Donald Trump latest news LIVE – Capitol cop KILLED by MAGA thugs who hit him with fire extinguisher as impeachment looms
NANCY Pelosi has called on Mike Pence to invoke the 25th amendment and remove Donald Trump from office "immediately".
The House speaker said if this does not happen her caucus will move ahead with impeachment – and termed the president “a very dangerous person who should not continue in office.”
Mr Trump was also banned from Facebook until his presidency ends, the tech giant revealed today.
It comes after four people died during a night of carnage in the heart of American government when heavily armed Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol building.
The President has been widely accused of "orchestrating" the riot by spreading unsubstantiated conspiracy theories about the 2020 Election and holding a fiery rally in Washington DC shortly before the riot.
One of those who died was former US Air Force veteran Ashli Babbit of San Diego, who in a graphic video was seen being shot by Capitol police after trying to climb through a broken window and enter the Chamber.
Follow all the latest developments via our live blog below...
- Niamh Cavanagh
DON AND DUSTED
Donald Trump could face impeachment charges over Wednesday's riot at the US Capitol as early as today, congresswoman Ihlan Omar has said.
Senior figures from both parties have called for the President to be removed from office over his role in inciting the unrest – a move that could stop him running for a second term in 2024.
Wednesday saw hundreds of Trump supporters storm the Capitol building in an attempt to stop the certification of Joe Biden's win in November's election.
Since the vote, the President has repeatedly made unfounded claims of voter fraud and brought numerous legal cases to try to contest the result.
Speaking at a rally near the White House just hours before the riot, Trump said: "We're going to walk down to the Capitol.
"And we're gonna cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.
"And we're probably not going to be cheering, so much for some of them, because you'll never take back our country with weakness, you have to show strength and you have to be strong."
- Niamh Cavanagh
CONTINUED
Pence's refusal comes after Trump repeatedly lashed out at him for refusing to try to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden's election win.
"Mike Pence, I hope you're going to stand up for the good of our Constitution and the good of our country and if you're not, I'm going to be very disappointed in you," Trump said in a speech.
Schumer said he and Pelosi had tried to call Pence on Thursday to discuss the removal of Trump, but they could not connect with him.
The top Democratic leaders have called for immediate impeachment proceedings if Pence refuses to take steps to remove Trump from power.
"If the Vice President and the Cabinet refuse to stand up, Congress should reconvene to impeach the president," Schumer said on Thursday.
"The president's dangerous and seditious acts necessitate his immediate removal from office," the pair added in a statement last night.
- Niamh Cavanagh
WAR GAMES
Mike Pence has reportedly opposed plans to impeach Donald Trump after Mike Pompeo and Nancy Pelosi plotted to oust the president with the 25th Amendment.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin discussed the possibility of removing Trump after Wednesday's riots in Washington DC, sources told CNBC.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer also called for invoking the 25th Amendment of the US Constitution to force Trump from office before January 20.
The unprecedented step allows the vice president and the Cabinet to declare the president unfit for office.
But Vice President Mike Pence will not support the calls to expel the president from office, according to Business Insider.
Two aides to the vice president said there is "no way" he would participate in the ousting of Trump.
The aides worried taking the step "could spiral the country even further into chaos and partisan divide".
- Niamh Cavanagh
CONTINUED
In her resignation letter DeVos directly cited that the Capitol breach was the reasons and blamed President Trump’s ‘’rhetoric’’ for making the situation worse.
DeVos said she was quitting “in support of the oath I took to our Constitution, our people, and our freedoms.” The riot was seen as an "inflection point" for her.
"Impressionable children are watching all of this and they are learning from us," she said.
"I believe we each have a moral obligation to exercise good judgement and model the behavior we hope they would emulate. They must know from us that America is greater than what transpired yesterday."
"To that end, today I resign from my position effective Friday, January 8, in support of the oath I took to our Constitution, our people, and our freedoms," she continued.
DeVos’ tenure hasn’t been an easy one, with Democratic congresswoman Frederica Wilson telling the education secretary back in 2019: “When you approach a public school, you are protested,”
“When you enter, you are booed. You are the most unpopular person in our government. Millions will register to vote in 2020. Many will vote to remove you more than to remove the president.”
- Niamh Cavanagh
NOT WARREN-TED
Betsy DeVos has been dubbed ‘worst Secretary of Education ever’ by Elizabeth Warren after she sensationally quit over the Capitol riots.
Senator Warren wished Donald Trump's schools chief "good riddance" after four years of cuts to her own education department.
The Tweet read: “Betsy DeVos has never done her job to help America’s students. It doesn’t surprise me one bit that she’d rather quit than do her job to help invoke the 25th Amendment,”
“Good riddance, Betsy. You were the worst Secretary of Education ever.”
DeVos is the second Trump cabinet member to resign following the storming of the Capitol on Wednesday.
Pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol building, causing chaos leading to DeVos and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao tendering their resignations.
- Niamh Cavanagh
CONTINUED
“There is no mistaking the impact your rhetoric had on the situation, and it is an inflection point for me," DeVos wrote.
She added that “impressionable children are watching from all of this, and they are learning from us," and said that the country's leaders have a moral obligation to show good judgement to the youth.
“They must know from us that America is greater than what transpired yesterday," she wrote.
DeVos said she was quitting “in support of the oath I took to our Constitution, our people, and our freedoms.”
More on the story here.
- Niamh Cavanagh
DEVOSTATED
Edi Secretary Betsy DeVos has resigned over the Capitol riot, making her the second member of President Donald Trump's cabinet to quit.
DeVos submitted her resignation to Trump on Thursday night, The Wall Street Journal reported, stating that the riot was an "inflection point" for her.
In a letter to Trump obtained by CNBC, DeVos said she would depart on Friday and emphasized the need to set a good example for the younger generation.
“We should be highlighting and celebrating your Administration’s many accomplishments on behalf of the American people,” DeVos wrote.
“Instead, we are left to clean up the mess caused by violent protestors overrunning the US Capitol in an attempt to undermine the people’s business."
DeVos said that the behavior was "unconscionable" for the US and blamed Trump for his supporters' protest that was aimed at preventing Congress from certifying President-elect Joe Biden's win.
- Niamh Cavanagh
WHAT DATE WILL TRUMP CONCEDE?
Trump will concede on January 20.
While there is no formal rule of concession, ideally the president typically concedes prior to the president-elect’s inauguration in January.
President Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, claimed that the president was “not going to concede” – breaking a 124-year tradition.
William Howell, chair of the political science department at the University of Chicago, told the South Coast Today that it “will be truly harmful” if Trump did not concede.
“Concession speeches are a kind of affirmation about the legitimacy of elections,” he said.
They’re about losing candidates recognizing the outcome and calling on their followers to do the same, “which is essential for the health of our democracy,” Howell added.
- Niamh Cavanagh
WHAT DID TRUMP SAY IN HIS SPEECH YESTERDAY?
Trump admitted to defeat in a video message he shared on Twitter on January 7, in which he slammed the Capitol riots as "heinous."
It was the first time the outgoing commander in chief recognized Biden as president for the first time – though Trump avoided mentioning him directly by name.
"Now Congress has certified the results, a new Administration will be inaugurated on January 20," Trump said, acknowledging for the first time that he would not be serving a second term as president.
"My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power," he continued.
In an earlier statement released by the White House, Trump said even though he "totally disagreed" with the election results, he'd take part in a transition with Biden.
“Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th,” it read.
- Niamh Cavanagh
CONTINUED
“We were cheated. I don’t think 75 million people voted for Trump — I think it was close to 85 million," Mostofsky told the Post.
"I think certain states that have been red for a long time turned blue and were stolen, like New York.”
Shlomo Mostofsky couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Thursday.
But his sibling, Nachman Mostofsky, told the outlet: “My brother did nothing illegal…He definitely was not part of the riot.”
Like the vast majority of those who breached the capitol, Mostofsky was permitted to leave without arrest.
Another who smiled and waved for a photo as he looted Nancy Pelosi's lectern has been identified as Adam Johnson – a 36-year-old psychology graduate turned furniture maker from Bradenton, Florida.
He is a stay-at-home dad to five children; his wife is a doctor, according to The Bradenton Herald. He has previously faced possession of marijuana and violation of probation charges, the paper reports.
Photos on his now-deleted social media accounts show him posing next to a sign reading "closed to all tours" inside the building.
Johnson is also not believed to have been arrested in relation to the riots.
- Niamh Cavanagh
RIOT ACT
Two Capitol rioters whose pictures were widely circulated on social media have been identified as the son of a supreme court judge and a stay-at-home dad.
Aaron Mostofsky, of New York City, has been named as one of the hundreds of rioters who ransacked the US Capitol in a deadly siege on Wednesday.
Dressed in fur pelts and a bulletproof vest, Mostofsky joined protesters who swarmed the halls of Congress, according to the Gothamist.
He was pictured in widely circulated photographs while walking down the stairs outside the Senate Chamber in the bizarre outfit while also carrying a walking stick.
Mostofsky is the son of Shlomo Mostofsky, a Brooklyn Supreme Court judge according to Gothamist.
His brother, Nachman Mostofsky, is vice president of the South Brooklyn Conservative Club, and an elected district leader in the borough.
He also attended the rally but said he left before the group entered the Capitol building.
- Niamh Cavanagh
CONTINUED
US Capitol Police said: "The death of Officer Sicknick will be investigated by the Metropolitan Police Department’s Homicide Branch, the USCP, and our federal partners.
"Officer Sicknick joined the USCP in July 2008, and most recently served in the Department’s First Responder’s Unit.
"The entire USCP Department expresses its deepest sympathies to Officer Sicknick’s family and friends on their loss, and mourns the loss of a friend and colleague."
More than 50 Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Department officers were injured, according to authorities, as a result of protests aimed at preventing Congress from certifying President-elect Joe Biden's win.
Four Trump fanatics who have died have been identified as Ashli Babbitt, 35, who was shot dead in the Capitol building; while Roseanne Boyland, 34, Kevin Greeson, 55, and Benjamin Phillips, 50, died after suffering "medical emergencies."
- Niamh Cavanagh
COP KILLED
A US Capitol Police officer who was hit in the head by a fire extinguisher when Trump supporters rioted at the Capitol died from his injuries on Thursday evening.
Officer Brian D. Sicknick was hurt in a clash with MAGA rioters on Wednesday and returned to his division office where he collapsed, police said.
The officer was taken to a nearby hospital where he was placed on life support, according to Capitol Police union chairman Gus Papathanasiou.
He died of his injures around 9:30pm on Thursday, the US Capitol Police said early on Friday.
A rioter assaulted the officer with the extinguisher, a source told NewsNation on Thursday.
Earlier on Thursday, CNN mistakenly reported based on three sources that the officer had already died.
- Niamh Cavanagh
WHAT DOES THE CONFEDERATE FLAG MEAN?
The flag is based on battle flags used by a number of armies in the American civil war between Southern slave-owning states and rest of the Union in the north.
The most well known was the banner flown by General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.
It bore the familiar white stars on a blue cross set against a red background.
After the war it became a symbol of rebel pride and was also known as the Dixie flag and the Southern Cross.
Later in the early 20th century it was adopted by the Ku Klux Klan as it waged a white supremacist terror campaign against black people.
Its appearance in the 1939 film Gone With The Wind inspired a widespread nostalgia for the flag a symbol of the Old South.
Supporters who use it today say it represents Southern US heritage and the sovereignty of individual states.
It still appears in the corner of the official flag of Mississippi, the only US state flag that includes it since Georgia changed its design in 2001.
- Niamh Cavanagh
CONTINUED
“I can see her yelling but I don’t see her breaking s*** or trying to hurt people.
"She was not that type of person."
He added: “I’m in shock, I just can’t believe it.
“The whole family were so proud of her. She believed in Trump and our democracy."
Ashli is one of four people who died after a night of carnage in Washington.
Before her death, she claimed social media there were more than three million rioters marching alongside her.
- Niamh Cavanagh
‘SHE BELIEVED IN TRUMP’
The uncle of the Air Force Veteran shot in the Capitol riot in DC says she would never hurt anybody and their family are “too heartbroken” to watch graphic footage of her death, The Sun can exclusively report.
Ashli Babbitt, 35, was seen in disturbing footage being gunned down by police after trying to climb through a broken window and enter the Chamber as chaos erupted in Washington on Wednesday.
Fighting back tears, Ashli’s uncle, Mike Mazziott, told The US Sun: “She loved her country, she wasn't trying to hurt anybody.
“She was trying to improve our country and get her voice heard with like-minded people.
"I found out when my sister, Ashli’s mom, called me. My sister is a total train wreck, I can’t even describe how bad she is right now.
“We haven’t looked at any of the footage, it’s too heartbreaking. She wouldn’t have been armed, she was a protester with a flag."
- Justin Lawrence
DONALD TRUMP COULD FACE CRIMINAL CHARGES FOR CAPITOL CHAOS AS PROSECUTORS LOOK AT 'ALL ACTORS'
DONALD TRUMP could face criminal charges for his role in the Capitol riots as prosecutors say they are looking at everyone involved in the unrest.
Acting U.S. Attorney for Columbia Michael Sherwin said they are looking at all actors involved in the unrest at the US Capitol on Wednesday, including the role President Donald Trump played in inciting the crowd.
He said: "We're looking at all actors here and anyone that had a role and, if the evidence fits the elements of the crime, they're going to be charged."
Former FBI Deputy Assistant Director Danny Coulson told Fox News that the riots on Thursday the incident was 'instigator-generated'.
The rioters had been stirred up by President Trump, who has spent weeks falsely attacking the 2020 election’s integrity and had urged supporters to protest Congress's formal approval of Biden's victory.
