Fallout intensifies over Trump’s response to Capitol riot

Twitter said Friday evening that it took action against the four tweets that President Trump shared from the @POTUS account.

“As we’ve said, using another account to try to evade a suspension is against our rules,” said a Twitter spokesperson. “We have taken steps to enforce this with regard to recent Tweets from the @POTUS account. For government accounts, such as @POTUS and @WhiteHouse, we will not suspend those accounts permanently but will take action to limit their use.”

Earlier today: Twitter’s decision to suspend Trump’s account followed two tweets Friday afternoon that would end up being his last.

The tweets violated the company’s policy against the glorification of violence, Twitter said in a blog post, and “these two Tweets must be read in the context of broader events in the country and the ways in which the President’s statements can be mobilized by different audiences, including to incite violence, as well as in the context of the pattern of behavior from this account in recent weeks.”

The four-tweet thread that President Trump sent from @POTUS, which quickly vanished from Twitter, included hints of Trump’s involvement with a potential alternative platform to Twitter and other social media. 

“We have been negotiating with various other sites, and we will have a big announcement soon … while we also look at the possibilities of building out our own platform in the near future. We will not be SILENCED!” Trump said in the now-unavailable tweets.

Earlier Friday, Twitter announced it had permanently suspended Trump from its platform.

The company also told CNN it will enforce its policy against ban evasions to ensure that Trump does not circumvent his personal account’s suspension.

“If it is clear that another account is being used for the purposes of evading a ban, it is also subject to suspension,” Twitter said in a statement. “For government accounts, such as @POTUS and @WhiteHouse, we will not suspend those accounts but will take action to limit their use. However, these accounts will be transitioned over to the new administration in due course and will not be suspended by Twitter unless absolutely necessary to alleviate real-world harm.”

Twitter’s policy would also prohibit Trump from directing a third party to operate a Twitter account on his behalf.

A former communications director for Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, Amanda Carpenter, sharply criticized the Texas lawmaker today for his role in supporting President Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and incite the attack on the Capitol. 

“The new Ted Cruz, post-Trump, is one I don’t recognize,” said Carpenter, who is a CNN contributor. “I can surmise he thinks he’s a smart lawyer who can parse his his way out of it, and in his mind he has some kind of rational but that’s just not believable.”

“He has to come to terms with the fact that through his actions directly played into the hands of the mob and stop,” she continued. 

“It is so horrifying to watch someone descend into this and not be able to admit what happened when you worked for him and you believed in him,” Carpenter told CNN’s Erin Burnett.

“It is really hard to watch,” she added.

Twitter’s decision to suspend President Trump’s account followed two tweets Friday afternoon that would end up being his last.

The tweets violated the company’s policy against the glorification of violence, Twitter said in a blog post, and “these two Tweets must be read in the context of broader events in the country and the ways in which the President’s statements can be mobilized by different audiences, including to incite violence, as well as in the context of the pattern of behavior from this account in recent weeks.”

The first tweet was about Trump’s supporters. 

“The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!”

The second indicated Trump did not plan to attend Joe Biden’s inauguration.  

“To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.”

Twitter said the tweet concerning the inauguration could be viewed as a further statement that the election was not legitimate. It also said that the tweet could be interpreted as Trump saying that the inauguration would be a “safe” target for violence because he would not be attending. 

Trump’s other statement about American patriots suggested that “he plans to continue to support, empower, and shield those who believe he won the election,” Twitter said.

Twitter told CNN the company will enforce its policy against ban evasions to ensure that Trump does not circumvent his personal account’s suspension.

“If it is clear that another account is being used for the purposes of evading a ban, it is also subject to suspension,” Twitter said in a statement. “For government accounts, such as @POTUS and @WhiteHouse, we will not suspend those accounts but will take action to limit their use. However, these accounts will be transitioned over to the new administration in due course and will not be suspended by Twitter unless absolutely necessary to alleviate real-world harm.”

Twitter’s policy would also prohibit Trump from directing a third party to operate a Twitter account on his behalf.

Civil rights leaders who have long criticized tech platforms for spreading hate speech and division welcomed Twitter’s decision.  

Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, called it an “excellent step.” 

“A fitting end to a legacy of spewing hate and vitriol,” Greenblatt said. “President Trump incited the violent riots at the Capitol using social media & paid the price.”

Eric Naing, a spokesperson for Muslim Advocates, said Twitter “is showing real leadership.”

“As Twitter notes, letting Trump continue to post tweets, Facebook posts and YouTube videos for his white nationalist supporters risks ‘further incitement of violence,’” Naing said. “Now it is up to Facebook and Google/YouTube to follow Twitter’s lead.”

President Trump presents a danger to the nation’s domestic security and should be removed from office as quickly as possible, Democratic Rep. Jason Crow said today.

“Donald Trump is a very violent and dangerous man,” Crow said, speaking on CNN this afternoon. “He is unstable. He is not well … he is a danger to … the domestic security of our nation and the security of individual Americans.” 

“It has to stop as quickly as we can make it stop,” added the Colorado lawmaker, who was one of many members of Congress trapped by a mob inside the US Capitol on Wednesday. 

Crow, who was an impeachment manager during the first impeachment of Trump, said it was too soon to say when a vote on impeachment might take place in the House, but it could be mid-to-late next week. 

Twitter has suspended President Trump from its platform, the company said Friday evening. 

“After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” Twitter said. 

Twitter added: “In the context of horrific events this week, we made it clear on Wednesday that additional violations of the Twitter Rules would potentially result in this very course of action.”

Read the statement:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House is prepared to move ahead with impeachment if President Trump doesn’t resign.

She said in a statement Friday that she has instructed the House Rules Committee to prepare for a meeting to approve a rule that would govern floor debate for an impeachment resolution as well as a bill Rep. Jamie Raskin has proposed to create a congressional commission that would allow the 25th Amendment to be invoked.

Read her statement:

“Today, the House Democratic Caucus had an hours-long conversation that was sad, moving and patriotic. It was a conversation unlike any other, because it followed an action unlike any other.
It is the hope of Members that the President will immediately resign. But if he does not, I have instructed the Rules Committee to be prepared to move forward with Congressman Jamie Raskin’s 25th Amendment legislation and a motion for impeachment. Accordingly, the House will preserve every option – including the 25th Amendment, a motion to impeach or a privileged resolution for impeachment.
With great respect, our deliberations will continue.”

President Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani both mistakenly made calls to Republican Sen. Mike Lee as deadly riots were unfolding at the US Capitol earlier this week, a spokesperson for the senator confirmed to CNN — calls that were intended for another GOP senator the White House was frantically trying to convince to delay the counting of Electoral College votes.  

Lee’s spokesperson said the two calls from Trump and his attorney were intended for Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a newly elected Republican from Alabama.

The effort by the White House to get Tuberville to delay certification of the votes provides insight into the President’s thinking and priorities as a mob of his supports lay siege on the iconic building.

As the President worked to convince Tuberville to delay the process, he and other top White House officials did little to check in on Vice President Mike Pence while he and members of his family were inside the Capitol when the rioters stormed it, a source close to the vice president told CNN.

Trump first called the personal cell phone of Lee, a Republican from Utah, shortly after 2 p.m. ET. At that time the senators had been evacuated from the Senate floor and were in a temporary holding room huddling in place, as a pro-Trump mob began breaching the Capitol.

Lee picked up the phone and Trump identified himself, and it became clear he was looking for Tuberville and had been given the wrong number. Lee, keeping the President on hold, went to find his colleague and handed him his phone, telling him the President was on the line and had been trying to reach him.

Tuberville spoke with Trump for less than 10 minutes, with the President trying to convince him to make additional objections to the Electoral College vote in a futile effort to block Congress’ certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s win, according to a source familiar with the call. The call was cut off because senators were asked to move to a secure location.

CNN has reached out to Tuberville’s office for comment.

The second call to Lee came in at 7 p.m. ET from Giuliani. Lee did not answer the call so it went to voicemail. Lee’s office confirmed to CNN that the voicemail was intended for Tuberville and that the message left from Giuliani was very similar to one another unnamed GOP senator received. The transcript of that call was published by the news blog emptywheel.

“Sen. Tuberville? Or I should say Coach Tuberville. This is Rudy Giuliani, the President’s lawyer,” he said according to the transcript.

“I’m calling you because I want to discuss with you how they’re trying to rush this hearing and how we need you, our Republican friends, to try to just slow it down so we can get these legislatures to get more information to you,” Giuliani said, referring to unfounded claims of voter fraud in the presidential election. 

“I know they’re reconvening at 8 tonight, but it … the only strategy we can follow is to object to numerous states and raise issues so that we get ourselves into tomorrow — ideally until the end of tomorrow.” 

Tuberville was unaware that Giuliani had tried to reach him until it was publicly reported, according to the source.

Tuberville was likely seen by Trump and Giuliani as someone who could help further their cause on Wednesday, as the Republican senator was among a group of six GOP senators who voted to sustain an objection raised against Arizona’s electoral votes, which failed 93-6.

CNN reported on Wednesday that even after Congress was reconvening that night following the riot, Trump was still urging senators to push ahead with the protest on the certification of Biden as president, according to a source familiar with the discussions.

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski is calling on President Donald Trump to resign following the riots at the Capitol on Wednesday, making her the first Republican senator to take that step.

“I think he should leave. He said he’s not going to show up. He’s not going to appear at the inauguration. He hasn’t been focused on what is going on with Covid. He’s either been golfing or he’s been inside the Oval Office fuming and throwing every single person who has been loyal and faithful to him under the bus, starting with the vice president,” Murkowski told the paper.

Republican Sen. Roy Blunt, a member of GOP leadership, said an impeachment of President Trump is “not going to happen.”

“There is no way we’re going to impeach the President. There’s not the time to do it,” the Missouri Republican said in an interview with local Kansas City TV station, KSHB.

“When (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi and (Senate Minority Leader) Chuck Schumer were talking about it, it’s obviously just another political point trying to be made. It’s disappointing. It’d be much more disappointing if people can’t through see that.” Blunt said.

House Democrats are currently planning to introduce articles of impeachment against Trump as soon as Monday, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. 

That could set up a vote in the House early to the middle of next week. Pelosi has not explicitly said when this will go to the floor. 

The Department of Justice on Friday announced that 13 people are facing federal charges stemming from a riot Wednesday at the Capitol.

The full court records have not yet been made available for all defendants and only a handful of the individuals have made court appearances. 

In addition to those who have been charged, the Justice Department says that additional complaints “have been submitted and investigations are ongoing.”

“The lawless destruction of the U.S. Capitol building was an attack against one of our Nation’s greatest institutions,” said Acting US Attorney Michael Sherwin. “My Office, along with our law enforcement partners at all levels, have been expeditiously working and leveraging every resource to identify, arrest, and begin prosecuting these individuals who took part in the brazen criminal acts at the U.S. Capitol.”

House Democrats are currently planning to introduce articles of impeachment against President Trump as soon as Monday, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. 

Here’s a portion of the latest version of the articles of impeachment that will be formally introduced by House Judiciary Democrats on Monday, provided by a Democratic source. It includes one article: “incitement of insurrection.” 

“President Trump’s conduct on January 6, 2021 was consistent with his prior efforts to subvert and obstruct the certification of the results of the 2020 presidential election. Those prior efforts include, but are not limited to, a phone call on January 2, 2021, in which President Trump urged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to ‘‘find’’ enough votes to overturn the Georgia presidential election results and threatened Mr. Raffensperger if he failed to do so. In all of this, President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of government. He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coordinate branch of government. He thereby betrayed his trust as President, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.”

The article continues:

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

One of the few things President-elect Joe Biden and President Trump have agreed on is that the latter should not attend the inauguration on Jan. 20.

“I was told on the way over here, that he indicated he wasn’t going to show up at the inauguration. One of the few things he and I have ever agreed on. It’s a good thing, him not showing up,” Biden said. “He has clearly demonstrated — he exceeded even my worst notions about him. He’s been an embarrassment to the country, embarrassed around the world, not worthy to hold that office.”

Not only will Trump not attend, a source with knowledge of her plans told CNN that first lady Melania Trump will also not attend Biden’s inauguration.

The Trumps are right now scheduled to leave Washington on Jan. 19, this source said, but cautions those plans could change.

Trump conceded publicly for the first time last night that he will not serve a second term, stopping short of congratulating Biden but acknowledging a transfer of power is now underway.

Biden was later asked about the possibility of Vice President Mike Pence attending the inauguration.

“He’s welcome,” the President-elect said, adding that he believes it is important to stick to historical precedent in the changing of an administration as possible.

“I’d be honored to have him there and to move forward in the transition,” Biden said, adding that he has not spoken with Pence.

CNN’s Sarah Mucha contributed to this report.

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Following the violent riot on the US Capitol earlier this week, President-elect Joe Biden said that since a different protection agency oversees the inauguration, he’s confident it will go off “without a hitch.”

“A totally different entity is in charge of the inauguration than was in charge of protecting the Capitol — the Secret Service,” Biden said at a news conference Friday. “I have complete confidence in the Secret Service, I have great confidence in their ability to make sure that the inauguration goes off, goes off safely and goes off without a hitch.”

Biden’s comments come as the US Capitol Police — the agency in charge of protecting the US Capitol — faces backlash for its handling of the Wednesday riot.

Today, Biden said the riot and security surrounding it must be “thoroughly investigated.”

“That has to be thoroughly investigated, the authorities responsible have to be held accountable for the failures that occurred, and we have to make sure that this can never, ever happen again,” he said.

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Asked by CNN whether he believes it is right for Congress to introduce articles of impeachment on Monday, President-elect Joe Biden refused to weigh in. 

“What the Congress decides to do is for them to decide,” he said. 

Biden said he’s thought for “a long, long time that President Trump wasn’t fit to hold the job. That’s why I ran. My job now in 12 days, God-willing, I’ll be President of the United States.” 

The President-elect said his priority right now is preparing for his new administration and that he is focused on three concerns: the virus, vaccine, and economic growth. 

“I’m focused on the virus, the vaccine and economic growth. What the Congress decides to do is for them to decide. But I’m going to have to, and they’re going to have to be ready to hit the ground running, because when Kamala and I are sworn in, we’ll be introducing immediately significant pieces of legislation to deal with the virus, deal with the economy, and deal with economic growth,” Biden said during a news conference today in Wilmington, Delaware, following the announcement of new Cabinet members.

“So we’re going to do our job, and the Congress can decide how to proceed with theirs,” Biden continued.

Biden said that he will be speaking with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer later this afternoon. 

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House Democrats are currently planning to introduce articles of impeachment against President Trump as soon as Monday, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. 

That could set up a vote in the House early to the middle of next week. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has not explicitly said when this will go to the floor. 

This would be the second time the House has unveiled articles of impeachment against President Trump.

In December 2019, the House impeached Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The Senate acquitted him on both charges last February.

Vice President Mike Pence tweeted that he and the second lady were “deeply saddened to learn of the passing of US Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick and send our deepest sympathies and prayers to his family, friends and fellow officers.”

Pence goes on to write Sicknick was “American hero who gave his life defending our Capitol.”

President Trump has not commented specifically on the death of Sicknick at the hands of insurrectionists he incited, however the White House released a statement through deputy press secretary Judd Deere.

“Anytime a member of law enforcement dies in the line of duty it is a solemn reminder to us all that they run toward danger to maintain peace. The President and the entire Administration extend our prayers to Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick’s family as we all grieve the loss of this American hero,” Deere said in a statement to CNN.

See Pence’s tweets:

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he believes President Trump should resign.

“I believe President Trump should resign. I believe if he doesn’t resign, I believe he should be impeached,” he said at a news conference Friday.

Cuomo said he calls upon every New York federal official to call for Trump’s resignation so that the country may be spared another impeachment process.  

“The question will always be, what did you do when Washington anarchy descended?” he asked. “What did you do at that moment? And you’ll live with the consequences.”

Cuomo described Wednesday’s events at the US Capitol Building as “horrific.”

“This was the result of a leader, who for four years actually appealed to the worst in people, appealed to fear and racism and discrimination, appealed to people’s fear of different people,” he said. “When you demonize differences, you literally tear the fabric of this nation apart.”

Cuomo also expressed shock at the security failures that allowed a mob of Trump supporters to breach the Capitol. 

“From a security point of view, I’m shocked at what they allowed to happen,” Cuomo said. “If you look at this, any bunch of thugs, any mob can literally take over the government, which is what they did.”

On a conference call with Democrats, House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff discussed what would happen with the Senate impeachment trial if the House impeaches President Trump, according to multiple sources on the call. 

Since Republicans are unlikely to hold a trial before Jan. 20, Senate Democrats would be able to hold a trial after Jan. 20 once they officially take the majority.

That could be awkward for the Biden administration as the new President tries to unite the country and focus on the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Also, Schiff noted a Senate trial after Trump leaves would present a messaging challenge since they are arguing now he is an imminent threat to the republic. But Schiff argued it would still be valid as a constitutional act and convicting Trump after leaving office would be important to prevent him from running again, they said. 

Rep. Jamie Raskin also laid out the realities of impeachment and the 25th Amendment.

Raskin said the 25th Amendment could happen via the Cabinet and Vice President Mike Pence, but added that there’s another route: Congress could create a commission, a majority of which could then vote to remove Trump. If Pence consents, he is removed. But they recognize that is unlikely to happen with the time left and that Pence is unlikely to go along. But there was talk about passing such a bill to create a commission to keep the pressure on Trump.

In terms of timing for an impeachment vote, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi hasn’t explicitly said, but did say she would consult with House Rules Chairman Jim McGovern about the process. They are considering allowing the Rules Committee to act first but that committee hasn’t been formally organized yet.

Derrick Evans, a West Virginia state legislator who recorded himself storming the Capitol on Wednesday, faces criminal charges, US officials said.

Evans has been charged in a criminal complaint with entering restricted area and entering the US Capitol, said Ken Kohl, a top official in the US attorney’s office for Washington, DC.

President-elect Joe Biden began his Cabinet announcements Friday by expressing condolences for the Capitol Police officer who died in the line of duty following the insurgence on Capitol Hill, saying that the people who are responsible should be held accountable. 

“Our sympathies and our concerns go out to his family, and the people responsible should be held accountable, and they will be,” Biden said in Wilmington, Delaware.

The officer, Brian D. Sicknick, was injured Wednesday when a mob of President Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol.

He died at approximately 9:30 p.m. ET Thursday “due to injuries sustained while on-duty,” Capitol Police officials said in a statement.

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President-elect Joe Biden is speaking now from Wilmington, Delaware, where he is introducing another round of Cabinet picks.

Biden is nominating Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo as his pick for commerce secretary, and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh for labor secretary.

The two picks mark the completion of Biden’s announcements for his Cabinet secretary nominees, less than two weeks from the President-elect’s inauguration.

The only outstanding pick for a top-level position is CIA director.

Last night, Trump acknowledged publicly for the first time that he will not serve a second term, stopping short of congratulating Biden but acknowledging a transfer of power is now underway.

Today’s Cabinet announcements come just days after pro-Trump supporters stormed and breached the US Capitol. Five people are dead, including a US Capitol Police officer, after Trump urged his supporters to fight against the ceremonial counting of the electoral votes in Congress, repeating lies about the election being stolen from him and promising to join them.

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. 

“Just because you’ve left the DC region, you can still expect a knock on the door if we find out you were part of the criminal activity at the Capitol,” said Steven D’Antuono, assistant director in Charge Washington field office.

“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.”

“Impeaching the President with just 12 days left in his term will only divide our country more,” he said in the statement.

“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.

“This morning, I spoke to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley to discuss available precautions for preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike,” Pelosi wrote. “The situation of this unhinged President could not be more dangerous, and we must do everything that we can to protect the American people from his unbalanced assault on our country and our democracy.”

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.

“The President chose to be an insurrectionist,” Pelosi said, according to a source on the call. “Impeachment encourages conversation on the 25th Amendment. That’s picked up a lot of steam.”  

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.

The Senate Homeland Security and Rules committees jointly announced they will hold hearings on the security failures ahead of the attack on the Capitol on Wednesday.

“An attack on the Capitol Building is an attack on every American. We plan to conduct oversight and hold bipartisan hearings on these horrific events, and work together to make the necessary reforms to ensure this never happens again,” the chairman and ranking members of the two committees wrote in a statement. 

US Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund resigned yesterday following criticism over his apparent lack of preparedness to deal with Wednesday’s violent mob.  

