On Wednesday, following the attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters, Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Matthews announced her resignation.

"As someone who worked in the halls of Congress I was deeply disturbed by what I saw today," said Matthews in a statement. "I'll be stepping down from my role, effective immediately. Our nation needs a peaceful transfer of power."

The announcement comes after Stephanie Grisham, former White House Press Secretary and chief of staff to First Lady Melania Trump, also announced her resignation. It is unclear whether any further resignations among White House staff will follow.

Some Cabinet members holding preliminary talks about invoking 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office

From CNN's Jim Acosta

Some Cabinet members are holding preliminary discussions about invoking the 25th Amendment to force President Trump’s removal from office, a GOP source said.

The discussions are ongoing but it’s unclear if there will be enough Cabinet members to result in Trump’s removal.

The conversations have reached the Hill where some senators have been made aware of the discussions, the source said.

Trump told people he banned Pence's chief of staff from the West Wing

From CNN's Kaitlan Collins

President Trump told people he banned Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff Marc Short from the West Wing today, according to multiple people.

Short was seen going into the Eisenhower Executive Office Building Wednesday, which is on the White House campus but is a separate building from the White House and where Pence has his Vice Presidential Office, but Short has otherwise spent the day on the Hill.

Growing number of Republicans say they believe Trump should be removed from office

From CNN's Michael Warren and Jamie Gangel

After violent pro-Trump protesters stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday, a growing number of Republican leaders told CNN that they believe Donald Trump should be removed from office before Jan. 20. Four of them called for the 25th Amendment to be invoked, and two others said the President should be impeached.

"He has to be impeached and removed," said one current Republican elected official.

A former senior official said the President's actions were egregious enough to remove him even with such a short time left in his tenure.

"I think this has been huge a shock to the system," said the former official. "How do you keep him in place for two weeks after this?"

By impeaching and removing Trump, even at this late stage of his term, the Senate could subsequently vote to disqualify Trump from ever holding federal office again. On the other hand, invoking the 25th Amendment would require Vice President Mike Pence and a majority of the Cabinet to vote to remove Trump from office due to his inability to "discharge the powers and duties of his office" — an unprecedented step.

Another senior East Wing staffer resigns following today's riots

From CNN's Kate Bennett

White House social secretary Anna Cristina “Rickie” Niceta has resigned her role, effective immediately, a White House official tells CNN.

Niceta (pronounced “Neh-chet-ah”) served as the Trump administration’s sole social secretary, assuming the post in February 2017.

Niceta becomes the second senior East Wing staffer to resign her job in the wake of today’s violent protests at the Capitol.

Stephanie Grisham, the former White House communications director and press secretary and current chief of staff for first lady Melania Trump, submitted her resignation Wednesday afternoon.

Some background on Niceta's role: The social secretary conducts and oversees all events at the White House, from small meetings in the West Wing, to the annual Easter Egg Roll, Halloween, state visits and Congressional picnics and galas.

Prior to becoming social secretary, Niceta was an executive with Washington, D.C., catering company Design Cuisine. Melania Trump hired Niceta after being impressed with the food at the inaugural luncheon in the US Capitol building.

Giuliani and Trump are calling senators and urging them to press ahead with objections, source says

From CNN's Jake Tapper and Kaitlan Collins

President Trump is urging senators to push ahead with the protest on the certification of Joe Biden as President, according to a source familiar with the discussions, and the source says it sounds like Sen. Josh Hawley will continue his push for an objection.

As CNN reported earlier, Hawley would not answer when asked what his plans are following the protests today, and whether he would still object to Pennsylvania.

Sen. Roger Marshall also would not answer a question about whether he still planned to object to Georgia and Pennsylvania.

Congress reconvened their joint session tonight after pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol. Lawmakers are currently debating an objection to Arizona's electoral votes.

CNN's Manu Raju contributed reporting to this post

“President Trump revealed that he is not mentally sound and is still unable to process and accept the results of the 2020 election,” reads a letter to be sent to the VP.
Sam Brodey Congressional Reporter
Erin Banco National Security Reporter
Updated Jan. 06, 2021 8:54PM ET / Published Jan. 06, 2021 8:39PM ET

Horrified and outraged House Democrats are organizing a push to remove President Donald Trump from office after he egged on a violent storming of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday by extremist supporters.

Reps. David Cicilline (D-RI) and Ted Lieu (D-CA), members of the House Judiciary Committee, are circulating a letter among committee colleagues to send to Vice President Mike Pence, urging him to invoke the 25th Amendment, under which Pence and a majority of Cabinet officers could remove Trump from office on the basis that he is unable to do his job.

“For the sake of our democracy, we emphatically urge you to invoke the 25th Amendment and begin the process of removing President Trump from power,” states the letter, which was obtained by The Daily Beast. “Even in his video announcement this afternoon, President Trump revealed that he is not mentally sound and is still unable to process and accept the results of the 2020 election. President Trump’s willingness to incite violence and social unrest to overturn the election results by force clearly meet this standard.”

The push comes as a number of lawmakers and outside groups announced their support for Trump’s removal from office after Wednesday’s events. Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA), the number four House Democrat, tweeted her support of Trump’s removal, as did a number of other lawmakers. Joining them was the historically right-leaning National Association of Manufacturers, an influential lobbying group, which took the remarkable step on Wednesday of calling for Trump’s removal under the 25th Amendment.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/house-dems-urge-pence-to-remove-trump-for-shocking-behavior?ref=home

At the request of the US National Guard, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is deploying 1,000 members of the New York National Guard to Washington, DC, “to aid and facilitate peaceful transfer of power,” Cuomo said in a statement Wednesday.

“For 244 years, the cornerstone of our democracy has been the peaceful transfer of power, and New York stands ready to help ensure the will of the American people is carried out, safely and decisively,” Cuomo said in the statement.

The troops will be deployed for up to two weeks. The decision was made at the request from the US National Guard. Cuomo said the deployment “will not impact our state's ongoing efforts to contain and combat the Covid virus.”

"The president needs to be held accountable — through impeachment proceedings or criminal prosecution — and the same goes for his supporters who carried out the violence. In time, there should be an investigation of the failure of the Capitol Police to prepare for an attack that was announced and planned in public."

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/06/opinion/trump-capitol-dc-protests.html

While the President Trump egged on a mob of his supporters who had stormed the United States Capitol on Wednesday, several of his top aides began to scramble. Their mission, according to three sources familiar with the matter: to try to convince senior White House staffers and cabinet secretaries to stay in the administration, if only just for the night.

The effort has not been completely successful. Stephanie Grisham, the chief of staff to the First Lady and the former White House communications director, quit hours after the insurrection, as CNN first reported.

Several other senior officials said they were considering quitting on the spot after news broke that an individual involved in Wednesday’s events at the Capitol had died as a result of a gunshot wound.

According to two sources familiar with the matter, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has been busy making calls to the White House in an effort to try and maintain cohesiveness, at least for the next few hours. As Trump aides rushed to keep the departures to a minimum and perform some semblance of damage control, the president vented his fury that politicians and people on cable news were already starting to hold him responsible for the day’s mayhem, according to two people familiar with the situation. Predictably, Trump held the position that it wasn’t his fault, and that a strong public denunciation was not necessary at the time, the sources relayed.

Trump did, however, make time to continue privately griping throughout Wednesday afternoon about how unfair his own vice president was being to him.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-is-furiousbut-not-at-the-maga-mob-that-stormed-capitol?ref=home