Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., speaks as the House reconvenes to debate the objection to confirm the Electoral College vote from Arizona, after protesters stormed into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. | House Television via AP
BOSTON — The Harvard Institute of Politics removed Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) from its Senior Advisory Committee in the wake of last week’s deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol, pointing to her unfounded claims of voter fraud in the November election.
“Elise has made public assertions about voter fraud in November’s presidential election that have no basis in evidence, and she has made public statements about court actions related to the election that are incorrect,” Harvard Kennedy School Dean Douglas Elmendorf wrote in a letter released Tuesday. “Moreover, these assertions and statements do not reflect policy disagreements but bear on the foundations of the electoral process through which this country’s leaders are chosen.”
The school initially asked Stefanik to step aside, according to Elmendorf. When the New York lawmaker declined, the school removed her. Stefanik was among the 147 House Republicans who voted against certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
Sheldon Adelson, with his wife, Miriam, talks with then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson before a 2017 speech by President Trump at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
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Sheldon Adelson, with his wife, Miriam, talks with then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson before a 2017 speech by President Trump at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
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Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, one of the most prolific donors in conservative politics, died Monday night at the age of 87 due to complications from treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, according to a statement from Las Vegas Sands, the company he founded.
Adelson made his fortune — a net worth of around $35 billion according to an estimate by Forbes — in the casino hotel industry. He spent much of it backing conservative politicians in the U.S. and Israel, shaping the political debate of both countries.
He was in the first wave of superwealthy Americans to take advantage of the Supreme Court’s controversial Citizens United ruling, which opened the doors to eight- and nine-figure political donations so long as the money goes to independent superPACs and not candidates or party committees.
Fireworks explodes at a replica of the Eiffel Tower of Parisian Macao during an opening ceremony in Macau, China, on Sept. 13, 2016. The French-themed Parisian Macao is Sheldon Adelson’s fifth property in the former Portuguese colony.
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Fireworks explodes at a replica of the Eiffel Tower of Parisian Macao during an opening ceremony in Macau, China, on Sept. 13, 2016. The French-themed Parisian Macao is Sheldon Adelson’s fifth property in the former Portuguese colony.
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Serial entrepreneur
Adelson grew up poor in Dorchester, Mass. His parents were immigrants. His father drove a cab.
“When I was 12, I bought my first business,” said Adelson, who started out selling newspapers on the street. He told the story during a videotaped court deposition in 2008. “You know, you hold the newspaper in your hand and say, ‘Hey, get your Daily Record.’ We would yell that out. We would hawk newspapers,” Adelson said.
By age 16, he had bought his second business — vending machines. And he kept on selling — packages of toiletries, spray cans of windshield de-icer. He ran a tour business and got into venture capital.
Then, early in the personal computer era, he bought an influential computer trade show called Comdex and held it in Las Vegas.
Comdex took off, so Adelson bought the legendary Sands Hotel and Casino and built a million-square-foot convention center behind it. It was the start of a new Las Vegas, a place that catered to big conventions all week long — not just the weekend crowd that came in for gambling and the shows.
“I think if you had to single out one individual who brought that kind of component to the city, it would be Sheldon Adelson,” said Sig Rogich, a longtime Las Vegas communications consultant. “He was a transformational figure in Las Vegas history.”
In 1996, Adelson imploded the Sands and built the Venetian, a complex with more than 8,000 rooms and more than 150 stores and restaurants. It’s a model that he replicated in Macau and Singapore with enormous profit.
“If you do things differently, success will follow you like a shadow, and you can’t get rid of it. So that’s what I did,” Adelson told the American Gaming Association convention in 2014.
Along the way, Adelson had battles. In the Comdex days, he fought the other casino owners. When he put up the Venetian, he froze out the unions that had represented workers at the old Sands.
“Anybody who stands up to him or stands in his way, he’ll try to crush,” said D. Taylor, international president of the labor group UNITE HERE and a long time labor leader in Las Vegas.
In 2015, the Adelson family bought the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper, in a sale originally shrouded in mystery and investigated by the publication’s own journalists. There were several newsroom resignations after that sale, including a columnist who was told he could not write about Adelson.
The “Adelson primary”
The fortune Adelson made in the casino business was spent generously on donations to Jewish causes, medical research and the Republican Party. He and his wife, Miriam, gave around $500 million over the past eight years to Republican and conservative campaigns.
The couple’s prolific political giving led to what was sometimes called the “Adelson primary,” in which GOP presidential hopefuls would flock to Las Vegas to court Adelson and the Republican Jewish Coalition.
“Hey, listen, Sheldon, thanks for inviting me,” said then-Ohio Gov. John Kasich at one such event in 2014. “I don’t travel to these things much, but this is one that I thought was really, really important.”
But after early reservations, the Adelsons backed Trump’s 2016 election effort; they gave $5 million to his inaugural committee and then donated about $500,000 to the legal defense fund for his White House aides. During the 2018 midterms, the Adelsons donated more than $100 million to Republicans.
