US Capitol police arrest man found with loaded gun, ammo
A man has been arrested after attempting to pass through a police checkpoint in Washington with fake inaugural credentials.
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US Capitol Police have arrested a man as he attempted to pass through a police checkpoint in Washington, DC, with fake inaugural credentials, a loaded handgun and more than 500 rounds of ammunition, according to a police report.
CNN reported that Wesley Allen Beeler pulled his pick-up truck to a police vehicle checkpoint at North Capitol and E Street NE, just north of the Capitol building.
Beeler, from Front Royal, Virginia, presented officers with what was described as an unauthorised inauguration credential.
Police later recovered a Glock semi-automatic handgun, as well as 509 rounds of ammunition, shotgun shells and a magazine for the handgun, according to police report.
Beeler was arrested for possession of an unregistered firearm and possession of unregistered ammunition, among other offences, the report said.
TRUMP HAS LOWEST APPROVAL RATING EVER
Leaving the White House with the lowest approval rating on record for a first-term US president appears to be the latest “first” to be chalked up by Donald Trump.
Hot on the heels of being the first President to be impeached twice, Mr Trump now has the most abysmal public support for any Commander in Chief to leave Washington DC.
A new Quinnipiac University poll finds that President Donald Trump’s approval rating stands at 33 per cent, while his disapproval is at 60 per cent.
An average of recent polls finds Mr Trump with a 38 per cent approval rating and 59 per cent disapproval rating.
The result is that Mr Trump’s final first term approval rating looks to be the lowest on record dating back since scientific polling began, according to CNN.
Even his standing among the once adoring Republican masses has collapsed from 95 per cent support at the election to somewhere in the 75 per cent range since the Capitol riots.
Before Mr Trump, the previous lowest approval rating for a president at the end of his term belonged to Democrat Jimmy Carter. He remains the only president besides Trump to finish his first term with an approval rating below 50 per cent.
Meanwhile, as 25,000 troops swarmed Washington DC to combat expected violence in the lead-in to Joe Biden’s January 20 Inauguration, Mr Trump is plotting revenge against the 10 Republican Congressmen who voted in the House with Nancy Pelosi’s Democrats to impeach him for a second time.
Angry Republicans are already working out how to exact punishment against Liz Cheney, a senior conservative Congressman who led the public push for the party to vote with the Democrats to impeach.
The President reportedly was briefed by aides as he plans political punishment for the Republicans members who sided with the Democrats.
The 10 Republicans who voted to impeach him was the most ever to cross a party line on such a vote and Trump is now considering how to get back at them.
The breakaway group voted to impeach him on a single count of inciting an insurrection as critics accuse him to setting the mob on the Capitol during the process to certify election votes on January 6.
Mr Trump summoned his aides to brief him on the ten rebels as he demanded to know “whether he had ever done anything for them”.
He also inquired who might run against them when they face re-election in two years time as he may seek to have them deselected.
After losing control of the House, the Senate and the White House, the Republicans are facing the task of rebuilding going into the 2022 mid-terms and the 2024 election, The Sun reported.
It is likely there will be a split between the more traditional groups and pro-Trump loyalists, with the former reality TV star and his family’s future in the party likely to be determined in the coming months.
At least 17 Republicans senators would have to turn against Trump to convict him in an impeachment trial, and its been suggested as many as 20 are open to the idea.
The Senate could also bar Trump from ever holding public office again, which may temper his influence within the GOP.
Mr Trump, however, does not intend on leaving the White House quietly on 20 January.
He is set to leave Washington DC on the morning of Joe Biden’s inauguration and host a farewell event “with a 21-gun salute” at Joint Base Andrews. The president is planning to leave the White House on January 20, after pondering leaving one day earlier, a source told Reuters.
Mr Trump, who had already announced plans to dodge President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, is instead planning an event at the base outside Washington where Air Force One is headquartered.
Part of the events may include a military band, 21-gun salute, red carpet, and colour guard, the Associated Press reported.
Officials are still considering the elaborate state visit-style send off, according to the AP. He will then fly on to Palm Beach, Florida, to begin his post-presidency at his Mar-a-Lago club.
Mr Trump will be leaving as President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration ceremony takes place.
RIOTS ‘WERE FACEBOOK’S FAULT’
Outspoken firebrand left-winger Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - best known as AOC - has pulled no punches in laying much of the blame for the Capitol riots a the feet of Feacbook and its chief, Mark Zuckerberg.
In doing so, she said that Congress’ response should focus on holding Big Tech accountable rather than ramping up domestic surveillance.
“He is part of this problem,” Ocasio-Cortez said, referring to CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “And Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook bear partial responsibility for Wednesday’s events, period.”
Ocasio-Cortez, who spoke during a video town hall meeting, went on to argue that Facebook was “trying to do as much damage control as possible, but they knew. Not only did they know but they allowed it.”
As has become customary, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg came out once again to try to clean up the social media company’s mess, suggesting that other platforms were to blame.
“Our enforcement’s never perfect, so I’m sure there were still things on Facebook,” Sandberg said.
“I think these events were largely organised on platforms that don’t have our abilities to stop hate, and don’t have our standards and don’t have our transparency.”
However, technology experts have said that a growing amount of evidence indicates at least some of the planning for the riots took place on Facebook.
AOC argued that white supremacists had benefited from a lack of accountability for social media giants and Trump’s decision to weaken programs targeting their operations.
As a member of the House Oversight and Finance Committees, she will likely continue to play a role in pressing big tech for answers on the impact of their platforms on terrorist networks, Fox News reported.
During her town hall, she referred viewers to a testy exchange the two had during a financial services hearing last year.
“We knew this was a problem,” AOC said. “We knew this so far out that pre-COVID, I asked him (Zuckerberg) specifically about election disinformation and its ties on Facebook to white supremacist organisations, and the ties that ‘fact-checking organisations’ had to other White supremacist outlets.
“And he wouldn’t answer. So, there’s a very clear link here.”
Shortly after the riots, Zuckerberg announced he was suspending Mr Trump’s ability to post on his account.
In a statement, the social media giant defended its record of enforcement actions against a variety of groups.
“In recent days and weeks, we have also taken enforcement action consistent with our policy banning militarised social movements like the Oathkeepers and the violence-inducing conspiracy theory QAnon,” Facebook executives said.
“We’ve also continued to enforce our ban on hate groups including the Proud Boys and many others. We’ve already removed over 600 militarised social movements from our platform.”
AMERICANS RAISE DOUBTS OVER KAMALA HARRIS
Debate over the credentials of vice-president-elect Kamala Harris has become the latest issue to divide America.
Just days out from the inauguration of the new US President Joe Biden and Harris on January 20, Americans are starkly divided, again, over their new VP.
Harris will serve under career politician Biden, who at 78 is the oldest ever incoming president and is first in the line of succession.
But according to a poll by nonpartisan think tank the Pew Research Center, just 50 per cent of Americans say she is qualified for the presidency, while 47 per cent say she is not.
”About eight-in-ten Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (82 per cent) say Harris is qualified for the presidency. By contrast, just 15 per cent of Republicans and Republican leaners say Harris is qualified; 83 per cent say she is not qualified,” the study read.
The Biden presidency will begin with optimism as 59 per cent of those surveyed “approve of the job he has done so far in explaining his policies and plans for the future to the American people”.
However only 29 per cent of respondents were willing to say that Biden will be successful in office.
Earlier this week, Harris was at the centre of more controversy over a Vogue cover photo in which she was dressed casually, with critics saying it diminishes her achievements.
RIOTERS ‘INTENDED TO HARM ELECTED OFFICIALS’
The rioters who stormed Capitol Hill did not intend peaceful protest, it has been contended by Federal prosecutors.
In a new court filing, prosecutors say the rioters who seized the Capitol building last week intended to “capture and assassinate elected officials,” according to a report in CNN.
The suggestion was included in a memo referring in particular to Jacob Anthony Chansley, referred to also as the ‘QAnon shaman’ because of his fringe conspiracy beliefs, animal headdress, and face paint, who rallied rioters within the building using a bullhorn.
“Strong evidence, including Chansley’s own words and actions at the Capitol, supports that the intent of the Capitol rioters was to capture and assassinate elected officials in the United States government,” prosecutors wrote.
In a separate case, prosecutors in a Texas court alleged that a former Air Force veteran who carried plastic zip-tie restraints intended to use them on politicians and take them as hostages.
“He means to take hostages. He means to kidnap, restrain, perhaps try, perhaps execute members of the U.S. government,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Weimer said of retired Lt. Colonel Larry Rendall Brock Jr.
Brock was arrested in Texas after being photographed on the Senate floor during the deadly riot wearing a helmet and heavy vest and carrying plastic zip-tie handcuffs. The 53-year-old is charged with knowingly entering a restricted building without lawful authority, and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
The FBI is currently investigating more than 270 suspects related to the riots, with 100 people taken into custody and 37 people investigated in the killing of a Capitol police officer who was struck with a fire extinguisher during the rampage.
TWITTER CHIEF’S CONCERN OVER TRUMP BAN
It comes as Twitter chief Jack Dorsey backed the social media platform’s ban of US President Donald Trump, but said it sets a “dangerous” precedent and represents a failure to promote healthy conversation on social networks.
“Having to ban an account has real and significant ramifications,” Mr Dorsey said in a string of tweets about his take on the company’s decision late last week to permanently bar the president.
“While there are clear and obvious exceptions, I feel a ban is a failure of ours ultimately to promote healthy conversation,” Mr Dorsey said, inviting feedback from users.
Mr Trump’s access to social media platforms that he used as a megaphone during his presidency has been largely cut off since a violent mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington last week.
In addition to Twitter, bans have also been put in place by Facebook, Instagram, Twitch and Snapchat, while YouTube temporarily suspended his channel.
However, Twitter was the Republican billionaire’s go-to tool, which he used to directly communicate on a daily basis with some 88 million followers, posting everything from proclamations to accusations and spreading misinformation via the platform.
Social media operators say the embittered leader could have used his accounts to foment more unrest in the run-up to President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration.
On Monday, Twitter took things one step further, announcing it had also suspended “more than 70,000 accounts” linked to the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory that claims Trump is waging a secret war against a global liberal cult of Satan-worshipping paedophiles.
“We understand the desire to permanently suspend him now,” ACLU senior legislative counsel Kate Ruane said at the time.
“But, it should concern everyone when companies like Facebook and Twitter wield the unchecked power to remove people from platforms that have become indispensable for the speech of billions.”
Dorsey rejected the notion that social media giants co-ordinated efforts, reasoning that it was more likely they each came to the same conclusion about the potential for violence.
US ‘CIVIL WAR’ FEARS
America’s leading security agencies have warned that domestic terrorists emboldened by the “success” of the Capitol riots could now have their sights set on igniting a civil war.
A new Joint Intelligence Bulletin issued by the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the National counter-terrorism Center said domestic violent extremists (DVEs) and militia (MVEs) and race hate-groups (RMVEs) would try to exploit current US tensions by launching more attacks.
“DVEs could exploit upcoming events to engage in or justify violence, including events attended by MVEs and ‘boogaloo’ adherents scheduled nationally from 16-20 January (including Joe Biden’s inauguration),” the bulletin said.
“The ‘boogaloo’ is a concept most commonly used by DVEs, particularly MVEs, to reference an impending second civil war or insurgency against the US government.
“MVEs and other DVEs who adhere to the ‘boogaloo’ concept and who seek a politically motivated civil war, and RMVEs who seek a race war, may exploit the aftermath of the Capitol breach by conducting attacks to destabilise and force a climactic conflict in the United States.”
The chilling assessment went on to say that America’s radicalised extremists are now ready to “martyr” themselves for their twisted causes.
“DVEs and others may … consider the death of a perceived like-minded individual as an act of martyrdom,” the bulletin said.
The perceived “success” of the Capitol riots “likely will inspire some DVEs and others to engage in more sporadic, lone actor or small cell violence against common DVE targets, including racial, ethnic or religious minorities and institutions, law enforcement and government officials and buildings.
“The perceived success of the US Capitol breach and the proliferation of conspiracy theories will likely lead to an increased DVE threat towards representatives of federal, state and local governments across the United States, particularly in the lead-in to the January 20 Presidential Inauguration.”
The bulletin concluded: “In 2021, threats and plotting of illegal activity, including the destruction of property and violence targeting officials at all levels of the government, law enforcement, journalists, and infrastructure … will very likely increase.”
DONALD TRUMP TURNS ON ALLIES
Newly-impeached President Donald Trump has turned on one-time members of his inner circle as he struggles to come to grips with his impending departure from the White House.
He has even frozen payment of the $A27,000/day legal fees of his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, with the President angered by some of the former New York mayor’s legal moves in challenging the election results.
Mr Trump has even demanded to see Mr Giuliani’s expense claims before they are approved, the Washington Post reported.
Sources told the Post staff were now hurriedly exiting the White House in the wake of Mr Trump’s second impeachment. The small number remaining at his side are now feeling the sting of their boss’s anger over his grim predicament as speculation continues to swirl over whether he will try to grant himself a Presidential pardon before he leaves office.
US media reported the President was wallowing in self pity and was angry that his allies weren’t out in public on the front foot defending him and his legacy.
“The president is pretty wound up,” a senior administration official told the Post. “No one is out there.”
HOW JOE BIDEN’S INAGURATION WILL LOOK
President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration team was putting the finishing touches to the largely virtual program of events which will feature on his January 20 swearing in to the White House.
Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez will headline the ceremony, with Gaga, who campaigned for Biden during the election campaign, to perform the national anthem. There will be a musical performance by Lopez, who has used her voice during the coronavirus pandemic to speak out against its disproportionate toll on minority communities.
A Presidential Inaugural Committee official told CNN it is producing a celebrity-filled prime-time special for the night of the largely virtual inauguration in lieu of the traditional celebrations.
The special will be hosted by Tom Hanks and will also feature performances from Jon Bon Jovi, who campaigned with Biden in Pennsylvania, Demi Lovato, Justin Timberlake and Ant Clemons.
Other participants include Amanda Gorman, the first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate who will deliver the poetry reading, and Andrea Hall, the president of the International Association of Firefighters Local 3920 in Fulton County, Georgia, who will deliver the Pledge of Allegiance.
SECURITY FEARS GROW AFTER TRUMP IMPEACHMENT
Joe Biden has dropped plans to take a train to Washington on inauguration day, amid fears of violence following the Capitol riots last week.
The President-elect originally decided to take a 90-minute train ride from his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, to the Union Station in Washington on January 20. But he cancelled following potential threats in the Capitol and across the country, persons briefed have told multiple US outlets.
It comes as newly-elected Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said she will be filing articles of impeachment against Mr Biden for alleged “abuse of power” on his first day at the Oval Office.
Ms Greene announced her plan on Twitter after Donald Trump on Thursday added his most humiliating entry into the record books, becoming the only President to be impeached twice.
While 10 Republicans voted to support the impeachment article, Ms Greene was among the 197 House representatives, who defended the president.
“On January 21, 2021, I’ll be filing Articles of Impeachment against Joe Biden for abuse of power,” Ms Greene had tweeted
As Republicans crossed the floor to support his impeachment for “incitement of insurrection” up to 20,000 National Guard troops swarmed Washington DC.
Booted off social media for continuing to claim Mr Biden cheated to win the presidency, Mr Trump issued a late-in-the-day plea to his supporters calling on them to stand down and stop protesting his election loss.
“I want to be very clear: I unequivocally condemn the violence that we saw last week,” he said in the video.
“Like all of you I was shocked and deeply saddened by the calamity that unfolded at the Capitol.
“No true supporter of mine could ever endorse political violence.
“We cannot tolerate it.”
He also slammed the social media companies who have silenced him, saying: “What is needed now is to listen to one another, not to silence one another”.
But as senior Republicans and even some of his most loyal allies continued to slam him over last week’s deadly siege at the US Capitol, it was too little too late to save Mr Trump from the ignominy of a second impeachment.
“The president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters,” said House Minority Leader and frequent Trump booster Kevin McCarthy.
“Some say the riots were caused by Antifa. There’s absolutely no evidence of that and conservatives should be the first to say so.”
The hopes of his critics that impeachment would bring an early end to Mr Trump’s term were dashed by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who said his trial would not take place until after Mr Biden’s inauguration next week.
“There is simply no chance that a fair or serious trial could conclude before President-elect Biden is sworn in next week,” he said.
Mr McConnell also stopped short of stating his position on Mr Trump’s impeachment, a day after the powerful Republican was reported to be considering a guilty verdict.
Just when Mr Trump will face his accusers is not yet clear.
With less than a week until Mr Trump’s term ends, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has not stated when she will hand the article of impeachment to the Senate.
Mr McConnell refused to recall Congress, instead saying the impeachment would be considered on January 19 at the earliest.
