Monday, January 11, 2021

The bottom line: New Zealand has fed the rising perception in Washington that while its intelligence services remain staffed by talented patriots and allies, its government can no longer be trusted to safeguard the most sensitive American intelligence.

 

Acting homeland security secretary Chad Wolf to step down, nine days ahead of Biden’s inauguration and amid widespread security concerns

 

Two US Capitol Police officers have been suspended and another individual has been arrested for their alleged involvement in the riot on January 6th, according to Rep. Tim Ryan, who chairs a House panel probing last week’s events

 

"How Have U.S. and State Capitols Braced for a 'Proposed Secondary Attack' Near Inauguration Day? We Asked Authorities in All 50 States for Answers." We'll keep updating this story as we receive responses

 

SCOOP - Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf is stepping down

 

Two gorillas at San Diego Zoo are infected with Covid-19, California Gov. Newsom says. It's the first known instance of coronavirus in great apes

 

SCOOP --> Schumer is exploring whether to invoke an obscure power -- allowing Senate leaders to reconvene the Senate in times of emergency -- to hold an impeachment trial immediately after the House impeaches Trump

 

“Trump disguised what he was doing by operating in plain sight,” Fiona Hill writes here. “He normalized his actions so people would accept them. I’ve been studying authoritarian regimes for three decades, and I know the signs of a coup when I see them.”

 

NEW: DC Attorney General alleges that Trump Org didn't pay a $49K hotel bill from the 2017 inauguration, and then -- after the bill went to collection -- Trump's nonprofit Inaugural Committee paid it instead.

 

Pence just got to the White House. Buckle up.

 

UPDATE: Sources tell @BuzzFeedNews a "disgruntled staffer" is behind the State Department site's change of Trump and Pence's biographies. More TK.

 

Very noisy helicopters flying around Vice President’s residence — what is going on?

 

.@GOPLeader, Abe hears you're working K Street, telling the lobbyists you'll be Speaker in two years and they better stick with you, or you'll remember. Some free advice: Get used to operating from a position of weakness.#AbeIsListening

 

Asked what she would say to the maskless lawmakers in the room, Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman said, “I’ve been put in a vulnerable position because of their arrogance, disrespect, and disregard.”

 

The Supreme Court has refused to expedite appeals filed by Trump and his allies to reverse his election defeats in key states, formally confirming the justices won't intervene before Joe Biden's inauguration.

 

I don't know if this is a preset, if it's a hack or if he really resigned or got 25th

 

??? The U.S. Department of State just released a notification that "Donald J. Trump's term ended on 2021-01-11 19:39:54." It's on the official website.. check here

 

Hallmark Cards says it's asked that Sens. Josh Hawley and Roger Marshall return political donations from the company's PAC after Capitol riot

 

BREAKING: Republicans blocked a resolution calling on Mike Pence to invoke the 25th amendment. Tomorrow, we will bring it up for a vote, with impeachment up next. Every day Trump stays in office, he’s a threat to our democracy. Congress must act, and with urgency.

 

I've introduced a resolution, with @DWStweets, to formally censure Congressman Mo Brooks, who, on the morning of January 6th, incited the crowd that attacked the Capitol, endangering the lives of his fellow members of Congress

 

This is the owner of Arnold’s Lobster and Clam Bar in Eastham, MA on the cape. Wearing a shirt inciting and advocating for civil war on Jan 6. Goes full CYA to save his business. It’s a no from me, Nathan Nickerson III.

 

NEW: The Michigan Capitol Commission, in a sudden reversal, voted unanimously Monday to ban the open carry of guns inside the Michigan Capitol, effective immediately

 

The National Park Service is shutting down national monuments in Washington, D.C. until after Biden's inauguration

 

The 25th Amendment should be invoked, but if the Vice President refuses to do his duty, Congress will move with urgency to do ours. Trump incited a violent insurrection, and for that he must be impeached. Every day this man is in office, he is a grave danger to the nation

 

Following the events of Wednesday, including sheltering with several colleagues who refused to wear masks, I decided to take a Covid test. I have tested positive

 

Democrats have secured the 218 votes needed to impeach Trump for the Capitol Attack (via @AlisonD64)

 

Wow, a hacker has now archived 99.9% of all Parler data including riot videos and GPS locations—now more than 56 terabytes in size, @donk_enby says raw video includes GPS coordinates, which point to the locations of users when the videos were filmed.

 

Inbox: New York State Bar Association moves to remove Rudy Giuliani from membership

 

House Democrats will introduce their article of impeachment today, which charges Trump with incitement of an insurrection. Democrats are closing in on a majority of the House co-sponsoring the resolution. Vote is expected Wednesday or Thursday.

 

“I tried to warn people during the campaign that he was not fit for the office.” @HillaryClinton

 

U.S. Army Captain Emily Rainey has resigned after leading a group of people from North Carolina to DC Rainey was a psychological operations officer

 

President of @IIHFHockey Rene Fasel is meeting Lukashenka today. They are discussing Ice Hockey Championship 2021 in Minsk. A few miles away from them, people are imprisoned in inhumane conditions as political prisoners.

 

Theme on most of the AM shows: new videos proving the riot was even worse than we knew on 1/6. "These images we are seeing are very disturbing, very raw, and very important — for people to really understand just what transpired here,"

 

Republican AGs group sent robocalls urging protesters to the Capitol. GOP officials now insist they didn’t know about it.

 

Companies that rent space in trump properties.

 

The U.S. Army is investigating a captain in its psy ops force who led a group of 100 to the Capitol on Jan.

