American people in a scheme to suppress evidence, escape accountability, and orchestrate a massive cover up. In their final day of opening arguments, democrats condemned President Trumps efforts to block witnesses. President trump forced those officials to choose between submitting to the demands of their boss or break the law. And the trump administrations refusal to hand over any documents to impeachment investigators. No documents, zero. Goose egg, nada. Impeachment managers set the stakes arguing the president abused his power when he attempted to withhold a white house meeting and security aid unless ukraine pursued investigations into joe biden in 2016 and claiming everything that came after that was an attempt to cover his tracks and obstruct congress. They warned senators that trumps behavior was part of a pattern, once again using his own words against him. Then i have an article ii where i have the right to do whatever i want as president. And they cautioned of the consequences if Congress Fails to intervene. Do you think if we do nothing its going to stop now . Senators who are supposed to listen quietly to the lengthny proceedings have taken to passing notes, whispering to their neighbors, and reading books. At least one senator snuck in a cell phone. But at points they fell silent like when lead impeachment manager adam schiff revealed you trump shrugged the u. S. Intelligence assessment that russia meddled in the 2016 election. My people came to me, dan coats came to me and some others and said they think its russia. I have president putin, he just said its not russia. I will say this, i dont see any reason why it would be. This is just the most incredible propaganda coup. He wont read his own National Security staff talking points but he will read the kremlin ones. Instead, schiff argued trump has bought in to the debunked theory that ukraine, not russia, meddled in the last election, setting the stage for the latest scandal to engulf the white house. The buyin to that propaganda meant that ukraine wasnt going to get money to fight the russians. I mean, thats one hell of a russian intelligence coup. A hush fell over the room once again as the late senator john mccains voice filled the chaimer be. Putin also sees, heres this beautiful and large and magnificent country called ukraine. Senator mccain advised that this is a chess match reminiscent of the cold war and we need to realize that and act accordingly. He was, of course, absolutely right. Reporter saturday the president s defenders get their shot on the senate floor. Democrats tried to anticipate their response. Now youll also hear the defense the president said there was no quid pro quo. This is a wellknown principle of criminal law that if the defendant says he didnt do it he couldnt have done it. That doesnt hold up in any court in the land. It shouldnt hold up here. Reporter and they urged senators to set Party Allegiance aside as they judge the president s conduct. Lets imagine it wasnt joe biden. Lets imagine it was any one of us. Lets imagine the most powerful person in the world was asking a foreign nation to conduct a sham investigation into one of us. It shouldnt matter that it was joe biden because ill tell you something, the next time it just may be you. Sara murray, cnn, washington. Quite a night and three historic days so far. Here to talk about it, elliott williams, Kirsten Powers and scott jennings. Amanda, you were a senate staffer. Im wondering what you are hearing from republicans in the senate, what youre hearing from what you imagine do you think any minds were changed on the republican side . Of the peoples who could be persuadables, theyre thinking about the politics and of the people im watching, like my former boss ted cruz, i mean, brace yourself, the republicans are going to mount a very strong counterattack. They are going to have a perfect call defense. Theyre going to go out and say nothing short of a perfect call is okay for them. No, theyre going to go for it. I think this is going to get ugly. Its going to get personal about the bidens very quickly. Theyre going to go to that floor and theyre going to say, listen, we spent all this time talking about things that we know happened. We know trump asked for the investigations. We know he paused the aid. That was legitimate. He was justified in asking for the investigation of hunter biden because a powerful Ukrainian Company was trying to buy off the son of a former vice president. Thats going to be the argument flatly. And i heard no democrat defend that arrangement. Hunter biden doesnt even defend that arrangement. He said to abc news yeah, i probably had that job because of my last name. So i think thats a huge opening that theyre just going to push the gas and pedal hard on the week before the iowa caucus. That will do tremendous damage, they hope, to joe biden. That will benefit bernie sanders, who ultimately is who trump wants to face. Elliott, you know the capitol hill pretty well. Yeah, but its interesting, i think big picture, you know, looking at how schiff laid out the case today, i think the moral what he was saying is that the moral wrong really was the abuse of power. This is something that a president ought not to do. But the subtext of what Schiff Adam Schiff was saying today was that far more dangerous to us as a union is the obstruction of justice because of the fact that the one thing the framers wrote in, to put a check on the president of the United States, was congress. Either through the ability to subpoena witnesses, or call witnesses, or have hearings. And if it comes to it, impeachment. Without that, and schiff said this quite explicitly, without that, you know, you march toward tyranny to some extent. Look, you know, people freak out a little bit when you Start Talking about tyranny and kings and stuff like that. But if