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Noteworthy Republicans in the House, like Rep. Liz Cheney and Rep. John Katko, voted to impeach President Donald Trump. USA TODAY

WASHINGTONRep. Liz Cheney, the third-ranking House Republican, voted to impeach President Donald Trump on Wednesday, leading a list of Republicanswho backed the president's removal after blaming him for incitinga deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol last week.

Trump will leave power as the first president in the nations 245-year history to be impeached twice. The vote to impeach Trump was 232 to 197, the most bipartisan impeachment vote in history.

There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution, Cheney said in a statement Tuesday, declaring: "I will vote to impeach the President."

SENATE: Impeachment trial likely won't begin until Biden sworn in

Cheney, R-Wyo., was the highest-ranking Republican to back Trump's removal from office. She noted that the Jan. 6 attack, which resulted in five deaths, including a Capitol Police officer, aimed to obstruct America's democratic processes and caused "injury, death and destruction in the most sacred space in our Republic."

For that, Cheney saidthe president alone was to blame.

The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing, she said in a statement. None of this would have happened without the President. The President could have immediately and forcefully intervened to stop the violence. He did not.

Nine other Republicans also voted to impeach Trump:

In this Dec. 17, 2019 file photo, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., speaks with reporters at the Capitol in Washington.(Photo: J. Scott Applewhite, AP)

Katko, a former federal prosecutor and moderate Republican who endorsed Trump for reelection, said he reviewed the facts and reached his own conclusion.

"To allow the President of the United States to incite this attack without consequence is a direct threat to the future of our democracy,"Katko said in a statement. "For that reason, I cannot sit by without taking action. I will vote to impeach this President."

Kinzinger, a former Air Force veteran who served multiple tours overseas, said there was "no doubt in my mind that the President of the United States broke his oath of office and incited this insurrection."

More: House passes measure calling on Pence to invoke 25th Amendment; Pence says he will not

"I will vote in favor of impeachment," he wrote in a statement.

Upton, a moderate, joined the group Wednesday, saying he would have preferred censuring the president, but he had decided"it is time to say: Enough is enough."

Herrera Beutler announced late Tuesday she would vote to impeach, saying her party "will be best served when those among us choose truth." She slammed Trump's "pathetic denouncement" of the violence during the riots.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats applauded Republicans for backing the effort.

"Good for her for honoring her oath of office," Pelosi said of Cheney.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., similarly applauded Cheney, calling her a "person of principle."

Newhouse on Wednesdaybecame the first Republican to announce on the House floor that he would support impeaching Trump.

Last week there was as domestic threat at the door of the Capitol and he did nothing to stop it, Newhouse said.

That is why with a heavy heart and clear resolve, I will vote yes on these articles of impeachment, he said to applause from the Democratic side of the House.

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Throughout Trump's presidency, Cheney has remained a loyal Republican vote but has repeatedly come out against the president over his rhetoric and some foreign policy decisions.

In recent months, Cheney's criticisms of the president havegrown stronger. She's taken veiled jabs at Trump over his refusal to wear a mask, publicly asked him to stop using his Twitter account to accuse an MSNBC media host of murder and pushed Trump for answers after media reports surfaced showing Russians had offered bounties to the Taliban for killed U.S. troops.

And before backing Trump's removal, Cheney vehemently opposed pro-Trump efforts by some of her Republican colleagues to object to counting Electoral College results in certain swing states, saying on Twitter that "Congress has no authority to overturn elections by objecting to electors. Doing so steals power from the states & violates the Constitution."

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The 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump: 'There has never been a greater betrayal by a president' - USA TODAY

The terrifying mob attack on the Capitol on Wednesday, among its many effects, quickly shifted focus from the other big news of the week: the runoffs for U.S. Senate in Georgia. Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff defeated Republicans Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, respectively, giving Democrats control of Congress.

Like a lot of recent political events, the Georgia runoffs are more significant the further you zoom out the lens. In one sense, the results were not that unpredictable. The final polling averages showed both Democrats ever-so-slightly ahead, and it was clear that the races were shaping up in such a way as to make the Democrats extremely competitive.

[Related: How Democrats Won The Georgia Runoffs]

But the Georgia runoffs were full of practical and symbolic significance. They exposed the limitations of the Republican coalition, with or without President Trump, leaving the party further in the electoral wilderness its not clear where the Republican Party goes from here, especially in the wake of the violent insurrection by Trump supporters at the Capitol.

First, the significance of Georgia specifically. Ill spare you some of the boilerplate about the more obvious implications, but having a Senate majority is a big deal. It means that Democrats should be able to confirm Supreme Court justices and President-elect Joe Bidens Cabinet. Theyll likely be able to pass additional COVID-19 stimulus legislation at the very least, along with other budgetary policies through reconciliation. Other policy changes would require eliminating the filibuster unlikely or getting cooperation from enough Republicans. But at least Democrats will have the chance to bring to the floor election-reform bills like H.R. 1 and policies like Puerto Rico statehood, giving them a fighting chance instead of having Majority Leader Mitch McConnell squash them from the start.

And symbolically? Well, its Georgia. With the possible exception of Texas, no other state has been as much of a symbol of an emerging Democratic coalition of college-educated white voters and high turnout among Black voters and other minority groups. Both Warnock and Ossoff are breakthrough candidates, not the moderate, white Blue Dogs that Democrats have traditionally nominated in Georgia. Warnock, the senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Jr. preached, will become the first Black senator from Georgia and the first Black Democrat ever to serve in the U.S. Senate from the South. Ossoff will become the youngest senator elected since Biden, in 1973, and the first Jewish senator elected to the U.S. Senate from the South since the 1880s.

Then theres the fact that the runoffs came during a lame-duck period in which in a predicate to Wednesdays violence Trump and other Republicans tried to overturn and subvert the results of the election and undermine faith in the democratic process. If Republicans get the message that anti-democratic actions have negative electoral consequences, they may be less inclined to push democracy to the brink in the future.

[Related: Trump Helped Take Extremist Views From The Fringes Of Society To A Mob Attacking The Capitol]

Republicans may not take away that lesson, though. One school of thought is that because Warnocks and Ossoffs wins were narrow once all votes are counted, Warnock should win by around 2 percentage points and Ossoff by about 1 point we shouldnt make too much of them.

I dont find this convincing. The way political actors react to elections is usually based on who wins and loses, not on their margins of victory. For example, nobody thought that Hillary Clinton and John Kerry were brilliant politicians because they only narrowly lost in key Electoral College states.

But its also not clear that these races really had any business being close to begin with. Consider the following:

Indeed, after Georgia, Republicans track record in the three general elections (2016, 2018, 2020) plus the various runoffs and special elections that took place under Trump now starts to look mediocre:

So, it hasnt been a terrible time to be a Republican running for office, but it hasnt been a good one, either. Typically, a party would be looking to move beyond a one-term president who had cost his party control of both houses of Congress. Actually, thats being kind: Typically, a party wants nothing to do with a losing presidential candidate.

When it comes to Trump, though, that calculation isnt necessarily so simple because of his tendency to punish his intraparty adversaries: Republicans who tried to cross him, such as former Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, were sometimes forced to retire rather than face the presidents wrath in a primary.

Yet the GOP has done especially poorly in Trump-era elections without Trump on the ballot, too. Republicans lost the popular vote for the U.S. House by 8.6 points in 2018 without the president on the ticket. And while some Republicans are blaming Trump for their losses in Georgia, the fact is that Perdue won the plurality of votes in November with Trump on the ballot but lost to Ossoff without him. Tuesdays loss came primarily because of lower turnout, especially in red, rural counties where Trump can bring voters to the polls.

To step back a bit, the success of an electoral strategy basically comes down to four dimensions:

In Trump-era elections, Republicans have tended to do well along two of these dimensions and poorly along the other two. Namely, Trump gets very high turnout from his base. Whats just as important, rural white voters who are the core of that base have far more power in the Electoral College and U.S. Senate than their raw numbers would imply, making their coalition electorally efficient. Hence, their strategy has performed well along dimensions No. 1 and No. 4.

Conversely, Trump is extremely motivating in turning out many parts of the Democratic base (dimension No. 2). And hes a big turn-off to swing voters, or at least hes proven to be after four years in office (dimension No. 3). After narrowly beating Clinton among independent voters in 2016, Trump lost them to Biden by 13 points in November. Swing voters also havent been very happy with the GOP with or without Trump on the ballot: They backed Democratic candidates for the U.S. House by 12 points in 2018. Republicans have had especially big problems with suburban swing voters, including in places that were once GOP strongholds.

Well have to wait and see, but the violence at the Capitol last week may only exacerbate the GOPs problems on dimensions No. 2 and No. 3. In the few polls conducted since, solid majorities of Americans overall, including almost all Democrats and a majority of independents, said the storming of the Capitol represented a threat to democracy. Similar shares of Democrats and independents said Trump and congressional Republicans bore at least some blame.

[Related: Storming The U.S. Capitol Was About Maintaining White Power In America]

Republicans are in a fairly precarious position. At best, they are often fighting to a draw, and one that would often be a losing strategy without the structural advantages built into the system for rural voters. And if Republicans dont get spectacular turnout from their base, everything else potentially starts to crumble. Even a modest decline in turnout from people who are pro-#MAGA but not necessarily part of the traditional Republican base can leave the GOP in a losing position.

Nor do Republicans have any sort of obvious role model for how to achieve consistent electoral success. The previous Republican president, George W. Bush, saw his second term in office end with landslides against Republicans in 2006 and 2008. A series of recent presidential nominees associated with the party establishment (Mitt Romney, John McCain, Bob Dole) all lost their elections, meanwhile. You really have to go back to Ronald Reagan for an example of an unambiguously broad and successful Republican electoral coalition, and that was a generation ago. Republicans who cast their first votes for Reagan at age 18 in 1984 will be 58 years old in 2024.

