2015
June 16 – TV’s wounded narcissist Donald Trump announced his run for president, riding an escalator down in front of paid spectators. Trump said, “When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're sending people that have lots of problems. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” (WP | YouTube)
October 28 – Trump signs a letter of intent (LOI) to construct a Trump-branded building in Moscow hours before the third Republican presidential debate. (LOI pdf | New Yorker | WP)
November 24 – Trump mocked a reporter with a disability at a rally in South Carolina. New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski has a chronic condition called arthrogryposis which affects the movement of his arms. (YouTube | Guardian)
December 5 – A trumped up, doctored letter signed by Dr. Harold Bornstein, said Trump would be the “healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.” Bornstein later said Trump wrote his own health letter. (Guardian | NPR)
December 10 – Michael Flynn sat next to Russian President Vladimir Putin at a Moscow RT dinner. Flynn made semi-regular appearances on RT as a commentator after he retired from the U.S. army. (NYT | Wikipedia)
2016
January 23 – Trump said, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Ave. and shoot somebody, okay, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, okay? It’s like incredible.” (Gawker | YouTube)
June 3 – Donald Trump Jr. emailed, “If it's what you say, I love it,” after Russians baited him with promises of damaging information on Hillary Clinton. (CNN | NYT | WP)
June 9 – Trump Tower meeting for “dirt” on Hillary Clinton with Russian lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin, Kremlin-backed lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and five others. (WP | Wikipedia)
June 23 – Illinois State Board of Elections servers were attacked with malicious SQL inquiries by Russia's Internet Research Agency. Russia's IRA hit Illinois state board IP addresses five times per second until Aug. 12, when attacks abruptly ceased. (Chicago Sun-Times) All 50 states were targeted. (NYT | U.S. Senate)
July 12 – Russia's IRA buys ads on Facebook for the “Down with Hillary” rally in New York on July 23rd. (IRA Indictment | WP | Wikipedia)
July 27 – Trump invites Russian interference: “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.“ (NYT | YouTube) Russian intelligence officers began a spear-phishing attack on non-public Clinton campaign email accounts that night. (NBC | Mueller Report | Wikipedia )
July 31 – Trump belittled Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the parents of a slain Muslim-American soldier Humayun Khan. On July 28th at the DNC, Khizr Khan took issue with Trump's proposed ban on migration from majority-Muslim countries. Khizr offered to lend Trump his copy of the U.S. Constitution. (Wikipedia | YouTube)
August 20 – Russian trolls from the IRA held 17 “Florida Goes Trump” rallies across Florida. (IRA Indictment | WP)
October 7 – Trump brags of sexual assault in Access Hollywood video from 2005. Trump said: “I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab 'em by the pussy. You can do anything.” (NYT | YouTube)
~ October 17 – Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to stop her from discussing her 2006 affair with Trump. (Wikipedia)
November 8 – Donald Trump elected president, losing the popular vote by the largest margin in United States history. Only four other times did a candidate lose the popular vote yet became president (1824, 1876, 1888, & 2000). The margin of victory in the electoral college was 0.13 or 56.5% with 304 electoral votes out of 538 (45 elections had higher margins and percentages). (Wikipedia)
2017
January 20 – Trump's inauguration crowd was 160,000. (CNN | FoxNews | Wikipedia)
January 21 – Women’s March of seven million worldwide, over 470,000 in Washington. (NYT)
January 27 – Trump's Muslim Ban was signed (Executive Order 13769). More than 700 travelers were detained, and up to 60,000 visas were “provisionally revoked.” (Wikipedia)
February 7 – At 3 a.m., Trump called former RT commentator Michael Flynn to ask which is better for the economy a strong dollar or a weak dollar. As a sort of expert on Russia not economics, Flynn told Trump he didn’t know, that it wasn’t his area of expertise, that perhaps Trump should ask an economist instead. Trump was not thrilled with that response. (HuffPost)
February 27 – “Nobody knew health care could be so complicated,” Trump said. (CNN | YouTube)
March 2 – Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russian investigation. (CBS | NYT | WP)
May 9 – Trump fired FBI Director James Comey. (CNN | NYT | Wikipedia)
May 17 – Robert Mueller named as special counsel. Trump reacted by slumping back in his chair and said, “Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I'm fucked.” (MarketWatch | Mueller Report pdf | Vox | Wikipedia)
May 31 – Trump tweeted, “Despite the negative press convfefe” (CNN | NYT | UrbanDictionary)
June 1 – Trump announced the U.S. would end all participation in the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation. (CNN | Wikipedia | YouTube)
July 7 – Putin and Trump talked at the G20 in Germany. At dinner Trump went over to talk with Putin for another hour. (AP | NYT | YouTube)
July 20 – 10 a.m. Pentagon 2E924 Tank meeting: “You would totally go bankrupt if you had to run your own business,” Trump said, knowingly. “You’re all losers. You don’t know how to win anymore. I want to win. We don’t win any wars anymore. I wouldn’t go to war with you people. You’re a bunch of dopes and babies.” (WP)
July 26 – The FBI conducted a pre-dawn raid of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's home. Manafort advised a Russia-friendly political party in Ukraine, helping to elect former president Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted from power amid public protests in 2014 and fled to Russia. In June 2017, Manafort had retroactively filed Foreign Agents Registration Act paperwork with new details about his work in Ukraine. (NPR | WP)
August 12 – Charlottesville white-nationalist's protest killed 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injured many others when a car plowed into a crowd of people. Trump said there were some “very bad people” on both sides and “there's blame on both sides,” but some who came out to protest the removal of Robert E. Lee's statue were “fine people.” (CNN | WP | YouTube)
August 18 – The author of the “blame on both sides,” white supremacist Stephen Kevin Bannon, was fired less than a week after the Charlottesville white-nationalist protest. (BI | WP)
September 22 – Trump criticized NFL football players for kneeling during the national anthem in protest of police brutality against African-Americans. Trump said, “Get that son-of-a-bitch off the field. He's fired.” The president can't fire NFL players. (USA Today | YouTube)
October 3 – Trump threw paper towel rolls at Hurricane Maria survivors in Puerto Rico. (CNN | NBC | YouTube)
October 20 – Trump regularly contacted fired white supremacist Stephen Kevin Bannon. (WP)
December 22 – Trump signed the Tax Cuts Act 115–97. It cut corporate taxes from 35% to 21%, enabling companies to buy back their stocks. It cut estate taxes and other taxes for the rich. It increased the national debt by $2 trillion over ten years. The top individual tax rate dropped to 37%. Trump said, “I think we could go to 4%, 5% or even 6% [GDP growth].” (Wikipedia)
GDP reality check: 2.4% (2017), 2.9% (2018), 2.3% (2019), and -3.4% (2020) (Wikipedia)
2018
January 11 – Trump yelled, “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” Bipartisan lawmakers were in the Oval Office trying to discuss protecting immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador, and African countries. “Why do we need more Haitians?” In November, Trump rescinded deportation protection granted to nearly 60,000 Haitians after the 2010 earthquake and told them to return home by July 2019. (YouTube | CNN | WP)
January 22 – Trump imposed tariffs on imported solar panels and washing machines. One year later, Trump’s washing-machine tariffs cost U.S. consumers $815,000 for every job created. Foreign manufacturers such as Samsung and LG raised prices to cover the tariffs. U.S. manufacturers, like Whirlpool, hiked prices because they could. (U of Chicago | WP)
February 2 – Trump announced new low-yield nuclear weapons. (Politico)
March 8 – Trump signed a 25% steel tariff and a 10% tariff on aluminum imports. (CNBC | NPR)
March 13 – Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson while he was halfway across the globe on a sensitive diplomatic mission to Africa to ease tensions caused by Trump’s demeaning insults about African countries. (CNN | NYT)
March 20 – A Channel 4 News investigation revealed Cambridge Analytica and its former Vice President Stephen Bannon used Facebook data to target voters in battleground states to vote (for Trump) or not vote (for Clinton) with $15 million of funding from Robert Mercer. Cambridge Analytica invented “Crooked Hillary.” (YouTube 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 | NYT | Wikipedia)
March 22 – Trump added tariffs to $50 billion of Chinese goods - flat-screen televisions, weapons, satellites, medical devices, aircraft parts, and batteries. (Wikipedia)
April 4 – China announced tariffs of 25% on 106 items including automobiles, airplanes, and soybeans (the top U.S. agricultural export to China). (CNN | NYT | USA Today)
April 9 – The FBI raided the office, home, and hotel room of Michael Cohen, Trump's personal lawyer, through a search warrant with high-level approval. On August 21st, Cohen plead guilty to campaign finance violations, tax fraud, bank fraud, and other charges. (CNN)
April 30 – “Get rid of her! Get her out tomorrow. I don't care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. Okay? Do it,” Trump said about U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch private dinner attended by Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Lev Parnas. (ABC | CNBC | YouTube)
May 7 – “If you don’t want your child separated, then don’t bring them across the border illegally. It’s not our fault that somebody does that,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions. (CNN)
May 9 – China canceled soybean orders from the U.S., buying from Brazil instead. (PBS)
May 10 – Trump fired Rear Adm. R. Timothy Ziemer, the White House official in charge of pandemic responses and disbanded the global health security team. (WP)
July 6 – Trump added 25% tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese goods. (Wikipedia)
July 16 – Trump and Putin met privately without aides or note-takers, with only their interpreters, for 90 minutes (but it took two hours). (CNN | NPR | NYT | Wikipedia)
August 21 – Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, plead guilty to eight counts including campaign finance violations, tax fraud, and bank fraud. Cohen said he violated campaign
finance laws at the direction of Trump and “for the principle purpose of influencing” the 2016 presidential election. In November 2018, Cohen entered a second guilty plea for lying to a Senate committee about efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. He was sentenced to three years in prison. (CNBC | NYT)
August 23 – Trump added 25% tariffs on another $16 billion of Chinese goods. (CNN | Wikipedia)
September 27 – Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while in high school. (CBS | NYT | WP | YouTube)
September 28 – Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) announced at 9:25 a.m. he would be voting to confirm Brett Kavanaugh from the Hart Senate Office building. Six minutes later, Sen. Flake met Maria Gallagher and Ana Maria Archila at a fourth floor senators only elevator. Archila started, then Gallagher told Sen. Flake, “I was sexually assaulted and nobody believed me. I didn’t tell anyone, and you’re telling all women that they don’t matter. Don’t look away from me! Look at me and tell me that it doesn’t matter what happened to me... that you will let people like that go into the highest court of the land and tell everyone what they can do to their bodies.” Flake stared down with the elevator door propped open. Reporters asked Flake if he had a response, and he replied, “No, I need to go to the hearing. I just issued a statement. I’ll be saying more, as well.” When the Senate judiciary committee voted to send Kavanaugh’s confirmation out of committee and to the full Senate, Flake said that his support for Kavanaugh hinged on a new FBI investigation and that he would not confirm Kavanaugh without it. (NYT | Politico | YouTube)
October 4 – After attending a rally in Minneapolis, Trump exited the presidential limo and climbed the stairs of Air Force One (a Boeing C-32) with toilet paper stuck to his left shoe. From the video, some Secret Service agents saw the trailing TP streamer but took no action. (Points | Snopes |BI | Guardian | HuffPost | WP | YouTube-BBC | YouTube-Guardian | YouTube-NBC)
October 6 – Alleged sexual assaulter Brett Kavanaugh sworn in as Supreme Court justice. (Wikipedia)
November 10 – Trump didn't want to go to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris, for fear his hair would become disheveled in the rain, and because he did not believe it important to honor American war dead. Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed. A retired four-star general said that Trump “can’t fathom the idea of doing something for someone other than himself. He just thinks that anyone who does anything when there’s no direct personal gain to be had is a sucker. There’s no money in serving the nation. Trump can’t imagine anyone else’s pain.” (The Atlantic)
November 11 – Trump stole artwork. At the official residence of U.S. Ambassador Jamie McCourt, the palatial Hôtel de Pontalba in Paris, Trump pointed his stubby little fingers at a Benjamin Franklin bust, a painting of Franklin, and a set of silver-chrome figurines of Greek mythical characters, and insisted the pieces come back with him to Washington. Ambassador McCourt was startled but didn’t object. The artwork was loaded onto Air Force One and brought back to the White House. The Greek figurines that caught Trump’s eye found a new home on the fireplace mantel in the Oval Office. It gets worse. The figurines dated to the early 20th century and were made by Neapolitan artist Luigi Avolio, who was trying to pass them off as sculptures from the 16th or 17th centuries, according to London-based art dealer Patricia Wengraf. Wengraf described the figurines as “20th century fakes of wannabe 17th century sculptures” and of little value. White House art curators told Trump that the Franklin bust was a replica and the Franklin painting snagged from Paris was also a copy. The artist's name sounds like Duplicate. The original was painted by Joseph Siffred Duplessis in 1785 and held by the National Portrait Gallery a mile from the White House. The original Duplessis was borrowed from the National Portrait Gallery and now hangs in the Oval Office, not the replica Trump ferried out of France. (Bloomberg News)
December 8 – Jakelin Amei Rosmery Caal Maquín, a seven-year-old Guatemalan girl, died while in custody of U.S. Customs. Eight hours after being taken into custody, she started having seizures and her body temperature was recorded by emergency responders at 105.7 degrees. She died two days after being detained by border officials. The Trump Administration has denied responsibility for her death. (NBC | The Nation | WP)
December 18 – Trump agreed to shut down the Trump Foundation charity under court supervision. He admitted that the charity had purchased the $10,000 portrait of himself that was ultimately displayed at one of his Florida hotels. He admitted to taking the charity’s money to fund some of his for-profit companies, including a golf course in Westchester County, N.Y., and Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Florida. And he admitted that the foundation had given his presidential campaign control over about $2.8 million that the foundation had raised at a January 2016 veterans fundraiser in Iowa. (NYT | WP | Wikipedia)
December 24 – Felipe Gómez Alonzo, an eight-year-old Chuj boy from Guatemala, died while in custody of U.S. Customs. He was diagnosed with a cold, but not tested for influenza, a condition that was confirmed only after his death. (CNN | WP)
2019
April 18 – A redacted Mueller Report was released. (Mueller Report | Wikipedia | WP | YouTube | YouTube-PBS-Frontline)
June 21 – About 47,000 immigrants were detained in the United States under the Trump administration. More than 11,000 of those immigrants were children. Seven children have died in the facilities in 2018. Children were sleeping on concrete floors and being denied soap and toothpaste at a facility in Clint, Texas, according to observers. A visiting doctor called the detention centers “torture facilities.” At a processing center in El Paso, Texas, 900 migrants were “being held at a facility designed for 125. In some cases, cells designed for 35 people were holding 155 people,” the New York Times reported. (Atlantic | DHS pdf | Frontline | NBC | NYT)
June 27 – Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney was warned by senior adviser Robert Blair that he should “expect Congress to become unhinged” if Trump withheld security aid to Ukraine. Blair warned that withholding aid could prove that Trump was pro-Russia. (NYT)
July 17 – Trump said, “If you don't support me, you're going to be so God damn poor,” at a rally in Greensville NC. Evangelicals had a problem with his swearing... not with his lies, his racism, his xenophobia, his misogyny, his adultery, his sexual assault, his treatment of migrant children, his contributions to the climate crisis, his betrayal of the military, his malignant narcissism, or his closeness to Putin (kompromat). Trump crossed the line with blasphemy. It's not like he uses the Ten Commandments like a checklist:
adultery ✔
false witness, lying ✔
steal, coveting what others have ✔
Lord's name in vain, blasphemy ✔
(Politico | WP | transcript | YouTube)
~ July 18 – Trump told Mick Mulvaney to freeze over $391 million of military aid to Ukraine one week before the July 25th phone call to President Zelensky of Ukraine. (WP)
July 23 – Trump spoke in front of a fake Presidential Seal to a convention of conservative teens. It had a two-headed Russian coat-of-arms bird instead of the eagle, golf clubs instead of arrows, and cash instead of an olive branch. It had Soviet hammer-and-sickle icons. The motto E pluribus unum was replaced with 45 es un titere, Spanish for “45 is a puppet.” (Daily Mail | YouTube)
July 25 – Trump called Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, then the top Democratic candidate for president in the 2020 election. He also wanted Zelensky to find the fictitious computer server in Ukraine that was used to hack the DNC during the 2016 election to pull attention away from the Russian hackers. Roughly 90 minutes after Trump’s call with Zelensky, Michael Duffey, a senior budget official, told Pentagon officials that Trump was personally interested in the Ukraine aid and had ordered the hold himself. Duffey also told the Pentagon to keep the information “closely held to those who need to know to execute the direction” due to “the sensitive nature of the request.” The emails showed Trump first became interested in the aid to Ukraine after seeing a Washington Examiner article on June 19th titled, “Pentagon to send $250M in weapons to Ukraine,” and that some officials were concerned that withholding the aid could violate the Impoundment Control Act of 1974. (WP | NBC News)
July 31 – Trump privately called Russian President Vladimir Putin. Three days later, Trump wanted a list of top U.S. spies. ( Russia | Kremlin | Slate | WP | CNN | Moderate )
August 3 – Trump requested a list of the top U.S. spies ( Daily Beast | Salon | NYT | CNN)
August 12 – Whistle-blower complaint letter: “In the course of my official duties, I have received information from multiple U.S. Government officials that the President of the United States is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election. This interference includes, among other things, pressuring a foreign country to investigate one of the President's main domestic political rivals...” (CNN pdf | NPR | NYT)
