The u.s. Senate voted Friday to not allow new testimony in documents and President Trump's impeachment trial said I'm a vote next week on the 2 articles of impeachment and facing the president also. A vaccine against the new will hon corona virus may start testing in as little as 3 months that's according to the Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Rector Anthony felt she Chinese scientists 1st announced cases of unusual pneumonia on December 31st Sept 2019 and by January 11th they had isolated the new corona virus and published its complete genome with the virus blueprints in hand one pharmaceutical company designed a vaccine and 3 hours manufactured starting the next day that's considered to be fast it took 20 months before a vaccine against severe acute respiratory syndrome SARS reserve ready for clinical use the vaccine will still need to be tested for safety and that will take months or more the United States declared a public health emergency and announced significant entry restrictions in an effort to prevent the spread of the new virus the u.s. Senate has voted against someone. From anywhere in China will be allowed into the country but will face screening and be required to undertake 14 days of self isolation Americans returning from a province the center of the outbreak will be placed in mandatory quarantine the announcement came not long after health officials issued a federal quarantine order to continue monitoring Americans who've been staying at a Southern California military base since they were evacuated from Han China I'm Jennifer King and again a vaccine against the new rule Hon corona virus may start testing in as little as 3 months according to National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony this is v.o.a. News. Singing patriotic songs and waving Union Jacks thousands of Britons flocked to a muddy patch of grass outside Parliament on a damp Friday a night to both and toast their moment in history that spreads departure from the European Union in a while Prime Minister aborts Johnson kept a low profile in a private reception in his Downing Street office more than 5000 people gathered just down the road to celebrate that moment she brags that campaigner Nigel Farage told the crowd that they had plenty of reason to celebrate goes well you know but this is the single most important moment in the boat history. Right now you shouldn't That is what is happening tonight and Britain's exit from the e.u. In 47 years of union with Europe it also draws a line under a bitter and divisive wrangle over whether and how the country should cut its ties to the block. The trumpet ministration will lift certain limits on the use of landmines as a weapon of war a be corresponded but Thomas at a Pentagon news conference Secretary of Defense Mark esper says land mines are an important tool and u.s. Commanders need to have them available to shape the battlefield and to protect our forces the Obama administration had committed to destroying u.s. Stockpiles of land mines not needed for the defense of South Korea and sought to move the United States toward eventually joining and then international agreement that banned the production use stockpiling in transfer of anti-personnel land mines asked about the morality of using land mines given the dangers they composed to civilians along after a war has ended esper says Pentagon plans will take great care to take into account both the safety of employment and the safety to civilians and others after a conflict Ben Thomas Washington President Donald Trump said a new order creating a White House position focusing in human trafficking the 34 year old woman told the jury Weinstein trapped her in a hotel room in New York in 2013 and angrily ordered her to undress 8 months later she testified in a hotel in Los Angeles where she worked as a hairdresser Weinstein screamed at her You owe me one more time I don't have time for games she also told the jury Weinstein could be charming but if he heard the word no it was like a trigger for him the defense said the woman sent Weinstein warm emails that said things like Miss you big guy but not once in hundreds of emails did she accuse him of harming her Harvey Weinstein has maintained any sexual encounters were consensual I made Donahue News dot com Tommy make me believe. From Washington to v.o.a. Presents issues in the news. Welcome to issues in music on the panel this week Kimberly Adams correspondent for Marketplace Jonathan Broder contributing editor at Newsweek and our moderator is Paul Brandis my healthy border for West Wing lawyer and a columnist for USA Today. Hello thank you for joining us and here are the issues dramatic developments in the Senate trial of President Trump the coronavirus has declared an international health emergency a new peace plan for the Middle East and Bracks said Britain is set to officially withdraw its membership from the European Union Well let's start with the Senate trial of President Trump as of this taping it looks like there will not be any Senate witnesses at all and given the math in that chamber it's the certain we've known this from the beginning of course that the president will be acquitted at some point but why no witnesses Jonathan I think that the Republicans feel that the House managers in this case the prosecutors of the case against the president had an opportunity to make their case when they had the hearings in the house and that they are now asking the Senate to do more investigation in other words do the job that they were supposed to have done in the house and they're not willing to do that you know the Republicans have said Kimberly that well if we have witnesses this is one of the excuses that they're offering is that if we have a witness is able just to delay all this we could be talking about this trial running for months and months into the election but Adam. Shift force one of the key House impeachment managers has said we're only asking for an additional week which was the case during the Clinton trial President Clinton's trial back in 1999 what's wrong with one additional week that's not very long well it depends on who you ask the Republicans will say that this is already gone on far too long that it's a distraction that it's keeping Congress and really the American public away from larger and more important issues but the political calculus of this is that one witness who they're particularly they would like to Democrats would like to hear from former Ambassador John Bolton who used to work in the trumpet ministration they would like