connections there. So they cannot just drop him at the airport.”
Ice has been running removal flights to Haiti every second Tuesday, and appears ready to press ahead with this week’s scheduled flight on the eve of Joe Biden’s inauguration. Biden has promised a 100-day suspension of deportations on taking office, while immigration and Ice procedures are reviewed.
There have been calls for the agency to be dissolved for its role in enforcing Trump’s anti-immigration policies, including the separation of migrant children from their parents. Ice has also been accused of torturing African asylum-seekers to make them sign waivers allowing for their deportation, as part of a sweep particularly targeting African and Caribbean migrants.
Read more:
Joe Biden is expected to unveil sweeping immigration reform plans on his first day in office, the Washington Post reports:
Biden will roll out a sweeping overhaul of nation’s immigration laws the day he is inaugurated, including an eight-year pathway to citizenship for immigrants without legal status and an expansion of refugee admissions, alongside an enforcement plan that deploys technology to patrol the border.
Biden’s legislative proposal, which will be sent to Congress on Wednesday, also includes a heavy focus on addressing the root causes of migration from Central America, a key part of Biden’s foreign policy portfolio when he served as vice president.
The centerpiece of the plan from Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala D. Harris is the eight-year pathway, which would put millions of qualifying immigrants in a temporary status for five years, and then grant them a green card once they meet certain requirements such as a background check and payment of taxes. They would be able to apply for citizenship three years later.
To qualify, immigrants must have been in the United States as of Jan. 1, a move meant to blunt any rush to the border.
Beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals — which granted key protections for so-called “dreamers” — and the temporary protected status program for migrants from disaster-ravaged nations could apply for a green card immediately. The details were described by multiple transition officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly
The Biden administration’s immigration plans – both the ones he will push during his first day in office and expected changes to refugee admissions, a reversal of Trump’s Muslim-ban, and other moves are in line with campaign promises Biden made.
US coronavirus deaths will hit half a million in February, experts predict
Experts predict 500,000 Americans will probably be killed by Covid-19 before the end of February, and perhaps before, in an acceleration of deaths expected to crest in March.
The warning comes as an increasing number of experts see February and March as peak months for Covid-19 disease transmission in the US, with a more contagious variant circulating in most states and mass vaccination off to a slow start.
“We have a combination of factors that allowed a very bad situation to get worse,” said Dr Steven Woolf, a population health expert and a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. “The pattern of escalation in this winter surge has been under way for a while.”
At each inflection point, Woolf said, the United States had failed to respond effectively, beginning with reducing viral transmission before the fall when a winter surge was expected. That was followed by a failure to heed warnings against winter travel. Then, a failure to efficiently implement a mass vaccination campaign.
“Everyone is in agreement there is light at the end of the tunnel,” said Woolf. “Eventually, once we get the vaccination up to a certain level and we get to herd immunity, things are going to get better.”
However, to minimize loss of life now, Americans must double down on the same protective measures that have proved difficult, or impossible for some essential workers, in the past.
“There’s so many thousands of people who will die in the interim between now and when we achieve that sought-after moment in our country,” said Woolf.
A forecast assembled by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) predicts up to 477,000 people could die by 6 February. The possibility that the US could hit 500,000 deaths comes as mortality has accelerated amid a winter peak.
It took more than 16 weeks for the US to reach 100,000 deaths, but less than five weeks for the death toll to leap from 300,000 to 400,000. Many experts expect the US will reach 500,000 deaths in February.
Read more:
Donald Trump plans to rescind entry restrictions on travelers coming from Brazil, the UK, Ireland and Schengen area, Reuters reports in an exclusive:
The restrictions are set to end under a new proclamation from Trump the same day that new COVID-19 test requirements take effect for all international visitors. The White House did not immediately comment.
The restrictions have barred nearly all non-U.S. citizens who within the last 14 days have been in Brazil, the United Kingdom, Ireland and the 26 countries of the Schengen area in Europe that allow travel across open borders.
The U.S. restrictions barring most visitors from Europe have been in place since mid-March, while the Brazilian entry ban was imposed in May.
The restrictions would lift on 26 January, Reuters reports. By then, the Biden administration will be inaugurated and could issue its own directives. New variants of the coronavirus that are concerning scientists are spreading through the UK and Brazil - fueling calls to restrict travel to slow the spread.
Updated
Hi there, I’m Maanvi Singh, picking up the blog from the West Coast.
In the lead-up to Inauguration Day, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are hosting events in recognition of the Black, Latino and Asian American, and Pacific Islander (AAPI) voters who helped elect them to the White House.
The AAPI celebration will feature remarks from US representatives Ami Bera, Pramila Jayapal, Andy Kim, and Raja Krishnamoorthi, and from former Olympian Michelle Kwan and actors Kal Penn, John Cho, Kumail Nanjiani, and Chloe Bennet.
The “Black Community Inaugural” will feature comedian Leslie Jones, organizer Stacey Abrams, House whip Jim Clyburn, Representative Cedric Richmond, Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Joyce Beatty, senator Cory Booker, and senator-elect Rev. Raphael Warnock - among others.
And the “Latino Inaugural” will be hosted by actor Longoria and feature “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, actors John Leguizamo, Rita Moreno, Edward James Olmos and others.
Join us for:
— Biden Inaugural Committee (@BidenInaugural) January 18, 2021
AAPI Inaugural Celebration: Breaking Barriers at 7pm ET
We Are One: A Black Community Inaugural Celebration at 8pm ET
Latino Inaugural 2021: Inheritance & Promise 9:30pm EThttps://t.co/fvD8YWD9L4
New York Democratic senator Kirsten Gillibrand says she will work with colleagues on legislation giving US troops the same legal protections against discrimination as civilian employees.
It’s a move advocates say could be a game-changer for minorities in America’s armed forces, Reuters writes.
The effort by Gillibrand, who is expected to lead a Senate subcommittee responsible for US military personnel, follows a 2020 Reuters investigation that showed US troops were far less likely to file racial discrimination complaints than their civilian counterparts.
That is despite data from a long-withheld Pentagon survey that showed nearly a third of Black service members and a significant percentage of Asian and Hispanic service members experience racial harassment, discrimination, or both. The survey was first reported by Reuters last week.
“Disturbing new data shows that our service members are suffering due to a lack of meaningful civil rights protections, while their civilian colleagues in the Department of Defense and across the government enjoy robust rights enshrined in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act,” Gillibrand told Reuters.
Gillibrand, a longtime advocate of women in the military, who has championed reforms to address sexual assault in the ranks, added that it was “long past time for Congress to act”.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bars employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex or religion.
But the US government has long maintained that military service members are outside the scope of Title VII because they are not technically federal employees, a view upheld by courts. Instead, troops have a separate system to file complaints of discrimination.
Any move to extend Title VII guarantees to troops could potentially also benefit women, lesbian, gay and transgender service members who suffer gender discrimination.
Don Christensen, who served as a chief prosecutor for the air force and who has worked to expose discrimination in the military at the Protect Our Defenders advocacy group, said extending Title VII protections to US troops “would be a big deal” that could affect everything from who reviews a discrimination complaint to whether troops can seek monetary damages, as civilians do.
Updated
The new cover of the New Yorker is called “A Weight Lifted”. It speaks for itself, really.
This week’s cover, “A Weight Lifted,” by Barry Blitt: https://t.co/A1MIcNEmZD pic.twitter.com/z3lsCvDL5f
— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) January 18, 2021
Afternoon summary
It’s been a calm day on the streets of state capitals as the Trump administration winds down to its close in a heavily fortified downtown Washington, DC, but plenty of news in US politics. Do stay tuned for the coming hours as we bring you all the developments.
Here’s how the afternoon has gone:
- Donald Trump is still claiming he won the presidential election, shouting (metaphorically) over the sound of moving trucks emptying his stuff from the White House. Bill Barr told him to his face that his claims of election fraud were “bullshit”, according to reports.
- Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, will apparently not be a part of Trump’s defense team during the Senate trial for his second impeachment.
- The incoming vice-president, Kamala Harris, has written an op-ed for the San Francisco Chronicle about the challenges and threats to the nation, as she formally resigned from the US Senate in order to become Joe Biden’s veep.
