Two days after throngs of his supporters staged a violent riot through the Capitol, Twitter said Trump’s latest posts on the platform posed too great a risk to keep up. This came after the company temporarily locked Trump’s account Wednesday and publicly warned that additional violations against its rules would result in his indefinite expulsion.
In place of Trump’s notoriously prolific Twitter feed, where nearly 89 million followers read his insults, conspiracy theories and threats against adversaries like “Little Rocket Man,” the @realDonaldTrump page reads simply: “Account suspended.”
Donald Trump Jr., who still has a Twitter account, denounced the move as “absolute insanity!” — the kind of alleged censorship his father had tried to punish using the might of the federal government.
“We are living Orwell’s 1984,” Trump Jr. tweeted Friday night. “Free-speech no longer exists in America. It died with big tech and what’s left is only there for a chosen few.”
The president’s former United Nations ambassador, Nikki Haley, tweeted: “Silencing people, not to mention the President of the US, is what happens in China not our country.”
After his account was reactivated Thursday, Trump tweeted out two messages saying his supporters “will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form,” and announcing he would not attending President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration. Twitter cited those messages as motivating their decision to permanently deactivate his account.
“These two Tweets must be read in the context of broader events in the country and the ways in which the President’s statements can be mobilized by different audiences, including to incite violence, as well as in the context of the pattern of behavior from this account in recent weeks,” the company said in its statement. It added that the tweets violated its policy on glorification of violence.
The final straw came shortly after pro-Trump rioters breached the Capitol during adeadly assault, when Trump posted a series of tweets that urged his supporters to leave but continued to claim falsely that the November election had been stolen from him. Those included a tweet attacking Vice President Mike Pence for refusing to overturn the election results, and another describing the rioters as “great patriots.”
Twitter and Facebook, where Trump posted some of the same messages, temporarily locked Trump’s account in response. Further rule-breaking, Twitter said, “will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account.” The actions marked the harshest confrontation to date between the president and Silicon Valley companies over his incendiary posts and accounts.
Facebook and Instagram subsequently locked Trump’s accounts at least through Inauguration Day. “We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a statement posted to his personal page the day after the mayhem.
Democratic lawmakers, civil rights leaders and other activists have long called for Twitter and Facebook to take more forceful action against Trump, with some urging for his permanent removal. But Republicans have pushed back on those efforts, accusing tech companies of an anti-conservative bias, a charge they deny.
“Enough is enough!” tweeted House Energy and Commerce Chair Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) on the night of the attack on the Capitol. “Trump is inciting violence and spreading dangerous misinformation that is undermining our democracy and our way of life. Social media continues to amplify his anti-democratic rhetoric.”
He added, “It’s time for [Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey] and [Facebook CEO] Mark Zuckerberg to remove Trump from their platforms.”
Twitter’s decision late Friday to boot Trump off the platform for good immediately drew muted praise from Democratic officials, who welcomed it but chastised the company for not stepping in sooner.
“Good step @Twitter. But the damage can’t be undone. And what took so long?” tweeted Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois.
“Thank you @twitter for taking this action,” tweeted Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). “We must come together as a country to heal and find a common path forward.”
Republicans swiftly rebuked the social media platform’s decision Friday.
“Twitter’s permanent suspension of President Trump is beyond disturbing,” tweeted Republican Rep. Diana Harshbarger of Tennessee. “Instead of fostering open debate, this move will deepen the divide in this country. Unacceptable does not even begin to describe this move.”
Murkowski said that while “there may have been many, many, many, many good Americans who came to Washington, D.C., because they felt strongly in support of this president,” Trump incited them to storm the Capitol after a speech near the Washington Monument.
President Donald Trump on Friday found himself under the most extreme political pressure he has faced during his presidency — with just 12 days left in office — under calls to resign and facing the possibility of becoming the first president to be impeached twice.
