Be witnesses that the republicans could call and i know President Trump has pushed to have joe biden testify his son hunter biden testify potentially calling nancy pelosi how does that work is it a one witness for the republicans one witness one witness for the democrats know. If the scene moves to the senate then a Senate Majority 51 votes the Vice President doesnt preside doesnt have a vote in this case could determine the witness list. As to whether or not the republicans will want to call Vice President biden or his son or the speaker. Theres been some pushback in the Republican Caucus in the senate about that. So i dont know that thats thats altogether likely would seems to me the likeliest outcome is that if this goes to the senate then the majority leader takes control and that you wont have any substantial new witnesses so if we dont have any substantial new witnesses then presumably President Trump would be acquitted from the senate trial when does that leave him going into this election does that leave him stronger now now doesnt leave him stronger hes one of 3 president s ever to be impeached right doesnt leave him necessarily weaker because his base is believing this alternative story that hes been offering that its a which all he was doing in the ukraine was trying to clean up corruption theres a lot of nonsense its been told by the House Republicans but his base is buying that so his 40 percent is a solid 40 percent its the people in the middle who are are likely to be influenced and theyre not likely to be impressed that republicans didnt get that through republican y. C. And in some of the latest polling i think this was a fox news poll there was a shift in independence so weve now seen a new high and independents who favor pietschmann could that push the election one way or another independents would be up to the part of the election i mean its a long way before the can right and theres a lot of advertising to be done and theres a lot of question about interference and theres a lot of question about who votes and whatever but at this point i think trump does not enter the election stronger than before the impeachment no let me ask you one more question about this advertising because i know that the the republicans have spent a huge amount of money on impeachment ads and attacking the democrats individual democrats in their different seats but the democrats are. Largely stayed away from that what is their strategy here so in the 435 house seats but most of them are in contest theres about 70 or 80 that are up for grabs in any given election democrats won most of those in the last election right so the democrats are defending the purple districts there were a few republicans left to be targeted i think maybe 4 or 5 republicans could still be vulnerable to the impeachment activity jordan for example but basically the democrats are defending the of the swing districts right now where weve been talking about this very partisan process and i want to ask mr bobbitt. This is a really part of the process impeachment is a partisan process but it wasnt it wasnt meant to be that way and the constitution has impeachment as a concept changed over the is in the u. S. Sure it is changed a lot and. You say it is a partisan process i suppose one cant deny that but it was not designed to be indeed it was explicitly designed not to be a part of the process many people ask why the trials held in the senate does not mean that its all done by politicians but this is addressed in the founding documents behind our constitution the senate sits as a judicial body they are asked to try the case they take a special oath to follow the law its become a partisan process not because of what is has happened to the law whats happened to us in society in terms of the divisions that were seeing in the u. S. If this process drags out and we theres a debate about witnesses the trial drags out in the senate do you think as an american and as someone who served in the white house that this is good for unity is this about defending the constitution and bringing americans together around bad ideal or could this divide the country even further. Could go either way i mean i think it could still heal some of our divisions if there were witnesses if something overwhelming came out that would bring a body of opinion together as the tapes disclosure did in the nixon impeachment other guy could still happen but the way we have the right now i think thats that unlikely for the public that hes a former white House Counsel to president carter thank you very much well lets now go back to Michael Isikoff who is the chief investigative correspondent at yahoo news as well as the coauthor of the book russian roulette and he joins us again now from washington d. C. Michael weve been looking at this incredibly vitriolically potus and congress and you come about impeachment the clinton impeachment extensively and weve been reflecting on how things have changed since then how in your minds do you think this is playing out differently for President Trump. Well you know it is really there are so many conflicting signals here i was just looking before we started this discussion at a gallup poll that was just released a few minutes ago in which it shows the country is still split right down the middle on this and if anything. The president has actually picked up a little support since this whole ukraine saga began and on the crucial question of does the president s conduct justify impeachment and removal this new gallup poll has it has 46 percent yes 51 percent no so thats pretty striking now a couple of other polls have that it a little differently and support for impeachment a little bit more although not much not much over you know the highest you get is 50 percent maybe 51 percent for impeachment and removal so thats got to be a sobering reality for the democrats i do believe that the democrats are absolutely convinced they are doing this out of constitutional duty that the president s conduct does justify this impeachment because he was so listening foreign help for his own personal reelection purposes and that that is an affront to the constitution i believe the democrats are sincere about that but they obviously havent made that case effectively and off to a majority of the country so as a result we have what is going to look like an almost entirely partisan impeachment without a groundswell of public support for it we have seen this one republican would leave the Republican Party and and become an independent because he was so and that really disgusted by what had happened and now i hear that he may end up being one of the prosecutors and the senate trial tell us a little bit more about just in the last. Yeah thats just an ammash whos been a somewhat unorthodox republican all along a libertarian i remember covering the snowden revelations in which justin amash a republican was actually a sympathetic to snowden or at least believed that the disclosures from stone snowden raised serious questions about invasions of privacy for the Us Government so he was clearly an outlier in that on that issue and i think hes continued to be an outlier so it would be a smart move for Speaker Pelosi to include him on the list of the impeachment managers but i should say while hes a republican who has left the Republican Party over this it looks like were going to have one democrat who leaves the Democratic Party over this thats congressman wynn drew of new jersey who is going to vote against impeachment hes a democrat from a. District in new jersey that was voted for trump and the indications are that hes going to join the Republican Party well if youre just joining us now with our coverage of the impeachment process lets introduce you to the 3 experts who we have with us has to help us break down whats happening in washington we have Philip Bobbitt he is a former associate counsel to the office of the president under president casa and is also a professor at Columbia Law School hes also written a book called and peach meant a handbook. We also have Michael Isikoff who is the chief investigative correspondent at yahoo news as well as coauthor of the book russian roulette hes in washington d. C. And we also have clyde wilcox here with us in the studio and our hot hes from Georgetown University well picking up where we left off clyde were talking about this hugely partisan process whats become a hugely partisan process and the potential defections of people when it gets to a senate trial do you see anything like that happening we do know about that one individual who might switch sides i dont see many defections in the house of representatives but there is talk in the senate if they had a secret ballot that there would be quite a few republican defections there are some conversation about possibly negotiating with mcconnell over republicans at the caucus theres good shit with because all about witnesses in exchange the rules and something i have no idea but in d. C. Right now so im not sure whether thats likely but i think one of the great norm violations here is that mcconnell has said publicly that hes coordinating openly with the white house on everything about the trial hes going to take an oath that says hes an impartial juror thats not the way impartial jurors with 4 years also cupped a lot of flak for that yes and i want to bring in michael him because michael you were in the states and i want to ask you about that very question how is Mitch Mcconnell and his statement about his lack of impartiality being viewed over that. Oh it certainly raised quite a few eyebrows that he would be so open about it now you know there is a sense in which you know one could say were shocked shocked that the partisanship going on in this impeachment process it looks it would be very hard to argue that the Democratic Senators d who have been relentlessly d critical of President Trump a very large mage hurty of whom have publicly embraced impeachment are going to be impartial jurors in the sense of a jury in a criminal trial where we do actually expect jurors to put aside their personal convictions and if theyre too strong personal convictions they get disqualified from the jury. By that standard mcconnell disqualified d himself when he made that when he made those comments about how hes coordinating with the white house but by the same token many of the Democratic Senators who have said the president s conduct justifies impeachment could be called out just as well so i dont think anybody is going to be disqualified its a political process this one is unusually partisan so while mcconnell will take some deserving crap flak for being as candid as he was. I dont think anybody is truly surprised by it well speaking of Different Things that republicans have said all witnesses or experts the republicans have called mr bobbitt i want to ask you about something that was said earlier on when there were debates about what the articles of impeachment should be and the the expert the constitutional expert that was called by the republicans Jonathan Turley the one out of the 4 he said im concerned about lowering impeachment standards to fit a paucity of evidence and an abundance of. To impeach a president on such a record would be to expose every future president to the same type of in coates impeachment let me ask you if we were talking about how impeachment has become a partisan process are you concerned as a white house lawyer that a threshold has been noted here potentially no i listen to a 1st attorneys. Discussion of this at the time and i was very impressed with your skills as a defense attorney but. I do would not say that the warriors who are by the charges that are appear to be about to be adopted by the house i would say however that hes right about the anger. And i would like to hope that theres some way to come out of this process with the temperature reduced i dont think that will happen all the evidence iraq would have null and to that extent turley clearly is right for the former associate counsel to the office of president cos i want to thank all of our guests that was followed by this rio also had Michael Isikoff whos the chief investigative correspondent at yahoo news and clyde wilcox here with me and from Georgetown University well speak to all of them again shortly thank you gentlemen well lets take you back now to capitol hill and recap whats been happening there have been multiple developments surrounding the bid to impeach u. S. President donald trump the democratic majority in the house is pasta a procedural vote on the rules governing that voters trump is facing charges of abusing his power and obstructing congress in their investigation and the Impeachment Vote is expected in the next few hours republicans earlier tried to stall the proceedings bringing a vote for the house to a junk but they were defeated by the democratic majority there the republican maneuvering however has meant that the debate on all those rules for the impeachment resolutions began about an hour later than shuttled. Well lets move on to other news briefly and lebanons former Prime Minister has announced for the 2nd time that he doesnt want to lead a new government saad hariri resigned back in october after weeks of antigovernment demonstrations on monday the president plan to hold consultations with Political Parties to decide on a new Prime Minister but thats now been postponed until festive people have been voicing their anger against corruption and sectarian politics governing the country for decades at least 23. 