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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Republican lawmaker explains why he voted ‘no’ on the article of impeachment
Although South Dakota Rep. Dusty Johnson said that Trump deserves “more than his fair share of blame” for the U.S. Capitol riot last week, he voted not to impeach the president Wednesday.
Johnson told ABC News that his decision was based on due process of the law.
“I think due process matters,” said Johnson. “I just felt like a snap impeachment was not in the best interest of the country.”
He said Trump could have been held accountable through censure.
“Impeachment for someone who is out of office looks like some sort of formal reprimand. Really, you can’t kick them out when they’re already gone,” said Johnson. “I think (Nancy Pelosi) could have gotten 100 Republican votes for censure.”
Democrats defended the use of impeachment because an impeachment and a conviction vote by two-thirds of the Senate would open Trump up to a congressional ban on running for federal office. Trump has already indicated that he would run for office again in 2024.
Johnson said that he and “dozens” of his Republican colleagues felt frustrated on the House floor Wednesday. He said that his fellow Democrats missed an opportunity to work across the aisle.
“The rhetoric on the House floor today was the most toxic I have seen in my two years. It was the most rancorous,” he said. “And that’s one of the reasons why I was trying to get some of my Democratic colleagues more interested in a bipartisan censure, a more unifying approach than, I think, a largely single-party impeachment process.”
-ABC News Haley Yamada
Acting ICE director steps down
For the third time in less than a year, the acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director has resigned, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Jonathan Fahey only lasted two weeks on the job.
Fahey is the third acting ICE director in less than a year. The previous director, Tony Pham only lasted a couple of months.
-ABC News' Luke Barr
Spanberger on Trump’s impeachment, Capitol riot ‘false equivalencies’ to BLM
Virginia Rep. Abigail Spanberger called it “a point of sadness” after she joined her fellow Democrats and some Republicans Wednesday to vote to impeach Trump.
“Impeachment is necessary at this point in time because we have to make a clear statement that the incitement of an insurrection by a sitting U.S. president is absolutely unacceptable,” she told ABC's “Nightline.”
She acknowledged how close the president is to the end of his term, but said it’s still necessary to impeach Trump because it’s an “issue of accountability.”
“It’s an issue of law and order. It is an issue of ensuring that every person who holds this office in the future recognizes and knows and understands that in the United States of America, under no circumstances do we accept that the president … would incite a violent mob to insurrection for the purpose of holding onto power. It’s unacceptable, and generations into the future need to know that we believe that to be the case.”
The Democratic congresswoman has served Virginia’s 7th Congressional District since 2019. She said that the riot at the U.S. Capitol building last week during a joint session of Congress was “unimaginable.”
Spanberger also said it’s “ridiculous” to compare the Capitol insurgence to last year’s Black Lives Matter protests like some House Republicans did Wednesday.
“I have categorically denounced violence in all its forms, in any circumstance,” she said. “But this wasn’t violence. This was a domestic terrorist attack perpetrated by insurrectionists who lowered the flag of the United States and raised a flag with one man’s name on it.”
“It couldn’t be more different,” she added, “and false equivalencies are deeply saddening and disheartening, particularly for those of us who have sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
-ABC News' Anthony Rivas
Biden calls on Senate to move forward with impeachment, other urgent business
Following the second impeachment of Trump, Biden issued a statement urging the Senate to move forward with impeachment and other urgent business simultaneously.
"Today, the members of the House of Representatives exercised the power granted to them under our Constitution and voted to impeach and hold the president accountable," Biden said in the statement. "It was a bipartisan vote cast by members who followed the Constitution and their conscience."
"The process continues to the Senate," he continued. "This nation also remains in the grip of a deadly virus and a reeling economy. I hope that the Senate leadership will find a way to deal with their Constitutional responsibilities on impeachment while also working on the other urgent business of this nation."
Biden stressed that there is too much "urgent work," from confirming his key cabinet nominees to getting the vaccine program and economy on track to not move forward with it.
-ABC News' Molly Nagle
GOP Rep. Liz Cheney: 'I will vote to impeach the President'
House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney -- the No. 3 Republican in the House and highest-ranking woman in the Republican Party -- has announced she will vote to impeach Trump for inciting an insurrection at the Capitol.
"Much more will become clear in coming days and weeks, but what we know now is enough," she said in a statement. "The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing. None of this would have happened without the President. The President could have immediately and forcefully intervened to stop the violence. He did not."
"There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution," she said.
Her announcement follows Republican Rep. John Katko of New York becoming the first House Republican to say he will support House Democrats' efforts to remove Trump from office through impeachment.