The House Appropriations and Administration committees, which both have oversight of the Capitol Police, say they intend to investigate the riots, and multiple congressional aides said “heads should roll” at the Capitol over the security failures.  

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.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told members in a letter that she spoke to the chairman of the joint chiefs about President Trump and the nuclear codes.

“This morning, I spoke to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley to discuss available precautions for preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike,” Pelosi wrote. “The situation of this unhinged President could not be more dangerous, and we must do everything that we can to protect the American people from his unbalanced assault on our country and our democracy.”

In the letter she also thanks members following Wednesday’s insurrection, shared the news of USCP officer Brian Sicknick’s death following the breach, and that she hopes to hear from Pence “as soon as possible” about removing Trump from office. 

“Nearly fifty years ago, after years of enabling their rogue President, Republicans in Congress finally told President Nixon that it was time to go. Today, following the President’s dangerous and seditious acts, Republicans in Congress need to follow that example and call on Trump to depart his office – immediately. If the President does not leave office imminently and willingly, the Congress will proceed with our action,” Pelosi wrote. 

The letter also announced that there will be a letter coming from the Office of the Attending Physician and the Office of the Employee Assistance about resources available to members for responding to trauma in the wake of Wednesday’s attack. 

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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a news conference today that the “current president” incited the violent rioters that stormed the Capitol on Wednesday.

“What we witnessed was an assault on democracy by violent rioters, incited by the current president and other politicians. As shocking and deeply disturbing and frankly, saddening as that event remains, we’ve also seen this week that democracy is resilient in America, our closest ally and neighbor. Violence has no place in our societies and extremists will not succeed in overruling the will of the people,” Trudeau said.

Trudeau is among other American allies that have decried the attack against the Capitol.

Outside lawyers are being sought for consultation by the White House about the prospect of a last minute, rapid impeachment of President Trump, a source familiar with the matter said. 

The source said at this point lawyers advising the White House believe there is not enough time logistically for Democrats to move articles of impeachment out of the House and into the hands of Senators for a speedy removal of the president before January 20th. But the source said lawyers for the president have started to game out the impeachment possibility as the likelihood of the vice president and Cabinet invoking the 25th Amendment seems remote. 

The source added the President’s attorneys have been consulted about the language used in Trump’s video messages in the aftermath of the Capitol riots. During that process, White House counsel Pat Cippolone and chief of staff Mark Meadows went to Trump to urge him to record the videos to save his presidency and hold off efforts to remove him from office. 

The White House is in “crisis management” mode following the siege at the Capitol, the source said. 

“The lawyers are involved,” the source said. 

Meetings have been almost non-stop inside the White House to hash out plans to bring the Trump presidency to an end in the least chaotic way possible, the source said. 

“Can you land the plane with 12 days left,” the source said, summing up the goal of the remaining staffers and advisers around the president. 

As questions continue to arise over the potential security ramifications after the Capitol building was stormed on Wednesday, Rep. Jim Clyburn, a Democrat from South Carolina, told reporters on a call today that his iPad was stolen during the breach. 

A spokesperson for Clyburn now tells CNN that the iPad has been found and was not stolen.

Some lawmakers have reported that they had items stolen, Sen. Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon, said rioters who ransacked his office at the US Capitol stole a laptop that was on a table.

According to authorities, multiple senators’ offices were hit during the breach of the Capitol.

“This is probably going to take several days to flesh out exactly what happened, what was stolen, what wasn’t,” said Michael Sherwin, acting US attorney for the District of Columbia, said on a call with reporters Thursday afternoon. “Items, electronic items, were stolen from senators’ offices. Documents, materials, were stolen, and we have to identify what was done, mitigate that, and it could have potential national security equities. If there was damage, we don’t know the extent of that yet.”

Why this matters: The thefts raise questions about Congress’s cybersecurity posture and whether US officials have done enough to secure their computing devices and networks from direct, physical access.

Three former American presidents do plan to be in attendance for the inauguration of Joe Biden on Jan. 20, officials say, with Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and George W. Bush all making plans to be in Washington for the official transfer of power.

With President Trump making it clear today that he will not attend, an official tells CNN that Bush, Clinton and Obama all plan to attend. Jimmy Carter is unable to travel.

All four living former presidents derided the rioters who forced an evacuation of the House and Senate chambers of the Capitol in strongly worded statements that stressed the need for a peaceful transfer of power.

The attack on the Capitol has raised security concerns ahead of inauguration.

Less than 24 hours after saying she would resign following the attack on the Capitol, outgoing Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao has posted a farewell video.

In a three-minute video posted to YouTube and tweeted from her official account, Chao thanked employees and said she is “especially proud” of the Department of Transportation’s response to the Covid-19 crisis which “will be remembered as one of the department’s finest moments.” 

DOT never mandated mask-wearing on airlines and other transportation systems, despite calls from unions and airlines for increased federal help and leaving carriers to draft their own policies. 

Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, has been tapped to lead the department under President-elect Biden, who has said he will mandate masks on all forms of transportation. 

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said in a Twitter thread on Friday impeaching President Trump in his final days would “do more harm than good,” adding that it would be “unsuccessful” in the Senate.

“If Speaker Pelosi pushes impeachment in the last days of the Trump presidency it will do more harm than good. I’m hopeful President-elect Biden sees the damage that would be done from such action,” one of the tweets said.

Graham said that it is “time to heal and move on.”

“Any attempt to impeach President Trump would not only be unsuccessful in the Senate but would be a dangerous precedent for the future of the presidency. It will take both parties to heal the nation,” he said in the tweets.

Some context: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her leadership team ran through their options Thursday night and the overwhelming sentiment was impeachment was the way forward, according to multiple sources.

One representative said that articles of impeachment could be voted on “as early as mid-next week.” 

See Graham’s tweets:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ordered that the flags at the US Capitol to be flown at half-staff due to the death of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, according to a tweet from Pelosi’s Deputy Chief of Staff Drew Hammill.

Capitol Police released a statement saying Sicknick died Thursday night “due to injuries sustained while on-duty.”

Sicknick was injured while physically engaging with the rioters and collapsed after returning to his division office. “He was taken to a local hospital where he succumbed to his injuries,” the Capitol Police statement said.

Sicknick joined the USCP in July 2008, and most recently served in the Department’s First Responder’s Unit.

President Trump will not attend the peaceful transfer of power to President-elect Joe Biden on Capitol Hill in 12 days, he confirms in a tweet.

He just tweeted this:

Additionally, a source with knowledge of her plans, tells CNN that first lady Melania Trump will also not attend Biden’s inauguration.

The Trumps are right now scheduled to leave Washington on Jan. 19, this source says, but cautions those plans could always change.

Trump conceded publicly for the first time last night that he will not serve a second term, stopping short of congratulating President-elect Joe Biden but acknowledging a transfer of power is now underway.

“A new administration will be inaugurated on January 20,” Trump said in the video, which was taped at the White House. “My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power.”

A White House adviser in discussions with senior officials said Trump recorded the video only because his presidency is threatened by looming resignations and potential impeachment.

GOP Rep. French Hill says while he thinks President Trump bears responsibility for inciting the rioters to storm the US Capitol, the same does not apply for his fellow Republican members of Congress who voted to object to the election results in line with the President’s claims of voter fraud.

Despite the courts and former Attorney General Bill Barr finding no cases of widespread voting irregularities, representatives “were trying to represent the views of their constituents on the House floor, that they were concerned about election integrity,” he said.

He added:

However, he did not support impeaching Trump.

The focus should be on “having a safe, sound and appropriate transfer of power at noon on Jan. 20, instead of calling all the attention to the passions of the House over this next 12 days to pursue another impeachment.”

Watch more:

White House Counsel Pat Cipollone is considering resigning, two sources familiar tell CNN.

Since the election, he had considered resigning multiple times, but has been urged to stay for the good of the country by members of the Senate and the Cabinet.

“He’s there out of a sense of duty,” one source said.

Despite being at loggerheads with the President in recent weeks, he has been influential behind the scenes this week with having the national guard deployed and encouraging Trump to be more forceful in his statements.

Cipollone was also among those advising the President that he could be removed from office – via the 25th Amendment or impeachment – if he did not more forcefully denounce the actions of his supporters who attacked the US Capitol. He had also pushed backed on the legality of strategies Trump floated with other attorneys, such as Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, as a means to disputing the 2020 presidential election results.

“Pat is a true public servant dedicated to the rule of law and his country,” another source close to Cipollone said. 

Some context: Cipollone’s exit would add to a growing list of Trump administration officials, which now includes Cabinet members, who have resigned from their government roles since the Capitol siege.

Cipollone defended the President during his first impeachment proceedings, but his potential exit raises questions about who would represent Trump if current impeachment talks pick up steam. Cipollone’s participation is now highly unlikely. 

House Judiciary Committee aides are consulting with the authors of one of the Democratic impeachment resolutions – Reps. David Cicilline, Jamie Raskin and Ted Lieu – in order to prepare for a potential impeachment vote on the House floor next week, according to three sources.

The aides are helping to edit and fine-tune the impeachment resolution, the sources said, which includes the charge of “inciting an insurrection.”

Some background: The aides are helping to ready the impeachment resolution so House Democrats can move quickly to the floor if they decide to move forward and vote to impeach President Trump following the Trump-incited riots at the Capitol.

The resolution from Cicilline, Raskin and Lieu appears to be the vehicle that would be used for impeachment, and it has 120 co-sponsors so far. House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler said Thursday that he supported bypassing his committee and moving impeachment articles straight to the floor.

GOP Sen. Ben Sasse told CBS Morning News he’d consider any articles of impeachment from the House.

“The House, if they come together and have a process, I will definitely consider whatever articles they might move because, as I’ve told you, I believe the President has disregarded his oath of office,” he said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her leadership team ran through their options Thursday night, and the overwhelming sentiment was impeachment was the way forward, according to multiple sources.

Sasse is among Republicans who opposed actions to object to the Electoral College.

Hear Sen. Sasse’s comments this morning:

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More than 60 Democrats, led by Reps. Dean Phillips, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Tom Malinowski, sent a letter to Democratic leaders asking they reconvene and work to impeach President Trump following the breach of the Capitol on Wednesday. 

“We could take up the question of whether President Trump should be censured or impeached for encouraging a violent attack on the United States Congress, as well as Representative Raskin’s proposal that Congress appoint a body, as provided by the 25th Amendment, to determine whether the President is fit to discharge the powers and duties of his office,” the members added.

The House is out of session today.

Republican sources have told CNN they do want President Trump removed before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20. Two members have told CNN they would consider voting for impeachment if the articles of impeachment seem reasonable.

“We experienced the attack; we don’t need long hearings on what happened,” one of those sources said.

Some background: House Democrats are furious at Trump and are quickly building momentum to move on impeachment of Trump in the next several days – as soon as the middle of next week.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her leadership team ran through their options Thursday night and the overwhelming sentiment was impeachment was the way forward, according to multiple sources.

While there were some dissenters concerned that the move could be perceived as an overreach and turn off Trump supporters in their districts, the view among most top Democrats — including Pelosi — is that Trump should be held accountable for his actions.

CNN’s Manu Raju reports from Capitol Hill: 

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Former White House Communications Director Alyssa Farah said President Trump lied to the American people about the 2020 presidential election and he should “seriously consider” resigning.  

Farah told CNN this morning that the President and his advisers are directly responsible for inciting the mob at the Capitol. She said it’s “unacceptable” that Trump didn’t more forcefully tell rioters to leave the Capitol grounds. 

“They allowed this myth, this lie, to take a life of its own that the election might be overturned,” she said on CNN’s “New Day.”

When asked directly if Trump lied to the American people, Farah said “he did, on the election.”

“People around him know better. We know that the results were not going to be overturned. We knew that it was a stunt to carry this on for days longer,” she said.

Farah told CNN’s John Berman that she’d feel safer if President Trump resigned from office and Vice President Mike Pence took over.

“I think that it’s something he should seriously consider. I don’t think that when you’ve got just a number of days left, there’s any need to carry on kind of the charade of an impeachment, the people’s house needs to get back to work,” she added.

Farah, who resigned in December, also explained why she left her post. 

“I had growing concerns about the fact that I felt like we were misleading the public with this endeavor to say that the election was stolen,” she said. 

Watch part of Alyssa Farah’s interview on CNN:

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A US Capitol police officer died Thursday from injuries sustained after a mob of President Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday.

A federal murder probe has now been opened to investigate the officer’s death.

Four other people died Wednesday during the stunning attack at the heart of American democracy as mob members vandalized the building and assaulted police officers. One woman was fatally shot by police and three people died of apparent medical emergencies.

Here’s what we know about the people who died:

Read more here,

President Trump’s top aides delivered a blunt warning to him Thursday as he sat sullenly in the West Wing and watched as his Republican allies, Cabinet secretaries and former senior staffers criticized or denounced him one by one.

The President’s daughter and adviser, Ivanka Trump, White House counsel Pat Cipollone, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and others told Trump that there was a real chance he would be removed from office — whether by his own Cabinet or lawmakers — if he did not more forcefully denounce the actions of his supporters the day before.

Trump did not initially want to issue a video decrying the loyalists, whose actions he largely supported, but he told aides to prepare a speech and then he would decide.

Once he read over the brief speech they had prepared, Trump agreed to record it Thursday evening, a relief to the senior staff, though there are still concerns he could backtrack during his final days in office given his actual position — that he lost the election unfairly —has not changed.

Prosecutors in the US Attorney’s office plan to open a federal murder investigation into the death of Brian D. Sicknick, a US Capitol Police officer who died Thursday night, a law enforcement official says.

Sicknick was injured Wednesday when a mob of President Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol.

He died at approximately 9:30 p.m. ET Thursday “due to injuries sustained while on-duty,” Capitol Police officials said in a statement. 

CNN previously reported that the death was being investigated by the DC Metropolitan Police Department’s Homicide branch, the US Capitol Police and their federal partners.

President Trump, having now publicly conceded he will no longer serve a second term, had begun contemplating how he will spend his final days in the White House, according to people familiar with the matter.

Aides still have a long list of executive actions they are hoping he will sign in his waning days, including one teed up on buy-American provisions. There is talk of a trip next week to view progress on the border wall, one of Trump’s proudest achievements. And a raft of pardons, including potentially for himself, are expected in the coming days.

Aides are still discussing a farewell address or interview. Trump’s highly-scripted video acknowledging he will be leaving the White House is the tone his advisers hope he will stick with as he leaves office.

Trump called off a visit to Camp David this weekend, which would likely have been his final time at the presidential retreat. He had been planning to go before the riots but decided Thursday, amid questions about resignations and Cabinet defections, to remain in Washington. Other “lasts” are still up in the air, like his final flight aboard Air Force One.

Trump must also decide soon when and how he wants to depart the White House. Officials still do not expect him to attend the inauguration, though he has been asking advisers whether he should. To some he has signaled that it’s not ruled out.

At this point he is expected to go to Mar-a-Lago, despite his displeasure (first reported by CNN’s Kate Bennett) at the renovations there.

As he contested the results of the election, Trump refused to engage in discussions about how he wanted to spend his final days in the White House, or what he wanted to do afterward.

Officials are eager those conservations can now begin, hopeful to spend some time focusing on Trump’s “legacy,” even though many inside the building believe it will be irrevocably tarred by his behavior that led to this week’s riots.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her leadership team spoke last night about whether to hold a quick impeachment vote, and the overwhelming sentiment was to move ahead, according to multiple sources.