Trump awarded Miriam Adelson the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2018; the citation praised her work and philanthropy in combating addiction. “You have been truly incredible,” Trump told her at the event, before looking out to the crowd. “Here to celebrate Miriam’s award is Sheldon. Where is Sheldon? Where is Sheldon? Where is he? There he is. Oh, you didn’t make the front row. He’s probably angry.”
While Adelson was a staunch supporter of the Republican Party, he wasn’t always in sync with the party’s positions, telling reporters in 2012, “On the social issues, I’m not pro-life; I’m pro-choice.”
Adelson continued to support Trump in his reelection bid, though about a week after the election, his newspaper’s editorial board said the defeated president was trying to “delay the inevitable.” The editorial column blasted the unfounded claims of voter fraud Trump and his allies were perpetuating.
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Ivanka Trump unveil an inauguration plaque during the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem on May 14, 2018.
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Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Ivanka Trump unveil an inauguration plaque during the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem on May 14, 2018.
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Birthright Israel; Jerusalem embassy
Adelson also spent heavily on conservative causes in Israel.
He was a primary backer of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to a biography of the Israeli leader by journalist Anshel Pfeffer, Netanyahu helped the Adelsons secure unprecedented access to hold their wedding reception in the Israeli parliament building.
In 2007, Adelson launched Israel Today, a free daily that has become Israel’s largest circulation newspaper. It features cheerleading coverage of Netanyahu and his family, a key asset in Netanyahu’s longtime quest for positive press coverage in Israel. When Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress in 2015 against the Iran nuclear deal, Adelson was in the gallery.
Adelson also helped bankroll Birthright Israel, a program partially funded by the Israeli government to send American Jewish youth to Israel on free guided trips.
He was a forceful advocate for moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Adelson heavily supported former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s 2012 presidential campaign in part because of his support for moving the embassy.
While the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations rejected such a move, Trump’s administration embraced the policy.
At the dedication ceremony for the new embassy in May 2018, the Adelsons sat in the front row just a few feet away from Netanyahu, Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner.
NPR international correspondent Daniel Estrin contributed reporting to this story.
WASHINGTON – Democrats are demanding President Donald Trump’s removal – or at least barring him from ever holding public office again – for whipping up a crowd of supporters who rushed the Capitol Jan. 6, leading to a deadly riot.
They’ve called for his resignation, urged the Cabinet to remove him under the 25th Amendment and, with those two options looking extremely unlikely, are preparing to impeach the president for a second time.
The issue is how quickly. On Monday, the House introduced a single article (or charge) for “incitement of insurrection,” which could allow a fast-tracked floor vote on impeachment by Wednesday. Upon receiving the article, the Senate must take it up either through a vote to dismiss the charge or, if that fails, moving ahead with a trial to determine whether to convict the 45th president.
“This was an attempted coup to overthrow the government and we have a responsibility as Congress to respond to that,” said Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., the chief author of the impeachment article that has more than 200 co-sponsors. “This is urgent. This president represents a real danger to our democracy.”
But some impeachment supporters are hedging on moving too fast, noting that the Senate won’t be able to act before Trump leaves office Jan. 20. Impeachment backers need at least two-thirds – or 67 – of the 100-member Senate to support conviction. While a few congressional Republicans appear to support Trump’s term ending early, it’s unclear whether Democrats would be able to convince 17 GOP senators to effect such a move.
In addition, forcing a January trial would divert time and attention from Joe Biden’s incoming administration just as the new president will be trying to ramp up Cabinet confirmation votes and measures to address the spiraling pandemic that’s already killed more than 375,000 Americans, infected 22 million others and decimated the global economy.
Here are some competing scenarios being weighed to punish the president and force his ouster:
Impeaching Trump
The likeliest scenario involves Congress taking action on its own and convicting Trump for what they allege was his direct role in fomenting violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, where a rampage left one police officer dead, a female rioter fatally shot and three other assailants dead.
The House could vote Wednesday on the article of impeachment, but the timing of a Senate trial is uncertain.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has circulated a letter showing the Senate couldn’t possibly hold a trial before Trump’s term ends at noon Jan. 20. The Senate will meet next in pro forma session on Jan. 19. Even if the chamber received an article of impeachment by then, the next step it could take under its rules would be at 1 p.m. Jan. 20, according to McConnell’s memo.
And there are far-reaching consequences to consider, according to Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor who testified during the previous Trump impeachment hearings.
A “snap impeachment” could set the precedent for a Congress to impeach presidents for actions of their supporters, he said.
“The damage caused by the rioting was enormous, but it will pale in comparison to the damage from the new precedent of a ‘snap impeachment’ for speech protected under the 1st Amendment,” Turley wrote in a Monday tweet. “It would do to the Constitution what the rioters did to the Capitol: Leave it in tatters.”
The timing of impeachment
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., didn’t specify impeachment timing during an interview broadcast Sunday on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” but said something has to be done to punish Trump.
