Biden says second Trump impeachment is 'a decision for Congress' – live

The White House has issued a statement on the prospect of an unprecedented second round of impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump.

“As President Trump said yesterday, this is a time for healing and unity as one nation. A politically motivated impeachment against a president with 12 days remaining in his term will only serve to further divide our great country,” it said.

Donald Trump will reportedly fly to Mar-a-Lago the day before Joe Biden’s inauguration, according to CNN.

Trump announced earlier today that he would not attend Biden’s inauguration, breaking 150 years of tradition of outgoing presidents attending their successors’ inaugurations.

It’s unclear whether Mike Pence will attend the inauguration, although Biden said today that the vice-president is “welcome” to be part of the event.

A draft of House Democrats’ articles of impeachment against Donald Trump includes an article for “incitement of insurrection.”

The draft, obtained by CNN, accuses the president of having “gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of government.”

“President Trump’s conduct on January 6, 2021 was consistent with his prior efforts to subvert and obstruct the certification of the results of the 2020 presidential election,” the draft says.

“He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coordinate branch of government. He thereby betrayed his trust as President, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.”

House Democrats could file the articles of impeachment as soon as Monday, according to multiple reports, potentially setting up a mid-week vote.

Jen Psaki, the incoming White House press secretary, said Joe Biden will receive his second dose of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine on Monday.

During a virtual briefing with reporters, Psaki added that some members of the incoming administration, including close aides to Biden and Kamala Harris as well as cabinet secretaries, are starting to receive the vaccine as well.

Joe Biden said he believed the violent siege of the Capitol made it easier to unify the country because Americans of both parties were horrified by what took place.

“My overarching objective is to unify this country,” Biden told reporters in Wilmington, Delaware. “We must unify this country.”

The president-elect applauded Republicans who have denounced the violence and the baseless claims of widespread election fraud that helped spur it, such as Mitt Romney.

Biden noted he spoke to Romney this morning, and he applauded the Republican senator as “a man of enormous integrity”.

Asked whether senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz should resign for supporting Donald Trump’s lies about the election, as some Democrats have suggested, Biden said, “I think they should be just flat beaten the next time they run.”

The president-elect has now wrapped up his event in Wilmington.

Joe Biden condemned the rioters who stormed the Capitol as “a bunch of thugs,” “domestic terrorists” and “white supremacists.”

The president-elect specifically called out the rioters who wore shirts saying “6MWE.”

“6MWE” is an anti-Semitic phrase that stands for “Six million wasn’t enough,” referring to the six million Jewish people who were murdered during the Holocaust.

“These shirts they’re wearing? These are a bunch of thugs,” Biden said.

Joe Biden’s event is ongoing, but the blog is going to pivot back to Capitol Hill, where a prominent Democrat addressed calls for two of her Republican colleagues to resign.

Patty Murray, the third-ranking Senate Democrat, said she believed senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz should resign for their role in stirring up baseless doubts about the legitimacy of the election, after a violent pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol on Wednesday.

“I come to the Capitol every day to fight for what I believe in,” the Washington Democrat said in a statement. “I use my voice to tell people what I believe to be right, and I listen to the other side. We hear each other out, we vote, and whoever has the votes wins. And I accept that. Do I always like the outcome? No, but I accept it, because that is what our democracy requires.”

Murray condemned the rioters who stormed the Capitol on Wednesday, describing them as “people who don’t accept democracy, and want to take this country by use of force.”

“As a Senator, I respect every member who disagrees with my ideas. I reserve my right to use my voice to fight for what I believe in. But at the end of the day, our job is to keep this country a democracy where voices win, not brute force,” Murray said.

“Any Senator who stands up and supports the power of force over the power of democracy has broken their oath of office. Senators Hawley and Cruz should resign.”

Joe Biden said he gave “serious consideration” to nominating Bernie Sanders as labor secretary, but the two agreed that it was too risky to jeopardize control of the Senate.

After Democrats swept the Georgia Senate races this week, they took control of the chamber, which will now be 50-50, with vice-president-elect Kamala Harris providing a tie-breaking 51st vote for Democrats.

Sanders has served as one of Vermont’s senators since 2007, and his cabinet nomination would trigger a special election.

The labor secretary nomination ultimately went to Marty Walsh, the mayor of Boston, and Biden said Sanders told him he had made a good choice.

Joe Biden said he would lay out the groundwork for the next round of coronavirus relief next week, emphasizing the need to offer more financial assistance to American families amid the pandemic.

“We need more direct relief flowing to families, small businesses,” Biden said. “Our focus will be on small businesses on Main Street.”

The president-elect also criticized the rollout of coronavirus vaccines so far. “Vaccines give us hope, but the rollout has been a travesty,” Biden said.

The Democrat previously pledged to distribute 100 million doses of the vaccine over his first 100 days in office.

Joe Biden noted that, with his announcement today, he will have completed his cabinet nominations, and he called on the Senate to swiftly confirm his nominees.

The president-elect applauded himself for building a cabinet that “looks like America,” noting that this would be the first presidential cabinet to be evenly divided between men and women.