This doesnt mean Republicans are helpless, by any means. Under McConnell and former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, their congressional agenda has also been largely unpopular. If youre consistently pushing positions that a majority of the public opposes, youre liable to pay a price for it. Republicans structural advantages (especially in the Senate), and Trumps ability to drive turnout in the places where those structural advantages matter, served as cover for a minoritarian agenda.

For all that said, the tendency of the opposition party to regain ground at the midterms is very strong. One would not want to bet that much against the GOP winning back one or both houses of Congress in 2022. (The House, where Republicans should pick up some seats from redistricting, might actually be the better bet than the Senate, where Democrats have a relatively favorable map.)

After last week, though, Im not sure Id want to place a lot of money on the GOP in 2022, either. If the Georgia runoffs served as a quasi-midterm, they might suggest that the GOP cant count on the sort of gains that a party typically wins in midterms. As in the primaries leading up to 2010, the GOP is likely to have some vicious intraparty fights, possibly leading it to nominate suboptimal candidates in some races. And with the violence last week and Republican efforts to contest the Electoral College outcome in Congress, Democrats may be very motivated again in 2022, feeling not unreasonably as though democracy itself may be on the line.

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Georgia Was A Disaster For Republicans. Its Not Clear Where They Can Go Next. - FiveThirtyEight

Opposition to impeachment comes from a deep and abiding conservative belief that members of the opposing political tribe want their destruction , not simply to punish Trump for his behavior, guest author Ben Shapiro writes. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo

Howdy from Nashville, yall! Im BEN SHAPIRO, and I host the conservative podcast and radio show The Ben Shapiro Show; Im also editor emeritus of the Daily Wire, husband to a medical doctor, and father to three children who run me more ragged than the news cycle.

Or at least they used to, before all time was condensed into a political gravitational singularity, where one day is several years long.

So, lets get to it.

The big news of the day, of course, is the Houses impeachment of President DONALD J. TRUMP for the second time in just over a year. It was a foregone conclusion that the Democratic House would do so the only question was how many Republicans would vote along with Democrats to impeach Trump over his behavior leading up to and surrounding the Capitol riot.

In the end, 10 did ranging from Rep. LIZ CHENEY (R-Wyo.), the third-ranking Republican in the House, who called openly and clearly for impeachment; to Rep. FRED UPTON (R-Mich.), who said hed prefer censure but that hed settle for impeachment.

The spotlight immediately moved to Senate Majority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL, who now says that he hasnt made up his mind on impeachment. It seems hell leave Republicans to their own devices on the Senate vote when it takes place.

Many in the media seem bewildered that House Republicans didnt unanimously join Democrats in supporting impeachment (looking at you, Playbook readers in the media) after all, Republicans were in the building when rioters broke through, seeking to do them grievous physical harm. My Republican sources tell me that opposition to impeachment doesnt spring from generalized sanguinity over Trumps behavior: Ive been receiving calls and texts for more than a week from elected Republicans heartsick over what they saw in the Capitol.

Opposition to impeachment comes from a deep and abiding conservative belief that members of the opposing political tribe want their destruction, not simply to punish Trump for his behavior. Republicans believe that Democrats and the overwhelmingly liberal media see impeachment as an attempt to cudgel them collectively by lumping them in with the Capitol rioters thanks to their support for Trump.

The evidence for that position isnt difficult to find.

Sen. RON WYDEN (D-Ore.) suggested this week at NBCNews.com that the only way to prevent a repeat of the Capitol riot was endorsement of a full slate of Democratic agenda items. Rep. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-N.Y.) suggested that Southern states are not red states, they are suppressed states, which means the only way that our country is going to heal is through the actual liberation of Southern states And PAUL KRUGMAN of The New York Times placed blame for the Capitol riots on the entire Republican Party infrastructure: This Putsch Was Decades In The Making.

Unity looks a lot like sign onto our agenda, or be lumped in with the Capitol rioters.

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Conservatives see the game. It doesnt matter whether you held your nose when voting for Trump; it doesnt matter if you denounced his prevarications about a stolen election (for the record, I was met with great ire when I declared the night of the election that Trumps declaration of victory was deeply irresponsible).

If you supported Trump in any way, you were at least partially culpable, the argument goes. Its not just Trump who deserves vitriol its all 74 million people who voted for him.

And that claim, many conservatives believe, will serve as the basis for repression everywhere from social media to employment. Evidence to support that suspicion wasnt in short supply this week:

Parler, the social media competitor to Twitter, was taken off the internet entirely by Amazon Web Services. AWS pointed to violent and threatening posts appearing on Parler as the rationale for the takedown. But as the single journalist most targeted by anti-Semitism on Twitter in 2016, as assessed by the ADL (Ive got the medal on my shelf), I can fairly attest that Twitter is no wonderland. And according to The Washington Post, new evidence suggests that Facebook was used by Capitol rioters to coordinate, too. Will tech companies dump them, too?

To conservatives, the deplatforming of Parler looked far more like political retaliation than good housekeeping, especially after social medias decision to downgrade the New York Posts coverage of Hunter Biden in the month leading up to the election.

GoDaddy kicked AR15.com, the biggest gun forum in the world, offline.

Corporations ranging from AT&T to Marriott, from Dow to Airbnb, announced they would cut off all political giving to Republicans who had challenged electors. No such consequences ever attended Democrats who winked and nodded and sometimes more at civil unrest around the nation emerging from Black Lives Matter protests and antifa violence over the summer.

Furthermore, many conservatives doubt that Democrats are applying any sort of neutral standard toward Trump in pursuing impeachment.

Is the standard refusal to accept election results? STACEY ABRAMS never accepted her election loss (she still claims she was the victim of voter suppression); Rep. JAMIE RASKIN (D-Md.) has been appointed one of the Democrats impeachment managers by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but challenged Floridas electors in 2016.

Is the standard incitement? Few serious lawyers believe that Trumps activities would amount to prosecutable incitement; the real impeachment charge against Trump is extraordinarily reckless and inflammatory rhetoric and behavior. But that sort of rhetoric is, unfortunately, commonplace in todays day and age, and sometimes even ends with violence (see, e.g., a Bernie Sanders supporter shooting up a congressional softball game).

Those on the political left see such questions as whataboutism. And yes, none of these politicians are the sitting president of the United States and head of the executive branch looking to pressure the legislature to violate the law and overturn a lawful election.

But its just as plausible to see such questions as demands for neutral political standards to hold everyone accountable. Without such standards, conservatives fear, any political flashpoint will be used as a cudgel to cram down social, cultural or even governmental repression.

Republicans may divide over impeachment there are good prudential arguments against, and good principled arguments in favor. But one thing is certain: If anyone expects Americans to come together once the Trump era is over, thats a pipe dream.

Our social fabric is torn. It was torn before Trump. And, as it turns out, the incentive structure of modern politics and media cuts directly against stitching it together again.

Its not over yet: The FBI is warning that further violence may be on the way this weekend, and leading up to Bidens inauguration, CNN reports.

J. Michael Luttig writes in WaPo on whether impeachment can be brought after Trump leaves office.

Bari Weiss on what she calls The Great Unraveling.

David Siders and Carla Marinucci on the travails of the state I just left, California.

The NYT on the Republican nightmare of Bernie Sanders chairing the Budget Committee.

Back to the Playbook crew

PHOTO DU JOUR: Joy Lee, press secretary for Speaker Nancy Pelosi, moves a lectern that was pictured being stolen during the Capitol riots through Statuary Hall on Wednesday, Jan. 13. | Susan Walsh/AP Photo

A CLOSER LOOK AT THE 10 REPUBLICANS WHO VOTED YES, via Ally Mutnick and David Siders.

MCCONNELL PUMPS THE BRAKES McConnell rebuffs Democrats call for speedy impeachment trial, but is undecided on convicting Trump, CNN: The majority leader also sent a note to Republican senators telling them the chamber won't return until January 19, according to a person who has seen it, meaning an impeachment trial won't begin until the early days of Joe Biden's presidency.

In the note to his Republican colleagues Wednesday afternoon on impeachment, he wrote that while the press has been full of speculation, I have not made a final decision on how I will vote and I intend to listen to the legal arguments when they are presented to the Senate. But McConnell is furious, sources say, over Trumps incitement of the violent riots that turned deadly at the US Capitol last week, and he also blames Trump for the partys failure to hold the two Georgia Senate seats.

HOW TRUMP SPENT HIS WEDNESDAY, via Bloombergs @JenniferJJacobs: Amid impeachment effort, Trump is giving medals to @tobykeith and @RickySkaggs national medal of the arts, several sources tell me.

Trump is isolated and angry at aides for failing to defend him as he is impeached again, WaPo: Trump has instructed aides not to pay Giulianis legal fees, two officials said, and has demanded that he personally approve any reimbursements for the expenses Giuliani incurred while traveling on the presidents behalf to challenge election results in key states. They said Trump has privately expressed concern with some of Giulianis moves and did not appreciate a demand from Giuliani for $20,000 a day in fees for his work attempting to overturn the election.

As he watched impeachment quickly gain steam, Trump was upset generally that virtually nobody is defending him including press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, economic adviser Larry Kudlow, national security adviser Robert C. OBrien and Chief of Staff Mark Meadows The White House released a video Wednesday evening featuring Trump seated behind the Resolute desk in the Oval Office pleading with supporters not to engage in further violence. Violence and vandalism have absolutely no place in our country and no place in our movement, he said.