“He has to pay a price for that,” she said.
Even if the House approves an article of impeachment this week, Pelosi might not send it to the Senate immediately as she did more than a year ago – when Trump was impeached.
The House voted Dec. 18, 2019, to impeach Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress involving his efforts to pressure Ukraine leaders to dig up dirt on then-candidate Biden. But to build public pressure on the Senate to take witness testimony, Pelosi held on to the articles. The House voted Jan. 15, 2020, to transmit them to the Senate. The Senate chose not to have witnesses and acquitted Trump on Feb. 5, 2020.
Only one Republican – Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah – joined 47 members who caucus with Democrats to convict Trump of abuse of power against 52 Republicans who voted to acquit – far short of the two-third majority needed for conviction.
Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., said he would look at any impeachment articles the House sends. And Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said he would vote for impeachment, but that he doesn’t think the effort is smart because “it victimizes Donald Trump again.” Other Republicans have called on Trump to resign.
Casey Burgat, a congressional expert at George Washington University, said the concern for Democrats is that waiting likely would play in Trump’s favor.
“If you don’t strike now when the emotions are still real, the aftereffects are still raw, the attention is concentrated on a single act, (Democrats might miss) the best shot of getting those Republican senators that you need when they’re still vulnerable to the backlash at home,” he said. “After Trump leaves and if he’s able to disappear even for a month or two, memories will fade.”
“Let’s give President-elect Biden the 100 days he needs to get his agenda off and running, and maybe we’ll send the articles sometime after that,” Clyburn said.
But Rep. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, which led the first impeachment investigation, said any articles approved should be sent to the Senate because the chamber could deal swiftly if senators agree unanimously.
“My feeling is, if we impeach him this week that it should immediately be transmitted to the Senate and we should try the case as soon as possible,” Schiff told “CBS This Morning.” “Mitch McConnell has demonstrated when it comes to jamming Supreme Court justices through the Congress, he can move with great alacrity when he wants to.”
Biden has said it is up to Congress to decide whether to impeach Trump, but that he wants to hit the ground running on Jan. 20 with efforts to curb COVID-19, distribute the vaccines and revive the economy.
“I’ve been clear that President Trump should not be in office. Period,” the president-elect said.
Biden said he’s asked whether the Senate could hold an impeachment trial for part of the day and then confirm executive branch appointees the other half of the day.
“I haven’t gotten an answer from the parliamentarian yet,” said Biden, a former 36-year senator.
While a Senate conviction after Jan. 20 obviously would not force a premature ouster, it could prevent Trump – who has said he wants to run in 2024 – from ever being able to hold federal elective office again.
A precedent for impeaching an official after he’s left office dates to 1876. The House impeached War Secretary William Belknap on five articles including “criminally disregarding his duty as Secretary of War and basely prostituting his high office to his lust for private gain.”
But as the House prepared to vote, Belknap raced to the White House and resigned to President Ulysses S. Grant. That didn’t stop the House vote or the Senate trial with 40 witnesses. While a majority voted to convict Belknap, the votes fell short of the two-thirds required for conviction.
Invoking the 25th Amendment
Congressional Democrats said they’d prefer Trump’s Cabinet utilize the 25th amendment and vote to remove the president from office. But Vice President Mike Pence has indicated he opposes such a move and those Cabinet members who might have contemplated such a step, notably Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, quit last week.
James A. Gardner, a constitutional law scholar at the University of Buffalo School of Law, said the Cabinet couldn’t do much to remove Trump in the coming days even if they wanted to invoke it because the amendment was designed to deal with situations where a president becomes too ill physically or mentally to fulfill his duties.
“Trump is not physically unable to serve, nor is he any more ill mentally than he was the day he took office,” Gardner said. “The objection to Trump is not his inability. It is that he uses his abilities in terribly destructive ways.”
Convincing Trump to resign
This is the least likely scenario considering the president has remained defiant in the face of mounting criticism and has shown no indication he would step down. On Tuesday, he travels to Texas to mark the completion of more than 400 miles of border wall.
In a tweet late Wednesday, Trump called for calm but continued to spread falsehoods about the election. Twitter required he remove the offending tweets then wait 12 hours to regain access. Two days later, Twitter permanently banned him from the social media platform after he tweeted he would not be attending Biden’s inauguration.
In 1974, personal appeals by Barry Goldwater of Arizona and other GOP senators who went to the White House helped convince Richard Nixon to resign the presidency following the Watergate scandal. No such effort appears likely this time as none of the Republicans who would suggest such a move are among Trump’s inner circle.
Many Democrats have called for Trump’s ouster. But Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, became the first Republican senator on Friday to call for Trump’s resignation. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., joined her Sunday in calling for the president to step down.
MISSION, Kan. – A judge has granted a stay in what was slated to be the U.S. government’s first execution of a female inmate in nearly seven decades – a Kansas woman who killed an expectant mother in Missouri, cut the baby from her womb and passed off the newborn as her own.
