Watergate journalist: Impeachment is a verdict on the GOP
2:20
Where things stand
The latest: The House has impeached President Trump, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi has not committed to sending the articles of impeachment to the Republican-held Senate.
What happens next: The Senate will eventually hold a trial to determine if Trump should be removed from office, but can’t take up the issue until the House formally transmits the articles.
The significance: Trump is the third US President in history to be impeached. The House passed both articles of impeachment: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Our live coverage has ended, but you can scroll through the posts to read more.
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White House threatened spending bill veto and potential shutdown over congressional push on Ukraine payments
From CNN's Phil Mattingly, Jim Acosta and Caroline Kelly
The White House insisted House Democrats drop language in the year-end spending bill establishing a specific and quick timeline on deploying appropriated aid to Ukraine or risk a veto, multiple people involved with the talks told CNN.
The disagreement was contentious and the White House drew a red line on the issue, the people said. But the issue was eventually resolved over the course of a few days as Democrats backed down, with the threat of a shutdown never moving to the forefront, people said. A White House official confirmed today that President Trump will sign both the defense bill and the omnibus bill and that the spending bill is not in jeopardy, citing a legal requirement that the defense bill must be signed first.
The people acknowledged that the White House’s position wasn’t viewed during the talks as out of line or conspiratorial, and that the limits Democrats were trying to put in place were a stretch. But the optics of the White House rejecting the proposal in a budget deal staving off a government shutdown were not ideal in light of the prominent role of Ukraine in the President’s ongoing impeachment ordeal.
Trump leaves Washington today and White House officials say he will sign the $1.4 trillion spending package before he departs, officially taking the threat of a government shutdown off the table.
That House Democrats agreed to drop the proposal underscored that there was an understanding that it was far reaching. An administration official that said there was some friction over what were described as “poison pill riders” that were ultimately dropped as part of the negotiating process.
The issue was first reported by the Washington Post.
Meanwhile, candidates at the Democratic presidential debate tried to move past the effort to remove Trump from office. But will their early advocacy for impeachment help or hurt them at the polls?
In today’s episode of “The Daily DC: Impeachment Watch” podcast, CNN senior writer Zach Wolf makes sense of the road ahead with CNN reporter and producer Marshall Cohen and CNN political analyst Seung Min Kim.
Pelosi is looking to select a team that reflects her caucus, sources say
From CNN's Manu Raju and Jeremy Herb
SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images
It’s still an open question which House Democratic lawmakers will prosecute the case in the Senate as impeachment managers, which will be selected by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, though she is expected to name Reps. Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler, who chair the two committees that spearheaded the impeachment proceedings, as the leaders of the impeachment manager team.
Sources involved in the conversations also believe that Pelosi is looking to select a team that reflects her caucus. Among those being considered are…
Florida Rep. Val Demings
California Rep. Zoe Lofgren
New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries
Illinois Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi
Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes
California Rep. Eric Swalwell
Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin
California Rep. Jackie Speier
Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro
But Democrats say Pelosi has not made any final decision, especially because she doesn’t know the makeup of the trial. And she has not informed her colleagues who she is expected to name.
The sources say if the Senate is expected to hold a short trial with no witnesses, there will likely be a more limited team. A longer trial would likely to lead to a more robust team.
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White House officials talked to McConnell today during their trip to the Capitol
From CNN's Phil Mattingly and Ted Barrett
White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and Eric Ueland, the director of White House legislative affairs, were on Capitol Hill today for a “run-through” in the Senate.
Ueland said they were invited by McConnell to do a run-through today and “we very graciously accepted.”
As Ueland and Cipollone left the Capitol, Ueland said they had a brief conversation with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Beyond that, Ueland just reiterated they were working through logistics and potential office space for the trial. Asked if they had preference for specific office space, Ueland said that would be up to the McConnell.
Some context: McConnell has said he would coordinate with White House counsel on “everything” regarding the looming Senate impeachment trial. The majority leader has faced backlash from Democrats for the comments.
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Trump accepts Pelosi's State of the Union invitation
From CNN's Allie Malloy
The White House just released a statement confirming that President Trump accepted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s invitation to deliver the State of the Union address on Feb. 4.
Pelosi sent out the invitation earlier today.
