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

Pence says he won't invoke 25th amendment in letter to Pelosi - as it happened

Vice-president Mike Pence has sent a letter to House speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Vice-president Mike Pence has sent a letter to House speaker Nancy Pelosi. Photograph: Getty Images

Summary

From me and Joan E Greve:

  • The House will soon vote on a resolution calling on Mike Pence to invoke the 25th amendment and remove Donald Trump from office. The vote comes one day before the House is scheduled to debate the article of impeachment against Trump, which charges the president with incitement of insurrection in connection to the riot at the Capitol last week.
  • Pence, in a letter to House speaker Nancy Pelosi, said he will not invoke the 25th amendment. This means Congress is all but guaranteed to begin impeachment proceedings tomorrow.
  • Four Republican representatives, including third-ranking GOP member Liz Cheney, have said they’ll vote to impeach Trump. “The president of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack,” Cheney said.
  • Pelosi named impeachment managers. Representative Jamie Raskin will be taking lead, working with Diana DeGette, David Cicilline, Joaquin Castro, Eric Swalwell, Ted Lieu, Stacey Plaskett, Joe Neguse and Madeleine Dean.
  • Representatives for the FBI and the justice department said more than 160 case files have been opened in connection to the violence at the Capitol. Michael Sherwin, the acting US attorney in DC, said that alleged rioters face a “mind-blowing” range of crimes, including felony murder and sedition and conspiracy.
  • Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has told colleagues that he believes Trump committed impeachable offenses, according to the New York Times. McConnell has also said he is glad the House is moving forward with impeachment because he thinks it will make it easier to push Trump out of the Republican party.
  • Trump rejected responsibility for the violence at the Capitol that he incited. Speaking to reporters before leaving for Texas today, Trump said of his speech to supporters shortly before the riot, “People thought that what I said was totally appropriate.” In reality, members of both parties have criticized Trump for explicitly telling his supporters to march to the Capitol as lawmakers certified Joe Biden’s victory.
  • Sheldon Adelson, the prominent Republican donor and Trump backer, has died. Adelson, a casino magnate and an early supporter of the president, was 87.
  • The supreme court ruled to reinstate a Food and Drug Administration rule restricting access to an abortion pill. This is the first abortion case to be decided with anti-abortion Trump-appointee Amy Coney Barrett on the court. The decision reinstates an FDA rule that Mifeprex, a drug used for abortion early in pregnancy, must be administered by medical professionals at clinics or hospitals. Doctors fought to relax the rules amid the pandemic when people are less able to access medical care in person.

Updated

Representative Fred Upton of Michigan has joined three other House Republicans in saying he’ll vote to impeach Donald Trump.

Liz Cheney, the third-highest ranking GOP representative has also said she’ll vote to impeach. But her colleagues, Freedom Caucus chair Andy Biggs representative Matt Rosendale are calling on Cheney to step down from party leadership. Rosendale, a freshman congressman of Montana said Cheney is“weakening our conference at a key moment for personal political gain and is unfit to lead.”

The House has approved fines for members who don’t comply with a mask-wearing mandate, voting along party lines.

There will be a $500 fine for a first offense and $2,500 for a second offense. The fines are part of the rules of the resolution calling on Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment.

Three members have tested positive for Covid-19 after the riot last week. While representatives were on lockdown amid the attack on the US Capitol, several Republicans refused to wear masks.

Supreme Court grants Trump administration's request to reinstate restrictions to abortion pill access

This is the first abortion case to be decided with anti-abortion Trump-appointee Amy Coney Barrett on the court.

The ruling today reinstates a Food and Drug Administration rule that Mifeprex, a drug used for abortion early in pregnancy, must be administered by medical professionals at clinics or hospitals.

Doctors led by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists fought to relax the rule during the pandemic when access to clinics and hospitals became restricted, winning a case in a US district court.

Today’s Supreme Court ruling reinstates the FDA rule. The three liberals on the court dissented. “Because the FDA’s policy imposes an unnecessary, unjustifiable, irrational, and undue burden on women seeking an abortion during the current pandemic, and because the Government has not demonstrated irreparable harm from the injunction, I dissent,” wrote Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

Updated

Pelosi names impeachment managers

Representative Jamie Raskin will be taking lead, working with Diana DeGette, David Cicilline, Joaquin Castro, Eric Swalwell, Ted Lieu, Stacey Plaskett, Joe Neguse and Madeleine Dean.

“Tonight, I have the solemn privilege of naming the managers of the impeachment trial of Donald Trump,” said Pelosi in a statement. “It is their constitutional and patriotic duty to present the case for the president’s impeachment and removal. They will do so guided by their great love of country, determination to protect our democracy and loyalty to our oath to the constitution. Our managers will honor their duty to defend democracy for the people with great solemnity, prayerfulness and urgency.”

Updated

Debbie Lesko, a Republican congresswoman of Arizona has complained about the metal detectors that representatives have to go through to enter the floor, describing them as an additional measure “on top of the security we already go through”.

But lawmakers do not have to go through additional metal detectors to access the Capitol.

“We now live in Pelosi’s communist America!” Lesko complained.

Updated

Several Republicans have taken exception to the new metal detectors and safety measures implemented following the deadly attack on the US Capitol last week.

Representative Lauren Boebert refused to comply with a bag check, and Markwayne Mullin and Steve Womack have also reportedly yelled at Capitol police officers enforcing the new protocols.

CNN’s Manu Raju reports:

In the letter to Nancy Pelosi, Pence said he is not willing to declare Trump unfit for office. “I do not believe that such a course of action is in the best interest of our Nation or consistent with our Constitution,” he writes.

Invoking the 25th would “set a terrible precedent” he said.

Members of Congress are still doing a procedural vote on the resolution asking Pence to invoke the 25th.

Ahead of House vote on resolution, Mike Pence said he won't invoke 25th Amendment

Even as the House works on passing a resolution compelling Pence to do so, the vice president has said he won’t invoke the 25th Amendment or consider removing Trump from office.

Pence has sent a letter to House speaker Nancy Pelosi...

Lauren Boebert, a Republican representative of Colorado who subscribes to the QAnon conspiracy, has reportedly held up the line after setting of newly installed metal detectors at Congress.

Boebert, who has expressed enthusiasm about carrying weapons to Capitol Hill, is reportedly refusing to comply with a bag search.

Representatives are currently partaking in a procedural vote on the resolution calling on Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment.

Updated

Republicans introduce resolution to censure Trump

Republicans have introduced a resolution to formally censure Donald Trump for trying to overturn the election and encouraging “lawless action”.

The resolution, from representative Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, overlaps significantly with Democrats’ impeachment resolution – but rather than impeaching the president, the Republicans backing the resolution say they want to formally tell him off.

Unlike an impeachment, which will compel the Senate to vote on whether to convict and remove Trump from office, a censure is more symbolic.

Updated

Larry Hogan, the Republican governor of Maryland, has signaled support for GOP representatives who said they’ll vote to impeach Trump.

Hogan has blamed Trump and some Republican leaders for inciting the attack on the Capitol last week. He told CNN that he is “embarrassed and ashamed” by party members who have amplified false claims of election fraud.

House debates resolution calling on vice-president to invoke 25th amendment

The House is now debating a resolution calling on Mike Pence to strip Trump of his powers by invoking the 25th amendment.

Congress is expected to vote on the measure at around 7.30 local time, and it’s expected to pass. It calls on Pence to “immediately” call on the cabinet to declare Trump unfit for office. But Pence is unlikely to do so, having given no signal that he will.

If Pence does not respond to Congress within 24 hours, representatives will start impeachment proceedings tomorrow.

Updated

The report details testimonials from representatives, including from Jamie Raskin of Maryland, whose daughter and son-in-law were visiting him at the Capitol on the day of the attack:

Representative Jamie Raskin asked his chief of staff to “protect [two of his visiting family members] with her life,” as she stood guard at the door clutching a fire iron. Representative Jason Crow, said that he had not been in a similar situation since serving in Afghanistan and described the chaos on the House floor: “[T]he police weren’t able to get us out so they actually closed and locked the doors and started to take furniture and barricade the doors and the windows with furniture as the mob tried to ram them down and was breaking through the windows.” Representative Susan Wild, described hearing gun shots at approximately 3pm and then Capitol police screaming “Get down! Get down!” as she crawled on her hands and knees through the gallery, witnessing her colleagues making phone calls to loved ones.

Updated

Democrats on the House judiciary committee have released a 76-page staff report on the impeachment of Donald Trump, in anticipation of Wednesday’s debate and vote on articles of impeachment.

In it, Democrats point to Trump’s continued shirking of responsibility. “The President publicly denied responsibility for the attack, claiming his words were ‘totally appropriate’,” the report reads.

Updated

Another Republican representative, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, has joined GOP members in support of impeachment.

“There is no doubt in my mind that the President of the United States broke his oath of office and incited this insurrection,” he said. “He used his position in the Executive to attack the Legislative.”

Canada has already implemented requirements for negative Covid-19 tests from incoming air passengers, as have other countries.

Right now, only air travelers coming from Britain are required to show negative test results – in order to slow the transmission of a new variant of the coronavirus first discovered in the UK, and found to be circulating in many countries, including the US.

