Impeachment managers will present scene in harrowing detail using video and audio recordings
House impeachment managers will open their prosecution of Donald Trump for “incitement of insurrection” by recounting the deadly assault on the US Capitol in harrowing and cinematic detail, rekindling for senators the chaos and trauma they experienced on 6 January.
Related: Donald Trump impeachment trial: what you need to know
Continue reading...Cheney, the third ranking member of the House Republican leadership, was censured in a vote Saturday by her state’s Republican party
Liz Cheney, the third-highest-ranking Republican leader in the House, was censured by the Wyoming Republican party on Saturday for voting to impeach Donald Trump for his role in the 6 January riot at the US Capitol.
The overwhelming censure vote was the latest blowback for Cheney for joining nine Republican representatives and all Democrats in the US House in the 13 January impeachment vote.
Continue reading...Democrats Kirsten Gillibrand and Rosa DeLauro first introduced the Family Act in 2013, but it has failed to gain sufficient support
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has said US Congress is in a “unique moment” and “better poised than ever” to pass a paid family and medical leave bill that would make the benefit permanently accessible to all American workers for the first time, as she and congresswoman Rosa DeLauro reintroduced the legislation on Friday.
Currently, the US is the only industrialised nation in the world not to have a national paid family and medical leave policy.
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The House has just passed the Senate-approved budget resolution, paving the way for the chamber to take up Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief proposal in the coming weeks.
The House voted 219-209 along mostly partly lines to approve the resolution as amended by the Senate. Jared Golden was the only Democrat to vote against the measure.
The rule for S.Con.Res. 5 – Setting forth the congressional budget for the US Gov't for FY 2021 & setting forth the appropriate budgetary levels for FY 2022-2030 was adopted by a vote of 219-209.
S.Con.Res. 5 is hereby passed.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, fresh from being stripped of her committee assignments, seemed unrepentant on Friday morning, as she used a press conference to sum up the intertwining of the Republican party and Donald Trump.
“The party is his – it doesn’t belong to anyone else,” Greene told reporters in Washington this morning.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) on Trump and the GOP Party:
"The party is his. It doesn’t belong to anybody else." pic.twitter.com/XOL8VzRicW
The congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib have delivered powerful testimonies about the 6 January US Capitol breach on the House floor. Ocasio-Cortez called for the House to avoid quickly moving on from the insurrection, saying it would diminish the impact on survivors and avoid accountability for those killed. Tlaib referenced the death threats she had received before she was sworn in and pleaded for the rhetoric that led to the attack to be taken seriously
Continue reading...Vote largely along party lines serves as rebuke of congresswoman’s incendiary and racist statements
The US House of Representatives has voted to strip the extremist Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia from the committees she was assigned to, in a stark rebuke of her incendiary and racist statements.
Related: Republicans take no action against Cheney or extremist Greene after vote
Continue reading...Republicans met to consider fate of two prominent congresswoman in a divided party
House Republicans faced a reckoning on Wednesday as leaders in the US House of Representatives confronted calls to punish two prominent congresswomen who represent clashing visions for a party struggling to chart a path forward since Donald Trump left the White House.
Related: House to vote on removing rightwing extremist Marjorie Taylor Greene from committees – live
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US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) has been denounced as a “rogue agency” after new allegations of assaults on asylum seekers emerged, and deportations of African and Caribbean migrants continued in defiance of the Biden administration’s orders.
Joe Biden unveiled his immigration agenda on Tuesday, and his homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was confirmed by the Senate, but the continued deportations suggested the Biden White House still does not have full control of Ice, which faces multiple allegations of human rights abuses and allegations that it has disproportionately targeted black migrants.
Related: New claims of migrant abuse as Ice defies Biden to continue deportations
A hastily executed transfer of nearly 200 people in California’s prison system set off a public health disaster that endangered the lives of thousands of prisoners and staff and led to dozens of deaths, according to a new report from the state’s office of the inspector general (OIG).
The report published on Monday, the third in a series examining the Covid-19 catastrophe in California state prisons, details the circumstances of a May 2020 transfer of 189 people from the California Institute for Men (CIM) in Chino, California, to San Quentin state prison in the Bay Area and Corcoran state prison in the Central Valley.
Related: California prison transfer led to dozens of deaths and endangered thousands – state watchdog
Continue reading...Democratic congresswoman reveals past trauma during candid account of Capitol attack
The Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Monday spoke in an emotional video about the insurrection at the US Capitol, and how what she went through was affected by her experience as a survivor of sexual assault.
In an account remarkably candid for an American lawmaker, Ocasio-Cortez recounted going into hiding as rioters scaled the Capitol on 6 January, hiding in a bathroom in her office while hearing banging on the walls and a man yelling: “Where is she? Where is she?” She had feared for her life, she told an Instagram Live audience of more than 150,000 people.
Continue reading...Letter sent to Nancy Pelosi and Kevin McCarthy asks if Congress members can use personal allowances for additional security
Pervasive fear among some members of Congress that they will be the targets of further politically motivated violence following the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol has led more than 30 of them write a letter to House leaders.
