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    The G.O.P.’s New Distancing Policy

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Presidential TransitionliveLatest UpdatesCalls for Impeachment25th Amendment ExplainedTrump Officials ResignHow Mob Stormed CapitolAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyOn Politics With Lisa LererThe G.O.P.’s New Distancing PolicyAfter years of excusing or ignoring President Trump’s most inflammatory rhetoric, many Republicans are backing away at the last minute.Jan. 9, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETHi. Welcome to On Politics, your wrap-up of the week in national politics. I’m Lisa Lerer, your host.Sign up here to get On Politics in your inbox every weekday.“Enough is enough,” says Senator Lindsey Graham.Credit…Jonathan Ernst/ReutersFirst came the mob’s deadly rioting. Then the G.O.P.’s reputation laundering.With less than two weeks left in the Trump administration, a number of Republicans are experiencing some last-minute revelations about the president’s character, inflammatory rhetoric and polarizing leadership of the country.“All I can say is, count me out. Enough is enough. I’ve tried to be helpful,” said Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of President Trump’s strongest allies, who once promised “earth-shattering” revelations of voter fraud that he falsely argued had cost Mr. Trump the election. Now, after the violent breach of the Capitol this past week, Mr. Graham is refusing to rule out using the 25th Amendment to strip his former friend of his presidential powers.Mr. Graham is far from alone in scurrying away from all the praise he’s lavished on the president over the past four years. As a shaken Washington recovered from the violent attack on the Capitol, Republicans embraced the traditional tools of political self-preservation, offering resignations and strongly worded letters, anonymously sourced accounts of shouting matches and after-the-fact public condemnations.Administration officials anonymously spread the word, through Axios, that they would defy any requests from Mr. Trump that “they believe would put the nation at risk or break the law,” raising the obvious question of whether they would have carried out illegal or dangerous orders over the past four years.Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos quit their posts, saying they were “deeply troubled” by the president’s handling of the riot. Ms. Chao, it’s worth noting, stood next to Mr. Trump at the 2017 news conference where he insisted that “both sides” deserved blame after white supremacists incited deadly violence in Charlottesville, Va.At least seven lower-ranking members of the Trump administration also resigned, while many more fretted that they would be unemployable.“Now it will always be, ‘Oh yeah, you work for the guy who tried to overtake the government,’” said Mick Mulvaney, the president’s former acting chief of staff who resigned Wednesday as special envoy to Northern Ireland.Mr. Mulvaney told CNBC that the president was “not the same as he was eight months ago,” when they spoke more frequently. Left unstated was whether Mr. Trump was the same as he was four years ago, when Mr. Mulvaney called him a “terrible human being” ahead of the 2016 election.Mr. Mulvaney’s journey with the president highlights one of the most striking features of the ongoing Republican revisionism. Many in the G.O.P. warned publicly during the 2016 campaign that Mr. Trump was fomenting exactly the kind of violence that the country witnessed on Wednesday — concerns that were quickly set aside once he took office.The Presidential TransitionLatest UpdatesUpdated Jan. 8, 2021, 10:32 p.m. ETMore national security officials resign from a White House in turmoil.A judge has blocked Trump’s sweeping restrictions on asylum applications.Josh Hawley faces blowback for role in spurious challenge of election results.Of course, some Republican officials may be truly horrified by Mr. Trump’s egging on of his supporters