Name: US House delivers article of impeachment against Trump to Senate – as it happened
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US House delivers article of impeachment against Trump to Senate – as it happened

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This article is more than 1 year oldThis article is more than 1 year oldHere’s a recap of today, from me and Joanna Walters: Mitch McConnell, the leader of Senate Republicans for over a decade, now finds himself in the position every caucus leader dreads: out of power in the chamber, in charge of an unruly bunch of politicians, and under pressure over how to handle the impeachment of .And as McConnell became the Senate minority leader last week, he was confronted with two pressing concerns: retaining power through early negotiations with his Democratic counterpart Chuck Schumer, the new Senate majority leader, and figuring out how to proceed on the impeachment trial of Trump, which is set to begin in early February.It’s a unique predicament for a senator regarded by Republicans as a strategic mastermind of Senate procedure – and one reviled by Democrats for obstructionism.McConnell, now once again in the minority, will have to deal with anti-establishment colleagues such as Cruz and Missouri senator Josh Hawley. Those two senators led the challenge to certifying Joe Biden’s victory that resulted in a mob invading Capitol Hill. McConnell has butted heads with Cruz and allies before, and emerged victorious while effectively Cruz as punishment. As his caucus knows, losing a fight with McConnell has its consequences.He and other Republicans are weighing how to proceed on impeaching Trump. McConnell and other Republican leaders were horrified both by the certification challenge, and it further undermined the already strained ties between McConnell and Trump. Privately, McConnell has indicated that he is at least more open to a Trump impeachment conviction, which could facilitate barring him from becoming president again.“The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people,” McConnell said earlier this week.But it’s unclear whether there are the 17 votes needed among Republicans for the Senate to convict Trump, and how fraught with peril it might be for Republicans who do support impeachment. Some are already McConnell to move forward, even as the few House Republicans who supported impeachment in their chamber challenges and growing blowback.Read more:The impeachment trial of Donald Trump “has to happen,” Joe Biden . The president has urged Senators to prioritize coronavirus relief legislation and approving his Cabinet nominees but acknowledged in an interview with the news network that the trial has to take place, even if chances that Republicans will vote to convict are slim. “The Senate has changed since I was there, but it hasn’t changed that much,” Biden told CNN.The Senate is split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans. At least 17 Republican senators will have to vote with all the Democrats in order to convict the president, who the House has charged with inciting the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January. House impeachment managers delivered the article of impeachment against Trump to the Senate today. Traditionally, the trial would kick off right afterward - but Republicans and Democrats agreed to a two-week delay to allow both sides to prepare arguments and give senators a fortnight to negotiate vital legislation and consider cabinet appointments in the meantime. Trump, who has left Washington for his private resort in Florida, is accused of inciting the Capitol insurrection while trying to overturn his election defeat.The impeachment article mentions his attempt to get Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, also a Republican, to “find” votes that would overturn the result there, as detailed in that was obtained by reporters.Senators are also likely to be asked to consider new reporting, first by the New York Times, which alleges that in Trump’s final weeks in office he considered replacing the acting attorney general with a Department of Justice (DoJ) lawyer ready to pursue unfounded claims of election fraud. Trump pushed the DoJ to ask the supreme court to invalidate Biden’s win. Senior officials reportedly threatened to resign en masse if the acting attorney general was forced out.Trump survived his first impeachment, over approaches to Ukraine for dirt on political rivals, last year. He became the first federal official to be impeached twice on 13 January, when every House Democrat and 10 voted to send him to the Senate for trial.In a statement then, Pelosi said: “Exactly one week after the attack on the Capitol to undermine the integrity of our democracy, a bipartisan vote of the passed the article of impeachment, which is our solemn duty to deliver to the Senate.”Though the Senate is now controlled by Democrats, two-thirds of senators must vote against Trump if he is to be convicted. That means must go against a former president from their own party. As of Friday, according to a , 42 senators had said they supported impeachment, 19 were open to conviction, 28 were opposed and 11 had made no indication.Read more:Butch Bowers: Trump tapped Bowers, a South Carolina lawyer, to lead his legal team and defense in the senate. A friend of Trump ally Lindsey Graham, Bowers worked for Mark Sanford, then the South Carolina governor, when he was nearly impeached in connection to an affair . In 2012, he also represented Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor who went on to work in the Trump administration, in an ethics investigation. He also has helped defend North Carolina and South Carolina voter ID measures, , and worked as a special counsel on voting matters in the justice department under George W Bush.Trump to find a legal team for the trial. Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone, and well-known lawyers like Jay Sekulow, Ken Starr, Alan Derschowitz, and Rudy Giuliani who helped defend the president during the first trial are not participating.Mitch McConnell: The cunning House minority leader, McConnell won’t be making a case for or against Trump during the trial, but will remain one of the most powerful Republicans. In a significant move, McConnell has left the door open towards voting for impeaching Trump, which could encourage other Republicans following along. Even if they do get McConnell’s vote, Democrats would still need to get at least 16 other senators to vote for impeachment – a high bar.Chuck Schumer: The newly elected Ssenate majority leader, Schumer will be responsible for keeping his caucus aligned and trying to win over Republican support, all while helping to maintain messaging during the trial. Schumer has been outspoken about the need to impeach Trump.The House speaker, , has tapped nine Democrats to be House impeachment managers and essentially serve as prosecutors against Trump. Here’s a look at some of the major players in the trial.Read more about them here: The impeachment article reads: ARTICLE 1: INCITEMENT OF INSURRECTIONThe Constitution provides that the House of Representatives “shall have the sole Power of Impeachment” and that the President “shall be removed from Office on Impeachment, for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” Further, section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution prohibits any person who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the United States from “hold[ing] and office ... under the United States.’ In his conduct while President of the United States — and in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, provide, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed — Donald John Trump engaged in high Crimes and Misdemeanors by inciting violence against the Government of the United States, in that:On January 6, 2021, pursuant to the 12th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, the Vice President of the United States, the House of Representatives, and the Senate met at the United States Capitol for a Joint Session of Congress to count the votes of the Electoral College. In the months preceding the Joint Session, President Trump repeatedly issued false statements asserting that the Presidential election results were the product of widespread fraud and should not be accepted by the American people or certified by State or Federal officials. Shortly before the Joint Session commenced, President Trump, addressed a crowd at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C. There, he reiterated false claims that “we won this election, and we won it by a landslide.” He also willfully made statements that, in context, encouraged — and foreseeably resulted in — lawless action at the Capitol, such as: “if you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country anymore.” Thus incited by President Trump, members of the crowd he had addressed, in an attempt to, among other objectives, interfere with the Joint Session’s solemn constitutional duty to certify the results of the 2020 Presidential election, unlawfully breached and vandalized the Capitol, injured and killed law enforcement personnel, menaced Members of Congress, the Vice President, and Congressional personnel, and engaged in other violent, deadly, destructive and seditious acts.President Trump’s conduct on January 6, 2021, followed his prior efforts to subvert and obstruct the certification of the results of the 2020 Presidential election. Those prior efforts included a phone call on January 2, 2021, during which President Trump urged the secretary of state of Georgia, Brad Raffensperger, to “find” enough votes to overturn the Georgia Presidential election results and threatened Secretary Raffensperger if he failed to do so.In all this, President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of Government. He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coequal branch of Government. He thereby betrayed his trust as President, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.Wherefore, Donald John Trump, by such conduct, has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to national security, democracy, and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office, and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with self-governance and the rule of law. Donald John Trump thus warrants impeachment and trial, removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States.The House impeachment managers are now being received at the Senate. Maryland representative Jamie Raskin will read the article... The US House impeachment managers are marching the article of impeachment against to the Senate. Trump will be the first American president in history to face a second impeachment trial. A reading of the article – which charges incitement – will follow the formal procession.Normally, the trial would begin as soon as the article is read. But Republicans and Democrats in the Senate reached a deal to allow