Down The Middle News: News Brief: Trump Impeached, Democrats Debate, Boris Johnson’s Agenda

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

When the Home started voting on articles of impeachment final evening, President Trump was in Michigan.

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

He advised supporters there they had been in for the best speech you’ve got ever heard. He attacked Hillary Clinton. He mocked the title of Pete Buttigieg. He urged safety to get harder on a protester. He mentioned Fox Information hosts praised him. He mentioned ladies inform him dishwashers do not work in addition to they used to. And he talked about impeachment.

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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: It does not actually really feel like we’re being impeached.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: The nation is doing higher than ever earlier than. We did nothing mistaken. We did nothing mistaken. And now we have great assist within the Republican Occasion like we have by no means had earlier than.

GREENE: The president was proper about that Republican assist. As he spoke, Home Republicans had been unanimously voting towards impeachment. However Democrats prevailed. The Home accredited two articles of impeachment for abuse of energy and obstruction of Congress. The alleged abuse is the president’s effort to have Ukraine examine political rivals. Here is Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi after the ground vote.

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NANCY PELOSI: December 18, an excellent day for the Structure of the US, a tragic one for America that the president’s reckless actions necessitated us – our having to introduce articles of impeachment.

INSKEEP: Three American presidents have now been impeached – Andrew Johnson, Invoice Clinton, Donald Trump. NPR political reporter Tim Mak was overlaying the proceedings yesterday. Hello there, Tim.

TIM MAK, BYLINE: Hey there.

INSKEEP: What was it like watching all of it?

MAK: So it was an extended and momentous day. You can actually really feel the stress constructing over hours and hours of debate, which took some 12 hours from the beginning of the day to the top once we had votes. In order the day started, it was sort of nearly a comfy winter scene within the Home. There had been fires lit within the fireplaces of the speaker’s foyer proper off the Home ground.

However within the morning, vocal protesters began to collect exterior, urging impeachment and elimination. And by the afternoon, it had grow to be a fairly partisan scene within the Home. Lawmakers had been interrupting one another. Boos and cheers and jeers had been heard on the Home ground. And when it got here all the way down to the votes on impeachment, Republicans tried one final symbolic protest. They’d wished a roll name vote. That’s for all 400-plus lawmakers to have their title learn out…

INSKEEP: Yeah.

MAK: …And to bodily vote yea or nay. They could not get that performed. So what they did as an alternative, as a sort of symbolic protest, is that they voted manually with crimson paper ballots. They often vote by digital machine. In order that they signed these crimson paper ballots, they usually had the clerk tally their votes manually.

INSKEEP: When the clerk tallied them, all Republicans went a technique, practically all Democrats the opposite. However who had been the exceptions?

MAK: Properly, there have been two Democrats who voted towards each articles of impeachment – Congressman Collin Peterson, who has been within the Home for practically 30 years, and Congressman Jeff Van Drew, who has indicated he’ll change events and grow to be a Republican. Each come from districts that voted for Trump in 2016. So there’s been numerous speak about these reasonable Democrats in these 31 districts that voted for Trump in 2016 then flipped to Democrat within the 2018 midterms. The huge, overwhelming majority of these Democrats in battleground districts determined to vote for the articles of impeachment.

INSKEEP: Then there’s Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who voted current. She’s a presidential candidate. Nancy Pelosi decided after that vote to not ship the articles of impeachment proper over to the Senate. Let’s take heed to what she mentioned.

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PELOSI: We are going to make our resolution as to when we’ll ship it once we see what they’re doing on the Senate facet. However that is a call that we’ll make collectively.

INSKEEP: What is going on on there, Tim?

MAK: They’re relying on this concept that they’ve leverage over the parameters of the Senate trial. These negotiations are nonetheless underway. They assume that maybe by withholding these articles, they’ll change the parameters and get a fairer trial of their view.

INSKEEP: Would Republicans be upset if this impeachment trial had been delayed not directly? Is that why they’d have leverage?

MAK: The entire technique would rely upon Republicans wanting a trial to occur and the president wanting some type of vindication.

INSKEEP: Properly, we’ll see what occurs. Tim, thanks very a lot. Actually admire it.

MAK: Thanks.

INSKEEP: That is NPR’s Tim Mak.

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INSKEEP: Given how huge the Democratic presidential area has been, a debate stage tonight in Los Angeles could seem comparatively empty.

GREENE: That is proper. Solely seven candidates can be there – Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, Andrew Yang and Tom Steyer. Exhausting to keep away from speaking about that massive impeachment vote, however the candidates are desirous to cowl different matters.

INSKEEP: NPR political reporter Juana Summers joins us now. Good morning.

JUANA SUMMERS, BYLINE: Good morning.

INSKEEP: Fewest candidates we have seen in any debate to this point. I suppose that is the way in which it is imagined to work. However what’s modified right here?

SUMMERS: So the seven candidates who can be onstage tonight have all participated in earlier debates, however there have been a few massive adjustments. For the reason that final debate, California Senator Kamala Harris dropped out. She had certified to take the stage tonight. We additionally will not see New Jersey Senator Cory Booker or Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard. And a few the later entrants to the race additionally didn’t make the reduce. I am, in fact, speaking concerning the former Governor of Massachusetts Deval Patrick and former New York Metropolis Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

There may be one different massive factor to notice about this debate lineup. Should you assume again to July, Democrats had probably the most numerous debate stage in historical past. Now we’re 5 months later, and all the individuals within the debate are white apart from Andrew Yang.

INSKEEP: Wow.

SUMMERS: That has renewed criticisms of the Democratic Nationwide Committee’s debate qualifying course of and the nominating course of total. Here is candidate Julian Castro. He didn’t make the reduce for tonight’s debate, and he spoke about this in Iowa earlier.

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JULIAN CASTRO: It is time for the Democratic Occasion to alter the way in which that we do our presidential nominating course of. A part of the rationale for that’s that I do not imagine that the 2 states that start the method, Iowa and New Hampshire, are reflective of the range of our nation or of our celebration.

INSKEEP: Democrats have been speaking about this, the truth that these are pretty white states in comparison with the nation as an entire. Are Democrats agreeing there’s a downside, although?

SUMMERS: So the Democratic Nationwide Committee and its chairman, Tom Perez, appear very clearly aware of those critiques at a second the place race is on the forefront of this main like by no means earlier than. However they have not mentioned something notable to recommend that they’re both contemplating reassessing the order by which states vote or the calls from some, together with the celebration’s personal candidates, that the controversy threshold ought to be lowered for the debates which might be coming in January and February.

INSKEEP: OK. So the debates have modified from a ridiculously enormous variety of candidates – too many even to slot in one debate – to a merely unwieldy and too massive variety of candidates. However seven – you will get somewhat higher sense of them. What do you look ahead to?

SUMMERS: Yeah. That is proper. And so, in fact, we’re at all times going to be seeking to heart stage. So one of many greatest dynamics I’m looking forward to is the dynamic between Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Over the previous couple of weeks, they’ve been actually concentrating on one another as Warren is seeking to recapture the vitality and pleasure that made her a front-runner within the late summer time and early fall. And Buttigieg has risen to guide within the polls in Iowa. They have been speaking about transparency rather a lot, in addition to their respective well being care plans.

INSKEEP: OK. Properly, we’ll be listening for all of that. Juana, thanks a lot. Actually admire it.

SUMMERS: Thanks.

INSKEEP: That is NPR’s Juana Summers this morning.

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INSKEEP: And let’s transfer throughout to the UK now, the place Queen Elizabeth provides a speech at the moment.

GREENE: Proper. The speech was written for her by the brand new authorities following Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s enormous win final week in nationwide elections. Within the speech, she is going to lay out Johnson’s agenda for the approaching yr.

INSKEEP: To be taught what which means for Brexit and the way forward for the U.Ok., we flip to NPR’s Frank Langfitt in London. Hello there, Frank.

FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: Hey. Good morning, Steve.

INSKEEP: Hey. Are you able to paint an image for us right here? The queen, who’s supposed to remain out of politics, is in politics on this second.

LANGFITT: Properly, she is, however solely in a way in that she’s talking for the federal government. That is simply the custom that each time you could have an enormous election, you could have a brand new Parliament, the queen comes over from Buckingham Palace. And he or she sits within the Home of Lords, which is extremely ornate – not just like the Home of Commons, which individuals is perhaps conversant in seeing.

INSKEEP: Yeah.

LANGFITT: After which she reads the federal government’s agenda. And it is often crammed with numerous pomp and circumstance. I believe as a result of the turmoil on this nation politically, there will not be as a lot of that this time round. As an example, she’s coming over in a automobile, not within the carriage…

INSKEEP: (Laughter).

LANGFITT: …Which is sensible as a result of we’re sort of getting used to that right here.

INSKEEP: Additionally, the horses are getting drained from all the assorted elections you in all probability have.

LANGFITT: Maybe.

INSKEEP: Yeah. Anyway, go on. Go on.

LANGFITT: Maybe. However so this can be lower-key. The large factor that Boris Johnson goes to be speaking about on this speech, because the queen provides it, is getting Brexit performed, the identical factor he ran on. He now has the votes, an 80-seat majority within the Home of Commons, to get his withdrawal settlement by means of by the top of January.

The opposite factor that he’ll be speaking about is giving more cash to the Nationwide Well being Service. The Nationwide Well being Service right here is admittedly beleaguered. I believe People can relate to this within the sense of considerations about well being care and well being companies. And Johnson, though a conservative authorities really oversaw the decline within the Nationwide Well being Service, he’ll speak about placing billions and billions extra into it, which can be extremely popular.

INSKEEP: And we’d presume from the large majority that Johnson’s celebration simply received that he’ll get what he desires out of Parliament. Does that imply he’ll prevail in all the things that he desires?

LANGFITT: He’ll. I imply, there may very well be some small adjustments to the withdrawal settlement, however it is a performed deal. He has an enormous majority. The larger query is what occurs subsequent. And that is the place I believe that slogan, get Brexit performed, is fairly deceptive in a way, as a result of he now has set a deadline for himself of 11 months to get a commerce take care of the EU, maybe even a complete one. I do not know any commerce skilled who says that that is doable. It is method too advanced.

So we may both see certainly one of two issues – both on the finish of subsequent yr, a no-deal Brexit, which might trigger numerous financial harm, could be a surprising, frankly, political failure in numerous methods, or a bare-bones deal, which might really price the economic system right here – I used to be speaking to economists yesterday – as much as six proportion factors over the following eight to 10 years off of GDP. The concept that Brexit is over on the finish of January shouldn’t be the case in any respect.

INSKEEP: I wish to circle again to this formal second of the queen delivering the phrases of the federal government. I suppose that’s meant to represent the unity, the continuity of the nation. However is the UK now united? And is it going to remain that method?

LANGFITT: No. And what may very well be fascinating, Steve, within the coming years is, does Brexit really break up the union? Simply this morning, Nicola Sturgeon, head of the Scottish Nationwide Occasion – they received an enormous win as nicely, as – simply as Boris Johnson did final week. She desires a second referendum on independence for Scotland. And he or she says they’re owed it as a result of they did very nicely within the polls final week within the vote. And Johnson goes to say no. So it is fascinating that on at the present time you could have a message of unity, after which up in Scotland, you could have a message – we wish a vote to have the ability to depart.

INSKEEP: Frank, thanks to your insights.

LANGFITT: Completely satisfied to do it, Steve.

INSKEEP: That is NPR’s Frank Langfitt in London. Transcript supplied by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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