one thing he could learn is that clinton made a big effort, and you remember this very well because you were covering him the whole time, clinton made this big effort to come part meant lies, americans don t have to always be reminded of it. and you saw that discipline in his state of the union address which did take place during that impeachment trial. the address was an hour and 18 minutes long. he never mentioned impeachment or trial, and he actually calls on the speaker for bipartisanship and civility, something i m not sure that we re going to see from president trump whenever this happens. michael, i know you ve been asked about this, but in the president s relation with what has become the trump republican party have we ever before seen this kind of fealty?
trial. remember, that s what mitch mcconnell and the senate leaders want, they want this to be quick as possible, no witnesses, and that s why nancy pelosi is upset, she wants it to be more of a fair trial with witnesses. well, the president has been telling lots of people, friends, supporters, that he wants there to be witnesses, he wants a big splashy trial. he wants the whistle-blower called. and even though he has said i ll go along with whatever mitch mcconnell wants, he really still wants that. he thinks that if he has the whistle-blower and he has other people testifying, that he will that the american public will see that he did nothing wrong and he ll be exonerated. this is not about merely getting acquitted, it s everybody to see that he didn t do anything wrong. he also thinks that will embarrass democrats. as a struggling actor, i need all the breaks that i can get. at liberty butchumal- cut. liberty biberty- cut. we ll dub it. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance
these comments from senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. speaker pelosi suggested that house democrats may be too afraid, too afraid to even transmit their shoddy work product to the senate. while speaker pelosi told politico, quote, fear is never a word used with me. you should know right away, i m never afraid and i m rarely surprised. meanwhile, white house counsel pat cipollone and white house legislative affairs director there on the right, eric euland, who was great in groundhog day, were on capitol hill today for a walkthrough to prepare for a senate trial. the two met with senate majority leader in his office. last week mcconnell said he was coordinating the senate trial with the white house counsel. indeed he is. today the majority leader says he has no meetings scheduled with cipollone over the christmas break. meanwhile the new york times has new report tonight on how the president has been handling
the trump administration demanded that a portion of year-end spending legislation that referenced ukraine be removed. the post reports it this way. senior trump administration officials in recent days threatened a presidential veto that could have led to a government shutdown if house democrats refused to drop language requiring prompt release of future military aid for ukraine. the report goes on to say, the language ultimately was indeed left out of the spending package that was signed tonight. while that issue may be resolved, a standoff continues in the capitol over a senate trial for the president who has now been impeached by the house. the speaker, nancy pelosi, says the house is waiting to send impeachment articles to the senate until there is clarity on the rules of the senate trial. she wants to know if there will be witnesses, and of course she and the other democrats are hoping that republicans get pressured into calling witnesses like one john bolton. today the speaker r
but it does keep for democrats maybe their only big piece of leverage when it comes to the senate majority leader, to try to force him to make a deal on what the rules are going to be for the senate trial. i think that democrats in general and pelosi in particular were alarmed when mitch mcconnell said that he did not see his role as that of an impartial juror but one who would see that the president was acquitted. this lent uncertainty to the process that s ahead. we know that the president wants this trial to happen, he wants to get acquitted, he thinks that s important. actually i think that speaker pelosi also would like to have this off the plate, that if he s going to get this acquittal which we think he will, probably, from the republican-controlled senate, she would like that to happen so democrats can go back to talking about things like health care. it s not really a delay for another two weeks because congress is out of town, nothing is going to happen until january 6th in a