Acting US homeland security secretary Chad Wolf resigns – live

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Chad Wolf with Trump in August. In an email to staff, Wolf wrote: ‘This action is warranted by recent events.’




Chad Wolf with Trump in August. In an email to staff, Wolf wrote: ‘This action is warranted by recent events.’
Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images






Summary

  • Acting Homeland Security secretary Chad Wolf is stepping down just before midnight Washington time tonight. He’s the latest Trump administration official to step down following last week’s deadly storming of the capitol, egged on by Trump and other Republican lawmakers.
  • The president and vice president spoke for the first time since the attack on the US Capitol last week. A senior administration official shared with the Guardian that the duo “pledged to continue the work on behalf of the country for the remainder of their term” – quashing any speculation over whether Trump would resign, or Pence would invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the president from office.
  • Trump approved DC’s emergency declaration ahead of inauguration. The authorization means that the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency can coordinate response and relief in DC, which has been shaken by the violent attack on the US Capitol and is anticipating riots and armed protests during the inauguration.
  • Seventy-three percent of Republican voters in the latest Quinnipiac poll said that Trump was protecting rather than undermining democracy. This even after the president incited militant supporters to breach the US Capitol building, leading to five deaths, and persistently undermined the integrity of an election he lost.
  • House Democrats introduced an article of impeachment against Donald Trump. The House will debate the article, which charges Trump with incitement of insurrection, on Wednesday morning. If it is approved, Trump will become the first president in US history to be impeached twice.
  • Republicans blocked a resolution calling on Mike Pence to invoke the 25th amendment and remove Trump from office. The House majority leader, Steny Hoyer, attempted to pass the resolution by unanimous consent, but Alex Mooney, a Republican of West Virginia, objected because he said the measure should be fully debated on the House floor.
  • A House Democrat tested positive for coronavirus after sheltering in place with her colleagues during the Capitol riot. In a statement announcing her diagnosis, Bonnie Watson Coleman, a Democratic congresswoman from New Jersey, specifically mentioned that some of her colleagues were not wearing masks as they sheltered in place.
  • Joe Biden received his second dose of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine. The president-elect is seeking to distribute 100 million vaccine doses over his first 100 days in office.
  • Biden told reporters that Trump “should not be in office.” The president-elect also emphasized the need to hold the Capitol rioters accountable and said he was not afraid to take the oath of office outside, despite intensifying concerns about potential violence around the inauguration.




Tom Lutz

Donald Trump has suffered yet another rebuke from a former ally with the New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick saying he will not accept the presidential medal of freedom.

Belichick, widely considered the greatest coach in NFL history, said he had made the decision after a Trump-inspired mob invaded the US Capitol last week. Trump was set to announce Belichick’s award later this week.

“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,” said Belichick in a statement issued on Monday.

“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 news will come as a bitter blow for Trump, whose Bedminster golf course was stripped of the 2022 PGA Championship on Sunday by the US PGA after the events at the Capitol.

At a rally in 2016, Trump read a letter he said was from Belichick congratulating him on a “tremendous campaign.” Belichick later endorsed Trump for the presidency saying: “Our friendship goes back many years, and I think that anybody who’s spent more than five minutes with me knows I’m not a political person.”





The executive director of the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) resigned as the organization faced backlash over its decision to send out a robocall urging Trump supporters to join the 6 January march that resulted in a deadly breaching of the US Capitol.

“At [1pm’] we will march to the Capitol building and call on Congress to stop the steal,” a robocall from the fundraising arm of RAGA messaged. “We are hoping patriots like you will join us to continue the fight to protect the integrity of our election.”

Read more:

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DC Mayor Muriel Bowser said at a news conference today that she’s worried about more attacks in the run-up to the inauguration.

“If I’m scared of anything, it’s for our democracy, because we have very extreme factions in our country that are armed and dangerous,” she said. “Our goals right now are to encourage Americans to participate virtually and to protect the District of Columbia from a repeat of the violent insurrection experienced at the Capitol and its grounds on January 6.”

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Trump approved DC’s emergency declaration ahead of inauguration day

Donald Trump “ordered federal assistance to supplement the district’s response efforts due to the emergency conditions resulting from the 59th Presidential Inauguration from January 11 to January 24, 2021”, according to the White House.

The authorization means that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) can coordinate response and relief in DC, which has been shaken by the violent attack on the US Capitol and is anticipating riots and armed protests during the inauguration.

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Facebook is cracking down on all use of the phrase “stop the steal”, the rallying cry of supporters of Donald Trump who claim, without basis, that there was voter fraud in the 2020 elections, ahead of the inauguration of Joe Biden this month.

The policy change is the latest to target misinformation and the incitement of violence on Facebook after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building on Wednesday. Social media platforms like Facebook traditionally have a light touch to policing speech posted by politicians, maintaining that people have a right to see statements from their leaders.

But following the riot, social media platforms including Facebook removed Trump’s account and tightened enforcement around misinformation policies.

“With continued attempts to organize events against the outcome of the U.S. presidential election that can lead to violence, and use of the [‘stop the steal’] term by those involved in Wednesday’s violence in DC, we’re taking this additional step in the lead up to the inauguration,” Facebook said in a blogpost.

Facebook has said Trump’s account will be suspended until at least the inauguration and perhaps longer. Facebook operations chief Sheryl Sandberg told Reuters the company has no plans to lift its block on Donald Trump’s accounts and that she was “glad” that Facebook had taken the action.

“This shows the president is not above the policies we have,” Sandberg said

Twitter permanently banned the president on Friday. The company also said Monday it will continue its ban of political advertising in the US, including any ads paid for by Trump or his allies.

After years of controversial posts from Trump, social media companies have rushed after one another to limit the president’s posts following the violence last week. Trump has been banned from Twitter and removed from Facebook, Reddit, YouTube, Pinterest, and TikTok.

On Monday the home exercise company Peloton announced it will be banning the hashtag #stopthesteal from being used. Alternative social platforms more sympathetic to Trump like Parler are facing more widespread action. Amazon announced it would suspend Parler from AWS, its hosting service. Parler was also booted from the app stores on both Apple and Google devices.

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Trump and Pence have spoken for first time since US Capitol attack

The president and vice-president have spoken to each other for the first time since the attack on the US Capitol last week.

A senior administration official shared with the Guardian that the duo “reiterated that those who broke the law and stormed the Capitol last week do not represent the America first movement backed by 75 million Americans, and pledged to continue the work on behalf of the country for the remainder of their term” – quashing any speculation over whether Trump would resign, or Pence would invoke the 25th amendment to remove the president from office.

Pence was presiding over the affirmation of the election results during the violent breach of the Capitol, which had been egged on by Trump.

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Republican civil war: what’s the party’s future after the US Capitol attack?

Tom McCarthy

The motives that drove a pro-Donald Trump mob to attack Congress last Wednesday ranged from hazy to proudly hateful. But the actions of certain ambitious Republican officeholders in the days leading up to the tragedy were not clouded by confusion.

Trump may have lost the election, but his movement was on the march, and for politicians hoping someday to succeed Trump as president, that meant an opportunity was afoot.

With Trump now finally accepting he will leave office, the future leadership of his movement is increasingly up for grabs, with a ragtag band of senators, congressman, Trump family members – and Trump himself – already jostling for the position.

Whether anyone apart from the president is able to successfully ride the tiger of racism, nihilism and grievance politics that carried Trump to near-re-election after four years of American chaos and hundreds of thousands of preventable pandemic deaths is an open question.

It also might be an irrelevant question, if Trump decides to stage a 2023-24 stadium tour doubling as a new presidential campaign.

“Absent disqualification, the 2024 GOP presidential nomination remains his if he wants it,” tweeted Dave Wasserman, Congress editor of the Cook Political Report.

But with Trump gone, for the moment, after years of rock-like reign over the Republican party, powerful currents of political ambition and realignment have swirled into the vacuum.

Read more:





Two police officers have been suspended over their behavior during last week’s violent breach of the US Capitol last week, according to representative Tim Ryan.

One took a selfie with a rioter, and another was wearing a MAGA hat and “directing people around,” said Ryan, a Democrat of Ohio, told reporters. Ryan is leading an investigation into the Capitol police’s actions during last week’s insurrection. He said 15 other officers are being investigated over their actions during the events.

CNN’s Annie Grayer reports:

Annie Grayer
(@AnnieGrayerCNN)

NEW: Rep. Tim Ryan, who is leading investigation into Capitol Police’s actions during the insurrection of the Capitol said that 2 Capitol Police officers have been suspended for their actions: 1 for wearing a MAGA hat/directing rioters hat & 1 for taking a selfie with rioters.

January 11, 2021





With Chad Wolf departing, Pete Gaynor, Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator, will become acting secretary of Homeland Security.

It will fall to Gaynor to oversee inauguration security coordination with police, the national guard, and other departments. The Department of Homeland Security oversees the Secret Service, which is leading inauguration day security efforts. Following last week’s deadly storming of the US Capitol by militant Trump supporters, concerns over inauguration security have grown. On social media platforms, users shared plans for armed marches in DC and in state capitols.

Updated





Kenya Evelyn

Leaders from the Republican Attorneys General Association face mounting criticism after sending out a robocall that urged supporters of Donald Trump to join the 6 January march on the US Capitol that resulted in a deadly insurrection.

“At [1pm’’] we will march to the Capitol building and call on Congress to stop the steal,” a robocall from the Rule of Law Defense Fund (RLDF), a fundraising arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association, said.

The voice then said: “We are hoping patriots like you will join us to continue the fight to protect the integrity of our election.”

The association’s chair, Georgia attorney general Chris Carr, is now among several officials who claim to have “had no knowledge or involvement in this decision”, distancing themselves from or outright condemning the call.

“The stance of the protesters was not consistent with [the attorney general’s] position on election fraud,” Carr spokesperson Katie Byrd told NBC News. “He has been saying since moments after seeing news break, the violence and destruction we saw at the US Capitol is unacceptable and un-American.”

Alabama attorney general Steve Marshall, who oversees the RLDF, said in a statement that he “was unaware of unauthorized decisions made by RLDF staff”, saying that “despite currently transitioning into [his] role” it was “unacceptable that [he] was neither consulted about nor informed of those decisions”.

Marshall added he had called for an internal review.

The Democratic Attorneys General Association has rejected the Republican defense, releasing a statement highlighting Republican leaders who they say incited the violence by taking up the president’s long-debunked claims of election fraud.

“The Republican [attorneys general] who blindly take their support have no legal or moral ground on which to stand here,” co-chairs Maura Healey of Massachusetts and Aaron Ford of Nevada wrote.

According to Documented, the watchdog group who posted the robocall online, the rally’s promotional website lists the Rule of Law Defense Fund as one of the participating organizations. As of Monday, it had been taken down.

The Democratic attorneys general also said that the Republican association’s “former chair spoke at the rally that incited the mob,” pinpointing Texas attorney general Ken Paxton, and that “former [Missouri attorney general] Josh Hawley led the effort in Congress to undermine the election”.

Paxton and now senator Hawley have championed Trump’s disproved claims of voter fraud in the form of failed lawsuits and legislative challenges.

Read more:





Wolf: ‘This action is warranted by recent events’

In an email to staff, Chad Wolf said: “Effective at 11.59pm today, I am stepping down as your acting secretary. I am saddened to take this step, as it was my intention to serve the Department until the end of this administration. Unfortunately, this action is warranted by recent events, including the ongoing and meritless court rulings regarding the validity of my authority as acting secretary.”

A federal judge in November found that Trump’s appointment of Wolf was unlawful. In August, the Government Accountability Office said Wolf was illegally appointed to his role. Wolf took the role of his former acting deputy Ken Cuccinelli, who also served in the position without congressional approval.

Chad Wolf is stepping down.

 Chad Wolf is stepping down. Photograph: Shawn Thew/EPA

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Wolf had earlier said he would stay in his role until 20 January, when Joe Biden will be inaugurated president, in order to ensure an “orderly transition” to the new administration.

He will be leaving as the DHS is meant to be coordinating security for inauguration day with the DC police, National Guard and other departments. Security is being amped up following last week’s violent breach of the capitol.





Acting DHS secretary Chad Wolf stepping down

Chad Wolf is stepping down just before midnight Washington time tonight.

He’s the latest Trump administration official to step down following last week’s deadly storming of the capitol, egged on by Trump and other Republican lawmakers.

Wolf said he is leaving after several courts found his appointment to be unlawful. After Wolf called the violence at the Capitol “tragic and sickening”, urging Trump to condemn supporters who participated, the White House announced that it was withdrawing his nomination to lead the Department of Homeland Security. But he remained the acting secretary of the department.

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Washington DC’s attorney general, Karl Racine, said he may bring charges against Donald Trump and others for inciting the storming of the US Capitol.

“Clearly the crowd was hyped up, juiced up, focused on the Capitol and rather than calm them down or at least emphasize the peaceful nature of what protests need to be, they really did encourage these folks and riled them up,” said Racine, of Republican lawmakers, Trump, and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

“Whether that comes to a legal complaint, I think we’ve got to really dig in and get all of the facts. I know I’m looking at a charge under the D.C. Code of inciting violence, and that would apply where there’s a clear recognition that one’s incitement could lead to foreseeable violence,” Racinel said on MSNBC.

The Recount
(@therecount)

D.C. AG Karl Racine says he’s looking at potentially charging Trump and others for inciting violence in speeches to the crowd that later breached the Capitol on January 6th. pic.twitter.com/MrvWj8W7mU

January 11, 2021

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