moment in battle creek, michigan, the president about to take the stage to rally voters in that battleground state and talk about christmas. tucker carlson takes over from washington in just a moment. this is the story. we will see you tomorrow. >> tucker: this is a fox news alert. of course you know exactly what it is about. we are monitoring the house impeachment vote on capitol hill tonight as well as the president's rally in michigan. both happening this hour. the vice president is on stage to introduce the president and just said this: what's happening in d.c. tonight is a disgrace. right now meanwhile on the hill the final speaker is wrong up. a lot to get to tonight. hear from the president and get our analysis. first, back to capitol hill. >> in this time of great trial and tribulation, may god bless america. i yield back. [cheers and applause] >> speaker, i yield back. >> gentleman from california is recognized. [applause] [gavel] house will be in order. >> tucker: good evening, welcome to tucke "tucker carlson tonight." you know what's happening. we are preparing for the final vote on impeachment. with us here on the set is bret baier of "special report." bret, have you been engaged with us all day long. what's happening right now? >> adam schiff speaking. he has been speaking throughout the day. he is the 219th lawmaker to speak from both sides of the aisle as this debate has been ongoing about two articles of impeachment. in just a short time they are going to come to the end and they will call for a vote. at which point we expect all republicans to vote against impeachment. we expect justin amash, the independent by the way the independent who represents the district in which president trump is speaking in michigan tonight, is he expected to vote yes. and we could have two democrats vote against impeachment, at least that's how it's lining up. you will have the article of abuse of power first. and then obstruction of congress. and then afterwards, the house managers who will make the case to the senate will be announced. >> tucker: so it's complicated and without quoting from the articles, can you just roughly characterize them? what do they mean? >> bret: they are a little bit vague as far as the case. the republicans keep say where is the crime listed here. >> tucker: right. >> bret: abuse of power, democrats argue that the president abused his power for personal gain by making that call and trying to get an investigation of joe biden. obstruction of congress is saying that he is preventing witnesses and documents from coming to capitol hill. it's not as strong as they promised when they started this whole deal. >> tucker: right. bribery was going to be the count. >> bret: bribery. all kinds of talks. obstruction of justice. not obstruction of congress. >> tucker: right. >> bret: now, this is the case they are making. the real test here, tucker, is what happens in the senate and how this trial is set up. we now know it's going there. chuck schumer wants to hear more witnesses. and the interesting question is so democrats in the senate don't believe the case has been made. they believe the house democrats have not made the case. they want to hear more witnesses. house democrats say it's open and shut and that the house needs to vote for impeachment. so, it's going to come down to this vote. the bottom line is tonight president trump, the 45th president will be impeached by the house. only the third president in our history to be impeached. >> tucker: as you noted it's a two-part process. i hope you will stay there for a second. we are going to dip back in. this, of course, is adam schiff of burbank, california. >> i know the party of ronald reagan used. to say why should we care about ukraine? of course, it's about more than ukraine. it's about us. it's about our national security. their fight is our fight. their defense is our defense. when russia remakes the map of europe for the first time since world war ii by military force and ukraine fights back, it is our fight, too. and when the president sacrifices our interest, our national security for his election, he is sacrificing our country for his personal gain. that is the gravimen of article one. article two. article 2 charges the president of the united states with obstructing the congress. with denying the congress any witness, any document by telling all of his administration people "you will not appear. you will ignore a coequal branch of government." and what is the defense to this from my colleagues again? is why should we care? he is the president of our party. why should we care if he ignores this congress? well, i remind my friends that he will not be the last president. there will be another president and you may be, one day, although you do not act like it, you may one day be in the majority. and you will want to hold a president accountable. and what will you say when that president says you are a paper tiger. you have no oversight. i can ignore your subpoenas. what will you say? what will you argue. [murmuring] >> well, no, that was different. then, then we were in the minority. then it was a republican president. will that be your argument? is that how little faith you have in our democracy and our constitution? is that how poorly you defend and uphold that constitution? but, finally, let me ask you this question that oversides it all why should we care about any of this? and i will bring you to one conversation that came to light because it's not the most important conversation but in many ways it is the most revealing. it took place on september 14th in ukraine when ambassador volker sat down with andriy yermak, the top advisor to zelensky. he did what he should do. he supported the rule of law and he said you, president, you andriy yermak should not investigate the last president. president poor zheng co, for political reasons. you should not engage in political investigations and you know what yermak said oh like you want us to do with the bidens and the clintons? and in that abrupt brutal retort, we see why we should care because what he was saying is you, america, have forgotten what it means to uphold the rule of law. you have forgotten what it means to say. >> tucker: that's enough of that for right now. can you get more online if you are interested. we are back with bret baier. i'm interested, bret, in what happens next. so we were told initially that this process had to be quick because the president was a threat to national security. that line has changed. where are we now? >> bret: house democrats have not really decided. there was some talk that leader hoyer wanted to talk about holding back the articles of impeachment, not sending them over to the senate immediately. that would undercut the argument that it is really urgent, that the president is a threat to national security as speaker pelosi said. >> tucker: yeah. >> tucker: so now we don't know. we assume it's going to go right to the senate. and there will be this effort by republicans to move quickly. the question is whether the president