Movers seen at White House week ahead of Biden arrival, N.Y. Post

PELOSI CRACKS DOWN @kyledcheney: Pelosi unveils plan to fine members who evade metal detectors outside House chamber. $5,000 for a first offense. $10,000 for a second. With Pelosis statement

THE COMING THREAT National Guardsmen briefed on IED threat to Capitol, by Natasha Bertrand and Lara Seligman: National Guard units are being told to prepare for the possibility that improvised explosive devices will be used by individuals plotting to attack the Capitol in the days surrounding the Inauguration, according to two Guardsmen briefed this week.

The briefings indicate that Washington, D.C.-area law enforcement believe the IEDs planted last week at the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee headquarters were not an isolated incident. The individual who planted those bombs has yet to be apprehended, and FBI agents have been going door to door in D.C. this week asking residents for any photos or video they might have that could help identify the suspect.

Biden no longer taking Amtrak to inauguration amid security concerns, CNN: A decision was made this week for Biden not to take the 90-minute ride from his namesake station in Wilmington, Delaware, officials said, with at least some of the concerns hinging on his arrival at Union Station in Washington.

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LITERAL FAILURE FBI Washington field office got an F for fighting domestic terrorism from bureau officials, NBC: FBI inspectors who evaluated the domestic terrorism program in the bureaus Washington field office two years ago gave it a failing grade, meaning it was considered both ineffective and inefficient.

KNOWING THE INSURRECTIONISTS QAnon believer who plotted to kill Nancy Pelosi came to D.C. ready for war, by Nolan McCaskill: The day after a Colorado man driving a truck loaded with weapons made it to Washington, D.C., last week, he texted a frightening forecast of what could come with President-elect Joe Bidens inauguration.

I predict that within the next 12 days, many in our country will die, wrote Cleveland Grover Meredith Jr., who had threatened to kill Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), according to federal court records.

Two Cops, Including a Trained Sniper, Arrested for Taking Part in Capitol Insurrection, The Daily Beast Houston police officer penetrated Capitol, HPD Chief Art Acevedo says, KPRC

A Reservation for Insurrection: Paul thought his Airbnb guests were tourists, until he heard: We stormed the Capitol, New York magazine

THE BIG TECH CRACKDOWN Snapchat permanently bans Trump, by Matthew Choi

WHAT FACEBOOK SAYS Facebooks Sandberg deflects blame for Capitol riot even as new evidence shows it played a pivotal role, WaPo

AND WHAT IT DOES: Facebook Has Been Showing Military Gear Ads Next To Insurrection Posts, BuzzFeed: In the aftermath of an attempted insurrection by President Donald Trumps supporters last week at the US Capitol building, Facebook has served up ads for defense products to accounts that follow extremist content, according to the Tech Transparency Project, a nonprofit watchdog group.

Those ads which include New Years specials for specialized body armor plates, rifle enhancements, and shooting targets were all delivered to a TTP Facebook account used to monitor right-wing content that could incite violence. These ads for tactical gear, which were flagged internally by employees as potentially problematic, show Facebook has been profiting from content that amplifies political and cultural discord in the US.

BIG FOR THE GOP Koch network pledges to weigh heavy lawmakers actions in riots, by Maggie Severns: In a statement to POLITICO, the Koch network said it will take last weeks events seriously when deciding where to put its millions of dollars in spending next election cycle.

FOUL BALL MLB suspends political donations after D.C. riot, AP

JOHN HARRIS COLUMN: Donald Trump Is The Perfect Leader of the Worst Generation: Here is the uncomfortable truth, highlighted by yet another impeachment: These are good things, if the goal is to ensure that supporters and enemies alike are obsessing about you in the final hours of a defeated presidency, and even after that presidency ends, while a successor is wanly trying to command attention for a new one.

And they are good things if the goal is to be the emblematic figure of a generation guided by the ethos that the point of politics is not to illuminate and resolve big arguments it is instead to continue the arguments endlessly, no matter the circumstances.

WHAT WE CAN LOOK FORWARD TO Rep. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-Ga.) on Twitter: On January 21, 2021, I'll be filing Articles of Impeachment against Joe Biden for abuse of power.

BOOBY TRAPS FOR BIDEN Trumps EPA team overrules career scientists on toxic chemical, by Annie Snider: Political officials at EPA have overruled the agencys career scientists to weaken a major health assessment for a toxic chemical contaminating the drinking water of an estimated 860,000 Americans, according to four sources with knowledge of the changes.

The changes to the safety assessment for the chemical PFBS, part of a class of forever chemicals called PFAS, is the latest example of the Trump administrations tailoring of science to align with its political agenda, and another in a series of eleventh-hour steps the administration has taken to hamstring President-elect Joe Bidens ability to support aggressive environmental regulations.

Forgiving Student Debt by Executive Action Is Illegal, Trump Lawyers Say, WSJ

DETAILS OF BIDEN STIMULUS PLAN Biden expected to include new child benefit in major new stimulus proposal, WaPo: President-elect Joe Biden is expected to include a significant new benefit for children in poor and middle class households in the coronavirus relief package he will release this week, according to three people granted anonymity to share details of internal deliberations.