00 civilians have been killed in the latest round of russian attacks on rebel held areas of northwestern syria shelling in as strikes an added province have escalated in recent weeks president Bashar Al Assads government appears to be preparing for a ground offensive to secure the main highway linking the capital damascus with the Northern City of aleppo protesters have rallied again in new delhi off to indias top court postponed hearings on a controversial new citizenship you know until january and says it needs more details from the government the law makes it easier for a non muslims from afghanistan bangladesh and pakistan to gain indian citizenship a major majas been announced in the car industry that creates the worlds a 4th largest manufacturer fit cries and p. S. A. Who are the owners of persia and france have agreed on a 34000000000. 00 tie up both companies have a short production line work is that no factory closures are planned a disabled palestinian man has watched israeli demolition crews destroy his home for the 4th time in 20 is how to reality is vowing to rebuild again saying the land in occupied East Jerusalem is his Rights Groups say israeli demolitions have increased this year the estimate a couple of months ago was more than 200. 00 palestinians had their homes for that and. I thought this is my land i have the right to live in it and i will rebuild it whether they agree or not i will keep building my home on my land for as long as i live. While if youre just joining us now lets remind you of all the developments surrounding the bid to impeach u. S. President donald trump the democratic majority in the house has now passed a procedural vote on the rules governing that vote today trump is facing charges of abusing his power and obstructing congress in their investigation the Impeachment Vote is expected in the coming hours while republicans try to stall the proceedings bringing a vote for the house to a judge on they were defeated by the democratic majority well this republican maneuvering however has meant that the debate on the rules for the impeachment resolutions that all began about an hour and they said and should yield well lets now go to our correspondent on capitol Hill Heidi Cheri Castro who is at congress for us. An incredibly historic day on the hill talk us through what weve been seeing so far this morning that. Thats right and you can see these members of the house of representatives really champing at the bit to get to the merits of this debate on whether or not impeach President Trump leading up to whats expected to be this historic vote where trump would become only the 3rd u. S. President to be impeached by congress and thus far weve only seen these procedural questions being debated but already we are neck deep in these partisan arguments with House Democrats accusing trump of acting like a king they say that he endangered National Security when he solicited election interference from ukraine and we heard republican members this morning saying that the president is innocent and that this impeachment proceeding is illegitimate but again republicans trying to lay tactics earlier today pushing back that final vote by maybe an hour or so but really trying to delay what many see as the inevitable because its not a question of whether or not democrats in the house have the numbers to impeach trump its a question of just how many defections they may suffer were hearing maybe one or chill democrats will vote against impeachment but many of these as these democrats who represent districts where trump is popular they have said that they will vote to impeach trump they have explained to their constituents that this is because out of a sense of duty to their constitution to hold the president accountable because they view him as a National Security threat that is ongoing risking the Upcoming Elections in the u. S. They say that is why they are going to vote and he chimp even knowing that they may suffer a backlash from the voters back home 13 say that vote along what we expect to be largely party lines talk us through what happens after that. Right so after today of trump is impeached as expected then we will be looking toward the senate in the coming year for a trial to begin in january once there the political dynamic is vice versa here we had the democrats in control of the house of representatives then we will have republicans of course trumps own party who will be weighing his guilt or innocence and deciding whether or not he remains in office and the u. S. Constitution says that a 2 thirds of the members of the senate have to vote in order to convict the president and so as you heard from our experts it is highly unlikely where things stand now that the senate would remove trump from Office Democrats in the senate have tried to change that by trying to get witnesses called to testify in the senate trial these would be people who the American Public and who have pietschmann investigators have not heard from yet they are among trumps innermost circle of aides at the white house who made according to democrats have this key insight into the president s motives when he was withholding military aid to ukraine democrats say he did so with the corrupt intention to get political dirt of his opponents republican say thats not the case that the president was just fulfilling the duties of the oval office and fighting corruption in ukraine well the only people who can clear that up really that may have insight into the president s day to day thinking are those individuals who have been thus far banned or barred from speaking to investigators by the white house itself now at the Top Republican in the senate Mitch Mcconnell who has incredible sway over how the senate trial rules will go including this question of where not whether or not to call those witnesses yesterday he said he is against that idea that he would prefer a quick senate trial with no witnesses at all in fact he who will be taking an oath to swear himself in as an impartial juror. He has said that he is quote not impartial and that he is in full coronation with the white house and that there is no chance in his words that the members of the senate will vote to remove trump from office heidi i believe the magic number today to reach that majority in the house of representatives is 260 and weve been talking about how we expect everyone to vote very much along party lines and lots of commentators would say that in this era of a really big issue of partisanship this is today is the pinnacle of that can you talk us through the mood on the hill what are people saying how people feeling as we face this really historic voters. Right while the members themselves say this is a songbird day they are professing both parties that nobody is looking forward to making this historic vote to impeach the president so it is somber and it is divisive here on capitol hill where just as you say it is predicted that this vote to impeach trump will fall there are very narrow only down these partisan lines only one or 2 democrats we are looking at who are likely to vote against impeaching tromp one of them in fact who has said he will vote against impeachment is going to switch parties to become a republican because of the political dynamics of this vote no republicans have said they will vote for the impeachment so what this the the problem this creates for democrats who from the beginning under their leadership of House Speaker nancy pelosi is that she said at the beginning that she wanted this impeachment to be bipartisan that otherwise it would tear the country apart and this partisan division well after 2 months of gathering evidence democrats have not been able to convince their Republican Party colleagues to cross over and support this impeachment but they say that this evidence has convinced them that nevertheless democrats say they have to move forward and they have to do it now with urgency because the accusations against trump are that he is in danger in the very elections in coming in this in this coming november in which he wishes to be reelected to office and democrats said that theres simply no way to do to wait for this impeachment because they have to be decided before those elections come. Castrator there for us live on capitol hill will be talking to us throughout the day well lets just remind you of the process that were going through so once the house of representatives approved. The articles of impeachment presumably today president dont talk then faces a trial in the senate and that could be as soon as january and although the chamber could dismiss the charges Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell has said the trial will go ahead the chief justice of the Supreme Court john roberts will be sworn in as chief presiding officer and then the senate is at his jury is house of representative members act as the prosecution is they and lawyers for the president will cross examine witnesses if there are any at least 67 senators need to vote guilty on at least one article of impeachment in order to have donald trump removed from office and if this happens the Vice President then becomes president after weeks of hearings Public Opinion on that impeachment is split and you got to reports from miami in florida a swing state that donald trump won back in 2016. This is not impeachable the impeachment hearings into President Trumps dealings with ukraine began in november the hearings have times been dramatic revealing and deeply partisan places like grahams bar in miami though youre not likely to hear patrons talking about what many see as a political crisis its something owner adam gersten doesnt shy away from he holds election watch parties here isnt afraid of heated debate but says most of lost Interest Despite his efforts theres not an aha moment where you suddenly say democracy its a long slog and youve got to stick with it and so my part in sticking with it is keeping people engaged and exposing them to whats actually happening exposure to the twists and turns of politics may not be as crucial and deeply republican or democratic states florida and especially its hispanic voters will be pivotal in the 2020 president ial election i guess i kind of care but only like if he actually does get impeached but for the most part i am i have the keeping up with until the voting occurs i have no power in the situation so i dont Pay Attention i dont care so hard to weed through all the information out there and it seems like people are in such different sides of it that its hard to at this point understand whats going on i think for myself as a 2020 president ial election looms the fight to sway Public Opinion appears to have wavered on lets say that could have implications for the democrats they claim that trump was a russian stooge who was going to destroy the country the miller investigation found out that wasnt true and sort of decimated those trump russia conspiracy theories and now people are left wondering is this just more partisan bickering voters remain divided and one camp of the other the Sunshine State though has a history of deciding the nations fate how people feel matters if florida does one thing consistently it tends to reflect the mood of the entire country for decades florida voters aback but when. President ial candidate and thats mostly because the demographics here make this a mini version of the United States so a collective shrug here could be seen as a fairly accurate reflection of the current mood on the gallacher alders era miami florida. Well if youre just joining Us Donald Trump could be just hours away from being risen into history as only the 3rd u. S. President to be impeached its now 17 g. M. T. Thats 12 pm in washington d. C. Where the house of representatives has begun the session to debate and then votes on whether to send him to a senate trial well lets