CNN: Giuliani and Trump are calling senators and urging them to press ahead with objections, source

Giuliani and Trump are calling senators and urging them to press ahead with objections, source says

From CNN's Jake Tapper and Kaitlan Collins

President Trump is urging senators to push ahead with the protest on the certification of Joe Biden as President, according to a source familiar with the discussions, and the source says it sounds like Sen. Josh Hawley will continue his push for an objection.

As CNN reported earlier, Hawley would not answer when asked what his plans are following the protests today, and whether he would still object to Pennsylvania.

Sen. Roger Marshall also would not answer a question about whether he still planned to object to Georgia and Pennsylvania.

Congress reconvened their joint session tonight after pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol. Lawmakers are currently debating an objection to Arizona's electoral votes.

CNN's Manu Raju contributed reporting to this post

Daily Beast: House Dems Urge Pence to Remove Trump for 'Shocking Behavior'

“President Trump revealed that he is not mentally sound and is still unable to process and accept the results of the 2020 election,” reads a letter to be sent to the VP.
Sam Brodey Congressional Reporter
Erin Banco National Security Reporter
Updated Jan. 06, 2021 8:54PM ET / Published Jan. 06, 2021 8:39PM ET

Horrified and outraged House Democrats are organizing a push to remove President Donald Trump from office after he egged on a violent storming of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday by extremist supporters.

Reps. David Cicilline (D-RI) and Ted Lieu (D-CA), members of the House Judiciary Committee, are circulating a letter among committee colleagues to send to Vice President Mike Pence, urging him to invoke the 25th Amendment, under which Pence and a majority of Cabinet officers could remove Trump from office on the basis that he is unable to do his job.

“For the sake of our democracy, we emphatically urge you to invoke the 25th Amendment and begin the process of removing President Trump from power,” states the letter, which was obtained by The Daily Beast. “Even in his video announcement this afternoon, President Trump revealed that he is not mentally sound and is still unable to process and accept the results of the 2020 election. President Trump’s willingness to incite violence and social unrest to overturn the election results by force clearly meet this standard.”

The push comes as a number of lawmakers and outside groups announced their support for Trump’s removal from office after Wednesday’s events. Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA), the number four House Democrat, tweeted her support of Trump’s removal, as did a number of other lawmakers. Joining them was the historically right-leaning National Association of Manufacturers, an influential lobbying group, which took the remarkable step on Wednesday of calling for Trump’s removal under the 25th Amendment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/house-dems-urge-pence-to-remove-trump-for-shocking-behavior?ref=home

New York governor is sending 1,000 National Guard troops to the Capitol - CNN

At the request of the US National Guard, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is deploying 1,000 members of the New York National Guard to Washington, DC, “to aid and facilitate peaceful transfer of power,” Cuomo said in a statement Wednesday.

“For 244 years, the cornerstone of our democracy has been the peaceful transfer of power, and New York stands ready to help ensure the will of the American people is carried out, safely and decisively,” Cuomo said in the statement.

The troops will be deployed for up to two weeks. The decision was made at the request from the US National Guard. Cuomo said the deployment “will not impact our state's ongoing efforts to contain and combat the Covid virus.”

Excerpt from NY Times editorial tonight: President needs tp be held accountable

"The president needs to be held accountable — through impeachment proceedings or criminal prosecution — and the same goes for his supporters who carried out the violence. In time, there should be an investigation of the failure of the Capitol Police to prepare for an attack that was announced and planned in public."

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/06/opinion/trump-capitol-dc-protests.html

Trump Aides Beg Top Officials to Stay in the Administration for the Night: Daily Beast

While the President Trump egged on a mob of his supporters who had stormed the United States Capitol on Wednesday, several of his top aides began to scramble. Their mission, according to three sources familiar with the matter: to try to convince senior White House staffers and cabinet secretaries to stay in the administration, if only just for the night.

The effort has not been completely successful. Stephanie Grisham, the chief of staff to the First Lady and the former White House communications director, quit hours after the insurrection, as CNN first reported.

Several other senior officials said they were considering quitting on the spot after news broke that an individual involved in Wednesday’s events at the Capitol had died as a result of a gunshot wound.

According to two sources familiar with the matter, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has been busy making calls to the White House in an effort to try and maintain cohesiveness, at least for the next few hours. As Trump aides rushed to keep the departures to a minimum and perform some semblance of damage control, the president vented his fury that politicians and people on cable news were already starting to hold him responsible for the day’s mayhem, according to two people familiar with the situation. Predictably, Trump held the position that it wasn’t his fault, and that a strong public denunciation was not necessary at the time, the sources relayed.

Trump did, however, make time to continue privately griping throughout Wednesday afternoon about how unfair his own vice president was being to him.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-is-furiousbut-not-at-the-maga-mob-that-stormed-capitol?ref=home

WashPost Editorial: Trump caused the assault on the Capitol. He must be removed.

