President Donald Trump’s assault on American democracy began in the spring of 2020, when he issued a flurry of preemptive attacks on the integrity of voting systems.
The doubts he cultivated ultimately led to a rampage in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. wapo.st/3pTXK0M
As threats mounted after Election Day, Georgia state official Gabriel Sterling had had enough.
“Mr. President, it looks like you likely lost the state of Georgia,” he said on Dec. 1. “Stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence. Someone is going to get hurt.”
Donell Harvin, a D.C. intelligence official, saw signs of violence ahead of Jan. 6, but felt federal law enforcement agencies did not share his sense of urgency.
Forty-eight hours before the attack, he began pressing every alarm button that he could. wapo.st/3pTXK0M
Rep. Liz Cheney was alarmed by Trump supporters' calls to disrupt the Jan. 6 joint session. She hired her own security that day.
“You can't let that sort of threat stop you from doing what’s right," said her father, former vice president Richard Cheney. wapo.st/3pTXK0M
After Clint Hickman and the rest of the Maricopa County board certified Biden’s win, he faced threats and a large protest outside his home.
On Jan. 6, two sheriff's deputies came to his house. You shouldn’t be home tonight, one said.
On Jan. 6, Paul Hodgkins stood on the Senate floor holding his Trump flag. But the next day, he felt uneasy.
He later became the first person to be sentenced for a felony for his role in the siege. wapo.st/3pTXK0M
For weeks after Jan. 6, Capitol Police Capt. Carneysha Mendoza’s face burned painfully. Chemical sprays had seeped into her pores.
Mendoza and another officer tried to console each other via text, sharing their nightmares and fears, often late at night. wapo.st/3pTXK0M
The forces behind Jan. 6 remain potent and growing, sustaining Trump's election-fraud lie and spreading a deep distrust in the voting process.
American democracy had held on Jan. 6. But the events that followed showed that day would not be the last test. wapo.st/3pTXK0M
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The federal government is on track to shut down at the end of Friday, as congressional Democrats push for changes to ICE policies as part of a sweeping funding package. wapo.st/4rlfPS0
After a series of shootings by federal agents, Democrats say they will not vote to fund DHS without new accountability measures.
But the funding is lumped into one piece of legislation with money for several other departments. wapo.st/4q6slnl
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the party agreed on three main goals:
° Require warrants in some cases and ICE coordination with state and local law enforcement
The United States plans to administer Venezuela for an extended period of time as it rebuilds the country’s oil industry, President Donald Trump said Saturday, holding open the door to an extended occupation of a nearby nation.
The mission to take Maduro out of power was named “Operation Absolute Resolve,” Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine said.
The operation began at 10:46 p.m. and involved more than 150 aircraft, launching from 20 different bases. wapo.st/3NsHBx5
The U.S. recently deployed two Army Delta Force units, which established a “pattern of life” on Maduro ahead of the operation by tracking his location and daily movements, according to a person familiar with the deployment. wapo.st/3NsHBx5
Goods from nations with which the U.S. does hundreds of billions of dollars of trade, such as India, Switzerland and South Africa, will see new taxes of up to 39 percent, with India’s rate set to jump to 50 percent in three weeks.
Tariffs are like a sales tax applied at the border to an importer.
They're an opportunity to raise public revenue and can theoretically incentivize domestic production and protect certain industries from being undercut by foreign competitors.
President Trump announced full bans on 12 countries and partial bans on seven others on Wednesday. They are set to go in effect on June 9.
Here’s what you need to know:
The countries with a full ban are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
While Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela are affected by a partial ban.
How were the countries with travel bans selected? Trump said it’s in the interest of national security, writing that the U.S. must ensure those admitted to the country “do not bear hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles.”
As the coronavirus tore through the world in 2020, and the United States confronted a shortage of tests designed to detect the illness, then-President Donald Trump secretly sent coveted tests to Russian President Vladimir Putin for his personal use. washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/…
Putin accepted the supplies but took pains to prevent political fallout.
He cautioned Trump not to reveal that he had dispatched the scarce medical equipment to Moscow, according to “War,” a new book by Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward. washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/…
Four years later, the personal relationship between the two men appears to have persisted, Woodward reports, as Trump campaigns to return to the White House and Putin orchestrates his bloody assault on Ukraine.
Mark Robinson, the firebrand Republican nominee for governor in North Carolina, has for years made comments downplaying and making light of sexual assault and domestic violence. wapo.st/3KQffZ6
A review of Robinson’s social media posts over the past decade shows that he frequently questioned the credibility of women who aired allegations of sexual assault against prominent men, including Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby and now-U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. wapo.st/3KQffZ6
In one post, Robinson, North Carolina’s lieutenant governor, characterized Weinstein and others as “sacrificial lambs” being “slaughtered.” wapo.st/3KQffZ6