Updated
Trump administration claims to present 'definitive' version of US history
The Trump administration’s 1776 commission released a report on Wednesday claiming to have presented “a definitive chronicle of the American founding”.
The commission was convened by Trump amid the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests against systemic racism. Feeding his base’s fury at calls for a more honest accounting of American history to be taught at school, Trump called for a “pro-American” curriculum and promised to do everything he could to rebut what he said was a narrative that “America is a wicked and racist nation”.
This is basically a taxpayer-funded right-wing blogging dressed up as academic research, including a whole section about why “progressivism” is bad.
— Chris Megerian (@ChrisMegerian) January 18, 2021
Trump and his allies were particularly incensed by the New York Times Magazine’s 1619 Project, named after the first enslaved Africans who arrived in Virginia. The Pulitzer Prize-winning audio series, which Trump denounced as “propaganda”, has been adopted into the curriculum of several schools for its deep exploration of the enduring consequences of slavery.
Trump claimed the 1776 Commission would help restore “patriotic education” to the nation’s classrooms. Indeed, the description of the report states that it provides a “dispositive rebuttal of reckless ‘re-education’ attempts that seek to reframe American history around the idea that the United States is not an exceptional country but an evil one”.
Updated
A year ago, a gun rights rally at Virginia’s capitol drew more than 20,000 activists, many of them armed, virtually all of them furious at their state’s newly elected Democratic state government and its pledge to pass stricter gun laws, writes the Guardian reporter Lois Beckett in Richmond, Virginia.
This year, the streets around the capitol in Richmond were empty, with journalists far outnumbering the scattered protesters, many of whom were masked and armed.
Gun rights activists at Richmond Lobby Day 2020 (left) vs 2021 (right) pic.twitter.com/462EPxGxN5
— Lois Beckett (@loisbeckett) January 18, 2021
Outside the locked-down, guarded grounds of the capitol, there were 11 members of the Roanoke County Militia, a small local group formed around the “Lobby Day” gun rights protest last year; three or four Proud Boys; a small group of armed activists in Black Panther shirts, and scattered other demonstrators, including a woman carrying a sign advertising that she was a nurse and wanted to talk about gun rights.
Several members of the armed Roanoke County Militia, most of whom who refused to give their names, said they thought so few people had shown up to the gun rights protest this year not only because of the coronavirus, but because of the aftermath of the 6 January invasion of the Capitol in DC. The young, masked militia members said they believed people did not want to show up at any event that they worried might turn into a repeat of 6 January, or that might prompt more scrutiny from law enforcement officials. They said they did not approve of the storming of the Capitol building, and that they were concerned about what might happen on inauguration day.
A larger number of local gun rights activists protested without getting out of their cars, as part of caravans of vehicles organized by the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL), the gun rights group that organizes a “Lobby Day” demonstration every year on Martin Luther King Day, which in more normal years is a chance to meet with legislators at the statehouse and discuss policy.
On the highway headed into Richmond around noon, there were at least 110 cars and trucks flying “Don’t Tread on Me” flags, most of them embellished with “Guns save lives” stickers, as well as a large orange bus emblazoned with a similar slogan. VCDL organized four main caravans from different parts of the state; it was not immediately clear how many people participated in the caravans in all.
En route to Richmond, passed a caravan of 110+ cars and trucks covered in “Guns save lives” stickers and flying US and Gasden flags, part of the @VCDL_ORG mobile lobby day for gun rights at Virginia’s capital. pic.twitter.com/302tXm99ol
— Lois Beckett (@loisbeckett) January 18, 2021
Many of the tiny number of people who showed up to demonstrate in Richmond on Monday were heavily armed, including one young man who refused to give his name and had a 75-round drum magazine attached to his rifle.
Other journalists at Richmond’s capitol said a small number of anti-government boogaloo bois also made an appearance in the street. Several journalists noted that the scene felt less like an actual protest than series of bizarre press conferences for a tiny number of extremists or provocateurs.
this is just a mobile press conference for some guys in hawaiian shirts. a far cry from last year’s gun lobby day. pic.twitter.com/veEENbGMSK
— molly conger (@socialistdogmom) January 18, 2021
Throughout the afternoon, dozens of cars with pro-gun flags and VCDL stickers drove, honking, through the streets of Richmond.
Updated
Melania Trump on Monday delivered a farewell address, calling it the “greatest honor of my life” to serve as first lady.
“The past four years have been unforgettable,” she said in a nearly seven-minute long video posted on Twitter. “As Donald and I conclude our time in the White House, I think of all of the people I have taken home in my heart, and their incredible stories of love, patriotism and determination.”
Though she did not explicitly mention the assault on the Capitol, Trump said: “Be passionate in everything you do, but always remember that violence is never the answer and will never be justified.”
A Farewell Message from First Lady Melania Trump pic.twitter.com/WfG1zg2mt4
— Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) January 18, 2021
Trump belatedly condemned the violence on Capitol Hill in a statement issued days after the riot. It made no reference to her husband’s role in inciting the violence and bemoaned the fact that the violence had led to “salacious gossip, unwarranted personal attacks, and false misleading accusations on me”.
During her time as first lady, Trump focused on combatting cyberbullying through her campaign “Be Best”. Her tenure ends with her husband’s permanent suspension from Twitter “due to the risk of further incitement of violence”.
Updated
In honor of MLK Day, vice-president-elect Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, are volunteering at Martha’s Table in Washington. The soon-to-be second couple filled plastic bags with potatoes, oranges, and a box of macaroni and cheese, which would then be distributed to those in need.
At one point, Harris teased the high school volunteers working alongside her: “You guys are moving slowly!”
But she also took a few questions.
Asked Kamala Harris if we she was at all concerned about the security threats @ inauguration. “I am very much looking forward to being sworn in as the next Vice President of the United States, and I will walk there, to that moment, proudly with my head up and my shoulders back.”
— Alexandra Jaffe (@ajjaffe) January 18, 2021
“I am very much looking forward to be sworn in as the next vice president of the United States and I will walk there to that moment proudly with my head up and my shoulders back,” she said.
Harris will make history several times over when she is sworn in as vice-president on Wednesday: the first woman, the first Black woman and the first Asian American woman to serve in the role.
Updated
With less than 48 hours left of his presidency, Trump has continued to claim he won the election, New York Times White House reporter Maggie Haberman reports.
No matter that his claims of election fraud have been rejected by dozens of courts, members of his administration (see below), and Republican leaders. Congress certified Biden’s electoral victory, after Trump supporters stormed Capitol Hill in a bloody riot with the aim of preventing them from doing so.
The president has continued to tell advisers and allies he really won the election, with less than 48 hours to go before he leaves office. On the current GOP rift, the president's anger is with every Republican who voted for impeachment but singular for McCarthy, aides say.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 18, 2021
In a preview of the internecine Republican battles to come, Trump is reportedly furious at the 10 Republicans who voted in favor of his impeachment. But he is also directing his anger at the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, a staunch ally of the president who voted against impeachment but said that Trump bore some responsibility for the violence on Capitol Hill.
Haberman adds: “Associates who’ve spoken with Trump say he’s used the same vulgarity he used about [vice-president Mike] Pence to describe McCarthy, saying he bowed to pressure with his House floor speech.”
Updated
Barr to Trump: election fraud claims are 'bullshit' – report
Nearly a month after the presidential election, former attorney general Bill Barr told Donald Trump that his repeated claims of a stolen election were “bullshit,” according to a new report in Axios.
Per Axios, the exchange unfolded in the Oval Office, where Trump summoned Barr for a meeting after seeing a story by the Associated Press in which his attorney general told the agency there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the presidential election.
White House counsel Pat Cipollone and a few other aides were there to witness the back-and-forth, in which Barr told the president that the legal team he had brought on to validate his baseless claims was “clownish.”
For much of his tenure, Barr was one of Trump’s most loyal cabinet officials. But it wasn’t enough for Trump, writes Jonathan Swan, and their relationship slowly disintegrated. Barr stepped down shortly after Christmas.
Read the full story here.
Updated
Census director to resign before term ends
Steve Dillingham, the director of the US census, is resigning effective on Wednesday, according to Talking Points Memo’s Tierney Sneed. That’s ahead of the end of Dillingham’s term and comes as he faces calls to resign.
Per Sneed:
Census Director Steve Dillingham will be stepping down on Jan. 20, cutting short by nearly a year the five-year director term, which was scheduled to expire on Dec 31.
