Currently suspended without pay pending the trials outcome. The attorney general did not do anything wrong. The reading of the articles of impeachment and opening trial are expected later today. Live coverage on cspan resumes in about 10 minutes. Cspan is your unfiltered view of government. Funded by these Television Companies and more, including media,. Com. We believe if you live here, here, or way out in the middle of anywhere, you should have access to fast and reliable internet. Mediacom supports cspan as a Public Service along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. The Senate Resumes, coming back from their august break. We will take a look at 3 00 this afternoon. Axios reporting it is after his second freeze on camera in as many months senator mcconnell will face a question swirling around, how old is too old to serve . At 81 mcconnell is the longestserving party leader in history. For the first time in his career, mr. Mcconnell may not be entirely in control of his own timeline. Something to watch out for, particularly as the Senate Resumes wor wn they come back to workhewill work primarily a vice chair nomination. Later this week issues on the federal reserve, the fc a National Labor board minations. Follow along at 3 00 today on cspan2 or cspan now and cspan. Org. Bob in north carolina, democrats line. Go ahead. Caller pedro, i think it is a huge mistake for the Democratic Party to write off robert kennedy. He has over 21 of the democrats behind him. They did the same thing to Bernie Sanders in 2016 and it caused 10 million democrats to vote for trump. It could be worse this time. I think kennedy needs to be treated sincerely will stop he is legitimately left of the Democratic Party. The left wing of the Democratic Party has never been prowar. Host bob in north carolina. Joe on the independent line in maine. Caller good morning, pedro. Just thank you for taking my call. I am wondering, what is the Republican Party going to run on . They nominated a criminal in 2016, and he is still a criminal today. He had been fraud to the university. Did you remember Trump University . Did you go to Trump University . Host im not going to answer any personal questions about myself. Finish your thought. Caller what is he going to run on . He has been charged with 91 crimes. This is what we are supposed to be proud of . They say they are embarrassed because joe biden tripped over a sandbag. I mean, the guy who was on before worrying about trump, when trump won in 2016 he had 90 of the republican vote. He got independents, right . Host donna in north carolina, republican line. Caller i listen to your show quite often. I dont ever see you guys put you are not giving out fair information. You always have statements against trump. 98 of the time. Every once in a blue moon you will put someone honest. You are not giving fair information out your voters. The voters who call in, we are in a worse situation we have ever been, ever. People are calling in saying trump is a criminal . No hes not. I then is a criminal, but you guys dont have anyone on there to speak about biden ever. There is nothing wrong with having elections with id and paper ballots. Thats it. Host timothy in vermont. Democrats line. Hello. Caller hi, pedro. Okay, thank you. The worst thing about marijuana in my humble opinion, being on this planet for 61 years, would be you do a 35 and 50. The most insidious drug in our society, without a doubt, would be alcohol. Period. I can speak from that personally and i can speak from it massively anecdotally. And all im saying is, there is nothing wrong with marijuana. Host okay. Tim in vermont. Abc news and other sources saying dr. Joe biden has tested positive for covid according to our Communications Director confirming that yesterday. The first lady tested positive for covid19, currently experiencing only mild symptoms according to the commute occasion director. Following dr. Bidens positive test beau biden took a test monday evening and tested negative according to his press secretary. The president will test at a regular cadence this week and monitor for symptoms, she noted in that speech. Steve on the independent line in pennsylvania. Caller good morning, pedro. Good morning america. I would like to make a comment on decriminalizing marijuana. I am a 30year chronic pain sufferer and medical doper. I take a drug to relieve pain. I have heard the little flower, the drug that turns into a flower in your mind, i have heard it demonized by people who really dont know. They have no information other than they claim to carry the 1937 trope about the devil weed. We need to deschedule this. People talk about drugs. How about alcohol . Alcohol is a drug, folks. So is nicotine. The nicotine that we are serving up to these kids, we are making them addicts. They are nicotine addicts. 400,000 deaths a year. I can go on and on, but i will leave it there, pedro. Host joseph in louisiana, republican line. Caller mr. Pedro, i wanted to discuss the liberal bias on the three networks. Abc, cbs, and nbc. How i am looking at a lot of times that the last election and the 51 intelligence agents that round against that letter on Hunter Bidens laptop and i cant understand why they dont investigate what they are supposed to investigate. When i was a kid they gave credence to both sides. Thats all i had to say. Host joseph in the louisiana. We will continue with open phones after a short pause. If you want to keep calling, 202 7488000 democrats. Republicans, 202 7488001. Independents, 202 7488002. If you are on the line you can stay on the line but continue to call as well. In texas the attorney general there will be under an impeachment trial starting today will stop here is talk about the trial and the things you should look out for. He is with the open american statesman and a political reporter. Thank you for joining us. Guest thanks for having me. Host can you set the stage why this trial is taking place in the first place . Guest we can go back three years where eight aids in attorney general ken paxtons office made a complaint to the fbi about his relationship with a developer named nate paul. Bribery allegations. We can get into that deeper later. Misuse of office. Four of those aides were fired and filed a lawsuit, wrongful termination lawsuit against ken paxton. Fast forward to this year, ken paxton wanted the texas legislator to fund a settlement for that lawsuit and they said no way. In fact, they launched a very secretive impeachment investigation. Nobody found out about it until they were ready to vote. The texas house voted in may 2 impeach him, to advance the 20 articles of impeachment to the texas senate. That is why we are here today. The texas senate will decide if he stays in office or is a removed criminal. Host how does the trial process work . Guest there are not too many of these in texas history. This is only the third. It will be really interesting to see one, how long it lasts. It could end up months. Ultimately, the senate is the jurors. There are 31 senators. Only 30 will get to participate because one of them happens to be ken paxtons wife. She is excluded from participating as a juror. If two thirds of the senate votes to remove him from office he is done. 21 of the jurors. It will take a lot of republican support for that to happen. Paxton is a republican who is affiliated and associated with donald trump, who is a star of the far right conservative Republican Party. Host as the trial starts, how has the attorney general responded to the charges . Guest he says that this is a political witch hunt. It is a combination of democrat and republicans in name only that are trying to kick him out of office. He says all of these allegations that he is being tried on starting today have been out there for some time, up to three years plus, and voters dont care. They continue to vote him for reelection. He was reelected last year despite a spirited push by the Republican Party to get him out of office, including a candidate by the name of george p bush, the nephew of the former president. So, that is his angle. He is at this point not fighting many charges on the merit. He is just saying political witch hunt. The donald trump playbook. They are out to get me, ignore them, they are liars. Host on the truth social site you talked about what would go on today saying, i love texas, i won in a landslide, many friends came along with me. Hopefully republicans in the texas house will agree that this is a very unfair process and should not be allowed to happen or proceed. I will fight you if it does. Its the radical left that never stops election interference. He says that in all caps. Wait for the next election. Guest it is the playbook that he ran in his own impeachment. I think it is effective. You are speaking to voters who ultimately decide if these senators get fired or reelected every few years. It is pretty clear that is the way they are going to go, they are just going to say this is a witch hunt. Trump is indebted to some degree to ken paxton. Ken paxton filed lawsuits in four battleground states trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election on behalf of trump. An action that now has ken paxton facing discipline with the texas state bar. These guys are allies. I think for that reason it is going to be really hard for these senators to review this evidence objectively rather than just say we are going to face some Strong Political headwinds if we move this guy out of office. A lot of money will be backed if we do this. Host you said earlier that senator angela paxton, the attorney generals wife, will not be testifying. Those testifying, what are some names to watch . Guest the big one is nate paul, the austin developer and a onetime Ken Paxton Campaign donor who is tied into this. The allegations are paul had many legal actions against him, criminal and civil. He is right now indicted on mortgage fraud. The allegations are that ken paxton basically turned over the attorney General Office to assist and provide Legal Assistance favorable to nate paul. In exchange nate paul funded a home remodel for ken paxton and hired a woman to his company with whom ken paxton was allegedly having an extramarital affair. He is going to be a very interesting witness. I am guessing that he will plead the fifth because he is indicted in federal court. That is going to be one that is really interesting. There are many others. I think the people who may have done construction on his house. The senate wants to know who paid for this remodel. Host will the attorney general himself testified . Guest i doubt it. He filed a motion that he would not have to testify. The house prosecutors filed a response saying it is up to us. If we want to call you we are going to call you. If you want to plead the fifth, you can. There are implications of pleading the fifth. It makes it look like youre hiding something. I dont think ken paxton once that optic. I think he wants to avoid the witness stand at all costs. If he does know he wont answer anything. Host Texas Attorney general ken paxtons trial starts today. If you want to see several stories that he has written on this we will leave this re to return to live coverage of the impeachment trial of Texas Attorney general ken paxton