The Topline: Democracy's Daily Digest
Plenty of social media posts since the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last week say things like "It was always going to end this way," or "I didn't expect it to end this way." Sadly, this isn't the end—and, in fact, it may get worse. Extremist groups are already planning repeat visits to Washington, D.C., in the days ahead of next week's inauguration and on Inauguration Day itself. Remember: millions of Americans have been brainwashed to believe that the election was rigged via a mass conspiracy. That fact hasn't changed. In some of their minds, this is 1776 again, and war is their only recourse. Even those who would never consider attacking the Capitol building—or any building, for that matter—have become apologists for the insurrection online. We are at a perilous point in our history. We need swift accountability to penalize the terrorists responsible for inciting and carrying out last week's attack. We need immediate action to guard against future attacks. And we need more lawmakers to step up and thoroughly discredit the lie that led to such violence. —Mindy Finn
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25 or quick to the floor
House Democrats this morning introduced a resolution to impeach President Trump for a second time, setting up a vote this week unless Vice President Mike Pence invokes the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to remove the president. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has given Pence a deadline of Wednesday—a full week after the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol that the president incited. A majority of the Democratic-controlled House has signed on to the resolution, led by Reps. David Cicilline, Jamie Raskin, and Ted Lieu. Cicilline expects enough Republican support for passage. If successful, the resolution would both remove Trump from the presidency and prevent him from ever holding office again. —Bloomberg
— Little Republican support so far. Congressional Republicans have mostly adopted the narrative that a second impeachment trial would only further divide the country, and that it’s time for "unity" and "healing." Sen. Ben Sasse is an exception, saying he would consider impeachment. Sen. Pat Toomey has joined Sen. Lisa Murkowski in calling for Trump to resign, as he believes Trump committed impeachable offenses. —Axios
— Most Americans want him gone. The potential removal of Trump, whether via the 25th Amendment, impeachment, or resignation, starts out more popular than any other removal process of a president in recent American history. In an ABC News/Ipsos poll released yesterday, 56% of Americans say Trump should be removed from office. The minority (43%), which includes a high number of Republicans, says that none of these should occur. —CNN
— To pardon or not to pardon. As some speculate whether Trump could use a potential pardon as a bargaining chip, at least two White House legal advisers have counseled him not to pardon himself. House counsel Pat Cipollone and former Attorney General Bill Barr have each warned Trump against pardoning himself, as well as members of his family. Barr gave the advice before he resigned last month. It is unknown if he has done so since the Capitol attack. —CNN
— Ringleaders rounded up. The horned Viking guy. The Auschwitz T-shirt guy. The lectern selfie guy. The zip-tie guy. One by one, the terrorists who participated in the insurrection are being nabbed by authorities. After concerns that other rioters demonstrated police tactical expertise, law enforcement agencies across the country are investigating whether any of their own members participated. —NBC News
— More charges expected. Michael R. Sherwin, the U.S. attorney in Washington, said yesterday that the Justice Department is considering charges for "theft of national security information" after the insurrectionists looted laptops, documents, and other items from congressional offices last week. —The New York Times
— It ain't over yet. An internal FBI bulletin warns that armed protests are being planned in all 50 states and at the U.S. Capitol, starting this week through Inauguration Day. A group is planning to "storm" Washington, D.C.; state capitols; and state, local, and federal government courthouses and administrative buildings in every state if Trump is removed from office prior to Jan. 20 and when President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated. —ABC News
MORE: National Guard bolsters Washington, D.C., troop levels to at least 10,000 —The Wall Street Journal
Singer: The disinfo superspreader is banned
"Trump's ban from platforms that range from Twitter to Pinterest won't end the spread of conspiracy theories. For example, the lie that the Capitol riot was the work of antifa was pushed to over a half million engagements within its first day by lesser superspreaders like Rep. Matt Gaetz. Nor will Trump's exile from social media end the risk of extremism. Already, we see extremists clustering in smaller, tighter nets, some out in the open on networks like Parler or Gab and some hidden from view. As with ISIS or Alex Jones, the faithful will follow, but into smaller rabbit holes. Yet, in this new conflict space, the most important actor just got moved off the board. The raw numbers show that Trump is not just a key node, but the literal center of multiple overlapping universes of conspiracy theory and extremism, from far-right extremism to QAnon to anti-vaxxers. Now, there is a literal black hole in each." —Peter Singer in Defense One
Peter Singer is a strategist at New America and the co-author of "LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media."
MORE: Twitter permanently bans Trump —The Verge
Why was security hamstrung?
— House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving said he wasn’t comfortable with the "optics" of formally declaring an emergency ahead of the demonstration, Sund said. Meanwhile, Senate Sergeant at Arms Michael Stenger suggested that Sund should informally ask Guard contacts to be on alert.
— Sund's request for help was rejected or delayed six times prior to the crisis. In the midst of it, Sund says he pleaded for help five more times as a scene far more dire than he had ever imagined unfolded on the historic Capitol grounds.
— An army of 8,000 pro-Trump demonstrators streamed down Pennsylvania Avenue after hearing the president speak near the White House. Sund's outer perimeter on the Capitol's west side was breached within 15 minutes. With 1,400 Capitol Police officers on duty, his forces were quickly overrun. —The Washington Post
MORE: At least 25 people under terrorism investigation in connection with Capitol riot —USA Today
Douthat: The danger of the Big Lie
"[Trump] wanted a way to actually stay in office, and since no Republican with real power would actually do a coup for him, he turned fully to the fantasy world—which gladly supplied him with story lines, narratives, first the Kraken and then the fixation on Mike Pence as a deus ex machina. And because Trump is, however incompetently, actually the president and not just a character in an online role-playing game, by turning to the dreamworld he made himself a conduit for the dream to enter into reality, making the dreamers believe in the plausibility of direct action, giving us the riot and its dead." —Ross Douthat in The New York Times
Ross Douthat is a writer and an opinion columnist at The New York Times.
Rawnsley: Putin's greatest achievement
"[Trump] has been horribly successful in undermining faith in American democracy and corroding respect for it abroad. Once, you would have assumed that the spectacle of rioters desecrating the national legislature would repel Republican voters. They usually like to think they belong to the party of law and order. So it is testimony to the scale of his malignant achievement that polling of Trump voters suggests that two-thirds buy his big lie that the election was stolen and as many approved as deplored the mayhem unleashed at the citadel of their country's democracy. Trump has done far more damage to trust in America's system of government than Vladimir Putin's battalions of cyber-agents have ever managed." —Andrew Rawnsley in The Guardian
Andrew Rawnsley is a broadcaster, author, and The Observer's chief political commentator.
MORE: Omer Benjakob: Putin's disinformation campaign claims stunning victory with attempted Capitol Hill coup —Haaretz
Black officers felt defenseless
Black officers say management inaction by U.S. Capitol Police left them particularly vulnerable to the mob that attacked the Capitol last Wednesday. Two officers who spoke to BuzzFeed News described a harrowing day, in which they were forced to endure racist abuse—including repeatedly being called the n-word—as they tried to do their job of protecting the building, the lawmakers inside, and by extension the very functioning of American democracy. The officers said they were left to fight off an invading force that their managers had downplayed and not prepared them for. —BuzzFeed News
— "God bless him for his courage." One Black police officer is being hailed for his role steering an angry mob away from the Senate chambers. Capitol Police Ofc. Eugene Goodman put himself between a man wearing a black QAnon T-shirt and a hallway leading to the Senate chambers. He then shoved the person to induce him and the crowd to chase him toward officers in the opposite direction. —Reuters
— Who were they? Rep. Matt Gaetz's attempt to paint the insurrectionists as antifa members is, not surprisingly, false. The mob was overwhelmingly made up of longtime Trump supporters, including Republican Party officials, GOP political donors, far-right militants, white supremacists, members of the military, and QAnon adherents. Some were heavily armed and included convicted criminals, such as a Florida man recently released from prison for attempted murder. —Associated Press
— Rooting out the rot. Rep. Jamaal Bowman is drafting legislation to call for a commission to investigate Capitol Police and whether any of its members have ties, directly or indirectly, to white nationalists and white nationalist sympathizers. "It's critical when you look at the disparity in terms of how the Capitol Police responded to the insurrection on Wednesday, versus how they responded to—not just [Black Lives Matter] protesters this summer, but other people of color, and people who are disabled, historically,” Bowman says. —Mother Jones
MORE: Daniel Black: The Capitol attack was White supremacy, plain and simple —CNN
Bellinger: Trump is a threat to national security
"Although it would be a much lesser punishment than Trump deserves, the House should also pass a strong resolution of censure, which the Senate should be asked to endorse before Trump leaves office. All Republicans in the House and the Senate should be required to vote for or against a censure of the president for his role in inciting a violent assault on our government. In the meantime, senior White House and senior agency officials have a responsibility to ensure that Trump takes no further executive actions to endanger our national security." —John Bellinger on Lawfare
John Bellinger is a fellow in international and national security law at the Council on Foreign Relations. He previously served as legal adviser for the Department of State, senior associate counsel to the president, and legal adviser to the National Security Council.
MORE: After attack on the U.S. Capitol, some wonder about the state of democracy around the world —Los Angeles Times
"Here are why 'conservatives' are losing Twitter followers: people are waking up to the lie and don't want to hear it anymore." —U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill. (@RepKinzinger)
The idea of a "new" third party is very inviting to many of us. As a lifelong Republican, I see the party now as a lost cause. It has lost its direction, is steeped in MAGA and QAnon forces, and its leaders are trampling one another to gain favor with the worst President we've had to endure in my 70 years. We need a party that will be true of Lincoln—all men and women are created equal, we are all in this together, racism is antithetical to this country, and there is a reason the founders set three independent branches of government. Those who choose to disregard the vote of millions of Americans should be treated as traitors to their oath to protect and abide by the Constitution of this, the greatest country in the world. What an embarrassment they are in front of the rest of the world. We, the voters, will remember when their next term comes up. —Steven B., Florida
With so much horrifying news, it would be easy to put out a very sour paper. But as always, THE TOPLINE's tone is factual and practical. Reckoning must be meted out for the sedition and armed insurrection. Enablers and endorsers need to be removed from public service. People in government positions who don't understand that elections are not subject to being overthrown to suit minority preference or curry favor with a would-be autocrat must be ejected and marked for the base actors they are. It feels silly to have to say that! Please keep pressing on the topics of the fundamentals of the country: honor, integrity, honesty, and dealing on behalf of the people who need it rather than being in it for the glory and enrichment of those who already possess those things by being corrupt. We don't owe them anything but a fair trial. —Anna K., Washington
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