Judge Patrick Hanlon granted the stay late Monday, citing the need to determine Montgomery’s mental competence, reported the Topeka Capital-Journal. Lisa Montgomery faced execution Tuesday at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, just eight days before President-elect Joe Biden, an opponent of the federal death penalty, takes office.
Montgomery drove about 170 miles from her Melvern, Kansas, farmhouse to the northwest Missouri town of Skidmore under the guise of adopting a rat terrier puppy from Bobbie Jo Stinnett, a 23-year-old dog breeder. She strangled Stinnett with a rope before performing a crude cesarean and fleeing with the baby.
She was arrested the next day after showing off the premature infant, Victoria Jo, who is now 16 years old and hasn’t spoken publicly about the tragedy.
“As we walked across the threshold our Amber Alert was scrolling across the TV at that very moment,” recalled Randy Strong, who was part of the northwest Missouri major case squad at the time.
He looked to his right and saw Montgomery holding the newborn and was awash in relief when she handed her over to law enforcement. The preceding hours had been a blur in which he photographed Stinnett’s body and spent a sleepless night looking for clues – unsure of whether the baby was dead or alive and no idea what she looked like.
But then tips began arriving about Montgomery, who had a history of faking pregnancies and suddenly had a baby. Strong, now the sheriff of Nodaway County, where the killing happened, hopped in an unmarked car with another officer. He learned while en route that the email address fischer4kids@hotmail.com that was used to set up the deadly meeting with Stinnett had been sent from a dial-up connection at Montgomery’s home.
“I absolutely knew I was walking into the killer’s home,” recalled Strong, saying rat terriers ran around his feet as he approached her house. Like Stinnett, Montgomery also raised rat terriers.
Bobbie Jo Stinnett’s mother, Becky Harper, sobbed as she told a Missouri dispatcher about stumbling across her daughter in a pool of blood, her womb slashed open and the child she had been carrying missing.
“It’s like she exploded or something,” Harper told the dispatcher on Dec. 16, 2004, during the desperate yet futile attempt to get help for her daughter.
Prosecutors said her motive was that Stinnett’s ex-husband knew she had undergone a tubal ligation that made her sterile and planned to reveal she was lying about being pregnant in an effort to get custody of two of their four children. Needing a baby before a fast-approaching court date, Montgomery turned her focus on Stinnett, whom she had met at dog shows.
Montgomery’s lawyers, though, have argued that sexual abuse during Montgomery’s childhood led to mental illness. Attorney Kelley Henry spoke in favor of Monday’s decision, saying in a statement to the Capital-Journal that “Mrs. Montgomery has brain damage and severe mental illness that was exacerbated by the lifetime of sexual torture she suffered at the hands of caretakers.”
Her stepfather denied the sexual abuse in videotaped testimony and said he didn’t have a good memory when confronted with a transcript of a divorce proceeding in which he admitted some physical abuse. Her mother testified that she never filed a police complaint because he had threatened her and her children.
But the jurors who heard the case, some crying through the gruesome testimony, disregarded the defense in convicting her of kidnapping resulting in death.
Prosecutors argued that Stinnett regained consciousness and tried to defend herself as Montgomery used a kitchen knife to cut the baby girl from her womb. Later that day, Montgomery called her husband to pick her up in the parking lot of a Long John Silver’s in Topeka, Kansas, telling him she had delivered the baby earlier in the day at a nearby birthing center.
She eventually confessed, and the rope and bloody knife used to kill Stinnett were found in her car. A search of her computer showed she used it to research caesareans and order a birthing kit.
Stinnett’s husband, Zeb, told jurors his world “crashed to an end” when he learned his wife was dead. He said he didn’t return for months to the couple’s home in Skidmore, a small farming community that earlier gained notoriety after the 1981 slaying of town bully Ken Rex McElroy in front of a crowd of people who refused to implicate the killer or killers. That crime was chronicled in a book, “In Broad Daylight,” as well as a TV movie, the film “Without Mercy” and the miniseries “No One Saw a Thing.”
Recently, on Victoria Jo’s birthday, he sent Strong, the sheriff, a message through Facebook Messenger thanking him.
“I just wept,” Strong recalled. “He is going to constantly be reminded of this whether in his nightmares or somebody is going to call and want to interview him. The family doesn’t want to be interviewed. They want to be left alone. The community of Skidmore has had a troubling past and history. They didn’t want this. They didn’t deserve this.”
Montgomery originally was scheduled to be put to death on Dec. 8. But the execution was temporarily blocked after her attorneys contracted the coronavirus visiting her in prison.
The resumption of federal executions after a 17-year pause started on July 14. Anti-death penalty groups said President Donald Trump was pushing for executions prior to the November election in a cynical bid to burnish a reputation as a law-and-order leader.
U.S. officials have portrayed the executions as bringing long-delayed justice for victims and their families.
A freshman Republican congresswoman said that she may support efforts to censure all 147 of her GOP colleagues who voted in favor of objections to President-elect Joe Biden‘s election win hours after an angry mob of President Donald Trump‘s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, who was sworn in alongside other House members on January 3, made the remarks during in interview with CNN‘s Christiane Amanpour on Monday. Mace insisted that she would be “looking at all of the options that are on the table” for punishing a large number of her GOP colleagues who supported efforts to overturn the will of voters, including censuring them.
“We had a constitutional crisis on Wednesday,” Mace said. “I am barely a week into the job and I am looking at all of the options that are on the table. Censure should be on the table. We have to hold ourselves accountable, we have to hold ourselves to a higher standard. I am extremely disappointed with some members in my own party over their behavior and over their words.”
“There has to be a reconciliation and reckoning within our own party,” she added. “If we don’t hold ourselves accountable, especially for those who are at fault for starting this or enabling this to happen, then we might never earn the trust of the American people back.”
Mace expressed a desire to be “part of the solution and not part of the problem” of partisan division. Although she may support censuring Congress and has suggested censuring the president himself, she has also spoken against a second Trump impeachment over concerns that it could spark further division. The House is planning to vote on impeaching Trump later this week for allegedly inciting the riot.
Republican Nancy Mace is pictured during a campaign event in Charleston, South Carolina on October 31, 2020. Michael Ciaglo/Getty
The congresswoman said that Americans who believed Trump’s claims of massive voter fraud had “followed these lies because they feel like their voices aren’t heard,” adding “that’s why the president was so successful in fleecing them” with his “lies and dishonesty to the American people.”
Even after the rioters breached the building, Trump continued to claim without evidence that the election had been “stolen” on Twitter, contributing to the platform suspending and later banning his account permanently.
Mace lamented that “every accomplishment” Republicans had had over the past four years had been “wiped out” by the pro-Trump insurrection, saying that the party will “have to start over from scratch” as a result.
On a personal note, Mace described sheltering in her office alongside staff when the rioters breached the building as one of the most “harrowing” experiences of her life. Five people died as a result of the riot, with many more injured. Members of Congress narrowly avoided direct confrontations with the mob.
“I risked my life for a vote on Wednesday that should have been ceremonial,” said Mace. “I was a sitting duck, my staff was a sitting duck as we were on lockdown in our offices. Our offices were locked. Shades were drawn, lights were out and we were quiet. All we know and all we heard were sirens across all of D.C. We knew there were pipe bombs out there, we knew there was a cooler full of Molotov cocktails. It was one of the most harrowing and scariest experiences.”
Mace is not alone in calling for accountability for those who persisted in pushing discredited claims about election fraud even after the riot, although Democrats have suggested significantly more forceful measures.
Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), also a freshman member of the House, introduced a resolution that would expel every member of Congress who attempted to overturn election results due to a provision of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which bars those who have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” from serving.
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf announced his resignation Monday, joining a long line of Trump administration officials who have stepped down since the president’s supporters stormed the US Capitol building last week.
Wolf — who has served in the position since November 2019 and become the public face of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies — had been planning to remain in his post until President-elect Joe Biden was inaugurated on January 20. He had been overseeing security measures for the inauguration, and announced Monday that he was extending the “national special security event” period, a designation that facilitates cooperation among federal law enforcement agencies to respond to terrorist or other criminal threats.
But he reportedly told agency staff later on Monday that ongoing legal challenges to his appointment to the position had precluded him from staying on.
Pete Gaynor, the current Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator, will succeed Wolf.
“Unfortunately, this action is warranted by recent events, including the ongoing and meritless court rulings regarding the validity of my authority as Acting Secretary,” he told agency staff, according to the New York Times. “These events and concerns increasingly serve to divert attention and resources away from the important work of the Department in this critical time of a transition of power.”
Other Trump administration officials who recently stepped down from their posts since last week’s insurrection at the Capitol include Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Pottinger, Trump’s special envoy to Northern Ireland Mick Mulvaney, and chief of staff to the first lady Stephanie Grisham.
Though Wolf has frequently gone to bat for the president in the media, reportedly becoming his favorite homeland security secretary, Wolf had publicly urged Trump to strongly condemn last week’s violence.
“This is unacceptable. These violent actions are unconscionable, and I implore the President and all elected officials to strongly condemn the violence,” he said in a statement on Thursday. “Any appearance of inciting violence by an elected official goes against who we are as Americans. Every American is guaranteed the right to peacefully protest, but once those protests become violent, we should enforce our laws and bring those responsible to justice — regardless of political motivations.”
But his resignation did not appear to be directly tied to last week’s events. Rather, he cited several court rulings that he was unlawfully appointed to his position. Judges found that Trump had sidestepped the Senate confirmation process to install him, running afoul of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act. Trump had attempted to rectify the issues with Wolf’s appointment by formally nominating him for the position but abruptly withdrew the nomination from the Senate last Thursday.
With Wolf continuing to serve in his position without legal authority, his legacy has come into question. One court already invalidated his memo halting new applications to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program on the basis of his illegitimate appointment.
