Looking ahead to the finale
Welcome back to the Impeachment Briefing. Today we’re looking ahead to the big House finale: the full vote tomorrow on the two articles of impeachment. |
- More House Democrats said that they would vote in favor of the articles of impeachment against President Trump, including Representatives Kendra Horn of Oklahoma, Anthony Brindisi of New York and Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey. The decision by the moderate lawmakers, who are among the most politically vulnerable Democrats, signals that the House vote expected on Wednesday is likely to be almost entirely along party lines.
- Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, rejected demands by Democrats to call four White House officials as witnesses, including John Bolton, Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser, and Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff. “If House Democrats’ case is this deficient, this thin, the answer is not for the judge and jury to cure it here in the Senate,” Mr. McConnell said.
- Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, said that holding a trial without witnesses “would be an aberration” and vowed to demand votes on whether to call witnesses and subpoena documents during the trial. “Impeachment trials, like most trials, have witnesses,” he said.
- Mr. Trump sent Speaker Nancy Pelosi a six-page letter denouncing the impeachment inquiry and his political opponents, writing that he wanted to “put my thoughts on a permanent and indelible record.”
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What happens tomorrow, and what it means |
The full House vote tomorrow will come only after hours of debate. I asked my colleague Nick Fandos, who has been covering impeachment for months, what to expect. |
What time will everything start? How long will it last? |
Debate should start on the House floor around 9 a.m. and will probably last all day, ahead of a likely vote in the early evening. |
Republicans can employ parliamentary tactics to disrupt the proceedings: They could move for the House to adjourn or force the House to vote to stay in session. But given that the House floor is governed by strict rules, and that the debate has a time limit, Republicans are unlikely to significantly throw things off. |
Tomorrow will probably be a mix of decorum and chaos, fiery speeches and sober appeals. (In 1998, on the day of the full House vote to impeach President Bill Clinton, the Democrats at one point stormed out of the chamber in protest.) |
Once it’s time for the vote, the House will handle the two articles of impeachment separately, in close succession, and then adopt a procedural measure to lay out what comes next. That will involve the appointment of impeachment managers and the transmission of the articles to the Senate. |
The Senate trial begins if and when the House transmits the bill of impeachment to the Senate. It’s at the House’s discretion when that occurs. The expectation is that it will happen before Christmas, and that the trial will be begin early in the new year. |
What will you be watching for? |
One of the things I’m interested in, and I think is going to be made very plain tomorrow, is the power of party-first politics in a highly polarized country. It will show partisanship prevailing here over whatever the merits of the case might be. It doesn’t seem to me an accident that almost every Republican and every Democrat will vote with his or her party. It will underscore the dual worlds coexisting in the country. |
How heavy-handed will Democrats be? |
The debate and the vote will expose what might not be the most savory aspect of Congress: The majority rules, and it rules completely. Republicans can protest and argue as much as they want. But Democrats set the rules. The House, a majoritarian institution, is tasked with presenting the charges to the Senate, which is supposed to be a less partisan, more balanced arbiter. |
What about the moderate Democrats who have come out in favor of impeachment? |
There will probably be a chance for most moderates to say why, despite running for office almost universally on kitchen table economic issues, they’re casting this consequential vote to remove a president. All of them enter this vote not knowing what it will mean for them politically. They have to think about what the cost of that ambiguity might be, both for them and Republicans. |
Does tomorrow signal the end of the impeachment case for House Democrats? |
The House will follow the case to the Senate and form the prosecution, meaning a small appointed group of House members and their lawyers will trek over to that side of the Capitol and make the case for impeachment. They might make a push to get new evidence presented in the Senate trial. That is kind of their final venue for the work that they have been doing over the past three months. |
The Times will have live coverage throughout the day on nytimes.com. Here’s a handy guide to the schedule for the week in Congress. And here’s a list of where every member of the House stands on impeachment. |
- My colleague Ken Vogel talked last night to Rudy Giuliani, who offered new details about his push to remove the former ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch. Mr. Giuliani said that he had briefed the president “a couple of times” about her and how he believed she was impeding investigations that could benefit Mr. Trump. Mr. Giuliani said the president then connected him to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to discuss Ms. Yovanovitch, who was recalled weeks later.
- Four of my colleagues who covered President Bill Clinton’s impeachment reminisced about that time and how it echoes in today’s coverage.
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