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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Maanvi Singh (now), Joan E Greve and Martin Belam (earlier)

Acting US homeland security secretary Chad Wolf resigns – as it happened

Chad Wolf with Trump in August. In an email to staff, Wolf wrote: ‘This action is warranted by recent events.’
Chad Wolf with Trump in August. In an email to staff, Wolf wrote: ‘This action is warranted by recent events.’ Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

Summary

  • Acting homeland security secretary Chad Wolf is stepping down just before midnight Washington time tonight. He’s the latest Trump administration official to step down following last week’s deadly storming of the capitol, egged on by Trump and other Republican lawmakers.
  • The president and vice-president have spoken for the first time since the attack on the US Capitol last week. A senior administration official shared with the Guardian that the duo “pledged to continue the work on behalf of the country for the remainder of their term” – quashing any speculation over whether Trump would resign, or Pence would invoke the 25th amendment to remove the president from office.
  • Trump approved DC’s emergency declaration ahead of the inauguration. The authorization means that the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency can coordinate response and relief in DC, which has been shaken by the violent attack on the US Capitol and is anticipating riots and armed protests during the inauguration.
  • Seventy-three per cent of Republican voters in the latest Quinnipiac poll said that Trump was protecting rather than undermining democracy. This even after the president incited militant supporters to breach the US Capitol building, leading to five deaths, and persistently undermined the integrity of an election he lost.
  • House Democrats introduced an article of impeachment against Donald Trump. The House will debate the article, which charges Trump with incitement of insurrection, on Wednesday morning. If it is approved, Trump will become the first president in US history to be impeached twice.
  • Republicans blocked a resolution calling on Mike Pence to invoke the 25th amendment and remove Trump from office. The House majority leader, Steny Hoyer, attempted to pass the resolution by unanimous consent, but Alex Mooney, a Republican of West Virginia, objected because he said the measure should be fully debated on the House floor.
  • A House Democrat tested positive for coronavirus after sheltering in place with her colleagues during the Capitol riot. In a statement announcing her diagnosis, Bonnie Watson Coleman, a Democratic congresswoman from New Jersey, specifically mentioned that some of her colleagues were not wearing masks as they sheltered in place.
  • Joe Biden received his second dose of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine. The president-elect is seeking to distribute 100 million vaccine doses over his first 100 days in office.
  • Biden told reporters that Trump “should not be in office”. The president-elect also emphasized the need to hold the Capitol rioters accountable and said he was not afraid to take the oath of office outside, despite intensifying concerns about potential violence around the inauguration.

Updated

Donald Trump has suffered yet another rebuke from a former ally, with the New England Patriots head coach, Bill Belichick, saying he will not accept the presidential medal of freedom.

Belichick, widely considered the greatest coach in NFL history, said he had made the decision after a Trump-inspired mob invaded the US Capitol last week. Trump was set to announce Belichick’s award later this week.

“Recently I was offered the opportunity to receive the presidential medal of freedom, which I was flattered by out of respect for what the honor represents and admiration for prior recipients. Subsequently, the tragic events of last week occurred and the decision has been made not to move forward with the award,” said Belichick in a statement issued on Monday.

“Above all, I am an American citizen with great reverence for our nation’s values, freedom and democracy. I know I also represent my family and the New England Patriots team. One of the most rewarding things in my professional career took place in 2020 when, through the great leadership within our team, conversations about social justice, equality and human rights moved to the forefront and became actions.

“Continuing those efforts while remaining true to the people, team and country I love outweigh the benefits of any individual award.”

The news will come as a bitter blow for Trump, whose Bedminster golf course was stripped of the 2022 PGA Championship on Sunday by the US PGA after the events at the Capitol.

At a rally in 2016, Trump read a letter he said was from Belichick congratulating him on a “tremendous campaign”. Belichick later endorsed Trump for the presidency, saying: “Our friendship goes back many years, and I think that anybody who’s spent more than five minutes with me knows I’m not a political person.”

Updated

The executive director of the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) resigned as the organization faced backlash over its decision to send out a robocall urging Trump supporters to join the 6 January march that resulted in a deadly breaching of the US Capitol.

“At [1pm’] we will march to the Capitol building and call on Congress to stop the steal,” a robocall from the fundraising arm of RAGA messaged. “We are hoping patriots like you will join us to continue the fight to protect the integrity of our election.”

Read more:

Updated

DC Mayor Muriel Bowser said at a news conference today that she’s worried about more attacks in the run-up to the inauguration.

“If I’m scared of anything, it’s for our democracy, because we have very extreme factions in our country that are armed and dangerous,” she said. “Our goals right now are to encourage Americans to participate virtually and to protect the District of Columbia from a repeat of the violent insurrection experienced at the Capitol and its grounds on January 6.”

Updated

Trump approved DC's emergency declaration ahead of inauguration day

Donald Trump “ordered federal assistance to supplement the district’s response efforts due to the emergency conditions resulting from the 59th Presidential Inauguration from January 11 to January 24, 2021”, according to the White House.

The authorization means that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) can coordinate response and relief in DC, which has been shaken by the violent attack on the US Capitol and is anticipating riots and armed protests during the inauguration.

Updated

Facebook is cracking down on all use of the phrase “stop the steal”, the rallying cry of supporters of Donald Trump who claim, without basis, that there was voter fraud in the 2020 elections, ahead of the inauguration of Joe Biden this month.

The policy change is the latest to target misinformation and the incitement of violence on Facebook after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building on Wednesday. Social media platforms like Facebook traditionally have a light touch to policing speech posted by politicians, maintaining that people have a right to see statements from their leaders.

But following the riot, social media platforms including Facebook removed Trump’s account and tightened enforcement around misinformation policies.

“With continued attempts to organize events against the outcome of the U.S. presidential election that can lead to violence, and use of the [‘stop the steal’] term by those involved in Wednesday’s violence in DC, we’re taking this additional step in the lead up to the inauguration,” Facebook said in a blogpost.

Facebook has said Trump’s account will be suspended until at least the inauguration and perhaps longer. Facebook operations chief Sheryl Sandberg told Reuters the company has no plans to lift its block on Donald Trump’s accounts and that she was “glad” that Facebook had taken the action.

“This shows the president is not above the policies we have,” Sandberg said

Twitter permanently banned the president on Friday. The company also said Monday it will continue its ban of political advertising in the US, including any ads paid for by Trump or his allies.

After years of controversial posts from Trump, social media companies have rushed after one another to limit the president’s posts following the violence last week. Trump has been banned from Twitter and removed from Facebook, Reddit, YouTube, Pinterest, and TikTok.

On Monday the home exercise company Peloton announced it will be banning the hashtag #stopthesteal from being used. Alternative social platforms more sympathetic to Trump like Parler are facing more widespread action. Amazon announced it would suspend Parler from AWS, its hosting service. Parler was also booted from the app stores on both Apple and Google devices.

Updated

Trump and Pence have spoken for first time since US Capitol attack

The president and vice-president have spoken to each other for the first time since the attack on the US Capitol last week.

A senior administration official shared with the Guardian that the duo “reiterated that those who broke the law and stormed the Capitol last week do not represent the America first movement backed by 75 million Americans, and pledged to continue the work on behalf of the country for the remainder of their term” – quashing any speculation over whether Trump would resign, or Pence would invoke the 25th amendment to remove the president from office.

Pence was presiding over the affirmation of the election results during the violent breach of the Capitol, which had been egged on by Trump.

Updated

Republican civil war: what's the party’s future after the US Capitol attack?

The motives that drove a pro-Donald Trump mob to attack Congress last Wednesday ranged from hazy to proudly hateful. But the actions of certain ambitious Republican officeholders in the days leading up to the tragedy were not clouded by confusion.

Trump may have lost the election, but his movement was on the march, and for politicians hoping someday to succeed Trump as president, that meant an opportunity was afoot.

With Trump now finally accepting he will leave office, the future leadership of his movement is increasingly up for grabs, with a ragtag band of senators, congressman, Trump family members – and Trump himself – already jostling for the position.

Whether anyone apart from the president is able to successfully ride the tiger of racism, nihilism and grievance politics that carried Trump to near-re-election after four years of American chaos and hundreds of thousands of preventable pandemic deaths is an open question.

It also might be an irrelevant question, if Trump decides to stage a 2023-24 stadium tour doubling as a new presidential campaign.

“Absent disqualification, the 2024 GOP presidential nomination remains his if he wants it,” tweeted Dave Wasserman, Congress editor of the Cook Political Report.

But with Trump gone, for the moment, after years of rock-like reign over the Republican party, powerful currents of political ambition and realignment have swirled into the vacuum.

Read more:

Two police officers have been suspended over their behavior during last week’s violent breach of the US Capitol last week, according to representative Tim Ryan.

One took a selfie with a rioter, and another was wearing a MAGA hat and “directing people around,” said Ryan, a Democrat of Ohio, told reporters. Ryan is leading an investigation into the Capitol police’s actions during last week’s insurrection. He said 15 other officers are being investigated over their actions during the events.

CNN’s Annie Grayer reports:

With Chad Wolf departing, Pete Gaynor, Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator, will become acting secretary of Homeland Security.

