‘I want him out’ Murkowski becomes first Senate Republican to call for Trump to resign

Twitter on Friday permanently suspended President Trump from the site, meting out its toughest punishment two days after a deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol, “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”

Twitter said Trump’s recent tweets — praising his supporters as “great American patriots” and announcing that he would not attend the inauguration of Joe Biden as the next president of the United States — together threatened to ratchet up tensions as the country is still reeling from the storming of Congress by a pro-Trump mob Wednesday.

The suspension amounted to a historic rebuke for a president who had used the social networking site to help his rise to political prominence. Twitter had been Trump’s primary megaphone, the tool he tapped to push his policies, spread falsehoods, savage his critics and speak to more than 88 million users almost every day.

Read the story here.

A new PAC, No Excuses, is reserving radio ad time in West Virginia to urge Sen. Joe Manchin III (D) to back $2,000 stimulus checks, after Manchin gave mixed signals about his support for one of Biden’s campaign promises.

"Joe Manchin thinks he knows better than both our president and the Democrats," says the radio ad, which the PAC will begin running on Monday. "I guess Joe just don't know what it's been like to live through the pandemic. We should call his office and let him know."

The spot is narrated by Corbin Trent, a co-founder of the PAC and former spokesman for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who has sometimes sparred with Manchin over their different political visions. Trent and Zack Exley, both founders of Justice Democrats, put the PAC together within hours of Manchin telling The Washington Post that he would “absolutely not” support $2,000 checks without some conditions.

Manchin initially seemed to suggest in an interview with The Post that he was “absolutely” opposed to a new round of checks. He clarified in a follow-up interview that he could potentially support more checks if they were narrow in scope and targeted for people who really need them.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans blame Trump for the deadly mob attack on the Capitol, and just under half say he should be removed from office over it, according to a PBS NewsHour-Marist poll released Friday evening.

While 63 percent of Americans say Trump holds a great or good deal of blame for the riot, 35 percent say he was not responsible. The poll found nearly the identical breakdown in public opinion over the legitimacy of the election results, with 64 percent saying they trust them and 35 percent saying they do not.

While more Americans blame Trump for what happened, just under half, 48 percent, say it warranted removing him from office, compared with 49 percent who say he should not be removed.

The survey found that 88 percent opposed the actions of the rioters and 81 percent say they are worried that divisions in the country threaten the future of American democracy.

Still, 72 percent say the nation’s democracy is likely to survive, while 21 percent say it is not.

A four-page draft of the House Democrats’ articles of impeachment against Trump charges him with “incitement of insurrection,” and say he has “betrayed his trust as President,” according to a copy obtained by The Washington Post.

“In all of this, President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of government. He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coordinate branch of government. He thereby betrayed his trust as President, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States,” the document reads.

Pelosi said she is prepared to move forward with a motion for impeachment as well as legislation creating an independent commission to determine the president’s fitness to serve under the 25th Amendment.

“It is the hope of Members that the President will immediately resign. But if he does not, I have instructed the Rules Committee to be prepared to move forward with Congressman Jamie Raskin’s 25th Amendment legislation and a motion for impeachment,” she said. “Accordingly, the House will preserve every option — including the 25th Amendment, a motion to impeach or a privileged resolution for impeachment.”

The draft resolution says Trump will “remain a threat to national security, democracy, and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office, and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with self-governance and the rule of law. President Trump thus warrants impeachment and trial, removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States.”

Read the draft here.

The White House responded to House Democrats’ plans to file articles of impeachment on Monday against President Trump, calling the decision “politically motivated” and warned it would “further divide our great country.”

“As President Trump said yesterday, this is a time for healing and unity as one nation,” said White House spokesman Judd Deere. “A politically motivated impeachment against a president, who has done a great job, with 12 days remaining in his term, will only serve to further divide our great country.”

Deere is referring to a statement Trump read on Thursday in which he effectively conceded that he had lost the presidential election, saying there would be a new administration.

House Democrats plan to charge Trump with inciting an insurrection that "gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of government.” Even though there are only 12 days left in Trump’s presidency, Democrats have resoundingly agreed that Trump should be held accountable for his role in provoking the violent attack on the Capitol.

In a scathing rebuke of Trump, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a moderate from Alaska, became the first GOP senator to call for him to step down before his presidency ends and said Wednesday’s attack on the U.S. Capitol is making her rethink being a Republican.

“I want him to resign. I want him out. He has caused enough damage,” Murkowski told the Anchorage Daily News in an interview.

“I think he should leave. He said he’s not going to show up. He’s not going to appear at the inauguration. He hasn’t been focused on what is going on with covid. He’s either been golfing or he’s been inside the Oval Office fuming and throwing every single person who has been loyal and faithful to him under the bus, starting with the vice president,” she continued. “He doesn’t want to stay there. He only wants to stay there for the title. He only wants to stay there for his ego. He needs to get out. He needs to do the good thing, but I don’t think he’s capable of doing a good thing.”

A critic of Trump’s rhetoric, Murkowski has been faulted for not doing more to stand up to the president. When Trump’s presidency was on the line, she did not vote to hear additional witnesses during the Senate impeachment trial.

Murkowski, who is part of a dwindling faction of moderate Republican lawmakers, said she could consider leaving the Republican Party. In 2010, she won reelection as a write-in candidate running as an independent after losing the GOP primary in the tea party wave year.

“But I will tell you, if the Republican Party has become nothing more than the party of Trump, I sincerely question whether this is the party for me,” she said in the interview.

Republicans can’t threaten Murkowski with a primary when her term ends in 2022. This year, Alaska passed ranked choice voting, in which candidates of any party will run in an open primary and voters will rank them in order of preference.

The Eighty Percent Coalition, a pro-Trump group, on Friday withdrew its application to hold a Jan. 16 rally on the Mall, just days before Biden’s swearing-in.

The organization had hosted a “Rally to Save America” on Tuesday evening at Freedom Plaza, featuring President Trump’s confidant Roger Stone and “Infowars” host Alex Jones. Cindy Chafian, who used to work for the pro-Trump women’s group that hosted the gathering that devolved into rioting at the Capitol on Wednesday, is listed as the founder of the Eighty Percent Coalition.

National Park Service spokesman Mike Litterst confirmed the group’s withdrawal of its permit application in an email. Chafian, who put in the Jan. 16 permit request, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

Park Service officials are continuing to process several permit applications for gatherings on the Mall in the run-up to the inauguration, though the violence that broke out Wednesday has made these decisions more fraught.

There are at least four other D.C. rallies planned between now and Jan. 23, according to the agency, including a small event Jan. 16 organized by ISKCON of DC whose stated goal is to “attract people to God with music and books” in front of the National Museum of Natural History. It has received a permit, while three others — one conservative and two liberal — are still being processed.

The Answer Coalition, a national group, has also asked to put on a demonstration next weekend, “demanding urgent action to save the environment, end war & militarism, prioritize money to meet peoples [sic] needs.” A bikers’ group called Let Americans Hear us, Roar for Trump has requested a permit to rally Jan. 21 at eight sites — including Lafayette Square “to support our President.” It predicts that 300 people will take part.

The worker-owned collective D.C. Action Lab, meanwhile, has applied to stage a “free speech demonstration against the inauguration” on Jan. 23, at 15 sites throughout the city, that it estimates will attract 5,000 people.

Lehigh University on Friday revoked an honorary degree it awarded to Donald Trump in 1988, stripping the president of the honor two days after he gave a speech that incited a mob to breach the Capitol and disrupt the congressional session that affirmed Biden’s win.

The private university in Bethlehem, Pa., announced the action in a short statement to its community:

“In a special session Thursday of the Executive Committee of the Lehigh University Board of Trustees, the members voted to rescind and revoke the honorary degree granted to Donald J. Trump in 1988. The full Board of Trustees affirmed the decision today.”

A Lehigh spokeswoman said the university has no plans to elaborate on the statement.