Live political reporting continues in Thursday’s blog:
Summary
- The House Democrats who will prosecute Donald Trump delivered articles of impeachment to the Senate. Read more about the seven impeachment managers here.
- Senate leader Mitch McConnell invited the managers to present the articles at noon tomorrow. At 2 pm, Chief Justice John Roberts, who will preside over the Senate trial, will be sworn in. The trial will begin in earnest on Tuesday.
- Trump signed a China trade pact. Read The Guardian’s analysis of the deal here.
- Lawmakers and diplomats have called for an investigation into whether former US ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch was being surveilled, in light of new exchanges between Lev Parnas and his associates released by House investigators.
CNN releases audio of the testy post-debate exchange between Warren and Sanders.
After the Democratic debate ended yesterday, Bernie Sanders outstretched his hand. Elizabeth Warren snatched hers away, and the two progressive candidates, who recently broke an apparent agreement not to turn negative against each other, engaged in what appeared to be a testy exchange.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper released audio of the conversation.
“I think you called me a liar on national TV” Warren said to Sanders.
“Let’s not do it right now,” Sanders responded. “You called me a liar”.
Meanwhile, Tom Steyer caught awkwardly between the quarreling progressives, said: “I don’t want to get int the middle... I just wanted to say ‘Hi,’ Bernie.”
“Yeah, ok. Good,” Sanders said.
Updated
Lev Parnas: “President Trump knew exactly what was going on.”
Lev Parnas to @maddow: "President Trump knew exactly what was going on. He was aware of all my movements. I wouldn't do anything without the consent of Rudy Giuliani, or the President."https://t.co/8J1UBFeIbs
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 16, 2020
Parnas, the Rudy Giuliani associate who has been implicated in an alleged scheme to pressure the Ukrainian government to dig up dirt on Joe Biden and his son, sat down with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow for an interview.
In a preview of the interview, which will air at 9pm Eastern time, Parnas said that Trump “was aware of all my movements. I wouldn’t do anything without the consent of Rudy Giuliani, or the president.”
Pages of text messages, notes and other documents that House investigators released yesterday show that Parnas and his associates may have been carrying out surveillance of the US ambassador to Ukraine. One of the released documents was a letter that Giuliani wrote, requesting a Volodymyr Zelenskiy, then the president-elect of Ukraine, with Trump’s “knowledge and consent”.
Updated
The Senate is prepared to enforce strict measures that would limit journalists’ access during the impeachment trial.
According to Roll Call:
The standing committees, press gallery staff, Capitol Police, sergeant-at-arms and Senate Rules Committee have been in negotiations for months about enhanced security for an eventual Senate trial.
In recent weeks, Capitol Police personnel have come to the Senate Daily Press Gallery with tape measures in preparation for the installation of magnetometers and possibly removing reporter workspaces to make room for lines of reporters waiting to enter the chamber one by one, long before a final decision was made...
The planned restriction on the press will surpass those in place for the Clinton impeachment trial and even the highly charged confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, when hundreds of protesters led to daily media crackdowns — even though none of the protesters were credentialed media.
But the move has drawn criticism from both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate.
“The press will play a critical role in making sure the American public are able to witness the Senate fulfill its Constitutional obligation,” said Senator Bob Casey, a Democrat representing Pennsylvania. “Let them do their jobs as they do every day with the same level of access to lawmakers.”
“U.S. senators are grown, women and grown men. If they don’t want to make a comment, they know how to say ‘no comment,’” John Kennedy, a Republican Senator from Louisiana told Politico. “We aren’t children.”
Updated
Donald Trump’s supporters have taken issue with Nancy Pelosi’s choice to use commemorative pens to sign the resolution to transfer articles of impeachment to the Senate, saying it undercuts her insistence that impeachment is a solemn undertaking.
No surprise...Speaker Pelosi just held a celebratory signing ceremony handing out souvenir impeachment pens.
— House Republicans (@HouseGOP) January 15, 2020
The truth comes out.
This isn't "somber" or "serious" for @HouseDemocrats. This has been partisan since day one. pic.twitter.com/E07UFIXNgr
But it’s worth noting that Trump is himself a fan of commemorative pens. He handed out his own souvenir pens after signing the China trade deal today.
Donald Trump, like many presidents before him, gives out souvenir pens in the Oval Office when he signs things. https://t.co/FDGkGi6S1p
— Hunter Walker (@hunterw) January 15, 2020
And... the articles have been transferred.
House impeachment managers walk the #articlesofimpeachment through the Capitol to the Senate
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 15, 2020
Watch more: https://t.co/hWhqPYXFsU pic.twitter.com/pMuGEXaMXg
Updated
McConnell: The trial will commence Tuesday
Senate leader Mitch McConnell announced that the Senate will exhibit the articles tomorrow at noon, to read the articles on the Senate floor. At 2 pm, chief justice John Roberts will arrive in the Senate and be sworn in.
But the trial will begin in earnest on Tuesday, McConnell, announced.
In his message, McConnell asked his fellow senators to rise above partisanship. “This is a difficult time for our country—but this is precisely the kind of time for which the framers created the Senate. I’m confident this body can rise above short-termism and factional fever, and serve the long-term best interests of our nation,” he said.
Updated
Why does Pelosi have so many pens?
It’s a laborious process because she’s using multiple pens.
— Lauren Gambino (@laurenegambino) January 15, 2020
“It makes for a funny signature,” she jokes. https://t.co/szLoKhgyg8
The House speaker signed the resolution using not just one pen, but trays full of them. They’re commemorative pens, emblazoned with her signature. After painstakingly signing the document using each of the pens, Pelosi handed them to her impeachment managers and key committee members as souvenirs.
Though critics are questioning Pelosi’s choice to use souvenir pens, they’re not entirely unexpected. Souvenir pens were used during Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial as well. Back then, Senators who signed an oath book kept their pens even though they were printed with a misspelling: “Untied States Senator”.
Updated
Nancy Pelosi signs resolution to transfer the impeachment articles to the Senate
“Today, we will make history,” Pelosi said, speaking at the engrossment ceremony on Capitol Hill. “When the managers walk down the hall, we will cross a threshold in history. Delivering articles of impeachment against the president of the United States for abuse of power and obstruction of the House.”
And very soon, “as soon as tomorrow”, the Senators will take an oath to deliver impartial justice in the trial of Donald Trump, the Speaker said.
Behold... the articles:
Fear not, they will be well documented. pic.twitter.com/pdLhpPd2YG
— Mike DeBonis (@mikedebonis) January 15, 2020
The Capitol is packed with reporters awaiting the procession of the House clerk to the Senate.
Updated
The communications director for Mitch McConnell, senate majority leader, said on Twitter that Republicans will instruct House Democrats to present the articles of impeachment tomorrow when they deliver them to the Senate this evening.
This timeline explains how we got to this stage of impeachment:
The press is gathering ahead of the Democrats planned delivery of the articles of impeachment to the Senate.
However, it sounds like the Republicans don’t actually plan on accepting them tonight. Senate leaders have said they will tell the House members to return tomorrow to present the articles if they deliver them at 5pm ET as planned, according to CNN. Democrats have said they intend to stick with the 5pm plan.
We will see how this all shakes out in the next hour.
Cameras starting to gather to document procession of House clerk to Senate to “exhibit” the articles of impeachment and formally notify the Senate that managers have been appointed
— Lindsay Wise (@lindsaywise) January 15, 2020
This is the first of many ceremonial steps we’ll witness over next few days as we head to trial pic.twitter.com/SaltBIqTcK
A Michigan state senator, who has suggested he could run for governor, has apologized after telling a reporter that a group of boys could have “a lot of fun” with her.
State senator Peter Lucido, a Republican, told the reporter, Allison Donahue, he could speak to her for a story after he was done honoring a group of students from an all-boys school who were standing nearby.
“What was meant to be an opportunity for Lucido to respond to the report, turned into him making comments that objectified and humiliated me in front of a group of young boys,” Donahue said in a first-person account of the experience:
“You should hang around! You could have a lot of fun with these boys, or they could have a lot of fun with you.”
The teenagers burst into an Old Boys’ Network-type of laughter, and I walked away knowing that I had been the punchline of their “locker room” talk.
Except it wasn’t the locker room; it was the Senate chamber. And this isn’t high school. It’s my career.
After Lucido initially told the Detroit Free Press that he did not feel he owed the reporter an apology and saying he felt the quotes were taken out of context and had been blown out of proportion, he apologized. It was not immediately clear if he apologized directly to Donahue, the AP reported.
“I apologize for the misunderstanding yesterday and for offending Allison Donahue,” Lucido said.
Photos
Guardian world affairs editor, Julian Borger, wrote about unrest among former diplomats following revelations that associates of Donald Trump’s lawyer may have carried out surveillance on the US ambassador to Ukraine.
John Herbst, who was ambassador to Kyiv before Yovanovitch, cautioned that it was not clear whether the implied surveillance actually happened or was an idle boast.
“If it’s real, it’s outrageous,” Herbst said. “Masha Yovanovitch is a real pro. She was used to being surveilled by the FSB [Russian intelligence], but if she’s being surveilled by a private American, that is truly dark side activity.”
As of midday on Wednesday, the state department had yet to issue a statement on the new revelations, and canceled two briefings to Congress, one of them on diplomatic security.
More anecdotes from the highly-anticipated, A Very Stable Genius, written by the Washington Post journalists Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig, have emerged today.
One section of the book claims the president doesn’t know about Pearl Harbor:
“Hey, John, what’s this all about? What’s this a tour of?” Trump asks his then-Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, as the men prepare to take a private tour of the USS Arizona Memorial, which commemorates the December 1941 Japanese surprise attack in the Pacific that pulled the United States into World War II.
“Trump had heard the phrase ‘Pearl Harbor’ and appeared to understand that he was visiting the scene of a historic battle, but he did not seem to know much else,” write the authors, later quoting a former senior White House adviser who concludes: “He was at times dangerously uninformed.”
More from A Very Stable Genius here:
Afternoon summary
It’s been (another) historic day on Capitol Hill - and the day is yet young. Stay tuned for an afternoon and evening of continuing drama in US politics.
Main events so far:
- The House has just voted to send the two articles of impeachment against Donald Trump to the Senate to begin the president’s trial on charges of abuse of office and obstruction of Congress.
- The US and China signed the first phase of a new trade deal.
- Judge temporarily blocks Trump’s refugee policy.
- Nancy Pelosi announces the team of House managers to prosecute the case against Donald Trump during the impeachment trial in the Senate. They will physically process through the Capitol with the articles to present to the Senate after 5pm.
More on the White House call with reporters from the Guardian’s Washington bureau chief, David Smith:
The White House declined to rule out going to court in an attempt to block John Bolton, the former national security adviser, and other witnesses testifying at Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment trial.
In a conference call with reporters, a senior administration official said:
We’re not going to get out ahead of the president; it would only be president who exerts executive privilege. I think it’s fair to say, though, that it would be extraordinary to have the national security adviser testifying about his communications directly with the president about foreign policy and national security matters. So that’s a bridge that we would cross if we have to, when we get to it, but that would be an extraordinary situation.
Asked if the White House would consider bringing a formal lawsuit in federal court to exert executive privilege, rather than allowing the Senate to have the final say, the official replied: “That’s getting way out ahead of things. We don’t think that there’s gonna be any need for witnesses in this trial.”
The official therefore predicted it is “extraordinarily unlikely” that the trial will be go beyond two weeks. “We think that this case is overwhelming for the president.”
But the official conceded that if the Senate does agree to call witnesses, Trump could yet push for the whistleblower and Joe Biden’s son Hunter to appear.
“The president hasn’t had any rights in this process so far,” the official said. “So if we go on to a longer process with witnesses, the president will have a right to have witnesses as well.”
During the impeachment vote, senior Trump administration officials held a briefing call with reporters about impeachment. The officials said they expect the trial to move quickly, possibly concluding before the State of the Union address scheduled for 4 February.
They did not give information about who would represent the White House in the trial.
Also the Trump admin -unsurprisingly- says of potential Senate witnesses: "We don’t think there’s going to be any need for witnesses in this trial."
— Elizabeth Landers (@ElizLanders) January 15, 2020
But! When pushed by a reporter, added that if it goes into a "longer process" the president has a right to witnesses as well.
Same official argued motion to dismiss is appropriate bc, "these articles of impeachment are so weak that if this were a court proceeding they'd be subject to to dismissal" concedes that the Senate is different than a regular courtroom but not ruling it out (*most Sens have)
— Jackie Kucinich (@JFKucinich) January 15, 2020
White House call with reporters on impeachment contained no answers about who will be on their team, no response on the texts from Hyde in the Parnas material. But did have a malfunctioning question screener, so the operator was reading people's phone numbers across the call.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 15, 2020
House approves impeachment package 228-193
The House has voted to formally appoint a team of seven impeachment managers, which will set in motion the official transfer of articles of impeachment from the House to the Senate.
The House is now voting on the resolution to back the House impeachment managers named this morning. If approved, the resolution would set in motion the Senate impeachment trial.
If you are wondering what happens after that, Guardian national affairs reporter, Tom McCarthy, wrote a great guide:
Representatives are on the House floor debating the impeachment package, which includes the list of managers announced earlier today and a decision to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate.
The debate was strained and partisan, reflecting the weeks of acrimonious hearings that preceded a vote on the articles of impeachment in December.
Congressman Jerry Nadler, the chair of the Judiciary committee who will serve as a manager, said Trump “betrayed our country when he used the powers of his office” and urged the Senate to take seriously the new evidence referred by the House. The managers were prepared to exercise their “broad authority” to submit new additional evidence to the Senate as part of the trial, he vowed.
“Our founders feared this day,” declared House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from California. He became more and more emotional throughout his comments, praising the president and writing-off the impeachment inquiry as being about personality.
There is a live stream at the top of the live blog. It should be a relatively short debate before the vote, which is expected in about 20 minutes.
Updated
More from the East Room of the White House, where the signing of a trade deal with China has involved Donald Trump spending about 20 minutes not talking much about trade or China. Instead, he shared stories about the people in the room ... and some who weren’t.
The teleprompter in the East Room has been stuck here for a while as the president names what feels like everyone in the room pic.twitter.com/NN5jhDAiZN
— Kathryn Watson (@kathrynw5) January 15, 2020
Trump asks Senator Lindsey Graham if he does anything apart from politics. Graham says golf. Trump replies: “He likes golf too. Much better golfer than people understand.”
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) January 15, 2020
"Where's Rupert? Is Rupert not here?" Trump says. Rupert "sold his stuff" to a group "that doesn't like Trump as much, that's the problem."
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 15, 2020
Donald Trump is speaking at the White House before signing a trade deal with China.
Impeachment is on his mind. Trump tells senators in the room they can leave for the impeachment vote, which is about to take place.
Trump: “Some of the congressmen may have a vote. It’s on the impeachment hoax... They’ve got a hoax going on over there.”
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) January 15, 2020
Trump then heaps praise on guests in the room, including billionaire Sheldon Adelson, conservative commentator Lou Dobbs and former secretary of state Henry Kissinger.
