Democrats Did Not Push Through with Late-Night Vote on Impeachment; Boris Johnson Pledges to Make Brexit Happen After Decisive Victory; Trump Signs Off on Tentative U.S.-China Trade Deal.
REP. JERRY NADLER (D-NY): The committee will now stand in recess until tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m.</s>DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: History on hold. The House Judiciary vote on impeachment delayed until this morning. A late-night curveball after a day of GOP delays.</s>BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: This one nation conservative government has been given a powerful new mandate.</s>AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: A defining win for Boris Johnson and the Conservative Party in the U.K. Is Brexit now on the fast track?</s>BRIGGS: The president finally signs off on a phase one trade deal with China. What both sides get and the lasting damage the talks may have created. Welcome back to EARLY START, everybody, and happy Friday. I'm Dave Briggs.</s>WALKER: Happy Friday. I'm Amara Walker. Half past 4:00 in the morning here in New York.</s>BRIGGS: Breaking overnight, a late-night surprise from the House Judiciary Committee.</s>NADLER: It has been a long two days of consideration of these articles and it is now very late at night. The committee will now stand in recess until tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. at which point --</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoa.</s>NADLER: -- I will move to divide the question so that each of us may have the opportunity to cast up-or-down votes on each of the articles of impeachment and to let history be our judge. The committee is in recess.</s>REP. DOUG COLLINS (R-GA): Mr. Chairman, you chose not to consult the ranking member on a schedule issue of this magnitude? So typical. This is the -- this is the kangaroo court that we're talking about. This is outrageous --</s>COLLINS: Not even consult --</s>REP. LOUIE GOHMERT (R-TX): It's Stalinesque. Let's have a dictator. It's good to hear about that.</s>COLLINS:  10: 00 a.m. tomorrow --</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unbelievable.</s>BRIGGS: The Stalin comment from Texas Congressman Louis Gohmert you heard there. The vote on articles to impeach and remove President trump put on hold until this morning. Virtually everyone expected a late-night vote last night. So why the delay? Democrats were furious at Republicans for what they considered a blatant effort to drag out debate forcing a final vote in the dead of night.</s>WALKER: Democrats decided not to play ball, putting off the final two votes so more Americans can witness history in the making. Bottom line, the committee is still expected to pass articles of impeachment -- the president today with the full House to follow next week, likely on Wednesday. So how is the White House preparing for this historic moment? Here's Kaitlan Collins with that.</s>KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Dave and Amara, the president was paying close attention as these Republicans and Democrats were going back and forth on the House Judiciary Committee. Now, all this comes as the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, says he is going to be coordinating with the White House counsel, Pat Cipollone, closely, on what that Senate trial is going to look like. We know that's something the president has been turning his attention on because he wants to essentially be vindicated when it comes to the time to have that Senate trial, which McConnell says will be in the early year. But one interesting thing that did happen yesterday is as the president behind the scenes has been privately complaining still about impeachment, his campaign manager Brad Parscale was touting what they see as the political benefits of what's happening in Washington right now. They say they're able to fund raise faster, get more volunteers and essentially ignite this flame behind their supporters because of impeachment because essentially they argue that these supporters see the president, they think he's being attacked, they think his presidency is being attacked. And they think in the long run that's going to help them.</s>BRIGGS: All right. Kaitlan Collins, thanks. Breaking overnight, a decisive, historic outcome in the U.K. election.</s>JOHNSON: It does look as though this one nation conservative government has been given a powerful, new mandate.</s>JOHNSON: To get Brexit done.</s>BRIGGS: Boris Johnson's Conservative Party capturing an absolute majority, winning at least 355 seats. That's the best result for the Conservatives since Margaret Thatcher's landslide win in 1987. Already there are plans for leadership changes in the Labour Party. Max Foster live from London with the latest. Max, good morning.</s>MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: So a huge night today it has to be said for Boris Johnson. He wasn't taken seriously for years in politics. Looked like he was on his way out at one point. And now gets this victory. The type of victory the Conservatives haven't had since Margaret Thatcher's day back in 1987. So extraordinary, he is now able to push his agenda through. His big campaign message we spoke about on the program was get Brexit done. He now has a mandate to do that. This debate, though, of Brexit is over. We are leaving. It's going to be a managed withdrawal with a deal at the end of January. That's what he promised and that's what people voted on. So we're expecting that now to happen. There'll then be a negotiation process with the E.U. to get a trade deal. But already Donald Trump has stepped in this morning saying the U.S. could give the U.K. an even bigger trade deal than the E.U. So this has national repercussions, European repercussions and also international repercussions when you consider this may also affect the United States. One slight splatter in the works might be the very strong showing from the Scottish Nationalists. They now dominate Scottish politics and they campaigned on a referendum on Scottish independence, something Boris Johnson has ruled out and he's got a problem there.</s>BRIGGS: Yes. Still a very rocky road ahead. Max Foster live for us in London this morning. You saw Boris Johnson with his dog. He went to the polling station with it. And 50,000 people tweeted about dogs at polling stations. Then this guy showed up. Reindeer were at the polling station, a consequence of the timing, just before Christmas. Let's just say it was a very interesting and colorful day in the</s>U.K. WALKER: Aren't these supposed to be apolitical, the reindeers?</s>BRIGGS: We don't know who they voted for.</s>WALKER: OK.</s>BRIGGS: OK?</s>WALKER: But still.</s>BRIGGS: Yes.</s>WALKER: After months of negotiations, President Trump has signed off on a phase one trade deal with China. The two sides have been haggling over specifics since a broad outline was announced in October. CNN's David Culver is live in Beijing with the latest. Hi, David.</s>DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Amara. Well, let's look at this agreement. OK? So this includes a delay in tariffs on Chinese gods that were scheduled to kick in on Sunday. These are those consumer goods. $156 billion worth. Now a source says that the deal also includes reducing some of the existing tariffs. That's important because that's why the October deal that was very similar to where we are now essentially fell apart. The Chinese insisted they wanted a bigger rollback on tariffs. It seems like the U.S. will go forward with that. China in return has promised to make those big agricultural purchases of products. That's big for President Trump's base, in particular. And they've also made those same agreements in the past. But the thing is, they have really failed to follow through on those. The question is, if they go forward with this, will they agree to that? As of now they're saying yes. Now all of this does not address the major structural changes to China's economy that Trump has been calling for. So assuming this phase one goes through, it may get held up before we're even talking about a phase two or a phase three. Especially when we point to what we're hearing today here out of Beijing. The rhetoric in particular. China's foreign minister, lashing out at the U.S. I want you to listen to what he had to say. He said, quote, "This almost paranoid behavior seriously damaging the hard-won foundation of mutual trust between China and the United States, and seriously weakening the United States' own international credibility." Coming down hard on the U.S. notably they don't mention President Donald Trump by name. But this is not speaking positively to this relationship going forward. One positive note we can say, U.S. futures looking upwards and Asian markets closed with gains -- Amara.</s>WALKER: David Culver, appreciate your reporting live for us there in Beijing.</s>BRIGGS: 2020 Democratic hopeful, Elizabeth Warren, sharpening her attacks. She is now directly calling out fellow candidate Pete Buttigieg as well former Vice President Joe Biden and billionaires like fellow candidate Michael Bloomberg. Warren shifting strategies as her campaign stalls in national polls. Speaking in New Hampshire, Warren took a series of unmistakable shots. The common theme, her rivals' reliance on campaign cash from rich donors, which she says makes them untrustworthy and not out to help the working class.</s>SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now, unlike some candidates for the Democratic nomination, I am not counting on Republican politicians having an epiphany and suddenly supporting the kind of tax increases on the rich or big business accountability that they've opposed under Democratic presidents for a generation. Unlike some candidates for the Democratic nomination, I'm not betting my agenda on the naive hope that if Democrats adopt Republican critiques of progressive policies or make vague calls or unity, that somehow the wealthy and well-connected will stand down.</s>BRIGGS: The debate calendar for early 2020 now taking shape. CNN and the "Des Moines Register" will host the Iowa debate January 14th from the campus of Drake University. The last debate before the Iowa caucuses.</s>WALKER: Facebook putting big money into a board to oversee its content. But it won't be up and running as soon as the company hoped.