Ill, and then one by one they walked over and signed their names into history in the senate oath book. Cnn senior Congressional Correspondent manu raju is tracking all the developments for us. Were going to start with Kaitlan Collins at the white house. Whats going on at the white house right now . How is the president responding . Reporter we should note one interesting thing. The president had an event on his schedule today talking about prayer in public schools. It was supposed to start around 2 00 p. M. , but just a few minutes before we got notification from the white house it was actually going to be delayed half an hour. While they didnt explain that delay and what the reason was behind it, we should note that it was going on as these 99 senators were being sworn in. Now reporters are in the room with the president. Were waiting to see if he has any comment on these new revelations that could shift this senate trial that were going to see play out over the next several weeks. Our sources have been telling us behind the scenes for days now they thought this was going to be a pretty easy trial. Theyre even hoping it wont go longer than two weeks. Now with these new revelations, one from the report saying that the administration violated the law by withholding that military aid to ukraine and then two, these new revelations from lev parnas, that indicted associate of Rudy Giulianis who is now saying the president was aware of all of his actions he took in ukraine, those actions, of course, part of a larger Pressure Campaign on the Ukrainian Government to investigate the bidens. The question is how are those two events that happened today going to potentially shape the senate trial . We know that the white house counsel, theyve been finalizing their defense ahead of tuesday, theyve now been having to go through these documents released by House Democrats that show messages including the president s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, who of course lev parnas was saying briefed him on everything that he was told about what was happening here at the white house and vice versa, and so those questions are going to be how the defense team responds to that. So far weve seen the white house dismissing not only that report about violating the law when it comes it withholding the aid but also these new he has to say. M lev parnas of course were going to learn how concerned they could potentially be dep gangel. We have seen so far from the u. S. Senate moments of moments, serious moments, but its not likely that thats going to last . No, i have to say you used the word gravity earlier today, and just ive been around this town long enough to have watched the last impeachment, but when the chief justice was sworn in and at the end senator grassley said god bless you, i have to say it took my breath away. Just the weight of the moment, and i wondered what President Trump was thinking. And i think quite quickly that moment is going to fall away because as we see this trial play out on the senate floor, which will be formal. Theyre not allowed to ask questions. Theres going to be a political battle off the floor, both with we saw Bernie Sanders go up to the microphone, so you have the president ial, but also weve seen nancy pelosi, jerry nadler, what is the word weve heard a lot in the last 24 hours . Coverup. The democrats are going to have their messaging out front and center. And also, i have to say one of the things were going to see in addition to partisan battlesings Susan Glasser is two different realities being presented to the American People because its not original to observe that the president s defense relies in large part on ignoring things that the administration have said, statements the administration has made. Well, thats right, jake, i think thats a super important point. You know, even yesterday when the house was voting to approve the articles being sent over to the senate after this holiday standoff, you had the House Minority leader and he talked about about this is a national nightmare. He criticized democrats. You know, theres a lot to argue over in normal political terms. Iner hea never heard the word u come from his mouth. This is that sort of fundamental unreality of this as compared with, say the clinton trial. And i too, you know, am old enough to have listened to every word, word, i think of that trial. For the record, everybody is except for abby. Goes without saying. You know, thats the amazing difference here is that bill clinton not only was expresses ka tradition, but fundamentally it wasnt an argument over what happened it was an argument over what the United States senate should do with this unseemly set of facts. Right now you have a situation where theres an enormous pile of evidence, democrats are the only ones who want to talk about it, and you also have basically the most successful stone wall in history in an impeachment proceeding. As the one person who was not here for the 99 hearing, it does strike me that the other part about this is that there is so much Unfinished Business in this impeachment process, that there is all of this potential evidence that exists out into the world that we havent fully litigated, and some of it is being litigated in the press. And to kaitlyns report earlier its something thats a growing cause of concern to people around the president that this is not all sewn up. The senate is not getting this all packaged together and we ail know whats out there. Theres a lot to this that hasnt been fully just investigated, and part of the job of the republicans in the senate on behalf of the president and many of them are saying they are working to try to make this as painless as possible for him, is to try to prevent as much of that from coming forward as possible. This isnt just about whether or not were going to hear again from certain witnesses. This is about whether or not there are going to be people coming into this process who we have not heard from at all. Hold on one moment, democratic leader Chuck Schumer is speaking. Lets listen in. Now, as everyone here knows whoops, go ahead. Get your footing or your kneeing or whatever it is. So as everyone knows, weve all been sworn in by the chief justice of the United States to serve as judges and jurors in the impeachment trial of President Trump. When the chief justice walked in, you could feel the weight of the moment. I saw members on both sides of the aisle visibly gulp. The weight of history sits on shoulders and produces sometimes results you never know will happen. For some of us here this is the first time weve done this. For others like myself, its the second time, but i assure you theres no difference. Even though ive gone through this before, for all of us the solemnity, the gravity of the moment in our history hits you square in the back when you take that oath. A separate oath designed by the senate only for senators who will serve on a court of impeachment. The feeling in the Senate Chamber was solemn, serious, profound. The weight of history, the eyes of history you feel it are upon you. I know every one of my colleagues felt it. I hope my colleagues on the other side of the aisle felt it. You all heard the reading of the articles of impeachment by representative schiff at noon. It was a solemn recitation of charges that proved our crimes against our democracy itself, to actually hear the charges read, even though weve heard them many times before, impresses the seriousness of the charges. This is not something trivial. This is not something everybody does. This is not something that can be dismissed. President donald trump is accused of coercing a foreign leader into interfering in our elections and then doing everything in his power to cover it up. These are exactly the kind of offenses the founders most feared when they formed the impeachment clause in the constitution. Do we want foreign powers to determine our elections . Do the American People want someone from overseas determining whos their president , whos their governor, whos their senator . Whos their congressman . This is what the nation has feared for centuries, and we fear it today more than ever with this president. This is very, very serious stuff. This is not trivial because its hard to imagine a greater subversion of our democracy than for powers outside our borders to determine the elections within our borders, and for a country to attempt such a thing on its own as russia has done is bad enough. For an american president to deliberately solicit such a thing to blackmail a foreign country with military assistance to help them win an election is unimaginably worse. I am actually filled with anger when you read the attempt to subvert our democracy. So these charges are serious, very, and its on those charges which the senate has to render a verdict. Remarkably crucial pieces of information related to the charges against the president are still coming out. Last night lev parnas, an associate of the president s person attorney Rudy Giuliani gave an astonishing interview on National Television that further implicated the president in a plot to remove the u. S. Ambassador and pressure ukrainian president zelensky into announcing investigations into one of the president s leading rivals. And just today through the good work of Chris Van Hollen who youll hear from shortly, the gao found that it was illegal, illegal for President Trump to withhold military assistance from ukraine to pressure them to interfere in the 2020 elections. Both the revelations about mr. Parnas and the gao opinion strengthen our push for witnesses and documents in the trial. The gao opinion especially makes clear that the documents we requested in our letter to leader mcconnell are even more needed now than when we requested it last month because President Trump simply put, broke the law. Every senator will get a chance to vote to obtain these documents next week. Now returning to how i began, the oath we all just took will weigh heavily on senators to consider this question about how fair a trial we have. We have asked for four fact witnesses, and three specific sets of relevant documents. The witnesses are not democrats. They are the president s men, his top advisers who he appointed. The documents are not democratic documents. They are just documents, period. Every Senate Impeachment trial in our history, all 15 featured witnesses. Every single one. Leader mcconnell is fond of citing precedent. Weve all heatrd him about 1999. The precedent in impeachment trials in the senate is to have witnesses. To have no witnesses, would be a dramatic break with precedent. It would mean the first impeachment trial of a president in history with no witnesses. The first impeachment trial of anybody that went to completion in the senates 200 and some odd history without witnesses. So in the coming days each of us, every one of us, democrat and republican will face a choice about whether to begin this trial