A Cascade of Crises

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/08/briefing/elaine-chao-trump-capitol-neil-sheehan.html

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In the four months between Franklin Roosevelt’s election and his 1933 inauguration, much of the world descended into chaos.

Adolf Hitler took power in Germany, and the Reichstag — the Parliament building — burned. Japan quit the League of Nations. In the U.S., hundreds of banks shut down. Lynchings surged in the South. “The country, numb and nearly broken, anxiously awaited deliverance,” as David Kennedy wrote in his Pulitzer Prize-winning history of the era.

Today, the length of time between a presidential election and inauguration is about six weeks shorter than it was in 1933, and neither the U.S. nor the world is in as dire a situation as it was then. But the current situation is still pretty dire.

The worst pandemic in a century is becoming more severe, with a contagious new coronavirus variant spreading and thousands of Americans dying every day. The mass vaccination program is behind schedule. Almost 10 million fewer Americans have jobs than did a year ago. The U.S. president, with the backing of dozens of members of Congress, has tried to overturn an election result and remain in power. Hundreds of his supporters overwhelmed police officers and stormed the Capitol, one of the few times in history that a U.S. government building has been violently attacked.

All the while, the country lacks a president who has both the power and willingness to reduce the death, illness and mayhem.

Instead, President-elect Joe Biden is left to rue that President Trump is denying the new government access to important national security information — and to plead with Trump to renounce the violence. Trump, for his part, appears disengaged from the worsening coronavirus crisis.

Most other longtime democracies have much shorter lags between an election and the transfer of power. In Britain, a new government usually takes office the next day. In Canada, France, India and Japan, it happens within a few weeks.

The authors of the U.S. Constitution created the delay to give a new government time to travel to the nation’s capital during winter, an issue that obviously no longer applies. And the country has already shortened the time period once, through the 20th Amendment. It was ratified in early 1933, during the chaotic months when Roosevelt was waiting to take office, but not soon enough to shorten his transition.

Many legal scholars say there is little justification for today’s two-and-a-half-month wait. Sanford Levinson of the University of Texas has called it the Constitution’s “most mischievous” feature.

“There is something profoundly troubling,” Levinson wrote in an academic journal in 1995, “in allowing repudiated presidents to continue to exercise the prerogatives of what is usually called ‘the most powerful political office in the world.’”

Top congressional Democrats are demanding Trump’s removal from power.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer said that Democrats were prepared to impeach Trump a second time. But with less than two weeks until the end of the president’s term, it’s unclear whether Democrats could move quickly enough to do so.

Several Trump administration officials have resigned over the violence at the Capitol, including Betsy DeVos, the education secretary, and Elaine Chao, the transportation secretary. Here’s the list.

The Justice Department did not rule out pursuing charges against Trump for his possible role in inciting the mob. “We are looking at all actors, not only the people who went into the building,” Michael Sherwin, the U.S. attorney in Washington, said.

Trump has suggested to aides that he wants to pardon himself in the final days of his presidency. No president has pardoned himself before, and legal scholars are divided about whether the courts would recognize it.

In a video on Twitter, Trump did not give up his false claims of election fraud, but finally conceded defeat.

Facebook is blocking Trump’s account at least until the end of his term. “We believe the risks of allowing the president to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great,” Mark Zuckerberg said.

The chief of the Capitol Police and the sergeants-at-arms for the House and Senate announced their resignations. Officials told The Times that the Capitol Police turned down support from the National Guard before Wednesday and rebuffed help from the F.B.I. as the mob descended.

Brian Sicknick, a Capitol Police officer, has died from his injuries.

A portrait is taking shape of Ashli Babbitt, who died in the rampage.

There were infamous white nationalists and noted conspiracy theorists, while others were more anonymous. These are the rioters who rampaged the halls of Congress.

The U.S. recorded more than 4,000 deaths from the virus yesterday. Dr. Anthony Fauci said the high toll was likely to continue and probably reflected increased travel and gatherings over the holidays. “We believe things will get worse as we get into January,” he said.

A vaccine by the Chinese company Sinovac Biotech has an efficacy rate of 78 percent, researchers said.