- Jessica Kwong
CAPITOL POLICE OFFICER DIES, BRINGING RIOT DEATH TOLL TO 5
US Capitol Police officer Brian D. Sicknick died on Thursday night from injuries he sustained as Trump supporters stormed the building the prior day.
Sicknick was hurt in a clash with MAGA fans and returned to his division office before collapsing, police said in a statement.
Police union chairman Gus Papathanasiou said Sicknick was transported to a local hospital and put on life support.
Sicknick succumbed to his injuries around 9:30pm on Thursday.
Read the full story here.
- Jessica Kwong
200 PLUS LAWMAKERS CALL FOR TRUMP’S REMOVAL
More than 200 members of the House of Representatives and Senate are calling for President Donald Trump to be removed from the White House as of Thursday night, according to NBC News.
All the lawmakers who support Trump’s removal are Democrats or independents, with Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger the lone Republican.
They have discussed impeaching Trump a second time or invoking the 25th Amendment.
Trump is being accused of stoking his supporters to riot at the Capitol on Wednesday, which resulted in four deaths.
On Thursday, Trump acknowledged that a new administration will be inaugurated, and that will take place on Jan. 20.
- Joseph Gamp
TRUMP
TRUMP DENOUNCES 'DEFILERS' OF CAPITOL AND FINALLY AGREES TO PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION
- Joseph Gamp
WHAT HAVE LAWMAKERS SAID ABOUT TRUMP IMPEACHMENT ON SOCIAL MEDIA?
Calls for Trump’s removal spread rapidly across social media from Democratic lawmakers, commentators and some of Trump’s fellow Republicans, including Vermont Governor Phil Scott.
He tweeted: “The fabric of our democracy and the principles of our republic are under attack by the President.
"Enough is enough. President Trump should resign or be removed from office by his Cabinet, or by the Congress.”
Representative David Cicilline, a Democrat, said Congress should “impeach and convict” Trump.
He said: “This is outrageous and the president caused it.”
AACP Chairman Leon Russell tweeted: “Inciting a coup has to warrant impeachment.”
- Joseph Gamp
CAPITOL PUNISHMENT
COPS have released photos of the brazen rioters wanted on federal charges after storming the US Capitol building, as the four people killed in the protests have been officially identified.
The FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies are hunting down suspects involved in the mass insurrection, when pro-Trump protesters broke into the Capitol building as Congress was affirming President-elect Joe Biden's election victory.
Read more here.
- Joseph Gamp
DC PROSECUTOR SAYS 'ALL CHARGES ARE ON THE TABLE' FOR MOB MEMBERS
The top federal prosecutor for the District of Columbia said Thursday that all options are on the table for charging members of the violent pro-Trump mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol including sedition charges.
Michael Sherwin, acting U.S. attorney for D.C., said prosecutors plan to file 15 federal cases on Thursday for crimes including unauthorized access and theft of property, and investigators are combing through reams of evidence to bring additional charges.
"All of those charges are on the table", he said.
"Were not going to keep anything out of our arsenal for potential charges. We will bring the most maximum charges we can based upon the conduct."
Sherwin said 40 other cases had already been filed in District of Columbia Superior Court. More than 90 people have been arrested in Washington and more arrests are likely.
- Joseph Gamp
SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS LOCK DOWN TRUMP ACCOUNTS
After years of treating President Donald Trump's inflammatory rhetoric with a light touch, Facebook, Twitch and Instagram are silencing his social media accounts for the rest of his presidency.
The move, which many called long overdue following Wednesday's deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, is also a reminder of the enormous power that social-media platforms can wield when they choose.
Facebook and Instagram said Thursday they will bar Trump from posting at least until the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. Twitter said that it's still evaluating whether to lift or extend what started as a 12-hour lockdown of Trump's account.
It remains unclear how the platforms will handle Trump once he leaves office and is no longer shielded from enforcement of most rules by his status as a world leader.
And some critics saw the moves as cynical efforts by the companies to position themselves for a post-Trump future.
- Joseph Gamp
WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY CONDEMNS CAPITOL VIOLENCE AS 'APPALLING' AND 'REPREHENSIBLE'
Kayleigh McEnany, the White House's press secretary,has held a brief press conference this evening.
"I am here to deliver this message on behalf of the White House. The violence we saw yesterday at our nation's capital was appalling, reprehensible, and antithetical to the American way.
"Now it is time for America to unite, to come together to reject the violence we have seen. We are one American people under God."
"Those who are working in this building are working to ensure an orderly transition of power. Now it is time for America to unite," she said.
McEnany left the podium without taking any questions from reporters.
Kayleigh McEnany, the White House's press secretary, has held a brief press conference this eveningCredit: EPA
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