JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER. 1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
2020 AMERICAN ELECTION RESULTS BY STATE TRUMP VS LOSER LIBERAL SLEEPY (SLOPPY JOE) BIDEN.
ON D-69 OF THE TRUMP WIN OF THE PRESIDENCY. SAT JAN 09, 21.
Key dates for the Electoral College and what they mean-AEIdeas-DECEMBER 14,20
What are the key dates for the workings of the Electoral College?
November 3 — Election Day
Election Day is November 3. We may or may not know the winner of the presidential contest on election night, but we certainly will not have a final tally and certified results until weeks later. States vary widely in the time they allot for certifying their election results. Some may give a final certification the week after Election Day. Others may take over 30 days. And there is the possibility of recounts and judicial contests of elections which could extend the time to determine an official winner of a state.
Ballots are passed out to 16 Electors on the Michigan Senate floor for them to cast their formal votes for the president and vice president of the United States in Lansing, Michigan, U.S., December 19, 2016. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook
December 8 — Safe Harbor
December 14 — The meeting of the Electors
Two key dates loom in December. On December 14, presidential electors must have been selected by the states and will meet as a group in their states to cast electoral votes for president and vice president. But December 8 is also a significant date, the so-called “safe harbor” date. The Electoral Count Act sets this date as an important date for states to make their official selection of electors, as those electoral votes will be given greater protection from challenge when Congress counts the electoral votes in January. The Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore assigned great significance to this date in Bush v. Gore.
January 3 — The convening of the new Congress
January 6 — Congress counts the votes
January 20 — Inauguration Day. The new presidential term begins at noon.
On January 3rd, the new Congress will take office, and on January 6th it will meet to count the electoral votes and declare a president- and vice president-elect. On January 20th at noon, the current presidential term will end and the next one will begin.This is excerpted from the new fourth edition of After the People Vote, edited by John Fortier, senior fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center and a member of AEI’s Election Watch team.John C. Fortier-AEI Adjunct Scholar-SENOIRFELLOWKarlyn Bowman-Senior Fellow
ITS 6.40PM-FRI JAN 08,2021. AND TWITTER HAS JUST PERMANENTLY SUSPENDED PRESIDENT OF AMERICA DONALD JOHN TRUMPS TWITTER ACCOUNT. THIS TELLS YOU HOW MUCH POWER A BUSINESS HAS OVER EVEN THE PRESIDENT OF THE USA. THESE DICTATOR HITLERS SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANIES HAS TO BE CONTROLLED INSTEAD OF CONTROLLING AMERICA.
Tweet no more: Twitter permanently bans Trump, citing ‘incitement of violence’US president locked out of his favorite platform in final days in office, as he faces growing blowback for encouraging mob that attacked US Capitol-By Agencies and TOI staff-JAN 9,21-Today, 1:52 am
The US leader who became famous for his tweeting was permanently banned from the platform Friday, with Twitter citing the “risk of further incitement of violence.”The social platform had been under growing pressure to take further action against Trump following Wednesday’s deadly insurrection at the US Capitol. Twitter initially suspended Trump’s account for 12 hours after he posted a video that repeated false claims about election fraud and praised the rioters who stormed the Capitol.The company said: “After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter — we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”Twitter’s move deprives Trump of a potent tool he has used to communicate directly with the American people for more than a decade. He has used Twitter to announce policy changes, challenge opponents, insult enemies, praise his allies (and himself), and spread misinformation.Twitter has long given Trump and other world leaders broad exemptions from its rules against personal attacks, hate speech and other behaviors. But in a lengthy explanation posted on its blog Friday, the company said recent Trump tweets amounted to glorification of violence when read in the context of the Capitol riot and plans circulating online for future armed protests around the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.In those tweets, Trump stated that he will not be attending the inauguration and referred to his supporters as “American Patriots,” saying they will have “a GIANT VOICE long into the future.” Twitter said these statements “are likely to inspire others to replicate the violent acts that took place on January 6, 2021, and that there are multiple indicators that they are being received and understood as encouragement to do so.”Facebook and Instagram have also barred Trump from posting, though so far only temporarily, saying the ban will last at least until the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.Twitter had long grappled with how to handle its most prominent — and divisive — user.For years, since long before he was president, Trump used Twitter as a personal megaphone to build his personal brand, appeal to his supporters and attack his rivals of the moment. In the process, regardless of the facts at hand, he often created his own version of reality — from birtherism to climate-change denial to exaggerations about voter fraud.Last May the platform began attaching warnings to some of his tweets, while placing various limitations on others to prevent the spread of false claims. Facebook has followed suit.Since the US election in November Trump has repeatedly harnessed the power of social media to spread falsehoods about election integrity and the results of the presidential race.Also Friday, Twitter permanently banned two Trump loyalists — former national security adviser Michael Flynn and attorney Sidney Powell — as part of a broader purge of accounts promoting the QAnon conspiracy theory. Twitter said it will take action on behavior that has the potential to lead to offline harm.Former mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani, left, listens to Sidney Powell, both lawyers for US President Donald Trump, during a news conference at the Republican National Committee headquarters, November 19, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)“Given the renewed potential for violence surrounding this type of behavior in the coming days, we will permanently suspend accounts that are solely dedicated to sharing QAnon content,” Twitter said in an emailed statement. The company also said Trump attorney Lin Wood was permanently suspended Tuesday for violating its rules, but provided no additional details.The company says that when it determines a group or campaign is engaged in “coordinated harmful activity,” it may suspend accounts that it finds primarily encourages that behavior.Social media companies have been under intensified pressure to crack down on hate speech since a violent mob egged on by Trump stormed the Capitol. Dozens of QAnon social media accounts were hyping up Trump’s Jan. 6 rally in the heart of Washington, expressing hope that it could lead to the overturn of the election results.On Friday, the advocacy coalition Stop Hate for Profit launched a campaign to pressure the major platforms, including YouTube owner Google, to kick Trump off their services for good. The organization, which includes the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, Free Press and Color of Change, said it will call for an advertiser boycott if the platforms don’t take action by Jan. 20, the date of Biden’s inauguration.Other tech companies also acted against Trump’s accounts, citing threats of violence. Snapchat locked Trump’s account “indefinitely.” Twitch, the live-streaming site owned by Amazon and used by Trump’s campaign to stream speeches, disabled Trump’s account until he leaves office. E-commerce company Shopify shut down two online Trump memorabilia stores.YouTube announced more general changes that will penalize accounts spreading misinformation about voter fraud in the 2020 election, with repeat offenders facing permanent removal. Reddit on Friday banned a forum for Trump supporters, called “donaldtrump.”
