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CNN Live Event/Special
Soon: House Managers Formally Present Impeachment Articles To Senate; House Impeachment Managers Proceed To Senate Chamber; Lead House Manger Adam Schiff Reads First Article Of Impeachment; Lead House Manager Adam Schiff Reads Second Article Of Impeachment; Senate Formally Accepts Articles Of Impeachment. Aired 12-12:30p ET
Aired January 16, 2020 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[12:00:00]
ALAN FRUMIN, SENATE PARLIAMENTARIAN EMERITUS: --there and then administer the oath for the trial to all Senators currently present.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST, THE LEAD: I want to ask a question about last night. Last night there was like a weird disconnect because the House Managers went over there with the articles and the Senate just rejected them. They wouldn't accept them at that time, they said come back tomorrow?
FRUMIN: I don't think that was the question of rejecting the articles. The first step that had to be taken was the House formally notifying the Senate that they had adopted articles of impeachment. And that's a message. That message is usually carried by a messenger and it's almost always delivered off the floor without any ceremony.
This is a circumstance regarding some ceremony, and once again, Laura Dove, the Secretary for the Majority, announced the House Managers and they did state that the House had adopted articles of impeachment and they were notifying the Senate. The Senate's impeachment rules provide that the Secretary of the Senate shall notify the House immediately when those articles are to be, "Exhibited".
And so the notification is immediate, but the exhibition isn't. And a decision was made - and this is somewhat standard. The decision was made that these articles would be exhibited today at this hour. So there was no need to actually leave the articles themselves in the Senate chamber.
Frankly, the articles needed to be read by the Managers, so it makes sense under these circumstances the message having been delivered that the articles had been adopted, the Senate saying, pursuant to its rules, we'll let you know when we want you to exhibit these, which they did. It makes sense for the Managers to take the articles, take them back, hold onto them, not lose them, which would be a bad thing. Then they would have nothing to read on the floor of the Senate.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, THE SITUATION ROOM: I don't think we should lose sight of the history of what we're about to see. Yes, it's very carefully staged and choreographed. As Alex was pointing out, all sorts of specific details, but this is only the third time in American history that we're going to see this unfold.
TAPPER: That's right. Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton and now Donald Trump one thing that sometimes, people ask me on social media, are you forgetting about Richard Nixon? Richard Nixon resigned, before he could impeached by the House. He was never actually formally impeached. There are others who now fear that impeachment will become a political weapon, not just Republicans saying that as some Democrats do as well, because we're now living for our second phase.
BLITZER: Yes. And then wasn't that long ago a lot of us covered that Bill Clinton impeachment trial. Exactly 21 years ago, you and I were there. John, we remember it very, very deliberately and we remember how it unfolding, but there are going to be differences in this time.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Differences, one is - was in his second term but this President is right in the early stages of his reelection campaign year. But it is early familiar, early strange how the Clinton impeachment and the Trump impeachment are tracking the calendar, if you will.
Bill Clinton delivered a State of the Union Address during his impeachment trial. It looks very likely, unless this trial goes like that and no one expects it to, but Donald Trump would deliver a State of the Union Address on February 4th somewhere probably in the final week or near the back half of his impeachment trial.
The allegations are very different. It was about personal conduct of Bill Clinton, however, he also did lie to a grand jury. This is about the allegation that this current President abused his power by using the levers and powers and authority of government for personal and political gain.
So the allegations are very different. What's also similar is that heading into the Clinton Senate trial, it was pretty clear the math was not there, that the President of the United States was not going to be convicted and removed from office. The math seems pretty clear in this case with a Republican Majority that this President, barring something I don't think any of us could predict, is not going to be convicted and removed from office.
And the other big similarity is the issue of witnesses. The Republicans, the House Republican Managers and those they wanted witnesses. They wanted to put Monica Lewinsky live on the floor of the United State Senate. They decided later--
BLITZER: Here these are the House Managers led by Adam Schiff the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Seven House Managers, they're beginning the formal walkover through the statutory hall, through the Capitol Rotunda from the House of Representatives to the U.S. Senate.
TAPPER: You see Adam Schiff there, obviously the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Jerry Nadler of Judiciary, Zoe Lofgren there from California, this is now the third impeachment she has been involved in because she in Congress during the Clinton impeachment. And she was at Capitol Hill staffer during the Nixon impeachment. This is a very diverse group in every sense of the word, they are except, of course, ideologically, and they come from all over the country, including a freshman from Colorado, a Congresswoman from Texas, a Congresswoman from Florida.
