House launches Trump impeachment inquiry

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, said the transcript of a phone call between President Trump and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky was “even worse” than the allegations from the Mueller report. 

Asked what the Senate’s role will be in the next few months, Schumer said the Senate intel committee should pursue the facts. 

Schumer also said that the transcript “validates the wisdom” of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to announce an official impeachment inquiry yesterday.

Sen. David Perdue tells CNN that he was among a small group of House and Senate Republicans who reviewed the rough transcript at the White House before it was released 

Perdue said White House Counsel Pat Cippolone was in the room, and that the President called in and said everything was fine about his conduct. 

When asked if any Republicans raise concerns, Perdue said “no.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi should bring an impeachment vote to the House floor if she’s confident the President committed impeachable offenses.

“I’m challenging Nancy Pelosi to have a vote on this. Moderate Democrats are hiding behind her. So if you really believe that this is an impeachable offense or other things are impeachable subject to an inquiry, vote on it,” he said.

When asked how he thinks this will turn out for the Democrats, he said he didn’t know, but did offer a little if-past-is-prologue.

“I just know this. I know how it turned out for us in 1998. We got our ass kicked,” he said. “All I can tell my Democratic friends: You’re going down a dangerous road here for the future of the presidency as well as your own future, but that’s up to y’all.”

President Trump accused Democrats of making a "manufactured crisis" with the Ukraine drama and claimed they won't have time to work on legislation as they consider impeachment.

The vote for passage of the House whistleblower resolution will be in the 5 p.m. ET hour.

As with all House votes, things may change, but it could happen sometime around 5:15 p.m. ET and 5:45 p.m. ET.

What we know about the resolution: The House will vote to disapprove of the Trump administration’s blocking the whistleblower complaint from coming to Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office said today.

The White House accidentally emailed its talking points about the President's call with the Ukrainian leader to House Democrats.

The talking points include lines like: "Let’s be clear, there was no quid pro quo for Ukraine to get US aid in exchange for looking into Biden or his son."

The White House later tried to recall the email message.

A group of congressional Republicans went to the White House this morning to view a rough transcript of the phone call before it was released to the public.

President Trump called into the meeting at one point. 

In remarks today on the Senate floor, Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, blasted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats for starting a formal impeachment inquiry before learning the specifics of the call between President Trump and Ukrainian president.

The senator’s views on issues such as this often reflect the broad view within the GOP Conference.  

A senior White House official explained why there are ellipses in a rough transcript of President Trump's phone call with Ukraine's president that was released today.

"The ellipses do not indicate missing words or phrases," the official said.

So why are the ellipses there? The official said, "They refer to a trailing off of a voice or pause. If there were missing words or phrases, they would be represented by brackets or redactions. This is the standard practice that is followed for all records of Presidential phone calls."

What we know: According to the transcript of the July call, President Trump repeatedly pushed for Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to reopen an investigation of his potential 2020 rival, former Vice President Joe Biden and his son. He also asked Zelensky to work with Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr.