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Democrats were furious at Republicans for what they believe was a blatant effort to drag out today’s proceedings and delay a final vote until the dead-of-the-night.
Earlier today, it was widely believed that Republicans would be through offering amendments by 5 p.m. ET. But as the evening wore on, Democrats came to believe the GOP was simply trying to bury the votes in the news cycle.
So the decision was made to hold the final two votes tomorrow morning to ensure more people would be able to witness the historic votes — even though it enraged the GOP.
She said Republicans had told them they would only go until 5 p.m. ET and so when they went longer, Democrats decided to wait so the public can see.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, added that they wanted to hold the vote in “broad daylight.”
House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler declined to comment to CNN.
Rep. Doug Collins, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, slammed Chairman Jerry Nadler after he abruptly ended the hearing to vote tomorrow on the two articles of impeachment, accusing Nadler of the “most bush league thing I have seen.”
Collins accused Democrats of wanting to put the vote on TV.
“I’m just beyond words at this point. But it shows the lack of case they have,” he said.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, explained why House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler unexpectedly decided to move the vote on the two articles of impeachment to tomorrow morning.
The vote is expected to happen at 10 a.m. ET.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler has called a recess until tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. ET and will hold the vote on the two articles of impeachment at that time.
The decision comes after more than 13 hours of debate today.
Nadler’s decision was derided by Republicans on the committee. The phrase “kangaroo court” was heard following the decision.
The House Judiciary Committee are debating Chairman Jerry Nadler’s substitute amendment, which is just a committee procedure and is the final amendment before voting on the articles.
It’s still possible other members could offer additional amendments
But Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner suggested moments ago that this will be the last debate of the evening. If Sensenbrenner is speaking for the party here, we won’t see any new amendments from Republicans.
The House Judiciary Committee has resumed its debate over the articles of impeachment against President Trump.
Democratic members and aides are signaling at the break that they are preparing to go as late as the GOP wants — and they won’t cut off amendments, even though House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler has the right to do so.
When will the hearing end? It depends on when the GOP decides it has no more amendments to offer.
At the moment, Democrats are not considering punting the session to the morning and are prepared to go through night.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell predicted tonight how the impeachment trial will end.
McConnell, speaking on Fox News, called the Democrats’ case “so darn weak” and said he will coordinate with President Trump’s lawyers every step of the way when the case moves to the Senate.
The debate in the House Judiciary Committee tonight has been free-wheeling.
Any committee member has been able to offer an amendment to the impeachment articles and every lawmaker could speak up to debate it.
At one point, the impeachment debate even veered back two decades, as two lawmakers who were on the Judiciary Committee when President Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998 debated the merits of that case compared to the current impeachment proceedings.
They’ve been debating for 12 hours now.
The House Judiciary Committee has taken a 30-minute recess at about 9 p.m. ET.
The committee has been debating amendments to the articles of impeachment for more than 12 hours today.
A fifth amendment to the articles of impeachment has been voted down by the House Judiciary Committee tonight by a vote of 23-17.
The amendment had been introduced by Rep. Jim Jordan, a Republican from Ohio. The amendment called to strike language that President Trump should be removed from office.
All four other amendments proposed today have been voted down.
The House Judiciary Committee continues to debate and consider the articles of impeachment against President Trump tonight.
Here’s what’s happened so far:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and President Trump’s top lawyer sketched out a plan to coordinate closely for the Senate’s impeachment trial, but haven’t reached agreement on a final unified strategy to defend Trump against charges of high crimes and misdemeanors, according to two sources familiar with the conversation.
The closed-door meeting today between McConnell and White House counsel Pat Cipollone occurred as Senate Republicans and the White House have diverged on what each would like to see take place in the looming trial in the chamber.
Trump has made clear he wants witnesses to testify, in person, while senators — including McConnell in private — have warned that going down that path could lead to a politically precarious slippery slope in the GOP effort to acquit Trump.
While no final decisions have been made, there both McConnell and Cipollone agreed that when a trial begins, the House Democratic impeachment managers would have an opportunity to present, followed by the Trump’s lawyers presenting the president’s defense, the sources said.
McConnell made clear this week that no decisions have been made about witnesses or final trial structure, but the path after the initial presentations will be dictated by what a majority of his conference wants to see next — witnesses or a quick vote to bring the trial to an end and then vote to acquit the President.
Rep. Jim Jordan, a Republican from Ohio, has introduced a fifth amendment to the articles of impeachment that would strike language that President Trump should be removed from office.
The four other amendments proposed today were all voted down.
The phrase “strike the last word” keeps coming up during the debate. Here’s what it means:
President Trump delivered brief remarks at the congressional ball tonight while the House Judiciary Committee continued to debate the articles of impeachment.
Trump called it a “very exciting month in Washington, DC,” receiving some warm laughter. He also touted stock market records.
“Our country is doing really great,” Trump said, thanking everyone for attending and acknowledging Vice President Mike Pence, who was in attendance with his wife Karen.
Trump, who spoke from a podium with a golden carved eagle, congratulated first lady Melania Trump on a “beautiful job.”
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, legislative director Marc Short and Rep. Steve Scalise were among those in attendance.
Democrats were invited to the congressional ball, according to a White House official.
A fourth amendment to the articles of impeachment was voted down this evening by the House Judiciary Committee.
The committee is now debating a fifth amendment.
White House officials were less focused on shaping Republicans’ messaging heading into this House Judiciary Committee debate due to their sense that the outcome of impeachment, at this point, is “locked down along partisan lines,” an administration official said.
While Vice President Mike Pence has met with some members and rallied them last week during a conference meeting on Capitol Hill, the White House has not really been involved in whipping votes, a senior White House official said.
A senior GOP aide said while the House team is whipping, as CNN’s Manu Raju reported, it is hardly viewed as necessary because Republicans don’t expect to lose any members on the floor vote. White House officials, including Tony Sayegh and Pam Bondi, have been in daily contact with lawmakers and their staff. Republican unity on the resolution vote became a major point of pride for the President and White House officials, so maintaining zero defectors for the vote on the articles is also important to the team.
White House officials are also discussing the prospect of a direct response from the President on the day of the vote on the articles — something beyond a tweet or comments at Trump’s rally on Wednesday, should the vote occur that day.
White House counsel Pat Cipollone and legislative director Eric Ueland met with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to go over options for the trial as the White House works to reconcile Trump’s desire for a theatrical defense with Senate Republicans’ eagerness to end the trial quickly.
The Justice Department quietly published on its website today some never-before-seen internal legal opinions that could help President Trump block congressional requests as he faces impeachment by the House and a trial in the Senate.
Eight of the opinions appear to bolster the White House’s stonewalling of Congress on witness testimony and document subpoenas.The opinions date back to the 1970s, when President Richard Nixon faced impeachment. One opinion from 1982 was written by the former head of the Office of Legal Counsel at the request of Rudy Giuliani who, at the time, worked within the Justice Department.
Some of the opinions appear to have been made public before, and some have only been cited by the Justice Department in other legal arguments. The ones released today hadn’t all been collected on the Justice Department’s central website regarding its internal legal opinions before today.
A Justice Department official acknowledging the releases said these opinions were cited in the Office of Legal Counsel’s more recent opinion that former Trump White House counsel Don McGahn should be immune from subpoenaed congressional testimony.
The House has sued for McGahn to testify, winning at the trial court stage, and the Justice Department is appealing. The newly released opinions were requested by the House as part of the McGahn lawsuit, according to the official.
Putting these legal opinions in perspective: The collection could be a valuable central resource for the President in the coming weeks, fleshing out the authority the executive branch has given to itself to ignore congressional requests.
Then-head of the Office of Legal Counsel Ted Olson wrote in July 1982 that the White House counsel should not submit to a subpoena or request to testify to the Senate, arguing the President’s “close advisors are an extension of the President.” Just as he cannot “compel congressmen to appear before him,” Congress “may not compel him to appear before it,” Olson wrote.
Notably, Olson told the deputy attorney general that if the President broke with precedent and submitted to such testimony it would be seen by “many — including members of Congress who are aware of the historical practice — as a sign of weakness.”
Two GOP officials familiar with planning for a Senate impeachment trial tell CNN they hope White House Counsel Pat Cipollone takes the lead role in defending President Trump — and not private defense attorney Alan Dershowitz.
One of those officials said there will likely be some Republican concerns about Dershowitz taking on a more public role.
CNN’s Pamela Brown reported earlier that Dershowitz is expected to handle a constitutional piece of the defense in the Senate trial. An official tells CNN it is possible Dershowitz could formally join the Trump legal team, but the White House counsel is taking the lead.
According to two Democratic leadership aides, Democrats are looking at a House floor schedule for next week that looks this:
Reminder: The schedule is subject to change.
Democratic sources also say they expect the House Rules Committee to approve a rule that would govern floor debate of the impeachment resolution. They don’t need to do a rule — and didn’t when President Bill Clinton was impeached — but if they don’t approve a rule, they would need an unanimous consent agreement with the GOP over the parameters of the floor debate. Getting such an agreement in this environment seems unlikely.
The floor vote on the rule would occur Wednesday before the articles are approved. Each article will be voted on separately.
The House Rules Committee would have to meet to approve the rule first — and that will likely happen Tuesday.
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