Daily thread - United States 2021 transition of power - January 13

WaPo: TRUMP IMPEACHED AGAIN

The House voted Wednesday to impeach President Trump an unprecedented second time, on a charge of “inciting violence” against the U.S. government. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) left open the possibility of voting to convict at a trial, which would occur after Trump leaves office next week.

During debate on the House floor, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Trump “bears responsibility” for last week’s violent takeover of the Capitol but argued against impeachment so close to the end of his term. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called Trump “a clear and present danger” and said “he must go.” ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/13/trump-impeachment-biden-transition-live-updates/

NPR: A majority of the House have voted to impeach Donald John Trump for the second time

Ten Republicans have joined with all Democrats who've yet voted. Voting continues, but the outcome is certain.

And Speaker Pelosi has just announced the vote.

GOP lawmakers dodge metal detectors added after Capitol riots

Some refused to go through the detectors. Others pushed past police after setting off the devices. One legislator even took to the House floor to call the measures “an atrocity.”

[...]

Still, a group of GOP lawmakers ignored the new security measures. Matt Fuller, a HuffPost reporter, tweeted that he witnessed about a dozen Republicans walk around the magnetometer, including Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) and Rep. Randy Weber (R-Tex.). A handful barreled through, even if they set off the alarm, he reported.

Airbnb, HotelTonight cancel all Washington, DC, metro reservations ahead of inauguration

"Today, in response to various local, state and federal officials asking people not to travel to Washington, D.C., we are announcing that Airbnb will cancel reservations in the Washington, D.C. metro area during the inauguration week," Airbnb said in the statement. "Additionally, we will prevent any new reservations in the Washington, D.C., area from being booked during that time by blocking such reservations."

Airbnb added the decision was informed by input from its host community in addition to Washington, D.C. officials, D.C. Metro Police and members of Congress this week.

The House is voting on whether to proceed with impeachment today, but Mitch McConnell will not consent to reconvening the Senate early, delaying the start of President Trump's likely impeachment trial until Jan. 19 at the earliest.

Telegram tries, and fails, to remove extremist content

Scores of posts and online groups containing violent content linked with the recent riots in Washington have been removed from Telegram, the encrypted messenger, according to the company.

Yet despite the move, Telegram remains rife with far-right and white supremacist groups, with several of their channels garnering tens of thousands of subscribers, according to a review of the network by POLITICO. Several channels specifically associate themselves with the Proud Boys white supremacist movement, while others urge people to take up arms ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20.

[...]

“In the past 24 hours alone, we have blocked dozens of public channels that contained calls to violence, and continue monitoring the situation closely,” Mike Ravdonikas, a Telegram spokesperson, told POLITICO, though would not say how any channels had been removed. “Our terms of service expressly forbid public calls to violence.”

[...]

TikTok, the video app popular amongst teens, has similarly seen an influx of right-wing militia groups, some of which have used the Chinese-owned social network to mobilize support for their cause, including potentially offline protests ahead of January 20, according to Media Matters, a left-leaning watchdog group.

After POLITICO flagged several pro-militia and violent posts that had appeared on TikTok to the company, the social network removed those posts. But hashtags supportive of Donald Trump’s false claims that the recent U.S. presidential election had been fraudulent were still prevalent across the platform, based on a review of online material.

A Black officer faced down a mostly White mob at the Capitol. Meet Eugene Goodman.

Generally private and reserved, the D.C. native has started to worry about becoming a potential target of far-right extremist groups that have vowed to return to D.C. this weekend and for next week’s inauguration.

[...]

A close friend of Goodman’s, who asked to be identified by his first name, Terry, out of fear of being targeted by far-right extremists, said the officer has a reputation for being a calm leader during emergencies.

On impeachment and Republican leadership:

Senior House Republican leadership officials now predict that between eight and 12 Republicans will vote to impeach President Donald Trump. That’s down slightly from the 10 to 20 they previously predicted. An underwhelming total in the House could tamp down GOP support for impeachment in the Senate.

Here’s a question to ponder this afternoon: Could House Republican Conference Liz Cheney lose her leadership position if she votes to impeach Trump? We already hear rumblings from the right flank of the conference that they want to oust her for backing the president’s removal.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post that the GOP conference should hold a vote to reconsider Cheney’s leadership position. Cheney is the No. 3 House Republican and the highest-ranking woman in GOP leadership. Jordan says the broader Freedom Caucus wants to dump her too. “What do you think? Yes,” Jordan said of the hardline conservative faction.

Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona -- a staunch Trump ally -- is already circulating a petition (PDF Warning) to call for a meeting to get rid of Cheney. This resolution would do the trick of forcing a vote, insiders tell us.

There are two ways to force this vote. Biggs can introduce his resolution, and the conference would then refer it to the GOP steering committee or some other special panel inside the conference. If it garners 25 or more signatures, the petition would be reported back to the conference as soon as possible within 10 legislative days. If it gets 50 or more signatures, it automatically gets sent to the conference. Twenty percent of the conference -- roughly 40 Republicans -- can also call a meeting and schedule the vote on recalling Cheney. Or leadership -- with GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy’s blessing -- could short-circuit the whole process and schedule a vote. (This is enumerated in rule six of the GOP rules.)

The vote would almost certainly be conducted by secret ballot. This will also be an interesting moment for McCarthy and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise -- will they take the same position on Cheney?

The real question is whether McCarthy and Scalise try to save Cheney, or will they “stay neutral,” as leadership frequently tries to do. Make no mistake about it: McCarthy and Scalise could prevent Cheney from being removed from leadership if they tried. The two top Republicans aren’t showing their hands yet. Some in leadership wonder if Cheney actually wants the job. This backlash was easy to predict.

Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York is high on the list to replace Cheney. Stefanik probably could slide into the House Republican Conference chair spot with ease. The conference chair likely needs to be a woman with men in the top two slots, and Stefanik is as well-liked as anyone in the House GOP. Stefanik, 36, came to national prominence in 2019 for her vocal defense of Trump during his first impeachment.

Also thought this was interesting:

A procedural measure passed last night included a special provision to allow members to talk about President Donald Trump in a personal manner -- a departure from long-standing House rules that barred such references. In short, they’re free to say nasty stuff about Trump without repercussions. Here’s the text:

Sec. 2. The prohibition against personality in debate shall not apply during consideration of measures specified in section 3 of this resolution with respect to references to the President.

It will be interesting listening in on C-SPAN over the next week as the language they may use about Donald Trump will be a change from in the past. I wonder how far Dems will go.

Mike Masnick takes a brief look at the lawsuit Parler filed against Amazon in response to getting kicked off AWS: Parler's Laughably Bad Antitrust Lawsuit Against Amazon

Kevin McCarthy Tells GOP to Stop Claiming Antifa Caused Riot, Says Trump 'Bears Responsibility'

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday sought to put an end to the false narrative among some rank-and-file Republicans and allies of President Donald Trump that left-wing actors were responsible for last week's deadly violence at the U.S. Capitol.

The California Republican stated in a floor speech just before the chamber impeached the commander-in-chief—again—that while he disagrees with the "incitement of insurrection" impeachment article, Trump is unequivocally to blame for hundreds of his supporters seizing the halls of Congress during an attack that resulted in five deaths, including that of a Capitol Police officer.

Good thread by Jack Dorsey on why they banned trump.

https://mobile.twitter.com/jack/status/1349510769268850690