BY JOHN BRESNAHAN, ANNA PALMER AND JAKE SHERMAN

THE TOP

This is how it ends.

With an attack on the U.S. Capitol. With a woman shot dead by a police officer and three others losing their lives in “medical emergencies.” With America’s capital city locked down in a curfew. With heavily armed FBI agents escorting lawmakers to their chamber. With President Donald Trump’s allies abandoning him. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said, “Enough is enough.”

This is the nightmarish twilight of Donald Trump’s presidency. It’s ugly. It’s dangerous. And it has left even his closest allies shocked by his behavior and wondering whether there’s any future for Trump in American public life. 

House Republicans were not planning for it to be this way. They were preparing for Trump to have a significant role in the 2022 elections. He would rally voters, raise money and help the GOP win back the majority.

But now what? Will any Republican want him anywhere close to their political efforts? Can House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy stay aligned with Trump, or will the middle-of-the-road donors who fund the House GOP question his judgment? If you’re a corporation, can you back efforts to return Republicans to power if they are supporting Trump? Because make no mistake: Large corporations and moneyed executives fund the House Republican political machines, not Trump-aligned base voters.

McCarthy, meanwhile, suggested Wednesday night that it may have been left-wing rioters who stormed the Capitol — an evidence-free theme that emerged on the right — so perhaps we’re getting a clue about where his head is.

One-thousand-four-hundred-and-nine days after the Trump presidency began, it’s all but over, marred by an ugly spectacle seen and felt around the world. It started in 2017 with a speech in front of the Capitol declaring that American carnage would end. And it ended with carnage in the Capitol, America’s iconic symbol of democracy sullied by a mob egged on by Trump. 

A handful of senior White House officials resigned or considered resigning.  Foreign leaders issued statements aghast at what they saw happening in the world’s most powerful country. Cabinet officials discussed using the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office, multiple news outlets reported Wednesday night. In the Capitol, Democrats were openly talking about a quick impeachment proceeding to remove the president from office.

Even as the mob was breaking down the doors to the Capitol, Trump dragged his feet over a request to use the National Guard to restore order, Maggie Haberman of the New York Times reported. Senior GOP officials pleaded with him to issue an unequivocal statement condemning violence, yet his video included a rant about an election that was only stolen in his mind.

Maybe this is what Republicans meant when they asked us to imagine what Trump would do if there were no adults around.

THE BUSINESS OF THE NATION

The politics of certification

Congress did certify Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election early this morning. This was a foregone conclusion. Biden will be sworn in as the 46th president on Jan. 20 in a low-key ceremony befitting a nation grappling with a global pandemic.

But it’s worth pausing for a beat to consider that just 64 Republicans in the House voted to certify Pennsylvania, and 83 voted to certify Arizona. Most of the Republicans who voted for the objection are from deep-red districts across America. The House is so heavily gerrymandered that there are very few Republicans who have the political incentive to split with Trump, even as his time in office ends in disgrace.

And that extends up the leadership ladder. 

As we previewed earlier this week, Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise — the top two Republicans — voted to sustain the objections. Liz Cheney — the No. 3 Republican — voted against the objection. This represents another split in the House GOP leadership. Cheney has been vocally opposed to this effort, while McCarthy and Scalise supported it and gave it political cover.

Top aides to McCarthy and Scalise say they have aligned themselves with the majority of their Republican colleagues and thus think it’s a sustainable position. They also believe there were irregularities in the election.

But where will the House GOP go from here? McCarthy badly wants to be speaker, and Republicans believe that voters will return them to the majority in 2022. House Republicans don’t seem to be gearing up for compromise with the new president. We’ll see if the political calculus shifts once Trump leaves the Oval Office for Mar-a-Lago.

And what about Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.)? The image below — Hawley fist-pumping to the crowd before they stormed the Capitol — will stick with him for a while.  Will it help him in a Republican primary? Because that’s what the people who are close to him are thinking about. 

EXIT STAGE MAR-A-LAGO

Trump finally concedes

It finally happened: Trump said what we’ve all known since Election Day — Joe Biden will be the 46th president of the United States. 

AP’s Zeke Miller and Jill Colvin have the latest on how Trump “acknowledged defeat in the Nov. 3 election for the first time, after a day of chaos and destruction on Capitol Hill perpetrated in his name by supporters that halted business in Congress for more than six hours. ‘Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th,’ Trump said in a statement posted to Twitter by aides. 

“His personal account was locked by the social media company for posting messages that appeared to justify the assault on the seat of the nation’s democracy. Trump added, ‘While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it’s only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again!’”

Here’s the big question: There’s been a lot of speculation about whether or not Trump will attend Biden’s swearing-in ceremony at the Capitol. At this point, will he even be invited?

AFTER-ACTION REVIEW

All eyes on Capitol Police 

If you’ve ever been through security checks at the Capitol, you know it’s pretty thorough. We wear IDs around our necks, and go through mags to get in and out of the building.

There will need to be an after-action report to figure out just how the U.S. Capitol Police allowed thousands of rioters into the building. How did they not know how big and angry the mob would be? How did the Capitol Police not stop them? How were people allowed to leave the building without being arrested? 

Police have arrested members of Congress for peaceful protests on immigration reform. People are arrested for shouting during hearings. A mob rushed the Capitol and Capitol Police, in some instances, moved barricades to allow them in. One photo that made the rounds on Twitter showed a police officer taking a selfie with a man waltzing into the Capitol with the mob. 

Caitlin Emma of POLITICO reported that firings are imminent. But there will need to be more answers over what happened to one of the most secure buildings in America.

The FBI is investigating this incident and is soliciting tips from the public to try to identify those involved.

CLIP FILE

NYT … Maggie Haberman on Trump: “Trump Told Crowd ‘You Will Never Take Back Our Country With Weakness’”

WaPo … Reconstruction of the day through video: “How pro-Trump insurrectionists broke into the U.S. Capitol”

… “Kid glove treatment of pro-Trump mob contrasts with strong-arm police tactics against Black Lives Matter, activists say,” by Robert Klemko, Kimberly Kindy, Kim Bellware and Derek Hawkins

WSJ Editorial Board: “Mr. Biden will become President at noon on Jan. 20, and until then the police need to restore order with as much force as necessary. Republicans especially need to speak against trespass and violence. As for Mr. Trump, to steal some famous words deployed in 1940 against Neville Chamberlain: ‘In the name of God, go.’”

POLITICO’s Burgess Everett, Marianne LeVine and Melanie Zanona: “The day Trump broke the GOP”

LAT’s Eric Figueroa and Alex Riggins: “Woman fatally shot in U.S. Capitol was a San Diego resident, family says”

Enjoying Punchbowl AM?

Subscribe 10 friends with your unique link (below) and get a Punchbowl News hat!

Your referral link is: 

You can see all the rewards in here!

Or share via

You currently have: 0 referrals