Trump: Henry Kissinger said how on earth did he pull that off? When Henry is impressed, I’m impressed. “Henry, we’re impressed with you. Thank you for being here.”
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) January 15, 2020
Details on the trade deal:
Judge temporarily blocks Trump refugee policy
A federal judge has temporarily blocked Donald Trump’s policy which would allow local governments to determine whether or not they would admit refugees.
The policy was announced the same day in September that the president unveiled a record low cap on refugees of 18,000 people.
The local government policy had backfired on the president, with 42 out of 50 state governors, including conservative ones, saying they would continue to admit refugees. Seven state governors hadn’t announced their plans and the remaining governor, Greg Abbott of Texas, was the only one to say outright that the state would not accept refugees.
In response to a lawsuit filed against the policy change, judge Peter J Messitte of Maryland wrote in an order it was likely “unlawful.”
“Giving states and local governments the power to consent to the resettlement of refugees — which is to say veto power to determine whether refugees will be received in their midst — flies in the face of clear Congressional intent,” Messitte wrote.
Trump said DHS secretary didn't 'look the part' according to new book
Donald Trump “abused”, “harassed” and “pestered” his homeland security secretary over immigration policy, demanding that the US border be closed, according to A Very Stable Genius, written by the Washington Post journalists Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig.
The book, obtained by the Guardian, details the president’s obsessive tunnel vision on illegal immigration and how it impacted one of the leaders of the department charged with restricting immigration.
“In some instances, the volatile president was verbally and emotionally abusive toward Nielsen,” the authors write. “‘Kirstjen, you’re just not tough enough,’ Trump would tell her. Trump complained Nielsen did not “look the part” of homeland security secretary.
“He made fun of her and believed that at about five feet four inches she was not physically intimidating. ‘She’s so short,’ Trump would tell others about Nielsen. She and Kelly would try to make light of it. Kelly would rib her and say, ‘But you’ve got those little fists of fury!’”
The president has weighed-in on Pelosi’s press conference:
Here we go again, another Con Job by the Do Nothing Democrats. All of this work was supposed to be done by the House, not the Senate!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 15, 2020
And the White House:
The only thing Speaker Pelosi has achieved with this sham, illegitimate impeachment process, is to prove she is focused on politics instead of the American people. The Speaker lied when she claimed this was urgent and vital to national security because when the articles passed, she held them for an entire month in an egregious effort to garner political support. She failed and the naming of these managers does not change a single thing. President Trump has done nothing wrong. He looks forward to having the due process rights in the Senate that Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats denied to him, and expects to be fully exonerated. In the meantime, after President Trump signs the historic China Trade Deal greatly benefiting the people of this country, he will continue working and winning for all Americans, while the Democrats will continue only working against the President.
Reporting from Pelosi’s press conference in DC, Guardian senior political reporter, Lauren Gambino, has details on the announcement:
After a cloak-and-dagger selection process – during which members lobbied for a position on the team – the newly-selected managers appeared at a press conference ahead of a vote to formally approve their appointment.
The team includes: House Intelligence chair Adam Schiff; House Judiciary chair Jerry Nadler; Zoe Lofgren, who has participated in three impeachment proceedings; Democratic caucus chair, Hakeem Jeffries; Val Demmings, who was Orlando’s first female chief of police; Jason Crow, a veteran Army Ranger who served in Iraq and Afghanistan; and Sylvia Garcia, one of the first two Latinas elected from Texas in 2018.
The team includes woman, two African Americans and one Latina - a stark contrast from the teams appointed to make the case for removing Andrew Johnson from office in 1868 and Bill Clinton from office in 1999.
“The House has demonstrated its courage and patriotism,” Pelosi said. “Our managers reflect those values, and will now honor their responsibility to defend democracy for the people with great seriousness, solemnity and moral strength.”