BLITZER: Paul Irving, the House Sergeant of Arms, is leading that delegation, leading the procession, the formal delegation, through the Rotunda, Statutory Hall on to the Senate.
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: That's right, and we saw these same folks doing this same processional yesterday. This group several people, and Jake was talking about how diverse it is, six lawyers, and one law enforcement official and Val Demings who was a Chief of Police down South in Orlando Florida.
What's going to be interesting to see and John is out laying or laying out some of the similarities with the timeline from the Clinton impeachment. What is different here is you're going to have people who are running for President who are going to have to be glued to their seats for weeks on in as they're competing for the Democratic nomination.
[12:05:00]
HENDERSON: They could actually be in the Senate as folks are going to on February 3rd in Iowa.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: And I mentioned last night, and it's happening again now, they just walked past the old Senate Chamber where, until they built this one that they're going to walk into, was where the Senate met. And 21 years ago, 100 Senators sat in that chamber and agreed, in a unanimous bipartisan way, on the rules of the roads for that impeachment. It's such a different time now on almost every issue.
TAPPER: Trent Long, who was the Republican Leader, and Tom Dashell, the Democratic Leader, had such a better working relationship. I think it is fair to say probably every Democratic and Republican leader had a much better working relationship than Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer.
KING: You also though by then had a President of United States.
BLITZER: Hold on a second let's listen to see what he is saying. This is the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): The impeachment against Donald John Trump, President of the United States.
SEN. CHUCK GRASSLEY, (R-IA): The hour of clove noon having arrived and a quorum being present. The Sergeant in Arms will present the Managers on the part of the House of Representatives.
MICHAEL STENGER, SENATE SERGEANT OF ARMS: Mr. President and members, I announce the presence of the Managers on the part of the House of Representatives, to conduct proceedings on behalf of the House concerning the impeachment of Donald John Trump, President of the United States.
GRASSLEY: On the part of the House, it will be received and escorted to the Senate. The Sergeant of Arms will make the proclamation.
STENGER: Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye. All the persons are commanded to keep silent on pan of imprisonment. Well, the House of Representatives is exhibiting to the Senate of the United States articles of impeachment against Donald John Trump President of the United States.
GRASSLEY: The Managers on the part of the House will now proceed.
REP. ADAM SCHIFF, (D-CA): Mr. President, the Managers on the part of the House of Representatives are present and are ready to present the articles of impeachment which have been preferred by the House of Representatives against Donald John Trump, President of the United States.
The House adopted the following resolution which with the permission of the Senate I will read. House Resolution 798 appointing and authorizing managers for the impeachment trial of Donald John Trump, President of the United States resolve that Mr. Schiff, Mr. Nadler, Ms. Lofgren, Mr. Jeffries, Ms. Demings, Mr. Crow and Ms. Garcia of Texas are appointed managers to conduct the impeachment trial against Donald John Trump, President of the United States.
And that a message to be sent to the Senate to inform the Senate of these appointments and that the managers, self-appointed, may in connection with the preparation and conduct of the trial exhibit articles of impeachment to the Senate and take all other actions necessary, which may include the following: Employing legal, clerical and other necessary assistance and incurring such other expenses as may be necessary to be paid for amounts to the committee on the judiciary under applicable expense resolutions or from the applicable account of the House of Representatives.
Number two, sending for persons and papers and filing with the Secretary of Senate on the part of the House of Representatives any pleadings in conjunction with or subsequent to the exhibition of the articles of impeachment that the managers may consider necessary.
With the permission of the Senate, I will now read the articles of impeachment House Resolution 755. House resolution 755 impeaching Donald John Trump, President of the United States for high crimes and misdemeanors resolved that President, that Donald J. Trump, President of the United States, is impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors and that the following articles of impeachment be exhibited to the United States Senate.
Articles of impeachment exhibited by the House of Representatives of the United States of America in the name of itself and of the people of the United States of America against Donald John Trump President to the United States of America in maintenance and support of its impeachment against him for high crimes and misdemeanors.
[12:10:00]
SCHIFF: Article 1 abuse of power. The constitution provides that the House of Representatives shall have the sole power of impeachment and that the President shall be removed from office on impeachment for and conviction of treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors.
In his conduct of the Office of the President of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional oath, faithfully to execute the Office of President of the United States, and to the best of his ability, preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, Donald J. Trump has abused the powers of the Presidency in that using the powers of his high office, President Trump solicited the interference of a foreign government, Ukraine, in the 2020 United States Presidential Election.
He did so through a scheme or course of conduct that included soliciting the government of Ukraine to publicly announce investigations that would benefit his reelection harm the election prospects of a political opponent and influence the 2020 United States Presidential Election to his advantage.
President Trump also sought to pressure the government of Ukraine to take these steps by conditioning official United States government acts of significant value to Ukraine on its public announcement of the investigations. President Trump engaged in this scheme or course of conduct for corrupt purposes in pursuit of personal political benefit.
In so doing, President Trump used the powers of the Presidency in a manner that compromised the national security of the United States and undermined the integrity of the United States Democratic process. He thus ignored and injured the interests of the nation.
President Trump engaged in this scheme or course of conduct through the following means. Number 1, President Trump acting both directly and through his agents within and outside the United States government, corruptly solicited the government of Ukraine to publicly announce investigations into, A, a political opponent, Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., and B, a discredit of theory promoted by Russia, alleging that Ukraine, rather than Russia, interfered in the 2016 United States Presidential Election.
Number 2, with the same corrupt motives, President Trump acting both directly and through his agents within and outside the United States government conditioned two official acts on the public announcement that he had requested. A, the release of $391 million of United States taxpayer funds that Congress had appropriated on a bipartisan basis for the purpose of providing vital military and security assistance to Ukraine to oppose Russian aggression, and which President Trump had ordered suspended.
And B, a Head of State meeting at the White House which the President of Ukraine sought to demonstrate continued United States support for the government of Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression.
Number 3, faced with a public revelation of his actions, President Trump ultimately released the military and security assistance to the government of Ukraine, but has persisted in openly and corruptly urging and soliciting Ukraine to undertake investigations for his personal, political benefit.
These actions were consistent with President Trump's previous invitations of foreign interference in United States elections. In all of this, President Trump abused the powers of the Presidency by ignoring and injuring national security and other vital national interests to obtain an improper personal, political benefit.
He has also betrayed the nation by abusing his high office to enlist a foreign power in corrupting Democratic elections. Wherefore, President Trump by such conduct has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to security and the constitution if allowed to remain in office, and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with self governance and the rule of law.
[12:15:00]
SCHIFF: President Trump thus warrants impeachment and trial, removal from office and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States.
Article 2: Obstruction of Congress. The constitution provides that the House of Representatives shall have the sole power of impeachment, and that the President shall be removed from office on impeachment for and conviction of treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.
In his conduct in the Office of the President of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the Office of President of the United States, and to the best of his ability, preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, Donald J. Trump has directed the unprecedented, categorical and indiscriminate defiance of subpoenas issued by the House of Representatives pursuant to its sole power of impeachment.
President Trump has abused the power of the Presidency in a manner offensive to and subversive of the constitution, in that the House of Representatives have engaged in an impeachment inquiry focused on president Trump's corrupt solicitation of the government of Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 United States Presidential Election.
As part of this impeachment inquiry, the committee has undertaken an investigation, served subpoenas seeking documents and testimony deemed vital to the inquiry from various executive branch agencies and offices and current and former officials.
In response, without lawful cause or excuse, President Trump directed executive branch agencies, offices and officials not to comply with those subpoenas. President Trump thus interposed the power of the Presidency against the lawful subpoenas of the House of Representatives and assumed to himself functions and judgments necessary to exercise the sole power of impeachment vested by the constitution in the House of Representatives. President Trump abused the powers of his high office through the following means. Number 1, directing the White House to defy a lawful subpoena by withholding the production of documents sought therein by the committees.
Number 2, directing other branch agencies and offices to defy lawful subpoenas and withholding the production of documents and records from the committees in response to which the Department of State, the Office of Management and Budget, the Department of Energy and Department of Defense refused to produce a single document or record.
Number 3, directing current and former executive branch officials not to cooperate with the committees, in response to which nine administration officials defied subpoenas for testimony, namely John Michael Mick Mulvaney, Robert D. Blair, John A. Eisenberg, Michael Ellis, Preston Wells Griffith, Russell T. Vot, Michael Duffy, Brian McCormick and T. Oris Bechtel.
