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ABC News

Trump announces new impeachment legal team

PHOTO: President Donald Trump waves as he arrives at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Fla., Jan. 20, 2021.
6:41
Carlos Barria/Reuters
Donald trump loses defense team before impeachment trial
By Libby Cathey, Jack Arnholz, Lauren King, Michelle Stoddart, Catherine Thorbecke, Tia Humphries
Last Updated: February 1, 2021, 2:30 AM

This is Day 12 of the administration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Top headlines:

  • Trump parts ways with top impeachment lawyer
  • Another quiet Saturday at the White House
  • South Carolina GOP votes to censure Rep. Tom Rice
  • Biden's executive actions reverse most 'egregious' Trump policies: Kate Bedingfield
  • Dems prepare to move ahead with 'reconciliation'
Here is how events are unfolding. All times Eastern.

Feb 01, 2021 2:30 AM

Biden withdraws Trump freeze to some government program funding

President Joe Biden is again undoing actions undertaken by the Trump administration. In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Sunday, Biden announced he was withdrawing 73 proposed rescissions previously sent to Congress by former President Donald Trump on Jan. 14. 

The action would unfreeze $27.4 billion in cuts to previously approved funding for government programming.

"The withdrawals are for the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, the Interior, Justice, Labor, State, and the Treasury, as well as the African Development Foundation, the Commission of Fine Arts, the Corporation for National and Community Service, the District of Columbia, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Inter-American Foundation, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities, the National Gallery of Art, the Peace Corps, the Presidio Trust, the United States Agency for International Development, the United States Army Corps of Engineers, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and the Legislative Branch," according to a statement from the Biden administration.

-ABC News' Molly Nagle


Jan 31, 2021 11:44 PM

Trump announces new impeachment legal team

A day after all five of former President Donald Trump's impeachment legal team quit, a new team has been selected.

Trial lawyers David Schoen and Bruce L. Castor, Jr. will lead his impeachment defense team, according to a statement from Trump Sunday.

“It is an honor to represent the 45th President, Donald J. Trump, and the United States Constitution,” Schoen said in a statement.

“I consider it a privilege to represent the 45th President. The strength of our Constitution is about to be tested like never before in our history. It is strong and resilient," Castor added. "A document written for the ages, and it will triumph over partisanship yet again, and always.”

Trump's former team, which was led by South Carolina lawyer Butch Bowers, resigned in part because of disagreements over how to mount Trump’s defense, sources told ABC News. The lawyers had planned to argue the constitutionality of holding a trial given Trump is now a former president.

The Senate trial is scheduled to begin on the week of Feb. 8.


Jan 31, 2021 9:37 PM

'We may end up seeing a president eating his words' on bipartisan COVID-19 bill: Vega

Unity was the focus of Biden's campaign, but absent gaining even one Republican vote for his coronavirus relief package, what does that mean going forward, ABC's "This Week" Co-anchor Martha Raddatz asked Senior White House Correspondent Cecilia Vega.

"It's something we've heard almost every day since he's been in office for the last few days. He said that there would be this epiphany by Republicans if Donald Trump left. He also, on a conference call, told supporters at one point that he would -- could end up eating his words but that he believed Republicans essentially would come around," Vega said Sunday. "Martha, we may end up seeing the president eating his words on this."

VIDEO: 'We may end up seeing a president eating his words' on bipartisan COVID-19 bill: Vega
16:09
The Powerhouse Roundtable breaks down the latest news on "This Week."

"The Biden team is at a crossroads right now. They've got to decide whether it is bipartisanship and unity that prevails or whether they're going to potentially go at it alone and just forego this effort of unity," Vega continued. "It is looking more and more like they're going to end up going at it alone."



Jan 31, 2021 5:24 PM

Do Democrats have a shot at flipping retiring Ohio Sen. Rob Portman's seat?

Ohio's Sen. Rob Portman's decision to retire opened a major new battleground in the fight for Senate control in 2022. But after former President Donald Trump easily carried the buckeye state last November, do Democrats have a shot at flipping the seat?

FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver gave ABC's "This Week" an early forecast.

"Democrats have a chance, it's just not a very good chance … it probably depends on the GOP having a really weak candidate or Democrats, a very strong one," he said Sunday.

VIDEO: Dems don't have 'a very good chance' to win Ohio Senate race: Nate Silver
2:13
538's Nate Silver on if he buys that Democrats have a chance to win the open 2022 Ohio Senate race.

Jan 28, 2021 3:20 PM

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.

PHOTO: President Joe Biden signs an executive order after speaking about his administration's plans to strengthen American manufacturing as Vice President Kamala Harris listens at the White House in Washington, D.C., Jan. 25, 2021.
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
President Joe Biden signs an executive order after speaking about his administration's plans to strengthen American manufacturing as Vice President Kamala Harris listens at the White House in Washington, D.C., Jan. 25, 2021.
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

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.

The needs of the American people are urgent from putting food on the table, to getting vaccines out the door to reopening schools. Those aren’t partisan issues. We are engaging with a range of voices—that’s democracy in action—we aren’t looking to split a package in two.

— Jen Psaki (@PressSec) January 28, 2021

MORE: Biden's COVID relief package presents 1st test of his deal-making skills

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.


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