Trump announces new impeachment legal team

The lead House impeachment manager, Rep. Jaime Raskin, D-Md., read aloud an article of impeachment against former President Donald Trump to the Senate.

"President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of government. He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power and imperiled a coordinate branch of government. He thereby betrayed his trust as president, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States," Raskin said, reading from the article that the House passed on Jan. 13.

"Wherefore President 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, and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with self-governance and the rule of law. President Trump thus warrants impeachment and trial, removal from office and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States," he concluded.

Speaking after Raskin, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the president pro tempore, announced that the Senate was now "ready to proceed with the (impeachment) trial."

The official trial in Senate is not expected to begin until the week of Feb. 8.

House impeachment managers were delivering an article of impeachment against former President Donald Trump to the Senate Monday, queuing up a record-setting second trial for him in the chamber.

The managers, led by Rep. Jaime Raskin, D-Md., and appointed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, silently walked the article across the Capitol -- from the House to the Senate -- where senators awaited their arrival.

The House voted to impeach the former president on Jan. 13, a week after pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to disrupt the certification of the 2020 electoral college votes.

Despite the presentation of the article to the Senate today, the official trial is not expected to begin until the week of Feb. 8.

The Senate Monday voted to confirm Janet Yellen as secretary of the treasury, making her the first woman to lead the department in its over 230-year history.

Yellen won confirmation by a 84-15 vote as she now takes the helm of a department critical in delivering COVID-19 relief aid and managing the economy.

Appointed by former President Barack Obama, Yellen served one term as Federal Reserve chair before former President Donald Trump decided not to re-appoint her to lead the central bank. She was also the first woman to hold that position.

After Biden signed an executive order aimed to increase the amount of federal spending that goes to American companies, he took questions from reporters on a wide range of topics -- as his administration tries to promote an image of transparency.

On COVID-19, Biden said he hoped the rate of vaccination would increase to 1.5 million injections a day and predicted up to 660,000 COVID-19 deaths "before we begin to turn the corner in a major way."

Asked "roughly when do you think anyone who wants (to be vaccinated) would be able to get it," Biden said, "this spring."

But he added about the pandemic in general, "We're still going to be dealing with this issue in the early fall."

The nation's top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci has also said he expects April is when eligibility for the vaccine would open up to all Americans and that it would take until early summer to get the job done.

Biden did not directly answer if teachers should be returning to in-person classroom settings "now," as a reporter asked, given that reopening schools is key to his agenda in the first 100 days.

"I believe we should make school classrooms safe and secure for the students, for the teachers and for the -- the help that's in the schools maintaining the facilities," he said.

On the ongoing negotiations over his $1.9 trillion relief package, Biden pointed to his long career in Washington as proof that he can get a deal done, but said that this process is "just beginning" and that it'll likely be another "couple of weeks" before a deal is reached, adding, "Time is of the essence."

Addressing his theme of unity, Biden got a chance to reflect what that actually means to him, saying that ultimately it comes down to eliminating "the vitriol."

"Unity requires you to take away -- eliminate the vitriol. … Unity, also, is trying to reflect what the majority of the American people -- Democrat, Republican, and Independent -- think is within the fulcrum of what needs to be done to make their lives and the lives of Americans better," he said.

-ABC News' Ben Gittleson and Justin Gomez