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.
Top headlines:
House procedural votes on impeachment underway
The House has ended its first round of debate on impeachment and is taking the first procedural vote of the day.
This will likely take roughly 45 minutes to one hour, followed by a second procedural vote on the rule that could take the same amount of time.
After those votes, the House will begin two hours of debate on the impeachment article charging Trump with "incitement of insurrection."
Democrat Rep. James McGovern, the chairman of the House Rules Committee, when closing out the morning debate, said the impeachment vote will show who in Congress stands with the president "no matter what he does" and who stands up to him.
-ABC News' Benjamin Siegel and Mariam Khan
Dems begin to lay out their case for impeaching Trump
With the first procedural debate wrapped and a second procedural vote on deck, the House of Representatives will soon debate the article of impeachment -- charging the president with "Incitement of insurrection."
At least once during the hearings, lawmakers were reminded by the presiding officer that masks are required on the House floor at all times.
Rep. Sheila Lee Jackson, D-.N.Y., appeared to summarize the heart of Democrats' arguments when speaking ahead of the imminent impeachment vote.
"The president of the United States is an insurrectionist," she said. "He led an insurrection against the United States of America."
"The president provoked these domestic terrorists with words, with actions, with conduct, that portray and have contempt and hostility to the national value of equal justice under the law, telling domestic terrorists -- nearly all of them white supremacists -- many of them who support them politically -- who stormed the Capitol to derail Congress for derailing its constitutional required duty of counting the vote," she said. "He must be impeached because he is a threat."
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., a strong critic of Trump's who called to impeach Trump last week while the siege was ongoing, said it's about holding the president accountable, as their oath as lawmakers requires, she said.
"It was a violent attempt to interrupt our democratic process," said Omar, who also called Trump a "tyrant." "We cannot simply move past this or turn the page. For us to be able to survive as a functioning democracy, there has to be accountability."
-ABC News' Benjamin Siegel and Mariam Khan
No. 2 House Dem emphasizes GOP support for impeachment
House Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., began by stressing that Trump's action's last week "demand urgent, clear action by the Congress," and praised House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney and a handful of Republicans for agreeing with Democrats that Trump ought to be impeached.
"This is the daughter of the former Republican whip and former vice president of the United States of America. She knows of what she speaks, and she said this as well, 'There has never been a greater betrayal by a president of the United States of his office and his oath of Constitution," he said. "This is not, as Liz Cheney said, just some action. She characterized it as the biggest betrayal of any president of the United States in our history."
Hoyer went on to list GOP Rep. John Katko of New York, the ranking Republican on the Homeland Security Committee who Hoyer described as "not some back-bencher on your side of the aisle" and Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, among the five House Republicans who have publicly stated they'll vote to impeach the president.
"Mr. Kinzinger said this," Hoyer said, "If these actions are not worthy of impeachment, then what is an impeachable offense? There is no doubt in my mind that the president of the United States broke his oath and incited this insurrection."
Hoyer said other Republicans who he has talked to "in the past 24 hours" agree the president's actions are impeachable.
Debate on the 'rule' kicks off ahead of article debate
Democrats and Republicans are expected to debate for one hour -- equally divided between Democrats and Republicans -- before a procedural vote ahead of the chamber beginning debate on the impeachment article itself.
Democrat Rep. Jim McGovern, the chairman of the House Rules Committee, setting up that preliminary vote on the terms of the debate, called the Capitol a "crime scene" and the rioters "traitors" and "domestic terrorists" in an assault instigated by Trump, emphasizing, "We wouldn't be here if it weren't for the president of the United States."
McGovern described the day as "a ceremonial role for the Congress -- one that sends a message to the world that democracy persists -- but at a rally a mile and-a-half down Pennsylvania Avenue, Donald Trump was stoking the anger of a violent mob," he began. "He said Vice President Pence has to come through and told the mob to walk down to the Capitol."
"The signal was unmistakable. These thugs should stage a coup so Donald Trump can hang on to power, the people's will be damned. This beacon of democracy became the site of a vicious attack. Rioters chanted, 'Hang Mike Pence,' as a noose and gallows were built. Capitol Police officers were beaten and sprayed with pepper spray. Attackers hunted down lawmakers to hold them hostage or worse," McGovern continued.
"I saw evil, Mr. Speaker. Our country came under attack, not from a foreign nation but from within," he added. He also slammed Republicans for preaching unity from members who voted to overturn a free and fair election.
Republican Rep. Tom Cole -- one of the lawmakers who object to Electoral College results after the violent seige -- called Jan. 6 the "darkest day" of his long career in Washington, but said Democrats, instead of promoting unity, are looking to "divide us further" by pursuing Trump's impeachment.
Cole did not directly defend Trump's actions or rhetoric but argued in Congress, one week before Biden's inauguration, sets up a "flawed process."
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.