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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."