GOP leaders, VP Pence to ditch President Trump's send-off. McConnell, McCarthy will attend church with President-elect Joe Biden instead.
Vice President Mike Pence and GOP leadership — including House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) will skip President Donald Trump's send-off ceremony Wednesday.
What are the details?
According to a Tuesday Axios report, congressional leaders will pass on Trump's Wednesday morning departure ceremony at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland and instead will attend Mass with President-elect Joe Biden.
The outlet reported, "The Catholic service will take place at St. Matthew's church in downtown Washington, D.C., about 10 blocks from the White House. It is expected to begin at 8:45am, sources with direct knowledge tell Axios."
Biden is set to be inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States at noon on the steps of the Capitol building.
Trump requested a military-style sendoff complete with a band and "possibly a flyover," according to Axios.
Washington Post reporter Josh Dawsey on Tuesday said that Pence is not expected to attend Trump's sendoff, citing logistical difficulties.
He tweeted, "VP Pence is not expected to attend President Trump's sendoff at Joint Air Force Base Andrews tomorrow morning, per White House officials. He is attending the inauguration later in the day, and aides say it would be logistically challenging for the vice president to do both."
It is not known at the time of this reporting whether Pence plans to attend Wednesday's morning Mass.
VP Pence is not expected to attend President Trump's sendoff at Joint Air Force Base Andrews tomorrow morning, per… https://t.co/3Th0tFamPG— Josh Dawsey (@Josh Dawsey)1611077837.0
What else?
CNN on Tuesday reported that "dozens of current and former administration officials" were invited to Trump's farewell ceremony.
"Trump's former chief of staff John Kelly recently told CNN's Jake Tapper he'd vote to remove Trump from office if he could — yet he was still invited to the event," the outlet reported.
"So was Don McGahn, the former White House counsel who angered Trump by sitting down with Robert Mueller's team for hours," the report continued. "Other former senior aides who have maintained good relationships with Trump, like his first chief of staff Reince Priebus, were also invited but aren't expected to attend."
The outlet reported that neither Kelly nor McGahn will be attending.
The outlet added that some invitees will not be going as they must arrive by 6 a.m. local time, while "others have said they are staying away because the president is politically toxic right now given his role in inciting a mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol."
DC mayor calls in National Guard ahead of Jan. 6 protests that President Trump will attend
The mayor of Washington, D.C., activated an estimated 340 National Guard troops on Monday as the city prepares for expected protests later this week when Congress will vote to affirm President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College victory.
The Associated Press reported that on New Year's Eve Mayor Muriel Browser requested a National Guard presence within the city from Jan. 5 to Jan. 7 in anticipation of the vote. The troops will not be armed and will not wear body armor. They are mostly expected to be used for traffic control and "other assistance."
In a statement released Sunday, Bowser asked city residents to avoid the areas in downtown D.C. where President Donald Trump's supporters will gather to protest the results of the 2020 election. She told residents "not to engage with demonstrators who come to our city seeking confrontation, and we will do what we must to ensure all who attend remain peaceful."
On Monday, she repeated her warning at a news conference, urging residents to avoid those "looking for a fight." She also warned "we will not allow people to incite violence, intimidate our residents or cause destruction in our city."
According to the Associated Press, about 115 troops will be on duty at any one time in the city, setting up traffic control points and working with local law enforcement to manage crowds.
"Some of our intelligence certainly suggests there will be increased crowd sizes," acting Police Chief Robert Contee said. "There are people intent on coming to our city armed."
Demonstrators are reportedly planning to gather at the Washington Monument, the Freedom Plaza and the Capitol.
It is illegal to openly carry firearms in Washington, D.C. Concealed-carry permits from other states will not allow the permit holder to carry a firearm inside the district. Additionally, federal law prohibits firearms at popular protest sites including Freedom Plaza, and the National Mall, while D.C. law bans guns within 1,000 feet of a protest.
President Trump said Sunday he will attend the protests in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, when Congress will vote to certify the Electoral College results that Biden won 306-232. Trump has not yet conceded the election and continues to claim that widespread voter fraud stole the election for Biden.
Some Republican lawmakers plan on objecting to the certification of the Electoral College votes, which will trigger several hours of debate that could delay the process but will likely fall short of persuading enough members of Congress to vote against rejecting the results.
Rep. Mo Brooks and a handful of House Republicans meet at White House to discuss plan to challenge Electoral College results
Conservative Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives led by Rep. Mo Brooks (Ala.) met with President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence at the White House Monday to discuss a long-shot, all-but-certain-to-fail effort to object to the Electoral College results before President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated.
The plan is to have several GOP members of the U.S. House and an unknown number of Republican senators object when Congress moves to officially certify the Electoral College votes from several contested battleground states where the Trump campaign's legal team and its allies have made allegations of election irregularities. Should a senator join these representatives from the House, their objection would trigger several hours of debate in a joint session of Congress that could delay — but is highly unlikely to stop — the certification of the results on Jan. 6.
"I believe we have multiple senators and the question is not if but how many," Brooks told CNN, adding that the Republicans on board with the effort will challenge the results in at least six states and will prepare "as many as 72" five-minute speeches to deliver throughout the day.
Republican leadership in the Senate is opposed to the effort. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told his colleagues on a conference call that objecting to the Electoral College results would lead to a "terrible vote" where several Republican senators would have to choose between voting with Trump to overturn the election or against the certified election results of several states. The No. 2 Senate Republican, John Thune (S.D.), also spoke to CNN and said the effort would be futile.
"I think the thing they got to remember is, it's not going anywhere. I mean in the Senate, it would go down like a shot dog. I just don't think it makes a lot of sense to put everybody through this when you know what the ultimate outcome is going to be," he said.
Despite the opposition from Senate leadership, Brooks said a double-digit number of representatives attended the meeting at the White House. GOP leadership in the House has so far not commented publicly on the matter, and Brooks told CNN no one, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), has attempted to dissuade him from challenging the election. Lawmakers reported to be involved in the plan include conservative Reps. Paul Gosar (Ariz.), Jody Hice (Ga.), Jim Jordan (Ohio), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), and Louie Gohmert (Texas).
In the Senate, incoming Senator-elect Tommy Tuberville (R) has made public comments appearing to endorse the election challenge and signaling his intention to be involved. CNN reported that Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) have not ruled out participating. Only one senator needs to join House Republicans to object to a state's Electoral College results.
"In a general sense, how it looks like we're headed, it looks like we're gonna have valid objections filed to the number of states on Jan. 6," Brooks said. "And we'll probably know sometime on Jan. 7, after all the speeches and votes have taken place, what the Electoral College returns are."
Even if these Republicans successfully challenge the results of one or several states, it would take a majority vote of Congress to reject the results after up to 12 hours of debate. But no such majority exists. Most Republicans do not have the political will to overturn the election and deny Joe Biden the presidency.
Twitter confirms Trump could be banned for rule-violating tweets after Joe Biden is sworn in as president
Twitter has previously flagged President Donald Trump's tweets with warning labels and disclaimers accusing the president of spreading misinformation, but so far has refrained from outright banning Trump's account.
Come Jan. 20, 2021, that may change.
A spokesperson for Twitter confirmed to Forbes earlier this month that Trump's account will no longer be protected under Twitter's "World Leaders policy" after President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated.
Trump tweets that violate Twitter's rules on election misinformation or hate speech, for example, could see enforcement action taken against the president's account. Trump will have to follow the same guidelines as regular citizens, the spokesman said.
In the weeks following the U.S. presidential election, Trump has repeatedly claimed on Twitter that widespread voter fraud cost him the election. He has raised concerns about voting machines, claimed Trump votes were "routed to Biden," and asserted that battleground states "CANNOT LEGALLY CERTIFY" the results of their elections even as states legally certified their election results. For each of these claims, Twitter has added a notification to Trump's tweets that says, "This claim about election fraud is disputed."
President Trump is the second most-followed politician on Twitter, with 88.6 million followers — only behind former President Barack Obama's 125 million. After he leaves office, any enforcement action taken against his account will be noticed.
Twitter has come under fire from Republican politicians who have accused the platform of engaging in censorship and bias against right-leaning points of view. The social media platform enjoys certain protections under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a federal law that protects internet companies from being liable for content posted on their platforms by third parties.
President Trump and other Republicans have called for Section 230 to be reformed, with the president threatening to veto major defense legislation should Congress fail to address the issue.
.....Therefore, if the very dangerous & unfair Section 230 is not completely terminated as part of the National Def… https://t.co/ZM5zkyaeAs— Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump)1606877104.0
Reform of Section 230 does have bipartisan support. Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) recently introduced a bill with Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) to strip big tech companies of their Section 230 protections.
Today I introduced the Break Up Big Tech Act with @RepGosar to remove #Sec230 immunity for tech companies who act l… https://t.co/3PKHNBjhlY— Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (@Rep. Tulsi Gabbard)1607566216.0
Once Trump is no longer president, he will be subject to the same rules as other Twitter users. Typically, the first violation of one of Twitter's rules will result in Twitter either limiting the visibility of the violating tweet or requiring a user to remove the tweet before he can tweet again from that account. But repeated violations can result in an account becoming permanently suspended, which Twitter describes as its "most severe enforcement action."
"Permanently suspending an account will remove it from global view, and the violator will not be allowed to create new accounts. When we permanently suspend an account, we notify people that they have been suspended for abuse violations, and explain which policy or policies they have violated and which content was in violation," the Twitter rules state. A user may appeal a permanent suspension by filing a report with Twitter.
Ohio's Republican Gov. Mike DeWine: 'Joe Biden is the President-elect'
Ohio's Republican governor said Thursday that it's time for the American people to recognize former Vice President Joe Biden as the president-elect.
Appearing on CNN's "New Day," Gov. Mike Dewine said, "I think that we need to consider the former vice president as the President-elect. Joe Biden is the President-elect."
President Donald Trump has refused to concede the election to Biden although he is still behind by several tens of thousands votes in key battleground states. The Trump campaign has filed lawsuits in six states seeking to challenge the results of the election by invalidating votes cast for Biden, alleging voter fraud and election process irregularities.
DeWine, who endorsed Trump for re-election, also said that Trump has "every right" to file lawsuits but added he doesn't know if Trump's case has merit.
"Look, I'm worried about this virus, I'm not looking at what the merits of the case are. It would appear that Joe Biden is going to be the next president of the United States," he told CNN.
Legal experts say it is doubtful these lawsuits will successfully overturn the election.
"He has the right to mount legal challenges, but we should be clear that these are 'Hail Mary' passes we might think of in American football," conservative lawyer John Yoo told CNBC Thursday.
"None of these cases really look like they have a very high probability of winning," Yoo said. "On the other hand, I think that Trump has every right to try and demand that all the states be sure about the votes, so that we all have confidence in the election. But I'll say, looking at past cases, these are very hard cases to prove and generally they don't result in changes in the votes totals on the order by which President Trump lost to Joe Biden."
DeWine joins several elected Republicans who have publicly acknowledged Biden's victory.
Fellow Republican Governors Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, Phil Scott of Vermont, and Larry Hogan of Maryland have each congratulated Biden on becoming president-elect.
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), congratulated Biden and his running mate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) on Twitter.
"We know both of them as people of good will and admirable character. We pray that God may bless them in the days and years ahead," Romney said on Saturday.
He later told NBC News that the transition of power should begin as soon as possible.
"It's very much in our national interest, in our foreign policy interest, national security interest, to make sure that if there's a new team that may become the leadership team, that they be given all access as quickly as possible," Romney said.
Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) also congratulated Biden for winning. Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) have called for the transition process to begin.
DeWine said it's time for the country to move past the election and focus on combating the coronavirus.
"Look, we just all need to take a deep breath. There is a process for all of this. You need to follow the process. And we need to move this country forward. I think the most important thing is that we come together as a country," DeWine told CNN. "You know, we have a common enemy, it's not Republicans and it's not Democrats, our common enemy is this virus."
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