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  • For months now, Democrats have been inching closer

  • to bringing articles of impeachment

  • against President Trump.

  • And today, they finally made it official.

  • ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

  • An historic day on Capitol Hill,

  • the House announcing articles of impeachment

  • against the sitting U.S. president, Donald Trump.

  • A president who declares himself above accountability,

  • above the American people,

  • and above Congress's power of impeachment,

  • which is meant to protect against threats

  • to our democratic institutions,

  • is a president who sees himself as above the law.

  • We must be clear:

  • No one, not even the president,

  • is above the law.

  • That's right. The Democrats have officially announced

  • articles of impeachment to show that,

  • other than Steven Seagal, no one is above the law.

  • And I know this sounds weird, but...

  • I'm actually proud of Donald Trump.

  • Yeah, because he's getting impeached, but...

  • I didn't think he would make it three years.

  • -I'm not gonna lie. -(laughter)

  • Like, Trump getting this far into his presidency

  • without being impeached is a lot like when a dog

  • accidentally drives a car into a tree.

  • Yeah, the dog crashed, but he made it, like, eight blocks.

  • -That's impressive. -(laughter)

  • I don't even know how he put it into drive.

  • -He barely knows letters. -(laughter)

  • Now, there was a big debate within the Democratic Party

  • about how many articles of impeachment

  • to bring against Donald Trump.

  • But in the end, they decided to strike with surgical precision.

  • President Trump now facing two charges

  • as the top Democrats of the key committees

  • stood together to announce it all this morning.

  • Abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

  • Democrats have decided to narrow the scope of impeachment

  • to the two articles of impeachment

  • that they believe are the easiest to prove

  • and backed up by the most evidence.

  • Because we are operating in a universe where...

  • Republicans are challenging some of the most basic facts,

  • Democrats want to make this case as airtight as possible.

  • Yes. Only two articles of impeachment:

  • abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

  • Which means the Democrats are showing a lot of restraint.

  • Because, I mean, let's be honest,

  • Trump has done enough crazy shit

  • to merit 2,000 articles of impeachment.

  • Yeah, there was obstruction of justice

  • from the Mueller Report,

  • using the presidency to enrich his businesses,

  • the porn star payoffs, flag molestation,

  • the time he looked directly into an eclipse,

  • and of course, having Don, Jr.

  • I mean, that's impeachment on its own.

  • -So... -(cheers and applause)

  • So... The good news for Trump

  • is that he's only facing two charges,

  • although, in a way, that's also kind of sad for him,

  • because Nixon had three articles brought against him,

  • Bill Clinton had four, and Andrew Johnson had 11,

  • which means Trump will have

  • the smallest impeachment of all time.

  • You know that's gonna make him insecure. He's gonna be like,

  • (mimics Trump): "It's not about the size of impeachment,

  • it's about the friction of the conviction."

  • (laughter)

  • -(normal voice): And these... -(cheers and applause)

  • And these impeachment articles

  • could not have come at a worst time for Trump

  • because remember how the president has been saying

  • that the whole Russia investigation

  • was a biased conspiracy against him?

  • Well, he demanded that the Justice Department

  • look into the Russia investigation.

  • And guess what they found? Whomp-whomp.

  • Tonight the Inspector General's report, finally out,

  • into the origins of the Russia investigation

  • and the report finding no anti-Trump bias.

  • TV REPORTER: The Justice Department's inspector general

  • revealing there was no evidence of a witch hunt,

  • determining the FBI had enough evidence

  • to justify the probe at the height of the election.

  • But the inspector general says FBI officials

  • made serious errors and omissions

  • in applying for surveillance warrants

  • to monitor the communications

  • of a Trump campaign associate, Carter Page.

  • TV REPORTER: Despite Trump's mocking of FBI agents

  • he says were using the Russia probe to defeat him,

  • the report found an agent who messaged another

  • after Trump won the White House

  • that he was so elated with the election,

  • it was like watching a Super Bowl comeback.

  • Yeah, not great for Donald Trump.

  • The report did find misconduct by some FBI agents,

  • but, overall, it said that the Russia investigation

  • was justified and there was no anti-Trump bias.

  • So for Trump, this is weird,

  • because it was a little bit of what he wanted,

  • but a lot of what he definitely didn't want.

  • It's almost like he opened his presents on Christmas morning,

  • and he got the VR headset he was hoping for,

  • but it only plays videos of his grandparents having sex.

  • (audience reacting)

  • Yeah. That's disappointing.

  • It's so weird that they make that game in the first place.

  • I mean... Still more fun than the Jesus game,

  • I'll tell you that much.

  • Now, surprisingly,

  • Trump has been taking

  • the bad news better than you would expect,

  • but maybe that's not because he's taking it at all.

  • The I.G. report just came out and I was just briefed on it.

  • It is, uh, incredible.

  • Far worse than I would have ever thought possible.

  • This was an overthrow of government.

  • This was an attempted overthrow,

  • and a lot of people were in on it,

  • and they got caught.

  • They got caught red-handed.

  • Trump is a legend, man.

  • (laughter)

  • The report came out,

  • and he's just blindly plowing ahead.

  • Like the report says what he wanted it to say.

  • Yeah. 'Cause that's not what it said.

  • And he's just like, "No, it is. It is what it said."

  • Yeah. He's like those people who get dumped

  • and are totally in denial about it.

  • "Donald, you're great but this isn't working."

  • (mimics Trump): "Okay, feel better. I'll see you tomorrow."

  • (normal voice): "No. No, you don't understand.

  • It's over Donald."

  • (mimics Trump): "Love you, too, babe."

  • (normal voice): And, look, we all know Trump

  • didn't read the actual report.

  • I mean, his advisors can't get him to read reports.

  • They probably just gave him some of the bullet points

  • on a Denny's placemat.

  • -But even if he did read it... -(laughter)

  • Even if he did read it, it wouldn't matter.

  • Yeah. Because Trump always creates his own reality,

  • no matter what the facts say.

  • So even if he does get impeached

  • and somehow gets removed from office,

  • there's a good chance Trump will just ignore it

  • and keep being president.

  • They'll walk in like, "Mr. President,

  • "the votes are in, and I'm sorry,

  • you have to leave the White House. It's over."

  • He'd be like, (mimics Trump): "All right, love you, too, babe.

  • See you tomorrow."

For months now, Democrats have been inching closer

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