The Day After: In the absence of action by Vice President Mike Pence on the 25^th Amendment, Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives are moving quickly toward impeaching President Trump for a second time next week.

  The Wednesday riot now includes homicide. A Capitol Hill police officer has died of injuries sustained when rioters occupied the building. 

  So far the only consequence Trump has faced for inciting the riot is being stifled by the social media companies. Twitter suspended Trump for 12 hours, and he was blocked indefinitely by Snapchat, and Facebook.

  “We believe the risks of allowing the president to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great,”  Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement.

  When his Twitter account revived, Trump posted a video in which he condemned “the demonstrators who infiltrated the Capitol” and admitted losing the election without actually conceding or congratulating Joe Biden.

  Trump has been otherwise holed up in the White House as a handful of aides and appointees resigned in protest and embarrassment over the events of Tuesday.

  In his place, President Elect Joe Biden has taken over moral leadership of the country. Speaking yesterday, Biden said, “The past four years, we’ve had a president who’s made his contempt for our democracy, our constitution, the rule of law, clear in everything he has done. He unleashed an all-out assault on our institutions of our democracy from the outset. And yesterday was but the culmination of that unrelenting attack.” 

  Both Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for the President to be removed under powers of the 25^th Amendment. Schumer said, “If the vice president and the cabinet refuse to stand up, Congress should reconvene to impeach the president.” 

  With few exceptions, the Republicans remain silent or loyal to Trump. Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois became the first Republican to publicly call for Trump’s removal. He said Trump is “unfit” and “unwell.”

Pardon Me: Trump has discussed with aides the possibility of pardoning himself for unspecified crimes, The NY Times reports. Michael Schmidt and Maggie Haberman write that Trump has asked aides what impact pardoning himself would have on him legally and politically. The story says Trump has “become increasingly convinced that his perceived enemies will use the levers of law enforcement to target him after he leaves office.” 

Resigned to It: With 13 days left in the Trump administration, some members of the administration have suddenly discovered who it is they work for. It’s like Claude Raines being shocked to find there’s gambling in Rick’s Café.

  Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao announced that she was “deeply troubled” by Wednesday’s events and resigned. She’s married to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

  Education Secretary Betsy DeVos quit. So did Melania Trump’s Chief of Staff, Stephanie Grisham. When she was Trump’s press secretary, Grisham refused to brief the press for an entire year.

  Also resigned is Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s former chief of staff who said he just can’t stay on as special envoy to Northern Ireland. “I can’t do it. I can’t stay,” Mulvaney said, adding that Trump is “not the same as he was eight months ago.”

Here Comes the Judge: Biden made his remarks yesterday in an appearance to announce District of Columbia Appeals Court Judge Merrick Garland as his nominee for attorney general. He said Garland “embodies honor, decency, integrity, fidelity to the rule of law and judicial independence.”

  Garland was the Supreme Court nominee in President Obama’s last year who was denied a confirmation hearing by Senate Majority Leader McConnell.

  As a Deputy US Attorney, he was involved in the prosecution of the Atlanta Olympics bomber, the Oklahoma City bombers, and the infamous “Unabomer,” Ted Kaczynski.

The Idiot Right: A day after the mob of waving Trump flags stormed the Capitol, Trump apologists were already claiming the riot was manufactured by left wing conspirators. Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks tweeted, “Evidence growing that fascist ANTIFA orchestrated Capitol attack with clever mob control tactics.”

  Brooks doesn’t seem to now that Antifa stands for “Anti- Fascist,” and forgets that he was present when President Trump himself called for the crowd to march on the Capitol. 

  He’s not alone. Shortly after the House reconvened Wednesday night, Florida Republican Matt Gaetz, declared on the floor that he had seen “some pretty compelling evidence from a facial-recognition company showing that some of the people who breached the Capitol today were not Trump supporters, they were masquerading as Trump supporters, and in fact were members of the violent terrorist group Antifa.”

  It’s just amazing how the radical left purple-haired hippies of Antifa managed to disguise themselves as the cast from Duck Dynasty and break into the Capitol.

Manhunt: Police agencies and the FBI are hunting for some of the recognizable characters who broke into the Capitol chambers and offices. Some have already had their mugs featured on television. Among them; gun rights advocate Richard “Bigo” Barnett, who sat in Nancy Pelosi’s office chair; far right activist Tim Gionet; Proud Boys white supremacist founder Nick Ochs; and the “QAnon Shaman” Jake Agneli , who painted his face read, white and blue and wore a fur hat with horns.

You’re Fired: After Wednesday’s debacle, the chief of the Capitol Hill Police resigned yesterday. His force was clearly unprepared and in some cases stepped aside to allow the rioters to enter the Capitol. One officer took a selfie picture with a rioter.

  Only a handful of rioters were arrested and one woman was shot dead, a follower of the QAnon theory that child molesters run the government. 

  Many observers have noted that the rioters faced nothing like the police violence unleashed on Black Lives demonstrators in Washington last summer after which President Trump posed for pictures holding up a Bible — upside down.

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