Friday, January 8 top news briefs
It is Friday, January 8. Here are today’s top news briefs.
President Donald Trump posted a video on his Twitter account last night. He said Congress has certified the election results and that a new administration will be inaugurated on January 20th. Trump said his focus is now on ensuring a smooth transition of power. It is the first time that Trump has acknowledged that he lost the election.
Today he tweeted that he wouldn’t attend the inauguration. We’ll see where he will be on that day. More likely he will be at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
A U.S. Capitol Police officer died on Thursday night at a hospital from injuries he sustained trying to defend the Capitol. The NY Post reported that the officer, Brian D. Sicknick, was struck in the head from a thrown fire extinguisher. Federal prosecutors plan to open a murder investigation. The flags at the U.S. Capitol was lowered to half-staff in honor of him.
Now the death toll from the Capitol riots stands at five.
Steven Sund, who was the U.S. Capitol Police Chief, resigned after criticism of his department being unprepared. He said in a statement that the violent attack was unlike any he has ever experienced in his 30 years of law enforcement in Washington and that the mob attacked them with metal pipes and other weapons.
The FBI released four posters with images of over 30 people to seek for the public’s assistance in identifying the rioters.
The FBI also announced that the man who was pictured sitting on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’ desk chair with his shoe on the desk was arrested in his home state of Arkansas. His name is Richard Barnett. He was charged with entering and remaining on restricted grounds, violent entry, and theft of public property.
West Virginia Del. Derrick Evans (R) was charged in connection with the rioting.
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Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) told USA Today that he thinks the country would be safer if Trump could leave his office immediately either through the 25th Amendment or impeachment because he incited a riot.
CNN reported that White House advisers told them Trump has no intention of resigning and that he doesn’t think he did anything wrong.
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb) said he talked with top White House officials who said Trump became excited when he saw the riots at the Capitol and that Trump was confused on why other people weren’t as excited as he was. Sasse questioned why there were delays with deploying the National Guard.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she shared her concerns with a top Pentagon official about Trump having access to the nuclear codes during the last days of his presidency.
She said Gen. Mark Milley assured him that there are safeguards in place.
Pelosi is also in serious discussions on leading a House vote to impeach President Trump.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said impeaching Trump would do more harm than good.
Now, here are three quick top news briefs not related to the riots.
The U.S. reported over 4,000 new deaths from Covid-19 on Thursday. That’s the first time that it’s been over 4,000.
President-elect Joe Biden plans to release almost all of the available coronavirus vaccines to the public when he becomes president. The Trump administration has been withholding half of the available doses for those who are vaccinated to get their second doses, usually after three weeks. But Biden wants to vaccinate more people sooner. It is possible that Biden is hoping that just one dose will make a difference in reducing infection rates and that we can continue to ramp up production of vaccines should a second dose be needed.
Biden announced more Cabinet picks. He picked D.C. federal judge Merrick Garland for attorney general, who is best known for being President Obama’s pick for the Supreme Court justice seat left behind Antonin Scalia that was held up by Sen. Mitch McConnell for almost a year because it was an election year. Biden is nominating Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo as his commerce secretary and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh to be his labor secretary.
That’s all the top news briefs for this week. Follow us on Facebook and YouTube for the latest. Have a good weekend and stay with the light.
https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-concedes-election-condemns-rioters-video-transcript-january-7
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/08/politics/capitol-police-officer-killed/index.html
https://nypost.com/2021/01/07/us-capitol-police-officer-dies-after-dc-riots/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/01/08/politics-live-updates-donald-trump-joe-biden-capitol/6590781002/
https://www.foxnews.com/us/capitol-riots-fbi-suspects-wanted-washington-dc-attack
https://www.npr.org/sections/congress-electoral-college-tally-live-updates/2021/01/08/954940681/man-who-posed-for-photos-sitting-at-desk-in-pelosis-office-has-been-arrested
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/washington-dc-riots-trump-news-friday/index.html
https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-impeachment-16e37a8ffcca60dac9731fdff285b8e5
https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-deaths-4000-c06a6dee-42e6-46a5-8bbf-789164c8a8dd.html
https://www.axios.com/biden-release-coronavirus-vaccine-8b1b0dda-edd2-4739-917f-cf815ae165ff.html
https://www.npr.org/2020/11/17/933848488/biden-administration-heres-who-has-been-nominated