Fallout intensifies over Trump's response to Capitol riot

House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, as rioters were overrunning the Capitol Building, engaged in a “heated exchange” with President Trump as He pushed them to denounce the attack, according to a source briefed on the back and forth.

McCarthy, Trump’s closest ally and confidante on Capitol Hill, was impressing on Trump the real-time severity of the situation and implored him to forcefully denounce the attackers. Trump demurred, leading to a heated back and forth.

Leadership had been evacuated to an undisclosed location, as other lawmakers were still in the process of being evacuated — all as the Capitol corridors had been breached and filled with attackers.

Punchbowl News first reported the McCarthy-Trump exchange.

McCarthy’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. McCarthy, when Congress reconvened after the attack, later voted to object to the counting of electors from the states of Arizona and Pennsylvania - an effort Trump touted as a way to overturn the election results.

Despite weeks of planning between federal and local police agencies ahead of Wednesday's Trump rally—including tracking social media—officials said that going into Wednesday they had no intelligence indicating there was a threat the US Capitol could be overrun.

It would turn out to be a catastrophic failure after an angry mob overwhelmed police and stormed into the Capitol building, ransacking lawmakers' offices, injuring dozens of officers and stealing electronics and documents that could possibly include sensitive national security information. Five people died during the riots, including a woman shot by US Capitol Police and a Capitol Police officer.

During conference calls that included federal agencies and the city's police ahead of the rally, federal law enforcement officials say the US Capitol Police assured counterparts they had the situation under control—they knew how to deal with large demonstrations at the Capitol, in large part because the complex was already being prepared for Inauguration Day, one of the most secure events in the city, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Federal and local officials said Thursday they did not have intelligence suggesting any violent mob was preparing to attack the Capitol, even as demonstrators were publicly saying on social media they were not planning a typical protest.

Despite weeks of preparations, "obviously, what happened no one anticipated," Michael Sherwin, acting US Attorney for the District of Columbia, told reporters in a telephone press conference Thursday. "Things could have been done better."

Of course, there were reports of violence when Trump's backers had come to town last month, and the FBI was monitoring everything from social media to the hotels where some of the rioters were staying. One sign of the preparations came in the days before the rally, when, acting on the FBI's intelligence information, Washington's Metropolitan Police arrested Enrique Tarrio, leader of the Proud Boys, after he left the airport en route to his hotel.

Read the full story here.

After violent pro-Trump rioters stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday, a growing number of Republican leaders and Cabinet officials told CNN that they believe Donald Trump should be removed from office before Jan. 20.

Some of them called for the 25th Amendment to be invoked — as has at least one GOP lawmaker, Rep. Adam Kinzinger.

The amendment has periodically been discussed as a means of last resort to remove a rogue or incapacitated president.

Here's what you need to know about the amendment: