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A retired Navy SEAL defended his involvement in the Capitol riots in a video uploaded to Facebook on Jan. 6, but later regretted that the riots had happened due to its consequences, ABC News reported.
Adam Newbold, a Lisbon, Ohio native, described the riots from his perspective in the video posted after the riots at the U.S. Capitol building. “There was destruction breaching the Capitol. Our building, our house. To get in, you had to destroy doors and windows,” Newbold said.
Newbold defended the riots in his video saying that destruction only happened while entering the building, according to ABC News. According to ABC News, Newbold’s claims that destruction only happened while entering is false. The video has since been taken down from Facebook but ABC News gained access to it recently.
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Democratic D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has asked President Donald Trump and various federal agencies for help preparing for the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden following a riot at the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6.
Bowser asked Trump to declare a pre-emergency disaster for Washington, a measure that was taken before former President Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009, during a press conference Monday. She also sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security requesting to “extend the National Special Security Event period” to run from Jan. 11 through Jan. 24
“While we understand that there is an immediate threat to our democracy we also know that there is imminent hope and we will get through this period,” Bowser said. We also know that Trumpism won’t die on January 20, but our American values and our DC values are stronger than one extreme ideology. We will overcome this extremism together.”
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U.S. Census Bureau statisticians are under pressure from Trump appointees to rush a headcount on illegal immigrants in the U.S. by Jan. 15, according to a memorandum from the Office of the Inspector General.
The Jan. 12 memo refers to multiple whistleblowers at the Census Bureau who expressed concern with the directive, claiming it to be unrealistic since insufficient time has been given to conduct data quality checks. The data itself is questionable and needs further investigation before being published as a significant portion is compiled by outside sources, OIG said in the memo.
Inspector General Peggy Gustafson addressed the memo to U.S. Census Bureau Director Scott Dillingham alleging the “driving forces” behind the report are two Trump political appointees in top posts at the Bureau, Nathaniel Cogley and Benjamin Overholt.
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Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan has suspended his campaign to lead his caucus after his own members denied him the necessary votes.
His decision to suspend his campaign came only after he received only 51 of the 60 necessary votes to retain his post, Capitol Fax first reported. Madigan, a Democrat, has been the speaker since 1997 and served in the role from 1983-1995, making him the longest-serving state house speaker in U.S. history.
“This is not a withdrawal,” Madigan said Monday morning. “I have suspended my campaign for speaker. As I have said many times in the past, I have always put the best interest of the House Democratic Caucus and our members first.”
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President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence spoke in person on Monday, their first meeting since the Capitol riots.
“The President and the Vice President met this evening in the Oval Office. The two had a good conversation, discussing the week ahead and reflecting on the last four years of the administration’s work and accomplishments,” a senior administration official told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“They reiterated that those who broke the law and stormed the Capitol last week do not represent the America First movement backed by 75 million Americans, and pledged to continue the work on behalf of the country for the remainder of their term,” the official told the DCNF.