August 16 – Greenland and Denmark responded to Trump's half-joke of buying Greenland with a resounding “No!” (NYT | BBC | Wikipedia)
August 22 – An abandoned KFC in San Luis, Arizona hid an entrance to a smuggling tunnel under the U.S.-Mexico border. The tunnel was three feet wide, five feet tall, and about 600 feet long. (WP | YouTube)
August 30 – Trump met with Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Secretary of State Pompeo to discuss Trump’s hold on $391 million in military assistance for Ukraine. Panic had reached a fever pitch about Trump’s funding hold, which had stretched for two months. Days earlier, Politico had broken the story and questions were piling up. Defense contractors were worried about delayed contracts. Congress and officials in Kyiv wanted to know what was going on. (Just Security)
Trump tweeted a highly classified satellite picture of an Iranian missile launch site that showed a failed ICBM test launch, giving adversaries keen insights into U.S. spy capabilities. (NBC)
September 4 – Trump used a black Sharpie to alter an outdated Hurricane Dorian forecast map to include Alabama, after he had incorrectly listed Alabama as an impacted state on September 1st. Sharpiegate. Trump ordered his aids to obtain an official retraction of the weather bureau's comment that the storm was not headed for Alabama. NOAA disavowed the statement on September 6th. (Wikipedia)
September 25 – A reconstructed, rough “memorandum” of the Trump-Zelensky phone call was released. The White House also emailed talking points against the transcript to Republicans in Congress and Democrats in Congress. Then they sent a recall message to the Democrats to try to take back the emailed talking points message. (Politico | NYT | PDFA | WP pdf)
September 25 – Ukraine's president told Trump to his face that he didn't want to be involved in U.S. elections. “I'm sorry, but I don't want to be involved in democratic, open elections of USA,” Zelensky said. (CNBC)
September 27 – A letter from more than 300 former federal officials expressed concern that, “President Trump appears to have leveraged the authority and resources of the highest office in the land to invite additional interference into our democratic process. That would constitute an unconscionable abuse of power. It also would represent an effort to subordinate America's national interests... to the President's personal political interest.” (CNN | Wikipedia | WP pdf)
October 1 – New York Times columnist Kara Swisher asked what could be done if “Trump loses the 2020 election and tweets inaccurately the next day that there had been widespread fraud and, moreover, that people should rise up in armed insurrection to keep him in office.” (NYT)
October 9 – Trump's letter to Turkish President Erdogan: “Let's work out a good deal! You don't want to be responsible for slaughtering thousands of people, and I don't want to be responsible for destroying the Turkish economy -- and I will. I've always given you a little sample with respect to Pastor Brunson...” Erdogan threw the letter away. (Hill | NBC)
October 13 – Trump ordered U.S. Troops out of northern Syria. The Russian-brokered deal came as the Kurds suffered a swift collapse in their lines in the face of a Turkish and Syrian opposition onslaught that followed Trump’s initial withdrawal of a much smaller group of American troops from the border area. Trump’s highly criticized move served as a tacit blessing for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s invasion plans. Sen. Christopher S. Murphy (D-Conn.) expressed a view that appears to permeate both political parties on Capitol Hill. “The hell you unleashed — by double crossing an ally and restocking ISIS — will cost thousands of U.S. lives in the long run,” he tweeted. (LA Times | Guardian | YouTube)
October 15 – Russia takes abandoned U.S. bases in Syria. Russian forces began sweeping in to fill a security void left by withdrawing American troops in northern Syria. Moscow-backed mercenaries took control of a strategic former U.S. special operations outpost. Video posted on social media by Russian journalists traveling with the mercenaries and Syrian government forces showed abandoned American military tents under camouflage netting, and other remnants hastily left behind in recent days by U.S. troops near the strategic Syrian town of Manbij. (Washington Times) The U.S. House of Representatives voted 354 to 60 for a nonbinding resolution expressing opposition to Trump’s decision to abandon the Kurds, a measure that drew support from two-thirds of the House Republican caucus and all three of its top leaders. (Congress | BBC)
November 2 – New sections of Trump's border fence have been repeatedly sawed through by smuggling gangs using cordless reciprocating saws. (DHS redacted pdf | KPBS | Vox | WP)
November 10-16 – US intelligence agencies reported in a classified document of an emerging disease in China during the 2nd week of November. US intelligence informed the Trump administration, “which did not deem it of interest,” and updated two allies with the classified document: NATO and Israel (specifically the IDF). The intelligence also reached Israel’s decision makers and the Health Ministry, where “nothing was done.” (Times of Israel | ABC News)
December 14 – At a Trump Hotel fundraising event, Trump's reelection finance committee chair Kim Guilfoyle offered to give a lap dance to whoever raised the most money. (Politico)
December 18 – The U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump for abusing his power and obstructing congressional investigations, labeling him a threat to national security, recommending his removal from office, and marking him as only the third president in U.S. history to be impeached. The two articles of impeachment against Trump: Article I, Abuse of Power, was adopted 230-197 and Article II, Obstruction of Congress, was adopted 229-198. (NYT | WP | YouTube)
December 18 – At a rally in Michigan, Trump implied that the late Rep. John Dingell is “looking up” from hell while mocking his widow. Dingell was the longest-serving member of Congress in U.S. history. (AP | Detroit News | NBC)
December 19 – A prominent evangelical Christian magazine called Trump “a near perfect example of a human being who is morally lost and confused” and that he “should be removed from office.” In an editorial, Christianity Today called Trump’s actions “not only a violation of the Constitution; more importantly, it is profoundly immoral.” (Christianity Today)
December 23 – Trump's tariffs decreased jobs and increased producer prices, said the Federal Reserve Board Report, “Disentangling the Effects of the 2018-2019 Tariffs on a Globally Connected U.S. Manufacturing Sector.” (Federal Reserve | pdf)
December 31 – China informed the World Health Organization of a “mysterious pneumonia outbreak” spreading through Wuhan, an industrial city of 11 million. China closed a seafood market at the center of the outbreak, moved all patients with the virus to a specially designated hospital, and collected test samples to send to labs. (ABC)
2020
January
2 – Trump authorized a drone strike that killed
Iran’s top security and intelligence commander Qasem
Soleimani at the Baghdad Airport. (NYT | WP)
January 3 – Robert Redfield, the head of the CDC, received a call from his Chinese counterpart with an official warning alerting him to the Covid-19 disease or 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, was alerted to the SARS-CoV-2 virus around the same time. (MarketWatch | C-Span | WP)
January 4 – Trump played golf in West Palm Beach, FL (Trump golf count | Trump cheats at golf)
January 5 – Trump played golf in West Palm Beach, FL (Trump golf count)
January 8 – The CDC issued its first alert advising U.S. clinicians to watch for patients with respiratory symptoms and a travel history to Wuhan, China. (CDC | USA Today)
January 9 – Trump campaign rally in Toledo, Ohio (PBS-YouTube | NBC-YouTube | CBS | transcript Rev)
January 11 – China shared the genetic sequence of Covid-19 (MarketWatch | Snopes | China.org)
January 13 – The Russian military hacked into the Ukrainian gas company at the center of the Trump impeachment inquiry, starting in November 2019. (NYT | WP)
January 14 – Trump campaign rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (PBS-YouTube | GN-YouTube | NBC-YouTube | transcript Rev)
January 15 – The U.S. House of Representatives voted to send the Senate two articles of impeachment against Trump, initiating the third presidential impeachment trial in U.S. history. The measure passed 228-to-193. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also announced the seven House Democrats who will serve as the “managers” in the trial, saying “The emphasis is on
making the strongest possible case to protect and defend our Constitution to seek the truth for the American people.” The two articles, charging abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, will be hand-delivered to the Senate. (NYT | WP)
January 16 – The Senate opened Trump's impeachment trial with the swearing in of senators and the presentation of the two charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Chief Justice John Roberts, who will preside over the trial, administered the oath to “do impartial justice” to all senators in the chamber. (NYT | WP) The GAO said the Trump administration violated the law when it froze military aid to Ukraine for a “policy reason.” (GAO | GAO pdf | NYT | WP)
January 17 – Trump targeted Michelle Obama’s school nutrition guidelines on her birthday. The proposed rule would give schools more latitude to decide how much fruit to offer during breakfast and what types of vegetables to include in meals. It would also broaden what counts as a snack. (NYT | WP)
January 18 – Trump played golf in West Palm Beach, FL (Trump golf count | Trump cheats at golf) Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar called with an update while Trump was at Mar-a-Lago. Trump spent much of the conversation wanting to talk about vaping; he was considering a new policy restricting its use. White House officials now believe Trump didn’t fully grasp the magnitude of the threat to the U.S. in part because Azar, who was feuding with several members of Trump’s inner circle, did a poor job communicating it. (MarketWatch | WP)
January 20 – The first confirmed case of Covid-19 appeared in Washington state. (NEJM | Seattle Times)
January 21 – The first day of Trump’s impeachment trial began with more than 12 hours of contentious debate over the procedural rules. Senate Republicans rejected 11 Democratic amendments to subpoena records from the White House, State Department, Defense Department, and the Office of Management and Budget related to Ukraine, which the White House blocked during the House inquiry. Senate Republicans also blocked amendments to issue subpoenas for testimony from John Bolton the former national security adviser, Mick Mulvaney the acting White House chief of staff, Michael Duffey a White House budget office official, and Robert Blair, a Mulvaney adviser who was involved in freezing military aid to Ukraine. (NYT)
January 22 – At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump said about Covid-19, “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine.” (Politico)
January 23 – At Trump's impeachment trial, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said Trump lied with a “very specific conspiracy theory” that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that hacked the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2016. “This theory was brought to you by the Kremlin.” (WP)
January 28 {4,593 SARS Covid-19 cases} – Trump campaign rally at Wildwood, New Jersey (NBC-YouTube | NJ-YouTube | NYT | transcript Rev)
January 29 {6,065 Covid-19 cases} – A memo by Trump's trade adviser, Peter Navarro, gave striking detail of the potential risks of a Covid-19 pandemic with as many as half a millions deaths and trillions of dollars in economic losses. Trump's inner circle protected him from the memo. (NYT | Axios | MarketWatch | MotherJones | Salon) Newly installed panels of Trump's border wall fell over in 37 mph winds, landing on trees on the Mexican side of the border near Mexicali. (CNN | YouTube) A 4,309-foot smuggling tunnel was found under the U.S.-Mexico border connecting an industrial area of Tijuana to a warehouse district in San Diego. This tunnel was about five and a half feet tall and two feet wide, and about 70 feet below ground. It included an elevator, an extensive rail and cart system, forced air ventilation, high-voltage electrical cables, and a complex drainage system. (AP | USA Today | YouTube)
January 30 {7,818 Covid-19 cases} – Trump campaign rallies in Des Moines, Iowa and Michigan. During the Michigan campaign rally, Trump said about Covid-19, “We have it very well under control. We have very little problem in this country at this moment — five. And those people are all recuperating successfully.” (NYT) On his flight back, Trump received a call from his health and human services secretary, Alex Azar, warning of a pandemic. Trump responded that Mr. Azar was being alarmist. (NYT)
January 31 {9,826 Covid-19 cases} – Trump issued travel restrictions from China with loopholes big enough to fly a plane through. Over the next two months, 279 flights arrived from China with 40,000 passengers. (NYT | IB Times | White House) Most Covid-19 cases came from Europe, and Trump didn't block European travelers until March 11. (NYT) The Senate narrowly rejected a motion to call new witnesses in Trump’s impeachment trial, paving the way for a final vote to acquit the President In a 51-49 vote, the Senate defeated a push by Democrats to depose former national security adviser John Bolton and other witnesses with knowledge of the Ukraine scandal. Two Republicans, Susan Collins of Maine and Mitt Romney of Utah, joined all 47 Senate Democrats in voting for the motion. (NPR | WP) Trump reversed restrictions on land mines. (BBC | WP)
February 1 {11,953 Covid-19 cases} – Trump played golf in West Palm Beach, FL (Twit | Trump golf count)
February 2 {14,557 Covid-19 cases} – Trump played golf in West Palm Beach, FL. Trump said about Covid-19, “We pretty much shut it down.” (Trump golf count | FoxNews)
February 5 {24,554 Covid-19 cases} – Trump was acquitted by the Republican-controlled Senate of charges that he abused the powers of his office and obstructed Congress as it probed his attempts to pressure Ukraine into political investigations, after a tumultuous, three-week impeachment trial that left his fate in the hands of voters in November. Democrats fell far short of the two-thirds majority required to remove Trump from office, as senators voted 52-48 to acquit him on the abuse of power allegation and 53-47 to clear him of obstruction. The outcome represented a political triumph for the White House and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who successfully held together nearly the entire GOP caucus in blocking witnesses or additional evidence from the proceedings. Just one Republican, Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, voted to convict Trump of abuse of power. (NYT | WP)
February 7 {31,481 Covid-19 cases} – U.S. airlifts 17.8 tons of donated respirator masks, surgical masks, gowns, and other medical supplies to China. (State Dept | Share America | Snopes | WP) Trump fired two key impeachment witnesses, dismissing Ambassador Gordon Sondland and Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the top Ukraine expert at the National Security Council. An adviser to Trump said the firings of the major impeachment witnesses was meant to send a message that siding against Trump will not be tolerated. (CNN | WP) Trump went to a campaign rally, North Carolina Opportunity Now, and suggested chants of “12 more years” or “16 more years.” (CBS | CNBC-YouTube | WP | transcript Rev)
February 10 {40,554 Covid-19 cases} – At a campaign rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, Trump said about Covid-19, “looks like, by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away.” (PBS-YouTube | GN-YouTube | CBS | transcript Rev) White House acting budget director Russell Vought said, “Coronavirus is not something that is going to have ripple effects.” (White House)
February 11 {43,103 Covid-19 cases} – Prosecutors quit amid escalating Justice Dept. fight over Roger Stone’s prison term. All four career prosecutors handling the case against Roger Stone withdrew from the legal proceedings after the Justice Department signaled it planned to undercut their seven-to-nine year sentencing recommendation for President Trump’s longtime friend and confidant. (PBS | WP) Almost simultaneously, Trump decided to revoke the nomination to a top Treasury Department post of his former U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia, who had supervised the Stone case when it went to trial. (WP)
February 13 {46,997 Covid-19 cases} – Attorney General William Barr pushes back against Trump’s criticism of Justice Dept., said tweets “make it impossible for me to do my job.” Barr pushed back hard against President Trump’s criticism of the Justice Department, saying, “I’m not going to be bullied or influenced by anybody. I cannot do my job here at the department with a constant background commentary that undercuts me.” He also noted that when he became attorney general last year, he pledged to resist intimidation from any quarter, whether Congress, the White House, or elsewhere. (WP | ABC | NY mag)
February 15 {50,580 Covid-19 cases} – Trump played golf in West Palm Beach, FL (Trump golf count | Trump cheats at golf)
February 16 {51,857 Covid-19 cases} – Trump rode a limo around the track at the Daytona 500 as the grand marshal. (NYT | CNN | GN-YouTube | CBS-YouTube | transcript Rev)
February 19 {75,204 Covid-19 cases} – Trump campaign rally in Phoenix, Arizona (NBC-YouTube | USA Today | transcript Rev) “I think it’s going to work out fine. I think when we get into April, in the warmer weather, that has a very negative effect on that and that type of a virus,” Trump said. (WP)
February 20 {75,748 Covid-19 cases} – Trump campaign rally in Colorado Springs, Colorado (NBC-YouTube | CBS | Denver Post | transcript Rev)
February 21 {76,769 Covid-19 cases} – Trump campaign rally in Las Vegas, Nevada (CBS | NBC-YouTube | GN-YouTube | C-Span | transcript Rev)
February 24 {79,331 Covid-19 cases} – Trump tweeted, “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA... Stock Market starting to look very good to me!” (Twit | Vox)
February 24-26 – Trump's two-day trip to India. (BBC-YouTube | WP-YouTube | Namaste-YouTube | DailyShow-YouTube | CNN)
February 25 {80,239 Covid-19 cases} – Nancy Messonnier, a senior CDC official, sounded the most significant public alarm to that point, when she told reporters that Covid-19 was likely to spread within communities in the U.S. and that disruptions to daily life could be “severe.” Trump called Alex Azar on his way back from a trip to India and complained that Messonnier was scaring the stock markets, according to two senior administration officials. (WP)
February 26 {81,109 Covid-19 cases} – At a White House press conference, Trump contradicted the CDC assessment that Covid-19 will definitely spread throughout the US. Trump said, “I don’t think it’s inevitable. I think that there’s a chance that it could get worse, a chance it could get fairly substantially worse, but nothing’s inevitable.” Trump said Covid-19 had a “very low” risk to Americans. (AP | CNN | WP | CNBC-YouTube | NBC-YouTube | transcript Rev) Trump tweeted about Covid-19, “It’s going very substantially down, not up.” “The 15 [cases] within a couple of days, is going to be down to zero.” (Twit | Salon)
February 27 {82,294 Covid-19 cases} – Trump tweeted about Covid-19, “It’s going to disappear one day; it’s like a miracle.” (Twit | Salon)
February 28 {83,652 Covid-19 cases} – Trump holds South Carolina rally and claims the virus is “Their new Hoax.” (GN-YouTube | NBC-YouTube | transcript Rev) Eric Trump tweeted, “In my opinion, it’s a great time to buy stocks or into your 401k. I would be all in... let’s see if I’m right.” He was very wrong. (Twit)
[Note: The stock market closed at 25,409 on February 28. It closed at 20,944 on March 31.]
