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President Trump has been impeached

By Fernando Alfonso III, Veronica Rocha, Mike Hayes and Amanda Wills, CNN

Updated 10:31 a.m. ET, December 19, 2019

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1:05 p.m. ET, December 18, 2019

Impeachment will follow Trump for the rest of his life, Democratic congressman says

Rep. Ted Lieu, a Democrat from California, explained why he thinks today's impeachment vote is important.

"Our children are watching, no president ever wants to be impeached. Whether Donald Trump leaves in one month, one year or five years, this impeachment is permanent, it will follow him around for the rest of his life and the history books and people will know why we impeached," he said.

While Lieu doesn't agree with Trump on key issues, he said the President has the right to move forward with his own policy, "but the President does not have the right to cheat and solicit foreign interference in our elections."

"That is illegal, it is not what the voters elected him to do and we will not stand for it," Lieu said.

Watch the moment:

12:54 p.m. ET, December 18, 2019

Trump said he wasn't going to watch the impeachment debate. But he appears to be tweeting about it.

From CNN's Nikki Carvajal

President Trump, who said yesterday he wouldn’t watch today’s debate on the House floor, sent an all-caps tweet railing on impeachment proceedings.

He tweeted:

“SUCH ATROCIOUS LIES BY THE RADICAL LEFT, DO NOTHING DEMOCRATS,” the President wrote. “THIS IS AN ASSAULT ON AMERICA, AND AN ASSAULT ON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!!!!”

Ten minutes prior to the tweet, White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham put out a statement saying that the President would be, “working all day,” but “could catch some of the proceedings between meetings.”

12:46 p.m. ET, December 18, 2019

Democratic congresswoman: Trump is "the smoking gun"

Rep. Jayapal on December 13. Patrick Semansky/AP

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat from Washington, said Trump implicated himself in the charges brought against him in the impeachment inquiry — calling the President "the smoking gun."

"The President told us himself on national television exactly what he wanted from the phone call with President Zelensky," she said. "He came onto the White House lawn and he said I wanted President Zelensky to open an investigation into the Bidens. He solicited foreign interference before, he is going it now and he will do it again. The President is the smoking gun."

12:58 p.m. ET, December 18, 2019

GOP congressman says there is "zero direct evidence" showing Trump engaged in an abuse of power

Rep. Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, defended President Trump against the articles of impeachment.

"The Democrats know there is zero direct evidence to show that President Trump engaged in any abuse of power. Their entire case is based on hearsay, speculation and conjecture. There's not a single fact witness that with provide testimony to support their baseless allegations," Johnson said.

Johnson followed this by slamming the Democrats: "They are trying to meet their own arbitrary, completely reckless and Machiavellian timeline to take down a President that they loathe."

Watch the moment:

12:41 p.m. ET, December 18, 2019

How President Trump will be spending his day

Asked how President Trump would be spending his day, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham passed along this statement:

"The President will be working all day. He will be briefed by staff throughout that day, and could catch some of the proceedings between meetings."

12:36 p.m. ET, December 18, 2019

GOP congressman says Democrats are rushing to impeach Trump to "influence the 2020 elections"

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, a Republican from Wisconsin, accused Democrats of a "rush job" impeachment of President Trump.

"And why is there? Because they want to influence the 2020 elections," he said.

The debate on the articles of impeachment continues.

12:34 p.m. ET, December 18, 2019

Nadler: Trump placed "his private political interests above our national security"

Rep. Jerry Nadler, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, broke down why the President is facing two articles — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

"The first article charges that the President used his public office to coerce a foreign government into attacking his political rival. The second article charges that the President took extreme and unprecedented steps to obstruct our investigation into his conduct. Taken together, the two articles charge that President Trump placed his private political interests above our national security, above our elections and above our system of checks and balances. After months of investigation, there can be no serious debate about the evidence at hand," Nadler said.

12:45 p.m. ET, December 18, 2019

Rep. Doug Collins: "I will fight this on process"

Rep. Doug Collins, a Republican from Georgia and the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, took issue with the impeachment process during his opening remarks.

"I will fight this on process, which has been deplorable to use a word of the majority. It has been awful. We don't care about rules because the chairman gets to determine what is relevant. Wow, that's pretty good, let the accuser determine what is relevant to the one being accused. The people of America see through this. The people of America understand due process and they understand when it is being trampled in the people's house," Collins said.

Collins went on to add: "Before I close, I will have to recognize that even the Senate, the minority leader in the Senate recognizes that the house did not do their job because he can't make the case to his own members so he's having to ask for witnesses and ask for more time. I thought it hilarious that the minority leader in the Senate went out and did a press conference and said 'they denied my witnesses, they denied my requests.' Welcome to the club, Mr. Schumer."

More on Schumer: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday rejected calls from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to allow witnesses at an expected Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.

"We don't create impeachments," McConnell said on the Senate floor. "We judge them."

Watch the moment:

12:23 p.m. ET, December 18, 2019

The House Judiciary Committee is running the debate

The House has begun debating the articles of impeachment. The leaders of the judiciary committee — chairman Jerry Nadler and ranking member Doug Collins — are running the debate.

Nadler kicked things off by yielding some time to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Collins, the top Republican on the Judiciary, is speaking right now.