Category Archives: Republicans

Tense calm in Washington as small pro-Trump groups gather at state capitols across US – live

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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

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Biden will appeal for unity as US braces for violence by Trump supporters

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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?

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Unscrupulous and aggressive, Pompeo plans to be the next Trump – but smarter

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The secretary of state has laid political booby traps for Biden in a diplomatic onslaught – with the aim of winning the White House

While all eyes are on Donald Trump and his Capitol Hill mob, a would-be heir and successor is running riot all by himself, storming citadels, wagging the flag and breaking china. No, it’s not Donald Jr, or Ivanka, or Ted Cruz, and certainly not poor, conflicted Mike Pence.

Mike Pompeo may not strike many people as presidential material. But Trump lowered the bar. Make no mistake. America’s snarly, bully-boy secretary of state is focusing not on Joe Biden’s inauguration this week but on how to beat him or any other Democrat in 2024.

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America is broken – can Biden and Harris put it back together?

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The US is riven with stark inequalities, rising white supremacist terror and large numbers who believe the election was stolen. The new administration faces a truly daunting challenge

In another age, Joe Biden’s promise to heal the nation might have been regarded as the kind of blandishment expected from any new leader taking power after the divisive cut and thrust of an American election.

Related: Biden must find words for a wounded nation in inauguration like no other

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We’re on the verge of breakdown: a data scientist’s take on Trump and Biden

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Peter Turchin, an entomologist-turned-historian, offers insight into the battle between elites

Peter Turchin is not the first entomologist to cross over to human behaviour: during a lecture in 1975, famed biologist E O Wilson had a pitcher of water tipped on him for extrapolating the study of ant social structures to our own.

It’s a reaction that Turchin, an expert-on-pine-beetles-turned-data-scientist and modeller, has yet to experience. But his studies at the University of Connecticut into how human societies evolve have lately gained wider currency; in particular, an analysis that interprets worsening social unrest in the 2020s as an intra-elite battle for wealth and status.

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Washington and state capitols brace for violence from armed Trump supporters

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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

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Billionaires backed Republicans who sought to reverse US election results

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Guardian analysis shows Club for Growth has spent $20m supporting 42 rightwing lawmakers who voted to invalidate Biden victory

An anti-tax group funded primarily by billionaires has emerged as one of the biggest backers of the Republican lawmakers who sought to overturn the US election results, according to an analysis by the Guardian.

Related: Trump official admits family separation policy 'should never have been implemented'

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Moment Donald Trump becomes first US president to be impeached twice – video

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The US House of Representatives voted by a margin of 232 to 197 to impeach Donald Trump on the charge of incitement of insurrection, making him the first president in history to have been impeached twice. Ten House Republicans voted in favour of the motion

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Are Republicans really ready to unhitch their wagon from Donald Trump?

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Analysis: The attack on the Capitol – and perhaps the Senate losses in Georgia – have prompted some GOP leaders to signal a split even as others back his election lie

Has the spell really been broken? After years of joining Donald Trump in demonizing political opponents, and holding their silence as Trump furiously shredded public trust in elections, public service, the rule of law and the truth itself, have mainstream Republicans really decided to give him up?

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Nancy Pelosi: Trump is a clear and present danger to the nation – video

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The Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives has opened the debate on the article of impeachment against Donald Trump, arguing the president must be removed from office. Describing the storming of the Capitol as a 'day of fire', Nancy Pelosi said Trump had incited insurrection

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Sheldon Adelson, casino magnate and major Trump donor, dies aged 87

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  • Wife Miriam Adelson announces death after ‘long illness’
  • Adelson backed Israeli settlements in occupied territories
  • US politics – live coverage

Sheldon Adelson, a casino magnate, perennial top single donor to Donald Trump and other Republican causes and an influential opponent of a two-state solution in the Middle East, has died. He was 87.

Related: Billionaire casino boss Sheldon Adelson splashes the cash in bid to help Trump

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Pelosi says House will proceed with efforts to remove Trump ‘with urgency’

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House will first try to force Mike Pence to oust president by invoking 25th amendment and then move forward with impeachment

The House is prepared to launch impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump as early as this week if Vice President Mike Pence and the cabinet refuse to remove him from office for his role in inciting a mob that carried out a deadly assault on the seat of American government.

The House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, delivered the ultimatum in a letter to colleagues on Sunday night that described the president as an urgent threat to the nation.

