The House on Wednesday impeached President Trump for inciting a violent insurrection against the United States government, as 10 members of the president’s party joined Democrats to charge him with high crimes and misdemeanors for an unprecedented second time.
Reconvening under the threat of continued violence and the protection of thousands of National Guard troops, the House was determined to hold Mr. Trump to account just one week before he was to leave office. At issue was his role in encouraging a mob that attacked the Capitol one week ago while Congress met to affirm President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory, forcing lawmakers to flee for their lives in a deadly rampage.
The House adopted a single article of impeachment, voting 232 to 197 to charge Mr. Trump with “inciting violence against the government of the United States” and requesting his immediate removal from office and disqualification from ever holding one again.
Ten Republicans joined Democrats in voting to impeach: Representatives Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the party’s No. 3 leader in the House; Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington; John Katko of New York; Adam Kinzinger of Illinois; Fred Upton of Michigan; Dan Newhouse of Washington; Peter Meijer of Michigan; Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio; David Valadao of California; and Tom Rice of South Carolina.
The defections were a remarkable break from the head of the party by Republicans, who voted unanimously against impeaching Mr. Trump just over a year ago.
The vote set the stage for the second Senate trial of Mr. Trump in a year, though senators were not expected to convene to sit in judgment before Jan. 20, when Mr. Biden will take the oath of office.
The last proceeding, over Mr. Trump’s attempts to pressure Ukraine to smear Mr. Biden, was a partisan affair.
This time, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, was said to support the effort as a means of purging his party of Mr. Trump, setting up a political and constitutional showdown that could shape the course of American politics when the nation remains dangerously divided.
In a note to Republican colleagues on Wednesday, Mr. McConnell did not deny that he backed the impeachment push, but he said that he had “not made a final decision on how I will vote, and I intend to listen to the legal arguments when they are presented to the Senate.”
Mr. Trump showed no contrition for his actions. But in the run-up to the vote on Wednesday, he issued a statement urging his supporters to remain peaceful as federal authorities warned of a nationwide wave of violence surrounding Mr. Biden’s inauguration.
“There must be no violence, no lawbreaking and no vandalism of any kind,” the president said in a statement that was read by Republicans from the House floor. “That is not what I stand for, and it is not what America stands for. I call on all Americans to help ease tensions and calm tempers.”
The House’s vote was historic. Only two other presidents have been impeached; none has been impeached twice, by such a large bipartisan margin, or so close to leaving office.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California implored colleagues before the vote to embrace “a constitutional remedy that will ensure that the Republic will be safe from this man who is so resolutely determined to tear down the things that we hold dear and that hold us together.”
“He must go. He is a clear and present danger to the nation that we all love,” she said, adding later, “It gives me no pleasure to say this — it breaks my heart.”
Republicans, who stood unanimously behind Mr. Trump in 2019 during his first impeachment, were split over the charge this time.
Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the House Republican leader, spoke out against impeachment, warning that it would “further fan the flames of partisan division.” But he also pinned blame on Mr. Trump for the attack and batted down false suggestions from some of his colleagues that antifa had actually been responsible for the siege, not loyalists to Mr. Trump. He proposed censuring the president instead of impeaching him.
“The president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters,” Mr. McCarthy said. “He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding.”
Mr. Biden also called for holding the president and the rioters accountable and applauded the vote in the House. “It was a bipartisan vote cast by members who followed the Constitution and their conscience,” he said in a statement on Wednesday night.
Democrats and some Republicans had tried — briefly — to take another course. They urged Mr. Trump to resign voluntarily and voted late Tuesday to call on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to wrest the powers of the presidency from Mr. Trump for the remainder of his term. Mr. Trump refused, and so did Mr. Pence.
The House on Wednesday impeached President Trump for a second time, charging him with “incitement of insurrection” one week after he egged on a mob of supporters that stormed the Capitol while Congress met to formalize President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory.
Minutes after the vote, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, in a statement threw cold water on the prospect of the Senate beginning an impeachment trial before Mr. Biden is inaugurated next Wednesday. He endorsed a later start to the proceedings and effectively handed responsibility for the process to Democrats, who will soon control the chamber.