Trying to contain backlash to his calling on supporters to march on the Capitol — resulting in a mob launching a deadly insurrection — he issued a scripted video message Thursday evening condemning the rioters after initially praising them amid the aftermath Wednesday as “great patriots.”
Then, Friday morning, after also saying “my focus now turns to ensuring a smooth orderly and seamless transition of power,” he said he would not attend the inauguration of his soon-to-be successor, President-elect Joe Biden.
“To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th,” Trump tweeted.
Democrats on Capitol Hill, after calling for his immediate removal from office under the 25th Amendment, moved closer Friday to starting quick impeachment proceedings. Some congressional Republicans would not rule out supporting Trump’s removal.
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board said Trump should resign, as did former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who served under George W. Bush.
“Nearly fifty years ago, after years of enabling their rogue President, Republicans in Congress finally told President Nixon that it was time to go,” Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House of Representatives, wrote to Democratic members of the House Friday. “Today, following the President’s dangerous and seditious acts, Republicans in Congress need to follow that example and call on Trump to depart his office – immediately.
“If the President does not leave office imminently and willingly,” she continued, “the Congress will proceed with our action.”
Conflicting messages from Trump
Nearly 30 hours after the storming of the Capitol, Trump on Thursday night shared a video message condemning the violence but taking no responsibility for egging on the rioters.
“America is and must always be a nation of law and order, the demonstrators who infiltrated the Capitol have defiled the seat of American democracy,” Trump said in the video posted to Twitter, which the day before had locked his account. “To those who engaged in the acts of violence and destruction. You do not represent our country. And to those who broke the law. You will pay.”
The president’s clearer condemnation Thursday night stood in stark contrast to his hours-long silence throughout the day, as well as his refusal on Wednesday to tell his supporters to leave the Capitol until hours had passed. Even then, he told them, “We love you,” and, “You’re very special.”
The president’s daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, both senior White House advisers, pushed Trump to record the second video after they had received calls from members of Congress and other allies imploring them to get the president to do more, according to people familiar with their involvement.
The White House counsel’s office had also pushed for Trump to take the temperature down, as it feared the president had legal exposure for his words and rhetoric at a Wednesday rally near the White House where he encouraged his supporters to march on the Capitol, those people said.
“We must revitalize the sacred bonds of love and loyalty that bind us together as one national family,” Trump said in Thursday evening’s video, in which he for the first time conceded “a new administration will be inaugurated on January 20th.” He did not mention Biden’s name, though.
Wednesday’s chaos on Capitol Hill resulted in the death of five people, including U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who died Thursday night.
As of Friday afternoon, Trump had not commented on Sicknick’s death, although a White House spokesman, Judd Deere, said Friday morning that “the President and the entire Administration extend our prayers to Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick’s family as we all grieve the loss of this American hero.”
Trump on Friday did take to Twitter, though, to speak directly to his followers.
“The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future,” the outgoing president wrote. “They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!”
Drumbeat for Trump’s removal from office grows
The calls for Trump’s removal from office grew Friday, with Democrats on Capitol Hill vowing to take steps toward impeaching the president for a second time if Vice President Pence did not act to invoke the 25th Amendment, which allows for a president to be stripped of his powers with the support of the vice president and a majority of Cabinet members.
While sources have told ABC News that members of the president’s Cabinet have, in fact, had detailed conversations about that possibility, it appeared unlikely to happen with just 12 days left in the president’s term.
Pence himself held no public events Thursday or Friday, and on Thursday he entirely avoided the White House complex, instead remaining in his residence in Washington, according to a senior administration official.
On Friday, he returned to the White House for calls and meetings, including one with his staff, according to his office. A spokesperson did not respond to questions about whether Pence planned to meet with Trump.
Trump, too, had no public events either day, although on Thursday he awarded the nation’s highest honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to three golfers in an event from which the press was barred. He had planned to travel to Camp David this weekend, but the trip was cancelled, according to a White House official.
