U.S. News

Cleveland's Brad Lynnet told BuzzFeed News that he researches everything before he believes it. After organizing buses to carry "372 patriots," Lynnet explained that none of them stormed the U.S. Capitol and it was all "staged false flag to make us look bad."

Thus begins the long and tedious march from the Trump world of propaganda and distorted reality to rude awakenings. Already Republicans are working to warp the reality around the Capitol insurrection to protect themselves.

"The View" celebrated the birthday of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Monday by discussing race relations in the United States and how necessary it is to change hearts and minds of the remaining minority of Americans who still uphold racist ideologies.

Among those are many in the White House, who perpetuated the racist birther conspiracy about former President Barack Obama. Even First Lady Melania Trump was part of those who claimed that Obama wasn't born in the United States years before launching her anti-bullying campaign "Be Best."

Rehearsals for the inauguration began Monday morning, but shortly after 10 a.m. EST smoke was seen on the east side of the U.S. Capitol building.

MSNBC's Garrett Haake said that over the Capitol loudspeaker it was announced that people inside must shelter in place and stay away from doors and windows due to an "external security threat."

Fox News settled a lawsuit with Seth Rich's family in the fall that was large enough that they weren't required to apologize publicly for lying about the family's son for years. But one provision that New York Times reporter Ben Smith discovered, was that they asked that the settlement news not be announced until after the November election.

"Why did Fox care about keeping the Rich settlement secret for the final month of the Trump re-election campaign?" Smith asked. "Why was it important to the company, which calls itself a news organization, that one of the biggest lies of the Trump era remains unresolved for that period? Was Fox afraid that admitting it was wrong would incite the president's wrath? Did network executives fear backlash from their increasingly radicalized audience, which has been gravitating to other conservative outlets?"

The FBI is vetting all 25,000 National Guard troops after a Defense Department insider confessed that they are fearful of an attack coming from inside the military members assigned to protect the inauguration.

The Associated Press reported Sunday that it has been a massive undertaking in wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection that sent law enforcement to looking for hundreds of President Donald Trump's supporters who broke into the Capitol searching for Democrats.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has spent the weeks after the first of the year trying to rewrite history on Twitter about what he accomplished in the office. If it was up to Pompeo, he should be thanked for establishing peace in the Middle East, saving Israel, bringing the troops home and proclaim he stopped Russian aggression.

Guardian opinion writer Simon Tisdall explained that as Pompeo is walking out the door, "he has laid political booby traps for Biden in a democratic onslaught -- with the aim of winning the White House."

President Donald Trump is expected to issue about 100 pardons on his final day in office on Tuesday, CNN reported.

Trump's last full day will show "a mixture of more controversial pardons to white-collar criminals, some high-profile rappers, some of the president's political allies."

Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford (R) sparked confusion when he took to Twitter this week to apologize for his role in attempting to overthrow the 2020 election in the U.S. Senate.

Lankford was the Senator on the floor of the Senate when the Capitol was attacked. He was seconds from proclaiming that the Electoral College members must be removed despite the legislative body not having the power to do so.

Her state's own elections official fact-checked conspiracy Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene on Twitter Sunday after she attempted to peddle another of her wacky lies.

Greene attacked conservative chief financial officer for the Georgia Secretary of State Gabriel Sterling after he outed her for lying about specifics around the 2020 election.

The problem with a failed attempt to overthrow the government is those who attempted the insurrection are now being held accountable.

Such was the case with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), whose state newspapers came together over the weekend to demand, in unison, that he resign immediately.

White House communications aide Hogan Gidley whined to Fox News on Sunday that President Donald Trump would really like to apologize to the American people for last week's insurrection at the U.S. Capitol but he can't because he doesn't have Twitter anymore.

"On the one hand, [media says] he should be censored by big tech and not be allowed to talk," Gidley said. "He also shouldn't say anything because it's divisive. And then when he doesn't say anything and can't say anything because the platform(s) have removed him, they says, 'Where's the president? Why aren't we hearing from him?'"

The Associated Press did an extensive expose on the public records available for those who participated in the "Stop the Steal" rally that ended with a riot and insurrection against the U.S. Capitol.

One piece of the report outed Maggie Mulvaney, niece to top Trump's old aide Mick Mulvaney, as the VIP Lead on the permit that Women for America First requested for the Trump rally.

Frequent Intercept contributor Eoin Higgins was tipped off on a series of videos from Right Side Broadcasting showing viewers the specific roads blocked off in Washington, D.C. and what security is at precise areas in the city.

For people around the country wondering what Washington looks like, photos of fences and trucks blocking roads should be more than sufficient. What RSB's Brian Glenn does is something else. He walks through the streets, pointing out specific roads, corners, and directions in multiple videos.