It will fall to Gaynor to oversee inauguration security coordination with police, the national guard, and other departments. The Department of Homeland Security oversees the Secret Service, which is leading inauguration day security efforts. Following last week’s deadly storming of the US Capitol by militant Trump supporters, concerns over inauguration security have grown. On social media platforms, users shared plans for armed marches in DC and in state capitols.

Updated

Leaders from the Republican Attorneys General Association face mounting criticism after sending out a robocall that urged supporters of Donald Trump to join the 6 January march on the US Capitol that resulted in a deadly insurrection.

“At [1pm’’] we will march to the Capitol building and call on Congress to stop the steal,” a robocall from the Rule of Law Defense Fund (RLDF), a fundraising arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association, said.

The voice then said: “We are hoping patriots like you will join us to continue the fight to protect the integrity of our election.”

The association’s chair, Georgia attorney general Chris Carr, is now among several officials who claim to have “had no knowledge or involvement in this decision”, distancing themselves from or outright condemning the call.

“The stance of the protesters was not consistent with [the attorney general’s] position on election fraud,” Carr spokesperson Katie Byrd told NBC News. “He has been saying since moments after seeing news break, the violence and destruction we saw at the US Capitol is unacceptable and un-American.”

Alabama attorney general Steve Marshall, who oversees the RLDF, said in a statement that he “was unaware of unauthorized decisions made by RLDF staff”, saying that “despite currently transitioning into [his] role” it was “unacceptable that [he] was neither consulted about nor informed of those decisions”.

Marshall added he had called for an internal review.

The Democratic Attorneys General Association has rejected the Republican defense, releasing a statement highlighting Republican leaders who they say incited the violence by taking up the president’s long-debunked claims of election fraud.

“The Republican [attorneys general] who blindly take their support have no legal or moral ground on which to stand here,” co-chairs Maura Healey of Massachusetts and Aaron Ford of Nevada wrote.

According to Documented, the watchdog group who posted the robocall online, the rally’s promotional website lists the Rule of Law Defense Fund as one of the participating organizations. As of Monday, it had been taken down.

The Democratic attorneys general also said that the Republican association’s “former chair spoke at the rally that incited the mob,” pinpointing Texas attorney general Ken Paxton, and that “former [Missouri attorney general] Josh Hawley led the effort in Congress to undermine the election”.

Paxton and now senator Hawley have championed Trump’s disproved claims of voter fraud in the form of failed lawsuits and legislative challenges.

Read more:

Wolf: 'This action is warranted by recent events'

In an email to staff, Chad Wolf said: “Effective at 11.59pm today, I am stepping down as your acting secretary. I am saddened to take this step, as it was my intention to serve the Department until the end of this administration. Unfortunately, this action is warranted by recent events, including the ongoing and meritless court rulings regarding the validity of my authority as acting secretary.”

A federal judge in November found that Trump’s appointment of Wolf was unlawful. In August, the Government Accountability Office said Wolf was illegally appointed to his role. Wolf took the role of his former acting deputy Ken Cuccinelli, who also served in the position without congressional approval.

Chad Wolf is stepping down.
Chad Wolf is stepping down. Photograph: Shawn Thew/EPA

Updated

Wolf had earlier said he would stay in his role until 20 January, when Joe Biden will be inaugurated president, in order to ensure an “orderly transition” to the new administration.

He will be leaving as the DHS is meant to be coordinating security for inauguration day with the DC police, National Guard and other departments. Security is being amped up following last week’s violent breach of the capitol.

Acting DHS secretary Chad Wolf stepping down

Chad Wolf is stepping down just before midnight Washington time tonight.

He’s the latest Trump administration official to step down following last week’s deadly storming of the capitol, egged on by Trump and other Republican lawmakers.

Wolf said he is leaving after several courts found his appointment to be unlawful. After Wolf called the violence at the Capitol “tragic and sickening”, urging Trump to condemn supporters who participated, the White House announced that it was withdrawing his nomination to lead the Department of Homeland Security. But he remained the acting secretary of the department.

Updated

Washington DC’s attorney general, Karl Racine, said he may bring charges against Donald Trump and others for inciting the storming of the US Capitol.

“Clearly the crowd was hyped up, juiced up, focused on the Capitol and rather than calm them down or at least emphasize the peaceful nature of what protests need to be, they really did encourage these folks and riled them up,” said Racine, of Republican lawmakers, Trump, and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

“Whether that comes to a legal complaint, I think we’ve got to really dig in and get all of the facts. I know I’m looking at a charge under the D.C. Code of inciting violence, and that would apply where there’s a clear recognition that one’s incitement could lead to foreseeable violence,” Racinel said on MSNBC.

Poll: Nearly seventy-five percent of Republican voters say Trump is protecting Democracy

After the president incited militant supporters to breach the US Capitol building, leading to five deaths, and persistently tried to undermine the integrity of an election he lost, 73% of Republican voters who participated in the latest Quinnipiac poll still said that Donald Trump was protecting rather than undermining democracy.

In a poll of 1,239 self-identified registered voters, 70% of the Republicans also said that lawmakers. who voted to block electors were protecting rather than undermining democracy. Seventy-three percent of Republican voters said voter fraud was widespread, and 71% approved of Trump.

“When it comes to whether American democracy is under threat, both Republicans and Democrats see a raging five-alarm fire, but clearly disagree on who started it,” said Tim Malloy, a Quinnipiac analyst.

Among all of those polled, including Democrats and Republicans, 56% said Trump was responsible for the storming, and 52 % said he should be removed from office.

Today so far

That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • House Democrats introduced an article of impeachment against Donald Trump. The House will debate the article, which charges Trump with incitement of insurrection, on Wednesday morning. If it is approved, Trump will become the first president in US history to be impeached twice.
  • Republicans blocked a resolution calling on Mike Pence to invoke the 25th amendment and remove Trump from office. The House majority leader, Steny Hoyer, attempted to pass the resolution by unanimous consent, but Alex Mooney, a Republican of West Virginia, objected because he said the measure should be fully debated on the House floor.
  • A House Democrat tested positive for coronavirus after sheltering in place with her colleagues during the Capitol riot. In a statement announcing her diagnosis, Bonnie Watson Coleman, a Democratic congresswoman from New Jersey, specifically mentioned that some of her colleagues were not wearing masks as they sheltered in place.
  • Joe Biden received his second dose of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine. The president-elect is seeking to distribute 100 million vaccine doses over his first 100 days in office.
  • Biden told reporters that Trump “should not be in office.” The president-elect also emphasized the need to hold the Capitol rioters accountable and said he was not afraid to take the oath of office outside, despite intensifying concerns about potential violence around the inauguration.

Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

A mysterious post appeared on the State Department website today notifying the world that Donald Trump’s term would end or, in a time warp, had indeed “ended” at 19.49pm this evening.

It may be true that leading Democrats and even two Republican Senators have said Trump should resign now and a resolution was put forth today saying he should be ejected from his job via the 25th Amendment, followed by the introduction of an article of impeachment, but right now the president’s term is not up until January 20.

The website also noted that Mike Pence’s term would also end today, but the vice-president is similarly set to leave office next week.

The error was apparently the work of a disgruntled employee, Buzzfeed reported, citing two unnamed currently-serving diplomats. One of those sources reportedly added that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (who is believed to have his own presidential ambitions) has ordered an internal investigation, but predicted he wouldn’t get very far in unmasking the mischief-maker within the department’s sprawling system.

Trump administration re-designates Cuba as 'state sponsor of terrorism'

The Trump administration has re-designated Cuba as a “state sponsor of terrorism,” just nine days Joe Biden is set to take office.

The AP reports:

The secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, announced the step, citing in particular Cuba’s continued harboring of US fugitives as well as its support for the Venezuelan leader, Nicolás Maduro. ...

Removing Cuba from the blacklist had been one of President Barack Obama’s main foreign policy achievements as he sought better relations with the communist island, an effort endorsed by Biden as his vice-president. Ties had been essentially frozen after Fidel Castro took power in 1959.

Historians call for Trump to go

Pulitzer prize winners Ron Chernow, Garry Wills, Stacy Schiff and Jon Meacham are among hundreds of historians and constitutional scholars who have signed an open letter calling for the impeachment and removal of Donald Trump.

“Throughout his presidency,” states the letter organised by Lincoln biographer (and former Clinton aide) Sidney Blumenthal, Sean Wilentz and David Greenberg, “Trump has defied the constitution and broken laws, norms, practices, and precedents, for which he must be held accountable now and after he leaves office. No future president should be tempted by the example of his defiance going unpunished.”

Lamenting events at the US Capitol last week, the letter adds: “By fomenting violence against the Congress and seeking to subvert constitutional democracy, which resulted in the killing of a Capitol police officer and the deaths of several rioters, Trump has violated his oath of office to preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States. He is a clear and present danger to American democracy and the national security of the United States.”

Other signatories include Douglas Brinkley, David Blight, Mary Beth Norton, Rick Atkinson, Diane McWhorter and Rick Perlstein.

The scholars conclude: “We urge members of the House of Representatives to conduct a speedy impeachment and the Senate to hold a prompt trial as the constitution stipulates.”