as the national scene as a national security adviser but yes many titles for John Bolton down over 3 years but the Republicans are very worried that that would sort of open a Pandora's Box John Bolton has already in the process of sort of leaking particular details of his book deal or others leaking it wherever those leaks came from he incriminates lots of other people in the trumpet ministration said the president had direct knowledge and definitely directly called upon various people in the administration to pressure the Ukrainians to interfere in the election and so the Republicans are worried that if he takes the stand as a witness that that would just open the door to calls for more witnesses and go on and on there's one other factor here and that is that the arguments of the president's defenders have shifted over time they began by saying there's absolutely no evidence that he abused power everything is hearsay it's basically secondhand and as it became clear that the House managers had made a pretty compelling case that he did use his office for personal political gain. The argument shifted and it became well yes he did do that but it doesn't rise to the level of impeachment this is been a particular nuance we've heard from several of President Trump's defenders that it was wrong but not impeachable and this is a distinction that obviously is very important in this case here's a thought that I want to throw out a bit by both of you can respond to this my sense is that if you look at the surveys that considerable majority of Americans including almost half of Republicans say they have they want witnesses here they want to hear from witnesses so if the president is acquitted and he will be acquitted with out witnesses or documents they are going to be a lot of Americans who are on likely to accept I think the legitimacy of this trial because witnesses were not heard and they will not feel like the president was properly exonerated something interesting in this election years at a reasonable thought it's a reasonable thought I mean with the Kaviak that we still don't know what's going to happen today there is you know American politics you never know there's always a chance that the Supreme Court chief justice who's overseeing it if it ends up as a tie he could weigh in and say that witnesses could go for it you just never know so with that caveat yes it seems incredibly likely the president is going to be acquitted I question how much people outside of the beltway care there are a lot of issues at play in this election the people who don't like President Trump still don't like President Trump the people who like President Trump heading into this impeachment proceeding still like President Trump those things don't really move and I think given the other issues in the American consciousness I don't know for whom this is going to be sort of big rallying issue. Not really going to move the needle one way or the other as you say now very briefly Jonathan we're about 10 months from a presidential election now the economy is Ok and not spectacular 2 percent I think a reading on the u.s. Economy in terms of growth if he is acquitted just very quickly what does that mean for is it real action prospects I think that what's going to happen is that the acquittal without witnesses will be a major major political talking point for the Democrats we've already gotten a sense of it from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who has said his acquittal won't mean anything he hasn't been acquitted because there wasn't really a fair trial so they will use this to stir up their base and their voters the impeachment drama really isn't over even though he will probably be acquitted this will become a talking to have a quick point yes but it's also a talking point for Republicans who will go out and they already are saying the Democrats tried multiple times to go after the president with the Moeller investigation with impeachment they still couldn't bring him down and we'll hear that on ads for months it's all right more to 10 more months of this I think until election all moving on the State Department has issued a travel advisory on China telling Americans not to travel to China because of the public health threat posed by the corona virus the department said the new advisory at level 4 or red it's a red alert they say which is the highest alert that the State Department uses for travel situations Now this of course comes on top of the World Health Organization declaring this virus now a global emergency they now have this virus popping up in more than a dozen countries Kimberly's the race to contain this virus being one we don't know yet we won't know until there's a vaccine that's been good efforts and they. Sequence the d.n.a. Of this they've been able to replicate it which are usually sort of the early steps of coming up with a cure or a vaccine for something hearkening back to sort of the race for an Ebola vaccine that we saw just a couple of years back this is spreading very very quickly and one of the big concerns globally is that people don't necessarily show symptoms while they are contagious and so you had this situation in Italy where someone on a cruise ship simply had a fever but because they were from China they ended up kind of freaking out putting everybody on the cruise ship on lockdown until that person was cleared and you know we're seeing a lot of that a lot of backlash against Chinese citizens globally who are traveling and being viewed with skepticism people putting up signs saying they don't want Chinese tourists in their stablish ments in various parts of the world the Chinese government has had to take efforts to sometimes bring back their citizens who are facing sort of discrimination abroad as people panic there was a headline in one of the French papers the headline was yellow scare which is deeply racist and so many levels to go and tell us about the economic impact to we've seen for example airlines that are curtailing flights to China this kind of thing are clearly some kind of economic impact it's actually huge there's expectations it's going to be a significant hit to China's g.d.p. It's already starting to have effect obviously on the businesses and the organizations in the province but as we've recently learned from the trade war lots of American companies are very very deeply ingrained in the Chinese economy and so I hate to use this analogy in this context but you know when China coughs the whole world catches a cold in this case you look at a company like Starbucks which has its 2nd largest presence in the world in China and had to pretty much shut down a lot of its coffee shops and all of its coffee shops in order to not provide an opportunity for this to spread you're seeing. Companies like Google keeping its employees at home movie releases are not happening because they don't want people to congregate and then there's the ripple effect outside of China of airlines canceling flights and having to reroute or redo their schedules the tourism industry is really being harmed I have to admit I've been paying a lot of attention to this I'm supposed to go on a cruise with my mother and sister about a week and the idea of being trapped on a boat with a lot of people in the midst of this is a little nerve racking so you can see all of the different ways that this ripples that you know I mean I ask that is actually an interesting point Maskey cuz mask companies are one of the winners in this there's a global shortage at this point as people raced to buy them up we just had earnings from 30 m. This week it was a big earnings week and 3 m. Was already doing very well they are a major producer of masks which are in high demand and their next quarterly earnings are probably going to be pressed there's if I may just add one thing the commerce secretary Wilbur Ross made what some people consider of rather insensitive comment where he basically said that China's loss will be America's gain and all of these companies American companies that have outsourced manufacturing over to China may now come back to the United States it was a very obvious ploy I thought to make political hay out of China's trouble maybe as Scrooge said it will decrease the surplus population as I saw in one tweet a very insensitive thing that he said you know some people are wondering just how dangerous this virus is and just for a little bit of context here here's some information from the World Health Organization coronaviruses like this Rouhani virus can travel only about 6 feet about 2 meters in other words from the infected person in contrast to measles which can travel up to $100.00. About 32 or 33 meters but it's unknown of course how long this virus can live on surfaces I'm not sure how helpful that is but that is something that they say well more and more issues in the news in just a moment this is in the news it's coming to you from the Voice of America and Washington and if you would like to download the program it's free on i Tunes Just click on the i Tunes tab on our website at v.o.a. News dot com While you're there check out our other programs Press Conference USA and encounter also visit us on Facebook and leave a comment or 2 then like us at current affairs with Carol passed d.l. Now back to our panel Kimberly Adams correspondent for Marketplace Jonathan Broder contributing editor at Newsweek and our moderator Paul Brandis White House reporter for West Wing reports and a columnist for USA Today. Welcome back the United States and Israel have unveiled a Mideast peace plan 3 years in the making it's called the Peace to prosperity plan that's what it's called Jonathan you're an old the Middle East and boil it down well the plan is basically a take it or leave it sort of proposition the plan would allow Israel to annex the West Bank sorry annex the Jordan Valley which is a portion of the West Bank over on the the eastern edge of it Israel has said many many times that they would never ever give up the Jordan Valley. The plan would also allow Israel at a certain point to an ex the settlements and in response for the Palestinians there are a number of steps that they would have to take in order to qualify for 50000000000 dollars in aid which would come from mostly the. The Gulf Arab countries now they would have a small sliver of East Jerusalem basically the eastern suburbs to be able to claim that as their capital but Israel would have overall sovereignty over East Jerusalem and it would have total security predominance over the entire West Bank now the Palestinians have rejected this out of hand here's the problem with this plan for the Palestinians the Palestinians want justice this is what they've always demanded and justice goes back to 1948 to the creation of Israel and the displacement of the Palestinians that is not going to happen that train has left the station 71 years ago this plan in essence is an attempt by the way I see it as it is an attempt by the company ministration to essentially codified what the Israelis are doing anyway the Israelis have built many many settlements in the West Bank they've asserted their sovereignty over Jerusalem and if you take the number of Israelis and Jews that are living in both east Jerusalem which is occupied territory according to the u.n. And the West Bank there's 700000 Israeli Jews living in East Jerusalem in the West Bank they are not leaving their highways that connect them to Israel if you commit a crime on a settlement. You are judged according to Israeli law not according to military long which applies to the Palestinians or the prospect and this is for you can really mean the prospect of tens of billions of dollars in investment for the Palestinians is badly needed in terms of economic development they don't have very much there is widespread poverty under investment in everything and education and infrastructure on and on and on despite what Jonathan said it's worth 2 things worth pointing out nothing has worked up to this point I mean since $948.00 I mean nothing has work and the situation continues to fester what's wrong with tens of billions of dollars in investment in trying to improve living standards for the Palestinians to simply repeat the point that Jonathan made the Palestinians would like that investment sure but they would like justice and land more but the point the trumpet ministration is making which is also related to a jot them saying is this is the best you're going to get this is codified status quo Yes but it's also saying that Israel is going to put a hold on additional settlements for 4 years if they agree to it sort of unsaid in this is that if you say no to this they're going to keep building settlements you're going to continue to experience restrictions on freedom of movement you're going to continue to face all of the things that Jonathan laid out but there is just a global weariness around this issue and obvious lack of initiative by some of the other Arab allies of the Palestinians to back them up in continuing this fight they all have their own issues that they're dealing with and so that's why you have some of these Gulf Arab countries who participate in these negotiations and the Emmer Audi's the Saudis saying you know like oh let's consider this and the Jordanians aren't sort of. Missing it out of hand but the Palestinians they're sort of running out of options and so the tribe ministration whether the plan is a good one or not is laid out a hard truth that this is likely the best they're going to get at the same time it's worth noting the political moment of the release of this plan both presidential run and Benjamin Netanyahu are in deep political trouble in their own countries and so whether this plan is a realistic option or not it's a nice distraction for the both of them on that point to me and carefully deferring to the fact that Benjamin Netanyahu was indicted on in fact the very day that his plan was released on some serious issues bribery and other crimes back home and there are some cynics who say that this plan all of a sudden after 3 years they've decided to release it a month before yet another election he's deadlocked of course with the Benny Gantz his chief rival there they've had a couple of elections and it has not been settled because it too cynical to say that they released this plan just as a way of maybe you know propping up Netanyahu had of this latest election that's one part of it Trump and that's when you who are considered very very close but it also has to help Trump because one of the biggest supporters part of Trump's base are evangelicals who are very very supportive of Israel for their own reasons so at the ceremony when this plan was unveiled in the White House very prominent among those attending were evangelical leaders so it helps Trump as well I just sort of make one other point if you look at the history of the peace plans that have been laid out over the years under former prime minister has to go she ations with Arafat's during the Clinton ministration very end of the Clinton ministration in the year 2000 they came quite close they came quite close and what was offered to the Palestinians was 96 percent of the West Bank 96 percent that plan fell through then a who'd buy. Iraq who was the successor to. He offered them 98 percent the Palestinians refuse that as well so as Kimberly said now they're being offered 70 percent so it's going from $96.00 to $98.00 to $7.00 and meanwhile the population the Jewish population of the West Bank continues to grow the Palestinians themselves are divided the Palestinian Authority which is basically the Fatah party rules the West Bank and Hamas which is an Islamic fundamentalist party runs the Gaza Strip and they hate each other so the years really attitude is look our economy is booming they don't really represent a secured threat any longer because they've built this wall that prevents people from coming in very few Palestinians now work inside of Israel so the attitude is look you know you want to continue living the way you're living now fine it doesn't really affect us and Trump clearly has bought into that and the Palestinians are going to have to make a decision now what's really interesting is that even though the leadership has rejected that. Yes we really haven't heard from the population yet we've got just a couple of minutes left her and I did want to talk about the final story for this week Britain is set to officially withdraw from the European Union or e.u. Of course there will be this transitional period that Boron apparently through that and 2020 now Kimberly your financial journalist I have a friend in London just like you major financial journalists there he tells me there's still a ton of uncertainty about what is going to happen over the next year even in Britain they don't know so perhaps you can clarify for us what's going to happen that's a sarcastic question why does nobody nobody nobody seems to know what nobody seems to know what's going to happen right we've we've all spent every one of our cabinets journalism has been the last year and a half years talking about what the implications of Bragg's it would be and they only firm answer I've heard that I believe is it depends it depends on what deal Boris Johnson is able to negotiate with the European Union once Greggs it is accomplished at the end of the day I guess it depends on whether or not there is a hard border with between Northern Ireland and Ireland it depends on whether or not they're going to stay in in the currency union It depends on what the trade in tariff range mean is it depends on what kind of trade deals that the u.k. Is able to work out on a bilateral level with its partners the top administration has already talked about being able to do a wonderful deal with the u.k. Once they have left the European Union but from a u.k. Perspective they don't have much leverage they have to have a good deal with the u.s. So that kind of leaves Trump who loves making deals kind of free rein to set the terms and he loves making deals that are to his advantage is that and I think that some of the projected economic damage of Bragg's that has already been done you've already seen a lot of financial institutions real. Locating their headquarters out of London you've seen a lot of businesses that have tried to stockpile for a while and then it wasn't really brags that when they ran down those stockpiles and they stockpiled again people are trying to work out where they're going to get their labor force those who rely on workers coming in from the e.u. So it depends what is this done to the British economy of the last couple of years ago what's the forecast for British growth from this point you know when when we 1st started talking about brags it was a big shock to the economy of the Pound just dropped precipitously and it never really fully came back from that we're probably still going to see. Some fluctuations and the pound sort of being lower than it would be otherwise as a result of this. I think as people sort of renegotiate the global supply chain is an upheaval anyway because of the trade war and this is sort of playing into that so. Right away a muted economic impact from what we've already seen down the road to pay for it will have to end it right there thanks to 2 of Washington's most prominent journalist Kimberly Adam She's the Washington correspondent for Marketplace and Jonathan Broder he's contributing editor at Newsweek this program was produced by Carol Castillo our engineer Justin Thwaites and I'm Paul Brandis thanks very much for joining us. From v.o.a. Press Conference USA here's your host Carol Castillo. Welcome to Press Conference USA on The Voice of America joining me on the program is v.o.a. Senior national correspondent Jim alone our topic on this edition of the program the politics and substance of the impeachment trial of Donald j. Trump president of the United States the Democratic led House of Representatives impeached Donald Trump on December 18th 2019 for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress making him the 3rd president in history to be charged with committing high crimes and misdemeanors and face removal by the Senate Democrats characterized his impeachment or indictment as an urgent action to stop a corrupt president whose misdeeds had unfolded in plain view from damaging the United States any further House Democrats an independent Justin Amash said that Mr Trump abused his power by subverting American foreign policy for his personal political benefit and obstructed Congress by defying all subpoenas for witnesses and documents and ordering his subordinates not to cooperate with the investigation during the Senate trial the House of Representatives managers produced evidence that President Trump pressured Ukrainian president Volodymyr Selenski to announce investigations into Mr Trump's rival Joe Biden to benefit him politically as well as a debunked theory that Ukraine not Russia interfered in the 2016 u.s. Election before agreeing to grant a White House meeting and disperse almost $400000000.00 in Congressionally approved military aid for u.s. Ally Ukraine in mid January the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office found that the trumpet ministration illegally froze this security assistance during his. Closing argument lead impeachment manager Congressman Adam Schiff Democrat from California argued that Donald Trump quote must be convicted and removed from office because he will always choose his own personal interest over the u.s. National interest unquote and you know you can't trust this president do what's right for this country you can trust he will do what's right for Donald Trump he'll do it now he's done it before they'll do it for the next several months they'll do it in the election if he's allowed to this is why if you find him guilty you must find that he should be removed Representative Adam Schiff speaking to the Senate in his closing remarks on the other hand Mr Trump's defense team argued that the House managers had not established their case and that their accusations fell short of the threshold needed to remove the president from office particularly in an election year here is White House counsel Pats a below what they are asking you to do is to throw out a successful president on the eve of an election with no basis and in violation of the Constitution it would dangerously change our country and weaken weaken forever all of our democratic institutions Pats a bologna White House counsel however it is precisely because president allegedly tried to interfere in the upcoming 2020 elections by soliciting dirt on his chief political rival Joe Biden by a foreign government that house managers believe Mr Trump should be removed from office they also wanted a fair trial which normally includes witnesses and documents something which has yet to occur even though a large majority of Americans are in favor of both the especially wish to call John Bolton President former national security adviser in whose yet to be published memoir writes that trump personally told him that he is withholding 391000000 in military. To Ukraine until Ukraine announces an investigation into Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden but Alan Dershowitz one of the president's defense lawyers said that nothing in the Bolton revelations even if true would rise to the level of an abuse of power or an impeachable offense he also rejected what he called vague terms such as abuse of power and obstruction of justice as among the enumerated and defined criteria for impeaching the president this theory has been rejected by most constitutional scholars he went so far as to say that anything a president does to get reelected could be considered in the nation's interest and therefore not impeachable Well our distinguished guest on this edition of the program will shed light on the politics and substance of the impeachment trial Allan Lichtman is distinguished professor of history at American University here in Washington his most recent book is repeal the 2nd Amendment the case for a safer America and he is the author of the case for impeachment he predicted the election of Donald Trump and he also predicted his impeachment we will now talk with him about that very topic the impeachment trial of President Donald j. Trump even Alan Dershowitz invoked Allan Lichtman in his remarks to the Senate so Allan Lichtman joins us here at the v.o.a. Broadcast Center in Washington Alan welcome back to the program great to see you again and always I'm delighted to welcome my colleague Jim a lot of pleasure thank you so Allen you predicted President Trump selection you predicted that he would be impeached now what tell us your assessment of the trial so far the process and the politics I think the trial has been absolutely devastating to Donald Trump you don't park your common sense at the curb when you go to be a juror or to assess a trial and every single piece of evidence including the a lot of things that have come. I'm out since the impeachment have all been incriminating they all make it crystal clear that Donald Trump used the power and authority of his office to get a foreign nation to help him cheat in the 2020 election by ditching dirt on the man who had emerged as his primary opponent former Vice President Joe Biden and to take Russia off the hook for interfering in the 2016 election and pushing the discredited theory not just by the entire intelligence community but by a bipartisan consensus of the Senate Intelligence Committee that somehow it was really Ukraine not Russia that interfered in the election the defense against this has become so thin that we had Alan Dershowitz make the incredibly outrageous argument that because a president believes that his reelection is in the national interest he can do any thing he wants break the law bring in foreign nations to help us cheat so long as he believes it helps him get reelected and is in the national interest this has now become as bad as Watergate This is exactly what John Mitchell the campaign chair of the Committee to Re-elect the President President Nixon argued that we engage in all these illegal activities and all these dirty tricks because we thought the reelection of Richard Nixon was so important to the country if you believe that you might as well kiss our democracy goodbye we've become Vladimir Putin's Russia of course the Republicans are saying that this is a partisan exercise on the part of the Democrats because it's mostly Democrats except for the one independent lawmaker no Republican lawmaker voted for impeachment in the House of Representatives So what do you say. To that end do you think that if the shoe were on the other foot that if a Democratic president did what Mr Trump has been alleged to do do you think that the Republicans would be so dismissive of the charges as they are now it seems I think it is correct that this is a partisan vote clearly and we are in a very partisan age and on the one hand you could say the Democrats proceeded with impeachment without a bipartisan consensus but you can say on the other hand the Republicans have become the complete enablers of Donald Trump blinding themselves to what is patiently obvious his clear abuse of power which virtually every constitutional scholar agrees is impeachable and they didn't as Dershowitz claims concoct this because Donald Trump is on trial that notion well established that abuse of power is impeachable goes back decades you can go back to Royal Burger's classic study of impeachment in 1974 and he certainly made that point now why have Republicans become complete enablers of Donald Trump even buying into his idea that I can do anything I want as president because they have nothing left Donald Trump has trashed every principle that the Republicans once claimed to stand for personal morality personal responsibility for the delegate to the truth gone limited government fiscal responsibility gone respect for traditional institutions gone standing up to autocratic government in Russia gone so the only thing they have left to do. To fall back on is Donald Trump That's why they have blinded themselves to all of the evidence and all of the soundest constitutional arguments to do nothing but try to exonerate chump they don't even want to call witnesses every single impeachment trial in us history has has witnesses with an average of 33 per trial they don't want to hear from John Bolton whose book according to The New York Times indicates that he has the direct evidence from Donald Trump that he held up nearly $400000000.00 in security aid to get Ukraine to fetch dirt on his political opponents if that isn't relevant I don't know what possibly could be here and one of the arguments or criticisms by the Republicans is that we don't have direct witnesses but they are the ones that are preventing these witnesses from appearing Yeah it's is absolutely in comprehensible argument we don't have direct evidence but we don't let it come in and as far as if Barack Obama had done 110th of the things that Donald Trump has done the Republicans would have him impeached and dismissed faster than you can say Richard Nixon. Jim Malone Allan's great to see you and thanks for coming on the program as always I wonder if we anticipate that in the end because of the Republican majority in the Senate the president will be acquitted and all of this then kind of gets focused on the November election really the presidential election what do you foresee is the possible impact the political fallout from what we've seen in recent months with the Trump and Pietschmann I think the conventional wisdom has always is wrong they seem to think this will be forgotten by November I respectfully disagree it was my 13 keys to the White House that enabled me to predict Donald Trump's win against all the conventional wisdom and one of the. A negative keys that can turn against a president or his party is the scandal Kate and this has certainly turned the scandal key with Donald Trump being only the 3rd American president to be impeached by the full House and by the way what the conventional wisdom also seems to be overlooking is while the public is divided on whether Donald Trump should be removed they're not divided on whether he's done something wrong over 60 percent believe either in the campaign or as president he's done something wrong 70 percent believe he's done something on Ethical a substantial majority believes indeed regardless of what Alan Dershowitz paddles that he has indeed committed an abuse of power and as we know every single new piece of evidence is a incriminating not excuse but Tory They could block the Republicans John Bolton from testifying but they can silence his voice the White House has even tried astoundingly to stifle free speech by blocking publication of his book on the phony claim that it's revealing classified information from what we've seen from the New York Times it's not classified information it's politically embarrassing information I think Adam Schiff is right the truth will eventually come out and a lot more will come out that is going to be damning before the election you think it's disappointing though to Democrats that they haven't seemed to move President Trump's base that much on these allegations also I've been watching the president's approval rating it's actually creeping up ever so slightly in recent weeks it did dip after the impeachment vote late last year but what's your take on how this impacts his approval rating and how voters see him generally I don't think it moves the base at all if anything it might make the base more supportive of Donald Trump because they think their guy. Is under attack but the approval rating which is you know maybe checked up half a point but it still in the low 40 percent range reflects more of the economy that he also truth is given the economy that we've had his approval rating should be 65 percent not 43 percent so I think all of the flaws of Donald Trump as a leader as a person are what's holding him down and the Democrats should forget about a space that's not what they have to go after his base isn't big enough to get him reelected you don't win with 42 percent 43 percent of the vote it's the independents that matter and they overwhelmingly in all of the polling believe that Donald Trump has done something wrong and a majority believes that we should go as far as to remove him from office you're listening to Press Conference USA on The Voice of America our guest is Allan Lichtman distinguished professor of history at American University and I'm Carol Castillo along with senior national correspondent Jim alone we're analyzing the impeachment trial of Donald j. Trump president of the United States this is a reminder that our peace USA podcast is available on our website at v.o.a. News dot com slash p.c. USA a new v.o.a. English app for both Android and Apple devices has been developed and we encourage you to download and use them you may also follow us on Twitter or connect with us on Facebook at Carol cast e.l.v. Away here's a big shout out to a loyal fan and one. From Kananga Democratic Republic of Congo if you want to hear your name and home country on the air please send an e-mail to p.c. USA at v.o.a. News dot com or like us and leave a comment on our Facebook page so back to our special guest Allan Lichtman talking about the impeachment trial of Donald j. Trump Now what about the argument Alan that the Democrats they just want to undo the 2016 election why we. They'd be doing this so close to the 2020 Alexion now we sort of know why they're worried that he would feel emboldened to solicit more foreign assistance to assist him in trying to win the election but how would you respond to that critique it's completely off base I was one of those who had been advocating opening an impeachment investigation after special counsel Robert Muller found 10 instances of obstruction of justice but in fact the Democratic leadership resisted that they didn't want to move to impeachment just the opposite of the critique they only move towards impeachment when Donald Trump in effect self impeached by breaking the law and shaking down a foreign power which I think is bribery and extortion to meddle in the 2020 election just as the Russians had meddled on his behalf in the 2016 election and in so far as cancelling out an election completely phony argument the framers put impeachment into the Constitution as an equal means of deciding who is fit to be president of the United States and they expected it to be used as John Adams said all men are veracious all men need to be checked so to say this is somehow an illegitimate cancellation of the election is to fly in the face of the plain meaning and plain words of the Constitution and by the way Alan Dershowitz who has put out this outrageous argument that a president can do anything he wants regardless of the law to get reelected also completely distorts the Constitution and the framers for example the most outrageous thing he did was he quotes Gouverneur Morris one of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention saying you have to have specifically enumerated things in the Constitution to charge president not vague ideas like abuse of power what he leaves out into. I really is that Gouverneur Morris then later said the debates at the convention changed my mind and I now believe in a broad category of impeachment offenses related to abuse of power including quote corruption of his electors Allan what do you make of the defense's arguments regarding the so-called quid pro quo now we know that foreign aid is often condition on certain acts by the recipient normally acts that are publicly known wavy involving more women in development or reaching other publicly acknowledged benchmarks but it seems like the defense is sort of conflating that with this particular quid pro quo that is asking a foreign power in this case ally Ukraine to investigate a political rival How do you see this conflation And what about the emphasis on Joe Biden or Hunter Biden trying to impugn the integrity of both of them there is no legitimate conflation of course foreign aid can be withheld for a legitimate public policy purpose and in accordance with the federal impoundment Control Act which said You must write a report to Congress give your reasons and get authorization from Congress because this shakedown of Ukraine had no legitimate purpose they broke the law the Government Accountability Office found they broke the law they didn't make a report to Congress they didn't provide any reasons Well they said well we broke the law and didn't do this because we didn't want to send a signal to the Russians that we were withholding this aid 2 points on that one it totally contradicts their argument that there's no harm because they admitted if the Russians know this there's major harm because it weakens our support for Ukraine and in. Amber to of course the Russians knew the Russians have the greatest intelligence operation in Europe the idea that they couldn't find this out unless you made a report to Congress is like so many other arguments utter nonsense and by the way Trump has said the aide was released ahead of time no the aide was released past time there had to be a special act of Congress to get it all dispersed and even to this day there is still money that hasn't been dispersed some Apart from the signal to the Russians the actual harm has also been the aid is so vital has been substantially delayed and what do you think the real reason behind the Republicans resistance to having witnesses and documents at a trial which normally has witnesses in documents every impeachment trial whether presidents or judges has had witnesses as many as an average of $33.00 they don't want witnesses because they know witnesses are going to be absolutely damaging to the president or they want John Bolton to get up here and say Donald Trump told me I'm withholding the aid from Ukraine intil they did dirt on my opponent do they want John Bolton to get up here and say that Secretary of State Mike Pompei who didn't defend the defamed us Ambassador to the Ukraine movie you have on of each knew that the charges against her will trumped up and phony created by the president's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani they don't want any of that to come out and there's a big difference between Adam Schiff and the other house managers talking about all this and actually having a live witnesses like reading a play on paper and actually seeing the play perform the difference couldn't be greater of course the Senators blamed the House managers for not waiting going through the courts to get the very win. Says of which they speak but on the other hand they're saying well that would have taken forever because of the stonewalling Nonetheless at their argument the president never claimed executive privilege contrary to what his defenders have told you he claimed absolute immunity so you take that through the courts it would probably take you right through the election and vitiate the impeachment entirely or even if you won before the election you know what Donald Trump starts the process all over again by then claiming executive privilege so that's a disingenuous argument and it's a trap you could certainly move much faster through the Senate with the chief justice sitting there who can make a ruling you know I wonder too as in your role as a presidential historian what does this do to the whole act of impeachment now this is the 2nd one we've had in about 20 years do you think in the very polarized age where in now it's going to become more of a partisan weapon I don't think so look the Democrats were so reluctant to impeach Nancy Pelosi said I think Donald Trump is so bad he should be in jail but it's not worth impeaching so I don't think this is going to lead to a rash of impeaching member they only acted when Donald Trump forced their hand they would have been guilty of the greatest negligence and malpractise if they had not opened up an impeachment inquiry after what Donald Trump didn't Ukraine he talked about the impact might be on the president's base about the impeachment how might this affect Democrats and Democratic voters as they look ahead to the election will they be somewhat depressed that the president would have overcome the impeachment actors could it fuel them in terms of what's going to happen in November I think they'll be fired up I think they'll be angry and ready to vote this president out you know that's been the Republican argument you don't like him vote them out so I don't think they'll be depressed or downtrodden you know the president tried to. Use impeachment to his advantage in the off year elections in 2019 and guess what they lost governorships in Kentucky and Louisiana they lost control of both houses in Virginia and Kentucky and Louisiana I deep ruby red states now and many analysts and ordinary Americans are worried about what the implications are for our foreign policy what message does this send if President Trump and that being acquitted by the Senate is not removed will that embolden him in terms of trying to solicit foreign assistance again engage in this kind of quid pro quo will do this for you if you know you do that for me when you know what implication he will be unleashed he will be emboldened Alan Dershowitz says I can do anything I want to get reelected because I think that's in the interest of the country he will cheat he will lie he will use foreign powers to his advantage he will again welcome and exploit Russian interference in our election this whole Republican argument has now given Russians a bright green light to do again what they did in 2016 side from its effect on the next election this puts our entire democracy in peril Here's what the Republicans are doing they are willing to sacrifice well over 200 years of the integrity of our democratic republic to protect this lying and corrupt President what about the impact on congressional oversight because even before the impeachment process President Trump would defy subpoenas or defy requests for information during the Constitutional process of oversight by the House of Representatives the president has become much closer to an autocrat and remarkably the Republican senators have in effect capitulate. The authority and power of their own chamber Congress will now be rendered ineffective the managers lied when they said you know virtually every president has claimed absolute immunity for high offices of the Governor who have they may be false Ronald Reagan said I want every person in my administration during the Iran Contra scandal to testify and tell the truth in the Bill Clinton impeachment 3 current and former chiefs of staff testified what Donald Trump has done is unique in the annals of American history and it is a dire portent for the balance of power in this country do we really want to turn in to Russia we have been such a successful democracy are Republicans willing to trash all of that to protect Donald Trump and by the way if he's removed it's not Nancy Pelosi who becomes president it's Mike Pence a down the pipe conservative Christian Republican is that such a terrible thing well that's a very good point and one could argue too that many of Mr Trump's policies are result of his association with Vice President pants the event Jellicoe base the conservative judges this is all channeling vice president Mike Pence I actually think if they could vote in secret a majority of Republican senators would prefer to have Mike Pence as president rather than the loose cannon that is Donald Trump. Well if there's a lightning bolt between now and the actual vote in the Senate you know God himself could come down in a basket and say Donald Trump is guilty and it would move most Republicans so that leaves the so where did the Democrats go from here well I think they have to utilize this and say this is been a whitewash this is been a sham trial we know that the president is guilty and Republicans are just ignoring the Constitution of the launch trashing our democracy and go after those Republicans in vulnerable states like Colorado and Iowa and New Hampshire So what about the fact that they may be at a disadvantage during the election if the Republicans in the Senate and even in the House are not willing to enforce stricter election laws to secure our election to fight against the mounds of dissin from ation that are being spread across social media platforms I mean this is a big challenge huge Look here's what's going on Republicans are relying on a shrinking base of the electorate right white people and basically white men that is the most vanishing part of the electorate we have becoming a much more diverse society they can create more old white men but they can try to suppress the votes of the Democratic base through things like uh purges of voter rolls photo voter id laws and they could try to cheat in elections like Donald Trump is doing in Ukraine and by welcoming inviting and utilizing the interference of Vladimir Putin on the Russian intelligence services this is beyond anything that we saw in Watergate beyond anything we've ever seen in the history of the country I've been studying politics for over 50 years and I can barely sleep at night Allan Lichtman. Is distinguished professor of history at American University he's the author of the case for impeachment Allan Lichtman thanks so much for coming in and sharing your very unique insights about this impeachment trial Thank you Carol Press Conference USA on The Voice of America was produced in Washington joining me on the program was a senior national correspondent Jim Malone thanks to Kim Lois for booking our guest our engineer was Joe Gale I'm Carol Castillo join me again next week for another press conference USA on the boys of America.

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