House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is accusing the Trump supporters who rioted in the Capitol this week of choosing “their whiteness over democracy.”
The California Democrat used an online video meeting with her hometown San Francisco constituents to criticize the overwhelmingly white mob that attacked Congress on Wednesday as it met to formally finalize Joe Biden’s presidential victory.
“It has been an epiphany for the world to see that there are people in our country led by this president, for the moment, who have chosen their whiteness over democracy,” Pelosi said.
Pelosi has set the House on course to potentially voting on a new impeachment of Trump as early as this coming week, a move that has overwhelming support from Democrats. She shed no new light Saturday on whether she’s made a final decision on that or other details.
Pelosi says, “The complicity, not only the complicity, the instigation of the president of United States, must and will be addressed.”
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FAA warns unruly passengers to behave on flights
WASHINGTON — There have been several incidents of unruly passengers aboard flights leaving the Washington, D.C., area in recent days, and now the head of the Federal Aviation Administration is threatening to “pursue strong enforcement action against anyone who endangers the safety of a flight.”
Administrator Stephen Dickson says he expects passengers to follow instructions from airline crews. He notes that the penalties for interfering with crews range from fines to jail time.
The recent incidents include an American Airlines captain threatening to land a Washington-to-Phoenix flight in Kansas if passengers chanting “USA” didn’t behave. A female passenger can be heard mocking the captain’s warning.
Flight attendants have expressed concern that their flights could be carrying supporters of President Donald Trump who took part in Wednesday’s violent protest and siege of the U.S. Capitol.
Senator calls for Capitol crime scene to be preserved
The incoming chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee is calling the Capitol a “crime scene” with evidence that needs to be preserved.
Sen. Mark Warner has written 11 telecommunication and social media companies asking them to immediately preserve content and associated meta-data connected to the insurrectionist attack on the Capitol on Wednesday. Those companies include mobile carriers AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon and from the social media world — Apple, Facebook, Gab, Google, Parler, Signal, Telegram and Twitter.
Warner says the FBI and other law enforcement agencies investigating the events of that day are trying to piece together what happened when supporters of President Donald Trump rioted at the Capitol.
The Virginia Democrat tells the companies that “messaging data to and from your subscribers that may have participated in, or assisted, those engaged in this insurrection — and associated subscriber information — are critical evidence in helping to bring these rioters to justice.”
House members urge independent investigation into security failures
Nearly 50 House members have signed on to a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the House leadership seeking an independent commission to investigate the security failures in Wednesday’s riot at the Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump.
Democrats Barbara Lee and Jackie Speier and 45 of their colleagues say in a letter to Pelosi and the House Administration Committee that the violent siege at the Capitol was a “wake-up call.”
Only a few dozen officers from the U.S. Capitol Police were guarding the West front of the Capitol when they were rushed by thousands of pro-Trump rioters bent on breaking into the building.
People in the mob were armed with metal pipes, pepper spray and other weapons, and they pushed past the thin police line. One rioter hurled a fire extinguisher at an officer, according to video widely circulated on YouTube.
Rioters soon broke into the building, taking over the House and Senate chambers and running wild in Statuary Hall and other hallowed symbols of democracy. The mob ransacked the place, smashing windows and waving Trump, American and Confederate flags. The lawmakers who were voting to affirm President-elect Joe Biden’s victory were forced into hiding for hours.
Impeachment process may begin Monday
Democrats in Congress are laying the groundwork to impeach President Donald Trump. Their goal is to ensure that a commander in chief they describe as “unhinged” can’t do further damage in his remaining days in office.
They’re trying to send a message to the nation, and the world, that mob violence inspired by a White House won’t stand after the shocking siege of the Capitol by Trump supporters left five dead.
Some Republicans are joining in the impeachment drive, saying Trump must go.
Articles of impeachment are expected to be introduced on Monday, with a House vote as soon as Wednesday. The soonest the Senate could begin an impeachment trial under the current calendar would be Jan. 20, Inauguration Day.
If Trump were to be impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate, he might be prevented from running for the presidency in 2024 or ever holding federal office again. He’d be the only president twice impeached.
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