White House: Impeachment will only further divide country-Draft impeachment document accuses Trump of ‘incitement of insurrection’Resolution circulated by Dems says US president betrayed trust by actions this week, ‘gravely endangered’ national security; Murkowski first GOP senator to call on Trump to resign-By TOI staff and Agencies-9 January 2021, 1:28 am
A draft resolution of the new impeachment effort against US President Donald Trump that has been circled by Democratic lawmakers accuses him of “incitement of insurrection” through his actions on the day of the breach of the US Capitol by a violent mob this week.The draft, obtained by CNN, NBC News and other American media outlets, says Trump “engaged in High Crimes and Misdemeanors by willfully inciting violence against the Government of the United States.”It states that “Incited by President Trump, a mob unlawfully breached the Capitol, injured law enforcement personnel, menaced Members of Congress and the Vice President, interfered with the Joint Session’s solemn constitutional duty to certify the election results, and engaged in violent, deadly, destructive, and seditious acts.”By doing so, the document charges, Trump “gravely endangered” the security of the US, “threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coordinate branch of government.“He thereby betrayed his trust as President, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.”JUST IN: 4-page draft article of impeachment against President Trump that Reps. Raskin, Lieu, Cicilline are planning to introduce Monday: "Incitement of insurrection" pic.twitter.com/6OADfzdQEe — MSNBC (@MSNBC) January 8, 2021-The White House, in its first comments on the matter, said Friday: “As President Trump said yesterday, this is a time for healing and unity as one nation. A politically motivated impeachment against a president with 12 days remaining in his term will only serve to further divide our great country.”House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned earlier that Democrats will launch impeachment proceedings unless Trump leaves willingly, or Vice President Mike Pence invokes the 25th Amendment, where the cabinet removes the president.“If the President does not leave office imminently and willingly, the Congress will proceed with our action,” Pelosi wrote.In other astonishing comments, Pelosi also revealed she had spoken Friday with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley about “preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike.”“The situation of this unhinged President could not be more dangerous, and we must do everything that we can to protect the American people from his unbalanced assault on our country and our democracy,” Pelosi wrote.Meanwhile Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska became the first Republican member of the Senate to call for Trump’s resignation.Murkowski said in a telephone interview Friday: “I want him out. He has caused enough damage… He needs to get out. He needs to do the good thing, but I don’t think he’s capable of doing a good thing.”She also questioned whether she wanted to remain a Republican. “If the Republican Party has become nothing more than the party of Trump, I sincerely question whether this is the party for me,” she said.Democrats in the House of Representatives, who already impeached Trump in a traumatic, partisan vote in 2019, said the unprecedented second impeachment of the president could be ready next week.“We can act very quickly when we want to,” Representative Katherine Clark told CNN.Whether Republican leaders of the Senate would then agree to hold a lightning-fast impeachment trial before the January 20 transition is another matter.Trump would be the only president to be impeached twice. The House impeached him in late 2019, but the Republican-led Senate acquitted him. Removal from office could also prevent Trump from running for president in 2024, or ever holding the presidency again.Trump, meanwhile, announced that he will skip the inauguration of Joe Biden on January 20. “To all of those who have asked, I will not be going,” he tweeted.The statement — while not a surprise from the most divisive president in decades — scuppered any idea that Trump might seek to spend his remaining 12 days in the White House helping his Democratic successor to calm tensions.Not since 1869 has an outgoing US president missed the inauguration of the incoming leader, a ceremony symbolizing the peaceful transfer of power.But two days after Trump incited followers to storm Congress, his presidency is in freefall, with allies walking away and calls for his removal accelerating.Trump, whose incitement of crowds assaulting Congress capped relentless efforts to overturn Biden’s November 3 election win, finally conceded defeat on Thursday and appealed for calm.“A new administration will be inaugurated on January 20. My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power,” Trump said in a short video.However, the evidently reluctant concession, in which Trump failed to congratulate Biden or directly admit defeat, was too little, too late to calm outrage over his role in the Capitol invasion.Five people died in the mayhem, including one woman who was shot dead and a Capitol Police officer who was pronounced dead from his injuries on Thursday. Flags over the Capitol were lowered to half-mast on Friday.Senator Ben Sasse, one Republican who says he will “definitely consider” impeachment, recommended that Trump at minimum step back and let his vice president run the show in the dying days.“I think the less the president does over the next 12 days the better,” he told NPR radio.Education Secretary Betsy DeVos became the second cabinet member to quit the government, telling Trump in a letter Thursday that such “behavior was unconscionable for our country.” Earlier, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao announced she was departing over the “entirely avoidable” violence. A string of lower level officials have also left.According to reports, the only reason the trickle hasn’t turned into a flood is the decision by senior figures to try and maintain stability during the transition to Biden.Trump, however, appears to have lost the grip he once exercised on both the Republican party and his own staff as he rampaged through four years of one of the most turbulent presidencies in US history.Speaking to CNN, retired Marine Corps general John Kelly, who served as Trump’s chief of staff for 18 months, said the cabinet should consider the 25th Amendment but believed the president had already been put into a box.“He can give all the orders he wants but no one is going to break the law,” Kelly said.Biden, who won seven million votes more than Trump, as well as a decisive majority in the vital state-by-state Electoral College, will be sworn in on the Capitol Steps under huge security.And Biden will immediately face extraordinary challenges, starting with his core campaign promise that he can “heal” the nation.The Democrat has been wary of endorsing impeachment.“If we were six months out, we should be doing everything to get him out of office. Impeaching him again, trying to evoke the 25th Amendment, whatever it took,” Biden said Friday. “But I am focused now on us taking control as president and vice president on the 20th and to get our agenda moving as quickly as we can.”Impeachment of the president could present the incoming Democrat with an even more polarized landscape, further complicating the task of reuniting the country.At the same time, the crisis has sparked such revulsion in Congress on both sides of the aisle that Biden may come into office with an unexpectedly bipartisan tailwind.On Thursday, he accused Trump of mounting an “all-out assault on the institutions of our democracy” and called the assault on Congress “one of the darkest days in the history of our nation.”
