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Jan 13, 2021: House Votes On Trump Impeachment
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TODAY'S HEADLINES:

For the second time, and with one week until Joe Biden’s inauguration as president, Congress is impeaching Donald Trump. Security is ramping up and members of Congress are concerned about further assaults on the government.

Meanwhile, it turns out the Federal Bureau of Investigation did produce a report that a violent mob was bound for the Capitol last week. But it remains unclear why law enforcement acted like it was no big deal.

And lastly, the federal government issued new guidelines in hopes of dispensing the coronavirus vaccine faster. Now everyone over sixty five should be eligible for a shot.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

The US House of Representatives is set to vote this morning on articles of impeachment against Donald Trump. Several top House Republicans have said they will vote to impeach. Last night, House Democrats passed a resolution calling on Vice President Mike Pence to remove Trump using the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. However, in a letter Pence confirmed he would not cooperate in the effort. The White House does not expect to mount a forceful impeachment defense, Politico reports, knowing that Trump is unlikely to be convicted in the Senate. But just how unlikely remains a moving target. According to the New York Times, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is pleased that Democrats are impeaching Trump, believing that it will make it easier to purge him from the Republican party.

Trump spoke yesterday in Alamo, Texas, where he visited the border wall. Earlier in the day he disclaimed all responsibility for last week’s mob and said efforts to remove him from office were QUOTE causing tremendous anger ENDQUOTE. In other words: you made us do it.

The Huffington Post reports that Capitol Police briefed Democrats on Monday night about three more potentially gruesome demonstrations planned in the coming days. The first is being billed as the largest armed protest ever to take place on American soil. Another is a protest in honor of Ashli Babbitt, the woman killed while trying to climb into the Speaker’s Lobby during last Wednesday’s siege of the Capitol. And another demonstration, by far the

most concerning to members of Congress, would involve insurrectionists forming a perimeter around the Capitol, the White House and the Supreme Court. The mob would then block Democrats from entering the Capitol – perhaps even killing them – so that Republicans could take control of the government. These threats may not materialize. But according to the Associated Press, fifteen thousand National Guard members are deploying to Washington, DC, to help provide security. Military officials are working with the Secret Service to determine which Guard members may need additional background screening. The Joint Chiefs of Staff issued a memo to the entire US military yesterday condemning the Capitol riot and confirming Joe Biden will become commander in chief of the armed forces on January 20th. Meanwhile, the FBI is warning about armed protests at all fifty state capitols leading up to Biden’s inauguration. It’s tense, folks. Tense!

FBI Warned Of Violence

We’re learning more about intelligence failures at the Capitol. A day before rioters stormed Congress, an FBI office in Virginia issued an explicit internal warning that extremists were preparing to travel to Washington to commit violence and QUOTE war ENDQUOTE. This news comes from an internal document reviewed by The Washington Post. It contradicts a senior official’s declaration the bureau had no intelligence indicating anyone at last week’s pro-Trump protest planned to do harm.

The document says FBI Norfolk received information about calls for violence to begin on January 6 in Washington, DC. It cites an online thread that discussed specific calls for violence, including this one: QUOTE Be ready to fight. Congress needs to hear glass breaking, doors being kicked in, and blood from their BLM and Pantifa slave soldiers being spilled. Get violent. Stop calling this a march, or rally, or a protest. Go there ready for war. We get our President or we die. Nothing else will achieve this goal ENDQUOTE.

An FBI official familiar with the document told the Post that within forty-five minutes of learning about the alarming online conversation, the Norfolk FBI office wrote the report and shared it with others within the bureau. It was not immediately clear how many law enforcement agencies outside the FBI were told. Multiple law enforcement officials have said privately in recent days that the level of violence exhibited at the Capitol has led to difficult discussions within the FBI and other agencies about race and terrorism. There is concern that

investigators failed to register the degree of danger because the overwhelming majority of the participants at the rally were white conservatives fiercely loyal to Donald Trump. Go figure.

Government Expands Vaccine Eligibility

Health authorities are changing tack on the coronavirus. Barely a month into a mass vaccination campaign, the Associated Press reports, the Trump administration unexpectedly shifted gears yesterday to speed the delivery of shots. Health and Human Services Alex Azar has announced two major changes. First, the government will no longer hold back required second doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, practically doubling supply. Second, states should immediately start vaccinating other groups lower down the priority scale, including people age sixty-five and older, and younger people with certain health problems.

Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that scientists are envisioning what a post-vaccine world might look like – and what they see is comforting. The coronavirus is here to stay, but once most adults are immune – following natural infection or vaccination – the virus will be no more of a threat than the common cold. That’s according to a study published in the journal Science yesterday.

The virus is a menace now because it is an unfamiliar pathogen that can overwhelm the adult immune system, which has not been trained to fight it, the Times says. That will no longer be the case once everyone has been exposed to either the virus or vaccine. Children, on the other hand, are constantly challenged by pathogens that are new to their bodies, and that is one reason they are more adept than adults at fending off the coronavirus. Eventually, the study suggests, the virus will be of concern only in children younger than five, subjecting even them to mere sniffles – or no symptoms at all. In other words, the coronavirus will become endemic, a pathogen that circulates at low levels and only rarely causes serious illness.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Sheldon Adelson, a billionaire casino tycoon, newspaper owner, and Republican megadonor, died on Monday in Malibu, California. The cause was complications related to treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, according to the Washington Post. He was eighty- seven.

At least five members of Congress have now tested positive for Covid-19 after sheltering in place with lawmakers who refused to wear masks during the assault on the US Capitol last week. They include Democrat Pramila Jayapal of Washington State, who assailed Republicans for QUOTE creating a superspreader event on top of a domestic terrorist attack ENDQUOTE. Gosh, it’s almost like they’re trying to do harm.

Deutsche Bank, which has been Donald Trump’s primary lender for two decades, has decided not to do business with Trump or his company in the future, according to the New York Times. Trump currently owes Deutsche Bank more than $300 million, which is due in the next few years. Surely he’s good for it.

India’s supreme court has suspended a series of controversial new agriculture laws that had prompted hundreds of thousands of farmers to stage a months-long protest in Delhi, the Guardian reports. Farmers argued that the new laws put them at greater risk of poverty and losing their land to large corporations. Protest gets results!

JAN 13, 2021 - AM QUICKIE

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn