Move it around, what jumped out at me, shocked, actually, to hear jane raskin, by all accounts competent attorney, by many accounts the key to keeping the president out of trouble in the russia probe. She says today, Rudy Giuliani, rudy who . You think hes important . Mr. Giuliani is just a minor player. That shiny object designed to distract you. Senators, i urge you most respectfully, do not be distracted. Michael, the president said in the perfect phone call, Rudy Giuliani, thats the guy. And zelensky says, Rudy Giuliani, thats the guy. And the president says, talk to Rudy Giuliani. Hes a great mayor. Hell be helpful. Everybody involved, whether positively or negatively, points to Rudy Giuliani. The president s excuse for why he wouldnt have told lev parnas the things he told him on videotape was, i wouldnt have said it to him. I would have told it to Rudy Giuliani. How is Rudy Giuliani a side piece . Hes not. He features more prominently than jane argued. I think she was trying to say that giuliani began his quest for information about ukrainian involvement in the president ial election of 2016 in order to help trump defend himself against the russia collusion allegations. Its from that, that all of his activities stem. What she was trying to say was, there was a legitimate basis for him to be in ukraine and asking about these things, and it wasnt just a drop in, in 2019, on a political errand. I think thats the point she was trying to make. Professor, when you teach law students, you use the from the beginning analysis. Even if its this bogus crowdstrike server thing, which doesnt exist, he went into much more than that. He said, i want to get rid of the ambassador openly, he was using lev parnas. Can this have sway as an argument . Im not sure it can. It will have sway in some quarters. Part of the objective for the white house lawyers is to provide cover for the republican senators to acquit the president. But if you look at it more closely, you find out just tossing him off as a bit player is taking too much liberty with the facts. Giuliani was carrying out the president s wishes, and those were to freeze the aid to provide leverage to get a favor out of the ukrainian president. He said it himself in a few different forms. Okay. Thats that one, under the heading of something for everybody. Another thing that happened today, they went after the bidens. They say, well, the house managers opened the door to that. Thats a term of art in evidence law that we dont need to deal with here, because theres no rules of evidence here. They did it because they wanted to. How effective was it . Its not effective for people who are paying attention, but theyve been talking about the bidens from day one. And its effective for the people who want Something Else to look at. Were focusing on the president s conduct, the president s behavior, the president s abuse of power. If you say, the president was just trying to look at this problem, its a distraction technique. For people looking for that to be their reason for acquittal, its effective. Asha, the idea that robert ray put out there, all right, it wasnt a perfect phone call. But no crimes, no crimes even alleged. Was that the most persuasive sell that you heard . I know its a low bar. I didnt think it was particularly persuasive. But i think he was hoping for a moment where maybe President Trump wasnt watching and he could throw that in, winkwink, to the republicans, we all know this is not great. I also wonder if precisely because hes said this in public on your show, and he knows theres all these video clips, he probably needs to stay honest without being discredited by the house managers if they bring that up in the question and answer. But i think that the question isnt whether its a perfect phone call or not. Its whether he was trying to leverage his authority for something of personal benefit. And Rudy Giuliani is central to that, and discredits the whole hunter biden. If it was a legitimate investigation, it would have gone to the department of justice, not his personal lawyer. And cipollone, he defends the presidency. These are arguments hes making on behalf of the presidency. The end of the argument was dershowitz tonight. He was their last word in terms of, listen, the founders knew what they wanted this to be about. And it wasnt this. I argued it about nixon. I hated him. I argued it about clinton, i loved him. Im arguing it now, he didnt say what he thought about trump. But how heavy was the argument in terms of, this was not what they intended . So this was the one two punch that ended tonights primetime, robert ray, who sincerely believes that you need a crime for there to be an impeachable offense. That was followed up by dershowitz. Ive been a practicing lawyer, and this is what i think about the practice of law. And dershowitz says im a constitutional scholar, and i support that view. I dont think that view is correct. Ive written with robert in contradiction to his point of view. It was, i think, a wellargued argument even though i think it was not correct. Stick around. Ill take a break. When we come back, well look at where its all sized up now. Because we dont know that theyre going to keep on going as long as they could. I think they started the day with 21 hours and 6 minutes left. Ending early, why would you do that . Its a message they may want to send. Well discuss it, when we come back. Oks different. The unbeatable strength and speed of advil liquigels. What pain . Breathe freely fast, with vicks sinex. My congestions gone. I can breathe again ahhhh i can breathe again ughh vicks sinex. Breathe on. Rouge signature by loreal. Finally a lasting lip stain. For a matte color impact, with a barely there feel. Luxuriously intense matte shades. Rouge signature by loreal paris. Were worth it. Rouge signature by loreal paris. Its either the assucertification process. Or it isnt. Its either testing an array of advanced safety systems. Or it isnt. Its either the peace of mind of a standard unlimited mileage warranty. Or it isnt. For those who never settle, its either mercedesbenz certified preowned. Or it isnt. The mercedesbenz certified preowned sales event. Now through march 2nd. Only at your authorized mercedesbenz dealer. Tmobile 5g is here. And its nationwide. While some 5g signals go only blocks, tmobile 5g goes miles. Beyond the big cities to the small towns. To the people. Millions of americans can have access to 5g on tmobile. This is just the beginning. Tmobile, the first and only nationwide 5g network. Pam bondy, former a. G. Of florida. Shes on the president s defense team. She spent half an hour giving this president what the ukrainians would not, publicly attacking his political rival, joe biden. But trumps team have repeatedly claimed the house managers failed to tell the whole story. How did she fail . One, the investigation into burisma was inactive when joe biden was pushing for the prosecutors removal. The reason they all wanted the prosecutor out was because he was not tough when it came to going after corrupt companies, including burisma. In fact, Democratic Senators sent a letter naming burisma as one of the companies to take on. The idea that shokin one the prosecutor they wanted taken out. Who did . Rob portman and ron johnson, the other point that trumps defenders keep making incorrectly is that you must have a crime. Yet, we have yet to hear what crime joe or hunter biden may have committed. Here in the United States or even in ukraine. Trumps own d. O. J. Has never pursued any charges. And the ukrainian prosecutors, who did look into this, said definitively, hunter biden did not violate anything in their laws. So, while pam bondy tried to push a version of this president who is somehow tough on corruption, the facts are not on her side. Since taking office, this president killed a bipartisan an Anti Corruption rule. The latest is that he tried to make it easier to bribe foreign governments. What hunter biden did was arguably wrong. It looks bad. It doesnt pass the smell test. The former vp says hell have rules against what his son did if hes elected. But none of that answers why the president chose to go about this the way he did. And why he has chosen to hide his perfect alibi. Think about that. Nobody hides an alibi. Although it is one word. Lets bring back our legal minds. Its good to have you back. Professor, let me ask you this question. Going after the bidens, the way she did, the way she did, thats the key part, that gets you to this section of asking questions from the senators. I almost fell. Might have been the highlight of the show, would have been funny. Professor, all the things i just listed, and there are many others in terms of her recitation of facts today. Whats the risk . Yeah, you put stink on biden, but what is the risk when you get asked questions . There are a lot of risks. One of the basic ones is very simple. That is no matter what you say about the bidens, none of it makes trump innocence. Lets take another bead on that. And i want more of you to weigh in. This is a big point for people. Okay . I know you guys dont see it that way. But remember to the laypeople, if the bidens were doing bad stuff in ukraine, wasnt the president helping me out, and doesnt this all go away . And you could make a good case, if they had stink on them, isnt that absolving him . You just made the point, theres a proper way of doing it, and he didnt follow that. Secondly, his preoccupation with the bidens was his only interest in corruption as it related to ukraine. His own team gave him talking points about corruption more generally, but instead he mentioned the bidens five times. At that same point in history, joe biden was beating the president in popularity polls. So theres a reason for the president to be preoccupied with biden. And it wasnt a real investigation, just the announcement of an investigation. There was no genuine interest in corruption, but instead dirtying his rival. Im not convinced. And heres why. He didnt do it the right way. Thats you elitist insiders with your fancy rules. Hes not a politician. He saw something that was wrong, he did it his own way. Got the guy he trusts, rudy, and he got it done. No. Doesnt work that way. The United States does not have other countries investigate our citizens. Were not even participating in the International Criminal court for that reason. And how do you send Rudy Giuliani over there to gather information when you have this entire apparatus over there . Its not only not the way it should be done, its not the way that will work if youre really trying to find out information. By the way, Rudy Giuliani, who supposedly came back with troves of information, hes been teasing it on twitter for months, any minute now hell release all this information. He doesnt done it, because he doesnt have anything. He didnt collect any evidence, because there is no evidence. Can i add Something Real fast . Those are closed door meetings that giuliani had in ukraine. Fair point in terms of process. Were assuming people care about process. Michael who is talking to me . Go ahead. Go ahead, asha. That was me. Its probably better than my question. Go ahead. Well, i think that the nail in the coffin in the biden issue is, look, what was the end game here of having ukraine investigate the bidens . We dont have an extradition treaty with ukraine. Had they investigated these people and decided to charge them, what exactly was supposed to happen . Did you just throw something in a fit of pique . I just heres the satisfaction, asha. Truth. I knocked a can over. Theres water spilling on the carpet. Thats okay. The president s argument would be truth. Im getting the truth out to the american people. They hid it, protected this biden. The state department, the elitists, the deep state. I blew it open for you because i care. Thats why you vote for me. What happened to asha . It couldnt go anywhere. Thats where it went. Thats his argument, asha. Zeldin, you want to help out while asha cleans up. Go ahead, michael. I think the most disingenuous thing that pam bondy said was that the reason joe biden wanted to get rid of shokin was because he was going to investigate burisma and his son. Thats just an untruth. Shokin says its true. Hes disavowed that. Theres not a factual basis for it. She could argue if she wants the conflict of interest or appearance of conflict of interest. But if she accuses joe biden of corruption, that is just not acceptable advocacy because its untrue. Is asha okay . Good. Okay, im putting a lot of emphasis on this because im telling you, youre going to hear about it from a lot of republican senators who are explaining their vote. How they feel about biden, and what was exposed about them, how that creates some equivalency with them, youre going to hear about it. Thank you for going through it with me, i appreciate it, and the audience will benefit from it. The other big story of the night, the loss of kobe bryant, his daughter, the seven others. A short time ago, lebron james, who had a significant bond with kobe bryant, just passed him in scoring which was huge for him and huge for kobe. He just shared on social media what hes feeling. And hes just getting started. And kareem abduljabbar, we have a special oneonone conversation with what hell miss and what will be remembered. Its worth watching, next. For the whole family. New vicks vapopatch. Breathe easy. Yeah . Whos peter . Well sweetie, hes your greatgreat grandfather. Here, does he look like me . Yeah. Your familys story is waiting to be shared. At ancestry. Com your familys story is waiting to be shared. Sleep this amazing . Thats a zzzquil pure zzzs sleep. Our liquid has a unique botanical blend, while an optimal melatonin level means no nextday grogginess. Zzzquil pure zzzs. Naturally superior sleep. Im finding it hard to stay on a faster laptop could help. Plus, tech support to stay worry free woory free. Boom boom get free business day shipping. At office depot, officemax and officedepot. Com so many around the world are reeling after the Helicopter Crash that claimed kobe bryant, his 13yearold daughter gianna, and seven others, and the pilot, eight others. The ntsb says there was an ipad used by the pilot. There is no black box, but they have the ipad recovered from the crash site. Investigators will be on scene for days. Well see what it tells us. Now, the nba is postponing tomorrow nights lakers clippers game because of the grief felt by the organization. Earlier, i spoke to kareem abduljabbar, and he explained to me, and to you, why this is so much bigger than basketball. Kareem, as i said before, it is always a pleasure to speak with you. But im really sorry to be speaking with you under these circumstances tonight. Yes, its been a very tough several hours now, chris. You know, its very hard to deal with this, to see someone that had so much more to share with us, gone so suddenly and so needlessly. Its really tough. You, to those who get to know you, you are a very deep thinker. You believe things deeply, you take a lot of time to figure out what things mean to you. Where are you with trying to have any sense of how Something Like this could happen . Theres you cant make sense out of it. Things like this dont make sense. To have someone that had so much more to share with us, that would have been a leader. Look how kobe made it possible for a lot of Young Athletes to leave high school and come into professional basketball and do well and succeed. Because he was the exception that proved the rule. He had that type of leadership quality. He had so much more to give along those lines. What i keep hearing said about him is that the basketball was like the third greatest quality that he had. That people didnt get a chance unless they knew him to appreciate his intelligence and to see what he had made of himself in terms of what his family meant, what his kids meant. His children meant so much to him. I stopped coaching with the lakers, so i only got to know natalia kind of well. The younger daughters, i didnt know very well. But some of the things, the one thing, kobes sense of humor was amazing. I want to share this with people. Luke walton was having a weird day at practice. About three or four times up and down the court, luke almost made a spectacular play. But just missed doing it. A blocked shot, a threepoint shot, great defense. You know, a tough rebound. So luke was struggling. And kobe from the sideline, sounding exactly like Alec Guinness says, the force, luke. Use the force it just broke the whole place up. We started dying laughing. It was amazing that he put it all together like that and said it so timely. But he had that kind of timing and that type of insight. And thats what he was about. His precociousness as a player, coming out at 17, making it in the league, we know. Why was he so great as a great player yourself, what made him what he was . Id say what made kobe the great player that he was, when he was determined to extend his will, he could extend it, and there was nothing you could do about it. I had the good fortune in november of 1960, i was at the game where elgin got the 81, and i was at the game where kobe got the 81. There was nothing they could do. He was putting up threepointers from well beyond the threepoint line. Attacking the basket, made all the free throws. There was no way you could stop him. He had that indomitable will, and skill to execute wherever he felt like it. And the five World Championship rings attest to that. Was he just a perfect combination of talents . He wasnt the tallest, the strongest, wasnt the most explosive or the best shooter. He was excellent in all those categories. Was it the combination . It was a combination, and he was courtwise. His dad joe bryant really schooled him on how to play the game. The moments of the game that enable you to dominate. That takes a certain kind of knowledge. And his dad certainly was possessed of that knowledge. And its something he shared with his son. And kobe took it and expanded on it. I think the same way that, you know, you have Stephen Curry expanding on what his dad taught him, or Klay Thompson expanding on what his dad taught him. Theres a chain of exchange of knowledge that gives us athletes the quality of those guys i just mentioned. You knew him as a kid. Did you see anything in him then