AP News in Brief at 6:09 p.m. EST
Capitol Police rejected offers of federal help to quell mob
WASHINGTON (AP) — Three days before the pro-President Donald Trump riot at the Capitol, the Pentagon asked the U.S Capitol Police if it needed National Guard manpower. And as the mob descended on the building Wednesday, Justice Department leaders reached out to offer up FBI agents. The police turned them down both times, according to a defense official and two people familiar with the matter.
Despite plenty of warnings of a possible insurrection and ample resources and time to prepare, the Capitol Police planned only for a free speech demonstration.
Still stinging from the uproar over the violent response by law enforcement to protests last June near the White House, officials also were intent on avoiding any appearance that the federal government was deploying active duty or National Guard troops against Americans.
The result is the U.S. Capitol was overrun Wednesday and officers in a law enforcement agency with a large operating budget and experience in high-security events protecting lawmakers were overwhelmed for the world to see. Four protesters died including one shot inside the building.
The rioting and loss of control by the police has raised serious questions over security at the Capitol for future events. The actions of the day also raise troubling concerns about the treatment of mainly white Trump supporters who were allowed to roam through the building for hours, while Black and brown protesters who demonstrated last year over police brutality were faced more robust and aggressive policing.
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Painful questions after siege of Capitol by pro-Trump mob
WASHINGTON (AP) — The violent siege of the Capitol by President Donald Trump’s supporters forced painful new questions across government on Thursday — about his fitness to remain in office for two more weeks, the ability of the police to secure the complex and the future of the Republican Party in a post-Trump era.
In the immediate aftermath, the attack on the world’s iconic dome of democracy reinforced lawmakers’ resolve to stay up all night to finish counting the Electoral College vote confirming that Democrat Joe Biden won the presidential election.
But the rampage that shocked the world and left the country on edge prompted lawmakers to launch a congressional review of the U.S. Capitol Police’s failure to stop the the breach and is forcing a broader reckoning over Trump's tenure in office and what comes next for a torn nation.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that any remaining day with the president in power could be “a horror show for America.” Likewise, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said the attack on the Capitol was “an insurrection against the United States, incited by the president," and Trump must not stay in office “one day” longer.
Pelosi and Schumer called for invoking the 25th Amendment to the Constitution to force Trump from office before Biden is inaugurated on Jan. 20. In fact, Schumer said he and Pelosi tried to call Pence early Thursday to discuss that option but were unable to connect with the vice president.
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Lawmakers openly discuss ousting Trump, possible impeachment
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers of both parties raised the prospect Thursday of ousting President Donald Trump from office, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that if he wasn't removed, the House may move forward with a second impeachment.
Though Trump has less than two weeks in office, lawmakers and even some in his administration began discussing the issue Wednesday afternoon as Trump first refused to forcefully condemn the violent assault on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of his supporters, and then appeared to excuse it.
Senior Trump administration officials raised the long-shot possibility of invoking Section 4 of the 25th Amendment — the forceful removal of Trump from power by his own Cabinet.
Pelosi told a news conference she is waiting for a decision from Vice President Mike Pence and other Cabinet officials. She challenged several of them by name, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.
“Do they stand by these actions?" Pelosi asked. "Are they ready to say that for the next 13 days this dangerous man can do further harm to our country?”
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US registering highest deaths yet from the coronavirus
The U.S. registered more COVID-19 deaths in a single day than ever before — nearly 3,900 — on the very day the mob attack on the Capitol laid bare some of the same, deep political divisions that have hampered the battle against the pandemic.
The virus is surging in several states, with California hit particularly hard, reporting on Thursday a record two-day total of 1,042 coronavirus deaths. Skyrocketing caseloads there are threatening to force hospitals to ration care and essentially decide who lives and who dies.
“Folks are gasping for breath. Folks look like they’re drowning when they are in bed right in front of us,” said Dr. Jeffrey Chien, an emergency room physician at Santa Clara Valley Regional Medical Center, urging people to do their part to help slow the spread. “I’m begging everyone to help us out because we aren’t the front line. We’re the last line.”
Meanwhile, the number of Americans who have gotten their first shot of the COVID-19 vaccine climbed to at least 5.9 million Thursday, a one-day gain of about 600,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hundreds of millions will need to be vaccinated to stop the coronavirus.
About 1.9 million people around the world have died of the virus, more than 360,000 in the U.S. alone. December was by far the nation's deadliest month yet, and health experts are warning that January could be more terrible still because of family gatherings and travel over the holidays.
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Biden introduces Merrick Garland as attorney general pick
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden introduced his pick for the nation's top law enforcement official on Thursday, turning to experienced judge Merrick Garland to help de-politicize the Justice Department and restore the rule of law after what the incoming president described as four years of lawlessness under President Donald Trump.
Biden also described the pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol on Wednesday as “domestic terrorists” and assailed the Republican president for inciting the siege.
“The past four years we’ve had a president who’s made his contempt for our democracy, our Constitution, the rule of law, clear in everything he has done,” Biden said, vowing a dramatic shift in his administration. “More than anything, we need to restore the honor, the integrity, the independence of the Department of Justice that’s been so badly damaged."
If confirmed by the Senate, which is likely, Garland would take over as the U.S. attorney general at a critical moment for the country and the agency. He would inherit urgent challenges related to policing and civil rights, an ongoing criminal tax investigation into Biden’s son Hunter and Democratic calls to pursue criminal inquiries into Trump after he leaves office.