Updated

CDC will require all air travelers to US to show negative Covid-19 test

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have expanded restrictions for air travelers coming into the US, requiring negative Covid-19 test results from all passengers.

“Variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus continue to emerge in countries around the world, and there is evidence of increased transmissibility of some of these variants,” the CDC said in a statement. “With the US already in surge status, the testing requirement for air passengers will help slow the spread of the virus as we work to vaccinate the American public.”

The new requirement will become effective on 26 January.

Updated

Political appointees at the US census bureau reportedly made it a “number one priority” to produce data on documented and undocumented immigrants, the Commerce Department’s Inspector General said on Tuesday.

“Career employees informed us that they are under significant pressure to produce this technical report,” Commerce Department Inspector General Peggy Gustafson wrote in the letter to Census Bureau director Steven Dillingham, a Trump appointee.

“Bureau employees informed OIG that this data is not ready for publication with these unsettled issues, and resolution is not possible by your recently issued deadline. Bureau whistleblowers believe this report is being rushed without legitimate reason and will result in an inferior Bureau product.”

The request is related to a July 2019 executive order that instructed federal agencies to compile existing government administrative data on citizenship. Donald Trump issued the order after the supreme court blocked his attempt to add a citizenship question to the census. The effort is part of the Trump administration’s maneuvering to try and exclude undocumented immigrants from the census apportionment counts used to determine how many seats in congress each state gets.

The Trump administration’s push will likely fail because the census bureau has said it is still verifying census data and will be unable to produce apportionment counts until later this year, after Joe Biden takes office. But the apparent last-minute push by Dillingham, and other political appointees, suggests the administration may be trying to make one final push.

Citing whistleblowers, the Commerce Department inspector general said Dillingham had given employees a 15 January deadline to produce the data, though it said that deadline may no longer be in effect. It also said Dillingham had inquired about financial incentives to produce the data.

The inspector general sought more information from Dillingham and gave him until Thursday to respond.

Cheney, a staunch conservative of Wyoming and a ranking Republican in Congress, could give cover to other Republicans who want to vote to impeach.

While House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana – who voted to object to the Electoral College results last week even after the attack on the US Capitol, Cheney has opposed the president and questioned his undermining of the elections.

She has fallen into the president’s crosshairs after opposing his efforts to invalidate the election results. At his rally in Washington, ahead of Congress’ vote to certify the election results, Trump told supporters: “The Liz Cheneys of the world. We have to get rid of them,” for this failure to back him.

House Republican Conference chair Liz Cheney: 'I will vote to impeach the President'

Liz Cheney, the third-highest ranking Republican leader in the House, said she will vote to impeach the president over inciting the attack on the US Capitol last week.

Cheney speaks at a press conference organized by House Republicans to advocate for the extension of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). House Republicans Press for Extension of Paycheck Protection Program in Washington, US - 10 Dec 2020
Cheney speaks at a press conference organized by House Republicans to advocate for the extension of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). House Republicans Press for Extension of Paycheck Protection Program in Washington, US - 10 Dec 2020 Photograph: Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock

“The president of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing. None of this would have happened without the president,” said Cheney, of Wyoming. “I will vote to impeach the president.”

Updated

“We take oaths to defend the Constitution because at times, it needs to be defended,” John Katko said. “Without the peaceful transfer of power and the acknowledgment of election results, we can’t sustain our political system. Congress is tasked with holding the executive accountable. As the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, country always comes first.”

Katko represents a district that voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. He voted against impeachment in 2019, and endorsed Trump for president in 2020.

No other Republican representative has outright said they’d vote to impeach. Representative Adam Kinzinger said Trump should resign or be removed from office, and representative Liz Cheney reportedly said a vote to impeach would be a “vote of conscience” - though she didn’t clarify how she’d vote.

Updated

Hi there, it’s Maanvi Singh – blogging from the west coast.

John Katko, a Republican representative of New York, has said he would vote to impeach Donald Trump for inciting the attack on the US Capitol last week.

“To allow the president of the United States to incite this attack without consequence is a direct threat to the future of our democracy,” Katko said in a statement. “For that reason, I cannot sit by without taking action. I will vote to impeach this president.”

Updated

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:

  • The House will soon vote on a resolution calling on Mike Pence to invoke the 25th amendment and remove Donald Trump from office. The vote comes one day before the House is scheduled to debate the article of impeachment against Trump, which charges the president with incitement of insurrection in connection to the riot at the Capitol last week.
  • Representatives for the FBI and the justice department said more than 160 case files have been opened in connection to the violence at the Capitol. Michael Sherwin, the acting US attorney in DC, said that alleged rioters face a “mind-blowing” range of crimes, including felony murder and sedition and conspiracy.
  • Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has told colleagues that he believes Trump committed impeachable offenses, according to the New York Times. McConnell has also said he is glad the House is moving forward with impeachment because he thinks it will make it easier to push Trump out of the Republican party.
  • Trump rejected responsibility for the violence at the Capitol that he incited. Speaking to reporters before leaving for Texas today, Trump said of his speech to supporters shortly before the riot, “People thought that what I said was totally appropriate.” In reality, members of both parties have criticized Trump for explicitly telling his supporters to march to the Capitol as lawmakers certified Joe Biden’s victory.
  • Sheldon Adelson, the prominent Republican donor and Trump backer, has died. Adelson, a casino magnate and an early supporter of the president, was 87.

Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

McConnell has said he believes Trump committed impeachable offenses - report

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has reportedly told colleagues that he believes Donald Trump has committed impeachable offenses and he’s glad the House is moving forward with impeachment.

The New York Times reports:

[McConnell] has told associates he believes President Trump committed impeachable offenses and that he is pleased that Democrats are moving to impeach him, believing that it will make it easier to purge him from the party, according to people familiar with his thinking. The House is voting Wednesday to formally charge Mr. Trump with inciting violence against the country.

At the same time, Representative Kevin McCarthy, the minority leader and one of Mr. Trump’s most steadfast allies in Congress, has asked other Republicans whether he ought to call on Mr. Trump to resign in the aftermath of last week’s riot at the Capitol, according to three Republican officials briefed on the conversations.

While Mr. McCarthy has said he is personally opposed to impeachment, he and other party leaders have decided not to formally lobby Republicans to vote ‘no,’ and an aide to Mr. McCarthy said he was open to a measure censuring Mr. Trump for his conduct. In private, Mr. McCarthy reached out to a leading House Democrat to see if the chamber would be willing to pursue a censure vote, though Speaker Nancy Pelosi has ruled it out.

House Democrats are trying to impose fines on members who do not wear masks on the floor, after three lawmakers tested positive for coronavirus in the days since the riot at the Capitol.

A senior House Democratic aide said that the rule for congressman Jamie Raskin’s resolution on the 25th amendment, which will be voted on tonight, would include language implementing the fines.

If a member does not comply with the House speaker’s requirement of wearing masks on the floor, the member will be fined $500. If the same member has a second offense, the member will be fined $2,500.

The fines will come directly out of the member’s pay and cannot be covered using campaign funds.

The announcement comes as three House Democrats have announced they tested positive for coronavirus after members were forced to shelter in place together as the Capitol riot unfolded, with several Republican lawmakers refusing to wear masks during the lockdown.

Updated

There are now metal detectors outside the House chamber, which lawmakers will have to pass through before gaining access to the floor.

There are already metal detectors at entrances to the Capitol building, but lawmakers are usually allowed to bypass them.

The violent riot at the Capitol last week is already resulting in heightened security measures, which lawmakers are not exempt from.

The acting House sergeant at arms confirmed the security change in a notice to members, adding that members will be removed from the floor if they do not wear masks in the chamber.

The acting House sergeant-at-arms also reminded members that they were only allowed to have firearms in their offices.

Updated

Federal prosecutor Michael Sherwin said at a press conference moments ago, about the pro-Trump rioters who invaded the US Capitol last week: “We’re looking at significant felony cases tied to sedition and conspiracy”, charges that have prison terms of up to 20 years.

Steven D’Antuono from the Washington field office of the FBI accompanied Sherwin, the acting US attorney for the District of Columbia, at the first federal government press conference on the security failures that allowed for the Capitol breach since it happened on 6 January as both chambers of Congress were packed with lawmakers debating the certification of Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump in November’s election.

“If you were there at the US Capitol, agents will be knocking on your door. Now is your chance to come forward,” Antuono said.

He described the 160 to 170 criminal cases currently open against rioters as “the tip of the iceberg”.

However there has been no overarching explanation by the federal government of how the crisis was able to unfold, with violent mobs rampaging through the halls of Congress and lawmakers, staff and media evacuated from the chambers and forced to shelter in secret locations for hours, lucky not to have been directly attacked or snatched.

There is growing frustration at the lack of debriefing for the public, notwithstanding impassioned pledges from the two law enforcement chiefs today about pursuing perpetrators.

The riot on 6 January was handled very differently from many Black Lives Matter protests last year, including in Washington DC. Here’s the Guardian’s Julian Borger:

Updated

Some veterans of the justice department and the FBI questioned why it was not Jeffrey Rosen, the acting attorney general, and Christopher Wray, the director of the FBI, who were briefing the press on charges related to the Capitol riot.

From a former federal prosecutor:

A former FBI special agent also asked why the bureau failed to take proactive steps to prevent the attack on the Capitol:

The Washington Post reported earlier today that an FBI office in Virginia warned a day before the riot that extremists were preparing for “war” at the Capitol, contradicting a bureau leader’s claims that they had not anticipated violence last week.

Federal prosecutors cite 'unmatched' range of crimes suspected in attack on Capitol

The acting US attorney for the District of Columbia, Michael Sherwin, has indicated that many amid the hundreds of pro-Trump rioters who violently invaded the US Capitol last Wednesday are suspected in a “mind-blowing” range of crimes including felony murder and sedition and conspiracy.

Acting US Attorney for Washington, DC, Michael Sherwin.
Acting US Attorney for Washington, DC, Michael Sherwin. Photograph: Reuters

At a press conference in Washington that wrapped up moments ago, representatives of the FBI and the Department of Justice did not explain how the security failures came about at the Capitol on 6 January that allowed the US Congress to be overrun and members and staff put in extreme danger.

They did say there are at least 160 federal criminal cases open and they are ready to track down individuals all across the country and apprehend them wherever possible and arrest hundreds if not thousands of people.

“The range of criminal conduct was unmatched,” Sherwin said.

He warned lawbreakers “You will be charged and you will be found.”

Updated

Donald Trump’s speech wrapped up after about 22 minutes, marking a rather short speech for the usually loquacious president.

Trump spent much of the speech boasting about his immigration policies and mentioning specific areas where he performed well in the presidential election, which he lost to Joe Biden.

The president briefly addressed the violence at the Capitol at the beginning of his speech, but he sounded rather passionless as he criticized the mob that stormed the Capitol and called for “peace” and “calm” in the country.

Speaking in Texas, Donald Trump briefly addressed the violent riot at the Capitol last week, which he incited by encouraging his supporters to march to the building as lawmakers certified Joe Biden’s victory.

The president lamented that “a mob stormed the Capitol and trashed the halls of government,” expressing respect for “America’s history and traditions”.

“It’s time for peace and for calm,” Trump said. “Respect for law enforcement is the foundation of the MAGA agenda.”

It’s worth noting that two Capitol Police officers have died since the pro-Trump riot at the Capitol.

Trump: 'The 25th amendment is of zero risk to me'

Donald Trump is now speaking in Alamo, Texas, praising himself for his work on the border wall.

At the beginning of his remarks, the president briefly addressed the violent riot at the Capitol and calls for him to be removed from office.

“Free speech is under assault like never before,” the president said days after being suspended from Twitter. “The 25th amendment is of zero risk to me but will come back to haunt Joe Biden and the Biden administration.”

Trump then appeared to issue a threat to his opponents, saying, “As the expression goes, be careful what you wish for.”

Updated

The joint chiefs of staff is preparing a statement to service members reminding them of their duty to support the constitution and reject extremism, according to CNN.

The statement, which comes in response to the violent riot at the Capitol, is significant given that the joint chiefs usually try to stay out of politics.

The events of the past week have apparently made it clear that such a statement is necessary.

Former Michigan governor to be charged for Flint water scandal - report

Rick Snyder, the former governor of Michigan, and other senior officials are reportedly expected to be charged in connection to the Flint water scandal.

The AP reports:

Former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, his health director and other ex-officials have been told they’re being charged after a new investigation of the Flint water scandal, which devastated the majority Black city with lead-contaminated water and was blamed for a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in 2014-15, The Associated Press has learned.

Two people with knowledge of the planned prosecution told the AP on Tuesday that the attorney general’s office has informed defense lawyers about indictments in Flint and told them to expect initial court appearances soon. They spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Extremists move to secret online channels to plan for January 20 in Washington, DC, the day that Joe Biden will be inaugurated as the 46th US president.

Members of the National Guard patrol outside the US Capitol today.
Members of the National Guard patrol outside the US Capitol today. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

Right-wing extremists are using channels on the encrypted communication app Telegram to call for violence against government officials on inauguration day next week.

Some are sharing knowledge of how to make, conceal and use homemade guns and bombs, NBC News is reporting.

The messages are being posted in Telegram chatrooms where white supremacist content has been freely shared for months, but chatter on these channels has increased, NBC adds, since extremists have been forced off other platforms in the wake of the January 6 siege of the US Capitol by a violent, pro-Trump mob.

Telegram is a Dubai-based messaging service that does little moderation of its content and has a sizable international user base, particularly in eastern Europe and the Middle East.

In the days since the Capitol attack for example, a US Army field manual and exhortations to ‘shoot politicians’ and ‘encourage armed struggle’ have been posted in a Telegram channel that uses ‘fascist’ in its name.

Chris Sampson, chief of research at the defense research institute Terror Asymmetrics Project on Strategy, Tactics and Radical Ideologies, said his group is focused on and concerned about users of the channel and has alerted the FBI about it. (TAPSTRI is run by Malcolm Nance, an NBC News terrorism analyst.)

‘When they start calling for assassinations, when they start calling for action versus sharing information, we flag them a little higher,’ said Sampson. ‘Some channels merely swap information, but then they accelerated into conversations of where to be.’......

....yesterday the FBI sent a memo to law enforcement agencies warning about possible armed protests at all 50 state Capitols starting January 16.

Read the full report here and here’s a recap of the Guardian’s news lead from last night:

Two House Democrats have introduced legislation that would impose $1,000 fines on members who don’t wear masks on Capitol grounds.

Congresswoman Debbie Dingell of Michigan and congressman Anthony Brown of Maryland argued the measure was necessary after three colleagues tested positive for coronavirus in the days after the Capitol riot.

As the riot unfolded, members were forced to shelter in place together, and several Republican lawmakers refused to wear masks during the lockdown.

“It is not brave to refuse to wear a mask, it is selfish, stupid, and shameful behavior that puts lives at risk,” Dingell said in a statement. “We’re done playing games. Either have some common sense and wear a damn mask or pay a fine. It’s not that complicated.”

“Members refusing to mask and distance in the Capitol put other Members, aides, support staff and their families at risk,” Brown added. “There must be consequences for selfish and reckless actions that endanger the lives of others.”

Brad Schneider, a Democratic congressman of Illinois, specifically called out Republicans who refused to wear masks as he announced his coronavirus diagnosis earlier today.

“Several Republican lawmakers in the room adamantly refused to wear a mask, as demonstrated in video from Punchbowl News, even when politely asked by their colleagues,” Schneider said.

“Today, I am now in strict isolation, worried that I have risked my wife’s health and angry at the selfishness and arrogance of the anti-maskers who put their own contempt and disregard for decency ahead of the health and safety of their colleagues and our staff.”

US secretary of state cancels trip after EU snub

Secretary of state Mike Pompeo cancelled his Europe trip at the last minute today after Luxembourg’s foreign minister and top European Union officials declined to meet him, European diplomats and other people familiar with the matter said.

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo cancels last trip.
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo cancels last trip. Photograph: Justin Lane/EPA

The extraordinary snub to Washington came days after the violent and murderous rioting at the US Capitol by thousands of supporters of outgoing Donald Trump, who were egged on by the president beforehand and has since been accused by House Democrats with inciting an insurrection, amid a second impeachment.

The unprecedented attack on American democracy last Wednesday stunned many world leaders and US allies.

Pompeo, a close ally of Trump, had sought to meet Jean Asselborn in Luxembourg, a small but wealthy NATO ally, before meeting EU leaders and the bloc’s top diplomat in Brussels, three people close to the planning told Reuters, the news agency writes.

Pompeo had originally planned to go to Luxembourg, but that leg of the trip was scrapped, one diplomatic source said, after officials there showed reluctance to grant him appointments. The Brussels leg was still on until the last minute.

But Pompeo’s visit schedule of his final trip in the Trump administration, in Brussels, was not going to involve any meetings with the EU or any public events at NATO.

A third diplomatic source said allies were “embarrassed” by Pompeo after the violence in Washington last week.

Luxembourg’s foreign ministry confirmed the previously planned stop there was now cancelled, but declined to give further details. The EU declined to comment.

Appalled by the January 6 storming of the US Capitol by pro-Trump rioters seeking to overturn the results of the November 3 US election, Asselborn had called Trump a “criminal” and a “political pyromaniac” on RTL Radio the next day.

The US State Department, in a statement, attributed the cancellation to transition work before President-elect Joe Biden takes office on January 20, even if until recently Pompeo had been reluctant to unequivocally recognise Biden’s win.

In Brussels, Pompeo was due to have a private dinner with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg tomorrow evening.

Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg with Trump and other leaders in December 2019.
Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg with Trump and other leaders in December 2019. Photograph: Francisco Seco/AP

Updated

Senate minority leader: 'Trump should not hold office one day longer'

New York Democrat and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer is giving a press conference on the street in New York right now and lambasting the Donald Trump for his comments this morning when the US president refused to take responsibility for fomenting the mob attack on the Capitol last week.

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer at the Capitol last week.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer at the Capitol last week. Photograph: Pat Benic/UPI/REX/Shutterstock

Schumer called for those who took part in the riotous and lethal invasion of the Capitol last Wednesday, in an attempt to overturn the presidential election result, at Trump’s exhortation, should be put on the federal no-fly list to stop them getting on planes to go to create more havoc.

