In a 2017 op-ed published by the New York Times, the retired diplomat accused Russia of "aggressive" and "deeply troubling" election meddling. Burns predicted that Washington's relationship with Moscow will remain competitive and "often adversarial" for the foreseeable future, claiming that Russian President Vladimir Putin is seeking greater influence in the world "at the expense of an American-led order." He alleged that Russia is dreaming of a dominant position in global affairs unconstrained by "Western values and institutions."

He called on the US to focus on the conflict in Ukraine, predicting that the country's fate will determine the "future of Europe, and Russia, over the next generation."

Tellingly, he also dismissed the "superficially appealing notions" like cooperation against Islamic terrorism. He claimed that Russia's efforts to help the Syrian government defeat Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) has made the terrorist threat "far worse."

His animosity towards Russia was again revealed in an interview with the Atlantic magazine in 2019. He told the outlet that Putin had been able to "sow chaos" in the United States by "acting like [a] good judo expert, which he is." According to Burns, the Russian leader took advantage of a "stronger opponent" by leveraging the "polarization and dysfunction" in the US political system.

A senior FBI official told the network that before last week, the "FBI obtained credible and actionable information" about more than a dozen people "who were planning on traveling to the protests who expressed a desire to engage in violence."

The official said the bureau was "able to discourage those individuals" from going to Washington, which they said could have prevented more violent riots Wednesday.

"The FBI and our federal, state and local partners collected and shared available intelligence in preparation for the various planned events," the official told NBC News. "The FBI was prepared to adapt as needed to fluid events on the ground, including having rapid response teams in reserve."

The FBI official said the protests were "peaceful and nonconfrontational" during most of the day but that "when it became clear that some individuals were surging onto the Capitol grounds and entering the buildings, the U.S. Capitol Police requested assistance."

"Within 50 minutes of that request, three FBI tactical teams were on scene to gain control of the area and offer protection to congressional members and staff," the senior official said. "Over the course of the evening, the FBI presence ultimately grew to over 150 agents and other personnel."

The senior FBI official's comments come after Steven D'Antuono, who leads the FBI's Washington Field Office, said, "There was no indication that there was anything [planned] other than First Amendment-protected activity." The official told NBC News they were not in a position to explain why D'Antuono made that statement.
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Capitol Police had refused assistance from the National Guard three days ahead of the protest and from the FBI as rioters reached the Capitol last week, The Associated Press reported in the aftermath.

The day prior to the riots, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) told Justice Department and Pentagon officials that D.C. police would not request assistance from federal authorities.

"Everybody in there is a treasonous traitor," the man, pointing to the Capitol building, told Telegraph reporter Rozina Sabur.

"Death is the only remedy for what's in that building," the man told Sabur.

The New York Times journalist Sarah Jeong took to Twitter on Friday to call for fellow journalist Andy Ngo to be censored by the platform.

Sarah Jeong originally joined The New York Times to serve on their editorial board, immediately sparking controversy due to her history of racist tweets against white people. She has since moved on to the outlet's opinion section.

Jeong cited another journalist name Donovan Farley, who claimed without evidence that Ngo targets journalists and Antifa rioters for harassment, "willfully deceives his followers," and is "the type of propagandist responsible for [Wednesday's] insurrection."

Farley falsely claimed that Ngo was "acknowledging his misdeeds and guilt" by creating a mailing list for followers, insisting that such a mailing list is evidence that he publishes misinformation, and that the mailing list exists as a "contingency plan" for if and when Twitter censors him.

In approving Farley's message, Jeong was joined by notorious Antifa activist Christian Exoo, who goes by the screen name AntiFash Gordon on Twitter, accusing Andy Ngo of "disinformation and incitement to fascist violence."

Exoo has a history of targeting journalists for harassment which has led to violence. In 2020, a former journalist at New York Daily News filed a lawsuit against Exoo after he coordinated a mass online and telephone campaign to get him fired from his position with the newspaper. The journalist ended up having his tires slashed and car keyed as a result of Exoo's harassment campaign.

The calls to censor come as Twitter begins a mass censorship campaign against conservative and far-right accounts, a purge that began with President Donald Trump.

Biden compared GOP Senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz to Nazis because they supported President Trump and his "election falsehoods."

Both Hawley and Cruz exercised their Constitutional right when they objected to Biden's fraudulent electors this week when Congress convened in a joint session. Senator Hawley responded:

"President-elect Biden has just compared me and another Republican Senator to Nazis. You read that correctly. Think about that for a moment. Let it sink in. Because I raised questions in the format prescribed by the laws of the United States about the way elections were conducted in the state of Pennsylvania, just as Democrats did about other states in 2001, 2005, and 2017, he is calling me a Nazi. This is undignified, immature, and intemperate behavior from the President-elect. It is utterly shameful. He should act like a dignified adult and retract these sick comments. And every Democrat member of congress should be asked to disavow these disgusting comments."

According to a report from French newspaper La Croix, the network has some differences from Facebook, including a button that allegedly encourages users to post politically incorrect images on the platform.

Csaba Pàl, the founder of the network, said he was surprised at the platform's rapid growth. However, some have criticised Hundub's launch; others have even claimed that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is secretly behind the network, which the creators have denied.

"This is clearly a violation of antitrust, civil rights, the RICO statute. There should be a racketeering investigation on all the people that coordinated this attack on not only a company but on all of those like us, like me, like you, Maria," Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, told Fox News's "Sunday Morning Futures" host Maria Bartiromo.

Alexey Pushkov, a prominent Senator and Chairman of the Federation Council on Information Policy and Media Relations warned on Sunday that the "diktat of internet giants" set a dangerous precedent. In a message posted to his official Telegram channel, the politician added that Moscow would "draw serious conclusions from the blocking of Trump by US social network conglomerates. Almost totally depending on foreign internet platforms is incompatible with the sovereignty of the country," he argued.

However, the founder of the Russian-created Telegram messaging service, Pavel Durov, has now warned that "the Apple-Google duopoly poses a much bigger problem for freedoms than Twitter." Of the two, he said, Silicon Valley stalwart Apple, worth more than $1.3 trillion, was the most worrying.

This, he suggests, is "because it can completely restrict which apps you use." Over the weekend, the tech giant announced it would ban social media service Parler from its iOS store over apparent breaches to its guidelines. Telegram, which says it prioritizes the right to free speech more than its rivals, has become popular with Trump and his supporters since the president was indefinitely suspended from Twitter and Facebook. Telegram's Durov added that his company was working on a web-based app as a contingency, should it become the next target of an App Store ban.

• Outgoing Capitol Police chief: House, Senate security officials hamstrung efforts to call in National Guard