So where are we now, 12 days before the end of Trump's term and two days after the nation watched armed, entitled Americans storm our revered building? Another death was confirmed late Thursday night: United States Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died after he was injured while clashing with protesters Wednesday. Four other deaths were previously reported, including Ashli Babbitt, who was shot while inside the Capitol. The pressure on Trump to resign is growing. The New York Times also reports that Trump has suggested to aides he wants to pardon himself in the final days of his presidency. Meanwhile, he continues to lose access to social media platforms. House Democrats are threatening to go forward with articles of impeachment if Trump isn't removed. That could continue to the civics lessons for Americans have been going through these past few years. We have already done deep dives into whether a president can be indicted, how impeachment works. We are experts in the multiple steps of the Electoral College process. And, now we even know how objections work when Congress is counting the electoral votes at the very end. Soon, we may learn how Congress can impeach a president even after he has left office if they want to make sure he is banned from ever holding federal office again. Here's a deep dive on the plausibility from The Washington Post. The White House is continuing to refuse to take questions, with nothing scheduled on Trump's agenda today. In a press conference that lasted less than two minutes, White House press secretary KAYLEIGH MCENANY came to the podium of the briefing room, condemned the violence on behalf of "White House workers" and said the violence was the "opposite" of the administration. Then, she sprinted out of the room as reporters yelled questions, mimicking the scene of the first White House press briefing, when former press secretary SEAN SPICER falsely claimed that Trump's inauguration crowd sizes were bigger than those of former President BARACK OBAMA. Trump did release a two-and-a-half-minute video doing what he has never done: admitting his time in office was coming to an end. "A new administration will be inaugurated on Jan. 20. My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power. This moment calls for healing and reconciliation," he said. Though, it's impossible to imagine the 2020 election and 2021 transition ever being described as "smooth, orderly and seamless" no matter what happens next. The New York Times reports, "Mr. Trump initially resisted taping the video, agreeing to do it only after aides pressed him and he appeared to suddenly realize he could face legal risk for prodding the mob, coming shortly after the chief federal prosecutor for Washington left open the possibility of investigating the president for illegally inciting the attack by telling supporters to march on the Capitol and show strength." The Washington Post reports this scene from Wednesday: "Cloistered in the White House, Trump raged uncontrollably about perceived acts of betrayal. He tuned out advisers who pleaded with him to act responsibly. He was uninterested in trying to repair what he had wrought. And he continued to insist he had won the election, even as his own vice president certified the fact that he had not." Scary. All this comes as the top three officials charged with securing the Capitol and the House and Senate chambers resigned under pressure. Meanwhile, resignations from the Trump administration keep growing, including these high-ranking officials: Education Secretary BETSY DEVOS, Transportation Secretary ELAINE CHAO and MATTHEW POTTINGER, the deputy national security adviser. But critics of these last-minute defections say it's too little too late. There were a number of collective eye rolls when former White House chief of staff MICK MULVANEY, who resigned from his post as special envoy to Northern Ireland, said of Trump Thursday on CNBC: "Clearly [Trump] is not the same as he was 8 months ago." Former NFL wide receiver DONTÉ STALLWORTH tweeted the group was akin to quitting a game with five seconds on the clock. Meanwhile, there is a widening rift within the Republican Party, with some defending Trump, per The New York Times: "They downplayed the violence as acts of desperation by people who felt lied to by the news media and ignored by their elected representatives. They deflected with false equivalencies about the Democratic Party's embrace of the Black Lives Matter movement." (Nevermind that Trump an hour before the violence broke out pledged to keep up the "fight" and explicitly told supporters at his Wednesday rally that they would be marching to the Capitol.) On the other side: The Washington Post reports that one Republican operative at the RNC meeting in Florida told the paper, "People are freaking fed up. Repeatedly, what I kept hearing over and over again was that the president is responsible for the loss in Georgia and the president is responsible for what happened yesterday." A source close to Trump sounded somewhat gleeful as he defended the president to me and talked about the road ahead, saying his supporters represented "voters who are absolutely overwhelmingly a nationalist America first movement, fully on board with the president's agenda." Meanwhile, the president's former personal attorney MICHAEL COHEN told me it is "without question" that "Trump will continue to act and behave abysmally, like a petulant child." Some — including former first lady MICHELLE OBAMA — are pointing out what they see as the hypocrisy of a mostly white mob being allowed to stroll out of the Capitol when Black people peacefully protesting police violence have been tear gassed and arrested by the hundreds in cities like Ferguson, Mo., after the death of Michael Brown and Minneapolis after the death of George Floyd. The L.A. Times reports , Michelle Obama "highlighted the double standard of policing seen at the Capitol compared to how police officers responded at largely peaceful Black Lives Matter protests. In some cases, officers who had not been provoked by Black Lives Matter protesters nevertheless beat them with batons and shields and fired rubber bullets at close range. At times, officers faced looting and vandalism. … As the rioters stormed the capitol Wednesday, the NAACP offered a simple message on Twitter: 'They have killed us for less.'" Other headlines, via the Playbook team: THE EFFORT TO REMOVE THE PRESIDENT … — "Pelosi calls for Trump's immediate ouster after deadly riots," by POLITICO's Sarah Ferris, Melanie Zanona, Heather Caygle and Kyle Cheney — "Pompeo, Mnuchin among Cabinet secretaries who discussed 25th Amendment with staff, sources say," CNBC — BUT, BUT, BUT: "Pence opposes 25th Amendment efforts to remove Trump following Capitol riot, VP advisors tell Insider," Business Insider — WSJ TO TRUMP: Resign THE NEWLY PEACEFUL TRANSFER — "Pence expected to attend Biden's inauguration," by Gabby Orr and Anita Kumar — MEGAN CASSELLA: "Trump White House asks political staff to resign by Biden's inauguration" HOW IT HAPPENED — "'Hashtags come to life': How online extremists fueled Wednesday's Capitol Hill insurrection," by Tina Nguyen and Mark Scott WHAT TO WORRY ABOUT NEXT … "Justice Department warns of national security fallout from Capitol Hill insurrection," by Natasha Bertrand … "Inauguration planners reassessing security after Capitol siege," by Chris Cadelago and Tyler Pager THE BIDEN CABINET — POLITICO's Eleanor Mueller and Tyler Pager scooped that Boston Mayor MARTY WALSH is Biden's pick for LABOR secretary … Rhode Island Gov. GINA RAIMONDO for COMMERCE … ISABEL GUZMAN for SBA. — WaPo's @seungminkim: "This will mark the first time in 20 years that there has been no AAPI secretary in the Cabinet -- even after Asian voters helped Biden win key states such as Georgia. AAPI lawmakers lobbied hard for Julie Su for Labor." SEN. JOSH HAWLEY IS ON THE HOT SEAT. On Thursday, he ... — Lost his book deal. — Was called out by his home-state St. Louis Post-Dispatch for a "tardy, cover-his-ass condemnation of the violence" that "ranks at the top of his substantial list of phony, smarmy and politically expedient declarations." — Was slammed by his former mentor. "'The biggest mistake I've ever made.' Danforth rues mentoring Hawley, blames him for riot," Kansas City Star — And was denounced by one of his key donors. "Major Josh Hawley donor calls for him to be censured by the U.S. Senate," Missouri Independent CORONAVIRUS LATEST … A record 4,033 Americans died of Covid-19 on Thursday. 266,000 new cases were reported. TRUMP'S FRIDAY — The president and VP MIKE PENCE have nothing on their public schedules. — Biden and VP-elect KAMALA HARRIS will make a transition announcement in Wilmington, Del., receive the President's Daily Brief and meet with transition advisers. Harris "will also participate in a virtual event thanking supporters of the Biden-Harris campaign." NEWSFLASH FROM 1971 — "Now It Can Be Told: How Neil Sheehan Got the Pentagon Papers," NYT … Sheehan's NYT obituary TV TONIGHT — PBS' "Washington Week," hosted by Yamiche Alcindor: Nancy Cordes, Astead Herndon, Philip Rucker and Jake Sherman. SUNDAY SO FAR … | 
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