As his time in office neared its end, Trump has in recent weeks suggested to advisers that he wants to grant himself a pardon, according to people familiar with the discussions. It was not clear if the issue had been discussed since Wednesday, though.
Officials jumping ship in final days
While the vice president may not move to forcibly remove the president, two members of the president’s Cabinet have already abandoned him by walking away from the administration outright.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, who is also the wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, resigned in protest over Wednesday’s events. In addition, eight other members of the administration have also resigned, and there remained the possibility that more resignations could follow.
The president’s former chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, who has served as the U.S. envoy to Northern Ireland since leaving the White House, said Thursday that some officials with whom he had spoken “are choosing to stay because they’re worried the president might put someone worse in.”
Another of the president’s former chiefs of staff, John Kelly, who also served under Trump as secretary of homeland security, said that Pence should convene the cabinet to consider removing the president and that, if he were still in the administration, would vote for the president’s immediate removal.
“What happened on Capitol Hill yesterday is a direct result of his poisoning the minds of people with the lies and the frauds,” Kelly said Thursday. “He’s a very, very flawed man. I’m not a psychiatrist. I could never address anything that has to do with mental health. I would just say very flawed man who has got some serious character issues.”
Trump’s recently departed Attorney General Bill Barr also joined the pile-on by former administration officials. “Orchestrating a mob to pressure Congress is inexcusable,” Barr said in a statement. “The President’s conduct [Wednesday] was a betrayal of his office and supporters.”
Biden has yet to say whether he is supportive of the president’s immediate removal from office but did issue a strong repudiation of Wednesday’s events and echoed other Democrats in laying blame on the president for the insurrection.
“We could see it coming,” Biden said Thursday. “The past four years, we’ve had a president who has made his contempt for our democracy, our Constitution, the rule of law clear in everything he has done.”
“He unleashed an all-out assault on our institutions of our democracy from the outset,” Biden said. “And yesterday was but the culmination of that unrelenting attack.”
ABC News’ Jonathan Karl, Elizabeth Thomas, Mariam Khan, John Santucci and Katherine Faulders contributed to this report.
Sicknick, 42, died Thursday after he reportedly was bludgeoned with a fire extinguisher Wednesday when President Trump’s supporters broke into the building in a failed attempt to block certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
“I have ordered the flags at the Capitol lowered to half-staff in Officer Sicknick’s honor,” said Pelosi (D-Calif.).
“The sacrifice of Officer Sicknick reminds us of our obligation to those we serve: to protect our country from all threats foreign and domestic. May it be a comfort to Officer Sicknick’s family that so many mourn with and pray for them at this sad time.”
On Thursday night, a large group of police officers gathered near the Capitol to honor Sicknick. Police vehicles passed with flashing lights as many other cops saluted toward the building.
Pelosi said “the perpetrators of Officer Sicknick’s death must be brought to justice.”
“The violent and deadly act of insurrection targeting the Capitol, our temple of American Democracy, and its workers was a profound tragedy and stain on our nation’s history,” she said.
“But because of the heroism of our first responders and the determination of the Congress, we were not, and we will never be, diverted from our duty to the Constitution and the American people.”
Sicknick was a member of the US Capitol Police since 2008, the force said.
The chief of the Capitol Police, Steven Sund, announced his resignation Thursday after the jarring breaches of security that allowed for the break-in. His department reportedly turned down offers of help from the FBI and National Guard ahead of the mayhem.
The American flag is lowered to half-staff atop the U.S. Capitol Building following the death of Brian Sicknick.
Four Trump supporters also died in the clashes, which followed a speech near the White House by Trump, who encouraged throngs of backers to march on Congress and persuade legislators to toss out swing-state electors for Biden.
Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt, 35, was fatally shot by a cop while attempting to break through a barricaded interior window. Rosanne Boyland, 34, collapsed in the Rotunda and may have been trampled to death, her family told the Daily Mail. Trump supporter Kevin Greeson, 55, reportedly died from a heart attack and Benjamin Phillips, 50, reportedly had a stroke.