Dillingham announced his resignation plans in an internal Census Bureau email obtained by TPM.
Dillingham’s tenure atop the bureau was plagued by myriad controversies since his confirmation in Jan. 2019. His refusal to publicly push back on the efforts by the President and his allies to politicize the 2020 census has long prompted criticism from both within and outside the bureau. In recent days, the scrutiny intensified with the revelation of his involvement in a pressure campaign to push the bureau’s experts to produce data on noncitizens and undocumented immigrants before the end of Trump’s presidency.
Several Democratic members of Congress called for his resignation after the demand for the data was disclosed last week. Commerce Department Inspector General Peggy Gustafson, who revealed the gambit in a letter to Dillingham last week, is reviewing the matter.
It’s unclear whether the inspector general’s review played a role in Dillingham’s decision to step down. Last week, Gustafson requested written answers from Dillingham about the circumstances of the data project and suggested she might seek to question Dillingham under oath as well. Dillingham has since clarified that work on the data projected has been ceased.
Updated
Antony Blinken, Biden’s nominee for secretary of state, plans to flesh out a bit more of the Biden administration’s foreign policy approach during Blinken’s upcoming confirmation hearings. Per the Wall Street Journal:
In his Tuesday hearing before the Senate foreign relations committee, Mr Blinken plans to sketch out a vision in which the US has a central role in wrestling with global problems, uses alliances and international institutions to try to expand its leverage and pursues policies that it can argue benefit the American middle class.
That approach is intended to supplant President Trump’s “America First” doctrine as an organizing principle for foreign policy while also seeking to draw popular support for the Biden agenda from voters who might otherwise be sympathetic to Mr Trump’s approach.
That testimony will be among a series of confirmation hearings in which Mr. Biden’s national security picks are expected to underscore their government experience. Some former officials caution, however, that the team may be so like-minded that it may leave aside some unorthodox options to dealing with adversaries in Tehran, Beijing, Moscow and Pyongyang.
“It’s not a ‘team of rivals,’” said Aaron David Miller, who served both Republican and Democratic secretaries of state and is now at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Updated
As I noted below, the shuffle over Kamala Harris’s Senate seat is in full swing. Here’s California governor Gavin Newsom nominating Dr. Shirley Weber to be California’s new secretary of state, a position made vacant through Newsom nominating Alex Padilla to succeed Harris in the Senate:
Inbox: "Governor Newsom Formally Appoints Alex Padilla to the U.S. Senate and Nominates Dr. Shirley Weber as Secretary of State"
— Daniel Strauss (@DanielStrauss4) January 18, 2021
Updated
The FBI is looking into whether one of the rioters who stole a laptop from House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office was planning to sell it to Russians.
Here’s more from Buzzfeed’s Lauren Strapagiel:
The claim, which is still under investigation, is detailed in an affidavit filed by the FBI on Sunday, outlining the case against Riley June Williams, a Pennsylvania woman who was seen in footage of the insurrection inside the Capitol directing crowds.
According to the affidavit, a person identified as Williams’ former romantic partner called the FBI tip line to identify Williams. The tipster told the FBI that they had spoken to friends of Williams who showed them a video of the woman taking a laptop or hard drive from Pelosi’s office, the affidavit states.
The tipster “stated that Williams intended to send the computer device to a friend in Russia, who then planned to sell the device to SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence service.”
It also notes that, “for unknown reasons,” that sale fell through and that Williams either still has the device or has since destroyed it.
The FBI said in the affidavit that the tip remains under investigations. Williams is facing charges related to entering a restricted building and disorderly conduct.
True to form, Donald Trump toyed with the idea of some kind of grand sendoff for his departure from Washington on Wednesday.
The Washington Post’s Josh Dawsey, one of the best White House reporters covering Trump, has aides getting invites to see Trump leave from Andrews Air Force Base on Wednesday.
Aides and allies of President Trump have been invited to Andrews Air Force Base at 8 am on Wednesday -- and have been told they can bring five guests -- to see the president off for a final ceremony. But some aren't interested in going after Jan. 6 events.
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) January 18, 2021
That’s hardly on par with the level of attention Trump would prefer (something like the coronation of Aragorn in The Return of The King or Caesar parading through Rome) but it is a more realistic indication of the situation. Trump is leaving office with under water approval ratings and he’s going on his own two feet.
And it appears Trump and his family are planning on resettling in Florida. CNN’s Kaitlan Collins noted some of the pics out there suggesting the Trumps are on the way.
Moving trucks from a D.C.-based company were seen at Mar-a-Lago today, via the WPTV chopper. https://t.co/xSoy9HjHzt pic.twitter.com/jeaYppJndG
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) January 18, 2021
Updated
Hello. This is Daniel Strauss, taking the baton from my colleague Lauren.
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris formally submitted her letter of resignation from the Senate today ahead of her swearing-in tomorrow. She penned a Medium post about the expected resignation:
Today, as I resign from the Senate, I am preparing to take an oath that would have me preside over it.
As Senator-turned-Vice-President Walter Mondale once pointed out, the vice presidency is the only office in our government that “belongs to both the executive branch and the legislative branch.” A responsibility made greater with an equal number of Democrats and Republicans in the Senate.
Governor Gavin Newsom of California has already picked Harris’s replacement, secretary of state Alex Padilla. Harris will be sworn in as vice-president by the supreme court justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina to sit on the court. She will be sworn in on two Bibles, one owned by Thurgood Marshall, the first Black supreme court justice and one owned by Regina Shelton, a surrogate mother of sorts to Harris and her sister Maya.
Updated
Giuliani reportedly won't be part of Trump impeachment team
Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, will not be a part of Trump’s defense team during the Senate trial for his second impeachment, the New York Times is reporting.
An anonymous source told Times reporter Maggie Haberman that Giuliani had met with Trump on Saturday night at the White House, and by Sunday was telling people that he will not be a part of the defense team. Giuliani himself told ABC News late Sunday that he will not be a part of the team even though he initially said that he was.
Lawyers have been privately declining to represent Trump during his impeachment trial as the president refuses to acknowledge his role in inciting the Capitol’s insurrection, even as top advisers believe he should take some responsibility.
Some allies have also told Trump that he will need to take some responsibility for inciting the riot if he wants a serious lawyer to defend him, which he has indicated he doesn’t want to do. https://t.co/u69Dd0kNwB
— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) January 18, 2021
Updated
Steve Cohen, a Democratic US representative from Tennessee, told CNN that his Republican colleague Lauren Boebert, a representative from Colorado, was seen giving tours to a large group of people in the days leading up to the breach of the Capitol on January 6.
Cohen said that he said Boebert “taking a group of people for a tour sometime after the 3rd and before the 6th of January”. He noted that it could have been coincidental, but noted that “it was clear that… she’s not on the home team, she was with the visitors.” Cohen said that he is uncertain whether any members of the tour group were a part of the mob.
"We saw congress[woman] Boebert taking a group of people for a tour sometime after the 3rd and before the 6th." -- Rep. Steve Cohen says he and a colleague saw Rep. Boebert giving people a tour of the Capitol in the days leading up to the riot pic.twitter.com/dNPymWqjPY
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 18, 2021
During the insurrection, Boebert tweeted that House speaker Nancy Pelosi was no longer in the House chambers, causing people to question whether she was trying to broadcast Pelosi’s whereabouts as lawmakers were going into hiding.
We were specifically instructed by those protecting us not to tell anyone, including our family, where exactly we were, for reasons that remain obvious. https://t.co/0UNu77fBzY
— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) January 12, 2021
Boebert, who is only days into her first term as a US representative, was one of the Republican who voted against counting the Electoral College votes for Joe Biden. She has referenced support for conspiracy group QAnon and has made a name for herself as a pro-gun activist, declaring that she will carry her handgun with her in DC.
Updated
US Secret Service just tweeted confirmation that there is no threat to the public following a small fire under a bridge near the US Capitol that triggered a lockdown of the Capitol Complex.