in the search of truth or in service of the president s desire to cover it up. Now that every senator has sworn a solemn oath before god and the American People to do impartial justice, let every senator reflect on that choice, and let history weigh on every one of our shoulders. Senator harris. Thank you, leader schumer. I would argue that not only is this an impeachment trial, but that the very integrity of the United States senate is on trial. What is before us are charges that are arguably the most serious charges that have ever been leveled against a president of the United States, and where there has been an abandonment of responsibility to uphold the ideals, much less the words of the United States constitution by the president of the United States, that responsibility now rests on the shoulders of each member of the United States senate, which is to uphold the integrity of our system of democracy, uphold the integrity of our system of justice, and to uphold the integrity of the United States senate, which has a responsibility to do fair and impartial justice, which means demanding that the American Public and each member of this body receive all evidence, documents, and individuals who are witnesses, so that we can engage in a fair deliberation and make the decision that reflects the ideals and the values and the very principles of the United States system of justice, and so that is what is before us today. And we took a very solemn oath. Its a very serious matter, which each of us should take responsibly and take seriously understanding that whatever the Party Affiliation of the president of the United States right now it is incumbent on the United States senate to do the work of upholding americas constitution and our system of justice. Thank you, senator harris. All right, so were going to continue to monitor this news conference, jake, but i was struck by what the Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said that the new information being made available by lev parnas, Rudy Giulianis associate whos under criminal indictment now, the interviews that hes now been giving including to our own anderson cooper, plus the information that just came out from the gao, the Government Accountability office that the Trump Administration broke the law by suspending by not providing that nearly 400 million in military assistance to ukraine. Hes making it clear, he wants that to be part of the trial that begins next tuesday in the senate. Yeah, and this gets into the difference, the stark difference between the clinton impeachment in 1999 and the trump impeachment of today. The clinton impeachment for people who arent old enough to remember, there was a very independent attorney general named janet reno who has since passed who bill clinton appointed and then spent the next eight years regretting it, who appointed who allowed the independent counsel ken starr to investigate basically anything hept he wanted to investigate which led to the clinton impeachment. There was an investigatory body that looked into the case against bill clinton that the house then took up. In this case, we dont have anything like that. There has not been an attorney general as independent as janet reno since janet reno, but this case was referred to the Justice Department, what President Trump was doing allegedly with ukraine. And the Justice Department under bill barr, who is very loyal to donald trump decided nothing to see here. So that left the house of representatives to investigate this, and youre an investigatory counsel, that leaves us in a situation where it is not as clear or cut as what we had during watergate or what we had during clinton because basically the arm of the executive branch of government that was supposed to look into this decided not to. All right, jake, we were joking, abby and i was a 27yearold Committee Counsel when the clinton impeachment happened, i was on the government reform and oversight committee. So its deja vu only im a lot older. I think to your point, remember what nancy pelosi said, i keep going back to but for nancy pelosi, but for her we wouldnt be here, and historys going to judge her, i think, well, because 100 years from now, whatever happens in this moment had she turned those articles over immediately, i believe this would have been dismissed and i dont think we would have gotten all this other stuff that weve gotten. So to your point, the house of representtives, pelosi did not want to impeach. She made that clear after the Mueller Report. When this ukraine thing happened, it happened really fast, and i think the house of representatives did the best with what they could. And dont forget, folks watching at home, two articles of impeachment. The obstruction of Congress Article is exactly why were talking about this. They couldnt get everything they needed to do the thorough job that Susan Collins and others want to chide them for. They couldnt get the documentsment they couldndocume. They couldnt get the witnesses. What were they to do . Thats really the question here. This is scary for republicans in the senate. This is a very dynamic situation right now. This isnt like the starr report where they laid everything out. They knew the story. They had all the unfortunate details of that story. This situation is completely different because they dont know lev parnas. They havent been paying attention as we all in the media have to every single piece of this story. They will be forced to now sitting in the senate, theyre going to have to listen to all of this. But it is such a dynamic and unprecedented situation, theyre probably thinking do we want im going to date myself again do we want a perry mason moment where somebody comes in and suddenly the case has changed, which may be what happened with lev parnas, for example, and so republican senators are uncomfortable with all of this because on the one hand they know that, yes, in most trials you dont turn away evidence that could help or hurt someone. You just you want all the evidence you can get. But on the other hand, they have a problem here, which is a president who doesnt want any ofhe to admit any ounce of wrongdoing. With bill clinton, they could go in there and said his behavior was shameful. We disagree with what he did, but this is not an impeachable offense. Republicans have no leeway in this. They have to say the president did nothing wrong or hes jumping down their back and going to hurt them in their reelection. Everybody stick around. Theres a lot more news were following on this important day. And speaking of lev parnas, youre about to hear his claims in a new cnn interview including the claim that there was indeed a quid pro quo, and it came at the direction of the president. What was your message to poroshenko . Poroshenko, that if he would make the announcement, that he would get trump would either invite him to the white house or make a statement for him, but basically would start supporting him for, you know, president. Ve i can save you. Lots of money with liberty mutual. We customize your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need [ grunting ] only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Audreys on it. Eating right and staying active . On it audrey thinks shes doing all she can to manage her type 2 diabetes and heart disease, but is her treatment doing enough to lower her heart risk . [sfx crash of Football Players colliding offcamera. ] maybe not. 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I wake up every morning to see how much weight ive lost and how much better i look. Myww join for free and get two months free what is your response to lev parnas who says your efforts in ukraine were all about 2020 . You just wanted joe biden out. Whats your response . Well, i dont know him. I dont know parnas other than i guess i had pictures taken which i do with thousands of people including people today that i just met them. I dont know him at all, dont know what hes about. Dont know where he comes from. Know nothing about him. I can only tell you, this thing is a big hoax. Its a big hoax. We call it this is the current hoax. Weve gone through the russian witch hunt. Weve gone through a lot of them from probably before i came down the escalator, but certainly since i came down the escalator, you take a look at whats happened and in the meantime our country hes trying to probably make a deal i dont even know who this man is other than i guess he attended fundraisers so i take a picture with him. Im in a room, i take pictures with people. I take thousands and thousands of pictures with people all the time. Thousands during the course of a year, and oftentimes ill be taking a picture with somebody, ill say i wonder what newspaper that ones going to appear in. I dont know him. Perhaps hes a fine man. Perhaps hes not. I know nothing about him. More than just taking pictures. He says that i dont know him. On the phone with giuliani and he said i dont believe ive ever spoken to him. I meet thousands of people. I meet thousands and thousands of people as president. I take thousands of pictures, and i do and i do it openly and i do it gladly, and then if i have a picture where im standing with somebody at a fundraiser, like i believe i saw a picture with this man, but i dont know him. I had never had a conversation that i remember with him. So when he says you just have to take a look at the calls quiet. You just have to take a look at the pictures. You just have to take a look at the polls. I dont need anybodys help. Were doing phenomenally well. The economy is the best its ever been. Weve never had an economy like this in history. We just made the two best trade deals in the history of our country. We are doing well. I dont need the help of a man that i never met before other than perhaps taking a picture at a fundraiser or something if thats where it was taken. If you are, whats the message you want to send i will probably be going to davos. Ive been invited. We have tremendous World Leaders and we also have great Business Leaders, and we want those Business Leaders to come to the United States. Some of the businesses left the United States because they were disgusted with what happened, and now theyre all coming back. We are booming. Our countrys the hottest country anywhere in the world. Theres nothing even close. Every world leader sees me, they say what have you tone. This is the most incredible thing that weve ever seen. I understand the stock market today broke 29,000. When i came in it was a fraction of that. It was a number that frankly would have would have been cut in half had the other person or the other party won. The number would have been cut in half. We are doing so well, and i want to get more. We have tremendous room for growth in our country in terms of the economy. We have tremendous powerful room for growth, sodavos. Ill be meeting the biggest Business Leaders in the world, getting them to come here. Ill also be meeting