1/ In a farewell video, Trump claimed that he “took on the tough battles” during his four years in office and vowed that “the movement we started is only just beginning.” Trump did not concede, take responsibility for encouraging his supporters to attack the Capitol, or mention Biden by name in his farewell address.“We did what we came here to do,” Trump said, “and so much more.” Pence, meanwhile, confirmed he will not attend Trump’s farewell event tomorrow, but will instead attend the inauguration of Biden and Kamala Harris. Trump leaves office as the only twice-impeached U.S. president. (Politico / New York Times / Washington Post / Axios / Associated Press)

2/ Mitch McConnell said the mob that stormed the Capitol was “fed lies” and “provoked by the president” into violence, referring to Trump’s attempts to overturn the election based on his baseless claims of voter fraud. McConnell’s remarks came on his last full day as majority leader, shortly before he met with Chuck Schumer to work out rules for Trump’s Senate impeachment trial for “willful incitement of insurrection.” Former Attorney General William Barr, meanwhile, said that questioning the legitimacy of the Nov. 3 election “precipitated the riot,” but he didn’t blame Trump for inciting the mob. (New York Times / Politico / NPR / Bloomberg / CNBC / The Guardian / New York Times / Washington Post)

3/ Federal prosecutors filed conspiracy charges against three members of the Oath Keepers, an extremist militant group, for their role in the attack on the Capitol. The three were allegedly part of a group who had planned to breached the Capitol on opposite sides to hunt for lawmakers in an “organized and practiced fashion” so they could make “citizen’s arrests.” In charging papers, the FBI said during the riot, one of the members received a Facebook message that said: “All members are in the tunnels under capital seal them in. Turn on gas.” (Wall Street Journal / Bloomberg / Washington Post / CNN)

  • The National Guard removed 12 people from inauguration duty after background checks found links to right-wing extremist movements or other security concerns.The service members include at least two with possible sympathies for anti-government groups, while another 10 were removed for reasons that defense officials declined to detail. (Bloomberg / New York Times / CNN / Washington Post / The Guardian)

  • QAnon extremists discussed posing as National Guard members in Washington in an effort to disrupt the inauguration. Others have reviewed maps of vulnerable spots in Washington and discussing how to interfere in security during the inauguration. (Washington Post)

4/ More than 400,000 people have died of the coronavirus in the United States – reaching the milestone on the eve of the anniversary of the first confirmed case and the final full day of Trump’s presidency. (New York Times / NBC News / Washington Post / CNN)

  • 😷 Dept. of “We Have It Totally Under Control.”

  • Global: Total confirmed cases: ~96,059,000; deaths: ~2,054,000

  • U.S.: Total confirmed cases: ~24,217,000; deaths: ~402,000

  • Source: Johns Hopkins University

5/ Biden rejected Trump’s effort to lift travel restrictions on much of Europe, the United Kingdom, and Brazil aimed at stopping the spread of the coronavirus to the U.S. In an executive order issued Monday evening, but effective on Jan. 26, Trump said that the travel restrictions would no longer be needed because the CDC will require all passengers from abroad to present proof of a negative coronavirus test before boarding a flight. Biden’s incoming White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, tweeted “On the advice of our medical team, the Administration does not intend to lift these restrictions on 1/26. In fact, we plan to strengthen public health measures around international travel in order to further mitigate the spread of Covid-19.” (Wall Street Journal / CNN / The Guardian / New York Times)

poll/ 73% of voters believe that the country is on the wrong track, compared with 21 percent who say it’s headed in the right direction. 73% also believe the country will remain divided over the next four years, compared to 24% who think it will be able to unite. (NBC News)

poll/ 51% of Americans say the coronavirus pandemic in the United States is not at all under control. 3% say it is completely under control, while 44% say it is mostly or somewhat under control. (Washington Post)

poll/ 55% of Americans say police response to the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol would have been harsher if the rioters had been mostly Black rather than mostly white. 28% say the response would have been the same, while 9% say the response would have been less harsh to a largely Black mob. (USA Today)

poll/ About 20% of Republicans said they approve of convicting Trump in his Senate impeachment trial. Overall, about 55% said they approve of the Senate convicting Trump and about 37% said they disapprove. (Politico)

poll/ Trump’s approval rating dropped to 34% – down 12 percentage points since the Nov. 3 election. Obama left office with a 59% approval rating. (Bloomberg)

poll/ 60% of voters think Trump will be remembered as either below average or one of the worst presidents in U.S. history. 75% said the country is headed in the wrong direction – the highest percentage since 1992. (NPR)

✏️ Notables.

  1. The Trump administration issued oil and gas leases for more than 430,000 acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (New York Times)

  2. A federal appeals court vacated a Trump administration rule that eased restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the Trump administration’s rule was based on a “mistaken reading of the Clean Air Act.” (ABC News / Wall Street Journal)

  3. Biden will propose an overhaul of immigration laws on his first day in office, including providing a pathway to citizenship for immigrants without legal status and an expansion of refugee admissions. (Washington Post)

  4. The State Department declared that China’s internment, forced labor, and forced sterilization of over 1 million Muslim minorities in Xinjiang constitutes “genocide” and “crimes against humanity.” The determination could lead to further sanctions against China under the Biden administration. Biden previously said the policies by Beijing amounted to “genocide.” (New York Times / Axios)

  5. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted that multiculturalism “is not who America is,” claiming “all the -isms” only “points in one direction — authoritarianism.” (New York Times)

  6. Trump’s “1776 Commission” report was supposed to be the definitive “patriotic” view of U.S. history, but aside from being mocked by historians, about 26% of the content was lifted from other sources without citations. The 18-member commission was formed after the protests that followed the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer. Trump insisted that the protests were the result of “left-wing indoctrination in our schools” and required a new “pro-American” curriculum. (Politico / Washington Post / New York Times)