atmosphere where they re safe to go home and resume, you know, personal activities. and this is a real warning sign and something that should be taken very seriously. obviously, it s terrible for fiona hill, the situation she s dealing with. you look at her in terms rev cruiting talent, why would anybody want to put themselves through this. terrific conversation, everyone. margaret, doug and michael, we appreciate you all being here. still to come i ll speak to a democratic member of the house judiciary committee. should democrats be worried about members of their party voting against impeaching president trump in a senate trial? plus, in the 2016 election, the gender gap between how men and women vote was historic. what will 2020 look like? we re breaking down the numbers. and a small town in mississippi will never be the same after sweeping immigration raids led to the arrest of nearly 700 undocumented workers.
they re also expecting several of president trump s big top aides, including his son-in-law jared kushner. all right, kristen holmes, thank you. let s talk more about this. a great panel of experts here on this boxing day. marc ma margaret talib, michael zelden, a former special assistant to robert mueller at the justice department. margaret, let s start with lisa murkowski, the alaska republican who gave an interview to a local television station up there in alaska that is catching the attention of people across the country. listen to what she had to say yesterday. in fairness, when i heard that, i was disturbed. to me, it means that we have to take that step back from being hand in glove with the defense. and so i heard what leader
if the president gets to stonewall in the house and mcconnell gets to facilitate that stonewalling in the senate, so there is a trial that really has no firsthand knowledge based witnesses, then we don t have a trial at all. whether it s a political process as doug suggests, which is correct or quasi legal practice which it also is. without real witnesses, it s really just a bit of a sham. and, of course, margaret, that seems to be the impasse for nancy pelosi. whether or not it would become more of a legal proceeding as opposed to a political matter and witnesses are at the core of that. as a result, that s one of the reasons she s holding on to these articles of impeachment. we don t expect any move omt that until after the holiday. how long can she hold out before formally handing this process over to mitch mcconnell? yeah, well, there s just a couple of sort of timing, you know, pieces that are going to play into her thinking in addition to how the public comes out of the holid
nancy pelosi have any leverage with mitch mcconnell to force him to adjust the way the senate proceeds? this is an example of how that leverage might exist. it s still too soon to really understand what it is pelosi is asking for and what it is mitch mcconnell may be willing to give. but with murkowski s comments you begin to see some of the di naj dynamics of how the senate is a different house. and whether senators are really prepared to be appearing to be in lockstep with the president before the senate trial portion of this even begins. doug, to margaret s point, this is two different conversations. the conversation about whether or not you could find any republicans that would break away and vote to convict the president versus just setting the rules for the trial, which is, of course, an important stage in all of this. but would only require a 51-vote majority. that s where we start to look for some of these republicans that could break away. we have the kavanaugh confirmation