Analysis-Legal bar may be too high to charge Trump for inciting Washington riot-While president used incendiary rhetoric addressing supporters before storming of US Capitol, prosecutors would have difficult job proving he intended for violence to ensue-By Mark Sherman and Zeke Miller-JAN 9,21-Today, 11:42 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — US President Donald Trump’s top White House lawyer has repeatedly warned the president that he could be held responsible for inciting Wednesday’s riot at the Capitol, but the standard for legal liability is high under court decisions reaching back 50 years.The admonitions from presidential counsel Pat Cipollone were delivered in part to prompt Trump to condemn the violence that was carried out in his name and acknowledge that he will leave office in less than two weeks, according to White House aides. They were not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations and spoke on condition of anonymity.Trump did just that in a video from White House on Thursday. President-elect Joe Biden is to be inaugurated on Jan. 20.But the promise of a wide-ranging, aggressive investigation by federal prosecutors into Wednesday’s events has raised the question of Trump’s role in the mayhem just as he faces the imminent loss of the protection from legal liability that the Oval Office has given him for the past four years.The legal issue is whether Trump or any of the speakers at Wednesday’s rally near the White House that preceded the assault on the Capitol incited violence and whether they knew their words would have that effect.That’s the standard the Supreme Court laid out in its 1969 decision in Brandenburg v. Ohio, which overturned the conviction of a Ku Klux Klan leader."You'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength," says Trump, before demanding that Congress try to overthrow the election results pic.twitter.com/EXvUDv0U3e — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 6, 2021-Trump urged the crowd to march on the Capitol, even promising to go with them, though he didn’t in the end. He said “you’ll never take our country back with weakness.” Trump’s words followed a speech by his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, in which the former New York City mayor said, “Let’s have trial by combat.”Many in the crowd then set out for the Capitol, where a mob broke through police barriers, smashed windows and paraded through the halls, sending lawmakers into hiding-A police officer died from injuries suffered during the siege, and a rioter was shot to death by Capitol Police. Three other people died after “medical emergencies” related to the breach.Former federal prosecutor Randall Eliason wrote in The Washington Post on Friday that Trump’s actions should be investigated.“We want to avoid the risk of criminalizing political differences. But that understanding has nothing to do with what happened at the Capitol. It’s impossible to characterize Trump’s incitement of the riot as having anything to do with the legitimate exercise of his executive power — just the opposite,” Eliason wrote.Trump could be in violation of several federal laws, Eliason wrote, including prohibitions on aiding a rebellion, which has a maximum prison term of 10 years, and conspiring with others to prevent laws from being enforced, which calls for 20 years in prison. The mob that invaded the Capitol interfered with Congress’ counting of the electoral votes and certification of Biden’s victory.Andrew Koppelman, a constitutional law professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, said it would be difficult to prove Trump intended for violence to ensue at the Capitol.“It looks to me like Trump was culpably reckless. But it seems to me the Brandenburg standard requires intention,” Koppleman said.He said Giuliani’s exhortation sounded more like a metaphor than an incitement to violence. “It’s like the word fight. It’s often used as a metaphor. ‘Senator X is a fighter. He will fight for you,’” Koppelman said.That’s where context comes in, said Stanford University law professor Sirin Sinnar.“Officials can always say that they intended peaceful protests, not violence. But the context here is significant, including the fact that the crowd was shouting ‘fight for Trump!’ during his speech and that right-wing militant groups like the Proud Boys in town for the protests were already fighting with police,” Sinnar wrote in an email.In the atmosphere in which Trump was speaking Wednesday, Sinnar said, “The violence was entirely foreseeable.”Federal judges have taken a hard line against the federal anti-riot law and its speech restrictions that prosecutors have tried to use in recent years. The federal appeals court in Virginia last year narrowed the Anti-Riot Act, with a maximum prison term of five years, because it swept up constitutionally protected speech. The court found that invalid parts of the law that encompassed speech tending to “encourage” or “promote” a riot, as well as speech “urging” others to riot or involving mere advocacy of violence.The same court upheld the convictions of two members of a white supremacist group who admitted they punched and kicked counter-demonstrators during the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.In 2019, a federal trial judge in California struck down the entire anti-riot law, enacted in 1968, dismissing charges against members of the white supremacist Rise Above Movement. The Justice Department has appealed that ruling.
