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Top Democrats have demanded that Donald Trump be removed from the presidency after inciting a violent insurrection (smart), Trump administration officials have chosen the bravest possible moment to resign, and the GOP senators who led the coup have just kind of gone about their day? Anyway, it’s all a big misunderstanding, the real culprit was Antifa.
- Almost-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have joined calls for Trump’s immediate removal from office, urging Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment, with Congress prepared to impeach Trump again if the Cabinet refuses to act. (WhyNotBoth.gif.) “While it’s only 13 days left, any day can be a horror show for America,” said Pelosi, correctly, before putting the ball in Pence’s court. House Democrats have drafted articles of impeachment that allege Trump willfully incited violence against the government, and Pence reportedly does not support invoking the 25th amendment to depose Trump.
- Congress should thus begin impeachment proceedings right away, particularly now that it has certified the presidential election results (congratulations to Joe Biden on his 3694th victory). Several GOP senators backed off of their plan to object to the vote count after domestic terrorists drunk on the conspiracy theories they peddled invaded their workplace, while Sen. Josh “Ivy League Everyman” Hawley (R-Fascism) and five others proudly learned nothing from the experience. More than 120 House Republicans still backed objections to Biden’s victory, hours after finding themselves hiding under desks with gas masks on. Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani blessed us with one last humiliating/seditious voicemail mishap for the road.
- Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) used his time on the House floor to baselessly claim that Antifa agents had secretly infiltrated the Capitol mob, skating right by the many photos and videos of recognizable Trump supporters saying, “haha, it is me, I am doing this.” (Speaking of which, the police would like some help identifying the QAnon celebrities that everyone on the internet instantly identified.) Gaetz and other right-wing figures pushing the same lie cited a Washington Times article, which cited a facial recognition company, which said the whole story is made up and demanded an apology and retraction. Naturally, a Morning Consult poll found that one in five Republicans already believes that Antifa stormed the Capitol.
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Outside of Congress, some long-time Trump enablers are shocked—shocked!—that the president who refused to condemn white supremacy and governed based on self-interest alone would send a bunch of white supremacists to do a violent coup in his name.
- The death toll on Capitol Hill has climbed to five—Capitol Police shot one woman trying to infiltrate the Speaker’s Lobby, and three people died from “medical emergencies.” A Capitol police officer has also succumbed to injuries inflicted on him by a rioter. In the hours since, a number of Trump administration officials (including Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, wife of Mitch McConnell) have taken a good hard look at the calendar and announced their resignations. There are few things harder than stepping down two weeks before your job would be over anyway, and we salute these profiles in courage. Unfortunately, the damage they helped inflict is done. Here’s the president of Zimbabwe using Wednesday’s chaos to undercut the U.S.’s credibility as a voice for democracy around the world: “Yesterday’s events showed that the U.S. has no moral right to punish another nation under the guise of upholding democracy.” Maybe we can just remind global anti-democratic forces that Melania’s chief of staff resigned?
- Elsewhere on the Bare Minimum Bandwagon, Facebook has banned Trump from posting through at least the end of his term. That decision came after Facebook silenced its own employees on Wednesday for demanding action, and, you know, spent the last decade or so nurturing the conspiracy theorists and white supremacists who were always marching straight towards violence. Shopify has also shut down Trump’s online stores, the kind of punishment a failed steak salesman can understand.
Democratic leaders are right that Trump must be removed from office to prevent him from turning his last two weeks into a horror show. But long-term harm reduction will require accountability for all involved: From Trump, to Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Josh Hawley, to the lawmakers who voted to subvert democracy, to the right-wing conspiracy machine, to the domestic terrorists who were allowed to saunter back to their hotels, to the police who allowed them. It shouldn’t be controversial to demand it.