 

"I felt like I was a foreign correspondent again, & it was shocking to see this happening in my own country," @CNN Senior National Security Correspondent @MarquardtA tells @brianstelter on @ReliableSources, recounting when the mob attacked his team. VIDEO

 

Law enforcement braces for more extremist violence in DC and around the US ahead of Inauguration Day

 

Trump is increasingly unhinged. Top national-security officials are trying to keep the whole world from paying the price

 

News outlets are publishing more videos, photos and testimonials from the pro-Trump riot on Capitol Hill. And it's becoming clear that as heinous as the attack looked in real time, on live TV and in our social feeds, it was even worse than we knew then.

 

Biden plans to nominate William J. Burns, a former career diplomat, to run the CIA, columnist David Ignatius reports

 

A tie-in between Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the insurrection in the United States. Serhiy Dybynyn is an infowarrior for Inter TV, nominally owned by fugitive oligarch Firtash but beneficially owned by Putin pal Medvedchuk. Donetsk airport (left) was destroyed by RU forces

 

D.C. mayor asks feds to boost security preparations for inauguration

 

After the US Capitol riot, pro-Kremlin media in Russia continue to slam US democracy & Biden. But one Russian paper today: “Trump proved what everyone feared & the Kremlin hoped for: that America is being run by a dangerous maniac”

 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is readying Democrats for a lightning-fast second impeachment of President Donald Trump this week

 

Twitter removes post by Chinese US embassy casting alleged genocide as female empowerment

 

#Opinion by Margaret Ng 吳靄儀|"We must not think the arrest has nothing to do with us. If taking part in the primaries constitutes an 'evil plot', voters can also be deemed accomplices and are equally guilty."

 

An overwhelming 71% of Americans say they don't trust Sen. Ted Cruz to defend democracy, according to new @ABC News/Ipsos poll, including 47% who don't trust him at all.

 

Belarus threatens to kill Natalia Kaliada and her husband Nicolai Khalezin in London, (winners of the Magnitsky prize) for their work challenging Lukashenko’s dictatorship.

 

Gottlieb says vaccine strategy "not working" and U.S. needs "to hit the reset" button

 

5 months ago Aliaksandr Taraikouksi was killed by Lukashenka's thugs in Minsk. He was peacefully protesting with thousands of Belarusians against the election fraud. He was shot dead – with his hands up. I remind you that there is still no criminal investigation into his death.

 

ICYMI: Ginni Thomas

 

Trump committed a dangerous assault on our nation and our people. What he did should be prosecuted. It is our hope that the 2/3rds of House Republicans who've enabled this unhinged man will finally join us in protecting the American people and our democracy from him.

 

Trump campaign’s website dumped by credit card processor

 

An AP review of posts and records of more than 120 people charged or otherwise connected to the Capitol riot shows that the mob was overwhelmingly made up of longtime Trump supporters, including GOP officials and donors and far-right militants.

 

Two men who were seen in videos and photos from the Capitol riot carrying plastic restraints have been arrested, one in Texas and one in Tennessee

 

How Trump’s obsession with baseless election claims cost Republicans in Georgia

 

No, sorry. You’ve got to carry this baby for the rest of your lives.

 

He wants us to forget about how he knew Putin owned/s Trump

 

The #FBI is still seeking information to help identify individuals who actively instigated violence on January 6 in Washington, D.C. Visit https://t.co/h36NpdxbEh to see images from current cases, and if you see someone you recognize, submit a tip at

 

That one time, this month, when Charlie Kirk confessed on Twitter that he and Clarence Thomas's wife had assisted and provided aid and comfort to an insurrection, carrying a 10-year prison term under 18 USC 2383. (He's since deleted the tweet.)

 

Arizona Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar implicated by activist in Capitol insurrection

 

“I remember when Republicans in the Senate went to see Richard Nixon and said, ‘It's over.’ That's what has to happen now,” says Speaker Pelosi, calling on her Republican colleagues to help remove President Trump from office.

 

“Glass is all over the place.” Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi shows Lesley Stahl the destruction in her office after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, some of them in search of Speaker Pelosi.

 

When a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, some made their way to Speaker Pelosi’s office. In a recording from one of Speaker Pelosi’s staffers, the invaders are heard banging on a door her staff had barricaded while they hid under a table.

 

“What happened was a terrible, terrible violation…of the legislative branch by the president of the United States.” Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi describes the moment Capitol Police pulled her from the podium as a mob swarmed the halls of the Capitol.

 

“I remember when Republicans in the Senate went to see Richard Nixon and said, ‘It's over.’ That's what has to happen now,” says Speaker Pelosi, calling on her Republican colleagues to help remove President Trump from office

 

“This President is guilty of inciting an insurrection. He has to pay a price for that,” says Speaker Pelosi. She says she intends to keep the pressure on POTUS to leave office as soon as possible, threatening to initiate impeachment proceedings

 

“Maybe they were just trying to intimidate me and cajole me into something. It wasn't going to happen,” says Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger about a January 2 phone call in which President Trump asked Raffensperger to find 11,780 votes.

 

Just in: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says Dems will request unanimous consent tomorrow to introduce Raskin res to create Commission on Presidential Capacity to declare Trump unfit — as I scooped.

 

When a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, some made their way to Speaker Pelosi’s office. In a recording from one of Speaker Pelosi’s staffers, the invaders are heard banging on a door her staff had barricaded while they hid under a table.

 

For those of you just getting to know ⁦@HawleyMO⁩ this is some background from columnist in St Louis. (Hint: he specializes in photo ops) With perfect staging, Hawley becomes ‘The Face of Sedition’

 

Three of GOP Rep. Paul Gosar's siblings have called on him to be expelled from Congress, The Arizona Republic reported, placing blame on the congressman for helping incite the violent riot that took place at the Capitol on Wednesday.

 

Outgoing Capitol Police chief accuses House, Senate security officials of hindering efforts to call in National Guard: WaPo