Dear MoveOn member,

The House has just voted to send Donald Trump's impeachment articles to the Senate, meaning the process is now in the hands of Trump's biggest defender: Mitch McConnell.¹

This vote comes just one day after explosive and terrifying new evidence was revealed about Trump's Ukraine scandal. Included in the new evidence is a letter written by Rudy Giuliani in which he requests a meeting with the Ukrainian president to discuss the announcement of investigations into the Bidens and notes that he has the full "knowledge and consent" of Trump to do so.²

This entirely undercuts the Republican argument that Trump was unaware of what his cronies were up to, and it directly implicates Trump in the effort to bribe a foreign ally into rigging the 2020 election.

You can bet that McConnell is even more focused on pushing through a sham trial to try to protect Trump and his allies than he was before. But four Republican senators—Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, and Lamar Alexander—have just come out as open to hearing from witnesses. That brings us the to the magic number of 51—creating a Senate majority who say that they want the opportunity to hear witnesses.

We are pulling out all the stops to pressure these on-the-fence Republican senators to insist on witnesses and a real trial, rather than McConnell's kangaroo court. John, will you chip in $3 right now to help us stop McConnell's dirty tricks and make sure that Trump finally faces real consequences for his corruption and criminality?

Yes, I'll chip in now.

Mitch McConnell has given up on even pretending to care about the Constitution or his duty as an elected official. He has refused to set rules for the trial that, just like any other trial in the United States, would require witnesses to testify.³ He has said that he is coordinating directly with the White House, even though his job is to be an impartial juror.⁴ And we know that he has more plans to obstruct the process up his sleeve.

But we have a chance to put a stop to this madness. MoveOn and our members are going to keep the pressure on on-the-fence Republican senators and ensure that McConnell doesn't succeed in pulling off his sham trial. We are:

Continuing our mobile billboards across multiple states targeting McConnell and the Republican senators most likely to break away from him. These mobile billboards (billboards on the sides of trucks that can be driven to multiple locations for maximum visibility) are targeting senators like Cory Gardner, Susan Collins, and Thom Tillis who have claimed to want a fair trial, calling on them to live up to their word.
Flooding Senate offices with phone calls. These calls are critically important, just as they were in the fight to save the Affordable Care Act in 2017. MoveOn is driving tens of thousands of calls to Senate offices demanding that senators uphold the Constitution and convict Trump.
Organizing high-visibility events on the ground in key states. MoveOn has hired organizers in Arizona, Maine, Colorado, and Kentucky to work in their communities to drive local press—the kind that senators care A LOT about—hold rallies, protests, and vigils, and keep the pressure up from constituents calling on their elected officials to do the right thing.
Working closely with our partners to prepare for additional large-scale events. The night before the House vote, hundreds of thousands of MoveOn members and our allies rallied in every state across the country, and if we need to, we are ready to take to the streets again before the final Senate vote.

Don't believe the naysayers: The Republican dam is cracking, and the fight is not over until the last vote is cast. Will you chip in $3 right now to help MoveOn fire on all cylinders for as long as it takes?

Sandwiched between the handwritten notes detailing the Ukraine plot and letters from Rudy Giuliani, the trove of evidence released yesterday also included a terrifying look at just how far Trump and his allies were willing to go to commit these crimes.

A series of text messages between a top Trump donor and Rudy Giuliani's associate Lev Parnas was released, in which they refer to then-Ukrainian Ambassador Marie Yavonovitch with misogynistic slurs and imply that they have placed her under surveillance in Ukraine after she refused to participate in Trump's corruption. And most horrifyingly, they cryptically reference hiring someone to "help" get rid of Yovanovitch.⁵

It sounds like a plot from a mobster movie come to life. These are the people that Trump relies on. These are the tactics they think are acceptable if it means they get what they want.

We have to put a stop to this. Our country and our future depend on it.

Join us.

Thanks for all you do.

–David, Anne, Elsie, Chris, and the rest of the team

Sources:

1. "House Votes to Send Impeachment Charges to Senate, Approving Managers," The New York Times, January 15, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/115690?t=5&akid=254841%2E40999114%2EQzuUDH

2. "House Democrats Just Dropped a Boatload of Impeachment Documents That Look Really Bad for Trump," Vice News, January 14, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/115691?t=7&akid=254841%2E40999114%2EQzuUDH

3. "McConnell, Coordinating With White House, Lays Plans for Impeachment Trial," The New York Times, December 13, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/114030?t=9&akid=254841%2E40999114%2EQzuUDH

4. Ibid.

5. "House Democrats Just Dropped a Boatload of Impeachment Documents That Look Really Bad for Trump," Vice News, January 14, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/115691?t=11&akid=254841%2E40999114%2EQzuUDH

Want to support our work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump's agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation's pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it we need your support, now more than ever. Will you stand with us?

Click here to chip in $3, or whatever you can afford.

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