wants to have a full trial with witnesses on his side. i don't know if he is going to want to listen to adam schiff and the house managers make the case again in the senate. will he urge witnesses? republicans in the senate are saying no, let us do this without any witnesses. you already have the votes. let's make this happen. this split screen is quite something. if you look at michigan, you look at the house floor. i mean, who knew that we would be facing this split screen at this moment. >> tucker: so you are, in my view, one of the few news guys left in this country. so i don't want to ask you to get into analysis, but you may have data for us on this. to what extent is this impeachment process penetrating in the rest of the country? are people paying attention? >> bret: so the polls are really split. in swing states like michigan it's upside down against impeachment. states across the board have seen a shift. the gallo gallup poll for the president's approval gone up six points in the last two weeks. >> tucker: do we think that's related to impeachment. >> it could be related to getting things done. legislative agenda is moving, actually, through congress. and it may be a frustration with impeachment all i know is that the -- if you go to these states and you ask people what is your biggest issue, none of them are saying impeachment. >> tucker: the states that matter. interesting. that's got to be part of the bottom line. bret baier, thank you for that. >> bret: all right, tucker. >> tucker: dana perino is standing by. another person we go to first to make sense of a busy and confusing day. dana, thanks a lot for joining us tonight. >> dana: happy to be here. this is moving to the senate. presumably as bret just said right after today. this is the last stop in the house. what do we expect is going to happen next? what do democrats think is going to happen next? >> dana: just a point, something that bret baier said there was this flurry of activity sort of mid afternoon suggesting that there were some in the democratic party being pushed by some progressives on the left suggesting that the articles of impeachment not be even sent over to the senate. so what that would mean is they would vote, as they have just started to vote. they would vote on articles of impeachment. impeach the president but not send it over to the senate. so then the president wouldn't even have an opportunity to defend himself, and he would not ever get the acquittal that we all know would happen in the senate. okay. so, what i have just heard though is that speaker nancy pelosi is not for that option. that she wants to move this over to the senate as a regular order and i think that for a lot of democrats, especially these freshman democrats that are almost, if you listen to them today, tucker, resigned to their fate in 2020, if you listen to them, they are like i know this is going to be tough and i'm going probably going to lose. >> tucker: what we're watching, i want to explain to our viewers. i'm sure they have figured it out already. first article of impeachment which is abuse of power. what exactly does that mean? >> dana: right. >> tucker: what is this article? >> dana: i will tell you what it does not mean. remember at the very beginning of all of, this the democrats accused the president of asking for an inappropriate quid pro quo with ukraine. >> tucker: right. >> dana: quid pro quo was not cutting it from the communication standpoint. so they changed it and said bribery. and then everybody was saying bribery for a while. >> tucker: um-huh. >> dana: when you finally got to the articles of impeachment when they introduced them, toe dropped the bribery piece. bribery is something that people understand. right, you see it on law and order. you watch all of these shows. bribery you might have happen to you. you understand that. >> tucker: of course. >> dana: abuse of power, i have to say if you look at some of the polls and you ask people do you think that president trump or any president abuses their power? most americans citizens would say yes because that's kind of people we are. we like to be self-governed. we have a self-government but we don't want them to abuse their power. i think that's partly the reason they did it tucker, communications standpoint only thing going to be able to get them a semblance of being able to say we have a cohesive unit. last week you saw a lot of leadership in the democratic side saying gosh, you know, we could lose a lot of people. we could have a lot of democrats vote against impeachment next week. and i think that that was just scene setting. because. >> tucker: i think you are right. >> dana: tonight they can say look, we only lost two. >> tucker: i hope you don't mind staying there dana for a minute. go to chad pergram on the hill to explain any remaining questions that we have of the pictures we have up taking up over half of the screen. thanks very much for coming on. >> surely. this is the actual vote. the first article of impeachment dealing with abuse of power. what happens when they start a vote series, tucker, the vote is open for about 15 minutes on the clock. but, in reality, it runs about 2025. you try to get 431 members. that's the manipulate membership of the house right now. get 431 people in the same room at the same time. we expect this to pass. the magic number to look for right now is 216. that's because the house right now only has 413 members. if we go back to the votes. there were two vote in the house earlier today and there were only 225, -- excuse me 425, 426 members voting. so the vote to actually impeach the president might be lower. that threshold might be 213, 214. depending on how many people show up. so we're looking right now, you know, you see the clock ticking down. they are up to 151 yeas on this. one independent is on the board. that's justin amash. the independent from michigan here. and i'm looking here on the board one democratic nay. we are not sure if that's collin peterson democrat of minnesota. president trump carried his district by 31 points in 2016. he is the chairman of the agriculture committee or jeff van drew. that's the democrat from new jersey who says he is going to switch parties but he has not switched parties yet. so at some point here probably in about the next 20 minutes we will have the official vote tally on the first article of impeachment and then they will go onto the second article of impeachment, which is obstruction of congress. >> tucker: mr. pergram, thank you very much for that summary. you clarified it quite a bit. jenna ellis is the advisor to the trump re-elect and she joins us here on set. will this matter, jenna, i mean we are sort of getting breathless about it and i regret my personal role in hyping this story. but i'm wondering like the long view a year from now. is this a significant event? >> it's very significant unfortunately this is setting such a bad precedent constitutionally. i want to be clear for all of the democrats who have been on the house floor today saying and claiming