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Impeachment proceedings 1/13/21 9am - 2p approx EST
You can watch a livestream here on Deadline. Check it out above.
CNN is taking down its paywall for a free livestream from 9 a.m.-7 p.m. ET, so the hearing can be viewed for free at its website and app. CBS News also is providing a livestream on its digital outlets and on YouTube.
Cable news nets Fox News Channel and MSNBC also are expected to go live with their coverage on TV, the internet and their apps. Social-networking outlets including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube also will provide live coverage.
Elsewhere, PBS NewsHour will air The Second Impeachment of President Trump, A PBS NewsHour Special starting at 9 a.m. ET, which will include live coverage of the proceedings. Managing editor Judy Woodruff will anchor the programming with contributions from White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor, Capitol Hill correspondent Lisa Desjardins and guests. The coverage will extend to PBS NewsHour’s digital and social platforms.
Impeachment commentary
On McConnell’s change of position with Trump - it’s the money that supports the party
Republicans who hold onto Trump/Trumpism
Run up to the Jan 6th 2021
Republicans voting against Trump
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Preparing for next week’s inauguration…
Good move on AirBnB…
Airbnb, one of the biggest players in the short-term rental market, will cancel all reservations made in the Washington area next week and block new rentals, the company announced in a statement on Wednesday.
The decision came after the police and elected officials warned Americans not to travel to Washington for the inauguration of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., citing the risk of the spread of the coronavirus and the threat of another attack similar to last week’s violent siege at the Capitol.
Law enforcement authorities have warned of threats of violence ahead of the inauguration on Jan. 20, and National Guard troops have flooded Washington in response. On Monday, the leaders of the District of Columbia, Virginia and Maryland issued a joint statement telling potential visitors not to travel to the area, citing both the coronavirus pandemic and the riot.
Already, 16 groups — some of them armed and most of them supporters of President Trump — have registered to stage protests in Washington, though Mayor Muriel Bowser has asked federal officials to cancel any public gathering permits issued.
This week, Airbnb said it would review reservations in the Washington area and cancel those it determined were made by members associated with extremist or hate groups. On Wednesday, it said it would take the broader step of canceling all reservations in response to pleas for people not to attend.
Ms. Bowser and the governors of Virginia and Maryland “have been clear that visitors should not travel to the D.C. metro area for the Inauguration,” the company said in a statement. “Additionally, we are aware of reports emerging yesterday afternoon regarding armed militias and known hate groups that are attempting to travel and disrupt the inauguration.”
Airbnb said it would refund guests for their reservations and reimburse hosts at its own expense.
The company declined to say how many reservations would be canceled, the dates the cancellation policy would be in effect or how far from Washington its policy would apply.
But two Airbnb hosts who contacted the company about the status of existing reservations were told by customer service representatives that Airbnb was canceling reservations that started on or after Jan. 15 and ended by Jan. 21, according to screenshots provided to The New York Times.
Airbnb also said it had banned “numerous individuals” associated with known hate groups or otherwise involved with the mob at the Capitol. It declined to provide more details.
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As a mob raided the Capitol, a Capitol Police officer gave them directions to Chuck Schumer’s office, per this Times report: “But they could not find Mr. Schumer’s office. He said they asked a Capitol Police officer, who tried to direct them.”
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DJT…issues statement during his Impeachment trial. Just WORDS. All empty. CYA only.
As Wednesday’s floor debate was underway, Trump issued a statement calling for there to be no violence at any of the protests that are expected to take place during the week of Biden’s inauguration.
“In light of reports of more demonstrations, I urge that there must be NO violence, NO lawbreaking and NO vandalism of any kind,” Trump said in the statement, which was first reported by Fox News. “That is not what I stand for, and it is not what America stands for. I call on ALL Americans to help ease tensions and calm tempers. Thank You.”
According to Fox News, the White House will “attempt to post the statement to all of Trump’s official social media accounts.”
Twitter and Facebook have banned Trump from their platforms indefinitely, citing the risk of violence after last week’s riot at the Capitol.
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House poised to impeach Trump; McConnell leaves open the possibility of voting to convict
Jan. 13, 2021 at 12:33 p.m. PST
The House was poised Wednesday to impeach President Trump for “incitement of insurrection,” as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) left open the possibility of voting to convict at a trial. The Senate leader made clear that any trial would occur after Trump leaves office next week.
During debate on the House floor, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Trump “bears responsibility” for last week’s takeover of the Capitol but argued against impeachment so close to the end of his term. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called Trump “a clear and present danger” and said “he must go.”
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More than 30 House Democrats are demanding information from Capitol security officials about “suspicious” visitors at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 5 — a day before violent insurrectionists swarmed the building — that would only have been permitted entry by a member of Congress or a staffer.
"Many of the Members who signed this letter … witnessed an extremely high number of outside groups in the complex on Tuesday, January 5,” wrote the lawmakers, led by Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.), in a letter to the acting House and Senate sergeants-at-arms, as well as the acting head of the Capitol Police.
The lawmakers, some of who “have served in the military and are trained to recognize suspicious activity,” noted that Capitol tours have been prohibited since March as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and they said the tours were so unusual that they were reported to security on Jan. 5, ahead of the following day’s violence.
“The visitors encountered by some of the Members of Congress on this letter appeared to be associated with the rally at the White House the following day,” they wrote. “Members of the group that attacked the Capitol seemed to have an unusually detailed knowledge of the layout of the Capitol Complex. The presence of these groups within the Capitol Complex was indeed suspicious.”
They are asking the security officials to reveal whether any logbooks of visitors are available and if they include names of those admitted to the building by lawmakers. They also ask whether any law enforcement agencies have requested similar information and what limits Capitol security officials apply to visitors brought in by members.
Sherrill first raised alarms Tuesday that some members of Congress may have provided “reconnaissance” tours to would-be insurrectionists.
In a 13-minute Facebook video billed as an address to her constituents about the House’s efforts to hold President Donald Trump accountable for inciting the riot, Sherrill included the allegation as part of a call to hold Trump’s allies in Congress accountable as well.
"I also intend to see that those members of Congress who abetted him — those members of Congress who had groups coming through the capitol that I saw on Jan. 5 for reconnaissance for the next day — those members of Congress who incited the violent crowd, those members of Congress that attempted to help our president undermine our democracy, I’m going see that they’re held accountable," Sherrill said.
Sherrill did not identify the lawmakers she was referring to, how she was able to describe their activities as “reconnaissance” and how she knew they were connected to the riots that consumed the Capitol the following day. She told POLITICO on Wednesday that she’s referred her information to authorities.
We’re requesting an investigation right now with certain agencies," she said.
Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) said he’s aware of “a couple” names of colleagues who are being eyed as potentially giving tours to the would-be insurrectionists. But he said he wouldn’t name them yet.
“I’m going to wait to make sure we get verification,” Ryan told a reporter at the Capitol Wednesday.
Ryan said the information was passed to authorities as early as last Wednesday night. He said it involved “handfuls” of people who were escorted through the Capitol. Enough to know that these weren’t “one-on-one” tours or “a small family.”
“You look back on certain things and you look at it differently,” he added.
The startling allegation comes as lawmakers are still seeking answers about the extent of planning and coordination behind the Jan. 6 Trump rally that became the violent assault on the Capitol. Federal investigators say they’re pouring enormous resources into unearthing details of a potential “seditious conspiracy” and that some of the undisclosed evidence about what happened inside the Capitol will be “shocking.”
Some Democrats, like Sherrill, are also calling for punishment for the Republicans who — like Trump — delivered incendiary remarks that preceded the violence at the Capitol, as well as others who joined Trump’s effort to delegitimize the 2020 presidential election.
Letter sent to the Sargeant-at-Arms
https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000176-fd5c-d6f5-a376-ffddae400000
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I am watching the death of the Republican Party in real time. As they tally the count for impeachment, only TEN have voted for impeachment; 197 so far have voted against it.
The GOP has truly lost its way.
It’s been noted that this is the highest number of votes from a president’s own party in an impeachment in history.
It is twice the previous record of 5.
It is still not enough.
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Sobering thought…
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FFS
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Trump demands his staff not pay Giuliani’s legal fees for helping him try to overturn the election
Trump grows defiant as the White House becomes a ghost town
As he becomes the first president to be impeached twice, Trump lacks a robust response for the first time.
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From CNN Brian Steltzer Reliable Sources giving recaps of today’s activities.
The truth.
The Trump presidency is in tatters. Trump’s business is being hobbled. “That stain on the Trump brand is a blood stain,” CNN’s Jake Tapper said Wednesday afternoon.
How did it come to this? Well, I have a media-centric brain, so I view it as partly a media story. Trump’s war on the nation’s news media, his war on truth, his war on REALITY ultimately caused him to become the first US president to be impeached twice.
He relied on hyper-partisan media outlets that distorted his view of America, the world, his presidency and his own popularity. He watched and watched as his favorite TV shows deceived him and his base, further alienating Republican voters and deepening the country’s divides.
Trump followed Fox’s lead. He parroted what he heard on TV. He lied and lied, but rather than suffer the consequences, his lies were excused and supported and even celebrated by his media enablers. Ultimately, I believe, those enablers harmed him: Outlets like Fox spread bogus info about Ukraine and Joe Biden , ensnaring Trump in impeachment No. 1. The very same outlets hyped Trump’s lies about the election, denied the basic arithmetic of Biden’s victory, and encouraged the radicalized Trump base to “fight.” It’s no wonder why there were people in DC on January 6 waving One America News flags. The 1/6 attack was a riot of lies , swiftly leading to impeachment No. 2, an attempt to hold Trump accountable.
Here’s what we will never know: If his favorite media outlets had been more careful, had been more responsible, had covered the news instead of covering up the news, would Trump’s presidency have ended differently? Or was Trump always so narcissistic, so delusional, that this era’s war on truth was always destined to end with men in fatigues staging a war on the steps of the Capitol?
"It all came crashing down…"
This reporting from CNN’s Jim Acosta inspired my lead. Acosta said “a senior Trump adviser offered a stinging assessment of this second impeachment by saying the president has destroyed everything he built politically because he could never tell the truth.”
“In the end,” the anonymous adviser said, " it all came crashing down because he could never tell the truth. All because he couldn’t accept he lost."
“This will be the story you tell your kids when you lecture them about telling the truth,” the adviser added.
I sure will. But will Trump’s base?
Many Trump fans are still on board
So what are those voters hearing from their favorite media sources? Well, there’s an increasing amount of 1/6 denialism on the airwaves . At 7pm on Newsmax, Kelly said Wednesday that there’s “overwhelming” evidence that Trump “did nothing wrong” on the day of the attack. At 8pm on OAN, host Dan Ball said the Republicans who spoke out against the “political theater” of impeachment were “brave patriots.” At 9pm on Fox, Sean Hannity bashed the “ten swamp Republicans” that “went along with the stunt.” Oh, and QAnon-promoting congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said on Newsmax that she will file articles of impeachment against Biden on January 21.
My point: Trump’s brand is NOT in tatters on the channels and websites that his die-hard fans trust. Sure, some of the shine is off, but the MAGA media is much closer to Kevin McCarthy 's position than Liz Cheney 's. I just heard Mike Huckabee , on Fox, say that “this was a lynching of Donald Trump.” Some Trump voters are embarrassed by the past week’s events, but many are still fully on board the cliched “Trump train.” Don’t underestimate that…
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
– Susan Glasser with a succinct summary of the last seven days: “The bottom line is that after everything, ten House Republicans voted to impeach Trump , two Cabinet officers quit, Twitter banned Trump, Lindsey Graham got off the train and back on again, and Trump is staying in office . For a week…” (Twitter)
– New reporting from WaPo: In private, Trump has expressed anger at “longtime media defenders who have deserted him, including WSJ columnist Kimberley Strassel , and others he believes have not fiercely defended him,” including Ingraham… (WaPo)
– Yoni Appelbaum : “The House has handed McConnell and the Senate a broom. They can now sweep Trump out of office, and consign his future ambitions to the dustbin, whenever they so choose. That, in itself, is no small thing.” So what will McConnell do? (Twitter)
– Daniel Dale and Tara Subramaniam 's fact-check of the impeachment floor debate: Some of Trump’s allies used “many of the same arguments they did a year ago,” which basically boiled down to “the Democratic party is worse.” They “also perpetuated misleading narratives about the events that led up to the attack on the Capitol…” (CNN)
Three key quotes from CNNers
– Dana Bash during the floor debate: “Even after all that has happened, Republican after Republican is still defending the president and his lies about the election.”
– Anderson Cooper 's intro on Wednesday night: “There have been just four impeachments in the history of this nation. Donald John Trump now owns half of them, and [that] will follow him to his grave.” Cooper showed photos of Trump and said “that is the face that future generations of school kids will see when they go online and search the word impeachment.”
– Chris Cuomo : " Americans are being told for their safety to stay away from our capital. " So “there is no moving on. There’s no forgiving and forgetting. That would be a mistake.”
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/01/13/mikie-sherrill-reconnaissance-capitol-attack/
Lawmakers gave groups ‘reconnaissance’ tours of the Capitol one day before riots, Democratic congresswoman says
One day before a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, a Democratic lawmaker says, she saw colleagues leading groups on “reconnaissance” tours of the building.
Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) made the startling claim in a Facebook Live broadcast on Tuesday night as she accused Republicans of inciting the pro-Trump mob that vandalized the Capitol and attacked police officers.
Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot, described seeing “members of Congress who had groups coming through the Capitol that I saw on Jan. 5 for reconnaissance for the next day.”
“I’m going to see that they’re held accountable,” Sherrill added.
Sherrill did not specifically identify which lawmakers she saw leading groups through the Capitol. Her office did not immediately respond to a message from The Washington Post late Tuesday. The FBI and the U.S. Capitol Police also did not immediately respond to messages about whether the agencies are investigating the claim.
**Sherrill aired her claims the same night that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said she feared that GOP colleagues sympathetic to the rioters might give her up to the mob.** Critics have also taken aim at one freshman GOP lawmaker who tweeted out the location of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) during the chaos.
