Members of Congress certified Democrat Joe Biden as the President elect of the United States early on Thursday morning, resuming their interrupted meeting after an unprecedented attack on the Capitol building by a violent mob of far-right extremists. Late on Wednesday evening Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has been Trump’s strongest ally in the Senate, repudiated the attack fomented by the President. Several of his party colleagues joined McConnell in denouncing the attack but most did not mention Trump by name. Still, several GOP Senators including Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri objected to Arizona and Pennsylvania’s election results but were voted down. When it came time for House Representatives to vote on those challenges, lawmakers voted 303 to 121 against the Arizona challenge and 282 to 138 against the Pennsylvania challenge. This means that a majority of House Republicans voted to throw out electors from those two states but were defeated. Vice President Mike Pence, whose ceremonial job it was to oversee Biden’s certification defied Trump and is reportedly livid with the President after nearly 4 years of accepting his erratic and unethical behavior. 

President Trump, whose Twitter account was suspended for 12 hours conveyed a statement via his staffer Dan Scavino finally saying he would respect a peaceful transition of power. But even in his statement he adamantly stuck to the lie that he won the election. Several Trump staffers have quit their jobs ostensibly in protest of the mob attack on the Capitol building including former Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney who had been occupying the position of US Special Envoy to Northern Ireland. CNN reports that, “a growing number of Republican leaders and Cabinet officials told CNN that they believe Donald Trump should be removed from office before January 20. Four of them called for the 25th Amendment to be invoked, and two others said the President should be impeached.” Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota has announced she is drawing up Articles of Impeachment. Some prefer impeachment to the 25th amendment even though there are only 2 more weeks of Trump’s presidency because a conviction would ensure Trump will never be eligible to hold federal office again.  

After years of facing calls to ban Trump from social media platforms Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have taken some limited action. Trump posted two tweets that Twitter found objectionable and suspended his account for a minimum of 12 hours...