Impeachment article has 200 cosponsors: US rep.
The draft, citing "incitement of insurrection," could be introduced Monday.
President Donald Trump is slated to hand over control of the White House to President-elect Joe Biden in 11 days.
Top headlines:
- Rep. Cicilline: 'Just passed 200 cosponsors' on article of impeachment
- GOP Rep. Kinzinger: Best thing for the country is Trump to resign
- Pence to attend Biden's inauguration: Source
- Senate Democrat says Cruz, Hawley should resign or 'the Senate must expel them'
- Trump asked Georgia election investigator to 'find the fraud': Source
Senior State adviser fired after tweeting Trump 'needs to go'
After tweeting the president must go, citing the insurrection at the Capitol, Gabriel Noronha was fired from the State Department on Thursday, he has confirmed.
Noronha, who served as a senior adviser and spokesperson for Iran policy, is the first Trump administration official fired for speaking out against the president over the week’s events.
“President Trump fomented an insurrectionist mob that attacked the Capitol today. He continues to take every opportunity to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power. These actions threaten our democracy and our Republic. Trump is entirely unfit to remain in office, and needs to go,” he tweeted on Wednesday.
-ABC News' Conor Finnegan
Overview: Trump retreats in wake of insurrection, Biden presses forward with transition
Biden is pressing forward with his inauguration on Jan. 20 -- and Trump won't be there, the president announced in a tweet Friday morning.
After Trump tweeted he wouldn’t attend, Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary, Devin O’Malley, told ABC News, “Vice President Pence and the Second Lady have yet to make a decision regarding their attendance."
Earlier Friday, Trump took to Twitter to call his supporters "American Patriots" who "will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future" and "not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!
The tweets come hours after Trump, for the first time, said he would focus on an "ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power." In the video posted Thursday evening, he also rebuked those who vandalized the Capitol.
"To those who engaged in the acts of violence and destruction, you do not represent our country. And to those who broke the law, you will pay," Trump said.
While Democrats are looking at options for removing Trump from office, Biden has so far declined to comment on his stance for impeaching Trump or invoking the 25th Amendment with a spokesperson for his transition team saying Thursday he and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris are focusing on their duties.
Meanwhile, Trump has suggested to advisers that he wants to grant himself a pardon before leaving office, sources familiar with the discussions told ABC News.
Keeping on message, Biden is pressing forward with his transition and is expected to announce more picks for his economic and jobs team Friday afternoon including Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo as his choice for secretary of commerce and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh as his pick to serve as his secretary of labor. Walsh would be the first union member to serve in the role in almost half a century. Biden also named Isabel Guzman as his pick for small business administrator and Don Graves as his choice for secretary of commerce.
-ABC News' John Santucci, Katherine Faulders, Shannon Crawford and Ben Gittleson
Biden, Harris announce more members of the National Security Council
Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have announced 21 additional members of the White House National Security Council including Yohannes Abraham as the chief of staff and executive secretary and Emily Horne as a senior director for press and NSC spokesperson.
The vast majority of the nominees previously served under the Obama administration. The positions do not require Senate confirmation.
-ABC News' Molly Nagle
Trump says he is not attending Biden's inauguration
Trump has announced he will not attend Biden's inauguration on Jan. 20.
"To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th," Trump tweeted Friday morning.
It comes just hours after Trump, in video posted to Twitter Thursday evening, effectively conceded and said he would focus on an "ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power."
Only incumbent presidents -- John Adams in 1801, John Quincy Adams in 1829 and Andrew Johnson in 1869 -- did not attend the inaugurations of their successors. Johnson, like Trump, was impeached and not convicted.
-ABC News' Chris Donovan
Cheney argues an Electoral college challenge sets an 'exceptionally dangerous' precedent
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., a member of House GOP leadership and one of the first prominent Republicans to acknowledge Biden's victory, sent a 21-page memo to her conference making the case against a challenge to the Electoral College certification process on Wednesday, arguing that it would improperly overrule states' authority over elections, and set a "dangerous precedent" down the line for future elections and sessions of Congress.
"By objecting to electoral slates, members are unavoidably asserting that Congress has the authority to overturn elections and overrule state and federal courts. Such objections set an exceptionally dangerous precedent, threatening to steal states’ explicit constitutional responsibility for choosing the President and bestowing it instead on Congress," Cheney wrote.
"This is directly at odds with the Constitution’s clear text and our core beliefs as Republicans. Democrats have long attempted, unconstitutionally, to federalize every element of our nation—including elections. Republicans should not embrace Democrats’ unconstitutional position on these issues," she added.
Cheney raises questions about the proposal from some Republicans to set up a commission to investigate concerns about the election, calling it a "problematic" set up that would take much longer than ten days to wrap up, and potentially delay the inauguration. The memo also exhaustively summarizes the court rulings against the president's legal efforts in the six states Republicans plan to target on Wednesday: Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania.
-ABC News' Benjamin Siegel