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Capital Journal
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Good morning from the WSJ Washington bureau.
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NEW: Rep. Mark Meadows (R., N.C.), a close ally of President Trump, won’t seek re-election for Congress, according to an aide. In a statement, Mr. Meadows said his work with the administration "is only beginning."
Congress: The Senate is expected to vote on a spending bill to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year.
Democratic Debate: Seven candidates take the stage tonight at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles for the party's sixth 2020 debate. Here's what to watch.
WSJ/NBC News Poll: See the results of the latest WSJ/NBC News poll below to see how the candidates stack up at this stage of the race.
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The House votes on impeachment. PHOTO: PATRICK SEMANSKY/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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The morning after the House voted along party lines to impeach President Trump, it remained uncertain when and under what procedures the Senate would conduct the president's trial, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi raised the prospect last night of delaying the matter until Senate Republicans set rules that she considered fair, Siobhan Hughes and Natalie Andrews report.
The House approved abuse-of-power and obstruction-of-Congress articles against Mr. Trump in the wake of his pressing Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a rival in the 2020 race. Republicans said Democrats had managed a flawed process and failed to show that Mr. Trump had committed a crime. Both sides relied on hyperbole and the Founding Fathers to make their cases ahead of the vote.
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Mr. Trump will be the third president to face a trial in the Senate, where a two-thirds vote would be required to remove him from office.
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he sees no scenarios in which Mr. Trump would be convicted.
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For Chief Justice John Roberts, required to preside when the Senate tries a president, the impeachment of Mr. Trump offers a chance to distinguish the judiciary from the partisanship engulfing the Capitol.
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President Trump at a rally in Battle Creek, Mich., last night. PHOTO: Leah Millis/Reuters
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“They’re the ones that should be impeached.”
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— President Trump, speaking about Democrats at his rally
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At a boisterous rally hundreds of miles from Washington, Mr. Trump praised his fellow Republicans for standing by him. The president announced the votes after they happened and clapped with the crowd, Michael C. Bender reports. While saying that he wasn’t worried about the tally, he also ticked through a list of frustrations. He said he did nothing wrong and accused Democrats of inflicting pain on the country.
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Poll: The nation remains evenly divided, 48% to 48%, on whether to remove the president from office, a new WSJ/NBC News poll shows.
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Analysis: Though the day's proceeding may have been historic, it appeared to settle nothing. The debate now will almost certainly stretch straight into the 2020 presidential election, writes Jerry Seib.
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Senate GOP Seeks a Quick Impeachment Trial—and a Vindicated President
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Senate Republicans are intensifying their push to avoid a lengthy Senate impeachment trial.
As President Trump and some of his allies have pushed for a long Senate trial that features testimony from witnesses that justify his dealings with Ukraine, top Senate Republicans have advocated for a limited process that ends quickly. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) publicly entered the fray this week when he called for current and former administration officials to testify as part of the trial.
As my colleague Lindsay Wise has reported, one way Senate Republicans are hoping to balance Mr. Trump’s desire for vindication with a hesitance to engage in a messy, divisive trial process is by launching separate investigations at the committee level.
To that end, three Senate Republican committee chairmen announced on Wednesday that they were seeking records and interviews with several Obama administration officials about Hunter Biden’s service on the board of Ukranian natural gas company Burisma Holdings. Hunter Biden served on the board while his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, was leading international anti-corruption efforts in the country.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly claimed that Joe Biden, now a top Democratic presidential contender, pressed for the removal of a Ukranian prosecutor because he was investigating Burisma. Mr. Trump’s request this summer to the Ukranian president that Ukraine investigate those claims spurred the current impeachment inquiry.
U.S. officials have said that Mr. Biden was carrying out U.S. policy in pressing for the removal of a prosecutor believed to be slow-walking corruption investigations in Ukraine—and that his ouster may have facilitated investigations of companies like Burisma, rather than hindered it.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee who led the records request Wednesday, also said he would not support a Senate impeachment trial with witnesses. Any procedure for the Senate trial will require support from 51 senators, meaning the 53-vote GOP majority can only afford to lose only two votes on a process agreement.
“I’m not going to support witnesses being called for by the president, I’m not going to support witnesses being called for by Senator Schumer,” he said. “I think most senators on our side are ready to move forward.”
Write to Andrew Duehren at andrew.duehren@wsj.com
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A federal appeals court in New Orleans ruled a central feature of the Affordable Care Act was unconstitutional, but it ordered a Texas trial judge to reconsider a ruling that invalidated the entire 2010 law, Brent Kendall and Stephanie Armour report.
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The court, in a 2-1 decision, struck down the ACA’s requirement that most people carry health insurance or pay a penalty.
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The Supreme Court in 2012 upheld that insurance mandate based on Congress’s power to levy taxes, but lawmakers in 2017 reduced the penalty to $0 as part of Republicans’ tax overhaul package.
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The administration is moving forward on a plan to allow imports of cheaper drugs from Canada and other countries, part of its plan to combat prescription costs, report Stephanie Armour and Thomas M. Burton. About a dozen states have pressed for permission to import drugs.
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Joe Biden remains the narrow favorite for the Democratic presidential nomination among the party’s voters nationally, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds, though the former vice president’s more liberal rivals generate higher voter enthusiasm, Joshua Jamerson reports.
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Mr. Biden was the top choice of 28% of Democratic primary voters in the survey, while Sen. Bernie Sanders had 21% support and Sen. Elizabeth Warren drew 18%.
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No other candidate had double-digit support. The poll turned up little sign that Michael Bloomberg has shaken up the race.
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Iowa’s tradition-bound caucuses are going international. The Iowa Democratic Party said that 99 “satellite” locations have been approved for the caucuses, including sites in Paris and Glasgow, Scotland, John McCormick reports.
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The U.S. is losing its demographic advantage over other countries, as fertility falls and immigration tightens, writes Greg Ip. Demographic trends aren't etched in stone, but the U.S. cannot assume it is immune to the demographic downdraft holding back Germany and Japan.
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Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expect the U.S. expansion, now in its 11th year, to continue through the 2020 presidential election with a healthy labor market backing it up, reports Harriet Torry.
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The year-end tax-break bonanza just won’t die. Under pressure from lobbyists and industry groups, lawmakers this week came through with a deal to resurrect and extend certain breaks. Even the putative winners of the deal are worn out by the exercise, reports Richard Rubin.
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The Affordable Care Act has made a lasting impact on everything from health coverage for people with pre-existing conditions to drug costs for seniors. But it also remains a political flashpoint, and the law's effects have been uneven, reports Anna Wilde Mathews.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin says President Trump's impeachment is far-fetched and will be rejected in the Senate. (Associated Press)
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After President Trump again criticized her and her late husband, longtime Rep. John Dingell, at a rally Wednesday night, Rep. Debbie Dingell says she can't understand why the president is "fixated" on her. (New York Magazine)
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Since his heart attack in October, Sen. Bernie Sanders has made up ground and solidified his place in the Democratic presidential race. (National Journal)
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This newsletter is a production of the WSJ Washington bureau. Our newsletter editors are Tim Hanrahan, Kate Milani, Troy McCullough and Daniel Nasaw. Send feedback to capitaljournal@wsj.com. You can follow politics coverage on our Politics page and at @wsjpolitics on Twitter.
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