Republicans wrestle over removing Trump . . . GOP lawmakers are wrestling with whether to stick with President Trump between now and Jan. 20 as members of his Cabinet consider resigning or invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him from office.  Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska became the first Republican senator to call on Trump to resign, declaring on Friday afternoon that “he has caused enough damage.” “I want him to resign. I want him out,” she told the Anchorage Daily News. A day later, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), who is retiring at the end of 2022, said Trump’s actions rise to the level of impeachment. “I do think the president committed impeachable offenses,” Toomey said Murkowski and Toomey’s comments put pressure on Republican centrists, such as Sens. Mitt Romney (Utah) and Susan Collins (Maine), who as of Saturday night had not addressed whether Trump should step down or be removed from office. The Hill

 

 

Pompeo stands by Trump Admin achievements . . . Secretary of State Mike Pompeo signaled he is standing by President Trump after critics have called for his impeachment following the storming of the Capitol on Wednesday.  “I am proud of what we’ve accomplished — not just in the national security, foreign policy space, which I’ve worked with, but the things that we’ve done with families, the pro-life work that we have done. These are things that will truly be historic. I think history will remember us very well for these things when the books are written,” Pompeo said in remarks to Republican lawmakers and staffers. Washington Examiner

 

Trump may turn to Giuliani and Dershowitz to defend him in impeachment trial . . . President Trump is considering appointing his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and the high-profile lawyer Alan Dershowitz to his defense team in case he faces another impeachment trial this week. Giuliani, who called for "trial by combat" as he spoke to Trump supporters hours before the deadly siege, is expected to represent the president. Dershowitz already said he would be willing to take on the job. "He [Trump] has not committed a constitutionally impeachable offense and I would be honored to once again defend the Constitution against partisan efforts to weaponize it for political purposes," Dershowitz told The Hill on Saturday. Business Insider

 

Trump orders flags to half-staff in honor of Capitol Police officers . . . POTUS ordered American flags to be lowered to half-staff on Sunday in honor of the U.S. Capitol Police officer slain in Wednesday's riot and another who reportedly died in the days after.

The move comes after several days of criticism for not doing so earlier. The president called for flags at the White House, public buildings, military posts, naval stations, naval vessels and facilities abroad to fly at half-staff to pay respect to Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who died due to injuries he suffered when a pro-Trump mob breached the Capitol. Trump announced the flags would remain at half-staff until sunset Wednesday “as a sign of respect for the service and sacrifice” of Sicknick, Liebengood and “all Capitol Police Officers, and law enforcement across this great Nation.” The Hill

 

Parler will be offline for a while given Amazon decision to cut web services . . . Parler will likely go offline for "a while" Sunday evening given Amazon Web Services' decision to suspend the upstart social media platform after Wednesday's U.S. Capitol riot, executives said Sunday. “We are clearly being singled out,” Chief Policy Officer Amy Peikoff told “Fox & Friends Weekend” one day after Apple suspended Parler from its App Store even as it surged to the No. 1 spot in the free apps section earlier in the day. Google suspended Parler from its app store Friday. Fox Business

 

 

Republicans blast Big Tech's bid to "erase" Trump and his supporters . . .  Big Tech’s battle with President Trump has become an all-out war on conservatives’ free speech, Republican critics said Sunday after social media banished the president and his supporters from the Internet platforms. Amazon, Apple, Google and Twitter silenced Mr. Trump and scores of his supporters online in the name of preventing an Inauguration Day repeat of the Capitol Hill riot last week. Sen. Marco Rubio, Florida Republican, said liberals were using the attack on the U.S. Capitol to “not just erase the president [but] erase everybody” who supported him. Washington Times

 

PGA to end contract, move 2022 championship from Trump property . . . The Professional Golfers’ Association of America announced on Sunday its plans to move the 2022 championship away from property owned by President Trump. The PGA of America Board of Directors voted to end its contract to hold the 2022 PGA Championship at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey, PGA of America President Jim Richerson said in a statement. The announcement comes in the days after the president’s supporters raided the Capitol. The Hill

 

Teeing up the latest cancel culture insult.

 

Secret Service investigating death threats agains Pence . . . The U.S. Secret Service is investigating death threats against VP Mike Pence made by pro-Trump lawyer Lin Wood. Wood, who was banned from Twitter last week, is suspected of writing a now-deleted post on Parler: "Get the firing squads ready. Pence goes FIRST." Fox News

 

Biden picks William Burns for CIA . . .  President-elect Joe Biden early Monday announced former Deputy Secretary of State William Burns as his nominee for director of the CIA. Biden's transition team noted that Burns, a career diplomat who retired in 2014 after serving in the U.S. Foreign Service for 33 years, has served in a number of national security positions across five Democratic and Republican administrations. Burns was U.S. ambassador to Russia between 2005 and 2008 and was U.S. ambassador to Jordan from 1998 to 2001. The Hill

 

SolarWinds hackers linked to known Russian spying tools . . . The group behind a global cyber-espionage campaign discovered last month deployed malicious computer code with links to spying tools previously used by suspected Russian hackers, researchers said on Monday. Investigators at Moscow-based cybersecurity firm Kaspersky said the “backdoor” used to compromise up to 18,000 customers of U.S. software maker SolarWinds closely resembled malware tied to a hacking group known as “Turla,” which Estonian authorities have said operates on behalf of Russia’s FSB security service. The findings are the first publicly-available evidence to support assertions by the United States that Russia orchestrated the hack, which compromised a raft of sensitive federal agencies and is among the most ambitious cyber operations ever disclosed. Reuters

 

 

China hits out at US move to elevate relations with Taiwan . . . China condemned the US decision to ease restrictions on diplomatic relations with Taiwan in the waning days of the Trump administration, saying the island was “the most important” part of its relations with Washington. “Any move that harms China’s core interests will be met with China’s resolute counter-strike,” said Zhao Lijian, foreign ministry spokesperson, on Monday, although he did not specify any concrete measures.
Mike Pompeo, US secretary of state, said on Saturday that the Trump administration would lift “self-imposed restrictions” that have governed relations between Washington and Taipei. Financial Times

 

Iran to execute second wrestler, sparking outrage from State Department . . . A top U.S. State Department official came out swinging Sunday against the Islamic Republic of Iran’s plan to execute another wrestler, after Tehran’s rulers publicly hanged the champion wrestler Navid Afkari in September on widely criticized, trumped-up charges. "The Iranian regime must be held to account for their vile human rights abuses and their attempt to cling to power through execution," Ellie Cohanim, the State Department’s deputy special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism, told Fox News. The execution of the decorated wrestler Mehdi Ali Hosseini is imminent. Fox News

 

 

Big banks and companies pause political funding after Capitol riot . . . Two of the biggest U.S. banks and other corporations said they are pausing or reviewing their political action committee donations in the wake of last week’s riot at the Capitol. JPMorgan, Chase, and Citigroup said they are pausing all PAC donations to Republicans and Democrats in the coming months. Other companies, including the Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance group and Marriott International said they would pause donations to Republican lawmakers who objected to President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College win after supporters of President Trump stormed the Capitol on Wednesday. Wall Street Journal

 

Biden has ties to 5 major tech companies . . . At least 14 people who Biden has picked to serve either in his administration or to advise his transition have worked for the Big Tech firms that cracked down earlier this week on President Donald Trump and a social media site popular with conservatives. Apple’s top lobbyist was a chief adviser to the Biden transition team. A former Facebook executive will serve as staff director in the Biden White House, and a former Twitter executive will serve as chief spokesperson for the National Security Council under Biden. Current and former executives at those firms and two others, Google and Amazon, fill out other positions in the incoming Biden administration, or his transition team. The five tech giants all took action this week against Trump and Parler, the social media site, in response to riots at the U.S. Capitol. Daily Caller

 

Business as usual.

 

Trump-supporting Christian leaders and their Sunday messages . . .  Support for President Donald Trump has been consistently strong among evangelicals, with some professing that he has been the best friend Christians have had in the White House.  In wake of the Capitol riot the messages from the pulpits of Christian leaders who’ve backed Trump were as disparate as the opinions of the nation’s citizenry. They ranged from recitations of conspiracy theories of who was responsible, to calls for healing and following Jesus Christ rather than any individual person, to sermons that made no mention of Wednesday’s chaos and what it means for the future. Associated Press

 

Dems have limited options on abortion despite Senate wins in Georgia . . .  Despite unified control of both chambers of Congress and the presidency, congressional Democrats' narrow majorities will make lasting legislative victories on abortion difficult to attain, likely leaving President-elect Joe Biden to resort to executive actions. Victories in both of the runoff elections in Georgia have given Senate Democrats a 50-50 split in the Senate with VP-elect Harris (D.) in a position to cast a tie-breaking vote. The party's 2020 platform vowed to restore federal funding for Planned Parenthood; repeal the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits taxpayer funding of abortion; and overturn federal and state laws restricting access to abortion or other "reproductive health and rights." But West Virginia senator Joe Manchin (D.), a life0long catholic, pledged to thwart any legislative attempts to institute taxpayer funding of abortion. Washington Free Beacon

 

Pope allows more women in Church . . . Pope Francis, in another step towards greater equality for women in the Roman Catholic Church, on Monday changed its law to allow them to serve as readers at liturgies, altar servers and distributors of communion. In a decree, the pope formalized what already has been happening in many countries for years. But with the change in the Code of Canon Law, conservative bishops will not be able to block women in their diocese from those roles. But the Vatican stressed that the roles were “essentially distinct from the ordained ministry”, and were not an automatic precursor to women one day being allowed to be ordained priests. Reuters

Kamala Harris is Vogue's cover star . . . VP-elect Kamala Harris is splashed on the February cover of Vogue, but many social media users are less than thrilled with the magazine's photo choice. Two covers are posted with the interview, both shot by Tyler Mitchell, the Black photographer who was hired to shoot Beyoncé for the magazine in 2018. One depicts Harris, 56, in a powder-blue Michael Kors power suit, her arms crossed, with a flag pin on her lapel. The second, more controversial image shows Harris in a more casual black Donald Deal jacket, wearing matching Converse Chuck Taylors, pearls around her neck, and standing against a pink and green backdrop. Fans slammed the latter image on Twitter, calling it disrespectful and speculating that the image was deliberately washed out to lighten her skin. USA Today

 

Didn't take long. Only the "correct" First Ladies get on the cover of glamour magazines.

 

Cat reunited with owner after 11 days in airport ceiling . . . A cat that escaped from her owner at a security checkpoint in New York's LaGuardia Airport was returned to the distraught traveler after spending 11 days hiding in the hub's ceiling. Taylor Le said she was in the process of moving from New York to Orange County, Calif., when she booked a Christmas Eve flight for herself and her 6-year-old cat, Muji. Le said TSA agents had her remove Muji from her carrier at the security checkpoint, despite her protestations that the feline was likely to flee. Muji panicked and led her owner and airport staff on a chase that ended when the cat climbed a series of platforms to a ceiling enclosure and disappeared inside. 11 days after the cat had fled from security, Le received word that the cat had emerged and been safely caught in a trap. UPI