Beyond those issues, Garland would be tasked with repairing the American people's broader distrust in the Justice Department, fomented during a tumultuous four years under Trump's leadership. The Republican president regularly meddled in the department, most notably firing FBI Director James Comey while his agency was investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
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EXPLAINER: Breaking down the uncertainty after Capitol siege
What happens in Washington after the seat of American lawmaking is overrun by supporters of a president who insists he won an election he actually lost, members of Congress are forced to flee their chambers and general chaos ensues on Capitol Hill — and all of it takes place 14 days before the new president is inaugurated?
As is evident from the question itself, the short answer is this: No one really knows.
There are, however, clues and hints and things to focus on. Julie Pace, Washington bureau chief for The Associated Press, explains the haze around the nation's capital after Wednesday's events, and what she's watching most closely in coming days.
YOU’VE SAID THERE'S LITTLE INDICATION WHERE THIS IS GOING TO GO IN THE NEXT TWO WEEKS. WHAT MIGHT THAT MEAN?
What is striking about this moment is that we are in pretty uncharted territory. We have a sitting president who lost an election and has raised challenges about the integrity of that election and has millions of Americans believing his successor is illegitimate. While he has said he’ll leave on the 20th, there are two weeks left. And there’s great uncertainty.
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Race double standard clear in rioters’ Capitol insurrection
NEW YORK (AP) — Black Lives Matter protests, 2020: Overwhelming force from law enforcement in dozens of cities. Chemical dispersants. Rubber bullets and hand-to-hand combat with largely peaceful crowds and some unruly vandals and looters. More than 14,000 arrests.
The U.S. Capitol, Jan. 6, 2021: Barely more than a few dozen arrests. Several weapons seized, improvised explosive devices found. Members of a wilding mob escorted from the premises, some not even in handcuffs.
The key difference? The first set of protesters were overwhelmingly Black Americans and their allies. The second group was overwhelmingly white Americans who support outgoing President Donald Trump's baseless claims of election fraud.
The violent breaching of the halls of power on Capitol Hill by the insurrectionist mob on Wednesday, which left one woman dead of a police gunshot wound, represents one of the plainest displays of a racial double standard in both modern and recent history.
“When Black people protest for our lives, we are all too often met by National Guard troops or police equipped with assault rifles, shields, tear gas and battle helmets,” the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation said in a statement.
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Social platforms flex their power, lock down Trump accounts
After years of treating President Donald Trump's inflammatory rhetoric with a light touch, Facebook and Instagram are silencing his social media accounts for the rest of his presidency. The move, which many called long overdue following Wednesday's deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, is also a reminder of the enormous power that social-media platforms can wield when they choose.
Facebook and Instagram said Thursday they will bar Trump from posting at least until the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. Twitter said that it's still evaluating whether to lift or extend what started as a 12-hour lockdown of Trump's account.
It remains unclear how the platforms will handle Trump once he leaves office and is no longer shielded from enforcement of most rules by his status as a world leader. And some critics saw the moves as cynical efforts by the companies to position themselves for a post-Trump future.
“They no longer have to fear Donald Trump,” said Rashad Robinson of Color of Change, a group that has pushed tech companies to do more to rein in hate speech. He said Facebook’s action was “in the best interest of Facebook” and a way to curry favor with the incoming Democratic president and Congress.
In announcing the unprecedented move, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said the risk of allowing Trump to use the platform is too great following the president's incitement of a mob on Wednesday. Zuckerberg said Trump’s account will be locked “for at least the next two weeks” and possibly indefinitely.
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The day my 'second home,' the Capitol, was overtaken by mob
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Capitol is my second home. I have been covering the occupants of the building for an absurdly long period of time, the last 15 years spent at a workspace just steps from the Senate gallery.
I knew Wednesday would not be typical in the time of COVID-19. Instead of working in my basement, I was going to the Capitol. Since COVID-19, the place has been a bit of a ghost town and I haven't been going much. But Wednesday was to be a momentous day watching the Senate debate whether to throw out the Electoral College votes of Arizona and Pennsylvania.
There would be cool moments and lots of genuine news — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., finally telling Trump of the folly of trying to get Congress to overturn the will of voters — even though the outcome was clear before the debate started.
On top of that, the Democrats had just won control of the chamber, starting whenever the two new Georgia Democrats are sworn in. This was a big day, especially for the House and Senate leadership lane, one of my specialties.
If you've seen “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” you've seen my work area since a scene from the movie was filmed there more than 70 years ago. (The Senate chamber was a soundstage). It overlooks the north lawn of the Capitol, where a steady march of insurgents began ominously arriving.
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Neil Sheehan, Pentagon Papers reporter, Vietnam author, dies
WASHINGTON (AP) — Neil Sheehan, a reporter and Pulitzer Prize-winning author who broke the story of the Pentagon Papers for The New York Times and who chronicled the deception at the heart of the Vietnam War in his epic book about the war, died Thursday. He was 84.
Sheehan died Thursday morning of complications from Parkinson's disease, said his daughter, Catherine Sheehan Bruno.
His account of the Vietnam War, “A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam,” took him 15 years to write. The 1988 book won the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction.
Sheehan served as a war correspondent for United Press International and then the Times in the early days of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War in the 1960s. It was there that he developed a fascination with what he would call “our first war in vain” where “people were dying for nothing.”
As a national writer for the Times based in Washington, Sheehan was the first to obtain the Pentagon Papers, a massive history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam ordered up by the Defense Department. Daniel Ellsberg, a former consultant to the Defense Department who had previously leaked Vietnam-related documents to Sheehan, had copied the papers and made arrangements to get them to Sheehan.