Face of impeachment: Schiff sets tone with appeals to Senate

January 24, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the otherwise scripted impeachment trial, it was a rare spontaneous moment: Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of President Donald Trump's chief defenders, stopped Rep. Adam Schiff, the lead prosecutor, to shake his hand and compliment him on his arguments for Trump’s removal.

Though Graham has ridiculed the case against the president, and heaped scorn on Democrats like Schiff, he said he believes the California Democrat is “well spoken” and “did a good job of creating a tapestry, taking bits and pieces of evidence and emails and giving a rhetorical flourish ... sometimes effectively, sometimes a little over the top.”

Schiff is the face of the House’s impeachment case against Trump, which has made him the principal target of Trump's ire. Though he has six managers by his side, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointed Schiff, her confidante, as the lead impeachment manager. He is setting the tone of the prosecution's case, working methodically to convince even his most ardent detractors that Trump deserves to be removed from office.

“In a way I do feel like I'm introducing myself to a number of the senators,” Schiff said in an interview with The Associated Press before arguments resumed on Thursday. He said many of them are familiar only with conservative criticism of him, and they are “finding I'm not the demon that I'm portrayed as on Fox."

Schiff said he wishes that the Graham exchange wasn’t caught on camera, “because it was nice to have a private moment. And I don't want to discourage that kind of thing. But I very much appreciated his comments.”

Late Thursday, the chamber went quiet and all eyes were on the former federal prosecutor as he concluded the second day of arguments with a speech in which he told the senators that “right matters" and that President Donald Trump can't be trusted. His voice cracked as he spoke.

“The framers couldn't protect us from ourselves if right and truth don't matter,” Schiff told the senators. “And you know that what he did was not right.” Schiff, who represents parts of Hollywood, has been a frequent target of conservatives since the then GOP-led House Intelligence Committee started investigating Trump’s ties to Russia in the 2016 election. He was frequently on television questioning Trump’s actions.

The criticism intensified, though, when Democrats took the House majority in early 2019 and he became chairman of the intelligence panel. And it reached a full-on roar as he took charge of the impeachment investigation of Trump’s dealings with Ukraine last fall.

Trump has trained his ire on the congressman on Twitter and elsewhere, alternatively calling him “shifty,” “sleazy,” and “liddle.” He has also turned his name into a vulgarity, occasionally calling him “Schitt” on Twitter, and dubbed him “pencil neck” at a campaign rally. Trump tweeted about Schiff only a handful of times in 2017 and 2018, but hundreds of times since Democrats gained the House majority.

Despite Trump’s fire, Graham is not the only Republican to give Schiff respect — albeit grudgingly — since the trial has begun. Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt said the Democrats had “admirable presentations,” even though he found them repetitive and said he didn’t learn much new.

Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst says she’s “not a fan” because she believes Schiff “has it out” for Trump. Still, she says, he has been presenting a “calm, level case” against the president. “What I appreciate, though, is the fact that he has handled this in a very calm manner compared to some of the other House managers,” Ernst says.

Schiff has tried to set a non-combative tone on the Senate floor, with conciliatory words to the Senate. He said at the start of his arguments on Wednesday that he was “deeply grateful” for their attention and understands that it’s hard to sit and listen four hours on end.

His appeals came hours after Chief Justice John Roberts, who is presiding, admonished both the House managers and Trump’s defense team for using language “that is not conducive to civil discourse.” “I think it is appropriate at this point for me to admonish both the House managers and the president's counsel, in equal terms, to remember that they are addressing the world's greatest deliberative body," Roberts said.

Roberts’ comments came around 1 a.m. Wednesday after another impeachment manager, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, charged that the White House lawyers were lying. Nadler also told senators that denying certain witnesses in the trial, as many GOP senators had just voted to do, was a “treacherous vote” against the United States. Trump's defense team responded that Nadler should apologize to the president and the American people.

The next morning, before the trial resumed, the impeachment managers gathered for a news conference. When asked about Roberts’ comments, Schiff was the only one who spoke. “You’re going to have tempers flare” when trials go into the wee hours, Schiff said, and that happens in every courtroom in America.

“But we are going to try to keep focused on the facts,” Schiff said. “The president’s team would like nothing more than to provoke a bitter conflict.” Schiff told The AP on Thursday that when talking on the Senate floor, he is trying not to make the case personal and he wants to “show respect for the senators and for the chief justice, present the evidence, make the appeals to have a fair trial, and that's the best I can do.”

While complimenting Schiff, Graham also predicted that the White House team will unravel many of his points. “I thought they did a good job of taking bits and pieces of the evidence and creating a quilt out of it,” Graham said. “So what I will tell my colleagues, the other side gets to talk, and see if they can pull a thread here and pull thread there and see if it holds up.”

Schiff’s House GOP colleagues were less complimentary. “I don't agree with Lindsey Graham's analysis that they're doing a good job,” said North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows, one of several Republican House members who are consulting with the White House lawyers. “I've had to look in the cabinet for a bottle of No-Doz. When you look at Adam Schiff’s performance, I think what we all have come to understand is, that's exactly what it is, it's a performance.”

Senate Democrats, on the other hand, have been thrilled. Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow said Thursday evening that “I think you could have heard a pin drop” when Schiff gave his closing speech. Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy tweeted: “Man, Schiff's closing was powerful.”

“Senators' egos don't tend to allow gushing over other politicians' performance, but as we walked out the trial tonight, Senator after Senator (albeit the Dem ones) were awestruck,” Murphy wrote. “Schiff is right - Trump doesn't care about us, just himself.”

Associated Press writers Alan Fram and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.

Senate approves impeachment trial rules, rejecting witnesses

January 22, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Senate plunged into President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial with Republicans abruptly abandoning plans to cram opening arguments into two days but solidly rejecting Democratic demands for more witnesses to expose what they deem Trump’s “trifecta” of offenses.

The daylong session started Tuesday with the setback for Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell and the president's legal team, but it ended near 2 a.m. Wednesday with Republicans easily approving the rest of the trial rules largely on their terms. The result is Trump's historic trial, unfolding amid a watchful public in an election year.

“We have a great case,” Trump said as he began his second day at a global economic forum in Davos, Switzerland. He said he thought his legal team was doing a "very good job." The trial is now on a fast-track with almost no signs of Republican resistance to the actions that led to his impeachment.

“It’s about time we bring this power trip in for a landing,” said White House counsel Pat Cipollone, the president's lead lawyer, lashing out at the House Democrats prosecuting the case. “It’s a farce,” he said about the impeachment proceeding, “and it should end."

Chief Justice John Roberts gaveled open the session, with House prosecutors on one side, Trump's team on the other, in the well of the Senate, as senators sat silently at their desks, under oath to do “impartial justice.” No cellphones or other electronics were allowed.

As the day stretched deep into the night, lawyerly arguments gave way to more pointedly political ones. Tempers flared and senators paced the chamber. Democrats pursued what may be their only chance to force senators to vote on hearing new testimony.

After one particularly bitter post-midnight exchange, Roberts intervened, taking the rare step of admonishing both the Democratic House managers prosecuting the case and the White House counsel to “remember where they are.”

“I think it is appropriate at this point for me to admonish both the House managers and the president's counsel in equal terms to remember that they are addressing the world's greatest deliberative body," the usually reserved Roberts said. He told them that description of the Senate stemmed from a 1905 trial when a senator objected to the word “pettifogging,” because members should "avoid speaking in a manner and using language that is not conducive to civil discourse.”

Over and over, Republicans turned back Democratic amendments to subpoena documents from the White House, State Department, Defense Department and budget office. By the same 53-47 party-line, they turned away witnesses with front-row seats to Trump's actions including acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and John Bolton, the former national security adviser critical of the Ukraine policy.

Only on one amendment, to allow more time to file motions, did a single Republican, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, join Democrats. But it, too, was rejected, 52-48. “It's not our job to make it easy for you," Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee leading the prosecution, told the Senate. “Our job is to make it hard to deprive the American people of a fair trial.”

As the visitors' gallery filled earlier with guests, actress-and-activist Alyssa Milano among them, and Trump’s most ardent House allies lining the back rows, the day that began as a debate over rules quickly took on the cadence of a trial proceeding over whether the president's actions toward Ukraine warranted removal from office.

Cipollone led the prosecution, scoffing that the House charges against Trump were “ridiculous,” insisting the president “has done absolutely nothing wrong.” The White House legal team did not dispute Trump's actions, when he called Ukraine and asked for a “favor,” which was to investigate Democrat Joe Biden as the U.S. was withholding military aid the ally desperately needed as it faced off with hostile Russia on its border. But the lawyers insisted the president did nothing wrong. “Absolutely no case,” Cipollone said.

Schiff, the California Democrat, said America's Founders added the remedy of impeachment in the Constitution with “precisely this type of conduct in mind — conduct that abuses the power of office for a personal benefit, that undermines our national security, and that invites foreign interference in the democratic process of an election."

Said Schiff: "It is the trifecta of constitutional misconduct justifying impeachment.'' The other lead lawyer on Trump's team, Jay Sekulow, retorted, “I'll give you a trifecta,” outlining complaints over the House Democrats' impeachment inquiry process.

The impeachment trial is testing whether Trump's actions toward Ukraine warrant removal as voters are forming their own verdict on his White House. All four senators who are presidential candidates were off the campaign trail, seated as jurors. “My focus is going to be on impeachment,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent, told reporters.

McConnell stunned senators and delayed the start of proceedings with his decision to back off some of his proposed rules. He made the adjustment after encountering resistance from Republicans during a closed-door lunch meeting. Senators worried about the political optics of “dark of night” sessions that could come from cramming the 24 hours of opening arguments from each side into just two days.

Collins and Sen. Lisa Murkowksi of Alaska, who often buck party leadership, along with a substantial number of other Republicans, wanted to make the changes, according to people familiar with the situation.

It was only when the clerk started reading the dry language of the resolution that the hand-written changes to extend debate to three days became apparent. It also allowed the House impeachment record to be included in the Senate.

The turnaround was a swift lesson as White House wishes run into the reality of the Senate. The White House wanted a session kept to a shorter period to both expedite the trial and shift more of the proceedings into late night, according to a person familiar with the matter but unauthorized to discuss it in public.

“READ THE TRANSCRIPTS!” the president tweeted from overseas, at a global leaders conference in Davos, Switzerland. That's the transcript of his phone call in which he asked new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for “a favor.” The Democrats cite that transcript as solid evidence against Trump, though he repeatedly describes it as “perfect.”

The House impeached Trump last month on a charge of abuse of power for pushing Ukraine to investigate Democratic rival Biden and his son Hunter Biden as the White House was withholding military aid from Ukraine. Trump also was impeached on a second charge, of obstruction of Congress, in the House probe.

Trump's legal team, absent its TV-showcase attorneys, Alan Dershowitz and Kenneth Starr who were not in the chamber, argued that in seeking new evidence the House was bringing a half-baked case. But Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, one of the House managers and the first woman to argue for the prosecution in a presidential impeachment trial, said the House wasn't asking the Senate to do the job for them. “The House is asking the Senate to do its job, to have a trial,” she said. "Have you ever heard of a trial without evidence?''

The White House had instructed officials not to testify in the House inquiry, and refused to turn over witnesses or documents, citing what is says is precedence in defiance of congressional subpoenas.

The ambassadors and national security officials who did appear before the House delivered often striking testimony, highlights that were displayed on television screens during the Senate proceeding. At one point, Democrat Schiff displayed video of Trump himself suggesting there should be more witnesses testifying.

One by one, the House managers made the case, drawing on their own life experiences. Rep. Val Demings, D-Fla., a former police chief, said she never saw anyone take "such extreme steps to hide evidence.'' Rep. Jason Crow, a former Army Ranger who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, seemed to capture senators' attention when he told them near he knew the hour was late, but it was morning in Ukraine where soldiers were waking up to fight Russia, depending on U.S. aid.

It was when Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the House Judiciary Committee chairman also leading the prosecution, said the White House lawyers “lie” that Cipollone and Sekulow retorted that Nadler should be embarrassed and apologize, leading to Roberts' admonition.

No president has ever been removed from office. With its 53-47 Republican majority, the Senate is not expected to mount the two-thirds vote needed for conviction.

Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick, Eric Tucker, Alan Fram, Laurie Kellman, Andrew Taylor, Matthew Daly and Padmananda Rama in Washington, Jamey Keaten in Davos, Switzerland and David Pitt in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.

Crimes? Impeachment prosecutors, defense lay out arguments

January 20, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s defense team and the prosecutors of his impeachment are laying out their arguments over whether his conduct toward Ukraine warrants his removal from office.

Trump's lawyers on Sunday previewed their impeachment defense with the questionable assertion that the charges against him are invalid, adopting a position rejected by Democrats as “nonsense.” The trial resumes on Tuesday with what could be a fight over the ground rules. By then, both sides will have submitted briefs and four Democratic presidential candidates will have been forced back to Washington from the early nominating states to join every other senator in silence, sans phones, on the Senate floor.

What they're likely to hear in this extraordinary setting is the House Democrats' impeachment articles that charge Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress over his pressure on Ukraine for political help. From the White House, the senator-jurors are expected to hear that Trump committed no crime, the impeachment articles are invalid and he's the victim of Democrats who want to overturn his election.

“Criminal-like conduct is required,” said Alan Dershowitz, a constitutional lawyer on Trump's defense team. Dershowitz said he will be making the same argument to the Senate and if it prevails, there will be “no need" to pursue the witness testimony or documents that Democrats are demanding.

But the “no crime, no impeachment” approach has been roundly dismissed by scholars and Democrats, who were fresh off a trial brief that called Trump's behavior the “worst nightmare” of the country's founders. In their view, the standard of "high crimes and misdemeanors" is vague and open-ended in the Constitution and meant to encompass abuses of power that aren't necessarily illegal.

The White House is pushing an “absurdist position," said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the lead Democratic prosecutor of the impeachment case. “That's the argument I suppose you have to make if the facts are so dead set against you.” Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., another impeachment prosecutor, called it “arrant nonsense” and said evidence of Trump's misconduct is overwhelming.

The back-and-forth came as all concerned agitated for the Senate to get on with the third impeachment trial in the nation's history. Behind the scenes. the seven House managers were shoring up which prosecutor will handle which parts of the case and doing a walk-through of the Senate. .

No senators were more eager to get going than the four Democratic presidential candidates facing the prospect of being marooned in the Senate ahead of kickoff nominating votes in Iowa and New Hampshire.

“I'd rather be here,” said Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on New Hampshire Public Radio while campaigning Sunday in Concord. During the trial, Sanders and other senators are required to sit for perhaps six grueling hours of proceedings daily — except Sundays, per Senate rules — in pursuit of the “impartial justice” they pledged to pursue. But there was scant evidence that anyone's mind was really open about whether Trump earned vindication or ouster.

Mystery, however, abounded over the trial's ground rules. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., shed no light on how the proceedings will follow — and differ from — the precedent of President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial in 1999.

“The president deserves a fair trial. The American people deserve a fair trial. So let's have that fair trial,” said Democratic Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado, one of the seven impeachment prosecutors. But what's fair is as vigorously disputed as the basic question of whether Trump's pressure on Ukraine to help him politically merits a Senate conviction and removal from office. The stakes are enormous, with historic influence on the fate of Trump's presidency, the 2020 presidential and congressional elections and the future of any presidential impeachments.

Whatever happens in the Senate, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has said, Trump will “be impeached forever.” Members of Trump's team countered that if they win a vindication for Trump, it means “there will be an acquittal forever as well,” Trump attorney Robert Ray said Sunday. “That is the task ahead.”

For all of the suspense over the trial's structure and nature, some clues on what's to come sharpened on Sunday. The president's lawyers bore down on the suggestion that House impeachment is invalid unless the accused violated U.S. law. Dershowitz's argument, backed up by Ray, refers to an 1868 speech by Benjamin Curtis, who after serving as a Supreme Court justice acted as the chief lawyer for Andrew Johnson at his Senate impeachment trial.

Johnson was ultimately acquitted by the Senate. “The core of the impeachment parameters allege that crimes have been committed, treason, bribery, and things like that, in other words, other high crimes and misdemeanors,” Ray said Sunday.

Republicans have long signaled the strategy, which has, in turn, been disputed by other scholars. "Rubbish,” said Frank Bowman, a University of Missouri law professor and author of his own book about the history of impeachment for the Trump era.

“It’s comically bad. Dershowitz either knows better or should,” said Bowman, who said he had been Dershowitz's student as a law professor at Harvard. Even as he made the case for Trump's acquittal, Dershowitz on Sunday distanced himself from the rest of Trump's defense team and said he would merely speak about the Constitution at the trial. He refused to endorse the strategy pursued by other members of that team or defend Trump's conduct and said he didn't sign onto the White House left brief filed Saturday, which called impeachment a “brazen” attempt to overturn the 2016 election.

“I'm a liberal Democrat ... I'm here as a constitutional lawyer,” Dershowitz said. "I'm here to lend my expertise on that issue and that issue alone.” Democrats, meanwhile, are pushing for witnesses and documents that weren't part of the House proceedings. A few Republicans said they want to know more before deciding. It's relevant because new information from Lev Parnas, an indicted associate of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, is being incorporated in the House case. At the same time, Senate Democrats want to call John Bolton, the former national security adviser, among other potential eyewitnesses, after the White House blocked officials from appearing in the House.

With Republicans controlling the Senate 53-47, they can set the trial rules — or any four Republicans could join with Democrats to change course. Crow spoke on CNN's “State of the Union” and Dershowitz was on CNN and ABC's “This Week.” Ray was on Fox News Channel's “Sunday Morning Futures.” Schiff appeared on ABC and Nadler on CBS's “Face the Nation.”

Associated Press writers Eric Tucker in Washington and Hunter Woodall in Manchester, N.H., contributed to this report.

Trump blasts Christian magazine that called for his removal

December 21, 2019

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump blasted a prominent Christian magazine on Friday, a day after it published an editorial arguing that he should be removed from office because of his “blackened moral record.”

Trump tweeted that Christianity Today, an evangelical magazine founded by the late Rev. Billy Graham, “would rather have a Radical Left nonbeliever, who wants to take your religion & your guns, than Donald Trump as your President."

The magazine “has been doing poorly and hasn’t been involved with the Billy Graham family for many years,” Trump wrote. He questioned whether the magazine would prefer a Democratic president “to guard their religion.”

Some of his strongest evangelical supporters, including Graham’s son, rallied to his side and against the publication. Their pushback underscored Trump’s hold on the evangelical voting bloc that helped propel him into office and suggested the editorial would likely do little to shake that group’s loyalty.

