Giuliani says he won’t be on Trump impeachment defense team
Trump was impeached by the House for a second time last week.
President Donald Trump is slated to hand over control of the White House to President-elect Joe Biden in three days.
The House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump last Wednesday on an article for "incitement of insurrection" for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol -- making him the only president to be impeached twice.
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Trump issues short statement about how he's worked to 'rebuild our military'
The White House press office has issued a statement from the president touting his military accomplishments as his time as commander-in-chief is set to expire in six days.
"United States military troops in Afghanistan are at a 19-year low. Likewise, Iraq and Syria are also at the lowest point in many years. I will always be committed to stopping the endless wars. It has been a great honor to rebuild our military and support our brave men and women in uniform. $2.5 trillion invested, including in beautiful new equipment—all made in the U.S.A.," the statement read.
-ABC News' Ben Gittleson
Jill Biden re-launching 'Joining Forces' initiative to support military families
Incoming first lady Jill Biden on Thursday announced the re-launch of "Joining Forces," which originated in 2011 during the Obama administration and was a "a nationwide initiative calling all Americans to rally around service members, veterans, and their families and support them through wellness, education, and employment opportunities," that also had the involvement of then-first lady Michelle Obama.
"We'll continue to listen and work with you, making sure that your experiences and expertise are the north star of this effort. And that starts today. That's the promise that I made to you on the campaign trail. That we would relaunch Joining Forces and get to work on day one," Biden said during a virtual event announcing the initiative's relaunch.
The announcement comes after Biden pledged several times on the campaign trail that she would focus her work as first lady on the priorities that defined her work when her husband was vice president for eight years, including her advocacy for military families.
During Biden's remarks she talked about her excitement to work again on Joining Forces while noting her ties to the military through the deployment of her son Beau and her father who was in the Navy during World War II.
"I'm grateful and excited, and most of all, ready to get to work with all of you. And as many of you may know, or maybe you don't, but my father was a Navy signalman in World War II," Biden said. "And my son Beau served for a year in Iraq as a member of the Delaware National Guard. Now, toward the end of the campaign, I had the chance to go back to Hammonton, New Jersey, where I was born, to see the memorial that bears my father's name in our hometown Park."
The future first lady noted that Rory Brosius, a close adviser to the Biden's and is a military spouse, will be joining the White House as a special assistant to the president and executive director of Joining Forces, adding, "No one is more passionate about this work than Rory."
-ABC News' Beatrice Peterson and John Verhovek
Trump awarded 8 arts and humanities medals as the House voted to impeach him
President Trump on Wednesday awarded the National Medal of Arts to five people, including country singers Toby Keith and Ricky Skaggs, and the National Humanities Medal to two people and a museum, the White House said Thursday.
Trump awarded the medals as the House voted to impeach him.
Keith is a supporter of Trump’s who performed for the then-incoming president at a 2017 inauguration-eve “Make America Great Again Welcome Celebration and Concert” at the Lincoln Memorial. Skaggs is also a Trump supporter who endorsed him in 2016.
One of the humanities medal recipients, Kay Coles James, is the president of the conservative Heritage Foundation.
The museum that received the humanities award was the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.
-ABC News' Ben Gittleson
White House official to lawmakers on impeachment: 'Knock it off'
Director of the White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Peter Navarro, in an interview with Fox Business Thursday, blasted the House's impeachment vote as a "travesty" and blamed the Democratic Party for the country's violence.
"The Democratic Party did violence to this country by attacking a president, who I believe was legally elected on Nov. 3," Navarro said. "I would say to these people on Capitol Hill, knock it off, stop this. Let the man leave peacefully with his dignity."
The false and unsubstantiated belief that the presidential election was stolen from Trump played a large role in driving some of his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol last week in a siege that left at least five people dead and Trump impeached for a second time.
Navarro went on to predict if the election were held again "today," Trump would be elected, and added, "If he runs in 2024, he will be elected then."
-ABC News' Elizabeth Thomas
GOP leader says fact-finding mission and censure resolution 'would be prudent,' opposing impeachment
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy delivered a speech on the House floor against impeaching Trump, arguing that a vote to impeach would "fan the flames of partisan division" and that instead the president could bear responsibility through a censure resolution.
McCarthy began by condemning last week's attack on the Capitol as "undemocratic, un-American and criminal," and although there to defend him, quickly broke from the president in making the distinction that antifa was not to blame for the violence, as Trump has privately suggested.
"Some say the riots were caused by antifa. There is absolutely no evidence of that. And conservatives should be the first to say so," McCarthy said, calling on his colleagues.
"I believe impeaching the president in such a short timeframe would be a mistake," McCarthy said, notably not directly defending his actions as unimpeachable but taking issue with the timing.
"A vote to impeach will further divide the nation. A vote to impeach will further fan the flames of partisan division," he said. "That doesn't mean the president is free from fault."
McCarthy suggested that "a fact-finding commission and a censure resolution would be prudent" but "unfortunately, that is not where we are today." He stressed it's a time "to unite once again as Americans."