president trump continues to lash out at democrats and house speaker nancy pelosi over the handling of what he calls a, quote, sham impeachment. just before christmas, one gop senator alaska s lisa murkowski actually criticized senate majority leader mitch mcconnell s coordination with the white house calling it disturbing. murkowski didn t stop at criticizing republicans. she also slammed house democrats examination as rushed and incomplete. now as democrats try to sway republicans to convict the president, some gop senators believe there are democratic colleagues will be the ones across party lines. to start things off, congressional reporter lauren fox on capitol hill. lauren, there s one reporter we re keeping a close eye on. moderate maine republican susan collins up for re-election. the president expressing support for that re-election campaign on twitter. well, certainly, the president is trying to make sure republicans stay with him as
move forward. griff: we are in uncharted territory with the speaker of the house withholding passing it onto the senate. ivan the new york times is questioning whether or not pelosi is making the right move here. here is the headline from the new york times says is nancy pelosi caught in a trap or setting one? here s a quote from inside. it s a question between bret stephens and gail collins new york times. ed: a couple of their columnists. griff: if she tries to bottle up impeachment on the house on grounds that the senate won t call witnesses like john bolton or mic mulvaney she ll look hypothetical. if senate takes over mitch mcconnell arrange for expedited trial leading to guaranteed acquittal leading to much of the public to conclude the entire process was a waste of time, honestly i m not how she finesses it. ed: you mentioned collins liberal columnist having back and forth online with
rehab stent after a 2017 dui arrest. comedian kevin hart turning into a courtside santa. laker s star anthony davis falling into the an actor s lap. goes to the seats courtside. kevin hart. [laughter] what a way to finish. carley: best part is when lebron james pretended to fall into the comedian after davis missed a shot. laughs were short-lived as the lakers lost to the clippers. funny moment had by all, ed? ed: look out, that s funny. we wait for speaker nancy pelosi to finally impeachment matters and send those articles over to the senate. our next guest says that is pure politics. house manager during president clinton s impeachment he joins us live now. congressman, good to have you come in. good morning, ed, good to be with you as always. ed: what in the world is
him about impeachment. when you read the actual transcript as did i this morning of their back and forth, both of them were saying they have real angst. they both believe to be clear that the house should have voted for impeachment. they don t like what the president did on ukraine. you can debate that both of them who are not trump fans say they are nervous this is going to boomerang on democrats because this is all about 2020. look at the economy, very strong for the president right now. if he gets acquittal and comes out of the impeachment battle stronger and put that with a strong economy. both stephens and collins in the new york times are saying might not be good for democrats. griff: that s a great point. talk more later today in the show about the economy. stephens does say the economy is doing too well to be a winning issue for democrats framing the biggest problem. katie: becoming increasingly clear that democrats aren t going to pass things over until they can guarantee a
that speaker pelosi is the speaker of the house. she is not the speaker of the senate or the majority leader. that is mitch mcconnell s job. ed: smart analysis from katie. maybe the most important part of that is when you mentioned 2020. it s not really about the trial or impeachment. it s about heading towards next november. so you look at the democrats out there. and remember what al green, the said some time ago we don t think we can beat him at the ballot box, president trump. we have to impeach him. all these 2020 democrats moving further and further to the left. socialist programs, medicare for all. $52 trillion for elizabeth warren. then we have these sort of newcomers in steyer and bloomberg spending all this money. we are finally getting a tally of all of that tom steyer, mike bloomberg, nearly $200 million of their own money in ads. the question is neither one of them ar moving up very much n the polls. it s not really no sign it s really helping them in their campaigns, at