FBI not investigating anyone for incitement or insurrection-Police, FBI carry out widespread arrests after storming of US Capitol-Those facing federal charges include West Virginia lawmaker, suspect who constructed bombs made to act like ‘homemade napalm’ and man who broke into Pelosi’s office-By TOI staff and Agencies-JAN 9,21-Today, 11:30 pm
The US Justice Department announced Friday that it has indicted 15 people involved in the assault on Congress, including one man accused of possessing bombs made to act like “homemade napalm.”The department said it had arrested several suspects, including Richard Barnett, a supporter of US President Donald Trump who invaded the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and another man found with 11 styrofoam-enhanced Molotov cocktails in his truck.Others whose charges were unsealed include a man alleged to have entered the US Capitol with a loaded handgun, another who is accused of punching an officer, and a West Virginia state legislator who took part in storming the Congress, said Ken Cole, a federal prosecutor with the Washington US attorney’s office.Cole said that not all the charges over Wednesday’s violence had been unsealed and that more were in the pipeline as the FBI investigates.“This investigation has the highest priority,” he said, with “hundreds” of Justice Department investigators working the case.More charges and arrests were expected.Dozens of people have already been arrested and charged by local Washington police, but the charges announced by Cole Friday were on the federal level, and potentially carry heftier punishment.But he said the FBI was not investigating anyone on possible “incitement” or “insurrection” charges.Some people have called for Trump, his attorney Rudy Giuliani and others to be charged with incitement for openly encouraging the president’s supporters to take action just hours before the mob stormed the Capitol.-Investigating Trump-However, on Thursday, the top federal prosecutor for the District of Columbia, acting US Attorney Michael Sherwin indicated that Trump could face charges of inciting the riot.“We are looking at all actors here, not only the people that went into the building, but . . . were there others that maybe assisted or facilitated or played some ancillary role in this. We will look at every actor and all criminal charges,” he said, according to the Washington Post.Asked if that included Trump, he replied: “We are looking at all actors here, and anyone that had a role, if the evidence fits the element of a crime, they’re going to be charged.”Sherwin also said investigators were trying to determine if national security had been compromised with the theft of documents and computers from the ransacked lawmakers’ offices.He said an investigation could take “several days to flesh out exactly what happened, what was stolen, what wasn’t.”Trump’s top White House lawyer has repeatedly warned the president that he could be held responsible for inciting Wednesday’s riot at the Capitol, officials said.The admonitions from presidential counsel Pat Cipollone were delivered in part to prompt Trump to condemn the violence that was carried out in his name and acknowledge that he will leave office in less than two weeks, according to White House aides. They were not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations and spoke on condition of anonymity.Trump urged the crowd to march on the Capitol, even promising to go with them, though he didn’t in the end. He said “you’ll never take our country back with weakness.” Trump’s words followed a speech by his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, in which the former New York City mayor said, “Let’s have trial by combat.”Many in the crowd then set out for the Capitol, where a mob broke through police barriers, smashed windows and paraded through the halls, sending lawmakers into hiding.-Homicide charges for killing officer-A police officer died from injuries suffered during the siege, and a rioter was shot to death by Capitol Police. Three other people died after “medical emergencies” related to the breach.The US Capitol Police said in a statement that Officer Brian D. Sicknick was injured “while physically engaging with protesters” during the Wednesday riot. He is the fifth person to die because of the Capitol protest and violence.During the struggle at the Capitol, Sicknick, 42, was hit in the head with a fire extinguisher, two law enforcement officials said. The officials could not discuss the ongoing investigation publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.Reports said Federal prosecutors had opened a homicide investigation into his death.Lawmaker charged-Among those facing charges is West Virginia state lawmaker Derrick Evans accused of entering a restricted area of the US Capitol after he livestreamed himself rushing into the building with a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters.His lawyer, John Bryan, said he hadn’t seen the complaint against Evans and couldn’t comment. He did not say if Evans had been taken into custody, but television station WSAZ posted a video on Twitter showing FBI agents escorting the handcuffed lawmaker from a home. #BREAKING WV Delegate Derrick Evans has been taken into federal custody.He’s charged after allegedly entering a restricted area of the US Capitol with rioters Wednesday.A woman saying he was his grandmother came out telling us to leave as he was put in a car. #WSAZ pic.twitter.com/wK2RqFcaF7— Chad Hedrick (@WSAZChadHedrick) January 8, 2021-“He’s a fine man. And thank you, Mr. Trump, for inviting a riot at the White House,” a woman identifying herself as Evans’ grandmother told station reporters as her grandson was being taken into custody.Legislators from at least seven other states traveled to Washington, D.C., to back Trump and demonstrate against the counting of electoral votes confirming Democrat Joe Biden’s victory. It’s unknown if any other elected official joined the attack on the Capitol.A growing number of Republicans and Democrats said they want to expel Evans from the legislature if he does not resign. Bryan said late Thursday that the delegate did not commit a crime and doesn’t plan to resign.No one in the office of West Virginia Republican House leader Roger Hanshaw responded to an email requesting comment.In his now-deleted video, widely shared online, Evans is clamoring inside a jampacked Capitol building doorway, trying with others to push his way inside. He hollers along with other Trump loyalists and fist-bumps a law enforcement officer who let them in.Evans’ lawyer has said he was acting as an amateur journalist recording the day’s events and that he was not involved in violence.After pushing into the building, video shows Evans milling around the Capitol Rotunda, where historic paintings depict the republic’s founding, and imploring others to not vandalize artwork and busts. Some of the pieces were later vandalized.“Our house!” Evans yells inside Capitol halls. “I don’t know where we’re going. I’m following the crowd.”
