Evening Briefing: House Democrats push forward on impeaching Trump

January 11, 2021

Your Monday Evening Briefing

By Victoria Shannon and Judith Levitt

Good evening. Here’s the latest.

1. House Democrats introduced an article of impeachment against President Trump for inciting a mob that attacked the Capitol last week.

The process for acting on it may take until Wednesday. Today, Republicans blocked a separate move to ask Vice President Mike Pence to strip Mr. Trump of power under the 25th Amendment, leading the House to call for a full vote on Tuesday.

If Mr. Pence does not intervene “within 24 hours” after its passage and the president does not resign, House leaders said they would move on Wednesday to consider the impeachment resolution on the floor, just a week after the attack.

Already more than 210 Democrats have signed on to the charge, just shy of a majority of the House. Several Republicans were said to be considering voting to impeach for the first time, though party leaders were opposed.

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Brendan Smialowski/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

2. The siege of the Capitol is turning Big Business and prestige away from President Trump.

Morgan Stanley, Marriott, Dow, AT&T, Coca-Cola and Airbnb are among the companies suspending contributions to members of Congress who did not vote to certify the results of the Electoral College last week.

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Some big banks — Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup, among them — are pausing all political donations. Other entities have stripped President Trump of honorary degrees, and one withdrew a major golf tournament set for a Trump club next year.

Meanwhile, the New York State Bar Association said it is investigating President Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, citing his role in the “violent uprising” at the Capitol. Mr. Giuliani, above, addressed Mr. Trump’s supporters that day, telling them, “Let’s have trial by combat.”

Erin Schaff/The New York Times

3. Threats of violence against state capitols, as well as the inauguration.

The F.B.I. has sent information to local law enforcement about the potential for armed protests outside all 50 state capitols that are being organized and promoted by far-right extremist groups. Above, members of the National Guard patrolling the Capitol.

In Michigan, a commission voted to ban the open carry of firearms inside the State Capitol. In Wisconsin, workers boarded up the windows of the state legislative building.

The National Guard plans to deploy up to 15,000 troops to Washington for the inauguration next week to guard against any violent attempt by pro-Trump mobs. About 6,000 troops from six states have already arrived. Sixteen groups — some of them armed and most of them hard-line supporters of the president — have registered to stage protests.

In the days since the siege in Washington, federal and local authorities have arrested almost 100 people who they said were involved. More arrests are expected as investigators scrutinize photographs, videos and social media to identify the protesters. The F.B.I. has received more than 40,000 tips.

Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times

4. William Burns, a career State Department official, is Joe Biden’s pick to run the C.I.A.

In selecting Mr. Burns, the president-elect is turning to an experienced diplomat with whom he has worked on various foreign policy issues during the Obama administration and while Mr. Biden led the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Mr. Biden said Mr. Burns’s first task would be to make sure that intelligence collection and analysis was not influenced by politics after years of President Trump’s attacks on the intelligence agencies. Mr. Burns has extensive experience with Iran and Russia.

The president-elect also said that he had spoken to House and Senate Democrats about possibly splitting Congress’s work days after the inauguration between impeachment and confirming his nominees and passing his agenda. He noted that his top priority is the passage of a new economic stimulus plan and repairing the economy.

Alex Welsh for The New York Times

5. Coronavirus outbreaks shift across the U.S.

The nation’s total virus deaths surpassed 375,000 today, according to our database. And the seven-day average of Covid-19 deaths broke 3,000 a day, reaching 3,249 on Sunday.

California alone reported more than 3,300 virus deaths in the week that ended Sunday. The five worst-hit states are scattered around the country: Arizona, California, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and South Carolina are averaging the most daily new cases per person. Above, mourners of a coronavirus victim in Whittier, Calif., in December.

As of today, nearly nine million people had received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, far short of the federal goal of 20 million people or more by Dec. 31. President-elect Joe Biden received his own second injection today.

Mohamed Sadek for The New York Times

6. Small business loans are restarting. But watch the fine print.

A second round of loans to the hardest-hit businesses will begin this week, after Congress allocated $284 billion to restart last year’s Paycheck Protection Program.

But the hastily constructed rules of the pandemic relief program sometimes led to absurd outcomes: Roughly 300 business received loans of $99 or less last year. “That’s supposed to help my business? It was a joke,” said one small business owner who was awarded a $13 loan.

When the nation’s businesses look ahead, many say that hanging on is their chief goal. The biggest companies, on the other hand, are positioning themselves for what could be a surge in consumption this year when the pandemic recedes. Above, storefronts in Westwood, N.J., at Christmas.

Karlotta Freier

7. An at-home alternative to a colonoscopy.

In some big health care systems, prospective colonoscopy patients are instead getting a home test kit by mail.

Health experts say these fecal immunochemical tests are safer than colonoscopies and do as good a job — with no uncomfortable prep and no need to skip work or find someone to drive you home after anesthesia.

In other health news:

Scientists found in a new, large international study that people who tended to eat minimally processed foods like vegetables, nuts, eggs and seafood were more likely to harbor beneficial bacteria in their gut, compared with those who ate more processed foods.
In a small clinical trial, an experimental Alzheimer’s drug from Eli Lilly slowed the rate at which patients lost the ability to think and care for themselves. Drug recipients had a 32 percent deceleration in the rate of decline, compared with those who got a placebo.

And researchers found that 97.5 degrees Fahrenheit was the new normal body temperature, down from the standard 98.6 established in 1867. As our Personal Health columnist notes, some fevers are good for us.

Lynne Sladky/Associated Press

8. College football is looking to crown a national champion.

Top-ranked Alabama will meet No. 3 Ohio State at 8 p.m. Eastern at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla., to end a season that routinely dealt in controversy and often teetered toward collapse.

Both teams are bringing mighty offenses, and both are facing questions about whether certain stars will be able to play. Above, outside the stadium last week. We’re following the game live.

Separately, President Trump plans to award New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick the Presidential Medal of Freedom this week, though there have been calls for Belichick to decline it. Representative Jim McGovern, a Democrat from Massachusetts, called accepting the award “disgraceful” in light of the Capitol riot.

John Dominis/The LIFE Images Collection, via Getty Images

9. In the beginning of reality TV.

Before “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” before the Kardashians, before the idea of unscripted lives on camera became a TV staple, there was a program on public television called “An American Family” with a startling female character named Pat Loud.

A California mother of five, she drank, plotted her divorce and accepted her openly gay son, all on camera — in 1973. She was the first reality television star on the first reality show.

Ms. Loud (center front, above) died on Sunday at her home in Los Angeles at age 94.

From left: CBS; Jeopardy Productions

10. And finally, can anyone replace Alex Trebek?

“Jeopardy!” began a new era without Mr. Trebek (above right), its host of 36 years, who died in November and whose last episode was broadcast Friday.

The program will turn to a series of interim hosts at first. It’s up to the TV producer Mike Richards — who helped “The Price Is Right” thrive with its new host, Drew Carey, when Bob Barker (above left) retired — to find a permanent successor, and he’s taking it slowly.

The trial period starts with Ken Jennings, the record-breaking “Jeopardy!” contestant, who has already taped at least 30 episodes.

We’ll take pleasant evenings for $1,000, friends.

Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern.

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