There is no telling whether further legal challenges could invalidate other DHS policies promulgated under Wolf’s watch — or even whether the incoming Biden administration could argue that Wolf’s appointment was unlawful in order to refrain from enforcing agency policies that it opposes.
Wolf became Trump’s mouthpiece on the border
Wolf and his deputy Ken Cuccinelli were at the forefront of Trump’s “law and order” messaging over the summer and have been staunch defenders of the president’s restrictionist immigration policies.
Wolf led the crackdown against Black Lives Matter protests in Portland, Oregon, sending federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection there on the premise of protecting federal buildings that had been vandalized. The agents later drew criticism for escalating tensions by using tear gas on crowds and detaining protesters in unmarked vehicles.
And in the final weeks before the presidential election, he and Cuccinelli went on a tour of several battleground states — Pennsylvania, Arizona, Minnesota, and Texas — holding at least five press conferences to showcase Trump’s immigration policies. Some of the press conferences concerned routine enforcement actions that would typically be publicized with a simple press release.
Wolf made the border wall a prop in the agency’s public messaging. After racing to finish the border wall in the months leading up to the election, he has been eager to claim that Trump made good on his campaign vow. (Some 500 miles of wall have been completed, but Mexico never paid for it — rather, that $15 billion burden fell on taxpayers and largely was transferred from the Pentagon’s budget.)
Wolf traveled to the border on October 29 to tout the progress on construction, making abundantly clear what he thought was at stake in the presidential election. He said that Biden’s policies would create a surge of migration at the border and pose a threat to national security.
“Let me be clear, each of those policies would endanger the lives of the border patrol and Americans across the country,” he said.
He also tweeted out a video jabbing at journalists who cast doubt on whether Trump would complete the border wall and whether it would even serve its intended purpose of “securing the border.” It’s not clear whether the video was produced by the Department of Homeland Security, but it might as well have been a campaign ad:
They said it couldn’t be done…
They tried to block it They tried to spin it They tried to hide the truth
David Lapan, a former spokesperson for DHS, called it a “misuse of [government] resources” and “clear electioneering.”
The announcement of Wolf’s resignation comes just before Trump’s planned trip to the US-Mexico border on Tuesday, where he is expected to again tout his legacy on immigration.
Chad F. Wolf, the acting secretary for the Homeland Security Department, resigned on Monday, just nine days before he was expected to help coordinate the security of a presidential inauguration facing heightened threats of violence.
Mr. Wolf told employees of the Homeland Security Department he would be stepping down on Monday night in part because of court rulings that invalidated some of the Trump administration’s immigration policies, citing the likelihood that Mr. Wolf was unlawfully appointed to lead the agency.
“Unfortunately, this action is warranted by recent events, including the ongoing and meritless court rulings regarding the validity of my authority as Acting Secretary,” Mr. Wolf said in the letter obtained by The New York Times. “These events and concerns increasingly serve to divert attention and resources away from the important work of the Department in this critical time of a transition of power.”
Mr. Wolf did not address the deadly siege of the Capitol in his letter. Peter T. Gaynor, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, will replace Mr. Wolf as the acting secretary of the Homeland Security Department. He will now be tasked with helping ensure the security of the inauguration of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. The Secret Service, which falls under the Homeland Security Department, is leading the security efforts for the event.
As many as 10 to 15 instances involving Capitol Police are currently under investigation, Ryan said. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer also told Democrats on an earlier caucus call that about 15 instances involving officers are under investigation and that two officers have been suspended.
“The Capitol Police are looking at everybody involved that could have potentially facilitated“ the Capitol takeover or helped rioters “at a big level or small level in any way,” Ryan said, while cautioning that he does not have “direct evidence“ of an “inside job.”
Many Capitol Police officers were in danger as they worked Wednesday to protect lawmakers, aides and journalists during the deadly insurrection. Many sustaining injuries, and one officer, Brian Sicknick, died from his injuries late Thursday. Another officer, Howard Liebengood, died by suicide after the attack, according to reports. CBS News also reported Monday that some officers have threatened self-harm since the ambush.
Ryan stressed that a thorough investigation is ongoing and that enhanced congressional oversight of the Capitol Police moving forward is highly likely. In the meantime, lawmakers are focused on learning from the attack in order to ensure a safe inauguration on Jan. 20, he said.
“I think any review that’s going to be happening of Jan. 6 is going to take into account a broader understanding of oversight, what needs to be done, as we begin to build the force of the future,” Ryan said.
“We’re going to have to make a lot of changes when it comes to the structure of the buildings, the perimeters, the roles and responsibilities around the Capitol Police. And all of that is going to entail us having more oversight over them,” he said. “I think there will bipartisan agreement on this.”
On Monday, U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, said the Senate Ethics Committee “must consider the expulsion, or censure and punishment, of Sens. Cruz, Hawley, and perhaps others.”
Republican West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice told CNBC on Monday the pro-Trump riot at the U.S. Capitol last week made the country “look terrible” and he urged Americans to put aside their political affiliations.
