Axios

President-elect Biden declared during the siege of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday that "the world is watching." Indeed, the world was watching long before that.

Why it matters: Biden has made restoring America's global image, leadership and alliances the cornerstone of his foreign policy agenda. That was a tall order even before audiences around the world watched a mob forcefully disrupt America's democratic process.

Capitol Police chief Steven Sund will resign next week, a spokesperson confirmed to Axios.

Driving the news: Sund's resignation, effective Jan. 16, comes amid pressure from lawmakers, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and the union representing the Capitol Police over the department's response to Wednesday's violent Capitol breach by a mob supporting President Trump.

Eight in 10 Republicans oppose removing President Trump from office for inciting his supporters to storm Congress in an effort to overturn his election loss, according to a new Ipsos poll for Axios.

Why it matters: The stark finding underscores the degree to which the Republican Party has become the party of Trump.

Statehouses have beefed up security, closed to the public and asked state employees to work from home, multiple state officials tell Axios.

Why it matters: Unrest broke out in several state capitals on Wednesday, but even places with peaceful protests have been forced to take extra precaution in the waning days of Trump's presidency.

Some top remaining administration officials are preparing to resist any unlawful or dangerous orders in the closing days of Trump's presidency, senior administration officials with direct knowledge of the sensitive conversations tell Axios.

Why it matters: After Trump incited protesters to storm the Capitol on Wednesday, there's a near universal view among top officials that he is unfit and unhinged, these sources said.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama urged social media companies on Thursday to permanently ban President Trump from using their platforms.

Why it matters: Her call comes after Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat took action against the president's accounts after he repeated false claims of election fraud and defended his supporters who invaded the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.

There's a certain symmetry to a pair of energy sector developments Wednesday: Solar stocks jumped on a day that also brought hard evidence the oil industry has little interest in trying to drill in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The big picture: Solar and oil aren't really direct competitors, but both will be affected by the incoming Biden administration's policies and the speed of the global transition toward lower-carbon sources.

Nearly every major tech company has taken some action against President Trump's accounts as of midday Thursday following the chaotic riots at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.

The big picture: With just two weeks left in office, Donald Trump has lost access to most of his social media megaphone.

President-elect Joe Biden has officially finalized his picks for Cabinet secretaries, naming 10 men and 5 women to lead federal agencies in an administration he has pledged will "look like America."

Driving the news: Biden filled out his Cabinet on Thursday by nominating Judge Merrick Garland to be attorney general, Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo to lead the Commerce Department, and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh to lead the Labor Department.

Much of what happened Wednesday on Capitol Hill was not only predictable, but explicitly planned on internet message boards where the MAGA movement gets most darkly conspiratorial.

Axios Re:Cap digs into what led to the insurrection and what comes next with NBC News' Ben Collins, who covers online disinformation, and Lawyers' Committee attorney Arusha Gordon, who is leading a lawsuit against the Proud Boys.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Thursday called for Vice President Mike Pence and members of President Trump's Cabinet to remove him from office via the 25th Amendment.

Driving the news: Pelosi accused Trump of committing "seditious acts" and said keeping him in office for the next 13 days would be "very dangerous." She emphasized that the "overwhelming sentiment" of her caucus is to impeach Trump if Pence or the Cabinet do not act.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday called for firing Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Mike Stenger when Democrats take the majority in the upper chamber — if Stenger has not already resigned.

Why it matters: Lawmakers are beginning to question how Capitol law enforcement and security so utterly failed on Wednesday to keep "March for Trump" protesters from invading the U.S. Capitol as Congress was certifying the Electoral College votes for Presisdent-elect Joe Biden.

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) tweeted a video on Wednesday showing the pro-Trump mob that invaded the U.S. Capitol left "a trail of destruction" in his office.

The state of play: Merkley said the rioters stole a laptop, and the video showed the office littered with debris, cabinets removed from their casing, objects and chairs strewn across the floor, and cigarette butts left in various places. The door to the office was taken off its hinges.

