but we won t know if that is true for months to come. cheney s campaign created a leadership action committee. how does she plan to use it? reporter: they say that she needs a type of a platform to launch the next chapter of her lil life, if you will. and they will try to find republican candidates and programs independents and others to endorse who do not support election deniers, who believe the truth. but there may be a limited number of candidates do that. and she can use this to talk about her own campaign. but listen to huh she frhow she framed it last night. the great and original champion of our party abraham lincoln was defeated in elections for the senate and the house before he won the most important election of all. lincoln ultimately pre-veiled, he saved our union and he defined our obligation as americans for all of history. v he saved our union and he defined our obligation as americans for all of history.vee saved our union and he defined our obligatio
they re trying to focus on the accomplishments that they say the house of representatives has done over the past year. this has been a very productive week in congress. especially, in the house. they passed a prescription drug bill. i know. the agreement on the usmca. national defense authorization agreement. oh, and also, there is an agreement on government funding. not just a short-term cr but to fund the government for the remainder of the for the fiscal year. so that s a huge sign that pelosi needed these wins for her members. who knew the impeachment process would suddenly make congress functional again? it took impeachment to prevent a government shutdown. i ll let i ll let peggy and andrea process that in a minute. but let me turn to the other side of pennsylvania avenue. hans nichols. there is a there s always this idea with president trump. don t listen to what he says. pay attention to what he does. so on this senate trial, he says he wants a senate trial.
employee. others, you know, very highly-regarded diplomats. there s very little that they can do to shake those witnesses in challenges or cross-examination. peggy, i m just struck by the fact that i feel both mitch mcconnell and nancy pelosi in their own way actually are listening to the public a bit. meaning they realize they have to strike a balance. nancy pelosi realizes i m going to make the last thing we do usmca, not impeachment. mitch mcconnell realizing, look, susan collins and cory gardner have to show voters that they re holding the that they take this seriously. it seems as if they re trying to and, you know, we re always so hard on congressional leaders sometimes. they do strike me as two leaders that are worried about their own politics a bit. yes. i think so. i also think in nancy pelosi s case and mitch mcconnell s place, they have a quiet sense there s a thing in their brains. where they re thinking protect
character. but we were at least taking that debate seriously. peggy. yeah. i think that s true. and, also, in the past, i think both presidents and their parties with the serious sense of impeachment as a historical matter and a historical judgment. i don t see people talking about that in quite such a way. people are using the phrase asterisk. the president doesn t want an asterisk next to his name. he doesn t want the lead in the final story written about him to to include the word impeachment. well, heck. that s not important. you know? history is important. well, let me talk about something that s important here. wait till you hear what jim mattis said earlier today. told this to our friend david ignatius. you got to just listen to it in full. but he identifies who he thinks the greatest threat is to america s national security. elections are about division. governance is about unity.
democrats promise to be a check on the power but what happens if the ultimate check on presidential power has been used up in an election year? what an unleashed president could do to them at the ballot box. republicans have left themselves with little choice but to offend most everything this president does. then there s the wild card involving the president s conduct with ukraine or his associates or, frankly russia. and that seems highly likely w now. combined with rudy giuliani s brazen activity. bottom line, both parties are going to have to think about quickly shifting gears from the bitter partisan warfare of the impeachment process itself. so its election year aftermath. here, i ve got leanne caldwell. hans nichols at the white house for us. andrea mitchell. and peggy nunes.