Democrats in the House introduced an article of impeachment on Monday and have the votes to advance it but it seems the scholars’ wish for a speedy trial may not see fruition. According to Democratic leaders in Congress, a trial may occur after Joe Biden has had 100 days in power, and thereby a chance to pass crucial Covid aid packages and have his cabinet picks confirmed.

For history fans (aka everyone) here are some links to interviews with some of the historians involved:

And, for good measure, here’s Blumenthal’s latest Guardian column:

A handful of House Republicans are considering supporting the the articles of impeachment against Donald Trump, according to Politico.

House majority leader Steny Hoyer told Democratic members today that the chamber will begin debating the article, which charges Trump with incitement of insurrection, on Wednesday morning.

It’s worth noting that, when the House impeached Trump last year, no Republicans supported the measure.

Up to 15,000 National Guard members could be deployed to Washington for Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20, in the hope of avoiding another violent event after the riot at the US Capitol last week.

The Washington Post reports:

Army Gen. Daniel R. Hokanson, the chief of the National Guard Bureau, said in a call with reporters that about 6,000 guardsmen from six states already are in the nation’s capital, and that the military response will expand to about 10,000 by the weekend.

Hokanson said the numbers will be determined by the requirements that federal agencies have for support. The National Guard will bring their weapons to Washington and carry them based on discussions with the FBI, police and other agencies.

‘Obviously, we’re very concerned that we want our individuals to have the right to self-defense,’ the general said. ‘And so, that will be an ongoing conversation, and if the senior leadership determines that that’s the right posture to be in, then that is something that we will do.’

The news comes amid intense criticism over the rather limited security presence at the Capitol last week, despite clear signs that far-right groups were prepared for violence around the congressional certification of Biden’s victory.

House Democrat tests positive for coronavirus after Capitol siege

Bonnie Watson Coleman, a Democratic congresswoman from New Jersey, has tested positive for coronavirus after sheltering in place with other lawmakers amid the violent siege of the Capitol.

“I received a positive test result for COVID-19, and am home resting at this time,” Coleman said in a statement. “While I am experiencing mild, cold-like symptoms, I remain in good spirits and will continue to work on behalf of my constituents.”

The statement released by Coleman’s office specifically mentions that some House members did not wear masks as lawmakers sheltered in place together.

Coleman’s announcement comes one day after the attending physician of the Capitol warned that members may have been exposed to coronavirus amid the lockdown.

“On Wednesday January 6, many members of the House community were in protective isolation in room located in a large committee hearing space,” Dr Brian Monahan said.

“The time in this room was several hours for some and briefer for others. During this time, individuals may have been exposed to another occupant with coronavirus infection.”

House to begin debating article of impeachment on Wednesday

House majority leader Steny Hoyer confirmed that the House will convene on Wednesday morning to debate the article of impeachment against Donald Trump.

The majority leader said the chamber would vote tomorrow evening on Jamie Raskin’s resolution calling on Mike Pence to invoke the 25th amendment and remove Trump from office.

Earlier today, Hoyer proposed adopting that resolution by unanimous consent, but Alex Mooney, a Republican of West Virginia, objected because he said the measure should be debated on the House floor.

After the vote on Raskin’s resolution, the House will reconvene on Wednesday morning to debate the article of impeachment, which charges Trump with incitement of insurrection in connection to the violent riot at the Capitol last week.

Joe Biden said it is his “hope and expectation” that the Senate will “bifurcate” its workday if the House moves forward with impeachment.

In Biden’s vision, the Senate would spend the morning confirming his nominees and advancing a coronavirus relief bill, while the afternoons would be used to conduct an impeachment trial of Donald Trump.

This sort of division would be possible after January 20, when Democrats take control of the Senate. After Democrats’ two victories in Georgia last week, the Senate is now 50-50. Once Kamala Harris is sworn in as vice-president, she will provide a tie-breaking 51st vote to give Democrats control of the chamber.

Biden receives second dose of coronavirus vaccine

Joe Biden received his second dose of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine moments ago, and the president-elect spoke to reporters about his upcoming inauguration.

Asked whether he was nervous about taking the oath of office outdoors, Biden replied, “I’m not afraid of taking the oath outside.”

The president-elect’s comments came after a report emerged that the FBI said it has “received information about an identified armed group intending to travel to Washington DC on 16 January.”

Biden emphasized that those responsible for the violent riot at the Capitol last week must be held accountable.

“I think it’s critically important that there be a real, serious focus on holding those folks who engaged in sedition and threatened people’s lives, defaced public property, caused great damage, that they be held accountable,” Biden said.

The president-elect expressed hope that Democrats and Republicans could come together on the need to hold rioters accountable.

Updated

Biden: 'Trump should not be in office. Period'

President-elect Joe Biden has commented that Donald Trump should not be in office.

It appears that he made the remarks moments ago, according to reporters.

Biden also says he has spoken to some Senators today about the second impeachment of Donald Trump.

He also said Senators are looking into whether the Senate will be able to divide its time between dealing with the impeachment process and also confirming his Cabinet appointments.

We’ll bring you more details ASAP.

Updated

Trump should be impeached. But that alone won’t remove white supremacy from America - Hillary Clinton.

Hillary Clinton has written an opinion piece for the Washington Post, in which she says:

Wednesday’s attack on the Capitol was the tragically predictable result of white-supremacist grievances fueled by President Trump. But his departure from office, whether immediately or on Jan. 20, will not solve the deeper problems exposed by this episode. What happened is cause for grief and outrage. It should not be cause for shock. What were too often passed off as the rantings of an unfortunate but temporary figure in public life are, in reality, part of something much bigger. That is the challenge that confronts us all.

You can read the whole article here.

Capitol Police names new acting chief and it's historic first

Long-time Capitol Police officer Yogananda Pittman has been named as the new acting chief of the force which was plunged into crisis by the security breach and attack on the US Capitol last week as Congress was sitting officially to certify Joe Biden’s election win.

Pittman is the first woman and the first Black American to lead the law enforcement agency, United States Capitol Police (USCP) confirmed to US public radio network NPR.

She assumed the role a day after now-former USCP Chief Steven Sund announced his resignation following a mob laying siege to the Capitol, ransacking lawmakers’ offices, breaking windows and defacing walls and statues inside the complex. Sund said he was stepping down just hours after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed for his removal.

Sund, who has since refuted claims that he did not request National Guard and other security forces ahead of Wednesday’s attack, originally said in his resignation letter that his last day on the job would be January 16.

Pittman has built a distinguished career with the USCP.

She was one of the first Black female supervisors to rise to the rank of captain, in 2012. In that role she oversaw more than 400 officers and civilians and was an integral part of the security planning for Barack Obama’s second inauguration the following year, according to her biography.

She was promoted to inspector in 2015 for the USCP, where she was responsible for responding to the department’s disciplinary appeals and grievances. In 2018 Pittman was promoted to deputy chief and tapped to become bureau commander for the Command and Coordination Bureau, according to the USCP. She is currently assistant chief of police for Protective and Intelligence Operations.

In October, Sund announced that Pittman was recognized as the 2020 recipient of the Women in Federal Law Enforcement’s Outstanding Advocate for Women in Federal Law Enforcement award.

“It is very important for young female law enforcement officers to see someone who looks like them in leadership positions,” Pittman in a statement announcing her award. “It says to them that these positions are obtainable and available to them.”

Pittman graduated from Morgan State University, a historically Black college in Baltimore, with a degree in psychology.

You can read the full NPR story online here.

Today so far

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • House Democrats formally introduced an article of impeachment against Donald Trump. The impeachment measure, which charges Trump with “incitement of insurrection,” could be voted on as soon as Wednesday. If it passes, Trump would become the first president in US history to be impeached twice.
  • Republicans blocked a resolution calling on Mike Pence to invoke the 25th amendment to remove Trump from office. The House majority leader, Steny Hoyer, tried to pass the resolution by unanimous consent, but Alex Mooney, a Republican of West Virginia, objected because he said the measure should be debated on the floor.
  • Joe Biden said he would nominate William Burns to lead the CIA. The president-elect said Burns, a longtime diplomat, would “bring the knowledge, judgment, and perspective we need to prevent and confront threats before they can reach our shores.”

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Nancy Pelosi condemned House Republicans for blocking a resolution calling on Mike Pence to invoke the 25th amendment to remove Donald Trump from office.

“The House Republicans rejected this legislation to protect America, enabling the President’s unhinged, unstable and deranged acts of sedition to continue,” the Democratic speaker said in a statement. “Their complicity endangers America, erodes our Democracy, and it must end.”

Alex Mooney, a Republican of West Virginia, blocked the resolution because he said it should be debated on the floor and not adopted by unanimous consent. (Interestingly, Mooney did not take issue with the substance of the resolution in his statement about blocking the proposal.)

In her own statement, Pelosi noted that the House would proceed with impeachment if the resolution was not adopted.

“As our next step, we will move forward with bringing impeachment legislation to the Floor,” Pelosi said. “The President’s threat to America is urgent, and so too will be our action.”

The US Treasury Department has unveiled new sanctions against seven Ukrainians, several of whom allegedly provided information to Rudy Giuliani and other allies of Donald Trump as part of an operation to influence the outcome of the 2020 US presidential election.

