US election: Congress will vote today to impeach Trump as YouTube bans him from posting new videos
As Congress prepared to impeach Donald Trump again, YouTube removed the President’s channel for “inciting violence”.
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Google-owned YouTube has temporarily suspended US President Donald Trump’s channel and removed a video for violating its policy against inciting violence.
“In light of concerns about the ongoing potential for violence, we removed new content uploaded to Donald J. Trump’s channel for violating our policies,” YouTube said in a statement.
The channel is now “temporarily prevented from uploading new content for a ‘minimum’ of 7 days,” the statement read.
Facebook last week suspended Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts following the violent invasion of the US Capitol by a mob of his supporters, which temporarily disrupted the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory.
Twitter went a step further by deleting Trump’s account, depriving him of his favourite platform.
Trump also was hit with suspensions by services like Snapchat and Twitch.
PENCE DOESN’T SUPPORT 25TH AMENDMENT
Congress will return Wednesday morning local time to vote on a single article of impeachment accusing Donald Trump of inciting rioters to storm the Capitol last week, leaving five people dead.
It is almost certain to be passed by the Democrat-controlled House after Vice President Mike Pence refused Democrat demands to remove Donald Trump through the 25th amendment.
“In the midst of a global pandemic, economic hardship for millions of Americans and the tragic events of January 6th now is the time for us to come together, now is the time for us to heal,” Mr Pence wrote in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“I urge you and every member of Congress to avoid actions that would further divide and inflame the passions of the moment.”
Mr Trump continued to insist he had done nothing wrong in urging his supporters to march on the US Capitol last week, saying the impeachment was a “continuation of the greatest and most vicious witch hunt in the history of our country”.
“It is causing tremendous anger and division and pain — far greater than most people will ever understand — which is very dangerous for the USA, especially at this very tender time,” Mr Trump said.
He also defended his comments last week at a “Stop the Steal” rally ahead of the Capitol siege that caused at least five deaths, including that of a police officer beaten to death with a fire extinguisher.
“They’ve analysed my speech and my words and my final paragraph, my final sentence. And everybody to the tee thought it was totally appropriate,” Mr Trump said.
He also said the 25th Amendment was of “zero risk” to him.
“The 25th amendment is of zero risk to me, but will come back to haunt Joe Biden and the Biden administration. As the expression goes, be careful what you wish for,” Mr Trump said.
At least five House Republicans are expected to support the move to impeach Mr Trump a second time push just days before his term is to end on January 20, according to Fox News.
After the House votes on the single article of impeachment charging Mr Trump with “incitement of insurrection”, a two-thirds verdict would be needed to find him guilty in a Senate trial.
At least 17 Republicans would need to support a guilty verdict against their party’s President for the trial to succeed.
Senate Majority Leader Republican Mitch McConnell indicated he would support the impeachment after Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney signalled that a second trial would potentially have more success than last year’s attempt.
“When the president incites an attack against Congress, there must be a meaningful consequence,” Sen Romney said.
Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and third ranking Republican in the House, said she would vote to impeach.
She labelled last week’s breach of the Capitol by pro-Trump rioters as an “insurrection that caused injury, death and destruction in the most sacred space in our Republic”.
“Much more will become clear in coming days and weeks, but what we know now is enough. The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack,” she said.
“Everything that followed was his doing. None of this would have happened without the President. There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.”
Illinois congressman Adam Kinzinger and John Katko of New York rounded out the House Republicans who have publicly said they would support the Democrat-led impeachment, while others have called on Mr Trump to resign.
But freshman Republican Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne from Texas said impeachment was “political theatre ... a complete waste of time”.
“I think about all the hours, the millions of dollars we’ve wasted over the past four years impeaching this President, and next week we’re going to be entering a new phase with a totally new administration and a brand new president,” she said.
“We have families who can’t afford to put food on the table or pay insurance and we’re going to keep talking about impeaching a president who is going to be gone in seven days. This is doing nothing to empower families, it is doing everything to further divide this country and this congress.”
If the House again votes to impeach Mr Trump he will be the only president to face the process twice. Last January he was the third president to face an impeachment trial after Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson.
‘I WILL VOTE TO IMPEACH’
Republican leader Mitch McConnell believes it will be easier to remove Donald Trump from his party if the president is impeached.
Senator McConnell has indicated that he supports Democrat moves to impeach Mr Trump for “incitement of insurrection” following the Capitol riots.
The New York Times reported that his view emerged shortly before Senior Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney announced that she planned to vote to impeach the President after the ransacking of the US Capitol by his supporters.
IMPEACHMENT ‘RIDICULOUS’: TRUMP
Donald Trump lashed out at the “ridiculous” impeachment bid against him and insisted his speech to a mob of his fans prior to the Capitol riot was “totally appropriate”.
He warned that the impeachment move, which was being debated by Congress Tuesday local time, would cause “tremendous anger” among his supporters.
In his first public comments since his humiliating suspension from social media following last week’s deadly Capitol siege, Mr Trump said Democrats were engaged in a “continuation of the greatest witch-hunt in the history of politics”.
Speaking briefly to reporters as he left the White House ahead of an appearance in Texas to promote his border wall achievements, he also said: “We want no violence”.
It also comes in his final days as the House is preparing to vote on the 25th Amendment.
“I think it’s causing tremendous anger,” Mr Trump said.
The president also described the second impeachment attempt against him as “absolutely ridiculous.”
He lashed “big tech’ after Facebook and Twitter banned him for using “inciteful” language before the Capitol riots.
“They’ve analysed my speech and my words and my final paragraph, my final sentence. And everybody to the tee thought it was totally appropriate,” Mr Trump said.
“I think Big Tech has made a terrible mistake and very, very bad for our country. And that’s leading others to do the same thing. And it causes a lot of problems and a lot of danger. Big mistake. They shouldn’t be doing it.”
Mr Trump said he did not fear the 25th Amendment, which dictates that the Vice President take over if the President is deemed unfit to hold office. But he said Joe Biden should be worried.
Mr Trump also went on to warn against his impeachment, claiming “it’s causing tremendous anger and division and pain far greater than most people will ever understand, which is very dangerous for the USA, especially at this very tender time.”
Facebook urged staffers not to sport the company’s brand in public following its crackdown on President Trump and his supporters.
The social media giant’s security team issued an internal memo Monday telling staffers to avoid wearing or carrying branded gear out of apparent concern for their safety, the New York Post reported.
“In light of recent events, and to err on the side of caution, global security is encouraging everyone to avoid wearing or carrying Facebook-branded items at this time,” read the memo, which came four days after Facebook indefinitely banned Trump from posting.
Earlier, the FBI warned that if Mr Pence had agreed to invoke the 25th Amendment it could “cause a huge uprising” as “armed protests are planned before inauguration”.
In other developments, police have revealed a plot to “assassinate politicians who won’t overturn the election”.
Democrats were informed about three potential demonstrations that are planned in the coming days.
Capitol Police reportedly told House Democrats that they were closely monitoring the incidents, which could be serious threats to members of Congress, according to The Sun.
The first is the “largest armed protest ever to take place on American soil”.
Another is in honour of Ashli Babbitt, who was shot by police while trying to climb into the Speaker’s Lobby last week.
The final plot would involve protesters creating a border around the Capitol, the White House and the Supreme Court.
Congressmen were told that supporters were encircling the White House, so that no one could harm Mr Trump and the Supreme Court to close the courts.
However, the plan to enclose the Capitol includes ideas to assassinate Democrats and Republicans who did not support Trump’s effort to change the results of the election, Axios reported.
The Capitol Police have since created a new perimeter with fencing and razor wire, with the National Guard standing by.
TMZ reported that police told House members there were “seven main groups of extremists” heading to DC for the demonstrations – and they have all pledged allegiance to Donald Trump.
TRUMP DECLARES 13-DAY EMERGENCY IN DC AFTER PENCE REUNION
Donald Trump has declared a 13-day “emergency” in Washington DC “due to the emergency conditions resulting from the 59th Presidential Inauguration”, the White House has said in a statement.
The President has “ordered Federal assistance to supplement the District’s response efforts” until January 24 amid fears of more “armed protesters” converging in Washington and across the United States next week.
“The President’s action authorises the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to co-ordinate all disaster relief efforts,” the statement says.
It comes as Mr Trump and his deputy Mike Pence met Monday evening local time in the Oval Office, a senior administration official said, their first encounter since last week’s assault on the US Capitol.
“The two had a good conversation,” the official said of the meeting.
According to the official, Trump has no intention of resigning his office before his term comes to an end on January 20.
Trump and Pence “reiterated that those who broke the law and stormed the Capitol last week do not represent the America first movement backed by 75 million Americans,” the official said.
The pair “pledged to continue the work on behalf of the country for the remainder of their term,” they added.
In other developments Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, announced he was resigning as worries rose over more violence during President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration next week.
Wolf’s department is in charge of security for the January 20 ceremony.
Wolf, long a close ally of Trump, criticised the attack the following day as “tragic and sickening.”
“While I have consistently condemned political violence on both sides of the aisle, specifically violence directed at law enforcement, we now see some supporters of the president using violence as a means to achieve political ends,” he said.
Wolf, whose department oversees numerous federal law enforcement bodies including the Secret Service, said just last week that he was staying in his position until the end of Trump’s administration on January 20.
Just after he criticised the storming of Congress, the White House announced that Wolf’s formal nomination to Congress as DHS secretary had been withdrawn.
It was not clear whether that was a procedural issue or related to his criticism of the pro-Trump protests.
On January 5, Wolf heralded in a statement the completion of 450 miles (724 kilometres) of wall under Trump’s order.
“President Trump took office with the promise to build the wall and secure our southern border a promise he has kept,” he said.
FBI WARNS OF MORE ‘ARMED PROTESTS’
The FBI has warned that more “armed protests” are being planned for Washington DC and in 50 US state capital cities in the count down to the inauguration.
An identified armed group has said it plans to travel to Washington on January 16 and vowed an uprising if attempts are made to remove Donald Trump from office, according to an FBI bulletin obtained by America’s ABC News
The memo raised alarm about a group calling for the “storming” of state, local, and federal government administrative buildings and courthouses should President Trump be removed before inauguration.
The US National Parks Service has closed public access to one of DC’s most iconic sights — the Washington Monument – as preparations for the inauguration continue.
The National Parks service said it had closed the monument because of threats of violence until at least January 24.
CAPITOL POLICE OFFICERS SUSPENDED, OTHERS UNDER INVESTIGATION
Two US Capitol police officers have been suspended for their behaviour in last week’s storming of the Capitol Building and at least 10 more are under investigation, according to Democratic Congressman Tim Ryan.
Mr Ryan said one had been suspended for taking a selfie with members of the mob. The other was seen wearing a Make America Great Again cap and directed people inside the building.
He said another 10-15 officers were being investigation but did not have further details.
“The main point is the Capitol police are looking at everybody involved that could have potentially facilitated at a big level or a small level,” Mr Ryan said.
PELOSI WANTS TO STOP TRUMP RUNNING FOR THE WHITE HOUSE AGAIN
Pelosi admitted in a 60 Minutes interview that a major reason for moving towards a second impeachment was to try and bar Trump from being able to run again, potentially in 2024.
“This President is guilty of inciting insurrection,” Ms Pelosi said, describing Mr Trump as being a “deranged, unhinged, dangerous President of the United States”.
Republican leader Mitch McConnell said the Senate would not consider the impeachment case until after the inauguration, while senior Democrat, House whip Jim Clyburn, said it was possible the matter would not be sent to the Senate until after Mr Biden’s first 100 days in office.
“Let’s give President-elect Biden the 100 days he needs to get his agenda off and running,” Mr Clyburn said.
“And maybe we will send the articles some time after that.
“We will take the vote that we should take in the House. And Nancy Pelosi will make the determination as to when is the best time to get that vote and get the managers appointed and move that legislation over to the Senate.”
