Fallout intensifies over Trump's response to Capitol riot

The man photographed sitting at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk has been arrested and charged with three federal counts including theft of public property, federal officials said Friday.

Federal officials said Richard Barnett of Arkansas was taken into custody Friday morning in Little Rock.

Barnett was charged with knowingly entering and remaining in restricted building ground without authority, violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds and the theft of public property, officials said. 

A resident of Alabama was also charged in connection with the pipe bomb found on the south side of the Capitol building, 11 Molotov cocktails and military-style weapon found in his pickup truck. 

“The FBI is not sparing any resources in this investigation,” he said. 

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy warned in a statement against the impeachment efforts being discussed in the chamber and for the first time called Joe Biden "President-elect."

"I have reached out to President-elect Biden today and plan to speak to him about how we must work together to lower the temperature and unite the country to solve America’s challenges," he continued.

Three White House advisers tell CNN that President Trump has no intention of resigning. 

“None,” one adviser said of the chances of a resignation. 

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is meeting with President-elect Joe Biden’s pick for Secretary of State, Tony Blinken, today. 

This will be their first meeting since Biden named Blinken to be his chief diplomat in late November.

The meeting comes two days after Biden said President Trump needed to step up and demand an end to “the insurrection,” as he described it, on Capitol Hill earlier this week.

Pompeo condemned the violence protests as unacceptable, but the notoriously loyal secretary of state has not blamed Trump for what happened.

He was scheduled to meet his expected successor in December, but the meeting was canceled when Pompeo went into quarantine after being exposed to someone who tested positive for Covid-19.

Blinken, wearing a mask, arrived at the State Department just before 1 p.m. ET and was greeted by Pompeo’s executive secretary. 

It’s unclear how long Pompeo and Blinken will meet. CNN reported that the last meeting, which had to be canceled, was only scheduled for 15 minutes. 

Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, citing conversations with senior White House officials, said on Hugh Hewitt's radio show that President Trump "wanted chaos on television" on Wednesday and was "confused about why other people on his team weren’t as excited as he was as you had rioters pushing against Capitol Police trying to get into the building."

In an interview Friday morning with Hugh Hewitt, Sasse also said Trump was talking about "a path by which he was going to stay in office after January 20."

On impeachment, Sasse signaled he was seriously considering whether he would vote to remove the President from office, but that "there are a lot of questions that we need to get to the bottom of," specifically citing delays with deploying the National Guard. 

"But I think that the question of was the President derelict in his duty, that’s not an open question. He was," Sasse added.

Vice President Mike Pence has arrived at the White House for the first time since the insurrection at the US Capitol incited by President Trump and since he certified the 2020 election results for President-elect Joe Biden.

He emerged from his SUV and walked into the West Wing.

Pence did not come to the White House on Thursday.

One of President Trump's closest confidants and top aides, Hope Hicks, is discussing resigning from her role before he leaves office, according to two people familiar with her thinking.

She has told people if she does resign, she would leave within the next 48 hours. It's not clear she has made a final decision.

After speaking with Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told her caucus that she has gotten assurances there are safeguards in place in the event President Trump wants to launch a nuclear weapon, according to multiple sources on the caucus call.

What we know: Pelosi told members in a letter that she spoke to Milley about Trump and the nuclear codes.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tells her caucus she prefers Trump resigning or the 25th Amendment before impeaching him. But she made clear that there is more backing within the House Democratic Caucus for impeaching Trump now than there was in 2019. 

She has not yet given a sense of timing or detailed the articles they are pursuing, but the call is ongoing.

According to this person, she also said, “How we go forward is a subject for this caucus.”

Some background: A source tells CNN that the current draft of the impeachment resolution now includes 131 members, including Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler and Rules Committee Chairman James McGovern, a further sign of the growing momentum.