Trump two weeks to mount a defense, while senators focus on Joe Biden’s legislative agenda and voting on his cabinet nominees. Donald Trump, banned from Twitter, appears to have up an “office of the former president” in Florida. Per a statement from the office: The Office will be responsible for managing President Trump’s correspondence, public statements, appearances, and official activities to advance the interests of the United States and to carry on the agenda of the Trump Administration through advocacy, organizing, and public activism.Antony Blinken’s nomination for secretary of state was approved by the Senate foreign relations committee, 15-3.Republicans John Barrasso, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz voted against the nomination. The Guardian’s Julian Borger wrote, on Biden’s pick of Blinken in November:After four years of an administration that has and kept them in cages, Blinken’s arrival at the state department will mark a dramatic change, to say the least.While has remained a domestic politician throughout his tenure as secretary of state, giving the lion’s share of his interviews to conservative radio stations in the midwest, for example, Blinken is very much a born internationalist.He went to school in Paris, where he learned to play the guitar (he played Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall at graduation) and football, and harboured dreams of becoming a film-maker. Before entering the White House under Barack Obama, he used to play in a weekly soccer game with US officials, foreign diplomats and journalists, and he has two singles – love songs titled Lip Service and Patience – .Rob Malley, the president of the International Crisis Group, who was at school with Blinken in France, said: “He was an American in Paris, with a sense of what it meant to be an American with US culture and values at a time when there was a lot of anti-Americanism around. But he also saw what it was to be a French person looking at America.”All those contacts and the urbane bilingual charm will be targeted at soothing the frayed nerves of western allies, reassuring them that the US is back as a conventional team player. Where Pompeo has been abrasive, Blinken is soft-spoken with a reputation for self-deprecatory humour. Those traits will be handy in the initial effort to rebuild relationships. The in the first days of a Biden administration will be rejoining treaties and agreements that Donald Trump left.Read more: Yellen sailed through a congressional hearing and had already been unanimously approved by the Senate finance committee and backed by all living former treasury secretaries.She faces a monumental task. Only this week another 900,000 people filed for unemployment benefits – more than the population of San Francisco and four times the number of weekly claims made before the coronavirus pandemic struck.Businesses are closing across the US amid a surge in infections. The US reported more than 188,000 new cases for Thursday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, and close to 4,000 people are dying per day.At the hearing, Yellen said it was imperative for the government to “act big” on the next coronavirus relief package and argued now is not the time to worry about the costs of a higher debt burden.Tackling the fallout of Covid 19 would be her top priority, said Yellen, and especially its disproportionately hard impact on communities of color. Black and Latino workers are still experiencing far higher rates of unemployment, at 9.9% and 9.3%, compared with their white counterparts, 6%.“We need to make sure that people aren’t going hungry in America, that they can put food on the table, that they’re not losing their homes and ending up out on the street because of evictions,” Yellen said. “We really need to address those forms of suffering, and I think we shouldn’t compromise on it.”Janet Yellen has been confirmed as Treasury Secretary. She’s the first woman to take the post. Yellen, 74, received support from both Republicans and Democrats and was confirmed 84-15. She was chair of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2018 and has longstanding ties to Capitol Hill lawmakers – making her an uncontroversial pick.

This article is more than 1 year oldThis article is more than 1 year oldHere’s a recap of today, from me and Joanna Walters: Mitch McConnell, the leader of Senate Republicans for over a decade, now finds himself in the position every caucus leader dreads: out of power in the chamber, in charge of an unruly bunch of politicians, and under pressure over how to handle the impeachment of .And as McConnell became the Senate minority leader last week, he was confronted with two pressing concerns: retaining power through early negotiations with his Democratic counterpart Chuck Schumer, the new...

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Maanvi Singh is the Guardian's West Coast political reporter, based in San Francisco.

https://www.theguardian.com/profile/maanvi-singh

Maanvi Singh

Joanna Walters

TheGuardian.com, formerly known as Guardian.co.uk and Guardian Unlimited, is a British news and media website owned by the Guardian Media Group. It contains nearly all of the content of the newspapers The Guardian and The Observer, as well as a substantial body of web-only work produced by its own staff, including a rolling news service.

US House delivers article of impeachment against Trump to Senate – as it happened

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