Some of the House Republicans who supported Wednesday's impeachment of President Trump are providing detailed explanations for their votes in the face of backlash from GOP loyalists. Perhaps the most surprising of the 10 GOP yes votes came from Rep. Tom Rice, who represents the Myrtle Beach area of South Carolina. Rice was one of the dozens of House Republicans who objected to the formal certification of the Electoral College vote in the hours after both chambers were cleared due to Trump supporters storming the Capitol.
A Texas realtor who took a private jet to the riot at the U.S. Capitol last week and called it the best day of her life is facing federal charges. Jennifer Ryan, who goes by Jenna Ryan on social media, is the latest person charged in connection to the Jan. 6 attack that left five people dead, including a Capitol police officer. Federal authorities said in court documents released Friday that Ryan traveled with a group to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 5 and documented her two-day trip on social media.
A 16-year-old boy has admitted fatally shooting his newborn daughter and leaving her body inside a fallen tree in the woods in southern Wisconsin, according to prosecutors. Logan Kruckenburg-Anderson, of Albany, is charged as an adult with first-degree intentional homicide and hiding a corpse. According to a criminal complaint, the teen took the infant shortly after she was born Jan. 5 to a wooded area in Albany, about 80 miles (129 kilometers) southwest of Milwaukee, placed her inside a fallen tree and shot her twice in the head.
Senator Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) on Friday called for the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol last week to be “prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” saying those who participated in the unrest that left five dead were “terrorists attacking this country's constitutionally-mandated transfer of power.” Sasse's comments come after the Department of Justice said in court documents that the rioters breached the Capitol with the intent to “capture and assassinate elected officials.” In a memo requesting that “QAnon shaman” Jacob Anthony Chansley be kept in detention, Justice Department lawyers in Arizona wrote that “strong evidence, including Chansley's own words and actions at the Capitol” show that the intent was to harm elected officials.
President-elect announces plans for additional economic relief to help those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The images from the Jan. 6 siege on the United States Capitol will likely be seared into the memories of many Americans. Photographs and video published in print, online and on television showed protesters breaking windows to enter the building, sitting at a desk in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office and confronting an outnumbered Capitol police force. The agencies may request or demand that news organizations turn over their unpublished material, which would force the media outlets to make uncomfortable choices.
FBI Director Christopher Wray, in his first public comments since the Jan. 6 violent siege of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Trump, said Thursday that law enforcement has arrested more than 100 people in connection with the assault and is aware of "an extensive amount of concerning online chatter" ahead of President-elect Joe Biden's Jan. 20 inauguration. Most of those arrested so far have been far-right militants, off-duty police, retired military personnel, GOP officials, QAnon adherents, and white supremacists. For example, the man photographed carrying a Confederate battle flag through the Capitol, Kevin Seefried, and his son, Hunter Seefried, surrendered to the FBI in Delaware on Thursday, the Justice Department said.
U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer confirmed Friday it will temporarily reduce deliveries to Europe of its COVID-19 vaccine while it upgrades production capacity to 2 billion doses per year. “This temporary reduction will affect all European countries,” a spokeswoman for Pfizer Denmark said in a statement to The Associated Press. Line Fedders said that to meet the new 2 billion dose target, Pfizer is upscaling production at its plant in Puurs, Belgium, which “presupposes adaptation of facilities and processes at the factory which requires new quality tests and approvals from the authorities.”
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has been nominated by President-elect Joe Biden as a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee. In the role, Bottoms would be in charge of civic engagement and voter protection. Mayor Bottoms is the only Mayor in Atlanta's history to have served in all three branches of government, serving as a judge and City Councilmember before being sworn in as Mayor,” the DNC said in press release Thursday night.
The demand for an investigation into Lauren Boebert gained traction after 68 elected officials from Colorado wrote to House speaker Nancy Pelosi, condemning the representative's alleged association with “right-wing groups that supported the insurrection of Capitol Building." Ms Boebert is the representative for Colorado's third congressional district in Congress. “We have heard overwhelmingly from our constituents, therefore her constituents, that there is deep concern about her actions leading up to and during the protests that turned into a violent deadly mob," said the letter signed by officials, including mayors, county commissioners and town council members, reported the Steamboat Pilot & Today newspaper.
Less than a week before the inauguration, Vice President Mike Pence has reportedly called Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to offer his congratulations. Pence and Harris spoke over the phone Thursday, with Pence congratulating the incoming vice president and offering "his belated assistance," The New York Times reported on Friday and The Associated Press confirmed. This is the first time Pence and Harris have spoken since their debate in October, and the call was "described as gracious and pleasant," the Times writes.
The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. An experimental COVID-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson produced protective antibodies against the novel coronavirus in 90% of 805 volunteers by 29 days, and that increased to 100% by day 57, according to data from an ongoing mid-stage study. To be approved by regulators, the J&J vaccine must show efficacy as reflected by a lower risk of infections and severe disease in study participants who receive it compared to those who do not.
Ezra Van of Miami Beach came upon quite a sight Wednesday evening by the entrance of Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve in Copeland, Florida. It was around 5:30 p.m. and the wildlife enthusiast was close to packing up for the day when he spotted a group of Florida panthers scamper by, chasing an injured turkey vulture. After about two minutes, the panthers seem to lose interest and walk back into the forest.
However, I'm actually talking about another Black man who saved Democracy, Frank Wills, who stopped the 1972 Watergate break-in, which changed the course of American history. Yet for such a momentous accomplishment, Wills died relatively unknown and penniless, while others, almost entirely white men, came to fame and fortune from the Watergate scandal. Black people are often praised as heroes for saving a country that treats us like third-class citizens, yet when it comes to the fame, fortune, even historical reverence associated with those great deeds, we're left by the wayside.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday said that Congress members could face prosecution should an investigation show that they were accomplices in the Capitol riots. "If they aided and abetted the crime, there may have to be actions taken beyond the Congress in terms of prosecution for that," Pelosi said during a news conference. Pelosi also pointed out one rioter captured on camera in a "Camp Auschwitz" sweatshirt, describing him as a "punk."
When it came to the lighting in his home, Pardo drew inspiration from the insides of fruits, nuts, and seeds, as well as sea creatures and machine parts. Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
Vice President Mike Pence has called his soon-to-be successor Kamala Harris to offer his congratulations, according to two people familiar with the conversation. It's the first known contact between the elected members of the outgoing and incoming administrations. President Donald Trump has not reached out to President-elect Joe Biden and has repeatedly questioned the legitimacy of Biden's win.
A Florida teacher was filmed falsely telling students "Antifa" was responsible for the January 6 Capitol riots. The substitute teacher is "no longer with" Edward W. Bok Academy South or Lake Wales Charter Schools (LWCS), the HR director at LWCS confirmed to Insider. There's no evidence "Antifa" was responsible for violence during the Capitol riots; about 100 pro-Trump supporters have been charged so far.
President Trump is planning to exit the White House on the morning of Jan. 20, a few hours before President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in a short distance away, CNN reports. "Eager for a final taste of the pomp of being president, Trump has asked for a major send-off," and "as one of their final acts, Trump's team is working to organize a crowd to see him off on the morning of Biden's inauguration, when he plans to depart Washington while still president" for a flight to Palm Beach, Florida, where his term will officially end at noon. There are 20,000 National Guard troops currently deployed or en route to Washington, D.C., ahead of Biden's inauguration, because the last crowd Trump drew to the White House morphed into an insurrectionist mob that stormed the Capitol.
A four-word note was all Flaviane Carvalho needed to help a child out of a dangerous situation. Carvalho, a Florida restaurant manager who was working as a server on New Year's Day, saw a small child with bruises on his face and arms sitting at the table she waited on, according to the Orlando Police Department. “Do you need help?” Carvalho wrote in black on a piece of paper, holding the note out of view of the child's parents.
The so-called QAnon Shaman who stormed the U.S. Capitol last week in Viking garb before sitting in Vice President Mike Pence's chair on the Senate dais admitted to federal agents he intended to return to D.C. to “protest” President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration. “I'll still go, you better believe it,” Jacob Chansley bragged in an interview with FBI agents the day after the violent insurrection. The admission by Chansley, also known as Jake Angeli, is one of several that prosecutors detailed in an 18-page detention memo arguing for the 33-year-old Arizona man to be held before trial.
Donald Trump is reportedly back in touch with his former chief strategist Steve Bannon who he has been speaking to several times over the phone in the recent weeks, seeking advice on how to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential elections. Mr Bannon is considered one of the main architects of Mr Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and had joined him as an adviser in the White House after the elections. Mr Bannon quit the position in August 2017 after he fell from the good books of the president due to a controversy related to his book.
The White House will get a $500,000 deep-clean before President-elect Joe Biden moves in, CNN reported. "There's always been a deep clean between administrations, but we've never seen anything like this," presidential historian Kate Brower Andersen told ABC. The US government will spend almost $500,000 on a deep clean of the White House before President-elect Joe Biden takes office on January 20, CNN reported, citing government contracts it had viewed.
Trump administration staff are reportedly getting snubbed for jobs, amid the fallout of the end of Donald Trump's presidency and the Capitol riots. After a mob of pro-Trump rioters stormed the US Capitol last week, several businesses turned on the Trump Organisation, as New York City announced on Thursday that it was ending all ties with the company. The rioters attacked the Capitol after attending a rally led by Mr Trump, who urged supporters to “walk down to the Capitol” and told them: “You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”
The search for a missing two-year-old is over tonight after officers found the boy just a couple blocks from where they believe he was taken.
“Governors are being WAY too precious about who gets this vaccine.”
“The federal government needs to give states strict parameters for when their vaccine allocation must be administered.”
“While public health leaders know what must be done, their critical work could be supported by a national COVID-19 Vaccine Corps.”
“The US vaccine campaign is not a disaster. Rather, I think it is predictably mediocre.”
“The best option may be to rely more on private industry.”