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On today's Pod Save America stream, Jon Favreau and Dan Pfeiffer discuss who is responsible for the coup attempt in Washington, from the president to elected Republicans Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley to media outlets like Fox News and Facebook. Then, they break down possible actions like impeachment and the 25th amendment. Finally, they discuss the work of Stacey Abrams and other organizers in Georgia, and what lies ahead for Joe Biden once he takes office. Watch and subscribe → youtube.com/crookedmedia
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After coming under attack as a result of Republican recklessness, Congress may now be on the cusp of a serious coronavirus outbreak—also as a result of a Republican recklessness. A House lawmaker told reporters that at least 50 GOP House members refused to wear masks in the secure location where lawmakers were sheltering during the chaos, even when older Democratic members pleaded with them. It’s not clear whether newly elected Rep. Jake LaTurner (R-KS) was among them, but LaTurner tested positive for coronavirus on Wednesday night, after spending hours on the House floor participating in objections to the electoral count. A watershed day in the annals of Endangering One’s Colleagues and Also the Continuous Function of Government.
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- The U.S. reported more than 4000 coronavirus deaths on Thursday, marking the highest single-day toll of the pandemic for the second day in a row.
- On Thursday evening Trump released a lie-filled hostage video in which he robotically condemned Wednesday's rioters and committed to an orderly transfer of power, which means it's time to saddle up the New Tone pony for one last ride.
- Chuck Schumer said he will fire Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Mike Stenger, and Pelosi said that House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving will resign, along with Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund.
- The Capitol Police twice turned down offers of federal help before Wednesday, and DC Police claimed to have had no intel that a mob would try to storm the Capitol, which is odd, since Trump supporters spent the last few weeks in online forums openly saying “we are going to storm the Capitol.”
- A newly elected GOP West Virginia lawmaker was among the Capitol insurrectionists, along with the guy Britney Spears was married to for 55 hours, and a requisite Florida Man.
- Trump has reportedly told aides that he’s considering pardoning himself. He would be the first president to try it, and it’s unclear whether it would hold up in court. (Note to court: You should not uphold it.)
- Among the former Trump administration officials who managed to be shocked by Trump on the ripe old date of January 6, 2021, are former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, who said he would vote to remove Trump, and former Attorney General Bill Barr, who once teargassed peaceful protesters so that Trump could hold up a Bible, but now thinks he crossed a line.
- A CDC model found that 59 percent of all coronavirus transmission comes from people without symptoms, a useful talking point for the next time you encounter a wild-eyed maskless patriot screaming “I feel fine” in a CVS.
- The Trump administration’s last-minute effort to auction off parcels of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling got almost no interest from oil companies, forcing Alaska to awkwardly lease a bunch of land from itself.
- Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) has conceded to Rev. Raphael Warnock, which shouldn’t be startling, and yet!
- Simon & Schuster will no longer publish Josh Hawley’s book, something Hawley shoulda thought of before he tried to bring down American democracy. (He is big mad.)
- Elon Musk has become the richest guy in the world, and can surely now afford to buy his child a name with some vowels in it.
- If anyone in Massachusetts has lost a very chill llama, please collect him. Or don’t, he seems to be having a nice time.
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Georgia Republicans plan to smother absentee-voting access in the wake of their losses on Tuesday, using Trump’s manufactured election-security concerns to advance their voter suppression project. (Since the special election format designed to boost Republican candidates didn’t do the trick.) Georgia’s GOP majority has proposed eliminating no-excuse absentee voting, ballot drop boxes, and unsolicited absentee ballot applications, all in the name of preventing imaginary voter fraud. A number of the Republicans planning to introduce those bills also signed onto a Supreme Court brief supporting Texas’s failed effort to overturn Georgia’s election results. The GOP will use voter-fraud conspiracies to try to undermine future election results they don’t like, but first, they’ll use them to make it harder for Democratic voters to participate in the first place.
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New research suggests that natural coronavirus immunity lasts for at least eight months, and could last for years.
Take a moment to revel in how the WNBA helped unseat Atlanta Dream co-owner Kelly Loeffler.
Crispr gene editing was found to significantly extend the lives of mice with progeria, which could point the way towards an effective treatment for children with the rare rapid-aging disease.
Here's Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ), quietly helping to clean up the Capitol on Wednesday night.
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