Trump Isn’t Just Fired After Attempted Insurrection — He’s Cancelled; Fears Mount Over Multiple Potential D.C. Superspreader Events; and More

Trump isn’t just fired after attempted insurrection — he’s canceled.

The legal and ego-shattering ramifications of inciting a riot and attempting to stage a coup on the Capitol Building continue to pile up for lame duck President Donald Trump. Consider that in less than a week following his criminal actions, all of the following have occurred:

House Democrats have introduced an article of impeachment against the President, alleging “incitement of insurrection.” More than 200 House Democrats have already signaled their support for the measure, which states that Trump “gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of government. He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power and imperiled a coequal branch of government. He thereby betrayed his trust as president, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.” The measure will now go up for a House vote on Tuesday, Jan. 12. Trump has already been impeached by the House once before just over a year ago after the President tried to force Ukrainian leaders to fabricate lies that would help his re-election efforts for the 2020 Presidential race.

The President’s favorite social media app, and his preferred mode of spreading lies and propaganda to his followers, has banned him for life. Twitter announced the monumental decision on Jan. 8, two days after the Capitol attacks, citing repeated breaking of rules over content and the possible inciting of more violence as some of the major factors contributing to their decision. Facebook and Instagram had similarly banned the President hours earlier until at least after President-elect Biden’s inauguration, if not indefinitely.

Snapchat and Twitch suspended the President’s accounts and YouTube tightened regulations on the spread of election misinformation.

Shopify took down stores selling Trump-related paraphernalia and campaign merchandise.

Reddit eliminated the subgroup “r/DonaldTrump,” taking away one of the largest platforms where his supporters gathered to talk and spread his message.

Google and Apple have pulled the conservative-leaning, far-right and extremist-friendly social media app Parler from their stores over concerns of its inability to properly police hateful and potentially violence-inducing language.

TikTok has stepped up its removal of violent pro-Trump content violations while Discord has shut down its server that was hosting the social media network TheDonald.Win. 

Wagner College in Staten Island, NY and Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA have rescinded honorary degrees they awarded to Trump in 2004 and 1988, respectively.

According to The New York Times, “more than 300 historians and constitutional scholars have signed an open letter calling for the impeachment and removal of President Trump,” citing him as “a clear and present danger to American democracy and the national security of the United States.” The editorial board of The Wall Street Journal has also called on Trump to resign this week.

Hitting Trump directly in his pocketbook, the PGA has also announced that the 2022 Championships, which had been scheduled for Trump National in Bedminster, NJ since 2014, will now be moving to an alternative location. Seth Waugh, CEO of PGA of America, told the Associated Press that the damage of allowing the event to take place on a Trump-owned property could have been irreparable.

Unfortunately for those within the Trump circle, efforts to make the President pay for his crimes don’t stop with Trump himself. The New York State Bar Association is considering removing Rudy Giuliani from its membership rolls. Although he wouldn’t be disbarred, the action is incredibly rare — the group said the occurrence took place more than a century ago in 1904.

Marriott (No. 1 on the Fair360, formerly DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list in 2020) has announced it would pause campaign donations from its PAC “to those who voted against certification of the election.” Dow (No. 22 in 2020) has announced a similar effort, suspending PAC contributions to members of Congress who voted against the certification of the presidential election for at least one election cycle — two years for representatives and up to six years for senators. Blue Cross Blue Shield, Morgan Stanley, American Express and other companies have announced similar changes. Meanwhile, Facebook and Microsoft have decided to halt all political donations while they review their giving policies.

As for Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, who infamously raised his fist in support of the approaching Trump mob, Simon & Schuster has canceled plans to publish an upcoming book he’d been working on, citing his role in last week’s tragic events.

 

Fears mount over multiple superspreader events that may have taken place last week in D.C.

As if the day’s news weren’t disturbing enough, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic also continues unabated. CNN has reported that U.S. coronavirus hospitalizations have now topped 100,000 for 40 days in a row. And the situation around the country could still get even worse. Public health officials now fear that the thousands of rioters who gathered in the nation’s capital last week may have triggered a COVID-19 superspreader event, exposing themselves and untold swaths of the population to the virus. As ABC News has reported, photos from the day show an alarming lack of social distancing and protective masks amongst the masses who were present to celebrate President Trump’s false claims of a stolen election. 

Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Georgetown Center for Global Health Science and Security told ABC News that she was “very concerned,” explaining that “Rioters were in very close proximity for long periods of time, shouting and exposed to chemical irritants, leading to coughing. Many of them were unmasked. These are all conditions that are very conducive to [COVID-19] transmission.”

Meanwhile, Vox reported that physicians and Capitol Hill insiders are equally concerned over a similar superspreader event within the bunkers where Senate and House members took shelter after the Capitol’s assault from pro-Trump insurrectionists.

In an email sent to all members of the House, Senate and their staffs, Congress’s attending physician Brian Monahan warned everyone who was on-site at the Capitol on Jan. 6 while electoral college votes were being tabulated may have been exposed to the coronavirus.

The alarming possibility of a COVID-19 outbreak among the nation’s leaders has only grown following an announcement on Jan. 7 that Kansas Rep. Jake LaTurner had tested positive for the virus. 

In an interview with The Sacramento Bee of the McClatchy newspaper group, Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warned that the U.S. capital riot was likely a coronavirus “surge event” which “is going to have public health consequences.”

 

Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Oklahoma Rep. Markwayne Mullin, Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs, Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry, Texas Rep. Michael Cloud and California Rep. Doug LaMalfa refuse COVID-19-protective masks during Capitol riot.

In an alarming video posted on Twitter by Punchbowl News, six house Republicans were captured on camera refusing to take or wear a protective surgical mask. The video documents the time following the Trump-supported attempt at insurrection on the Capitol. Representatives from both parties are shown bunkered down in a safe room, waiting for police to regain control of the building. 

In an attempt to keep people barricaded in the enclosed room as safe as possible from COVID-19, Delaware Democrat Lisa Blunt Rochester approaches a group of House Republicans (Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene, Oklahoma’s Markwayne Mullin, Arizona’s Andy Biggs, Pennsylvania’s Scott Perry, Texas’s Michael Cloud and California’s Doug LaMalfa) and offers them protective masks. All six members refuse, with Mullin recorded saying, “I’m not trying to get political here.”

When asked for comment by CNN, only Rep. Greene’s office responded, offering the typical excuses and denials offered by people who refuse to support public health efforts to slow the spread of the disease.

 

Related: For more recent diversity and inclusion news, click here.

 

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