These actions were consistent with President Trump's previous efforts to undermine United States government investigations into foreign interference in United States election. Through these actions, the President Trump sought to arrogate to himself the right to determine the propriety scope and nature of the impeachment inquiry into his own conduct, as well as the unilateral purgative to deny any and all information to the House of Representatives in the exercise of its sole power of impeachment.
In the history of the republic, no President has ever ordered the complete defiance of an impeachment inquiry or sought to obstruct and impede so comprehensively the ability of the House of Representatives to investigate high crimes and misdemeanors.
This abuse of office served to cover up the President's own repeated misconduct, and to cease and control the power of impeachment, and thus to nullify a vital constitutional safeguard vested solely in the House of Representatives.
In all of this, President Trump acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.
[12:20:00]
SCHIFF: Wherefore, President Trump, by such conduct, has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to the constitution if allowed to remain in office and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with self- governance and the rule of law.
President Trump thus warrants impeachment and trial, removal from office and disqualification to hold or enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States Mr. President that completes the exhibition of the articles of impeachment against Donald John Trump President of the United States. The Managers request that the Senate take order for the trial. The Managers now request leave to withdraw. GRASSLEY: Thank you, Mr. Schiff. The Senate will duly notify the House
of Representatives when it is ready to proceed to trial.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: And that is expected to be Tuesday morning when the Senate will actually proceed to trial, although at 2:00 eastern, Jake, we expect the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court to come over, be sworn in as well as the 100 members of the U.S. Senate. You see the House Managers they're walking out of the U.S. Senate. The Senate will then proceed with their business. But this is a truly historic moment.
TAPPER: It is a moment. It's a somber moment.
BLITZER: Hold on, let's listen to Mitch McConnell.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCCONNELL: --articles of the impeachment. The Chief Justice of the United States will preside over the trial as required in Article 1, Section 3, Clause 6 of the United States constitution. Also under the previous order, the presiding officer has been authorized to appoint a committee of four Senators, two upon the recommendation of the Majority Leader and two upon the recommendation of the Democratic Leader to escort the Chief Justice into the Senate chamber. I ask that the presiding officer do so now.
GRASSLEY: The Chair, pursuant to order, January 15, 2020, on behalf of the Majority Leader and the Democratic Leader, appoints Mr. Blount of Missouri, Mr. Leahy of Vermont, Mr. Graham of South Carolina and Mrs. Feinstein of California to escort the Chief Justice of the United States into the Senate Chamber.
MCCONNELL: So for further information of Senators, there will be a live forum called prior to the arrival of the Chief Justice at 2:00 pm today. I ask unanimous concern that Senate stands in recess subject to the call of the Chair.
GRASSLEY: Without objection, the Senate stands in recess subject to the call of the Chair.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Senators is now in recess. Chief Justice John Roberts will be sworn in, in about an hour and a half or so, 2:00 pm eastern. We heard the formal presentation. And all of 100 members of the U.S. Senate, they will be sworn in as well even though the formal trial won't begin until Tuesday.
TAPPER: It's an incredibly somber moment. I do believe that there are Democrats who only came to this reluctantly. After the Mueller report, there was not a groundswell among the House Democrats to impeach President Trump even though arguably the Mueller report gave them a road map to pursue that when it came to the obstruction of justice charges. But I think that anybody who is trying to look at this objectively, people can disagree about whether or not this rises to the level or somebody a President needs to be removed from office. People can argue about whether or not witnesses should be allowed. But the idea that this is not a serious matter that the offenses that the President is accused of having committed are not grave and important and worth examining and worth - actually trying to be impartial about that just doesn't pass the smell test. John King?
KING: Not - the key facts here as of this moment are not really in dispute the President attacked the character, he attacked the secondhand knowledge of some of the witnesses presented on the House side. But the President's own call which he calls perfect, it's not really a transcript but the notes of that call the White House has released them, he talked to the President of Ukraine about an investigation into Joe Biden and he said to keep in touch with Rudy Giuliani and the Attorney General of the United States.
All the evidence from around that from the weeks before and the weeks after, all the documents, all the witnesses made clear, as you said, these are very serious substantial allegations. What's fascinating now is we're going through the procedure to just get the trial underway. The Chief Justice will say something after he takes charge this afternoon. That will be fascinating.
Chief Justice - said brief remarks at the top of the Clinton Impeachment trial but then the President's team finally gets a chance. They finally get a chance they declined to come to the House Judiciary Committee proceeding.
BASH: They had a chance.
KING: They had a chance there. They decided to wait until they were in a Republican-controlled Chamber.