He then turned his attention to Trump’s comments this morning as the president left for a trip to the US-Mexico border, in Texas.

“He blamed the violence that he helped cause on others … he blamed so much on others,” Schumer said.

“What Trump did is a pathological technique used by the worst of dictators,” he added.

This morning, Trump said that his remarks to supporters at a rally near the White House, before the attack on the Capitol, at which he urged them to walk to the Capitol and “fight” to overturn his loss to Joe Biden were “totally appropriate.”

Schumer said of Trump: “He causes this anger, he causes this divisiveness … it’s despicable. Donald Trump should not hold office one day longer.”

The House will debate and is expected to vote tomorrow on the article of impeachment Democrats there have introduced against Trump, and Schumer said he has asked Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell to call the Senate (which is out of session until January 19) back into session earlier to put Trump on trial on the charge set to be brought against him by the House, and remove the president from office.

Updated

Today so far

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • Donald Trump rejected responsibility for the violent riot at the Capitol that he incited. Speaking to reporters before leaving for Texas today, Trump said of his speech to supporters shortly before the riot, “People thought that what I said was totally appropriate.” In reality, members of both parties have criticized Trump for explicitly telling his supporters to march to the Capitol as lawmakers certified Joe Biden’s victory.
  • The House rules committee is debating a resolution calling on Mike Pence and the cabinet to invoke the 25th amendment and remove Trump from office. The full House is expected to vote on the resolution this evening, before debating the article of impeachment against Trump tomorrow morning.
  • Sheldon Adelson, the prominent Republican donor and Trump backer, has died. Adelson, a casino magnate and an early supporter of the president, was 87.

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

Donald Trump issued a statement in response to the death of Sheldon Adelson, a prominent Republican donor who was an early supporter of the president.

“Melania and I mourn the passing of Sheldon Adelson, and send our heartfelt condolences to his wife Miriam, his children and grandchildren,” Trump said in the statement.

“Sheldon lived the true American dream. His ingenuity, genius, and creativity earned him immense wealth, but his character and philanthropic generosity his great name. Sheldon was also a staunch supporter of our great ally the State of Israel. ... The world has lost a great man. He will be missed.”

It’s worth noting that it took Trump just hours to release a statement about Adelson’s death, while it took him three days after the death of Brian Sicknick, who died as a result of his injuries from the Capitol riot, to order White House flags be lowered to half-staff in honor of fallen Capitol Police officers.

FBI warned of 'war' at the Capitol a day before riot – report

An FBI office in Virginia reportedly issued an internal warning a day before the violent riot at the Capitol that extremists were preparing to travel to Washington and commit “war”.

The Washington Post reports:

A situational information report approved for release the day before the U.S. Capitol riot painted a dire portrait of dangerous plans, including individuals sharing a map of the complex’s tunnels, and possible rally points for would-be conspirators to meet up in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and South Carolina and head in groups to Washington.

‘As of 5 January 2021, FBI Norfolk received information indicating calls for violence in response to ‘unlawful lockdowns’ to begin on 6 January 2021 in Washington. D.C.,’ the document says. ‘An online thread discussed specific calls for violence to include stating ‘Be ready to fight. Congress needs to hear glass breaking, doors being kicked in, and blood from their BLM and Pantifa slave soldiers being spilled. Get violent. Stop calling this a march, or rally, or a protest. Go there ready for war. We get our President or we die. NOTHING else will achieve this goal.’

The report undercuts claims from Steven D’Antuono, the assistant director who leads the FBI’s Washington field office, that “there was no indication” of any violence planned for the day of the pro-Trump rally, which ended with the riot at the Capitol.

Updated

Norma Torres, a Democrat of California, gave an emotional account of her experience during the violent riot at the Capitol last week.

Speaking at the House rules committee hearing to debate the 25th amendment resolution, Torres noted she was one of the last people to be evacuated from the House chamber.

“I watched one officer with no protective equipment face a raging mob just outside the chamber,” Torres said. “We crawled across the entire length of that balcony.”

Torres noted she then had to shelter in place in a room packed with people for four to five hours, with several Republican colleagues who refused to wear masks.

“As a result, many of my dear colleagues and friends have tested positive. I’m waiting my results,” Torres said. (Three House Democrats have announced they tested positive for coronavirus.)

“Ask yourselves: is gunfire in the speaker’s lobby a new normal that you’re willing to accept?” Torres said.

Jim Jordan argued against the resolution calling for the 25th amendment to be invoked, saying the measure would further divide the nation.

The Republican congressman’s comments to the House rules committee came less than a week after Donald Trump incited a violent mob to storm the Capitol.

“Congress needs to stop this, this effort to remove the president from office just one week before he is set to leave,” Jordan said. “These actions will only again continue to divide the nation.”

Jim McGovern, the Democratic chairman of the committee, criticized Jordan for contributing to Trump’s lies about widespread fraud in the presidential election.

McGovern pressed Jordan to acknowledge that Biden fairly won the election, but the Republican congressman repeatedly dodged.

“I said that Joe Biden won the election but that there were problems with how it was done,” Jordan said.

As a reminder, Trump and his allies have produced no credible evidence to substantiate their claims of widespread fraud.

House rules committee debates 25th amendment resolution

The House rules committee is now debating a resolution calling on Mike Pence and the cabinet to invoke the 25th amendment and remove Donald Trump from office.

Congressman Jamie Raskin, who crafted the resolution, said the violent riot at the Capitol last week, incited by the president, justified the measure.

“The time of 25th amendment emergency has arrived,” Raskin, a Democrat of Maryland, said. “It has come to our doorstep. It has invaded our chamber.”

The full House is expected to vote on the resolution this evening, before tomorrow’s debate on the article of impeachment against Trump.

House members have been warned that one terrorist plot ahead of Joe Biden’s inauguration involves thousands of people surrounding the US Capitol, according to CNN.

Congressman Conor Lamb, one of the lawmakers briefed on security concerns last night, said that the threats the government is receiving are “very specific”.

“They were talking about 4,000 armed ‘patriots’ to surround the Capitol and prevent any Democrat from going in,” Lamb, a Democrat of Pennsylvania, told CNN this morning.

“They have published rules of engagement, meaning when you shoot and when you don’t. So this is an organized group that has a plan. They are committed to doing what they’re doing because I think in their minds, you know, they are patriots and they’re talking about 1776 and so this is now a contest of wills.”

Lamb added, “We are not negotiating with or reasoning with these people. They have to be prosecuted. They have to be stopped. And unfortunately, that includes the president, which is why he needs to be impeached and removed from office.”

CNN has more details on the briefing:

Two Democratic lawmakers who participated in the briefing told CNN that they were walked through several scenarios on a call Monday and officers were sober about the threats. An effort was made to emphasize how different security is right now, the members said.

‘They are very strong when we are weak. That is when the mob psychology takes hold and they are emboldened, but when met with actual determined force, I think a lot of these fantasy world beliefs about what will happen when they come to Washington will melt away,’ one of the members said.

The member added that lawmakers are hoping National Guard troops who are being dispatched to the capital are vetted, because while lawmakers trust most of them, many will be coming in from all over the country.

Third House member tests positive for coronavirus after Capitol riot

A third member of the House of Representatives has tested positive for coronavirus after lawmakers were forced to shelter in place together during the violent riot at the Capitol last week.

Brad Schneider, a Democrat of Illinois, announced his diagnosis in a statement that specifically called out Republicans who refused to wear masks during the lockdown.

“Last Wednesday, after narrowly escaping a violent mob incited by the President of the United States to attack the Capitol and its occupants, I was forced to spend several hours in a secure but confined location with dozens of other Members of Congress,” Schneider said in a statement.

“Several Republican lawmakers in the room adamantly refused to wear a mask, as demonstrated in video from Punchbowl News, even when politely asked by their colleagues. Today, I am now in strict isolation, worried that I have risked my wife’s health and angry at the selfishness and arrogance of the anti-maskers who put their own contempt and disregard for decency ahead of the health and safety of their colleagues and our staff.”

Schneider is the third House member to test positive since last Wednesday. Fellow Democrats Pramila Jayapal and Bonnie Watson Coleman have also announced they were diagnosed with coronavirus.

Schneider said he has thankfully not yet experienced any symptoms and is receiving excellent medical care.

“Wearing a mask is not a political statement, it is public health guidance, common courtesy, and simply what should be expected of all decent people,” Schneider added in the statement.

“We can no longer tolerate Members coming to the floor or gathering in the halls of Congress without doing the bare minimum to protect those around them.”

Trump rejects responsibility for Capitol riot, says his words were 'totally appropriate'

Donald Trump refused to take responsibility for his role in the riot at the Capitol, claiming his words to supporters shortly before the violence were “totally appropriate”.

Speaking to reporters shortly before leaving for Texas to champion his work on the border wall, the president was asked about a pro-Trump mob storming the Capitol last week.

“We want no violence,” Trump said. “On the impeachment, it’s really a continuation of the greatest witch hunt in the history of politics.” He added, “I think it’s causing tremendous danger to our country, and it’s causing tremendous anger. I want no violence.”