The group sent the letter to the House of Representatives speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and the Republican minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, asking for more support over security concerns.
Continue reading...Republican divisions over Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial came into clearer focus on Sunday, as the former president spent his first weekend out of office plotting revenge against those he says betrayed him.
Related: Can Trump do a Nixon and re-enter polite society? Elizabeth Drew doubts it
Continue reading...The new administration faces no shortage of obstacles to progress – but Biden is setting his sights high nonetheless
The last time a Democratic president took control of the White House, the wreckage he inherited was so great, there was little else his incoming team could prioritize.
Twelve years ago, Barack Obama’s blunt-spoken chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, liked to describe the Republican legacy – a financial crisis, deep recession and two wars – as a giant shit sandwich wrapped in a red ribbon.
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Nearly a month after the presidential election, former attorney general Bill Barr told Donald Trump that his repeated claims of a stolen election were “bullshit,” according to a new report in Axios.
Per Axios, the exchange unfolded in the Oval Office, where Trump summoned Barr for a meeting after seeing a story by the Associated Press in which his attorney general told the agency there was evidence of widespread voter fraud in the presidential election.
Steve Dillingham, the director of the US census, is resigning effective on Wednesday, according to Talking Points Memo’s Tierney Sneed. That’s ahead of the end of Dillingham’s term and comes as he faces calls to resign.
Per Sneed:
Census Director Steve Dillingham will be stepping down on Jan. 20, cutting short by nearly a year the five-year director term, which was scheduled to expire on Dec 31.
Dillingham announced his resignation plans in an internal Census Bureau email obtained by TPM.
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The FBI announced that authorities had arrested the guitarist of heavy metal band Iced Earth in connection to the Capitol riot.
Jon Schaffer was allegedly among those who sprayed Capitol police with bear spray.
Jon Schaffer, Columbus, IN, has been arrested in connection to Jan 6 incident at the U.S. Capitol. Schaffer faces 6 charges including engaging in an act of physical violence in a Capitol building. Schaffer was allegedly among rioters who sprayed Capitol police with "bear spray."
Jason Kenney, the premier of Alberta, Canada, has responded to the report that President-elect Joe Biden will cancel the Keystone XL pipeline permit via executive action on his first day in office.
“The Keystone XL pipeline represents tens of thousands of good paying jobs that the American economy needs right now,” he writes.
I am deeply concerned by reports that the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden may repeal the Presidential permit for the Keystone XL border crossing next week.
My full statement: pic.twitter.com/vZjun1IdMH
Joe Biden will deliver a message of national unity when he assumes the presidency on Wednesday, seeking to begin healing a country fractured by the acrimony of Donald Trump’s administration and ongoing threats of violence by his supporters.
Related: America is broken – can Biden and Harris put it back together?
Continue reading...The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has said it is possible that members of Congress could face prosecution if found to have ‘aided and abetted’ the violent attack on the Capitol earlier this month that left five people dead
Continue reading...House speaker’s comments come after a congresswoman said she saw colleagues leading ‘reconnaissance’ tours before the riot
The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has said it is possible that members of Congress could face prosecution if found to have “aided and abetted” the violent attack on the Capitol earlier this month that left five people dead.
“Justice is called for as we address insurrection perpetrated against the Capitol last week,” the Democratic speaker told reporters on Friday.
Continue reading...Washington DC and capitols across the US are bracing for violence this weekend after law enforcement officials warned that armed pro-Trump insurrectionists are planning to swarm the cities in the days before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration
Related: Donald Trump will fly to Florida hours before Biden inauguration, reports say
Continue reading...Vice-president’s refusal paves the way for the House to move forward with impeachment
The US House of Representatives has voted to formally call on the vice-president, Mike Pence, to invoke the 25th amendment and strip Donald Trump of his presidential authority after Trump incited a mob that led a deadly assault on the US Capitol last week.
Continue reading...Democrats will today force vote asking Mike Pence to remove president
James Comey said he was “sickened” by the attack on the Capitol last week, emphasizing that all of the rioters involved should face federal charges.
“It’s important that every last person who entered that Capitol be found and charged.”
Watch @SavannahGuthrie’s full interview with Former FBI Director James @Comey on the U.S. Capitol siege and new inauguration threats. pic.twitter.com/JSFEFz9Q9y
Alex Azar, the secretary of health and human services, would not say whether the 25th amendment should be invoked to remove Donald Trump from office.
Speaking to ABC News this morning, the cabinet secretary also would not say whether he has discussed the possibility of invoking the 25th amendment with other senior officials.
HHS Sec. Alex Azar won't say if he'd vote to remove Trump: "The rhetoric last week was unacceptable. I'm not going to get into or discuss the 25th Amendment here. I've wrestled with this, I'm committed to see this through in my role as Health Sec. during a pandemic..." pic.twitter.com/yD1vwwPBMv
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