Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, chief legal analyst Dan Abrams and contributor Kate Shaw discuss the impending second impeachment of the president.
Amanda Gorman will make history Wednesday as the youngest poet in recent history to read a poem at a presidential inauguration. Gorman, 22, will read her own poem at the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, according to The Associated Press. The Los Angeles native told NPR she finished writing the poem, titled "The Hill We Climb," on the night of Jan. 6, hours after rioters took part in a siege on Capitol Hill.
Former California Sen. Kamala Harris is making history Wednesday as the first woman and first woman of color to serve as vice president. A former prosecutor and ground-breaking attorney general in California, Harris broke barriers throughout her career. One of the factors that drew Joe Biden to her as a running mate was her strong friendship with his late son Beau.
Former Vice President Joe Biden is set to make history on Wednesday as the 46th president of the United States, taking over from Donald Trump after a tumultuous four years. Biden comes into office during an uncertain time for the country on many fronts -- a raging coronavirus pandemic, months of protests over racial injustice and a bitterly fought election that ended in the siege of the U.S. Capitol just days ago. Biden will be the first president in more than a century not to be greeted by the outgoing president -- Donald Trump is set to depart to his residence in Florida earlier in the day.
In the waning hours of his time in office, President Donald Trump late Tuesday issued a final batch of pardons and commutations to a group that included former White House strategist Steve Bannon and two other longtime political allies, Elliott Broidy and Paul Erickson, in a move that will further solidify Trump's legacy of using his sweeping presidential powers to benefit his inner circle. The latest batch of names, released by the White House on Trump's final night as president, granted 73 pardons and commuted all or part of the sentence of 70 additional individuals, after Trump had already issued several dozen such directives in recent months.
To say this is an exponentially tough time for Black people in America would be an understatement -- and that's why protecting the mental health of this community is vital. The deaths of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd and now, Jacob Blake, among countless lives lost at the hands of police brutality -- in addition to simultaneously experiencing a disproportionate rate of deaths from COVID-19 -- have left many people of color fighting through psychological warfare. "Another viral video surfaced the internet last night of an unarmed Black man named Jacob Blake being shot multiple times in the back by police officers of Kenosha, Wisconsin," @r29unbothered wrote in a post.
Incoming First Lady Jill Biden will make history as the country's first first lady to hold a paid job outside the White House. Biden -- who worked full-time as a community college English professor during her eight years as second lady -- has said she plans to continue teaching during her time in the White House.
With President Donald Trump set to leave the White House in less than a day, the fired ex-director of the Department of Homeland Security's cybersecurity agency expressed concern for the lasting impacts of the disinformation spread by the outgoing president and called for consequences following the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Christopher Krebs, a longtime Republican and former head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, was fired by Trump over Twitter on Nov. 17.
An abiding sense of loyalty to the fringe online conspiracy movement known as QAnon is emerging as a common thread among scores of the men and women from around the country arrested for their participation in the deadly U.S. Capitol insurrection, court records reveal. The FBI first labeled QAnon and its fluid online community of supporters as a "dangerous extremist group" in August 2019, and over the past two weeks it has featured prominently in criminal indictments filed against many of those alleged to have participated in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, including a number accused of egregious crimes. Among them is Douglas Jensen, the bearded man seen in a viral video wearing a distinctive "Q" T-shirt, menacing a lone black U.S. Capitol Police officer as he led rioters through the halls and pushed the mob deeper into the Capitol building.
It's January now, but the problems of 2020 have followed Melanie Adams into the new year. Last March, Adams was working in the only grocery store in Missouri Valley, Iowa. A town with fewer than 3,000 people, Adams, 28, said it was a place where "you know everybody, and everybody knows you."
Lawmakers evaluated Alejandro Mayorkas to lead the Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday and grilled the hopeful future secretary on a range of issues focused on immigration enforcement and his time at the highest ranks of the department in 2015. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, asked about the caravan of migrants reportedly heading north from the southern border of Guatemala. In 2019, immigration authorities at the border were overwhelmed by an influx of migrant families fleeing dangerous conditions of Central America's Northern Triangle -- Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
Federal authorities are continuing to charge rioters who took part in the siege on Capitol Hill. The Justice Department has filed its first conspiracy charges from the Capitol riot against a Virginia man who they allege was an apparent leader of a group of militia members who were part of the mob that stormed the building. Thomas Edward Caldwell is identified in an FBI affidavit as a member of the Oath Keepers.