Rev. Franklin Graham, who now leads the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and prayed at Trump’s inauguration, tweeted Friday that his father would be “disappointed” in the magazine. Graham added that he “felt it necessary” following the editorial to share that his father, who died last year after counseling several past presidents, voted for Trump. The president thanked Graham for the disclosure.

Christianity Today “represents what I would call the leftist elite within the evangelical community. They certainly don’t represent the Bible-believing segment of the evangelical community,” Graham told The Associated Press in an interview. He wrote on Facebook: “Is President Trump guilty of sin? Of course he is, as were all past presidents and as each one of us are, including myself.”

In a statement issued by the Trump reelection campaign, Cissie Graham Lynch, an advisory board member of Women for Trump and Franklin Graham's daughter, said she was “outraged” to see the publication invoke her grandfather's “name to support their personal political agenda.”

The magazine’s circulation is estimated at 130,000. In the editorial titled “Trump Should Be Removed from Office," Editor-in-Chief Mark Galli wrote that Democrats "have had it out for" the president since he took office.

But Galli asserted that the facts "are unambiguous” when it comes to the acts that led to the president’s impeachment this week by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives. Trump “attempted to use his political power to coerce a foreign leader to harass and discredit one of the president’s political opponents,” Galli wrote, referring to former Vice President Joe Biden. “That is not only a violation of the Constitution; more importantly, it is profoundly immoral."

The schism among Christians about Trump dates back to before his election. Prominent Southern Baptist Russell Moore warned that Trump “incites division” in a 2015 op-ed. The essay cited the Bible in asking fellow Christians to “count the cost of following” him. It later earned a tweeted lashing from then-candidate Trump.

After Trump defended a 2017 white nationalist rally that turned violent in Charlottesville, Virginia, one member of his evangelical advisory board stepped down, citing “a deepening conflict in values between myself and the administration.”

But no such break has occurred between the president and the core of his evangelical base. Trump is deeply popular among white evangelical Protestants, with roughly 8 in 10 saying they approve of the way he is handling his job, according to a December poll from The AP-NORC Center.

Many prominent evangelicals have only intensified their support for Trump as Democrats moved to impeach him, circling the wagons despite Trump’s personal history, which includes multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, deeply divisive policies and profanity laced comments.

At the heart of that backing is what pro-Trump evangelicals view as the president’s significant record of achievement on their highest priorities, such as his successful installation of more than 150 conservative federal judges and his support for anti-abortion policies.

“No President has done more for the Evangelical community, and it’s not even close,” Trump said in his tweets. He declared that he “won’t be reading ET again!” using the wrong initials to describe the Christian publication.

Johnnie Moore, a member of Trump’s evangelical advisory board, tweeted that during the “hyperventilating” over the “inconsequential” editorial, he was at Vice President Mike Pence’s residence, “where dozens of evangelicals who actually lead MILLIONS were celebrating Christmas undistracted by impeachment & grateful" for the administration’s policies.

Adding that Christianity Today “only represents a certain segment of evangelicals,” Moore tweeted that “this is not a game changing moment or hardly a surprise.” Another Trump evangelical adviser, Southern Baptist megachurch pastor Robert Jeffress, tweeted that the magazine is “dying” and “going against 99% of evangelical Republicans who oppose impeachment.”

The editorial did not take a position on whether Trump should be removed by the Senate or by popular vote in the 2020 election, calling it “a matter of prudential judgment." But Galli wrote that the need for Trump’s removal “is not a matter of partisan loyalties but loyalty to the Creator of the Ten Commandments."

The editorial came one day after Trump became the third president in American history to be impeached. The House charged him with abuse of power in pressuring Ukraine to announce investigations of Biden, and with obstructing Congress in the ensuing probe.

Asked Friday in an interview with CNN about Trump’s critical tweets, Galli said the president’s characterization of the magazine as far left was “far from accurate.” But Galli, who is set to retire from his post next month, also said he is realistic about the impact of his words.

“I don’t have any imagination that my editorial is going to shift their views on this matter," Galli said of the president's supporters. “The fact of the matter is Christianity Today is not read by the people — Christians on the far right, by evangelicals on the far right — so they’re going to be as dismissive of the magazine as President Trump has shown to be.”

Amid the furor over the editorial, the Trump campaign announced plans for a Jan. 3 event in Miami called “Evangelicals for Trump."

Schor reported from New York.

Trump rails against delay in moving impeachment to Senate

December 20, 2019

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump railed behind closed doors Thursday about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's decision to delay sending articles of impeachment to the Republican Senate, putting an expected trial in limbo.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a staunch Trump GOP ally, emerged from a White House meeting with the president with a message. “He is demanding his day in court," Graham said in an interview on Fox News Channel Thursday evening. “I just left President Trump. He's mad as hell that they would do this to him and now deny him his day in court." The White House did not immediately respond to questions about his account.

Trump has seen a Senate trial as his means for vindication, viewing acquittal as a partial antidote to impeachment's stain on his legacy. But that effort has been threatened by Pelosi's decision to delay sending the articles approved by the House Wednesday to the Senate until, she says, Republican leaders offer more details about how they will handle an expected trial.

“So far we haven’t seen anything that looks fair to us,” she said Wednesday night, dropping a surprise procedural bombshell just after the House cast its historic votes making Trump only the third president in the nation's history to be impeached. House Democrats had argued for weeks that Trump’s impeachment was needed “urgently" to protect the nation.

Democrats do not have enough votes in the Republican-controlled Senate to convict Trump and remove him from office, but have been pushing for a trial to include witnesses who declined to appear during House committee hearings, including acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security adviser John Bolton.

Trump, meanwhile, has been hoping the trial will serve as an opportunity for vindication, and continues to talk about parading his own witness list, including former Vice President and 2020 Democratic candidate Joe Biden, even though there is little appetite for that among Senate leaders.

“The reason the Democrats don’t want to submit the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate is that they don’t want corrupt politician Adam Shifty Schiff to testify under oath, nor do they want the Whistleblower, the missing second Whistleblower, the informer, the Bidens, to testify!" Trump tweeted late Thursday.

One White House official mused that Pelosi's decision to indefinitely delay the trial would be an even more effective talking point for the president than his expected acquittal because, they argued, it would highlight how Pelosi has manipulated the process to deny Trump the opportunity to defend himself and clear his name.

Such messaging has been effective in driving outrage among the president’s core supporters, which Trump's campaign hopes will help propel him to reelection next year. But Graham made clear the president has not been swayed by that argument, calling the delay a “constitutional outrage” and insisting everyone should have their day in court.

Trump had told reporters in the Oval Office earlier Thursday that Democrats were “playing games," claiming they didn't want to submit the charges “because they're ashamed of 'em" and adding, falsely, that “they're not allowed to do that. I hear it's unconstitutional and a lot of other things."

There is no constitutional requirement for the Democrats to transmit the articles swiftly, or at all. Meanwhile, Trump insisted Thursday that he has not been bothered by the whole impeachment episode, despite all evidence to the contrary.

Asked how he felt about going down in history as only the third president to be impeached, Trump quipped, “To me it doesn't feel like impeachment." Pelosi’s unexpected procedural delay also got a sour response from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has been negotiating with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on the contours of a trial.

He charged that Democrats are “too afraid" to send the charges to the Senate.

Associated Press writer Zeke Miller contributed to this report.

Asian stocks sink after Trump impeachment vote

December 19, 2019

BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock markets sank Thursday after the U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald Trump and Japan's central bank kept ultra-low interest rates unchanged. Following a listless day on Wall Street, investors looked ahead to other interest rate decisions by central banks in Indonesia, Taiwan and Sweden.

Benchmarks in Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Seoul and Southeast Asia retreated. The House vote sends Trump's case to the Senate for trial. Republicans who control that house say they plan to acquit him.

Trump is accused of abusing his office by pressing the government of Ukraine to investigate a potential political rival ahead of next year's presidential election. He also is accused of obstructing efforts by Congress to investigate those allegations.

The outcome will be “greater polarization, and a rapid Senate dismissal of the charges made in the House, and then even greater polarization,” said Rabobank in a report. The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.2% to 3,010.73 and Tokyo's Nikkei 225 shed 0.3% to 23,868.82. Hong Kong's Hang Seng tumbled 0.5% to 27,747.22.

Seoul's Kospi was off one point at 2,193.51 and Sydney's S&P-ASX 200 lost 0.3% to 6,833.10. India's Sensex opened up 0.1% at 41,622.19 while New Zealand also gained. Taiwan, Singapore and Jakarta retreated.

The Bank of Japan left its short-term policy rate unchanged at -0.1% and its target for 10-year government bond yields at 0%. The bank downgraded its view on industrial production but said it sees overseas risks as significant, a change from October's statement that they were increasing.

Australia reported stronger-than-expected November jobs numbers. Australian employers added 39,900 jobs following a revised loss of 24,800 in October. Annual growth held steady at 2% over a year earlier.

On Wall Street, the benchmark S&P 500 index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished with small losses that left them just below all-time highs. The S&P 500 fell 1.38 points, or less than 0.1%, to 3,191.14. The Dow dropped 27.88 points, or 0.1%, to 28,239.28. The Nasdaq composite rose 4.38 points, or 0.1%, to a record 8,827.73.

Losses in banks, industrial stocks, household goods makers and technology companies helped pull the market lower. They offset gains in real estate, communication services, health care and elsewhere in the market.

The House vote to impeach Trump, which investors expected, appeared to have no impact on the market. FedEx was the biggest loser in the S&P 500 after the package delivery giant cut its profit forecast for its fiscal year and reported weaker quarterly earnings than analysts expected. The company cited “weak global economic conditions” and higher expenses.

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude gained 1 cent to $60.86 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract declined 2 cents on Wednesday to close at $60.85. Brent crude, used to price international oils, rose 5 cents to $66.22 per barrel in London. It added 7 cents the previous session to $66.17.

CURRENCY: The dollar was little-changed at 109.58 yen. The euro gained to $1.1133 from $1.1114.

Defiant Trump rallies supporters as House impeaches him

December 19, 2019

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. (AP) — Defiant in the face of a historic rebuke, President Donald Trump labeled his impeachment by the House of Representatives on Wednesday “a suicide march” for the Democratic Partyas he delivered a rambling two-hour rally speech that overlapped the vote.

“Crazy Nancy Pelosi's House Democrats have branded themselves with an eternal mark of shame," Trump told the crowd in battleground Michigan, where he took the stage just minutes before becoming only the third president in U.S. history to be impeached. “It's a disgrace”

It was a dramatic and discordant split-screen moment, with Trump emerging from a mock fireplace like Santa Claus at the Christmas-themed rally as the impeachment debate in Washington played out. It was also Trump's longest rally ever, according to the tracking site Factbase, clocking in at two hours and one minute.

As Trump spoke — seemingly unaware for a stretch that the votes had been tallied — the House moved to impeach him on two counts. The first charges him with abuse of power for allegedly pressuring the president of Ukraine to investigate his Democratic rivals while crucial U.S. security aid was being withheld. The second charges him with obstruction of Congress for stonewalling investigative efforts.

Yet there is little chance Trump will be convicted by the Republican-controlled Senate and removed from office — a fact that Trump and his allies have pointed to as they have tried to minimize the votes' significance. Still, Trump clearly was stung by the stain that an “ugly” impeachment will attach to his legacy.

Throughout the rally, Trump unleashed his anger at the Democrats, slammed their effort as “illegal" and accused the party of demonstrating “deep hatred and disdain” for voters. “After three years of sinister witch hunts, hoaxes, scams, tonight the House Democrats are trying to nullify the ballots of tens of millions of patriotic Americans," Trump said, claiming that it was the Democrats who were "interfering in America's elections" and “subverting American democracy."

Mid-rally, an aide held up a sign notifying Trump of the impeachment vote count and the president announced to the crowd that “every single Republican voted for us. Whoa. Wow, wow. ... And three Democrats voted for us."

During the rally, Trump went after several legislators by name, including Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell of Michigan, whose husband, former Rep. John Dingell, died earlier this year. Trump said Debbie Dingell had thanked him for “A-plus treatment” after her husband's death, telling Trump that if her husband were looking down he would be thrilled.

“I said, 'That's OK. Don't worry about it,'" Trump told the crowd. “Maybe he's looking up. I don't know." Some in the crowd gasped. Dingell responded by tweet, saying Trump's “hurtful words just made my healing much harder.”

Trump spent much of his marathon speech zigzagging between impeachment and unrelated topics, punctuating his remarks with more profanity than usual. He offered an extended riff on U.S. pilots being more attractive than “Top Gun” star Tom Cruise, went after Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg's difficult-to-pronounce last name and reveled — yet again — in his 2016 victory.

And after a day of harsh tweets, Trump at times projected a less-concerned attitude toward what he called “impeachment lite." “It doesn't really feel like we're being impeached," he said shortly after taking the Christmas tree-adorned stage. Later, he added: “I don't know about you, but I'm having a good time. It's crazy."

At another point, he declared: “I’m not worried. I’m not worried.” Trump also worked to highlight the Republicans who have stood with him, telling the crowd that the Republican Party has “never been so united" and predicting victory in 2020.

Aides had said that Trump would wait until the House had finished voting before speaking at the rally, but he appearing onstage ahead of the votes and promed “the best speech you've ever heard." Throughout the day, Trump had stared down the impending vote as he has every obstacle in his presidency: by broadcasting his grievances via tweet.

“Can you believe that I will be impeached today by the Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats, AND I DID NOTHING WRONG!" Trump wrote in one of 45 tweets posted before noon. He asked his followers to “Say a PRAYER!"

Trump's urgency appeared to escalate later in the day as he switched to all capital letters: “SUCH ATROCIOUS LIES BY THE RADICAL LEFT, DO NOTHING DEMOCRATS. THIS IS AN ASSAULT ON AMERICA, AND AN ASSAULT ON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!!!!"

As the impeachment debate wore on, Trump aides, including White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, fanned out across Capitol Hill to bolster the president's message that impeachment is helping Republicans and damaging Democrats. Vice President Mike Pence got to Michigan ahead of Trump for a daylong bus tour before the Battle Creek rally.

Serving as a warm-up act at the rally, Pence labeled the impeachment drive “a disgrace” and told the crowd that Democrats were “trying to impeach this president because they know they can’t defeat this president."

Pelosi and the Democrats are “having their say tonight," he said, “but the Republican Senate is going to have their say in January.” Trump's campaign has experienced a surge in contributions and volunteers during the impeachment inquiry and aides were hoping to raise an additional $2 million Wednesday ahead of the votes.

Colvin reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani and Kevin Freking in Washington and Jonathan Lemire in New York contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump impeached by US House, 3rd in history

December 19, 2019

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday night, becoming only the third American chief executive to be formally charged under the Constitution’s ultimate remedy for high crimes and misdemeanors.

The historic vote split along party lines, much the way it has divided the nation, over a charge that the 45th president abused the power of his office by enlisting a foreign government to investigate a political rival ahead of the 2020 election. The House then approved a second charge, that he obstructed Congress in its investigation.

The articles of impeachment, the political equivalent of an indictment, now go to the Senate for trial. If Trump is acquitted by the Republican-led chamber, as expected, he still would have to run for reelection carrying the enduring stain of impeachment on his purposely disruptive presidency.

“The president is impeached,” Pelosi declared after the vote. She called it “great day for the Constitution of the United States, a sad one for America that the president’s reckless activities necessitated us having to introduce articles of impeachment.”

Trump, who began Wednesday tweeting his anger at the proceedings, pumped his fist before an evening campaign rally in Battle Creek, Michigan, boasting of “tremendous support” in the Republican Party.

“By the way," he told the crowd, "it doesn't feel like I'm being impeached.” The mood in the House chamber shifted throughout the day as the lawmakers pushed toward the vote. Democrats spun lofty speeches, framing impeachment as what many said was their duty to protect the Constitution and uphold the nation’s system of checks and balances. Republicans mocked and jeered the proceedings, as t hey stood by their party’s leader, who has frequently tested the bounds of civic norms.

The start of Trump's Michigan rally was delayed as the voting was underway in Washington but once he took the stage he boasted of accomplishments and complained bitterly about his foes for two hours, defiant rather than contrite. He called Pelosi names and warned the impeachment would be politically disastrous for Democrats. He has called the whole affair a “witch hunt,” a “hoax” and a “sham,” and sometimes all three.

Pelosi, once reluctant to lead Democrats into a partisan impeachment, gaveled both votes closed, seeing the effort to its House conclusion, even at risk to her majority and her speakership. No Republicans voted for impeachment, and Democrats had only slight defections on their side. The votes for impeachment were 230-197-1 on the first charge, 229-198-1 on the second. To mark the moment, voting was conducted manually with ballots.

While Democrats had the majority in the House to impeach Trump, a vote of two-thirds is necessary for conviction in the Republican-controlled Senate. The trial is expected to begin in January, but Pelosi was noncommittal about sending the House articles over, leaving the start date uncertain. Senate leaders are expecting to negotiate details of the trial, but Democrats are criticizing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for saying he won’t be an impartial juror and already knows the outcome.

What Pelosi called a sad and solemn moment for the country, coming in the first year after Democrats swept control of the House, unfolded in a caustic daylong session that showcased the nation’s divisions.

The House impeachment resolution laid out in stark terms the articles of impeachment against Trump stemming from his July phone call when he asked the Ukrainian president for a “favor” — to announce he was investigating Democrats including potential 2020 rival Joe Biden.

At the time, Zelenskiy, new to politics and government, was seeking a coveted White House visit to show backing from the U.S. as he confronted a hostile Russia at his border. He was also counting on $391 million in military aid already approved by Congress. The White House delayed the funds, but Trump eventually released the money once Congress intervened.

Narrow in scope but broad in its charges, the impeachment resolution said the president “betrayed the nation by abusing his high office to enlist a foreign power in corrupting democratic elections,” and then obstructing Congress’ oversight like “no president" in U.S. history.

“President Trump, by such conduct, has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to national security and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office,” it said. Republicans argued that Democrats were impeaching Trump because they can’t beat him in 2020.

Said Rep. Chris Stewart of Utah: "They want to take away my vote and throw it in the trash." But Democrats warned the country cannot wait for the next election to decide whether Trump should remain in office because he has shown a pattern of behavior, particularly toward Russia, and will try to corrupt U.S. elections again.

"The president and his men plot on,” said Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., of the Intelligence Committee that led the inquiry. “The danger persists. The risk is real.” The outcome brings the Trump presidency to a milestone moment that has been building almost from the time the New York businessman-turned-reality-TV host unexpectedly won the White House in 2016 amid questions about Russian interference in the U.S. election.

Democrats drew from history, the founders and their own experiences, including as minorities, women and some immigrants to the U.S., who spoke of seeking to honor their oath of office to uphold the Constitution. Rep. Lou Correa of California delivered his comments in English and Spanish asking God to unite the nation. “In America,” said Hakeem Jeffries of New York, “no one is above the law.”

Republicans aired Trump-style grievances about what Arizona Rep. Debbie Lesko called a “rigged” process. “We face this horror because of this map,” said Rep. Clay Higgins of Alabama before a poster of red and blue states. “They call this Republican map flyover country, they call us deplorables, they fear our faith, they fear our strength, they fear our unity, they fear our vote, and they fear our president.”

The political fallout from the vote will reverberate across an already polarized country with divergent views of Trump’s July phone call when he asked Zelenskiy to investigate Democrats in the 2016 election, Biden and Biden's son Hunter, who worked on the board of a gas company in Ukraine while his father was the vice president.

Trump has repeatedly implored Americans to read the transcript of the call he said was “perfect.” But the facts it revealed, and those in an anonymous whistleblower’s complaint that sparked the probe, are largely undisputed.

More than a dozen current and former White House officials and diplomats testified for hours in impeachment hearings. The open and closed sessions under oath revealed what one called the “irregular channel” of foreign policy run by Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, which focused on investigating the Bidens and alternative theories of 2016 election interference.

The question for lawmakers was whether the revelations amounted to impeachable offenses. Few lawmakers crossed party lines. On the first article, abuse of power, two Democrats, Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, who is considering switching parties to become a Republican, and Collin Peterson of Minnesota voted against impeaching Trump. On the second article, obstruction, those two and freshman Rep. Jared Golden of Maine voted against. Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who is running for president, voted “present” on both.

Van Drew sat with Republicans. And Rep. Justin Amash, the Michigan conservative who left the Republican party and became an independent over impeachment, voted with Democrats. "I come to this floor, not as a Republican, not as a Democrat, but as an American," he said.

Beyond the impeachments of Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, this first impeachment of the 21st century is as much about what the president might do in the future as what he did in the past. The investigation of Richard Nixon ended when he resigned rather than face the House vote over Watergate.

Rank and file Democrats said they were willing to lose their jobs to protect the democracy from Trump. Some newly elected freshmen remained in the chamber for hours during the debate. Top Republicans, including Rep. Devin Nunes on the Intelligence Committee, called the Ukraine probe little more than a poor sequel to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Mueller spent two years investigating the potential links between Moscow and the Trump campaign but testified in July that his team could not establish that Trump conspired or coordinated with Russia to throw the election. Mueller did say he could not exonerate Trump of trying to obstruct the investigation, but he left that for Congress to decide.

The next day, Trump called Ukraine. Not quite four months later, a week before Christmas, Trump was impeached.

Associated Press writers Laurie Kellman, Matthew Daly, Alan Fram and Andrew Taylor in Washington and Darlene Superville in Battle Creek, Michigan, contributed to this report.

Judiciary panel takes first steps toward impeachment vote

December 12, 2019

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Judiciary Committee has taken the first steps toward voting on articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, beginning a marathon two-day session to consider the historic charges with a lively prime-time hearing at the Capitol.

Democrats and Republicans used the otherwise procedural meeting Wednesday evening to deliver sharp, poignant and, at times, personal arguments for and against impeachment. Both sides appealed to Americans' sense of history — Democrats describing a strong sense of duty to stop what one called the president’s “constitutional crime spree” and Republicans decrying the “hot garbage’’ impeachment and what it means for the future of the country.

Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island asked Republicans standing by Trump to “wake up” and honor their oath of office. Republican Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana responded with his own request to “put your country over party." Rep. Lou Correa, D-Calif., shared his views in both English and Spanish.

One Democrat, Rep. Val Demings of Florida, told the panel that, as a descendant of slaves and now a member of Congress, she has faith in America because it is “government of the people” and in this country “nobody is above the law.” Freshman Democratic Rep. Lucy McBath of Georgia emotionally talked about losing her son to gun violence and said that while impeachment was not why she came to Washington, she wants to “fight for an America that my son Jordan would be proud of.”

Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio said Democrats are impeaching because “they don't like us,” and read out a long list of Trump's accomplishments. “It's not just because they don't like the president, they don't like us,” Jordan added. “They don't like the 63 million people who voted for this president, all of us in flyover country, all of us common folk in Ohio, Wisconsin, Tennessee and Texas.”

The committee is considering two articles of impeachment introduced by Democrats. They charge Trump with abuse of power for asking Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden while withholding aid as leverage, and obstruction of Congress for stonewalling the House's investigation.

On Thursday, the committee will likely vote to send the articles to the full House, which is expected to vote next week. That could come after hours of debate over Republican amendments, though the articles aren't likely to be changed. Democrats are unlikely to accept any amendments proposed by Republicans unified against Trump's impeachment.

Democrats are also unified. They have agreed to the language, which spans only nine pages and says that Trump acted “corruptly” and “betrayed the nation” when he asked Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and the 2016 U.S. election. Hamstrung in the minority, Republicans wouldn't have the votes to make changes without support from at least some Democrats.

The Wednesday evening session of the 41-member panel lasted more than three hours, with opening statements from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler opened the hearing by making a final argument for impeachment and urging his Republican colleagues to reconsider. He said the committee should consider whether the evidence shows that Trump committed these acts, if they rise to the level of impeachable high crimes and misdemeanors and what the consequences are if they fail to act.

“When his time has passed, when his grip on our politics is gone, when our country returns, as surely it will, to calmer times and stronger leadership, history will look back on our actions here today,” Nadler said. “How would you be remembered?"

Republicans are also messaging to the American people — and to Trump himself — as they argue that the articles show Democrats are out to get the president. Most Republicans contend, as Trump does, that he has done nothing wrong, and all of them are expected to vote against the articles.

The top Republican on the panel, Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, argued that Democrats are impeaching the president because they think they can't beat him in the 2020 election. Democrats think the only thing they need is a “32-second commercial saying we impeached him," Collins said.

“That's the wrong reason to impeach somebody, and the American people are seeing through this,” Collins said. “But at the end of the day, my heart breaks for a committee that has trashed this institution.”

Republicans are expected to offer an array of amendments and make procedural motions on Thursday, even if they know none of them will pass. The Judiciary panel is made up of some of the most partisan members on both sides, and Republicans will launch animated arguments in Trump's defense.

Earlier Wednesday, Collins said the GOP would offer amendments but said they’d mainly be about allowing more time to debate. “Remember, you can’t fix bad," Collins said. “These are bad, you’re not going to fix it.”

In the formal articles announced Tuesday, the Democrats said Trump enlisted a foreign power in “corrupting” the U.S. election process and endangered national security by asking Ukraine to investigate his political rivals, including Biden, while withholding U.S. military aid as leverage. That benefited Russia over the U.S. as America's ally fought Russian aggression, the Democrats said.

Trump then obstructed Congress by ordering current and former officials to defy House subpoenas for testimony and by blocking access to documents, the charges say. Trump tweeted that to impeach a president “who has done NOTHING wrong, is sheer Political Madness.”

The House is expected to vote on the articles next week, in the days before Christmas. That would send them to the Senate for a 2020 trial. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that he would be "totally surprised'' if there were the necessary 67 votes in the chamber to convict Trump, and signaled options for a swift trial. He said no decision had been made about whether to call witnesses.

Associated Press writers Alan Fram and Padmananda Rama contributed to this report.

Democrats' impeachment charges say Trump betrayed the nation

December 11, 2019

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats announced two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, declaring he “betrayed the nation” with his actions toward Ukraine as they pushed toward historic proceedings that are certain to help define his presidency and shape the 2020 election.

The specific charges aimed at removing the 45th president of the United States: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, flanked by the chairmen of impeachment inquiry committees at the U.S. Capitol, said they were upholding their solemn oath to defend the Constitution. Trump responded angrily on Twitter: “WITCH HUNT!”

Voting is expected in a matter of days by the Judiciary Committee, which begins deliberations Wednesday, and by Christmas in the full House. The charges, if approved, would then be sent to the Senate, where the Republican majority would be unlikely to convict Trump, but not without a potentially bitter trial just as voters in Iowa and other early presidential primary states begin making their choices.

In the formal articles announced Tuesday, the Democrats said Trump enlisted a foreign power in “corrupting” the U.S. election process and endangered national security by asking Ukraine to investigate his political rivals, including Democrat Joe Biden, while withholding U.S. military aid as leverage. That benefited Russia over the U.S. as America's ally fought Russian aggression, the Democrats said.

Trump then obstructed Congress by ordering current and former officials to defy House subpoenas for testimony and by blocking access to documents, the charges say. By his conduct, Trump “demonstrated he will remain a threat to national security and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office, ” the nine-page impeachment resolution says.

“If we did not hold him accountable, he would continue to undermine our election,” Pelosi said later at a forum sponsored by Politico. "Nothing less is at stake than the central point of our democracy - a free and fair election.’’

Trump tweeted that to impeach a president "who has done NOTHING wrong, is sheer Political Madness." He later headed to Pennsylvania for a reelection campaign rally, where he called the effort “impeachment lite” and promised it would lead to his reelection in 2020.

The outcome appears increasingly set as the House presses ahead toward impeachment as it has only three times in history against U.S. presidents, a test of the nation's system of checks and balances.

Democrats said they had a duty to act in what is now a strictly partisan undertaking, as Republicans stand with the president, because Trump has shown a pattern of behavior that, if left unchecked, poses risks to the democratic process.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., the Judiciary chairman, said the president “holds the ultimate public trust. When he betrays that trust and puts himself before country, he endangers the Constitution; he endangers our democracy; he endangers our national security.”

“No one, not even the president, is above the law,” he said, announcing the charges before a portrait of George Washington. Chairman Adam Schiff of the Intelligence Committee said, “We stand here today because the president’s abuse of power leaves us with no choice.”

Trump's allies immediately plunged into the fight that will extend into the new year. White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said Democrats are trying to “overthrow'' the administration. Campaign manager Brad Parscale said Democrats "don’t have a viable candidate for 2020 and they know it.” The president's son, Eric, embraced his father's penchant for name calling, assailing Pelosi and “her swamp creatures.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he would be "totally surprised'' if there were 67 votes in the chamber to convict Trump, and signaled options for a swift trial. He said no decision had been made whether to call witnesses.

In drafting the charges against the president, Pelosi faced a legal and political challenge of balancing the views of her majority while hitting the Constitution's bar of "treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors."

Some liberal lawmakers wanted more expansive charges encompassing the findings from special counsel Robert Mueller's probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Centrist Democrats preferred to keep the impeachment articles more focused on Trump's actions toward Ukraine as a clearer case.

The final resolution, slim in length yet broad in concept, attempted to find common ground by linking the Ukraine inquiry to the Mueller probe in two separate lines.It said the abuse of power was consistent with Trump's “previous invitations of foreign interference in United States elections” while the obstruction charge was consistent with his efforts to undermine U.S. government ‘’investigations into foreign interference.”

Democratic leaders say Trump put his political interests above those of the nation when he asked Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a July phone call to investigate his rivals, including Democrat Joe Biden, and then withheld $400 million in military aid as the U.S. ally faced an aggressive Russia. They say he then obstructed Congress by stonewalling the House investigation.

The articles say Trump “used the powers of the presidency in a manner that compromised the national security of the United States and undermined the integrity of the United States democratic process.”

The first article, on abuse of power, says Trump “corruptly” solicited Ukraine to investigate his political rivals. The second article, obstruction of Congress, says that Trump directed defiance of the House's ability to conduct its legal oversight like no other president ”in the history of the republic."

Trump insisted in a new tweet that when he asked Ukraine's president “to do us a favor” with the investigations, “'us' is a reference to USA, not me!” Democrats, however, say Trump's meaning could not have been clearer in seeking political dirt on Biden, his possible opponent in the 2020 election.

Republicans stand with the president even if they don't fully address his actions. House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy said, the vote will be on impeachment not "whether a call is perfect.'' While the impeachment is focused on the Ukraine matter, Trump's actions toward Russia continue underlie the debate. On Tuesday Trump met at the White House with Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister just back from Paris efforts to revive peace talks with Ukraine.

At the same time, a top adviser to the Ukraine president, Andriy Yermak, disputed key impeachment testimony from U.S. Ambassador Gordon Sondland, telling Time magazine the two did not speak of the investigations Trump wanted during a Warsaw meeting.

The next steps are expected to come swiftly after months of investigation into the Ukraine matter and special counsel Mueller's two-year Russia probe. In his report, Mueller said he could not determine that Trump's campaign conspired or coordinated with Russia in the 2016 election. But he said he could not exonerate Trump of obstructing justice and left it for Congress to determine.

Even as she pushed ahead with the impeachment proceeding, Pelosi announced an agreement with the White House on a new U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal, a top priority for the president as well as many centrist Democrats. It, too, could get a vote next week.

Associated Press writers Julie Pace, Alan Fram, Colleen Long, Laurie Kellman, Matthew Daly and Eric Tucker contributed to this report.

Democrats push impeachment to next phase with Dec. 4 hearing

November 27, 2019

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Judiciary Committee is set to take over the impeachment probe of President Donald Trump, Democrats announced Tuesday, scheduling a hearing for next week as they push closer to a possible vote on actual charges of “high crimes and misdemeanors.”

The Judiciary panel scheduled the hearing as the separate Intelligence Committee released two last transcripts from its depositions, including from a White House budget official who detailed concerns among colleagues as Trump ordered them, through intermediaries, to put a hold on military aid to Ukraine.

Trump ordered the hold as he was pressuring Ukraine’s president to investigate Democrats — the issue at the heart of the impeachment probe. Multiple government witnesses testified in impeachment hearings held by the Intelligence panel this month that Trump directed his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to take the lead on Ukraine policy and that Giuliani pushed an “irregular” diplomatic channel.

The Intelligence Committee is wrapping up the investigative phase of the probe and preparing its report for the next. Committee Chairman Adam Schiff has said the report could be released soon after the House returns from its Thanksgiving break.

The initial Judiciary hearing on Dec. 4, the day after lawmakers return, will feature legal experts who will examine questions of constitutional grounds as the panel decides whether to write articles of impeachment against Trump — and if so what those articles will be. Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said Tuesday that his panel’s hearing will “explore the framework put in place to respond to serious allegations of impeachable misconduct.”

Democrats are aiming for a final House vote by Christmas, which would set the stage for a likely Senate trial in January. Trump, meanwhile, tried to put distance between himself and Giuliani in a radio interview Tuesday. Asked by host Bill O’Reilly what Giuliani was doing on his behalf in Ukraine, Trump said, “I don’t even know,” adding that Giuliani had canceled one trip and had other clients as well.

Asked directly if he had directed Giuliani to go to Ukraine on his behalf, Trump said, “No.” In a phone call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on July 25, Trump had said several times he would have Giuliani contact Zelenskiy. “Rudy very much knows what’s happening and he is a very capable guy,” Trump said to Zelenskiy, according to a rough transcript released by the White House.

Trump and his lawyers are invited to attend the Judiciary hearing and make a request to question witnesses, according to Democratic rules approved by the House last month. The committee released a letter from Nadler to the president, saying that he hopes Trump will participate, “consistent with the rules of decorum and with the solemn nature of the work before us.”

It’s unlikely that the president himself would attend, as Trump is scheduled to be overseas on Dec. 4 for a summit with NATO allies outside London — a split screen showing leadership that Trump’s allies might find favorable. The Judiciary panel gave the White House until Sunday evening to decide whether Trump or his lawyers would attend.

If Democrats stay on schedule, the committee will introduce articles of impeachment, debate them and then hold a vote, a process that could take several days. If charges are approved by the end of the second week of December, the House could hold a formal impeachment vote the third week of the month just before leaving for the holidays.

The charges are expected to mostly focus on Ukraine. Democrats are considering an overall “abuse of power” article against Trump, which could be broken into categories such as bribery or extortion. That article would center on the Democrats’ assertion, based on witness testimony, that Trump used his office to pressure Ukraine into politically motivated investigations.

Democrats are also expected to include an article on obstruction of Congress that outlines Trump’s instructions to officials in his administration to defy subpoenas for documents or testimony. Though several government officials called by Democrats cooperated with the committee, several key witnesses — including acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Energy Secretary Rick Perry and former National Security Adviser John Bolton — refused, following Trump’s orders.

Lastly, Democrats could potentially include an obstruction of justice article based on special counsel Robert Mueller’s report released earlier this year. Mueller said he could not exonerate Trump on that point, essentially leaving the matter up to Congress.

When and if the House approves articles of impeachment, the Republican-controlled Senate would be expected to hold a trial in early 2020. Unless political dynamics change drastically, Trump would have the backing of majority Republicans in that chamber and be acquitted.

It’s still unclear how long a trial might last, what it would look like and who might be called as witnesses. While the matter remains in the House, Schiff said in a letter to his colleagues on Monday that his committee “will continue with our investigative work” and could still hold depositions or hearings. But Schiff said it would not prolong a fight to obtain documents or testimony in court.

“The president has accepted or enlisted foreign nations to interfere in our upcoming elections, including the next one,” Schiff said in the letter. “This is an urgent matter that cannot wait if we are to protect the nation’s security and the integrity of our elections.”

In a transcript of closed-door testimony released Tuesday, Office of Management and Budget official Mark Sandy, a career employee, told lawmakers that his office was notified as early as July 12 by the White House chief of staff’s office that Trump was withholding the military aid. That was two weeks before Trump asked Ukrainian President Zelenskiy to investigate Democrats.

Sandy testified that Trump himself requested additional information about the aid on July 19 after seeing an unidentified “media report.” The office then started the official process of withholding the money on July 25, the day of the call between Trump and Zelenskiy, Sandy said.

He testified that he raised concerns about the legality of the holdup, but wasn’t given a reason until September, when he was told that Trump was concerned “about other countries not contributing more to Ukraine.”

Sandy said that in late July, political appointee Michael Duffey took from him his role of approving spending, a decision Duffey told him involved Mulvaney. Sandy, who has worked at OMB for more than a decade, said he was unaware of a political appointee ever previously being given that responsibility.

He also testified that he knew of two people who left the agency who had voiced concerns over the handling of the Ukraine aid. The intelligence panel also released a transcript of the deposition of State Department official Philip Reeker, who detailed concerns about the removal of U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.

Associated Press writers Matthew Daly, Andrew Taylor, Alan Fram, Eric Tucker, Nancy Benac and Zeke Miller contributed to this report.

16 inmates killed in latest prison outburst in Honduras

December 23, 2019

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — At least 16 prisoners died during fighting inside a juvenile detention center in Honduras on Sunday, two days after rioting at another prison killed 18 inmates, authorities said.

The latest bloody violence occurred at a maximum security prison in the municipality of El Porvenir, 116 kilometers (72 miles) from the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa. The rioting was confirmed to The Associated Press by José Coello, spokesman for the National Interagency Security Force, an entity formed from the military and the National Police to deal with the recent unrest in Honduras' prisons. He gave no further details.

The task force was put in charge of managing the country's 29 prisons and juvenile detention centers Tuesday when the federal government declared a state of emergency throughout the National Prison System. Civilian officials in the system were suspended, and the special commission will seek to root out corruption and violence in prisons.

Digna Aguilar, communications director for the prison system, said she could not comment on what happened Sunday. "We are counting the deceased and it would be irresponsible to give an exact number," she told AP.

Prisoners at the detention center were reportedly having a meal when several inmates armed with knives attacked fellow detainees. The attack also wounded a dozen inmates, one of whom died later. The outburst came after inmates, including some armed with guns, battled each other Friday at a prison in the city of Tela, leaving 18 dead and 16 wounded.

Before Sunday's bloodshed, the Observatory of Violence of the National Autonomous University of Honduras had counted a total of 27 killings in three separate incidents of multiple deaths inside prisons so far in 2019.

Haiti health workers say 13 children died in orphanage fire

February 14, 2020

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A fire swept through an orphanage run by a Pennsylvania-based nonprofit group in Haiti, killing 13 children, including infants, health care workers said Friday. Rose-Marie Louis, a child-care worker, told The Associated Press that she saw 13 children's bodies being carried out of the Orphanage of the Church of Bible Understanding in the Kenscoff area outside Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital.

Marie-Sonia Chery, a nurse at the nearby Baptist Mission Hospital, confirmed that 13 boys and girls had died. Louis, who worked at the orphanage, said the fire began around 9 p.m. Thursday and firefighters took about 1.5 hours to arrive. About seven were babies or toddlers and about six were roughly 10 or 11 years old, she said.

She said the orphanage had been using candles for light due to problems with its generator and inverter. Rescue workers arrived at the scene on motorcycles and didn't have bottled oxygen or the ambulances needed to transport the children to the hospital, said Jean-Francois Robenty, a civil protection official.

"They could have been saved,"' he said. ''We didn’t have the equipment to save their lives.'' Robenty said officials believed other children's bodies remained inside and emergency workers were trying to pull them out Friday morning.

Orphanage workers on the scene said they believed two bodies were still inside. The Associated Press has reported on a long-standing series of problems at two orphanages run by the Church of Bible Understanding.

The Church of Bible Understanding lost accreditation for its orphanage after a series of inspections beginning in November 2012. Haitian inspectors faulted the group for overcrowding, unsanitary conditions and not having enough adequately trained staff.

Members of the religious group were selling expensive antiques at high-end stores in New York and Los Angeles and using a portion of the profits to fund the orphanage. The Associated Press made an unannounced visit to the orphanage's two homes, holding a total of 120 kids, in 2013 and found bunk beds with faded and worn mattresses crowded into dirty rooms. Sour air wafted through the bathrooms and stairwells. Rooms were dark and spartan, lacking comforts or decoration.

The Church of Bible Understanding, based in Scranton, Pennsylvania, operates two homes for nearly 200 children in Haiti as part of a “Christian training program,” according to its most recent nonprofit organization filing. It has operated in the country since 1977. It identifies the homes as orphanages but it is common in Haiti for impoverished parents to place children in residential care centers, where they receive lodging and widely varying education for several years but are not technically orphans.

“We take in children who are in desperate situations,” the organization says in its tax filing for 2017, the most recent year available. “Many of them were very close to death when we took them in.” The nonprofit reported revenue of $6.6 million and expenses of $2.2 million for the year.

A member of the organization who identified himself only as “Jim” on a phone call referred questions on the fire to their lawyer in Haiti, whom he would not identify.

Weissenstein reported from Havana. Fox reported from Washington.

Togo vote could see Gnassingbes extend decades-long rule

February 22, 2020

LOME, Togo (AP) — The West African nation of Togo is voting Saturday in a presidential election that is likely to see the incumbent re-elected for a fourth term despite years of calls by the opposition for new leadership.

President Faure Gnassingbe’s family has been in power for more than five decades, and his ruling party says a win is all but certain. “Given the level of mobilization, we are convinced and certain that this enthusiasm will also be reflected in the polls,” said Gilbert Bawara, spokesman for the ruling party.

But months of anti-government protests in 2017, with about 20 people killed, were a sign of impatience with the family's hold on power. Togo's government this week expelled a key U.S.-based election observer group, weakening efforts to monitor for any irregularities. The United States has criticized the expulsion.

“We are deeply troubled by the Togolese government’s actions to restrict non-partisan election monitoring,” said the president of the National Democratic Institute, Derek Mitchell. “Despite the government’s actions, we remain steadfast in our commitment to support the Togolese people’s desire for democracy, and ability to monitor their elections in accordance with internationally recognized principles of transparency.”

Tchambakou Ayassor, president of Togo's electoral commission, countered in remarks to journalists on Friday: “We had to withdraw the accreditation of one organization. And we clearly indicated in a statement to this organization that there were reasons to believe this organization was preparing to disrupt the electoral process.”

In addition, the electronic vote-counting system will not be used because “while deploying these devices it came to our attention that there was a heightened risk of the systems being hacked, which we suspect had the aim of manipulating the results,” Ayassor said.

In power since 2005 following the death of his father, Eyadema, who seized power in 1967, Gnassingbe now has the right to remain in office if elected until 2030. In May he enacted a law limiting presidents to two five-year terms, but because it is not retroactive, his previous three terms are not counted.

Gnassingbe has called on voters to renew confidence in him to guarantee peace and security in Togo amid a growing extremism threat in the West African region. He also promised to improve the health, education and agricultural sectors.

He faces off against six other candidates including Jean-Pierre Fabre, 67, with the National Alliance for Change, who came in second in elections in 2010 and 2015. Fabre contested Gnassingbe's 2015 win with about 56% of the votes.

"I had the victory stolen from me the previous times. It will not happen again,” Fabre said while campaigning. “Go out massively on Feb. 22 to sanction this regime and choose those who are really capable of managing the country.”

Opposition groups have chosen not to support a single candidate in hopes that voting in the nation of nearly 8 million people goes to a second round. But some observers worry that Saturday's vote won’t be transparent and fair.

“Let's be realistic! None of the candidates can win this presidential election in the first round if the election is truly transparent. But it is up to opponents to work to minimize fraud, "said Spero Mahoule, a member of the Collective of Associations Against Impunity in Togo.

Worries are high as well that internet service could be cut. More than 3.6 million people are registered to vote in what many hope will be a calm election. The vote is being held against the backdrop of rising prices for basic necessities, weak health systems and an education sector in which teachers continually threaten strikes. Unemployment among young people is increasing.

Carley Petesch in Dakar, Senegal, and Lekan Oyekanmi in Lome contributed.

French president says 33 jihadists killed in central Mali

December 21, 2019

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — French forces have killed 33 Islamic extremists in central Mali, French President Emmanuel Macron said Saturday. He made the announcement on the second day of his three-day trip to West Africa that has been dominated by the growing threat posed by jihadist groups.

In a tweet, Macron said he was “proud of our soldiers who protect us.” Two Malian gendarmes also were rescued in the operation, he said. France has some 4,500 military personnel in West and Central Africa, much of which was ruled by France during colonialism. The French led a military operation in 2013 to dislodge Islamic extremists from power in several major towns across Mali's north.

In the ensuing years the militants have regrouped and pushed further into central Mali, where Saturday morning's operation was carried out. On Friday evening, Macron met with French military personnel stationed in Ivory Coast, which shares a long border with volatile Mali and Burkina Faso. Later in the day Saturday he is to highlight a new effort being launched: The International Academy to Fight Terrorism will focus on regional strategies and training those involved in the fight against extremism, according to the French presidency.

France: Military helicopters in Mali crash not under fire

November 29, 2019

PARIS (AP) — France’s army chief of staff is dismissing an Islamic State group affiliate’s claim that it caused a helicopter collision in Mali that killed 13 soldiers. Gen. Francois Lecointre on Friday told French radio RFI that no shots were fired at the helicopters. The Islamic State in the Greater Sahara has claimed responsibility but offered no evidence.

Lecointre said complex coordination during a combat operation was the cause of Monday night’s accident in the West African nation. He said the helicopters’ flight data recorders will provide more details, saying the soldiers’ families are owed the truth about what happened.

It was France’s highest military death toll in nearly four decades. The crash drew global attention to an emerging front for IS-linked groups as IS loses strength in Syria and Iraq.

38 positive for coronavirus in NYC jails, including Rikers

March 22, 2020

(AP) New York City was hit by the nation’s largest coronavirus jail outbreak to date this week, with at least 38 people testing positive at the notorious Rikers Island complex and nearby facilities — more than half of them incarcerated men, the board that oversees the city's jail system said Saturday.

Another inmate, meanwhile, became the first in the country to test positive in a federal jail. In a letter to New York's criminal justice leaders, Board of Correction interim chairwoman Jacqueline Sherman described a jail system in crisis.

She said in the last week, board members learned that 12 Department of Correction employees, five Correctional Health Services employees, and 21 people in custody at Rikers and city jails had tested positive for the coronavirus.

And at least another 58 were being monitored in the prison's contagious disease and quarantine units, she said. “It is likely these people have been in hundreds of housing areas and common areas over recent weeks and have been in close contact with many other people in custody and staff,” said Sherman, warning that cases could skyrocket. “The best path forward to protecting the community of people housed and working in the jails is to rapidly decrease the number of people housed and working in them.”

New York officials have consistently downplayed the number of infections in its prisons and jails, The Associated Press has found in conversations with current and former inmates. The city’s jail agency and its city-run healthcare provider did not respond to messages seeking comment on the letter. On Friday, the city's Department of Corrections said just one inmate had been diagnosed with coronavirus, along with seven jail staff members. Late Saturday, the department acknowledged 19 inmates had tested positive — two fewer than in the board’s letter — and 12 staff members.

Earlier this week, Juan Giron was transferred to Rikers Island from an upstate facility after his sentence was vacated because the judge had failed to consider him for youthful offender treatment. After going through intake, where he underwent health screening, he was taken to a dormitory that housed more than two dozen men, their beds lined up next to one another, spaced a few feet apart.

“This is like a shelter. So everybody is out and about. You’re talking to people, mingling” Giron said. “Last night, a guy is brought in at around 6 p.m., and a few hours later, two police officers come in with masks and gloves on and try to give the guy a mask. They looked scared, didn’t even want to touch him. They told him to pack up, so he packed up and they took him out. It was crazy.”

“We asked one of the officers and they said, ‘That’s the process we are doing now for guys who have the virus,’” Giron said, adding that others who had had contact with the man have not been questioned or notified about his status.

More than 2.2 million people are incarcerated in the United States — more than anywhere in the world — and there are growing fears that an outbreak could spread rapidly through a vast network of federal and state prisons, county jails and detention centers.

It’s a tightly packed, fluid population that is already grappling with high rates of health problems and, when it comes to the elderly and the intern, elevated risks of serious complications. With limited capacity nationally to test for COVID-19, men and women inside worry that they are last in line when showing flu-like symptoms, meaning that some may be infected without knowing it.

The first positive tests from inside prisons and jails started trickling out just over a week ago, with less than two dozen officers and staff infected in other facilities from California and Michigan to Pennsylvania.

Sherman wrote to Commissioner of New York City’s Department of Correction, the Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals, New York’s Acting Commissioner, and district attorney asserting that those who are at higher risk from infection, including people over 50 or with underlying health conditions, should be considered for early release. So should people detained for administrative reasons, like parole violations, she wrote.

Mayor Bill de Blasio earlier this week said prosecutors were working to identify candidates and by Friday night, prosecutors in New York City agreed to release 56 Rikers inmates on their own recognizance.

Bianca Tylek, executive director of the national criminal justice advocacy organization of Worth Rises, said that wouldn’t cut it. “There are nearly 1,500 people incarcerated on Rikers Island for low level offenses or technical parole violations who can be released immediately,” she said. "Releasing them would reduce their risk of infection, reduce the risk for all those who remain incarcerated, and reduce the spread of the virus into the public.”

A man incarcerated in New York City, meanwhile, became the first confirmed case in the federal prison system. The man, who is housed at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, complained of chest pains on Thursday, a few days after he arrived at the facility, the federal Bureau of Prisons told the AP. He was taken to a local hospital and was tested for COVID-19, officials said.

He was discharged from the hospital on Friday and returned to the jail, where he was immediately placed in isolation, the agency said, adding medical and psychiatric staff were visiting him routinely.

Others housed with the man are also being quarantined, along with staff members who may have had contact with him. There have been two positive cases among BOP staff members: an employee who works at an administrative office in Grand Prairie, Texas, and another employee who works in Leavenworth, Kansas, but who officials said did not have contact with inmates since becoming symptomatic.

The Bureau of Prisons has temporarily halted visitation at all 122 federal correctional facilities across the U.S., including both social and legal visitation, though officials have said some exceptions could be made for legal visits.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and even death.

The vast majority of people recover from the virus. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe cases may take three to six weeks to recover.

McDowell reported from Minneapolis and Balsamo reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Michael R. Sisak in New York contributed to this report.

The Associated Press receives support for health and science coverage from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Virus rebels from France to Florida flout lockdown practices

March 22, 2020

PARIS (AP) — Young German adults hold “corona parties" and cough toward older people. A Spanish man leashes a goat to go for a walk to skirt confinement orders. From France to Florida to Australia, kitesurfers, college students and others crowd the beaches.

Their defiance of lockdown mandates and scientific advice to fight the coronavirus pandemic has prompted crackdowns by authorities on people trying to escape cabin fever brought on by virus restrictions. In some cases, the virus rebels resist — threatening police as officials express outrage over public gatherings that could spread the virus.

“Some consider they're little heroes when they break the rules," said French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner. "Well, no. You're an imbecile, and especially a threat to yourself.” After days of noncompliance by people refusing to stay home and venture out only for essential tasks, France on Friday sent security forces into train stations to prevent people from traveling to their vacation homes, potentially carrying the virus to the countryside or beaches where medical facilities are less robust. The popular Paris walkway along the Seine River was closed and a nightly curfew was imposed in the French Mediterranean city of Nice by Mayor Christian Estrosi, who is infected with the virus.

Florida's governor closed all of the state's beaches after images of rowdy spring break college crowds appeared on TV for days amid the rising global death toll, which surpassed 13,000 on Sunday. Australia closed Sydney's famous Bondi Beach after police were outraged at pictures of the crowds.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saturday that people from 18-to-49 account for more than half of the state's coronavirus cases, warning them “you're not Superman, and you're not Superwoman.” Many people were not complying with social distancing recommendations to stay away from each other in New York City's vast city park network ahead of a ban on congregating in groups that goes into effect Sunday night, Cuomo said.

“You can wind up hurting someone who you love, or hurting someone wholly inadvertently. Social distancing works, and you need social distancing everywhere," Cuomo warned. As new coronavirus cases in China dropped to zero several days in a row, the chief medical officer for the International Clinic of Wuhan was alarmed at those elsewhere refusing to follow rules to contain the virus. Dr. Philippe Klein said people should look to China's confinement of tens of millions as an example to emulate “with courage, with patience, with solidarity.”

“I exhort you, the French, to apply the rules in our way,” said Klein, who is French. Worldwide, over 307,000 people have been infected. For most, the coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms. But it can cause more severe illness in others, especially older adults and people with existing health conditions. Some 92,000 people have recovered, mostly in China, where the virus first struck late last year.

The virus rebels tend to range from restless teens to wealthy adults who can travel to their getaway homes. Even in Italy, where the virus death toll soared beyond China's last week, authorities are still trying to rein in people from going outside for fresh air, sun and visits with friends to escape walled-in lives.

French farmers' markets where people congregate to shop for food have posed a special challenge for police trying to keep people apart from each other at the recommended 2 meters (6 feet), along with neglected urban housing projects where distrust and disobedience of authorities runs deep.

In Clichy-Sous-Bois, a Paris suburb where nationwide riots triggered by police harassment allegations erupted in 2005, a person bit a police officer trying to enforce confinement rules, said Linda Kebbab, a police union spokesperson. And a large crowd threatened to spit on officers who had planned to disperse them in the southeastern city of Lyon but left instead, she said.

In the southern German state of Bavaria, Gov. Markus Soeder lamented that "there are still corona parties, there are young people who cough at older people and shout corona for fun and, above all, there are an incredible number of groups being formed.”

National police in Spain, which has the second-highest number of coronavirus infections in Europe after Italy, are using helicopters to spot groups of people meeting up outdoors. Then agents are sent in to break up the gatherings.

Spanish police have also taken to highlighting examples on social media of what people should not do in public during the country's state of emergency. In the southeastern Murcia region, they posted video of police stopping a person waddling outside in a full-body dinosaur costume and tweeted that pets can be taken for brief walks by owners but that "having a Tyrannosaurus Rex complex is not” allowed.

And in Spain's northeastern region of Catalonia, police posted a picture of a man walking a goat on a leash, apparently trying to take advantage of the pet walking exception. France now has 100,000 security personnel on the streets who are issuing fines amid a new national “Stay Home” mantra and warnings by officials that the country's two-week lockdown could be extended if the country's infection rate keeps rising. France on Sunday had nearly 15,000 infections.

In Greece, Prime Minister Kyriakos tried to convince people to say home, warning citizens that future virus prevention measures depend "on our behavior.” But after Florida's governor shut down the state's famed beaches, some businesses were still trying to draw in tourists, including Clearwater Mega Bite Shark Boat, a 40-foot (12-meter) vessel with a bow shaped like a shark’s snout that cruises the Gulf of Mexico off Florida's western coast.

The boat can carry 50 passengers but the owner was limiting trips to 10 to comply with federal advice. Only four people signed up for a Saturday trip, said an employee named Chase who answered the phone but declined to give his last name.

“Normally we'd be packed this weekend,” he said.

Associated Press writers contributing to this report: Frances d'Emilio in Rome; Joe Wilson in Barcelona; Elena Becatoros in Greece,; Geir Moulson and David Rising in Berlin; Michael Hill in Albany, New York; Tamara Lush in St. Petersburg, Florida; and Sarah El Deeb in Beirut.

The Associated Press receives support for health and science coverage from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.