During a separate gaggle with reporters shortly after he made those comments, Trump was asked what his role was in the violent riot.

“People thought that what I said was totally appropriate,” Trump said of his speech to supporters shortly before the riot.

In that speech, the president explicitly told his supporters to march to the Capitol as lawmakers certified Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential race. Five people have died as a result of the violence.

Harvard removes Republican congresswoman from advisory committee

Harvard University has announced it is removing Elise Stefanik, a Republican congresswoman of New York, from an advisory committee over her role in promoting baseless claims of widespread fraud in the presidential election.

Doug Elmendorf, the dean of Harvard Kennedy School, said Stefanik would no longer serve on the school’s Senior Advisory Committee, following a review by school leaders.

“Elise has made public assertions about voter fraud in November’s presidential election that have no basis in evidence, and she has made public statements about court actions related to the election that are incorrect,” Elmendorf said in a statement.

“Moreover, these assertions and statements do not reflect policy disagreements but bear on the foundations of the electoral process through which this country’s leaders are chosen.”

Elmendorf said he asked Stefanik, who graduated from Harvard in 2006, to step aside from the board. After she declined to do so, Elmendorf removed her from the post.

In characteristic fashion, Stefanik blamed Harvard’s decision to hold her accountable for spreading lies that culminated in a riot at the Capitol on cancel culture.

  • “As a conservative Republican, it is a rite of passage and badge of honor to join the long line of leaders who have been boycotted, protested, and canceled by colleges and universities across America,” Stefanik said.

    • Updated

    James Comey said he was “sickened” by the attack on the Capitol last week, emphasizing that all of the rioters involved should face federal charges.

    Speaking to the “Today” show this morning, the former FBI director said, “It’s important that every last person who entered that Capitol be found and charged.”

    Comey, who is promoting a new book, criticized law enforcement leaders over the “lack of preparation” for the riot last week, despite clear signs from some of Donald Trump’s supporters that they were prepared for violence.

    Comey, who was abruptly fired by the president, added that he believed Trump should be impeached but not prosecuted at the federal level.

    “I still think it would be better for this country if we move past a fallen and corrupt president and turned off the television lights on him, which in some ways would be the greatest punishment he could imagine,” Comey said.

    Alex Azar, the secretary of health and human services, would not say whether the 25th amendment should be invoked to remove Donald Trump from office.

    Speaking to ABC News this morning, the cabinet secretary also would not say whether he has discussed the possibility of invoking the 25th amendment with other senior officials.

    Instead, Azar said he is “committed to” remaining in his role, due to the coronavirus pandemic, and argued it would “not be appropriate” to discuss his conversations with colleagues or the president.

    “The rhetoric last week was unacceptable,” Azar said. “I’m not going to get into or discuss the 25th Amendment here. I’ve wrestled with this, I’m committed to see this through in my role as health secretary during a pandemic to ensure that vaccines and therapeutics get out to the American people and to ensure a smooth handoff to president-elect Biden’s team.”

    This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Martin Belam.

    Republican politicians are offering their condolences to the family of Sheldon Adelson, the prominent party donor who has died at 87.

    George W Bush, the former Republican president, said in a statement, “Laura and I mourn the passing of a friend, Sheldon Adelson. Sheldon battled his way out of a tough Boston neighborhood to build a successful enterprise that loyally employed tens of thousands - and entertained millions. He was an American patriot and a strong supporter of Israel.”

    “Our nation lost a remarkable American with the passing of my friend Sheldon Adelson,” Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said.

    “Sheldon built an incredible life and career. He climbed from sleeping on tenement floors during the Great Depression as a young boy to literally towering over Las Vegas and beyond. He created countless jobs in the process.”

    By the way, here’s what we’ve got in the diary for later today.

    President Donald Trump departs the White House at 10am ET (3pm GMT) to head for Alamo in Texas where he is expected to give remarks about immigration and visit the southern US border wall.

    Vice president Mike Pence leads a governors video teleconference on Covid-19 response and recovery at 2pm ET.

    President-elect Joe Biden receives the president’s daily brief and meets with transition advisors.

    In Congress, the House of Representatives debates a resolution from 9am calling on Pence to strip Trump of his powers using the 25th Amendment to the constitution. It will go to a vote later on and is expected to pass. You will be able to watch those proceedings live here on the blog.

    The supreme court is sitting this morning, and hears oral argument in Uzuegbunam v Preczewski, a case concerning a Georgia college student’s civil suit against the school for alleged violations of his free speech and free exercise of religion rights.

    Updated

    Donald Trump Jr appears to be the first member of the Trump family to pay public tribute to Sheldon Adelson, a major Republican and Trump donor, whose death has just been announced.

    Updated

    J Oliver Conroy looks for us today at the role of Sen. Josh Hawley in last week’s assault on the Capitol, and what the future may hold for the 41-year-old US senator from Missouri, who has positioned himself as a more polished successor to Donald Trump, who can unite rightwing nationalism with populist economic policies.

    Unlike Donald Trump, Hawley did not directly encourage the pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol last Wednesday. But his move to muddy the legitimacy of the election undoubtedly fanned the flames. Now, with five people dead, human excrement smeared on the walls of a building many Americans regard as close to sacred, and widespread calls for Trump to resign or face impeachment, Hawley may have succeeded in casting himself as a mini-Trump – and is facing an accordingly fierce backlash.

    Although he condemned the violence at the Capitol, Hawley has doubled down on his decision to challenge the election. “I will never apologize for giving voice to the millions of Missourians and Americans who have concerns about the integrity of our elections,” he said in a public statement after the riot. “That’s my job, and I will keep doing it.”

    As blowback builds, the question is whether Hawley – now an overnight pariah in Washington – will suffer politically for his wild gamble to pander to a minority of Americans who are diehard Trump supporters, and include Qanon conspiracy theorists. His decision to cast his lot with would-be insurrectionists, if only indirectly, may have been a bridge too far for many Americans.

    Hawley’s mentor, the Republican former senator John Danforth, recently told the St Louis Post-Dispatch: “Supporting Josh and trying so hard to get him elected to the Senate was the worst mistake I ever made in my life.” Simon & Schuster has cancelled publication of a forthcoming book by Hawley. Several Democratic members of Congress have called for Hawley and Cruz to resign, as has his home state newspaper, the Kansas City Star.

    Read more of J Oliver Conroy’s report here: Josh Hawley fanned the flames for diehard Trump voters. Will his gambit pay off?

    Nobel laureate in economics Joseph Stiglitz writes for us today, asking whether Donald Trump an aberration or a symptom of a deeper US malady?

    The immediate task is to remove the threat Trump still poses. The House of Representatives should impeach him now, and the Senate should try him some time later, to bar him from holding federal office again. It should be in the interest of the Republicans, no less than the Democrats, to show that no one, not even the president, is above the law.

    But we should not sleep comfortably until the underlying problems are addressed. Many involve great challenges. We must reconcile freedom of expression with accountability for the enormous harm that social media can and has caused, from inciting violence and promoting racial and religious hatred to political manipulation.

    We Americans must reform our political system, both to ensure the basic right to vote and democratic representation. We need a new voting rights act. The old one, adopted in 1965, was aimed at the South, where disenfranchisement of African-Americans had enabled white elites to remain in power since the end of Reconstruction following the civil war. But now anti-democratic practices are found throughout the country.

    We also need to decrease the influence of money in our politics: no system of checks and balances can be effective in a society with as much inequality as the US. And any system based on “one dollar, one vote” rather than “one person, one vote” will be vulnerable to populist demagogy. After all, how can such a system serve the interests of the country as a whole?

    Read more here: Joseph Stiglitz – Is Donald Trump an aberration or a symptom of a deeper US malady?

    Sheldon Adelson, influential Republican donor, dies aged 87

    Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire mogul and power broker who built a casino empire spanning from Las Vegas to China and became a singular force in domestic and international politics has died after a long illness, his wife said this morning.

    Associated Press report that both Miriam Adelson and the Las Vegas Sands Corp. released statements confirming Adelson’s death. He was 87.

    Mrs Adelson called her husband “an American patriot: a US army veteran who gave generously to wounded warriors and, wherever he could, looked to the advancement of these great United States”.

    “He was the proudest of Jews,” she said, adding that he “saw in the state of Israel not only the realization of an historical promise to a unique and deserving people, but also a gift from the Almighty to all of humanity.”

    Sheldon Adelson sits onstage before a speech by Donald Trump at the Israeli American Council National Summit in December 2019.
    Sheldon Adelson sits onstage before a speech by Donald Trump at the Israeli American Council National Summit in December 2019. Photograph: Loren Elliott/Reuters

    He was the son of Jewish immigrants, raised with two siblings in a Boston tenement, who over the second half of his life became one of the world’s richest men. The chairman and CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation brought singing gondoliers to the Las Vegas Strip and foresaw correctly that Asia would be an even bigger market. In 2018, Forbes ranked him No 15 in the US, worth an estimated $35.5bn.

    Adelson was considered the nation’s most influential Republican donor over the final years of his life, at times setting records for individual contributions during a given election cycle.

    Updated

    “Mike Pompeo is tweeting again” appears to have become the new “the president is awake and tweeting” on this blog.

    Pretty much every day since 1 January the secretary of state has been using his official US government account to publish his CV for his 2024 run for the presidency outline what he sees as his legacy of his time in office

    These have mostly consisted of posts scheduled every half hour on the dot tackling topics like China, Russia, the UN, religious freedom and so on, with glossy Pompeo 2024 campaign adverts quote cards that have been produced, presumably, by the state department. This was one from yesterday…

    And he’s just started up again this morning.

    Straight from the “Well, this is awkward” files, Charlie Kirk has been denying that the attack on the Capitol was an insurrection. Ewan Palmer reports for Newsweek:

    Charlie Kirk, the founder of the conservative student group Turning Point USA, has dismissed any suggestion that the attack on the Capitol last week was an insurrection and that many of those taking part were merely expressing “bad judgment.”

    A video of Kirk downplaying the deadly attack in which far-right extremists and QAnon conspiracy theorists stormed Congress, was shared on Twitter. During the clip, Kirk said while it was “not wise” to climb the Capitol steps and storm the corridors of the building, it is wrong to compare those who did to terrorists such as the Oklahoma Bomber.

    “Not wise does not mean you’re an insurrectionist,” Kirk said. “Just because you do something stupid, does not mean your Timothy McVeigh. Just because you do something that is regrettable does not mean that you are planning an armed insurrection against the United States government.”

    However, Kirk may have some vested interest in downplaying events which saw a police officer killed, property destroyed and stolen, and Trump supporters carrying zip-ties in an apparent preparedness to kidnap lawmakers. The report continues:

    A number of people on social media suggested that Kirk was attempting to distance himself from the violence which erupted in the nation’s capital after previously claiming that Turning Point Action, the political action committee arm of Turning Point USA, would be sending “80+ buses full of patriots” to attend the capital in a since deleted-tweet.

    “The historic event will likely be one of the largest and most consequential in American history,” Kirk tweeted two days before January 6. “The team at @TrumpStudents & Turning Point Action are honored to help make this happen, sending 80+ buses full of patriots to DC to fight for this president.”

    Turning Point Action have since claimed that the group sent just seven buses, and that Kirk had not been accurate in his boast.

    Read more here: Newsweek – Charlie Kirk says Capitol attack was not insurrection after deleting ‘80+ buses’ tweet

    So, if the Senate is unlikely to ultimately find Donald Trump guilty in an impeachment trial, given that a two-thirds majority is required and that the chamber will be balanced 50-50, what next? John Nichols writes for the Nation on how a 14th Amendment strategy could bar Trump from ever holding office again.

    To imagine that Trump will fade away after January 20 requires the denial of everything Americans know about the president’s massive ego, his aversion to being seen as a loser, and his determination to avenge his defeat in the 2020 election.

    Added to the Constitution after the Civil War, the 14th Amendment is a blunt instrument, which mandates in its third section: “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who … shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”

    Section 5 of the amendment declares, “The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.”

    This is why focusing on the 14th Amendment is relevant. As Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Eric Foner reminds us, the House and Senate House could, with a simple majority vote, censure Trump for inciting insurrection and, with the approval of a President Joe Biden, effectively bar Trump from running again for the presidency.

    “This can be invoked against anyone who has ever taken an oath to support the Constitution, including the president,” Foner says of the 14th Amendment. “It’s much simpler than impeachment. It is not a judicial proceeding. It’s a political proceeding. It doesn’t involve lawyers or trials. It is simply about qualification for office. You could have one afternoon of debate and a vote.”

    Read more details here: The Nation – How a 14th Amendment strategy could bar Trump from ever holding office again

    We fully expect the House to carry a vote today demanding that Mike Pence use his powers to remove Donald Trump from office using the 25th amendment. We also fully expect Pence to decline to do so. That will mean that efforts to prise Trump from office will move to impeachment.

    Yesterday, lawmakers introduced an impeachment article charging Trump with “high crimes and misdemeanors by inciting violence against the government of the United States” and thus having violated his oath of office. The House will debate this charge on Wednesday. Jan Wolfe at Reuters has put together a handy little guide to how that might play out – although you may feel you are already familiar with the process. After all, it is less than a year since Trump was last impeached.

    One common misconception about impeachment is that it refers to the removal of a president from office. In fact, it refers only to the House of Representatives bringing charges. If a simple majority of the House’s 435 members approves bringing charges, the process moves to the Senate. As Democrats control the House it is likely to succeed.

    The Senate, however, is a whole different situation – and in 2021 it isn’t even yet concrete when the Senate would actually meet to discuss it.

    Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell has said the earliest a trial could begin is 19 January, because the chamber is in recess until then. To start earlier, all 100 Senators would need to vote in favor of doing so, McConnell said in a memo to colleagues.

    However, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is exploring using emergency authority to reconvene the Senate before, a senior Democratic aide said on Monday. Such a move, though, would still require McConnell’s approval, which seems, on the face of it, pretty unlikely.

    It’s also worth noting that impeachment in itself will not automatically prevent Trump from running for president again. The Constitution requires a two-thirds vote of the Senate to convict and remove a president. However, it’s likely that by the time any trial was concluded, Trump would have left office anyway.

    Two historical precedents, both involving federal judges, seem to make it clear however that only a simple majority of the Senate is needed to disqualify the president from holding office again. Legal experts said this means Democrats, who will take control of the Senate later in January following their victory in the Georgia runoffs, do have a realistic chance of barring Trump from running for president in 2024.

    Deutsche Bank severs ties with Donald Trump – reports

    Deutsche Bank became the latest major company to cut ties with Donald Trump, with the firm that has propped up the Trump Organization for two decades reportedly announcing it would no longer do business with the disgraced president.

    The German bank’s move – reported by the New York Times – follows Wednesday’s deadly attack on the US Capitol building by a mob of Trump supporters. The number of corporations disassociating themselves from Trump is now turning into an avalanche.

    Deutsche Bank has been Trump’s most important lender. The Trump Organization, currently fronted by his two older sons, owes the bank around $340m in outstanding loans. Following a series of bankruptcies in the 1990s, it was the only bank willing to give Trump money.

    The relationship has survived various scandals. In 2008, Trump sued the bank’s real estate division after he defaulted on a $40m repayment, used to fund the construction of the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago. He accused Deutsche of co-causing the financial crisis and demanded $3bn in compensation.

    Instead of dumping him as a client, Deutsche’s private wealth division stepped in and loaned him more money to pay off the existing debt. Deutsche has resisted efforts by Democrats in the House and Senate to explain its relationship with Trump – and to clarify if Russian state banks or entities underwrote some of his debts.

    But the bloody events of last week and the looming threat of a second impeachment trial appear to have finally persuaded Deutsche’s managers to terminate its association with Trump. A Deutsche spokesperson refused to elaborate on Tuesday, telling the Guardian: “We decline to comment.”

    It is unclear if the decision extends to other members of the Trump family. The president’s daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner are both Deutsche clients.

    Read more of Luke Harding’s report here: Deutsche Bank severs ties with Donald Trump

    Giovanni Russonello wrote the New York Times On Politics newsletter today, and he had these observations about the departure of Chad Wolf from his role as acting US homeland security secretary:

    Far from taking a bold political stand after the attack last week by domestic extremists, Wolf didn’t mention the assault on the Capitol in the resignation letter he sent to staff members. Instead, he pointed to recent court rulings that had cast doubt on his authority to run the agency by saying he might not have been appointed lawfully by the president.

    But it was difficult not to see his resignation as related to those of Betsy DeVos, the education secretary, and Elaine Chao, the transportation secretary, who resigned after the Capitol riot — effectively sidestepping calls from Trump’s critics to help remove him by using the 25th Amendment.

    Wolf had been expected to help coordinate the security at Biden’s inauguration. That responsibility will now fall to Peter Gaynor, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who replaces Wolf as the acting secretary of the Homeland Security Department.

    Washington DC isn’t the only area of concern for next week’s inauguration. Pro-Trump activists have threatened action at state capitols, including an “armed march” which is planned for the weekend before president-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration. Elaine S. Povich and Alex Brown report for USA Today at concerns that state capitols will have security issues.

    State capitols around the country remain on high alert following the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and as new threats surface online, but with less than two-thirds of them employing metal detectors, and about 20 statehouses specifically allowing guns inside, there are many security gaps that rioters could exploit.

    Demonstrators at previous statehouse events spouted the same pro-Trump rhetoric and carried the same kinds of inflammatory banners as their counterparts in Washington, DC.

    Many capitols already are temporarily inaccessible to the public because of Covid-19 concerns. But even after the violence in Washington, DC, some stayed open, albeit with more screening of visitors or staff. And they can’t stay closed forever, even in the face of future mobs in or near capitol buildings.

    Security measures at state capitols range widely. About 30 state capitols employ metal detectors, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Spokesperson Mick Bullock would not elaborate, citing security concerns. On the flip side, according to the Crime Prevention Research Center, a pro-gun research group, about 20 capitols officially allow carrying legal firearms inside.

