and then nothing silence. reporter: also making news here, ukraine s president zelensky at the center of the impeachment controversy expected here in davos tomorrow in an interview with the wall street journal, president trump said he has no plans to meet with zelensky, but he is open to it lester all right, kristen welker in davos, thank you and the president s team of course closely monitoring all this from davos all the way back to the white house nbc s hallie jackson is there for us tonight hallie, what can we expect the rest of the week well, listen, lester, today was about the rules of the road, but starting tomorrow, the rubber really meets the road with house democrats expected to make their opening arguments. you heard a bit of a preview of that today if timing holds, then saturday it would be the defense team s turn multiple sources tell me those attorneys will take turns trying to dismantle what they have described as a politicized impeachment case now keep in mind t
slipup of joe biden s, and he s talking about it privately, and he s talking about it publicly. the downside for joe biden is by getting into a head to head with donald trump, it in some ways has backfired. it did elevate him but also placed a lot of early attention on him and his son, luhunter. that s something the president has been going after, and that is a weak spot for joe biden, something he doesn t relish relitigating in public and something that is now in many ways at the center of the impeachment controversy. it it has down sides and upsides for both men involved. phil rucker, how does speaker pelosi feel about the idea of justin amash walking around the well of the senate as one of the house impeachment managers? yeah, it s a great question, brian. on the one hand, having congressman amash, an independent i guess now, but, obviously has been elected as a republican for many years, as an impeachment manager would be a high-profile sort of p.r. move
yovanovitch was impeaching these investigations. he says he was obstructing justice, that is his argument and that is how she is justifyi kellyanne conway and i said is he helping or hurting the president. her response is any president has a right to have the people in place that he believes best serve the country. but i can tell thaw based on a number of conversations here at the white house over a series of the past several months, officials both inside and outside of the white house have expressed some discomfort, some concern with the role that rudy giuliani has played in all of this. of course he has been a central figure in this impeachment controversy, swirling around the white house. now, that vote slated for just about 24 hours from now. this administration, this president, bracing for that as
political opportunities here. we have already seen the president s campaign mine this impeachment controversy for political donations and you are also likely to see this white house mine a trial in the senate. and abby phillip, another element that also came out this morning as the speaker had the press conference, then she goes to the podium and seems to answer questions before they were asked. one of them being about nancy pelosi saying that this isn t about ukraine she said. this isn t about ukraine. this is about russia. and then repeating her line that we ve heard in the past that all roads lead to russia. and that reframing in this historic moment i found really fascinating. i did too.
former democratic clinton adviser, mark penn, who was advising him, do your job, during impeachment. there was a private meeting, i think the washington post reported on this, at the white house, and the advice was, stay away from it, be presidential the waybill clinton got through what happened in the 90s. and on the plane, on air force one, en route to london, he was already tweeting, as soon as he got on the plane and before he landed in london, tweeting about the impeachment controversy. so geoff bennett, he s not leaving it at home at all. he s been talking about it nonstop. we re expecting to hear about the report going to the judiciary committee sometime tonight and according to your colleagues on the hill we re hearing that the articles on impeachment that are going to be drafted by judiciary could include one that relates to the mueller report, obstruction of justice, going back there, not just obstruction of congress regarding ukraine. right, and that is a point of