Several of the Trump supporters followed Graham as he walked around the airport with security guards.
“One day [you] will not be able to walk down the street. It is today,” yelled one woman who wasn’t wearing a mask in violation of airport rules. She was wearing a “I love Trump” shirt with the letter “Q” on the back of the shirt, a likely reference to the QAnon conspiracy theory.
Mindy Robinson, a conservative activist and actress, posted another video on Twitter of Graham at the airport, with the commentary: “Lindsey Graham just made the mistake walking by me and a mass of angry patriots at the airport in DC. All America wants is for you to AUDIT OUR VOTE and purge this election of this massive corruption…and you won’t do it. We’re not letting this ‘slide’ so expect more of this.”
On Wednesday night, Graham, who has often played golf with Trump and tried to influence his policy decisions, broke with the president, saying: “From my point of view, he’s been a consequential president. But today, first thing you’ll see. All I can say is, count me out. Enough is enough. I’ve tried to be helpful.”
Kevin Bishop, a spokesperson for Graham, declined to comment, saying, “we don’t discuss security issues.”
On Tuesday, Trump supporters yelled “traitor” multiple times at Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) as he was on a plane on his way to Washington, D.C., from Salt Lake City because he wouldn’t support challenges to President-elect Joe Biden’s win. Another Trump supporter had earlier gone up to Romney at the airport and called him “a joke, absolute joke, it’s a disgusting shame.”
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday said that he will not attend the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, who will take charge in less than two weeks.
Trump is not the first outgoing president to skip the inauguration of his successor. Presidents John Adams, John Quincy Adams and Andrew Johnson did not attend the inauguration of the incoming president, according to the White House Historical Association.
“To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th,” Trump wrote in a tweet, the third message from his account since blocked from Twitter for 12 hours on Wednesday.
Biden’s victory was projected by all major news outlets in mid-November and confirmed by Electoral College votes in mid-December. The Republican president has falsely insisted he won in a “landslide,” asserting his reelection was stolen through massive electoral fraud.
His refusal to accept the election results culminated in a deadly riot on Wednesday, when swarms of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol and derailed congressional proceedings to tally electors’ votes and confirm Biden’s win in the Nov. 3 election.
Vice President Mike Pence is expected to attend Biden’s inauguration if he is invited, two people familiar with the matter told NBC News.
In a nearly three-minute video posted on Thursday, Trump, without mentioning Biden by name acknowledged that “a new administration will be inaugurated on January 20th.”
“My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power,” the president said, in his first address to the nation following the riot that left five people dead, including a Capitol police officer.
Both cited the recent chaos in Washington, D.C., in which Trump supporters stormed the Capitol after a rally linked to his baseless election fraud claims, when detailing their departures.
Calls for Trump to have his presidential power removed through Section 4 of the 25th Amendment have mounted and such action would require Vice President Mike Pence and majority of the Cabinet to agree upon the undertaking.
“Elaine Chao and Betsy DeVos aren’t taking some brave moral stand by resigning now. They knew how terrible he was. By getting out now, they avoid the 25th Amendment debate,” Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said in a tweet.
“They’re enabling Trump, not standing up to him.”
The Democratic Coalition, an organization that worked to oppose Trump’s initial run for office and has opposed him throughout his term, posted a similar sentiment.
“These cabinet officials aren’t resigning over Trump’s incitement of the riot,” the group said. “They’re resigning to duck their responsibilities under the 25th amendment. Chao, DeVos, they are all cowards.”
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos speaks as Vice President Mike Pence listens during a White House Coronavirus Task Force press briefing at the U.S. Department of Education July 8, 2020 in Washington, D.C. She has been accused of resigning to avoid the calls to push for the 25th Amendment to be invoked. Alex Wong/Getty Images
Several Democratic lawmakers also made such remarks.
