why it couldn t follow that precedent. but the way things look today, it s almost hard to imagine, isn t it? yes, it is. you have written about some great house speakers who have served our country. talk for a bit about the nancy pelosi we saw in action this week and nancy pelosi s likely place in american history. well, not only of course is the first female speaker but as a speaker who was very strong and consequential serving twice. and i think one thing you can see is exactly what we re seeing right now which is that many of other speakers would have said the articles of impeachment had been passed. it s time to ship them off to the senate. there s every sign that she thinks that it s a moment not only to do that but to use perhaps a delay in sending it or a threat not to send them at all, though i can t imagine that that would happen, in order to get some greater assurances from the senate of the kind of trial that she would like to see.
giving him a fund-raiser in a cave, it doesn t seem to be a way you re going to communicate to people, i m going to go out and take a stick to donald trump in a few months. hey, anita kumar, we couldn t help but notice the headline on your piece tonight, family feud, trump still grumbling about witness-free impeachment trial. tell us what you know. well, we ve heard the president say he is fine going along with no witnesses at the senate 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, right? 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
reporting the story back then and for the second time in a modern u.s. history, a president will deliver the state of the union address under the cloud of impeachment. just two days after the house vote to impeach, speaker nancy pelosi invited donald trump to address a joint session of congress on the 4th of february. it could happen in the midst of a senate trial. either way, it will be an arresting visual to go with this one, when we see the speaker over the president s shoulder once again. we are pleased tonight to be joined once again by our friend and presidential historian and prolific author michael beschloss. his latest work, which we don t mind pointing out is perfect for any history buff on your gift list presidents of war: the epic story from 1807 to modern times. michael, thank you very much for coming on, if this president were in receive mode, what could he learn about bill clinton s state of the union address in
speaker pelosi suggested that house democrats may be too afraid, too afraid to even transmit their shoddy work product to the senate. well, 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 doing a walk-through to prepare for a senate trial. the two also met with majority leader mcconnell in his office. just last week, mcconnell said he was coordinating a senate trial with the white house counsel. indeed he is. today the majority leader said he has no meetings scheduled with cipollone over the christmas break. meanwhile, the new york times has new reporting tonight on how the president has been handling impeachment. the times reports that by
and i think that the idea that the senate rules are not going to amount to a fair trial is a powerful argument to make. i take lanhee s point that in the end i think speaker pelosi is probably going to send these articles of impeachment to the senate. but she could put kind of a squeeze on mcconnell to try to defend rules that may not seem fair to a lot of americans, to 71% of americans who say, yeah, maybe we would like to hear from witnesses. and, lanhee, as promised, tell me how to republican senators, especially those who are up and vulnerable but certainly those who are more middle of the road tell me how they re going to hear who wants to hear from john bolton, conservative foreign policy icon, and then say, no, no thanks. we re good. yeah. i mean this is the dilemma of frankly a lot of these republicans who have tight elections next year as well as those who are probably more