“What happened with the attack on our Capitol, with people who were just out of control, is despicable,” Justice said on “Squawk on the Street.” “That’s all there is to it. There’s no other way around it.”
First elected as a Democrat, Justice switched to the GOP in 2017 at a rally alongside President Donald Trump. While acknowledging Trump supporters are frustrated their candidate lost to President-elect Joe Biden, Justice said a moment of reflection needs to take place because “we have gotten off the rails.”
“We have got to step back and take some deep breaths and realize that we’re Americans first and foremost,” he added. “We aren’t Democrats and Republicans first and foremost. We’re Americans, and for crying out loud, this makes us look terrible beyond belief.”
House Democrats are once again moving to impeach Trump, this second time for encouraging supporters to march to the Capitol while Congress was finalizing Biden’s Electoral College victory.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, has called on Trump to resign, saying “he has caused enough damage.” Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said that while there’s probably not enough time for impeachment before Biden’s inauguration next week, “I think the president has disqualified himself from ever, certainly, serving in office again.”
Among those who have so far been arrested for their alleged participation in Wednesday’s insurrection at the U.S. Capitol are 35-year-old Derrick Evans, who was elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates in November as a Republican. Evans has since resigned after being charged in connection with storming the Capitol. He livestreamed parts of the riot, according to the Associated Press.
“I take full responsibility for my actions, and deeply regret any hurt, pain or embarrassment I may have caused my family, friends, constituents and fellow West Virginians,” Evans said in a statement, according to the AP.
Justice sharply criticized Evans, who was charged with a two misdemeanors for disorderly conduct and entering a restricted area. If convicted, Evans could be sentenced to up to a year and a half in federal prison.
“To run up there and film yourself and go through that and everything, that’s nothing but a dumb bunny,” Justice said. “I don’t know Delegate Evans. He’s newly elected and everything, but from my standpoint, if you’re going to do that stuff, really and truly you ought to suffer the consequences.”
— The Associated Press contributed to this article.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The suspension of President Donald Trump’s social media accounts has prompted some to call the move a “violation of the president’s First Amendment right to free speech.”
But legal experts say that’s a fundamental misrepresentation of the U.S. Constitution.
Everyone learned it in grade school, but it’s worth remembering what the First Amendment actually says: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
The answer is actually in the very first word of the First Amendment.
These are the rules for Congress, for our government, which Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and all other social media platforms are not.
On Monday, Florida Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz responded to social media companies that restricted Trump’s online platforms.
“We cannot live in a world where Twitter’s terms of service are more important than the terms in our constitution and bill of rights,” he wrote on Twitter.
We cannot live in a world where Twitter’s terms of service are more important than the terms in our Constitution and Bill of Rights.
“The Constitution actually is irrelevant here in terms of the banning of public officials, including President Trump, from Twitter. And that’s because the First Amendment, the United States Constitution, only protects us from government censorship, not censorship by private entities, such as Twitter, or Facebook or other social media platforms. So he’s a little bit off in terms of the constitutional issue involved there,” Calvert said.
And U.S. laws were not the only rules that applied to President Trump.
Twitter’s terms of services allow the platform to pull content that violates its rules and it’s the same with most other major platforms, although the decision-making process isn’t available to public scrutiny like it would be in a court of law.
Twitter’s statement on Friday said “after close review of recent tweets from the @realdonaldtrump account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter — we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”
Now, the root issue of concern here is the private control of social media platforms which, with billions of users and pages, have become almost essential to engaging with society. Meaning, social media platforms have become less like shops and restaurants and more like the roads and bridges of the internet.
“The bigger question that might raise is is should we start to treat these larger social media platforms, which do have vast power like Facebook? And we’ve seen now with Parlor being essentially as it were right? Should we treat them differently and regulate them more closely? Have we reached that stage where we need to antitrust litigation, perhaps, and say they have such powerful platforms, they’re like near-monopolies that we should do some trust-busting and break them up,” Calvert said.
That discussion has actually been going on for a while.
In the Florida legislature, there’s a bill that’s been filed for consideration that would allow users to sue social media companies for blocking their content.
SPRINGFIELD — For the second day in a row, the race to hold the gavel that House Speaker Mike Madigan has gripped for nearly four decades lost a candidate.
But it also gained a new one.
The candidate who opted out was a crucial one — Madigan himself.
The legislator newly joining the race is a Madigan ally who has the support of the Black Caucus.
Monday morning, Madigan announced he was suspending his campaign.
But the powerful Southwest Side Democrat took pains to assure members of his caucus that he was not dropping out of the race.
“This is not a withdrawal,” Madigan said in terse statement issued Monday morning. “I have suspended my campaign for Speaker.”
“As I have said many times in the past, I have always put the best interest of the House Democratic Caucus and our members first,” Madigan said. “The House Democratic Caucus can work to find someone, other than me, to get 60 votes for Speaker.”