Biden officials are likely to include the expansion of an existing tax credit for children as part of a relief package that will also include $2,000 stimulus payments, unemployment benefits, and other assistance for the ailing economy as well as money to fight the pandemic and increase vaccine distribution. Biden is expected to formally unveil his proposal on Thursday.

CORONAVIRUS RAGING The U.S. reported 4,022 deaths from Covid-19 and 219,000 new cases of the coronavirus Wednesday.

Bidens Covid board in the dark on final vaccine plan, by Tyler Pager and Adam Cancryn in Wilmington: [M]ost of the Covid advisory board, which Biden formed within days of the election as part of an effort to demonstrate that ending the pandemic would be his top priority, will not be briefed on the plan until [this] afternoon. The decision to keep the plans final details closely held came as a surprise to much of the advisory board.

MEDIAWATCH MAGA-lands Favorite Newspaper: How The Epoch Times became a pro-Trump propaganda machine in an age of plague and insurrection, The Atlantic

The WSJ announced its White House team: Alex Leary, Gordon Lubold, Catherine Lucey, Tarini Parti, Andrew Restuccia, Sabrina Siddiqui and Ken Thomas.

TRUMPS THURSDAY Trump has nothing on his public schedule. Pence will participate in a briefing on inauguration security at 4 p.m. at FEMA headquarters.

Biden and Harris will meet with transition advisers. Harris will take part in a virtual finance event for the Presidential Inaugural Committee. Biden will deliver remarks to address the pandemic, the economic crisis and his plans for vaccination and economic stimulus at 7:15 p.m. in Wilmington, where hell introduce key economics and jobs nominees. Harris will also attend.

Send tips to Eli Okun and Garrett Ross at [emailprotected].

IN MEMORIAM Bryan Monroe, longtime journalist and former CNNPolitics.com editor, dies at 55, CNN: Bryan Monroe, a journalism professor and former CNNPolitics.com editor who once headed the National Association of Black Journalists and helped guide the Biloxi Sun Herald to a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of Hurricane Katrina, has died. He was 55. Monroe died Wednesday morning of a heart attack at his home in Bethesda, Maryland

In a long journalism career that included stints as vice president and editorial director at Ebony and Jet magazine and assistant vice president of news at Knight Ridder Newspapers, Monroe conducted the first post-election interview with former President Barack Obama. Monroe had the last major interview with pop legend Michael Jackson two years before the latter's death in 2009.

Ray Brady, Longtime Business Correspondent for CBS News, Dies at 94, Variety: Brady spent 28 years with CBS News, starting in 1972 when he joined CBS Radio. He retired in 2000 after 23 years as a correspondent for CBS Evening News.

SPOTTED: Reince Priebus leaving the Treasury Department on Wednesday.

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK America Rising PAC is announcing its new leadership team: Cassie Smedile as executive director, Chris Martin as deputy executive director, Joe Gierut as comms director and Whitney Robertson as deputy press secretary. Smedile is joining from the RNC, and Robertson from the Trump campaign.

TRANSITION Justin Myers will be executive director of Blue Leadership Collaborative. He most recently was CEO of For Our Future and For Our Future Action Fund.

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK Blain Rethmeier, a Bush alum who was most recently VP of public affairs at Hims and Hers, and Zack Roday, former director of comms for House Energy and Commerce and a Paul Ryan alum, have joined public affairs firm 76 Group, which has rebranded from EIS Solutions.

BIRTHWEEK (was Wednesday): Julia Louis-Dreyfus turned 6-0

BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Nina Totenberg, NPR legal affairs correspondent. How she got her start in journalism: It was really hard, because it was in an era where people either blanket told you, we dont hire women, or we dont hire women for the night desk. So getting my first job on the womens page for the old Record American in Boston was very hard, and I just worked an extra shift to do real work. Because in those days it wasnt a style section, it was a womens page. That meant fashion not fashion the way its covered in the Washington Post boring fashion, press release fashion rewritten, or recipes. Playbook Q&A

BIRTHDAYS: Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) is 59 Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa) is 52 Susan Glasser, New Yorker staff writer, CNN global affairs analyst and POLITICO alum Bill Plante is 83 (h/ts Ben Chang) Shepard Smith is 57 League of Conservation Voters President Gene Karpinski is 69 Michael Reed, RNC deputy COS for comms Eric Alterman is 61 Colin Milligan, director of media relations at the American Hospital Association Margaret Chadbourn Michael Block WaPos Jen Liberto and Molly Gannon CAPs Marcella Bombardieri Mary Kusler Sean Johnson of the Maryland State Education Association (h/t Brian Dunn) Andy Gussert Mary Jane Cobb Joan Prince (h/ts Teresa Vilmain) Amanda Callanan, VP of comms at the Claremont Institute

