Live updates: Amid fallout from Trump’s impeachment, Biden seeks to keep focus on coronavirus, economy

Hours after the House voted to impeach Trump, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) launched another impeachment push — directed at Biden.

Appearing on the conservative network Newsmax on Wednesday night, Greene, the first open supporter of the QAnon conspiracy theory to win a seat in Congress, said she would introduce articles of impeachment against Biden on Jan. 21, the day after he is sworn in.

Greene cited business controversies involving Biden’s son Hunter during Biden’s tenure as vice president, and suggested without citing evidence that Biden would be implicated.

“We have to make sure that our leaders are held accountable,” Greene said. “We cannot have a president of the United States that is willing to abuse the power of the office of the presidency and be easily bought off by foreign governments, foreign Chinese energy companies, Ukrainian energy companies.

“We have to hold people accountable,” she added, calling Biden “a dangerous threat to our country.”

Asked about the long odds of her effort, given that she’s serving in a Democratic-led House, Greene said voters appreciate politicians willing to fight for their beliefs.

Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), one of the impeachment managers for the upcoming Senate trial of Trump, said she and her colleagues plan to present video of the violent takeover of the Capitol and will consider in coming days whether to call witnesses.

Appearing on CNN, DeGette said the House managers, led by Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.), met for the first time Wednesday and plan to gather again Thursday and through the weekend to strategize about the scope of their presentation.

“This is a situation where the president committed his offense right there on national TV,” DeGette said. “We’re going to be getting footage. We’re going to be telling the story to the senators.”

Among the witnesses under consideration are victims of the deadly attack, as well as Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), whom Trump lobbied days before the takeover to “find” enough votes for him to surpass Biden in Georgia.

“He could talk about his conversation with the president, how the president tried to pressure him to change the legal result of the election,” DeGette said of Raffensperger.

Trump’s Jan. 2 phone call to Raffensperger is referenced in the impeachment resolution passed by the House that charges Trump with “incitement of insurrection.”

During the interview, DeGette also sought to push back on those, including Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who have argued that an impeachment trial should not be held after Trump leaves office.

“They could prevent him from ever holding office again,” DeGette said of the senators. “They could prevent him from getting all of the perks of a retired president, and it seems to me that given the egregiousness with which he acted, we should take this kind of a step.”

Stock prices have soared for months in defiance of an ailing, pandemic-wrecked economy. Now they seem impervious to something even more disturbing: the erosion of American democracy.

Last week’s shocking events, when an American president incited a mob to confront lawmakers preparing to certify his electoral defeat, raised alarms about the health of U.S. governing institutions.

But the country’s political decay will need to get a great deal worse before it knocks financial markets off stride, analysts said. That’s good news for investors, but it also means that Wall Street is unlikely to act as a brake on further institutional deterioration.

Trump’s Twitter account is neutered, and he’s been blocked by mainstream social media platforms. His White House staff is formally off-boarding and doesn’t want “to touch [impeachment] with a 10 foot pole.” Much of corporate America is halting donations to Republicans who voted against certifying Biden’s win. And now, some of the Republican Party’s top leaders are turning against him.

Once the article of impeachment passed by the House with 10 Republicans supporting it is transmitted to the Senate, the first twice-impeached president in American history won’t have the same robust cadre of defenders arguing his case.

Trump still has Alan Dershowitz, however. The Harvard Law School professor emeritus who was a part of Trump’s legal team during the first impeachment trial is reportedly being considered by Trump to defend him a second time around. And Dershowitz, who tells us he has not spoken with Trump recently, seems somewhat open to the prospect — at least in an unofficial capacity.

A majority of Americans think that Trump should be immediately removed from office, according to a new Axios-Ipsos poll.

That figure has climbed to 56 percent, up five percentage points from last week in a survey taken just after a mob of pro-Trump supporters stormed the Capitol.

The latest Axios-Ipsos poll was taken just before the House voted to impeach Trump. A Senate trial is now expected after Trump leaves office next week.

The poll also finds several significant differences between Republicans who identify as a “Donald Trump supporter” and those who identify as a “traditional Republican.”

For instance, 96 percent of Trump supporters say Trump makes the Republican Party better, while only 51 percent of traditional Republicans hold that view.

Similarly, 92 percent of Trump supporters would like to see him run for president again in 2024. Only 41 percent of traditional Republicans would like him to do so, according to the poll.

Pop stars Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez will be part of the program next week when Biden is sworn in at the Capitol, the committee coordinating the president-elect’s inaugural activities announced Thursday.

Lady Gaga has been booked to sing the national anthem on Wednesday, while Lopez will deliver a musical performance toward the end of the proceedings, according to a lineup released by the committee. Both singers were involved with Biden’s campaign.

According to the committee, Biden’s ceremony will also include an invocation from Leo J. O’Donovan, a former president of Georgetown University and longtime friend of the Biden family, as well as a poetry reading by Amanda Gorman, who was named the first national youth poet laureate in the United States in 2017.

The Pledge of Allegiance will be led by Andrea Hall, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Local 3920 in Georgia, who was the first African American woman in the City of South Fulton Fire Department’s history to be promoted to the rank of fire captain.

The IAFF was the first union to endorse Biden in the 2020 presidential race.

The swearing-in ceremony will also include a benediction delivered by Silvester Beaman, a longtime Biden family friend and pastor of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Wilmington, Del. Beaman was also close to Biden’s late son, Beau Biden, who served as Delaware’s attorney general before his death in 2015.

