Sunday, January 10, 2021

Calls for Trump's ouster surge in wake of riots

Lawmakers scramble to use next 10 days to hold Trump accountable for riots

"There is hope that can be accessed, what we need is a leader that can grab that hope,"

-- 60 Minutes' John Dickerson on the aftermath of the Capitol Hill riots


Welcome to the "Face the Nation" Five at Five newsletter. Scroll down for your five takeaways from today's broadcast with moderator Margaret Brennan on CBS.

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1. Being Blunt: "No possibility" of Trump impeachment

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Republican Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri threw cold water on efforts to impeach Mr. Trump and remove him from office before the inauguration January 20, and said the focus should be on the start of Mr. Biden's presidency.

What we asked: You don't believe he has committed an impeachable offense?

What Blunt said: Is there any likelihood that he could possibly be removed between now and January the 20th? And if there's no additional ensuing event my- my belief is there is no possibility of that.

Why it matters: Blunt's comments come as a bevy of congressional Democrats have called for Mr. Trump to be impeached or removed from office under the 25th Amendment. Articles of impeachment are set to be introduced in the House this week.

So far, one House Republican, Congressman Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, has come out in support of invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Mr. Trump from office, and just two GOP senators have called for him to resign. Blunt instead called for Mr. Trump to tread carefully over his last 10 days in office.

2. Sen. Coons: Trump has "lost the right to be president"

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Top Biden ally Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware said President Trump's conduct in the weeks since the November 3 general election have made him unfit to remain president through the end of his term.

What we asked: Does he [Biden] support potentially prosecuting President Trump?

What the mayor said: "President-elect Biden is focused on the enormous challenges that will face him when he becomes president 10 days from now. It is up to Congress in the next 10 days, to work to ensure the safety and security of our country, to press successfully, hopefully, for President Trump to resign, or for Vice President Pence to enact what he can do under the 25th Amendment. President Trump, by his actions over the last two months since the election, has lost the right to be president and by the actions this past Wednesday and his failure to take any responsibility or show any remorse for it of significance, I think he doesn't deserve to be president anymore."

Why it matters: Sen. Coons joins a growing chorus of Democrats pushing for some kind of tangible action of stripping executive powers from the sitting president. While Coons said Mr. Trump should be held accountable for his actions inciting his supporters to attack the Capitol, the senator said that will be up to the Justice Department of the New York attorney general.

3. Krebs says Trump "has to resign" in wake of Capitol riots

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Chris Krebs, the former head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) who was fired by Mr. Trump, said the president has to step down following the assault on the Capitol last week.

What we asked: Why not do more if within the agency there were the threats that you just highlighted? Whose fault is that?

What Krebs said: "There is an opportunity here, I think, to prevent further bloodshed. And I don't know if the president is capable of doing it, but he has to resign. He has to tell his supporters that he lied to them, that this was all his own fraud. He has to come out. We have to set an example for the rest of the free world that attempted coups, which is what this was, will not be tolerated. And there has to be an accountability. So whether it's the 25th Amendment push, whether it's an impeachment, the president needs to be held accountable for- for supporting and really inciting the activity of this past week."

Why it matters: Krebs, notably, was terminated by Mr. Trump after agencies issued a statement calling the election the most secure in U.S. history and bucking unfounded theories that votes were changed or deleted.

4. Dr. Gottlieb: Vaccine strategy needs a "reset"

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Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former head of the Food and Drug Administration, said Sunday that the nation's strategy for administering coronavirus vaccines is "not working" and encouraged public health officials to "hit the reset" and take up a new approach to inoculate Americans faster.

What we asked: Is there something that is making this surge worse right now other than our own bad behavior?

What Gottlieb said: "We really need to get this vaccine out more quickly because this is really our only tool, our only backstop against the spread of these new variants. If we can get a lot of people vaccinated quickly, we might be able to get enough protective immunity into the population that this stops spreading at the rate that it is. So, we need to acknowledge that it's not working. We need to hit the reset and adopt a new strategy in trying to get out to patients."

Why it matters: Rollout of the two coronavirus vaccines, from Pfizer and Germany's BioNTech, and Moderna, has hit snags, as already-stretched hospitals and health departments faced staff shortages and logistical issues. With the vaccine being offered to the older Americans and health care workers, some hospital systems have begun offering incentives to workers to get their shots.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 22.1 million doses of the vaccines have been distributed, and nearly 6.7 million people have received their first of two doses. To speed up distribution of the vaccines, President-elect Joe Biden plans to release all available doses rather than holding back vaccine supply, as the Trump administration is doing, once he takes office.

Gottlieb, too, has suggested releasing all available supply and last week said state leaders should consider making the coronavirus shots more widely available to people ages 65 and up.

5. Bowser asks feds to boost security ahead of Inauguration Day

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In anticipation of possible further unrest in the run-up to the inauguration on January 20, District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser said Sunday that she is asking the federal government for additional security preparations to ensure the safety of the event and the district.

What we asked: Do you think the city is prepared now for what's about to come?

What Bowser said: "I'm requesting from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that they take additional steps, including expanding the length of the time that this national special security event is in place," Bowser said. "Further, I am asking that they extend the perimeter of their coverage area for this national security special event, which is the inauguration, to include the Capitol."

Why it matters: In her letter to Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, Bowser asked the agency to extend the "national security special event period" to run from January 11 to January 24. It is currently set for a period of January 19 to January 21.

The assault on the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, in which a pro-Trump mob was able to push past Capitol Police and through security barriers to storm the Capitol building, has led to outrage over the lack of preparedness in responding to the crowd. Their assault on the Capitol sent lawmakers fleeing from the House and Senate chambers, and Vice President Mike Pence was whisked off the Senate floor, where he was watching the debate over Arizona's electoral results. Five people died in the melee.

Reflections on riots: John Dickerson and Bob Schieffer share their insights

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This week, as the nation continues to grapple with this week's violent riots, we turned to two of our own at Face the Nation and asked former moderators Bob Schieffer and John Dickerson to share some of their own insights on the state of our democracy and what the Trump era leaves behind:

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