Opinion by Editorial Board
Jan. 6, 2021 at 7:31 p.m. EST
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PRESIDENT TRUMP’S refusal to accept his election defeat and his relentless incitement of his supporters led Wednesday to the unthinkable: an assault on the U.S. Capitol by a violent mob that overwhelmed police and drove Congress from its chambers as it was debating the counting of electoral votes. Responsibility for this act of sedition lies squarely with the president, who has shown that his continued tenure in office poses a grave threat to U.S. democracy. He should be removed.

Mr. Trump encouraged the mob to gather on Wednesday, as Congress was set convene, and to “be wild.” After repeating a panoply of absurd conspiracy theories about the election, he urged the crowd to march on the Capitol. “We’re going to walk down, and I’ll be there with you,” he said. “You’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.” The president did not follow the mob, but instead passively watched it on television as its members tore down fences around the Capitol and overwhelmed police guarding the building. House members and senators were forced to flee. Shots were fired and at least one person was struck and killed.

Rather than immediately denouncing the violence and calling on his supporters to stand down, Mr. Trump issued two mild tweets in which he called on them to “remain” or “stay” peaceful. Following appeals from senior Republicans, he finally released a video in which he asked people to go home, but doubled down on the lies fueling the vigilantes. “We love you. You’re very special,” he told his seditious posse. Later, he excused the riot, tweeting that “these are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away.”

***

The chaos confirmed once again the voters’ wisdom in rejecting Mr. Trump in favor of Joe Biden. The president-elect rose to the moment. “I call on this mob, now, to pull back and allow the work of democracy to go forward,” Mr. Biden said. “It’s not protest. It’s insurrection.” He concluded: “Today is a reminder, a painful one, that democracy is fragile.”

Mr. Biden is right. Rules, norms, laws, even the Constitution itself are worth something only if people believe in them. Americans put on their seat belts, follow traffic laws, pay taxes and vote because of faith in a system — and that faith makes it work. The highest voice in the land incited people to break that faith, not just in tweets, but by inciting them to action. Mr. Trump is a menace, and as long as he remains in the White House, the country will be in danger.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/remove-trump-incitement-sedition-25th-amendment/2021/01/06/b22c6ad4-506d-11eb-b96e-0e54447b23a1_story.html

Note: I'm posting extra paragraphs because of this national emergency - Wicked Blue

January 6 will go down as one of the darkest days in our history - Sen. Schumer nt

Former President Barack Obama says today's events were "incited by a sitting president" CNN

Former President Barack Obama says today's events were "incited by a sitting president"

Former President Barack Obama has issued a statement following today's violence on Capitol Hill where he implored Republicans to "choose reality and take the first steps toward extinguishing the flames."
""History will rightly remember today’s violence at the Capitol, incited by a sitting president who has continued to baselessly lie about the outcome of a lawful election, as a moment of great dishonor and shame for our nation. But we’d be kidding ourselves if we treated it as a total surprise," Obama said."

Obama added: "I’ve been heartened to see many members of the President’s party speak up forcefully today. Their voices add to the examples of Republican state and local election officials in states like Georgia who’ve refused to be intimidated and have discharged their duties honorably. We need more leaders like these — right now and in the days, weeks, and months ahead as President-Elect Biden works to restore a common purpose to our politics. It’s up to all of us as Americans, regardless of party, to support him in that goal."

DC attorney general calls on Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump - CNN

The Attorney General for the District of Columbia Karl Racine called on Vice President Mike Pence to organize the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump from office.

"Whether you like Vice President Pence or not, the fact is he is more fit for office... we need a commander-in-chief that will fulfill his constitutional responsibilities," he told CNN tonight.

"I would ask the vice president, please go the next step," continued Racine. "Do your constitutional duty. Protect America, stand up for democracy, and invoke the 25th Amendment.

"That requires Vice President Pence to move and get a majority of the Cabinet or majority of the Congress to immediately remove the President because he so clearly is not fit for office," said Racine, earlier in the conversation.

President Clinton: "The match was lit by Donald Trump and his most ardent enablers" From CNN's Dan

Former President Bill Clinton denounced the violence at the US Capitol, saying in a statement “Today we faced an unprecedented assault on our Capitol, our Constitution, and our country.”

"The assault was fueled by more than four years of poison politics spreading deliberate misinformation, sowing distrust in our system, and pitting Americans against one another. The match was lit by Donald Trump and his most ardent enablers, including many in Congress, to overturn the results of an election he lost," Clinton said.

He went on to say that the peaceful transfer of power must be completed.

"The election was free, the count was fair, the result is final. We must complete the peaceful transfer of power our Constitution mandates.
I have always believed that America is made up of good, decent people. I still do. If that’s who we really are, we must reject today’s violence, turn the page, and move forward together—honoring our Constitution, remaining committed to a government of the people, by the people, and for the people," Clinton said.