A dozen Army National Guard members have been removed from the inauguration security mission, including two who were sent home after vetting for extremist links found an "inappropriate" text and comment, the Pentagon said oTuesday. Each of the 25,000 National Guardsmen now in Washington assisting with security at Wednesday's presidential inauguration is being vetted by the FBI. Each of the dozen Guard members has been sent back to his or her home state for later investigation either by their chain of command or law enforcement, officials said.
Janet Yellen, President-elect Joe Biden's history-making pick for treasury secretary, stressed the need for "big" relief efforts amid the COVID-19-induced recession during her confirmation hearing Tuesday before the Senate Finance Committee. Yellen, 74, is the former chair of the Federal Reserve and, if confirmed by the Senate, would become the first woman to lead the Treasury. "When economists look back on the pandemic, I expect they'll conclude that Congress' actions averted a lot of suffering," Yellen, who appeared remotely, said at the hearing.
Outgoing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday placed blame squarely on President Donald Trump for the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, saying he had "provoked" the violent mob of the president's supporters. "The mob was fed lies," McConnell said on the Senate floor Tuesday. McConnell's most scathing rebuke yet of the president comes on Trump's last full day in office and as questions arise whether the Republican leader -- who holds heavy sway with his GOP colleagues -- will vote to find Trump guilty of inciting an insurrection -- and potentially, bring others with him.
Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang, who is running for New York City mayor, appeared Tuesday on "The View" and responded to criticism about a comment he made surrounding his living situation in Manhattan. Like many New Yorkers, Yang, his wife and their two young sons have not remained in the city full-time since the coronavirus pandemic began. In a Jan. 11 interview with the New York Times, Yang detailed his experience balancing working from home at the same time of his children’s virtual schooling while living in America's largest city amid the global pandemic.
An active duty American soldier is in federal custody Tuesday after he allegedly plotted with someone he thought was a member of ISIS to attack a landmark in New York City and fellow troops overseas, according to a law enforcement official. Cole James Bridges, who is stationed at Fort Stewart, is charged with attempting to provide material support to ISIS and attempting to murder U.S. service members. The Ohio native allegedly spoke to an undercover FBI agent when he thought he was planning an ISIS-inspired attack against the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.
The U.S. reached yet another grim milestone Tuesday as the confirmed coronavirus death toll topped 400,000, just one day before President-elect Joe Biden is set to take the oath of office. The 400,000 lives lost is more deaths than the number of U.S. soldiers that died in battle during World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War combined, an analysis of data compiled by the Department of Veterans Affairs shows. The milestone comes just over a month after the country surpassed 300,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths on Dec. 14, and only 17 days since the U.S. hit 350,000 reported deaths on Jan. 2, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.
President-elect Joe Biden's choice to lead the U.S. intelligence community vowed Tuesday to help the FBI uncover any role that foreign nations like Russia may have played in radicalizing the violent mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol two weeks ago, even as she assured lawmakers that politics would have no place in her office. "I've certainly seen Russia's use of active measures and a variety of influence campaigns to exacerbate some of the divisions in this country and to promote extremism," Avril Haines, the nominee to become director of national intelligence who served as a senior national security adviser in the Obama administration, told the Senate Intelligence Committee during her confirmation hearing on Tuesday.
While he admitted to not knowing a thing about the project, count Liam Neeson in if Ewan McGregor needs a hand in the upcoming "Obi-Wan Kenobi" series on Disney+. Neeson played Kenobi's master, Qui-Gon Jinn, in "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace," taking on McGregor's character as his padawan to train in the way of the Jedi. Although his character's physical self met his end at the end of Darth Maul's double-bladed lightsaber, Neeson's voice was heard as Qui-Gon communicated through the Force in the animated "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" and at the climax of "Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker."
With less than 24 hours left in office, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday issued a determination that the Chinese government has committed "genocide" and "crimes against humanity" against Uighurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities. The determination is a final parting shot that will complicate U.S.-Chinese relations long after President Donald Trump and Pompeo leave office -- but one that President-elect Joe Biden's campaign called for months ago. "This genocide is ongoing, and ... we are witnessing the systematic attempt to destroy Uyghurs by the Chinese party-state," Pompeo said in his statement, adding the Chinese government is "engaged in the forced assimilation and eventual erasure of a vulnerable ethnic and religious minority group, even as they simultaneously assert their country as a global leader and attempt to remold the international system in their image."
