blowback from vice president harris interviews pushing urgent action on economic relief with west virginia news media, a move seen as pressure on west virginia senator joe manchin, who was put off by the move, which seemed rather ham handed. the white house said this afternoon president biden is not worried about going too big with the bill. he is worried about going too small. you can t find bipartisanship on covid-19, i don t know where you can find it. reporter: one hour from now, ten republican senators will put joe biden s call for bipartisanship to the test. biden granting a meeting on the group s covid relief proposal, $618 billion plan to provide $160 billion through vaccine distribution and testing, $300 for expanded unemployment insurance and 20 billion for k through 12 schools. we saw this as a good faith proposal they put forward. what this meeting is not is a forum for the president to make or accept an offer. reporter: the plan comes in less than one-th
vote count angre that day, despite the fact that president trump said he hopes vice president pence, quote, comes through for us on the morning of the electoral vote confirmation. and the day before the count tweeted, quote, the vice president has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors, which is not true, but he did tweet that. the house democratic impeachment managers argue that president trump over months and months filled a powder keg and then lit a match. joint session of congress after losing an election is not an impeachable offense. it is hard to imagine what would be, unquote, as cnn s chief domestic correspondent jim acosta reports for us. the arguments set the stage for the kick-off of the trial one week from today. reporter: donald trump s impeachment lawyers are trying to build a wall of their own, separating the bloody siege at the capitol on january 6th and the then president s words before the riot. we will stop the steal. reporter: in its respo
we ve learned that house gop leader kevin mccarthy is expected to meet tonight, very soon we re told, with congresswoman marjorie taylor greene, who is under a lot of fire for spreading conspiracy theories and extremist social media lies and posts. among those criticizing her, senate minority leader mitch mcconnell, who slammed what he called her looney lies saying they re, quote, a cancer on the party. meanwhile, both sides have filed pretrial briefings just ahead of former president trump s upcoming impeachment trial next week on the floor of the u.s. senate. they say trump s blame for the attack on capitol hill is, quote, unmistakable. trump says the senate has absolutely no authority to try an ex-president. lots going on. let s given with our coverage on capitol hill. manu raju is joining us now. republicans are piling on marjorie taylor greene ahead of her meeting that s coming up, we re told, fairly soon with the house g op leader. yes, senate republicans are piling o
show @thelead. you can listen to the lead once you get your podcasts, all two hours, just sitting there like a delicious tray of sushi. our coverage continues now with mr. alex marquardt who is in for wolf blitzer in a place i like to call the situation room. i ll see you tomorrow. happening now, a desperate search and rescue mission. thousands of feet below the surface of the atlantic ocean. submersible operated by a company running expeditions to the wreck of the titanic is now missing. we have up-to-the-minute details on the mission to find the sub and the five people on board. also this hour, the high-stakes meeting of the super power secretary of state antony blinken says the u.s. and china have made progress towards getting relations back on track, but there still is a ways to go. we ll have a report from beijing. and more than 50 million people across the southeast face the threat of severe weather including tornados this holiday weekend. we ll have the latest
blitzer in the situation room. happening now, a judge in manhattan just scheduled donald trump s criminal trial for next year right in the middle of the republican primary season. we ll share all the latest details from the former president s court appearance earlier this afternoon. also tonight, governor ron desantis is about to official. the florida republican is poised to launch his white house campaign tomorrow during a conversation with elon musk on twitter. we have new details on the announcement and how his gop rivals plan to respond. plus, we re learning new information right now about the driver who slammed a u haul truck into a white house barricade, what a court filing is revealing about the threats he allegedly made about president biden and his praise for adolph hitler. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer, you re in the situation room. . let s get straight to the news on former president trump s criminal trial