Transcripts For CNNW The Senate Trial Of Donald J. Trump 20200121

Angle. The process, the powerful players, the arguments on either side, before the gavel falls in a few hours. So heres where we stand right now. President trump is just the third president in American History to be impeached by the house of representatives. It passed two articles. The first for abuse of power over his withholding of military aid to ukraine, a u. S. Ally, whom he actively pressured to announce an investigation against the political rival, the former Vice President joe biden. The second article of impeachment is for obstruction of congress, and the successful efforts by the Trump White House to block the testimony of key witnesses and the production of possibly damaging documents. The question of witnesses as we move ahead with the trial will also be a key part of the discussions and the debate today. So the rules of this trial will be unlike anything you have ever seen before. That includes the last impeachment trial. The final guidelines will actually be set today with the votes on the senate floor, but we know what the Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell wants, thats a very quick trial. Sara murray joins us. What is on the majority leaders wish list right now . On his wish list is getting this over with quickly. Things kick off at 1 00 today when they will debate the rules that are governing this trial and everyone believes Mitch Mcconnell has the votes to get what he wants. What he wants is for each side to have 24 hours to make their opening argument. That would be split over two days each. So we could have some late nights ahead of us and that is a very condensed time frame. It is much more condensed than what we saw in the clinton impeachment trial. Thats first phase. The second phase of this is senators asking questions. Not the way we usually see them debating on the floor. These will be questions that are submitted in writing to the chief justice, john roberts. That will last for 16 hours. After that, we could get into the real red meat of this. This is the question of whether the senators want to hear new evidence. They will have four hours to debate on whether they want to hear from witnesses, whether they want documents. Now, if that vote goes down, if that fails, things could be over pretty quickly. Final deliberations and then a vote on the articles of impeachment. But, of course, wolf, the big question is how the senators will break on whether to hear more evidence either from witnesses or in the form of documents. All right, sara, thank you. On the eve of this historic trial, President Trump announced the inclusion of a slew of republican members of the house that he is adding to his defense team. Theyre part of the collection of powerful Public Officials that were going to see in this trial, wolf. Personalities that include the chief justice of the United States john roberts and 100 very, very quiet senators. Jessica dean is here to walk us through all of this. Jessica . Reporter a lot of players in all of this, wolf, and jake. Lets look first at the house impeachment managers. If you look again, names you know by now, adam schiff, the lead manager there, chairs house intelligence, jerry nadler, chairs house judiciary, a lot of legal and litigation experience from these house impeachment managers. Then you take a look at President Trumps legal team, which as you mentioned, is going to be a mix of house members and lawyers. You see some of the house members, jim jordan, mark meadows, some of the names youve seen throughout all of this. Youre also going to see Alan Dershowitz, a well known constitutional lawyer, ken starr, who led the independent counsel investigating bill clinton, and then you have Pat Cipollone who will lead the president s defense. Hes considered by President Trump a strong silent type, known to be very prepared, very calm. But he has no television experience really. It will be interesting to see how all of this plays out. And then as we said, the very quiet senators. We have some moderate republicans were keeping an eye on, Susan Collins, lisa murkowski, lamar alexander, mitt romney. What will they be doing, how will they be voting . And then you have some of the senators who have been pulled off the 2020 trail, elizabeth warren, bernie sanders, Michael Bennett and amy klobuchar. And chief justice john roberts, who will be presiding over all of this, again. Hes used to no cameras, doing his work across the street very quietly. This will be a very, very different venue. Wolf . It will be. Jessica, thank you. After weeks of saying the rules for President Trumps impeachment trial will follow those of president bill clinton, it appears Mitch Mcconnell had a last minute change of heart because Senate Majority leader who once promised to work in his own words total coordination with the white House Counsel is getting some praise from the trump team, which wants to wrap all of this up as soon as possible. And that has democrats in the house and the senate fuming. Here is the Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer. President trump was so confident and mcconnell was so confident of his arguments, why do they have to do them at 2 00 in the morning. Why cant they do them in the light of day . The rules he proposed are really a national disgrace. If you dont have a real try that you can judge impeachment on the merits, then this democracy is eroded. Dana bash is on capitol hill for us now. Dana, under these rules, some observers say it is possible, possible that President Trump could find himself acquitted by the middle of next week with this rules change. Is that true . Reporter it is true, if you just do simple math because this organizing resolution, if it passes, as it is going to be presented, there is going to be a long debate today about that, but if it does, the number of hours are spelled out very clearly and not just the number of hours, jake, the number of the total for each argument. It is how long they have to go each day. So, for example, the house managers have 24 hours, as does the president s team, to present their case, but they have to do it in two days, which means 12 hours a day, which probably means 1 00 in the afternoon to 1 00 in the morning. And so you have that, combined with 16 hours for the senators to ask questions, the big wild card here as it has been from the beginning are the witnesses. So if the senate does not vote to approve any witnesses or additional evidence, then theyre done, there is nothing else to do and that could put it at next week, which is why youre hearing from Chuck Schumer and other democrats saying that they believe that the Senate Majority leader is trying to shove this through, do a lot of it in the dark of night in the wee hours to shove it under the rug. Dana, as the white house and the president s senate allies, they work to try to speed up the trial, a new cnn poll shows, get this, nearly 70 of americans say a trial should allow testimony from new witnesses who did not testify in the house inquiry and that includes 48 of republicans, so will public sentiment, dana, have any influence on those moderate republicans, key republicans, who have expressed at least being open to witnesses . Reporter it could. That poll is so important because another critical dynamic that we have to always keep in mind as we go forward with this impeachment trial is that for first time in history, it is happening in an election year, for congress, but more importantly for a president. So Public Opinion matters in a big way because it will determine potentially determine how voters see see this and see what they call fairness. So particularly for those potential four republican senators who we have all been talking about, that the democrats will need in order to get 51 votes to approve any witnesses, those numbers, nationally and likely even more intense in their home states where they are in tough reelection battles, several of them will put pressure on them for the message that democrats have been pounding away on for the past two weeks and that is fair trial, fair trial, fair trial. Theyre doing that very intentionally because their polling shows what our polling shows, which is no matter what the endgame, no matter the result, the pressure on them to allow witnesses will be great, based on Public Opinion, that is a huge part of the dynamic here. Certainly is, dana bash will be with us throughout the day. Throughout the next several days, well see how long this goes. Our next guest says Mitch Mcconnell wants a fast trial, not a fair one. Democratic senator mazie hirono of hawaii is joining us, a member of the judiciary and the Armed Services committees. Senator, welcome. Good morning. If a few hours, a debate over the rules proposed by leader mcconnell will begin, expected to be rather fiery, but mcconnell previously said he has the support of all of the republican senators. At least as far as this vote on round one, meaning the rules are likely to pass. Senator schumer says democrats will fight it. Realistically what options does your party have at least now . Our option is to continue to offer an amendment to the mcconnell process, and also during the trial, the house managers will be able to propose motions. There will be votes. Anytime either side calls for witnesses, there will be votes. Thats what were going to do. We can be the loyal opposition to the end. But the good thing, wolf, is that this is a trial without witnesses or without the appropriate documents. Whoever heard of such a thing. This is why the American People they are on our side, and wanting to have a fair trial. One of the departures from the clinton trial is the evidence from the house investigation will not be automatically admitted. It will require a vote. Are you concerned by not subpoenaing witnesses or documents, the house, the house of representatives may not have the strongest case here, that some of this evidence actual little be dismissed . Anytime i hear Mitch Mcconnell say theyre following the clinton playbook, i want to say give me a break. This is a massive departure. During the clinton impeachment there had been a lot of witnesses, a lot of depositions taken, lots of evidence produced. None of which occurred in this instance, with President Trump stone walling every request. So im shocked. But, you know, nothing that Mitch Mcconnell does to speed up this trial and make it harder for the process to be fair surprises me anymore. My expectation is to not even allow what came through on the house side with their impeachment process as part of the record is really, once again, you know, an effort to stone wall this whole process and Mitch Mcconnell and the president are on the same page on this. It is a huge coverup. And mitch wouldnt be bringing this resolution to the floor if he didnt have the caucus, his own caucus behind him. So all of the republicans are going to vote for this kind of a truncated unfair process is pretty much complicit and i would say in the coverup. Jake tapper here. The white house announced eight new members of the team, all republicans, a source says the lawmakers will surf erve as surrogates and outside advisers. It seems the president is signaling hell take this fight directly to the public as his reelection bid looms. Well, apparently he needs his cheering section. And this is a president who just needs to be adiulated at all times. He had his supporters who are very noisy about it, he wants them to continue to be noisy on his behalf. At the same time, i doubt very much theyll be focusing on what he actually did. Thats what this impeachment trial is all about. He shook down the president of another country for his own political purposes. And used almost 400 million taxpayer money as a bribe. I doubt very much his house cheerleaders will be focusing on that. Theyll be focusing on everything else. So this trial as far as the president and Mitch Mcconnell views it as a one of distraction and if it can, delay. The Washington Post reports that even if former National Security adviser john bolton does testify, the white house and Senate Republicans are working to try to minimize the impact of his testimony, perhaps limiting it to behind closed doors. This is how testimony was done during the clinton impeachment trial. Would that be acceptable to you, if it did mean you could ultimately hear from one of the key players here . Well, the rational for having bolton testify behind closed doors, i assume, is some kind of executive privilege or i dont know National Security interest. I think thats another part of their coverup. Bolton has already said certain things and his assistant fiona hill already testified to the fact that bolton called this entire scheme a drug deal and i didnt recall bolton saying, my aide was lying. 21 years ago, during the senate trial 21 years ago for bill clintons impeachment, the testimonies were done behind closed doors, videotaped and the video excerpts were shown to the members of the senate. That would be following the clinton precedent, would that be acceptable to you . If were following the clinton precedent, there would have been all of the discovery done at the house level and thats not what is happening at all. They want to trickle out the and limit as much as possible anything that any witness that we want can testify to, so that is their whole modus operandi, to limit the information that is p produced for our consideration and to the American Public. It is all par for the course with those guys. Senator mazie hirono of hawaii, aloha, thank you so much. Aloha. Our coverage continues. In a moment, we expect to see more senators file in as soon as the president s impeachment trial is set to get under way in a couple of hours. Any minute from now, were going to hear directly from the house impeachment managers. The seven of them, well bring you their comments live as soon as they begin the news conference. We made usaa insurance for members like martin. An air force veteran made of doing whats right, not whats easy. So when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage. Thats how you do it right. Usaa insurance is made just the way martins family needs it with hasslefree claims, he got paid before his neighbor even got started. Because doing right by our members, thats whats right. Usaa. What youre made of, were made for. Usaa my bladder leak underwear. Orried someone might see so, i switched. To always discreet boutique. Its shapehugging threads smooth out the back. So it fits better than depend. 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Bolton himself says he would testify if ordered by a subpoena, but now were learning that Senate Republicans and the white house are preparing contingency plans on the chance that democrats gather enough votes by republicans to force bolton to testify. Kaitlan collins joins us live from the white house. What is the liberal concern about bolton testifying . Do they know what he would say . Reporter no, they do not know what he would say. Whenever the bolton announced he would be willing to come forward if they did subpoena him, the white house was caught off guard by that and sent on a bit of a scramble trying to figure out how to handle that. Now their main priority is making sure there wont be witnesses in the senate trial. As youve seen play out over the last several days, youre seeing republicans, moderate republicans who are really go to be the determining factor about whether there are witnesses start to seem to hedge, to say theyre open to that idea after the opening arguments. The white house wants to be prepared in case that does happen. If those witnesses do come forward. And they said if the democrats get to call people like john bolton, they want to call people like hunter biden, but when it comes to bolton, theyre preparing a backup plan of exactly what theyre going to do if he does come forward. And ever since he first offered his testimony, essentially the conversations in the whuz perfect the getgo is what they were going to be about, executive privilege, whether or not they were going to try to invoke that, huh bolton would respond, because some of the officials have been concerned he would ignore them saying he could not speak about certain matters because all of this is go to be related to National Security matters since it involves ukraine. Thats been the discussion. So far the president has been increasingly fixated on bolton, asking people what they think he would say about him. All of this is playing out while the president is not even here at the white house. Hes overseas in davos at the World Economic forum, and were reporting this morning we have multiple sources telling us, anderson, the president was hesitant about going out of the country as his senate trial was going under way and there is debate about whether it is wise for him not to be in washington watching this play out. In the end, other aides say it would look good for the president to be on the world stage, talking about the american economy, while democrats and republicans are fighting over the rules, the procedures and, of course, hell be back here tomorrow. And also dont forget, his hotel room is equipped with that tivolike device, he can watch fox news and Pay Attention to what it is going on and what theyre saying about him on capitol hill. How much of wanting the president to be away for those people who did want that in the white house was about limiting his, you know, ability to watch the proceedings in real time and tweet about it and weigh in on it as it goes . Reporter it is less about limiting him, because they know they really cant keep the president from watching. Youll remember whenever he was in vietnam, for that Second Senate with the north korean dictator, thats when Michael Cohen was testifying and the president hardly slept on that trip because he would go to the meetings, he would come back to the hotel and demand to know what it is Michael Cohen had said. They know they cant really keep the president away from watching this, but if he is in davos, he is around the other world leaders, hes got meetings to attend, so it helps keep him distracted to a degree, more so than he would if hes here at the white house in his study off the oval office where there are two televisions and hes watching and keeping a close eye on all of this. Though he will still be doing so, just from 4,000 miles away now. Kaitlan collins, thank you very much, at the white house. In the middle of all this, house managers are making a new demand, democrats sent a letter accusing Pat Cipollone of being a material witness and demanding he turn over any information he may have, quote, firsthand knowledge of. Well break that down as you see on the righthand side of your screen, were awaiting a press conference or some statements by house impeachment managers. With well bring that to you live. Thats what youre seeing on the righthand side of the screen. Were here with the team. Jeff toobin, this idea of the letter that was sent by the managers, which we have here, the statement, is that just a warning shot, is that just well, i think they are operating on the perhaps illusory assumption this is a real trial. Article 2 of the two articles of impeachment says obstruction of congress. And the act of obstruction that is central to that accusation is a letter that Pat Cipollone wrote to congress on october 8th, eightpage letter saying youre getting nothing. Were not cooperating with this impeachment inquiry at all. If you were doing a real trial, you would want to know what were the circumstances underlying writing that letter. Did the president know about that letter . Did he approve that letter . And you would want Pat Cipollones testimony. Theyre asking for it. It is unlikely theyll get it. Here is adam schiff and the other house managers. Good morning. Last night we received for first time the text of the mcconnell resolution that will govern the trial. And we could see why this resolution was kept from us and from the American People. This is nothing like the process that was used in the clinton trial. To begin with, and thisndicativ clinton trial both Senate Leadership worked out a bipartisan proposal for how the trial would be conducted, that obviously has not happened here. Senator mcconnell did not consult at all with senator schumer on the contents of this text. I would assume senator schumer only got to see it around the same time that we did in the house. And the reason this was kept hidden is that it does not prescribe a process for a fair trial. And the American People desperately want to believe that the senate will give both the president and the house of representatives a fair trial. This resembles nothing like the clinton proceeding. For the first point, in the clinton case, if were truly following the clinton precedent, all of the documents were provided before the trial. More than 90,000 of them. Does this resolution provide for the president to provide the dockets before the trial, no, it does not. It leaves that question of whether the house will ever see these documents, whether the American People will ever see these documents to the end and only the end with no guarantee that this material will ever be shown to the house or to the American People. That is a profound departure from the clinton trial. Without the documents, you cant make important judgments about even which witnesses should be called. Or what question should be asked of the witnesses when you do, so thats a profound departure from the clinton precedent. On the subject of witnesses, it is also a deep depar occur from clinton, where all of the witnesses testified before the senate trial. The issue in the clinton trial was not whether they would testify, they had testified already. They had been interviewed already, some dozens of times. The question the clinton trial was, will they be recalled . Will they be required to testify again . And that question was answered in the affirmative. Here, though, if were following the clinton precedent, all of these witnesses should testify, should be deposed before the trial begins. Not after the trial is over. So this is not at all the model used in the clinton case as well. This resolution even goes so far in another departure from the clinton precedent to say theyre not even going to admit the evidence that was received in the house. That theyre going to even postpone the decision about whether any of the witness testimony will actually be part of the record. And finally, they are compressing the time of the trial. Where as the clinton trial managers had six hours a day to present over a course of days, theyre now presenting that we double the amount of time each day so that the proceedings can conceivably go well in the night when apparently senator mcconnell hopes the American People will not be watching. This is not a process for a fair trial. This is the process for a rigged trial. This is the process if you do not want the American People to see the evidence. This is a process you use if you want to hand and hand, working in concert with the president , allow the president to continue to obstruct the congress and deny the truth to the American People. Thankfully, however, we know the truth. Evidence is already overwhelming and that evidence is that the president abused the power of his office, withheld hundreds of millions of dollar of military aid to an ally at war in order to coerce that ally into interfering in our election. And then when he was caught, obstructed the congress to cover it up. That truth is inescapable, no matter how mcconnell wishes to structure this trial. But we will be appealing to the manager, we will be appealing as managers to the senators today to live up to the oath they have just taken to do impartial justice and to hold a fair trial. And were happy to respond to questions. Let me add something here, i just want to add that this fixation on the clinton precedent is weird. The clinton trial is conducted fairly. But distorting what happened there shouldnt make a difference. The question is should you have a fair trial now . Any intelligent person knows that in any trial, whether it is for robbing a bank or for subverting the constitution of the United States, the accusers, in this case, the house of representatives, bring in all the witnesses and all the evidence. The defenders can bring in all the evidence they want. Thats how you have a trial. To be debating whether you should have the evidence admitted, to be debating whether you should allow witnesses is to be debating whether you should have a coverup by definition. There is no other way to look at it. It doesnt matter how it was done sometime ago. It doesnt matter. It cannot be used as an excuse. The only reason to oppose bringing a witness is to cover up because youre afraid of what the witness will say. The question before the senate is do the republican senators want to be complicit in the coverup of the president . Any senator who votes to deny a witness, who votes to deny evidence, is voting to cover up the president s crimes and subversion of the constitution. There is no other way about it. There is no conceivable reason to tdeny witnesses, to say you cannot bring in the evidence. The house of representatives cannot bring in the evidence. There is no reason. It is obvious to say what do they fear . Why wont they bring in t the witnesses . Because they are afraid of what the witnesses will say. There is no trial in this country in which you wouldnt admit the relevant witnesses. In which it is even a question. Lets go to questions. Yes. To make your case and are you going to use the full 24 hours . You know, that will be a decision that the house should make, not that the senators should prescribe to go late into the evening. Look, there is a wealth of evidence to present here. And we should have the opportunity to present the case as the house chooses to present its case, not to go late into the evening, when senator mcconnell evidently hopes the public may not be watching. And so well make decisions about how long our case should go, within the rules that are prescribed, but i think the question is, what is the senators interest, what is senator mcconnells interest in structuring the trial this way . Is this about hiding the evidence from the American People, with late night sessions . Is this about just trying to get it over with . Because that should not be the motivation here. Senator mcconnell has taken the same oath as every other senator in that chamber and that is to do impartial justice, not to try to skew the process in such a way where the house is not permitted to put its evidence before the American People. Do you worry that all this focus on rules and process and what senator mcconnell is doing dilutes in any way the message youre trying to put out about what President Trump did . No, because, look, this is part and parcel of an effort to cover up the president s misconduct. That was the whole object that is charged in article 2 of the impeachment articles. And if the senate and the Senate Leadership will not allow house to present its case, will not lou the calling of witnesses or presentation of documents, if senator mcconnell makes this the first impeachment trial in history without witnesses or documents, it will not prove the president innocent, it will merely prove the senate guilty of working with the president to obstruct the truth from coming out. And so, you know, i do think that by structuring the trial this way, it furthers our case that whats going on here really is a coverup of evidence to the American People. Ill ask some of my colleagues to add on this, but, look, there are a number of key witnesses i think that we know even at the outside of the trial should be called and there are people like john bolton and people like Mick Mulvaney, people like Michael Duffey and mr. Blair and others. But if were proceeding in a logical fashion, if were truly interested in a fair trial, the first should be the presentation of the documents. The documents will reveal who the most important witnesses are and it may be those four and it may be others as well. Let me just give one illustration of what is being hidden from the American People. We have Text Messages where high level people in a diplomatic core are asking each other are we really withholding military a aid . And as we talked about last night, i think it is crazy to withhold military aid to pressure a political campaign. Those documents have not been provided by the administration. They dont want the American People to see them. We have seen them because cooperating witnesses did provide them. But documents like those are being withheld from the public. That is the kind of coverup that the president is engaged in and the senate should not make itself a party to that. Just to conclude, in terms of witnesses, we should review the documents, we should the house should have the right to call witnesses, the president should have the right to call witnesses. Material witnesses. Not witnesses just for the purpose of smearing his opponent, but material witnesses. Thats what makes a fair trial. But let me ask my colleagues who havent had a chance to speak if they would like to add. Okay. Last last question. Mr. To know which witnesses and documents are going to be admitted while youre well, you know, it is as if urine juyoure on jury duty and judge comes into the courtroom and says, you know, ive been talking to defendant and we decided im in the going to let the prosecution call any witnesses and im not going to let them call for any documents. Im only going to let the prosecution read from the cold record in the grand jury. And even then we wont necessarily decide. You can consider that as evidence. That makes it impossible to have a fair trial. Not just difficult, but impossible to have a fair trial. And i think for senators who take their oath seriously and i hope and pray that they do, this is not the fair trial that the American People want, not the fair trial that the American People deserve. Thank you. Adam schiff, one of the house managers, on the team. Were here with laura. What do you make of what adam schiff is saying . He make a fine point about two issues. Cipollone. Somebody who may have been involved in the decisionmaking process, remember, he supervised John Eisenberg who was a National Security lawyer, who many of the witnesses during the impeachment hearing said he knows exactly what were talking about. He was privy to the information. He is somebody who was not involved, Pat Cipollone, involved in not handing over the whistleblower complaint that was the genesis of all of this impeachment hearing. So to have him now play both the idea of a coach and player a normal trial, you would not have an attorney who is also a fact witness. Of course you would not. The word normal goes by the way side, except for one point that nadler made just now, and schiff reiterated, the idea of kind of compare apples to oranges. The clinton impeachment trial to what is happening now, he used the word very weird, essentially it would be abnormal because in the clinton impeachment trial, they cooperated, nrbl initially. They had information. They had witnesses who testified in front of the grand jury. You had somebody who was not running an entire operation to say nobody allows them to oversee and have oversight of my authority here. You have this comparison point, theyre trying to make very chris cal cle crystal clear, if you want a trial that gives transparency, that allows for the oversight function to take place, why would you not have witnesses, documents, the ability for people who are presenting the cases to actually decide how to do so . If you dont have that, you dont have a trial. It is interesting, for you, it is really the documents that is critical. You know, if anyone who was either seen or participated in a White Collar Crime investigation in the last 50 years, everyone knows the key evidence is the documentary record, emails, there it is memos, Text Messages, thats how you prove things in the modern era. Because thats how business and government functions. People communicate, you know, through documents. And if you were doing a real trial, where you would be with the emails among the various people involved in ukraine policy, the fact that the the democrats in the house of representatives have been able to uncover as much as they have, with the very sparse documentary record they were allowed to see, is really pretty remarkable, but if you were having a trial, in any meaningful definition of a trial, where you would start would be with the documents. And only then would you start interviewing the witnesses. The republicans say, though, well, look, the democrats could have fought this in the courts to get documents to get witness. And that is undoubtedly true. And it is also undoubtedly true that that fight would have taken us past november. And the democratic response to that argument is if you are charging a conspiracy to interfere unlawfully with the 2020 election, you have to try to stop it as soon as possible. You cant allow the alleged perpetrator to achieve what he sought to do, which is interfere in the 2020 election by delaying a resolution past the 2020 election. By the way, on that point, on documents, so right about the importance of it, thats why nancy pelosi, speaker of the house, chose litigators. Thats why she said i want to have a litigation focused, people who are going to unlike a criminal prosecutor, who uses witnesses as the vehicle to convey information, and to tell a story, litigators know their confined to the documents, the evidentiary support, the exhibit, may have to bring that to life. They had no idea they would have witness available. They have to use what they have, that limited closed verse information and convey the point and speak to a jury that is not a group of lay men. I want to bring in our other panelist, but first to dana bash. The language that schiff used was notable, coverup, over and over. Reporter over and over. It was intentional. Both adam schiff and jerry nadler used that language. And to me the most sort of cogent line was from adam schiff saying that if they go forward with this plan, this will not prove the president innocent, it will prove the senate guilty of allowing effectively a coverup. It goes back to what we were talking about at the beginning of this coverage, which is this is so much about pressuring Public Opinion, about galvanizing the public, particularly constituents and voters in the states of the republican senators who are potentially persuadable on the notion of allowing on votes allowing the documents and more importantly the witnesses. It is a full core press using language they have been told, my understanding, from people who look at Public Opinion and what persuades voters, that this is a language to use, coverup and fair trial we heard it over and over and were going to hear it for the rest of this time. Dana, thank you very much. Were going to have more of our team here, coming up next, Mitch Mcconnell going with the strategy, despite polling that shows 70 of americans want witnesses and a fair trial. Well be back with special coverage. New fixodent ultra dual power provides you with an unbeatable hold and strong seal against food infiltrations. Fixodent. And forget it. Your amy what work . Zing you need a website very soon youre gonna be very famous lady that is the last thing i would ever. Huh . Stop put those away 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 are you currently using a whitening toothpaste, but not seeing results . Try crest 3d whitestrips. Its enamelsafe formula lifts and removes stains to provide 100 noticeably whiter teeth or your money back. Try crest 3d whitestrips. Can you help keep these iguys protected online . . Easy, connect to the xfi gateway. What about internet speeds that keep up with my gaming . Lets hook you up with the Fastest Internet from xfinity. What about wireless data options for the family . Of course, you can customize and save. Can you save me from this conversation . That we cant do, but come in and see what we can do. Were here to make life simple. Easy. Awesome. Ask. Shop. Discover. At your local xfinity store today. Welcome back to cnn special live coverage of the historic impeachment trial of president donald j. Trump. We are anticipating a fierce debate over the proposed rules released just last night by majority leader Mitch Mcconnell, rules that seem designed to quickly get the trial over with, perhaps acquit him quickly and to make it arduous, perhaps impossible, for senators to consider evidence and testimony. The Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer is warning of a coverup, he calls the mcconnell rules a national disgrace. Additionally the American People indicate they expect more from the senate trial. Our brandnew cnn poll shows nearly seven in ten americans say the trial should feature testimony from new witnesses who did not testify in the house impeachment inquiry. And were going to hear from schumer right at the top of the hour, were told. Hell have a news conference, make a statement. We anticipate hes going to talk about how unfair the process is, well hear the same talking points we heard from House Democrats a few moments ago, the idea that evidence from the house impeachment inquiry is not automatically go to be included, that has to be voted on, the fact that there is not going to be an agreement on witnesses at the beginning of this, and the fact that the trial is going to go 12 hour days as they are the democrats are casting it late into the night. John king, to bring you in, even if it goes late in the night, we should point out, i mean, were going to be covering it, watching it, the American People are going to be kept abreast of what happens. So it is not as though theyre going to some cave somewhere. No, you would think that, number one, the senators will are to sit there long hours, the house managers would like to break their case up into chunks, let people digest and come back the next day, you can understand why they would like to spread it out over three days. These are not the clinton rules. Mitch mcconnell said were going to model this over the clinton rules. These are the mcconnell rules. He cant give the president everything he wants, but hes trying to give him everything he can. This is going to be a test of his leadership Going Forward here. You showed that national poll. Mitch mcconnell does not care about the polls. He will only care if they come to him and say, Susan Collins will lose, Cory Gardener will lose, you will lose your majority if you continue to do what youre doing. Otherwise, he doesnt care. Remember in 2014, mcconnell was not part of this, dent lihe dide it. Everybody said the republicans would pay the price for it, they won the senate in that election. Mcconnell got what he wanted, a republican appointed justice. He does not follow the polls or the rules. Hell do it his way, unless hes convinced he would lose majority, then he would modify. Right now hes on a fast track. If there are 12 hour sessions that go into 1 00, 2 00 in the morning, remember, a lot of those sessions will be in primetime. 7 00 at night, 8 00 at night, 9 00 at night, when there are more people at home potentially watching television because they have come home from work. Well, right. That could be. Certainly more than during the day. But i think that the most important thing to look at here is what john is saying, which is this is a perversion of the bill clinton impeachment trial and what mcconnell is doing is trying to speed things up and also the document yerb is a huge issue, which is not automatically allowing these documents from the house to be transferred to the senate. And i think not only are we going to hear from the democrats like we heard from adam schiff, the this is a coverup, what were going to hear from them, and this will get under Donald Trumps crawl in a big way, you cant vindicate a president if the trial is rigged. Youll not have vindication. And what donald trump is looking for is vindication. If they can convince the public and, again, our polls show that 7 out of 10 say you need to have witnesses, about 58 , i think it is, believe that he abused the power of the presidency, 57 believe that he obstructed the house of representatives, so they have a public that is listening, highly partisan, but they can say to the public, theyre rigging this trial. And he cant be vindicated. Thats a point for them. Thats something youre going to hear a lot about. Nia, one thing that is interesting is if these rules are adopted, it is not as though the evidence from the house wont be included automatically. It is not as though there wont be witnesses automatically. It just means that democrats are going to have to fight for them and try to get it 51 votes for the evidence from the house to be admitted. 51 votes for new witnesses and democrats dont want to have to have that those fights. Mcconnell is not precluding it, but hes making it much more arduous. Yeah, and thats when democrats have to rely on people that have in some ways been hard to read and may be unreliablunr people like mitt romney who have expressed this desire to have witnesses. The question is we dont know what witnesses they would really want to have, right . Are are are are they only talking about the witnesses that democrats want or are they talking about the kind of witnesses that the president wants . The whistleblower, somebody like hunter biden, somebody like joe biden, hard to imagine if youre Susan Collins, you vote for bolton, but dont vote for hunter biden . They only need 51 votes to introduce these new witnesses. Mitch mcconnell has described himself as the grim reaper, somebody, you know, who essentially democrat wishes go to die in the senate as long as Mitch Mcconnell is in charge. So i think thats something to keep in mind. Hes in lockstep with this president , wants to protect his majority and going into this, when hes looking at these rules, he im pretty sure knows where Susan Collins mind is now in terms of what shes willing to do. She got something out of it. Exactly. People like martha mcsally, people going into 2020 with their names on the ballot, in tough reelection races. Im sure he knows where his caucus is and hes designing this in a way that protects them and also protects the president. As a former senate parliamentarian, Joe Lieberman was on cnn earlier today. He said there wasnt an agreement on witnesses at this stage in the clinton impeachment. But there was comity, there was tom daschle, trent lott, they got along and went ahead with the rules to start and it was 1000. The two leaders did get along in the buildup to the clinton trial. The senate watched the house of representatives conduct its consideration of the articles of impeachment against president clinton and frankly the senators were not pleased. They were horrified. And they decided that the founders created the senate to be a check on everybody, the president certainly and the house of representatives. So the leaders were determined that the senate would conduct its trial with dignity. And the first step, the adoption of the basic rule of the road, were adopted 1000. Obviously were looking at a different situation here. You earlier had alluded to fierce debate on these rules of the road. Well, of course, these rules of the road will be considered under the impeachment rules which tend to prohibit debate on the part of the senators, fierce or otherwise. So i think youll see on the floor of the senate what we have seen out here, frustrated democrats trying to make their case, once they get into the floor of the senate and the trial the impeachment rules, they cant speak. The managers can debate these rules and go into closed session if the senators decide, okay, we have to participate in this. We wont be able to watch it. But they can do that, right . The managers the parties get to debate. The parties have one hour each. By parties, you mean the people defending the president and the people prosecuting the president. Yes, while the senators sit there quiet. Very quiet. They have to be quiet. Everybody, stand by, were watching all of this history unfold. Before u. S. Senators serving as jurors in this impeachment trial, it means theyll be sidelined from the campaign trail. Will they bible e able to keep e momentum, two weeks out from the Iowa Caucuses . Thats what we do at 3m, we listen to people, even those who dont have a voice. 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We see your kindness and humanity. The strength of each community. The more we look the more we find the sparks that make america shine. Im wolf blitzer with jake tapper, were live from washington for cnns special live coverage of the impeachment trial of president donald j. Trump. Anderson cooper is here in the nations capital. Dana bash is leading our coverage from capitol hill. And any moment now we expect to hear from the Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer. In fact, hes there right now. Now, one thing before i get started on the issue at hand, the Supreme Court Just Announced that it would delay ruling on the administrations lawsuit against our healthcare law. It is a sharp reminder to the American People that while all this important business is going on, the president and the Republican Party is trying to take away americans healthcare. Woe is us if they succeed, either this year or next year. Now, lets get to the issue at hand. As you all know, President Trump is accused of coercing a foreign leader into interfering in our elections to benefit himself. And then doing everything in his power to cover it up. If proved, the president s actions are crimes against democracy itself. It cannot be overstated how serious this charge is. If americans start believing that foreigners can affect and elect president s or senators or governors, if foreigners can interfere in elections and determine the outcome instead of the American People determining the outcome, our democracy is vastly eroded. People will stop losing, start losing faith in elections and the very well spring and foundation of this grand and great nation that the Founding Fathers established more than 200 years ago. So, the charges, these are the charges were being asked to try. For anyone who says, oh, this isnt serious, this is done all the time, no way. This president in his abuse of power is unfortunately unique and willing to abuse his power with fewer conscious qualms and far more readily and easily than any president we have seen and by a long shot. And the only power that the American People have when a president abuses power other than elections is this impeachment process. We take it very seriously. Very seriously. So once senator inhofe is sworn in this afternoon, the ceremonial functions at the beginning of the president ial impeachment trial will be complete. The senate must then determine the rules of the trial. The republican leader will offer an organizing resolution that outlines his plan for the rules of the trial which was only released last night. Amazingly waited until the very end and now we see why. It is completely partisan. It was kept secret until the eve of the trial. And now that it is finally been made public, it is obvious to see why leader mcconnell was keeping it so close to his vest. Because the mcconnell rules seem to be designed by President Trump, for President Trump. Simply executed by leader mcconnell and Senate Republicans. It appears that leader mcconnell decided to go along with the president s desire to coverup his wrongdoing, hook, line and sinker. It almost seems that the resolution was written in the white house, not in the senate. The mcconnell resolution is a blueprint for an impeachment trial on fastforward. It asks the senate to sprint through the trial as fast as possible, and makes getting evidence as hard as possible. The bottom line, leader mcconnell wants the process rushed, with as little evidence as possible in the dark of night. He pushes the arguments into the wee hours of the night, so American People wont see them. In short, again, the mcconnell resolution will result in a rushed trial with little evidence in the dead of night. If the president is so confident in his case, then why wont he present it in broad daylight . If leader mcconnell and the republican senators say hes done nothing wrong, it is perfect, why not while the sun is shining instead of at 2 00 a. M. . Pretty obvious. Pretty obvious why not. On something as important as impeachment, mcconnells resolution is nothing short of a national disgrace. And it will go down in history as one of the very dark days of the senate. Not living up to its responsibili responsibility. Leader mcconnell promised his trial rules, you heard this for weeks. Lets enact the same rules as the clinton trial rules. He said were going to get started in exactly the same way. It turns out the mcconnell rules are not even close to the clinton rules. And there are many places where that happens. Unlike the clinton rules, the mcconnell resolution does not admit the record of the house impeachment proceedings into evidence. So mcconnell seems to want a trial with no existing evidence and no new evidence. No evidence. You can understand why. It is because hes afraid of evidence, so is President Trump. So are the president s men. A trial with no evidence is not a trial at all. It is a coverup. Second, unlike the clinton rules, the mcconnell resolution limits presentation by the parties to 24 hours per side over only two days. Leader mcconnell wants to force the managers to make important parts of their case in the dead of night. I read the brief. It is about 45 pages, i commend each of you, it is a powerful document. Very hard to rebut. In fact, the president s brief doesnt even attempt to rebut it. Next, the mcconnell resolution prohibits motions to subpoena witnesses or documents until after the senators question period and even then it requires the senate to overcome an additional hurdle by voting to determine whether motions to subpoena witnesses and documents are in order. So we had some senators say, well, im going to vote for mcconnells resolution, but later i might vote for witnesses and documents, mcconnells very resolution puts many obstacles in the path of getting witnesses and documents even later. So republican senators dont fool us, dont say you want to make it easy to vote for witnesses and documents at the end of the trial if you vote for this resolution. Makes it a lot harder. And finally, unlike the clinton rules, the mcconnell resolution allows a motion to dismiss at any time during the trial. Now, we thought that the clinton rules shouldnt apply. They were unfair to us. Mcconnell kept hugging the clinton rules as his defense. But we now see that he didnt mean it. What he wants to do is simply coverup for President Trump. So starting this afternoon, immediately after leader mcconnell introduces his resolution, i will be offering amendments to fix its many flaws. The First Amendment i will offer will ask that the Senate Subpoena white house documents related to the charges against the president. Those documents include the records of meetings and calls between President Trump and the president of ukraine, as well as those records created or received by mr. Mull ravaney, m bolton, mr. Blair and other white house personnel about the decision to hold and release the military assistance to ukraine. It is very possible, even likely, that some of these Communications May have been with President Trump between him and these people. Thats why theyre so important. No one can argue that these documents are not directly related to the charges against the president and should be reviewed by the senate. The witnesses i requested have gotten a lot of attention. And rightfully so. The documents are of equal importance. People should understand that the documents can shed as much light on why the aid was cut off, who did it, and how it evolved as the witnesses. We feel very strongly that we need documents and thats why it is our first call. I will then the i will then offer a series of amendments on the documents we requested, the witnesses we requested, and amendments to fix the most egregious departure that mcconnell made in his resolution from the clinton rules. Let me be clear, we have no intention to be dilatory. There is no guarantee that leader mcconnell will allow these votes to take place later in the trial, so now before any resolution passes, we must do it. We feel this is an obligation we have to the constitution to outline what a fair trial would be. To not go along with a coverup, with a sham trial and we will do it, we will do it. Right off the bat, republican senators will face a choice about getting the facts or joining leader mcconnell and President Trump in trying to cover them up. This is a historic moment. The eyes of america are watching. Republican senators must rise to the occasion. Senator durbin. Thank you, senator schumer. Perfect this very first day of the impeachment trial we learned that senator mcconnell for nor mcconnell political loyalty to the president is more important than respect for the constitution, the integrity of the senate, and standards of common decency and decorum prevalent in the body from the start. With this organizing resolution, outlining the course of the trial, senator mcconnell and those who enable him demonstrate that republicans believe the American People are not entitled to judge for them receives whether President Trump abused the power of his office and obstructed this congress in the discharge of its constitutional duties. Senator mcconnell and those who enable him believe that if they hurry the proceedings, restrict the evidence, limit the witnesses, and force the whole enterprise into the midnight hour, they can conceal misconduct by the president. They believe the American People will not take notice. Theyre wrong. The American People are not asleep at the wheel of this democracy. They are wide awake to any senator or president who disrespects their constitutional duties or claims to be above the law. Donald john trump, the impeached president , insists hes innocent, a victim of a witchhunt, a cruel hoax. Yet this president is unable and unwilling to produce any evidence or any witness in his own defense. Instead, america is subjected to an endless blizzard of mindless tweets from the white house and the ravings of the president s trusted legal counsel, the former mayor of new york city. For senator mcconnell and those who enable him, this selfserving foolishness passes for a credible defense. Under the principles of american justice, of course, the accused, in this case the president , cannot be compelled to testify. But the mcconnell resolution goes to the extreme of attempting to limit the house managers from introducing into evidence the documents and sworn testimony that were produced even in the house impeachment proceedings. This mcconnell resolution directly contravenes the rules in the clinton impeachment trial. As of this morning, majority of americans are calling for this president to be impeached and removed from office. Even senator mcconnells loyalty to this president and his corruption of this senate trial cannot escape the stark reality. If senator mcconnell has his way, critical moments in this trial may not see the light of day, but they will not escape the light of history. Senator murray. Well, thank you very much. Last week my colleagues and i signed our names in the official Senate Record affirming our promise to, quote, do impartial justice. It was a sobering experience. Especially since senator mcconnell has explicitly said he would do the complete opposite. He said no to impartial justice inspite of the careful and thorough investigation the house conducted, in spite of President Trumps unprecedented stone walling, which denied Congress Access to key material witnesses and documents directly related to the president s actions during the house investigation, in spo in spite of the president s continued refusal to provide any credible defense against the allegations against him including in the trial brief we saw this weekend. And the majority leaders position has not changed despite new evidence made public in recent days which lays out a complex web of falsehoods and corruption surrounding the president s actions in ukraine. And now as the trial begin, as new evidence comes out, and after each of us has reaffirmed our most solemn responsibilities to our states and our country, it is clear people across the country are watching this carefully and they are deeply concerned our president may have demanded a Foreign Government interfere in our next election to help them in his campaign. They want to know all the relevant testimony. And evidence is being considered and the senate is acting fairly rather than staging a coverup. So i hope republican senators remember that they have a choice, i hope they choose to recognize we cannot do our job as senators to, quote, do impartial Justice Without key documents and witness testimony that is so far been hidden from the public. And i hope they choose to work with democrats to make sure fairness and honesty is in this process, because that is what the people we represent deserve. And i want to make one more point, the president s actions are on trial. The United States senate is on trial too. Ive heard many republicans say they want a trial modeled after the clinton impeachment trial. That will remind all of us that at the end of that trial, no one doubted the senate had acted fairly and honorably. Thats the truly critical test before us in this institution, beginning today. And to be clear, we will fail that test with dead of night, rushed coverup resolution, like the one majority leader mcconnell has put forward. We all need to remember the oath we took and act in ways that prove the senate and all of our Democratic Institutions are worthy of the Publics Trust now and for generations to come. We all need to vote today for evidence and fairness, not a sham designed to protect an impeached president from the facts. Thank you. Thank you, senator murray. Thank you. Mitch mcconnells resolution is appalling. And so is the defense being put forward by the white house. They dont dispute there was a phone call with a new young leader in desperate need of support from the United States and his military efforts against russia. They dont dispute that there was a threat to withhold funding on that phone call if in, fact, the new young leader did not do what the president wanted. They dont dispute the fact that they withheld the funds after the phone call, even though the watchdog for the congress, the general accounting office, has clearly said it is illegal, which they are not disputing either. Seems to me they are using the Mick Mulvaney defense. Yes, the president did the call. Yes, he withheld the money. The president can do whatever he wants. Get over it. No president is above the law and thats what this trial is about. Questions on this subject. Yes. Have you made any outreach to people like senator collins, like senator murkowski, senator alexander, people who might be able to get to the votes. There are lots of conversations going on. Im not going to get into any individual conversations. Yes. What is your plan, assuming any sort of documents or witness testimony moves forward if the white house exerts executive privilege. If the white house tries to exert executive privilege on an order that passes by definition in a bipartisan way and is signed by the chief justice of the Supreme Court on a subpoena, i think that the courts would look very favorably on that. Im not going to tell the president who should be his counsel but i respect very much the conflict of interest that was outlined in the letter that the house managers put together. Yes. Wait and see. On that question, during this trial, unusual in that you will not bible e able to make argume. Do you expect house managers to make arguments and well, first, you know, it is some of the motions that or the amendments ill be making to the mcconnell resolution are pretty on us is. Three weeks ago i outlined to leader mcconnell the need for three sets of documents and four witnesses. And so the Senate Managers obviously know all about them. And, you know, theyre a Capable Group and they seem set publicly, been totally supportive of those things that we asked for. So i expect theyll make very strong arguments. And there is a lot to say. It is one hour per side, thats what the rules of the senate prescribe, it will be up to them if they use it all, i would hope they make strong arguments and not try to cut back. It is too important. He said he wont support any kind of changes to the resolution, that would include trying to get witnesses in at the beginning of the trial. What is your message . He said that, i have a great deal of respect for senator romney. I would urge him, hope he has carefully read the mcconnell resolution. Because hes always said he thinks there should be witnesses at the end of the trial, and this makes it harder to even get those. You went already once, im sorry. Try to share the wealth. Strikes me that House Republicans were very upset with the process, complained about it being rushed. Isnt this the latest example . Were doing our constitutional job and were proud of the job were doing. And it is sort of ironic, leader mcconnell at the same time moments, he says the house trial was rushed, seeks to rush the senate trial, far more severely than the house trial was. On the subject of transparency, did you sign off on the rules no. What is your comment on the my comment, i want to see the press have as much access as possible. It would be my view similar to a normal day. I did not i was not asked about them and didnt sign off on them. Yes. Did you dgive advice to members of your caucus about how to we had plenty of discussions and we go over the process and what is happening and i we have a great caucus lunch every tuesday. And large numbers of members participate. And i would like to believe and i think i do that we sort of come to an amalgam. Lots of suggestions they make we incorporate into what our caucus view and position should be. We do it all the time. Some of the conditions in the resolution would allow for things motions to be dismissed. Yes. Before anything has been presented. Yes. Is that a departure from yes. Is it your position that a vote to change the rules would require 67 votes as opposed to no, because this is governed by the rules of impeachment, which are separate from the senate rules. No. You went. Anyone else who hasnt gone . Yes. Nice, quiet laid over there. Do you plan to have vote for each do you plan to separate out youll see. Wait and see. Were going to have votes on the issues i mentioned, witnesses, documents, egregious, rollbacks from the clinton rules which we thought were unfair, and, you know, but were not going to try to be dilatory and have 100 amendments just to delay things. How many amendments . Youre persistent. Yes . Impacting some of the 2020 no. No. I mean, were doing this because we think we have a constitutional duty to do it. We think that this is this is what the Founding Fathers looked at when they said how do we deal with a president who has abused his power . Who has dramatically overreached, who has gone off track . And they came to the conclusion you couldnt wait four years and thats why this is so serious, so solemn, so grave. Thats how we feel. And the American Public seems to agree with us. But thats our motivation. And thats why, you know, even the witnesses we asked for. We dont know what theyll say. This idea that these witnesses are democratic plants, theyre the president s appointees. The documents are written by the president s people. And maybe theyll be exculpatory or maybe theyll be further incriminating. But we will rest easy if we know we have required the truth to come out. Unfortunately in the minority, thats not solely up to us. We need four republicans who are willing to stand up for whats right, who are willing to stand up for what america wants and needs and not simply bow down to the president who, you know, most americans know what this guy is all about. To most americans really believe he wants a fair trial . I dont think so. Thank you, everybody. All right, that was Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer, democrat of new york, and the democratic Senate Leadership talking about their issues with the way that the Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell is running the trial and schumer saying hes going to introdouse a series of amendments to try to push back and change the rules that mcconnell is introducing. Those amendments will include a subpoena for documents from the white house. There will also be another amendment on witnesses and another amendment on what senator schumer refers to as the most egregious rollbacks of the rules that were set in 21 years ago during the 1999 clinton impeachment. Let me bring in dana bash right now. Dana, right now, this is all very fluid, we dont know exactly when schumer will introduce the amendments. Were expecting mcconnell to introduce the rule at 1 00 p. M. Eastern. It is not clear whether schumer will introduce the amendments right after that or a few hours after that. But clearly this is going to be a day of bitter and partisan fighting. Reporter yeah, strap in, that was the take away from what we just saw and heard from the Top Democrats in the senate. Trying to bend over backwards to say theyre not going to do what we will see on the senate floor very shortly. Because theyre trying to delay the trial, theyre trying to introduce the resolutions and motions you referred to, jake, to get fairness. And he argued that if they dont try to do it now, then the trial will get under way, theyre going to begin with opening arguments from the house managers, from the president s defense team and so on and so forth and they wont have a real chance once the time that mcconnell has prescribed for witnesses comes. It is not towards the end. But, again, going back to what we have been talking about all morning, the language he used, the language that dick durbin, the number two senator used about coverup, about fair trial, dick durbin was no notewort noteworthy, theyre trying to send a message to the American Public, but more specifically for potential republican senators to vote with them on the resolutions, enable him, dont enable him, meaning Mitch Mcconnell. That was the plea from dick durbin, the Number Two Senate democrat. Also noteworthy that Chuck Schumer when asked about mitt romney, one of the potential four republican votes, he was very gracious. Trying to, you know he, say, oh, i have a lot of respect for him, hes got to understand what is going on here. Thats the audience here in the capit capitol, at the four potential republican senators that they are trying to reach, with what were going to see on the senate floor, probably a lot of chaos frankly. And then more importantly the public to call in, voters to call in to the Senate Offices to try to put pressure on them. Thats right. And dana bash, thank you very much. Wolf, the idea being democrats feel like they have a good argument to make, which is we just want witnesses and evidence. Thats what we want. Republicans dont want that. We want witnesses and evidence. John, it is interesting that schumer says he needs four republicans to go ahead and join the 47 democrats. You get 51 in order to call witnesses right at the beginning of the process, get that done with. He says if you wait until after the opening arguments from both sides, it is going to be much more difficult. But it is based on everything were hearing, those four republicans, including mitt romney, Susan Collins, and some others, they might be open to witnesses, but only after they hear the opening arguments, not necessarily right now. Schumer, the democrats, will lose round one. Thats pretty clear. Their challenge is make your case, one of the delicate parts of that challenge, dont overmake your case, part of mcconnells gamble here is this becomes re political, hyperpolitical out of the block and people go it their corners and even collins, romney, alexander, who might be open, you need to read the republican statements carefully, but mcconnells part of his plan is if everyone goes off into his corner, it is easy to say we cant give them anything and keep the republicans as republicans. The democrats want to make their point at the beginning, you understand that, especially if you side with them in the case, they have to be careful about this and then this comes down to how good are the house impeachment managers, how good are they at making the case as lawyers, as politicians, as advocates, we need the witnesses. One opening potentially in the president s legal response, where they again make the case that the democrats have no fisthand witnesses to some of these issues. The democrats can hold up the president s trial brief and says there say reason we dont have these witnesses. He we dont have mr. Bolton, mr. Mulvaney, mr. Blair and mr. Duffy from the office of management and budget because the president wouldnt give them to us. Can they using the president s brief make a strong argument for at least the documents . The emails from these witnesss . And the testimony . This is going to come down to good lawyers on the floor of the senate. This is why i was surprised when we i interviewed justin amash, the republican turned independent last week and surprised he had not been approached by House Democratic leaders to become a house impeachment manager because who would be better at delivering the argument to Susan Collins, lamar alexander, mitt romney, th than one of their own. Except politics is so strong here. Nancy pelosi wants control. Doesnt trust him. Hes not one of hers. Well watch this play out. You make an excellent point in an open if you have an open minded conversation. But are we . There is a new strategy, though, that i think they had to cobble together this morning. And you hear it from schiff and from schumer, which is yes, theyre talking about witnesses, theyre talking about documents now. This is issue number one. The hurdle they have to cross and, you know, we had schiff say the first step ought to be the production of documents, then you had schumer say we you know, documents are more important than witnesses. Effectively. So they believe, i think, they can mackke a case to the folks youre talking about, it is easier, easier to break these republicans up when youre talking about documents. How can you not allow these documents to come over to the senate and so thats what you heard from schumer and schiff and it is going to be on the floor today, and maybe they figure they have a little bit of a shot at it. And they want it to be why are you voting for a coverup. Thats how democrats are casting it. Still ahead, well talk to a republican who served as a house impeachment manager for bill clintons impeachment trial, what he thinks about the way his party is running the show now. Plus plus this, a breakdown of the argument that President Trumps defense team plans to make, our legal experts, theyre standing by, they will weigh in on whether it will actually hold up. Listerine® cleans virtually 100 . Helping to prevent gum disease and bad breath. Never settle for 25 . Always go for 100. Bring out the bold™ asand achieved new york citysed cacleanest air quality in more than 50 years. As a leader in the fight against climate change, he helped shut down over half of the nations coal plants, then led one of the biggest pollution reduction efforts in history. As president , he intends to reduce emissions by fifty percent within ten years. Because if we want to stop climate change, we need to make a change. This is a fightwe cant afford to lose. Im Mike Bloomberg and i approve this message. The question before the senate is do the republican senators want to be complicit in the coverup of the president . Any senator who votes to deny a witness, who votes to deny evidence, is voting to coverup the president s crimes and subversion of the constitution. There is no other way about it. House impeachment manager jerry nadler there moments ago, democrats demand to hear from several key witnesses in the impeachment trial and get documents as importantly or perhaps more importantly. Witnesses that could have relevant firsthand accounts of the central issues in the case. The documents would be direct evidence. Want to bring in sara murray. Who are the witnesses that democrats are fighting so hard to hear from, obviously besides bolton. John bolton is on the top of that list. He recently said he would be willing to testify before the senate and he obviously knows the president s thinking when it comes to ukraine and is vocal with his colleagues, we learn from witness testimony about believing that there was a drug deal being cooked up when it came to ukraine. One of the people he said was involved in that drug deal, chief of staff Mick Mulvaney. Mulvaney knows also the president s thinking on ukraine, bolton implicated him in this, and he had that press briefing where he said this was a quid pro quo and Everyone Needs to get over this. Now, there is also an Interesting Email Exchange the New York Times reported on between Mick Mulvaney and robert blair, another witness that the democrats want to hear from. Blair is one of the top advisers and when he emailed him in june and said essentially can we hold off on this aid to ukraine, robert blair said we could, but you should expect for congress to become unhinged, which is, of course, what happened after all of this. Now, the man who was supposed to carry this all out was Michael Duffey, top official at the office of management and budget, the one who sent an email to the pentagon, 90 minutes after President Trump got off the phone with the ukrainian president and said hold off on the aid. Back to you. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Democrats are also making new demands on a Top White House official. They sent a letter to the president s defense team demanding white House Counsel Pat Cipollone turn over any information of which he has firsthand knowledge. The house managers also accused cipollone of being a material witness in the case against the president. Joining me now, one of the top constitutional law professors in the country, laurence tribe, he coauthored the book to end a presidency the power of impeachment. Thank you for being here. I want to get your take on this latest news that can house managers compel cipollone to turn over relevant documents and by pulling on the material witness, could they also try to have him testify . Why are they doing that . Well, theyre doing it because the law demands it and because cipollone is conflicted. He could lose his law license if he, while being a material witness, is also the chief counsel. It is a very straightforward thing. And when you ask can they compel, it is not clear how the compulsion would become effective. They might go to court to seek an order. But theyre not going to go along with the idea of slowing down the trial, just because cipollone is part of the coverup. He certainly is. What is really going on here, anderson, is just astonishing. This is not just the impeachment trial of donald john trump. It is the impeachment trial of the United States senate. These senators are on trial. Someone like Susan Collins, who came out with a totally phony compromise about, you know, hearing some of the witnesses, later on, maybe, she should be ashamed of herself. All of these senators have taken an oath to do impartial justice. And they have got to live up to that oath and if they do not, there is nothing much we citizens can do about it except vote them out of office. But history will judge them harshly because they are on trial. You really believe that all republicans in the senate who vote to who dont allow witnesses, who continue to go forward as they have, that they are part of the coverup . Yes, unless they have some reason that i cant fathom. What could be the reason not to want to hear the firsthand witnesses like john bolton after complaining endlessly thats what they want to hear. What could be the reason for not wanting to hear robert blair or mulvaney . You know if they can exonerate the president , great. If they would incriminate the president , then we have a duty to hear them. But there can be no possible reason, even this business of going into the, you know, into the wee hours of the morning, with midnight mitch in command, that doesnt make sense. The old senate rule about starting at 1 00 p. M. , something that people have taken for granted, no reason for it. The chief justice is free all morning, apart from welcoming on opinions, which it can do at anytime, except when the court is in session. Not for tomorrow, the court is not in session. Any of the mornings until february 24th. We shouldnt take all that stuff for granted and the new rules that hes laid on, you know, the record cant be introduced from the house unless there is another vote, were not going to decide on witnesses until the trial is over, it is like alice in wonderland, verdict first, trial next. It doesnt make sense. The American People are smart enough to know it. Thats why 70 of them want to hear witnesses and want the evidence. It is a symptom of the dysfunction of our United States senate that what 70 of the people want, Mitch Mcconnell couldnt care less about. That bothers me, it should bother your viewers. You know that republicans will say, well, look, the time for, you know, getting these witnesses, the time for getting the documents, that was what the house part of this was for. And they could have gone through the courts. This is the trial phase now, discovery is over. Well, it is hard to know where to start with how salacious that is. This is the trial. When you have what amounts to a grand jury there are some limits on what it can do, especially when it meets a complete stone wall. We issued a subpoena to guys like mulvaney. We asked whether bolton would testify. The president , through mr. Cipollone, who as i say is conflicted because hes a material witness, issued a letter in october, early october, saying no cooperation, we dont care whether there is an executive privilege or not, were simply going to require you to go through the courts with every single witness and that might take forever. Thats not the way the system works. The house of representatives is not in joint business with the courts to see how long things can be dragged out. It has the sole power of impeachment, no president has ever defied that power the way this president has. I want to just get your thoughts on exchange that jeff toobin and i had one of the lawyers, Alan Dershowitz, a colleague of yours at harvard. I want to play that for our viewers. Previously you said it doesnt have to be a crime, if the guy if the person in office completely corrupts the office of the president and who abuses trust imposes a great danger to our lib erty that is impeachabl. So corrupting the office of the president , is that in your criminal light or criminallike behavior . No, that was rejected by the so you were wrong, youre saying you were wrong back then . I was saying im much more correct now having done much more research because thats the issue let me explain. Please dont shut me off. Two against one here. Let me make my point. Im not on anyones side. Im trying to listen rationally to what youre saying. Maybe youll understand if you listen. I didnt do Research Back then. I. Okay. Please let me finish. That issue was not presented in the clinton impeachment. Everybody knew he was charged with a crime. The issue is whether it was a hard crime. Now it is the issue whether a crime or criminal act is required. Ive done all the research, 22 years ago, i didnt do the Research Back then, because that wasnt an issue. Ive done the research now, i wasnt wrong. I am just far more correct now. I diabete dnt go to harvard school, can you be right, you can be wrong back then or just more correct now and criminallike behavior . Doesnt seem like there say whole lot anderson, you dont need to go to law school to know what nonsense that is. What is criminallike behavior . If the president decides, you know, it would be good for my relationships with vladimir putin, if i gave him back alaska, not criminallike, but surely impeachable. Alan and his book says no, not impeachable. Hes really gone off the deep end and it is a clever strategy on the president s part because it makes a really great bumper sticker, no crime, in foul, no crime, no impeachment. But anybody who thinks about it or knows anything about American History realizes that all impeachments are about abuse of power. If there is no abuse of power, of the kind that only the president can commit, then impeachment doesnt fit. I remember from alans early history, something about if it doesnt fit, you must acquit. Well, i think here the whole impeachment power fits perfectly to abuse of power. Thats what it is for. Thats what hamilton and madison and all of our framers said it was for. Only the president can do certain terrible things like use our foreign aid as a lever to extort money from an ally to benefit an adversary like vladimir putin. That may not be a crime. In this case, crimes like extortion and bribery and violating the Foreign Campaign laws, all of that was committed. But it is not the criminallike nature of it all that counts. It is that the president is using the office that we entrusted him with. We the people in order to benefit himself and get himself reelected, hes cheating in the next election. That is the case the democrats are presenting. And if my former colleague cant understand it, maybe he needs to go back to law school. I dont think you need to, anderson. It is pretty obvious. Professor tribe, very professorlike of you, thank you. Larry tribe, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Coming up next, one of the republicans who served as a house manager in the impeachment trial of bill clinton joins us live. 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Long, lifted volume. New falsies lash lift mascara. Only from maybelline new york. You dont need to go anywhere dad, this is your home. The best home to be in is your own. Home instead offers personalized Inhome Services for your loved ones. Home instead senior care. To us, its personal. I would implore you, senators, both republican and democrat, to set aside partisanship, polls and personalities. Bevera we have never supported a set of rules that had one for the ruler and one for the rulee. That was chris cannon, one of 13 Republican House impeachment managers that presided in the case of bill clinton. Congressman, thank you for joining us. Whats going through the heads of the house impeachment managers this morning . I dont know, but i suspect there is a lot of a little anxiety, a lot of concern, recognition that much of the next two weeks in American Public life is going to focus on what they say and how they say it. You know, back in the day 21 years ago, president clinton had some remarkable lawyers working for him, and it takes really two things to be a great lawyer under these circumstances. One, you have to deal with the law. Your colleagues and peers in the Legal Profession need to say, that was a legally wellfounded argument, but it also has this overlay of politics. And so you have to present these complicated legal positions in a way that appeals to people. Years ago those people representing the president did really quite a good job. They did great work, but i think the house managers had a much more difficult time because of the nature of the way the presentation went forward, and certainly these house managers have a similar problem. So the legal team the president has put together is interesting. It is interesting. Dershowitz is, i think, remarkably aggressive and hes also a good lawyer, and assertive. I sort of wonder about ken starr, what his role would be. Jay sekulow is really quite a good lawyer, and hes also very sensitive politically. I think he sort of came out of a political background more than a pure legal background. So it will be interesting to see that interplay between some really great minds. Ken starr, of course, making the complete opposite arguments today when it comes to some of the issues than he made 21 years ago when he was independent counsel. In 1999, there was friction between house and Senate Republicans over the issue whether to call witnesses. You reportedly fought hard for witnesses. Three witnesses ultimately testified not live on the senate floor. Is there a legal basis for trying to block witnesses this time around, do you think . Actually, i love the way hes approaching this thing, because for all due respect, people who actually care about this stuff and are involved, i dont think Many Americans really care and they want it over with. And i think mcconnell has gotten that right, and frankly, i think they got it right 21 years ago, looking now some distance back at that. Most people i talk to, they see this as unnecessary. I started my career as an intern in the Supreme Court, then i worked in the Agriculture Department as a lowlevel bureaucrat. Later on i was a political appointee and a solicitor. He fought congress the way were fighting congress. The problem here is that congress has given up all of its authority. The only thing you can do now is impeach the president instead of dealing with oversight and investigations congressman, im sorry to interrupt and make america better. Im sorry to interrupt. The question was, you fought hard for witnesses in 1999. Do you think the Senate Majority leader you fought hard for witnesses in 1999. The question is, do you think the Senate Majority leader is right to take the exact opposite position you took when trying to impeach president clinton . For some reason i lost a bit of your audio there, but i think i got that question. And the answer is, there is nothing exact opposite. These situations are so radically different that it doesnt make any sense to have lawrence tribe talk about how wrong Alan Dershowitz was in the past. These are different circumstances and different situations, and anybody can create a narrative that supports a perspective. What we need is to have a process that goes forward that will clarify, we hope to some degree, these issues, but my personal feeling is these claims are bogus, without foundation. Theyre things every president has done in the past and president s in the future we hope will have the power to do so that americans rights and interests go forward. Based on what youve seen so far, do you think this is looking like its shaping up to be a fair trial . We decided 21 years ago that were not going to have what i call a fair trial. That is precedent, and what were doing today, the Senate Majority is doing today is similar to what was done. The precedent is there. I think its appropriate. But the house ought to be doing much clearer and much deeper investigations. Thus far, we have the mueller report. Did you guys see mueller testify . He didnt have his cookies. He was attacking the president , not trying to make it better. Thank you, congressman cannon, for being with us on this historical day. Im wolf blitz era long side jake tapper. Were live here in washington where cnns live coverage of the impeachment trial of president donald trump. Anderson koocooper is also here along with our correspondent dana bash. Facing the 100 senators is this. Is what President Trump did bad enough, damaging enough to warrant removing him from office . Something that has never happened in American History. President trump is just the third president in American History to be impeached by the house of representatives and passed two articles of impeachment. The first is abuse of power, the second and holding military aid over ukraine and asking them to perform an investigation of joe biden. The second article is obstruction of congress and successful efforts by the Trump White House to block the testimony of key witnesses and the production of possibly damaging documents. The question of witnesses as we move ahead with the trial will also be a key part of the constitutions in the senate today. During this trial, some will argue that the president did not break any laws, but what the senators and you at home must decide is whether impeachment is about the law, or is it an oral argument about defending the constitution of the United States and what it stands for . Democratic leaders, they are promising a fierce fight over documents and witnesses in the president s impeachment trial. Minority leader Chuck Schumer saying he will offer what are called a series of amendments today to majority Mitch Mcconnells resolution that dictates the trial rules. Senator schiff says hes doing this now because he might not get another opportunity later on. He needs four republicans to break with senator mcconnell. That will prove tough. Senior sara murray is back with us. Sara, walk through mcconnells rules of the room. Like you pointed out, this will kick off at 1 00 today. Tlal ha theyll have their partisan food fight on how to conduct this trial. Everyone thinks Mitch Mcconnell will get what he wants, and what he wants is 24 hours for each opening argument. They each get two days and that means a lot of late nights. Senators have 16 hours to submit questions. They will submit their questions in writing to chief justice john roberts. After that we move to the third phase. This is the big fight. This is the question whether senators want to hear from witnesses, whether they want to see documents. Theyll have four hours to debate on that. Then theyll vote. If that vote goes down, if they do not get enough senators to vote on more information, we could have a few more motions, and ultimately the vote on the articles of impeachment. If it plays out this way, this could all be over in a matter of days. Of course, the question mark is how senators will break on the question of more information, either documents or witnesses. Sara, thank you very much. Anderson . Thanks very much, wolf, jake. The trial is set to begin in less than an hour. Right now were waiting for Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell. He is expected to make comments today on the senate floor. Manu raju is on capitol hill. What are you hearing . Were certainly hearing from a lot of Donald Trumps camp today about the rules. Is that what well hear here as well . That debate will start in about an hour. The impeachment managers will lead the resolution. Democrats will bring a series of amendments for witnesses to be produced, documents to be produced, but expect each of those amendments to go down, because most republicans, if not all republicans, believe they should be dealt with after. One swing republican i just spoke to moments ago, mitt romney, the u. S. Republican senator, has said he does want to hear from john bolton. But he said democrats are approaching this the incorrect way. Hes not concerned about the mcconnell rules versus the clinton rules, and he said the question of witnesses should be dealt with later. The changes are modest and i dont think are significant in any dramatic way. So, for instance, whether something is going to be taking 12 hours per day or eight hours per day, its still going to be covered in the news. What is officially going into evidence doesnt make a big difference because the senators are free to look at all the information they have that comes from the house. I think those two issues are just not big ones. I think the democrats make a mistake when they call outrage time and time again. If everything is an outrage, then nothing is an outrage. The big issue, i think, relates to issues. The vote of issues will be after what counts. Were not going to deal with them now, well deal with them later just like with the clinton process. Are you going to vote against the amendments today . I havent seen all the amendments, but if they bring a witness amendment, im going to say no. Im interested in hearing from john bolton, perhaps some others, but im not going to be making that vote today, ill make the vote after the opening. I appreciate it. Thank you for your time. Reporter that shows the challenge democrats have right now in trying to get 51 senators to get behind their move to subpoena these witnesses, because right now there are not the votes to do just that. Well have to worry about that after the opening arguments, after senators have some time for questioning. If the question is will there be those votes, at the moment if they do go forward, there are still several steps to bring them forward. Witnesses will be deposed behind closed doors, and then senators have to vote on allowing them to come forward. Thats why there is a lot of skepticism about whether there will be any witnesses. If there are no witnesses or subpoenas or documents, the president could be acquitted by sometime next week, anderson. Manu raju, thank you very much. Back to our team with expert legal analysts. Do you think there is anything wrong with the republican argument of, we dont need to deal with this witness thing now, we want to do it after the cases have been made . I think the big issue with it is democrats will say, thats not how a trial works. How do you start a trial and not know whether or not you call witnesses . What the republicans will say is that all of the discussion, all the arguments, thats all preliminary in deciding what snfgs necessa information is necessary on the issue. Something mitt romney said was interesting, and i think it may be a preview of what well hear a lot over the next few days. Among these republicans who are at least quasi open to witnesses, the idea that, well, im open to witnesses, but what the democrats are doing to get witnesses is wrong. So theyre going to try to have it both ways. Theyre going to say, look, i was open to witnesses, but the democrats were so bad and so partisan and so inappropriate in how they went about it, im going to vote against it. I think Susan Collins, lamar alexander, theyre going to make an attempt. Whether the lawyers will buy that or not remains to be seen. I think there are two big, big considerations out there that the public should have in mind when they list ton the en debate, if they do later today. One, this is the first time the Republican Party has ever controlled a senate trial in the history of the United States. Its never happened before. Either it was the other party, or it was a fraction in the case of andrew johnson. This is the first time. So the problem for the democrats is its the president s party who is running the show in the senate, and they understandably are nervous and want some protections right at the beginning. Second big difference is that we witnessed the largest coverup, the largest stonewall of an impeachment in history during the house period of this. So this is the context. Youre saying because of the documents they didnt respond to one the president didnt respond to one subpoena. Thats unprecedented. Richard nixon didnt get to the trial stage, but he did respond to subpoenas for documents. Let me stop you right there, because republican sentorum last night and said this happens all the time. Senator sen torqutorum talket obama. There is Something Different about impeachment. Yes, there will be a struggle between the executive branch. He said, yes, you can have documents, but if you asked me for an impeachment, thats different. There has always been a push and pull between the two, of course, but our founders want as much. I dont think the argument is very useful at all. One last point which is important. If you have this massive stonewall, the senate has the power, in our constitution, to be an active player in judging. Read the cold record of a grand jury and live with it, those words are nonsense. All the senators know the white house is stonewalled. They have an obligation to the public to try to get the information. Lawy. Gloria, its not just witnesses but documents. Jerry nadler certainly focusing on documents as well as schumer. Schumer said thats going to be their first motion. Explain why the documents are so important. Documents dont have that tttle nag it iting. You often here in court. The context is enough to show the whole story, but people are talking about having little bugs in their ear. It was 90 documents given by the president. Youre talking about documents that let everybody understand what the president was doing. You heard manu raju say, dont worry about tonight. The media will give you the information tomorrow. And it need not happen while the American Public had the ability to see prosperity are the in i call it an exercise in democracy because you have to have the documents, the transparency and an ablebodied bunch of senators who want the information. Heres the issue. The senate has no more power to get those documents than the house does. And i think were going to hear that sort of over and over again from the republican senators. The house had the opportunity to get these documents, the house had the opportunity to get these witnesses. It decided they could do a complete investigation. They said they have an overwhelming case without that information. Now were in the senate. Republican senators are going to say, look, weve got the same problems. We asked for those documents, the president is going to assert public privilege. We had to make a decision on this very quickly. Were in the same boat. A great document, though, the president s own readout. One, there is an dpexercise in futility if they dont give up what they have, but they feel they can make the case the president abused his power on withholding aid to ukraine, and he doesnt have the power for obstruction of congress. I dont know if were going to get them but it changes this country. They may not get the documents, but its different if a republican senator asks for them. The impeachment trial starts in a short time from now. Senator schumer and mcconnell expect to talk on the senate floor. Details it if. Well have more special coverage in just a moment. Oh, i. I didnt know. You didnt see the sign . That. That wasnt there when i was here earlier. whimper really . You know, in italy, they let you park anywhere. Have a good day, sir. With geico, the savings keep on going. Just like this sequel. 15 minutes could save you 15 or more on Car Insurance. glass shattering frustrated yell car horn blast yelp and let me tell you something, rodeo. 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Dana, the argument is if nothing is is a crisis everything is a crisis. Do they need to get on board with witnesses and documents in this trial . By manu rajus reporting with senator romney, yes. He is really a key player here. He isnt necessarily talking to republicans, pulling them along behind the scenes, but hes a leader on this notion of wanting witnesses. Hes been saying it for some time. Hes a republican in a very republican state. His name is mitt romney. So hes okay politically, but when it comes to taking a page from his book, you can bet that other republicans like Susan Collins who was in a tough reelection race, correspoy gard same situation. Mitt romney was saying what the republicans will be doing today in trying to force votes to allow the documents and witnesses. Then im okay to do it, too. It was really a shot across the bow, i think, to democrats to say, calm down, were going to be with you. But if you push this too hard, were not. Dana bash on capitol hill, thank you very much. Its interesting, jon, that hes saying, mitt romney, that flaherty theres 51 witnesses voting for witnesses and documents. If they actually sign a subpoena asking for john bolton, they may fight it and go to the courts. But if the chief Justice Signs that subpoena authorizing it, theyll have a tough time in court. They might have a tough time in court. The best answer to that question is if that happens, we dont know what happens next in the sense that the administration has signalled it would assert some privilege over gottjohn bo. Does that mean the chief Justice Signs, john bolton answers the subpoena and they have some preliminary conversations behind doors just like they did in the house inquiry. Thats the way it always works. You have a private meeting first, you try to figure this out, what is john bolton going to say . If the question is, have you told fiona hill . Has she testified . Pd sdplz they would have to sort that out when they get there. Eight years ago he was the central figure. In the trump age, mitt romney is isolated. Can they get to four votes . Maybe. But the fact the opinion of mitt romney four years ago tells you everything you need to know about the trump age. Jack hawley said on capitol hill, im prepared to vote today. Most of them know how theyll vote in the end. But you would expect on the third day of the trial, lets hear testimony, lets see how this plays out, but instead you have people saying, lets go home. Thats all. Mitt romney knows these will not be easy votes for socalled moderate republicans, that when you have a vote on documents, y you have documents. I think the schumer strategy is to have more of those votes and get those republicans on the record. Stand by, everyone. Were learning more details about one of the president s personal attorneys, jay sekulow. Tell us the role of jay sekulow on this legal team. Reporter jay sekulow is an outside attorney and hes taking the lead at the president s request, along with Pat Cipollone. We will be hearing from them for the first time. He is someone who not only has the legal experience, hes argued four katsz over the dej ai. Many people saw him in the russia probe. He was the president s lead personal attorney during the russia probe. Hes someone who has years and years of media experience, so he is expected to bring more flare to the defense, and hes a prime time tested counterweight to Pat Cipollone who has been behind the scenes and has no television experience. That is a big reason why the president wanted him on the board, because of that media savvy, the television experience. He wants it to be interesting, and the president believes he can bring that to the table. I spoke to jay sekulow about his role, and he said one of the things that prepared him for this moment was, of course, the russia probe, as i mentioned. As his colleague jay raskin, who is also on the team, said in some ways this is not viewed as much of a challenge to the lawyers after having gone through that experience with robert mueller, the special counsel. So jay sekulow says he very much feels prepared. Hes been working alongside Pat Cipollone more than a month for this moment. He compared their relationship to john lennon and Paul Mccartney saying they work very well together, and well see this scene play out very shortly. Pamela, thank you very much. Still ahead, were going to take you live to capitol hill where senators are now arriving. This is cnn special live coverage. 9. 95 at my age . 9. 95 . No way. 9. 95 . Thats impossible. Hi, im jonathan, a manager here at Colonial Penn Life Insurance company, to tell you it is possible. If youre age 50 to 85, you can get Life Insurance with options starting at just 9. 95 a month. Okay, jonathan, im listening. Tell me more. 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Reporter in the last hour or so, weve talked to a dozen senators as they made their way to the u. S. Capitol. Heres kind of the baseline of things talking to senators of both parties. The underlying resolution offered by senator Mitch Mcconnell is it will split along party lines. We heard from senator romney, we heard last night from senator lamar alexander, a retired representative, and they both said they are okay with the way the rules turned out. Mcconnell was clueing in his members throughout this entire process, ensuring they knew what was coming, ensuring they knew what was in the resolution and not moving forward, im told, with anything until he was sure all 53 republican senators would be behind him on that front. Weve seen him repeatedly in public over the last couple Hours Express their outrage over how this is all happening. They are now meeting privately, 47 dti