February 29 {85,403 Covid-19 cases} - Trump rally speech in Oxon Hill, Maryland, to the 2020 Conservative Political Action Conference. (CNN | C-Span | CBS-YouTube | WhiteHouse-YouTube | Trump hugged & kissed US flag)
March 2 {88,948 Covid-19 cases} – Trump campaign rally in Charlotte, North Carolina. Trump said about a Covid-19 vaccine, “I’ve heard very quick numbers, that of months.” (NBC | NBC-YouTube | Fox-YouTube |transcript Rev)
March 6 {98,189 Covid-19 cases} – Trump said after touring the CDC, “Anybody who wants a test, gets a test.” (CNBC) Trump said, “I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it... Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president.” (AP-YouTube | WP | Wired)
March 7 {101,924 Covid-19 cases} – Trump played golf in West Palm Beach, FL (Trump golf count | Trump cheats at golf)
March 8 {105,586 Covid-19 cases} – Trump played golf with the Washington Nationals in West Palm Beach, FL (Sun Sentinel | USA Today | Trump golf count) Then Trump hosted a birthday party at Mar-a-Lago for Don Jr.'s girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, with Vice President Pence, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and Sen. Lindsey Graham under ballroom chandeliers and over gold-rimmed dinner plates. The festivities came with a unique hangover: a series of self-quarantines. Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro had joined Trump, his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner for dinner and afterwards two of Bolsonaro's aides tested positive for Covid-19. Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, Rep. Matt Gaetz, and Sen. Rick Scott each self-quarantined due to meeting the Brazilian aides. (Jsonline | Washington Examiner)
March 9 {109,577 Covid-19 cases} – Trump tweeted, “So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with 22 deaths.” (Twit)
March 10 {113,702 Covid-19 cases} – Trump tweeted, “And it will go away. Just relax. It will go away.” (Twit | CBS)
March 11 {118,319 Covid-19 cases} – Trump said, “If we get rid of the coronavirus problem quickly, we won’t need [economic] stimulus.” (WP) Trump finally blocked travel from Europe but exempted the United Kingdom. (NYT)
March 12 {125,260 Covid-19 cases} – Trump finally ordered ventilators and N95 masks to be delivered at the end of April. (AP | MSN)
March 13 {132,758 Covid-19 cases} – Trump for first time admits COVID-19 is a concern, declared a National Emergency but said, “I don’t take responsibility at all.” (MSNBC | Politico | GN-YouTube | Atlantic | transcript Rev)
March 16 – The U.S. stock market dropped 2,997 points, the worst point drop in history. (CNN)
March 21 {152,190 Covid-19 cases} – Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner said New Yorkers “are going to suffer and that's their problem,” at a late Covid-19 meeting in the White House Situation Room. Entrepreneurs, business executives, and venture capitalists offered their help to manage the Covid-19 mPPE shortage and made the case for the Defense Production Act. Kushner replied from his high chair, “The federal government is not going to lead this response. It’s up to the states to figure out what they want to do.” (Vanity Fair | NYT | Salon)
April 1 {163,199 Covid-19 cases, 2,850 deaths} – The Strategic National Stockpile sent out its last shipment of personal protective gear. (CNN | Seattle Times | Journal Gazette)
April 2 {187,302 Covid-19 cases, 3,846 deaths} – Jared Kushner said in a Covid-19 press conference that the “notion of the federal stockpile was it's supposed to be our stockpile. It's not supposed to be state stockpiles that they then use.” (BI | CNN)
April 3 {213,600 Covid-19 cases, 4,793 deaths} – Trump fired Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, who had informed Congress about the whistle-blower complaint that led to the Ukraine probe and the president's impeachment. (NYT | NPR | CNN | Trump fires Inspectors General)
April 12 {492,881 Covid-19 cases, 18,516 deaths} – Dr. Anthony Fauci said that calls to implement life-saving social distancing measures faced “a lot of push-back” early in the Covid-19 outbreak. “If you started mitigation earlier, you could have saved lives,” Fauci replied when asked if social distancing and stay-at-home measures could have prevented deaths had they been put in place in February, instead of mid-March. (CNN)
April 13 {524,514 Covid-19 cases, 20,444 deaths} – The Covid-19 press conference started with a campaign video. Hopes Hicks told Trump to make it about him, not the pandemic. The lights in the briefing room dimmed for a three minute montage of officials offering laudatory comments about the president and of Trump discussing his steps to contain the virus. Then Trump dodged questions from reporters. Here is part of Trump's exchange with CBS White House correspondent Paula Reid:
Reid: What did you do with that time that you bought? The argument is that you bought yourself some time. You didn't use it to prepare hospitals. You didn't use it to ramp up testing. Right now, nearly 20 million people are unemployed.
Trump: You're so disgraceful. It's so disgraceful the way you say that.
Reid: Tens of thousands of Americans are dead. How is… this rant supposed to make people feel confident in an unprecedented crisis? What did your administration do in February for the time that your travel ban bought you?
Trump: A lot.
Reid: What?
Trump: A lot, and in fact, we'll give you a list… We did a lot. Look, look, you know you're a fake.
Here is part of the exchange with CNN White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins:
Collins: You said when someone is president of the United States, their authority is total. That is not true. Who told you that?
Trump: You know what we're going to do? We're going to write up papers on this.
Collins: Has any governor agreed that you have the authority to decide when their states…
Trump: I haven't asked anybody because. You know why? Because I don't have to.
Collins: But who told you the president has the total authority?
Trump: Enough!
(Salon | CBS-YouTube | WP-YouTube | transcript Rev)
April 14 {553,822 Covid-19 cases, 21,972 deaths} – Trump halts funding for the World Health Organization to deflect blame from his earlier pandemic failures. (NPR | Guardian)
April 15 {578,268 Covid-19 cases, 23,476 deaths} – Trump threatens to adjourn Congress like a dictator. (NYT | CNN | YouTube | WP)
April 16 {604,070 Covid-19 cases, 25,871 deaths} – Trump said states can lift Covid-19 restrictions by May 1. (Vox)
April 17 {632,781 Covid-19 cases, 28,221 deaths} – Trump encouraged protests in states with democratic governors by tweeting “Liberate Minnesota” and similar tweets for Michigan and Virginia. (CNBC | Politico | NBC)
April 22 {830,000 Covid-19 cases, 42,200 deaths} – Trump fired U.S. Health Dept official Dr. Rick Bright, who questioned the effectiveness of Hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19. (NYT | Trump fires Inspectors General)
April 24 {830,053 Covid-19 cases, 42,311 deaths} – Trump promoted ultraviolet light as a Covid-19 remedy and muses about injecting bleach or disinfectant into the body to kill the virus. Never do this. (NBC | NYT | BBC | Reuters-YouTube)
May 1 {1,035,353 Covid-19 cases, 55,337 deaths} – Trump fired acting inspector general of Health and Human Services Christi Grimm, who had issued an April report (PDF) listing severe shortages of Covid-19 testing materials and personal protective equipment. (WP | NYT | CNN-YouTube from April 7, 2020)
May 3 {1,093,880 Covid-19 cases, 62,406 deaths} – Trump revised his forecast of Covid-19 deaths to 100,000, during a Fox interview at the Lincoln Memorial. He admitted the disease was more lethal than he expected and said the early briefings indicated the virus was “not a big deal.”
May 16 {1,382,362 Covid-19 cases, 83,819 deaths} – Trump fired Inspector General of the State Department Steve Linick, who was investigating reports of abuse of office by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo over arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. (Vox | CBS | BBC | Trump fires Inspectors General)
May 18 {1,432,265 Covid-19 cases, 87,180 deaths} – Trump said he was taking Hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19, despite FDA warnings that it may cause serious heart problems and death. (Guardian)
May 21 {1,501,876 Covid-19 cases, 90,203 deaths} – Trump toured Ford Rawsonville Components plant. (Detroit News)
May 23 {1,547,973 Covid-19 cases, 92,923 deaths} – Trump played golf in Potomac Falls, VA (Guardian | Trump golf count | Trump cheats at golf)
May 24 {1,568,448 Covid-19 cases, 94,011 deaths} – Trump played golf in Potomac Falls, VA (Trump golf count | Trump cheats at golf)
May 27 {1,634,010 Covid-19 cases, 97,529 deaths} – Trump threatened social media after Twitter fact-checked him on mail-in ballots. (AP | CNN | NYT) Trump attended the attempted launch of the SpaceX Dragon 2 spacecraft but the launch was postponed due to bad weather.
May 29 {1,675,258 Covid-19 cases, 98,889 deaths} – Trump, along with then-first lady Melania Trump and their son, Barron, rushed to the underground bunker for a period of time during the protests spurred by the police murder of George Floyd as protesters gathered outside the building. (CNN | NYT | NYPost | Guardian) When the news of the hiding first family was leaked, Trump yelled, “Whoever did that, they should be charged with treason! They should be executed!” (CNN) Social media started calling him Bunker Boy. (Daily Beast)
June 1 {1,734,040 Covid-19 cases, 102,640 deaths} – The American military attacks American citizens so Trump can have a photo op, grinning with the wrong church, wrong Bible.
Two military helicopters, a BlackHawk and a Lakota with a Red Cross emblem, flew low over protesters across from the White House, whipping up dirt and debris. The dangerous and threatening maneuvers broke several Federal Aviation Administration and international laws that forbid the use of medical helicopters for crowd dispersal.
In a conference call with the nation's governors, Trump declared Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark A. Milley was “in charge” of the response to protests. The nature of Milley's position was not specified, nor the legal authority under which he would assume such a position.
Trump said he was “dispatching thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel and law enforcement officers to stop the rioting, looting, vandalism, assaults and the wanton destruction of property,” and, “If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary ... then I'll deploy the US military and quickly solve the problem for them.”
After
the press
conference at the Rose Garden, Trump walked to the nearby St. John's
Episcopal Church (supports same-sex marriage & abortion rights)
in Lafayette Square for
a photo op
holding an
older, liberal RSV
Bible. For
Trump's arrival, riot and military police used tear gas and
stun grenades to clear peaceful protesters assembled at the park and
the clergy from the church. (Foreign
Policy | ABC
| WP
| WP-timeline
| Wikipedia)
The photo op idea and Bible came from Ivanka Trump. (NYT)
June 5 {1,837,803 Covid-19 cases, 14,583 deaths} – Washington DC and Mayor Bowser renamed the intersection in front of St. John's Episcopal Church, at the corner of 16th Street NW and H Street NW, to Black Lives Matter Plaza. A new street sign was installed and a coalition of artists painted "BLACK LIVES MATTER" on the road in large, capital, block yellow letters stretching from Lafayette Square north for two blocks. ( WP | CBS | NBC | New Yorker | NPR)
June 13 {2,010,391 Covid-19 cases, 113,757 deaths} – Trump walked slowly, teetering down a ramp at the West Point graduation ceremony as if in high heeled shoes with lifts. (WP | CNN | CNN-YouTube | Bloomberg-YouTube)
June 15 {2,057,838 Covid-19 cases, 115,112 deaths} – Trump ordered former National Security Advisor John Bolton to cease publication of his new book, claiming that it violated non-disclosure agreements and released classified information. “I will consider every conversation with me as president highly classified,” Trump said. (NYPost | CNBC)
June 16 {2,079,592 Covid-19 cases, 115,484 deaths} – Trump campaign donor Louis DeJoy, as Postmaster General, eliminated overtime, banned late or additional trips to deliver mail, decommissioned hundreds of high-speed mail-sorting machines, and removed many mail collection boxes from streets. The changes caused significant mail delays, backlog, dead animals, and resulted in investigations and lawsuits. Trump supported the changes in the postal service to prevent mailed ballots and influence the election. (Wikipedia | WP | American Oversight | Forbes | Independent | Bloomberg)
June 18 {2,126,027 Covid-19 cases, 116,702 deaths} – Mary Elizabeth Taylor, the first black woman to serve as assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs, resigned, stating President Trump's comments and actions surrounding racial injustice "cut sharply against my core values and conviction." (NYT)
June 20 {2,172,212 Covid-19 cases, 118,205 deaths, 13.3% unemployment} - Trump held the Tulsa, Oklahoma rally. The campaign revealed that six staff members who were setting up for the event had tested positive for the virus. News of the infections came just before Trump departed for Oklahoma, and the president raged to aides that it was made public. Two Secret Service agents at the event test positive for coronavirus. Fewer than 6,200 people attended the rally. Tulsa officials expected a crowd of 100,000. Baby Trump was there. Trump’s campaign declared that it had received over a million ticket requests (from TikTok users and K-Pop fans). On stage, Trump called the pandemic Kung Flu and took 15 minutes to explain his trouble walking down the ramp at West Point. Herman Cain was at the Tulsa rally and died of Covid-19 on July 30. (Wikipedia | MarketWatch | YouTube | transcript)
June 21 {2,208,829 cases of Covid-19, 118,895 deaths} – Trump played golf in Potomac Falls, VA oblivious to his staff trying to reach him to delete a retweet of a Trump supporter saying “White Power.” (Forward | Trump golf count | Trump cheats at golf)
June 23 {2,268,753 Covid-19 cases, 119,761 deaths} – Trump flew to Yuma, Arizona, to look at the US-Mexico border wall. Trump spoke early at a Dream City Megachurch rally in Phoenix, at the same time as a Fox interview with his former national security adviser John Bolton, whose tell-all book made damning accusations of Trump's corruption. Trump condemned the book and tried to block its release. (Politico | CBS | Intercept | Rev Transcript)
June 25 {2,329,463 Covid-19 cases, 120,955 deaths} – During the global pandemic, Trump asked the Supreme Court to invalidate the Affordable Care Act, the health care law that enabled over 20 million Americans to get insurance coverage. The act's popular provisions include banning insurers from denying coverage due to pre-existing conditions and allowing children to stay on their parents' health plans until age 26. The U.S. recorded more coronavirus infections and deaths than any other country. But the true number of infections was likely to be 10 times higher than the reported figure, according to health officials. (CNN | BBC | NYT | WP | CBS)
June 26 {2,367,064 Covid-19 cases, 121,645 deaths} – The New York Times reported Russian bounties being paid to Taliban militants to kill American and coalition forces currently stationed in Afghanistan. (NYT)
June 27 {2,407,590 Covid-19 cases, 124,161 deaths} – Ignoring protesters, Trump played golf in Potomac Falls, VA (USA Today | Trump golf count | Trump cheats at golf)
June 28 {2,452,048 Covid-19 cases, 124,811 deaths} – Trump played golf in Potomac Falls, VA (Trump golf count | Trump cheats at golf)
June 29 {2,496,628 Covid-19 cases, 125,318 deaths} – National Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, and national security adviser Robert C. O'Brien briefed only GOP lawmakers about Russia financing Taliban militants targeting US and coalition troops.