Among those sanctioned were Konstantyn Kulyk, a Ukrainian prosecutor who met with Giuliani to discuss his investigation into a company that employed Joe Biden’s son and Andriy Telizhenko, who had also helped Giuliani investigate the Biden family’s activities in Ukraine.

Others were tied to Andriy Derkach, a Ukrainian lawmaker who was sanctioned in September for trying to pass derogatory information about Biden to Giuliani in order to influence the election. In a September press release, the Treasury Department had called him a “Russian agent.”

The additions to the Specially Designated Nationals list may revive interest in Trump’s first impeachment battle and the orbit of politicians and lawyers who have enabled his bad behaviour, even as he faces new troubles for helping to incite a riot at the Capitol last week.

The New York State Bar Association already announced on Monday that it would launch a probe to consider expelling Giuliani from its membership.

Several of the sanctioned Ukrainians also provided information to Devin Nunes, a California congressman who led a pro-Trump investigation to undermine the impeachment. Trump last week awarded him the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honour, at a ceremony closed to the press.

“Russian disinformation campaigns targeting American citizens are a threat to our democracy,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement, according to Bloomberg. “The United States will continue to aggressively defend the integrity of our election systems and processes.”

FBI warns of armed group traveling to DC later this week - report

The FBI has reportedly warned that it has received information about an armed group traveling to Washington later this week.

According to ABC News, the FBI has sent a bulleting saying the bureau has “received information about an identified armed group intending to travel to Washington, DC on 16 January.”

The FBI said the group has warned that attempts to remove Donald Trump from office will result in “a huge uprising”.

The report comes amid intensifying concerns about violence around Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20, after a mob stormed the US Capitol.

The mayor of Washington, Muriel Bowser, said today that she has asked the interior department to cancel any public gathering permits in the city from today until January 24.

Updated

Alex Mooney said he objected to Democrats’ resolution about invoking the 25th amendment because he wanted a floor debate on the measure.

Mooney, a Republican of West Virginia, blocked a proposal from Steny Hoyer, the House majority leader, to adopt the resolution by unanimous consent.

“Speaker Pelosi should not attempt to adopt a resolution of this magnitude without any debate on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives,” Mooney said in a statement.

“It is wrong to have sent members of Congress home and then try to adopt without any debate a precedent-setting resolution that could imperil our Republic. The U.S. House must never adopt a resolution that demands the removal of a duly elected president, without any hearings, debate or recorded votes.”

After Mooney objected to the resolution, the House adjourned until 9 am ET tomorrow morning, when there will be a roll call vote on the measure.

The resolution calls on Mike Pence to invoke the 25th amendment to remove Donald Trump from office, even though that seems very unlikely to happen.

House majority leader Steny Hoyer confirmed that Democratic leadership is currently planning to hold a vote on the article of impeachment against Donald Trump in two days.

“There may well be a vote on impeachment on Wednesday,” Hoyer told reporters on Capitol Hill.

Hoyer added that the goal was to immediately send the article of impeachment to the Senate, leaving the president’s fate up to the Republican-controlled chamber.

It’s very unclear whether two-thirds of senators would agree to removing Trump from office, as required by the constitution.

David Cicilline, one of the Democratic congressmen who helped draft the article of impeachment, told a CNN reporter that he was confident the article would attract majority support in the House.

Cicilline added that he believed some Republican members would support impeachment, which could come up for a vote as soon as Wednesday.

“We have the numbers to pass it,” the Rhode Island congressman said.

The article of impeachment charges Donald Trump with having incited an insurrection in connection to the violent riot at the US Capitol last week.

“Resolved, That Donald John Trump, President of the United States, is impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors,” the article says.

“President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of Government. He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coequal branch of Government. He thereby betrayed his trust as President, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.

“Wherefore, Donald John Trump, by such conduct, has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to national security, democracy, and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office, and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with self-governance and the rule of law. Donald John Trump thus warrants impeachment and trial, removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States.”

House Democrats formally introduce article of impeachment against Trump

A group of House Democrats has formally introduced an article of impeachment against Donald Trump, charging him with “incitement to insurrection” in connection to the violent riot at the Capitol last week.

The article was introduced by Ted Lieu of California, David Cicilline of Rhode Island and Jamie Raskin of Maryland.

If the House votes to impeach Trump, he will become the first president in US history to ever be impeached twice.

Republicans block resolution calling on Pence to invoke 25th amendment

Moments ago, House majority leader Steny Hoyer introduced a resolution from congressman Jamie Raskin calling on the vice-president to invoke the 25th amendment and remove Donald Trump from office.

The resolution urged Mike Pence to “declare what is obvious to a horrified Nation: That the President is unable to successfully discharge the duties and powers of his office.”

As expected, the resolution was not adopted by unanimous consent, after Republican Alex Mooney of West Virginia objected to the request.

The House now stands in recess until 9 am et tomorrow morning, when the chamber with consider Raskin’s resolution.

Updated

The House is now in session, and Democrats are expected to soon introduce an article of impeachment against Donald Trump.

Presiding over the session, Democrat Debbie Dingell began the day by reading the resignation of the House sergeant at arms, Paul Irving.

The resignation was accepted without objection. Dingell then swore in the new House sergeant at arms.

The New York State Bar Association has launched an investigation to determine whether to expel Rudy Giuliani from its membership.

The legal group announced the inquiry in a statement, noting it has received “hundreds of complaints in recent months” about Giuliani’s work for Donald Trump.

The association specifically criticized Giuliani for his role in inciting a violent mob to storm the US Capitol last week.

Shortly before the riot occurred, Giuliani said at a pro-Trump rally in Washington, “If we’re wrong, we will be made fools of, but if we’re right a lot of them will go to jail. Let’s have trial by combat.”

“As the nation’s largest voluntary state bar association, NYSBA has a responsibility to defend and protect the rule of law,” the group said in its statement.

“Based on these complaints, and the statement Mr. Giuliani uttered shortly before the attack on the Capitol, NYSBA President Scott M. Karson has launched an inquiry pursuant to the Association’s bylaws to determine whether Mr. Giuliani should be removed from the membership rolls of the Association.”

David Cicilline said he will be introducing an article of impeachment against Donald Trump in about 15 minutes.

“Just landed in Washington where I will be introducing an article of impeachment against the President for Incitement of Insurrection at 11am,” the Rhode Island congressman said in a new tweet.

Cicilline has spearheaded the impeachment effort alongside two of his fellow House Democrats, Ted Lieu and Jamie Raskin.

Drafts of the article that have circulated in recent days charge the president with inciting an insurrection, in connection to the violent riot at the Capitol last week.

The mayor of DC is asking the interior department to cancel any public gathering permits in the city from today until January 24, which would cover Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20.

Muriel Bowser asked Americans not to come to Washington for the inauguration, urging people to instead celebrate the event “virtually.”

The Democratic mayor emphasized that the city is dedicated to avoiding another violent event like the pro-Trump riot at the Capitol last week.

Bowser asked the federal government to coordinate with Congress and the supreme court to develop a security plan to protect federal property during the inauguration.

The mayor’s announcements come amid intensifying concerns about more violence around the inauguration.

Richard Luscombe reports for the Guardian:

A black woman whose sister was shot and killed by US Capitol police in Washington eight years ago has said the “restraint” shown by the same agency to Donald Trump’s insurrectionist mob, compared with actions in Black Lives Matter protests last summer, is “hurtful”.

Amy Carey-Jones, center, sister of Miriam Carey, speaks to the media outside the home of her sister Valarie, second from left, in Brooklyn in 2013.
Amy Carey-Jones, center, sister of Miriam Carey, speaks to the media outside the home of her sister Valarie, second from left, in Brooklyn in 2013. Photograph: John Minchillo/AP

Valarie Carey criticised officers for what she said was an inability to deal with black people, and said some police were either racist or dealing with “culture shock”.

“To see the disparity in the treatment of individuals … who have no respect for our nation’s Capitol, vandalizing and actually committing assaults and they get to walk away unharmed and not even arrested, it’s hurtful,” Carey told CNN.

“They were treated with entitlement and it’s ridiculous. We all know had it been a black person or brown person that situation would have been different.”

Carey’s sister Miriam, 34, a dental hygienist from Connecticut, was killed in October 2013 after her car collided with a security barrier and struck an off-duty Secret Service officer at the White House.

She drove off, pursued by several marked police vehicles, and was shot when she attempted to drive away from officers who surrounded her car with guns drawn. Her 18-month-old daughter was found in the back seat, unharmed.

Joe Biden is reportedly getting frustrated with his pandemic advisory team amid concerns that his administration will fall short of its goal to distribute 100 million vaccine doses in his first 100 days in office.

Politico reports:

Biden has expressed criticism on multiple occasions to groups of transition officials — including one confrontation where Biden conveyed to Covid coordinator Jeff Zients and his deputy, Natalie Quillian, that their team was underperforming.

The tensions have surfaced as Biden’s advisers plan a dramatic scale-up of vaccinations starting Jan. 20, when the incoming team inherits a troubled Trump administration vaccine rollout that has fallen well short of its initial targets.

In interviews, multiple senior transition officials defended Zients and stressed the enormity of the challenge, noting that the Trump administration has refused to share key information for weeks.

