National: Riot in the Capitol is a nightmare scenario for cybersecurity professionals | Tonya Riley/The Washington Post

Lawmakers and congressional staff were ushered into secure locations as a mob backing President Trump violently stormed the U.S. Capitol in hopes of overturning the election he lost. The assault – which only temporarily delayed the certification of president-elect Joe Biden’s win – left many unanswered questions about security at the Capitol, including its cybersecurity. “There’s an old saying, if an attacker has physical access to your computer, it’s not your computer anymore,” Katie Moussouris, CEO and founder of Luta Security, told me. A now-removed tweet from a right-wing journalist showed rioters had access to at least one unlocked computer in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, open to email appearing to belong to a staffer. It’s unclear if the computer was a work or personal device, and my colleague Mike DeBonis confirmed no computers were taken from Pelosi’s office. “Having shown that they’re willing to rummage through and destroy physical papers and run through the offices of our Congress right now with physical destruction, I would not be surprised if they were trying to access some of the computers that were left unlocked,” Moussouris says. (Some rioters boasted about looting offices for documents. One person, pictured earlier in Pelosi’s office, told the New York Times’s Matthew Rosenberg that he plucked an envelope from Pelosi’s desk.) Bad actors could also try to guess the passwords of locked devices, which could be successful if the device lacked a strong password, Moussouris says. Anything more intensive, such as breaking into an iPhone, probably would require a third party. The government normally keeps its most sensitive classified information in separate spaces called sensitive compartmented information facilities. That’s why the extent to which the mob posed a security risk to Congress depends on the expertise of the rioters, Moussouris said. Most, she guessed, are “not exactly cybercriminals.” But taking a laptop would give the thief more time to crack into the computer – or even potentially take to a professional to crack into. House IT officials did not respond for comment about steps they’re taking to secure exposed devices. Important practices that all organizations should implement include having multi-factor password protection and a centralized mechanism to wipe devices of data, Moussouris told me.

Full Article: The Cybersecurity 202: Riot in the Capitol is a nightmare scenario for cybersecurity professionals – The Washington Post

Assault on democracy: Senator Josh Hawley has blood on his hands in Capitol coup attempt | The Kansas City Star

No one other than President Donald Trump himself is more responsible for Wednesday’s coup attempt at the U.S. Capitol than one Joshua David Hawley, the 41-year-old junior senator from Missouri, who put out a fundraising appeal while the siege was underway. This, Sen. Hawley, is what law-breaking and destruction look like. This is not a protest, but a riot. One woman who was apparently part of the pro-Trump mob was fatally shot by Capitol Police as lawmakers took cover. Some of those whose actions Trump encouraged and later condoned brought along their Confederate flags. And no longer can it be asked, as George Will did recently of Hawley, “Has there ever been such a high ratio of ambition to accomplishment?” Hawley’s actions in the last week had such impact that he deserves an impressive share of the blame for the blood that’s been shed. Hawley was first to say that he would oppose the certification of Joe Biden’s Electoral College win. That action, motivated by ambition, set off much that followed — the rush of his fellow presidential aspirant Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and other members of the Sedition Caucus to put a show of loyalty to the president above all else.

Full Article: MO Sen. Josh Hawley to blame for mob, Capitol coup attempt | The Kansas City Star

National: How bad was the US Capitol breach for cybersecurity? | Zack Whittaker/TechCrunch

It’s the image that’s been seen around the world. One of hundreds of pro-Trump supporters in the private office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after storming the Capitol and breaching security in protest of the certification of the election results for President-elect Joe Biden. Police were overrun (when they weren’t posing for selfies) and some lawmakers’ offices were trashed and looted.As politicians and their staffs were told to evacuate or shelter in place, one photo of a congressional computer left unlocked still with an evacuation notice on the screen spread quickly around the internet. At least one computer was stolen from Sen. Jeff Merkley’s office, reports say. Most lawmakers don’t have ready access to classified materials, unless it’s for their work sitting on sensitive committees, such as Judiciary or Intelligence. The classified computers are separate from the rest of the unclassified congressional network and in a designated sensitive compartmented information facility, or SCIFs, in locked-down areas of the Capitol building. “No indication those [classified systems] were breached,” tweeted Mieke Eoyang, a former House Intelligence Committee staffer. But the breach will likely present a major task for Congress’ IT departments, which will have to figure out what’s been stolen and what security risks could still pose a threat to the Capitol’s network. Kimber Dowsett, a former government security architect, said there was no plan in place to respond to a storming of the building.