Public safety and law enforcement responded to a small fire in the area of 1st and F streets SE, Washington, D.C. that has been extinguished. Out of an abundance of caution the U.S. Capitol complex was temporarily shutdown. There is no threat to the public. pic.twitter.com/kQfAI4NxNK
— U.S. Secret Service (@SecretService) January 18, 2021
The scene around the US Capitol has been tense as Joe Biden’s inauguration approaches. The National Guard has been deployed in the area following multiple threats of violence on Inauguration Day. The presence of armed soldiers surrounding the Capitol is at a scale not seen since the civil war. Some have described the scene as looking like a militarized zone.
I was at the US Capitol this morning to get a COVID test—mandatory for journalists covering the inauguration. It’s a militarized zone. This is what Trump has done to America. 1/7 pic.twitter.com/lNxXY0GOnR
— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) January 18, 2021
Good morning from a very militarized Capitol Hill. pic.twitter.com/DYjpaD15nS
— Daniella Diaz (@DaniellaMicaela) January 18, 2021
A spokesperson for Washington DC’s fire department said that a small fire involving a tent entailed a “very minimal” response and was “pretty much a non-incident”, according to CNN’s Manu Raju.
Things seem to be OK at the Capitol. DC Fire's Vito Maggiolo says the incident involved a small fire involving tent that is now out. DC fire was dispatched at 10:14 and the fire was put out. He said the response was "very minimal" and it was "pretty much a non-incident."
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 18, 2021
A statement from US Capitol Police said that the active chief police of the force took an “abundance of caution” and ordered a shutdown of the Capitol Complex after the small fire under a nearby bridge. People in the building are still being asked to shelter in place as the incident is being investigated.
CAPITOL POLICE: “There are currently no fires on or within the Capitol campus.” pic.twitter.com/Aum4APyRM3
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) January 18, 2021
Updated
The US Capitol has been put under a “no entry or exit” order after an “external security threat” under a nearby freeway overpass. Capitol Police have told people in the Capitol that they can move freely within the building but warned people to stay away from windows and doors.
No entry or exit from the U.S. Capitol due to an “external security threat located under the bridge on I-295 at First and F Streets SE,” per note just sent out from the Capitol Police. pic.twitter.com/1vtTVdbgOa
— Eli Yokley (@eyokley) January 18, 2021
Meanwhile, participants in Joe Biden’s inauguration rehearsal, which was taking place outside the Capitol, have been evacuated.
Though Capitol Police did not specify what the threat was, multiple reporters on Capitol Hill are seeing smoke underneath the overpass emanating from what appears to be a homeless encampment.
“Fire in Navy Yard DC. Smoke pouring out from under the highway.” https://t.co/M5qkaPm2qm pic.twitter.com/mAVn2fFvZM
— PoPville (@PoPville) January 18, 2021
Smoke coming from near Capitol. pic.twitter.com/plDh6QjPah
— Scott Wong (@scottwongDC) January 18, 2021
Updated
A Texas real estate agent who was part of the mob that stormed the Capitol is continuing to insist on her innocence even as she faces charges for breaching the Capitol.
“I have no guilt in my heart,” Ryan told the Today Show. “I’m glad I was there because I witnessed history. And I’ll never get the chance to do that again.”
Ryan posted a slate of public social media posts of her participating in the insurrection, including a picture of her posing next to a broken window at the Capitol and a video of her saying “we’re armed and dangerous. This is just the beginning.” A Facebook live stream that she posted, which have been documented by authorities, show her entering the Capitol building. “We’re going to f---ing go in here. Life or death,” she said.
Ryan, along with other members of the mob, have pleaded with Trump to pardon them as they face federal charges. “I listen to my president who told me to go to the Capitol,” she said in another interview.
It is unclear whether Trump will include any of the rioters in his list of about 100 people that he plans to pardon on his last day in office. The White House met on Sunday to finalize the list, which will likely include white-collar criminals and high-profile rapper, among others, according to CNN.
.@CynthiaMcFadden sat down with Texas real estate agent Jenna Ryan who says she took no part in the violence on January 6 though her social media posts raise significant questions. pic.twitter.com/vTKFHcpnVw
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) January 18, 2021
Joe Biden plans to slowly unroll Donald Trump’s anti-immigration policies, making it gradually easier for people to seek asylum at the US-Mexico border and extend protections for immigrants already living in the US. But that change may take some time.
Here’s more from CBS News, which spoke to people who have been briefed on Biden’s immigration plans:
President-elect Joe Biden plans to begin gradually making it easier to seek asylum along the U.S.-Mexico border, impose a deportation moratorium and extend protections for so-called “Dreamers” using his executive authority, people briefed on the plans told CBS News.
He also plans to propose a broad immigration bill that, if passed by Congress, could legalize millions of immigrants living in the U.S. without legal permission.
But in an early sign that the incoming president could struggle to fulfill some of his bolder campaign promises, Mr. Biden is asking immigration reform advocates for patience, cautioning that his administration and Congress may not be able to pass a large-scale immigration revamp in the first 100 days of his presidency, according to three participants in a meeting the Biden team held with Latino leaders last week.
After dozens of rioters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6 were allowed to leave the building with no immediate consequences, people have been helping officials identify those who were a part of the mob through photos and videos of the insurrection.
One Pennsylvania woman now has a criminal court case against her for storming the Capitol and for potentially stealing Nancy Pelosi’s laptop with plans to sell it to Russia, according to CNN.
Court filings indicate an ex-boyfriend of Riley June Williams identified her in videos from the Capitol, including one where Williams can be seen directing people to Pelosi’s office. The person also told the FBI that he had spoken to friends of hers who claimed that Williams “intended to send the computer device to a friend in Russia, who then planned to sell the device to SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence service”.
Williams has been charged by the FBI with “violent entry” and disorderly conduct at the Capitol. A warrant has been issued for her arrest.
Arrested. 22-year-old Riley June Williams now in jail after her ex-boyfriend spotted her in news video from inside the US Capitol, and called the FBI tip line. She’s now being investigated for stealing Nancy Pelosi’s laptop and attempting to sell it to a friend in Russia. pic.twitter.com/6R0d6BufNZ
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) January 18, 2021
This is Lauren Aratani taking over for Martin Belam. Joe Biden fell short of offering cabinet position to the progressive counterparts he ran against, senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, but his picks for key roles regulating Wall Street are both allies of Warren.
Rohit Chopra was tapped to be the next director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He previously helped Warren establish the agency in 2011. Meanwhile, Gary Gensler, former chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission under Barack Obama, will be heading the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In a series of tweets this morning, the Massachusetts senator praised Biden’s picks, noting that she has worked with both during the Great Recession.
“For too long, our banking regulators have behaved like they work for the financial institutions they regulate – not the American people,” she wrote. “But big change is coming.”
I worked closely with Rohit @ChopraFTC to set up the CFPB and fight for America's students. It’s terrific that President-elect Biden picked Rohit to run the @CFPB. He's been a fearless champion for consumers at the FTC and will be a fearless champion leading the consumer agency.
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) January 18, 2021
Kamala Harris publishes op-ed in San Francisco Chronicle ahead of historic inauguration
Vice president-elect Kamala Harris has written an op-ed for the San Francisco Chronicle this morning, about her time as a Senator, and looking ahead to the Biden-Harris administration which starts on Wednesday. She writes:
The past four years have tested us as a nation. Even before I was sworn in we knew that foreign adversaries had interfered in the 2016 election. Soon thereafter, families were being separated at the border, and our work to combat climate change was being dismantled. Since then, three Supreme Court nominees have come before the Senate Judiciary committee on which I have sat. Wildfires have ravaged our state, racial injustice continues to plague our nation, and COVID-19 plagues the world.
This month, we witnessed something I thought I would never see in the United States: A mob breached the U.S. Capitol, trying to thwart the certification of the 2020 election results. The violence made clear that we have two systems of justice — one that failed to restrain the rioters on January 6 and another that released tear gas on non-violent demonstrators last summer. These have not been easy times by any stretch.
Of her future, she writes:
This is not goodbye. As I resign from the Senate, I am preparing to take an oath that would have me preside over it.
Since our nation’s founding, only 268 tie-breaking votes have been cast by a Vice President. I intend to work tirelessly as your Vice President, including, if necessary, fulfilling this Constitutional duty. At the same time, it is my hope that rather than come to the point of a tie, the Senate will instead find common ground and do the work of the American people.
