Good morning, NBC News readers.
President Donald Trump could become the first president to get impeached twice as he faces more backlash for inciting the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Here’s what we're watching this Monday morning.
Pelosi to Pence: Invoke 25th Amendment or we'll impeach
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday that lawmakers will move forward with impeaching President Donald Trump if other efforts to remove him from office fail.
Pelosi said Sunday that the House will formally call on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and declare that Trump is incapable of executing the duties of his office. If the vice president refuses, Pelosi said the House will impeach the president.
House Majority Whip Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., suggested that the House could take up the articles of impeachment against Trump early this week, but may wait to send them to the Senate until after President-elect Joe Biden's first 100 days in office.
The moves come as the president faces more blowback from within his own party for the violent mob attack on the U.S. Capitol he helped incite.
Sen. Pat Toomey was the latest Republican to call for Trump to immediately resign Sunday for "recruiting thousands of Americans" and "inciting them to attack the Capitol building" last week.
"The best way for our country," Toomey said on NBC News' "Meet the Press," is "for the president to resign and go away as soon as possible."
Many other members of the GOP have either remained silent or are still giving Trump's voter fraud lies that fueled the riot in the first place oxygen.
Two men holding zip-tie handcuffs among rioters arrested over weekend
Over the weekend, more disturbing images and video emerged from the mayhem and violence at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday as FBI officials across the country scrambled to make arrests.
Two men who were pictured carrying zip-tie style handcuffs and wearing tactical gear were charged Sunday in federal court with violently entering the Capitol and disorderly conduct, authorities said.
The man pictured gleefully carrying Pelosi's lectern away was also arrested, as well as a West Virginia legislator and the known QAnon supporter shown wearing a horned helmet and furs.
Counterterrorism experts expressed concern that many in the mob demonstrated police or military expertise and have led law enforcement from New York to California to investigate whether members of their own forces had participated.
The rush to identify and arrest those involved in the violent attack on the Capitol comes as more questions are raised about the failure to contain the rioters.
The FBI and the New York City Police Department passed information to U.S. Capitol Police about the possibility of violence during the protests against the counting of the Electoral College vote, senior law enforcement officials told NBC News.
The previously unreported details undercut the assertion by a top FBI official that officials had no indication that violence was a possibility.
Sadly, another Capitol Police officer who responded to the pro-Trump riots has died.
Officer Howard Liebengood, a 15-year veteran of the U.S Capitol Police, died off-duty on Saturday. The Capitol Police confirmed his death, but did not disclose the cause.
More on the fallout from the riot:
- Parler, "Twitter for conservatives," went offline Monday after Amazon Web Services suspended it from its server for violent content.
- The PGA pulled a major 2022 tournament from Trump's Bedminster golf club saying it would be "detrimental" to their brand.
- Stripe, the online payment processor for Trump's campaign, also cut ties with him over the weekend.
- "I am disappointed and disheartened": Melania Trump makes her first comments about the attack on the Capitol.
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Plus
- Biden picks veteran diplomat William Burns as his nominee for CIA Director.
- "It's gone completely crazy": The U.K. faces a Covid crisis as the mutant strain overwhelms hospitals.
- Who decides when there are surveillance helicopters? Experts weigh in on the National Guard monitoring protests.
THINK about it
The Capitol riots prove we need to strengthen our democracy. That begins with voting rights, Sen Ron Wyden, D-Ore., writes in an opinion piece.
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Quote of the day
"The mob did not just shatter the windows of the Capitol. They shattered the ideas we took for granted."
—Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger blasted fellow Republicans and compared the Capitol riot to the Nazi assault known as Kristallnacht in a video statement Sunday.
One patriotic thing
One photo that went viral last week was different from many of the others.
It showed Rep. Andy Kim, D-N.J., cleaning up the floor of the Capitol rotunda long after the rioters had left.
"I was just overwhelmed with emotion," Kim, 38, told NBC Asian America. "It’s a room that I love so much — it’s the heart of the Capitol, literally the heart of this country. It pained me so much to see it in this kind of condition."
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Thanks, Petra