Still, the U.S. has conducted around 7 million vaccinations over its first three weeks, well below the million-a-day rate Biden will need to hit. While some Biden advisers insist it’s possible to make good on the 100-million vow, others are privately worried that the federal response is already so chaotic that it will take a herculean effort to pull it off.

Biden will receive his second dose of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine later today, after meeting with his transition advisers.

House majority leader Steny Hoyer plans to introduce a resolution calling on the vice-president to invoke the 25th amendment and remove Donald Trump from office.

The resolution argues that Trump is “incapable of executing the duties of his office” after the “massive violent invasion of the United States Capitol”.

“Resolved, That the House of Representatives calls upon Vice President Michael R. Pence ... to immediately use his powers under section 4 of the 25th Amendment to convene and mobilize the principal officers of the executive departments in the Cabinet to declare what is obvious to a horrified Nation: That the President is unable to successfully discharge the duties and powers of his office,” the resolution says.

Hoyer plans to request unanimous consent on the resolution, but House Republicans will almost certainly object to the measure.

German chancellor Merkel sees Twitter’s ban on Trump as 'problematic'

German chancellor Angela Merkel sees Twitter’s ban on US president Donald Trump as “problematic”, her spokesperson said on Monday.

Freedom of speech was “a fundamental right of elementary significance”, Merkel’s spokesperson Steffen Seibert told journalists.

“This fundamental right can be intervened in, but according to the law and within the framework defined by legislators — not according to a decision by the management of social media platforms,” Seibert added.

“Seen from this angle, the chancellor considers it problematic that the accounts of the US president have now been permanently blocked.”

The kind of law and frameworks regulating social media use referred to by Merkel are considerably stricter in Germany than the US, however.

Under the German “network enforcement act” online platforms face fines of up to €50m (£44m) if they do not remove “obviously illegal” hate speech and other postings within 24 hours of receiving a notification.

After the law was introduced in 2018, Facebook and Twitter fitted their German websites with additional features for flagging up controversial content, and trained moderators to cope with its requirements.

This from CNBC’s Washington correspondent suggests we could see an upping of the ante from the administration over Trump’s social media bans today.

Incidentally it has been reported overnight that Stripe will halt processing Trump campaign donations because of encouraged violence, meaning that the shutdown of the president’s online activities now has a direct impact on the campaign’s bottom line, rather than just limiting the reach of his voice.

I did suggest earlier that Melania Trump’s farewell statement to the role of first lady [see 7:10am] was not going to be universally well-received. NBC’s Kevin Collier has described it as “jaw-dropping”.

Jamie Ross at the Daily Beast has this write-up:

In a deeply weird and jarring farewell statement posted by the White House early Monday morning, Melania first paid tribute to those who lost their lives in last week’s violence carried out in support of her husband, before going on to settle some scores against unspecified people who she claims have “attacked” her over the past few days since the riots.

It’s not exactly clear what she’s referring to—it’s hard to believe that Melania has really been at the forefront of anyone’s mind since last week’s unprecedented assault on American democracy. It could be a reference to a CNN report that she was doing a photoshoot at the White House when rioters were laying siege to the Capitol on behalf of her husband.

It could also refer to Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who previously served as an aide to the first lady, who condemned her last week saying “It was an assault on human life and our great democracy. Unfortunately, our president and first lady have little, if any, regard for either.”

So there goes Melania, signing off exactly as she served: Complaining about people being mean to her, completely misjudging the mood of the nation, and spouting trite soundbites about morality and good behaviour while saying nothing about the deranged actions of her husband.

Read more here: Daily Beast – Melania identifies real victim of the deadly Capitol riots: herself

Updated

I regret to inform you that Mike Pompeo appears to have embarked on another glossy Twitter marathon about his legacy as secretary of state. Anyone would think he might be planning a post-Trump run for president at some point in the future…

An interesting report from Andrea Salcedo at the Washington Post here, that Republican officials now insist they didn’t know anything about a robocall campaign urging supporters to march on Washington DC last Wednesday.

The day before a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol, an arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association sent out robocalls urging supporters to come to D.C. to “fight” Congress over President Trump’s baseless election fraud claims.

“At 1 pm we will march to the Capitol building and call on Congress to stop the steal,” said the message first reported by the watchdog group Documented. “We’re hoping patriots like you will join us to continue to fight to protect the integrity of our elections.”

After the attempted insurrection on Wednesday left a police officer and four others dead, several Republican attorneys general have now distanced themselves from the robocalls, insisting they didn’t know about the campaign. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, the chairman of the Rule of Law Defense Fund, the nonprofit that sent out the calls, blamed the group’s staffers.

“I was unaware of unauthorized decisions made by RLDF staff with regard to this week’s rally,” he said in a statement to the Montgomery Advertiser. “It is unacceptable that I was neither consulted about nor informed of those decisions. I have directed an internal review of the matter.”

Those claims fell short for Marshall’s Democratic counterparts, who pointed to the number of Republican officials who have repeated the president’s unfounded election fraud claims.

Read more here: Washington Post – Republican AGs group sent robocalls urging protesters to the Capitol. Officials now insist they didn’t know about it

One of the arguments for pressing ahead with an impeachment against Donald Trump even in the dying embers of his presidency is that if there are no consequences to Wednesday’s assault on the Capitol, it will embolden future similar actions.

Along those lines, Sergio Olmos and Conrad Wilson report for Oregon Public Broadcasting that at least 3 men from a prior Oregon protest that attempted to storm the state capitol appear to have gone on to join the insurrection in Washington. They write:

Three men who participated in efforts to storm the Oregon Capitol building Dec. 21 also appear to have traveled to Washington DC to take part in last week’s failed insurrection at the US Capitol.

Images captured on social media and national television show what appear to be two of the men inside the U.S. Capitol as part of the mob attack that left five people dead and temporarily stopped Congress from certifying electoral college votes for President-elect Joe Biden. The third man was part of the mob but evidence has not shown he entered the building.

None of the men have faced criminal charges for participating in either rally.

Read more here: OPB – At least 3 men from Oregon protest appear to have joined insurrection at US Capitol

One group, aside from the “Boomerwaffen” who have been extremely loyal to president Donald Trump have been conservative evangelical Christians. At the weekend the Associated Press sent reporters to listen to the messages being preached around the country.

In Owensboro, Kentucky, Brian Gibson, pastor and founder of HIS Church, pointed the finger at “Antifa” and questioned how easily the Capitol was breached.

So now I know some, some bad actors went in and I believe potentially there were antifa up there. I think more and more I know there were antifa up there, insiders up there that started that action. And I also know that some Trump supporters followed their lead without a shadow of a doubt because you don’t get 2 million people together without having some radicals in the crowd or some simple people in the crowd that you could lead anywhere, right?

Paula White-Cain, a longtime spiritual counselor to Trump and who served as a faith adviser in his White House, made a subtle allusion to the insurrection ahead of her Sunday sermon. Calling the nation “deeply divided,” White-Cain condemned “lawlessness” and added that “my hope is never rested in any person, any man. My hope is in Jesus Christ.”

White also reaffirmed her commitment to the First Amendment, an echo of the warnings from some conservatives this week that their freedom of speech was threatened.

The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, the president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference who delivered a prayer at Trump’s inauguration and has also advised him, told his congregation in Sacramento, California that America needs to hear a message of repentance.

“We must all repent, even the church needs to repent. The American nation will be healed when the American church repents,” he said to some cheers and applause.

“We must repent for making the person who occupies the White House more important than the one who occupies our hearts. We must repent for permitting the donkey and the elephant to divide what the Lamb died for on the cross,” Rodriguez said.

Rev. Tim Remington, the conservative Christian pastor of The Altar church in Coeur d’Alene Idaho, avoided specific references to Trump and the attack on the Capitol, but offered plenty of warnings directed at the media, which I’m trying not to take personally.

“I rebuke the news in the name of Jesus,” Remington said. “We ask that this false garbage come to an end. ... It’s the lies, communism, socialism. I don’t know how we’ve put up with it this long.”

Joan Donovan, Brian Friedberg and Emily Dreyfuss are researchers at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. They’ve written for us this morning on how the Capitol siege was the biggest media spectacle of the Trump era:

“The storm” on the Capitol is the result of a new kind of networked conspiracy – a potent brew of disinformation and rumor enabled by platforms, emboldened by politicians and influencers, and defined by a total lack of trust in the news.

While those who stormed the Capitol seem to come from all walks of life, one faction of older white people stood out, aided by a viral image of Richard Barnett, 60, of Gravette, Arkansas, sitting at Nancy Pelosi’s desk. Online they are called the “boomerwaffen”, a pejorative name for the boomers and normies radicalized by cable news and AM radio, likening their potential for rightwing violence to that of Atomwaffen terrorists.

The boomerwaffen showed up cloaked in Trump gear from head to toe, they gave testimonials parroting the claims of their favorite YouTubers and podcasters, referencing QAnon, and describing a conspiracy to steal the election from Trump. Eschewing the risks of the pandemic, they believed 6 January was the last day they could pressure Vice-President Mike Pence and Republicans to reject the results of the election.

The boomerwaffen occupy an area of our media ecosystem where Trump still has a chance, QAnon is still leaking privileged government secrets, and Rudy Gulinani is a good lawyer up against a rigged system.

Creating and maintaining the boomerwaffen universe requires an incredible amount of resources. Trump’s disinformation campaigns are a media spectacle involving a stunning array of political operatives, media pundits, lawyers, and influencers who day-to-day create, publish, and share a cascade of lies and speculation across webspaces, cable news, and radio all at once.

Read more here: The Capitol siege was the biggest media spectacle of the Trump era

Chair of House rules committee says he expects impeachment vote Wednesday

The chair of the US House rules committee has told CNN he expects articles of impeachment against president Donald Trump to get to the House floor for a vote on Wednesday, and predicted it will pass.

“It is important that we act, and it is important that we act in a very serious and deliberative manner,” Representative Jim McGovern said in an interview this morning. “We expect this up on the floor on Wednesday. And I expect that it will pass.”

McGovern said he expected Republican lawmakers to object to a request to bring up a resolution demanding that Mike Pence invoke the Constitution’s 25th Amendment to remove Trump. In that case, his committee will provide a rule to bring that legislation to the House for a vote and, 24 hours later, the committee will then bring another resolution to deal with impeachment.

“What this president did is unconscionable, and he needs to be held to account,” McGovern said.

Updated

Donald Trump will today award the highest US civilian honour to a close ally who has supported his attempts to remain in power, objecting to the electoral college results even after the president incited the deadly Capitol riot: Ohio Republican representative Jim Jordan.

According to the White House, the presidential medal of freedom is awarded to “individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the security or national interests of America, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors”.

Trump will reward Jordan, a man described as his “attack dog” in the Russia investigation, the first impeachment and many more controversies – and who one member of the editorial board of the Cleveland Plains Dealer, in his home state, called “an accomplice to the worst president in the history of our country”.

In the hours after last Wednesday’s riot, Jordan was one of 147 Republican representatives and senators who went through with objections to electoral college results.

Jordan condemned the riot and expressed support for Capitol police, after the death of an officer who was struck with a fire extinguisher, but the congressman nevertheless went through with his objection. Senators who objected, most prominently Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ted Cruz of Texas, are the subject of calls for censure or expulsion but as yet House members are less in the firing line.

Jordan has been dogged in office by accusations that when he was a wrestling coach at Ohio State, he ignored allegations of sexual abuse by a team doctor. He denies the claims.

In tune with others in Republican leadership positions, Jordan opposes impeachment. He has also been critical of moves against rightwing use of social media to incite violence which have included the suspension of Trump’s Twitter account. “Canceling conservative speech will not promote ‘unity and healing’,” Jordan wrote on Twitter on Friday.

A few things in the diary today. According to the White House, president Donald Trump “will work from early in the morning until late in the evening. He will make many calls and have many meetings.”

Vice president Mike Pence will lead a White House coronavirus task force meeting at 2pm.

President-elect Joe Biden meets transition and economic advisers, then receives his second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.

And as previously mentioned, the House will meet this morning where Democrats will attempt to pass a resolution calling on Pence to invoke the 25th amendment to remove Trump from office. That’s unlikely to succeed, of course. Here’s a reminder on what the 25th amendment involves:

Joe Biden will have to make critical decisions on arms control in his first days in the White House that could determine whether a new nuclear arms race can be averted, and possibly reversed.

When the new president takes the oath of office on 20 January, there will be 16 days left before the 2010 New Start treaty with Russia expires, and with it the last binding limit on the world’s two biggest nuclear arsenals left standing in the wake of the Trump era.

At the same time, there will be urgent pressure on the incoming administration to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, which has been unraveling at an accelerating speed since Donald Trump withdrew from it in 2018.

The Biden national security team will also be expected within a couple of months to produce its first defence budget request, which involves making decisions on whether to continue, pause or kill new nuclear weapon programmes begun by Trump.

On New Start (which limits each country’s deployed strategic arsenal to 1,550 warheads each) Biden and his close aides have signalled they are interested in extending the treaty, and that would be technically feasible even in the very limited time remaining, as extension requires only an exchange of notes between Washington and Moscow.

Russia has indicated its readiness to extend but there is still the question of how long for. Anthony Blinken, Biden’s nominee for secretary of state, told the New York Times in November that the new administration would favour five years, the maximum term possible, but there have since been reports that some in the new national security team believe the extension should be shorter, as a way of keeping pressure on Russia to negotiate a successor treaty.

Read more of Julian Borger’s analysis here: Nuclear stand-off – can Joe Biden avert a new arms race?

Melania Trump statement: 'I am disappointed and disheartened with what happened last week'

First Lady Melania Trump has been very quiet since last week’s events but she has published today an article on the White House website entitled: “Our path forward”. In it she addresses for the first time in public the events of last week, writing:

I am disappointed and disheartened with what happened last week. I find it shameful that surrounding these tragic events there has been salacious gossip, unwarranted personal attacks, and false misleading accusations on me – from people who are looking to be relevant and have an agenda. This time is solely about healing our country and its citizens. It should not be used for personal gain.

Our Nation must heal in a civil manner. Make no mistake about it, I absolutely condemn the violence that has occurred on our Nation’s Capitol. Violence is never acceptable.

As an American, I am proud of our freedom to express our viewpoints without persecution … I would like to call on the citizens of this country to take a moment, pause, and look at things from all perspectives.

It is inspiring to see that so many have found a passion and enthusiasm in participating in an election, but we must not allow that passion to turn to violence. Our path forward is to come together, find our commonalities, and be the kind and strong people that I know we are.

I should imagine that there will be some criticism of the first lady after the statement because she has chosen to honor all of the people who died during the violent insurrection at the Capitol last week by name, not just the Capitol police officers who were the victims of the violent pro-Trump mob.

It does also seem that Melania Trump is drawing a personal line under her time in the White House. The note finishes:

It has been the honor of my lifetime to serve as your First Lady. I want to thank the millions of Americans who supported my husband and me over the past 4 years and shown the incredible impact of the American spirit. I am grateful to you all for letting me serve you on platforms which are dear to me.

Read more here: Melania Trump – Our path forward

Also in the realms of foreign policy, if a day ends in ‘y’ then China and the Trump administration will be bickering about something. Today it is the change that Mike Pompeo announced on Saturday – scrapping curbs on US interactions with Taiwan officials.

China’s foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian has responded today by telling reporters that: “The Chinese people’s resolve to defend our sovereignty and territorial integrity is unshakable and we will not permit any person or force to stop the process of China’s re-unification. Any actions which harm China’s core interests will be met with a firm counterattack and will not succeed.”

Chinese state media lambasted the American decision, report Reuters. The widely-read Global Times tabloid, published by the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily, said China must send a “stern warning” to Taiwan.

“Those on the island of Taiwan must not take for granted that they can seek secession with the help of the last-ditch madness of an administration abandoned by the Americans,” the paper added. “On the contrary, such madness is very likely to bring them annihilation.”

Like most countries, the United States has no official ties with Taiwan. Under Trump though the US has ramped up arms sales and sent senior officials to Taipei. Pompeo’s decision means, for example, that Taiwan officials will now be able to hold meetings at the State Department or White House rather than in non-official locations elsewhere, such as hotels.

Taiwan welcomed Pompeo’s decision, with foreign minister Joseph Wu telling reporters “Taiwan-US relations have been elevated to a global partnership.”

Trump administration designates Yemeni Houthis as terrorists – 'will worsen humanitarian crisis'

While former deputy secretary of state William Burns gets the nod from Biden to head up the CIA, the current secretary of state Mike Pompeo is still busy doing the Trump administration’s work, as Bethan McKernan, our Middle East correspondent, reports:

The Trump administration has made an 11th-hour decision to designate Yemen’s Houthi rebels as a foreign terrorist organisation in a move that is likely to severely worsen the war-torn country’s humanitarian crisis.

US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, announced the decision late on Sunday, despite bipartisan opposition and months of warnings from UN officials and aid organisations that the designation – part of the White House’s “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran and its allies – will lead to shortages and delays for both aid and commercial shipments and undermine the peace process.

Relief organisations greeted the news with dismay on Monday. In a statement, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Yemen director, Mohamed Abdi, said it would “hamstring the ability of aid agencies to respond” to the already dire situation there.

“Yemen’s faltering economy will be dealt a further devastating blow,” he added. “Getting food and medicine into Yemen — a country 80% dependent on imports — will become even more difficult.”

The Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, stormed Yemen’s capital Sana’a in 2014, causing President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi to flee. The rebels receive support from Iran, while a Saudi and Emirati-led coalition of Arab nations fighting to restore the internationally-recognised government is aided by western arms sales, maintenance and training.

The conflict has led to what the UN says is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, killing more than 112,000 people and leaving most of the 30 million-strong population dependent on aid to survive. Malnutrition and outbreaks of disease such as cholera are rife. The arrival of Covid-19 and western aid cuts in 2020 have also driven what remains of Yemen’s healthcare system to the brink of collapse.

Read more of Bethan McKernan’s report: US designation of Yemeni Houthis as terrorists ‘will worsen humanitarian crisis’

David Ignatius at the Washington Post has some early reaction to that decision by president-elect Joe Biden to nominate former ambassador William J. Burns for CIA director. Ignatius writes:

The choice of Burns is the incoming administration’s last major personnel decision, and it highlights the qualities that characterize Biden’s foreign policy team. Burns is an inside player — brainy, reserved, collegial — and loyal to his superiors.

The choice of Burns will disappoint those who wanted a career intelligence officer to succeed Gina Haspel, the current director. Michael Morell, a career CIA analyst and former acting director, was popular among many CIA alumni, who argued that he knew the agency’s shortcomings well enough to oversee the overhaul that CIA needs for the 21st century.

Biden opted for an outsider who could bring independent judgment to running the agency. What’s likely to have appealed to Biden, in addition to his personal comfort level with Burns, is his reputation as a nonpartisan figure who served in hard places — Russia and the Middle East — and over the years developed close relationships with the countries that are the CIA’s key liaison partners.

Read more here: Washington Post – Biden plans to nominate William J. Burns, a former career diplomat, to run the CIA

Biden announces former deputy secretary of state William Burns as his nominee for CIA director

President-elect Joe Biden has announced that the former deputy secretary of state William Burns will be his nominee for director of the CIA.

Biden’s transition team have issued a statement where Biden says of his pick:

Bill Burns is an exemplary diplomat with decades of experience on the world stage keeping our people and our country safe and secure. He shares my profound belief that intelligence must be apolitical and that the dedicated intelligence professionals serving our nation deserve our gratitude and respect. Ambassador Burns will bring the knowledge, judgment, and perspective we need to prevent and confront threats before they can reach our shores. The American people will sleep soundly with him as our next CIA Director.

Worth noting as well, that despite the shouts of some people that it must have somehow secretly been the “Antifa” hordes who were storming the US Capitol in disguise last week, an Associated Press analysis has shown this was very much not the case. They published this report overnight:

The insurrectionist mob that showed up at the president’s behest and stormed the US Capitol was overwhelmingly made up of longtime Trump supporters, including Republican Party officials, GOP political donors, far-right militants, white supremacists, and adherents of the QAnon myth.

The Associated Press reviewed social media posts, voter registrations, court files and other public records for more than 120 people either facing criminal charges related to the 6 January or who, going maskless amid the pandemic, were later identified through photographs and videos taken during the melee.

The AP found that many of the rioters had taken to social media after the November election to retweet and parrot false claims by Trump that the vote had been stolen in a vast international conspiracy. Several had openly threatened violence against Democrats and Republicans they considered insufficiently loyal to the president. During the riot, some livestreamed and posted photos of themselves at the Capitol. Afterwards, many bragged about what they had done.

Read more about the AP’s social media investigation here: Associated Press – Records show fervent Trump fans fueled US Capitol takeover

This might cheer Donald Trump up a little about his Twitter exile. Reuters report that Twitter’s German-listed shares slumped as much as 8% on Monday, the first trading day after it permanently suspended the president late on Friday.

The company said suspension of Trump’s account, which had more than 88 million followers, was due to the risk of further violence. It was the first time Twitter banned a head of state.

At 5:11 ET (10:11 GMT), the social media firm’s US-listed shares were also off 6.8% at $47.94 in thin premarket trading.

For Twitter’s balance sheet itself, the decision to ban the US president is expected to have a moderate negative impact. “Expect slight user decline, though engagement erosion is a bigger question”, Berstein analysts wrote in a note looking into the issue.

There could also be additional costs for Twitter and others as they seek to further moderate content uploaded by their users. “Incremental moderation may be welcome but it’s not cheap and could benefit Facebook that already employees a moderation army (around six times) larger than Twitter’s workforce,” Berstein analysts said.

Facebook says it has suspended Trump’s account until at least the end of his presidential term.

While Parler goes offline, according to Julie Gerstein’s report at Business Insider it seems that the Trumps have abandoned Twitter en masse. She writes:

Eric hasn’t tweeted since Wednesday, January 6 and Ivanka last tweeted on January 7 (the tweet was a quote tweet of a since-removed tweet from her father’s @RealDonaldTrump account.)

Only Donald Trump Jr. has been a steady presence on Twitter over the last several days, using his account to retweet former “Saturday Night Live” comedian Rob Schneider, tweet about transgender women, and tweet and retweet concerns of censorship from conservative circles.

He’s also used the platform to launch his own website — which he’s framing as an alternative way to keep in touch with him, although it’s clear he’s still active on Twitter; he’s posted nearly three dozen times since January 6, the bulk of which are about President Trump’s Twitter ban violating free speech laws, even though it does not.

First Lady Melania Trump, on the other hand, seems to have avoided much of last week’s strife, both online and in person. While the siege of the Capitol building was taking place, Melania was reportedly overseeing a photoshoot of rugs. FLOTUS hasn’t tweeted since January 1

Read more here: Now that President Trump is banned from Twitter, it appears the rest of his family may have abandoned the platform, too

Parler goes offline after Amazon drops it due to ‘violent content’

The “free speech” social network Parler, popular with Donald Trump supporters, has been forced off the internet after Amazon pulled its hosting services.

The Twitter clone, which gained notoriety as a communication hub for the rioters who stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday, had already suffered a major hit to its reach over the weekend, as first Google and then Apple suspended its app from their stores.

But it was Amazon’s decision to stop hosting the network, from 8am on Monday UK time, which was the killer blow. The website relied on Amazon’s cloud computing business, AWS, to operate, and over the weekend, the online retailer confirmed it would be cutting ties with Parler.

“Recently, we’ve seen a steady increase in … violent content on your website, all of which violates our terms,” Amazon said in a letter to Parler. “It also seems that Parler is still trying to determine its position on content moderation. You remove some [content] when contacted by us or others, but not always with urgency. Your CEO recently stated publicly that he doesn’t ‘feel responsible for any of this, and neither should the platform’.”

“We cannot provide services to a customer that is unable to effectively identify and remove content that encourages or incites violence against others,” Amazon concluded.

In a statement posted to Parler the day before the site was taken offline, the company’s chief executive, John Matze, told users “there is a possibility Parler will be unavailable on this internet for up to a week as we rebuild from scratch”. But at 7am on Monday, an hour before the deadline, Matze posted a new statement to say “we will likely be down longer than expected”.

Read more of Alex Hern’s report here: Parler goes offline after Amazon drops it due to ‘violent content’

Alexandra Villarreal reports for us on how, amid vast income inequality, California Latino community makes up 39% of the state’s people, but accounts for the majority of positive Covid cases:

When William Sanchez and eleven of his family members contracted Covid-19 around Thanksgiving, his toddler’s temperature spiked, his nephew vomited for days, and his diabetic mom’s blood sugar moved like a rollercoaster.

“Everything you hear on the news about, you know, this virus, and how bad it is… everything they say about it, it’s like 10 times worse,” Sanchez said.

Hardest hit was his 72-year-old mother-in-law, who he prayed would not be turned away from a Los Angeles hospital because of dwindling capacity.

She was placed on a ventilator by Christmas morning, nearly a year into a public health crisis that had already claimed hundreds of thousands of victims in the US – and amid California’s deadliest surge so far.

“We should have learned, or we should have known,” said Sanchez, an organizer with the labor union Unite Here Local 11, which represents workers at hotels, restaurants, convention centers, airports and sports arenas in southern California and Arizona.

After months of warning, Covid’s carnage in his home state “just doesn’t make sense”, he said.

As corpses overwhelm funeral homes and hospitals confront the possibility of rationing care, California’s outbreak – an average of 38,955 new infections and around 381 deaths per day, according to the Los Angeles Times – has become a devastating and disproportionate tragedy for Latino families.

Although Latinos account for 38.9% of the state’s population, they represent a whopping 55.1% of positive cases and almost half of all deaths. In Los Angeles county, where more than 850,000 infections have been recorded, Latinos are succumbing to the virus at 2.5 times the rate of their white counterparts, the LA Times reported.

But “it’s really not about race and ethnicity”, cautioned Yvonne Maldonado, a professor of global health and infectious diseases at the Stanford University School of Medicine. “It’s about race and ethnicity as a surrogate for poverty and inequity.”

Read more here: ‘Everywhere you look, people are infected’ – Covid’s toll on California Latinos

US sees more than 100,000 coronavirus hospitalizations for 40 days in a row

Coronavirus numbers always show a dip at the weekend as not every authority in the US counts them at the weekend, but nevertheless according to the Johns Hopkins university figures, yesterday there were 213,905 new cases, and 1,814 further deaths. The total death toll is now 374,020.

Madeline Holcombe reports for CNN that, according to the Covid tracking project, the US has now seen more than 100,000 coronavirus hospitalizations 40 days in a row.

On Sunday, 129,229 people were in US hospitals with coronavirus. “We really need to get this vaccine out more quickly, because this is really our only tool,” Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, said on CBS’s Face the Nation Sunday.

“We need to acknowledge that it’s not working,” Gottlieb said of the vaccination plan. “We need to hit the reset and adopt a new strategy in trying to get that out to patients.”

More than 28,400 new Covid-19 deaths have been reported in just the first 11 days of 2021, according to data from Johns Hopkins. At this rate, more people could die from Covid-19 in January than any other month of this pandemic. December had a record high of 77,431 deaths due to Covid-19.