“Given the rules, procedures, and Senate precedents that govern presidential impeachment trials, there is simply no chance that a fair or serious trial could conclude before President-elect Biden is sworn in next week,” Mr. McConnell said. “In light of this reality, I believe it will best serve our nation if Congress and the executive branch spend the next seven days completely focused on facilitating a safe inauguration and an orderly transfer of power to the incoming Biden administration.”
Here’s what we know about what happens next.
How does the impeachment process work?
After the House has impeached the president — the equivalent of an indictment in a criminal case — members of the Senate consider whether to remove him, holding a trial in which senators act as the jury. The test, as set by the Constitution, is whether the president has committed “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”
How can the Senate hold a trial if Trump is gone?
There is no precedent for the Senate holding an impeachment trial after a president has left office, but it has done so for other government officials.
Democrats who control the House can choose when to send their article of impeachment to the Senate, at which point that chamber would have to immediately move to begin the trial. But even if the House immediately transmitted the charge to the other side of the Capitol, an agreement between Republican and Democratic leaders in the Senate would be needed to take it up before Jan. 19, a day before Mr. Biden is inaugurated.
Since Mr. McConnell said on Wednesday that he would not agree, the trial cannot start until after Mr. Biden is president. That could clog the Senate floor in the early days of Mr. Biden’s administration, at a time when he will be eager to have the chamber confirm senior members of his cabinet.
Would impeaching Trump disqualify him from holding office again?
Conviction in an impeachment trial would not automatically disqualify Mr. Trump from future public office.
But if the Senate were to convict him, the Constitution allows a subsequent vote to bar an official from holding “any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States.” That vote would require only a simple majority of senators.
There is no precedent, however, for disqualifying a president from future office, and the issue could end up before the Supreme Court.
As the House voted Wednesday to formally charge President Trump with inciting violence against the government of the United States, exactly one week after the Capitol was breached by an angry mob of Trump loyalists, 10 Republicans cast their votes in favor of impeachment.
It was the largest number of lawmakers to ever vote to impeach a president from their own party; just five Democrats voted to impeach President Bill Clinton, and not a single Republican voted in favor of impeaching Mr. Trump in 2019.
House Republican leaders said they would not formally lobby members of the party against voting to impeach the president this time.
Representative John Katko of New York was the first Republican to publicly announce that he would back impeachment. Not holding the president accountable for his actions would be “a direct threat to the future of our democracy,” he said.
Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the No. 3 House Republican, said on Tuesday evening that she would vote to impeach, citing the president’s role in an insurrection that caused “death and destruction in the most sacred space in our republic.”
Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, a frequent critic of Mr. Trump, joined his Republican colleagues on Tuesday evening, saying the nation was in uncharted waters. He said that Mr. Trump “encouraged an angry mob to storm the United States Capitol to stop the counting of electoral votes.”
Representative Fred Upton of Michigan said he would vote to impeach after Mr. Trump “expressed no regrets” for what had happened at the Capitol.
Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington State said, “The president’s offenses, in my reading of the Constitution, were impeachable based on the indisputable evidence we already have.” (An earlier version of this item incorrectly stated which state Ms. Herrera Beutler represents.)
Representative Dan Newhouse of Washington State announced that he was backing impeachment, attacking his party’s core argument, that the process was being rushed. “I will not use process as an excuse,” he said during the impeachment debate, to cheers and applause from Democrats. Mr. Newhouse also offered a mea culpa, chiding himself and other Republicans for “not speaking out sooner” against the president.
Representative Peter Meijer of Michigan said that Mr. Trump had “betrayed his oath of office by seeking to undermine our constitutional process, and he bears responsibility for inciting the insurrection we suffered last week.”
Representative Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio said Vice President Mike Pence and members of the House and Senate “had their lives put in grave danger as a result of the president’s actions,” adding, “When I consider the full scope of events leading up to Jan. 6, including the president’s lack of response as the United States Capitol was under attack, I am compelled to support impeachment.”
