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Vivian Ho in San Francisco (now) and Jessica Glenza in New York (earlier)

Democrat opposed to Trump impeachment officially switches parties – as it happened

Live political reporting continues in Friday’s blog:

OK pals, that’s it for me. Does everyone have their debate bingo cards ready?

Make sure to follow my intrepid colleagues Sam Levin, Lois Beckett and Joan Greve as they cover this debate.

And for sure, make sure you tune into the debate live blog!

Mark your calendars.

At this historic moment ...

A message from the Guardian US editor-in-chief:

The president of the United States has been impeached. Let’s remind ourselves just what is at stake. To quote from the articles of impeachment: “President Trump has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to national security and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office.”

There has never been a more urgent demonstration of the need for an independent press in the US. With your support, we can continue to provide fact-based reporting that offers public scrutiny and oversight.

At a time when both media and politics are scarred by polarization, the Guardian remains an independent voice. Freed from the influence of an owner or shareholders, our independence is our unique driving force and guiding principle.

As 2020 approaches, we’re asking our US readers to help us raise $1.5m by early January to support our journalism. We hope you’ll consider making a year-end gift.

We also want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported the Guardian in 2019. You provide us with the motivation and financial support to keep doing what we do.

Make a contribution.

Christianity Today: Trump should be removed from office

Christianity Today, the evangelical Christian magazine founded by televangelist Billy Graham, called for Donald Trump’s removal from office following the president’s impeachment, marking a significant split from what has typically been Trump’s staunch base.

Editor-in-chief Mark Galli wrote that “the facts in this instance are unambiguous: The president of the United States attempted to use his political power to coerce a foreign leader to harass and discredit one of the president’s political opponents.”

“That is not only a violation of the Constitution; more importantly, it is profoundly immoral,” he wrote.

“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,” Galli continued. “The impeachment hearings have illuminated the president’s moral deficiencies for all to see. This damages the institution of the presidency, damages the reputation of our country, and damages both the spirit and the future of our people.”

Trump won the 2016 election with 81% of the white Christian evangelical vote, and support of evangelicals like Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University. Evangelical supporters were able to make peace with Trump’s history of marital infidelity and “grab them by the pussy” comments with his hard-right court appointments and Supreme Court nominees, but Galli pointed out the hypocrisy of this in his editorial, writing, “this president has dumbed down the idea of morality in his administration.”

“He has hired and fired a number of people who are now convicted criminals,” Galli wrote. “He himself has admitted to immoral actions in business and his relationship with women, about which he remains proud. His Twitter feed alone—with its habitual string of mischaracterizations, lies, and slanders—is a near perfect example of a human being who is morally lost and confused.”

Galli noted that Christianity Today typically does not weigh in on politics, but that the magazine wrote a similar editorial in 1998, when Bill Clinton was impeached. “Unfortunately, the words that we applied to Mr. Clinton 20 years ago apply almost perfectly to our current president,” he wrote.

“To the many evangelicals who continue to support Mr. Trump in spite of his blackened moral record, we might say this: Remember who you are and whom you serve,” Galli wrote. “Consider how your justification of Mr. Trump influences your witness to your Lord and Savior. Consider what an unbelieving world will say if you continue to brush off Mr. Trump’s immoral words and behavior in the cause of political expediency. If we don’t reverse course now, will anyone take anything we say about justice and righteousness with any seriousness for decades to come?”

Bernie Sanders weighs in on Donald Trump’s comments on US Representative John Dingell:

“Putin told me.”

That’s what a former senior White House official says Donald Trump stated when expressing his theory that Ukraine tried to prevent him from winning the 2016 election, according to the Washington Post.

After meeting privately in July 2017 with Russian President Vladi­mir Putin at the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Trump grew more insistent that Ukraine worked to defeat him, according to multiple former officials familiar with his assertions.

The president’s intense resistance to the assessment of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia systematically interfered in the 2016 campaign — and the blame he cast instead on a rival country — led many of his advisers to think that Putin himself helped spur the idea of Ukraine’s culpability, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions.

Amid speculation that he’ll leave his post to run for Senate, the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, gets a new deputy.

The Senate voted 90-3 to confirm Stephen Biegun to be the deputy secretary, according to the Associated Press.

The position was previously filled by John Sullivan, who was confirmed to be the new ambassador to Russia.

Should Pompeo step down to run for Senate in his home state of Kansas next year, Biegun, a former Ford Motor Company executive who currently serves as the US special representative for North Korea, “is widely expected to fill the secretary of state job at least on an interim basis”, the Associated Press reports.

Updated

Hi all, Vivian Ho on the west coast taking over the blog very briefly before some adults get on national television to yell about things. Let’s keep it calm, OK?

The president has been impeached, now what?

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi left open questions about when she would send articles of impeachment to the Senate.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi left open questions about when she would send articles of impeachment to the Senate. Photograph: Erin Scott/Reuters

The question remains unanswered, as Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has not yet sent articles of impeachment, the formal charges against Trump, to the Senate.

  • Once in the Senate, lawmakers will begin a trial. A major question surrounding that trial is who the impeachment “managers” will be.
  • We know they will be House Democrats, but Pelosi declined to say who she would select on Thursday.
  • She also said she is holding on to articles of impeachment until she knows whether there will be a fair trial in the Senate.
  • Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is certain to be adversarial, and delivered a full throated attack on Democrats’ impeachment investigation this morning.
  • Notably, he did not defend President Trump on the facts of the case.

Incredibly, it’s also the sixth Democratic presidential debate tonight.

  • The new Democratic presidential field, winnowed by party requirements to qualify for televised debates, will be whiter than in months past.
  • A new Iowa poll shows more voters are beginning to dislike b billionaires Tom Steyer and Mike Bloomberg. Steyer will be on stage tonight.

And one last thing...

  • The Democrat-led House also approved the renegotiated US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, a win for the Trump administration. The Senate will likely take up the measure in the New Year.

House approves renegotiated North American trade agreement

More from AP:

One day after its historic impeachment votes, the Democratic-led House gave President Donald Trump an overwhelming bipartisan victory Thursday on a renegotiated trade agreement with Canada and Mexico.

By a 385-41 vote, the House approved a bill that puts in place terms of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

The legislation passed after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and her colleagues won key concessions from an administration anxious to pass the trade deal before next year’s election season makes that task more difficult.

The deal is projected to have only a modest impact on the economy. But it gives lawmakers from both parties the chance to support an agreement sought by farmers, ranchers and business owners anxious to move past the months of trade tensions that have complicated spending and hiring decisions.

The GOP-controlled Senate probably will take up the legislation when members return to Washington after the holidays and after dealing with impeachment.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s speech this morning, which repeatedly invoked the importance of “precedent,” has prompted a discussion about former US Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland on Twitter.

Garland was President Obama’s nominee for Supreme Court, but McConnell refused to hold confirmation hearings, breaking with... ahem, tradition.

Anti-impeachment Democrat, Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, has officially switched parties to become a Republican. Here’s more from the Associated Press:

Van Drew, a Democrat who switched and became a Republican, represents a southern New Jersey district Trump carried in 2016 and was expected to face a difficult reelection next year.
Van Drew, a Democrat who switched and became a Republican, represents a southern New Jersey district Trump carried in 2016 and was expected to face a difficult reelection next year. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP

President Donald Trump announced Thursday that Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a New Jersey Democrat who broke with his party to vote against Trump’s impeachment, is becoming a Republican.

“Jeff will be joining the Republican Party,” Trump announced during an Oval Office appearance with Van Drew, who told his staff over the weekend that he would become a Republican.

Van Drew on Wednesday voted against the articles of impeachment as a Democrat, a move that aided GOP attempts to depict Democrats as divided on the matter while Republicans voted unanimously against impeachment.

“I believe that this is just a better fit for me,” Van Drew said of joining the GOP. Trump announced that he is endorsing Van Drew for reelection, calling him “a tremendous asset for the party.”

At this historic moment ...

… a message from the Guardian US editor-in-chief:

The president of the United States has been impeached. Let’s remind ourselves what’s at stake. To quote from the articles of impeachment: “President Trump has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to national security and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office.”

When a country’s constitutional foundation is under threat it needs robust, independent institutions to help protect it. If ever there was a need for media oversight and public scrutiny it is now.

Over the last three years, much of what the Guardian holds dear has been threatened – democracy, civility, truth. This US administration is establishing new norms of behaviour. Lying is commonplace. Truth is being chased away. But with your help we can continue to keep it center stage.

As 2020 approaches, we’re asking our US readers to help us raise $1.5m by early January to support our journalism. We hope you’ll consider making a year-end gift.

We also want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported the Guardian in 2019. You provide us with the motivation and financial support to keep doing what we do.

Make a contribution.

A conservative radio station canceled a show that made a joke about school shootings. Here is more from the Associated Press:

A Denver, Colorado radio station has canceled a scheduled program after one of the hosts said a school shooting would help break up media coverage of impeachment proceedings.

Chuck Bonniwell from the show “Chuck & Julie” was complaining Tuesday about an abundance of media coverage on the impeachment of President Donald Trump.

“You wish for a nice school shooting to interrupt the monotony,” Bonniwell said. His co-host and wife Julie Hayden immediately reprimanded him and told listeners not to call in.

Radio executives immediately canceled the show.

KNUS-AM gave an official statement on its website stating that the 1-4 p.m. weekday slot would now feature the Salem Network show America First hosted by Sebastian Gorka. Bonniwell said Wednesday his comment was meant as a joke.

“Making a statement like that is just unbelievable to me, especially our family. I couldn’t believe it,” said John Castillo, the father of the high school student killed last May at a high school in suburban Denver when two students opened fire and also wounded eight others.

Castillo also told KDVR-TV: “People always say they’re sorry - we’re sorry for your loss, sorry for the statement we made - make it your life work to prove it. Do something different. Advocate for good.”

KNUS-AM is owned by Salem Media Group, which specializes in Christian and conservative content.

Here’s more on what to expect from today’s Democratic presidential candidate debate tonight, from Guardian reporter Sam Levin:

Looming over the high-stakes debate are those who won’t be in attendance. The Democratic National Committee said candidates had to hit at least 4% in four national polls or at least 6% in two early-state polls in the weeks leading up to the event in order to qualify. The candidates also had to attract at least 200,000 donors.

That leaves no black or Latino candidates among the nearly all-white lineup of Democratic frontrunners. Senator Cory Booker and the former housing secretary Julián Castro both failed to qualify for the debate, and Senator Kamala Harris recently ended her campaign amid polling showing her far behind in California, her home state.

Also absent from the event will be Michael Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor and billionaire who made a late entrance into the race last monthand has poured an estimated $13.5m into TV ads in California. Steyer, the other billionaire in the race, has spent roughly $1.6m on ads in the state.

Republicans in Ohio are exploring whether to repeal the death penalty, and Republican State House speaker Larry Householder has provided a description of his deliberations to the Associated Press:

Well, I don’t think we want to come back to hanging, and I don’t think shootings would be good,” he said. “Electrocution is sort of off the table. I don’t know what the method would be. It seems like chemical injection is not working out very well for us, so I don’t know what else there is.”

State House Republicans are discussing abolition because the drug cocktail used to execute inmates has been difficult to obtain.

This is the same state caucus that introduced a bill to make “aggravated abortion murder” a capital offense, and would have required doctors to “re-implant” ectopic pregnancies, which is not possible.

Former New York City Mayor and billionaire Mike Bloomberg released a plan to fix American healthcare “once and for all”.

Just one of the tenets of his plan is to charge retirees $300 per year to receive vision, dental and hearing coverage. Currently, Medicare covers health the majority of health expenses for seniors and the disabled, but exempts those categories.

People qualify for Medicare at age 65. Here is more from a 2016 NPR story:

What ends up happening is that almost everybody, when they get to be 65, is sort of on their own and they have to pay for dental care out of pocket,” says Dr. Michael Helgeson, chief executive officer of Apple Tree Dental.

More than one-third of low-income seniors, or people with incomes of $23,000 or less, have tooth decay NPR reported. At the time the story was published, more than half of all people on Medicare lived with incomes below $26,200. An analysis by Kaiser Family Foundation found 21.4 million seniors live in poverty.

The Republican-controlled Senate removed an explicit mention of “white nationalists” from screening provision in military spending bill.

A new poll suggests Iowans are growing weary of billionaires. The Iowa State University shows a familiar pattern of two tiers of candidates, with billionaires at the bottom.

“Iowa Democrats have been unwelcoming to [Mike] Bloomberg ever since he announced his candidacy, but the negative opinions of [Tom] Steyer have increased,” said Dave Peterson, a professor and Whitaker Lindgren faculty fellow in political science who organizes the poll. “Many of the respondents seem to think of them as a pair, indicating opposition to the billionaires in the race.” Of the pair, only Steyer will appear on stage tonight.

The poll surveyed the attitudes of more than 600 likely Iowa caucus-goers online.

At this historic moment ...

… a message from the Guardian US editor-in-chief:

The president of the United States has been impeached. Let’s remind ourselves what’s at stake. To quote from the articles of impeachment: “President Trump has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to national security and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office.”

When a country’s constitutional foundation is under threat it needs robust, independent institutions to help protect it. If ever there was a need for media oversight and public scrutiny it is now.

Over the last three years, much of what the Guardian holds dear has been threatened – democracy, civility, truth. This US administration is establishing new norms of behaviour. Lying is commonplace. Truth is being chased away. But with your help we can continue to keep it center stage.

As 2020 approaches, we’re asking our US readers to help us raise $1.5m by early January to support our journalism. We hope you’ll consider making a year-end gift.

We also want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported the Guardian in 2019. You provide us with the motivation and financial support to keep doing what we do.

Make a contribution.

A Democrat in a conservative New Jersey district is expected to announce, after days of reporting, he is officially changing parties.

Following on our earlier post about Georgia canceling a small portion of its voter purge, New Jersey restored the voting rights of 80,000 people yesterday.

The House has delayed sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate. What if it never sends them? The lawyers are looking at it.

Just a few days after Georgia purged 313,000 voters and roughly 4% of electorate from rolls...

Pelosi also addressed President Trump’s comments about former US Representative John Dingell, now deceased.

“Let us pray for the president,” Pelosi said. “The president clearly is insecure when it comes to states-persons... Cruelty is not wit, just because he gets a laugh for saying cruel things doesn’t mean he’s funny. It’s not funny at all, it’s sad.”

Trump said at a rally in Michigan, Dingell’s home state, that Dingell was “looking up” from Hell.

At this historic moment ...

… a message from the Guardian US editor-in-chief:

The president of the United States has been impeached. Let’s remind ourselves what’s at stake. To quote from the articles of impeachment: “President Trump has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to national security and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office.”

When a country’s constitutional foundation is under threat it needs robust, independent institutions to help protect it. If ever there was a need for media oversight and public scrutiny it is now.

Over the last three years, much of what the Guardian holds dear has been threatened – democracy, civility, truth. This US administration is establishing new norms of behaviour. Lying is commonplace. Truth is being chased away. But with your help we can continue to keep it center stage.

As 2020 approaches, we’re asking our US readers to help us raise $1.5m by early January to support our journalism. We hope you’ll consider making a year-end gift.

We also want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported the Guardian in 2019. You provide us with the motivation and financial support to keep doing what we do.

Make a contribution.

Updated

Pelosi: 'Rogue president and rogue leader in the Senate'

The next step in the impeachment proceedings is for House speaker Nancy Pelosi to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate, where there will be a trial, and to select “impeachment managers” from House representatives to present the case to the Senate.

She said Thursday she would not announce who might be chosen until terms of the trial are set with the Senate.

“We would hope there would be a fair process just as we would hope they would honor the constitution,” Pelosi said about Senate Republicans.

“It reminded me that our founders, when they wrote the Constitution, they suspected there could be a rogue president. I don’t think they suspected we could have a rogue president and a rogue leader in the senate at the same time,” she said.

Updated

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gets right to the impeachment today: “No one is above the law.”

Another familiar talking point from McConnell:

While we wait for Speaker Pelosi to come on, here’s a couple more things happening in Washington DC today:

  • White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham told Good Morning America daily press briefings are not being held because reporters used it as an opportunity for “theater” and to “sell books”. Grisham’s predecessor stopped daily briefings.
  • Trump ally Representative Mark Meadows of North Carolina will not seek reelection – his name is reportedly being floated for positions inside the administration.
  • Democrats will try to pry voter’s attention from impeachment drama tonight, as they hold a primary debate in Los Angeles. The field is narrowing and getting whiter.

We are zooming right into the next speech this morning. At 10:45am ET House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will speak at her weekly press conference.

Senate Minority Chuck Schumer argues the Senate should hear from witnesses and see documents in the impeachment trial of President Trump.
Senate Minority Chuck Schumer argues the Senate should hear from witnesses and see documents in the impeachment trial of President Trump. Photograph: AP

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer is speaking now, and making the case for the US Senate to hear from four witnesses for four hours each during the trial. He argued McConnell is trying to block testimony from all witnesses.

“Is the president’s case so weak that none of the president’s men can defend him under oath?” said Schumer.

“The nation turns its eyes to the Senate, what will it see?” The president, in the past, has argued he has “absolute immunity.”

“If the Republicans proceed with the majority leaders’ scheme to sweep these charges under the rug, they will be creating a precedent that will long be remembered as one of the senate’s darkest chapters,” said Schumer.

Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is now responding to McConnell’s speech... We will bring you live updates here.

McConnell dares Democrats to send articles to Senate

“House Democrats may be too afraid to even transmit their shoddy work product to the Senate,” said McConnell. “Looks like the prosecutors are getting cold feet in front of the entire country, and second guessing whether they want to do to trial.”

Updated

At this historic moment ...

A message from the Guardian US editor-in-chief:

The president of the United States has been impeached. Let’s remind ourselves just what is at stake. To quote from the articles of impeachment: “President Trump has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to national security and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office.”

There has never been a more urgent demonstration of the need for an independent press in the US. With your support, we can continue to provide fact-based reporting that offers public scrutiny and oversight.

At a time when both media and politics are scarred by polarization, the Guardian remains an independent voice. Freed from the influence of an owner or shareholders, our independence is our unique driving force and guiding principle.

As 2020 approaches, we’re asking our US readers to help us raise $1.5m by early January to support our journalism. We hope you’ll consider making a year-end gift.

We also want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported the Guardian in 2019. You provide us with the motivation and financial support to keep doing what we do.

Make a contribution.

“Long after the partisan fever of this moment has broken the institutional damage will remain,” McConnell argues.

McConnell’s speech has broadly argued that the House, by not citing criminal statues, has passed weak articles of impeachment, and that if the Senate convicts the president in a trial it would invite constant impeachment trials.

He continued that if “extraordinary tool of last resort could become part of the arms race” of partisanship.”

President Trump, he said, is not the first president with a “populist streak” and “not the first to make entrenched elites feel uncomfortable”.

Here is more from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell:

Democrats didn’t have to rush this, but they chose to stick to their political time table at the expense of pursuing more evidence through proper legal channels,” said McConnell. “Nobody made Chairman Schiff do this, he chose to.”

US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is speaking now and has come out strongly in defense of the president:

Democrats, “finally did what they decided to do a long time ago – they voted to impeach President Trump,” said McConnell. He called the inquiry “the most rushed, least thorough and most unfair impeachment inquiry in modern history.”

President Trump is the third president in US history to be impeached.

US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is expected to begin speaking any moment. You can watch along with us here.

Trump is impeached – but what happens next is unclear

Welcome to this epic morning the night after impeachment, US politics watchers. There will be no shortage of action today. Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell is about to make an address on the floor.

And with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi now threatening to delay sending articles of impeachment to the Senate for the congressional trial of the president, this sets up an immediate, major conflict between the two most powerful figures on Capitol Hill. Stay tuned.

In a historic vote last night, the House impeached Donald Trump for high crimes and misdemeanors. But it is unclear exactly how the impeachment process will move forward.

Pelosi must formally deliver the articles of impeachment to the Senate for the trial to start, but may be holding on to them until she receives assurances of a fair trial in the Senate. Today is the last day of business in the House before Christmas, with no sign of Pelosi budging.

MccConnell announced he will speak on the Senate floor at 9:30am ET. He is known as a master tactician, and has successfully delayed important Democratic initiatives in the past, notably the confirmation hearings of former US Supreme Court Justice Merrick Garland. The Senate is not in session for several weeks.

President Trump is already tweeting about the impeachment this morning, and making it known he is counting on the Senate to save his hide.

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