Nancy Pelosi will impeach Donald Trump a second time putting a stunning end to President Trump’s presidency.
The stunning end to Donald Trump’s final turbulent and traumatic days in office is hurtling. As U.S. lawmakers warn of the damage, the president could still do it before Joe Biden is inaugurated on January 20.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the House will proceed with legislation to impeach Trump an unprecedented second time. She pushes the vice president to invoke constitutional authority to force him out.
The House action could start as soon as today as pressure increases on Trump to step aside, report Lisa Mascaro, Darlene Superville, and Mary Clare Jalonick.
“We will act with urgency because this President represents an imminent threat,” Pelosi said in a letter to colleagues.
Pelosi’s leadership team will also seek a vote on a resolution calling on Vice President Mike Pence and Cabinet officials to invoke the 25th Amendment, with a full House vote expected on Tuesday.
The president is holed up at the White House, increasingly isolated after a mob rioted in the Capitol to support his false claims of election fraud. Two Republican senators have so far called for Trump to resign.
In the meantime, as Trump enters the last days of his presidency, facing a second impeachment and growing calls for his resignation, he will attempt to go on the offensive, with no plans of resigning. Instead, Trump plans to lash out against the companies that have now denied him his Twitter and Facebook megaphones.
Aides hope he will spend his last days trying to trumpet his policy accomplishments, beginning with a trip Tuesday to Alamo, Texas, to highlight his administration’s aggressive efforts to curb illegal immigration and border wall construction, Jill Colvin reports.
After the Turmoil: President-elect Biden has already been preparing for months to take on a confluence of historic crises — a pandemic that’s killed more than 374,000 Americans and a sluggish economy that’s left millions jobless. He has talked about the need for bipartisan action and unity among Americans to address these challenges. But guiding the country past the turmoil of the Trump era may be his biggest task.
armed insurrection sparked by Trump’s false allegations of voter fraud and attempts at delegitimizing Biden’s win raised questions about how exactly Biden will achieve unity in a nation so deeply divided. His best bet to achieve that unity — or move in that direction — may be to get real results with the virus and economy, Alexandra Jaffe reports.
Republicans Analysis: At the heart of the violent insurrection was a lie that was allowed to fester and flourish by many of the same Republicans now condemning Trump for whipping his supporters into a frenzy with his false attacks on the integrity of the election. The response from some of those officials now? They didn’t think it would come to this. Republicans coming to grips with the intense fallout now face the prospect of a second impeachment proceeding as the president prepares to leave office, Washington Bureau Chief Julie Pace writes.
Fomenting Violence: Trump left plenty of clues he’d try to burn the place down on his way out the door. The clues spread over a lifetime of refusing to acknowledge defeat. They spanned a presidency marked by raw, angry rhetoric, puffed-up conspiracy theories, and a fellowship with “patriots” drawn from the seething ranks of right-wing extremists. The clues piled on at light speed when Trump lost the election and wouldn’t admit it. For four years, Trump has indulged and sometimes encouraged fringe groups, advancing their conspiracy theories. They stepped forward as his foot soldiers when he exhorted them to go to the Capitol and fight, Calvin Woodward and Deb Riechmann report.
Capitol Virus Spread: House lawmakers may have been exposed to someone testing positive for COVID-19 while they sheltered at an undisclosed location during the siege.
Lawmakers were taken to that location as a violent mob loyal to Trump ransacked the Capitol. The Capitol’s attending physician notified all lawmakers of the potential virus exposure and urged them to be tested. The infected individual wasn’t named. Some lawmakers and staff were furious after a video surfaced of Republican lawmakers not wearing their masks in the room during the lockdown.
The Backlash: Republicans in Congress who voted against certifying Biden’s presidential victory, even after the mob siege, have been denounced by critics in their home districts. Protesters, newspaper editorial boards, and local-level Democrats demand that they resign or be ousted by their congressional colleagues, Jeffrey Collins reports.
Making Sense of it All: Americans watched as the Capitol’s hallowed chambers were overrun and defiled by a mob of their own fellow citizens. They tried to Make Sense of it in letters to the editor and posts on social media. In Iowa, a lifelong Republican mourned the shredding of the country’s political norms. Also, in Tennessee, a pastor and activist wondered if the rioters’ behavior might bring change. In Mississippi, a young teacher worried about what her students will make of the violence. Days later, their anger, fear, and uncertainties still linger.
Social Media Bans: Though stripped of his Twitter bullhorn, Trump does have alternative options of much smaller reach led by the far right-friendly Parler. But Parler has already had its wings clipped, with Google and Apple removing it from their online stores, and Amazon booted it off its web-hosting service. Free speech experts anticipate growing pressure on all social media platforms to curb incendiary speech as Americans reel and learn from the violent siege, Frank Bajak reports.
Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger compared the mob that stormed the Capitol to the Nazis and called Trump a failed leader who “will go down in history as the worst president ever.” The Republican said in a video that “Wednesday was the Night of Broken Glass right here in the United States.” In 1938, Nazis in Germany and Austria vandalized Jewish homes, schools, and businesses during an attack that became known as Kristallnacht or “the Night of Broken Glass.”
PGA Championship-Trump: The PGA of America has voted to leave Trump National Golf Club for its PGA Championship event next year following the nation’s Capitol’s insurrection. The PGA had agreed in 2014 to take the ’22 PGA to Trump’s course in New Jersey, Doug Ferguson reports.
