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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Republicans claim 'rushed' impeachment would 'inflame' the country

As part of rule debate leading up to debate on the article of impeachment, Republicans have largely focused on procedural concerns, criticizing Democrats for moving quickly to impeach Trump without a full investigation and suggesting the move would further divide Americans.

"I hold him accountable for the attack on the Capitol," newly elected Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., said, making her first speech on the House floor.

"If we're serious about healing the divisions in this country, Republicans and Democrats need to recognize that last week wasn't the first day of violence," she continued. "There is violence on both sides of the aisle."

"President Trump will leave office in seven days," Rep. Jason Smith, R-MO, said. "This is a reckless impeachment ... have a conscience."

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, attacked Democrat Rep. Jim McGovern, the chairman of the House Rules Committee, over his 2017 objection to the election results, and accused Democrats of hypocrisy.

McGovern quickly shot back that Democrats and Hillary Clinton recognized Trump's victory -- when Republicans refused to acknowledge Biden's.

"The bottom line is this. This Capitol was stormed -- people died because of the big lies that were being told by this president and by too many other people on this side of the aisle. Enough!" McGovern said. "Coming up on this floor and talking about whataboutism and trying to make these false equivalences -- give me a break."

"The president of the United States instigated an attempted coup in this country," he added. "If this is not an impeachable offense I don't know what the hell is."

-ABC News' Benjamin Siegel


Some GOP members rebel against Rep. Liz Cheney

Several conservative House Republicans have criticized Rep. Liz Cheney since she announced she would support impeachment Tuesday evening.

The Wyoming Republican is the chair of the House GOP conference -- the No. 3 leadership position -- and was reelected to by GOP members at the start of this Congress.

"We ought to have a second vote," Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told reporters Wednesday about the leadership position. "The conference ought to vote on that."

"She should not be serving this conference," Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., said Tuesday.

It's unclear how widespread the effort to remove Cheney from GOP leadership is. But Trump's top allies in the House are using impeachment as an opportunity to kneecap Cheney, a potential future speaker, after months of simmering tensions.

-ABC News' Benjamin Siegel


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


Pelosi says managers are 'preparing' for Trump's impeachment trial

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Friday that "our managers are solemnly and prayerfully preparing" for Trump's impeachment trial, "which they will take to the Senate."

"Justice is called for as we address the active insurrection that was perpetrated against the Capitol complex last week," Pelosi said during her weekly press conference at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, D.C.

Pelosi did not specify when the article of impeachment will be sent to the Senate, prompting the trial. According to Senate rules, the trial would begin the day after the impeachment charge is sent over by the House of Representatives.

"You'll be the first to know when we announce that we're going over there," she told reporters.

Pelosi noted how quickly the House voted to impeach the president, just one week after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, which she said was "incentivised" by Trump.

"So urgent was the matter," she told reporters.

When asked about the role members of Congress may have played in the riot, Pelosi said they would be held accountable.

"If it in fact it is found that members of Congress were accomplices to this insurrection, if they aided and abetted the crime," she said, "there may have to be actions taken beyond the Congress in terms of prosecution."

The speaker also announced that she's asked retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honore -- who helped coordinate the military relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina -- to lead an "immediate review" of security failings at the Capitol, reviewing security infrastructure, the interagency process, and command and control.

At the start of Friday's press conference, Pelosi quoted Martin Luther King Jr., saying, "True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice."

-ABC News' Benjamin Siegel