ON D-69 OF THE TRUMP WIN OF THE PRESIDENCY. SAT JAN 09, 21.
Key dates for the Electoral College and what they mean-AEIdeas-DECEMBER 14,20
What are the key dates for the workings of the Electoral College?
November 3 — Election Day
Election Day is November 3. We may or may not know the winner of the presidential contest on election night, but we certainly will not have a final tally and certified results until weeks later. States vary widely in the time they allot for certifying their election results. Some may give a final certification the week after Election Day. Others may take over 30 days. And there is the possibility of recounts and judicial contests of elections which could extend the time to determine an official winner of a state.
Ballots are passed out to 16 Electors on the Michigan Senate floor for them to cast their formal votes for the president and vice president of the United States in Lansing, Michigan, U.S., December 19, 2016. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook
December 8 — Safe Harbor
December 14 — The meeting of the Electors
Two key dates loom in December. On December 14, presidential electors must have been selected by the states and will meet as a group in their states to cast electoral votes for president and vice president. But December 8 is also a significant date, the so-called “safe harbor” date. The Electoral Count Act sets this date as an important date for states to make their official selection of electors, as those electoral votes will be given greater protection from challenge when Congress counts the electoral votes in January. The Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore assigned great significance to this date in Bush v. Gore.
January 3 — The convening of the new Congress
January 6 — Congress counts the votes
January 20 — Inauguration Day. The new presidential term begins at noon.
On January 3rd, the new Congress will take office, and on January 6th it will meet to count the electoral votes and declare a president- and vice president-elect. On January 20th at noon, the current presidential term will end and the next one will begin.This is excerpted from the new fourth edition of After the People Vote, edited by John Fortier, senior fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center and a member of AEI’s Election Watch team.John C. Fortier-AEI Adjunct Scholar-SENOIRFELLOWKarlyn Bowman-Senior Fellow
ITS 6.40PM-FRI JAN 08,2021. AND TWITTER HAS JUST PERMANENTLY SUSPENDED PRESIDENT OF AMERICA DONALD JOHN TRUMPS TWITTER ACCOUNT. THIS TELLS YOU HOW MUCH POWER A BUSINESS HAS OVER EVEN THE PRESIDENT OF THE USA. THESE DICTATOR HITLERS SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANIES HAS TO BE CONTROLLED INSTEAD OF CONTROLLING AMERICA.
Tweet no more: Twitter permanently bans Trump, citing ‘incitement of violence’US president locked out of his favorite platform in final days in office, as he faces growing blowback for encouraging mob that attacked US Capitol-By Agencies and TOI staff-JAN 9,21-Today, 1:52 am
The US leader who became famous for his tweeting was permanently banned from the platform Friday, with Twitter citing the “risk of further incitement of violence.”The social platform had been under growing pressure to take further action against Trump following Wednesday’s deadly insurrection at the US Capitol. Twitter initially suspended Trump’s account for 12 hours after he posted a video that repeated false claims about election fraud and praised the rioters who stormed the Capitol.The company said: “After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter — we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”Twitter’s move deprives Trump of a potent tool he has used to communicate directly with the American people for more than a decade. He has used Twitter to announce policy changes, challenge opponents, insult enemies, praise his allies (and himself), and spread misinformation.Twitter has long given Trump and other world leaders broad exemptions from its rules against personal attacks, hate speech and other behaviors. But in a lengthy explanation posted on its blog Friday, the company said recent Trump tweets amounted to glorification of violence when read in the context of the Capitol riot and plans circulating online for future armed protests around the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.In those tweets, Trump stated that he will not be attending the inauguration and referred to his supporters as “American Patriots,” saying they will have “a GIANT VOICE long into the future.” Twitter said these statements “are likely to inspire others to replicate the violent acts that took place on January 6, 2021, and that there are multiple indicators that they are being received and understood as encouragement to do so.”Facebook and Instagram have also barred Trump from posting, though so far only temporarily, saying the ban will last at least until the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.Twitter had long grappled with how to handle its most prominent — and divisive — user.For years, since long before he was president, Trump used Twitter as a personal megaphone to build his personal brand, appeal to his supporters and attack his rivals of the moment. In the process, regardless of the facts at hand, he often created his own version of reality — from birtherism to climate-change denial to exaggerations about voter fraud.Last May the platform began attaching warnings to some of his tweets, while placing various limitations on others to prevent the spread of false claims. Facebook has followed suit.Since the US election in November Trump has repeatedly harnessed the power of social media to spread falsehoods about election integrity and the results of the presidential race.Also Friday, Twitter permanently banned two Trump loyalists — former national security adviser Michael Flynn and attorney Sidney Powell — as part of a broader purge of accounts promoting the QAnon conspiracy theory. Twitter said it will take action on behavior that has the potential to lead to offline harm.Former mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani, left, listens to Sidney Powell, both lawyers for US President Donald Trump, during a news conference at the Republican National Committee headquarters, November 19, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)“Given the renewed potential for violence surrounding this type of behavior in the coming days, we will permanently suspend accounts that are solely dedicated to sharing QAnon content,” Twitter said in an emailed statement. The company also said Trump attorney Lin Wood was permanently suspended Tuesday for violating its rules, but provided no additional details.The company says that when it determines a group or campaign is engaged in “coordinated harmful activity,” it may suspend accounts that it finds primarily encourages that behavior.Social media companies have been under intensified pressure to crack down on hate speech since a violent mob egged on by Trump stormed the Capitol. Dozens of QAnon social media accounts were hyping up Trump’s Jan. 6 rally in the heart of Washington, expressing hope that it could lead to the overturn of the election results.On Friday, the advocacy coalition Stop Hate for Profit launched a campaign to pressure the major platforms, including YouTube owner Google, to kick Trump off their services for good. The organization, which includes the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, Free Press and Color of Change, said it will call for an advertiser boycott if the platforms don’t take action by Jan. 20, the date of Biden’s inauguration.Other tech companies also acted against Trump’s accounts, citing threats of violence. Snapchat locked Trump’s account “indefinitely.” Twitch, the live-streaming site owned by Amazon and used by Trump’s campaign to stream speeches, disabled Trump’s account until he leaves office. E-commerce company Shopify shut down two online Trump memorabilia stores.YouTube announced more general changes that will penalize accounts spreading misinformation about voter fraud in the 2020 election, with repeat offenders facing permanent removal. Reddit on Friday banned a forum for Trump supporters, called “donaldtrump.”
