McEnany's brief remarks came as a growing chorus of Democrats and others have called on Trump to be removed from office for his role in urging a crowd of supporters Wednesday to march on the Capitol. Trump has come under enormous pressure, including from some Republicans, for his handling of the chaos.
"The violence we saw yesterday was appalling, reprehensible and antithetical to the American way," McEnany said. "We condemn it."
McEnany also said that people "working in this building" were working to ensure a peaceful transfer of power when President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in on Jan. 20.
"Those who violently besieged our Capitol are the opposite of everything this administration stands for," McEnany said. "The core value of our administration is the idea that all citizens have the right to live in safety, peace and freedom."
– John Fritze and Michael Collins
John Kelly, former chief of staff to President Donald Trump, said the president’s Cabinet should meet to discuss invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office, adding he would vote to do so if he served in the Cabinet today.
Kelly made the comments Wednesday afternoon in an interview on CNN with reporter Jake Tapper.
“I think, Jake, that the Cabinet should meet and have a discussion,” he said. “I don’t think it will happen. But I think the Cabinet should meet and discuss this. Because the behavior yesterday, and the weeks and months before that, has just been outrageous by the president. What happened on Capitol Hill yesterday was a direct result of his poisoning the minds of people with the lies and the frauds.”
At first, Kelly hesitated when asked whether he would vote to remove Trump from office right now if he were in the Cabinet.
“Yes, I would,” he then said. “The one thing we have going for us here, Jake, is it’s only 13 days. And no one – as indicated yesterday by our vice president – no one around him anymore is going to break the law. He can give all the orders he wants, and no one is going to break the law. And we saw Vice President Pence stand his ground yesterday.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have pushed for Pence and the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump before his term ends in two weeks. Pelosi told reporters she would be prepared to vote on articles of impeachment if it doesn’t happen.
Kelly, a retired general who also served as Trump's secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, left the White House in January 2019. After initially holding back criticism, Kelly in June said “we need to look harder at who we elect” after Trump used the military to break up a protest outside the White House.
Trump excoriated Kelly in September, saying he was "exhausted" and "unable to handle the pressure" as his former chief of staff. It came after The Atlantic magazine reported Trump accompanied Kelly on a 2017 Memorial Day visit to his son's grave at Arlington National Cemetery and openly questioned the slain Marine's sacrifice.
– Joey Garrison
President Donald Trump phoned in to a Thursday breakfast meeting of the Republican National Committee winter conference as lawmakers call for him to be removed from office following violent riots at the U.S. Capitol.
Trump, who had considered giving a speech to the RNC, perhaps by video, called in to express regrets for missing the event, said two people familiar with the call, which lasted about a minute and took place during a private meeting.
The president did not mention his vast political troubles, including calls for his removal from office after Wednesday's invasion of the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters protesting the Electoral College count. Trump had egged on supporters to protest the vote that confirmed the victory of President-elect Joe Biden.
Members cheered Trump during his brief phone call, officials said.
The Republicans, who are meeting at Amelia Island, Fla., near Jacksonville, have closed most of their sessions to the media. The only public event is scheduled for Friday morning, when members are expected to reelect Trump ally Ronna McDaniel as the party chairwoman.
– David Jackson
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House Sergeant at Arms – the chamber's top law enforcement official – is resigning in the aftermath of Wednesday's siege on the Capitol.
Paul Irving, who serves as the House's chief officer in charge of securing the building and tasked with overseeing the safety of lawmakers, was a target of criticism after the intense security breach that led to dozens of Trump protesters storming the Capitol.
"I have received notice from Mr. Irving that he will be submitting his resignation," Pelosi said. "Having said that, we'll have the after action review but it goes beyond the Capitol Police."
The California Democrat also called for the resignation of the Capitol Police Chief, Steven Sund, calling it a "failure of leadership at the top of the Capitol Police." Pelosi added that she hadn't heard from Sund since Wednesday's attack. "He hasn't even called us since this happened."