Representative David Valadao of California complained that the process had been rushed but said: “Based on the facts before me, I have to go with my gut and vote my conscience. I voted to impeach President Trump. His inciting rhetoric was un-American, abhorrent and absolutely an impeachable offense. It’s time to put country over politics.”
Representative Tom Rice of South Carolina criticized Mr. Trump’s response to the siege and concluded: “I have backed this president through thick and thin for four years. I campaigned for him and voted for him twice. But this utter failure is inexcusable.”
Four Republicans did not vote: Representatives Kay Granger of Texas, Andy Harris of Maryland, Greg Murphy of North Carolina and Daniel Webster of Florida.
Nicholas Fandos and Glenn Thrush contributed reporting.
Within hours of becoming the first president to be impeached twice, President Trump posted a five-minute video on a White House Twitter account on Wednesday evening condemning the storming of the Capitol complex by his supporters last week and urged his followers to avoid a repeat in “the coming days both here in Washington and across the country.”
Mr. Trump recorded the video under pressure from aides, who have warned him that he faces potential legal exposure for the riot, which occurred immediately after a speech in which he urged them to “fight” the results of the election, which he falsely claimed was stolen.
The president did not mention his own role in instigating the violence last week. On Tuesday, he defended the remarks he made at a rally before his supporters marched to the Capitol as “totally appropriate” and said the effort by Congress to impeach and convict him was “causing tremendous anger.”
He also did not acknowledge the loss of life or his own false claims of the election being stolen in the two months before the rally last week.
The video came a short time after Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, made clear in a statement that he was open to voting to convict the president on the article of impeachment — a sea change from a year ago, when Mr. McConnell whipped fellow senators against a conviction in the president’s first impeachment trial. Just before the House impeached him on Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Trump issued a statement to his supporters calling on Americans to “ease tensions and calm tempers.”
In the video, president did not mention the five people who died as a result of the violence at the Capitol. But he did go further in his language than he has at any point, as law enforcement is bracing for new insurgencies in Washington and around the country next week.
“As I have said, the incursion of the U.S. Capitol struck at the very heart of our Republic,” Mr. Trump said, his most forceful statement after a few attempts that offered a fig leaf to his supporters last week. “It angered and appalled millions of Americans across the political spectrum.”
“I want to be very clear,” he continued. “I unequivocally condemn the violence that we saw last week. Violence and vandalism have absolutely no place in our country and no place in our movement. Making America great again has always been about defending the rule of law” and supporting law enforcement officials.
During the riot by his supporters, a Capitol Police officer sustained extensive head injuries and later died.
As a candidate in 2016, Mr. Trump once encouraged rally attendees to physically attack protesters. But in the video on Wednesday, he said that “mob violence goes against everything I believe in and everything our movement stands for. No true supporter of mine could ever endorse political violence.”
“If you do any of these things, you are not supporting our movement, you are attacking it, and you are attacking our country,” he said. “We cannot tolerate it.”
Of the reports of new demonstrations next week, Mr. Trump said, “There must be no violence, no lawbreaking and no vandalism of any kind.”
Michael Gold contributed reporting.
Democratic lawmakers are voicing safety concerns in the week after the storming of the Capitol and criticizing the actions of some of their Republican colleagues regarding security in the days around the attack.
Sarah Groh, the chief of staff to Representative Ayanna S. Pressley, Democrat of Massachusetts, told The Boston Globe on Wednesday that when Ms. Groh tried to push the panic buttons in the Capitol, she discovered that all of the ones in Ms. Pressley’s office had been inexplicably “torn out.”
Representative Jamaal Bowman, Democrat of New York, tweeted on Wednesday that his office also did not have panic buttons during the assault. And Democratic members of Congress on Wednesday accused unnamed Republicans of giving tours of the Capitol before the violent siege.
“Those members of Congress who had groups coming through the Capitol that I saw on Jan. 5, a reconnaissance for the next day, those members of Congress that incited this violent crowd,” said Representative Mikie Sherrill, Democrat of New Jersey, “I’m going to see that they’re held accountable.”
The Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan federal watchdog agency, has signaled that it would open an investigation that would examine what roles members of Congress might have played, according to Representative Jason Crow, Democrat of Colorado, who requested the inquiry.
The inspector general of the Capitol Police is also opening a potentially wide-ranging investigation into security breaches connected to the siege that could determine the extent of involvement of some Capitol Police officers, according to a senior congressional aide with direct knowledge of the investigation.
Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, the Democratic whip, told CNN this week that although he took shelter in his unmarked office in the Capitol during the attack, the mob was able to find where he was.
“That to me indicates that something untoward may have been going on,” he said.
In a livestream on Tuesday night, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said she feared that some of her colleagues would put her in danger by revealing her location.
“I didn’t even feel safe around other members of Congress,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said in an hourlong livestream posted on Instagram. “There were QAnon and white supremacist sympathizers and, frankly, white supremacist members of Congress in that extraction point who I know, and who I had felt would disclose my location, who would create opportunities to allow me to be hurt, kidnapped, etc.”
Ms. Pressley echoed Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, writing on Twitter that she did not feel safe sheltering with certain lawmakers.
“The second I realized our ‘safe room’ from the violent white supremacist mob included treasonous, white supremacist, anti masker Members of Congress who incited the mob in the first place, I exited,” Ms. Pressley said.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and Ms. Pressley are both members of “The Squad,” a group of four progressive congresswomen of color. They have been verbally attacked by conservatives and the president for their policies.
Representative Lauren Boebert, Republican of Colorado, drew criticism from Democrats for tweeting about Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s location during the attack, despite reports that lawmakers were instructed by security officials not to reveal their whereabouts. Ms. Boebert later dismissed the seriousness of her actions.
“They accuse me of live-tweeting the speaker’s presence after she had been safely removed from the Capitol, as if I was revealing some big secret, when in fact this removal was also being broadcast on TV,” Ms. Boebert said in a statement on Monday.
In the week leading up to the Capitol siege, Ms. Boebert, a fiery gun-rights activist, released an ad declaring that she would carry her Glock with her on the streets of Washington, including on her way to work. On her way to the House chamber for the impeachment vote on Wednesday, Ms. Boebert caused a spectacle by pushing her way through metal detectors, which were installed as part of heightened security measures after the attack, and ignoring police officers who asked her to stop.
Ms. Boebert and other freshman Republicans, such as Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, have questioned or outright flouted guidelines meant to protect lawmakers from violence, intruders or the coronavirus.
“I did not know if I was going to make it to the end of that day alive,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said during her livestream. “Not just in a general sense, but also in a very, very specific sense.”
Luke Broadwater contributed reporting.
Gathered in the Capitol just one week after it came under violent attack by a pro-Trump mob, the House engaged in an emotional debate on Wednesday over whether to impeach President Trump for his role in inciting the violence.
Nearly every Democrat spoke out in support of impeachment and a handful of Republicans pledged to join them.
But in the run-up to the vote, the two parties traded bitter jabs and dueling arguments for and against using the Constitution’s gravest remedy just days before Mr. Trump was to leave office. Democrats uniformly described the president’s conduct in scathing terms, arguing that impeachment was an appropriate remedy. A few Republicans defended him, but most others simply argued that a rush to impeach Mr. Trump without a hearing or an investigation raised constitutional questions.
Democrats
Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California: “The president must be impeached and I believe the president must be convicted by the Senate, a constitutional remedy that will ensure that the republic will be safe from this man who is so resolutely determined to tear down the things that we hold dear and that hold us together. It gives me no pleasure to say this. It breaks my heart.”
Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the lead impeachment manager: “It’s a bit much to be hearing that these people would not be trying to destroy our government and kill us if we just weren’t so mean to them.”
Representative Adam B. Schiff of California: “America has been through a civil war, world wars, a Great Depression, pandemics, McCarthyism, and now a Trumpist and white nationalist insurrection. And yet our democracy endures.
