Timing on the House impeachment vote today
The House is set to vote Thursday morning on how to proceed with its impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump — a move that will put lawmakers on record about where they stand and that Republicans are decrying as a sham.
Debate on the procedures — which include beginning public hearings and the release of some of the information gathered in the ongoing inquiry over the last few weeks — is expected to begin around 9 a.m. ET.
All House Republicans are expected to oppose the resolution, as may a handful of Democrats who are not on board with the impeachment inquiry.
Democrats have set aside one hour for debate on the resolution — 30 minutes for Democrats, 30 minutes for Republicans. The vote on the resolution is slated to begin between 10:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. ET., after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi delivers her weekly on-camera press conference around 10:15 a.m. ET. If it goes according to schedule, the vote could be completed before noon, but if the GOP minority makes use of parliamentary delaying tactics, the process could take a lot longer.
A few things to watch for tomorrow that could delay the vote timing slightly:
- During the debate time, if Speaker Pelosi, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer or House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy speak, they are allowed “magic minutes” which basically means their speeches don’t take away time from the hour debate. In that case, the hour-long debate could be extended slightly.
- Republicans, unhappy about taking this vote, could try to ask for some procedural votes during the debate period. If, for example, Republicans ask to adjourn, the House will have to stop debate, have all members come to the chamber and vote. After that call to adjourn fails (because Democrats are in control), the debate will pick back up again with whatever time was left.
Everything you need to know about impeachment
What is impeachment and how does it work? 10 facts to know.
Must the Senate hold a trial? How does Trump differ from Clinton? Can the president pardon himself? And much more.
Read the story from NBC’s Pete Williams, Frank Thorp V and Alex Moe here.
Poll: Battleground voters oppose removing Trump but support impeachment inquiry
A majority of voters across six battleground states oppose removing President Donald Trump from office, though a majority said they support the House impeachment inquiry, a New York Times/Siena poll on Thursday showed.
By 52 to 44 percent, voters in Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin opposed impeaching and removing Trump. By that same 52 to 44 percent, voters in those states supported the inquiry.
The battleground poll was conducted from Oct. 13 to Oct. 26 and surveyed 3,766 registered voters across the six states. The margin of error was plus-or-minus 1.7 percentage points.
Trump impeachment inquiry update for Thursday
The House was also set to vote Thursday morning on how to proceed with its impeachment inquiry, putting lawmakers on record about where they stand and that Republicans are decrying as a sham.
Also, Timothy Morrison, the National Security Council’s senior director for Europe and Russia, is due to be deposed in closed session. There are no plans for an opening statement. Morrison replaced Fiona Hill, who has testified that Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, oversaw a “shadow foreign policy” on Ukraine for the president’s personal political gain while shutting out NSC staff and career diplomats.
At 4 p.m., Judge Richard Leon, a senior judge at the U.S. District court for the District of Columbia, hears a case filed on behalf of former deputy national security adviser Charles Kupperman, who asked a federal court to decide whether he would need to testify. The White House has tried to block his appearance, and Kupperman, who worked under national security adviser John Bolton, filed a lawsuit Friday asking a federal judge to rule on whether he must testify under a congressional subpoena.
Article II – With the Gavel Comes the Power – Wednesday, October 30th
Today on Article II, Steve Kornacki talks to Kelly O’Donnell, White House correspondent for NBC News, about the political calculations being made around the House resolution on impeachment.
The two discuss:
- Key takeaways from the resolution
- Why House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is choosing to hold a vote on the process now
- Whether the vote will test Democratic unity on impeachment
- Republican criticism of the resolution
- What tomorrow’s vote means for next steps in the impeachment process
The episode also acknowledges testimony underway on Capitol Hill today and looks ahead to the rest of the week.
Listen to the episode here.
White House says it is ‘false’ that Vindman suggested filling in omissions
White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham disputed claims that Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman tried to edit a White House log of a July call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to include details that were omitted.
“President Trump released a full and accurate transcript of his call with President Zelenskiy so the American people could see he acted completely appropriately and did nothing wrong.
The media is reporting that Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman claims he proposed filling in words that were missing in areas where ellipses were shown in the transcript — this is false.
Because Chairman Schiff has kept his sham hearings secret and has excluded the President’s counsel from the room, we cannot confirm whether or not Lt. Col. Vindman himself made any such false claim. What we can confirm is that he never suggested filling in any words at any points where ellipses appear in the transcript.”
John Bolton invited to testify in House impeachment inquiry
Former national security adviser John Bolton has been invited to be interviewed next Thursday by House Democrats leading the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, according to three sources familiar with the matter.
Bolton, whose name has emerged repeatedly during the testimony of other key figures being interviewed by the impeachment investigators, has been invited to testify behind closed doors Nov. 7, the sources said.
Bolton has not been issued a subpoena. It wasn’t immediately clear whether he would actually attend his scheduled deposition. If he does, however, he would be the most prominent figure yet to give testimony in the impeachment inquiry.
Read more here.
Meadows blasts impeachment resolution, talks questioning of key witness Vindman
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., blasted the House Democrats’ impeachment resolution in remarks to reporters Wednesday.
“[I]t’s so late in the game… , credible witnesses have been poisoned by what has been reported and leaked out,” Meadows said. “What Democrats have done is leaked out a narrative that has tainted some of the witnesses that have come.” He added that the resolution “affords us the same opportunities we have now, which is to beg [Intelligence] Chairman [Adam] Schiff for due process, and last time I checked, that doesn’t qualify as due process.”
Meadows, a member of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, also discussed GOP lawmakers’ line of questioning during the testimony of White House Ukraine expert Alexander Vindman on Tuesday, denying accusations that Republicans tried to draw out the whistleblower’s identity.
“The majority jumped in to ask the witness not to answer the questions that would potentially be a great benefit to the president of the United States, and it has nothing to do with outing the whistleblower. That’s their narrative,” he said.
“In general terms, I can say we were asking the witness who else did the witness talk to in terms of specific items that are important to the investigation, and the witness indicated that there were more than one, and Chairman Schiff refused to allow those witnesses to be identified,” he said.
Asked if the whistleblower’s anonymity should be protected, Meadows said, “Well, not according to statue, he doesn’t. The reason you have a whistleblower statue is so that they can come forward and not be retaliated against. It’s the reason we have the law.”
State Dept.’s No. 2 pinpoints White House for blocking witness testimony
President Donald Trump’s nominee for ambassador to Russia told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday that the State Department’s efforts to prevent witnesses from testifying in the House inquiry have been directed by the White House.
Asked by Senate Foreign Relations ranking member Bob Menendez, D-N.J., about the administration’s efforts to block witness testimony, Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan replied, “I would say that the actions that the department has undertaken, led by the secretary, has been on the advice of counsel — not only State Department counsel, but White House counsel as well, and direction from the White House.”
“Why is the department working to prevent employees from testifying before Congress?” Menendez asked.
“Well, we are, as has been laid out in an extensive letter from the counsel to the President,” Sullivan replied. “The rationale is laid out there.”
When Menendez asked if Sullivan was aware people outside the State Department had sought to undermine then-Amb. Marie Yovanovitch, who was removed from her post in the spring, Sullivan replied, “I was.”
“And did you know Mr. Giuliani was one of those people?” Menendez asked, referring to Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
“I believed he was, yes,” Sullivan said.
Giuliani has been a central player in Trump’s efforts regarding Ukraine. Yovanovitch told House impeachment investigators earlier this month that Trump had personally pressured the State Department to remove her, even though Sullivan assured her that she had “done nothing wrong.”