Wrath and the backlash. And then theres the iowa vote. That was on monday. Remember . We still dont have all the results two nights later thanks to a meltdown debacle screwup. And in the meantime the men who think they finished one and two go after each other on this day three. All of it as the 11th hour gets under way on this wednesday night. Well, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Day 1,112 of the trump administration, which leaves 272 days until the 2020 president ial election. A major chapter in the political life of our nation came to an end today. The president was found not guilty by a slim majority of the 100 senators who stood in judgment in his impeachment trial. On both articles the vote was party line except for one. Mitt romney of utah stood up and said guilty. And by doing so became the first senator ever to cast an Impeachment Vote against a president of his own party. In emotional remarks prior to casting his vote and anticipating the backlash that has quickly surrounded him, romney talked about how he arrived at his vote. As a senator juror i swore an oath before god to exercise impartial justice. I am profoundly religious. My faith is at the heart of who i am. I take an oath before god as enormously consequential. I knew from the outset that being tasked with judging the president , the leader of my own party, would be the most difficult decision i have ever faced. I was not wrong. According to the washington post, and we quote, following romneys speech democratic senator brian schatz of hawaii walked off the senate floor in tears and remained speechless for several seconds. He literally restored my faith in the institution, schatz said. The president s son slammed romney for his vote earlier this evening. He flipflopped for political expediency on every major conservative issue that he says he believes in now that hes in utah again. He has come to donald trump for his endorsement, for money when he was running. He blew his chance. Bigly. Hes not brave. Hes a coward. The second impeachment charge, obstruction of congress, went down directly along party lines 5347. The Senate Leaders both spoke before the vote. You cannot be on the side of this president and be on the side of truth. Leaders in the opposite party increasingly argue that if our institutions dont produce the outcomes they like our institutions themselves must be broken. As you may know, for days trump allies have been promising a bipartisan acquittal, expecting democrats to cross over and join them. This afternoon three democrats from states trump won in 16 all voted with their party to convict trump. Meanwhile, republican senator Susan Collins of maine, who voted to acquit, is coming under fire for saying trump had learned his lesson. Tonight she walked back even that wording. There were so many of us who are republicans in the senate who were very critical of the call. The call was wrong. Did he give you any assurance that he would not do Something Like that again, accept foreign help in anything related to someone that might be running with him . Did you talk to him about it at all . Ive had no conversations with him throughout the trial. So why do you have that feeling that he has changed, that he learned a lesson . Well, i may not be correct on that. Its more aspirational on my part. Trump has yet to comment publicly on his acquittal but did say he would be making a Public Statement tomorrow, 12 00 p. M. , from the white house. And his administration did issue a statement claiming that the trial ended in the full vindication and exoneration of president donald j. Trump. Todays vote was far from the final word on all of this. Minutes after it took place, republican senators Chuck Grassley and ron johnson sent a letter to the secret Service Director requesting information on Hunter Bidens travel records while joe biden was Vice President. And about john bolton and hearing from him before we read it in his book, today house impeachment manager jerry nadler, democrat of new york, chair of the judiciary committee, was asked about a potential subpoena. Mr. Chairman, just to put a finer point on it, you said its likely that your committee or some combination of committees will subpoena john bolton. Thats what youre saying . Yeah. When would this happen . I dont know. Here for our leadoff discussion on a wednesday night, three of the last people standing in washington, d. C. , annie karni, White House Reporter with the New York Times. Nancy cook, White House Reporter for politico. And jeremy bash, former chief of staff at the cia and the pentagon. Former chief counsel to the house intel committee. Good evening and welcome to you all. Annie, id like to begin with you. With the chief justice and with the u. S. Senate having begged off of this, does a new era in fact begin tonight for this president . It certainly does. And i think we saw part of it yesterday. I think were going to see trump unbound. If you thought that unbound was what weve seen already i think this is a new chapter. People ive talked to over the past few days pointed me to four factors that are making them feel extremely confident as they look down toward the heart of this reElection Campaign. One is the expected acquittal that is now a reality. Two is the iowa caucus mess that makes the democrats look like a party in disarray and casts doubt over the whole election process. Three was a chance to look president ial at the state of the union. And four was the gallup poll that came out a few days ago that showed his Approval Rating at an alltime high. So they are feeling very confident. Theyre going to go and theyre having another boatload of surrogates hit New Hampshire start on sunday. Trump has a rally there monday night ahead of the democratic primary on tuesday. They are Susan Collins is right that its aspirational. I think they just learned that the party of grievance is going to be saying we told you so. And nancy indeed having established all of that, including those four points, how did today differ from the white house plans . Well, i think the white house was caught very much by surprise by mitt romneys speech. They werent really given a headsup ahead of time. So they had been planning and talking among themselves for several days about what a victory lap speech would look like this afternoon. And you know, but 9 president first wanted to see the vote tally. And i think they were surprised by romneys speech and i think they had also been hoping in recent days that a moderate democrat in a state that trump won like senator joe manchin of West Virginia would potentially vote to acquit trump. And that also did not happen. So although they walked away today very victorious and trump was acquitted and i think they feel very confident after last nights state of the union address, i think there were a few surprises this afternoon that they werent necessarily expecting. Jeremy bash, im eager to get you on the record on what we have just watched unfold. It was striking today to hear mcconnell criticize democratic attacks on our institutions. How are those institutions tonight, do you think, jeremy . I think in the National Security realm i think people are worried. Because one of the signals that came out of this acquittal today is basically a green light to our adversaries. You can attack our institutions, our elections, our democracy and get away with it. In fact, the president may even invite it in. And i think one of the messages that comes out of the acquittal is that the president feels emboldened, he did nothing wrong, it was a perfect phone call in his eyes. And this decision validates that. So i think we can expect him to invite additional foreign interference. I think russia will feel emboldened. The president has already invited china to interfere in our elections. And there are a lot of other countries out there that say hey, we can make a deal with donald trump. Maybe well get something in return if we help him out in 2020. Annie karni, what happens to mitt romney now . Well, he made it very clear that hes not sure but preparing for the worst. Weve already seen the attacks begin. Rona mcdaniel, his niece, the chairman of the rnc, came out really early with a statement attacking him. The rnc spent out a memo showing that donald trump is more popular than mitt romney in utah. That donald trump jr. Has been bashing him. Some white house advisers have been warning trump that he should just move on, take the acquittal, not focus on romney, move past the impeachment news cycle. Judging by the past, i think that is wishful thinking. He may be alienated from his own party. But mitt romney as he said in a series of interviews, his line is that the worst thing that could happen to you in politics already happened to him. He lost the president ial race. Hes a wealthy man. Hes an older man. My sense of him, just observing him and reporting on people around him is that if he does become a oneterm senator that wont be the end of his life. And hes not up for four more years. So he has a long time to see how it shakes out for him. Indeed. Nancy, i want to play for you some of romney with chris wallace. You realize this is war. Donald trump will never forgive you for this. Theres a hymn that is sung in my church. Its an old protestant hymn. Which is do what is right, let the consequence follow. I know in my heart that im doing whats right. I understand theres going to be enormous consequence. And i dont have a choice in that regard. Nancy, that is kind of similar talk to heads on a pike. Yeah. Its interesting. I do think that, you know, the president came out on twitter shortly after romney gave his address and already early this evening there was a video that went up on the president s twitter account mocking romney. I was told that was not produced this afternoon but obviously it had been something that people in the white house had been anticipating for a while. And i think the president is supposed to deliver these impeachment remarks tomorrow, noon in the east room at the white house, and i think what will be really interesting is whether the president follows the advice of some of advisers and lets the state of the union speak for itself and the acquittal speak for itself and just moves on and gives a forwardlooking speech or if he lets his own sense of personal grievance which he so often displays shine through and goes after romney in that particular venue. Jeremy bash, our president is the first to come from the realm of reality television. Its been well established. He likes a reveal. Kind of a staple of reality television. What did we just witness in your conjuring during the state of the union . Well, there were a couple of moments there, brian, that i think will be remembered. One of them was sort of that moving moment when a soldier was reunited with his family. But ive got to say, upon reflection and talking to some people today, that in some ways rubbed some people the wrong way because in essence not only were we using the troops as a political prop but it was sort of a dicey and difficult moment for that family and for those kids. I mean, they havent seen the dad in nine months. I would have wished that that moment would have been private. And then we would have lauded the family and their service in public. I also thought, brian, frankly that giving Rush Limbaugh the president ial medal of freedom was inappropriate. I mean, hes not rosa parks. Imagine who republicans would have said if a democratic president would have given the president ial medal of freedom at the state of the union to someone like michael moore. As much as we like michael moore, appreciate his humor and some of the points he makes, the president ial medal of freedom . I mean, come on. On that note, to annie karni, to nancy cook, to jeremy bash our thanks after a long day in washington. On this wednesday night. For joining us. Coming up for us, what its really like to cast a politically dangerous vote. Well ask someone whos been there and done that. Former indiana democratic senator joe donnelly is standing by to talk with us. And later, any day now we should have the full results of the iowa caucuses. Steve kornacki is here with us with the numbers we do have in, including some new ones, as the 11th hour is just getting under way on this wednesday night. There will be so many who will simply look at what im doing today and say it is a profile in courage. It is not. It is simply a matter of right and wrong. Doing right is not a courageous act. It is simply following your oath. Senator doug jones from the deep red state of alabama in the deep south cast a very tough vote today to convict on both articles of impeachment. He faces a tough election fight back home. Two other democrats cast similarly tough votes. Joe manchin, West Virginia. Kyrsten sinema, arizona. Trump carried alabama by 28 points, West Virginia by 42 points, arizona by 4. With us to talk about it tonight, former u. S. Senator joe donnelly, democrat of indiana. Trump carried his state by 19 points. That left donnelly vulnerable to a challenge by mike braun, who is now in the u. S. Senate. Donnelly served in the house and the senate and is cofounder of the one country project, which aims to create new opportunities for americans living in Rural Communities. Senator, having voted no on kavanaugh, as you did, from the state that gave us mike pence, your reaction to what mitt romney stood up and did today. Thats thats the essence of what a United States senator is supposed to be, that you take an oath to support and defend the constitution. You dont take an oath to support and defend a party or a president but the constitution of the United States. And so when people said were you stunned by what mitt romney did, i was not because you feel that weight. You feel that responsibility. And i know what kind of incredible person mitt romney is. How about doug jones . Same question. The best of the best. Hes a close friend. And when i saw the votes he made, i actually thought thats what senator jones was going to do because, you know, he focuses so intently on doing the right thing and in his mind it was really, really clear that there was a shameful abuse of power. And so doug did what his oath required him to do. How did we go from just in your time in washington the state of the union that was jokingly called date night where members were asked to invite and sit with others from the other side of the aisle from the opposite party, from that, fast forward to last night and shouts of four more years prior to the state of the union . Its really breathtaking to watch. Some years ago when i was in the house i sat on the other side where the republicans sat with some of my republican friends, and in fact we all had a good laugh when we stood up to cheer president obama and they said look at all the republicans cheering him. But that was how it was. And to see the incredible divisiveness is disheartening. So what we have to do is go back to focusing on our jobs, on our oaths, which is not to worry about party or to worry about a president. Nobody works for a president. You work with a president to do the best for the nation. James carville, selfdescribed old warrior, 75 years old now, was with us during our daytime coverage yesterday. And i want to play for you some of what he said and gauge your reaction. I think that this is not going particularly well so far. And why is tom perez still the chairman of the Democratic National committee . I have no idea. This party needs to wake up. Theres only one moral imperative in this country right now, and that is to beat donald trump. Thats the only moral imperative. Its the only thing i want to hear. And until we understand that we win every argument, brian. We win the argument on anything. We dont win the elections because we talk about stuff that is not relevant. Senator, what do you make of that . Hes exactly right. The whole idea of the one country project in Rural Communities is the wonderful, wonderful people throughout our country are focused on jobs and the opportunity to send their kids to good schools and to know that theres food on the table and that they can retire with dignity. And when we talk about those issues, when democrats continue to talk about them like talking about the fact that the president s for years been trying to eliminate preexisting conditions, democrats do really, really well. When we go off the rails and spend all our times talking about cultural issues, we really struggle. Do you see a democrat out there in the field right now who can beat donald trump . I do. I think that in fact most all of them can as long as theyre focused like a laser on the things that people want to talk about. When were in michigan we need to talk about jobs and we need to talk about the future. When were in places like florida, we need to talk about climate change, about the environment. These are the things that donald trump cant touch us on, is the opportunity to make sure that tariffs go away, so we dont have our farmers in a place where bankruptcies are going up 20 , that we dont have the debt exploding. We talk about these meat and potato things, about the fact that if you have cancer, we were the party that brought you the opportunity to have health care. And donald trump is trying to take it away. Hillary clinton goes into coal country, says were going to close your mine but dont worry, were going to get you green jobs, which of course never materialized. Donald trump, make of this what you will, runs on a procoal platform, carries joe manchins state of West Virginia by 42 points. Are you teaching democrats how to speak american . I hope thats what were trying to do, is to tell them look, you cannot talk about changing your lives without providing hope and a plan and aspiration and a chance for success. That coal miner at the end of the day has children at the table who are counting on him or her to come through for them. And so as you say, and its a great way to put it, brian, we need to talk american to all the americans, not just those on either coast. Former indiana democratic senator joe donnelly, thank you, senator, for joining us tonight and taking our questions. Coming up f