that the house has, quote, unquote, sole power of impeachment, so legitimizing what they are doing right now, that's not what the constitution actually says that they can impeach over absolutely anything. no power given to any government branch is unlimited. and can be exercised and absolutely any way possible. and so, for example, legislative power is given solely to congress, right? but that doesn't mean that the house can legislate on absolutely anything. routinely. >> tucker: that's exactly right. >> the supreme court overturns legislative measures as unconstitutional. this impeachment is fully unconstitutional because these two articles abuse of power and obstruction of congress are nowhere defined as treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. they also have no legal or constitutional merit on face by any standard of law and any standard of proof that we recognize in american jurisprudence. >> tucker: will you stay right there just for a moment, jenna. we want to go to congressman devin nunes of california who i think has to vote. we want to get him in here quickly. you have been watching this all day, congressman. give us the latest from capitol hill if you would. >> well, thank you and thanks for having me on. i described it on the floor tonight as this is how you make a coup attempt extremely boring. because there are no crimes here. there is nothing. i heard don young tonight, the longest serving member in congress right now. he said that he has participated in three impeachments. he said this is the first fake impeachment he has been involved in. and i think that really sums it up. >> tucker: really the first party line impeachment in american history. i think. i mean, has there ever been an attempt like this that is purely partisan? >> it's not only that, it's -- there hasn't been, right? so that's obvious. but, also, the way this was all orchestrated, right? so on the day after the mueller flame-out, you then have this whistleblower that comes forward, meets with adam schiff's staff, according to adam schiff, we still haven't gotten to the bottom of that. clearly the whistleblower's complaint didn't match what the actual phone call. we were told that we were going to meet this whistleblower. we had to hear from the whistleblower and then all of a sudden the whistleblower is gone. and anybody who attempts to get to the whistleblower is, you know, trying to do something nefarious. then they turn this into something crazy trying to accuse republicans of denying that russians actually do interfere in our elections. and that we were somehow making up a conspiracy theory that the democrats themselves were over in ukraine and working with ukrainians to get dirt on the trump campaign when those are just the facts. so the idea that they would turn this into an impeachment coup is rather bizarre. >> tucker: i would say that's an understatement. a great summary by you. congressman, thanks so much for coming on tonight. >> thank you. >> tucker: we have got standing by our senior political analyst, a man who has seen quite a few impeachments. the three in living memory, brit hume joins us tonight. no one living has seen an impeachment along party lines. what's the effect on a country in that? >> the striking thing to me, tucker, how little interest people are showing in this. the poll reiss reflect that i'mn the woods in pennsylvania this week and for christmas and i had lunch today with some guys who live up here. they are smart successful guys. they are interested in politics. there was almost no discussion of this. this, on the very day that the vote was going to be held. i think because it hasn't moved people -- captured people's imagination. you know, you heard all this rhetoric today on the floor. i'm sure you heard and the founding fathers got a complete workout, sacred sacred honor and discussed. some of this quite eloquent. the problem is that the matter under consideration didn't match the rhetoric. i mean, we are talking about the temporary withholding of aid that was ultimately provided in exchange for an investigation that wasn't conducted. and while it was, i think, improper for the president to raise joe biden's name in that now famous conversation, it really didn't go anywhere. and people look at it and they just kind of, you know, not interested. and, of course, impeachment, i think most people think of it as that most drastic available measure to be taken into the event of emergency. we are hearing, tucker, throughout the day how our national security was compromised. really? how exactly? >> tucker: we may have delayed aid to ukraine and that's obviously the linchpin of our national security. so what do you think. >> brit: think about this though tucker. on the -- just on the question of ukraine. the witnesses that form, you know, that formed the basis for this resolution from the administration who were, you know, critical of this action toward ukraine agreed overall that in the end this administration's policy toward ukraine was stronger than the previous administration's, which leaves you to wonder how exactly was our national security compromised? there you go. >> tucker: completely -- it's breathtakingly reckless when you put it that way. brit hume, thanks so much for that great to see you. >> brit: okay, tucker. >> tucker: congressman lee zeldin of new york, long island, suffolk county, mostly. has been at the center of this debate the last couple weeks. senator, thank you so much for coming on. so, given that this isn't going to result in the removal of the president, and it seems pretty clear based on several weeks of polling data that it's hurting the democrats, why do you think they are doing this? do you have a theory on that? >> yes. pay back to their activist base. there are people who are getting them these gravels in their hand that gavel adam schiff holds that jerry nadler holds that nancy pelosi holds, they have because of this rabid activist base calling for the president's impeachment since he got elected and sworn into office. pay back to them. conference politics go, nancy pelosi, her most important vote, any speaker, the most important vote is the vote to become speaker of the house. >> tucker: right. >> she got rolled by the far left of her conference and basically what was the far left of the house democratic conference that took over the democratic conference to the point that you have all of these districts democrats won in 2016 all walking the plank together. >> tucker: that's right. >> there is going to be hell to pay next november. >> tucker: is kind of jones town dynamic know it's going to end badly but doing it anyway. i'm interested in this without getting boring about it like the squad and the dumb people like ocasio-cortez or whatever, not many of them relative to the rest of the caucus. why do they have so much power? >> in this particular case, do you have some of these freshman you mentioned, these members of the squad. you also have people like al green and maxine waters and these other members who have been calling