U.S. News

Nothing captured the disconnection from reality quite like the national COVID-19 remembrance ceremony that President-elect Joe Biden did at the Lincoln Memorial Tuesday.

Four hundred boxes of lights were illuminated surrounding the memorial to signify 1,000 people each who died so far from the pandemic. Around the United States, churches rang bells, and the Empire State Building lit with a red heartbeat.

Eddie Glaude, Chris Jansing, Nicolle Wallace and Dr. Kavita Patel joined in an emotional moment after President-elect Joe Biden became the first president to acknowledge the emotional struggle that Americans have faced over the last year.

Wallace revealed that at the beginning of the tragedy, she didn't want her son to see her cry, so she would go running and sob to herself.

On Tuesday, POLITICO reported that the authors of outgoing President Donald Trump's "1776 report" appear to have lifted passages verbatim from previous publications, including opinion pieces.

"An entire page of the report suggesting classroom discussion topics for teachers appears to be copied nearly verbatim from an opinion piece published in 2008 by one of the commission's members, Thomas Lindsay," reported Tina Nguyen. "Now a senior fellow at the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation, Lindsay was one of 16 conservative academics tasked by the Trump administration to help craft the 1776 Commission report. And nearly the entirety of page 39 and page 40 of that report lifts from his 2008 article without attribution in an effort to offer prompts for teachers 'to encourage civics discussion among students.'"

UPDATE:

The Limo has left for the night.

President Donald Trump made a final address from the White House Tuesday that sang his own praises and celebrated himself and the achievements he thinks he was able to conjure while in office. He wished the incoming administration well without saying the names of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

Trump has refused to accept his loss, continuing to shout at aides over the weekend that he won. But as he stepped to the podium on Tuesday, the outgoing president said his final "bye."

Vice President Mike Pence posted his own farewell to Twitter on Tuesday afternoon with a slate of photos of himself and his family while in office. But one person was missing: the president.

President Donald Trump posted his final video as president of the United States saying that he set out to "make America great again" and that he's proud of what he achieved.

While in office, Trump oversaw thousands of immigrant children ripped from their parents and put in detention centers. He ignored the COVID-19 pandemic that has resulted in nearly 400,000 deaths nationwide. He was not only impeached, he's the only president in history to be impeached twice.

Troy Anthony Smocks allegedly attended the Capitol Hill insurrection and threatened to return, this time with weapons. It's unclear if Smocks was on an FBI list of wanted suspects prior to his public declaration, but he was arrested last week after making his most recent threats.

The New York Daily News reported Monday that the Dallas man made the statement on Jan. 6 after the Capitol attack, which killed five people.

Retired Air Force Col. Moe Davis served as the Director of the Air Force Judiciary during the prosecutions of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. As the lead prosecutor, he witnessed the face of terrorism first-hand and when he saw the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol he spoke up.

Responding to Rep. Madison Cawthorn's (R-NC) photos and videos inciting right-wing insurrectionists, Davis said that the incoming House Republican shows more evidence of guilt than the Gitmo prisoners.

If Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) had moved forward with impeachment after the House voted to approve the measure, he likely wouldn't have as much incriminating information as is available now.

Since the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, an increased amount of information has become available about the communications shared by the extremists. Many were promoting President Donald Trump's language and citing it as the motivation behind their actions.

In a wide-ranging interview with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) addressed the attack on the U.S. Capitol, noting that it's the kind of visual of instability that American foe Vladimir Putin would enjoy.

"We learned a lot about our system of government over the last four years with a president who disdains democracy and, as you have said numerous times, has other agendas," Clinton said. "What they all are, I don't think we yet know. I hope historically we will find out who he's beholden to, who pulls his strings. I would love to see his phone records to see whether he was talking to Putin the day that the insurgents invaded our Capitol. But we now know that not just him, but his enablers, his accomplices, his cult members, have the same disregard for democracy. Do you think we need a 9/11-type commission to investigate and report everything that they can pull together and explain what happened?"

Dominion Voting Systems has sent a cease and desist letter to MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell to remind him and his staff not to delete any electronic communications ahead of an impending lawsuit.

According to New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, the letter is the first step in a lawsuit over baseless claims Lindell and others in Trump's orbit have made about the company.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is on President Donald Trump's bad side this week, despite the fact that he spoke out against impeachment.

New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman tweeted Monday that Trump has spent the past several days continuing to tell his White House aides that he "won" the election.