July 3{2,671,220 Covid-19 cases, 127,858 deaths} – Trump wanted to be added to Mount Rushmore and hosted fireworks for 3,700 people. Lawn chairs were zip-tied together to prevent them from being moved apart. Another record-breaking day of new Covid-19 cases. (CNN | CNN speech | ABC | NYT | NPR)
July 10 {3,038,325 Covid-19 cases, 131,884 deaths} – Trump commuted the sentence of Roger Stone, who was convicted of 7 felony crimes including witness tampering and lying to Congress about Trump's dealings with Russia to the Mueller investigation. (NYT | CNN | FactCheck | NBC)
July 14 {3,286,063 Covid-19 cases, 134,704 deaths} – Mary Trump's book, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man was published. The book explains that for her uncle, “nothing is ever enough” and that he exhibits all the characteristics of a narcissist. “This is far beyond garden-variety narcissism,” his niece says, who has a doctoral degree in clinical psychology. “Donald is not simply weak, his ego is a fragile thing that must be bolstered every moment because he knows deep down that he is nothing of what he claims to be.” (BBC | Wikipedia | CNN | Politico | NYT | NYT Review | Guardian review | WP | BBC | CBS | NPR | Atlantic) To make the news cover what he wants to say and not what Mary said, Trump ordered hospitals to stop sending COVID-19 patient information to the CDC and instead submit it to a new database run by the Pittsburgh-based software company TeleTracking Technologies. (NYT | CBS | WP | NPR) TeleTracking Technologies was gifted a $10.2 million, six-month contract with the federal government, despite having no previous experience with setting up a data-collection system. A spokesperson for TeleTracking co-CEO Michael Zamagias told NPR that the company won the contract after the HHS reached out to it directly over the phone. Zamagias was a long-time Republican donor with personal ties to a Manhattan-based real estate financing company, Cooper-Horowitz, which worked extensively with the Trump Organization. (Arstechnica | NPR | NYT | Forbes | TPM) To cover for breaking the patient information system during the pandemic, Trump babbled new measures against China during a 54-minute stream-of-consciousness press conference blaming China for “unleashing [the COVID-19] upon the world” and various other topics from Joe Biden to crime in cities. (Trump White House | Rev transcript)
July 19 {3,544,143 Covid-19 cases, 137,674 deaths} – Hundreds of protesters returned to downtown Portland, Oregon streets, led by a "wall of moms" who pledged to place their bodies between the helmeted federal officers without insignia and young protesters. (Willamette | NYT | CommonDreams | LAtimes)
July 21 {3,748,248 Covid-19 cases, 139,964 deaths} – Trump signed a presidential memorandum requesting a ban of undocumented immigrants being counted in the 2020 census. (NBC | CNN |CBS) Trump announced plans to deploy federal law enforcement officers to 'Democrat' cities to quell ongoing protests over racism and police brutality. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot expressed concern saying, “We don't need federal agents without any insignia taking people off the streets and holding them, I think, unlawfully.” ( NYT | CommonDreams | LAtimes)
July 22 {3,805,524 Covid-19 cases, 140,437 deaths} – Calling the protests in Portland, Oregon "worse than Afghanistan," Trump defended the use of excessive force against the peaceful protesters by officers in military camouflage fatigues. ( NYT | CommonDreams | LAtimes)
July 28 {4,209,509 Covid-19 cases, 146,331 deaths} – Without any evidence that mail-in ballots increase electoral fraud, Trump said the November election should be delayed. (NBC | BBC | BostonHerald | NPR)
July 30 {4,323,160 Covid-19 cases, 148,640 deaths} – The U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fell a record 32.9 percent in the second quarter of 2020, the worst quarterly contraction on record. By comparison, Europe's GDP fell 11.2% in the second quarter. (Politico | BEA) Trump again suggested postponing the 2020 presidential election, even though he can't do that. (Politico | Guardian | NBC)
July 31 {4,388,566 Covid-19 cases, 150,054 deaths} – Trump said he plans to use presidential authority to terminate the Chinese social media platform TikTok from operating in the U.S. (NBC | Wikipedia)
August 25 {5,680,549 Covid-19 cases, 166,730 deaths} – Trump and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy are sued by the states of New York and New Jersey over changes to postal service operations such as the removal of mailboxes and mail sorting machines, the curtailing of overtime hours and the implementation of additional service reductions. (Forbes | Independent | Bloomberg)
September 2 – {6,004,196 Covid-19 cases, 173,994 deaths} Trump urged North Carolina voters to cast two votes in the upcoming presidential election, once by mail and then again in person, in order to test his unsubstantiated claims that mail-in voting is prone to fraud. Trump telling his voters to vote twice is voter fraud & a felony. (Politico | CNBC | NBC | NPR | Twit1 | Twit2 | Newsweek | BBC)
September 4 { 6,097,352 Covid-19 cases, 176,039 deaths} – President “bone-spurs” Trump disputed reports in the Atlantic magazine that he has called dead American service members “losers” and those signing to serve in the armed service as “suckers.” (Atlantic | Telegraph)
September 8 { 6,223,393 Covid-19 cases, 177,962 deaths } – The Department of Justice made the unprecedented decision to take over Trump's in a defamation lawsuit brought by E. Jean Carroll, a columnist who accused Trump of sexually assaulting her. Carroll was suing Trump in his personal capacity, and he was previously represented by private attorneys. (CBS | Vice)
September 12 { 6,374,829 Covid-19 cases, 181,952 deaths } – Colorado's secretary of state filed a lawsuit against Louis DeJoy and the US Postal Service over a pre-election mailer that includes misleading voter information. (Axios | CNN | Forbes) A federal judge temporarily barred the US Postal Service from sending mailers containing false statements that may discourage voters from participating in the November election. ( DenverPost | CNN | ColoradoSun | NYT | WP)
September 18 { 6,604,774 Covid-19 cases, 186,520 deaths } – The US Postal Service agreed to terminate its controversial election mailer in Colorado. (CNN | DenverPost | NBC)
September 21 { 6,722,115 Covid-19 cases, 187,856 deaths} – The United States District Court for the District of Nevada dismissed a lawsuit filed by Trump against the State of Nevada challenging the state's recent mail-in voting law. (USA Today | Headtopics)
September 23 { 6,807,987 Covid-19 cases, 189,822 deaths} – Trump honored the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion (to overthrow Castro) in a ceremony in the East Room of the White House. In a press conference, Trump was asked if he would commit to a peaceful transfer of power. Trump replied, “We'll have to see what happens. You know that. I've been complaining very strongly about the ballots. And the ballots are a disaster.” (WP | Newsweek | Rev transcript | White House)
September 25 { 6,899,471 Covid-19 cases, 191,614 deaths} – The U.S. District Judge of the Northern District of California ruled that Trump was not allowed to end the U.S. Census early and ordered the census to continue through October 31. (CNN | WP | CBS8 | Forbes | NYPost)
September 26 { 6,945,223 Covid-19 cases, 192,460 deaths} – Trump tested positive for Covid-19 but kept it a secret. A spreader event was held in the Rose Garden, when Amy Coney Barrett was nominated to the Supreme Court, with close seating and unmasked participants. (Guardian | Wikipedia) Trump held a campaign rally in Middletown, Pennsylvania. (Rev transcript)
September 27 { 6,980,115 Covid-19 cases, 192,761 deaths} – Trump paid no federal income taxes in 10 of 15 years starting in 2000 because he reported losing way more than he made. In 2016 and 2017, Trump paid only $750 in federal income taxes. (NYT | CBS | Guardian | USA Today)
September 29 { 7,050,672 Covid-19 cases, 193,763 deaths} – Trump mocks his Christian supporters privately. People who have known and closely worked with Trump closely, the notion that he might be religious is laughable. “I always assumed he was an atheist,” said Barbara
Res, a former executive at the Trump Organization. “Whenever I see a picture of him standing in a group of pastors, all of their hands on him, I see a thought bubble with the words ‘What suckers,’” said Mary Trump, the president’s niece. (Atlantic) Evangelicals had a problem in 2019 with his swearing... not with his lies, his racism, his xenophobia, his misogyny, his adultery, his sexual assault, his treatment of migrant children, his contributions to the climate crisis, his betrayal of the military, his malignant narcissism, or his closeness to Putin (kompromat). Trump crossed the line with blasphemy. It's not like he uses the Commandments like a checklist: adultery ✔, lying (false witness) ✔, stealing (covet) ✔, Lord's name in vain, blasphemy ✔...
Three days after Trump had secretly tested positive for Covid-19, Trump and Joe Biden debated in Cleveland, moderated by Fox's Chris Wallace. Instead of arguing with Biden, Trump argued with Wallace, who pointed out that Trump did not have a comprehensive health-care plan. Trump insisted he was lowering drug prices (he never did) to dodge his lack of a replacement for Obamacare. Biden explained he is not in sync with Sen. Bernie Sanders on Medicare-for-all, as Trump claimed. As Trump tried to interrupt again and again, Biden asked derisively, “Do you have any idea what this clown is doing?” At another point, Biden quietly said, “Will you shut up, man?” Biden criticized Trump’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, listing the horrendous statistics of death and illness from the disease. “It is what it is because you are who you are,” Biden said calmly. Biden pointed out Trump’s tax avoidance, after which Trump refused to confirm whether he paid only $750 in federal taxes in 2016 and 2017, as the New York Times had reported. Trump then lied that he had little debt (he reportedly owes $421 million) and insisted he paid “millions” in taxes. Near the end, Biden accused Trump of being “Putin’s puppy” and criticized him for not confronting the Russian leader on placing bounties on U.S. troops. And Trump said, “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by!” (WP | CNBC | Ballotpedia | YouTube - CNBC | debate transcript)
September 30 { 7,093,786 Covid-19 cases, 194,780 deaths } – Trump attended a private fundraiser in the Twin Cities and an evening campaign rally with about 3,000 people in Duluth, Minnesota. (CBS | C-Span | Heavy | MPR | Rev transcript | YouTube | YouTube Fox9)
October 1 { 7,137,767 Covid-19 cases, 195,641 deaths } – Hope Hicks, senior counselor to Trump, tested positive for Covid-19. She traveled with Trump to the debate in Cleveland and to the Minnesota rally. Although some White House officials were aware of her diagnosis in the morning, Trump still took a trip to New Jersey for a fundraiser, and press secretary Kayleigh McEnany still held a news briefing at the White House. (Fox)
October 2 { 7,186,019 Covid-19 cases, 196,461 deaths } – Trump tweeted that both he and Melania Trump had tested positive for Covid-19 and would immediately quarantine. Trump boarded a helicopter to Bethesda Naval Hospital for treatment. Trump's campaign manager Bill Stepien, RNC chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel, and Sen. Mike Lee of Utah also tested positive for Covid-19. (AP | CBS | CNN | History | WP)
October 3 { 7,234,219 Covid-19 cases, 197,206 deaths } – Nick Luna, one of President Trump's closest personal attendants in the White House, tests positive for Covid-19. Senators Thom Tillis, Mike Lee, and Ron Johnson all tested positive for Covid-19. With Republican Senators falling to Covid-19, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell halted all Senate floor action for two weeks.
October 4 { 7,271,064 Covid-19 cases, 197,569 deaths } – Trump rode in his limousine around Walter Reed Medical Center. (YouTube)
October 5 { 7,308,801 Covid-19 cases, 197,910 deaths } – White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany announced she had Covid-19 and would quarantine. Two of her deputies also tested positive. Trump was discharged from the hospital and returned to the White House in the evening.
October 6 { 7,347,553 Covid-19 cases, 198,536 deaths } – Stephen Miller, racist advisor to the president, tested positive for Covid-19.
October 7 { 7,394,030 Covid-19 cases, 199,435 deaths } – A fly landed on Vice President Mike Pence during his debate against Sen. Kamala Harris in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Biden-Harris campaign store sold out of the Truth Over Flies flyswatter after selling 35,000 flyswatters for $10. (Biden store | CNN)
October 10 { 7,558,714 Covid-19 cases, 201,947 deaths } – Trump held a rally on the South Lawn of the White House. Candace Owen paid travel and lodging for attendees. (Rev transcript)
October 11 { 7,604,207 Covid-19 cases, 202,411 deaths } – Before Trump had lost the election, Trump lawyer John Eastman emailed Trump a rejection of the Vice President having any electoral ballot count (Jan 6) authority beyond ceremony. Eastman wrote in blue, “I don't agree with this. The 12th Amendment only says that the President of the Senate open the ballots in the joint session and then, in the passive voice, that the votes shall be counted. Nowhere does it suggest that the President of the Senate gets to make the determination on his own.” On November 7th, Eastman got Covid-19 from the hotel room of the Four Seasons Total Landscaping clowns. By mid-December, Eastman made a quick U-turn on the one-way road of the role of the Vice President, becoming the creator of the Coup Memos (Dec 23 & Jan 3). (DailyBeast | CNN | NYT)
October 12 { 7,646,035 Covid-19 cases, 202,694 deaths } – Trump held a campaign rally in Sanford, Florida. (Rev transcript | YouTube-PBS)
October 13 { 7,692,885 Covid-19 cases, 203,425 deaths } – Trump held a campaign rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. (Rev transcript | YouTube-PBS)
October 14 { 7,747,423 Covid-19 cases, 204,273 deaths } – Trump held a campaign rally in Des Moines, Iowa. (Rev transcript | YouTube-KCCI)
October 15 { 7,808,448 Covid-19 cases, 205,161 deaths } – Trump held a campaign rally in Greenville, North Carolina. (Rev transcript)
October 16 { 7,874,935 Covid-19 cases, 206,025 deaths } – Trump held a campaign rally in Macon GA. (Rev transcript | YouTube-PBS) Former Trump official Elizabeth Neumann said with Trump's “efforts to undermine the legitimacy of the election and militaristic calls to ‘join Army for Trump’s election security operation,’ law enforcement and counter-terrorism officials have expressed concerns [that Trump's] rhetoric will lead to more civil unrest and violence.” (WP)
October 17 { 7,931,791 Covid-19 cases, 206,800 deaths } – Trump held campaign rallies in Janesville WI & Muskegon, MI. (Rev transcript - WI | Rev transcript – Muskegon)
October 18 { 7,981,941 Covid-19 cases, 207,204 deaths } – Trump held a campaign rally in Carson City NV. (Rev transcript)
October 19 { 8,036,253 Covid-19 cases, 207,640 deaths } – Trump held campaign rallies in Prescott & Tucson AZ (Rev transcript - Prescott | Rev transcript – Tucson | YouTube-NBC)
October 20 { 8,092,187 Covid-19 cases, 208,467 deaths } – Trump held a campaign rally in Erie PA. (Rev transcript | YouTube-NBC | YouTube-PBS)
October 21 { 8,152,149 Covid-19 cases, 209,598 deaths } – Trump held a campaign rally in Gastonia NC. (Rev transcript | YouTube-NBC)
October 22 { 8,221,451 Covid-19 cases, 210,564 deaths } – The Commission on Presidential Debates held the final presidential debate between Trump and Biden. The Nashville debate was 90 minutes covering the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, immigration, and climate change. Kristen Welker moderated the debate and was armed with a mute button. (Ballotpedia | Debates transcript | NBC | WP | YouTube-NBC) The winner of the debate was Kristen Welker. (BBC | Guardian | Vox)
October 23 { 8,298,508 Covid-19 cases, 211,472 deaths } – Trump held campaign rallies in The Villages & Pensacola FL. (Rev transcript - Villages | Rev transcript - Pensacola)
October 24 { 8,377,398 Covid-19 cases, 212,337 deaths } – Trump held rallies in Lumberton NC & Circleville OH (Rev transcript - NC | Rev transcript - OH)
October 28 { 8,647,878 Covid-19 cases, 215,052 deaths } – Trump held a rally in Phoenix. (YouTube)
October 30 { 8,823,999 Covid-19 cases, 217,000 deaths } – Trump Trucks followed and surrounded a Biden campaign bus on Interstate-35 between San Antonio and Austin in Hays County. A Trump Truck sideswiped another Biden campaign vehicle. Texas was called it a “toss-up,” but really it's a voter intimidation state, a non-voting state. (Texas Tribune | Daily Beast | YouTube-NowThis)
October 31 { 8,914,806 Covid-19 cases, 217,905 deaths } – Conservative activist Tom Fitton emailed a statement for Trump to declare victory on election night to Trump aides Molly Michael and Dan Scavino, saying he had “just talked to [Trump] about the draft below.” The email said that only votes “counted by the Election Day deadline” would matter, even though the Trump knew vote counting would lawfully continue past election day. (CNN | C-Span | NBC) Halloween evening, Stephen Kevin Bannon said Trump's strategy for election evening was to declare victory, even if he was losing. Trump knew that the slow counting of Democratic-leaning mail-in ballots meant the returns would show early leads for him in key states. His “strategy” was to use this fact to assert that he had won, while claiming that the inevitable shifts in vote totals toward Joe Biden must be the result of fraud, Bannon explained. “What Trump’s gonna do is just declare victory. But that doesn’t mean he’s a winner,” Bannon said while laughing, in an audio obtained by Mother Jones. “He’s just gonna say he’s a winner. At 10 or 11 o’clock Trump’s gonna tweet out, ‘I’m the winner. Game over. Suck on that.'” Trump’s plan to falsely declare victory while tens of millions of votes were still being counted was public knowledge even before the election. Axios reported on the scheme on November 1st. (Mother Jones | Axios | WP)
November 1 { 8,987,032 Covid-19 cases, 218,319 deaths } – Trump held rallies in Washington, Michigan; Dubuque, Iowa; Hickory, North Carolina; Rome, Georgia; and Opa-locka, Florida. For the third time in a week, this time in Georgia, hundreds of people who attended the rally were left stranded for hours in freezing temperatures. (WILX, KWWL, WBTV, NW Georgia, Miami Herald, Yahoo) Trump Truck caravans blocked traffic along highways and bridges across the country. Several people take to Twitter to point out that this is hypocritical when Trump and many other conservatives have previously denounced liberal and civil rights protesters who have similarly blocked traffic on highways and bridges. (Independent | HuffPost)
November 2 { 9,068,682 Covid-19 cases, 218,779 deaths } – Voters cast more than 94 million ballots ahead of the day before Election Day, according to the U.S. Elections Project. That's more than 68% of the total votes counted in 2016. (CNBC) Final polls continued to show Joe Biden ahead in enough swing states to win the election. Some states were close, but the polls would have had to be significantly more inaccurate than they were in 2016 for Trump to prevail. (Politico) Trump held rallies in Fayetteville, North Carolina; Scranton, Pennsylvania; Traverse City, Michigan; Kenosha, Wisconsin; and Grand Rapids, Michigan. ( WAVY | TimesLeader | Fox17 | Kenosha | Detroit ) Twitter and Facebook added warning labels to false posts by Trump. In the week of Oct. 19, Trump tweeted an average of 37 times a day. In the last seven days, he nearly doubled it to about 64 tweets per day. Landing in Kenosha, Trump posted his 71st tweet of the day. He still had the Detroit rally and two-and-a-half hours to go. (USA Today)
November 3 { 9,154,043 Covid-19 cases, 219,869 deaths } – Election Day. The national polling average for Joe Biden was 52%. For Trump it was 42%. (CNN) Biden was ahead of Trump in most national polls since the start of the year. Biden hovered around 50% in recent months and had a 10-point lead on occasions. (BBC) Trump still had a 1-in-10 chance. (538) A downbeat Trump called in late to Fox&Friends sounding like he had lost already, saying “Joe’s going to have a hard time; he’s not going to be able to handle them [the progressives].” Trump also said, “And the immune system on children, that’s why you’ve got to get the children back to work.” (Yahoo | Rev transcript) Exit polls showed 93% of voters had decided prior to the previous week. (Politico) More exit polls. (NYT) Election results: (ABC | NBC | NYT | Wikipedia | Fox | YouTube-NBC | YouTube-CSpan | YouTube-ABC)
Polls closed (eastern time): 7pm – Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia; 7:30pm – North Carolina, Ohio, West Virginia; 8pm – Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, DC, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee; 8:30pm – Arkansas; 9pm – Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, Wisconsin, Wyoming; 10pm – Iowa, Montana, Nevada, Utah; 11pm – California, Idaho, Oregon, Washington; Midnight – Hawaii; and 1am – Alaska. (CNBC)
November 4 { 9,254,499 Covid-19 cases, 220,944 deaths } – 2:30am - Trump addressed supporters at the White House and talked about the uncounted ballots saying “We'll be going to the US Supreme Court; we want all voting to stop. We don't want them to find any ballots at 4 in the morning, and add them to the list ... We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election.” (Rev transcript) 2:50am - The Associated Press declared Biden the projected winner in Arizona. (AP | AP explains) 9am - Counting of absentee & mail-in ballots begins in many states. (Politico) Afternoon – The Trump campaign filed a policy lawsuit to stop vote counting in Michigan. (Hill) They wanted a recount in Wisconsin, whose officials, including former Republican Gov. Scott Walker, warned that a recount was unlikely to change the results. (StarTribune | Time) They filed a lawsuit in Georgia. (Forbes) They filed a policy-challenging lawsuit in Pennsylvania. (NYT) White House chief of staff Mark Meadows tested positive for Covid-19. It was announced at the end of the day on the 6th. (CNN | NBC | WP | Wikipedia)
November 5 { 9,367,997 Covid-19 cases, 222,076 deaths } – Jared Kushner woke up and told Ivanka that it was time to leave Washington, saying “We’re moving to Miami.” (Mediaite) Trump continued to claim voter fraud without any evidence. (C-Span | YouTube-CBS | Rev transcript)
Georgia court dismissed Trump's lawsuit due to lack of evidence. (AJC | Hill) Michigan court dismissed Trump's lawsuit due to it being filed at the wrong place and the wrong time. (Hill) Two days after the election, the Trump campaign established a command center in rooms at the Willard Hotel. (WSWS)
November 6 - Biden led Trump in the Georgia and Pennsylvania ballot counts. (NBC | Hill | Fox) Biden won Pennsylvania and the election according to DecisionDesk, but other election-callers said it was too close to call. (Heavy | Slate) The Supreme Court ordered Pennsylvania election
boards to separately count mail-in ballots that arrived after Election Day. (WP | Hill) Pennsylvania State Senate majority leader Jake Corman denied rumors that the GOP-controlled Pennsylvania Legislature would bypass the popular vote and appoint presidential electors pledged to Trump. (Politico | CBS) Protesters for Trump shout “Stop The Count” and “Count The Votes.”(BuzzFeed)
November 7 { 9,627,627 Covid-19 cases, 224,281 deaths } – Pennsylvania was called for Biden by the major networks, putting him above the required 270 electoral votes to be named President-elect. 11:24am - CNN called it first and NBC followed within seconds. MSNBC and CBS called it at 11:25am, ABC at 11:26am, the Associated Press at 11:28am, and Fox at 11:40am. (Deadline)
Four Seasons Total Landscaping in northeast Philadelphia was called at 8:45am and was asked if the company would host a news conference. (Fusion | Icon) Trump tweeted “Lawyers Press Conference at Four Seasons, Philadelphia” at 9:35am, deleted it at 9:41am, replied to it at 9:43am, and deleted the reply at 9:45am. Trump tweeted then deleted, “Lawyer's Press Conference at Four Season's Landscaping, Philadelphia. Enjoy!” At 10:45am, the Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia tweeted a clarification, “Trump's press conference will NOT be held at Four Seasons Hotel
Philadelphia. It will be held at Four Seasons Total Landscaping - no relation with the hotel.” Only one Four Seasons had manure for sale and was next door to Fantasy Island Adult Books and across the street from the Delaware Valley Cremation Center. While Trump was golfing, Rudy Giuliani and a convicted sex offender began the press conference at 11:50am. SkyNews reporter Mark Stone interrupted to say that all of the major news networks were projecting Biden's victory. Giuliani asked, “Who was it called by?” Stone replied, “All the networks.” (DailyBeast | Independent | Inquirer | NYmag | Politico | SkyNews | Vox | YouTube-AP | YouTube-WEHT) Later that day, lawyer John Eastman spent 15 minutes in a hotel room with the Four Seasons Total Landscaping clowns and got Covid-19. Eastman was sick for weeks. (NYT)
November 9 { 9,849,896 Covid-19 cases, 225,352 deaths } – Trump fired Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and replaced him with Christopher C. Miller as acting Secretary. (NYT) In response, CIA Director Gina Haspel privately told Chair of the Joint Chiefs Milley that “we are on the way to a right-wing coup.” (BI) Oath Keepers member Jessica Watkins sent text messages inviting people to the Oath Keepers' basic training in Ohio. One message said, “I need you fighting fit by innaugeration [sic].” (BuzzFeed) Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, emailed at least two Wisconsin state lawmakers and more than two dozen lawmakers in Arizona, urging them without justification to overturn Biden’s 2020 election win. (PBS | ABC)
November 10 { 9,978,668 Covid-19 cases, 226,718 deaths } – Ten Republican state attorneys general filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court supporting Trump's case challenging Pennsylvania's late mail-in ballots. (Supreme Court | Hill) The Trump campaign filed a lawsuit in Michigan, seeking to prevent the state from certifying its results until its allegations of election misconduct in Michigan were addressed. (Freep) The Nevada Supreme Court dismissed Trump's appeal challenging Clark County, Nevada's election processes, ruling that there was no evidence of wrongdoing. Trump dropped the challenges of Clark County ballot counting. (AP | LasVegas3)
November 12 { 10,267,371 Covid-19 cases, 229,295 deaths } – Two coalitions of federal and state election officials, the Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council and the Election Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Council, issued a joint statement saying, “There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.” (CISA statement | NYT | Hill) A Pennsylvania state court ruled in favor of Trump, stating that Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar “lacked statutory authority” to extend a deadline for mail-in voters needed to submit identification. Boockvar had moved the deadline from November 9 to November 12. The court ordered the state to toss out the ballots from that extended deadline period. The Philadelphia Inquirer estimates the number of ballots to be eliminated was small and would not change Biden's lead. (Forbes | Inquirer)
November 13 { 10,434,221 Covid-19 cases, 230,522 deaths } – Sen. Lindsey Graham called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, questioning the validity of legally cast absentee ballots, in an effort to reverse Trump’s narrow loss in the state. (WP | NBC | Guardian) Porter Wright Morris & Arthur, the law firm leading the Trump’s efforts to challenge the election results in Pennsylvania, abruptly withdrew from a federal lawsuit that it had filed on Trump's behalf. That followed a similar move by an Arizona law firm that was representing the Republican Party as it challenged that state’s results. (NYT | CBS) Also a top lawyer at Jones Day, which represented Trump for more than four years, told colleagues during a video conference call that Jones Day (big tobacco, Bin Laden family) would not get involved in additional litigation in this election. (NYT | WP) The Lincoln Project, a well-funded group of anti-Trump Republicans, was urging employees of Jones Day and Porter Wright to resign and said it would call on clients to stop working with the firms. (Law | Lincoln Project | Wikipedia | WashExaminer) Trump dropped an Arizona lawsuit based on claims that poll workers mishandled ballots rejected by the tabulation machines, as the number of votes potentially being contested would not overcome Biden's lead. (CNN | CNBC | NYT | ABC7 | Wikipedia) Boockvar confirms that there will be no automatic Pennsylvania recount because the margin is greater than 0.5 percent. (NBC Philadelphia | CNBC) A Michigan court rejected a petition by two Republican poll challengers seeking to stop the Wayne County's vote certification, alleging fraud by poll workers. The court ruled that the plaintiffs' "interpretation" of the events were "incorrect and not credible" and "decidedly contradicted" an election expert that was put forth by the defense. (CNBC | Newsweek) The Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia rejects five Trump petitions challenging five separate batches of votes in which voters failed to either print their names under their signature or print their address on the outer envelope of their mail-in ballot. The court ruled that Philadelphia County's Board of Elections does not make it absolutely mandatory because the information is already pre-printed on those envelopes. (CBS | CNBC | Hill) Four campaign advisors whipped Trump up, saying “great constitutional offenses had been committed against him,” according to Michael Wolff. The advisors were Pat Cipollone, Eric Hershmann, Matt Morgan, and Justin Clark. (Newsweek)
November 14 { 10,593,946 Covid-19 cases, 231,803 deaths } – Trump criticized the Georgia ballot recount as a "waste of time", claiming that his campaign's observers are not being let into the counting rooms. (Mother Jones | AJC | Hill) Trump supporters held a Million Maga March rally east of the White House without a million people or a march. Trump drove by on his way to golfing. Alex Jones called it a “second American Revolution.” Protesters, counter-protesters, and police fought that night. (NPR | WP | Guardian | NYT | Wikipedia | YouTube-WP | YouTube-Guardian | YouTube-USAToday)
November 15 { 10,732,177 Covid-19 cases, 232,464 deaths } – Trump golfed and admitted Biden won but falsely claimed the election was rigged in a tweet. (CNBC | BostonHerald | Mediaite | RawStory | Yahoo)
November 16 { 10,881,124 Covid-19 cases, 233,120 deaths } – Trump lied again on Twitter in the morning saying, “I won the election!” Trump did not win the election. A Department of Justice meeting of Attorney General Barr, FBI Director Wray, FBI forensic experts, and Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) officials addressed Trump's lies and wild allegations. Was there any way that the Dominion Voting Systems machine could change votes? No. Could Chinese microchips in voting machines manipulate the data? No. Was there any way that other voting systems could be penetrated? Still no. Was there any way mail-in ballots were thrown away, fraudulently submitted, or falsely counted? No, not to any relevant degree. Was there any way that the integrity of the elections were questionable? Nope. What about fraud on the part of vote counters and local officials? No. The conclusion was definitive. All of Trump's claims were false and concocted. There was no way votes had been stolen from anyone. (Newsweek) Georgia conducted a post-election audit and found 2,631 votes in Floyd County because of a ballot scanning machine's memory card that did not get uploaded on Election Day. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution estimated that Trump could get about roughly 800 net votes added to his tally. (AP |WSBTV | NYT | Wikipedia)
November 17 { 11,035,624 Covid-19 cases, 234,630 deaths } – “There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised,” said the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in a public statement five days earlier. CISA director Christopher Krebs tweeted out a report citing 59 election security experts saying there is no credible evidence of computer fraud in the 2020 election results. Krebs ran the CISA, from its creation in the wake of Russian interference with the 2016 election through the November 2020 election. He won bipartisan praise as CISA coordinated federal state and local efforts to defend electoral systems from foreign and domestic interference. In a tweet, Trump fired Krebs for disagreeing with Trump's lies. (LA Times | Politifact | MSNBC | Guardian | Krebs | CNN) The Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejected Trump's claim that Philadelphia did not offer meaningful access to the vote count. In a 5-to-2 ruling, the justices found Philadelphia did not illegally restrict observers during the canvassing process. The justices also determined the city rules were reasonable. (CBS | CNN)
November 22 { 11,873,233 Covid-19 cases, 242,440 deaths } – Trump said on Nov 14 the Georgia audit (recount) was a waste of time. Now he demanded a recount to waste time and delay the presidential transition. Five million votes were tabulated a third time. (NPR)
November 30 { 13,105,870 Covid-19 cases, 253,192 deaths } – Arizona's Republican governor Doug Ducey was signing documents certifying election results showing Trump narrowly lost the state, when he silenced a call from Trump. (AP | Mediaite | TPM | YouTube-MSNBC | YouTube-Fox)
December 1 { 13,275,189 Covid-19 cases, 255,580 deaths } – Attorney General William Barr invited Associated Press reporter Mike Balsamo to lunch. The AP reported, “Disputing President Donald Trump's persistent, baseless claims, Attorney General William Barr declared Tuesday the U.S. Justice Department has uncovered no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could change the outcome of the 2020 election. 'We have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election,' Barr said.” (AP) Balsamo quickly filed his story from a Justice Department office when the lunch was over. Trump saw the news of Barr's statement and soon after, top White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson walked into the Oval Office dining room. “I first noticed there was ketchup, dripping down the wall, and there’s a shattered porcelain plate on the floor. The valet had articulated that the president was extremely angry at the attorney general’s interview and had thrown his lunch against the wall,” Hutchinson said. (WP | CBS | Politico | YouTube-PBS) After the lunch interview and Trump's thrown plate, Barr met with Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and was called into the Oval Office. Trump yelled at Barr for three hours, repeating false claims of fraud and a stolen election. He asked Barr about his quotes in the AP story. “You must have said that because you hate Trump, you must really hate Trump,” Trump said. Barr told Trump that his White House has no strategy. Barr said that “every self-respecting lawyer in the country has run for the hills. Your team is a bunch of clowns. You have wasted four weeks on the one theory that is demonstrably crazy, which is these machines.” Barr told Trump that the theories of a stolen election were “bullshit.” (AP | Newsweek | Guardian | Axios | CBS) Newly pardoned RT commentator and Trump advisor Michael Flynn said Trump should suspend the Constitution and rerun the election, tweeting an ad from the Washington Times. (Independent | Mediaite | Week)
December 5 { 14,087,287 Covid-19 cases, 265,600 deaths } – Trump signed a retainer for John Eastman's legal services. On a call that included Pence, Trump “mentioned challenging the election results in the House of Representatives for the first time.” On Dec. 7, Pence asks his general counsel, Greg Jacob, to brief him. Jacob's memo (pdf) was dated Dec 8. (Bulwark)
December 8 { 14,637,073 Covid-19 cases, 270,628 deaths } – Greg Jacob, counsel to the Vice President, gave Pence a four-page memo (pdf) explaining the role of the VP in the electoral count according to the U.S. Constitution, the Electoral Count Act of 1887, and the short list of problems in the long history of the country. (Wikipedia | Politico | NYT | PBS)
December 12 { 15,475,909 Covid-19 cases, 281,590 deaths } – Trump tweeted, “We have just begun to fight!” (Deadline | Politifact | Twit archives) And by fight, he meant tossing the coin at the Army-Navy football game. (CNBC | YouTube) In D.C., pro-Trump protesters riot for a coup, saying “We’re not going anywhere.” MyPillow's Mike Lindell said the world may be in “end times.” Maybe the end of 2020. (Vox) The fascist, racist Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio burned a church Black Lives Matter banner, by his own admission. (Independent)
December 13 { 15,653,191 Covid-19 cases, 283,000 deaths } – Trump’s election operations director for Georgia, Robert Sinners, emailed 16 Republican fake electors who would be going to the Georgia Capitol to sign certificates declaring themselves duly elected. “I must ask for your complete discretion in this process,” wrote Sinners, “Your duties are imperative to ensure the end result — a win in Georgia for President Trump — but will be hampered unless we have complete secrecy and discretion.” The email went on to instruct the electors to tell security guards at the building that they had an appointment with one of two state senators. “Please, at no point should you mention anything to do with Presidential Electors or speak to the media,” Sinners said. (WP | CNN) Trump golfed. (Trump golf count)
December 16 { 16,239,318 Covid-19 cases, 290,563 deaths } – A draft executive order dated December 16th appointed a special counsel to probe the election and directed the defense secretary to seize voting machines was never issued. But the draft order was consistent with proposals lawyer Sidney Powell made to Trump. (draft Executive Order | Politico | Mediaite)
December 17 { 16,454,803 Covid-19 cases, 293,867 deaths } – Giuliani called Ken Cuccinelli at Homeland Security's and asked if it DHS could seize voting machines. Cuccinelli told Giuliani it wasn't within the department's authority to seize voting machines. (NYT | Axios | Crooks&Liars)
December 18 { 16,681,000 Covid-19 cases, 296,548 deaths } – Former RT commentator and Trump adviser Michael Flynn, former Trump lawyer Emily Newman, former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne, and Sidney Powell met with Trump in the Oval Office in the early evening. Flynn and Powell urged Trump to use the military to seize voting machines and to appoint Powell as a special counsel to investigate the election. Flynn also wanted Trump to declare martial law. Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, adviser Eric Herschmann, and lawyer Pat Cipollone, pushed back on Powell's plan. It was more than a month after the election had been declared for Joe Biden and four days after the Electoral College met in every state to make it official. (Axios | NYT)
December 19 { 16,873,923 Covid-19 cases, 299,192 deaths } – Trump tweeted at 1:42am, “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!” (NPR | Politifact | Twit archives) John Eastman admitted in an email that “the fake electors had no legal weight” referring to them as “dead on arrival in Congress.” (LAtimes | Time) Trump's staff received a memo from Trump's general counsel, Matt Morgan, instructing them to preserve all documents related to Dominion Voting Systems and Powell in anticipation of potential litigation by Dominion against Powell. Dominion sent a letter to Powell demanding she publicly retract her accusations and instructing Trump's staff not to alter, destroy or discard records that could be relevant. (NYT | CNN)
December 21 { 17,231,336 Covid-19 cases, 302,186 deaths } – “On January 6, armed Trumpist militias will be rallying in D.C., at Trump’s orders. It’s highly likely that they’ll try to storm the Capitol after it certifies Joe Biden’s win,” reported Arieh Kovler on Twitter from Jerusalem. (JI) Trump met with Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Alabama) and other congressional Republicans to plan a last-ditch effort to overturn the election results on January 6th. The Republicans also had a meeting with Pence and a meeting with Trump's lawyers. (Politico)
December 23 { 17,612,152 Covid-19 cases, 308,474 deaths } – Attorney General Bill Barr resigned. (ABC | CNBC | NYT) John Eastman wrote the first of two Coup Memos (pdf), fabricating an unconstitutional role for Pence as the decider of the election. (Wikipedia | CNN | DailyBeast | LAtimes) Trump retweeted an “Operation Pence Card” tweet. Pence showed it to his wife Karen and rolled his eyes. (Bulwark)
December 26 { 18,105,229 Covid-19 cases, 314,017 deaths } – Trump tweeted, “History will remember. Never give up. See everyone in D.C. on January 6th.” (Mother Jones | Politifact | Twit archives)
December 27 { 18,248,748 Covid-19 cases, 315,347 deaths } – Trump tweeted, “See you in Washington, DC, on January 6th. Don’t miss it. Information to follow!” (Politifact | Twit archives)
December 29 { 18,588,184 Covid-19 cases, 320,124 deaths } – Two past gathering spots for the fascist Proud Boys, the Hotel Harrington and Harry's Pub announced closure from January 4-6, citing public safety. (WP | NPR | Newsweek | Esquire | HuffPost)
December 31 { 19,005,793 Covid-19 cases, 326,867 deaths } – Trump lawyers discussed in emails directly asking Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to overturn Biden's presidential election. Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro said that Thomas would be “our only chance to get a favorable judicial opinion by Jan. 6, which might hold up the Georgia count in Congress.” Trump lawyer John Eastman replied later in the morning, “I think I agree with this.” Co-plotting Trump’s last-ditch bid to subvert the election, Eastman had clerked for Thomas and had been corresponded with his wife, Virginia. (Politico | WP | CNN | CBS)
2021
January 1 – { 19,179,864 Covid-19 cases, 329,311 deaths } – Trump tweeted, "The BIG Protest Rally in Washington, D.C., will take place at 11.00 A.M. on January 6th. Locational details to follow. StopTheSteal!" Trump also tweeted, “January 6th. See you in D.C.” (Politifact | Twit archives) The National Park Service received three different permit applications for
protests to be scheduled on January 6th around the electoral vote count. Women for America First, a conservative women's group chaired by Amy Kremer, a former head of the Tea Party Express. Kylie Jane Kremer was on the rally’s permit as being in charge. Eighty Percent Coalition requested a permit for 10,000 protesters in the same area. South Carolina conservative James Epley requested a permit for a third rally. (Washingtonian | USA Today | Yahoo) The Senate voted 81-13 to override Trump's veto of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, which was the first veto override of the Trump presidency. (Hill | Insider)
January 2 { 19,438,731 Covid-19 cases, 331,563 deaths } – Pence released a memo (pdf) dated Jan 1 regarding supposed election misconduct in 6 states. Actual voter fraud the memo says is “either small in number or cannot be verified.” (Bulwark) Trump called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to whine and bully him into changing the results of the election towards Trump, specifically to “find 11,780 votes.” It took 18 tries for Trump to get through because he sounded like prank calls.
Trump: I won this election by hundreds of thousands of votes. There's no way I lost Georgia. There's no way. We won by hundreds of thousands of votes. I'm just going by small numbers when you add them up they're many times the 11,000. But I won that state by hundreds of thousands of votes. Do you think it's possible that they shredded ballots in Fulton County? Because that's what the rumor is. And also that Dominion took out machines. That Dominion is really moving fast to get rid of their, uh, machinery. Do you know anything about that? Because that's illegal, right?
Germany: This is Ryan Germany. No, Dominion has not moved any machinery out of Fulton County.
Trump: But have they moved the inner parts of the machines and replaced them with other parts?
Germany: No.
Trump: Are you sure, Ryan?
Germany: I'm sure. I'm sure, Mr. President.
Trump: What about, what about the ballots. The shredding of the ballots. Have they been shredding ballots?
Germany: The only investigation that we have into that — they have not been shredding any ballots. There was an issue in Cobb County where they were doing normal office shredding, getting rid of old stuff, and we investigated that. But this is stuff from, you know, from you know past elections.
Trump: I don't know. It doesn't pass the smell test because we hear they're shredding thousands and thousands of ballots and now what they're saying, “Oh, we're just cleaning up the office.” So I don't think they're cleaning.
Raffensperger: Mr. President, the problem you have with social media, they... people can say anything.
Trump: Oh this isn't social media. This is Trump media. It's not social media. It's really not it's not social media. I don't care about social media. I couldn't care less... So what are we going to do here folks? I only need 11,000 votes. Fellas, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break. You know, we have that in spades already. (CNN | MarketWatch | NYT | NewYorker | DailyMail | Rev transcript) Trump, Giuliani, Eastman, Navarro, and Lott spoke to 300 state legislators via a conference call meant to arm them with purported evidence of fraud and galvanize them to take action to “decertify” their election results. “You are the real power,” Trump told state lawmakers, according to the Washington Examiner. “You’re the ones that are going to make the decision.” (WP) Giuliani spoke to Cassidy Hutchinson, “Cass, are you excited for the 6th? It's going to be a great day.” She asked what the 6th was. “We're going to the Capitol. It's going to be great. The president is going to be there. He's going to look powerful,” Giuliani said. Meadows told her, “It sounds like we're going to go to the Capitol. There's a lot going on Cass, but I don't know, things might get real, real bad on January 6.” (CBS)
January 3, 2021 { 19,646,037 Covid-19 cases, 332,933 deaths } – Trump tweeted, “I will be there. Historic day!” (Twit archive) John Eastman shared a second Coup Memo (pdf), extending the fabrication of an unconstitutional role for Pence as the decider of the election with multiple scenarios and ways for the Vice President to overturn Biden's election. (Wikipedia | CNN | DailyBeast) Dustin Stockton rescheduled January 6 speakers to the January 5 rally to make room for Trump to speak at the Ellipse protest. (WP) White House lawyer Pat Cipollone pulled Cassidy Hutchinson aside to express his concern upon hearing Trump planned to march to the Capitol with his supporters on January 6. Cipollone said, “We're going to get charged with every crime imaginable if we make that movement happen.” (WP | Wikipedia) A mid-level Justice Department official, environmental lawyer Jeffrey Clark, met with Trump for three hours to ask to be named attorney general. Clark would send a letter to legislative leaders in states Biden won. The letter (pdf) falsely said the Justice Department had “identified significant concerns” about the vote and that the states should send new Trump electors to Congress. Rushed to the meeting, deputy attorney general Richard Donoghue urged Trump not to put Clark in charge, calling him “not competent” and warning of “mass resignations” by Justice Department officials if Clark became the attorney general. Trump asked, “What do I have to lose?” Donoghue responded, “Mr. President, you have a great deal to lose. Is this really how you want your administration to end? You’re going to hurt the country, you’re going to hurt the department, you’re going to hurt yourself, with people grasping at straws on these desperate theories about election fraud, and is this really in anyone’s best interest?” Pat Cipollone told Trump that Clark’s proposed letter was “a murder-suicide pact,” according to Donoghue’s deposition. “It’s going to damage everyone who touches it. And we should have nothing to do with that letter.” (Wikipedia | WP | ABC | NYT |TPM | DailyKos) Pence met with the Senate parliamentarian about alternate slates of electors by several states. He was told no. Every 4 years, miscellaneous slates are received but no alternate slates bearing a certificate of election from a state authority. Pence decided that needs to be said in the officiating script. (Politico | Bulwark) Trump told Secretary of Defense Christopher C. Miller to “do whatever is necessary to protect the demonstrators who will be executing their constitutionally protected rights” or something like that in Trump-speak. (Newsweek)
January 4 { 19,811,975 Covid-19 cases, 334,540 deaths } – Secretary of Defense Christopher C. Miller issued orders which prohibited deploying D.C. Guard members with weapons, helmets, body armor, or riot control agents without his personal approval. “Without my subsequent, personal authorization, the DCNG is not authorized the following:
* To be issued weapons, ammunition, bayonets, batons, riot control agents or ballistic protection equipment such as helmets and body armor.
* To interact physically with protesters, except when necessary in self-defense or defense of others.
* Prohibited from sharing 'equipment with law enforcement agencies' or seeking support from any non-DC National Guard units.
* Forbidden from conducting 'searches, seizures, arrests, or other similar direct law enforcement activity.'
* Forbidden from using 'Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance assets' or to conduct “Incident, Awareness and Assessment activities.”
* No helicopters or 'any other air assets.'” (Miller memo | CNN | JustSecurity | WP | WSWS)
At an airport rally in Dalton, Georgia, Trump repeated his grievances about his own election. He spoke about a continued fight, both for himself and the Senate. “If the liberal Democrats take the Senate and the White House, and they’re not taking this White House, we’re going to fight like hell, I’ll tell you right now,” Trump said. “We’re going to take it back.” (Guardian | NYT | C-Span | Rev-transcript |YouTube-NBC) As Vice President, Pence was rarely invited to meetings. He just showed up. On a plane ride from Georgia back to Washington, Pence was summoned to a evening White House meeting. The meeting included Trump, Meadows, Giuliani, Eastman and Pence, Marc Short, and Greg Jacob. Eastman said that Pence should modify the January 6 proceedings, which required state votes be counted in alphabetical order, by saving five disputed states until the end. Eastman argued that Pence had the authority to simply return electoral certificates not counted to their state until each state legislature certified which competing slate of electors was correct. Pence learned the day before that there were no competing slates. Pence asked, “Do you think I have the authority to reject or return votes?” Eastman replied, “Well, it’s never been tested in the courts, so I think it is an open question.” Pence turned to Trump, “Did you hear that? Even your lawyer doesn’t think I have the authority to return electoral votes.” Trump nodded and said, “I like the other thing better,” possibly referring to having Pence reject electoral votes instead of returning them to the states. (Alternet | Bulwark)
January 5 { 20,014,163 Covid-19 cases, 337,965 deaths } – Since two days after election day, the Trump campaign had funded a command center of rooms at the Willard Hotel, with Rudy Giuliani and Bernard Kerik (Dec 18 – Jan 8), John Eastman (Jan 4 – 8), Stephen Kevin Bannon, Christina Bobb, Boris Epshteyn, Philip Luelsdorff, and Russell Ramsland Jr. On January 5, the command center was joined by Patrick Byrne, Michael Flynn, Rudy Giuliani, George Papadopoulos, and Roger Stone. (WP | WSWS | Guardian | AFP | IBT | Sizzle) Trump's closest insurrectionists met in Trump's private residence at the Trump Hotel for a pre-insurrection eve meeting: Daniel Beck, David Bossie, Michael Flynn, Rudy Giuliani, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Charles Herbster, Jared Kushner, Corey Lewandowski, Mike Lindell, Peter Navarro, Adam Piper, Juan Savin, Robert Steele, Phil Waldron, Tommy Tuberville, and Trump's sons Don Jr. and Eric. (Proof | Wikipedia | Esquire | Alreporter | Veterans Today) At 8:57am, Bannon talked with Trump for 11 minutes by phone. (CNN) After the call, Bannon said on his podcast, “All hell is going to break loose tomorrow. It’s going to be moving. It’s going to be quick.”(WP | Snopes | HuffPost) John Eastman met with Greg Jacob and Marc Short, requesting that Pence reject the electors. Jacob helped Eastman see that they would lose the Supreme Court 9-0. (Mediaite | WTNH | Lawfare | WSJ) Jacob advised Pence by memo that Pence would be breaking the law if he delayed certification of the 2020 presidential election vote count the next day. (ABAjournal | NYT | WTNH) At 11:06am, Trump tweets that Pence has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors. Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow disagreed. (Twit | Twit-archive | Newsweek | USA9 | NBC | TheSun) Pence told Trump he does not have the power to reverse the outcome of the November 2020 election while presiding over the joint session of Congress. (ABC | CNN | Independent | Law&Crime | Wikipedia) Marc Short, Pence's chief of staff, called Pence’s lead Secret Service agent, Tim Giebels, to his West Wing office. Short told Giebels that Trump was going to turn on Pence and it would be a security risk. (NYT) Capitol Police chief Steven Sund held a teleconference with top DC law enforcement and military officials. Sund later wrote no entity provided any intelligence indicating that there would be a coordinated violent attack on the Capitol by thousands of well-equipped, armed insurrectionists. (ABC) DC National Guard commander William J. Walker received new orders from Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy stating that he must seek approval from McCarthy and defense secretary Miller before preparing to respond to a civil disturbance. Previously, he had authority to respond without first seeking permission. (CNN | WP) An hours long tour of the Capitol tunnels and three Capitol complex office buildings, Raymond, Longworth, and Cannon, was conducted by Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.). Individuals on the tour photographed and recorded areas of the Capitol complex not typically of interest to tourists, including hallways, staircases, and security checkpoints. Some on the ten-person tour went to the Capitol riot and threatened Congress. (Law&Crime | YouTube-Jan6committee) At 5pm, fascist Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was released from jail and ordered to leave DC. In a DC parking garage near the Phoenix Park Hotel, Tarrio met with Oath Keepers founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes III and others. (NBC | Salon) At 7:39pm, a dog walker unknowingly passed by a suspected pipe bomber near Capitol Hill. Minutes later, pipe bombs were placed by the DNC and RNC buildings. Reward is $500,000. 1-800-CALL-FBI. (Atlantic | NPR | ABC |CBS | FBI) At 9:46pm, Bannon called Trump again. They talked for 6 minutes. (CNN)
January 6 { 20,239,211 Covid-19 cases, 341,635 deaths } – President Donald Trump attempted a coup d'état – a violent overthrow – an armed insurrection – the first president unwilling to leave office after losing an election in the 233 year history of the United States. Trump and his allies encouraged individuals and militias to come to Washington DC to take the election by force, since Trump couldn't take the election by votes, lawsuits, or pressure on federal or state officials. The stages were set, the weapons were packed, and thousands of Trump-cult FLAR (fools, liars, anarchists, & racists) answered the call. ( Wikipedia | USAToday | CNN | NPR | BBC | JustSecurity | ProPublica ) Trump didn't just inspire the insurrection – he made money off it. When he tweeted “Big protest in DC on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!” on December 19, the cheapest Trump Hotel rooms for the evening of the riot were $476. The price surged to $1,999. A week later, prices hit $3,600, before climbing to $8,000. (Forbes | YouTube) Charges contained in any criminal complaint or indictment are allegations. The defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. (Justice cases | Sedition hunters | US House news | US Senate PBS) 12:43am: Trump retweeted a post suggesting that Republican legislators should “go to the wall” for the president, with the added comment: “Get smart Republicans. Fight!” (USAToday) 1am: Trump tweeted a lie that Pence had the authority to reject electoral votes, which he did not. “If Pence comes through for us, we will win the Presidency.” No part of that was true. (Twit | Twit-archive | WP | Newsweek | PolitiFact | USAToday) 1:13am: Stop the Steal organizer and convicted felon Ali Abdul-Razaq Akbar aka Ali Alexander tweeted “First official day of the rebellion.” His Wild Protest rally and Trump's Ellipse riot were funded through Caroline Wren, a former Trump fundraiser, who had been hired by Publix supermarkets heiress Julie Jenkins Fancelli to manage her $300,000 donation. (DailyMail | WP | HuffPost | RightwingWatch) 7:20am: Aaron Whallon-Wolkind, the Philadelphia VP of the fascist, misogynist Proud Boys wrote on the group's Telegram channel, “I want to see thousands of normies burn that city to ash today.” (CourtListener | RawStory | NYT | YouTube-NYT) 7:30am: Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows texted Rep. Jim Jordan “I have pushed for this” but was “not sure it is going to happen,” referring to Pence overturning the election results. (CNN) 8:17am: Trump again tweeted lies demanding Pence reject the electoral vote count, which he had no authority to do. “All Mike Pence has to do is send them back to the States, and we win. Do it Mike, this is a time for extreme courage!” (Twit | Politico | WP) 8:34am: Trump talked by phone to lawyer Kurt Olsen. (BI | DailyBeast) 8:37am: Trump talked by phone to Bannon. (BI) 8:45am: Trump talked by phone to Giuliani. (BI) 8:51am: A Secret Service alert said over 10,000 people were in line at the White House Ellipse. The alert said, “Some members of the crowd are wearing ballistic helmets, body armor and carrying radio equipment and military grade backpacks.” (CBS) 8:56am: Trump returned a call from Meadows. (BI) 9am: Trump tweeted lies about voter fraud. “They just happened to find 50,000 ballots late last night.” Trump also tweeted truthfully, “The USA is embarrassed by fools.” (Twit-archive) Trump insurrection rallies began. Wearing a bulletproof vest, Rep. Mo Brooks from Alabama said this was the day for “kicking ass.” He said their ancestors had “sacrificed their blood... and sometimes their lives... Are you willing to do the same?” He didn’t tell the protesters they had to stop the electoral count. He only told them, “Today, Republican senators and congressmen will either vote to turn America into a godless, amoral, dictatorial, oppressed, and socialist nation on the decline, or they will join us and they will fight and vote against voter fraud and election theft and vote for keeping America great.” He didn’t tell them they had to attack the Capitol, he only called out to the crowd, “Will you fight for America?” before saying, “We, American patriots, are going to come right at them!” (Wikipedia | AL | DailyKos | JustSecurity | NPR | Yahoo | Law&Crime | YouTube-TheHill) 9:02am: Trump left a message for Pence. (BI) 9:15am: Trump tweeted more lies about voter fraud, “The States want to redo their votes. They found out they voted on a fraud.” (Twit-archive) 9:24am: Trump talked by phone to Rep. Jordan for about 10 minutes. (CNN | TheHill | BI) 9:45am: A Federal Protective Service officer informed Capitol Police that more than the permitted 30,000 protesters were expected at the Ellipse, the Freedom Plaza permit was increased from 5,000 to 30,000, and the protest outside the Sylven Theater was permitted for 15,000. (AP) 9:52am: Trump talked by phone to adviser Stephen Miller for 26 minutes. (BI | CNN) Before 10am: Secret Service officer and White House deputy chief of staff Tony Ornato informs Trump that authorities at the Ellipse, where Trump was going to speak, encountered attendees with weapons, including pistols, rifles, bear spray (concentrated pepper spray), and spears. (CNN | Politico | WP | YouTube-MSNBC) 10:15am: Ornato and Cassidy Hutchinson informed Meadows about the weapons in the crowd at the Ellipse. Meadows didn't say anything for a few seconds, then said, “Alright. Anything else?” while still looking down at his phone. (Axios | CNN) 10:30am: Hundreds of the fascist Proud Boys left the Ellipse where Trump was expected to speak and went down the mall to the east side of the Capitol to do recon, looking for weak spots and taking pictures. Then they went for tacos with tag-along journalist Nick Quested. (NPR | Salon) 10:47am: Rudy Giuliani spoke at the Ellipse, calling for a “trial by combat” and said “If we’re wrong, we will be made fools of.” Fools are self-made. The creator of the Jan. 6th insurrection at the Capitol, John Eastman, also spoke. (C-Span | CNN | Snopes | YouTube-DailyMail) About 11:30am: Trump and Pence spoke on the phone. Trump reportedly told Pence that he had a choice: He could “either go down in history as a patriot, or you can go down in history as a pussy.” (NYT | WP) Before noon: Trump told his staff to “take the fucking mags away,” referring to the metal detectors at the security line for his Ellipse speech, because the protesters were “not here to hurt me.” Trump wanted to increase the size of the crowd, Hutchinson testified but also wanted the threat of the armed crowd. (CNN) 11:57am: Trump's speech began. From behind a bulletproof shield in a dark overcoat and black gloves, Trump started by praising the crowd and bashing media, as if CNN and Fox, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, Twitter and Facebook are all one voice. They aren't. Trump praised the police which he prevented from being sufficiently protected before sending an angry mob toward them. Trump said he hoped Pence would “do the right thing” so Trump would “win the election.” Trump already lost the election. “We're just not going to let that happen,” said Trump who then said, “Many of you have traveled from all across the nation to be here.” True, federal prosecutors have charged more than 880 people in 48 states with participating in the Election Insurrection, the Capitol Riot, and investigations and arrests continue. Trump threatened the new administration would rename the Washington Monument or tear down the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials. He lied as usual. He said, “Our country will be destroyed, and we're not going to stand for that.” He said this on the day Trump led the greatest destruction to the nation's Capitol since the War of 1812. Trump told the crowd, “You're the people that built this nation. You're not the people that tore down our nation.” The people who built this nation are dead. Many of the people in the crowd were there with weapons of destruction not building supplies. Trump babbled, “You have to get your people to fight. And if they don't fight, we have to primary the hell out of the ones that don't fight. You primary them. We're going to. We're going to let you know who they are. I can already tell you, frankly.” He also said, “Boom. These explosions of bullshit.” Trump talked about his campaign and said, “our election was so corrupt that in the history of this country we've never seen anything like it.” Trump said, “And we're going to have to fight much harder. And Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us, and if he doesn't, that will be a, a sad day for our country because you're sworn to uphold our Constitution. Now, it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy. And after this, we're going to walk down, and I'll be there with you, we're going to walk down, we're going to walk down. Anyone you want, but I think right here. We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to 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. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated, lawfully slated. I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.” Trump said, “We will not be intimidated into accepting the hoaxes and the lies that we've been forced to believe.” Then Trump took the position that John Eastman wanted on January 4 instead of January 5 saying, “The only way that can happen is if Mike Pence agrees to send it back. Mike Pence has to agree to send it back.” Trump said, “I did no advertising, I did nothing.” Right. No rallies. No Trump e-mails. No Trump Trucks, Trump signs, Trump flags, Trumper stickers. No nothing. Trump spread years old election conspiracy theories and talked about draining the swamp of his administration. He said, “Nobody until I came along had any idea how corrupt our elections were.” He said, “And we fight. We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore.” Trump closed, “So we're going to, we're going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. I love Pennsylvania Avenue. And we're going to the Capitol, and we're going to try and give... We're going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country. So let's walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.” (NPR | WP | CNN | USnews | YouTube-CBS | Rev transcript) Noon: A Federal Protective Service email reported that 300 fascist Proud Boys were at the Capitol, a man in a tree near the Ellipse was holding something like a rifle, and some of the 25,000 people around the White House are hiding bags in bushes. The email warns Proud Boys were threatening to shut down the downtown water system. (AP) 12:26pm: Pence arrived at the Capitol. (Politifact) 12:28pm: A Federal Protective Service officer reported 10,000–15,000 people moving towards the Capitol down Pennsylvania, Constitution, and Madison Avenues. (AP) 12:30pm: Crowds of pro-Trump supporters gather outside the Capitol building. (WP) 12:49pm: FBI, Capitol Police, and ATF responded to the pipe bomb found outside RNC headquarters, planted the night before. A second pipe bomb at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee would be found at 1:07pm. Nearby buildings were evacuated. Reward is $500,000. 1-800-CALL-FBI. (NYT | Madison | Forbes) A police sweep of the area identified an unlocked vehicle with one handgun, an M4 Carbine assault rifle with loaded magazine, and components for 11 Molotov cocktails with homemade napalm. Around 6:30pm, the driver was apprehended carrying two unregistered handguns as he returned to the vehicle. (Justice | AL) 12:53pm: Rioters overwhelmed police along the outer perimeter west of the Capitol building, pushing aside temporary fencing. Some protesters followed, while others, at least initially, remained behind admonishing others, “Don't do it. You're breaking the law.” (AP | Propublica-Parler | Archive-Propublica-Parler) 12:58pm: Chief Sund asked House Sergeant at Arms Paul D. Irving and Senate Sergeant at Arms Michael C. Stenger to declare an emergency and call for deployment of the National Guard. Irving and Stenger stated they would forward the request up their chains of command. Soon afterwards, aides to Congressional leaders arrived in Stenger's office and are outraged that he had not called for any reinforcement. Phone records showed that Sund first reached out to Irving to request the National Guard at 12:58pm. Sund called the Senate sergeant-at-arms Stenger at 1:05pm. Sund repeated his request at 1:28pm, at 1:34pm, at 1:39pm, and at 1:45pm. (WP | NPR | Guardian) 1pm: Sund called DC Police Chief Contee, who deployed 100 officers to the Capitol complex, the earliest arriving within 10 minutes. (BI) 1:02pm: Pence refuses to go along with Trump's plan and tweets a letter: “It is my considered judgment that my oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not.” (Twit | letter1 | letter2) 1:03pm: Rioters had overrun three layers of barricades and forced police officers to the west Capitol steps. (CNN) Pence gavels in the US Senate. (NBC | CBS) 1:05pm: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gavelled in the joint session of Congress. (NPR) Pence began the counting of electoral votes, “After ascertaining that the certificates are regular in form and authentic, the tellers will announce the votes cast by the electors for each state, beginning with Alabama, that the parliamentarians have advised me is the only certificate of vote from that state, and purports to be a return from the state, and that has annexed to it a certificate from an authority of that state purporting to appoint or ascertain electors.” (Politico) Each time a state’s electoral vote results were introduced, Pence asked, “Are there any objections?” (Politico) 1:12pm: Rep. Paul Gosar (R–AZ) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R–TX) objected to certifying the votes made in Arizona. The joint session separates into House and Senate chambers to debate the objection. (NPR) 1:16pm: According to police radio, police officers are already reporting multiple injuries and calling for backup. Metal poles were thrown at the police. (JustSecurity | NYT | BBC) 1:17pm: After Trump's speech on the walk to the presidential limousine – The Beast, Meadows told Trump that Bobby Engel, the lead secret service agent, had more information about the trip to the Capitol. When Trump was in the car, Engel told Trump they weren't going to the Capitol, saying “It’s not secure. We’re going back to the West Wing.” Trump was irate and lunged for the steering wheel and Engel's clavicle, yelling, “I’m the fucking president! Take me up to the Capitol now!” (PBS | CNBC | NPR | WP) 1:19pm: Trump arrived back at the White House. (CNN | Politico) 1:21pm: Trump was photographed in the Oval Office, still wearing his overcoat from his speech. (USAtoday) 1:25pm: Trump watched Fox's coverage of his Capitol Riot from the Oval Office private dining room and stayed there until 4:03pm. (Politifact) 1:26pm: Capitol Police order the evacuation of at least two buildings in the Capitol complex, including the Cannon House Office Building and the Madison Building of the Library of Congress. (NBC) 1:30pm: Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said, “Voters, the courts, and the states have all spoken. They've all spoken. If we overrule them, it would damage our republic forever.” (NPR) 1:38pm: Trump rioter Howard Charles Richardson waved a blue Trump flag on a metal flagpole several feet from the police line at the Capitol's West Terrace. Richardson yelled, “Here it comes!” He raised the Trump flag and swung the pole down, striking a DC police officer. He struck the officer two more times with enough force to break the flagpole. Moments later, he and other rioters heaved a large metal framed Trump billboard into the line of police officers. He was incriminated by his diary. (Justice | RawStory | NBC | Law&Crime) 1:59pm: The first rioters reached the Capitol’s windows and doors and tried to break inside. (Politifact) 2pm: The Capitol was in lockdown (not as impressive as it sounds) as the first rioters breached the building. The extreme-right, violent, fascist, misogynist Proud Boys were aware that they had inflamed the mob of Trump-idiots. A Proud Boy leader wrote on Telegram, “This is not what I expected to happen. All from us showing up and starting some chants and getting the normies all riled up.” (NYT) Trump was “delighted” and “initially pleased” to hear rioters were entering the Capitol but also “expressed disgust on aesthetic grounds” about what he called the “low class” appearance of the rioters, said the man who threw his lunch on the wall of that same dining room. (Hill | NYT | Nymag) 2:05pm: Kevin Greeson, a Trump supporter, was declared dead after suffering a heart attack outside the Capitol. (ProPublica) 2:11pm: Rioters smashed through first-floor windows on the Capitol's south front, making a hole big enough to climb through. A U.S. Marine wearing a flag as a hood, Jia Liu (NY), climbed through one of the windows. (LawCrime | Justice | CBS | Twit pics) On the northwest side of the Capitol, Ethan Nordean (WA, Proud Boys) spoke to Robert Gieswein (CO, 3%) and then Gieswein encouraged Dominic Pezzola (NY, Proud Boys) to hit a window with a board. Pezzola hit a window next to the Senate Wing Door with a board then broke it with a plastic police shield. (LawCrime | Politico | WP | Vice) Gieswein went through the window carrying a baseball bat and followed by Pezzola. Pezzola then followed Doug Jensen. (NYT) 2:12pm: Sen. Mitt Romney encountered Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman running down a second-floor hallway outside the Senate chamber. Goodman told him that rioters were near and he would be safer inside. Romney returned to the Senate floor. (WP) 2:13pm: The Senate recessed. Pence was led from the chamber by his lead Secret Service agent Giebels, along with a nuclear football. (NYT | HuffPost | CNN | Hill) Trump rioting brothers Jerod Wade Hughes and Joshua Calvin Hughes (MT) were among the first ten rioters to enter the Capitol through a window next to the Senate Wing Door that had been shattered by Pezzola. Jerod Hughes and another rioter kicked open the Senate Wing Door allowing other rioters to walk into the Capitol. (Justice | HelenaIR | Montanan | YouTube-USA9) 2:14pm: After leading a crowd into the Capitol, Doug Jensen (Iowa, QAnon) was ordered to stop by a lone Capitol Police officer, Eugene Goodman, who had been earlier hit in the head and sprayed with bear spray. Instead of complying with the order, Jensen led the crowd toward the officer. When the retreating officer reached a staircase, the officer turned and ran up a flight of stairs. Jensen chased the officer up the stairs and shouted at the officer. Twice more, the officer ordered Jensen to stop and raised his hand to keep Jensen from advancing. Both times Jensen continued to advance with the crowd, including the Hughes brothers, following and the officer retreating. The officer was able to retreat into the Ohio Clock Corridor occupied by other Capitol Police officers. Two days later, Jensen turned himself in and confessed. (Justice | Heavy |Twit | CBS | CNN) The mob got within 40 feet of Pence but did not him because he moved a minute earlier. (BI | WP) “And thanks to your bullshit, we’re now under siege,” Greg Jacob emailed Trump lawyer and insurrection-architect John Eastman. (LawandCrime | DailyBeast | EmptyWheel) Event organizer Joe Biggs (FL, Proud Boy) entered the Capitol. (DailyMail | NBC | Orlando) Jacob Anthony Chansley (AZ) entered through a broken door. (Justice) Elmer Stewart Rhodes III reposted a message for the Oath Keepers gather at the southeast side of the Capitol. (US v. Caldwell | WP) 2:15pm: Rioters use a hammer to break and open a door. (ProPublica) Trump accidentally phoned Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah). “How's it going, Tommy?” Trump asked. Lee said this isn't Tommy. “Well, who is this?” Trump asked. “It's Mike Lee,” the senator replied. “Oh, hi Mike. I called Tommy.” Lee handed his phone to Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala). Tuberville told Trump that Pence had been evacuated from the Senate chamber, saying, “Mr. President, they just took the vice president out, I’ve got to go.” Trump told Tuberville to continue to object to the election results in order to buy more time. The call from 202-395-0000 never appeared on the presidential call log. (CNN | Deseret | AP | WP) Lawyer Pat Cipollone wanted it on record that he told Meadows that Trump should intervene. Meadows responded that Trump “doesn't want to do anything” about the riot. Trump agrees with the rioters calling for Pence to be hanged. Cipollone also advised officials to avoid contact with Trump and ignore any illegal orders that could further incite the attack to limit their prosecutorial liability under the Sedition Act of 1918. (CNN) 2:20pm: U.S. Capitol windows broken. (NatGuard | Oversight) After 2:21pm: Devlyn Thompson (WA) was in the front of a crowd of 190 rioters pushing against police blocking the West Front Terrace tunnel entrance to the Capitol building. Thompson stole a police shield and used it against the police for 13 minutes. He picked up a baton, swung it overhead, and down on a police officer's hand. He tried to throw a large audio speaker at the police but missed and hit another rioter in the head, drawing blood. (Newsweek | Justice | NBC | DailyBeast | SeattleTimes) 2:23pm: Rioters attempted to breach the police line formed by barricades of bicycle racks. As a police lieutenant sprayed the crowd with a chemical substance, rioter Julian Elie Khater (NJ) raised his arm above the mob and sprayed a chemical substance toward Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who died the following day from a stroke. Khater sprayed Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards directly in her eyes, and she retreated. Khater then sprayed a DC officer in the face, and he retreated. All three officers were incapacitated by Khater's pepper spray, which may have been bear spray. (Justice | Wikipedia | Guardian | NYT | ConanDaily | Forbes) 2:26pm: Secret Service evacuated Pence, his wife, his daughter and his brother, Rep. Greg Pence, out of a room connected to the Senate chamber. With him was a nuclear football of equipment and nuclear codes needed to launch a nuclear strike. (CNN | Hill | YouTube-WP) 2:27pm: Pence and the secret service argued about leaving the Capitol. Tim Giebels, the lead special agent, asked Pence twice to evacuate the building. Pence told Giebels, “I’m not leaving the Capitol.” Giebels said, “They’re in the building. The room you’re in is not secure. There are glass windows. I need to move you. We’re going.” Pence was brought down to an area where his armored limousine was waiting, Giebels asked Pence to get in. Pence responded, “I’m not getting in the car, Tim... If I get in that vehicle, you guys are taking off. I’m not getting in the car.” Pence, his wife, Karen Pence, and their daughter Charlotte Pence Bond “made their way to a secure underground area to wait out the riot.” (Newsweek | Hill | CNN | Yahoo) 2:28pm: Thomas Webster (NY, retired police, former marine) wore a bulletproof vest and carried a large metal flagpole with a Marine Corps flag. He ran toward a police officer behind a metal gate, threatened and swore at the officer, shoved the metal gate at the officer, and swung the flagpole at the officer. The officer managed to wrest the flagpole away. Webster then shove through the metal gate, tackled the officer to the ground, tried to remove his helmet and gas mask, and choked him with his chinstrap. While the officer was restrained and unable to breathe, other rioters kicked him. (Justice | CNN | NBC | HuffPost) 2:30pm: Capitol Police evacuated some House and Senate lawmakers, staffers, and boxes of electoral ballots. (CNN) Rioter Adam Johnson (FL) took a podium bearing the seal of the Speaker of the House near a spiral staircase and carried it to the Capitol Rotunda. In the Rotunda, Johnson waved to photographers to take his picture. He pretended to make a speech. Then he watched as other rioters tried to break into the House Chamber. Johnson suggested using a nearby bust of George Washington as “a great battering ram.” (Justice | Heavy | TampaBay | ConanDaily) Oath Keepers founder who shot his own eye out, Elmer Stewart Rhodes III (TX) remained outside the Capitol directing rioters. (Justice | NYT | Wikipedia) Kelly Meggs, Jessica Watkins, and Donovan Crowl led a paramilitary stack formation of Oath Keepers who attacked the police line in the center of the east side; assaulted the police with pepper spray, flagpoles, and other weapons; and forcibly entered the Capitol through the Rotunda door at 2:38pm. (WP | NBC | CBS | CNN | NPR) 2:32pm: Fox News host Laura Ingraham, who promoted many of Trump's election lies, texted Meadows that “the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home. This is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy.” This is his legacy. (Politifact | RollingStone) 2:33pm: Pelosi's office door was pushed in. (Justice) 2:35pm: Trump's former acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney texted Meadows that Trump “needs to stop this, now” and offered to help. (CNN) 2:38pm: Trump tweeted his rioters to “stay peaceful” but didn't tell them to leave the Capitol. (Twit | NYT) 2:39pm: “Physical force used on officers.” (NatGuard) 2:41pm: Gen. Charles Flynn (brother of RT commentator and Trump adviser Michael Flynn) told the National Guard to stand by. (WP | CNN) 2:42pm: Carrying flags, rioters walked down Capitol hallways, kicking at office doors and chanting “Defend the Constitution” and “1776.” (Propublica) In a secure, 50-seat auditorium, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked how to maintain the impression of “some security or some confidence that government can function and that you can elect the President of the United States. Did we go back into session?” Someone replied, “We did go back into session, but now apparently everybody on the floor is putting on tear gas masks to prepare for a breach.” Pelosi had not heard a key phrase. The person reiterated, “Tear gas masks.” Pelosi turned to Jim Clyburn and asked, “Do you believe this?” (AP | Guardian | MSNBC) 2:43pm: Trump rioter Zachary Alam (VA), aka Helmet Boy, yelled profanities at police officers and threw his body at an officer. Zach Alam repeatedly punching and kicked at the windows of the doors to the House Speaker's lobby. He used a helmet to break through one of the door windows, the same window Ashli Babbitt climbed through and was shot. After Babbitt was shot, Alam ran away. (Law&Crime | CBS | IBTimes) While Alam was pounding on the window, up in the House gallery