“We are thrilled to announce an inspired group of dynamic participants for the 59th Inaugural Ceremonies,” Presidential Inaugural Committee CEO Tony Allen said in a statement. “They represent one clear picture of the grand diversity of our great nation and will help honor and celebrate the time-honored traditions of the presidential inauguration.”

Biden on Thursday night plans to unveil a vaccination and economic relief legislative package that is expected to include the expansion of an existing tax credit for children as well as $2,000 stimulus payments, unemployment benefits and other assistance.

The announcement, scheduled in an address from Wilmington, Del., comes as Biden seeks to maintain a focus on combating the coronavirus and pursuing other priorities amid the fallout from Trump’s second impeachment.

“This nation also remains in the grip of a deadly virus and a reeling economy,” Biden said in a statement Wednesday after the House voted to impeach Trump and preparations began for a Senate trial. “I hope that the Senate leadership will find a way to deal with their Constitutional responsibilities on impeachment while also working on the other urgent business of this nation.”

Biden’s office said the package he will unveil Thursday seeks to “fund vaccinations and provide immediate, direct relief to working families and communities bearing the brunt of this crisis and call on both parties in Congress to move his proposals quickly.”

Transition officials have not disclosed the overall price tag of the package, but it is expected to be more than $1 trillion.

The inclusion of an expansion of a child tax credit might draw opposition from Republican lawmakers, who have balked at the trillions of dollars already authorized by Congress in response to the economic downturn caused by coronavirus pandemic.

In the wake of his second impeachment, Trump has advertised no public appearances on Thursday.

In the hours after the House vote on Wednesday, Trump released a video in which he condemned violence without mentioning his indictment on a charge of inciting the attack at the Capitol.

“Violence and vandalism have absolutely no place in our country and no place in our movement,” Trump said in the video statement. He warned his supporters that upcoming demonstrations in Washington and at state capitols should remain peaceful.

The White House offered only limited guidance on what Trump plans to do Thursday, repeating its mantra of recent days when his schedule is empty: “President Trump will work from early in the morning until late in the evening. He will make many calls and have many meetings.”

Vice President Pence, meanwhile, plans to participate in a briefing on inauguration security, according to his office.

Unlike Trump, Pence plans to attend Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday.

Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) on Wednesday night joined a growing number of Republican senators who would not rule out voting to convict Trump in an upcoming impeachment trial, saying he would “not rush to judgment.”

“These charges being brought against President Trump are serious and will be given serious consideration,” Sullivan said in a statement hours after the House voted to impeach Trump on a charge of “incitement of insurrection.”

“I will thoroughly examine the arguments and evidence presented, including any defense mounted by the President’s legal team," Sullivan said. "I will not rush to judgment or make rash statements until this constitutional process has run its course.”

Assuming a trial is held after Trump leaves office, Democrats would need the votes of 17 Republicans to convict Trump.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is among those who have signaled he is keeping an open mind.

When Trump on Wednesday became the first president ever impeached twice, he did so as a leader increasingly isolated, sullen and vengeful.

With less than seven days remaining in his presidency, Trump’s inner circle is shrinking, offices in his White House are emptying, and the president is lashing out at some of those who remain. He is angry that his allies have not mounted a more forceful defense of his incitement of the mob that stormed the Capitol last week, advisers and associates said.

Although Trump has been exceptionally furious with Vice President Pence, his relationship with lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, one of his most steadfast defenders, is also fracturing, according to people with knowledge of the dynamics between the men.

MINNEAPOLIS — The nation’s governors, facing increasing threats to their capitols and little support or information from the federal government, said Wednesday that they are bracing for long-term danger from extremist groups that already have breached government buildings, damaged property and been linked to threats against state leaders and their families.

“It’s going to take quite a while to turn back what’s been started here,” said Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), who has participated in joint calls in recent days with other Midwestern governors about the possibility of fresh violence in the aftermath of last week’s riot at the U.S. Capitol and an FBI warning about armed far-right extremists gathering across the country this weekend.

The weekly calls began last spring among the governors — mostly Democrats, but some of them Republicans — as a way to informally coordinate and trade ideas about how to respond to the coronavirus pandemic amid a perceived leadership vacuum by the Trump administration.

Even as Democrats on Wednesday impeached Trump, they turned their attention to allegations that Republican members of Congress encouraged last week’s attempted insurrection, possibly helping to enable the mob that stormed the Capitol.

“Their accomplices in this House will be held responsible,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said in a speech during the impeachment debate, without mentioning specific members or allegations.

In the days since the Jan. 6 attack, immediately preceded by Trump’s remarks at a rally, a number of Democrats have pointed to speeches, tweets and videos that they have said raised questions about whether the attackers may have been inspired or helped by Republican members of Congress.

He has been banned on social media, shunned by foreign leaders, impeached (again) in the House, threatened with censure by Republicans, deserted by Cabinet members, turned on by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), canceled by his hometown of New York City, dropped by the PGA golf tour and snubbed by New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick.

And that’s just in the past few days for Trump, who, after ruling Washington for nearly four years through a mix of bullying, intimidation, patronage and a sense that his willingness to spread falsehoods and misinformation would have no consequences, is suddenly facing a torrent of retribution from those who long excused his behavior or were too scared or powerless to confront it.

The fallout on Trump for his role in riling up thousands of supporters in a speech ahead of their deadly siege on the U.S. Capitol last week has intensified quickly — leaving the world’s most powerful leader as a pariah in many quarters, more isolated than ever.