MELANIA CONDEMNS ‘VIOLENT’ TRUMP SUPPORTERS
Breaking her silence on the chaos gripping the US, First Lady Melania Trump has condemned a group of her husband’s supporters who stormed the Capitol building, saying she was “disappointed and disheartened” by the violence.
She also slapped down her own critics who have questioned her whereabouts during the riots after she was nowhere to be seen during the chaos that resulted in the deaths of at least five people.
“I am disappointed and disheartened with what happened last week,” Mrs Trump said in a 600-word statement released by the White House.
“I find it shameful that surrounding these tragic events there has been salacious gossip, unwarranted personal attacks, and false misleading accusations on me – from people who are looking to be relevant and have an agenda.
“This time is solely about healing our country and its citizens. It should not be used for personal gain.”
She went on to confirm that she condemns the violence, dubbing it “never acceptable.”
“Our Nation must heal in a civil manner. Make no mistake about it, I absolutely condemn the violence that has occurred on our Nation’s Capitol. Violence is never acceptable.”
Five people, including a US Capitol Police officer and a pro-Trump Air Force veteran, died in the riots.
“I pray for their families comfort and strength during this difficult time,” the First Lady said.
In her statement, she said it “has been the honour of my lifetime to serve as your first lady.”
“I want to thank the millions of Americans who supported my husband and me over the past 4 years and shown the incredible impact of the American spirit,” she said.
“I am grateful to you all for letting me serve you on platforms which are dear to me.”
Mrs Trump’s top aide, Stephanie Grisham, resigned last week.
The first lady did not address her husband’s role in inciting the mob that attacked the Capitol.
THOUSANDS OF TROOPS HEADING FOR DC
More than 15,000 National Guard troops from a dozen states are on their way to DC as warnings ramp up of potential violence there before Joe Biden’s inauguration.
The beefed up security plans follow comments from the Department of Defence that it was aware of “further possible threats posed by would-be terrorists in the days up to and including Inauguration Day”, Congressman Jason Crow said.
The Department of Homeland Security is working with the Defence Department, local DC authorities and inauguration officials to hone the law enforcement response, including putting up non-scalable fencing and security checkpoints around Capitol Hill.
“Now that it happened people will take it much more seriously,” a senior DHS official told CNN. “Now, the planners, they are all going to take it much more seriously.”
GAB BENEFITS FROM TRUMP TWITTER BAN
Social network Gab is benefiting from the suspension of several Twitter accounts – including Donald Trump’s – and the taking offline of rival Parler, its CEO said Monday.
Between 600,000 and 700,000 internet users are registering on the platform every day, Andrew Torba, who is also a co-founder, said in a video posted on Twitter.
Gab registered more than 40 million unique visitors over the past week, Torba added, quadruple the site’s total traffic in December, according to analysis company SimilarWeb.
“This is our moment to shine,” Torba said in another video posted on Friday.
The conservative network Parler was forced offline early Monday after Amazon warned the company would lose access to its servers for its failure to properly police violent content.
Parler then sued Amazon. Google and Apple have also removed it from their app download platforms.
Torba said he was in contact with Trump’s team about opening a real account on Gab, which the platform has already prepared.
Like Parler, Gab has established itself as a home for Trump supporters and far-right voters, even though it rejects any political label and claims it is just a place for free speech.
The platform entered the public consciousness after extremist Robert Bowers posted several hate messages on it before attacking a synagogue in Pittsburgh in October 2018, killing 11 people.
GoDaddy.com, which had previously hosted Gab, denied it access to its servers but the platform took only a week to get back online.
According to Torba, the platform is no longer at risk of suspension because it independently hosts its own servers.
“We’re going to save our country, folks, and Gab is going to help do that by saving free speech on the internet,” Torba said.
According to The New York Times, the rioters who stormed the Capitol last week galvanised each other on Gab.
“They’re trying to frame Gab as a place where violence is organised which is absolutely not true, we have zero tolerance for the promotion of violence,” said Torba.
“There’s no place for illegal activity on Gab.”
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