The invitation from Pelosi comes just days after the House of Representatives took the historic step of voting to impeach Trump, a move that has led to an escalation of partisan tensions on Capitol Hill.
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White House staffers did a "run-through" on the Senate floor
From CNN's Phil Mattingly and Ted Barrett
White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and Eric Ueland, director of White House legislative affairs, arrived at the Capitol and briefly stopped into Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office.
They quickly moved to the Senate floor, where they disappeared inside. The floor is technically closed today and the Senate is in recess.
Ueland said they were invited by McConnell to do a “run-through” today and “we very graciously accepted.”
As to the specifics, Ueland said only: “It will be a good straightforward run-through.”
As Ueland and Cipollone left the Capitol, Ueland said they did have a brief conversation with McConnell, who is still here.
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White House counsel's office says it's ready to start the impeachment trial
From CNN's Ted Barret, Pam Brown and Manu Raju
Senator Mitch McConnell is meeting with his staff at the Capitol this afternoon before they break for the holiday.
In the meantime, White House counsel Pat Cipollone is expected to also be on the Hill today.
All this is happening while the White House counsel’s office also continues to prep for the Senate trial despite the uncertainty. A White House official says the counsel’s office is ready to start as soon as the trial starts and is not deterred by the House delay in transmitting the articles.
President Trump is anxious for the trial to start as soon as possible, despite McConnell saying he’s okay with a delay.
A source familiar adds that McConnell has arranged for the White House team to scout some locations in the Senate this afternoon to see where the trial would physically take place. The source says McConnell and Cipollone are not expected to meet.
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Trump continues to jab at Christian magazine that called for his removal from office
From CNN's Allison Malloy
President Trump is continuing his criticisms of Christianity Today following the op-ed in the magazine Thursday calling for his impeachment.
Trump tweeted, “no President has ever done what I have done for Evangelicals, or religion itself!”
Trump wrote that the magazine must be “looking for Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, or those of the socialist/communist bent, to guard their religion. How about Sleepy Joe? The fact is, no President has ever done what I have done for Evangelicals, or religion itself!”
More context: The editor in chief of the Christian magazine, who wrote an op-ed that called for Trump to be removed from office, told CNN today he doesn’t believe his comments will shake the President’s strong hold on evangelicals.
Mark Galli of Christianity Today, which was founded by late evangelist Billy Graham, made headlines yesterday when he called Trump a “grossly immoral character” and said the need to remove him was not about “partisan loyalties but loyalty to the Creator of the Ten Commandments.”
Read Trump’s tweet:
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Trump returns today to Mar-a-Lago for the first time since being impeached
From CNN's Jeremy Diamond, Kevin Liptak, Kaitlan Collins and Sarah Westwood
President Trump is headed today to Mar-a-Lago for two weeks as White House aides begin drawing careful plans for the coming Senate trial.
There remain a number of decisions on Trump’s legal strategy that are likely to be made within the Italianate walls of Mar-a-Lago: finalizing the legal team that will present evidence, determining who will make opening and closing arguments, and arranging who will go on television afterward to amplify the message.
Several officials have quietly expressed concern about the duration of the President’s visit, reasoning that the longer he spends in the Florida sun, the more opportunity outsiders will have to influence him or for news coverage to infuriate him, as has happened over and over during his stays at the private club.
As Trump returns to Mar-a-Lago for the first time since being impeached, the risk — or hope, for some — is that the two-week stay will plunge Trump back toward his most reflexive behavior, bridling at his lawyers’ and Senate Republicans’ efforts to rein him in, people close to Trump said.
Meanwhile, Pelosi invites Trump to deliver State of the Union on Feb. 4
From CNN's Clare Foran
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is moving ahead with plans for next year, as the Senate impeachment trial remains in limbo.
Pelosi invited President Trump today deliver the State of the Union on Feb. 4, according to a letter tweeted out by Pelosi spokesperson Drew Hammill.
Read her full letter:
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President Trump was impeached this week. Here's what happens next.
The House voted Wednesday to approve two articles of impeachment against President Trump — obstruction of Congress and abuse of power.
Yesterday, both the House and Senate went into recess for the holidays. Here’s where things stand now:
The House hasn’t sent the case to the Senate yet: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would not commit to sending the articles of impeachment against Trump to the Republican-held Senate. The Senate will eventually hold a trial to determine if Trump should be removed from office, but can’t take up the issue until the House formally transmits the articles.
