Monday morning news - January 11, 2021

House drive to impeach Trump again gains momentum » Support for a drive to impeach President Trump for a second time is gaining steam in the House.  

In the wake of Wednesday’s deadly riot at the Capitol, Democratic Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney of New York told reporters…

MALONEY: The leaders of our country have to meet and go forward with the 25th Amendment to remove him from office. If they do not act, then this Congress will go back next week and we will move forward with the second impeachment.

Some media outlets have reported that members of President Trump’s Cabinet have discussed the possibility of invoking the 25th Amendment. 

But Trump’s former chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told Fox News he thinks they’re unlikely to act on those discussions.  

MULVANEY: I think the 25th Amendment is a very clumsy tool. We’ve never used it under these circumstances. We’ve typically used it when a president goes for a medical procedure. We don’t really know how to do it and it’s slow. 

But impeachment is also a slow process and GOP Congressman Jim Jordan says that’s one of the reasons why he hopes the House does not pursue impeachment again.

JORDAN: Impeachment is for a sitting president, and the president, if the Democrats were to pursue this, could not have a trial until after he has left office. So I think it’s got real constitutional problems, but most importantly, it’s not healthy for the nation. 

If the House impeaches Trump for a second time and if the Senate convicts him this time after he leaves office, it would bar Trump from ever running for president again. 

Reports: Pence to attend Biden inauguration in Trump’s place » President Trump says he will not attend President-Elect Joe Biden’s inauguration one week from Wednesday. 

Biden said he agrees it’s best for Trump not to show. But he added…

BIDEN: The vice president is welcome to come. We’d be honored to have him there and to move forward in the transition. 

And several media outlets reported Sunday that Pence will attend Biden’s inauguration. They cited sources close to the vice president. 

Former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton will also attend. 

It is a longstanding tradition for an outgoing president to attend the inauguration of his successor in a symbolic handoff of power. 

Tech giants boot social media app popular with Trump backers » Most mainstream social media platforms have banned President Trump, either temporarily or indefinitely. 

And now several major tech companies are putting the squeeze on a social media app popular with some Trump supporters.

Google and Apple have removed the Parler app from their app stores. And Amazon is kicking Parler off of its web hosting service. 

The tech giants said Parler wasn’t doing enough to block user posts that seek “to incite ongoing violence.” 

But GOP Senator Marco Rubio said he finds the move troubling. 

RUBIO: The left has decided that this is an opportunity to destroy the right. So if you ever voted for Donald Trump, if you ever supported anything that he did, you are just as guilty as the people who went into that Capitol. 

Parler CEO John Matze said his company is being scapegoated. He said “Standards not applied to Twitter, Facebook, or even Apple themselves, apply to Parler.” 

The app has an estimated 8 million users in the United States. Matze said the app could be down for a week—in his words—“as we rebuild from scratch.”

States race to distribute vaccines » The federal government is preparing an early launch of a program teaming up with major pharmacy chains to administer coronavirus vaccines. But some states are already working with private companies. 

Florida is partnering with chains including Publix grocery stores. Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nunez told Fox News…

NUNEZ: We started it as a pilot program in three counties in the central area of Florida. So right now we’ve got 22 Publix pharmacies that are providing vaccinations for COVID. You have to make an appointment. We hope to expand that partnership. 

More than 400,000 Floridians have received a vaccine shot. The state has only used roughly 30 percent of its vaccine supplies so far, but that’s about average right now. 

Less populated states have been able to move faster. West Virginia and North Dakota have used close to 70 percent of their supplies. 

Georgia has the slowest rollout in the nation. It has used just 17 percent. 

Calif. sees record death toll from COVID-19 » California has also struggled to administer vaccines. It is racing to speed up distribution after recording a record number of deaths. On Saturday, 695 Californians perished from COVID-19. 

Donna Rottschafer is a COVID unit nurse in Orange County. 

ROTTSCHAFER: I’ve been here 21 years, and I’ve seen more people pass away in the past week, in the past couple weeks, really, than almost combined in all of my career as a nurse. It’s been really hard, physically and emotionally. 

Hospitalizations are also at record levels. 

According to the state’s Department of Public Health, nearly 30,000 people have died in California from the illness.

(AP Photo/Evan Vucci) President Donald Trump speaks during a rally protesting the electoral college certification of Joe Biden as President, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. 

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