Trump impeachment: six House Republicans indicate they will vote in support – live | US news

The Guardian’s Daniel Strauss reports:

Mitch McConnell, the top-ranking Republican in the Senate, indicated to colleagues that he is undecided on how he would vote on impeachment.

In a letter to his Senate colleagues sent out Wednesday afternoon, as members of the House moved forward with impeaching Donald Trump, the Kentucky Republican wrote, “while the press has been full of speculation, I have not made a final decision on how I will vote and I intend to listen to the legal arguments when they are presented to the Senate.”

The line in his note to Senate colleagues follows The New York Times reporting Tuesday night that McConnell is pleased with Democrats’ move to impeach the president again and has been sharing that sentiment with associates.

McConnell’s openness to impeaching the president, a fellow Republican, is the most significant sign so far that congressional Republican leaders are less resistant to Trump’s impeachment than the last time the president was impeached.

In the House, congresswoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the House Republican Conference chair, said she would vote to impeach Trump. Five other House Republicans have also come out in support of impeachment.

It’s unclear how Senate Republicans will vote. It’s also unclear if McConnell’s openness will offer cover for other Republicans who privately would like to see the president impeached. Two-thirds of senators would have to support conviction in order for him to be removed from office.

Congressman Seth Moulton, a Massachusetts Democrat and a Marine Corps veteran, noted that there are currently more troops in Washington than in Afghanistan.

“And they are here to defend us against the commander in chief, the president of the United States and his mob,” Moulton said.

Moulton encouraged his colleagues to look at the National Guard members protecting the Capitol and search for “an ounce of their courage.”

Young Kim, a freshman Republican congresswoman who flipped a California district that Donald Trump lost by 10 points, will vote against impeachment.

“The violence we saw last week was disgusting. Our law enforcement was attacked, lives were lost and more were put in danger. These rioters must be held accountable. Words have consequences and I believe the president should also be held accountable,” Kim said in a statement.

“However, I believe impeaching the president at this time will fail to hold him accountable or allow us to move forward once President-elect Biden is sworn in. This process will only create more fissures in our country as we emerge from some of our darkest days.”

So far, only six House Republicans have signaled they intend to support the article of impeachment.

It is now past 3 pm in Washington, but the House has not yet moved on to the final vote on the article of impeachment.

The House majority leader, Steny Hoyer, said yesterday that the final vote would occur at roughly 3 pm, but there are about 20 minutes of debate left.

Once the debate has concluded, the chamber will move on to voting on the article, which is expected to be approved.

Chip Roy, a Republican of Texas who has criticized his colleagues’ efforts to cast baseless doubt upon the legitimacy of the presidential election, said he believed Donald Trump had committed “impeachable” offenses.

“The president of the United States deserves universal condemnation for what was clearly, in my opinion, impeachable conduct, pressuring the vice president to violate his oath to the constitution.” Roy said in his speech.

And yet Roy will not be supporting the article of impeachment. The congressman argued the article had been drafted in a manner that targeted political speech itself.

Here’s what the article says, in part: “Donald John Trump engaged in high Crimes and Misdemeanors by inciting violence against the Government of the United States …

“Donald John Trump, by such conduct, has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to national security, democracy, and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office[.]”

Marjorie Taylor Greene, the freshman Georgia congresswoman who supports the QAnon conspiracy theory, delivered her speech while wearing a mask that said “censored”.

Greene did not seem to pick up on the irony that she was claiming to be “censored” while delivering a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives, which was broadcast on national television.

Nancy Pelosi will speak today at the lectern that was taken by one of the rioters during the violence at the Capitol last week.

A House staffer was seen wheeling the lectern through Statuary Hall as the floor debate on the article of impeachment continued.

During the riot last week, a man was photographed carrying the speaker’s lectern through the Rotunda with a smile and a wave to the camera.

The man, identified as Adam Christian Johnson of Florida, was arrested on federal charges two days later.

Moments ago, Cori Bush, the newly elected progressive congresswoman from St Louis, delivered an impassioned speech calling for the impeachment of Donald Trump.

“If we fail to remove a white supremacist president who incited a white supremacist insurrection, it’s communities like Missouri’s 1st district that suffer the most,” Bush said.

“The 117th Congress must understand that we have a mandate to legislate in defense of Black lives. The first step in that process is to root out white supremacy, starting with impeaching the white supremacist-in-chief.”

As she finished her speech, Bush’s denunciation of white supremacy was booed by some of her Republican colleagues.

The statement from the president, which calls for “no violence,” comes a week after Donald Trump incited a violent mob to storm the Capitol, resulting in five deaths.

The president has consistently denied responsibility for inciting the riot, despite telling a group of his supporters to march to the Capitol moments before the building was breached.

Trump claimed yesterday that his words were “totally appropriate,” even though they have been intensely criticized by members of both parties.

The House of Representatives is on track to impeach Donald Trump this afternoon, so do stay tuned. It’s been a busy morning. Here are the main points so far:

• Six Republican members of the House of Representatives have now indicated they will support the impeachment of Donald Trump. That will boost the overwhelming Democratic push for the action, with the official impeachment moment not long away.
• Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell’s office has said there will be no impeachment trial before 19 January, when the chamber is currently set to return from recess.
• House speaker Nancy Pelosi quoted Abraham Lincoln, saying, “We cannot escape history. We… will be remembered in spite of ourselves.” She said Trump must be removed from office. “He must go…he is a clear and present danger to the nation we all love.”
• Steny Hoyer, the House majority leader, rejected Republicans’ arguments that a swift impeachment would only further divide the country. “There are consequences to actions, and the actions of president of the United States demand urgent, clear action by the Congress of the United States,” Hoyer said.

House Democrats have consistently denounced Donald Trump for inciting the Capitol riot during the debate on the article of impeachment.

Hakeem Jeffries, who served as an impeachment manager during the president’s first Senate trial, referred to Trump as “a living, breathing impeachable offense”.

Moments later, Jamie Raskin, the Democrat who will serve as the lead impeachment manager this time around, also criticized Republicans who have tried to blame Democrats for the violence seen last week.

“It is a bit much to be hearing that these people would not be trying to destroy our government and kill us if we just weren’t so mean to them,” Raskin said.