[12:25:00]
KING: They did not want to make a case when the Democrats had the majority. What will they say? Will they try to make the case this is all perfect because just read everything. Go back to the trial listen to John Bolton's Deputy Fiona Hill. Listen to Trump officials, read the now disclosed post impeachment vote emails from Trump Administration officials questioning the legality, saying the President was holding up this aid.
You can't say this is acceptable. You can make an argument it is not an impeachable offense. Is that all the President's team will do, or will they challenge facts?
TAPPER: Well, so far they have been their challenging facts, even while Dana Bash, some key administration players on the record has admitted quid pro quo. We had Gordon Sondland the President's point man on Ukraine say, was there a quid pro quo? Holding up a meeting with President Trump in the Oval Office in exchange for the announcement of these investigations, yes, there was. We had Mick Mulvaney who refused to testify. Mick Mulvaney said that the aid was held up, at least in part, for the promise of an investigation into this discredited conspiracy theory that Ukraine hacked into the DNC servers into 2016, not Russia two administration players on the record already admitting a quid pro quo to a degree.
BASH: That's right. And what we saw for the month or so of the hearings and so forth in the House was it was a lot to take in. And what we've already seen these seven House Managers start to do is to streamline, is to condense and to try to make the arguments, including what you just said, as cogent as possible.
We started to hear it in ways that, I don't think I remember hearing Jerry Nadler and other House Democrats talk about the case that they are going to present, and we're going to see and hear that in a way that they can put their best evidence forward. And all of the other noise that we heard during the hearings and the distractions will not be there, because the jurors, the 100 Senators, have to sit silently and listen.
BLITZER: And Nia, the Adam Schiff, the Lead House Impeachment Manager, the Chairman of the Intelligence Committee, was very somber, very serious. He read these two articles of impeachment, abuse of power by the President of the United States, obstruction of Congress by the President of the United States, repeatedly saying that the President of the United States engaged in high crimes and misdemeanors, which the U.S. constitution says is the reason for our President potentially to be impeached and if convicted in the Senate removed from office.
HENDERSON: That's right, we'll hear and Dana talks about the distillation of this I think in a way we haven't heard before you know way that the American people can understand, right? There are really two juries here. There are 100 folks that will be sitting there actually making the decision. There is some indication that we know what is going to happen, that they won't get enough Republicans to come over and kick the President out of office.
That seems to be a certainty. What is still uncertain is where the American public will fall. We've seen some polling maybe its split in terms of what should happen, should this President remain in office or should he be removed? And this is why it's important I think that Nancy Pelosi named those folks who have experience in the courtroom, right? Making the case in simple terms to jurors and Adam Schiff particularly is very good at that.
BLITZER: A former prosecutor.
HENDERSON: Exactly.
KING: And so the House Managers, she picked courtroom lawyers, essentially, plus Val Demings a former police chief. Because she knows she was trying to persuade four or five Republican Senators in the way you do that is you persuade the American people we want to hear more.
So as they present the case, as they present the documents and video clips from the House impeachment proceedings, the Managers will try to say I'm subsequent to impeachment. We've got this email from the Office of Management and Budget that backs this up. The President's team could object at this point. Say it's not in the official impeachment record. Should it be brought in?
They say Rudy Giuliani was acting on behalf of the President and since the impeachment we have this Lev Parnas, has a letter from Rudy Giuliani to President Zelensky saying, he was operating as the President's lawyer at the President's request with the President's blessing.
The President's lawyers can stand up and object and say we don't want that allowed in because it's not in the official impeachment proceedings. That's when it becomes fascination. What does the Chief Justice do? And if the Chief Justice says, I think it should be allowed, do the Republican stand up and try to overrule the Chief Justice of the United States, Tuesday becomes huge.
TAPPER: And just to remind people what the rules are. The Chief Justice can do that, he can make a ruling and Senators can object, and then it goes to a vote of 51 Senators, or the Chief Justice can say, that's not my role, and there will be a vote.
KING: You'll be surprised on that.
TAPPER: And then it goes and 51 Senators get to make a decision.
FURMIN: Well, 51 Senators will decide regardless. The Chief has a role, the Chief can rule on these questions of evidence initially, and any ruling that the Chief makes under the impeachment rules is subject to appeal. And it is a simple majority vote or an appeal and appeals are phrased, shall the decision of the Chair stand as the judgment of the Senate, so--