Leading Republican Senator Lindsay Graham called on the incoming administration to avoid a “post presidential impeachment”, saying it would further divide the country.
“It’s now time for President-elect Biden to reject post presidential impeachment because of the destructive force it would have on the presidency and nation.
“Impeachment is political and will further divide the nation.”
But Mr Biden indicated in a statement that he would leave the process to the Senate.
“This criminal attack was planned and co-ordinated. It was carried out by political extremists and domestic terrorists, who were incited to this violence by President Trump,” he said.
“It was an armed insurrection against the United States of America. And those responsible must be held accountable.
“Today, the members of the House of Representatives exercised the power granted to them under our Constitution and voted to impeach and hold the president accountable. It was a bipartisan vote cast by members who followed the Constitution and their conscience. The process continues to the Senate.”
Mr Trump has been bleeding support for his role in stoking last week’s chaos, which has led to at least five deaths, and doing so little to call for calm.
Congressman Dan Newhouse, the final of 10 Republicans to vote for impeachment, said: “Our country needed a leader and President Trump failed to fulfil his oath of office”.
“A vote against impeachment is a vote to validate this unacceptable violence we witnessed in our nation’s capital,” Mr Newhouse said.
“It is also a vote to condone President Trump’s inaction. He did not strongly condemn the attack nor did he call in reinforcements when our officers were overwhelmed.”
Introducing the article of impeachment, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi described last Wednesday’s siege of the Capital as a “day of fire”.
“We know that the President of the United States incited this insurrection, armed rebellion, against our common country,” she said.
“It breaks my heart. It should break your heart. It should break all of our hearts.”
CAPITOL ATTACK ‘WAS PLANNED’
The shocking attack on the US Capitol was planned by a group of Make America Great Again (MAGA) rioters who were filmed talking about floor plans and police locations while storming the Capitol.
About a dozen MAGA diehards gathered inside of a Capitol building office last Wednesday, video shows.
Independent photojournalist Jeremy Lee Quinn said the rioters appeared to be “co-ordinating in the moment”.
This is the clip that's been ripped from my lifestream... I'm ripping it back. It was a kind of autonomous organizing in that it wasn't well organized. It felt improvised & chaotic more than anything. No indication these people knew each other but were coordinating in the moment. pic.twitter.com/bcgBH4SBIP
— Jeremy Lee Quinn (@JLeeQuinn) January 13, 2021
The video follows the group as they talk about a door that police have “barricaded” that is “at the top of the stairs”.
“What’s the floor plan?” a man is heard asking.
Another man talks about the stairway and routes the group should follow or avoid, and adds that at the “door to the right, there’s a cop”.
Comments by another man indicate the group was co-ordinating their attack at this point as they expressed determination to push forward.
“The door is already open,” a man wearing a gas mask says. “We need a plan, we need more people, we need to push forward.”
Some of the rioters who stormed the Capitol communicated with each other through walkie-talkie social media app Zello, which has become popular among militias.
At least two members of the mob used Zello to talk with other people who appeared to be inciting them from other locations, the Guardian reported, citing audio and chat logs it reviewed.
“We are in the main dome right now,” a female militia member was heard saying amid the mayhem, the New York Post reported. “We are rocking it. They’re throwing grenades, they’re frickin’ shooting people with paintballs, but we’re in here.”
A male voice replied from a quiet location: “God bless and Godspeed. Keep going.”
Another person was heard saying: “Jess, do your s —. This is what we f — lived up for. Everything we f — trained for.”
Zello has since shut down more than 2,000 “channels associated with militias and other militarised social movements”.
“It is with deep sadness and anger that we have discovered evidence of Zello being misused by some individuals while storming the United States Capitol building last week,” Zello wrote in a blog post, according to the Guardian.
“Looking ahead, we are concerned that Zello could be misused by groups who have threatened to organise additional potentially violent protests and disrupt the US presidential inauguration festivities on January 20th.”
Zello was used to organise and foment unrest in the lead-up to the riot., according to records from other far-right channels.
“Once we go operational, this channel will just be for intel gathering and organising on the backside … All information, once verified, will be put into the Telegram and then shared to boots on the ground from there,” a user named “AmericanRev2” said in the password-protected channel “DC 3.0,” the Guardian reported.
On Jan. 4, two days before the insurrection, a militia member said on Zello: “How about if all of us stand the f — up, and take this s — back?”
– with staff writers
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