Congress member al green, the first to go to the floor and demand trumps impeachchment in 2017. Well also speak with Dahlia Lithwick, senior Legal Correspondent for slate, and mark green. His book with ralph nader is titled fake president decoding trumps gaslighting, corruption, and general b. S. Then two major victories for immigrant rights victories as new jersey lawmakers pass a bill to allow undocumented people to apply for drivers licenses. I want to tell you something. Immigrants, with papers or without, born here or not born here, we all deserve the same because we are human beings. We all have the same rights. Amy all that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. The house of representatives is slated to hold a historic vote today on two articles of impeachment against President Trump. The articles accuse President Trump of abuse of power and obstruction of congress. They center on how President Trump withheld military aid to ukraine to pressure the ukrainian president to investigate trumps political rival, joe biden, and how trump then tried to cover up his actions to thwart a congressional inquiry. After a sixhour debate on the house floor, the democraticcontrolled house is expected to vote for impeachment by the e end of the day, which would mark only the third time in u. S. History that a president has been impeached. Todays vote comes after the House Rules Committee approved the terms of todays debate, which will allow no amendments on the floor. President trump lashed out at democrats tuesday in a sixpage letter to House Speaker nancy pelosi, accusing her of declaring open war on american democracy. Trump called the impeachment process an illegal, partisan attempted coup. He also claimed, more due process was afforded to those accused in the salem witch trials. The mayor of salem, massachusetts, slammed trumps comparison, telling him to learn some history. Trump reiterated it was a witchhunt during his speech tuesday. Pres. Trump they know it is a hoax, it is a witchhunt. It has been going on now for almost three years and it probably started before i even won the election based on what we are finding out with the insurance policy quotes and other things. It is a disgrace. Amy that was President Trump, speaking alongside guatemalan presidenent jimmy momorales dura white house visit tuesday. Protesters rallied in support of trumps impeachment in cities across the United States tuesday, including boston, new orleans, chicago, philadelphia, charlotte, tucson, austin, seattle, des moines, iowa, and here in new york city. It is really serious. The charges, for me, are pretty terrifying. I am convinced in my concern was that there would be so much apathy because of how long the process has taken that people would not consider how important it is to also just put your body out of thehe street and say, we support the democrats and what theyre doing for our country right now. Amy the house vote on impeachment today comes as the top u. S. Diplomat to ukraine, william taylor, has announced hes stepping down from his post. Taylor was a fierce critic of trumps effort to withhold military aid from ukraine to pressure the ukrainian president to open an investigation into trumps political rival. He was a key witness during the house intelligence committees impeachment inquiry against trump. Former Trump Campaign aide rick gates has been sentenced to 45 days in jail and a 20,000 fine for participating in a criminal financial scheme and for lying to federal investigators. Gates testified against trumps former Campaign ChairPaul Manafort and trumps longtime friend and former Campaign Adviser roger stone as part of special counsel Robert Muellers probe into trumps 2016 campaigns links to russia. Manafort has now been hospitalized for a heartrelated condition while serving his federal prison sentence. In a rare move, the highly secretive foreign Intelligence Surveillance court, known as the fisa court, has accused the fbi of misleading its judges about the reasons for wiretapping former Trump Campaign adviser carter page as part of the mueller investigation. The fisa courts presiding judge ordered the fbi to propose changes in how its investigators seek permission for domestic surveillance of u. S. Citizens. The move comes after the justice departments independent Inspector General found a series of inaccuracies and omissions in the surveillance application process. In 2020 election news, the democratic primary debate on thursday will go forward after cafeteria workers reached a Labor Agreement with the Food ServicesCompany Sodexo at the debate site Loyola Marymount university in los angeles. The democratic president ial candidates had vowed to boycott the debate if the labor dispute was not resolved before the event, with candidates saying they would refuse to cross a picket line. The senate has approved a 738 billion defense bill, one of the most expensive military spending bills in u. S. History. The overwhelming bipartisan vote now sends the spending bill to President Trump. The bill includes 12 weeks of paid parental leave for civilian federal workers. For the first time in 20 years, the overall federal spending bill includes 25 million to study gun violence. The spending bill also repeals three obamacare taxes. It does not ban u. S. Support for the u. S. S. Backed saududiled wn yeme the bill ao doeses not prerevent trump from using military funds for the construction of his border wall. President trump met with outgoing guatemalan president Jimmy Morales in the what else tuesday where they discussed immigration and tradade. Morales has previously signed a 30 agreement with the u. S. Which allows the United States to the work migrants seeking asylum in the u. S. To guatemala. But p president elect has expressed d reservations about continuing this agreement. He will take office in january. He was not present at the meeting at the white house, which was believed to be with President Trump and his advisor stephen miller. In india, the Supreme Court has postponed hearing a challenge to the constitutionality of the new citizenship law, which has sparked massive protests across the country. The Supreme Court will not issue a stay against the law, which many say is a major step toward the official marginalization of indias 200 million muslims. Indias highest court will hear the challenge to the law on january 22. To see our full interviews about indias new citizenship law, go to democracynow. Org. In france, strikes continue nationwide in protest of french president emmanuel macrons proposed pension overhauaul, whh would effectively raise the retirement age for younger workers. More than half a Million People took to e streets s tuesday acacross france in support of te strike. More than 60 of the french population supports the strike, despite disruptions to transportation and other public services. This is one parisian commuter. The strikers are right. They are right to strike. If you want to be heard, that is the way it is. There is no other solution. Amy longtime bolivian president evo morales. During his address, he named two possible successors to his Party Following his ouster and what he and others described as a military coup. The two possible successors are luis arce catacora, his former economy ministerer and androrono rodriguez, a key coca fafarmer. This is evo morales speaking to ththe intercepts glenn grgreend in an n exclusive intervrview publblished monday. My family has been threatened. They burned my sisters house. Children are now in argentina. They made the leaders of the movement for socialism, political instruments for the sovereignty of the peoples, renounce the positions by burning their homes. And threatening their families. They pushed out the national , the progressivives, the leftist come and antipeerless. And because is evo morales. The pope has lifted secrecy rules on sexual abuse cases, in efforts to increase transparency around the sexual abuse scandals that have rocked the catholic church. On tuesday, the pope declared that the rule of pontifical secrecy does not apply in the case of sexualal abusese of children. The vaticans top sex abuse investigator, charles scicluna, called the popes announcement an epochal d decision that remos obobstacles and impediments to sexual abuse investigations. And dozens of women have shot back at disgraced hollywood mogul Harvey Weinsteins complaint that his effort to promote women in hollywood has been overshadowed by over 100 accusations of rape, sexual assault, and Sexual Harassment against him. An interview with the New York PostHarvey Weinstein complained he was a forgotten man and claimed he should be remembered for providing opportunities to women actors and directors. In response, a group of 23 women , including top actresses, responded in a statement saying weinstein says in a new interview he does not want to be forgotten. Well, he wont be. He will be remembered as a sexual predator and unrepentant abuser who took everything and deserves nothing. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. The house of representatives is said to hold a historic vote today on two articles of impeachment against President Trump. The articles accuse President Trump of abuse of power and obstruction of congress. They center on how President Trump withheld military aid to ukraine to pressure the ukrainian president to investigate trumps political rival, joe biden, and how trump then tried to cover up his actions to thwart a congressional inquiry. After a sixhour debate on the house floor, the democraticcontrolled house is expected to vote for impeachment by the end of the day, which would mark only the third time in u. S. History that a president has been impeached. Todays vote comes after the House Rules Committee approved the terms of todays debate, which will allow no amendments on the floor. Trump lashed out directly at the vote tuesday, calling the attempt to remove him from office an attempted coup. Pres. Trump they know it is a hoax, witch hunt. It is just a continuation. It has been going on now for almost three years and it probably started before i even won the election, based on what were finding out with the insurance policy quotes and other things. It is a disgrace. Amy trump lashed out at democrats tuesday in a sixpage letter to House Speaker nancy pelosi, accusing her declaring open war on american democracy. Trump called the impeachment process a illegal, partisan attempted coup. He also falsely claimed, more due process was afforded to those accused in the salem witch trials. Meanwhile, protesters held rallies calling for trumps impeachment in n cities across e country including boston, new orleans, chicago, philadelphia, charlotte, tuscon, austin, seattle, des moines, and here in new york. Republican senators have already made up their mind. That is what i think is terrible. If they were jurors, we would not even be sitting on a jury if you had already made up your mind. They should do what is best for the country, not the party. Amy all of this comes after some democrats have pushed to impeach trump for years. In a minute, we will be joined by Texas Democratic representative al green. In 2017, he became the First Congressmember to call for prPresident Trumps impeachment and then twice more after that. I rise today, mr. Speaker, to call for the impeachment