A key point: Pelosi told reporters that she was waiting for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to cut a deal first on the rules that would govern the Senate trial before she sends over the articles.
Next month: We’re not sure when McConnell and Schumer will decide on trial rules and when the House will send over the articles of impeachment. However, even before Trump was impeached, McConnell had said the Senate would hold the trial in the new year. House Democrats are privately preparing for a trial to begin as soon as the week of Jan. 6.
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He said Trump is a "grossly immoral character." He doesn't think his comments will shake the President's evangelical base.
From CNN's Allison Gordon
The editor in chief of a leading Christian magazine who wrote an op-ed that called for Trump to be removed from office said he doesn’t believe his comments will shake the President’s strong hold on evangelicals.
Mark Galli of Christianity Today, which was founded by late evangelist Billy Graham, made headlines yesterday when he called Trump a “grossly immoral character” and said the need to remove him was not about “partisan loyalties but loyalty to the Creator of the Ten Commandments.”
But in speaking to CNN’s John Berman today, Galli, who is leaving the publication in two weeks, said he is not optimistic that his editorial will sway Trump’s support among white evangelicals.
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House Democrats are privately preparing for a Senate trial
From CNN's Manu Raju
Even though it’s uncertain when President Trump’s impeachment trial is expected to start, House Democrats are privately preparing for a trial to begin as soon as the week of Jan. 6.
Staff for the key House committees, in consultation with Democratic leadership, are expected to work over the holiday recess in the event the trial starts early in the new year, per two sources with knowledge of the work.
Where things are right now: In order for a trial to take place, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi needs to send over the articles to the Senate.
But she says she needs to understand what the process will be like in the Senate to determine which impeachment managers to name to prosecute their case. The House needs to vote on the impeachment managers before the articles are sent over, Democrats say. The earliest House vote would be Jan. 7.
But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are at an impasse over the rules for a trial, with Schumer wanting a deal struck up front on witnesses and documents and McConnell saying those decisions should come later and they should agree to just the nuts-and-bolts of the trial initially.
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Trump is off to Mar-a-Lago today for his winter vacation
President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort
Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
The President has a few events on his calendar today before he heads to Florida for vacation later tonight.
At 12:30 p.m. ET, Trump is scheduled to have lunch with Secretary of StateMike Pompeo. At 5:30 p.m. ET, Trump and the First lady will participate in a Christmas reception. Both are closed to the press.
Then around 7:00 p.m. ET, the President will head to Mar-a-Lago. Before he leaves, the President will give remarks and participate in a signing ceremony for the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act. It’s unclear if he’ll address impeachment.
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The House and Senate are on break for the holidays
Getty Images
The House and Senate are now in recess for the holidays after both chambers took their last votes of the year yesterday.
The break comes as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has not committed to sending the articles of impeachment to the Republican-held Senate. The Senate will eventually hold a trial to determine if Trump should be removed from office — but it can’t take up the issue until the House formally transmits the articles.
What it was like inside Trump's DC hotel on the day he was impeached
In the hours before President Trump was impeached Wednesday night, the atmosphere at the Trump International Hotel in Washington was nearly, but not quite, joyous.
People snapped selfies and laughed over cocktails in the hotel’s multi-story lobby lounge. Tourists trickled in from the cold, some wearing “Make American Great Again’ hats and shirts, hoping perhaps to capture a glimpse of someone in Trump’s inner circle. Their best chance came around lunch when Education Secretary Betsy DeVos stopped by the hotel’s restaurant, BLT Prime.
Out in the lounge, discussions ranged from Christmas plans to the media’s unfair treatment of the President.
One table ordered the Trump Tower, a soaring pile of seafood stacked high with lobster, oysters, clams, and shrimp ($120). All the while impeachment loomed uncomfortably in the background. At the bar, two of the four televisions hanging above the bar were tuned to ESPN. Another was tuned to Fox News and the last to CNN.
What the standoff between Pelosi and McConnell means
Analysis from CNN's Stephen Collinson
Nobody in Washington understands power — how to win it, keep it and wield it — better than Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell.
