Crooked Media - What A Day: Cheney reaction

President Trump rejected any blame for last week’s violence at the Capitol while encouraging potential attacks still to come, raising the question of why he’s still the president a week after he and congressional Republicans endangered hundreds of lives in multiple, preventable ways. (On top of the millions of lives they’ve endangered throughout the pandemic, obviously.)
 

• In his first public comments since losing his phone privileges, Trump showed no remorse for inciting a deadly attack on the Capitol: “People thought what I said was totally appropriate.” He did, however, threaten further violence if Democrats have the gall to hold him accountable for it: “For Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer to continue on this path, I think it's causing tremendous danger to our county and it's causing tremendous anger. I want no violence.” I take no responsibility for causing violence, but my supporters will be justified in trying to kill Democrats again if I’m impeached, but that won’t be my fault either. Glad we got that cleared up, onwards to unity and healing!
   
• While Trump and the nearly-murdered Vice President Mike Pence were reconciling in the Oval Office on Monday night, Capitol Police were briefing House Democrats on three separate potential attacks that extremists have been plotting for the coming days, including one plot to surround the Capitol and assassinate lawmakers. (Having lost access to most social media, some extremists have shifted over to the encrypted Telegram app to organize.) Security officials reminded Democrats that the purchase of a bulletproof vest is a “reimbursable expense,” and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy reportedly warned GOP members not to verbally attack colleagues who vote for impeachment because it could put their lives at risk. Standard, normal Congress stuff, like in that Schoolhouse Rock song, “I’m Just a Bill Wearing a Bulletproof Vest.” 
   
• All of the above should only underline the urgency of removing a psychopath captivated by violence enacted in his name from office. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi still intends to wait to hold an impeachment vote until Wednesday, after Pence first declines to invoke the 25th Amendment. But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has called on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to allow an immediate impeachment trial before the Inauguration, citing a 2004 law that allows the leaders to jointly reconvene the Senate in times of emergency—if there’s any holdup, it’s on McConnell’s account alone. McConnell has reportedly told people he’s in favor of impeachment, which a) huge if true, and b) doesn’t mean he won’t shamelessly delay it to try to fuck with Biden’s agenda. 

As lawmakers and security officials nervously look towards the inauguration, the full dimensions of last week’s failures and recklessness are still coming to light.
 

• Contrary to a top FBI official’s claim that the DC office had no intelligence about an imminent threat on Wednesday, it, uh, totally did. The day before, FBI officials in Virginia sent an internal report to their DC counterparts warning that extremists were on their way to commit violence. The report quoted online threats like, “Go there ready for war. We get our President or we die. NOTHING else will achieve this goal,” and mentioned people were sharing a map of tunnels at the Capitol complex. The FBI indeed had a working internet connection; it simply failed to act on the threats it found. Why?
   
• It’s also increasingly clear that several Republicans perpetrated an attack-within-an-attack. Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Brad Schneider (D-IL) have become the second and third Democratic lawmakers to test positive for coronavirus after a number of GOP members refused to wear masks during the siege and mocked colleagues who asked them to do so, gleefully turning themselves into bioweapons while sheltering from the attack they helped incite. Strengthened enforcement for mandatory mask-wearing on the House floor is a good (late) step towards preventing the next outbreak, but the members who willfully caused this one will need to be held accountable.

The president who already incited one armed insurrection has threatened further violence, GOP lawmakers have refused to rescind the voter fraud lies fueling it all, and Democrats have been exposed to a deadly virus by their cruel colleagues. The Republican Party is profoundly broken and a stark threat to the country; there’s no path to healing without clear-eyed recognition of that fact.

Last week’s special election in Georgia was an unprecedented victory for progressive politics in the south—so how did it happen? So glad you asked. We have a podcast that covers both elections from beginning to end, called Gaining Ground: The New Georgia. It’s hosted by Atlanta natives Rembert Browne and Jewel Wicker, and the final episode recapping the results of the race just dropped. Binge all episodes now! Find Gaining Ground: The New Georgia on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts → 

As if the incoming Biden administration wasn’t inheriting an unstable enough situation, the Senate has yet to hold any hearings on Biden’s cabinet nominees. That’s not how this usually goes—13 of Bill Clinton’s nominees were confirmed in his first two days in office. McConnell is so far slow-walking the process, which could hurt the Biden administration’s efforts to deal with the ongoing danger: Homeland Security may not have a leader amid continuing threats from right-wing extremists during the transfer of power. The Biden transition team plans to privately and publicly lobby Senate Republicans to confirm his DHS Secretary pick, Alejandro Mayorkas, and other national-security nominees ahead of the Inauguration.

• The Trump administration will take a page out of Biden’s book and immediately release all vaccine doses, after initially disparaging that plan.
   
• The Joint Chiefs of Staff issued a statement reminding military members that their job is to protect and defend the Constitution, as federal investigators pursue more than 150 suspects who attacked the Capitol, including current and former service members. 
   
• Two Capitol Police officers have been suspended and more than a dozen others are under investigation for palling around with the insurrectionists, and a Secret Service officer is under investigation after accusing lawmakers of treason on social media. 
   
• Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), a member of House GOP leadership, will vote to impeach Trump, joining Reps. John Katko (R-NY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) in a bipartisan effort to divide America. 
   
• The Supreme Court's conservative majority ruled that women must obtain abortion pills in person during the pandemic, a garbage requirement that the Biden administration can soon reverse. 
   
• Michigan will at long last charge former its former Republican governor, Rick Snyder, in the Flint water scandal, along with his health director and other former officials. 
   
• Deutsche Bank and Signature Bank have cut ties with Trump, which is why it’s always smart financial planning to have a secret Chinese bank account and classified state secrets to sell if you think you might one day try to murder Congress.
   
• Deepak Gupta, who pursued emoluments litigation against Trump, and Crooked’s own Brian Beutler, published a compelling New York Times op-ed arguing that Congress should not only impeach Trump, but pass legislation enforcing the 14th Amendment to disqualify Trump and his merry band of seditionists from holding office again. 
   
• The Harvard Institute of Politics has booted Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) from its senior advisory committee over her false claims of voter fraud. Stefanik responded in a statement, “I’m a canceled little baby, Woke Left, free speech, Harvard is the birthplace of socialism” (paraphrasing) (not much, though). 
   
• The Biden inaugural team returned a donation from former Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), who, uh, registered as a foreign agent for a Chinese surveillance firm allegedly involved in the mass internment of Uighurs. (Boxer deregistered on Tuesday after it came to light.)
   
• Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) has been leading the impeachment effort, a week after losing his son Tommy Raskin to suicide. If you haven’t seen it yet, the Raskins’ tribute to Tommy is a beautiful, heartbreaking read. 
   
• Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) accompanied Trump to the border wall in Texas on Air Force One, days after declaring that he and Trump had had “a hell of a journey” but “enough is enough.” Love a bonus post-credits scene!
   
• Bill Belichick said he won’t be receiving the Medal of Freedom after all, but made no mention of Trump or his incitement of violence in his statement, so we need not start respecting him.
   
• GOP megadonor Sheldon Adelson has died at 87, but his tireless efforts to destroy the country live on. 

The Republican Accountability Project, a group of former Trump administration officials and anti-Trump Republicans, has pledged up to $50 million for GOP lawmakers who back impeachment. That’s meant to provide a counterweight to Trump’s threats to destroy any Republican who doesn’t support him, by promising support in the primaries to those who do the right thing. The campaign will be led by former administration officials Olivia Troye and Elizabeth Neumann. The combination of that incentive and Liz Cheney coming out in favor could prompt up to a dozen House Republicans to back Trump’s impeachment. Unlike the first time around, House GOP leaders have opted not to pressure their members to vote against. (There are still only a handful of Senate Republicans considering a vote to convict, which could change if Mitch McConnell decides the party would be better off Trump-free.)

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Ohio has become the 24th state (plus DC) to ban life without parole sentences for children. 

The Cherokee Nation has announced the establishment of the tribe’s first hunting and fishing reserves. 

GoFundMe has banned fundraisers for Trump supporters’ travel to DC before and during the Inauguration. 

Regeneron announced that the U.S. has purchased 1.25 million additional doses of its coronavirus antibody cocktail.