8″ January “2021”SOURCE : AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
Pelosi, Schumer join calls to remove Donald Trump via the 25th Amendment.
- The storming of the US Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump has prompted calls by some legislators to remove him from office before President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in on January 20.
- The chaotic scenes unfolded after Republican Trump, who has refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power, addressed thousands of protesters and repeated unfounded claims that the election was stolen from him.
- Four people died and 64 were arrested as protesters entered the building.
ADVERTISEMENTS
Trump campaign lawyer in Philadelphia withdraws, claims services used ‘to perpetuate a crime’
A court document filed in Pennsylvania shows a Trump campaign lawyer, Jerome Marcus, has withdrawn because “the client has used the lawyer’s services to perpetuate a crime”.
Marcus went on to say in the filling that “the client insists upon taking action that the lawyer considers repugnant and with which the lawyer has a fundamental disagreement.”
Marcus filed a suit in federal court against the Philadelphia County Board of Elections, which alleged Republican poll watchers and representatives were not allowed to observe ballot tallying.
The case has been dormant since November, when Marcus told a judge that Republican observers were present during the tally.
Sedition charges on the table in Capitol rioting: US Justice official
Seditious conspiracy charges, as well as rioting and insurrection, will be considered in arrests related to the breach of the US Capitol, Justice Department officials said.
“All options around the table,” including charges of seditious conspiracy, rioting and insurrection, Acting US Attorney Michael Sherwin told reporters in a news briefing
‘He hasn’t even called us’: Pelosi says Capitol Police chief should resign
US Speaker Nancy Pelosi called on Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund to resign, after officers of the federal force charged with protecting Congress allowed supporters of President Donald Trump to storm the Capitol, sending lawmakers fleeing.
Officers fell back as the crowds advanced on Wednesday, allowing Trump supporters angry about his election defeat into the chambers of Congress to disrupt certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. Others fought to keep lawmakers and staff safe.
“He hasn’t even called us since this happened,” Pelosi said of Sund during a news conference, adding that she made it known she would call for his resignation.
Many of our Capitol Police just acted so bravely and with such concern for the staff, the members, for the Capitol … and they deserve our gratitude. But there was a failure at the top of the Capitol Police,” Pelosi said.
Senator: increase Capitol security ‘dramatically’
Senator Chris Murphy said that security around the Capitol Building must be ‘dramatically’ increased during protests, or the rules of engagement used by Capitol police need to change so police can more aggressively deal with rioters.
Trump ally Senator Graham calls for a peaceful transition to Biden
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a close political ally and supporter of President Trump, threw cold water on talk of invoking the 25thAmendment to remove Trump from office and called on the president to facilitate a peaceful transition to the next administration.
Trump went “too far” by inciting the crowd of his supporters to storm the Congress, and Trump “needs to understand that his actions yesterday did not help”, Graham said at a news conference.
“As to the 25th Amendment being invoked, I did not believe that’s appropriate,” Graham told reporters.
“I am hoping that President Trump will allow his team to work closely with a Biden transition team to transfer power peacefully.”
Graham called on Trump to “turn down the rhetoric and allow us as a nation to heal and move forward”.
He said he has spoken to Trump’s top aides this morning about ensuring the transition proceeds.
John Bolton calls Capitol violence a ‘coup effort’
The former US Ambassador to the UN and Donald Trump’s one-time National Security Adviser branded Wednesday’s riot on Capitol Hill as a “coup effort”.
Speaking to UK broadcaster Sky, John Bolton, who has become one of Trump’s strongest critics since being fired from the White House, added that the outgoing US President will talk about running for reelection in 2024 but “will not run because he will fear defeat”.
Biden: Equal justice not carried out
President-elect Joe Biden criticised law enforcement’s handling of the pro-Trump rioters at the US Capitol Wednesday, saying they committed a “clear failure to carry out equal justice”.
“No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesting yesterday, they wouldn’t have been treated very, very differently than the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol,” Biden said at an event to announce his nomination of Merrick Garland to be attorney general.
“We all know that’s true. And it’s unacceptable. Totally unacceptable.”
“And the American people saw it in plain view.”
House Speaker Pelosi calls for Trump’s removal
House of Representative Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for the removal of Trump through emergency constitutional procedures under the 25th Amendment.
“We are in a very difficult place in our country as long as Donald Trump still sits in the White House,” Pelosi told reporters at the Capitol.
“By inciting sedition as he did yesterday, he must be removed from office,” Pelosi, a Democrat, said.
“The president must be held accountable again,” she said, adding she expects to hear an answer from Vice President Mike Pence “yes or no’ whether he will move to replace Trump.
Pelosi also said she had called for and expected to receive the resignation of Steven Sund, the chief of the US Capitol Police following the security failure at the Capitol.
Biden: ‘They weren’t protesters … They were … domestic terrorists’
President-elect Joe Biden had harsh words for the pro-Trump mob that stormed the US Capitol, as well as for President Trump himself, blaming him squarely for the violence.
“What we witnessed yesterday was not dissent, it was not disorder, it was not protest. It was chaos,” Biden said Thursday in Wilmington, Delaware. “They weren’t protestors. Don’t dare call them protestors. They were a riotous mob, insurrectionists, domestic terrorists.”
“I wish we could say we couldn’t see it coming. But that isn’t true. We could see it coming.”
“The past four years, we’ve had a president who’s made his contempt for democracy, our constitution, the rule of law, clear in everything he has done,” Biden continued.
“He’s unleashed an all-out assault of our institutions of our democracy from the outset. And yesterday was the culmination of that unrelenting attack.”
ADVERTISEMENTS “
White House tells political appointees to prepare for January 20 resignation
White House deputy chief of staff Chris Liddell sent a memo to Cabinet agencies advising political appointees to prepare to resign on January 20 as part of the transition of power to President-elect Joe Biden.
“As we prepare for a transition of power, we must take appropriate measures to ensure this is done in an orderly manner. Traditionally, Presidential Appointees in non-term positions have been asked to submit formal letters of resignation. In keeping with this past practice, all Presidential Appointees must submit a letter of resignation to President Donald J. Trump with a departure date of no later than 1200 pm on January 20, 2021,” said the memo, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.
A White House official described the letter as part of the normal transition process.
OPINION: The day Trump finally lost it
I realise this was a chilling and nauseating day but I also found “Black Wednesday” somewhat entertaining. It felt like watching the last episode of the reality TV show, The Apprentice. Except Donald Trump, the man who fires, was himself fired, finally and for good.
For four years, President Donald Trump has been messing up big time. This week, however, he messed up bigly. On November 3, he lost the election and on January 6, he lost his chance for a comeback.
Read more here.
Is a peaceful transfer of power in the US at risk?
These are just some of the terms used to describe the chaos as the US Congress prepared to certify Joe Biden as the next US president: “An assault on American democracy”, “attempted coup” and “domestic terrorism”.
Crowds fuelled by Trump’s false claim that the election was stolen from him stormed the Capitol building to disrupt the process.
Trump is still refusing to concede, so can the US go through an orderly transition of power? For more click here.
DC Mayor: ‘Clearly the result of a failure’
Washington, DC mayor Muriel Bowser has said the brazen attack on the US Capitol was “clearly the result of a failure” and called for an investigation into the events.
“Congress must create a nonpartisan commission to understand the security failures that happened on the Capitol” Bowser said in a news conference on Thursday.
Metropolitan Police Department Chief Robert Contee said a total of four people died during the chaos at the Capitol, including one woman who was shot by a Capitol Police officer. Three other people also died because of medical emergencies, he added and 68 people were arrested, with 41 of those on US Capitol grounds.
SOURCE : AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES