House pushes to impeach Trump after deadly Capitol riot

Republicans just blocked a bill introduced by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer aimed at pushing President Trump out of office through the 25th Amendment. 

Democrats on Monday sought to take up a resolution from Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland urging Vice President Mike Pence and the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment, but it was blocked by Republicans. 

Hoyer tried to pass the resolution Monday through unanimous consent. West Virginia Republican Rep. Alex Mooney objected to the request.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said the Democrats will move to bring the resolution for a full floor vote on Tuesday.

The House is now adjourned until 9 a.m. ET tomorrow.

Some more background: Democrats are calling on Pence to respond within 24 hours, she said. If that does not happen, Democrats will bring their impeachment resolution to the floor. House Democrats unveiled the articles of impeachment against Trump today.

The single impeachment article points to Trump's repeated false claims that he won the election and his speech to the crowd on Jan. 6 before pro-Trump rioters breached the Capitol. It also cited Trump's call with the Georgia Republican secretary of state where the President urged him to "find" enough votes for Trump to win the state.

Watch the moment:

The House just gaveled in, and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer will go to the floor to try to get quick passage of a bill to push President Trump out of office through the 25th Amendment. 

Republicans are expected to block that measure. The articles of impeachment against Trump are then expected to be formally announced.

The single impeachment article points to Trump's repeated false claims that he won the election and his speech to the crowd on Jan. 6 before pro-Trump rioters breached the Capitol. It also cited Trump's call with the Georgia Republican secretary of state where the President urged him to "find" enough votes for Trump to win the state.

Some more background: The impeachment resolution is Democrats' first step toward holding an impeachment vote this week to make Trump the first president in history to be impeached for a second time.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told House Democrats on Sunday evening that the House would proceed with bringing an impeachment resolution to the floor this week unless Vice President Mike Pence moves to invoke the 25th Amendment with a majority of the Cabinet to remove Trump from power.

Pelosi said that if they were blocked, the House would consider the measure on Tuesday. Democrats are calling on Pence to respond within 24 hours, she said. If that does not happen, Democrats will bring their impeachment resolution to the floor.

Timing of an impeachment vote is still fluid, though the expectation is it would happen on Wednesday.

The Washington Monument will close to visitors for more than two weeks, a time period that includes the inauguration, the National Park Service announced Monday, citing threats from the groups behind the Capitol riot to “disrupt the 59th presidential inauguration.”  

The park service said it also “may institute temporary closures of public access to roadways, parking areas and restrooms within the National Mall and Memorial Parks if conditions warrant, to protect public safety and park resources.”  

The Washington Monument is the tallest structure in the District of Columbia and sits near the White House. 

Crowds typically congregate on the National Mall between the Capitol complex and the White House to watch presidential inauguration take place. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, this year’s festivities were already going to be different.  

Several other park sites in the area are currently closed because of the pandemic, the park service noted in its statement. 

Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser on Monday urged Americans to avoid Washington during President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration on Jan. 20 and to participate virtually.

This comes as the mayor asked President Trump to declare a pre-emergency declaration for DC due to "unprecedented challenges" and the "domestic terror attack on the United States Capitol" and as coronavirus cases surge in the District. 

​Bowser is also asking Interior Department to cancel public gathering permits from Jan. 10 to 24.

Bowser told reporters during a Monday news conference that the District's goal now is "to protect the District of Columbia from a repeat of the violent insurrection experienced at the Capitol and its grounds."

The New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) has opened an inquiry into the removal of President Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani from its membership, according to an announcement from the organization Monday.  

NYSBA received hundreds of complaints in recent months regarding Giuliani's efforts to challenge the veracity of the 2020 presidential election on the President's behalf, according to an NYSBA statement.   

Note: The NYSBA is a voluntary bar association that cannot disbar Giuliani, so the ousting would not prevent him from representing President Trump in an impeachment trial or other pending litigation against him.  

The NYSBA sees Giuliani's role in fueling the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill violence as potential grounds for removal, according to the statement.

President Trump's personal attorney will have the option to contest his NYSBA removal, it says.  

"NYSBA’s bylaws state that “no person who advocates the overthrow of the government of the United States, or of any state, territory or possession thereof, or of any political subdivision therein, by force or other illegal means, shall be a member of the Association." Mr. Giuliani’s words quite clearly were intended to encourage Trump supporters unhappy with the election’s outcome to take matters into their own hands. Their subsequent attack on the Capitol was nothing short of an attempted coup, intended to prevent the peaceful transition of power," the statement says.  

Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse is calling on his colleagues — Sens. Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, Ron Johnson and possibly others — to be kicked off relevant committees and possibly expelled from the Senate.

Following the deadly Capitol riot, "The Senate will need to conduct security review of what happened and what went wrong," Whitehouse wrote in a statement.

He continued:

The R&A on Monday said it has no plans to stage any future championships at the Trump Turnberry golf course and resort in Scotland.

In a statement, R&A Chief Executive Martin Slumbers said: “We will not return until we are convinced that the focus will be on the championship, the players and the course itself and we do not believe that is achievable in the current circumstances.” 

The organization oversees The Open Championship, which is the world’s oldest Men’s major golf championship, as well as the Women’s British Open, among others.

Turnberry is one of two high-profile courses President Trump owns in Scotland, the other being the Trump International Golf Links situated amid the dunes of Aberdeen.

On Sunday, the PGA of America announced that the 2022 PGA Championship would not be played at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

Read their tweet:

The FBI has received more than 40,000 digital media tips, including video and photos, from the public stemming from last week’s deadly pro-Trump riot at the US Capitol, according to an FBI spokesperson. 

The FBI has been seeking information that will help investigators identify people who were “actively instigating violence” on January 6 in Washington, DC. According to the FBI’s website, they have been receiving pictures and videos from the public since last week. 

Twenty federal criminal defendants have been rounded up across the country since the insurrection, with the allegations showing the danger of the mob.

Broken windows, garbage and offices torn apart. The aftermath of the Capitol riots:

House Democrats will file one article of impeachment against President Trump that charges the President with "incitement of insurrection," according to a copy of the article obtained by CNN.

The single impeachment article, which will be introduced at 11 a.m. ET when the House gavels in Monday, points to Trump’s repeated false claims that he won the election and his speech to the crowd on Jan. 6 before pro-Trump rioters breached the Capitol. The House is expected to vote on the article this week.

The article also cited Trump’s call with the Georgia Republican secretary of state where the President urged him to “find” enough votes for Trump to win the state.

Read the full document here.

Some background: House Democrats are barreling toward impeaching Trump for the second time over his role in inciting last week's riots at the US Capitol.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told House Democrats on Sunday evening that the House would proceed with bringing an impeachment resolution to the floor this week unless Vice President Mike Pence moves to invoke the 25th Amendment with a majority of the Cabinet to remove Trump from power.

Pelosi's letter was the first time she explicitly said that the House would take up impeachment on the floor this week, though it was clear that House Democrats have rapidly coalesced around an impeachment resolution in the days following the riots at the Capitol where five people died, including a US Capitol Police officer.