on Wednesday and his refusal to take immediate action to stop a violent takeover of the Capitol. Many of those same Republicans frequently offered private condemnations of his actions throughout his presidency — objections they studiously kept off the record.But with less than 275 hours left in the Trump presidency, it’s hard not to see the political posturing embedded in their now-public condemnations.Many inside and outside Washington are setting their sights on the new political reality to come with a Democratic-controlled government. After years of declining to police Mr. Trump’s falsehood-filled and threatening social media posts, Twitter on Friday permanently suspended his @realDonaldTrump account “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.” Mark Zuckerberg had earlier barred the president from Facebook and Instagram through at least the end of his term.Many of Mr. Zuckerberg’s employees noted that Democrats had secured control of the Senate before he took the action.But at this point, it’s an open question whether any powerful Republicans will pay a serious price for their implicit or explicit support of Mr. Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric and dalliances with violence. So far, the penalties seem to be measured mostly in bad media coverage.Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, who championed efforts to overturn the results of the presidential election, was publicly disowned by his political mentor, disavowed by some of his donors and dropped by his book publisher — a move he blamed on a “woke mob.” Other elected Republicans were condemned by their hometown newspapers in scathing editorials. Cracks even emerged in Rupert Murdoch’s media empire as The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page, which has been a regular Trump cheerleader for years, called on the president to resign.Meanwhile, Democrats are pressing for resignations and permanent bans from the public sector for Trump aides, supporters and allies. Many would like to see criminal prosecutions once President-elect Joe Biden takes office. Some are even pushing to rid the federal government of all political appointees and civil servants who supported Mr. Trump.It’s unclear whether Mr. Biden will back such efforts. Tough investigations into the previous administration could complicate his campaign promise to unite the country and his ability to get Republican support for his legislative goals. On Friday, he avoided expressing views on specific punitive actions, saying that he’d leave those judgments to his Justice Department and that voters should determine the future of politicians like Mr. Hawley and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, another Trump ally who backed the effort to overturn the election results.For all the Republicans attempting to distance themselves from the president, 147 of them still voted to reject the results even after the siege of the Capitol. Since then, a segment of the party has embarked upon an effort to reshape reality, downplaying the violence and suggesting that far-left activists had infiltrated the crowd and posed as fans of the president.This is obviously ridiculous: The rioters discussed plans to invade the Capitol for weeks in public social media posts. And Mr. Trump didn’t blame antifa for the rampage — instead, he told the mob, “We love you.” Still, those claims will echo through right-wing media, major news sources for the large number of activists and voters who remain loyal to Mr. Trump.Some Republicans may be trying to jump off the Trump train at the final station. But they’ve already spent years helping fuel the engine.Were you forwarded this newsletter? Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox.Thanks for reading. On Politics is your guide to the political news cycle, delivering clarity from the chaos.Is there anything you think we’re missing? Anything you want to see more of? We’d love to hear from you. Email us at [email protected] reading the main story More

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    Meena Harris, Building That Brand

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    Election Results: Biden Wins

    Electoral College Votes

    Congress Defies Mob

    Georgia Runoff Results

    Democrats Win Senate Control

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    Democrats Ready Impeachment Charge Against Trump for Inciting Capitol Mob

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Presidential TransitionliveLatest UpdatesCalls for Impeachment25th Amendment ExplainedTrump Officials ResignHow Mob Stormed CapitolAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyDemocrats Ready Impeachment Charge Against Trump for Inciting Capitol MobSpeaker Nancy Pelosi threatened decisive action against the president for his role in the insurrection against Congress if he refused to resign.“If the president does not leave office imminently and willingly, the Congress will proceed with our action,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote in a letter on Friday.Credit…Anna Moneymaker for The New York TimesNicholas Fandos, Maggie Haberman and Jan. 8, 2021Updated 10:08 p.m. ETWASHINGTON — Democrats laid the groundwork on Friday for impeaching President Trump a second time, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California threatened to bring him up on formal charges if he did not resign “immediately” over his role in inciting a violent mob attack on the Capitol this week.The threat was part of an all-out effort by furious Democrats, backed by a handful of Republicans, to pressure Mr. Trump to leave office in disgrace after the hourslong siege by his supporters on Wednesday on Capitol Hill. Although he has only 12 days left in the White House, they argued he was a direct danger to the nation.Ms. Pelosi and other top Democratic leaders continued to press Vice President Mike Pence and the cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to wrest power from Mr. Trump, though Mr. Pence was said to be against it. The speaker urged Republican lawmakers to pressure the president to resign immediately. And she took the unusual step of calling Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to discuss how to limit Mr. Trump’s access to the nation’s nuclear codes and then publicized it.“If the president does not leave office imminently and willingly, the Congress will proceed with our action,” Ms. Pelosi wrote in a letter to colleagues.At least one Republican, Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, followed Ms. Pelosi’s lead and told The Anchorage Daily News that she was considering leaving the Republican Party altogether because of Mr. Trump.“I want him out,” she said. “He has caused enough damage.”At the White House, Mr. Trump struck a defiant tone, insisting that he would remain a potent force in American politics as aides and allies abandoned him and his post-presidential prospects turned increasingly bleak. Behind closed doors, he made clear that he would not resign and expressed regret about releasing a video on Thursday committing to a peaceful transition of power and condemning the violence at the Capitol that he had egged on a day before.He said on Twitter on Friday morning that he would not attend President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s inauguration, the first incumbent in 150 years to skip his successor’s swearing-in. Hours later, Twitter “permanently suspended” his beloved account, which had more than 88 million followers, “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”Federal law enforcement officials announced charges against at least 13 people in connection with the storming of the Capitol, including Richard Barnett, 60, of Gravette, Ark., who had posted a picture of himself on social media sitting at Ms. Pelosi’s desk during the mayhem with his feet up on her desk, and a Republican state delegate from West Virginia.Among enraged Democrats, an expedited impeachment appeared to be the most attractive option to remove Mr. Trump and register their outrage at his role in encouraging what became an insurrection. Roughly 170 of them in the House had signed onto a single article that Representatives David Cicilline of Rhode Island, Ted Lieu of California, Jamie Raskin of Maryland and others intended to introduce on Monday, charging the president with “willfully inciting violence against the government of the United States.”Democratic senators weighed in with support, and some Republicans appeared newly open to the idea. Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska indicated he would be amenable to considering articles of impeachment at a trial. A spokesman for Senator Susan Collins of Maine said she was “outraged” by Mr. Trump’s role in the violence, but could not comment on an impeachment case given the possibility she could soon be sitting in the jury.Even Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader and one of Mr. Trump’s most influential allies for the past four years, told confidants he was done with Donald Trump. Mr. McConnell did not directly weigh on a possible impeachment case, but he circulated a memo to senators making clear that under the Senate’s current rules, no trial could effectively be convened before Jan. 20, after Mr. Trump leaves office and Mr. Biden is sworn in, unless all 100 senators agreed to allow it sooner.It was a fitting denouement for a president who, despite years of norm-shattering behavior, has acted largely without consequence throughout his presidency, showing no impulse to change his ways, despite being impeached in Congress, defeated at the ballot box and now belatedly shunned by some members of his own party.By Friday evening, Ms. Pelosi had not made a final decision on whether to proceed with impeachment and was wary of rushing into such a momentous step. She issued a statement saying she had instructed the House Rules Committee to be ready to move ahead with either an impeachment resolution or legislation creating a nonpartisan panel of experts envisaged in the 25th Amendment to consult with Mr. Pence about the president’s fitness to serve.Democrats agreed it was logistically possible to vote on articles of impeachment as soon as next week, but they were weighing how to justify bypassing the usual monthslong deliberative process of collecting documents, witnesses and the president’s defense. Others worried that Mr. Trump’s base would rally more forcefully around him if Democrats pushed forward with impeaching him again, undermining their goal of relegating the 45th president to the ash heap of history.Republicans who only days before had led the charge to overturn Mr. Trump’s electoral defeat said impeaching him now would shatter the unity that was called for after the Capitol siege.Workers on Friday in the Capitol preparing for President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s inauguration ceremony.Credit…Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times“Impeaching the president with just 12 days left in his term will only divide our country more,” said Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the Republican leader, just a day after he voted twice to overturn Mr. Biden’s legitimate victory in key swing states.Judd Deere, a White House spokesman, issued a nearly identical statement.Democrats, too, were concerned about plunging Washington into a divisive, time-consuming and politically fraught drama that would overshadow and constrain Mr. Biden’s agenda and stomp on his attempt to unify the country.The Presidential TransitionLatest UpdatesUpdated Jan. 8, 2021, 9:42 p.m. ETA judge has blocked Trump’s sweeping restrictions on asylum applications.Josh Hawley faces blowback for role in spurious challenge of election results.Read the draft of a leading article of impeachment against Trump.During an appearance in Wilmington, Del., Mr. Biden declined to directly weigh in on plans to impeach Mr. Trump saying, “What the Congress decides to do is for them to decide.” But he made clear his energies were being spent elsewhere. “If we were six months out, we should be moving everything to get him out of office — impeaching him again, trying to invoke the 25th Amendment, whatever it took to get him out of office,” Mr. Biden said. “But I am focused now on us taking control as president and vice president on the 20th and get our agenda moving as quickly as we can.”Mr. Trump had told advisers in the days before the march that he wanted to join his supporters in going to the Capitol, but White House officials said no, according to people briefed on the discussions. The president had also expressed interest beforehand in calling in the National Guard to hold off anti-Trump counterprotesters who might show up, the people said, only to turn around and resist calls for bringing those troops in after the rioting by his loyalists broke out.On Friday, Mr. Biden had harsh criticism for Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ted Cruz of Texas, Republicans who had lodged objections to his Electoral College victory on Wednesday amid the mayhem at the Capitol. As some leading Senate Democrats called on them to resign, Mr. Biden said the pair had perpetuated the “big lie” that his election had been fraudulent, comparing it to the work of the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.The recriminations played out on a day when workers in the Capitol were literally repairing the damage that had been done two days before, when a mob of supporters, egged on by Mr. Trump, stormed the Capitol as lawmakers were formalizing Mr. Biden’s electoral victory. Lawmakers mourned the death of a Capitol Police officer who succumbed to injuries sustained while defending the building.From the same