President-elect Joe Biden will nominate Isabel Guzman to serve as head of the Small Business Administration (SBA), Axios has confirmed.

Why it matters: The pick is a win for Latino lawmakers and activists who've lobbied for more representation in Biden's administration. Guzman was a top official in the Obama SBA and has since been named director of California’s Office of the Small Business Advocate.

Twitch, the Amazon-owned live video streaming platform, disabled President Trump's account, a spokesperson confirmed to Axios on Thursday.

Why it matters: It's the latest in a string of platform efforts to take action on Trump's accounts following his calls for violence that resulted in the historic riot at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.

President-elect Joe Biden joined Black Lives Matter activists and others in decrying what they said was a double standard in law enforcement's response to the mostly white mob that violently stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, compared to peaceful protesters calling for racial justice.

What he's saying: "If it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesting yesterday ... they would have been treated very, very differently than the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol. We all know that's true, and it is unacceptable."

President-elect Joe Biden announced Judge Merrick Garland as his pick for attorney general on Thursday, seeking to place in the nation's top law enforcement job a respected federal appeals judge whose Supreme Court nomination Republicans blocked five years ago.

Why it matters: News of the selection, first reported by Politico, came just hours after the country learned that Democrats would likely win both Senate runoff elections in Georgia and take control of the Senate, making it harder for Republicans to block nominations.

President-elect Joe Biden has selected Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo to lead the Commerce Department, according to people familiar with the matter.

Why it matters: Raimondo, a Rhodes scholar who co-founded a venture capital firm in Rhode Island earlier in her career, has prioritized good relationships with the business community, the target audience of commerce.

Joe Biden plans to name Boston Mayor Marty Walsh as his labor secretary and task him with leading a manufacturing renaissance across the country, according to people familiar with the matter.

Why it matters: The president-elect and his advisers are aware that the Democratic Party, once the home of blue-collar workers, has lost the political loyalty of many union households and are determined to win many of them back.

Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao is resigning in the wake of the invasion of the Capitol building by "March for Trump" protesters, which was egged on by President Trump.

Why it matters: Chao is the first Cabinet secretary to resign and is married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Several lawmakers have vowed to investigate law enforcement's response to Wednesday's violent U.S. Capitol breach by a mob supporting President Trump.

Why it matters: The rally in D.C. was announced weeks ago and widely promoted, including by President Trump via social media in posts lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and his predecessors said inflamed the situation.

Part of a new post by energy analyst Nikos Tsafos raises an important point: Joe Biden's approach to U.S. financing of natural gas projects abroad and LNG exports is something of a mystery, even as he plans new domestic regulations.

The big picture: Tsafos notes there's been significant support in recent years from a pair of U.S. agencies — the Export-Import Bank and the International Development Finance Corp.

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf called on the president to condemn the pro-Trump mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol Thursday, describing the events in a statement as "tragic and sickening."

The latest: About 90 minutes after the statement, the White House withdrew Wolf's nomination to the Senate to be confirmed as DHS secretary in a permanent capacity. The move has little practical implication, as there has not been a Senate-confirmed head of the agency since Kirstjen Nielsen resigned in April 2019.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) on Thursday called on members of the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment, which would remove President Trump from office for not being able to perform his duties and replace him with Vice President Pence until the end of the term.

Why it matters: Kinzinger — a frequent critic of the president — is the first Republican member of Congress to call for the move, which has long been dismissed as a liberal fantasy as it would require the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet.

President Trump is banned from posting on his Facebook and Instagram accounts for at least the next two weeks until the transition of power to President-elect Joe Biden is complete, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a post Thursday.

Why it matters: It's an extraordinary step for Facebook to take, given that the company has been one of the slowest to take action against the President's account and has historically prioritized free speech, especially for world leaders.