**Several Capitol Police officers have also been suspended** and more than a dozen others are being investigated for suspected ties to rioters or for showing inappropriate support for last week’s attempted insurrection.
Sherrill, a second-term lawmaker who represents northern New Jersey, spent nearly 10 years on active duty as a helicopter pilot flying missions across Europe and the Middle East.
On Tuesday, she took to Facebook Live to give her account of the Capitol attack, which left one police officer dead and more than 50 injured. One rioter was fatally shot by U.S. Capitol Police, and three Trump supporters died of medical emergencies.
That afternoon, Sherrill recounted, she learned from messages on her phone that Vice President Pence had been escorted to safety. Shortly after that, she said, Pelosi was rushed to a secure location.
“We attempted to continue the debate,” Sherrill said. “That became impossible as crowds gathered and started banging on the doors, so we were told to get out the gas masks in case we had to egress.”
Soon, Sherrill and her colleagues crouched on the floor for safety. She watched as some lawmakers called relatives “afraid that would be the last call that they ever made.” Sherrill said she called her husband to let him know she would soon walk to a safe room.
“We were worried that at every corner we would find the mob,” Sherrill said, referencing the evacuation.
Sherrill accused President Trump of inciting the attack to “ensure that we could not have a peaceful transfer of power.” She also blamed GOP lawmakers who “abetted” Trump, and “those members of Congress who incited the violent crowd, those members of Congress that attempted to help our president undermine our democracy.”
Sherrill, who voted in favor of a resolution Tuesday urging Pence to remove Trump through the 25th Amendment, vowed to hold accountable Republicans who backed the president’s false election fraud claims.
“We can’t have a democracy if members of Congress are actively helping the president overturn the election results,” she said.
It was this agitator who announced that he was helped by these three Congressmen, and these are the ones that Rep Mikie Sherrill is suggesting gave tours to the Insurrection group a day before Jan 6th Capitol Hill takeover.
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Republicans across the U.S. are siding with President Trump over Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — big time — in a new Axios-Ipsos poll.
From Axios
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House Majority Whip James Clyburn said Wednesday that “there’s a good chance that there will be a conviction in the Senate” of President Trump after he was impeached for the second time in the House.
“I think that Mitch McConnell and a few others recognize that that’s the quickest way to get him out of their hair so-to-speak,” Clyburn told CNN’s Erin Burnett. “So these articles will go over there. There will be people who will conduct the trial. Our managers will do a good job of that. They don’t have to do a good job, to tell you the truth. Just put up the videos and bring in the people who are the recipients of these phone calls. I think there will be enough on the record and so, he could very well get a conviction.”
On the timing of the impeachment trial, the Democratic lawmaker said that he wouldn’t want to see the proceedings interfere with President-elect Joe Biden’s first 100 days in office.
“I do really feel that we ought to do what’s necessary for this man not to ever run again,” Clyburn said. “But we need to do what is necessary for people’s lives to get this stored as soon as possible. I wouldn’t want to see an impeachment trial postponed that for too long.”
More context: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has signaled that he’s in favor of impeachment, a GOP source says, but he’s made it clear that the Senate trial won’t start until Biden is sworn in.
Adding
Communications from Sen Schumer - Now the Majority Leader of the Senate
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Now with more rumor swirling around, and probably so, that the Dems were targetted by the Insurgents and probably led to their offices via a ‘reconnaissance’ tour that they are suggesting was helped by the three Republican Reps, there are stiff penalties for not going through the metal detectors.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced Wednesday that starting next week, lawmakers will face hefty fines if they refuse to go through newly installed metal detectors to enter the House chamber.
Pelosi said that the House will adopt new rules when it returns to session Jan. 21 to mandate stiff fines for bypassing security: $5,000 for the first offense and $10,000 for the second. The fines will be deducted from lawmakers’ salaries.
…
Several GOP lawmakers defiantly pushed past Capitol Police and sergeant-at-arms staff into the chamber without going through the magnetometers.Members of Congress are typically given a pass on going through security in the Capitol complex if they show their lawmaker pins. But the new security measure went into effect Tuesday after last week’s attack on the Capitol by a violent mob in support of President Trump that tried to stop Congress from ratifying President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.
“To ensure compliance with Capitol Police Board regulations concerning firearms and incendiary devices, as well as to provide a safe and secure environment in which to conduct legislative business, effective immediately, all persons, including Members, are required [to] undergo security screening when entering the House chamber,” acting House Sergeant-at-Arms Timothy Blodgett wrote in a memo to lawmakers and staff.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), who has pushed for carrying a gun in the Capitol, was seen by reporters Tuesday night setting off a metal detector and declining to turn over her bag to the police for inspection.
Another House Republican, Rep. Steve Womack (Ark.), shouted at police to “get back” and "don’t touch me."
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