of the president of the United States of america for obstruction of justice. I do it because, easter speaker, there is a belief in this country that no one is above the law, and that includes the president of the United States of america. When he said there was some shole country as he was addressing his immigration policy, he was putting his bigotry in the policy. And that is something we should all concern ourselves with. The fact that t the president s policies are based upon his bigotry. Impeachment is thehe remedy. It is time for people to decide, are we goining to takake on bigy or are we gogoing to allow it to fester and grow . You dont eliminate bigotry by dealing with it in a politically expedient way. You have to take it headon. Im concerned if we dont impeach this president , he will get reelected. If we dont impeach him, he will say he has been vindicated. Amy that is Houston Congress number al green, repeatedly calling for impeachment on the house floor. Joining us now on this historic day, what many are calling impeachment day. Welcome to democracy now your thoughts on this d day . Thank you for having me , ms. Goodman. This is a day for us to reflect. We are at the crossroads. Either we will hold the president accountable for his impeachable behavior, or we will be held accoununtable. But as important as that is, it will also mean we will lose some of our democracy. A president has to h have guardrails. A president has to know there are boundaries. If the president perceives there are no boundaries and does what he has concluded is within his all power granted under article 2, that i think we will l lose some of our democracy and we march toward a monarchy. We did not buy into a momonarch. We bought into a democracy. As franklin said, we have this republic if we can keep it. I plan to do all i can to help us keep the republic that i love. Amy what is interesting, congressman green, you have been calling for this for the last two years for different reasons. Among them, racism. Can you talk about what it means at this point that it has been narrowed, these two charges against trump, to abuse of power and obstruction of congress . Are you satisfied with this . Initially, the call was for his obstruction as s it relateso the investigation into his campaign, the russian intrusion into the campaign and into our election. You might recall that mr. Comey was fired summarily in the president went on national tv in prime time and confessed he was considering the investigation. But i then moved on because i saw the level of bigotry emanating from the presidency. I saw the various phobias that push. Ded to project and i saw how the country was moreing to become unsettled as a result of this. I represenent a good many people who o are suffering because of e president s incisive, incited comments. Been veryent has insightful with some of his language and people are suffering. I represent latinos who are very concerned about their safety after a man who heard the president talked about invaders coming to this country from mexico and then went some hundreds of miles to do what he could to cause harm to people. I represent people who are muslims, who are concerned because of the ban the preresidt sought to impmpment on mumuslim. I represent people from the lgbt plus community because they are concerned the president can ban a trans person frorom the mimilitary, he can do otother ts to peoeople from the communityt. With all of this in mind, he became pretty clear r to me that there was s a need to call these things to o the attentntion of e amererican peoeople and soso understatanding that in 186868, Andrew Johnson was impeachched r rereasons rooted in bigotry, rooted i in hate, rooted in racism. It was then i concncluded the psion of slaveryry, which is racism, had to be addressed. And we have brought these articles of f impeachment dealag with the bigotry, the hatred, the homophobia, islamophobia all of the phobias, the antisemitism. We brought three articles of impeachment addressing these things, understanding, of course, the house of representatives went so far as to condemn the president for his racist comments. But that wasnt enough. Wasemnation impeachmentlight. If Andrew Johnson could be impeached with the articles against them for the reasons rooted in his hatred, bigotry, and racism, this president can be impeached for these reasons as well. Morere specifically, mi satisfi . Belelievepoint whwhere i we must go forward with these articles of impeachment. I do not believe that t the constitutution prohibits additional articles of impepeachment by way of example, if the president does what he says he can n do and go out on fiftfth avenue and s shoot some, i would bring articles of impeachment against him if he does t this with malice of foforethouought. No one is above the law. The president cannot contend i can only be impeached once and therefore i can do whatever i want now and you will be able to impeach me. That is ridiculous. It is as ridiculous as a lot t f other things that border on inanity that the president continues to wallow in. This may not be the end of it. I dont say that it is or is not. I do say the constitution allows us to impeach a president multiple times if the president commits multiple impeachable acts. Amy multiple times. I want to go to your december 4 memo that you sent to house members urging them to include what you were just describing, trumps racism in the articles of impeachment, talking about his disparaging comments about migrants, about muslims, his remark that they were very fine people on both sides in the Charlottesville White supremacist rallies. I am wondering what the r