Late Monday, the Chicago Sun-Times learned that the Black Caucus had chosen state Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Hillside, as its candidate for speaker. A source within the caucus said Welch would have Madigan’s backing.
But Madigan’s spokesman denied that.
Reached for comment, Steve Brown said the veteran speaker isn’t “taking any position on any of the candidates who’ve either been announced or whose names have been mentioned in the media.”
Candidates for speaker, left to right: State Rep. Stephanie A. Kifowit; state Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch; state Rep. Ann Williams.Rich Hein; Rich Hein; Erin Brown/Sun-Times file.
The stunning series of moves came a day after Madigan fell nine votes short of receiving the 60 needed to secure another term.
Members of the House Democratic caucus had planned a second vote for the leadership post Monday night. But that second round of balloting was postponed, sources told the Chicago Sun-Times.
Lea este artículo en español en La Voz Chicago, un servicio presentado por AARP Chicago.
Despite the impasse, Gov. J.B. Pritzker showed no signs of trying to intervene or broker a deal for a compromise candidate
“Choosing the speaker is the sole responsibility of those members” in the House, the governor said Monday at his daily coronavirus briefing, hours after Madigan suspended his campaign.
In Sunday’s closed caucus meeting, 51 House Democrats voted for Madigan to remain speaker, a position he has held longer than any other statehouse speaker in U.S. history.
To remain speaker, Madigan needs 60 votes. Though he was shy of that magic number, he was the closest in that first round.
State Rep. Ann Williams, D-Chicago, received 18 votes, according to sources in the room. Rep. Stephanie Kifowit, D-Oswego, who was the first to announce a bid against Madigan back in October, received three votes.
Democratic Caucus Chair Kathleen Willis dropped out of the race Sunday and threw her support to Williams, sources told the Sun-Times.
With state Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago, voting present on Sunday, 22 House Democrats have bolted from Madigan. That’s three more than the group of 19 who had previously announced their opposition to his bid for another term.
And those 19 said Sunday they weren’t wavering from their position to not vote for him.
If Welch does have Madigan’s backing, he would be a likely frontrunner, although the Hillside Democrat would still need to win over more than the 51 legislators who made up the loyal Madigan bloc.
Pressed by reporters on Monday, Pritzker said “the last time I spoke with the speaker was a couple of days ago about the decoupling bill,” referring to a measure to disconnect a section of the state tax code from federal tax laws.
“So that’s the last conversation that we had, but I’ll work with whoever gets elected speaker and again as I have with the minority leader in the House and the Senate president and the minority,” the Democratic governor said.
Asked if he asked Madigan to resign as speaker when they last spoke, Pritzker said, “No. I was in a conversation about getting things done. He is still the speaker.”
Madigan, 78, who is also chair of the Illinois Democratic Party, has been battered by the ongoing federal investigation of the ComEd influence-buying scandal in Springfield. Madigan has been implicated but not charged in the investigation.
Madigan has denied any wrongdoing and has previously said he planned to seek another term and enjoyed “support from a significant number of House Democratic caucus members.”
But the federal probe had increasingly complicated his path to another term as speaker, a position he’s held for all but two years since 1983 — longer than any other statehouse speaker in the nation.
ComEd is accused of sending $1.3 million to Madigan’s associates for doing little or no work for the utility. Four allies of the speaker — including longtime confidant Michael McClain — were indicted in November.
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick said Monday that he will not “move forward” with the Presidential Medal of Freedom that Donald Trump planned to present to him on Thursday.
Belichick explained his decision in a statement:
“Recently I was offered the opportunity to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which I was flattered by out of respect for what the honor represents and admiration for prior recipients. Subsequently, the tragic events of last week occurred and the decision has been made not to move forward with the award.
“Above all, I am an American citizen with great reverence for our nation’s values, freedom and democracy. I know I also represent my family and the New England Patriots team. One of the most rewarding things in my professional career took place in 2020 when, through the great leadership within our team, conversations about social justice, equality and human rights moved to the forefront and became actions.
“Continuing those efforts while remaining true to the people, team and country I love outweigh the benefits of any individual award.”
The Presidential Medal of Freedom was established by John F. Kennedy in 1963 and is awarded by the president to individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the security of national interests of America, to world peace or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.
The honor for Belichick comes as the U.S. House of Representatives is increasing pressure to force Trump from office before the end of his term on Jan. 20, after a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday while Congress was in the process of confirming Joe Biden as his successor.
Trump recently has selected several sports figures and political backers for the honor. Hall of Fame golfers Annika Sorenstam and Gary Player, along with the late multisport athlete Babe Didrikson Zaharias, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Thursday, the day after the siege on the Capitol.
Belichick, 68, just concluded his 46th season in the NFL and 21st as Patriots coach. He has led the Patriots to six Super Bowl championships, joining George Halas and Curly Lambeau as the only coaches with six championships since the league began postseason play in 1933. Belichick’s 311 victories (regular season and playoffs combined) are third all time, behind Don Shula (347) and Halas (324).
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