Maureen Dowd Kevin Manning, a director at the Herald Group, is 31 Toby Harnden is 55 Alexandra Shapiro Jack Torry Frank Raines is 72 Karl Beckstein Teddy Eynon Andrea Seabrook, managing editor at Countable Michael Tuchin is 56 ... Ben Koltun, senior research analyst at Beacon Policy Advisors ... Christina Daigneault William Johnson former North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue is 74 ... Francisco Martin-Rayo ... Duncan Currie Sinead Casey ... Ellen Wulfhorst, chief correspondent for the Americas at the Thomson Reuters Foundation John Ellsworth ... Regina Schofield ... Jeffrey Webb ... Marc Schloss Megan Milligan Brennan Moss Doug Michelman, president of the Sprint 1Million Project Foundation Erin Haber (h/ts Jon Haber) Hugh Kaufman

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POLITICO Playbook: The real reason most Republicans opposed impeachment - Politico

President-elect Joe Biden is taking aim at some Republican members of Congress who refused to wear masks while huddling in secure rooms last week during the storming of the Capitol.

"It was shocking to see members of the Congress while the Capitol was under siege by a deadly mob of thugs refuse to wear a mask while they were in secure locations," the president-elect said on Friday. Biden spoke as he unveiled what he called a "bold" plan to speed up the distribution of coronavirus vaccinations that he termed a "dismal failure" under President Trumps administration.

BIDEN UNVEILS 'BOLD' COVID VACCINATION PLAN TO FIX TRUMP'S 'DISMAL FAILURE'

Pointing a handful of GOP members of Congress who refused to put on masks offered by their Democratic colleagues as they and their staffs sheltered in a cramped, windowless room, Biden asked, "What the hells the matter with them?"

President-elect Joe Biden speaks during an event at The Queen theater, Friday, Jan. 15, 2021, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

He added:"Its time to grow up. The result at least four members of Congress today including a cancer survivor now have COVID-19 who were in those rooms."

Members of Congress were quickly moved to secure rooms in the Capitol after the seat of the nations government was attacked in an insurrrectionlaunched by right-wing extremists and other Trump supporters who were trying to disrupt congressional certification of Bidens election victory.

SQUAD MEMBER SAYS REPUBLICANS ENGAGED IN 'CHEMICAL WARFARE' FOR REFUSING MASKS DURING CAPITOL ATTACK

In his speech, Biden reiterated his request for Americans to wear masks for the first 100 days of his administration, which begins next Wednesday as the president-elect is inaugurated. And Biden repeated that hell issue an executive order requiring masks for federal workers and on federal property, as well as for interstate travel on trains and planes.

"This is not a political issue," Biden said."Its about saving lives. I know its become a partisan issue, but what a stupid, stupid thing for it to happen. This is a patriotic act." And he said experts predict that mask-wearing over the next 100 days could prevent up to 50,000 deaths from the coronavirus by April.

The president-elects speech which he gave in his hometown of Wilmington, Del., came new cases of the virus continue to surge across the country. Nearly 390,000 people in the U.S. have died of COVID since the pandemic swept the nation nearly a year ago. More than 23.4 million people in the U.S. have been infected with the virus since it first struck. And on Tuesday, more than 4,300 deaths nationally were linked to the virus, a new one-day high.

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Biden rips Republicans for refusing to don masks during siege: 'What the hell is the matter with them?' - Fox News

The calls for Donald Trumps removal from office are intensifying, as some lawmakers blame the president for inciting the mob who stormed and vandalized the US Capitol.

That includes a small group of mostly moderate Republican leaders who have condemned Trump and demanded that he resign or be forced out, either by invoking the 25th Amendment or through impeachment proceedings.

The number of GOP voices remains tiny compared to the growing number of Democrats, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and soon-to-be Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who are calling for Trumps ouster.

On Monday, Democrats introduced an article of impeachment against the president, one count of incitement of insurrection. The House could vote as early as this week. Trump could very well be impeached a second time, but two-thirds of the Senate would still be needed to convict him before he could be removed from office and the Senate may not conclude the trial before Trumps term expires.

Most Republican senators have so far stayed silent or are opposed. Large swaths of the House GOP caucus stand resolutely behind Trump, and House Republicans blocked a measure on Monday demanding Vice President Mike Pence and the Cabinet remove Trump under the 25th Amendment.

Republicans, then, are largely closing ranks around the president. But the smattering of denouncements shows that at least some in the Republican Party want a future separate from Trump small though that group may be.

Below are the few Republicans currently in office who have so far demanded Trumps resignation or removal from office.

Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican whos retiring in 2022, became the second GOP senator to say Trump should step down. The best way for our country is for the president to resign and go away as soon as possible, he told Meet the Press on Sunday.

Toomey also said in an interview with Fox News this weekend that he believed the president had committed impeachable offenses, though he hesitated on whether impeachment proceedings and removing him from office was the best course. I dont know whats going to land on the Senate floor, if anything, he said.

Alaska senator Lisa Murkowski became the first Republican senator to demand that Trump leave office. She did not mention impeachment or other methods of removal, but she was unequivocal in her censure of the president.

I want him to resign. I want him out. He has caused enough damage, Murkowski told the Anchorage Daily News in a Friday interview.

He doesnt want to stay there, she added. He only wants to stay there for the title. He only wants to stay there for his ego. He needs to get out. He needs to do the good thing, but I dont think hes capable of doing a good thing.

Murkowski has a reputation as one of the more moderate Senate Republicans though she may not even call herself a Republican for much longer. She told the Anchorage Daily News that she might leave the party if it continues to organize itself around Trump. I will tell you, if the Republican Party has become nothing more than the party of Trump, I sincerely question whether this is the party for me, she said. (Murkowski has since said that if she does leave the GOP, it wont mean shed ever become a Democrat.)

Vermonts Republican governor, who was just sworn in for his third term, was among the first prominent Republicans to demand Trump resign or be removed from office by his Cabinet, or by Congress.

Make no mistake, the President of the United States is responsible for this event, Scott wrote in a thread on Twitter Wednesday afternoon. President Trump has orchestrated a campaign to cause an insurrection that overturns the results of a free, fair and legal election.

Kinzinger also called on the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment, the first Republican member of Congress to do so.

All indications are that the president has become unmoored not just from his duty or even his oath but from reality itself, Kinzinger said in a video statement posted on Twitter. It is for this reason that I call for the Vice President and members of the Cabinet to ensure the next few weeks are safe for the American people and that we have a sane captain of the ship.

Kinzinger was among the first Republicans to recognize Biden as the rightful president-elect, and has tried to debunk election fraud conspiracies. He has criticized his congressional colleagues who had planned to object to the Electoral College results, calling them not serious people. Kinzinger did not specifically mention impeachment in his statement, though he told MSNBC he has not ruled out supporting such a move.

Marylands governor may be the most prominent GOP figure to demand Trumps removal. In a press conference Thursday afternoon, Hogan said there is no question that America could be better off if the president resigned or were removed from office.

After the press conference, Hogan wrote, It is clear to me that President Trump has abandoned his sacred oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Hogan, though a Republican, is not exactly an infrequent Trump critic, and hes broken with the president on his handling of the coronavirus and immigration. In 1974, Hogans father, a GOP congressman, was the first House Republican to support the impeachment of Richard Nixon.

Massachusettss Republican Gov. Charlie Baker another moderate GOPer whos clashed with the president also blamed Trump for the violence in Washington, DC, and for fomenting the chaos with his election fraud conspiracy theories. In a news conference Thursday, he said Pence should lead the transition.

Its 14 days, OK? Baker said, according to the Boston Globe. I think people should pursue whatever they believe will make it possible, in the most expeditious way possible, for the president to step down and the vice president to assume the powers of the office for the next 14 days so that an orderly transition can take place.

Still, the list of Republicans who have explicitly said Trump should go is still quite short.

Many though certainly not all Republican leaders have called out Trump for feeding these conspiracy theories to his supporters, and for using his platform at the rally Wednesday to radicalize the protesters present.

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) did not directly call for Trumps removal, but in an interview with CBS This Morning last week, he signaled that he was open to impeachment proceedings.

The House, if they come together and have a process, I will definitively consider whatever articles they might move because as Ive told you, I believe the president has disregarded his oath of office, Sasse told CBS This Mornings Gayle King. He swore an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. He acted against that. What he did was wicked.

A handful of Cabinet officials have also resigned in protest, most notably Elaine Chao, the transportation secretary, and Betsy DeVos, the education secretary. Others considered resigning, including National Security Adviser Robert OBrien, though he was reportedly persuaded to stay on.

Condemnation came from former officials, including those who served under Trump. Former Attorney General Bill Barr, who resigned last month not long after he denied the presidents allegations of widespread voter fraud, said in a statement that orchestrating a mob to pressure Congress is inexcusable. Barr said, The presidents conduct yesterday was a betrayal of his office and supporters. John Kelly, former White House chief of staff and former homeland security secretary, said on CNN that he would, if still in the Cabinet, vote to remove Trump.

Some of these denouncements come a bit late, as many of Trumps Republican allies did little to stop or condemn Trump and his falsehoods about election fraud in weeks prior to the insurrection at the Capitol.

And so far, few Republicans with actual power to remove the president from office i.e., those in Congress or leading a Cabinet agency have said they would definitely do so. Pence is reportedly opposed to invoking the 25th Amendment, and many other lawmakers look like theyd rather move on, echoing the presidents statement Thursday night, where he recognized that a new administration would take over and tried to distance himself from the Capitol assault.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), one of Trumps biggest defenders in the Senate, said Friday that, as Trump stated, it is time to heal and move on.

If Speaker Pelosi pushes impeachment in the last days of the Trump presidency, it will do more harm than good, he said.

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The Republicans who want Trump to leave office now - Vox.com