White House: Impeachment will only further divide country-Draft impeachment document accuses Trump of ‘incitement of insurrection’Resolution circulated by Dems says US president betrayed trust by actions this week, ‘gravely endangered’ national security; Murkowski first GOP senator to call on Trump to resign-By TOI staff and Agencies-9 January 2021, 1:28 am
A draft resolution of the new impeachment effort against US President Donald Trump that has been circled by Democratic lawmakers accuses him of “incitement of insurrection” through his actions on the day of the breach of the US Capitol by a violent mob this week.The draft, obtained by CNN, NBC News and other American media outlets, says Trump “engaged in High Crimes and Misdemeanors by willfully inciting violence against the Government of the United States.”It states that “Incited by President Trump, a mob unlawfully breached the Capitol, injured law enforcement personnel, menaced Members of Congress and the Vice President, interfered with the Joint Session’s solemn constitutional duty to certify the election results, and engaged in violent, deadly, destructive, and seditious acts.”By doing so, the document charges, Trump “gravely endangered” the security of the US, “threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coordinate branch of government.“He thereby betrayed his trust as President, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.”JUST IN: 4-page draft article of impeachment against President Trump that Reps. Raskin, Lieu, Cicilline are planning to introduce Monday: "Incitement of insurrection" pic.twitter.com/6OADfzdQEe — MSNBC (@MSNBC) January 8, 2021-The White House, in its first comments on the matter, said Friday: “As President Trump said yesterday, this is a time for healing and unity as one nation. A politically motivated impeachment against a president with 12 days remaining in his term will only serve to further divide our great country.”House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned earlier that Democrats will launch impeachment proceedings unless Trump leaves willingly, or Vice President Mike Pence invokes the 25th Amendment, where the cabinet removes the president.“If the President does not leave office imminently and willingly, the Congress will proceed with our action,” Pelosi wrote.In other astonishing comments, Pelosi also revealed she had spoken Friday with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley about “preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike.”“The situation of this unhinged President could not be more dangerous, and we must do everything that we can to protect the American people from his unbalanced assault on our country and our democracy,” Pelosi wrote.Meanwhile Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska became the first Republican member of the Senate to call for Trump’s resignation.Murkowski said in a telephone interview Friday: “I want him out. He has caused enough damage… He needs to get out. He needs to do the good thing, but I don’t think he’s capable of doing a good thing.”She also questioned whether she wanted to remain a Republican. “If the Republican Party has become nothing more than the party of Trump, I sincerely question whether this is the party for me,” she said.Democrats in the House of Representatives, who already impeached Trump in a traumatic, partisan vote in 2019, said the unprecedented second impeachment of the president could be ready next week.“We can act very quickly when we want to,” Representative Katherine Clark told CNN.Whether Republican leaders of the Senate would then agree to hold a lightning-fast impeachment trial before the January 20 transition is another matter.Trump would be the only president to be impeached twice. The House impeached him in late 2019, but the Republican-led Senate acquitted him. Removal from office could also prevent Trump from running for president in 2024, or ever holding the presidency again.Trump, meanwhile, announced that he will skip the inauguration of Joe Biden on January 20. “To all of those who have asked, I will not be going,” he tweeted.The statement — while not a surprise from the most divisive president in decades — scuppered any idea that Trump might seek to spend his remaining 12 days in the White House helping his Democratic successor to calm tensions.Not since 1869 has an outgoing US president missed the inauguration of the incoming leader, a ceremony symbolizing the peaceful transfer of power.But two days after Trump incited followers to storm Congress, his presidency is in freefall, with allies walking away and calls for his removal accelerating.Trump, whose incitement of crowds assaulting Congress capped relentless efforts to overturn Biden’s November 3 election win, finally conceded defeat on Thursday and appealed for calm.“A new administration will be inaugurated on January 20. My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power,” Trump said in a short video.However, the evidently reluctant concession, in which Trump failed to congratulate Biden or directly admit defeat, was too little, too late to calm outrage over his role in the Capitol invasion.Five people died in the mayhem, including one woman who was shot dead and a Capitol Police officer who was pronounced dead from his injuries on Thursday. Flags over the Capitol were lowered to half-mast on Friday.Senator Ben Sasse, one Republican who says he will “definitely consider” impeachment, recommended that Trump at minimum step back and let his vice president run the show in the dying days.“I think the less the president does over the next 12 days the better,” he told NPR radio.Education Secretary Betsy DeVos became the second cabinet member to quit the government, telling Trump in a letter Thursday that such “behavior was unconscionable for our country.” Earlier, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao announced she was departing over the “entirely avoidable” violence. A string of lower level officials have also left.According to reports, the only reason the trickle hasn’t turned into a flood is the decision by senior figures to try and maintain stability during the transition to Biden.Trump, however, appears to have lost the grip he once exercised on both the Republican party and his own staff as he rampaged through four years of one of the most turbulent presidencies in US history.Speaking to CNN, retired Marine Corps general John Kelly, who served as Trump’s chief of staff for 18 months, said the cabinet should consider the 25th Amendment but believed the president had already been put into a box.“He can give all the orders he wants but no one is going to break the law,” Kelly said.Biden, who won seven million votes more than Trump, as well as a decisive majority in the vital state-by-state Electoral College, will be sworn in on the Capitol Steps under huge security.And Biden will immediately face extraordinary challenges, starting with his core campaign promise that he can “heal” the nation.The Democrat has been wary of endorsing impeachment.“If we were six months out, we should be doing everything to get him out of office. Impeaching him again, trying to evoke the 25th Amendment, whatever it took,” Biden said Friday. “But I am focused now on us taking control as president and vice president on the 20th and to get our agenda moving as quickly as we can.”Impeachment of the president could present the incoming Democrat with an even more polarized landscape, further complicating the task of reuniting the country.At the same time, the crisis has sparked such revulsion in Congress on both sides of the aisle that Biden may come into office with an unexpectedly bipartisan tailwind.On Thursday, he accused Trump of mounting an “all-out assault on the institutions of our democracy” and called the assault on Congress “one of the darkest days in the history of our nation.”