Read more here: San Francisco Chronicle – Kamala Harris – Serving as California’s senator has been an honor. But this is not a goodbye
Senator Lindsey Graham, a key ally, has appealed to the president not to pardon anyone involved in the Capitol attack on 6 January, saying to do so would “destroy President Trump”.
Five people died after a mob incited by Trump stormed the Capitol, ransacking offices, some reportedly seeking to kidnap lawmakers and kill them.
Trump was impeached for inciting the riot, an act which could lead to criminal charges once he leaves power. After 10 House Republicans made the impeachment the most bipartisan ever, Trump will face another Senate trial. Conviction there could bar him from running for office again.
Out of office, Trump will also be vulnerable to prosecution from federal and state authorities over his actions in office and regarding his business empire.
Presidential pardons do not imply innocence – a fact President Gerald Ford clung to in the face of lasting opprobrium for his pardon of Richard Nixon, his predecessor who resigned in disgrace in 1974, over the Watergate scandal.
On Sunday the New York Times reported on intensive lobbying for pardons as the Trump era draws to a close. Among startling details, an unnamed associate of Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani reportedly told an ex-CIA officer a pardon was “going to cost $2m”. Giuliani is also seen as a potential pardon recipient.
Some good news for Sen. Josh Hawley – his book is saved. Simon & Schuster terminated their contract for “The Tyranny of Big Tech” in the wake of Hawley being pictured giving a clenched fist greeting to the mob that was later to storm the US Capitol 6 January, and his subsequent continuation of his plan to dispute Joe Biden’s election in Congress.
Hawley cited it as an example of “cancel culture”, saying “Simon & Schuster is canceling my contract because I was representing my constituents, leading a debate on the Senate floor on voter integrity, which they have now decided to redefine as sedition.”
Regnery’s president and publisher Thomas Spence said of Simon & Schuster: “It’s discouraging to see them cower before the ‘woke mob,’ as Senator Hawley correctly calls it. Regnery is proud to stand in the breach with him. And the warning in his book about censorship obviously couldn’t be more urgent.”
Somewhat awkwardly the international distribution for Regnery Publishing is handled by … drum roll … none other than Simon & Schuster
Talking of using Twitter, secretary of state Mike Pompeo is again using his taxpayer-fund official US government account to promote himself today, although to be honest his opening assertion that “There are nearly as many Foreign Service Officers today as there were in January 2017” isn’t perhaps quite the stunning knock-back to the argument that the department is in a worse place than it was under the Obama administration he thinks it is.
I’ve read over and over that the State Department has been decimated. Really? We’ve built a culture driven by an ethos statement for the first time ever. There are nearly as many Foreign Service Officers today as there were in January 2017. pic.twitter.com/KBIi4eJWuN
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) January 18, 2021
You’ll like this one from Bill Bostock over at Business Insider this morning:
A former spokesman for President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign has said that the reason Trump isn’t denouncing the Capitol riot is that he no longer has a platform to do so.
Appearing on Fox News on Sunday, J. Hogan Gidley attacked the media for criticizing Trump’s silence while failing to take into account that he is barred from Twitter and Facebook.
“On one hand, he should be censored by Big Tech and not be allowed to talk — he also shouldn’t say anything because it’s divisive,” Gidley said.
“And then when he doesn’t say anything, and can’t say anything because the platforms have removed him, they say: ‘Where is the president why aren’t we hearing from him?’ The whole thing’s disingenuous.”
The last time I checked, the president of the United States of America was still able to call press conferences, release videos on the official White House website, use his own campaign website, and issue the proclamations and executive orders that go with the office, but it is true I suppose that he can’t post on Twitter or Facebook.
Brendan O’Connor, the author of Blood Red Lines: How Nativism Fuels the Right, writes for us this morning:
Already a picture of the individuals, organizations, and institutions who lent their weight to the movement that stormed Congress has begun to emerge. Last year, the secretive and influential Center for National Policy (CNP), which author Anne Nelson describes as “connecting the manpower and media of the Christian right with the finances of Western plutocrats and the strategy of right-wing Republican political operatives,” called for state legislators in six swing states to reject Joe Biden’s election victory. CNP leaders were scheduled to speak at the rally on the morning of 6 January, where Donald Trump encouraged his supporters to march on the Capitol.
Carrie Severino, president of the Judicial Crisis Network, which has contributed millions to the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA), listed as one of the participating organizations in the rally. RAGA’s fundraising arm, the Rule of Law Defense Fund, sent robocalls encouraging Trump supporters to march on the Capitol ahead of the 6 January rally, at which the former chairman of RAGA, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton, spoke. But major donors to RAGA include not only rightwing bogeymen like Koch Industries, Walmart, or the Adelson family but also household corporate names like Comcast, Amazon and TikTok.
Investigative journalists will continue to trace and disentangle the funding networks that facilitated 6 January. The list of names will grow longer; the sum of individual and corporate contributions greater. But already it is clear that what happened at the Capitol was not just the unintended consequence of specific capitalists’ ill-advised campaign donations; it was an expression of a deeper, ongoing crisis of capitalism, and the ruling class’s (sometimes contradictory) attempts to manage that crisis.
Read more here: Brendan O’Connor – The Capitol riot wasn’t a fringe ‘uprising’. It was enabled by very deep pockets
Biden announces slew of additional key administration posts
The Biden-Harris transition team have announced a raft of new key appointments to the administration this morning. They include Elizabeth Klein as Deputy secretary of the Interior; Dr. Jewel Bronaugh, as Deputy secretary of Agriculture; Andrea Palm as Deputy secretary of Health and Human Services; Polly Trottenberg as Deputy secretary of Transportation; Cindy Marten as Deputy secretary of Education; Rohit Chopra as Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB); and Gary Gensler as Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In a statement, the president-elect says:
Our administration will hit the ground running to deliver immediate, urgent relief to Americans; confront the overlapping crises of Covid-19, the historic economic downturn, systemic racism and inequality, and the climate crisis; and get this government working for the people it serves. These tireless public servants will be a key part of our agenda to build back better — and I am confident they will help make meaningful change and move our country forward.
At CNN, Stephen Collinson has this analysis of the Covid crisis that awaits the Biden administration.
Biden’s team, which has been hampered by Trump’s refusal to allow a peaceful, cooperative transition, is gearing up a multi-front federal government effort to battle Covid-19, which a disinterested Trump always failed to initiate. The President-elect warns that the dire public health situation will get worse before it gets better.
The Biden administration’s most important priority will be to rescue the faltering rollout of new vaccines that carry the promise of finally ending a pandemic. Biden also plans to sign an executive order requiring masks on federal property and during interstate travel and is urging all Americans to wear face coverings for 100 days.
Exacerbating the multiple crises facing his new administration, Biden will enter office with a ghost Cabinet, without any of his key nominees confirmed by the Republican Senate that has shown little urgency despite the extreme circumstances. Democrats will take control since Harris will have the capacity to cast the deciding vote on deadlocked legislation in the 50-50 chamber, once the two Democrats who won Georgia Senate runoff races are seated.
Read more here: CNN – The Biden era beckons after Trump’s lies and insurrection
Trump has been warned against self-pardon, say White House officials
Donald Trump is expected to issue more than 100 presidential pardons on Tuesday, during his final hours in the White House, but may not pardon himself or his immediate family, it was reported on Monday.
White House officials say Trump has privately debated with aides whether he should take the extraordinary step of issuing a pardon for himself. Some administration insiders have reportedly warned against a self-pardon, arguing that it would make Trump look guilty.
Some scholars believe a self-pardon would go against the US constitution, since it violates the basic principle that nobody should be able to judge their own case. But the issue has never been tested.
It is not clear whether Trump will act to pardon members of his inner circle. They include Steve Bannon, who has been charged with defrauding individuals who donated to a wall project on the US-Mexico border. Another possible name is Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, who led attempts to overturn the result of November’s election. Trump and Giuliani are said to have recently fallen out over unpaid legal bills.
CNN reported on Monday that the final batch of clemency actions was expected to feature criminal justice reform-minded pardons as well as more controversial ones for political allies and friends. Dr Salomon Melgen, a prominent eye doctor from Palm Beach who is in prison after being convicted on dozens of counts of healthcare fraud, is expected to be on the clemency list, CNN said.
