Here is how the scene is unfolding. All times Eastern.
Jan 04, 2021, 12:34 PM EST
House Dems ask FBI to open criminal probe into Trump's call with Raffensperger
Two House Democrats are asking FBI Director Christopher Wray to open a criminal probe into Trump after a phone call revealed him pleading with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" enough votes to overturn his loss in the state's presidential election.
"As Members of Congress and former prosecutors, we believe Donald Trump engaged in solicitation of, or conspiracy to commit, a number of election crimes," Reps. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y., wrote in a letter to Wray on Monday. "We ask you to open an immediate criminal investigation into the president."
"The evidence of election fraud by Mr. Trump is now in broad daylight. The prima facie elements of the above crimes have been met. Given the more than ample factual predicate, we are making a criminal referral to you to open an investigation into Mr. Trump," the lawmakers continued.
-ABC News' John Parkinson
Jan 04, 2021, 12:33 PM EST
Trump targets senators unsupportive of Electoral College challenge
Trump has targeted Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, who has been unwilling to join at least a dozen of his GOP Senate colleagues in saying they will challenge Electoral College results on Wednesday, with a tweet Monday morning warning Republicans “never forget.”
“@SenTomCotton Republicans have pluses & minuses, but one thing is sure, THEY NEVER FORGET!” the tweet read.
Trump followed up the attack by calling those lawmakers who do plan to certify the Electoral College vote on Wednesday members of the "Surrender Caucus,” tweeting that they will “go down in infamy as weak and ineffective 'guardians' of our Nation.”
It comes after Cotton said in a statement Sunday night that his colleagues’ plans to object to Biden's win oversteps the body’s ceremonial role and warned that if the GOP prevailed, it "would essentially end presidential elections and place that power in the hands of whichever party controls Congress."
"Objecting to certified electoral votes won’t give him a second term—it will only embolden those Democrats who want to erode further our system of constitutional government," Cotton said in the statement.
Cotton’s not the first Republican senator Trump has targeted for opposing GOP plans to object on Wednesday. On New Year’s Day, he tweeted that he hoped Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., would be primaried in 2022, after Thune also said he did not support the long-shot bid to challenge Electoral College results.
Lawmakers are responding Monday to an explosive phone call between President Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which Trump, citing debunked and dismissed conspiracy theories about election fraud in Georgia, repeatedly demanded that Raffensperger "find" enough votes to deliver the president a win in Georgia.
"The people of the country are angry, and there's nothing wrong with saying that, you know, that you've recalculated," Trump said Saturday on the call, first obtained and reported on by The Washington Post but also independently obtained by ABC News. "Fellas, I need 11,000 votes -- give me a break."
Trump went on to vaguely warn of criminal consequences if his claims weren’t pursued, but Raffensperger, rebuffing the president's allegations at the time, repeated to ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos on "Good Morning America" Monday that Trump's data is "just plain wrong."
Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger appears on "Good Morning America," Jan. 4, 2021.
ABC News
"He had hundreds and hundreds of people he said that were dead that voted. We found two. That's an example of just -- he has bad data," Raffensperger, a Republican, said.
Democrats have widely condemned Trump’s language on the call with Sen. Dick Durbin, D- Ill., arguing the president’s conduct "merits nothing less than a criminal investigation” and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris deeming it a “baldfaced, bold abuse of power by the president of the United States.”
With Trump slated to leave office in 16 days, the repercussions could instead be felt in Georgia -- where a pair of Senate runoffs on Tuesday will determine the balance of power in the U.S. Senate.
Voters line up for the first day of early voting outside of the High Museum polling station, Dec. 14, 2020, in Atlanta.
Jessica Mcgowan/Getty Images, FILE
Some Republicans are concerned the president’s repeated claims could suppress turnout in Georgia -- even as he prepares to travel to the state Monday to boost support at an evening "victory rally" in Dalton for sitting Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue. Biden, meanwhile, is traveling to Atlanta to stump for Democratic contenders Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. If Democrats win both Senate seats, Harris will cast tie-breaking votes in the upper chamber.
It all comes as at least 12 Senate Republicans are officially preparing to challenge Biden’s Electoral College win in Congress on Wednesday, a stunning development that comes despite the public wishes of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Meanwhile, dozens more in the party including Arkansas GOP Sen. Tom Cotton, a Trump loyalist, have deemed the effort either ineffective, dangerous or lacking evidence.
Trump exposes costs of loyalty as high-stakes week begins: Analysis
It's going to take at least the first full week of 2021 to settle some of 2020's highest-profile political business.
And what might have been a decent closing series of political acts for Trump could wind up being disastrous -- for himself and for a Republican Party that sees anew what loyalty to the president might cost them.
First up: Control of the Senate. Both Biden and Trump will be in Georgia Monday in advance of the Tuesday runoffs that could make or break the Biden agenda, and also render judgment on Trump's value and utility to Republicans.
President Donald Trump boards Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport, Dec. 31, 2020, in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Patrick Semansky/AP
To the latter point, the recording of Trump's weekend conversation with Georgia's Republican secretary of state shows the president more interested in bullying election officials than establishing facts. It casts a new light on efforts by more than 100 House Republicans and a dozen GOP senators to refuse to sign off on finalized Electoral College results on Wednesday.
Trump loses his formal power on Jan. 20, and that won't change as the result of anything that happens this week.
But how this week is remembered could go a long way toward determining how Biden can hope to govern – and how Republicans can pick up the pieces of what Trump will have left them.