there is a president with no check from congress thats where you get. And, look, we tried monarchy once in the United States. It didnt end particular ly well. We shouldnt go back there. It is very important that there be some check on a president s power. And i would think conservatives would agree with me on this. We dont want carl, what do you make of adam schiffs closing . I thought that the whole narrative, and particularly the closing, was the most shameful account, perhaps, in american president ial history, so eloquently presented, that i cannot see how any open minded person could not be swayed as to the constitutional criminality of the president of the United States, donald trump, in the extreme and that the craven inability of the senators in the Republican Party to do really, as schiff said, make a moral choice about right and wrong. It might sound trite up here but this is a Pivotal Moment in our history, and its going to go the wrong way, probably. Not the vote for acquittal, but the idea that we cannot have a real trial of a president of the United States who has done grievous damage to the country, the constitution and the subtext of everything we heard in this narrative today about our president being a lap dog and serving the interests of russia throughout, and of vladimir putin. Irrefutable. Kirsten, did the democrats make their case the last three days . I think that they made an airtight case. And listening to what amanda is saying, i think thats right, weve already seen the republicans kind of lay out the kind of arguments that theyre going to make, arguments that weve been hearing a lot. But i just what i dont understand is how anybody can listen to that and agree with it. Its just what it would mean is that if theres a democratic president in the future and scott, if you could just answer this question. If theres a democratic president in the future, and they ask a Foreign Government to investigate a political rival in the Republican Party and they use foreign some sort of official Foreign Policy, whether its a white house meeting or whether its aid or whatever it is, are you okay with that . Im not and will republicans be okay with that . I think republicans are going to argue, to amandas point theyll deal with that if that happens. I think theyre going to argue what amanda said which is there could be multiple motives for this, which is in the uncommon for president s to have multiple motives. Im giving you a very specific thing. This is important is whats going to happen is republicans do what we all think theyre going to do that is a scenario were now facing, it is republicans saying that that kind of behavior is acceptable. Im asking you if another president does that, are you okay with that . I im not going to answer a hypothetical in the future. I dont know what the situation would be. I think republicans are going to do what amanda said, which is argue there was a legitimate reason for the president to bring this up and that democrats have overplayed by arguing that this is somehow trying to rig the election. By the way, i heard repeatedly all throughout last night and this morning that schiff sang last night that the 2016 election was essentially stolen and if we dont prevent trump from being on the ballot then the 2020 election is already illegitimate. That rankled the conference. They dont see it that way, kirsten. They dont believe that democratic claims that this is somehow election rigging, foreign interference they dont believe that verbiage. They dont believe the severity of what youre saying. Take the election out of it. It did happen. Theres no dispute that he was using a white house meeting and he was using foreign aid to try to get them to do an investigation into a political rival. Thats just not in dispute. So how is that okay and how is that something that we are now saying in the future is going to be acceptable behavior . Further than that, kirsten, it would be foolish for a future president not to. It would be irrational for a future president not to now that the bar has been set so low for president ial conduct that now weve opened the door to exactly what youre saying to future president s, inviting the intrusion of Foreign Governments into our system of elections. Youre absolutely right. Ive got to get a break in. Ahead tonight a jurors take on it, senator chris murphy and also later, more breaking news, audio of President Trump talking at a table that lev parnas was at, the man he says he doesnt know, and demanding the firing of the u. S. Ambassador to ukraine, marie yovanovitch. Which is something lev parnas himself said happened and now theres a tape released. Take the personal assessment and get matched with a proven weight loss plan. Find out which customized plan can make losing weight easier for you myww join for less than a 1 a day. Because the tempurbreeze™makes stransfers heat. Away from your body. So you feel cool, night after night. 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Just like this sequel. 15 minutes could save you 15 or more on Car Insurance. glass shattering frustrated yell car horn blast yelp democrats made their Closing Arguments tonight, defenders of the president begin their case this morning, more history about to be made in a building that has seen so much already, earlier tonight impeachment scholar michaelgerhart, adam schiff was trying point by point, blow by blow to give republicans no place to hide, if not philosophically. Before air time i spoke with one of the jurors. Senator, chris murphy, a democrat from connecticut. Senator, i wonder are you satisfied with how it was presented and do you think any republican minds were changed . Whats interesting, anderson, is a lot of republicans havent seen this argument made before. A lot of them didnt watch the house testimony. A lot of them havent seen sondland and taylor presented in public. And so while some of it might have seemed repetitive i think it was important for republican senators to sit through the entire timeline, the entire story of this corruption scheme. I think many of them didnt understand how big it was. Now, i dont know that that changes their mind, but it makes the job on the president s lawyers awful tough. And i think representative schiff understood that because he ended tonight, i think very effectively, by concentrating on all of the distractions that were going to be launched by the president s lawyers. I think hes effectively come to the conclusion that the Trump Lawyers arent going to try to contest the facts. They arent going to try to contest the corruption. Theyre going to just try to distract with how mean the house managers were to the president or how bad the bidens are or how unfair the process was. I thought that was an effective way for him to end. Earlier today you said when it comes to calling witnesses you were much more optimistic last week than you are now. I wonder is it that what is it that changed your mind . Do you think there is any chance witnesses will be called . I think theres absolutely a chance. Ive talked to Senate Republicans who are still i think very willing to look at witnesses. But i also know this week, having been on the floor, that senator mcconnell, and the president s people, were pressing republicans pretty hard to get in line. And you started to hear these arguments that we just dont have enough time. If you want witnesses its going to take too long. Well, one witness is john bolton who has told us he wants to testify. Hes not going to take the senate to court. And he has a really important story to tell because as weve learned over the course of the last three days hes one of the people that was in the room multiple times with trump when trump likely gave the order for this scheme to be carried out. So i think theres still a chance. I just know that the republicans in the white house will work in this really hard this week. The president s attorneys obviously began their case tomorrow and as you said adam schiff was sort of trying to preempt that by going over some of the arguments theyre likely to make. How much do you expect them to focus on the bidens in particular versus, you know, a step by step recounting of the president s actions and their interpretation of it . Oh, i dont expect them to do any step by step recounting of the president s actions. Theyre not going to do a point by point rebuttal of the timeline because they cant. The timeline is the timeline. The corruption scheme happened. They are absolutely, i think, going to spend an enormous amount of time trying to prelitigate the 2020 general election. Joe biden may or may not be the candidate for the democrats, but this whole thing has been about trying to destroy who trump sees as one of the strongest candidates. And if he didnt get it done behind the scenes with ukraine, he and his people are going to try to get it done on the floor of the senate over the next few days. Thats why theyre not interested in spending too much time tomorrow, on saturday they want as many eyes as possible on their reelection arguments that they are going to be making starting in large part on monday. Just lastly republican senator ron johnson claimed its damaged the u. S. Ukraine, adding quote the sooner this ends the better for america. Im not sure exactly what thats based on and how the impeachment inquiry could damage relations more than the president trying to extort ukraine. You know, ron johnson and i obviously have been part of this trial. We traveled to ukraine as this corruption was unfolding. And, you know, president zelensky told us to our face that he wanted to stay out of american elections, that he knew that getting dragged into u. S. Politics was going to hurt him and hurt ukraine. So president zelensky told us to our face that it was the attempts by the trump people to drag him into american politics that was doing the damage to him and his country and that is, of course, the truth. Our responsibility is to get to the bottom of this corruption. And though yes when this trial is over it will be a little bit easier for people like ron johnson and i to get back together, working on prou. S. Ukraine policy. Our responsibility now to our constituents, to u. S. Taxpayers, is to find the truth. And that truth cannot be found in whole without getting witnesses and documents. Senator murphy, i appreciate your time. Thanks. Up next, the legal team prepares for the day of arguments tomorrow. Their game plan ahead. worried im not picking it up. You pick it up im not picking it up ill pick it up theyre clean raps cuz my hineys clean. Oh yeah im charmin clean. Charmin ultra strong just cleans better. Enjoy the go with charmin. Robinwithout the commission fees. So, you can start investing today wherever you are even hanging with your dog. So, what are you waiting for . Download now and get your first stock on us. Robinhood. Well im standing here, looking at you, what do i see . Theres a booking for every resolution. Book yours at booking. Com wthats why xfinity hasu made taking your internetself. And tv with you a breeze. Really . Yup. You can transfer your Service Online in about a minute. You can do that . Yeah. And with twohour Service Appointment windows, its all on your schedule. Awesome. So while moving may still come with its share of headaches. No kidding. Were doing all we can to make moving simple, easy, awesome. Go to xfinity. Com moving to get started. At 10 00 a. M. Tomorrow, President Trumps team son the clock for up to 24 hours. Theres certainly a lot of questions about it, and a lot of anticipation building toward what well see and hear. Kaitlan collins joins us from the white house. I know the president s weighing in with ad