for the president's impeachment for a long time. there were several dozen members who went on the record instantly being in favor of impeachment. we are talking about two and a half years before any of what is being alleged in this fact pattern. it's not just them. they go back to these very blue districts across america where maybe this is popular in their districts. but they are totally alienating the middle of america that would rather see -- for example, those trump voters in those districts where those democrats are there now, they send these members to come to washington to work with the president, to work with republicans on substantive issues to help people and instead, we have seen this total gridlock fortunately this week. we are seeing usmca end up getting passed. it's almost like pelosi realized they can't send these freshman home without something good even though it's a win for the president. most importantly it's a win for the american worker. and she eventually did now what she should have done at the beginning of the year. >> tucker: meanwhile, the president scores a win in prescription drug prices this week. it's almost as if being an extremist makes you stupid just a theory. congressman, great to see you tonight. >> you as well. thank you. >> tucker: the president doesn't seem rattled by. this he seems cheerful at times. is he holding a rally tonight as we said at the open in battle creek, michigan in the very district of justin amash, who is a libertarian, was a republican now he is an independent. the president, i think, has spoken for about 14 minutes. but devoted a total of only 45 seconds of that time to the question of impeachment, which you can't emphasize this enough, is underway. look at the screen. that's what's happening. the president as we said 45 seconds on that. we rolled the tape on it and here's what he said. >> remember when i first started this beautiful trip, this beautiful journey i just said to the first lady you are so lucky i took you on this fantastic journey. [laughter] it's so much fun. they want to impeach you, they want to do worse than that. [crowd boos] >> by the way, by the way, it doesn't really feel like we're being impeached. [laughter] the country is doing better than ever before. we did nothing wrong. [applause] [cheers] >> we did nothing wrong. and we have tremendous support in the republican party like we have never had before. nobody has ever had this kind of support. >> tucker: 30 seconds on the clock. meaning about 28 seconds from now the president will officially have been impeached. at least on the first count. and as you just heard him say, however, it doesn't really feel like it's happening. dana perino is standing by. we're going back to her tonight. dana, so you, you know, you ran a white house communications operation. this is obviously an intense moment for the people managing this white house's communications, meaning i guess just probably just president trump. he goes on the road and gives this -- they have the votes. there it is right there. what do you think of what the president just said and of his demeanor tonight in the middle of this? >> dana: it is very interesting. so i would say the last three or four weeks have actually been perhaps the best of the trump presidency from a messaging standpoint in terms of being very disciplined. they are firing on all cylinders across all the different entities that can help them. the campaign, the rnc, the white house, the cabinet agencies, the members of congress. they are not losing one republican in all of this impeachment. the polls in the battleground states have improved for the president. tomorrow, on this very house floor, nancy pelosi, the speaker of the house, will bring up the new nafta, the usmca, the trade bill, because she also wants to show her constituents that she can do both. and it is a strange juxtaposition. i don't know if the president in a rally like this where he can, you know, tends to go off script and do lots of things. he might come back to impeachment. if i were advising the white house. one of the things that i would say is i would take these four weeks and run. and get this behind you. there is a lot that he wants to try to get done. i think the republicans are making a little bit of a mistake when they think that the election is going to be a walk in the park now. because of impeachment. there is a lot of sort of premature victory laps happening, but the president is in much better shape after impeachment than before just as bill clinton was in 1999. >> tucker: no. i think that's right. you are also right whether you have google and the government of china against you. it's going to be a slog no matter what. since we are both in the media, and you made such a great point that they didn't really lose -- justin amash changed parties but they didn't lose any republicans, certainly no number of them. that's not what the press predicted going into this. you kept hearing people saying republican also abandon him once they hear the evidence. that was firmly predicted again and again and again. why do people in the analysis business keep getting it so wrong? it seems like that's a trend that's accelerating. >> it is -- i think partly it could be wishful thinking. >> tucker: yeah. >> dana: also, perhaps, because talking amongst themselves. brit hume as he was saying there at the diner today in pennsylvania with people who are interested in politics, as he said they are very successful so presumably they have run businesses and maybe now they are retired. they care about the future of this country very much. but this is not on their minds because we also know it's a forgone conclusion. we know what's going to happen in the senate. i think when will hurd the congressman from texas who is retiring next year. former cia agent. served his country. when he came out and said that he was not convinced on impeachment, he would be voting no, i think the wind really went out of the democrats' sales odemocrats sai. this is the first partisan impeachment. also the first happening in election year. you will didn't have this kind of thing where bill clinton was out on the road doing rallies during his impeachment because his two terms were about to be over. this is going to fuel the 2020 debate unlike anything we have seen before, which is saying something, given how divisive our politics have been. >> tucker: it's such a good point. dana perino, thank you so much for that tonight. appreciate it. >> tucker: let me go back to our senior political analyst brit hume and as we do we want to play a piece of tape for you that we have pulled off the television set yesterday. so, as you know, if you were paying attention in the last 24 hours, the president wrote a letter to the speaker of the house, complaining in pretty astringent terms about being impeached which she says is a miscarriage of justice. it was an interesting, long letter. here's how it was covered on the other cable channels. it tells you a lot. watch this. >> what is this ranting letter say about president trump's fitness for office on the eve of his impeachment? >> the audiences at home read the letter as if saddam hussein or hadithay would actually have written that letter. have their voice in their head read this like authoritarian. it's as if an authoritarian wrote it. >> right now it's going to go down as a letter from a two bit dictator of a banana republic it has that toll it. >> some would call it fiery. others would call it unhinged. >> that letter donald trump sent today was back adoodle, it was gibberish. it was ugly. >> pelosi responded calling the letter sick. what is it about strong, powerful women that really puts trump over the edge? [laughter] >> tucker: meanwhile, we never learned what was in the letter. brit, we just know it's back adoodle, it's sick, it's ramblings of a two-bit dictator. aren't you supposed -- you have been in the news business for long enough to know the answer. shouldn't the preface to those comments be the letter itself? shouldn't you tell us what's in it? >> brit: exactly right, tucker. this is typical, however. i heard a lot of the commentary about the letter before i actually read the letter. i read it then. it was pretty strong medicine but there was nothing deranged or unhinged about it. in fact, there were a must numbr of quite valid points in that letter. make no mistake about this tucker. he is not mentioning it in his speech tonight as you pointed out at that rally. trump does not like this one bit. >> tucker: no. >> brit: he thinks i'm sure a stain on his reputation and mark against his presidency and so on. i have a hunch, dana was saying earlier and she may be right. this is going to carry over and give fuel to the election camp. i have a hunch of all the impeachments that we have had, this one will have the least, -- the smallest half -- the shortest half life. and some on some level nancy pelosi may have sensed this all along. and she wanted -- that's why she was in such a hurry. she wanted to get it over with so that the voters who might have been offended by it will have a chance to forget it and she and her party will have kept face with the base so rabid against trump and they can move on from there. by the way, the votes are there now. i mean, it's not final. the vote is not final. but there is sufficient votes there to do it. so his impeachment is now a as a matter of fact. >> tucker: right. that's not something, as you just noted. that he is happy about. or will brag about. but you have got to wonder if democrats will brag about it either. brit hume, great to see you. >> brit: you bet, tucker, thank you. >> tucker: as you had heard moments ago the president was impeached on article 1. article 2 in a moment. on the other channel jeff zucker and his friends hyper ventilating. hindenburg of political stories. most significant event in american governance since the continental congress. the president apparently does not agree. you saw him. he is in battle creek, michigan tonight. he didn't seem worried. he is holding a rally. we will bring you more of what he said in a minute when we get it. in washington things have taken hallucinogenic feel. like the department of staff reality taken all exclusive cruise to barbados ant didn't come back. everywhere you loo look adults behaving like children. drunk children. transparent lies pass as truth. hunter biden is now regarded as a world class experts on natural gas. and by the way on corporate governance. on television people with advanced degrees have assured you for a week that giving weapons to ukraine somehow guarantees national security. and, of course, on cnn they are telling you that the democrats are despondent over all of this. they just hate impeaching the man he had hate the most. they are all wearing black today, why? because they really mean it. no, it wasn't choreographed. these are people who haven't set foot in a curve without a camera in 20 years. yet, they are sincere in their sadness. in fact, cnn will tell you they are deeply prayerful about the whole impeachment process. they are incredibly solemn. >> back to the notion of where we are and how the democrats are feeling today. you can feel it in the air here. it feels different. it is palpable that this is momentous. that this is brave and, again, it is, despite the democrats' talking points, not something that this speaker wanted to do. >> tucker: did you just hear that? imagine doing that. imagine reading a political party's talking points verbatim every day of the year and pretending that it's news. that's what it is like to be an anchor on cnn or for that matter an nbc employee. all week democrats have been telling you and if you have watched you have heard this that they are on the side of the constitution and the framers who wrote the constitution. these are the same people, of course, who are trying to repeal the first and second amendments but seriously they tell you, they love the founders. it's a tough argument to make. but, guess who buys it completely and is happy to repeat it again and again like a trained seal? if you guessed chuck todd of nbc, pour yourself another glass of rose say. >> i think this is the real challenge with sort of dealing with this president is i don't think he really even appreciates the constitution. all right. i don't know if he has this reverence for it that most elected officials in washington eventually do end up having a reverence for it. he doesn't seem to sort of understand the founding. i think one of the fairest criticisms of him by historians is that he doesn't seem to understand the story of america. >> tucker: yeah. you hear that? trump just doesn't understand the story of america. but do you know who does understand the story of america? really well? alcee hastings of florida. a member of congress. he was once a well-known judge. then he got impeached and removed from office for corruption. literally put on trial and convicted. now, democrats have installed the same man alcee hastings on the house rules committee where he is an important moral voice in favor of, brace yourself now, impeaching the president. who is orange and bad and must be removed because eye iror dies in washington. never tires of reminding you nobody is above the law. >> today we have a president who seems to believe he is a king or above the law. >> no one is above the law. >> no one is above the law. >> the president is not above the law. >> see, because no one is above the law. >> no one is above the law. >> i remind the world that in america no one is above the law. >> tucker: and oh with that nancy pelosi gavels in and we are seeing this in realtime live right now 8:35 p.m. the first count of impeachment is official. the democrats are happy about that. we're going to give you the vote tally. right now we are going to dip in. here it is. there you go. the first article of impeachment is in. it's official. chad pergram is standing by on capitol hill to tell us what happens next. what do we look for now, chad? >> she just announced the outcome on the first article of impeachment. again, that was abuse of power. the tally there was 230 to 197 with one member voting present. that's tulsi gabbard, the democratic congresswoman from hawaii. there were two democratic nos. just van drew, democrat of new jersey for the moment. he is going to switch for the republican party probably later this week and also collin peterson, a democrat from western minnesota. president trump carried his district by 31 points. i should point out here that there were a total of 229 democrats yeas justin aamash independent congressman from michigan voted yes. historical context tucker 1998 on the first article of impeachment with president clinton the vote was 228 to 206. so, you know, kind of a similar vote tally here from what we had in 1998 with president clinton. now, it's onto the next order of business here. nancy pelosi, the speaker of the house presiding. they are onto the second article of impeachment. this will be a shorter vote. that first vote was open for so long because it takes a long time to get 431 members, the current population of the house, into the same room here. this vote right now is scheduled for about five minutes. this is the article dealing with obstruction of congress. and we are expecting this to be a fate that come plea. what what i don't see in this vote series is a resolution on a later resolution tonight actually send the articles of impeachment to the senate and what they would also do announce hot impeachment managers are. these are going to be the prosecutors present the case to the senate. what they actually do tucker, they walk those articles of impeachment over to the senate. they put them in cherry boxes, wooden boxes and walk them right to sta statuary hall from the house side to the senate. that's not going to happen right now. the thought is that the house could have ball control here and hold on for this a little bit and say wait a minute, senate we will not send you articles until you set up how a senate trial is going to be conducted and we as democrats, since we are in the majority of the house that we view it's going to be fair. so president trump, to reiterate, has been impeached past tense on one article of impeachment. that was abuse of power. the second vote is underway. we should have a result here. there is two minutes and change on the clock. so probably about three or four minutes in reality. timing on capitol hill with congress is never swift. and then they will be done for the night and we will have some press conferences from both sides later tonight, tucker. back to you. >> tucker: i can't wait for those. i will be asleep greatfully. chad pergram, great to see you. looking at the clock now. 1:51 remaining and this is voting on article 2. so we are treating this like it's a momentous occasion. maybe we are playing into the propaganda narrative a little bit. i'm not quite sure. maybe i don't have perspective. dana perino does though she is still standing by. you there, dana? >> i'm here. i think that one thing is, i realize that people maybe aren't changing their minds. we have shown even in our research and our ratings that people are watching. they are learning. and i think president trump for his perspective like he has the republican party behind him. his poll numbers look better. the democrats are coming to the table on to help him pass the spending bill, which are a lot. we should talk about that some day. but also the trade bill. he has some legislative accomplishments he will be able to go into the year with. on this second. >> tucker: that's exactly the frustration, actually. we are going to address it later in the show. there is so much going on in the world and in this country and even on capitol hill, the spending bill $1.4 trillion spending bill that has left wing stuff in there by the way that nobody is debating or talking about. some of it is actual lunancy because we are so absorbed with this impeachment nonsense which really means nothing. so like are we being had? it kind of feels that way to me. >> dana: i think that voters are, right? so, but as you said, like all of these members now can go back and say look what i did? nobody really -- if you are going back to your district, there are very few people in your district that complain you got extra money in the budget. >> tucker: that's true. >> dana: nobody is really complaining about that. the fiscal hawks are hiding. i had one congressman text me and say wow, this is a lot of spending and one of these days we are really going to have to get a handle on that. really? yeah. four years ago when you were running you had a very different perspective. what changed? look, the politics have changed. the economics have not. yet, the president has changed the republican party in one very important way. and that is for working class americans, blue collar workers who now, if you believe that axios focus group the other day, said we voted for obama, then we voted for trump, and we are sticking with trump because we believe in what he has done for us. the president is leaving no vote unturned. why is he in michigan tonight? a critical state for him. battle creek, this is where justin amash, the congressman that was a republican now independent. the one that voted yea for impeachment, the president is going to go right into their face and so what i was saying earlier that i think that impeachment will fuel a lot of debate in 2020, i think that brit hume is absolutely right. i think the democrats might want to drop it. i don't think so president trump will. and i don't think that his voters are going to forget it, either. and don't forget, the democrats could do this again. they could go back to the well on impeachment over and over again if they thought it was worth their while before 2020. >> tucker: trump ascends six points in the poll in the week in the middle of impeachment, that's not a precedent, i think that is going to encourage democrats to try this again though, right? >> dana: no. how much do you want to bet there is going to be a part of the party, as congressman zeldin was saying that pelosi got rolled by the progressive left? do you think those people won't say he should be impeached for all the other things? they have been saying he should be impeached over and over again for lots of different things for the last three years. >> tucker: this is what happens when you turn over management of your party to twitter. and i don't think it's a good way to run anything. >> dana: no. no one should turn anything over to twitter. >> tucker: i totally agree. dana perino. >> dana: twitter is best for dog pictures. >> tucker: at best. good to see you tonight. why is all of this happenings? the democrats have told you for the last month there's one real reason at the bottom, nobody is above the law. now, there are caveats to that of course, no one is above the law except for anyone who might potentially vote democrat in which case laws are racist and must be ignored. you know that. that's pretty amusing. here is something even funnier. those articles of impeachment that we just saw passed in order to uphold the law that nobody is above, well neither article that apparently have just been passed actually accuses the president of breaking a specific law. huh? so why are we here? why are we talking about this? why have we devoted 43 minutes so far tonight to this topic? why is the president being impeached ask hakeem jeffries. impeachment has a lot to do with, you never would have guessed this by the way, has a lot to do with slavery. i bet you didn't see that coming. watch hakeem jeffries explain. >> there are some who cynically argue that the impeachment of this president will further divide an already fractured union. but there is a difference between division and clarification. slavery once divided the nation but emancipators rose up to clarify that all men are created equally. suffrage once divided the nation but women rose up to clarify that all voices must be heard in our democracy. there is a difference between division and clarification. >> tucker: huh? did you hear that? did you understand it? no. because it was insirvel because it was dumincipherable.o you. beginning with russia and stormy daniels and impeachment. if you are a cynical person you might suspect all of this was designed from the beginning to distract you from what's actually going on. and what is actually going on? well, a lot is going on. around the world and in this country. for example, one among many, before it leaves town for christmas, the congress will pass a 2,000 page spending bill that dana just referred. to say it amounts to $1.4 trillion. what's in that bill? wouldn't you like to know? you were too busy watching impeachment to find out. we took a little time and checked. here's a selection. for example, thousands of liberians from liberia living in this country will get a special pathway to citizenship. why? how did that happen? don't ask. it was never debated. you had no idea it was evening happening. this is your country. you didn't know and of course that was the point. what about the war in afghanistan going on now for 18 years? a few weeks ago the post say our leaders have been systematically lying to us how the war is failing and has been for more than a decade that should have been the scandal of the year. instead those documents are forgotten, almost immediately. why? thanks to impeachment. in fact, in this new spending bill congress just voted to keep the money flowing unimpeded to that failed war. $4 billion will go to the afghan security forces, really? it's like a joke. we know for dead certain that money will be wasted the second it gets there the troops we hire will dessert. their weapons will wind up with the taliban. if anything the money that we send is more likely be spent killing american forces than turning afghanistan into belgium or whatever the mission is we have no idea. but we know it's not going to achieve that but congress is doing it anyway. meanwhile, congress is, in addition to all of that, still busily working to undermine your constitutional rights. the spending bill currently includes $25 million to spend on, quote: gun violence research. don't lie to yourself. that's not social science. it's money that will go to ideologically motivated research with only one purpose. giving a pretext to brewer democrats to reduce your second amendment rights. you think that might bother democrats because, as you know, they spent all week extolling the constitution, how much they care about it, how they are representing the framers. but of course they don't care about the bill of rights. t. if it's an obstacle to their power, they are against it. that category includes both stubborn constitutional amendments like the first and second and sitting president. congressman al green by the way basically said so today ahead of congress. just a few minutes ago impeaching the president on both articles one and two. when green called for the president's impeachment, he at any time mention high crimedidn't mention high crimes and misdemeanors. he accused the president of disagreeing with his views on immigration. watch this. >> in the name of democracy, on behalf of the republic, and for the sake of the many who are suffering, i will vote to impeach and i encourage my colleagues to do so as well. >> tucker: what did that have to do with articles 1 and 2? what does that have to do with impeachment? if you are confused, you don't know how it works. so, here's a primmer, here's all you need to know. when you oppose the democratic party's immigration plans, what you are really doing is challenging their plan to accumulate more political power. and that in the end, is the only impeachable offense in washington. we head back to capitol hill right now where congressman greg steube of florida joins us live. he has been there all day in the midst of. congressman, thanks for coming on. it looks like it's official. both counts. what do you make of this. >> well, first of all, i make a point that not a single republican broke ranks. there was all this talk in the beginning by speaker pelosi and chairman schiff and chairman nadler that this had to be bipartisan. this had to be compelling and overwhelming to the american people. and not a single step of this impeachment has been bipartisan and certainly not compelling or overwhelming. you hit on it. have you got two articles of impeachment that aren't even mentioned in the constitution as a basis for impeaching this president. and it's a sad day for democracy in america. >> tucker: it's also kind of weird since, i mean, there are an awful lot of republicans on capitol hill who don't like the president and certainly unfortunately a lot of them who work ceaselessly to undermine his agenda. so why couldn't democrats peel away like ten of them? >> and have you got three republicans that sit in districts that hillary clinton won. even they stood by the facts and evidence that there wasn't an impeachable offense that occurred from the president of the united states. >> tucker: huh! what's the effect and this just happened so it's a lot to ask the question this broad. what's the effect on the country of this? >> well, i think it's going to be a sad day for the country after today because now every congress, whoever is in power is going to think that they can impeach the president for whatever they want. you made a good statement from the statements representative green was making on the floor. it's not about constitutional for the president. they don't agree with his immigration policy and how great the economy is going. they want to impeach him because they don't agree with him. it's a sad day that we are where we are today in america. >> tucker: yeah. that's for sure. amen. not a good precedent. so much of what has happened last three years bad precedent, i would say, for democracy. congressman, thanks so much. >> thanks for having me. >> tucker: tom fitton has been watching. what's the take away for you, tom? >> it's a terrible day for the president and the constitution. the constitution is being attacked. taking a step back, we have information that the united states government, more or less, was lying to us for three years about russia collusion. >> tucker: and by the way about afghanistan and the ufos and fill in the blanks, the food pyramid. do you know what i mean? all the things we are not talking about. >> the lies were designed to put this man in jail. >> tucker: yes. >> he has been completely exonerated and vindicated. he started asking questions about what went n ukraine as was related to that now the same gang that lied about him and tried to put him in jail illegally is now impeaching him for asking questions about it. and impeaching him for defending himself in responds to their obsessive activities with regard to trying to get his people to testify. >> tucker: assess this. i hate to regress. it's a sincere question. why does trump threaten these people so much? this is irrational. it's hurting them, they are doing it anyway. they are clearly in some kind of psychological unhealthy stated. but it stems from the fact that he threatens them. they look at him and it's fight or flight. wife d why is that? >> they see him on reformative figure on foreign policy, on the role of government in our lives, on the -- also supposed to be falling down around here in washington, d.c. oh, foreign aid, let's all fall down and not ask any questions about how it's spent. having someone. >> tucker: got to arm ukraine. we have to arm ukraine. if there is one thing jefferson and madison agreed on arm ukraine. >> we had a fisa court yesterday say they can't believe the fbi on anything. and this man is being impeached for asking questions about that party's, the democratic party's potential political nominee. presidential nominee. this is what it is about. it's about protecting joe biden. it's about protecting themselves from the consequences of their criminal behavior. they are nervous that the doj has begun asking questions. and in many ways this is a massive obstructions of justice. and, i tell you, the president needs to be sure that his defense is a lot stronger than he has allowed it to be this far. this impeachment didn't have to happen. he should have been defended more strongly, legally and the senate trial, i don't know how it's going to turn out. but those who support the rule of law need to push back hard on this. >> tucker: yeah. the irony, of course, they have been posturing all day about the rule of law even as they work tirelessly to subvert it. tom fitton. great to see you tonight. the president has been speaking in battle creek, michigan. he continues to speak. he hasn't addressed impeachment. he addressed it 45 seconds earlier tonight. he addressed it again also for about 45 seconds just a moment ago. we rolled on that as well. we want to bring it to you now. >> it today's illegal unconstitutional and partisan impeachment,. [boos] the do nothing democrat. they are do nothing. what they are doing is declaring their deep hatred and disdain for the american voter. this lawless partisan impeachment is a political suicide march for the democratic party. have you seen my polls in the last four weeks? [cheers] it's crazy. do you know why? because people -- you know we have an election right down the road. >> tucker: president of the united states battle creek, michigan. louie gohmert represents the great state of texas in the united states congress. though tonight he was in effect accused of representing st. petersburg and moscow. he joins us tonight to clarify. congressman, thanks so much for coming on. you were denounced as a tool of russia tonight. tell us how that played out. >> well, it is such an outrage because the thing i was pointing out is that if you want to really look at the facts, look at in 2008, russia invaded georgia. and bush racketed adversely and he put sanctions in place. and then in march of 2009, obama sent clinton happily for clinton over with a red plastic re-set button. the message to putin was clear. bush overreacted when you invaded georgia with all those sanctions. we don't overreact when you invade. and so, you know, to putin, it was a green light, go ahead and invade crimea, but, of course, putin was smart enough, he waited until obama won a second term because he had more flexibility to allow russia to do things. but, they have been the pawns of the russians. they -- you think the current president trump would ever allow our uranium to be sold to russia? >> tucker: exactly the irony. congressman, if you don't mind, i'm going to cut you off right there. i will be back to you in a minute. the president is back on to impeachment and we want to get that life. here he is. >> all right. good. >> i will call you, can you imagine the president of the united states, don't call me. i'll call you. do you know what that is? that's a mafia statement. okay? that's the head of the mafia. saying don't call me. i'll call -- this guy actually said that. and then he walked away and people became incensed because they knew that wasn't the people that read the thing. most people believed him. is he a corrupt politician. 100 percent. >> is he a liar. >> and then i see him. by the way, you ever see this guy? he walked up to the mics, i mean, we are -- look, i don't want to be because with me, too i never even think about looks anymore, okay? i don't talk about looks of a male or a female. but in his case, let's just say last time i will ever refer to this he is not exactly the best-looking guy we have ever seen. [laughter] any mic, he walks up to the mic and he so -- just -- this is a sad, sad day for america. our president is an employee of russia. [laughter] i have salute proof that the president -- this is at the beginning. and every week they say where is the proof? it's coming. it's coming. then we get the mueller report. nothing. and i will tell you what, i know some of the people in this audience. if i spent, not 45 million, not 18 trump haters, okay, i call them the angry democrats. it was 13 and then went to 18 and then mueller. did mueller do a good job? >> no. >> how was his performance in front of congress? [boos] >> not the best. but, think of this. 45 million they spent and i heard somebody say well we got back some of that money. let me tell you, you cost this country billions and billions and billions of dollars in all of the things that didn't get done and all of the embarrassment to our country. you caused billions and billions of dollars. and it was a hoax. but this guy schiff: i have absolute proof. i have this -- i have that. any time he sees a camera and he is stone faced, right? stone faced. he is a pathological liar. he gets up and i have never seen anything like it. even i was saying i wonder what he has? what does he have? [laughter] he says i have -- i said i haven't spoken to russia in years. what the hell do i have to do with russia? but this guy gets up, i think we have a vote coming in. so we got every single republican voted for us whoa. >> wow. job very never been so affronte but has a momentum. he didn't lose a single republican. the agenda is moving forward. 's got a state of the union