Trump has already given pardons to 94 people, most to prominent figures caught up in the investigation by special prosecutor Robert Mueller into conspiracy with Russia. They include Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, longtime crony Roger Stone and ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn, who admitted lying to the FBI.
Read Luke Harding’s full report here: Trump has been warned against self-pardon, say White House officials
Also bowing out of office this week is vice president Mike Pence and his wife Karen Pence. Yesterday they made their final official appearance together, with a visit to Fort Drum, where they thanked the 10th Mountain Division and their families for their service.
“I’m here to deliver a very simple message to each and every one of you on behalf of your commander and chief, and every American,” Pence said. “Thank you for your service. And to the 1st Brigade combat team, welcome home.” The 1st Brigade recently returned from Afghanistan.
Associated Press report that Karen Pence, speaking before her husband took the podium, became emotional and briefly faltered as she addressed the troops. “It is such an honor to be with you for our very last trip as vice president and second lady of the United States,” she said.
Overnight Pence has also boasted on social media that the Trump administration is “the first administration in decades that did not get America into a new war.”
I’m proud to report with just a few days left in our Administration, our Administration is the first in decades that did not get America into a new war. That’s Peace through Strength. pic.twitter.com/uiSNxi67aT
— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) January 18, 2021
As you can imagine, there are more than a few replies to Pence’s tweet pointing out that in the final year of the administration, the death toll from Covid under his watch has vastly exceeded the American death toll of nearly every war the US has ever fought.
A reminder from Bernice King on this 18 January, Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Please don’t act like everyone loved my father. He was assassinated. A 1967 poll reflected that he was one of the most hated men in America. Most hated. Many who quote him now and evoke him to deter justice today would likely hate, and may already hate, the authentic King. #MLK pic.twitter.com/yGdQXL5MJ3
— Be A King (@BerniceKing) January 18, 2021
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund launches new $40 million scholarship program
Michael Warren at Associated Press reports on a new initiative launched today – a $40 million scholarship program from the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. It is intended to support a new generation of civil rights lawyers, dedicated to pursuing racial justice across the South.
With the gift from a single anonymous donor, the fund plans to put 50 students through law schools around the country. In return, they must commit to eight years of racial justice work in the South, starting with a two-year post-graduate fellowship in a civil rights organization.
“The donor came to us,” said Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the Legal Defense and Educational Fund. “The donor very much wanted to support the development of civil rights lawyers in the South. And we have a little bit of experience with that.”
The NAACP chose Martin Luther King Day to announce the Marshall-Motley Scholars Program, named for the Supreme Court justice and for Constance Baker Motley, who was an LDF attorney just a few years out of Columbia University Law School when she wrote the initial complaint that led to the court’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling outlawing racial segregation in public schools. She later became the first Black woman federal judge.
Joel Motley, the late judge’s son, said he’s delighted that his mother’s legacy will live on through “well-trained and committed litigators” who “will defend the rights of Black people across the South, dismantling the structures of white supremacy.”
The LDF has been backing civil rights lawyers ever since its founding by Thurgood Marshall in 1940, during an era when Black people rarely had effective legal representation and Black students were turned away from southern universities. It funded the creation of Black and interracial law firms in several southern states in the 1960s and 1970s, and has built a network of lawyers since then.
The fund has set an application deadline of 16 February, giving incoming first-year law school students less than a month to make their cases for the opportunity.
It is Martin Luther King Jr. Day today, and in the New York Times On Politics newsletter this morning, Giovanni Russonello writes:
The Capitol riot can be seen as a collision of two main pillars of Trump’s political messaging: disinformation and racial resentment. And in fact, history suggests that they go hand in hand.
“I think what we saw at the Capitol is a culmination of a kind of white grievance politics that the president has stoked for four years, and even before, as an original birther. It’s this imagined world where whiteness is without competition,” Hakeem Jefferson, a political scientist at Stanford University who studies race and democracy, said.
Reeling from the attack on the Capitol, Joe Biden and other politicians have insisted that the violence does not represent “who we are” as a nation, pledging to bring the country together under shared ideals and to reject Trump’s divisiveness once and for all.
But writing last week in The Undefeated, the critic Soraya Nadia McDonald took issue with the president-elect’s insistence that the country’s true identity had nothing to do with what happened on 6 January. “I’ve long found these sorts of proclamations baffling, because if one is honest about the history of the United States, it prominently features white violence, terrorism and revanchism, particularly toward Black people, Indigenous people and women,” McDonald wrote.
Russonello goes on to quote King’s 1967 book, “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?”
“Negroes have proceeded from a premise that equality means what it says, and they have taken white Americans at their word when they talked of it as an objective.” White Americans, however, often think of equality as “a loose expression for improvement,” King wrote. When it comes to the gap between Black and white prosperity, white America “seeks only to make it less painful and less obvious but in most respects to retain it.”
US defense officials fear insider attack on Biden inauguration
US defense officials say they are worried about an insider attack or other threat from service members involved in securing President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday, prompting the FBI to vet all 25,000 national guard troops coming into Washington for the event.
The massive undertaking reflects the extraordinary security concerns that have gripped Washington following the deadly 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol by rioters incited by Donald Trump. And it underscores fears that some of the very people assigned to protect the city over the next several days could present a threat to the incoming president and other VIPs.
Army secretary Ryan McCarthy said officials were conscious of the potential threat, and warned commanders to be on the lookout for problems within their ranks. So far, however, he and other leaders say they have seen no evidence of any threats, and officials said the vetting hadn’t flagged any issues that they were aware of.
“We’re continually going through the process, and taking second, third looks at every one of the individuals assigned to this operation,” McCarthy said after he and other military leaders went through an exhaustive, three-hour security drill. He said guard members were also getting training on how to identify potential insider threats.
While the military routinely reviews service members for extremist connections, the FBI screening is in addition to any previous monitoring.
FBI vetting would involve running peoples’ names through databases and watchlists, looking for involvement in prior investigations or terrorism-related concerns, said David Gomez, a former FBI supervisor in Seattle.
Read more here: US defense officials fear insider attack on Biden inauguration
If you fancy something to listen to, then can I recommend our Audio Long Read on US voting rights today? It’s based on Gary Younge’s piece on how Republicans applied old school racism to new demographics – and lost.
Listen to it here: Trump’s defeat and the death throes of the Civil War – podcast
Julia Ainsley reports for NBC News this morning on criticism of Trump’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials for having their focus on immigration rather than domestic terror in recent years, leading to the scenes in the US Capitol on 6 January:
As armed rioters overtook police and moved into the Capitol, armed agents from DHS, an agency expressly designed to prevent another terrorist incident like the attacks of 9/11, stood inside a nearby building waiting for a command to deploy that never came.
There is also no indication that DHS shared any intelligence with its state and local partners or with US Capitol Police before 6 January that would have indicated that the protests could turn into a riot.
It was the four years of inadequately monitoring and communicating the rising threat of right-wing domestic extremists that ultimately led to DHS’ failure to prevent the events at the Capitol, former DHS officials said.
“DHS for the last four years has been used to hammer the president’s aggressive border security, anti-immigration agenda, and not much else has been a priority for the agency,” said former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, who served during the Obama administration.
Read more here: NBC News – Capitol riot exposed flaws of Trump’s DHS, focused on immigration and not extremists, say ex-officials
Some news unlikely to cheer up the outgoing president as he heads for the White House door, Reuters report that one London’s most popular museums will become the permanent home for a blimp depicting Donald Trump as a snarling, nappy-wearing orange baby.
The helium-filled balloon, originally paid for through crowdfunding, first took to the skies over London during protests against Trump’s visit in 2018 and has flown in other locations including France, Argentina, Ireland and Denmark.
Gladly accepting the donation, the Museum of London said the blimp would join its protest collection, which includes artefacts from the Suffragette movement as well as climate change and peace rallies.
“By collecting the baby blimp, we can mark the wave of feeling that washed over the city that day and capture a particular moment of resistance,” said Sharon Ament, the museum’s director.
“From the Suffragettes of the early 20th century to the anti-austerity marches, free speech and Black Lives Matter most recently, the capital has always been the place to have your say.”
The creators of the blimp said they hoped it served as a reminder of the fight against the “politics of hate”.
“While we’re pleased that the Trump Baby can now be consigned to history along with the man himself, we’re under no illusions that this is the end of the story,” said the organisers, who include Leo Murray, a climate change activist.