two dozen staff, reporters, and representatives were on the floor by the seats. Some were crying. One was praying. Another was giving a play-by-play into his cellphone. The loud crack of a gunshot split the air, then it got quiet. (Latimes) 2:44pm: Trump rioter Ashli Babbitt (CA, QAnon) was shot while climbing through a broken window of a barricaded door to the Speaker's Lobby, adjacent to the House floor, while lawmakers were evacuating. (WP | NYT | USAtoday | ABC | JudicialWatch | Wikipedia | YouTube-ABC | YouTube-CBS6) Rep. Barry Loudermilk, a Georgia Republican who supported nullifying Biden's victory in his state, texted Meadows that “It's really bad up here on the hill.” (CNN) 2:47pm: Rioters were in the Senate chamber. (Twit | Newsweek) 2:48pm: Thomas Edward Caldwell wrote on Facebook, “We are surging forward. Doors breached.” (US v. Caldwell | WP) Jerod and Joshua Hughes were among the first rioters to enter the Senate chamber. They walked among the Senators' desks for about two minutes. (Justice | HelenaIR | Montanan) 2:50pm: Trump white nationalist Richard Bigo Barnett (AR) entered Pelosi's office, bled on an envelope and took it, wrote on a folder, posed for pictures with his boot on a desk, took off two shirts, and left at 2:56pm. In a custodial interview, Barnett claimed he was pushed into the Capitol by a large crowd, while carrying an American flag and a Zap Hike N Strike 950,000 volt stun gun walking stick tucked in his pants. (Justice | Law&Crime | DailyBeast | Axios | CBS | WP | YouTube-AP) In Pelosi's office at the same time as Barnett was Riley June Williams (PA, white supremacist). Williams had previously directed rioters “upstairs” from the Capitol crypt. Williams “later bragged online that she stole Pelosi's gavel, laptop and hard drives and that she 'gave the electronic devices, or attempted to give them, to unspecified Russian individuals.'” Williams' boyfriend, who tipped off police, said that she had intended to send the stolen laptop to a friend in Russia for sale to Russian intelligence. (Justice | Law&Crime | Bellingcat | CourtListener | CBS | NBC | YouTube-ITV) Rioter Elijah Schaffer (TX) was also in Pelosi's office. (Twit) And zip-tie carrying rioter Larry Rendall Brock (TX) walked out of Speaker Pelosi's office. (Justice | NYT | Heavy | YouTube-CBSDFW) 2:51pm: More shots fired. (NatGuard) 2:53pm: Insurrection speaker Donald Trump Jr. texted Meadows, “He's got to condem (sic) this shit. Asap. The captiol (sic) police tweet is not enough.” Meadows replied, “I am pushing it hard. I agree.” (CNN) 2:57pm: Inches away from a DC police officer and the House chamber, a rioter yelled, “Bring her out! Bring her out here! We’re coming in if you don’t bring her out.” (MSNBC) 2:59pm: Eric Gavelek Munchel (TX), a rioter with a combat helmet, body armor, and a set of zip ties was seen climbing around the Senate chamber. Munchel and his mother stashed additional weapons outside the Capitol. (Justice | NYT | USA9) Before 3pm: Trump and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy shouted at each other on the phone. McCarthy wanted Trump to call off his rioters. Trump said the rioters cared more about Trump losing (the election results) than McCarthy did. (CNN) 3pm: Seated with Nancy Pelosi in a secure location, Chuck Schumer told her: “I’m gonna call up the effin’ Secretary of DoD.” Then, speaking on the phone to Christopher Miller, acting Secretary of Defense, he said, “We have some Senators who are still in their hideaways. They need massive personnel now. Can you get the Maryland National Guard to come too?” Nancy Pelosi then spoke into Schumer’s phone, telling Miller she plans to call the DC mayor to learn what other backup may have already been called. She credited House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, standing behind her, for that advice. (AP | Guardian | MSNBC) 3:04pm: Acting defense secretary Christopher Miller formally approved activation of the 1,100 soldiers in the DC National Guard. But it took him an hour and a half (4:32pm) to approve an operational plan to deploy the Guard to the Capitol, more than three hours after he first learned that demonstrators had breached the Capitol perimeter. The National Guard did not arrive at the Capitol for another hour, at nearly 5:30pm. (ABC | WP) 3:06-3:15pm: Rioter Patrick McCaughey III (CT) threw his body weight against DC police officer Daniel Hodges and pressed a stolen police shield against him. Hodges screamed out in pain, crushed between the shield held by McCaughey and the door frame of the Capitol." (Justice | NBC | NYpost | YouTube-ABC | YouTube-PBS) Rioter Mason Joel Courson also crushed officer Hodges against the door frame. (Justice | RawStory | MiamiTimes | NYT) 3:08pm: Trump rioters and “real knuckleheads” Anton Lunyk (NY), Francis Connor, and Antonio Ferrigno, who had threatened Congressional representatives, entered the Capitol through the Senate Wing Door and entered the office of Sen. Jeff Merkley. At some point Sen. Merkley's laptop was stolen. Connor searched books and papers. Lunyk, Ferrigno, and Anthime “Baked Alaska” Gionet recorded their burglary. Lunyk later received a White House landline call. (Justice offense | Law&Crime | NYdaily | NYpost) 3:09pm: Former Trump chief of staff Reince Priebus texted Meadows in all caps, “Tell them to go home!!!” (CNN) 3:15pm: Gen. Charles Flynn (you know, the brother of RT commentator and Trump adviser Michael Flynn) “advised to make plan to start sending Guard units over for assistance. But not to Capitol.” (NatGuard | AmOversight) 3:18pm: Trump rioter Albuquerque Cosper Head (TN) pulled DC police officer Michael Fanone by the neck from outside the Capitol tunnel down the steps into the crowd yelling, “I got one!” One rioter shouted “Kill him with his own gun!” and Fanone replied, “I have kids.” (Justice | Law&Crime | ABC7 | DailyBeast | YouTube-PBS | YouTube-USA9) Trump rioter Daniel DJ Rodriguez (CA) tazed Officer Fanone in the neck repeatedly. (Justice | ABC7 | NBC | YouTube-MSNBC) Officer Fanone was punched, kicked, and Trump rioter Thomas Sibick (NY) robbed Fanone of his radio and his badge #3603. Sibick told the FBI that he wasn't part of the rioters, then that he only grabbed the officer's badge and radio to pull the officer away from the mob, then that he threw the badge and radio away at a nearby trash can, then it was the hotel trash can, and then that he buried the badge in his back yard. (Justice - pdf | Law&Crime | CBS | YouTube-USA9 | YouTube-7ABC) 3:38pm: The North Carolina leader of the fascist Proud Boys, Charles Donohoe, announced on the Boots on the Ground channel that he and others were “regrouping with a second force.” (CBS | CNN | Guardian | USAtoday) 4pm: The Pennsylvania leader of the fascist Proud Boys, Zachary Rehl, responded on Telegram, “Nah it was just pissed off normies, once we showed up and started chanting shit, everyone went nuts and that was that.” Charles Donohoe replied, “Def a video of one of our guys smashing out the window with a stolen police riot shield.” That was Dominic Pezzola (NY, Proud Boys) at 2:11pm. (CourtListener | NYT | YouTube-NYT) 4:05pm: President-elect Biden addressed the nation. “I call on President Trump to go on national television now, to fulfill his oath and defend the Constitution and demand an end to this siege. This is not a protest. It is an insurrection. This is not dissent. It's disorder. It's chaos. It borders on sedition, and it must end now. I call on this mob to pull back and allow the work of democracy to go forward,” Biden said. (NPR | Twit | WBUR) 4:17pm: In a video, Trump said, “I know your pain. I know you're hurt.” Then Trump returned to his lie, “We had an election that was stolen from us.” (DailyMail) 4:24pm: A dozen, armed tactical officers of the FBI Hostage Rescue Team arrived at the Capitol complex. (Newsweek | DailyCaller) 4:26pm: Rioters realized they were trampling Rosanne Boyland (GA) when one rioter tripped over her body while leaving the Capitol tunnel. The DC medical examiner later ruled she died of an amphetamine overdose during the riot rather than from being trampled by other rioters. (NYT | DailyBeast | CBS) 4:27pm: From the Capitol's lower west terrace tunnel archway, a rioter grabbed DC police officer AW by the face and knocked him to the ground. Trump rioter Jeffrey Sabol (CO) yanked a police baton away from police officer Miller. Days later Sabol tried to escape to Switzerland or commit suicide. (Justice | Politico | CNN) Trump rioter Wade Whitton (GA) climbed over a railing and beat officer Miller with a crutch. Whitton then kicked at the first officer, who was still on the ground. Whitton then grabbed officer Miller, first by his baton, then by the helmet and the neck of his ballistic vest. (Justice | RawStory | NYT) Whitton dragged Miller down a set of steps by his helmet face first with other rioters including Sabol and Logan James Barnhart (MI). (Justice | Sun | CBS | NYT) Trump rioter Peter Stager (AR) raised the flagpole he was carrying with the American flag and struck the defenseless officer Miller three times. Stager later pointed to the Capitol and said, “Death’s the only remedy for what’s in that building,” and “Everybody in there is a treasonous traitor.” (Justice | Heavy | ArkTimes) Sabol held the baton against Miller's neck and punched him in the back. Trump rioter Mason Joel Courson (FL) then beat officer Miller with a police baton. Courson took home the baton as a “trophy.” (Justice | RawStory | MiamiTimes | NYT) After punching another officer, Trump rioter Michael John Lopatic Sr (PN) stole officer Miller's body camera. (Justice | Law&Crime | CNN) Trump rioter and Tennessee sheriff's deputy Ronald Colton McAbee (TN, 3%), known as Cole, was in the middle wearing his police-issued tactical vest, non-police metal-knuckled gloves, and a 3% patch. McAbee grabbed officer AW by his left leg and torso while Clayton Ray Mullins (KY) grabbed his left leg, and the two rioters dragged the officer towards the stairs. When officer CM came to aid officer AW, McAbee and Lopatic punched him. McAbee grabbed AW by the torso, and they tumbled down the marble steps into the mob. As AW struggled to get to his feet, the mob reportedly kicked him, struck him with poles, and stomped on him. They ripped off his helmet, took his baton and cell phone, and maced him. Officer AW was hospitalized with a laceration on his head that required two staples to close. (Justice | HuffPost | CNN | RawStory) A reminder: The charges contained in any criminal complaint or indictment are allegations. The defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. 4:30pm: Rioters dragged Boyland back to the real police for assistance. (DailyBeast | CBS) 4:32pm: Rioter Barnhart returned to the archway and pushed other rioters toward the police line. Barnhart then struck the police with the base of a flagpole. (Justice offense) 4:48pm: Rioter Wade Whitton kicked officers guarding the archway, hit a riot shield, and shouted, “You’re gonna die tonight.” (Justice) 4:34pm: A White House landline called rioter Anton Lunyk's cell phone. The call lasted nine seconds. (CBS | Justice offense | Law&Crime | NYdaily | NYpost) 4:50pm: At the West Terrace entrance, rioter Emanuel Jackson (MD) used a metal baseball bat to hit police officers and their riot shields. (Justice | CBS) 4:53pm: At the lower West Terrace entrance, rioter Robert Scott Palmer (FL) threw a plank of wood at police officers. Two minutes later from directly in front of the officers, Palmer sprayed the entire contents of a fire extinguisher at the police and then threw the empty fire extinguisher at the police. (Justice | Law&Crime | CNN) Also at the lower West Terrace entrance, Trump rioter Nicholas Languerand (SC, QAnon) threw the following items at the police officers: a piece of wood, an audio speaker, three sticks, an orange traffic barrier, a pepper spray container, a bottle of liquid, more wood, and part of a riot shield. (Justice | Law&Crime | WBTW | 13news) 5:20pm: The first contingent of DC national guard members, dressed in riot gear, began arriving at the Capitol. They were sworn in and started clearing out rioters at 5:40pm. (NYT | CBS | CNN | AP | National Guard archive) 5:32pm: Sen. Ben Sasse, Republican of Nebraska, was unsparing in his criticism of Trump as the instigator of the day’s events, “Today, the United States Capitol — the world’s greatest symbol of self-government — was ransacked while the leader of the free world cowered behind his keyboard — tweeting against his Vice President for fulfilling the duties of his oath to the Constitution. Lies have consequences...” (Senate | Hill | NYT) 5:46pm: A newly reinforced police line pushed rioters away from the west side of the Capitol, securing the perimeter by 6:14pm. (JustSecurity) 5:58pm: From the basement of the Capitol, Pence and Capitol Police chief Steven Sund called Speaker Pelosi. Pence said that Sund said that the police expect to secure the Capitol soon, and that the House and the Senate could reconvene in an hour or two. Pelosi passed her phone to Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer for Pence to repeat his message. (CNN | YouTube-CNN | YouTube-MSNBC) 6pm: Washington DC curfew began. (JustSecurity) 6:01pm: Trump tweeted his lie, “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever.” (Twit | C-Span) 7pm: As major contributors of the Capitol riot, Facebook and Instagram finally removed two of Trump's posts, saying “these posts contribute to, rather than diminish, the risk of ongoing violence.” The 24 hour ban became a two year ban. (NPR) 7:02pm: Twitter finally removed Trump's tweets from the day and banned him for 12 hours, which became a “permanent” ban. (NPR) From the Willard Hotel insurrection command center, Rudy Giuliani tried to call Sen. Tommy Tuberville but instead called Sen. Mike Lee and left a rambling voicemail pressuring him to delay the election certification. “You can’t make this up,” Lee texted O’Brien. “I just got this voice message [from] Rudy Giuliani, who apparently thought he was calling Sen. Tuberville. Rudy is walking malpractice.” (Dispatch | Insider | Huff | CNN) 8:06pm: The U.S. Senate reconvened and Pence returned to the dais and said, “To those who wreaked havoc in our capitol today, you did not win.” Sen. Mitch McConnell called the day a “failed insurrection.” (CNN | NPR | USAtoday) Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) earned sustained applause from his colleagues for a thundering speech in which he said elected leaders should show respect for voters by telling them the truth, not fueling groundless doubts about the election. “We gather due to a selfish man’s injured pride and the outrage of supporters who he has deliberately misinformed for the past two months and stirred to action this very morning,” Romney said. “What happened here today was an insurrection incited by the president of the United States.” (WP | Boston | Vox) 8:39pm: Trump spoke by phone with Giuliani for nine minutes. (CNN) 9:02pm: The U.S. House reconvened. Speaker Pelosi said, “We always knew this would take well into the night, and we will stay as long as it takes. Our purpose will be accomplished.” (NPR) 10:11pm: The Senate voted 93–6 to reject the objection raised by GOP lawmakers to counting Arizona's electoral votes, which were awarded to Biden because he won the popular vote in that state. (Senate | Ballotpedia | CNN) 10:19pm: Trump talked by phone to Bannon for seven minutes. (WP | CNN | Insider) 11:08pm: Trump talked by phone to Sean Hannity for eight minutes. (WP | CNN | Insider) 11:10pm: The House voted 303–121 to reject the objection raised by GOP lawmakers to counting Arizona's electoral votes, which were awarded to Biden because he won the popular vote in that state. (CNN | Ballotpedia) 11:32pm: The House and Senate came back together to resume the joint session and the certifying vote that began 10 hours earlier. (NPR)
January 7 { 20,489,605 Covid-19 cases, 345,551 deaths } – 12:40am: The Senate voted to reject the objection raised by GOP lawmakers to counting Pennsylvania's electoral votes, which were awarded to Biden because he won the popular vote in that state. (Senate | Ballotpedia | CNN) 3:10am: The House voted to reject the objection raised by GOP lawmakers to counting Pennsylvania's electoral votes, which were awarded to Biden because he won the popular vote in that state. (CNN | Ballotpedia) 3:42am: Pence called a majority of the Electoral College votes for Biden. “The announcement of the state of the vote by the president of the Senate shall be deemed a sufficient declaration of the persons elected president and vice president of the United States,” Pence said, and officially affirmed the election results certifying Biden as the 46th president. The joint session of Congress was closed. Speaker Pelosi elbow bumped Pence. (NPR | CNN | Ballotpedia | YouTube-Politico) All day: A seven foot tall fence topped with razor wire was installed around the U.S. Capitol after Trump rioters damaged the building. (NBC | NYT | CNN) 7:10pm: Shortly after Twitter unlocked Trump's account, Trump released a video statement condemning the violence at the Capitol, saying that “a new administration will be inaugurated” and that his “focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly, and seamless transition of power” to the Biden administration. Trump struggled to read the teleprompter. “I can't see it very well,” he complained. (AP | DailyMail | Rev transcript) 9:30pm: Capitol Police officer Brian D. Sicknick died after suffering two strokes. (Wikipedia | NYT | Forbes)
January 8 { 20,764,232 Covid-19 cases, 349,106 deaths } – Trump announced he would not attend Biden's inauguration, making him the first outgoing President not to attend his elected successor's inauguration since the 1869 inauguration of Ulysses S. Grant. (Twit) President-elect Biden said, “Good.” (Fox29)
January 11 { 21,417,051 Covid-19 cases, 356,253 deaths } – An Article of Impeachment alleging that Trump incited “lawless action at the Capitol” was introduced with over 200 co-sponsors at the U.S. House of Representatives. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pressured Vice-President Mike Pence to follow Article 25 of the Constitution to remove Donald Trump from office over his role in the Capitol Insurrection of January 6. If Pence refused, the House would vote to impeach Trump. (NPR | BBC | BostonGlobe | ChicagoTribune | NBC)
January 12 { 21,613,916 Covid-19 cases, 360,266 deaths } – The U.S. House passed a resolution calling on Pence and the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office. Pence stated that he refused to do so. (CNBC)
January 13 { 21,817,763 Covid-19 cases, 364,090 deaths } – The U.S. House voted to impeach Trump, making him the first U.S. president to be impeached twice. (BBC | Insider)
January 19 { 22,901,822 Covid-19 cases, 380,222 deaths } – Trump's farewell address was posted. (Trump archives | Rev transcript)
January 20 { 23,070,169 Covid-19 cases, 384,359 deaths } – Trump pardoned 73 people and commuted sentences for 70 others. Trump was advised after the Capitol insurrection to forgo a self-pardon because it would look like he was guilty of something. (CNN | NBC | USAtoday) At noon, Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States and Kamala Harris as the 49th vice president.
© 2023
