Key facts and latest news
- President Trump urged Republicans to unite behind him on impeachment, saying they “have to get tougher and fight.”
- Russ Vought, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), tweeted Monday morning that he and Mike Duffey, another top OMB official, will not comply with congressional requests for interviews.
- Republicans plan to try to force a vote Monday evening to censure Representative Adam Schiff for his conduct in the impeachment inquiry.
- Democrats in the House say they plan to introduce the “SHIELD Act” to crack down on foreign election interference.
- On a July call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mr. Trump urged Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden.
Washington— During a Cabinet meeting at the White House, the president implored congressional Republicans to fight back against Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.
“I watched a couple of people on television today talking about it. They were talking about what a phony deal it is, and Republicans have to get tougher and fight,” Mr. Trump said. “We have some that are great fighters, but they have to get tougher and fight because the Democrats are trying to hurt the Republican Party for the election, which is something where we’re doing very well.”
The president said he thinks Democrats “fight dirty,” but have two advantages: “They’re vicious, and they stick together.”
“They don’t have Mitt Romney in their midst,” the president said, referring to the Utah senator who has become a vocal critic of his administration. “They don’t have people like that. They stick together. You never see them break off.”
Mr. Trump said Democrats “want to impeach me because it’s the only way they’re going to win. They’ve got nothing.”
“This whole thing is very bad for our country,” the president said.
Meanwhile, Russ Vought, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), tweeted Monday morning that he and Mike Duffey, another top OMB official, will not comply with congressional requests for depositions.
“I saw some Fake News over the weekend to correct,” Vought wrote on Twitter. “As the WH letter made clear two weeks ago, OMB officials – myself and Mike Duffey – will not be complying with deposition requests this week. #shamprocess.”
Vought took over for Mick Mulvaney as acting director when Mulvaney became acting White House chief of staff. The budget office was involved in delaying the release of military funding for Ukraine.
Republicans also plan to try to force a vote Monday evening to censure Representative Adam Schiff for his conduct in the impeachment inquiry. The measure cites in particular Schiff’s embellishment of the Trump-Zelensky call summary during a September hearing. The House is likely to vote on tabling the resolution, rather than on the resolution itself.
2 officials to testify in the impeachment inquiry this week
4:55 p.m.: In deference to services honoring the late Congressman Elijah Cummings, only two witnesses will appear before the committees leading the impeachment inquiry this week, according to an official working on the investigation:
- William Taylor, the chargé d’affaires in Ukraine who raised concerns about withholding military aid, is expected to appear in closed session on Tuesday.
- Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Laura Cooper is expected to appear in closed session on Wednesday.
Cummings, who died last week after battle long-standing health problems, will lie in state in Statuary Hall in the Capitol on Thursday, and his wake and funeral will be held Friday in Baltimore. — Rebecca Kaplan
Schumer inquires about protections for whistleblower
3:50 p.m.: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is asking how the director of national intelligence and intelligence community inspector general are protecting the identity of the whistleblower who filed the complaint about the president’s dealings with Ukraine.
In a letter to Acting Director Joseph Maguire and Inspector General Michael Atkinson, Schumer said the president’s statements have put the whistleblower at risk of being exposed.
“The President has also incorrectly stated that he has a right to ‘confront’ the whistleblower, and has said that he is ‘trying to find out’ the whistleblower’s identity — notwithstanding the fact that whistleblower anonymity is protected by law,” Schumer wrote.
Schumer said he fears Mr. Trump “may disclose the whistleblower’s identity or cause it to be disclosed.” If it is, Schumer said the pair “must be prepared to protect the whistleblower from both workplace reprisal and threats to his or her personal safety.”
“I understand that some security measures may already have been taken, but I fear that risks may increase in the event that the whistleblower’s identity is disclosed,” the Democratic leader wrote. “I also note reports that one or more additional whistleblowers may be coming forward, creating added security concerns. I therefore ask that you inform me regarding your plans to ensure that these whistleblowers are adequately protected.” — Stefan Becket
OMB officials won’t comply with House depositions, acting director says
12:35 p.m.: Russ Vought, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), tweeted Monday morning that he and Mike Duffey, another top OMB official, won’t comply with deposition requests.
“I saw some Fake News over the weekend to correct,” Vought wrote on Twitter. “As the WH letter made clear two weeks ago, OMB officials – myself and Mike Duffey – will not be complying with deposition requests this week. #shamprocess”
Vought took over for Mulvaney as acting director when Mulvaney became acting White House chief of staff. OMB was involved in delaying the release of military funding for Ukraine. — Kathryn Watson
The uncharted road to the impeachment and removal of a president
12:13 p.m.: The three other times in which lawmakers filed articles of impeachment against presidents, targeting Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton, offer insight into the mechanics of Congress’ extraordinary constitutional recourse to unseat the nation’s leader through democratic means.
The precedent they set is limited, however. One of the impeachment campaigns did not lead to a Senate trial and none of them resulted in a president’s conviction and removal from office. Because of this, part of the path to a president’s removal through an impeachment process remains uncharted territory.
With the help of experts of American politics and constitutional law, we have outlined what we know — and don’t know — about impeaching and removing a sitting president.
Trump campaign uses Mulvaney’s questionable briefing to sell shirts
10:14 a.m.: The Trump campaign is ready for America to “get over it” regarding the ongoing impeachment probe and Ukraine call controversy. Borrowing a line from Mulvaney’s White House press briefing last week, the campaign is now selling t-shirts with Mulvaney’s line “get over it” on the front.
The letter “o” in the text has a similar hairstyle to that of the president.
“America is ready for Congress to get back to work. No more WITCH HUNTS! President Trump won in 2016 and he is going to win even bigger in 2020,” the campaign wrote on its website store. “GET OVER IT and get on with it!”
The t-shirt currently sells for $30.
Since Mulvaney’s briefing last week, in which he seemed to acknowledge a quid pro quo that in part involved a request by Mr. Trump to investigate the Democratic Party, and which he later walked back,
And CBS News’ Major Garrett reports that an internal West Wing feud is pitting the top White House lawyer, Pat Cipollone, against Mulvaney, who has been facing criticism from both inside and outside the administration for telling reporters in his briefing last week that military aid to Ukraine had been temporarily withheld in part to advance Mr. Trump’s political requests.
Hurd calls for greater access to impeachment docs
6:00 a.m.: Republican Congressman Will Hurd of Texas told “Face the Nation” he’s frustrated by lack of access to investigatory material in the impeachment inquiry:
My concern is with the information that the committee has access to after these depositions are done. As a member of the committee, I was only able to get access to the transcript of the Ambassador Volker interview a couple of days ago and that interview had been conducted almost three weeks prior. You know, why haven’t we gotten access to all the text messages that Ambassador Volker has sent over? I haven’t been able to review that.
These depositions have been going on for 10 or 12 hours a day and you’re not able to sit in all of them. So I want to know why hasn’t that information been made available?
Jim Himes says impeachment committees will hold open testimony
5:30 a.m.: Congressman Jim Himes, a Democrat from Connecticut and member of the House Intelligence Committee, told “Face the Nation” that the committees leading the inquiry will eventually release transcripts of their interview with witnesses and hold public hearings:
An investigation doesn’t happen in the light of day, but I will tell you that there will be open hearings. Every transcript after they’re scrubbed for classified information will be released publicly and this will ultimately be all out there for the American people to see, and what the American people will see is that there is not one word of testimony, written or spoken, which contradicts the notion that the president used the assets of the United States — military aid, a White House meeting — to advance his political interests of getting Ukraine to meddle in the upcoming presidential election.
