Senate Impeachment Timeline Remains Uncertain; Trump Fumes at Popular Evangelical Christian Magazine Calling for His Removal; Trump Sides with Putin on Impeachment in Late Friday Night Tweet; Jewish Lawmakers Call for Trump Adviser's Dismissal
NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): The U.S. president flies south for the holidays as congressional leaders in Washington work on their impeachment strategy. Also ahead, it is one of the busiest travel weekends of the year and a whistleblower is warning about airport security. Also, warnings are in place across Australia as a blistering heat wave intensifies the bush fires. They're having so many fires. Ivan Cabrera will have that for us. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Natalie Allen. This is CNN NEWSROOM.</s>ALLEN: Thank you for joining us. Donald Trump is escaping the impeachment frenzy in Florida with a two- week trip to Florida. The president, his wife and their son arrive in Florida on Friday. Along the way, Mr. Trump signed a bill creating the newest branch of the military, the U.S. Space Force. Not everyone is happy about the president's vacation, meantime. White House aides are saying they're concerned he might have too much unstructured time, susceptible to influence from outsiders and TV news coverage. CNN's Sara Murray has more.</s>SARA MURRAY, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Trump's impeachment trial may be officially stalled, but, behind the scenes, House Democrats are getting ready. Staff for the key House committees are expected to work over the holiday recess, consulting with Democratic leadership and prepping for a trial as early as the week of January 6. But that depends on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who says she won't send the articles of impeachment to the Senate until parameters for a Senate trial are set.</s>REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE SPEAKER: When they wrote the Constitution, they suspected that there could be a rogue president. I don't think they suspected that we could have a rogue president and a rogue leader in the Senate at the same time.</s>MURRAY: In the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell this afternoon arranged for White House staff to get a lay of the land in the chamber after failing to cut a deal Thursday with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on the rules for a trial.</s>SEN.  MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): We remain at an impasse.</s>MURRAY: McConnell argued rules from previous impeachments should suffice.</s>MCCONNELL: I continue to believe that the unanimous bipartisan precedent that was good enough for President Clinton ought to be good enough for President Trump. Fair is fair.</s>MURRAY: While Schumer pushed for an agreement to include testimony from witnesses, such as former National Security Adviser John Bolton and acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney.</s>SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), MINORITY LEADER: Leader McConnell is plotting the most rushed, least thorough and most unfair impeachment trial in modern history.</s>MURRAY: The standoff means lawmakers are leaving Washington with the status of an impeachment trial in limbo until the New Year. But if Pelosi's power play was meant to unnerve McConnell, he insists it's backfiring.</s>MCCONNELL: Other House Democrats seemed to be suggesting they'd prefer never to transmit the articles. Fine with me.</s>MURRAY: Sara Murray, CNN, Washington.</s>ALLEN: President Trump is firing back at leading evangelical magazine "Christianity Today," which is calling for his removal from office. On Twitter, the president blasted the publication as, "a far left magazine ... which has been doing poorly and hasn't been involved with the Billy Graham family for many years." "Christianity Today" editor wrote, "Whether Mr. Trump should be removed from office by the Senate or by popular vote next election. That is a matter of prudential judgment. That he should be removed, we believe, is not a matter of partisan loyalties but loyalty to the Creator of the Ten Commandments." He spoke on Friday with CNN's John Berman. Here it is.</s>MARK GALLI, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, "CHRISTIANITY TODAY": We're pretty centrist. We rarely comment on politics unless we feel it rises to the level of some national or concern that is really important and this would be a case. We wrote editorials about Clinton during his impeachment process. We wrote editorials about Nixon during his. This struck me as rising to that level and I needed to comment.</s>GALLI: As a Christian, I like to think of myself as a person who has given my ultimate loyalty to Jesus Christ and the gospel he's called us to proclaim. So when Christians of any stripe support a cause that strikes me as manifestly immoral, it does damage to the cause that I've given my life to. So I think that's one part of the equation that all Christians, especially my brothers and sisters in the evangelical world, need to think about more seriously and more deeply.</s>ALLEN: A FOX News poll from earlier this month shows 67 percent of white evangelical Christians approve of the president, 32 percent disapprove. Not long ago, the Republican Party in America was a reliably vocal critic of Russia. But that has been muted under President Trump, who is now getting support from Moscow after his impeachment. Here the president retweeted a headline from the Associated Press in which the Russian leader called impeachment "farfetched" and predicted the United States Senate would reject it. CNN's Frederick Pleitgen has more from Moscow.</s>REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE SPEAKER: Article 1 is adopted.</s>FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After his impeachment by the House, President Trump lashing out.</s>TRUMP: Well, I don't feel like I'm being impeached. It's a hoax. It's a setup.</s>PLEITGEN (voice-over): Vladimir Putin seems to feel the same way. Speaking at his marathon press conference, featuring reporters often praising their leader while asking questions, Putin blasted impeachment claiming Democrats made it all up.</s>VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA (through translator): It still has to go through the Senate. It's unlikely they will want to remove the representative of their party for some made up reasons.</s>PLEITGEN (voice-over): And those aren't the only talking points he was parroting.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When the Russia collusion deception didn't work, Democrats sought a new path forward to impeach President Trump.</s>PUTIN (through translator): One party that lost the elections, the Democratic Party, is now trying to achieve its goals with new ways. But it turned out there was no collusion and it can't be the basis for the impeachment. So now they came up with some pressure on Ukraine.</s>PLEITGEN (voice-over): While Democrats and even some Republicans were shocked when Giuliani recently went on a fact-finding mission to Ukraine, afterwards appearing on the right wing Trump network OAN, on Kremlin controlled TV in Russia, a very different tone. The hosts and most analysts often praising Giuliani and cheering him on.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I think Giuliani's trip is going to be a success. Trump's electoral ratings grow little by little, which is weird. We can conclude the goal has been achieved.</s>PLEITGEN: Russia continues to back an insurgency that destabilizes Ukraine. While Ukraine grappled with Moscow's pressure, unsure of the Trump administration's support, Washington is divided over impeachment, Putin is sitting back and watching it all play out so far in his favor -- Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Moscow.</s>ALLEN: Joining me now from London to talk about these developments is Leslie Vinjamuri from Chatham House. Good morning to you. Thanks for coming on.</s>LESLIE VINJAMURI, CHATHAM HOUSE: Thank you for having me.</s>ALLEN: Thank you. Let's begin with Russia. Probably Vladimir Putin's response, really, no surprise. And then we have the comparisons to certain circles in Washington to Russia. Let's get your thoughts on it.</s>VINJAMURI: You know, this is a very tricky one because some of the backlash that the president is aspiring by critiquing and challenging impeachment, I think, does play well certainly with his base and with the Republican Party and possibly with some independents. I'm more skeptical of that. But I think the affinity to Putin, trying to get Russia behind them. I'm not persuaded that this has the same effect. We've watched this throughout Donald Trump's presidency at various points. The American public doesn't tend to follow the support that the president is getting from Putin.</s>ALLEN: All right.</s>ALLEN: Let's move on to the impeachment itself. What of the impeachment trial impasse? Nancy Pelosi says she will not send impeachment articles until the Senate agree to the rules.</s>VINJAMURI: Nancy Pelosi is a very shrewd leader. But this is a very -- it comes off, I think, of these statements that Senator Lindsey Graham made at the Doha Forum not just a week ago, Mitch McConnell, indicating that they don't see themselves as impartial, that they're seeking to move very quickly. There is a question about whether witnesses will be called. In a recent poll, 64 percent of Republicans said they would like to see witnesses called. Those who surround Donald Trump such as John Bolton are people even the Republicans would like to see. So there's support for a process that actually brings leverage. But of course, it hangs over the president's head and I think it does make for potentially a very toxic atmosphere in January and in the Christmas weeks.</s>ALLEN: Americans and people around the world are looking to focus on Christmas. Hopefully they can, for sure. Mitch McConnell, he's controlling the Senate. And when you put Mitch McConnell versus Nancy Pelosi, what will happen?</s>VINJAMURI: Americans are very divided on this. I think one of the interesting questions is, less what happens, although that clearly is highly consequential; at the moment, Americans remain deeply divided over impeachment. A lot of Americans are watching it at the same time that they're tuning it out. But this deep contentiousness between the two leaders is going to carry on. One of the moves might be that maybe Nancy Pelosi decides, don't send the articles to the Senate because, leave this as a president who has been impeached by the House and don't allow the Senate to deny them the opportunity to have a president who has been acquitted. That is also one potential tool in the -- that's one possibility.</s>ALLEN: That sounds like something that can be in play, certainly. Meantime, you know, Mr. Trump is furious. He's been lashing out on Twitter. Now we a have Christian magazine saying that he should be put out of office for his immorality. Could this give the evangelical Right pause?</s>VINJAMURI: Well, I do think this is very interesting. The evangelical base has been important to Donald Trump and it's been strongly united behind him at least in terms of the polling that we've seen in terms of public statements. There's a little bit of a split or some noise after Trump made the decision to put America's troops out of Syria after that phone call with Erdogan. So this is a second, much stronger statement that we've seen indicating that, despite the polling, there might be a different message coming out of the evangelical community. Subsequent to that piece, we've seen the evangelical community publicly unite behind the president, it still creates a moment. It indicates in a very public way that there is the opportunity to push back. And I think, you know, when you see a statement like that made and then the response being unity, it still means that they were, at the beginning, potentially of some people having the opportunity to peel away their support from the president if they think his conduct is not appropriate.</s>ALLEN: We've got Christmas and New Year's. Hopefully we won't bug you again, Leslie, but we just might. Thank you so much for your insights.</s>VINJAMURI: Thank you.</s>ALLEN: North Korea has a new warning for the United States. It is demanding Washington mind its own business when it comes to human rights. The foreign ministry accuses a U.S. diplomat of making reckless remarks in a "Voice of America" interview this week, saying it's like pouring oil over burning fire. The statement goes on to say, quote, "If the U.S. dares to impair our system by taking issue over the human rights issue, it will be made to pay dearly for such an act." Just ahead here, the message, just sail back home. That is the message from Carnival after two of its passenger ships collide. More about it. Plus a whistleblower is sounding the alarm. Hear why they say it is becoming less safe to fly.