Pastor Robert Jeffress praises Donald Trump at White House Hanukkah event
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Donald Trump is set to face impeachment in the House of Representatives, becoming the fourth president in US history to face removal from office on charges of misconduct after the House Judiciary Committee'prepares to send articles of impeachment to the full Congress.
The full House is expected to vote on impeachment next week.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she doesn't plan to whip votes to support impeachment, saying that House leadership won't pressure Democrats in vulnerable districts or moderate Democrats fearing political fallout from supporting efforts to remove the president from office.
She said: "We are not whipping this legislation, nor do we ever whip something like this. People have to come to their own conclusions. They've seen the facts as presented ... They'll make their own decision. I don't say anything to them."
Meanwhile, the president had an explosive day on Twitter, including an attack on teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg after she was named TIME magazine’s Person of the Year ahead of him as the committee prepared to resume its debate over articles of impeachment threatening to end his presidency.
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“So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!” the president wrote on Twitter.
The president's campaign also shared a photo of the TIME cover with Mr Trump's face superimposed over the teenage climate activist.
Mr Trump also faced criticism for hosting notoriously antisemitic Texan pastor Robert Jeffress at his White House Hanukkah party, a man who once claimed Jews would go to hell and that Mr Trump’s impeachment would cause a “Civil War-like fracture” in American society.
Following House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler's opening statement, Doug Collins is calling for a vote on his sustaining a point of order.
Other Democrats are meanwhile moving to table the vote. Effectively, this is just a game of committee rules as Republicans attempt to interfere and disrupt the proceedings.
Mr Collins has now called for a roll call, forcing all of the committee members to pause the proceeding and vote on whether to move forward.
Some analysis from The Independent's Andrew Feinberg as he watches the hearings from within the proceeding room:
Chairman Nadler just recounted how during proceedings to consider articles of impeachment against Bill Clinton, then-Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner cut off the lights and microphones rather than recognize Democrats who wanted to speak.
The committee is now voting to sustain Nadler’s ruling against Ranking Member Collins’ request to delay the markup until Nadler agrees to hold a “minority day” hearing for Republicans to call Hunter Biden, the IC whistleblower, etc as witnesses.
Doug Collins is objecting to House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler's change in the impeachment articles to switch the president's name in the charges from "Donald J Trump" to simply "Donald Trump".
The Republican ranking member basically used the objection to segue into his own statement, in which he is now attacking the Democrats and even the media. He's saying the impeachment proceedings are creating the "death" of the House Judiciary Committee, since no Republicans are in support of the articles.
Democrat Ted Deutch is now speaking out against Republican Ranking Member Doug Collins' attacks on the impeachment process, while pointing out that the president was invited "to advocate for his views" but "he chose not to attend and chose not to suggest any witnesses."
"So before telling us the sky is falling", he adds, "it's important to look at the rules."
"Everything that's being done here is consistent with more than 50 years of rules", Mr Deutch said.
Democrat David Cicilline is now laying out points of evidence against Donald Trump that support the impeachment articles against him, while pointing out the connection between the president's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and former Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch's removal from her post.
Some analysis from The Independent's Andrew Feinberg as he watches the proceedings from within the room where the hearings are being held:
You can expect lots of Republican amendments today.
Before the hearing I spoke with Rep. Eddie Johnson, R-Louisiana, who told me “several” Republicans will be offering amendments and “everybody” will participate.
“You can expect several to be substantive to strike and replace language, we want to clarify for example, that there was no quid pro quo and put in more of the facts.”
“I think more fact-based is the way you’d say it [as opposed to making them more favorable to President Trump], so we’ll see how it comes out.”
Republican Debbie Lesko is slamming the impeachment process and noting how the committee did not hear from any fact witnesses.
What Ms Lesko is not mentioning is that the White House was invited to offer witnesses to dispute the findings of the impeachment inquiry. There were in fact several instances for the administration to refute the facts, and they declined to send counsel or witnesses each time.
"I believe the president of the United States is right: this is a sham impeachment, and it really is a shame", Ms Lesko concluded.
More from Democrat Ted Deutch's statement disputing the Republican talking point that the White House has not had chances to object to the impeachment articles against Donald Trump:
"We invited the president of the United States to the December 4th hearing to advocate for his views ... but he chose not to attend ... Facts really do matter. We're not going to allow the minority to misinterpret the rules for their own benefit."
The Independent's Andrew Feinberg notes: Republican Jim Sensenbrenner, who chaired the committee during the Clinton impeachment, is mischaracterizing the depositions that took place before the House Foreign Affairs, Intelligence and Oversight Committees as “secret hearings.” They were not. They were depositions conducted in the Intelligence Committee’s secure facility.
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