Full Article: Decrypted: How bad was the US Capitol breach for cybersecurity? | TechCrunch

National: Several State Lawmakers Joined, Observed US Capitol Turmoil | Cuneyt Dil/Associated Press

A West Virginia lawmaker who filmed himself and supporters of President Donald Trump storming into the U.S. Capitol is facing bipartisan calls for his resignation as federal prosecutors step up their pursuit of violent perpetrators. State Del. Derrick Evans was among lawmakers from at least seven states who traveled to Washington, D.C., for demonstrations rooted in the baseless conspiracy theory that Democrat Joe Biden stole the presidential election. Wearing a helmet, Evans ultimately joined a screaming mob as it pushed its way into the Capitol building, and livestreamed himself joyfully strolling inside. It’s unclear if Evans was the only elected official to participate in what Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and many others called a “failed insurrection.” It’s also not known if any of them will be prosecuted. Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano said he helped organize a bus ride to the demonstrations but left the U.S. Capitol area after the eruption of violence, which he called “unacceptable.” The top Democrat in the Pennsylvania Senate, and eight of his colleagues, want him to resign, saying his actions and words disputing the election’s integrity encouraged a coup attempt and inspired the people behind it. Tennessee state Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver said Wednesday night that it had been an “epic and historic day.” The Republican lawmaker told The Tennessean she was “in the thick of it” but hadn’t seen any violence. Weaver did not respond to emailed questions from The Associated Press about whether she entered the Capitol. Incoming Nevada state Assemblywoman Annie Black, a Republican, said she marched from the White House to the U.S. Capitol, where she saw men on megaphones revving the crowd to storm the security barrier. She said she retreated to avoid being associated with the mob.

Full Article: Several State Lawmakers Joined, Observed US Capitol Turmoil | West Virginia News | US News

National: QAnon and the storm of the US Capitol: The offline effect of online conspiracy theories | Marc-André Argentino/Quartz

What is the cost of propaganda, misinformation, and conspiracy theories? Democracy and public safety, to name just two things. The US has received a stark lesson on how online propaganda and misinformation have an offline impact. For months, Donald Trump has falsely claimed the November presidential election was rigged and that’s why he wasn’t re-elected. The president’s words have mirrored and fed conspriacy theories spread by followers of the QAnon movement. While conspiracy theorists are often dismissed as “crazy people on social media,” QAnon adherents were among the individuals at the front line of the storming of Capitol Hill. QAnon is a decentralized, ideologically motivated, and violent extremist movement rooted in an unfounded conspiracy theory that a global “Deep State” cabal of satanic pedophile elites is responsible for all the evil in the world. Adherents of QAnon also believe that this same cabal is seeking to bring down Trump, whom they see as the world’s only hope in defeating it.

Full Article: The attack on the US Capitol shows the real danger of QAnon — Quartz

National: U.S. Capitol Police officer dies after attack on Congress | Narianne Levine and Sarah Ferris/Politico

A U.S. Capitol Police officer has died after engaging with rioters in Wednesday’s violent insurrection. “Brian D. Sicknick passed away due to injuries sustained while on-duty,” the U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement late Thursday. “He returned to his division office and collapsed. He was taken to a local hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.” Sicknick had served in the USCP since 2008 and was recently in the First Responders’ Unit. Four other people died during Wednesday’s siege of the Capitol. One of them was a 35-year-old woman who was shot inside the Capitol as she climbed through a window. Three others died due to medical emergencies. More than 50 law enforcement officials were injured and several were hospitalized, USCP said earlier Thursday. The growing number of deaths from the unprecedented attack on Capitol Hill comes as the enormous complex faces a reckoning over its security, including the operations of its roughly 1,800-member police force. On Thursday, Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, Senate Sergeant-At-Arms Michael Stenger and House Sergeant-At-Arms Paul Irving all resigned.

Full Article: U.S. Capitol Police officer dies after attack on Congress – POLITICO

National: Capitol Attack Leads Democrats to Demand That Trump Leave Office | Peter Baker and Maggie Haberman/The New York Times

President Trump’s administration plunged deeper into crisis on Thursday as more officials resigned in protest, prominent Republicans broke with him and Democratic congressional leaders threatened to impeach him for encouraging a mob that stormed the Capitol a day earlier. What was already shaping up as a volatile final stretch to the Trump presidency took on an air of national emergency as the White House emptied out and some Republicans joined Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a cascade of Democrats calling for Mr. Trump to be removed from office without waiting the 13 days until the inauguration of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. The prospect of actually short-circuiting Mr. Trump’s tenure in its last days appeared remote. Despite a rupture with Mr. Trump, Vice President Mike Pence privately ruled out invoking the disability clause of the 25th Amendment to sideline the president, as many had urged that he and the cabinet do, according to officials. Democrats suggested they could move quickly to impeachment, a step that would have its own logistical and political challenges. But the highly charged debate about Mr. Trump’s capacity to govern even for less than two weeks underscored the depth of anger and anxiety after the invasion of the Capitol that forced lawmakers to evacuate, halted the counting of the Electoral College votes for several hours and left people dead, including a Capitol Hill police officer who died Thursday night. Ending a day of public silence, Mr. Trump posted a 2½-minute video on Twitter on Thursday evening denouncing the mob attack in a way that he had refused to do a day earlier. Reading dutifully from a script prepared by his staff, he declared himself “outraged by the violence, lawlessness and mayhem” and told those who broke the law that “you will pay.”

Full Article: How The Capitol Attack Led Democrats to Demand Trump’s Resignation – The New York Times

National: The Enduring Damage of This Insurrection to U.S. Diplomacy | Jude Blanchette and Michael J. Green/Foreign Policy

It is already obvious from the reactions around the world that the violent storming of the U.S. Capitol by pro-Trump insurrectionist-wannabees has damaged the United States’ image badly. But how badly? After all, the insurrectionists were removed, Republican leaders easily defeated the anti-constitutional motions of some of their members, Congress confirmed the Electoral College majority for President-elect Joe Biden, the stock market closed up, and opinion polls in the coming days will undoubtedly show that a large majority of Americans repudiate the actions of a few thousand unhinged MAGA extremists. Yet images are stubborn things. Photojournalist Eddie Adam’s iconic shot of a Saigon police chief executing a Vietcong prisoner during the Tet offensive in 1968 captured indelibly the sadness, violence, and futility of the Vietnam War. Footage of the violent Democratic Party Convention that summer in Chicago reinforced for years the image of U.S. chaos at home. Neither the American public nor U.S. allies could shake those images from their minds, while Washington’s adversaries use them in propaganda to this day.

Full Article: The Capitol Insurrection Could Set U.S. Diplomacy Back Decades as China Uses It for Propaganda

National: Ex-Secret Service agents say there’s no playbook for evicting Trump on Inauguration Day | Robin Bravender/Business Insider

The Secret Service has never had to drag a president out of the White House. And there’s no obvious government playbook on how to handle a commander in chief who refuses to budge when his replacement shows up at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. President Donald Trump still refuses to concede the election, and he told some of his advisors he wouldn’t leave the White House on Inauguration Day, according to CNN. This all has triggered speculation about how Trump might be physically removed from the building when the new president is sworn in on January 20. It’s even been a hot topic in a private group chat involving former Secret Service officials and Department of Homeland Security alumni from both Republican and Democratic administrations, according to a former Obama administration DHS official. President-elect Joe Biden’s team has said the government would have no trouble removing “trespassers” from the White House if it comes down to that on Inauguration Day. But how exactly would that go down? Insider interviewed five former officials who worked for the US Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security about what the government would do if Trump didn’t go voluntarily. They all agreed it was not among the long list of incidents they’d ever had to practice for and said it could put the agencies in an uncomfortable position.

Full Article: Ex-Secret Service agents say there’s no playbook for evicting Trump on Inauguration Day – Business Insider

Editorial: I know how it feels to lose a stolen election. A real patriot would move on. | Stephanie Singer/The Washington Post

I know what a stolen election feels like. There’s rage at the enemies who got away with it. There’s grief over the dashed plans for your next term. There’s fear that all your accomplishments will be undone. There’s shock at the unexpected, unbelievable outcome. And there’s shame about what you might have done differently. I’m still certain it happened to me in 2015. I was finishing my first term on the Philadelphia Board of Elections. Four years earlier, I had earned the position with an upset win over a 36-year incumbent. I was looking forward to the campaign spotlight, and what I was sure would be another victory. In my case, a judge dealt the blow, ruling that my ballot petition was four valid signatures short of the required 1,000. (We had submitted about 1,500, but more than 1,000 of them were challenged.) I watched it happen over the course of a week: the expensive, mind-numbing arguments about the loops of the “g” in someone’s signature, the race against time to find people to come to court and testify that yes, they did sign, the unexpected overnight transformation of an informal count into a court order and, finally, the judge’s refusal to consider affidavits from 16 more signers, which would have been enough to keep me on the ballot. Even when an election isn’t stolen, it can still feel stolen. From inside the candidate bubble, no matter what, winning looks inevitable. In President Trump’s case — and in most cases, in my experience of investigating election rumors and data irregularities — the voter-by-voter, real-world evidence ends in wonky but legitimate details, like apartment numbers in a building with a FedEx office on the first floor being mistaken for post office boxes. To the losers, the 2020 presidential election feels stolen, but to any dispassionate observer, that case doesn’t hold water.

Full Article: I know how it feels to lose a stolen election. A real patriot would move on. – The Washington Post

Editorial: How Western media would have covered the storming of the U.S. Capitol if it had happened in another country | Karen Attiah/The Washington Post

Political violence and rioting exploded in the United States on Wednesday as extremists loyal to right-wing leader Donald Trump stormed the legislative building in the nation’s capital, Washington, forcing lawmakers to go into hiding in secure locations. The mob was incited to act by Trump himself. During a speech before thousands of his supporters earlier in the day, the president called the outcome of the November election an “egregious assault on our democracy” and urged people to “walk down to the Capitol” because “you will never take back our country with weakness.” Soon a crowd was breaking into the Capitol, charging police barricades and breaking windows to try to disrupt the certification of the presidential election that resulted in a clear defeat for Trump. A woman was fatally shot by security forces inside the Capitol, and three other people died under unspecified circumstances. An IED was found at the headquarters of the ruling Republican National Committee, and the nearby headquarters of the opposition Democratic National Committee was evacuated after the discovery of a suspicious package. As observers wrestled with whether to call the actions a “coup” or a “sparkling authoritarian takeover,” Trump supporters terrorized lawmakers and forced them to stop the certification of the election. Hundreds were seen looting and chanting slogans while some police officers passively looked on. Many Americans, including prominent journalists, politicians and security officials, expressed dismay at the unfolding events, even though right-wing groups had described their plans online and some had even printed “CIVIL WAR” T-shirts to mark the occasion. Of course political and racial violence have played a part in the history of the former British colony for centuries and have particularly been inflamed in the past four years.