Now the two giants of Capitol Hill have each other in their sights, as Democrats and Republicans feud over the terms of a Senate trial of President Trump.
The speaker’s refusal to immediately transmit the articles of impeachment passed by the House to the Senate has triggered a rare direct power game with the Senate majority leader, pitting two of American history’s strongest congressional figures against each other in a battle not likely to cool off over a winter recess on Capitol Hill.
“We remain at an impasse on these logistics,” McConnell said on the Senate floor after a meeting with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and moments before informally closing out the chamber for the next two weeks.
Earlier Thursday, McConnell had jabbed at Pelosi, suggesting that her decision to hold on to the articles, apparently designed to offer leverage to Schumer in bargaining over the shape of a trial, showed weakness.
The response from the California Democrat, who was raised in a politically oriented Baltimore family, was scathing and apparently premeditated.
She added, “I don’t think they suspected that we could have a rogue president and rogue leader in the Senate at the same time.”
The clash came as talks between McConnell and Schumer, a New York Democrat, reached an stalemate over the shape of the trial, leaving the chaotic impeachment battle in suspended animation between the two chambers as lawmakers emptied out of the Capitol for a two-week holiday break.
Trump says evangelical magazine calling for his removal is "far left"
President Trump accused a Christian magazine, which published an op-ed calling for him to be impeached, of being “far left” and not having links to the family of the magazine’s founder, the late evangelist Billy Graham.
“Christianity Today, knows nothing about reading a perfect transcript of a routine phone call.”
Christianity Today’s editor in chief, Mark Galli, called for Trump’s impeachment on moral grounds in the op-ed.
“That he should be removed, we believe, is not a matter of partisan loyalties but loyalty to the Creator of the Ten Commandments,” Galli wrote.
The publication, an influential one among evangelicals, has criticized Trump before on immigration and other issues, but never before called for his removal.
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Evangelical publication calls for Trump's removal from office
From Caroline Kelly, John Blake and Daniel Burke, CNN
A leading Christian magazine founded by late evangelist Billy Graham – father of key presidential supporter Franklin Graham – published an op-ed on Thursday calling for President Donald Trump to be removed from office and urging evangelicals not to support him.
“Whether Mr. Trump should be removed from office by the Senate or by popular vote next election—that is a matter of prudential judgment,” Christianity Today’s editor in chief, Mark Galli, wrote in the op-ed. “That he should be removed, we believe, is not a matter of partisan loyalties but loyalty to the Creator of the Ten Commandments.”
Galli continued, “We believe the impeachment hearings have made it absolutely clear, in a way the Mueller investigation did not, that President Trump has abused his authority for personal gain and betrayed his constitutional oath. The impeachment hearings have illuminated the president’s moral deficiencies for all to see.”
“None of the president’s positives can balance the moral and political danger we face under a leader of such grossly immoral character,” he added.
The publication, an influential one among evangelicals, has criticized Trump before on immigration and other issues, but never before called for his removal. The op-ed shows potential reasoning for dissent among a key faction of the Republican coalition as Trump prepares for a potential Senate trial following his impeachment by the House of Representatives Wednesday night.
An impeached Trump tries looking ahead, but uncertainty threatens Senate vindication
From CNN's Manu Raju, Ted Barrett and Jeremy Herb.
After being impeached, President Donald Trump is hoping to move quickly to a vigorous defense in the Senate and is distressed the trial he hopes will vindicate him might be delayed.
“What are they doing?” Trump asked a top Republican ally, Sen. Lindsey Graham, upon learning Thursday morning that House Democrats may withhold sending articles of impeachment to the Senate until they feel assured there will be a fair trial.
“I said, ‘Mr. President, I don’t know,’” Graham told reporters before traveling to the White House to discuss the matter further with Trump.
The uncertainty threw a wrench into long-laid plans by the White House to mount an effort at exoneration once the impeachment proceedings move across Capitol Hill to the upper chamber. Trump and his aides have long eyed a Senate trial as the venue for eventual vindication in the saga, viewing the Republican-led chamber as a lock to acquit the President.
One possible avenue for Trump is looking back, to Barack Obama, with a suggestion – supported possibly with Justice Department legal opinions – that the former president should have been impeached for blocking congressional Republicans from fully investigating the “Fast and Furious” gun-running scandal.
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