with foreign leaders. You talked about prayer and faith today. Whats your message to the millions of catholics in the United States. Why should they vote for you in the upcoming election . I have a great relationship with catholics. Ive done so much with catholics. You take a look at the abortion issue, you take a look at many of these, mexico city, take a look at so many of the different issues. My relationship with catholics and the Catholic Church has been very, very good as you would know very well. Jeff, go ahead. Mr. President , Rudy Giuliani wrote a letter to zelensky requesting a private meeting, and he said it was in his capacity as private counsel to president donald j. Trump. This was before the inauguration. Did you authorize him to write that letter, and what was your understanding of what the meeting was supposed to be about . I dont know anything about the letter, but certainly rudy is one of the great crime fighters in the history of our country. Hes certainly probably the best over the last 50 years. He was also the greatest mayor in the history of the city of new york. I think rudy was truly an outstanding man, an example his endorsement of bloomberg, got bloomberg elected. He wouldnt have even been mayor. Rudy was greatest crime fighter and rudy is somebody that, frankly, having him on my side was a great honor for me, and it has been a great honor for me. Rudy giuliani Rudy Giuliani did a phenomenal job over a long period of time in fighting crime, and frankly, hes a very legitimate guy. A very straight shooter. I didnt know about a specific letter. If he wrote a letter, it wouldnt have been a big deal. Rudy was always it was very important to rudy that i be a great president , and thats okay with me. It was very important to a lot of people because our country was going to hell, and now our countrys on a path that we havent seen in decades and decades. Weve never done better. Go ahead. No, no, not you. With the trial starting next week, whats your view on how long it should take . I think it should go very quickly. Its a hoax, its a hoax. Everybody knows that. Its a complete hoax, the whole thing with ukraine. So you have a perfect phone call. It was actually two phone calls. You people dont report that. There were two calls. They were both perfect calls. In fact, probably among the nicest calls ive ever made to foreign leaders. Now, so you had these perfect calls, and everybody says it now, before they knew they were so good because fortunately they were transcribed, you had other people saying terrible things about the calls. You have a fake whistleblower that wrote a report that bore no relationship to what was said. Everything was false. You have now the ukrainian president and the foreign minister of ukraine saying there was nothing done wrong. In fact, they said there was absolutely no pressure whatsoever. Everything was perfect. And they impeach. Its totally partisan. We had 1950 republican votes. I guess we got a democrat actually came over to the 195 t. This is a hoax. Its a shame. I did the biggest deal ever done in the history of our country yesterday in terms of trade and probably other things, too, if you think about it. The deal with china, and that was the second story to a total hoax. Today we just had passed the usmca. Its going to take the place of nafta, which was a terrible deal, and the usmca will probably be second to this witch hunt hoax, which hopefully everyone knows is not going anywhere. There was nothing done wrong. This was a perfect phone call. Think of it, the president of the United States whos led the greatest growth, the greatest economic revival of any country anywhere in the world, the United States as big as it is, were doing better than any other country by far, our unemployment numbers are the best theyve been in over 50 years. African american, asian american, hispanic american, unemployment the best in the history of our country, ive got to go through a hoax, a phony hoax put out by the democrats so they can try and win an election that hopefully theyre not going to win. It was put out for purposes of winning an election. Our country is doing great. Our country has never done better, so they figure the only thing they can do, they failed on the Mueller Report. That was a bomb. After two and a half years they failed. Now they said what can we do, and they picked up a phone call that was perfect, but they didnt know it was perfect. They only found out later. They made up a phone call, what they look, what they did, you have a corrupt person. Hes a corrupt politician named adam schiff. He made up a phone call. He went out youll hear about this as you grow older he went out, and he said things that he said quid pro quo eight times. It was no times. He said dont call me. Ill call you. Thats a mob statement. I never said that. Unfortunately, i released the transcript of the call. The transcript was perfectly accurate, and now everybody agrees because it went through a lot, and they said, well, could you add one word here or Lieutenant Colonel said, well, i think they should add they added the word everything, everyone agrees the transcript is perfecto, done by total professionals, right . But i released that after they had done these fraudulent acts, and you get impeached on this. We have the greatest economy in the history of our country. We have the highest job numbers. Today it was Just Announced we have more people working in the United States than ever before in the history of our country, almost 160 million people. Were doing an incredible job mr. President. Absolutely no reason absolutely no reason its a disgrace, and its a hoax. Thank you very much. Thanks, everybody. President trump revealing there that the impeachment trial that is about to commence is certainly getting under his skin. There was almost too much there to fact check, but let me just note that in terms of the president s continued insistent that the phone call with the president of ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky was perfect, even the witness called by the House RepublicansJonathan Turley said that the phone call was not perfect. Indeed it did launch the impeachment inquiry because of concerns by the whistleblower that the president was essentially shaking down ukraine in order to benefit himself politically for his reelection. Secondly, the idea that this all comes from the democrats is belied by the very fact that that came from a whistleblower in the Trump Administration as did all of the testimony before the house impeachment inquiry in which various Trump Administration officials talked about the misdeeds that they saw in their hosts. Lets get reaction to what we just heard from the president and whats going on on this historic day. Joining us Debbie Dingell of michigan, the cochair of the communications committee. Congresswoman, thanks so much for joining us. First of all, whats your reaction to what you just heard from the president that this whole thing is simply a hoax and that he doesnt even know who this guy lev parnas is . Quite frankly, it just his tone, his belligerence, his disrespect for people, and the not understanding of what people are talking about that the gao today found that his actions were not okay. That we continue to have revelations every day about what happened, and there isnt an ounce of maybe somebody misunderstood me or its just obnoxiousness, and quite frankly, im getting more and more concerned because the tone of every discussion he has, every public appearance is dividing this country further and making language that you should not be acceptable. It should be respectful, not there. What did you think of i assume you saw the interviews that lev parnas, the Rudy Giuliani associate whos under criminal indictment undright no what did you think of what he had to say, and is he credible from your perspective . I have no reason to know that hes not credible, but more than that i think he is a reason that there should be witnesses in the senate so that as this trial goes forward that it is open, transparent and fair, which is why i think the senate needs to have witnesses as new information becomes available, and they should have it in their consideration. But i think the American People need to see a fair trial thats open and transparent with these facts. Congresswoman, its jake tapper. Im just wondering, you have been very somber throughout this entire process. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has tried to keep all House Democrats on the tpage of being somber and serious recognizing the gravity of this all. Yesterday, however, many republicans and even some independents i saw on social media took a lot of issue with the fact that Speaker Pelosi and Top Democrats of the house had a signing ceremony for the articles of impeachment in which they were handing out pens that were used, and thats often done with legislation, but this wasnt a legislative accomplishment. This is an impeachment of a president , moreover, people were smiling for the cameras, taking pictures together. Did you have any concerns about the tone that was being set there . I think for the speaker it was a solemn moment. You are correct that it is a traditional procedure that she has the people that worked on it the hardest who have helped get it there and what she did yesterday is part of a ritual that she always does, which is to use different pens so that people that have worked on it, walking over to from the itual of the congress. Also part i am serious about this. I think this is one of the saddest days in my history. President clinton was probably i wasnt as engaged or paying as much attention quite frankly as i am now as a member of congress, and i am worried for this country. I continue to be worried about how divided this country is, and even walking to the airport when i got back to michigan today, people stopping me in every direction, you know, like when are you going to get rid of him to this is all a fraud, and you guys are a hoax. I just heard that walking through an airport. This country is divided, and the job of the president of the United States is to try to bring us together, not divide us further, and the Mueller Report that you just talked about. One of the underlying themes in it that nobody pays attention to is how russia is trying to divide us as a country, and this is just one more thing thats dividing us instead of a transparent process that explains to the American People why people are concerned and letting people make their own judgments. Congresswoman, given the benefits of 2020 hindsight, would you have told House Democratic leaders you dont think its a good idea to have a signing ceremony that appeared to many people to be celebratory in nature during such a serious time . I am a very smart woman, and i dont quite frankly, i dont think it would have occurred to me to even think about it because i do know that this is a ritual of bills when the speaker signs them, so you know, some people are you know, i think it was a very solemn occasion, and i know the members that are participating in this process, they took it very seriously, feel the sobriety of it, and i think right now were going to have people interpret everybodys actions to the perspective they want to see. What im focused on, worried about how divided this country is, how do we restore civility. How do the American People see a fair, open, transparent process, and we let the senators who i hope all go into this having not made up their mind, though, you know, we could probably look at people on both sides, but they took that oath today, and lets see the facts and have them make a decision based on the facts. Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, thank you so much. We hope youre doing well. Thank you. Still ahead, the senators who will hear the impeachment case against President Trump, they have now been sworn in, and that includes four u. S. Senators who are also running to replace him in the white house. One of them, senator michael benn bennet, hes standing by live. Hell join us next. You can both adjust your comfort with your sleep number setting. So, can it help us fall asleep faster . Yes, by gently warming your feet. But can it help keep me asleep . Absolutely, it intelligently senses your movements and not promise. Prove. And now, save 1,000 on the sleep number 360 special Edition Smart bed, now only 1,799. Plus, free premium delivery on all smart beds when you add a base. Ends monday. When youyou spend lessfair, and get way more. So you can bring your vision to life and save in more ways than one. For small prices, you can build big dreams, spend less, get way more. Shop everything home at wayfair. Com we have different needs. Y. 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Welcome back to cnn live, special coverage of a landmark moment in u. S. History, the official opening of the Senate Impeachment trial of President Trump. It comes amid new and potentially Game Changing details from lev parnas, the indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani, who directly implicates the president in the ukraine scheme. Lets turn now to democratic president ial candidate senator Michael Bennet of colorado. He sits on the intelligence committee. Senator, thanks so much for joining us. First of all, very quickly, what was it like today when you were sworn in and understood the enormity of this trial . It was a very solemn moment i think for everybody in the chamber having the chief justice there, i think, underscored just what an important moment this is in the countrys history. So give me your reaction to these allegations now leveled by lev parnas. Hes a criminally indicted individual. Do you believe him . Does he have credibility . Well, i think im going to want to make that judgment over time, but i think theres a huge amount of documentary evidence that hes got that has been turned over to the house that seems to connect him to the president and Rudy Giuliani and what is alleged here. So this is the reason why we need documents and maybe he should be a witness with the other witnesses. What do you think, do you think he should be a witness . I want to reserve judgment on that, but i definitely think we should have witnesses, and i definitely think we should consider the documents hes turned over. What are you hearing from your Republican Senate colleagues about witnesses . I think that pressure is building to have them. I think the public believes that its ridiculous to have a trial, call it a trial, and not have witnesses and not have documents. And remember, this isnt just about the senators sitting in that chamber. Its people sitting at home who are trying to make a judgment themselves about what the president did or didnt do. Because lev parnass allegations that the president knew everything, he was involved in everything, he was coordinating with Rudy Giuliani who was coordinating with him, i mean, thats a pretty serious allegation. Its a serious allegation, but its entirely consistent with every single stitch of testimony there was in the house. Its consistent with what giuliani has said about what he was doing in ukraine and what he was saying he was doing in europe. We now actually have explicit evidence about why President Trump was so anxious to fire our own ambassador, which raises all kinds of National Security implications, so this is really serious. I want to play a clip, our congressional reporter, manu raju, a man you know well, hes always on the hill, one of the most respected journalists out there. He had this moment when he asked about witnesses to one of your republican colleagues, Martha Mcsally of arizona, and its been very upsetting to me personally, but to a lot of people, to see her exchange with him. Watch this. Consider new evidence adds part of the impeachment trial . Youre not going to comment . You saw what she said, i mean, its i assume you know her. First of all, well, i know both of them. He is one of the best reporters on the hill to begin with, this is a symbol of a country that is slouching toward when you start to attack the motivations of the press, the free press in this country, it raises the question about whether we want to live in a democracy or not, and whether we value truth or not. You interrupted your broadcast today to have the president of the United States sit in the oval Barack Obamas administration created more jobs than Donald Trumps