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
Biden says he's focused on pandemic, not impeachment
Asked at a transition event in Wilmington, Delaware, about whether House Democrats should introduce articles of impeachment against Trump as soon as Monday -- just over a week from when Biden is slated to take office, Biden had a lengthy answer about how he's focused on the pandemic and leaving that decision to Congress.
"Look, I’ve thought for a long, long time that President Trump wasn’t fit to hold the job. That’s why I ran. And my job now, in 12 days -- God willing, I’ll be President of the United States of America. And I’m focused on the urgency of three immediate concerns," Biden said, "the virus, the vaccine and economic growth."
"What the Congress decides to do is for them to decide, but I'm going to have to -- and they're going to have to be ready -- to hit the ground running, because when Kamala and I are sworn in, we're gonna be introducing immediately significant pieces of legislation to deal with the virus, deal with the economy and deal with economic growth," he continued. "So we're going to do our job, and the Congress can decide how to proceed with theirs."
Asked what he would say if a Democratic member of Congress were to ask his advice about whether they should proceed, Biden said he'd deflect.
"I’d tell them that's a decision for the Congress to make. I'm focused on my job," he said.
Pressed on whether he spoke with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi before taking this stance, Biden said they will be speaking later on "about my agenda as well as whatever they want to talk to me about."
Biden says he considered Sanders to lead Labor Dept.
Biden, in announcing Cabinet nominees for key economic and jobs positions, confirmed he gave "serious consideration" to nominating Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders for secretary of labor, but he said the two agreed they couldn't risk Republicans gaining control of the Senate.
"He could have done a fantastic job. I can think of no more passionate and devoted ally to working people in this country. But after Tuesday's results in Georgia, giving Democratic control of the United States Senate in a tie vote, Bernie and I agreed -- as a matter of fact, Bernie suggested -- we can't put control of the Senate at risk on the outcome of a special election in Vermont," Biden said.
Biden also reiterated in his remarks he supports raising the minimum wage to $15, passing more coronavirus relief legislation to small business owners and releasing more COVID-19 vaccine doses immediately to Americans to administer as many shots as possible.
No. 3 Senate Dem calls on Cruz, Hawley to resign
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., has called on Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., to resign in the aftermath of the violent siege on the Capitol, accusing the Republican senators of inciting the pro-Trump mob that stormed into the building.
“As a Senator, I respect every member who disagrees with my ideas. I reserve my right to use my voice to fight for what I believe in. But at the end of the day, our job is to keep this country a democracy where voices win, not brute force," Murray wrote in a statement.
"Any Senator who stands up and supports the power of force over the power of democracy has broken their oath of office. Senators Hawley and Cruz should resign,” she added.
Hawley and Cruz led challenges to Wednesday's Electoral College ratification, which repeated Trump's unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election
Murray is the highest-ranking Senate Democrat to urge for the senators' resignations. Her statement echoes similar calls for Cruz and Hawley to step down from Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., and Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
Pence arrives at White House, plans to meet with staff, after spending Thursday at home
Vice President Mike Pence arrived at the White House Friday afternoon, after spending Thursday away from the White House complex.
Pence will be participating in meetings and calls at the White House and planned to stop by his office’s weekly staff meeting, according to his office.
The vice president’s office did not respond to questions about whether Pence planned to meet with Trump amid calls from Democrats for Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment.
Pence remained at his residence at the Naval Observatory grounds in Washington all day Thursday, according to a senior administration official, and received his second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, his office said Thursday.
-ABC News' Ben Gittleson and Elizabeth Thomas
Georgia election official debunks fraud theories Trump raised on call with Raffensperger
Georgia election official Gabriel Sterling, a Republican, at a press conference on what he called "anti-disinformation Monday," ran through major voter conspiracies pushed by Trump, his allies and far-right media outlets and debunked them one-by-one in an effort to restore faith in Georgia's election system.
"The reason I'm having to stand here today is because there are people in positions of authority and respect who have said their vote didn't count and it's not true," Sterling said, stressing to Georgians that their votes count ahead of critical runoffs in the state which will determine the balance of power in the U.S. Senate.
"It's Whac-A-Mole again. It is Groundhog Day again. I'm going to talk about the things I've talked about repeatedly for two months, but I'm going to do it for one last time," Sterling said, adding he "screamed" at the radio upon hearing audio of the phone call between Trump and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger because theories Trump questioned have already been "thoroughly debunked."
For example, Sterling, responding to those who claim there were roughly 2,500 people who voted without being registered, said, "Let's just be clear about this: you can't do it!" He said, "So that number is zero," going on to debunk other theories.
Asked if he believes, as some have said, that Trump's phone call was an attack on democracy, Sterling said he'd leave others to make that decision before adding he felt it was "out of place."
"I found it to be something that was not normal -- out of place -- and nobody I know who would be president would do something like that to a secretary of state," Sterling said.
Asked about Raffenperger's desire to have the phone call recorded and whether he was concerned about anything improper being said or needing to release it later, Sterling said it was recorded "out of an abundance of caution"
"I think given the environment we're in right now, the political situation that we're in, the history of the president, knowing that he sometimes doesn't necessarily characterize things as they might have actually occurred, it was out of abundance of caution," Sterling said.
"I'm sure the president's side may have recorded it, too. They may have been the ones who leaked part of that, too," he added.