• Trump’s Pressure on Georgia Officials to Subvert Election
• Eleventh-Hour Resignations
• HHS Pandemic Relief Contracts with UnitedHealth

The Big Stories

Wednesday’s mob attack on the U.S. Capitol was a frightening and astounding display of violence instigated by none other than the president himself.
 
It was frightening for what it revealed about the dangers of efforts by President Donald Trump and his allies to undermine a democratic election. And the security failure was astounding not because no one could have seen it coming, but because of precisely the opposite: The invasion of the building was openly planned and discussed for weeks in advance, with the president providing the most vocal support for such insurrectionist behavior through his incessant lies about voter fraud and his fomenting of unrest.
 
The attack took place as Congress was meeting to certify electoral college votes and as multiple Republican lawmakers complicit in the president’s anti-democratic endeavor offered baseless objections to the vote count. Residents of Washington, DC, all without congressional representation, were notified repeatedly to stay home and were subject to a 6 p.m. curfew, while scenes from the Capitol were shared on the news and through social media.
 
Some images and videos showed officers severely outnumbered, others appeared to show them even taking selfies with rioters. All were in marked contrast to last summer’s authoritarian display of federal police forces in cities across the county, especially the capital, during racial justice protests over police killings of Black Americans.
 
Serious questions have been raised over the security failure, from why Capitol Police (separate from the city’s Metropolitan Police Department) were so wholly unprepared for the violence, to how federal agencies like the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security responded to the riot and how Trump might have interfered in that response, even through inaction. These questions will be the subject of investigations — including by American Oversight — for weeks and months to come. 
 
But while the American public awaits answers, one thing remains clear: Every moment President Trump remains in power is a threat to our democracy and our nation. He must be removed from office immediately. Congress can once again impeach him for the high crimes he engaged in on Wednesday, and the cabinet can remove him by invoking the 25th Amendment. Those who participated in the vandalism and looting and violence that left a reported five people dead, including one police officer, and scores of other officers injured must be investigated and prosecuted under the law — and the president cannot escape accountability, even as he reportedly flirts with the idea of pardoning himself before his term ends on Jan. 20.

Trump’s Pressure on Georgia Officials to Subvert Election
 
It’s hard to believe that it was less than a week ago that the president was roundly condemned for having asked Georgia’s secretary of state to “find 11,780 votes” that could flip the state’s electoral count from President-elect Joe Biden to Trump. His exhortations, potentially illegal and definitely an abuse of power, provided a signal of just how low Trump is willing to go to cling to power. We submitted records requests with the offices of the governor and secretary of state for any communications with individuals associated with Trump’s authoritarian efforts to overturn the election, or about the Jan. 2 call with Secretary Brad Raffensperger.
 
And while Tuesday’s Senate runoff election in Georgia is over, with Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff having defeated incumbents Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, we’re still investigating the efforts of voting-restriction activist groups to disenfranchise voters in Georgia and across the country. In late December, we sued Muscogee County, Ga., for failing to respond to records requests related to the attempt by one of those groups, True the Vote, to purge hundreds of thousands of names from voter rolls in advance of Tuesday’s election. 
 
New Year, Same Pandemic
 
As maskless rioters stormed the Capitol on Wednesday, and as dozens of lawmakers crowded together in a secure location refused to wear masks, the United States saw 3,800 people die from Covid-19 — a record daily high. On Thursday, the U.S. surpassed 4,000 deaths for the first time. The distribution of vaccines has been hampered by a lack of federal leadership, and several states have reported cases of a new, more contagious Covid-19 strain.
 
Here are some headlines:

• The U.S. paid a Texas company nearly $70 million for ventilators that were unfit for Covid-19 patients. Why? (Washington Post)
• Biden to phase out Operation Warp Speed co-leader (Politico)
• Minority-owned companies waited months for loans, data shows (Associated Press)
• The Trump administration approved faster line speeds at chicken plants. Those facilities are more likely to have Covid-19 cases. (Washington Post)
• Wealthy donors received vaccines through Florida nursing home (Washington Post)
• Los Angeles is running out of oxygen for patients as Covid hospitalizations hit record highs nationwide (Washington Post)
• South African Covid variant appears to ‘obviate’ antibody drugs, Dr. Scott Gottlieb says (CNBC)
• The vast majority of nursing home residents remain unvaccinated (Axios)
• Different names, same address: How big businesses got government loans meant for small businesses (ProPublica)