office ransacked by the mob, Ms. Pelosi was working furiously on Friday to try to contain Mr. Trump. She urged Republicans to follow the model of Watergate, when members of their party prevailed upon President Richard M. Nixon to resign and avoid the ignominy of an impeachment.She also said she had spoken with General Milley about “preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes.”A spokesman for General Milley, Col. Dave Butler, confirmed that the two had spoken and said the general had “answered her questions regarding the process of nuclear command authority.” But some Defense Department officials have privately expressed anger that political leaders seemed to be trying to get the Pentagon to do the work of Congress and cabinet secretaries, who have legal options to remove a president.While military officials can refuse to carry out orders they view as illegal, they cannot proactively remove the president from the chain of command. That would be a military coup, these officials said.Ms. Pelosi elaborated on her thinking in a private call with House Democrats, indicating she was particularly concerned about Mr. Trump’s behavior while he remained commander in chief of the armed forces, with the authority to order nuclear strikes.“He’s unhinged,” Ms. Pelosi, according to Democrats familiar with her remarks. “We aren’t talking about anything besides an unhinged person.”She added: “We can’t move on. If we think we can move on then we are failing the American people.”Democrats appeared to be largely united after the call, which lasted more than three hours, that the chamber needed to send a strong message to Americans and the world that Mr. Trump’s rhetoric and the violence that resulted from it would not go unanswered.Ms. Pelosi had asked one of her most trusted deputies who prosecuted Democrats’ first impeachment case against Mr. Trump, Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, to give a frank assessment of the potential drawbacks of impeachment during the session.Mr. Schiff did so, but later issued a statement saying, “Congress should act to begin impeachment proceedings as the only instrument wholly within our power to remove a president who has so manifestly and repeatedly violated the Constitution and put our nation at grave risk.”At least one Democrat, Representative Kurt Schrader, a centrist from Oregon, argued against impeachment, likening the move to an “old-fashioned lynching” of Mr. Trump, and arguing it would turn the president into a martyr. He later apologized for the analogy.A bipartisan group of centrist senators, including several who helped draft a stimulus compromise last month, discussed the possibility of drafting a formal censure resolution against Mr. Trump. But it was unclear if a meaningful attempt to build support for censure would get off the ground, especially with Democrats pushing for a stiffer punishment.After years of deference to the president, leading Republicans in Congress made no effort to defend him, and some offered stinging rebukes. At least a few appeared open to the possibility of impeachment, which if successful could also disqualify Mr. Trump from holding political office in the future.Mr. Sasse said he would “definitely consider whatever articles they might move because I believe the president has disregarded his oath of office.”“He swore an oath to the American people to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution — he acted against that,” Mr. Sasse said on CBS. “What he did was wicked.”Senior Republican aides predicted other senators could adopt a similar posture, so deep was their fury at Mr. Trump. But they held back publicly, waiting to better understand a volatile and rapidly evolving situation.If the House did impeach, and the Senate put Mr. Trump on trial, 17 Republicans or more would most likely have to join Democrats to win a conviction. That was a politically perilous and unlikely decision given his continued hold on millions of the party’s voters.At the same time Republicans in Washington were chastising Mr. Trump, the Republican National Committee re-elected Ronna McDaniel, a Trump ally and his handpicked candidate, as its chairwoman for another term, and Tommy Hicks Jr., a close friend of Donald Trump Jr.’s, as the co-chairman.Political risks for Republicans breaking ranks were also on vivid display on Friday at National Airport near Washington, where several dozen jeering supporters of Mr. Trump accosted Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, angrily denouncing the Republican as a “traitor” and a “liar” for voting to formalize Mr. Biden’s victory.“It’s going to be like this forever, wherever you go, for the rest of your life,” one woman taunted to Mr. Graham, who had been one of Mr. Trump’s leading Senate allies and had initially humored his baseless claims of widespread election fraud.Nicholas Fandos More

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    In Capital, a G.O.P. Crisis. At the R.N.C. Meeting, a Trump Celebration.

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    Election Results: Biden Wins

    Electoral College Votes

    Congress Defies Mob

    Georgia Runoff Results

    Democrats Win Senate Control

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    Josh Hawley Faces Blowback After Capitol Riot

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Presidential TransitionliveLatest UpdatesCalls for Impeachment25th Amendment ExplainedTrump Officials ResignHow Mob Stormed CapitolAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyHawley Faces Blowback for Role in Challenging Election ResultsThe junior senator from Missouri drew widespread condemnation but defended his decision to object to Congress’s certification of the election results.Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, objected to Pennsylvania’s slate of electors just hours after a mob attacked the Capitol.Credit…Erin Schaff/The New York TimesJan. 8, 2021, 7:42 p.m. ETWASHINGTON — The day after Josh Hawley became the first Republican senator to say he would indulge President Trump’s demand that lawmakers try to overturn the election, a reporter asked if he thought the gambit would make him unpopular with his colleagues.“More than I already am?” he retorted.Even before Mr. Hawley lodged what was certain to be a futile objection to Congress’s certification of the results, the 41-year-old senator — regarded as a rising Republican star who could one day run for president — was far from the chamber’s most popular lawmaker.His insistence on pressing the challenge after a violent mob egged on by Mr. Trump stormed the Capitol to protest President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory, endangering the entire Congress and the vice president in a day of terror that left at least five people dead, has earned him pariah status in Washington.But while Mr. Hawley’s role in the riot may have left him shunned — at least for now — in official circles, it may only have improved his stock with his party’s base in his home state, which remains deeply loyal to Mr. Trump.His fellow Republicans in the Senate lined up to blame Mr. Hawley for the riot. The editorial boards of major newspapers in Missouri accused him of having “blood on his hands” and called on him to resign. His publisher canceled his book deal and his erstwhile mentor called his efforts to get Mr. Hawley elected to the Senate “the biggest mistake I’ve ever made.”“But for him, it wouldn’t have happened,” former Senator John C. Danforth of Missouri, the Republican elder statesman, told The Kansas City Star of his former protégé’s role in the riot.Mr. Hawley has remained defiant, arguing Wednesday evening that the electoral count in Congress was the proper venue to debate his concerns about fraud in the balloting, though he never made a specific charge of wrongdoing.“I will never apologize for giving voice to the millions of Missourians and Americans who have concerns about the integrity of our elections,” Mr. Hawley said in a statement. “That’s my job, and I will keep doing it.”But many Republicans dismissed his effort as grandstanding intended to further his own political ambitions. Some Democratic senators demanded his resignation. And on Friday, Mr. Biden said that Mr. Hawley and Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, were part of “the big lie” that had animated Mr. Trump’s refusal to concede, invoking Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Germany’s minister of propaganda.Mr. Hawley lashed out at Mr. Biden, accusing him of “undignified, immature, and intemperate behavior” and calling on him to “retract these sick comments.”Hours after the mob was cleared from the Capitol on Wednesday, Mr. Hawley refused to drop his challenge to the election results, objecting to Pennsylvania’s slate of electors and forcing both chambers into a two-hour debate on his call to throw out millions of the state’s votes.An image of Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, sitting behind Mr. Hawley and glaring as the Missourian gazed into television cameras and made his case from the Senate floor became an instant meme. Mr. Hawley’s challenge was rejected by broad bipartisan margins, with only six Republican senators joining him in supporting it.By Thursday, the fallout reached beyond the scorn of his colleagues. The publisher Simon & Schuster said it was canceling publication of his book “The Tyranny of Big Tech,” citing “his role in what became a dangerous threat.” Mr. Hawley responded with an angry statement that called his former publisher a “woke mob” and described their decision as “a direct assault on the First Amendment.”The Presidential TransitionLatest UpdatesUpdated Jan. 8, 2021, 9:42 p.m. ETA judge has blocked Trump’s sweeping restrictions on asylum applications.Josh Hawley faces blowback for role in spurious challenge of election results.Read the draft of a leading article of impeachment against Trump.“This could not be more Orwellian,” Mr. Hawley said. “This is the left trying to cancel everyone they don’t approve of.”Yet some of the harshest criticism came from his own party. His bid was in direct defiance of Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, who had implored his members not to challenge the election results and force a divisive vote when there was no chance of changing the outcome. Searing blowback came from other Republicans who are also considered 2024 presidential contenders and could find themselves running against Mr. Hawley in a crowded primary.“Senator Hawley was doing something that was really dumbass,” Senator Ben Sasse, Republican of Nebraska, told NPR. “This was a stunt. It was a terrible, terrible idea. And you don’t lie to the American people. And that’s what’s been going on.”Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, also lashed out at Mr. Hawley in a Fox News interview on Thursday — though he did not call him out by name — for indulging the effort to overturn the election.“You have some senators who, for political advantage, were giving false hope to their supporters, misleading them into thinking that somehow yesterday’s actions in Congress could reverse the results of the election,” Mr. Cotton said in a clip circulated by his office. “That was never going to happen, yet these senators, as insurrectionists literally stormed the Capitol, were sending out fund-raising emails. That shouldn’t have happened, and it’s got to stop now.”Scott Jennings, a Republican strategist and former aide to Mr. McConnell, said in an interview that he believed Mr. Hawley’s decision to raise his objection to Pennsylvania’s electors hours after the mob stormed the Capitol was a “disqualifying” display of judgment.“Once the Capitol had been literally occupied, how can you give quarter to the viewpoint that caused the occupation?” Mr. Jennings said. “What would it have taken for Josh Hawley to withdraw his objection? How do you come back from that?”Some Democrats said Mr. Hawley never could. Senators Patty Murray of Washington, the No. 3 Democrat, and Chris Coons of Delaware, one of Mr. Biden’s closest allies in the chamber, demanded that Mr. Hawley resign. Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, argued that the Senate should censure him.“Any senator who stands up and supports the power of force over the power of democracy has broken their oath of office,” Ms. Murray said in a statement.Still, as Republicans struggled to recover from an episode that has exposed deep rifts in their ranks, there was evidence that Mr. Hawley’s actions on Wednesday had boosted his standing with influential elements of his party.The Senate Conservatives Fund, a political action committee founded by former Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, defended Mr. Hawley and urged its members to donate to his campaign.“The junior senator from Missouri’s decision to object to the election results showed tremendous courage,” the fund-raising pitch, signed by Mary Vought, the fund’s executive director, said. “Conservatives should stand shoulder to shoulder with him in defending our cherished values.”Christian Morgan, a St. Louis-based strategist and former top aide to Representative Ann Wagner, Republican of Missouri, also defended Mr. Hawley.“Bernie Sanders did not cause the attempted mass assassination of Republican Members of Congress, James Hodgkinson did,” Mr. Morgan wrote on Twitter, referring to a liberal activist who opened fire on Republican lawmakers during a softball practice in 2017. “Josh Hawley & Ted Cruz did not cause an angry mob to invade the Capitol and murder a Capitol Police.”Leaders of the Missouri Republican Party did not respond to interview requests on Friday. But their most recent Facebook post — celebrating National Missouri Day and written before the chaos on Wednesday — started drawing comments suggesting that party leaders begin searching for a candidate to mount a primary challenge to Roy Blunt, Missouri’s senior Republican senator, who voted to certify the election results.The former head of Missouri’s Republican Party, Jean Evans, said that she resigned from the position before the events on Wednesday in response to people demanding that the party bus people to protest in Washington and calling for violent behavior.“I was concerned and alarmed by what I was hearing from certain elements within the party calling for a coup,” Ms. Evans told a local television station.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    Trump Administration Politicized Some Intelligence on Foreign Election Influence, Report Finds

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    Election Results: Biden Wins

    Electoral College Votes

    Congress Defies Mob

    Georgia Runoff Results

    Democrats Win Senate Control

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    Bobi Wine Petitions The Hague, Citing Human Rights Violations

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyUganda Opposition Candidate, Citing Abuses, Petitions International CourtThe leading opposition presidential candidate, Bobi Wine, urged the International Criminal Court to investigate human rights violations that have intensified in the run-up to this month’s election.Bobi Wine, Uganda’s leading opposition figure, was pulled from his car by the police on Thursday. He has filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court accusing the country’s president of authorizing a campaign of violence against opposition politicians and their supporters ahead of next week’s general election.CreditCredit…Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesJan. 8, 2021Updated 5:39 p.m. ETNAIROBI, Kenya — Uganda’s leading opposition figure has filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court against the country’s president and nine security officials, accusing them of authorizing a wave of violence and human rights abuses that has intensified in the run-up to next week’s general election.The complaint, filed in The Hague on Thursday by the opposition leader, Bobi Wine, also accused the Ugandan government of incitement to murder, the abuse of protesters, and arrests and beatings of political figures and human rights lawyers. Mr. Wine, a popular musician-turned-lawmaker, said the government of President Yoweri Museveni had not only subjected him to arrests and beatings, but had also tried to kill him, beginning in 2018.Mr. Wine, 38, is the leading contender among 10 candidates trying to unseat Mr. Museveni, who has ruled Uganda, a landlocked nation in East Africa, since 1986. Mr. Museveni, though once credited with bringing stability to the country, has in recent years been accused of subverting civil liberties, muzzling the press and stifling dissent.Mr. Museveni, 76, is campaigning for his sixth term in office, after signing a law in 2018 scrapping the age limit for presidential candidates, which had been 75. He is largely expected to win the upcoming vote. Political analysts say that he faces a fragmented opposition, and he won plaudits for championing infrastructure projects — from new factories to hospitals and roads. He has also capitalized on the notion that his government has handled the pandemic competently; Uganda has reported only 290 coronavirus-related deaths.Mr. Wine and others have faced the wrath of authorities in recent years, but the clampdown has intensified as the election, scheduled for Jan. 14, has neared. While Mr. Museveni has been allowed to hold campaign events, the government has broken up or impeded rallies held by his opponents, saying these events violate rules intended to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.The crackdown on nationwide protests has led to the deaths of at least 54 people, and the arrest of hundreds, according to authorities.Joining Mr. Wine in the complaint filed to the International Criminal Court were Francis Zaake, an opposition lawmaker who said he had been assaulted by security forces, and Amos Katumba, the chairman of a local nongovernmental organization who fled to the United States after he said he had been arrested and tortured.“I am glad that we are able to raise a case against General Museveni and his other generals and the people that he’s using to massacre the people of Uganda,” Mr. Wine, using Mr. Museveni’s full military rank, said in an online news conference on Thursday.A government spokesman did not respond to a text message seeking comment.Billboards of President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda in Kampala.Credit…Sumy Sadurni/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesWhile Mr. Wine was speaking to the news media on Thursday, security officers thronged the vehicle he was inside, setting off tear gas and firing shots.Wearing a helmet and flak jacket, Mr. Wine, a performer whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, said he “expected a live bullet targeted at me any time.”The court filing came hours after Mr. Wine said security officers had waylaid him on the campaign trail and arrested all 23 members of his campaign team. He also said he had received information that his children would be kidnapped, prompting him to send them out of the country.Mr. Wine’s attempts to campaign have been repeatedly interrupted. On Nov. 3, just after submitting their nomination papers, he and another candidate, Patrick Amuriat, were detained by the police. In mid-November, Mr. Wine was arrested on accusations that his rallies breached coronavirus rules — inciting the protests across the country that resulted in deaths, injuries and arrests. After he was denied access to his family and lawyers for two days, Mr. Wine was charged and released on bail.In recent weeks, authorities have also arrested civil society activists, including the prominent human rights lawyer Nicholas Opiyo who was held on money laundering charges. Police officers have also harassed and beaten journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (C.P.J.), and deported a news crew with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.“What we’ve seen since November is incredibly worrying and shocking,” Muthoki Mumo, the C.P.J. sub-Saharan Africa representative, said in an interview. “It’s just unabated violence against journalists. It has become downright dangerous being a journalist reporting on the opposition during this election.”Martin Okoth, the inspector general of police, said in a news conference on Friday that he would not apologize for the police beating journalists because the police were trying to protect them.“We shall beat you for your own sake, to help you understand,” Mr. Okoth said, adding that journalists should not go to areas that the police deem unsafe or out of bounds.Police dispersing crowds as they gathered to welcome Mr. Wine in Kayunga last month.Credit…Sumy Sadurni/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe wave of arrests and intimidation has alarmed foreign embassies and human rights organizations, with a group of United Nations human rights experts calling on the government to cease the violence and create “an environment conducive to peaceful and transparent elections.”The 47-page filing to the International Criminal Court contains detailed accounts, photos and links to videos alleging human rights abuses committed or sanctioned by Mr. Museveni and nine current and former officials.The court has jurisdiction over allegations of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of aggression. The prosecutor’s office confirmed in an email on Friday that they had received the brief and would review the allegations and inform the petitioners of the next steps.Uganda is a party to the International Criminal Court and has sought the court’s help in arresting Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, who is wanted on 33 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. If it decides to accept Mr. Wine’s petition, the court would gather evidence by speaking to victims and witnesses and send investigators to collect testimony in areas where purported crimes took place.Bruce Afran, the lawyer who filed the complaint on behalf of Mr. Wine, argued that the court would have jurisdiction because the complaint alleges an “extensive and repetitive pattern and practice of torture as to political figures and opposition figures.”“One of the critical factors is the regular and routinized pattern of torture and abuse,” Mr. Afran said, asserting that it had become “Ugandan government policy.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More