Trump announces new impeachment legal team
The former president's trial is scheduled to start the week of Feb. 8.
This is Day 12 of the administration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Top headlines:
Schumer says Senate will move on COVID-19 relief next week
In line with the priorities of the Biden administration, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in his floor remarks Thursday said Democrats will begin moving forward on COVID-19 relief next week -- with or without their Republican colleagues.
"If our Republican colleagues decide to oppose this urgent and necessary legislation we will have to move forward with out them," Schumer said. "We have a responsibility to help the American people fast. The Senate will begin that work next week."
Schumer said earlier this week that Democrats should be prepared to vote on a budget resolution next week -- the first step on moving forward with budget reconciliation, which could allow Democrats to pass some COVID-19 priorities without Republican support.
"The dangers of undershooting our response are far greater than overshooting," Schumer added.
-ABC News' Allison Pecorin
Biden to tackle health care as bipartisan duo looks to censure Trump
Biden will tackle the issue of health care on Thursday with two executive actions -- one aimed at expanding enrollment for the Affordable Care Act amid the coronavirus pandemic and another that addresses reproductive health, according to the White House.
The president is expected to sign an executive order that will open a three-month enrollment period from Feb. 15 to May 15, allowing more Americans to sign up for health care as COVID-19 continues to engulf the country.
He will address reproductive health in a presidential memorandum, rescinding the Mexico City Policy, often referred to as the "global gag rule," which was expanded under former President Donald Trump and blocks U.S. funding to international nonprofits that provide counseling or referrals for abortion, review Title X funding on abortion and remove the country's endorsement of the Geneva Consensus, a nonbinding declaration signed by countries opposed to abortion and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in 2020.
The White House is also working to push Biden's COVID-19 relief package and pushing back on a reporting the administration is considering splitting the proposal in two with the thinking a smaller package could gain more bipartisan support.
“We are engaging with a range of voices—that’s democracy in action—we aren’t looking to split a package in two," White House press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted Thursday morning.
Meanwhile on Capitol Hill, with the outcome of Trump’s impeachment trial all but certain to end without a conviction, a bipartisan Senate duo is working on a resolution that for the second time in history would censure a U.S. president -- and this one could potentially bar Trump from office by including elements of the 14th Amendment. The resolution might force Republicans to take a position on Trump’s actions rather than focusing on procedural arguments, but it's unclear how much momentum it might gain with the trial set to begin Feb. 9 and with Biden hoping to push his priorities through the chamber.
White House sends 1st second gentleman schedule in US history
The office of the vice president has released the first-ever “Daily Guidance for the Second Gentleman.”
It’s the first-ever public schedule for an American vice president’s husband because Doug Emhoff is the nation's first ever second gentleman, tacking onto Harris' historic first as the highest-ranking woman in U.S. government. However, Emhoff has participated in some events with Harris, which have been noted on her schedule as vice president.
The event on Emhoff's schedule for Thursday is a 3 p.m. visit to a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit “focused on food security and economic opportunity.”
In another historic first, the nation's first second gentlemen is also the first Jewish spouse, of any gender, for the presidency or vice presidency.
-ABC News' Ben Gittleson
Trump's influence grows in party with uncertain future: Analysis
It's a visit that carries importance that's both substantive and symbolic.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is expected to meet with former President Donald Trump on Thursday at Mar-a-Lago. The top House Republican and potential future speaker of the House is visiting the twice-impeached and still-to-stand-trial former president, just eight days after he left Washington before his successor was sworn in.
Things are breaking Trump's way -- despite or even because of the turmoil inside the Republican Party. State parties and activists are lining up behind him, prospects for impeachment conviction are fading fast and Biden's executive orders and progressive priorities are making it easier for the GOP to find unified messaging.
Perhaps most tellingly, intra-party fights appear riskier for those who stand against him than those who remain loyal -- at least for the moment. McCarthy's visit comes as efforts move forward to oust the No. 3 House Republican, Rep. Liz Cheney, over her support for impeachment; McCarthy is in Florida, yet Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Trump loyalist, will be in Cheney's Wyoming on Thursday.
Republicans have a whole lot of work to do to figure out what the party needs to look like from here. But the fact that Trump is having some decent political breaks, even while mostly silent and under impeachment, says more than the tweets the former president can't send.
-ABC News' Political Director Rick Klein