– Christal Hayes
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined the growing calls by many Democrats to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove President Donald Trump from office in the final days of his presidency, telling reporters at a press conference that if this wasn't done the House would be prepared to vote on articles of impeachment.
"I join with the Senate Democratic leader in calling on the vice president to remove this president by immediately invoking the 25th amendment," she told reporters. "If the vice president and Cabinet do not act, the Congress may be prepared to move forward with impeachment."
Pelosi delivered stinging comments about Trump, calling him a dangerous man who the country – for its own safety – can't afford to keep in the White House for his final two weeks of his term.
"This man is deadly – to our democracy and to our people," Pelosi said.
Her remarks come a day after a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol as they counted electoral votes, disrupting proceedings and forcing lawmakers to evacuate. Pelosi's office was among those that were ransacked. Some congressional Democrats laid the blame on Trump for inciting the riot, calling for his removal from office or impeachment for a second time.
"The President has committed an unspeakable assault on our nation and our people," she said, characterizing the insurrection from the pro-Trump rioters as "acts of sedition and acts of cowardice."
Pelosi was visibly upset as she spoke about the trauma of congressional staff members who were forced to lock themselves in rooms and hide under desks while "terrorists" banged on doors. “They didn’t sign up for that,” she said.
"To meet with them and to see how frightened they were because these thugs – these Trump thugs – decided that they would desecrate the Capitol with no thought what harm they might do physically, psychologically or in any other way.
“And they will be prosecuted,” she added. “They will be prosecuted. Justice will be done."
Pelosi's comments came shortly after the Senate's top Democrat, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, joined the chorus of lawmakers calling on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and move with the Cabinet to remove Trump from office. If they failed to do so, Congress needed to reconvene to impeach Trump for a second time, he said.
Declaring "the president must be held accountable again," Pelosi put out a challenge to Trump's Cabinet: "Ask each member of the Cabinet, do they stand by these actions? Are they ready to say in the next 13 days, this dangerous man can do further harm on this country?"
"We are in a dangerous place in this country as long as Donald Trump still sits in the White House," she said.
Pelosi said she's not sure when Pence will respond to her call to trigger the 25th Amendment
"I don't think that it will take long to get an answer form the vice president. It will be yes or it will be no," she said.
"I say I pray for the president every day, and I do. Last night was the hardest day for me. At 5 o'clock in the morning, when I finally got home, as I was praying at night, I said, 'You gotta keep praying for him, you've gotta keep praying for him. Maybe, maybe there's some hope.' But we can't take that chance because people's lives are at stake as well as our democracy," she said.
President-elect Joe Biden took a personal moment while introducing his nominees to the Justice Department to point out unequal treatment he said rioters received while swarming the Capitol on Wednesday, in contrast to how Black Lives Matter protesters were treated during summer protests for racial justice.
Biden said his granddaughter, Finnegan, sent him a picture of troops in military gear standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during Black Lives Matter protests. Yet D.C. and Capitol police were unable to prevent rioters Wednesday from smashing windows and doors to break into the Capitol.
“This isn’t fair,” Biden quoted Finnegan as saying.
Biden said there is no question the Trump administration treated Black protesters differently than the rioters challenging the congressional count of the Electoral College votes confirming that Biden beat President Donald Trump.
"Nobody can tell me that if it was a group of Black Lives Matter protesters that they wouldn't have been treated differently than the thugs who stormed the Capitol,' Biden said. "We all know that is true. And it is unacceptable – totally unacceptable."
– Bart Jansen
Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao will resign from her position, she announced Thursday.
Chao, who is married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is the first Cabinet secretary to resign after pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol Wednesday in an attempt to halt the counting of Electoral College votes.
"Yesterday, our country experienced a traumatic and entirely avoidable event as supporters of the President stormed the Capitol building following a rally he addressed," Chao said in a statement. "As I'm sure is the case with many of you, it has deeply troubled me in a way that I simply cannot set aside."
Chao noted her office would continue to help Pete Buttigieg, President-elect Joe Biden's choice for transportation secretary, transition into his role.
Send an email
