Donald Trump’s hopes of avoiding conviction by the US Senate were strengthened on Tuesday when 45 Republicans tried to dismiss his impeachment trial before it even began.
After they were sworn in and signed the oath book – each using a different pen owing to coronavirus precautions – Rand Paul of Kentucky challenged the legitimacy of the trial.
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic majority leader, dismissed Paul’s theory as 'flat-out wrong'
There’s been a steady stream of activity on Capitol Hill today, paricularly leading up to the swearing-in of the senators for Trump’s impeachment trial.
At a weekly press conference, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said the chamber is prepared to work simultaneously to hold an impeachment trial, approve Biden’s cabinet nominees, and pass additional coronavirus relief.
.@SenSchumer says “a vote on a budget resolution could come as soon as next week.” This would give Dems option to use reconciliation for Covid relief package
McConnell doesn’t say if Trump’s actions were impeachable, saying only that he’ll “listen to the arguments” in the trial.
He says he hasn’t spoken to Trump since the day after he declared Biden had “obviously” won the election (that was 12/15).
Tim Ryan tells reporters on Zoom presser that the order among Capitol Police on Jan. 6 was to not use lethal force unless lives were threatened, as was standard for USCP (he'd asked about it during this morning's closed-door briefing)
Vice president Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, received her second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland.
Twenty-eight days after receiving her first shot, Harris removed her jacked, rolled up her sleeve and extended her left arm for the jab.
Continue reading...Senate trial will be the first-ever of a former US president, however the chances that Republicans will convict him are slim
The US House delivered its article of impeachment against Donald Trump to the Senate on Monday evening, setting the stage for the first ever Senate trial of a former US president.
For the second time in just over a year, nine House impeachment managers carried an impeachment charge against Trump in a ceremonial procession across the US Capitol, where just a few weeks ago a violent mob laid siege to the building in a deadly assault on the seat of American government.
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Here’s more on South Africa and coronavirus travel restrictions in relation to the US.
The White House confirmed Joe Biden is signing an order today imposing a ban on most non-US citizens entering the country who have recently been in South Africa, starting on Saturday.
The Treasury Department is taking steps to put Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill, as was planned in the Obama administration.
Psaki says the Treasury Department is taking steps to put Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill, as was planned in the Obama administration.
NEW: White House says Treasury Dept. is "taking steps to resume efforts" to put Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill.
Press Sec. Psaki says the Biden admin. is "exploring ways to speed up that effort." pic.twitter.com/c4bARsGf1Z
Related: She Came to Slay: Tubman biography looks beyond Underground Railroad
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...Asking if Donald Trump can rehabilitate himself in US public life as did a disgraced president before him, legendary Washington reporter Elizabeth Drew was not optimistic.
Related: Chaos of Trump's last days in office reverberates with fresh 'plot' report
Continue reading...The House will transmit the article against the former president on Monday, giving his legal team time to prepare their case
Opening arguments in the Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump are set to begin the week of 8 February, with the former president facing charges of inciting an insurrection at the US Capitol.
The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, announced the schedule late Friday after reaching an agreement with Republicans.
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The White House briefing has just concluded. Here’s where the day stands so far:
Jen Psaki would not say whether Dr Deborah Birx, the former White House coronavirus task force coordinator, was still on the pandemic response team.
Psaski tells @stevenportnoy it's "an excellent question" if Dr. Deborah Birx is still on President Biden's COVID response team and she will "have to circle back on that one" https://t.co/skUlRypwqS pic.twitter.com/rA0yoqvSNb
Continue reading...The US Senate majority leader said the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, would transmit the article of impeachment on Monday. 'Make no mistake, there will be a trial, Schumer said. 'And when that trial ends, senators will have to decide whether they believe Donald John Trump incited the insurrection'
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In the moments following Joe Biden taking his oath of office, Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church, published an open letter to Biden congratulating him on his entry into office.
“I extend cordial good wishes and the assurance of my prayers that Almighty God will grant you wisdom and strength in the exercise of your high office.”
Pope Francis sends message to President Biden:
“I likewise ask God...to guide your efforts to foster understanding, reconciliation and peace within the United States and among the nations of the world in order to advance the universal common good” #PopeFrancis #InaugurationDay pic.twitter.com/DgoTNjBCgV
At least two Republican senators praised Joe Biden’s inaugural speech, saying it represented a necessary moment of unity for the nation.
Mitt Romney of Utah said Biden’s speech was “very strong and very much needed”. “We as a nation come together if we are told the truth,” Romney said.
ROMNEY praises Biden address “ I thought it was very strong and very much needed. We as a nation come together if we are told the truth. And if we have leaders who stand for enduring American principles”
“I thought it was very good. Very uplifting,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski tells us of her reaction to Biden’s speech.
“All the other speakers really seemed to complement the president’s words. I thought it was very well done. I thought it was what we needed.”
The former FBI director was sickened and angered by the attack incited by the president. But has he come to terms with his part in getting him elected?
As an investigator turned author, James Comey has developed a forensic eye for detail. The colour of the curtains in the Oval Office. The length of Donald Trump’s tie. Something about the US president that the camera often misses.
“Donald Trump conveys a menace, a meanness in private that is not evident in most public views of him,” says Comey, a former director of the FBI, from his home in McLean, Virginia, a suburb of Washington DC.
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Congressman Cedric Richmond has officially resigned from the House to join Joe Biden’s administration as the director of the White House office of public engagement.
11:02:47 a.m. - The House received a communication from Representative Richmond wherein he resigns as a member of the House of Representatives effective on January 15, 2021. https://t.co/odbWABa1ZN
During debate on Impeachment of President Trump, @reprichmond concludes his final House floor speech: "Simply put, we told you so. Richmond out." pic.twitter.com/bwMxwCqmoR
A leading group of CEOs endorsed Joe Biden’s proposed coronavirus relief package, which the president-elect outlined in a speech yesterday.
“Business Roundtable welcomes the announcement of President-elect Biden’s ‘American Rescue Plan’ and looks forward to working with the new Administration to defeat COVID-19 and restore jobs and economic growth,” the group said of Biden’s $1.9 trillion proposal in a new statement.
Related: 'No time to waste': Biden unveils $1.9tn coronavirus stimulus package
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This stimulus plan Biden is presenting today is part one of his two-part “rescue and recovery” plan.
Part two will come next month. Biden said he will address the joint session of congress with a recovery plan that builds on proposals presented today.
Economic inequality in the US is growing amid the “twin crises” of Covid-19 and the pandemic’s economic fallout.
Biden said he has “a two-step plan of rescue and recovery”.
Continue reading...Donald Trump has become the first president in US history to be impeached twice after the bipartisan vote in the House of Representative accusing him of inciting violence at the Capitol on 6 January.
Trump has faced impeachment before, but for very different reasons. On 18 December 2019 the House charged him with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress for pressuring Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and withholding military aid
Continue reading...The House of Representatives has voted 232 to 197 to impeach the US president, Donald Trump, for a second time, formally charging him with inciting an insurrection. It was the most bipartisan impeachment vote in US history.
After an emotional day-long debate in the chamber, 10 Republicans joined Democrats to hold Trump to account before he leaves office next week.
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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