“We hope the baby’s place in the museum will stand as a reminder of when London stood against Trump - but will prompt those who see it to examine how they can continue the fight.”
For months, Donald Trump has refused to acknowledge Biden as the legitimate winner of the election – a belief shared by legions of his supporters. The inauguration ceremony will have a heavy military presence because of threats of violence. Trump isn’t bothering attending.
While Trump has accelerated this dangerous moment, it’s been shaped by a deliberate Republican strategy to undermine faith in elections to make it harder to vote. The myth of voter fraud and repeated allusions to elections being stolen have moved from fringe theories to the center of Republican ideology over the last several decades.
“Donald Trump was definitely the spark and he had many enablers and facilitators, but the kindling had all been laid,” said Wendy Weiser, director of the Democracy program at the Brennan Center for Justice. “The strategy has been to slowly, steadily, undermine Americans’ faith in the security of elections, increase their belief in the existence of widespread voter fraud so as to enable them to accept what would otherwise be perceived as a really illegitimate and anti-democratic agenda of restricting access to voting.”
For years, Republicans have used misleading and faulty data to suggest that elections are at risk of fraud. By 2016, when Trump claimed that voter fraud cost him the popular vote, it fitted neatly into the narrative the Republican party was beginning to embrace.
Two years later, there were signs that questioning election results were moving to Republican orthodoxy. Paul Ryan, then serving as speaker of the House, said it was “bizarre” and “weird” that Republicans fell behind in California races as more mail-in ballots were counted after election night. When Trump started making similar claims last spring and summer that mail-in ballots would lead to fraud and cost him the election, few Republicans objected.
The party began to attack ballot drop boxes and mail-in voting, something Republicans long relied on. When Trump claimed there was something amiss as states continued to count ballots after election day, Republicans – with a few exceptions – supported him too. The rhetoric began to have real consequences, as supporters started protesting at vote counting sites and harassing workers trying to count ballots during November’s election.
And by the time of electoral college certification, the effort to undermine faith in the vote had gone so far that it made it possible for two-thirds of the House Republican caucus and a dozen senators to back the idea of throwing out the election results entirely.
Read more of Sam Levine’s report here: How the Republican voter fraud lie paved the way for Trump to undermine Biden’s presidency
Overnight the Washington Post has reported more details of Donald Trump’s plans to issue pardons, which they say have come from people familiar with the discussion. They report:
Trump met Sunday with his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, daughter Ivanka Trump and other aides for a significant amount of the day to review a long list of pardon requests and discuss lingering questions about their appeals. The president was personally engaged with the details of specific cases, one person said.
Trump has been particularly consumed with the question of whether to issue preemptive pardons to his adult children, top aides and himself. But it remains unclear whether he will make such a move. Although he has mused about the possibility, no final decisions have been reached, and some advisers have warned against using his pardon power to benefit himself.
Neither Trump nor his children have been charged with crimes, and they are not known to be under federal investigation. Some aides think Trump could face criminal liability for inciting the crowd that stormed the Capitol on 6 January.
Others think a self-pardon, never before attempted by a president, would be of dubious constitutionality but could anger Senate Republicans preparing to serve as key jurors at Trump’s impeachment trial, and would amount to an admission of guilt that could be used against Trump in potential civil litigation related to the Capitol attack.
Read more here: Washington Post – Trump prepares to offer clemency to more than 100 people in his final hours in office
One of the striking coincidences of the US pandemic year is that the first anniversary of the first case, 20 January 2021, falls on the day of Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration. That sets a sharp frame through which to view the year: the devastation that has befallen America as a result of the political mishandling of the crisis must wholly be owned, down to the day, by Donald Trump.
The numbers crudely tell the story. Nobody knew it then, but the initial confirmed case in Washington state was the opening drop in what was to become a tsunami of infection. That first patient may have survived and is doing well. But he was followed by nearly 400,000 people who were not so fortunate.
Across the country, from coast to coast and through every nook and cranny of the heartlands, the virus is wreaking havoc, upturning lives as it shreds the global reputation of this once revered nation.
John Holdren has spent much of the year investigating what lies behind these horrifying features of the American pandemic and the human catastrophe they denote. What went wrong, and how could it be put right? The idea was to come up with practical tips that could help the US government extract itself from the current disaster, as well as provide advice for tackling any future pandemic.
Their findings give a wealth of detail on the failings of the Trump administration’s response. Their first inquiry, released in May, looked at how the national stockpile of emergency medical supplies had been allowed to wither under Trump.
They warned that urgent action was needed to replenish the reserves to avoid drastic shortages of masks, ventilators and other PPE come the winter, but Trump ignored that advice too. Just as they predicted, an alarming dearth of masks and other equipment is once again putting frontline health workers in mortal danger.
“The federal government has to take leadership in the response to a national and global pandemic. Trump refused to do that, and that stance was an unmitigated disaster.”
Read more of Ed Pilkington’s report: ‘An unmitigated disaster’: America’s year of Covid
US set to exceed 24 million total Covid cases and 400,000 deaths before Biden inauguration.
According to the numbers from Johns Hopkins university, yesterday the US recorded 174,513 new coronavirus cases, and 1,723 further deaths. Numbers are often reduced at the weekend because of different collection methodologies which means some numbers do not get reported over the weekend. Nevertheless, the US is on course to exceed 24 million total cases and 400,000 total deaths before Joe Biden is inaugurated on Wednesday.
The Covid Tracking Project reports that yesterday there were 124,387 people in the US hospitalized with Covid. It is the 48th consecutive day that more than 100,000 people have been in hospital with the coronavirus.
Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, told CNN last night that this is “a screaming level of transmission across the United States and people are scared, people are upset.”
“The numbers are quite dire. There is an enormous amount of work that’s going to have to happen starting 20 January,” he added.
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner, has raised the spectre of the new variant of the coronavirus running rampant across the US. He told CBS’ Face the Nation:
We could have persistently high levels of infection in the spring until we finally get enough people vaccinated. The only backstop against this new variant is the fact that we will have a lot of infection by then so there’ll be a lot of immunity in the population, and we will be vaccinating more people. But this really changes the equation and I think what we’re looking at is a relentless strike from this virus, heading into the spring.
A secretive billionaire supporter of Josh Hawley and other rightwing lawmakers suggested he had been “deceived” by the Republican senator from Missouri, who led the effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Jeffrey Yass is a co-founder of Susquehanna International Group – headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a critical swing state – who has donated tens of millions of dollars to hardline Republican groups who supported Donald Trump’s effort to invalidate his defeat at the polls by Joe Biden.
Yass privately told a longtime associate he had not foreseen how his contributions would lead to attempts to overturn US democracy.
“Do you think anyone knew Hawley was going to do that?” Yass wrote to Laura Goldman, a former stockbroker who has known him for more than three decades.
“Sometimes politicians deceive their donors.”
Yass, who does not give interviews and generally avoids publicity, also told Goldman he did not believe the 2020 election had been “stolen”, even though he has directly and indirectly supported rightwing Republicans who have repeatedly – and falsely – sought to discredit the results.
The latest fallout of the 6 January attempt to invalidate the election, in which 147 Republicans in Congress objected to electoral college results in the aftermath of the attack on the Capitol, comes as both Hawley and his donors face pressure and criticism for his role.
Hawley has said he objected to the counting of electoral votes in order to instigate a “debate” on the issue of election integrity. He has denied that his actions helped to incite the violent outburst and breach of the Capitol in which five people died, including a police officer.
Read more of Stephanie Kirchgaessner’s report here: Billionaire backer feels ‘deceived’ by Josh Hawley over election objections
As we build-up to the Biden-Harris administration taking power on Wednesday, we have an event today specifically looking at what the future holds for Kamala Harris.
Harris is poised to become the first woman, the first Black person and the first person of Asian descent to be inaugurated vice-president of the US. As she steps into the White House, millions of voters responsible for her win are asking challenging questions: will she emerge as a brave and powerful voice for the nation’s most vulnerable? Or will her embrace of the political center limit her impact?
While voters of color turned out in record numbers to support the Biden-Harris ticket, some progressives feel conflicted about Harris’s past. As a California prosecutor, she enforced the rules of a US criminal justice system that unfairly targets minority groups.