Former Attorney General Bill Barr said in a statement to the AP on Thursday that President Trump's incitement of a march by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol was a "betrayal of his office."

Why it matters: As one of the most loyal members of Trump's Cabinet, Barr backed the president through some of the most high-stakes controversies of his tenure, including the use of force against protesters steps away from the White House and his impeachment proceedings for abuse of power.

Many of America's top businesspeople have had enough of political pandering to the mob, and plan to deny future contributions to those who egged it on.

Why it matters: Senators like Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz may have been auditioning for 2024 presidential runs, but have alienated some of those who could have helped fund those campaigns.

President Trump enjoys the fervent support of tens of millions of Americans. But his closest friends and paid White House officials — many of the Trumpiest Trumpers we know — are avoiding him like the plague.

Behind the scenes: The president's final days in office will be lonely ones. Some stalwart aides and confidants — after years of enduring the crazy and trying to modulate the chaos — have given up trying to communicate with him, considering him mentally unreachable.

President Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani condemned violence by pro-Trump mobs as "shameful" on Thursday morning, more than 18 hours after calling for "trial by combat" at a "Save America" Trump rally that preceded the Capitol insurrection.

Why it matters: Giuliani's tweets Thursday, which described the violence as "rejected, condemned and counter productive," stood in sharp contrast to the comments he and President Trump made at Wednesday's rally, where they encouraged supporters to continue fighting the election results and march to the Capitol.

You can't understand America, 2021, without watching how right-wing media explained a mob storming the U.S. Capitol for the first time since the early 19th century.

The big picture: The right's favored media — conservative TV, websites and social networks — offered an alternate reality in which everyone but pro-Trump rioters were to blame for the mayhem at the Capitol.

It is an ironic, poetic ending to the raucous reign of Donald J. Trump: Enabled — and enabling — Republicans put the final knives in their beloved, besieged, beaten president:

• It was often conservative judges appointed by Trump who rejected his desperate lawsuits to overturn the election results state by state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack on Congress, which came as it was certifying the Electoral College vote for Joe Biden, and stressed that American democracy will prevail.

Why it matters: Netanyahu, who has been President Trump’s most loyal ally among world leaders, delivered the statement at the top of his meeting in Jerusalem with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. The prime minister neither criticized Trump nor referred to him directly.

President Trump early Thursday morning vowed an "orderly transition" when President-elect Joe Biden takes office on Jan. 20, according to a statement released by White House social media director Dan Scavino.

Why it matters: Trump's pledge, the first time he publicly acknowledged he would leave office on Jan. 20, came shortly after Congress certified Biden's victory. It also followed a shocking and chaotic day on Capitol Hill during which a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building, forcing the evacuation of lawmakers, staff and journalists.

Newly elected Rep. Jake LaTurner (R-Kansas) has tested positive for COVID-19 and is following CDC guidelines but is not experiencing any symptoms, per a statement from his office on Thursday morning.

Why it matters: LaTurner voted on the Arizona objection in the Electoral College certification process on Wednesday night, records show. He took the test as part of Washington, D.C'.s requirements and "does not plan to return to the House floor for votes until he is cleared to do so," per the statement.

A joint session of Congress ended a day of siege by officially certifying on Thursday President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College win in the November election, the final step ahead of his Jan. 20 inauguration.

The bottom line: The final votes in Congress confirm that Biden will be the 46th president of the United States—despite some Republican lawmakers' challenges and the rampage through the Capitol by supporters of President Trump.

Congress in the wee hours of Thursday morning voted down an objection made in joint session to certifying Pennsylvania's Electoral College votes.

Why it matters: Prior to Wednesday’s mob violence in the U.S. Capitol, over a dozen senators said they would object to certifying some states' results. But multiple senators have since withdrawn their support for those objections.

The U.S. Capitol was secured hours after a mob supporting President Trump violently breached the building, causing a lockdown and evacuation of lawmakers, staff and reporters.

