The Hill’s Morning Report: Trump finally concedes; 25th Amendment pressure grows
BY ALEXIS SIMENDINGER AND AL WEAVER
SEE: https://thehill.com/homenews/morning-report/533289-the-hills-morning-report;
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:
Fallout from the breach of the Capitol by rioters continued on Thursday amid calls for the Cabinet and Vice President Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump as unfit to carry out his duties.
Under intense bipartisan pressure Thursday, the president acknowledged his defeat in the 2020 election one day after vowing he would continue to contest the results. In a nearly three-minute video taped at the White House, Trump decried the mob he had encouraged, which swarmed the Capitol on Wednesday as Congress confirmed President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
“We have just been through an intense election and emotions are high. But now tempers must be cooled and calm restored,” Trump said. “A new administration will be inaugurated on Jan. 20. My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth orderly and seamless transition of power. This moment calls for healing and reconciliation.”
The president’s sudden conciliatory outreach took place following a persuasion effort through Ivanka Trump, steered by White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and counsel Pat Cipollone, according to multiple outlets. It took place as at least 200 House lawmakers advocated expelling Trump from office (NBC News).
Early on Thursday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) advocated his removal, saying Trump’s final days in office posed a danger to the nation.
“This is an urgency of the highest magnitude,” Pelosi said. “While there are only 13 days left, any day can be a horror show for America” (The Hill).
Invoking the 25th Amendment, however, has been dismissed by Pence and ignored by the Cabinet, both necessary under the Constitution to proceed. According to The New York Times and Business Insider, the vice president opposes the idea of moving to declare Trump unfit to serve, despite his concerns about events he witnessed on Wednesday.
Biden on Thursday said in a statement through an aide that any invocation of the 25th Amendment would be up to the vice president and the Cabinet, not him. He avoided questions about impeaching Trump a second time (The Associated Press).
Most lawmakers approach discussions about removing Trump as a form of public censure rather than as a viable procedural option as Biden’s inauguration draws near.
Despite the president’s sudden embrace of “healing,” he is contemplating travel next week to the southwestern border to tout his controversial immigration policies, according to The New York Times. He’s also mulling the idea of a media exit interview. The president and his family have discussed departing the White House on Jan. 19, the Times reports, and sources tell Politico that Trump favors the idea of being able to use Air Force One, which is possible only while he’s president, to make his exit from Washington. Where he will go is unclear; a South Florida party or rally among friends and supporters is a possible destination, according to reports.
The Hill: Calls grow louder to remove Trump under 25th Amendment.
The Hill: Pelosi, Schumer say they haven't heard from Pence on invoking the 25th Amendment.
CNN: What is the 25th Amendment and how does it work?
Politifact: Using the 25th Amendment or impeaching Trump: Could they happen?
The Hill: Former White House chief of staff John Kelly says Trump Cabinet should discuss the 25th Amendment.
Two House Republicans on Thursday offered their support for a procedure to remove Trump. Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger became the first, with Rep. Steve Stivers (Ohio) adding he would “not be opposed.”
Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), the two foremost objectors to the Electoral College count on Wednesday, joined Trump in feeling the wrath of some of their peers.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a top Biden ally, called on Hawley and Cruz to resign. Book publisher Simon & Schuster announced it canceled the publication of a pending book by Hawley about Big Tech, withdrawing publication “after his role in what became a dangerous threat to our democracy and freedom.”
Hawley fired back in a statement, calling the company’s decision a “direct assault on the First Amendment” (The Hill).
The Kansas City Star: “The biggest mistake I’ve ever made,” said former Sen. John Danforth (R-Mo.), who promoted Hawley at the outset of his political career.
The Hill: Donor who gave millions to Hawley urges Senate to censure him for “irresponsible” behavior.
Peggy Noonan: Bring the insurrectionists to justice.
Governors weigh in: Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R), who has not discounted making a future bid for the White House, said he supports Trump’s removal from office or his resignation (The Hill). … Republican Gov. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts echoed that position, calling on the president to “step down” in response to his behavior and the mob violence seen in Washington (The Hill). … North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D), who repeatedly clashed with Trump last year as the pandemic worsened, tweeted, “This president has betrayed our country and is therefore unfit to lead it. He should resign or be removed from office.”
> Trump & Republican lawmakers: The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports that GOP senators say they feel a sense of growing regret over not standing up to the president sooner in retrospect following Wednesday’s attack. One Republican senator who requested anonymity to discuss his conversations with GOP colleagues acknowledged GOP lawmakers should have served as a stronger check on the president over the past four years.
“We should have done more to push back, both against his rhetoric and some of the things he did legislatively,” said the lawmaker. “The mistake we made is that we always thought he was going to get better. We thought that once he got the nomination, and then once he got a Cabinet he was going to get better, he was going to be more presidential.”
> The president’s party: National Republicans interviewed by The Hill say Trump may have permanently alienated millions of center-right voters who were disgusted by Wednesday’s ugly scene in Washington. But they acknowledged that the president retains enormous political power for the time being, despite bipartisan calls that he resign or be ousted from the Oval Office immediately (The Hill).
> Legal jeopardy: The New York Times, Michael S. Schmidt and Maggie Haberman: Trump in recent weeks is said to have discussed with aides the prospect of pardoning himself. The president has long maintained he has such power and his polling of aides’ views is typically a sign he is poised to act. Trump has expressed concern that he will be a target of law enforcement after leaving office.
"His legal risks increase immeasurably come Jan. 21, both on the civil and the criminal side," Danya Perry, a former state and federal prosecutor in New York, told NPR in November.
LEADING THE DAY
REPERCUSSIONS: Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos resigned on Thursday in reaction to Wednesday’s tumultuous events in Washington (The Associated Press). … U.S. Special Envoy to Northern Ireland Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s former White House chief of staff, resigned (CNBC) . … Ryan Tully, senior director for European and Russian Affairs at the White House, also quit (Bloomberg News), as did Tyler Goodspeed, the acting chairman of Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers, and Mark Vandroff, senior director for defense policy at the National Security Council (The New York Times and Defense News).
At least nine senior administration officials have announced their resignations (The Associated Press). At the same time, lawmakers and others are urging administration personnel to remain in place to help ensure an orderly transition.
“No matter what course of action is taken against President Trump in 13 days, Joe Biden will be sworn in as President of the United States. Until then, I urge the good men and women honorably serving at all levels of the federal government to please stay at their post for the protection of our democracy,” West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat who represents a red state, said in a statement. “The actions of a rogue president will not and should not reflect on you. Instead, your patriotism and commitment to the greater good of our country will be reaffirmed.”
Politico: Former White House communications director Alysa Farah: “I stepped down because I saw where this was heading.”
> Capitol security: Hours after Pelosi on Thursday called for the resignation of U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, he submitted his resignation with barely seven months on the job (The Hill). Pelosi also announced the resignation of the House sergeant-at-arms after the shocking breach of the Capitol by rioters.
Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), the top House appropriator charged with funding the Capitol Police, joined the Speaker on Thursday in promising an investigation or review of security planning and police responses, including the fatal shooting by an officer of a 35-year-old woman inside the Capitol. "There were some strategic mistakes from the very beginning," Ryan said (The Hill and Politico).
The Hill: Bipartisan anger builds over police failure at the Capitol.
The Hill: Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick collapsed after being injured while confronting rioters on Wednesday and died on Thursday night. He became the fourth fatality tied to the Capitol clashes.
During a news conference, Pelosi said her focus remains on what she called the “danger” Trump and his supporters pose between now and the administration of the oaths of office to Biden and Kamala Harris as vice president.
"If there's anything learned about [Wednesday's violence], is that we have to be very, very careful. Because these people and their leader, Donald Trump, do not care about the security of people, they don't care about our democracy, they don't care about the peaceful transfer of power," she said (The Hill).
The Associated Press reported that the Capitol Police turned down two offers of federal help — one from the Pentagon three days before Wednesday’s mayhem and another from the Justice Department on Wednesday with an offer of FBI assistance. The Capitol Police planned in advance only for a free speech demonstration, despite detailed news accounts (see The Washington Post) about extremist, pro-Trump groups that intended to rally in Washington to oppose Biden’s victory, with excitement about Trump’s invitation on Twitter: “Be there, will be wild!” (The New York Times).
Earlier in the day, Sund, a former D.C. police officer, defended his team’s response. The assault on the Capitol was “unlike any I have ever experienced in my 30 years in law enforcement here in Washington, D.C.,″ he said. ”Make no mistake: these mass riots were not First Amendment activities; they were criminal riotous behavior. The actions of the USCP officers were heroic given the situation they faced″ (The Associated Press).
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) on Thursday added to the day’s criticism. “Obviously it was a failure or you would not have had people enter the Capitol by breaking windows and terrorizing the members of Congress who were doing a very sacred requirement of their jobs,″ she said.
> Megaphones: In one of the most consequential reactions to Wednesday’s violence and Trump’s incendiary rhetoric, Twitter and Facebook on Wednesday initially took steps to temporarily suspend Trump’s accounts, despite howls of protest from the president’s base (The Washington Post). A day later, Facebook and Instagram (owned by Facebook), extended the suspension indefinitely — at least through the remainder of Trump’s presidency (The Washington Post).
Twitter, for years a powerful Trump megaphone, ended a 12-hour suspension of the president’s account on Thursday, noting that the platform might take further action while it tracks “activity on the ground and statements made off Twitter” (The Associated Press). The president had immediately deleted some of his tweets in an effort to release Twitter’s suspension (Fox News).
The social media behemoths have spent much of Trump’s term tiptoeing around objections that the president uses the platforms to spread false information and drive news media coverage while also employing divisive, bullying language akin to hate speech to assail people who do not have equivalent social media clout to fight back. Facebook and Twitter are under intense regulatory and congressional scrutiny as Democrats prepare to control both the executive and legislative branches this month.