Biden wants Congress to take action on gun reform

House Democrats argue their case that former President Trump bears "unmistakable" responsibility for inciting the Jan. 6 riot on the Capitol, calling it a "betrayal of historic proportions" that demands judgment from the Senate in a pre-impeachment trial brief filed to the Senate Tuesday morning.

It's the first time Democrats have formally laid out their argument against Trump since transmitting the charge against him on Jan. 13 to kick off trial proceedings.

In their 80-page brief, the House impeachment managers depicted the riot as Trump's last-ditch effort to overturn the presidential election after dozens of failed lawsuits and pressure campaigns against state election officials. 

"The only honorable path at that point was for President Trump to accept the results and concede his electoral defeat. Instead, he summoned a mob to Washington, exhorted them into a frenzy, and aimed them like a loaded cannon down Pennsylvania Avenue," the managers wrote in their brief submitted ahead of next week's trial of the former president. 

Foreshadowing what the House managers will argue on the House floor, Democrats wrote that Trump was "reportedly 'delighted'" by the attack and "left his Vice President and Congress to fend for themselves while he lobbied allies to continue challenging election results."

The brief also argues that Trump's challenge to the results was a "direct assault on core First Amendment principles," and that holding him accountable would "vindicate First Amendment freedoms—which certainly offer no excuse or defense for President Trump's destructive conduct."

"For Congress to stand aside in the face of such conduct would be a grave abdication of its constitutional duty, and an invitation for future Presidents to act without fear of constraint during their final months in office," they wrote. "History, originalism, and textualism thus leave no doubt that the Senate has jurisdiction—and a constitutional duty—to decide this case on the merits."

-ABC News' Katherine Faulders and Benjamin Siegel

House Democrats on Tuesday are expected to make their case for convicting former President Donald Trump on a single article of "incitement of insurrection" in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol riot in a pre-trial brief submitted to the Senate -- arguing that the chamber's action is needed to prevent him from holding elected office in the future.

Democrats will file their brief by 10 a.m. Tuesday, one week before Trump's second Senate impeachment trial begins in earnest on Feb. 9.

They plan to detail Trump's actions in the months leading up to the insurrection, attempting to paint a picture of a president who drew his supporters to Washington with the outright intention of them seeking to overturn the election by force if necessary, sources familiar with the brief said, and depicting the riot as the product of a months-long campaign to overturn the results.

To help argue their case, they are expected to cite videos and social media posts, along with law enforcement records and court documents stemming from the arrests of rioters from across the country who stormed the U.S. Capitol. Trump’s own words could also be invoked -- both from the rally outside the White House on Jan. 6 and on his recorded phone call with the Georgia Secretary of State, when he repeatedly pressured him to alter the results of the election in the state because he falsely claimed it was "not possible" for him to have lost.

Trump is expected to file his own formal response to Democrats' impeachment article on Tuesday by noon. His response comes after his entire legal team quit over the weekend, in part, because of disagreements over the legal strategy, according to sources. On Sunday, Trump announced he had hired two new lawyers to lead the team, Bruce Castor Jr. and David Schoen.

-ABC News' Katherine Faulders and Benjamin Siegel

Biden will sign three executive orders on Tuesday aimed at reforming the U.S. immigration system and rolling back his predecessor’s policies, including creating a task force aimed at reuniting children who American authorities separated from their families on the border, according to the White House.

Chaired by the homeland security secretary, the task force would work to identify all families broken apart under the various forms of the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance policy,” which separated children from relatives at the U.S. border, even before it became an official policy, a senior Biden administration official said.
The task force, which would be vice-chaired by the secretaries of state and health and human services, would manage family reunifications on a case-by-case basis, making different immigration benefit determinations for different families, the official said.

Biden plans to sign another order that would direct his administration to address the root causes of migration from Central America and have the secretary of homeland security review the Trump administration’s Migrant Protection Protocols program, under which asylum seekers are sent to Mexico to wait for court appearances north of the border, the White House said. The third order will call for a review of the “public charge” rule former President Donald Trump tried to use to limit poor immigrants from coming to the country legally, according to the White House.

The rollout of these immigration actions had been pushed back when the Senate delayed a confirmation vote for Biden's pick for homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, the White House said last week. The Senate is scheduled to vote on his nomination Tuesday afternoon. If confirmed, he'll be the first immigrant and first Latino to lead the agency.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki will hold a press briefing at 12:30 p.m. ahead of the evening signing.

-ABC News' Ben Gittleson and Quinn Owen

It's a Washington fact that pursuing 60 Senate votes can make it harder to get to 50.

It's also a Washington fact that controlling the Senate with 50 votes means there are 50 majority-makers -- and an equal number of majority-breakers.

It's a Washington theory that has Biden trying to keep both bipartisan and partisan paths alive in seeking a deal on COVID-19 relief.

In the meantime, progressives are starting to voice concerns that Biden will give too much to get Republicans on board. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has made clear he wants Republicans to negotiate with their fellow senators, as opposed to with Biden directly, while congressional leaders start the budget process on their end this week.

The kind of meeting Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, calls "very productive, cordial" is not going to be viewed the same way among Democrats. Then there's Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., perhaps the most conservative Senate Democrat and a vote his party needs as always, now smarting from a few perceived White House slights.

At stake are lifelines for millions of Americans, and something broader when it comes to the political system: a test of Biden's ability to govern in post-Trump Washington.

Biden's problem isn't finding dance partners. It may be that there are still too many options -- each of them still hearing different tunes.

-ABC News' Political Director Rick Klein