Analysis-Legal bar may be too high to charge Trump for inciting Washington riot-While president used incendiary rhetoric addressing supporters before storming of US Capitol, prosecutors would have difficult job proving he intended for violence to ensue-By Mark Sherman and Zeke Miller-JAN 9,21-Today, 11:42 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — US President Donald Trump’s top White House lawyer has repeatedly warned the president that he could be held responsible for inciting Wednesday’s riot at the Capitol, but the standard for legal liability is high under court decisions reaching back 50 years.The admonitions from presidential counsel Pat Cipollone were delivered in part to prompt Trump to condemn the violence that was carried out in his name and acknowledge that he will leave office in less than two weeks, according to White House aides. They were not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations and spoke on condition of anonymity.Trump did just that in a video from White House on Thursday. President-elect Joe Biden is to be inaugurated on Jan. 20.But the promise of a wide-ranging, aggressive investigation by federal prosecutors into Wednesday’s events has raised the question of Trump’s role in the mayhem just as he faces the imminent loss of the protection from legal liability that the Oval Office has given him for the past four years.The legal issue is whether Trump or any of the speakers at Wednesday’s rally near the White House that preceded the assault on the Capitol incited violence and whether they knew their words would have that effect.That’s the standard the Supreme Court laid out in its 1969 decision in Brandenburg v. Ohio, which overturned the conviction of a Ku Klux Klan leader."You'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength," says Trump, before demanding that Congress try to overthrow the election results pic.twitter.com/EXvUDv0U3e — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 6, 2021-Trump urged the crowd to march on the Capitol, even promising to go with them, though he didn’t in the end. He said “you’ll never take our country back with weakness.” Trump’s words followed a speech by his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, in which the former New York City mayor said, “Let’s have trial by combat.”Many in the crowd then set out for the Capitol, where a mob broke through police barriers, smashed windows and paraded through the halls, sending lawmakers into hiding-A police officer died from injuries suffered during the siege, and a rioter was shot to death by Capitol Police. Three other people died after “medical emergencies” related to the breach.Former federal prosecutor Randall Eliason wrote in The Washington Post on Friday that Trump’s actions should be investigated.“We want to avoid the risk of criminalizing political differences. But that understanding has nothing to do with what happened at the Capitol. It’s impossible to characterize Trump’s incitement of the riot as having anything to do with the legitimate exercise of his executive power — just the opposite,” Eliason wrote.Trump could be in violation of several federal laws, Eliason wrote, including prohibitions on aiding a rebellion, which has a maximum prison term of 10 years, and conspiring with others to prevent laws from being enforced, which calls for 20 years in prison. The mob that invaded the Capitol interfered with Congress’ counting of the electoral votes and certification of Biden’s victory.Andrew Koppelman, a constitutional law professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, said it would be difficult to prove Trump intended for violence to ensue at the Capitol.“It looks to me like Trump was culpably reckless. But it seems to me the Brandenburg standard requires intention,” Koppleman said.He said Giuliani’s exhortation sounded more like a metaphor than an incitement to violence. “It’s like the word fight. It’s often used as a metaphor. ‘Senator X is a fighter. He will fight for you,’” Koppelman said.That’s where context comes in, said Stanford University law professor Sirin Sinnar.“Officials can always say that they intended peaceful protests, not violence. But the context here is significant, including the fact that the crowd was shouting ‘fight for Trump!’ during his speech and that right-wing militant groups like the Proud Boys in town for the protests were already fighting with police,” Sinnar wrote in an email.In the atmosphere in which Trump was speaking Wednesday, Sinnar said, “The violence was entirely foreseeable.”Federal judges have taken a hard line against the federal anti-riot law and its speech restrictions that prosecutors have tried to use in recent years. The federal appeals court in Virginia last year narrowed the Anti-Riot Act, with a maximum prison term of five years, because it swept up constitutionally protected speech. The court found that invalid parts of the law that encompassed speech tending to “encourage” or “promote” a riot, as well as speech “urging” others to riot or involving mere advocacy of violence.The same court upheld the convictions of two members of a white supremacist group who admitted they punched and kicked counter-demonstrators during the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.In 2019, a federal trial judge in California struck down the entire anti-riot law, enacted in 1968, dismissing charges against members of the white supremacist Rise Above Movement. The Justice Department has appealed that ruling.