“It endures because at every juncture, every pivotal moment, when evil threatens to overtake good, patriotic Americans step forward to say, enough. This is one of those moments.”
Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York: “Donald Trump is a living, breathing impeachable offense. It is what it is.”
Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the majority leader: “Upon the foundations of virtue, reason and patient wisdom laid down by George Washington as our first president, Donald Trump has constructed a glass palace of lies, fear-mongering, and sedition. Last Wednesday on January 6, the nation and the world watched it shatter to pieces. There could be no mistaking any longer the kind of man sitting in the Oval Office, or his intentions and capabilities. The curtain has been pulled back. The office to which he was elected could not temper or reform him.”
“That is not true of this president. And therefore, he ought to be removed. And we have that opportunity to do so. Is there little time left? Yes. But it is never too late to do the right thing."
Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota: “For years we have been asked to turn a blind eye to the criminality, corruption and blatant disregard to the rule of law by the tyrant president we have in the White House. We as a nation can no longer look away.”
Representative Cedric Richmond of Louisiana, a Democrat leaving to join the Biden White House: “Simply put, we told you so.”
Representative Joaquin Castro of Texas: “Let me ask you a question. What do you think they would have done if they had gotten in? What do you think they would have done to you? And who do you think sent them here?”
Representative Cori Bush of Missouri: “The 117th Congress must understand that we have a mandate to legislate in defense of Black lives. The first step in that process is to root out white supremacy, starting with impeaching the white supremacist-in-chief.”
Republicans
Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio: “It’s always been about getting the president, no matter what. It’s an obsession, an obsession that has now broadened. It’s not just about impeachment anymore, it’s about canceling, as I’ve said. Canceling the president and anyone that disagrees with them.”
Representative Tom McClintock of California: “If we impeached every politician who gave a fiery speech to a crowd of partisans, this Capitol would be deserted. That’s what the president did, that is all he did.
“He specifically told the crowd to protest peacefully and patriotically. And the vast majority of them did. But every movement has a lunatic fringe."
Representative Dan Newhouse of Washington State: “The president took an oath to defend the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. Last week there was a domestic threat at the door of the Capitol and he did nothing to stop it. That is why with a heavy heart and clear resolve I will vote yes on these articles of impeachment.”
Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida: “I denounce political violence from all ends of the spectrum, but make no mistake, the left in America has incited far more political violence than the right. For months, our cities burned, police stations burned, our businesses were shattered, and they said nothing. Or they cheer-led for it and fund-raised for it and they allowed it to happen in the greatest country in the world.
“Now some have cited the metaphor that the president lit the flame. Well, they lit actual flames. Actual fires.”
Representative Guy Reschenthaler of Pennsylvania: Mr. Reschenthaler condemned the violence that had taken place, but was one of the few Republicans opposing the impeachment charge on its merits, disputing that Mr. Trump had incited violence.
“At his rally, President Trump urged attendees to, ‘peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.’ There was no mention of violence, let alone calls to action.”
Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina: “The U.S. House of Representatives has every right to impeach the president of the United States. But what we’re doing today, rushing this impeachment in an hour- or two-hour-long debate on the floor of this chamber, bypassing Judiciary, poses great questions about the constitutionality of this process.”
Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington State, who supports impeachment: “I’m not afraid of losing my job, but I am afraid my country will fail.”
Representative Chip Roy of Texas: Mr. Roy said Mr. Trump’s conduct was impeachable, but warned Democrats that their charge would “send us down the perilous path of cleansing political speech in the public square.”
Throngs of armed, camouflage fatigue-clad members of the National Guard ringed the Capitol and lined its halls on Wednesday as the House met to debate impeaching President Trump for inciting an insurrection, one week to the day after a mob egged on by Mr. Trump stormed the building.
The heavily militarized presence made for a jarring and sobering atmosphere in a building often known as the “People’s House.” It provided a surreal backdrop for a historic debate that unfolded in a House chamber newly outfitted by magnetometers near where the violent rioters tried to force their way in last week as terrified lawmakers, staff members and journalists took shelter on the other side.
There appeared to be troops at every corner: sleeping on the marble floors, curled up at the foot of statues and busts, lining up for coffee and food in the 24-hour snack bar, standing in Statuary Hall, visibly in awe of the marble likenesses of the nation’s founders and leaders. A group of Black troops posed for a photo with the statue of Rosa Parks; dozens more troops were splayed out in Emancipation Hall in the Capitol Visitors Center, in the shadow of a model of the Statue of Freedom, which sits atop the dome.
“The field trip is leaving without us,” one Guardsman could be heard joking as a group of soldiers moved through the building.
Some lawmakers lamented the threat that made their presence necessary, with many Democrats irate about the role they said their own Republican colleagues had played in whipping up the rage of the mob that assaulted the Capitol, putting the lives of members of Congress in danger.
“It should not and will not be tolerated,” Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York, told reporters. “And that’s why extraordinary security measures have been taken.”
Lawmakers had to walk through the new magnetometers in response to concerns about Republicans bringing guns to the House floor. Several Republicans grumbled about the added layer of security. Typically, lawmakers are allowed to bypass the magnetometers at the entrances to the buildings.
Outside the Capitol, red, white and blue bunting had been hung to adorn the building for President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s inauguration, which was to take place a week from Wednesday.
Near the House floor as lawmakers debated the impeachment charge, an aide to Speaker Nancy Pelosi wheeled out a lectern bearing her seal — the same lectern one of the rioters was spotted carrying across the Rotunda during the siege. Hours later, Ms. Pelosi spoke from behind it before signing the article, formalizing Mr. Trump’s impeachment for sparking the mayhem.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday named nine Democrats as managers of the impeachment trial of President Trump on charges of inciting a violent mob of his supporters to storm the Capitol, where rioters ransacked the seat of American government and killed a Capitol Police officer.
The nine managers, all lawyers, have expertise in constitutional law, civil rights and law enforcement. They will be the new faces of the impeachment drive after Americans last year grew accustomed to seeing Representatives Adam Schiff, Democrat of California and the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, and Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, as the leaders of Mr. Trump’s first impeachment trial.
The managers come from across the country and represent different ideological wings of the party. Of the nine, seven are people of color, L.G.B.T.Q. or women.
“It is their constitutional and patriotic duty to present the case for the president’s impeachment and removal,” Ms. Pelosi said of the managers. “They will do so guided by their great love of country, determination to protect our democracy and loyalty to our oath to the Constitution.”
Ms. Pelosi named Representative Jamie Raskin, a constitutional lawyer from Maryland who drafted the impeachment article, as the lead manager of Mr. Trump’s trial. Mr. Raskin, who lost his 25-year-old son to suicide on New Year’s Eve and then survived the mob attack, is a professor of constitutional law at American University’s Washington College of Law.
“I’m honored to be on a team with extremely distinguished lawyers and representatives,” Mr. Raskin said. “We have a tremendous responsibility on our shoulders right now.”
The other impeachment managers are: Representatives Diana DeGette of Colorado, a lawyer with a civil rights background; David Cicilline of Rhode Island, a former public defender; Joaquin Castro of Texas, a lawyer; Eric Swalwell of California, a former prosecutor; Ted Lieu of California, a former Air Force officer and prosecutor; Stacey Plaskett of the Virgin Islands, a former prosecutor; Joe Neguse of Colorado, a lawyer; and Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania, also a lawyer.
Democratic members of Congress on Wednesday accused unnamed Republicans of giving tours of the Capitol to insurrectionists ahead of last week’s deadly siege of the Capitol, as federal agencies opened two new investigations into the extent to which Capitol Police and some lawmakers were complicit in the mob attack.
The inspector general of the Capitol Police is opening a potentially wide-ranging investigation into security breaches connected to the siege that could determine the extent to which some Capitol Police officers were involved, according to a senior congressional aide with direct knowledge of the investigation. The inspector general will suspend all other projects until the investigation is complete, the aide said.
Three officers have been suspended, and 17 others are under investigation by the force’s Office of Professional Responsibility.
The Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan federal watchdog agency, has also signaled it will open an investigation that will include the roles that members of Congress may have played in inciting the mob seeking to overturn the results of the election, according to the congressman who requested the inquiry, Representative Jason Crow, Democrat of Colorado.
Mr. Crow, a former Army Captain, asked the comptroller general of the United States, who is part of the agency, last week to initiate a broad investigation into many aspects of the security breach, including the roles members of Congress played.
Mr. Crow, whose request letter was signed by 107 of his colleagues, said Wednesday that he has been informed the investigation is underway.
“To the extent there were members of the House that were complicit, and I believe there were, we will pursue appropriate remedies including expulsion and a prohibition from holding elective office for the rest of their lives,” Mr. Crow said in an interview. “They will of course be subject to criminal investigation and prosecution if that’s what the facts of the investigation show.”
The tours on the eve of the riot came to light after Representative Mikie Sherrill, Democrat of New Jersey and a former Navy pilot, said Tuesday night on Facebook without offering evidence that she knew of members of Congress who gave “reconnaissance” tours to rioters ahead of the attack.
“Those members of Congress who had groups coming through the Capitol that I saw on Jan. 5, a reconnaissance for the next day, those members of Congress that incited this violent crowd,” Ms. Sherrill said, “those members who attempted to help our president undermine our democracy, I’m going to see that they’re held accountable.”
On Wednesday, about 30 lawmakers joined Ms. Sherrill in requesting an investigation from the acting House and Senate sergeants-at-arms and the Capitol Police into what Ms. Sherrill called “suspicious behavior” and access given to visitors to the Capitol complex the day before the riot.
“Many of the members who signed this letter, including those of us who have served in the military and are trained to recognize suspicious activity, as well as various members of our staff, witnessed an extremely high number of outside groups in the complex on Tuesday, January 5,” the lawmakers wrote. They called the visits suspicious, noting that tours have been restricted because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Representative Tim Ryan, Democrat of Ohio, said lawmakers were aware of the tours but are now looking at them in a new light given the attack. He said they included “handfuls” of people and that the authorities were aware of them. “Now you look back on certain things and you look at them differently so, yeah, we’re looking into it,” he said.
Pressure is mounting on the Republican members of Congress who associated themselves with far-right extremist groups in the days leading up to the mob attack. Several of Mr. Trump’s most ardent supporters, including Representatives Mo Brooks of Alabama and Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs, both of Arizona, have been accused of helping plan the Jan. 6 rally that led to the violent attack on the Capitol.
In the latest example of its virtual programming in lieu of mass gatherings and ballroom celebrations, President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s inaugural committee announced Wednesday that a 90-minute prime-time television special will air on Jan. 20, hosted by Tom Hanks and featuring musical acts and appearances by Mr. Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
“Celebrating America” will air starting at 8:30 p.m. on ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and MSNBC, and it will be streamed on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Twitch, among other online platforms, according to a statement from the Presidential Inaugural Committee.
The event’s entertainers will include Ant Clemons, Jon Bon Jovi, Demi Lovato and Justin Timberlake.
Presidential inaugurations traditionally draw huge crowds to Washington for parades, performances and evening balls and parties. But coronavirus precautions have made that impossible this year, along with heightened security following last week’s riot at the Capitol.
Reminiscent of programming during the summer Democratic National Convention, whose traditional in-person events were also largely moved online, “the program will highlight the strength of our democracy, the perseverance of our people, and our ability to come together during trying times and emerge stronger than ever before,” the Presidential Inaugural Committee said, adding that it would celebrate “frontline workers, health care workers, teachers, citizens giving back, and those who are breaking barriers.”
The committee has previously announced other virtual and crowd-free activities, including a “virtual parade” following Mr. Biden’s swearing-in at the Capitol and a “Field of Flags” public art display to symbolize the crowds typically gathered for the event in Washington, whose mayor has urged Americans not to travel to the city.
With just one week until he is inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States, President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Wednesday continued to fill out his senior staff, naming Samantha Power, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the Obama administration, to lead the United States Agency for International Development.
Mr. Biden also added the position to the National Security Council and elevated two White House posts that all but disappeared in the Trump administration: a homeland security adviser to manage matters as varied as extremism, pandemics and natural disasters, and the first deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology.
During her tenure at the U.N., Ms. Power was involved in the international response to the Ebola outbreak. Before that, she worked on former President Barack Obama’s National Security Council, advising the White House on human rights issues. In her new role, she will oversee the country’s global efforts to help defeat the pandemic.
During the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Ms. Power warned that other countries would look to the United States for how to respond to the crisis.
“If President Trump doesn’t overcome his go-it-alone mind-set and take immediate steps to mobilize a global coalition to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, its spread will cause a catastrophic loss of life and make it impossible to restore normalcy in the United States in the foreseeable future,” Ms. Power wrote in an April 7 opinion piece for The Times.
Here are other announcements coming from the Biden team with seven days to go until the his administration begins:
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The White House homeland security adviser will be Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, according to transition officials. She is a longtime aide to Mr. Biden who served under Mr. Obama as senior director for Europe and then deputy secretary of energy, where she oversaw the modernization of the nuclear arsenal.
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Mr. Biden has carved out a role for Anne Neuberger, a rising official at the National Security Agency, to bolster cyber offense and defense. Ms. Neuberger ran the Russia Small Group, which mounted a pre-emptive strike on the Kremlin’s cyber-actors during the 2018 midterm elections, part of an effort to counter Moscow after its interference in the 2016 presidential election.
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Jeffrey Wexler will head the Covid-19 operations, after working on virus preparedness during the campaign and transition.
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John McCarthy, the deputy national political director on the campaign, will be senior adviser to the counselor to the president, Steve Ricchetti.
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Zayn Siddique, the chief of staff for the domestic and economic transition team, and Thomas Winslow, the chief of staff to the campaign manager, will be senior advisers to the deputy chief of staff. (An earlier version of this item misspelled Zayn.)
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Lisa Kohnke, who runs the scheduling for the transition team, will become the director of presidential scheduling.
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Sarah Feldmann will be the chief of staff for the Office of Management and Administration. And Christian Peele will be the deputy director of management and administration for personnel.
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Michael Leach, a former senior manager of labor relations for the N.F.L. Management Council and assistant to the head coach for the Chicago Bears, will be the chief diversity and inclusion director. (An earlier version of this item inaccurately said that Mr. Leach also coached Texas Tech football, but that coach was a different man with the same name.)
National Guard troops who are flooding into Washington to secure the Capitol for Inauguration Day will be armed, the Army secretary, Ryan McCarthy, has decided, Defense Department officials said Tuesday.
The armed troops will be responsible for security around the Capitol building complex, the officials said.
As up to 20,000 troops continued to arrive in Washington from all over the country, Defense Department officials had been weighing whether to deploy them with arms. Mr. McCarthy has decided that at the very least those around the Capitol building will carry weapons, said the officials, who confirmed the decision on the condition of anonymity.
Mr. McCarthy’s decision came after a meeting with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California. Ms. Pelosi, according to congressional staff members, demanded that the Pentagon take a more muscular posture after a mob, egged on by President Trump last week, breached the Capitol.
Pentagon officials say they are deeply worried about protests that are planned for the inauguration of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. next week. About 16 groups — some of them saying they will be armed and most of them made up of hard-line supporters of Mr. Trump — have registered to stage protests in Washington, officials said.
Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington sent a letter to Mr. Trump on Sunday asking for an emergency declaration to obtain additional funding for inauguration security.
“In light of the attack on the Capitol and intelligence suggesting further violence is likely during the inaugural period, my administration has re-evaluated our preparedness posture for the inauguration, including requesting the extension of D.C. National Guard support through Jan. 24, 2021,” Ms. Bowser wrote.
Defense Department officials said that the White House had signed off on the decision to arm some of the National Guard troops coming to Washington to provide security. Pentagon officials have underscored that the National Guard — not active-duty military troops — will be assigned to those duties.
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