Looking ahead to the next four years, the panel - including Pulitzer Prize-winning cultural critic Margo Jefferson, Guardian columnist and lawyer Malaika Jabali and Guardian West Coast political reporter Maanvi Singh - will discuss the opportunities Harris will have to drive policy change and inspire a new generation of leadership, and the hopes, obstacles and anxieties that accompany her rise to vice president.
You can join them. It is at 4pm ET (which is 9pm GMT if, like me, you are in London). There’s more details here: Kamala Harris – How will America’s new vice president wield her power?
Updated
One name that appears to be missing from Donald Trump’s proposed list of pardons is Donald Trump. For some time there has been speculation that he would attempt to pardon himself, but that equation got more complicated with the assault on the Capitol on 6 January and moves in Congress to impeach him. Issuing himself a pardon under those circumstances would look self-incriminating.
And talking of self-incriminating, one of the latest people to be arrested over the storming of the US Capitol was partly identified through their own social media posts. Associated Press report that Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin has been arrested on charges of illegally entering the US Capitol.
The New Mexico county official, and founder of the group Cowboys for Trump, who had vowed to return to Washington after last week’s riot to place a flag on House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk, was arrested Sunday by the FBI.
According to court documents, Griffin told investigators that he was “caught up” in the crowd, but he said he did not enter the building and instead remained on the steps. A video posted to Griffin’s personal Facebook page shows Griffin in the restricted areas, according to the affidavit.
On Thursday, Griffin had said he planned to travel with firearms to DC for Biden’s inauguration. “I’m gonna be there on 20 January and I’m gonna take a stand for our country and for our freedoms,” Griffin said during a meeting of the Otero County Board of Commissioners.
“I’m gonna leave either tonight or tomorrow. I’ve got a .357 Henry Big Boy rifle lever action that I’ve got in the trunk of my car and I’ve got a .357 single action revolver, the Colt Ruger Vaquero that I’ll have underneath the front seat on my right side and I will embrace my Second Amendment,” he said.
If Joe Biden’s aim is, as reported, to try and undo a lot of Trump administration damage in the first weeks of his presidency via executive order, he’s still getting an increasing workload of things to reverse. Troy Farah reports for us this morning as part of our This land is your land series on an 11th-hour plan to strip California desert of its protections.
The outgoing Trump administration is proposing to strip away protections for millions of acres of California desert, threatening damage to Joshua trees, desert tortoises and landmarks.
The plan would open up California’s desert areas to mining projects, eliminate up to 2.2m acres of conservation lands, as well as remove 1.8m acres designated as Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (Acecs).
Acecs are regions given special protections because of extra sensitive and culturally important features. The spires of eroded volcanic rock known as Turtle Mountain, for example, is one of the Acecs considered for the chopping block, and has an extremely dense population of endangered desert tortoise, as well as many indigenous homestead sites and historic mining camps.
“It’s a bit baffling at the 11th hour that something like this would hit the street,” said Geary Hund, the executive director for the Mojave Desert Land Trust, a non-profit conservation group that has purchased nearly 90,000 acres of desert over 15 years in order to protect it. “It doesn’t make sense. Any changes to this plan should really be within the purview of the new administration.
“I’m not saying that there should be no renewable energy development out here,” Hund said. “But I think it needs to be thoughtful, smart and avoid impacts to important conservation lands.”
Other areas that would be affected by the rule changes include wildlife corridors near beloved desert landscapes, such as Death Valley national park, Mojave Trails national monument and Joshua Tree national park.
The amendment would also change or eliminate 68 existing conservation rules. The changes would allow for greater impacts in recreation areas used by hikers, birders and off-road vehicles.
Read more of Troy Farah’s report here: Trump administration proposes 11th-hour plan to strip California desert protections
Biden expected to cancel $9bn Keystone XL pipeline's permit
If that is how Trump is expected to end his time in office, we already have a clue as to how Joe Biden will start his time in office – by cancelling the $9bn Keystone XL pipeline.
The words “rescind Keystone XL pipeline permit” appear on a list of executive actions likely to be scheduled for the first day of Biden’s presidency, according to an earlier report by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Biden had previously vowed to scrap the oil pipeline’s presidential permit if he became president. The project, which would move oil from the Canadian province of Alberta to Nebraska, had been slowed by legal issues in the US. It also faced opposition from environmentalists seeking to check the expansion of Canada’s oil sands by opposing new pipelines to move its crude to refineries.
TC Energy Corp, which operates the pipeline, said it would achieve net zero emissions by 2023 when it enters service. The company also pledged to use only renewable energy sources by 2030 in an attempt to win Biden’s support. Barack Obama axed the project in 2015, saying Canada would reap most of the economic benefits, while the project would add to greenhouse gas emissions. Trump reinistated it.
In 2017, Oliver Laughland and Laurence Mathieu-Léger drove 1,200 miles along the route of the pipeline for us, visiting many Indigenous communities, ranchers & farmers - with very different political views - but all opposed to its construction.
Trump to hold presidential departure event at Joint Base Andrews Wednesday morning
There’s some more details of what outgoing president Donald Trump plans to do with his final hours in power – hold a departure event at Joint Base Andrews.
NEW: White House sends invitations for Trump’s departure event at Joint Base Andrews—starts at 8a Wednesday.
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) January 18, 2021
Guests must arrive between 6a and 7:15a; may bring up to five other people; and must wear mask, the invites say, according to one shared with me by an ex Trump official.
“Must wear masks” on the invite marks a departure from the previous Covid superspreader events that the president has hosted. Jennifer Jacobs reports for Bloomberg that:
Trump has decided to skip the inauguration of his successor becoming the first living US president in more than a century to choose not to attend the regular exchange of power. Trump will instead be at his Mar-a-Lago resort as the incoming president is sworn in at noon that day.
Some White House aides will be on the South Lawn for the lift-off of the presidential helicopter with Trump aboard, though the attendance will be limited. Strict security measures throughout downtown Washington and especially near the White House will make it too difficult for outside guests to access the campus.
Read more here: Bloomberg – Trump farewell planned for Wednesday morning ahead of Biden oath
Donald Trump expected to issue around 100 presidential pardons tomorrow
Sources have told CNN that yesterday there was a White House meeting where Donald Trump’s list of final pardons was confirmed. They report that the list includes “white collar criminals, high-profile rappers” but not the president himself. They report:
The final batch of clemency actions is expected to include a mix of criminal justice reform-minded pardons and more controversial ones secured or doled out to political allies.
Julian Assange is not currently believed to among the people receiving pardons, but the list is still fluid and that could change, too. It’s also not certain whether Trump’s former adviser Steve Bannon will receive a pardon.
Trump is still receiving multiple streams of recommendations on pardons from those advisers who remain at the White House, as well as people outside the building who have been lobbying for months for themselves or their clients.
The expectation among allies is that Trump will issue pardons that he could benefit from post presidency. “Everything is a transaction. He likes pardons because it is unilateral. And he likes doing favors for people he thinks will owe him,” one source familiar with the matter said.
Read more here: CNN – Trump to issue around 100 pardons and commutations Tuesday, sources say
Welcome to our live coverage of US politics in the week that will see Joe Biden become the 46th president of the United States. Here’s a quick catch-up on where we are today…
- The FBI is vetting all 25,000 National Guard troops arriving in Washington DC for president-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration amid fears of an insider attack. Muted protests across the country yesterday saw only a handful of armed men showing up to planned rightwing demonstrations.
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Biden’s team say he will sign a series of executive orders in his first days in office, attempting to roll back damage done at home and abroad by Donald Trump. CBC is reporting that one of his first acts will be to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline permit.
- The outgoing president now expected to hold a sending off event to be held at Joint Base Andrews on the morning of Inauguration Day.
- Reports suggest Trump is planning to hand out more than 100 pardons during his final hours in office.
- On Sunday the US recorded 174,513 new coronavirus cases and 1,723 further deaths. Numbers typically dip at the weekends because of the way they are collected. The US is likely to reach 24m cases and more than 400,000 deaths before Wednesday’s inauguration.
- Marjorie Taylor Green, the QAnon-backing Republican, is the latest high profile figure to be suspended by Twitter.
- As part of the build-up to the inauguration, the Biden-Harris team are holding a National Day of Service today in honor of Martin Luther King Jr Day.