FBI not investigating anyone for incitement or insurrection-Police, FBI carry out widespread arrests after storming of US Capitol-Those facing federal charges include West Virginia lawmaker, suspect who constructed bombs made to act like ‘homemade napalm’ and man who broke into Pelosi’s office-By TOI staff and Agencies-JAN 9,21-Today, 11:30 pm
The US Justice Department announced Friday that it has indicted 15 people involved in the assault on Congress, including one man accused of possessing bombs made to act like “homemade napalm.”The department said it had arrested several suspects, including Richard Barnett, a supporter of US President Donald Trump who invaded the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and another man found with 11 styrofoam-enhanced Molotov cocktails in his truck.Others whose charges were unsealed include a man alleged to have entered the US Capitol with a loaded handgun, another who is accused of punching an officer, and a West Virginia state legislator who took part in storming the Congress, said Ken Cole, a federal prosecutor with the Washington US attorney’s office.Cole said that not all the charges over Wednesday’s violence had been unsealed and that more were in the pipeline as the FBI investigates.“This investigation has the highest priority,” he said, with “hundreds” of Justice Department investigators working the case.More charges and arrests were expected.Dozens of people have already been arrested and charged by local Washington police, but the charges announced by Cole Friday were on the federal level, and potentially carry heftier punishment.But he said the FBI was not investigating anyone on possible “incitement” or “insurrection” charges.Some people have called for Trump, his attorney Rudy Giuliani and others to be charged with incitement for openly encouraging the president’s supporters to take action just hours before the mob stormed the Capitol.-Investigating Trump-However, on Thursday, the top federal prosecutor for the District of Columbia, acting US Attorney Michael Sherwin indicated that Trump could face charges of inciting the riot.“We are looking at all actors here, not only the people that went into the building, but . . . were there others that maybe assisted or facilitated or played some ancillary role in this. We will look at every actor and all criminal charges,” he said, according to the Washington Post.Asked if that included Trump, he replied: “We are looking at all actors here, and anyone that had a role, if the evidence fits the element of a crime, they’re going to be charged.”Sherwin also said investigators were trying to determine if national security had been compromised with the theft of documents and computers from the ransacked lawmakers’ offices.He said an investigation could take “several days to flesh out exactly what happened, what was stolen, what wasn’t.”Trump’s top White House lawyer has repeatedly warned the president that he could be held responsible for inciting Wednesday’s riot at the Capitol, officials said.The admonitions from presidential counsel Pat Cipollone were delivered in part to prompt Trump to condemn the violence that was carried out in his name and acknowledge that he will leave office in less than two weeks, according to White House aides. They were not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations and spoke on condition of anonymity.Trump urged the crowd to march on the Capitol, even promising to go with them, though he didn’t in the end. He said “you’ll never take our country back with weakness.” Trump’s words followed a speech by his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, in which the former New York City mayor said, “Let’s have trial by combat.”Many in the crowd then set out for the Capitol, where a mob broke through police barriers, smashed windows and paraded through the halls, sending lawmakers into hiding.-Homicide charges for killing officer-A police officer died from injuries suffered during the siege, and a rioter was shot to death by Capitol Police. Three other people died after “medical emergencies” related to the breach.The US Capitol Police said in a statement that Officer Brian D. Sicknick was injured “while physically engaging with protesters” during the Wednesday riot. He is the fifth person to die because of the Capitol protest and violence.During the struggle at the Capitol, Sicknick, 42, was hit in the head with a fire extinguisher, two law enforcement officials said. The officials could not discuss the ongoing investigation publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.Reports said Federal prosecutors had opened a homicide investigation into his death.Lawmaker charged-Among those facing charges is West Virginia state lawmaker Derrick Evans accused of entering a restricted area of the US Capitol after he livestreamed himself rushing into the building with a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters.His lawyer, John Bryan, said he hadn’t seen the complaint against Evans and couldn’t comment. He did not say if Evans had been taken into custody, but television station WSAZ posted a video on Twitter showing FBI agents escorting the handcuffed lawmaker from a home. #BREAKING WV Delegate Derrick Evans has been taken into federal custody.He’s charged after allegedly entering a restricted area of the US Capitol with rioters Wednesday.A woman saying he was his grandmother came out telling us to leave as he was put in a car. #WSAZ pic.twitter.com/wK2RqFcaF7— Chad Hedrick (@WSAZChadHedrick) January 8, 2021-“He’s a fine man. And thank you, Mr. Trump, for inviting a riot at the White House,” a woman identifying herself as Evans’ grandmother told station reporters as her grandson was being taken into custody.Legislators from at least seven other states traveled to Washington, D.C., to back Trump and demonstrate against the counting of electoral votes confirming Democrat Joe Biden’s victory. It’s unknown if any other elected official joined the attack on the Capitol.A growing number of Republicans and Democrats said they want to expel Evans from the legislature if he does not resign. Bryan said late Thursday that the delegate did not commit a crime and doesn’t plan to resign.No one in the office of West Virginia Republican House leader Roger Hanshaw responded to an email requesting comment.In his now-deleted video, widely shared online, Evans is clamoring inside a jampacked Capitol building doorway, trying with others to push his way inside. He hollers along with other Trump loyalists and fist-bumps a law enforcement officer who let them in.Evans’ lawyer has said he was acting as an amateur journalist recording the day’s events and that he was not involved in violence.After pushing into the building, video shows Evans milling around the Capitol Rotunda, where historic paintings depict the republic’s founding, and imploring others to not vandalize artwork and busts. Some of the pieces were later vandalized.“Our house!” Evans yells inside Capitol halls. “I don’t know where we’re going. I’m following the crowd.”
