Effort . And on the senate side, what could be the biggest break of all, the questions are, will senator Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell vote to convict the president . And will Senate Republicans join him . It is way too early for this. Good morning, and welcome to way too early, the show that is privileged to guide you through another unprecedented day in washington. Perhaps in the history of our country. Im kasie hunt on this\wednesday, january 13th. Well start with the news. This afternoon donald trump is expected to become the first u. S. President to be impeached twice after Vice President mike pence informed nancy pelosi that he will not use the 25th amendment to remove trump from office. In a letter to Speaker Pelosi just hours before the house passed a resolution urging pence to invoke the 25th, the Vice President wrote that such action is not in the best interests of the nation. And would set a, quote, terrible precedent. The house convenes at 9 00 a. M. Debate on the impeachment resolution set for 12 30. We expect a vote around 3 00 p. M. This afternoon. And just one House Republican, illinois adam kinzinger, voted in support of impeaching the president , however there are at least five republicans who have come out in support of todays vote to impeach the president. And this one is critical. Liz cheney, the number three republican in the house, says she will vote for impeachment. House Republican Leaders dont plan to encourage republican members to vote against impeachment and that is a change from the first time around when they did in fact urge members to vote against it. The white house believes that by the time the house votes this afternoon, there will be two dozen republicans who will ultimately come out in support of impeaching President Trump. That move by liz cheney, the new orleans importance of that, cannot be overstated especially in regards to our next story. On the senate side, the New York Times is reporting that Mitch Mcconnell has told associates that he believes President Trump committed impeachable offenses. People familiar with his thinking tell the times that mcconnell is pleased that dmgs democrats are moving to impeach trump believing that it will make it easier to purge him from the party. The New York TimesJonathan Martin who coauthored that report tweeted yesterday that Senate Report aide says he thinks that there are about 20 republicans give or take who were open to a conviction. And that was before they wrote this piece about mcconnell. Sources tell axios there is a better than 50 50 chance that mcconnell himself will vote to convict trump. A Top Republican said that the senate institutional loyalists are fomenting a counter revolution to trump. This is a really big deal. Joining you now, reporter for the Washington Post, eugene scott. Eugene, always great to see you. Thank you for being up early here. I want to talk about Mitch Mcconnell in this context because he is of course a villain on the left, seen as an enabler of President Trump, but after what happened wednesday and after the president again didnt seem to condemn anything on wednesday when he spoke publicly to the press briefly yesterday, mcconnell sent this white smoke signal through the New York Times saying this sounds like a good plan. What do we know about how he came to that decision and the impact it will have in the senate . Well, we know Mitch Mcconnell while he didnt speak out against President Trumps desires to further investigate the Election Results and in fact said that the president should have the freedom to, you know, use every avenue that he has available, he was never fully on board as much as some of the other republican lawmakers were with the president s desire to stop the certification of the 2020 election. And so he has for a while suggested to people close to him and some of my colleagues that he was very much looking forward to being a leader of the Republican Party and what some would have believed was the posttrump era. But last weeks events sped that up combined with his own wifes desire and act to remove herself from the Trump Administration out of concern that the vision and direction of the president was taking the country or would take the country in a place that made it very difficult to unite and move forward. And so i think what Mitch Mcconnell is suggesting is that he knows that it is even more urgent at this current moment for america to move past this and that this could possibly be a way to do that. Mcconnell is 78 years old, he was just reelected. His next term, he will be 84 if he wants to run again. This is someone with a memoir titled the long game, that is clearly what he is thinking about right now in these days. And to that end, gene, the other piece of information that we learned from that times story was that mcconnell has been in touch with joe biden and they have discussed how to hold this trial while also moving joe bidens nominees. It seems like those two are on the same page potentially in terms of how this moves forward, pretty remarkable. And that is what biden campaigned on. You know, he got a lot of push back from the base of the Democratic Party regarding his belief that there were republicans in congress that he believed that he could work with because all signs showed that republicans in congress had no real desire to work with the democrats who were currently representing so many americans, but biden argued that he was different. And this could suggest that maybe he was more right than people believed he was. His high priority of course is responding to this pandemic, this economic crisis and just making good on so many of his pledges, but he has to remember even if he may want to move away from it, so Many Democrats are looking for justice or at least something regarding the last four years of the Trump Administration and biden cannot walk away from that completely. And of course a Senate Conviction would then allow a simple majority vote on preventing donald trump from ever Holding Office again. That is something that certainly democrats are interested in. Ill bet you and have talked to several is republicans who say that would not be a bad outcome for them either. The Washington Post, eugene scott, thank you very much for being with us this morning. Appreciate it. And meanwhile a group of the most senior uniformed leaders at the pentagon, joint chiefs of staff, issued a statement condemning the violence at the capitol as a direct assault on the constitutional process. The memo reads in part the violent riot in washington, d. C. On january 6 was a direct assault on the u. S. Congress, the Capitol Building and our constitutional process. We mourn the deaths of the two Capitol Policemen and others connected to these unprecedented events. The rights of freedom of speech and assembly do not give anyone the right to resort for violence, sedition and insurrection. The memo is a rare step from the u. S. Military leadership to intervene in partisan politics. Shows you it is not partisan politics. Acting u. S. Attorney meanwhile for washington, d. C. Michael sherwin announced that his office is already investigating more than 170 people who were at the capitol siege last week. And is looking to charge those who committed the most heinous crimes with sedition. Watch. We have already opened 170, more than 170, subject files meaning these individuals have been identified as potential persons that committed crimes on the Capitol Grounds inside and outside. So of those 170 cases already opened and i anticipate that will grow to the hundreds in the next coming weeks, weve already charged over 70 cases. Just yesterday our Office Organized a strike force of very Senior National security prosecutors and public corruption prosecutors, their only marching orders from me are to build sedition and conspiracy charges related to the most heinous abilities that occurred in the capitol. You can see how strongly he feels. He added other Strike Forces will focus on assaults against Law Enforcement and members of the media. S range runs from simple trespass to felony murder. Still ahead, a third democratic lawmaker tests positive for coronavirus after the capitol riot. And all three of them are pointing fingers at republicans. Plus Early Warning signs that led up to last weeks violence including a report from the fbi. Those stories and a check on the weather when we come right back. E weather when we come right back. 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[sigh] [ding] never settle with power e trade. It has powerful, easytouse tools to help you find opportunities, 24 7 support when you need answers plus some of the lowest options and futures Contract Prices around. Dont get mad. Get e trade and start trading today. Welcome back. It is a terriblyar divided time the nhl says 27 players have tested positive for coronavirus over the past two weeks leading up to tonights season opening puck drop that includes 17 players on the dallas stars who have already had to postpone their Season Opener after closing their facilities on friday because of the outbreak. The stars were missing 14 players in their return to the ice for practice yesterday. But will face an opponent on tuesday when they are scheduled to visit tampa bay. Yesterdays statement on testing results says most of the infected dallas players are asymptomatic and all currently recovering without complication. Only this wasnt the problem that we were all dealing with together. As more nba teams meanwhile deal withrelatrelated, they have agreed on additional safety protocols. Players will be required to spend the next two weeks in their homes apart from leaving for team and essential activities, and mostly hotels on the road. And it also limits pregame interactions and district face mask requirements. Five nba games have been called off so far this week including three involving the celtics who are unable to field eight eligible players because they are facing covid19 issues. Yikes. As for the action on the floor, lets have a look at the rockets hosting the lakers in houston. Marquise, corner, lebron. Behind the arc. He turned the other way. He turned the other way and looked at the bench as he let it fly. Lebron james sending the lakers bench into a frenzy turning his back for a nolook three pointer in the Second Quarter of last nights 117100 win. It turns out that shot was actually part of a bet between lebron and one of his teammates dennis schroeder. My teammate, you know, hit me with a bet on the sideline and i took the bret while i was still shooting the ball. He said bet you wont make it. And in order to make a bet officially, you either got to have a hand shake or look him in the eye. So he said bet it. And i turned around and looked him in the eye and said bet it. Would you bet against lebron james . I certainly wouldnt. And finally, packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers revealed yesterday that he will be among the carousel of jeopardy guest hosts as they search for a permanent replacement for the late great alex ttrebek. Rodgers said the opportunity is really special. And in the meantime, rodgers is hunting for his second super bowl ring as green bay prepares to host the l. A. Rams in saturdays nfc divisional playoff matchup. All right. Time for the weather. Lets go to bill karins for a check on your forecast. Bill, good morning, great to see you. Great to see you, kasie. Im sure ill see a lot of you during the day today. Hope you got your rest last night. So the big storm in the neftd, neftd, 700,000 people lost power, winds gusting up to 70 Miles Per Hour in seattle. So this wasnt just your average storm. A lot of down trees it has moved onshore, highest winds are starting to relax a little bit in washington state. But were still dealing with a lot of problems because we had such an amount of heavy rain, we had snow melt that we had all the little red polygons on this map are flood warnings on rivers. We still have the avalanche threat too. So this storm has left its mark. Today it moves into the Northern Rockies and into the plains. We have 7 Million People under high Wind Warnings and more Power Outages are likely. And by the time we get to thursday and friday, it will have a little snow with it too. So be prepared for that as we go throughout minnesota, wisconsin, also areas of iowa. For much of the rest of the country, today on the east coast, kind of ironic, it will be an absolutely Beautiful Day in washington, d. C. , a day when everyone would want to be outside Walking Around if possible. 50 degrees and sunny. I did know that we need a little bit of sunshine here after the last week. So ill take it. Bill, thank you. Coming up here, there are new metal detectors inside the capitol following last weeks riot and several are republican lawmakers arent happy about it. That is ahead. Happy about it. That is ahead. Im morgan, and theres more to me than hiv. More love,. More adventure,. More community. But with my hiv treatment,. Theres not more medicines in my pill. I talked to my doctor. And switched to. Fewer medicines with dovato. Prescription dovato is for some adults who are starting hiv1 treatment or replacing their current hiv1 regimen. With. Just 2 medicines. In 1 pill,. Dovato is as effective as a 3drug regimen. To help you reach and stay undetectable. 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Congressman Brad Schneider of illinois says he has tested positive for covid19. That makes him the third democratic lawmaker to test positive after sheltering with republican lawmakers who refused to wear masks during the deadly riot at the u. S. Capitol last week. Two other Congress Women have also tested positive. In an oped, coleman blames her diagnosis on her gop colleagues for dismissing the fabtss. Writing in part, when i say that many republicans are responsible, i mean their essential failure to accept facts led us here. Much like they should be able to accept the results of an election they should accept facts like the efficacy of masks. It is time for a campuswide mask requ