Full Article: Opinion | How Western media would have covered the storming of the U.S. Capitol if it had happened in another country – The Washington Post

Editorial: Invoke 25th Amendment. Trump forfeited moral authority as president | USA Today

Ever since Donald Trump lost his bid for reelection, Americans have wondered to what depths he would sink in his efforts to overturn the results and cling to power. On Wednesday, they got their answer: The president of the United States incited a mob of supporters and sicced them on the Capitol, just as Congress was about to count the states’ electoral votes and affirm Joe Biden’s victory. In the ensuing chaos, the hallowed chambers were desecrated, the ceremonial process was disrupted, one woman was fatally shot and four others died, including a Capitol police officer. By egging on this deadly insurrection and hailing the rioters (“We love you, you’re very special.”), the president forfeited his moral authority to hold the nation’s highest office, even for 13 more days. More urgent, he reinforced profound questions, and raised new ones, about his judgment and ability to fulfill his most minimal responsibilities to the country he is supposed to lead and protect. Trump’s continuance in office poses unacceptable risks to America. Foreign adversaries sense disarray and weakness. People close to Trump say his mental state is fragile. Even though he committed early Thursday to an orderly transfer of power, who knows what pardons he might grant, what orders he might issue as commander in chief and what other desperate measures he might take before Jan. 20? Resignation would be the preferable means for Trump to depart; Richard Nixon quit when Republican elders told him the jig was up amid the Watergate scandal. But there is no reason to believe that Trump will leave voluntarily, even in response to entreaties from top aides and GOP lawmakers.

Full Article: Invoke 25th Amendment. Trump forfeited moral authority as president

Georgia: Next Capitol stress test for democracy: What if the Senate won’t seat Georgia’s winners? | Kevin Johnson/The Fulcrum

The Senate election results in Georgia have Democrats dancing in the streets and democracy advocates cheering another seemingly successful high stress election. Turnout was extraordinary for a runoff, election officials performed efficiently, and fears of conflict and voter intimidation proved unfounded. But there could be trouble ahead. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock will not officially become senators, and cannot swing control of Congress to their party, until they are seated by the Senate. That normally mechanical procedure could become the next round in our never-ending partisan dogfight. If either Republican candidate contests the results — as President Trump and his allies will surely insist — it will not be Georgia’s stalwart secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, with the last word on who won. Nor will it be the Georgia Supreme Court, or even the U.S. Supreme Court. The “Judge of the election of … members” of the Senate, according to the Constitution, is the Senate itself. For the vast majority of elections to both the House and Senate, this quirk — let’s be more honest, this flaw — in our founding document does not pose a problem. Normally, with losers having conceded, the House and Senate dispense with a vote and permit the state-certified winners to take their seats. But little else has happened normally this year, and with control of the Senate in the balance and Mitch McConnell still in charge, we should not be surprised if another challenge to our democracy is ahead. McConnell did try to protect the Electoral College count from objections, but he did so less on principle than to avoid politically difficult votes for his caucus. At least for the election between Ossoff and David Perdue, the closer of the two on Tuesday, there are certain to be GOP claims asserting Perdue’s victory. McConnell will be tempted to call for the Senate to investigate before seating a winner — which would mean depriving himself of the gavel.

Full Article: What if the Senate won’t seat Georgia’s winners? – The Fulcrum

Georgia: Trump attorney ends four lawsuits challenging election | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

President Donald Trump has ended his court challenges to try to reverse his loss to Joe Biden in Georgia. An attorney for Trump filed notice in court Thursday that he is voluntarily dismissing four lawsuits making unsubstantiated allegations about ineligible voters, election equipment problems and fraud. No judges in Georgia have ruled in Trump’s favor. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a defendant in the lawsuits, said Trump gave up on his false claims. “Rather than presenting their evidence and witnesses to a court and to cross-examination under oath, the Trump campaign wisely decided the smartest course was to dismiss their frivolous cases,” Raffensperger said. The court dismissals came after Congress accepted electoral votes Wednesday showing that Trump had lost the election. Raffensperger had sent a letter to Georgia’s members of Congress with a point-by-point rebuttal of Trump’s allegations about voting machines, ballot counting, signature verification and illegal voters.

Full Article: President Trump and GOP voters have dismissed four Georgia lawsuits

Georgia elections chief counters false claims in letter to Congress | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger delivered an exhaustive rebuttal of false election claims to Congress, telling the state’s skeptical representatives that the presidential vote count was investigated and found to be accurate. His 10-page letter, sent Wednesday as Congress was debating electoral votes, countered a collection of unsubstantiated allegations about voting machines, ballot counting, signature verification and ineligible voters. “My job is to make sure that both sides know that the results are accurate,” wrote Raffensperger, a Republican. “We do not have to like the results of an election to accept them.” Congress accepted Georgia’s 16 electoral votes after U.S. Rep. Jody Hice, a Republican from Greensboro, challenged them Wednesday evening. He was joined by Georgia Republican U.S. Reps. Rick Allen, Buddy Carter and Marjorie Taylor Greene. U.S. Reps. Andrew Clyde and Barry Loudermilk also said they would object. Hice said there had been an “unprecedented amount of fraud and irregularities” during the general election. But Republican U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler withdrew her plan to support the challenge to Georgia’s votes, and without the required support from at least one senator, Vice President Mike Pence rejected Hice’s petition.

Full Article: Raffensperger defends Georgia election results in Congress letter

Michigan officials faced violent threats well before U.S. Capitol siege | Madeline Halpert/Bridge Michigan

After pro-Trump rioters stormed Washington’s Capitol to disrupt an Electoral College vote count, several public officials and security experts in Michigan said they aren’t surprised by the mayhem. Wednesday’s siege at the Capitol followed weeks of post-election threats to public officials in Michigan and other battleground states that left many concerned for their safety and wondering whether qualified people will want to serve in public official roles in the future. “I’ve been getting battered and flooded with emails and phone calls and texts for months,” said Jonathan Kinloch, the Democratic vice chair of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers, one of several local and state bodies targeted by President Trump and his supporters after Michigan certified the November election for Democrat Joe Biden. “Nobody wants to take on a role as a member of a board of canvassers or any other community-serving positions and have the fear of losing their lives hanging over their head,” he said. Kinloch told Bridge Michigan he received at least 20 messages a day in November following the certification, some more aggressive than others. “Maybe you should peek out your windows and make sure the boogie man (sic) doesn’t come for you while you smoke your crack,” read one email sent to Kinloch reviewed by Bridge. Javed Ali, a senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council during the Trump administration, noted that the chaos at the U.S. Capitol Wednesday followed a tumultuous and politically-polarizing year in Michigan during which armed civilians stormed the state Capitol to protest COVID-19 restrictions in the spring and militia members were charged in October with plotting to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The divisiveness was exacerbated by the president and his supporters, who threw gasoline on the fire with false allegations of a “rigged” election, Ali said.

Full Article: Michigan officials faced violent threats well before U.S. Capitol siege | Bridge Michigan

New York: Judicial review finish line in sight for Tenney, Brindisi race | Steve Howe/Utica Observer-Dispatch

The final evidentiary hearing in the judicial review in the race for New York’s 22nd Congressional District is expected Friday, wrapping up a portion of the proceedings begun last November. Preliminary results show Republican Claudia Tenney leading Democrat Anthony Brindisi by 29 votes. The race is a rematch of 2018, when Brindisi unseated one-term incumbent Tenney by less than 4,500 votes. The ballot-by-ballot process to review objections from both campaigns started Nov. 23 in Oswego County Supreme Court. The proceedings were put on hold twice since, once to give county boards of elections time to correct errors and again for the court’s December recess. During the hearing Thursday, state Supreme Court Justice Scott DelConte moved quickly through more than 200 ballots. There are about 100 ballots from Oneida County, the final county in the district to be reviewed, left for Friday. While many of the issues with ballots were discussed in previous hearings, DelConte spent much of the day trying to suss out details on affidavit ballots cast by Oneida County residents who had applied to register to vote. The voters, who submitted online forms through the state Department of Motor Vehicles website, had applied before the Oct. 9 deadline, but were not included in voter rolls on Election Day, prompting them to cast affidavit ballots.