Where it stands: The Senate and House have reconvened to finish certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s win.

A Snapchat spokesperson confirmed late Wednesday evening that the company locked President Trump's Snapchat account, making it the fourth major platform to take action on Trump's social media accounts.

Details: The company made the decision because it believes the account promotes and spreads hate and incites violence, the spokesperson said.

American Airlines is investigating an unruly and frightening episode on a flight to Washington, D.C., the night before a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol to protest the certification of President-elect Joe Biden's election.

Why it matters: Pilots and flight attendants are trained to keep passengers safe in the air and, since 9/11, to be on the lookout for potential terrorists. But in these extraordinary times, their duties have expanded to include mask enforcement and now, apparently, quelling civil unrest.

The House and Senate on Wednesday voted down Sen. Ted Cruz's objection to Arizona in the Electoral College certification process.

Driving the news: More than a dozen senators said before Wednesday’s mob violence in the U.S. Capitol that they’d object, but only six ended up voting yes. The House vote was 303-121.

Former Presidents Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton denounced the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.

What they're saying: Carter said in a statement he was "troubled by the violence," calling it a "national tragedy" that "is not who we are as a nation."

House Judiciary Committee Democrats called on Vice President Mike Pence in a letter Wednesday to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove President Trump from office, saying he incited the riot that violently breached the U.S. Capitol earlier that day.

Why it matters: The letter comes as Republican officials are considering drastic steps to stop the president, including censure, impeachment or invoking the 25th Amendment, which would allow Pence to step in if  Trump were found to be unable to perform his duties, Axios' Jonathan Swan and Margaret Talev report.

We were prepared to cover a different kind of fight in Congress today, a debate that would delay but fail to block Joe Biden's Electoral College win.

• Instead, we were there when mobs stormed the House and Senate chambers on behalf of President Trump, waving Trump 2020 flags and the Stars and Bars of the Confederacy.

The big picture: Later that night, we were back in each chamber as lawmakers vow to finish counting the Electoral College votes tonight. We're shaken but OK. We're also seeing democracy and politics in a different light.

As pro-Trump rioters broke windows and flooded the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, many Republicans called for an end to the violence and urged President Trump to condemn the mob's actions.

Why it matters: Some Republicans came right out and blamed the president. Others withdrew their plan to object to the certification of President-elect Biden's election win, including the outgoing Sen. Kelly Loeffler (Ga.), a close Trump ally, who said she "cannot now in good conscience object" after the riot.

With 13 days left in President Trump's term, confidants and Republican officials are considering drastic steps to stop him.

The big picture: These measures include censure, impeachment or invoking the 25th Amendment — a move, long dismissed as a liberal fantasy, in which Vice President Pence would step in if  Trump were found to be unable to perform his duties.

Multiple Republicans lawmakers dropped their objections to the certification of the Electoral College count on Wednesday night after a pro-Trump mob violently breached the U.S. Capitol Building earlier in the day.

Why it matters: GOP members of Congress who initially said they would object to the count reversed course before Congress reconvened and condemned the president's supporters who stormed the building.

Vice President Mike Pence addressed the reconvened Senate Wednesday evening after hours of pro-Trump protests at the U.S. Capitol building — prompting evacuations and halting the congressional count of Electoral College votes.

What he's saying: "Today was a dark day in the history of the United States Capitol ... We condemn the violence that took place here in the strongest possible terms ... To those who wreaked havoc in our Capitol today, you did not win. Violence never wins. Freedom wins and this is still the people's house," Pence said.

Former President Barack Obama said Wednesday the violence at the U.S. Capitol was a "moment of great dishonor and shame for our nation," but he added: "we'd be kidding ourselves if we treated it as a total surprise."

Details: Obama didn't hold back in who was to blame in his statement on the insurrection, noting history would "rightly remember" that it was "incited by a sitting president who has continued to baselessly lie about the outcome of a lawful election."