WH counsel Pat Cipollone expected to defend Trump in Senate impeachment trial

White House counsel Pat Cipollone is expected to argue on behalf of President Donald Trump during the Senate impeachment trial, a senior administration official told NBC News Friday.

News of Cipollone’s plan to defend Trump was first reported by Bloomberg News.

Read the full NBC News story here. 

House Republicans narrow in on potential Democratic defectors for final impeachment votes

WASHINGTON — Confident that their ranks will remain united in the potential final House votes on two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, Republicans are turning their attention to Democrats, hoping to pressure at least a handful into joining them in opposition, according to two Republican House aides.

In particular, Republicans are focusing on as many as eight Democrats who have indicated that they remain undecided on the matter, according to one aide with knowledge of the effort. Those eight are part of a group of 31 who won their seats in 2018 from districts also carried by Trump in 2016.

“Some of our members will do informal outreach to Democrats on the fence they have relationships with,” a second GOP aide told NBC News. House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy has also been talking with some Democrats, according to an second aide familiar with the conversations.

Final votes on the articles are expected next week after Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee announced suddenly late Thursday that the panel would not vote on them as planned, delaying their expected passage and angering Republicans.

Read the full article here

Trump tweets praise for House Republican ‘warriors’

The president is wasting no time taking to Twitter on Friday morning, picking up where he left off. 

Trump mischaracterizes Pelosi comments about impeachment

President Donald Trump, in a tweet late Thursday, mischaracterized comments made by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., earlier in the week, in which he claimed she said that she was “duped” in an interview by saying “she has been working on impeachment me for ‘two and a half years.’”

That, however, is not what Pelosi said during an event Tuesday afternoon at Politico’s “Women Rule” summit. 

Politico’s Anna Palmer asked Pelosi to react to the criticism that Democrats are racing through their impeachment inquiry of the president. 

“It’s been going on for 22 months, two-and-a-half years actually,” Pelosi said initially. 

Then immediately made clear she was referring to the Mueller investigation. 

“I think we are not moving with speed. Was it two and a half years ago they initiated the Mueller investigation? It’s not about speed. It’s about urgency. One of the charges against the president of the United States is that he was violating his oath of office by asking for government to interfere in our election undermining the integrity of our elections,” she said.

Republicans have repeatedly argued throughout the impeachment process that Democrats have been trying to impeach Trump since he first came to office in 2017. Democrats, however, have said they’ve collected detailed evidence from Trump’s Ukraine pressure campaign that merit impeachment.

The tweet was one of many for Trump on Thursday. 

NO VOTE THURSDAY: Nadler recesses debate, angering Republicans

In a surprise move, Nadler announced after over 14 hours of debate and fiery exchanges between Republicans and Democrats that the committee will be in recess until 10 a.m. on Friday. 

Nadler urged members to spend the time searching their conscience and evaluating how history will judge them. However, when he gaveled out, Republicans were outraged and accused Nadler of railroading the debate.

A visibly frustrated Collins, the ranking member, said GOP lawmakers were not consulted beforehand and Nadler’s “integrity is gone” and “they have nothing they can offer except the kangaroo court.” 

“That was the most bush league play I have ever seen in life,” Collins said. 

Someone else in the meeting room could be heard saying “this is a sneaky move on their part” in an apparent reference to Democrats. 

Democrats left the room after the meeting ended and many Republicans stayed and gave media interviews, accusing Democrats of blindsiding them. 

Debate. Rinse. Repeat.

The Judiciary Committee is currently debating the substitute amendment that Chairman Nadler offered in the first hour of the meeting on Thursday morning about tweaking the language from Donald J. Trump to Donald John Trump. 

We BELIEVE that debate on this amendment should be the last of the evening. However, members can each speak for 5 minutes so that can still take more than 3 hours if each member wishes to speak. 

After all debate concludes, there will likely be three votes:

Vote on the substitute amendment 

Vote on Article I

Vote on Article II

McConnell: ‘No chance’ Trump will be convicted in the Senate

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Thursday that President Trump will not face conviction and removal in the GOP-controlled Senate as the House continued to debate articles of impeachment. 

“The case is so darn weak coming from the House. We know how it’s going to end. There’s no chance the president’s going to be removed from office,” he said. “My hope is that there won’t be a single Republican who votes for either of these articles of impeachment and, Sean, it wouldn’t surprise me if we got one or two Democrats.”

The session has resumed

When will they vote? Who knows at the moment?

“As long as they have amendments, we’re going to stay here,” Rep. Sheila Jackson, D-Tex, said on MSNBC as the meeting resumed.