    Read more here: USA Today – Security holes at state capitols: Many allow guns inside, lack metal detectors

    US officials ramp up security plans before Biden inauguration

    US officials have moved to ramp up security throughout Washington and across the country as the FBI said far-right groups – many using social media – were continuing to threaten plots before Joe Biden’s inauguration as president on 21 January.

    As the National Park Service closed the Washington Monument, and the grounds of the US Capitol – which were stormed by a mob of pro-Trump extremists last week – were closed to visitors, with some 10,000 national guard being deployed across DC, the FBI said far-right extremist groups were planning armed protests in all 50 state capitals and in Washington, DC.

    “Our focus is not on peaceful protesters, but on those threatening their safety and the safety of other citizens with violence and destruction of property,” the FBI said in a statement.

    The continuing threats, which have prompted social media companies to remove accounts associated with individuals espousing the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory, have resulted in efforts to impose security measures being moved forward several days in an attempt to protect the inauguration – an all-ticket event.

    The DC mayor, Muriel Bowser, has also called on the National Park Service to deny all demonstration permits in the run-up to the inauguration.

    The outgoing homeland security secretary, Chad Wolf, said on Monday that he had moved up the timing of the “national special security event” for Biden’s inauguration to Wednesday, instead of 19 January citing the “events of the past week”, along with an “evolving security landscape”.

    Wolf’s statement came as Trump – widely blamed for inciting the violence last week – issued an an emergency declaration for the US capital allowing the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate with local authorities as needed.

    The warnings have prompted various states to introduce emergency measures, including Michigan, which banned the open carrying of firearms inside its state capitol, and Wisconsin, whose governor activated the national guard to support capitol police in Madison.

    In California, the governor, Gavin Newsom, said authorities were “on high alert” for protests in Sacramento in the coming days, adding the national guard would be deployed if necessary.

    Read more of Peter Beaumont’s report here: US officials ramp up security plans before Biden inauguration

    Outgoing president Donald Trump will be making his first public appearance today since his supporters stormed the Capitol last week. Steve Holland tees the visit up for Reuters, reporting that Trump agreed to the trip as members of his staff encouraged him to undertake events highlighting his legacy.

    Bitter and upset with little more than a week until he hands over power to Biden, Trump has been closeted in the White House with close advisers since Wednesday. His team insist there is no symbolism to the choice of Alamo for Trump’s visit. The Alamo mission in San Antonio, Texas, was the scene of a famous 1836 battle when Texans were routed by Mexican forces.

    Trump has adopted hardline immigration policies throughout his term, and his wall project dates to his 2016 pledge to seal off the southern border of the US with a wall. White House spokesman Judd Deere said the visit would mark Trump’s “completion of more than 400 miles of border wall. A promise made, promise kept.”

    The 400 miles (644 km) built during the Trump administration includes a significant amount of wall construction in places where previous administrations had already built structures. Trump is expected to deliver remarks at the border site about his immigration efforts. His acting homeland security secretary, Chad Wolf, resigned yesterday.

    Facebook is cracking down on content using the ‘stop the steal’ phrase behind false US election claims and the firm’s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, has said she’s “glad” Donald Trump was blocked.

    She explained the company’s decision like this:

    In this moment the risk to our democracy was too big. We felt we had to take the unprecedented step of what is an indefinite ban, and I’m glad we did. We’ve said at least through the transition, but we have no plans to lift it. There’s obviously so much happening, and this is such a big step. We will definitely let people know and be very transparent about any changes to that.

    Until it was taken offline, Parler was one refuge of those fleeing Twitter and Facebook in the wake of their suspensions of Donald Trump’s accounts. Malaika Jabali writes for us this morning about the service, saying: I’ve been on Parler. It’s a cesspit of thinly veiled racism and hate:

    I joined Parler in November, before various tech companies announced plans to take it offline. It didn’t take long to find a bevy of hashtags and posts romanticizing civil war. By late November, there were over 10,000 posts that included the hashtag #civilwar and its variants. The person who posted “Civil war is coming” was replying to a post by Wayne Root, a conservative media personality with more than 100,000 followers on Twitter. Root leveled the same unproven accusations of voter fraud as Donald Trump, using the same calls for battle that white power groups heeded in their storming of the US Capitol the first week of 2021.

    While some on the far right will probably retreat into the shadows cast by polling booths and hidden by exit polling data that obscures Trump’s popularity, many have not. Any perception of progress for Black people, even if this progress does not substantively exist, perpetuates violence against us and our perceived allies like leftists, Marxists and Democrats – all named by Parler posters as opposing parties in this hypothetical civil war).

    To say that Parler’s users, or any Americans who revel in white power tropes and violent memes, are “extremist” is a bit of a misnomer. What we call extremism is, if anything, a common American tradition. Millions of Americans, if they don’t proactively endorse the violence, silently concede to it. They vote for it. They dress it in words like “tradition” and “free speech”.

    Read more here: Malaika Jabali – I’ve been on Parler. It’s a cesspit of thinly veiled racism and hate

    Twitter has said it has suspended more than 70,000 accounts since Friday that were primarily dedicated to sharing QAnon content as the social media site continued to crack down on content after supporters of Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol.

    “Given the violent events in Washington DC, and increased risk of harm, we began permanently suspending thousands of accounts that were primarily dedicated to sharing QAnon content on Friday afternoon,” Twitter said in a blog late on Monday.

    “These accounts were engaged in sharing harmful QAnon-associated content at scale and were primarily dedicated to the propagation of this conspiracy theory across the service,” the company said. Twitter said the move could result in some accounts losing thousands of followers.

    “Our updated enforcement on QAnon content on Twitter, along with routine spam challenges, has resulted in changes in follower count for some people’s Twitter accounts. In some cases, these actions may have resulted in follower count changes in the thousands.”

    You can read more here: Twitter suspends 70,000 accounts sharing QAnon content

    Neil Young has called for empathy towards those who stormed the US Capitol building in Washington DC, arguing they had been “manipulated” into doing so.

    In a message posted to his website, Young writes:

    I feel empathy for the people who have been so manipulated and had their beliefs used as political weapons. I may be among them. I wish internet news was two-sided. Both sides represented on the same programs. Social media, at the hands of powerful people – influencers, amplifying lies and untruths, is crippling our belief system, turning us against one another. We are not enemies. We must find a way home.

    The veteran rock star has long been critical of Donald Trump, and until recently was suing for using his songs during political rallies. In his new message, he again criticised the outgoing president, saying he “has betrayed the people, exaggerated and amplified the truth to foment hatred”, but said his feelings are now “beyond” Trump.

    “Resentment of the Democratic party among the insurrectionists at the Capitol was rampant. We don’t need this hate,” he wrote. “We need discussion and solutions. Respect for one another’s beliefs. Not hatred … With social media, issues are turned to psychological weapons and used to gather hatred in support of one side or the other. This is what Donald J Trump has as his legacy.”

    He also criticised the “double standard” that saw heavy crackdowns against Black Lives Matter protesters in Washington in 2020, and relatively light policing of last week’s Capitol breach.

    During the 2020 presidential campaign, Young initially backed Bernie Sanders, but also voiced support for Joe Biden after he won the Democratic nomination, saying Biden would bring “compassion and empathy” back to the White House.

    Axios are on a roll this morning as they have another piece they’ve labelled ‘scoop’, in this case that the Trump administration is about to make three changes to the rules around Covid vaccination roll-out in the US which should speed it up. Sam Baker writes:

    The federal government is making three big changes, according to a senior administration official:

    Recommending that states open the vaccination process to everyone older than 65 and to adults of all ages who have a pre-existing condition that puts them at greater risk for serious infection.

    Expanding the venues where people can get vaccinated to include community health centers and more pharmacies.

    Getting all the available doses out the door now. Both of the authorized vaccines require two shots; the government will no longer hold back doses for the second shot, but will instead try to get today’s doses into people’s arms now, trusting that supplies will increase rapidly enough to provide second shots.

    Read more here: Axios – The Trump administration’s plan to speed up vaccinations

    Husbands and wives, twin brothers in their 20s, parents and their children. Family members are turning up one after another at Martin Luther King Jr community hospital (MLKCH) in South Los Angeles. The deaths have been piling up.

    Patients have been arriving at MLKCH terribly sick, and at higher rates than anywhere else in the region – the impoverished Latino and Black neighborhood is one of the worst Covid hotspots in America. Inside the hospital, staff face a dire scramble to ensure they have the supplies, the healthcare workers and the physical space needed to take care of the overwhelming crush of Covid victims.

    “The horror stories are countless,” Dr Jason Prasso, an intensive care unit doctor, told the Guardian on a recent morning while on a break inside an ICU office. On the other side of the door, a line of patients lay on gurneys in a narrow hallway, with doctors passing by in enclosed air-purifying helmets. He said nearly half did not survive the ICU: “We try and stave off complications, but there’s nothing I can do to reverse the course of the virus.”

    At times in recent weeks, the small 131-bed community hospital has seen proportionally more Covid patients than any of the nearly 50 other hospitals in the LA area. Some days, it is treating nearly double the number of patients for which it normally has capacity.

    MLKCH has put beds in an old gift shop, which has a small sign on the door indicating “patient care in progress”. The chapel around the corner is filled with gurneys. Patients are treated in the waiting room and doubled up in spaces meant for one. Outside the building, there are five triage tents for intake.

    “With this new surge, we’re finding the patients are much sicker, and it’s not clear why,” said Anahiz Correa, the ICU nurse manager. She recounted a mother and son who ended up dying in the same ICU room weeks apart.

    “I don’t even know what to say any more. Everyone says, ‘Continue social distancing and wearing your mask,’ but at this point the situation is so dire.”

    Read more of Sam Levin’s report here: ‘The horror stories are countless’: inside the LA hospital at the center of the Covid crisis

    According to figures from the Johns Hopkins university, yesterday the US recorded a further 204,652 new coronavirus cases, and there were 1,731 more deaths. This takes the total death toll over 375,000.

    According to the Covid Tracking Project, there are 129,748 people currently hospitalized in the US with Covid. This marks the 41st day in a row where over 100,000 people have been in this position.

    Christina Maxouris at CNN reports:

    “This is what we were afraid of – people letting their guard down over Christmas and New Years,” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday while announcing the spread of the virus was increasing across the state.

    Arizona’s hospitalization numbers are at all-time highs due to a surge that the state’s top health official said earlier this month followed the Christmas holiday.

    In Los Angeles, which has been battered by the virus for weeks now, one health official says the aftermath of holiday get-togethers is likely still on its way.

    “It takes two to three weeks for patients to get sick enough to need the hospital after they’ve gotten the virus, and Christmas was only two weeks ago, and we’re already full,” said Dr. Anish Mahajan, chief medical officer at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

    “We don’t have any more ICU capacity,” he added. “All of the hospitals in the region are putting ICU patients in unusual places in the hospital just to find room for them.”

    Pramila Jayapal becomes second lawmaker to test positive for Covid after Capitol riot

    A further concern after events in Washington last week has been that huddled together for safety, lawmakers and staff were exposed to the transmission of the coronavirus – a fear that has proved correct. Phil Helsel and Rebecca Shabad report for NBC News:

    Overnight, a second lawmaker said she had tested positive for Covid-19 after sheltering in place with lawmakers who refused to wear masks during the violent rioting at the US Capitol last week.

    Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Washington state Democrat, said in a statement early Tuesday that she had been quarantining since the attack and learned of her positive test result Monday night.

    “Too many Republicans have refused to take this pandemic and virus seriously, and in doing so, they endanger everyone around them,” she said in a statement. “Only hours after President Trump incited a deadly assault on our Capitol, our country, and our democracy, many Republicans still refused to take the bare minimum Covid-19 precaution and simply wear a damn mask in a crowded room during a pandemic — creating a superspreader event on top of a domestic terrorist attack.”

    Read more here: NBC News – Second lawmaker tests positive for Covid after Capitol lockdown

    Lisa Montgomery: US judge grants another stay of execution

    A judge has granted another stay in what was slated to be the US government’s first execution of a female inmate in nearly seven decades.

    Judge Patrick Hanlon granted the stay late on Monday, citing the need to determine Lisa Montgomery’s mental competence, the Topeka Capital-Journal reported.

    Montgomery faced execution on Tuesday at the federal correctional complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, eight days before the president-elect, Joe Biden, an opponent of the federal death penalty, takes office.

    She was convicted of killing 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett in the north-west Missouri town of Skidmore in December 2004. Authorities said she used a rope to strangle Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant, and then cut the baby girl from the womb with a kitchen knife. Montgomery took the child with her and attempted to pass the girl off as her own, prosecutors said.

    Montgomery’s lawyers have argued that sexual abuse during her childhood led to mental illness. Attorney Kelley Henry spoke in favour of Monday’s decision, saying in a statement to the Capital-Journal that “Mrs Montgomery has brain damage and severe mental illness that was exacerbated by the lifetime of sexual torture she suffered at the hands of caretakers”.

    You can read more on the circumstances behind this case in Ed Pilkinton’s report from last week: ‘A lifetime of torture’ – the story of the woman Trump is rushing to execute

    Trump on phone call falsely blamed 'Antifa' for riot at the Capitol – reports

    Jonathan Swan at Axios has what they are labelling a scoop, that Donald Trump on a phone call falsely blamed “Antifa” for the riot at the Capitol last week. Swan reports in their email newsletter that House minority leader Kevin McCarthy pushed back on it:

    Despite facing an impeachment vote for an assault he helped incite, the outgoing president is still sticking with his tried-and-true playbook of deflecting and reaching for conspiracies

    In a tense, 30-minute-plus phone call with House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, Trump trotted out the Antifa line. McCarthy would have none of it, telling the president: “It’s not Antifa, it’s MAGA. I know. I was there,” according to a White House official and another source familiar with the call.

    The White House official said the call was tense and aggressive at times, with Trump ranting about election fraud and an exasperated McCarthy cutting in to say, “Stop it. It’s over. The election is over.”

    He told Trump he should call Joe Biden, meet with the president-elect and follow tradition and leave a welcome letter in the Resolute Desk for his successor. The president told him he hadn’t decided whether to do so for Biden.

    Fox News have a slightly different read-out of the call, suggesting that the president acknowledged that he had played a part in inciting the violence at the Capitol. Brooke Singman writes:

    President Trump acknowledged that he bears some blame for the Capitol riot last week during a conversation with House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, a source familiar told Fox News.

    Two sources say McCarthy, relayed the president’s sentiment on a call Monday with the House GOP Conference. McCarthy, on the call Monday with Republicans, agreed that Trump bore blame for the unrest which sent Congress into lockdown as they tried to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election last week.

    Helen Sullivan reports for us on a very different picture of police behaviour during last week’s insurrection – an officer who is being hailed as a hero.

    A police officer is being hailed for his role steering an angry mob away from the Senate chambers during Wednesday’s deadly storming of the US Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.

    Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman, identified by CNN reporter Kristin Wilson, could be seen in video footage distracting rioters away from the chamber as police raced to secure the area.

    In the confrontation, Goodman puts himself between a man wearing a black QAnon T-shirt and a hallway leading to the Senate chambers, then shoves the person to induce him and the crowd to chase Goodman towards officers in the opposite direction.

    The efforts by Goodman, who is Black, gave police the time needed to race to lock the doors to the Senate chamber, according to the Washington Post.

    Several lawmakers have praised Goodman’s actions.

    Jaime Harrison, an associate chair of the Democratic National Committee, tweeted: “The word hero does not appropriately describe officer Eugene Goodman. His judgment & heroism may have saved our Republic.” Harrison called for Goodman to be considered for the congressional gold medal.

    Read more of Helen Sullivan’s report here: Capitol police officer who steered mob away from Senate chambers hailed a hero

    As you can imagine there is still plenty of fall-out from last week’s storming of the US Capitol by a pro-Trump mob. This morning the Washington Post have been reporting on some consequences within the Capitol police force:

    Several US Capitol Police officers have been suspended and more than a dozen others are under investigation for suspected involvement with or inappropriate support for the demonstration last week that turned into a deadly riot at the Capitol, according to members of Congress, police officials and staff members briefed on the developments.

    Eight separate investigations have been launched into the actions of Capitol officers, according to one congressional aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the status of the internal review.

    In one of the cases, officers had posted what Capitol Police investigators found to be messages showing support for the rally on Wednesday that preceded the attack on the complex, including touting President Trump’s baseless contention that the election had been stolen through voter fraud, the aide said.

    Investigators in another instance found that a Capitol officer had posted “inappropriate” images of President-elect Joe Biden on a social media account. The aide declined to describe the photographs.

    Read more here: Washington Post – Several Capitol police officers suspended, more than a dozen under investigation over actions related to rally, riot

    Here’s a reminder that president-elect Joe Biden yesterday was asked, while taking his second dose of the Covid vaccine, if he was worried about taking his presidential oath in the open at the inauguration. He said no.

    Biden also said:

    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 and caused great damage that they be held accountable, and I think that is a view held by the vast majority of Democrats and Republicans in the Congress.

    You can watch the clip here:

    Welcome to our live coverage of US politics for Tuesday. Here’s a catch-up on where we are, and a little of what we can expect to see today…

    • The House will vote to try and pressure vice president Mike Pence to invoke the 25th amendment when it convenes later today. The vote will almost certainly pass, and he will almost certainly ignore it.
    • Donald Trump is also facing a historic second impeachment after Democrats in the House of Representatives formally charged him with one count of “incitement of insurrection” over the Capitol Hill riot.
    • President-elect Joe Biden has said he is not afraid to take the oath of office outside on 20 January, despite fears that there will be further violence.
    • Biden received his second dose of the Covid vaccine. Yesterday the US recorded 204,652 new coronavirus cases, and there were a further 1,731 deaths, taking the total death toll to over 375,000.
    • Acting US homeland security secretary Chad Wolf becomes the latest figure to resign after finding working in the Trump administration unconscionable at the last moment. Wolf has held the position for 15 months, and enacted key pieces of the Trump’s hardline immigration agenda.
    • Facebook has begun to target ‘stop the steal’ content published on their platform and has said that Trump’s ban may be permanent. Twitter has suspended 70,000 accounts sharing QAnon content
    • Donald Trump will be making a public appearance in Alamo today – his first since the assault on the Capitol.
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