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Republican congresswoman Mary Miller quotes Hitler during rally – video

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US Congresswoman Mary Miller of Illinois tells a crowd outside the US Capitol: Hitler was right on one thing – "Whoever has the youth has the future. Our children are being propagandised." 

Miller has since apologised for quoting the Nazi leader at the right-wing rally, issuing a statement on Twitter saying: "I sincerely apologize for any harm my words caused and regret using a reference to one of the most evil dictators in history"

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Inequality, racism and polarisation set stage for Trump’s ‘American carnage’

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Analysis: The attack on the US Capitol shook America’s image of itself but is democracy really in its most precarious moment since the civil war?

In the film Mr Smith Goes to Washington, James Stewart’s eponymous hero gazes with reverence and awe at the dome of the US Capitol, the near sacred citadel of American democracy.

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US Capitol attack: Trump at bay as first Republican senator calls for resignation

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Donald Trump’s grip on the US presidency appeared increasingly tenuous on Saturday as Democrats advanced plans to impeach him for a second time, political allies continued to abandon him and Twitter banned his account, removing his most powerful way to spread lies and incite violence.

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Derrick Evans, lawmaker who filmed himself during US Capitol riot, faces charges – video

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Derrick Evans, a newly-elected lawmaker in West Virginia house of delegates, filmed himself during the pro-Trump riot on the US Capitol on Wednesday that left five people dead.

On Friday, the justice department announced he had been charged with entering a restricted area. 

Evans, a Republican and Trump supporter, was seen on a Facebook Live video in which he was heard shouting "We're in! We're in baby!" while moving among a crowd of rioters as he walked through a doorway of the Capitol Rotunda. 

The video has since been deleted. John H Bryan, a civil rights lawyer who is representing Evans, said the delegate traveled to Washington DC to “engage in peaceful protest, activism and amateur journalism" and that he engaged in "no illegal behavior". In a statement released Thursday, Bryan added: "Given the sheer size of the group walking in, Mr Evans had no choice but to enter ...". The lawyer added that Evans has no plans to resign.

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Biden condemns ‘domestic terrorists’ at Capitol as Pelosi calls for Trump’s removal from office – live

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John Kelly, Donald Trump’s former chief of staff who previously served as the secretary of homeland security, said he would vote to remove the president from office if he were still in the cabinet.

“The cabinet should meet and have a discussion,” Kelly told CNN, “The one thing we have going for us here ... is it’s only 13 more days.”

Q: @jaketapper "If you were in the cabinet right now, would you vote to remove him from office?

A: Former Chief of Staff John Kelly: "I -- yes, I would." pic.twitter.com/GA2Pf23qAV

Michelle Obama has released a statement in response to yesterday’s violence at the Capitol, blaming the events on Donald Trump’s actions since the presidential election.

“The day was the fulfillment of the wishes of an infantile and unpatriotic president who can’t handle the truth of his own failures,” the former first lady said.

Like all of you, I’ve been feeling so many emotions since yesterday. I tried to put my thoughts down here: pic.twitter.com/9xzRvrpk7y

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Pro-Trump mob chases lone Black police officer up stairs in Capitol – video

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A journalist captured the moment a lone Black police officer was confronted by pro-Trump supporters who had stormed into the US Capitol in what some lawmakers condemned as an attempted insurrection aimed at overturning the results of the presidential election.

A politics reporter at HuffPost, Igor Bobic, filmed the officer as he was chased up the stairs of the building by Trump loyalists who objected to the certification of Joe Biden as the next president, which was taking place in Congress during a joint session. Four people died during the violent occupation

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Congress certifies Biden and Harris win hours after deadly attack on Capitol – video

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With all electoral college votes counted, the US Congress has certified Joe Biden's win in the election. Biden and Kamala Harris will take over as president and vice-president on 20 January. The confirmation of the vote was delayed when pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol building in the afternoon of 6 January

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Democratic and Republican senators unite to condemn US Capitol violence – video

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Senators from both sides of US politics have condemned the violence unleashed on the Capitol building on Wednesday.  The vice-president, Mike Pence, described it as 'a dark day in the history of the United States Capitol'. The Democratic Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, labelled the Trump supporters as 'goons', 'thugs' and 'domestic terrorists', while Republican Mitt Romney labelled the events 'an insurrection, incited by the president of the United States'

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