Full Article: Tenney-Brindisi NY22: Final evidentiary hearing set for Friday

Pennsylvania: Republicans move ahead on plans to review election process; tentative series of 14 hearings to start Jan. 21 | Ford Turner/The Morning Call

Republicans in both chambers of the General Assembly have moved to carry out in-depth reviews of how Pennsylvania conducts elections, including a tentatively scheduled series of 14 hearings by a House committee starting Jan. 21. The Republican steps came on Tuesday, before the violent breaching of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump. York County Republican state Rep. Seth Grove on Tuesday issued a set of 14 dates for the hearings, which will carry into April. On the same day, the Republican-led Senate passed a motion in a split vote to form a special bipartisan committee on election integrity and reform. Republicans on Thursday said their plans likely would not be greatly affected by the events in Washington, D.C. Grove, chair of the State Government Committee that will hold the hearings, noted that the first date is still two weeks away. And Jason Gottesman, a spokesperson for the House Republican caucus, said nothing that would take place in the hearings would reflect the lawlessness seen in Washington. The moves appear to follow through on Republican leaders’ vow in early December to look into voting security and counting; management of the election by Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar; and the impact of judicial decisions on the election.

Full Article: Republicans move ahead on plans to review Pennsylvania election process; tentative series of 14 hearings to start Jan. 21 – The Morning Call

Texas: Ted Cruz accused of abetting sedition and inspiring pro-Trump riot by resisting Biden’s victory | Todd J. Gillman/Dallas Morning News

Although it was clear that President Donald Trump inspired the insurrection at the Capitol on Wednesday, Democrats pinned some of the blame on Sen. Ted Cruz, too, accusing him of promoting sedition and lawlessness by promoting Trump’s lies about election fraud. Cruz had been careful not to directly echo any of Trump’s more fanciful and baseless claims about ballot manipulation and cheating. But he did emerge as one of the two most ardent Senate advocates for blocking Congress from affirming President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory on Wednesday, demanding a 10-day delay. “It is your self-serving attempt at sedition that has helped to inspire these terrorists and their attempted coup,” alleged Beto O’Rourke, the El Paso Democrat who came close to ousting Cruz in 2018. Just before 3 a.m. Thursday in Washington, with the House debating a challenge to the Pennsylvania electors that Cruz himself supported in the Senate – ending up on the losing side of a 92-7 vote – Cruz issued a full-throated rejection of the mob violence.

Full Article: Ted Cruz accused of abetting sedition and inspiring pro-Trump riot by resisting Biden’s victory

West Virginia Republican Delegate Derrick Evans records himself storming the U.S. Capitol: “We’re in!” | CBS News

A West Virginia state lawmaker recorded video of himself and fellow supporters of President Donald Trump storming the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, triggering calls for his resignation. In the video by Republican Delegate Derrick Evans, later deleted from his social media page, he is shown wearing a helmet and clamoring at the door to breach the building after Congress met for an expected vote to affirm Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory. “We’re in! Keep it moving, baby!” he said in a packed doorway amid Trump followers holding flags and complaining of being pepper sprayed. Once inside, Evans could be seen on video milling around the Capitol Rotunda, where historical paintings depict the republic’s founding, and yelled “no vandalizing.” Lawmakers from other states also traveled to the nation’s capital to protest the results of the Electoral College on Wednesday. It’s unclear if any other elected official forced their way into the U.S. Capitol. Pennsylvania state Senator Doug Mastriano helped organize a bus ride to protest in Washington, D.C., and said he left the Capitol area after the eruption of violence, which he called “unacceptable.” A Democratic colleague called for his resignation nonetheless.

Full Article: West Virginia lawmaker records himself storming the U.S. Capitol: “We’re in!” – CBS News