The House will start debate on a resolution to approve the impeachment managers and take a vote shortly after that. Then the articles are formally transmitted to the Senate in a process that’s rich in pomp and circumstances. The managers will escort the articles in a wooden box across the Capitol and physically deliver them to the Senate.
Updated
While announcing the impeachment managers, Pelosi defends the month gap between the House voting for impeachment and today’s transmission of the articles of impeachment to the Senate. “Time has been our friend in all of this,” Pelosi says.
Schiff is the lead manager, Pelosi says, while going down the list to highlight the accomplishments of each manager. This will be the third impeachment hearing for Lofgren, who was a Congressional aide during Nixon’s impeachment, notes Pelosi.
“The emphasis is on litigators, the emphasis is on comfort level in the courtroom,” Pelosi says.
Today, I have the privilege of naming the Managers of the impeachment trial of the President. #DefendOurDemocracy pic.twitter.com/Y2613Ni3pC
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) January 15, 2020
Pelosi announces impeachment managers
Nancy Pelosi is addressing the press with seven Democrats, her impeachment managers, standing by her side.
The team is:
- Adam Schiff, of California
- Zoe Lofgren, of California
- Jerry Nadler, of New York
- Hakeem Jeffries, of New York
- Slyvia Garcia, of Texas
- Val Demings, of Florida
- Jason Crow, of Colorado
.@SpeakerPelosi enters with her newly appointed impeachment managers pic.twitter.com/Iwe6qbKVkh
— Lauren Gambino (@laurenegambino) January 15, 2020
The US and China will sign the first phase of a trade deal today. While Treasury secretary Stephen Mnuchin declared this morning its “an enormous win,” there has been a more temperate response from analysts.
Live updates and analysis on the agreement are available on our business live blog:
Politico is reporting that after a monthslong delay, the Trump administration will release $8bn in disaster aid to Puerto Rico for the damage it suffered after two hurricanes in 2017. Congress allocated $20bn to aid the recovery there, but the island has received just $1.5bn of that money.
The Trump administration has been under increased pressure to release the money after a string of earthquakes struck the island in the past several weeks. Nancy Pelosi on Thursday called on the administration to “cease and desist that illegal activity.”
In September 2018, Trump was attacked for saying his government’s response to Hurricane Maria was an “unsung success.”
The night before the House was set to send articles of impeachment to the Senate, House Democrats released a fresh trove of documents which shed new light on charges that Donald Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate Democrats as he withheld military aid to the country.
Pages of text messages, notes and other records added pressure on Republicans to include witness testimony and other evidence in the Senate impeachment trial. It also renewed Democrats calls for the White House to share documents it has withheld from Congress.
The documents from Lev Parnas, a close associate of Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, show the two men’s close relationship as Giuliani worked to get the Ukrainian government to announce investigation’s targeting Trump’s political rivals.
The rough itinerary for the impeachment proceedings today:
- 10am ET: House speaker Nancy Pelosi announces the impeachment managers, the individuals tasked with making a case against the president to the Senate, which functions as a jury in the trial.
- 12.30 pm to 1.30 pm ET: following a 10 minute debate, the House will vote on the impeachment managers.
- 5pm ET: a ceremony filled with pomp and circumstance held by Pelosi and the managers will see the articles of impeachment hand-delivered to the Senate.
Updated
Hello and good morning
Today, the House will vote on sharing the two articles of impeachment with the Senate, which would allow the trial of Donald Trump to begin this week.
At 10am, Nancy Pelosi will announce the managers of the trial and a couple hours later, there will be a short debate before a vote in the House. At 5pm, a ceremony to formally send the articles of impeachment to the Senate will take place.
The early phase of the trial would involve swearing-in senators as jurors and other procedures before more substantive action begins early next week.
It also means half the Democratic field for president will be locked into the trial, strictly limiting their campaigning. Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar will be tied to the case because they are senators.
The three were in Des Moines, Iowa last night for the final Democratic debate before the Iowa caucuses. More on that here:
