Category: Trump Administration

After inciting mob attack, Trump retreats in rage. Then, grudgingly, he admits his loss.

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President Trump spent more than 24 hours after instigating a mob to violently storm the Capitol trying to escape reality.

Cloistered in the White House, Trump raged uncontrollably about perceived acts of betrayal. He tuned out advisers who pleaded with him to act responsibly. He was uninterested in trying to repair what he had wrought. And he continued to insist he had won the election, even as his own vice president certified the fact that he had not.

Only after darkness fell in Washington on Thursday, after the Capitol had been besieged by death and destruction and a growing chorus of lawmakers had called for his immediate removal from office, did Trump grudgingly accept his fate. Continue reading.

These Are the Rioters Who Stormed the Nation’s Capitol

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The mob that rampaged the halls of Congress included infamous white supremacists and conspiracy theorists.

WASHINGTON — There were infamous white nationalists and noted conspiracy theorists who have spread dark visions of pedophile Satanists running the country. Others were more anonymous, people who had journeyed from Indiana and South Carolina to heed President Trump’s call to show their support. One person, a West Virginia lawmaker, had only been elected to office in November.

All of them converged on Wednesday on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol, where hundreds of rioters crashed through barricades, climbed through windows and walked through doors, wandering around the hallways with a sense of gleeful desecration, because, for a few breathtaking hours, they believed that they had displaced the very elites they said they hated.

“We wanted to show these politicians that it’s us who’s in charge, not them,” said a construction worker from Indianapolis, who is 40 and identified himself only as Aaron. He declined to give his last name, saying, “I’m not that dumb.” Continue reading.

Republicans Splinter Over Whether to Make a Full Break From Trump

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Republicans face a disturbing prospect: that Wednesday’s Trump-inspired violence could linger for decades as a stain on the party.

WASHINGTON — President Trump not only inspired a mob to storm the Capitol on Wednesday — he also brought the Republican Party close to a breaking point.

Having lost the presidency, the House and now the Senate on Mr. Trump’s watch, Republicans are so deeply divided that many are insisting that they must fully break from the president to rebound.

Those divisions were in especially sharp relief this week when scores of House Republicans sided with Mr. Trump in voting to block certification of the election — in a tally taken after the mob rampaged through the Capitol — while dozens of other House members and all but eight Republican senators refused to go along. Continue reading.

Barr: Trump committed ‘betrayal of his office’

“Orchestrating a mob to pressure Congress is inexcusable,” Barr said in a statement obtained by POLITICO.

Former Attorney General William Barr accused President Donald Trump on Thursday of a “betrayal of his office” — the latest rebuke of the president by a former high-ranking administration official after pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol. 

“Orchestrating a mob to pressure Congress is inexcusable,” Barr said in a statement obtained by POLITICO. “The President’s conduct yesterday was a betrayal of his office and supporters.”

Barr’s criticism on Thursday was not his first public comment on the chaos at the Capitol. As the president’s supporters breached the building on Wednesday afternoon, he released a statement through his spokesperson that did not refer to Trump by name. Continue reading.

Poll: Majority says Trump bears responsibility for Capitol riot

More than 6 in 10 respondents to a POLITICO/Morning Consult flash survey say Trump was at least somewhat responsible for the violence on Wednesday.

Apart from the rioters themselves, voters hold President Donald Trump most responsible for the events that provoked his supporters to storm the Capitol on Wednesday, according to a new, flash POLITICO/Morning Consult poll — and a majority of respondents also say he bears the blame for the resulting violence.

The poll, conducted from Wednesday evening through Thursday morning, shows 63 percent of registered voters believe Trump is at least “somewhat” responsible “for the events that led to” the chaos at the Capitol. Roughly half of respondents, 49 percent, say Trump is “very” responsible.

Lawmakers were forced to shelter in place as both chambers of Congress went into lockdown amid the siege, which resulted in four deaths. The rioters sought to halt the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory after Trump had encouraged them to march on the Capitol earlier Wednesday. Continue reading.

Rudy Giuliani Called For ‘Trial By Combat’ Before Wednesday’s Violence

But now he seems to have forgotten.

Selective amnesia is spelled R-U-D-Y.

Hours before a terrorizing mob overran the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani clambered on stage and urged the very same crowd that would later turn violent to embrace “trial by combat.”

The Trump supporters, gathered for a “Save America” rally, more than took him up on it. Continue reading.

John Kelly: I would vote to remove Trump

The former White House chief of staff also denounced members of the administration for not rejecting the president’s norms-shattering actions in recent years.

Former White House chief of staff John Kelly said on Thursday he would vote to remove President Donald Trump from office if he were still part of the administration.

Speaking with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Kelly said Cabinet members should meet to discuss the president’s role in the Capitol riots on Wednesday. When Tapper asked whether he would have voted to remove Trump, Kelly responded, “Yes, I would.”

Kelly has at times criticized the president since leaving the White House in 2019. But his interview on Thursday was the first time he openly endorsed the president’s removal. He also denounced members of the administration for not pushing back against Trump’s norms-shattering actions over the past two years, and said he wasn’t surprised by the president’s words egging on the storming of the Capitol. Continue reading.

Josh Hawley’s Mentor Calls Him ‘The Worst Mistake He’s Ever Made In His Life’

Former Sen. Jack Danforth told a local newspaper Hawley’s attempts to overturn the election were “dangerous.”

The political mentor of Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.) told a local newspaper on Thursday that backing the freshman Republican’s bids for office was “the worst mistake I ever made in my life,” calling Hawley’s attempts to undermine confidence in the election of President-elect Joe Biden “dangerous.” 

Jack Danforth, a former senator and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations who is considered the dean of Missouri Republican politics, played a key role in elevating Hawley ahead of the latter man’s race against Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill in 2018. 

“Supporting Josh and trying so hard to get him elected to the Senate was the worst mistake I ever made in my life,” Danforth told St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Tony Messenger. “Yesterday was the physical culmination of the long attempt (by Hawley and others) to foment a lack of public confidence in our democratic system. It is very dangerous to America to continue pushing this idea that government doesn’t work and that voting was fraudulent.” Continue reading.

A New ICE Policy As Trump Is About To Leave Office Could Make It Harder For Immigrant Children To Get Asylum

“If implemented aggressively, this policy could significantly decrease the number of children who ultimately receive asylum in the United States,” one expert said.

Immigrant children could have a harder time obtaining asylum in the US under a new policy issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the waning days of an administration that has spent the past four years restricting access at the nation’s southern border.

According to internal documents obtained by BuzzFeed News, the policy directive was issued by former acting agency leader Tony Pham, who left ICE on Dec. 31, and comes just weeks before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, who is expected to rescind many of the restrictive immigration policies put in place under President Donald Trump.

Trump officials have long complained that unaccompanied minors and their families abuse the immigration system through “loopholes” that allow them to remain in the US after crossing the border to seek asylum. The Trump administration has responded by issuing controversial policies, including arresting undocumented people who come forward to care for immigrants in government shelters. Continue reading.

Shellshocked GOP ponders future with Trump

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Shellshocked Republicans on Thursday said President Trump’s grip on the party is significantly weaker after he incited a mob to attack the Capitol, but some questioned whether their party would be free of his hold anytime soon.

The challenges to Trump are clearly mounting. There is chatter his Cabinet could invoke the 25th Amendment to remove him, an idea favored by at least one GOP lawmaker. Tensions between Trump and his long loyal vice president are clear, and there is evident anger in the Senate GOP with the president.

National Republicans interviewed by The Hill said Trump may have permanently alienated millions of center-right voters who were disgusted by Wednesday’s ugly scene. Continue reading.