administration on average per month. If donald trump r were creating jobs at the same rate barack obama were creating jobs, wed have a million more jobs here in this country right now. And our bankrupts have been up over 24 . Farm income is down 16 . The president has had to basically pay off farmers with 28 billion he borrowed from the chinese to keep them afloat. Things are the not fwraet for everybody in this hit and economist. And these charges are serious charges. This is not some attempt to distract the American People from the glorious economy donald trump has built. And the attack on the free press is a disgrace. Let me get t time on tuesday. Youre going to have to sit there tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday. Youre not going to be able to read your and texts or anything like that. Youre going to have it sit there. Some of your democratic president ial competitors, they are not senators. They are going to be able to campaign in iowa and south carolina. They are out this. Joe biden, pete buttigieg, thats a pretty significant advantage they have over you and r your other Senate Colleagues running for the democratic nomination. We have to fulfill our constitutional responsibility. I will do it gladly. Its a privilege to be there in the senate. And i feel fortunate that i spent more time in New Hampshire than any other candidate. I feel fortunate im in the middle of 50 town halls that nobody else has done and im going back to New Hampshire and i will be back in iowa on monday. And back in my seat for tuesday. For as long as it takes. Thats the nature of whats going on right now. Good luck out there. Michael bennett of colorado, cnn is now learning that the intelligence chiefs are pushing congress not, repeat not to hold public hearings on the security threats out of fear that it will anger President Trump. Well be right back. Ing the lawn today . [thunder] son no. burke saved by the bolt. Seen it. Covered it. At farmers insurance, we know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum vo get a quote today. When youre not able to smile, you become closed off. Having to live with bad teeth for so long was extremely depressing. Now, i know how happy i am. There was all the feeling good about myself that i missed and all of the feeling bad about myself that was unnecessary. At aspen dental, were all about yes. Like yes to free exams and xrays for new patients without insurance. Yes to flexible hours and payment options. And yes, whenever youre ready to get started, we are too. Dont wait, book at aspendental. Com or call today. A general dentistry office. Theres new reporting out right now that an annual security briefing may be cut back in order to avoid angering President Trump. Cnn learned that the Intelligence Community is pressuring house and Senate Lawmakers to drop the public portion of the annual worldwide threat assessment. The reason last years session provoked an angry outburst from the president and reportedly felt felt the spy chiefs were contradicting him with comments about iran from dan coates, who was then director of National Intelligence. While we do not believe iran is currently undertaking activities we judge necessary to produce a nuclear device, iranian officials have publicly threatened to push the boundaries of the restrictions if iran does not gain the tangible financial benefits it expected from the deal. The nx day the president tweeted this. The intelligence people seem ed to be extremely passive and naive. They are testing rockets more than intelligence should fwo back to school. National security reporter is with us right now. Pretty extraordinary to see the intelligence chief saying well give a report to congress but wont speak publicly. Or we dont want to speak publicly. This comes off as you just noted there, last year after this worldwide threat assessment was provided in a public hearing to congress. President trump then came out frustrated with some of their assessments because they contradicted some of his policies with iron iran and north korea. So what is the worldwide threat assessment . Its a report thats put together by president u. S. Intelligence Community Every year. They go through everything they have to provide this assessment. And then there are open hearings provided to congress to both the Intelligence Community on the house side and the senate side and they are able to ask questions about what they have found. Now our reporting is that in the preliminary discussions about planning for these hearings, it was the Intelligence Community officials who brought up the idea of not holding those public hearings. They did say they would provide classified background briefings, but we are now learning that the house Intelligence Community has asked odni, the director of National Intelligence to hold this hearing on february 12th. We dont yet know if they have agreed to that invitation. Lets hope they show up. Thank you very much. Cnn special coverage of the impeachment of donald j. Trump continues with jake tapper. Thats next. Ill be back in one hour in the situation room. The evidence still pouring in as senators are taking thinker oaths. The lead starts right now. President trumps fate now in the hands of the u. S. Senate as the third impeachment trial in the history of the United States commenc commences. A witness saying the president knew and it was all about 20. One of Rudy Giulianis foot s soldiers indicted and a dubious credibility but is what he saying true