“At this late a stage, resignations help little beyond serving as late attempts at self-preservation,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said, reacting to Chao’s resignation. She suggested if Chao objects to the events “this deeply,” then she would be “working the Cabinet to invoke the 25th amendment – not abdicating the seat that allows her to do so.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said of DeVos’ resignation: “Betsy DeVos has never done her job to help America’s students. It doesn’t surprise me one bit that she’d rather quit than do her job to help invoke the 25th Amendment.”
Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao attends the banquet hosted by the Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe and his spouse on October 23, 2019 in Tokyo, Japan. She has been accused of resigning from her position so as to avoid the calls for the 25th Amendment to be invoked. Du Xiaoyi/Pool/Getty Images
The prospect of the acting secretaries replacing the pair being open to the 25th was questioned by Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA).
“I don’t know who the acting Secretaries are to replace Betsy DeVos and Elaine Chao,” he tweeted. “Can someone enlighten me as to whether they believe in America and would be the kind of patriot who would support the 25th Amendment to remove @realDonaldTrump?”
DeVos said in hers that the behavior in Washington, D.C. was “unconscionable for our country.” She told Trump in her resignation letter: “There is no mistaking the impact your rhetoric had on the situation, and it is the inflection point for me.”
Newsweek has contacted the Education Department and the Transportation Department for further comment from the outgoing secretaries.
WASHINGTON – Before leaving office, President Barack Obama awarded the nation’s highest civilian honor – the Presidential Medal of Freedom – to his vice president.
In President Donald Trump’s final days, he has presented similar honors to California Rep. Devin Nunes, one of his most vocal supporters during impeachment, and to three professional golfers.
To his vice president, Trump bestowed the label of coward.
The staunchly loyal Mike Pence was excoriated by Trump on Wednesday for his refusal to illegally intervene to prevent Congress from certifying the results for the presidential election that Trump lost.
“Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution,” Trump tweeted in a post that Twitter removed Wednesday evening.
But Sen. Jim Inhofe told the Tulsa World on Wednesday that he’s “never seen Pence as angry as he was today.”
The Oklahoma Republican told USA TODAY he talked to Pence about Trump’s rebuke. Pence, he said, was “very upset” with Trump.
Trump’s public denunciation of his vice president is unprecedented in the history of the modern vice presidency, according to scholars. And it comes after more than four years of Pence showing extreme deference to Trump, leading critics to deride him as an obsequious enabler of a volatile president.
“(Trump’s) turning on Pence is particularly striking given Vice President Pence’s loyalty to the president which some, myself included, would regard as having been excessive in the history of the office,” said vice presidential scholar Joel Goldstein.
The break adds to uncertainty about what’s in store for the remainder of Trump’s term, particularly in the aftermath of the violence that engulfed Washington on Wednesday when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol.
A person close to Pence who was not authorized to speak publicly said that while Pence’s team expected Trump to be upset, his behavior was “a shock to all of us.” The person said it’s “really unclear” how the dynamic between the president and vice president will work going forward.
While some speculated Trump might step down at the last minute so Pence could issue a pardon to him, that’s even less likely now, said Todd Belt, a presidential expert at George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management.
Calls have increased for Pence to replace Trump through the 25th Amendment, which includes a never-used mechanism for a vice president and a majority of the Cabinet to seize control from a president.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Thursday said Pence should immediately invoke the amendment.
Schumer said he and Pelosi tried to call Pence Thursday morning. But after being kept on hold for 25 minutes, an aide told them Pence would not come to the phone, Schumer said.
“We have not yet heard back from the Vice President,” they said in a joint statement Thursday night.
Pence’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Multiple media reports have said conversations about invoking the amendment have taken place among senior officials.
An administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity Thursday morning said the prospect of invoking the 25th Amendment had not been brought to the vice president.
Trump had spent much of Tuesday afternoon in the Oval Office with Pence, trying to persuade his No. 2 to bend to his will. Trump and his allies also leaned on those close to Pence.
Pence had promised to thoroughly study the issue. Over the past two weeks, he put together a legal team, consulted with experts on congressional rules and thought about what the founding fathers intended.
Besides being a lawyer by training, Pence is a self-proclaimed student of history who has said he gets “chills” when he visits Independence Hall.
In the lengthy letter Pence released shortly before he began presiding over Congress’ counting of the electoral votes Wednesday, he referenced his reverence for the Constitution and said he was bound by his oath of office to uphold it.
Trump tweeted his disdain for Pence’s position as the supporters he had addressed at an earlier rally responded to Trump’s call to march to the Capitol.
“For Trump, Pence was there to be a loyal servant, as was everyone else,” Belt said.
‘Courage,’ his daughter tweeted
When rioters broke through the perimeter and rampaged the building, Pence, his wife and older daughter were whisked away to a secure location by the Secret Service.
Pence’s daughter later issued what could be read as a rebuke of Trump.
“Courage,” Charlotte Pence Bond tweeted as she recirculated the end of her father’s letter of explanation, which concluded: “So Help Me God.”
After the Capitol was secured and lawmakers finished counting the votes, a stoic Pence announced his and Trump’s election defeat at 3:41 a.m.
Pence bowed his head and closed his eyes as the Senate chaplain, in a closing prayer, said the “quagmire of dysfunction that threatened our democracy” and led to a loss of lives and desecration of the Capitol has “reminded us that words matter.”
The C-SPAN camera recording the moment for history turned toward Pence, capturing a slight nod of his head, when the chaplain said God has “strengthened our resolve to protect and defend the Constitution.”
“Amen,” the devoutly Christian Pence softly said at the conclusion of the prayer.
Since signing on as Trump’s running mate in 2016, Pence has tried to strike a balance between remaining loyal to Trump while not parroting his most divisive rhetoric and unfounded claims.
Pence deserves credit for standing firm this week, said public affairs professor William Inboden, who worked for President George W. Bush. But merely upholding his oath of office when he did not have the power to act otherwise “should not be mistaken as a profile in courage or principle,” he added.
Pence must continue to do his duty, amid “Trump’s madness and demagoguery,” to try to hold the executive office of the president together for the next 13 days.
“After January 20,” Inboden said, “Pence will have ample time to reflect on the loyalty he showed to Trump for four years – and what it cost.”
Contributing: Ledyard King and Christal Hayes, USA TODAY
Brian D. Sicknick, a Capitol Police officer who took part in defending the Capitol during a mob onslaught, died Thursday evening, according to the United States Capitol Police.
“The entire USCP Department expresses its deepest sympathies to Officer Sicknick’s family and friends on their loss, and mourns the loss of a friend and colleague,” a USCP spokesperson said.
Sicknick’s death was prematurely reported earlier in the evening, garnering notes of sympathy from members of Congress. He succumbed to his wounds at approximately 9:30 p.m.
The officer’s death brings the death toll from Wednesday’s riot to five. The other four deaths were among the rioters, including one woman whom Capitol Police shot as she attempted to enter the House Chamber, and three others who died of unrelated health emergencies, including one heart attack.
“To honor Officer Sicknick’s memory, we must ensure that the mob who attacked the People’s House and those who instigated them are held fully accountable,” they added.
DeLauro and Ryan on Thursday opened an investigation into the security lapses that allowed the rioters to breach the Capitol.
The riot, which Trump egged on, led to numerous calls for Vice President Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment alongside a majority of the Cabinet to defang Trump in the last 13 days of his presidency. Democrats have also discussed impeaching Trump a second time to remove him due to his role in inciting the riot.
Trump released a video Thursday evening acknowledging that a new administration would be taking power on Jan. 20 and disavowing the violent protesters, for whom he had expressed love and admiration for on Wednesday.
Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund said earlier in the evening that he would resign in accordance with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s (D-Calif.) demands, as did the House sergeant-at-arms and the Senate sergeant-at-arms.
The three positions, along with the Architect of the Capitol, comprise the oversight board for the Capitol Police.
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