While there were some dissenters concerned that the move could be perceived as an overreach and turn off Trump supporters in their districts, the view among most top Democrats — including Pelosi — is that Trump should be held accountable for his actions.

The full Democratic caucus will speak today at noon ET.

Remember: Moving ahead with impeachment, of course, doesn’t mean Congress would be able to remove Trump from office.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell could let the clock run out and not hold an impeachment trial in his chamber given that Joe Biden will be President on Jan. 20.

McConnell, sources said, hasn’t spoken to Trump for weeks — fallout from McConnell acknowledging Biden won the presidency in mid-December.

Hear Pelosi’s remarks on impeachment and removing Trump from office:

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The FBI Washington Field Office has tweeted a bulletin seeking help identifying ten individuals who the agency says made unlawful entry into the Capitol on Wednesday.

The alert includes pictures of the ten people.

See the tweet:

President Trump conceded publicly for the first time Thursday that he will not serve a second term, stopping short of congratulating President-elect Joe Biden but acknowledging a transfer of power is now underway.

“A new administration will be inaugurated on January 20,” Trump said in a pre-recorded video taped at the White House. “My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power.”

Trump’s recognition of his loss comes two months after the fact and amid growing calls for either his removal from office or a fresh impeachment. It also came as legal questions swirled about his culpability for inciting rioters who invaded the US Capitol a day earlier.

In the video, released more than 24 hours after Wednesday’s riot, Trump made calls for “healing and reconciliation” and said the country must move forward.

But he also misstated his role in activating the National Guard to combat his supporters who stormed the Capitol, who only a day earlier he called “special.”

Earlier Thursday, Trump issued a dark-of-night statement vowing an “orderly transition,” which came about in part to stanch a wave of resignations from within the West Wing and the broader administration, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Democratic Rep. Katherine Clark, assistant House speaker, said that if Vice President Mike Pence and the Cabinet do not invoke the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump from office, lawmakers will quickly move forward with impeachment. 

“Donald Trump needs to be removed from office. And we are going to proceed with every tool that we have to make sure that that happens to protect our democracy,” Clark told CNN’s John Berman. 

Clark said that articles of impeachment could be voted on “as early as mid-next week.” 

“We know that we have limited time, but that every day that Donald Trump is President of the United States is a day of grave danger. We can use procedural tools to get articles of impeachment to the floor for a House vote quickly,” she said. 

It is “highly unlikely” that Pence would pursue the 25th Amendment path at this point, a source close to the vice president told CNN.

Watch:

House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, as rioters were overrunning the Capitol Building, engaged in a “heated exchange” with President Trump as He pushed them to denounce the attack, according to a source briefed on the back and forth.

McCarthy, Trump’s closest ally and confidante on Capitol Hill, was impressing on Trump the real-time severity of the situation and implored him to forcefully denounce the attackers. Trump demurred, leading to a heated back and forth.

Leadership had been evacuated to an undisclosed location, as other lawmakers were still in the process of being evacuated — all as the Capitol corridors had been breached and filled with attackers.

Punchbowl News first reported the McCarthy-Trump exchange.

McCarthy’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. McCarthy, when Congress reconvened after the attack, later voted to object to the counting of electors from the states of Arizona and Pennsylvania - an effort Trump touted as a way to overturn the election results.

Despite weeks of planning between federal and local police agencies ahead of Wednesday’s Trump rally—including tracking social media—officials said that going into Wednesday they had no intelligence indicating there was a threat the US Capitol could be overrun.

It would turn out to be a catastrophic failure after an angry mob overwhelmed police and stormed into the Capitol building, ransacking lawmakers’ offices, injuring dozens of officers and stealing electronics and documents that could possibly include sensitive national security information. Five people died during the riots, including a woman shot by US Capitol Police and a Capitol Police officer.

During conference calls that included federal agencies and the city’s police ahead of the rally, federal law enforcement officials say the US Capitol Police assured counterparts they had the situation under control—they knew how to deal with large demonstrations at the Capitol, in large part because the complex was already being prepared for Inauguration Day, one of the most secure events in the city, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Federal and local officials said Thursday they did not have intelligence suggesting any violent mob was preparing to attack the Capitol, even as demonstrators were publicly saying on social media they were not planning a typical protest.

Despite weeks of preparations, “obviously, what happened no one anticipated,” Michael Sherwin, acting US Attorney for the District of Columbia, told reporters in a telephone press conference Thursday. “Things could have been done better.”

Of course, there were reports of violence when Trump’s backers had come to town last month, and the FBI was monitoring everything from social media to the hotels where some of the rioters were staying. One sign of the preparations came in the days before the rally, when, acting on the FBI’s intelligence information, Washington’s Metropolitan Police arrested Enrique Tarrio, leader of the Proud Boys, after he left the airport en route to his hotel.

Read the full story here.

After violent pro-Trump rioters stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday, a growing number of Republican leaders and Cabinet officials told CNN that they believe Donald Trump should be removed from office before Jan. 20.

Some of them called for the 25th Amendment to be invoked — as has at least one GOP lawmaker, Rep. Adam Kinzinger.

The amendment has periodically been discussed as a means of last resort to remove a rogue or incapacitated president.

Here’s what you need to know about the amendment: