38 Posts Sort By

Latest

Oldest

While the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies always makes contingency plans to host the event in multiple locations in case of weather or other obstacles, there is still a ton of work playing out right now behind the scenes to shift Donald Trump’s ceremony inside to the Capitol Rotunda.

Among the issues? How to facilitate the thousands of people that would have been outside on the presidential platform and in other ticketed seats close by now that the ceremony is moving indoors. There is no feasible way to have them all in the rotunda given it holds just a fraction of the crowd.

The Joint Congressional Committee for Inaugural Ceremonies has sent out a notice officially alerting ticket holders now to the change.

“The vast majority of ticketed guests will not be able to attend the ceremonies in person. At this time we know that those with tickets for the Presidential Platform and members of Congress will be able to attend in person. While we know this is difficult for many attendees, we strongly suggest people who are in Washington for the event attend other indoor events at indoor venues of their choice to watch the inauguration,” the message said.

The committee said it is “designating certain places to watch and will provide additional information.”

The sergeant at arms also sent out a similar message to congressional offices, a source tells CNN.

On the last day of federal court before Donald Trump takes office, a judge told a defendant who admitted to disorderly conduct on January 6 that he may be the last US Capitol rioter she’ll sentence.

“This may be, depending upon what happens outside these walls, the last one of these,” Judge Tanya Chutkan told the defendant, Brian Leo Kelly, who also pleaded guilty to a second misdemeanor charge, trespassing inside the Capitol.

“I’m fully aware you may never serve a sentence in this case,” she added.

Chutkan sentenced Kelly to 10 days in jail plus probation, community service and a restitution payment. She allowed him to walk out of the courtroom and voluntarily surrender at a later date – if he is not pardoned.

Kelly is among the nonviolent January 6 defendants, who walked through the Capitol halls, the air hazy from chemical irritants, filming on his cellphone and “taking photos as souvenirs,” prosecutors said.

After the hearing, Kelly told CNN he didn’t want to say if he expected Trump to pardon him.

“I hope the best for everybody – Democrats and Republicans,” he said.

Remember: If Trump grants blanket pardons, as expected at least for nonviolent offenders charged in the Capitol siege, the judiciary’s role in overseeing the cases would end immediately. If Trump were to also pardon violent offenders and seditious conspirators, those who are serving prison time could be released from federal custody.

Here’s how others’ sentencing unfolded:

• Kellye SoRelle: She was convicted of obstructing justice because she encouraged the Oath Keepers to delete their January 6 plans over text. She was sentenced to 1 year in prison plus 3 years of probation. Sedition is “the most serious criminal conduct that Americans can commit against their country,” Judge Amit Mehta said. “You have done a lot of damage to the country.”
• Andrew Valentin and Matthew Valentin: The brothers, who violently assaulted police at the Capitol, were each given two and a half years in prison — and immediately taken into custody to begin serving their sentences. Judge Reggie Walton, speaking to them in court Friday, said he had trouble understanding how the mob was “willing to trample our democracy.”

Others being sentenced Friday included a man who broke down one of the original, 171-year-old wooden doors in the US Senate, and two men who separately sprayed police guarding the Capitol complex with chemical irritants.

CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz contributed to this report.

Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Danny Werfel will resign Monday as President-elect Donald Trump takes office, paving the way for a major shift at the agency.

Werfel’s five-year term wasn’t scheduled to expire until 2027. But Trump has already picked former congressman Billy Long to head up the agency.

“While I had always intended to complete my full term as Commissioner, the President-elect has announced his plan to nominate a new IRS Commissioner,” Werfel wrote in a message to IRS employees Friday and obtained by CNN.

“After significant introspection and consultation with others, I’ve determined the best way to support a successful transition is to depart the IRS on January 20, 2025,” he said.

Werfel was picked by President Joe Biden to oversee an $80 billion overhaul of the agency. Funded by the Democrat-backed Inflation Reduction Act, the IRS has been using the money to ramp up enforcement and improve taxpayer services.

Republicans have criticized the funding as wasteful and successfully clawed back $20 billion of the $80 billion provided by the spending package.

Long, a Republican from Missouri, served 12 years in the House of Representatives from 2011 to 2023. During that time, he co-sponsored, along with dozens of other Republicans, bills to abolish the IRS and replace the federal income tax system with a national sales tax.

President Joe Biden said Friday that it has been the honor of his life to serve as president of the United States, and that his work will continue after his term finishes on Monday.

“Serving as your president has been the honor of my life while my term in office is ending, the work continues. Your work continues,” Biden said.

Biden told the group of mayors that this is one of the final events he will do as president and that he wanted to come address the mayors because it was one of the first things he did when he was elected. He joined the conference during its winter meeting on January 23, 2021 – the organization said at the time.

“This is one of the last events that I’ll be doing as president. The reason I chose to be here is because of the first thing that I did as president, was to speak to this conference,” Biden said.

Biden also touted a number of actions his administration took Friday in the waning days of his presidency, including his announcement that the Equal Rights Amendment is ratified, enshrining its protections into the Constitution.

“I affirm the Equal Rights Amendment to have cleared all the necessary hurdles to be added to the US Constitution, now,” Biden said. “The Equal Rights Amendment is the law of the land, now. It’s the 28th amendment to the Constitution, now.

“I’ve consulted dozens of constitutional scholars to make sure this was all within the power to do this. And the fact is, we did,” the president added.

Before Biden delivered his remarks, the mayor of Columbus, Ohio Andrew Ginther awarded the president the United States Conference of Mayors’ Award for Distinguished Public Service, the organization’s highest award.

The top-ranking Justice Department prosecutor in Washington, DC, who oversaw the prosecution of more than 1,500 people charged in connection to the US Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, told CNN on Thursday that President-elect Donald Trump should not pardon anyone involved in the insurrection.

“I don’t think anyone that our office prosecuted should be pardoned — full stop,” Matthew Graves, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, said in an interview.

Graves was appointed to the role in the wake of the riot and served for more than three years before stepping down Thursday. Some of his office’s most consequential work during his tenure — running the largest criminal investigation in Justice Department history — is now at risk of being undone as Trump promises to pardon at least some of those convicted for participating in the attack.

Regardless of Trump’s pledge to pardon January 6 defendants on day one of his new administration, Graves insists the hundreds of successful prosecutions were not a “waste of time.”

“Even if there are pardons of any defendants — all defendants — that doesn’t undermine the prosecutions,” Graves said. “There has been a historical record created; the rule of law has been vindicated.”

“A pardon does not wipe away what occurred,” he said.

The CEO of TikTok, which is set to be banned in the United States on Sunday, thanked President-elect Donald Trump “for his commitment to work with us to find a solution” to keep the app available.

“We are grateful and pleased to have the support of a president who truly understands our platform — one who has used TikTok to express his own thoughts and perspectives, connecting with the world and generating more than 60 billion views of his content in the process,” Shou Chew said in a TikTok video.

Trump, who met with Chew at his Mar-a-Lago club in December, previously called for the app to be banned over national security concerns but reversed his position during the 2024 campaign.

Chew is expected to be at the inauguration on Monday, according to two sources familiar with the plans.

In the video, Chew promised users that the company “will do everything in our power to ensure our platform thrives” and said it is a matter of taking a “strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship.”

Some context: CNN reported Wednesday that Trump is weighing a plan that could delay the ban, giving the new administration more time to potentially cut a deal with a US buyer to save the super-popular video app, according to sources familiar with the plans.

The potential executive order, which was first reported by The Washington Post, would strive to allow TikTok’s 170 million American users to continue to use the app for a certain period of time.

In her confirmation hearing Friday to be the next Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem claimed that DHS’ cybersecurity agency has “gotten far off mission” by involving itself in misinformation and disinformation, and that the agency needs to refocus itself on protecting businesses from cyberattacks.

But the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has actually retreated from much of its work related to mis- and disinformation in the last two years under political pressure from Republicans. And, with bipartisan support from Congress, the agency has carried out various programs to try to make things like schools and hospitals less vulnerable to cyberattacks.

Here are some ways that has happened:

• CISA has ignored or rejected internal proposals to combat disinformation related to elections, CNN reported last year.
• In 2022, before the midterm elections, CISA also rejected a contractor’s proposal to work on election-related misinformation and harassment.
• Those decisions, sources have told CNN, have been shaped in part by the disastrous rollout of DHS Disinformation Governance Board in 2022, which was meant to focus on Russia and related human smuggling. The board, which drew widespread criticism and concern about government overreach, shut down within weeks of launching.

Today, some election officials think that CISA has over-corrected to the point of not being prepared to respond to viral falsehoods spread by Americans that could potentially lead to attacks on election infrastructure, CNN previously reported.

Senate Republican leaders are hopeful but uncertain that they will vote to confirm secretary of state pick Marco Rubio — and possibly other top national security Cabinet picks — on Monday after Donald Trump is sworn in as president. That’s because Democrats have not signaled if they will give the unanimous consent required to act so quickly.

Rubio, who is popular with his colleagues on both sides of the aisle, appears best positioned to be confirmed on day one.

“I don’t know that there’s anything that’s firm,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told CNN when asked if he expected to vote on Rubio Monday. “But I feel good that there’ll be an interest in expediting his (nomination).”

Several Democratic senators said they would be fine voting to confirm Monday but one Democrat, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, would not commit, saying she will have to review his hearing before deciding.

That’s one of the challenges facing GOP leaders: Any one senator for any reason can object to moving quickly. If Thune were forced to break filibusters of Rubio or other Cabinet picks and any senator decided to drag out the procedural clock, it could take days to get them confirmed and consume precious floor time.

Only 51 votes are needed to break a filibuster of a nominee, and Republicans hold a 53-47 majority. That means most of Trump’s choices will be easily confirmed even if Democrats force them to take longer than they want.

Besides Rubio, a GOP aide said they hoped to get CIA director choice John Ratcliffe confirmed as early as Monday, too.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee will meet Monday, according to their respective chairs, to vote to send Rubio and controversial defense secretary pick Pete Hegseth to the floor so votes can be scheduled.

The Secret Service and other agencies, including DC and US Capitol Police, are working to determine how moving the inauguration and parade indoors will change security plans for Monday, two law enforcement sources familiar with the planning tell CNN.

Agencies now have just three days to put together a new security plan that previously took months to game out and plan. The agencies have worked since early 2024 in planning for the inauguration — designated by the Department of Homeland Security as a National Special Security Event, which triggers a multi-pronged federal approach.

President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday was expected to be attended by hundreds of thousands of ticketed guests and involve roughly 25,000 law enforcement and military personnel.

Over 30 miles of fencing — more than has ever been erected for such an event — was still being set up and was meant to filter crowds through security checkpoints in anticipation for Trump’s now-scrapped outdoor inauguration and parade down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House.

Secret Service agents accompanying the president had been practicing security maneuvers on the route and how they would have secured the president, as part of plans that now appear to be moot.

President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration committee announced that he will use Abraham Lincoln’s Bible when he’s sworn in as president on Monday.

Lincoln used the Bible during his swearing-in ceremony in 1861.

Trump will also use a personal Bible when he takes the oath of office. Both Bibles were used by Trump during his inauguration in 2017.

Former President Barack Obama used the Lincoln Bible during his two inauguration ceremonies.

Vice President-elect JD Vance will take the oath of office using a family Bible dating back to his great-grandmother.

The Republican National Committee on Friday reelected Michael Whatley as chair, solidifying President-elect Donald Trump’s grip on the GOP as he prepares to start a second White House term.

The RNC also elected KC Crosbie of Kentucky to serve as co-chair and Florida state Sen. Joe Gruters as treasurer, both of whom were endorsed by Trump.

Crosbie succeeds Lara Trump, the president-elect’s daughter-in-law, who announced last month she planned to step down from her RNC role. Crosbie previously served as the committee’s treasurer.

“We’re shuffling the decks,” Whatley said at one point during the elections.

All three newly elected officials were unopposed.

Why it matters: The elections and proceedings at the RNC winter meeting in Washington, DC, held just a few days before Trump will be inaugurated, are among the starkest signs of the president-elect’s firm grip on the GOP. During the 2024 presidential campaign, elements of the RNC body resisted Trump and even vocally opposed him at various meetings.

It was apparent throughout the winter meeting proceedings this time around that any opposition to Trump among the RNC rank-and-file had dissolved.

Whatley told reporters after the vote that, over the next two years, the RNC would focus on boosting Republican candidates going into the 2026 midterms.

“We are certainly going to do everything that we can to support the nominees that Donald Trump has put up to move forward, but the key is the House and the Senate are going to have to move forward with Donald Trump’s America First agenda, which is strongly supported by Americans all across the country,” Whatley said.

President-elect Donald Trump said in a social media post on Friday that his inauguration address will be delivered in the Capitol rotunda because of the cold weather and that the presidential parade will be hosted in the Capital One Arena, confirming CNN’s reporting.

“There is an Arctic blast sweeping the Country. I don’t want to see people hurt, or injured, in any way. It is dangerous conditions for the tens of thousands of Law Enforcement, First Responders, Police K9s and even horses, and hundreds of thousands of supporters that will be outside for many hours on the 20th (In any event, if you decide to come, dress warmly!),” he posted on Truth Social.

He noted that former President Ronald Reagan held his 1985 inauguration indoors due to below-freezing temperatures.

“We will open Capital One Arena on Monday for LIVE viewing of this Historic event, and to host the Presidential Parade. I will join the crowd at Capital One, after my Swearing In,” he added.

The forecast for Monday is a nighttime low temperature around 10 degrees and a high temperature of around 22 degrees.

CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller contributed reporting.

Here’s what some senators are saying about the Supreme Court’s ruling that a controversial ban on TikTok can take effect this weekend:

Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal said Friday he believes TikTok will ultimately be sold “if the price is right” and that an extension is appropriate in the meantime.

“This decision is the right one. The law is clearly constitutional. TikTok is a threat to our national security and ought to be sold, not banned, but sold by the Chinese so they stop surveillance, illegal collection of information about America and representing a threat to our national security. I think an extension is appropriate and likely, so that TikTok can be sold. We want it to exist, but not under Chinese control and ownership,” Blumenthal told reporters.

“It’s all about the money. If the price is right, the Chinese will sell it. … The Chinese have to be rational and recognize that a sale is in their interest, as well as ours,” Blumenthal said.

Republican Sen. Josh Hawley — who believes the Supreme Court ruled correctly “on the law” with TikTok — said the problem right now is that China is preventing its sale to a US buyer.

“I think somebody would buy it if China would sell it. That’s the problem. They’re preventing its sale. So, but I predict somebody will buy it,” Hawley said. “It’s entirely up to Beijing. I mean, there are willing buyers.”

Hawley said he thinks President-elect Donald Trump will probably go for an extension to continue discussions about a sale.

Democratic Sen. Ed Markey said the decision reinforces the need for his legislation to implement an extension for the app to divest from its Chinese parent company.

Markey expressed the need for more time to find a “solution” to the pending ban and said Republicans are trying to block his bill.

“Unfortunately, the Supreme Court made their decision two days before the ban goes into effect that doesn’t allow for any time to consummate a sale of TikTok or to work on other solutions that might be able to be put in place,” he said, adding that TikTok has a right to “exhaust its legal remedies.”

The Supreme Court ruling to uphold a ban on TikTok in the US “enables the Justice Department to prevent the Chinese government from weaponizing TikTok to undermine America’s national security,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement Friday.

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco added: “The next phase of this effort — implementing and ensuring compliance with the law after it goes into effect on January 19 — will be a process that plays out over time.”

Remember: The outgoing Biden administration has signaled it would leave enforcement of the ban to President-elect Donald Trump after he takes office on Monday.

Trump has in recent months vowed to “save TikTok,” but his plans to do so are still unclear.

Here’s what to know about the popular app’s uncertain future.

Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine is expected to name Lt. Gov. Jon Husted to fill the US Senate seat recently vacated by Vice President-elect JD Vance, two sources with knowledge of the decision told CNN.

Kristi Noem, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security, vowed to uphold the Constitution during her confirmation hearing when pressed on whether she’d send federal law enforcement officials into a state without coordinating with its governor.

Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan asked Noem, “If the president asks you to send in federal law enforcement to a state without coordination of that governor, would you support that action?”

Noem responded, “Senator, my job, if nominated and sworn in as secretary of homeland security, is to uphold the Constitution and to uphold the rules of this country.”

Slotkin interjected to say, “So you would push back?”

Noem said, “Yes, that will be the oath and the pledge that I will be making.”

President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration is expected to be moved indoors Monday due to dangerously cold temperatures forecast in the nation’s capital, multiple sources with direct knowledge of the plans told CNN.

Plans are underway to have Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance be sworn into office inside the Capitol rotunda, the sources said.

Discussions regarding where to hold the inaugural parade and other celebrations are still underway. However, Trump’s team has been in talks to potentially hold some of the festivities at Capital One Arena, where Trump will host a rally on Sunday.

Trump’s team is also in talks with the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies about how to handle the tens of thousands of people who had planned to travel to the National Mall on Monday to witness Trump being sworn in publicly. Those decisions are still under consideration, the sources told CNN.

Officials are worried about the low temperatures being a health risk to attendees and guests.

The last president to be sworn in indoors was Ronald Reagan in 1985, when daytime temperatures dipped to 7 degrees Fahrenheit with a windchill of -25. Reagan took the oath of office inside the Capitol rotunda. His inaugural parade was canceled.

CNN’s Kevin Liptak contributed reporting to this post.

Rapper Nelly will perform at the Liberty Inaugural Ball on Monday, according to two sources familiar.

During her confirmation hearing, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem was asked about the dynamic between the Department of Homeland Security and President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of Tom Homan as his border czar and who, ultimately, was responsible for border security.

“The president will be in charge of the border,” Noem said.

Democratic Sen. Andy Kim pressed Noem on whether Homan would be giving orders to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, US Customs and Border Protection and other homeland entities, asking the nominee to lead the department who “is in charge?”

“Tom Homan has a direct line to the president,” Noem said. “He is an adviser to the president, the border czar.”

Noem said that if she is confirmed, she will “be responsible for the authorities we have and the actions that we take” as the Department of Homeland Security.

“If he’s going to be making decisions,” Kim said of Homan, “then he should come before this committee, as well.”

Noem said she and Homan would be working together on a daily basis and that no authorities were being removed from the department.

“But it sends some mixed signals,” Kim said of the dynamic of who is in charge of border security, “when they hear Mr. Homan say ‘I’m making the decisions.’”

Noem concluded, saying that the “authorities will remain as they are.”

The Supreme Court’s opinion allowing the TikTok ban to take effect leans heavily into references to President-elect Donald Trump, reminding Americans that the former president once supported banning the platform as well — even if he no longer does.

“President Trump determined that TikTok raised particular concerns, noting that the platform ‘automatically captures vast swaths of information from its users’ and is susceptible to being used to further the interests of the Chinese government,” the court’s opinion noted.

During his first administration, Trump signed an executive order that would have effectively banned the app before federal courts blocked it from taking effect, finding he exceeded his authority. More recently, Trump has said he’s warmed to the platform and has vowed to save it when he takes power January 20.

In his first reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the TikTok ban, Trump told CNN’s Pamela Brown that he will decide what to do with the app.

The high court seemed eager to note that banning the platform once had bipartisan support — including in Congress, when it passed the most recent ban.

CNN’s Pamela Brown contributed reporting to this post.