There is also concern that a new strain imported from the UK could worsen the situation.

In hard-hit Arizona, the crisis will get worse, said Joe K. Gerald, associate professor at the University of Arizona’s Zuckerman College of Public Health. “We should expect to set new records for cases, hospitalizations, and deaths over the coming weeks. Policy action is urgently needed to mitigate the worst possible outcome,”

He also expressed concern about “the inevitable arrival of the more highly transmissible” strain of coronavirus that was first detected in the United Kingdom and has spread to at least eight US states, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas.

“If it gathers a foothold, it will accelerate, lengthen, and deepen Arizona’s outbreak,” Gerald said.

You can view the latest data on the coronavirus outbreak in the US here:

Associated Press report that a Tennessee police officer has been charged with kidnapping a man in a squad car while on duty and fatally shooting him.

Authorities said Patric Ferguson, a Memphis police officer since 2018, was charged in the death of Robert Howard, 30, of Memphis. Howard was reported missing Wednesday, Memphis police said in a statement Sunday on Twitter.

Ferguson, 29, was fired following his arrest, the statement said.

Ferguson used a personal handgun to allegedly force Howard into the back of a police car and drove him to an area where he was shot, the statement said. An acquaintance, Joshua Rogers, 28, was charged with helping Ferguson relocate Howard’s body.

Ferguson was charged with first-degree murder and first-degree murder in perpetration of aggravated kidnapping. Rogers was charged with accessory after the fact. Both were charged with abuse of a corpse and fabricating and tampering with evidence.

With Trump now finally accepting he will leave office, the future leadership of his movement is increasingly up for grabs, with a ragtag band of senators, congressman, Trump family members – and Trump himself – already jostling for the position.

Whether anyone apart from the president is able to successfully ride the tiger of racism, nihilism and grievance politics that carried Trump to near-re-election after four years of American chaos and hundreds of thousands of preventable pandemic deaths is an open question. It also might be an irrelevant question, if Trump decides to stage a 2023-24 stadium tour doubling as a new presidential campaign.

Longtime Trump loyalists, chief among them the vice-president, Mike Pence, have suddenly broken with the president over his fight to reverse the election result. Mick Mulvaney, the former chief of staff and special envoy to Northern Ireland whose loyalty helped Trump escape conviction in the impeachment scandal, resigned over the Capitol riot debacle, saying: “I can’t do it. I can’t stay.”

Two firebrand conservative senators, Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, went the other direction, taking up Trump’s cause – only to see their campaign result almost immediately in the death of a police officer and four others, and the vandalization of the US Capitol.

A third young senator with designs on the presidency, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, blasted his plotting colleagues “who, for political advantage, were giving false hope to their supporters”, he said. The Republican old guard, meanwhile, in the guise of Mitt Romney, who has actually run for president – twice – accused his colleagues of being “complicit in an unprecedented attack against our democracy”.

Even the former Republican House speaker John Boehner, who since his 2015 retirement has mostly limited his commentary on politics to tweeted pictures of himself mowing his lawn, said the Grand Old party (GOP) was in trouble.

“I once said the party of Lincoln and Reagan is off taking a nap,” Boehner wrote on Thursday. “The nap has become a nightmare for our nation. The GOP must awaken.”

Read more of Tom McCarthy’s report: Republican civil war – what’s the party’s future after the US Capitol attack?

In more fall-out from the pro-Trump assault on the Capitol, Associated Press report that the US army is investigating a psychological operations officer who led a group of people from North Carolina to the rally in Washington.

Commanders at Fort Bragg are reviewing captain Emily Rainey’s involvement in last week’s events in the nation’s capital, but she said she acted within military regulations and that no one in her group broke the law.

“I was a private citizen and doing everything right and within my rights,” Rainey told the AP on Sunday.

Rainey said she led 100 members of Moore County Citizens for Freedom, which describes itself online as a nonpartisan network promoting conservative values, to Washington to “stand against election fraud” and support Trump. She said the group attended the rally but she didn’t know of anyone who entered the Capitol and that they were headed back to their buses hours before an emergency curfew took effect.

Rainey, 30, is assigned to the 4th Psychological Operations Group at Fort Bragg, according to Maj. Daniel Lessard, a spokesman for 1st Special Forces Command.

Members of the US military are permitted to take part in political organizations and events out of uniform. However, there are caveats. The Department of Defense directive prohibits active-duty servicemembers from sponsoring partisan organizations. It is unclear if Rainey’s participation with her group on Wednesday went against DOD policy. Rainey said she attended the Trump rally while on leave and didn’t advertise that she was an Army officer.

She previously made headlines back in May after she posted a video online of her pulling down caution tape at a playground that was closed under North Carolina’s Covid-19 restrictions.

Police in Southern Pines, a community about 30 miles (48 kilometres) west of Fort Bragg, charged her with injury to personal property over the incident. The police told WRAL-TV that they let her off with warnings twice before after she tore down the tape closing off the playground.

Washington's mayor asks for increased security around Biden inauguration

Reuters has this today, reporting that Washington’s mayor has asked for increased security around the inauguration of president-elect Joe Biden after last week’s storming of the Capitol by supporters of president Donald Trump.

Describing last week’s assault as an “unprecedented terrorist attack”, Mayor Muriel Bowser said that Biden’s inauguration on 20 January will require a “different approach” compared to past inaugurations.

“While I will be reaching out to a broad range of local, regional and federal partners to enhance cooperation among our bodies, I strongly urge the United States Department of Homeland Security to adjust its approach to the Inauguration in several specific ways”, Bowser wrote in a letter to Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of the department.

The letter was dated Saturday and made available on yesterday. In it, Bowser said the District of Columbia was submitting a request for a “pre-disaster declaration” to allow for federal assistance.

She also urged the Homeland Security Department to coordinate with the Justice Department, the Department of Defense, the Supreme Court and the Congress to establish a federal force deployment plan for all federal property.

Washington remains on high alert ahead of Biden’s inauguration. The event traditionally draws hundreds of thousands of visitors to the city, but has been scaled back dramatically because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Trump said last week he would not attend Biden’s inauguration, a move that Biden has welcomed as “one of the few things he and I have ever agreed on”.

The House is prepared to launch impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump as early as this week if Vice President Mike Pence and the cabinet refuse to remove him from office for his role in inciting a mob that carried out a deadly assault on the seat of American government.

The House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, delivered the ultimatum in a letter to colleagues on Sunday night that described the president as an urgent threat to the nation.

On Monday, the House will move forward with a non-binding resolution that calls on Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment, and strip Trump of his presidential authority. If the measure fails to receive unanimous support, as is expected, the House will vote on the resolution on Tuesday. Pence, Pelosi said, would have “24 hours” to respond.

Next, Pelosi said the House “will proceed with bringing impeachment legislation to the floor.” Though she did not specify an exact timeline, top Democrats have suggested the House could begin proceedings as soon as midweek, with a Senate trial delayed – possibly for months – so as not distract from Joe Biden’s agenda.

“In protecting our Constitution and our Democracy, we will act with urgency, because this President represents an imminent threat to both,” she wrote. “As the days go by, the horror of the ongoing assault on our democracy perpetrated by this President is intensified and so is the immediate need for action.”

Pelosi noted urgency was required because Trump was due to leave office on 20 January.

She explained that the resolution called on Pence “to convene and mobilize the cabinet to activate the 25th amendment to declare the president incapable of executing the duties of his office.”

Read more of Lauren Gambino’s report here: Pelosi says House will proceed with efforts to remove Trump ‘with urgency’

Welcome to our live coverage of US politics for Monday, in a week where we may see the unprecedented second impeachment of a sitting US president. Here’s where we are, and what we might expect to see…

  • Democrats in the US Congress will try to remove president Donald Trump from office this week, first by pressuring vice president Mike Pence to enact the 25th amendment, then, if that fails, proceeding with a historic second impeachment attempt.
  • House speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a letter to colleagues: “In protecting our Constitution and our Democracy, we will act with urgency, because this President represents an imminent threat to both.”
  • An ABC News and Ipsos survey published on Sunday showed 56% of respondents said Trump should be removed before 20 January. A higher number, 67%, held Trump responsible for the Capitol violence.
  • Two men believed to have been seen carrying plastic “zip tie” handcuffs at the US Capitol – suggesting plans to kidnap lawmakers – were arrested on Sunday.
  • Republican Sen. Pat Toomey said some senators are “complicit in the big lie” and “have a lot of soul searching to do” over their attempts to overturn the presidential election in favour of Donald Trump. It is thought he was referring to Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, who lost his book deal over his clenched fist salute to the mob.
  • Arnold Schwarzenegger, the ex-Republican governor of California, compared the pro-Trump assault on the Capitol to Kristallnacht.
  • On Sunday – when numbers are often lower due to weekend data collection issues – there were 213,905 new coronavirus cases in the US, and a further 1,814 deaths were recorded.
  • Up to 40% of frontline medical workers in LA county have refused a Covid-19 inoculation, raising concerns about the vaccine roll-out in the US.
  • The House is due to convene in a “pro forma” session at 11am ET (1600 GMT). Pelosi and Republican House minority leader Kevin McCarthy have scheduled private afternoon conference calls with their members.
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