on al-jazeera. understand the differences and similarities of cultures across the globe so no matter how you take it we'll bring you the news and current affairs that matter to. ironic as extended coverage of president donald trump's impeachment trial in the u.s. senate today is the 1st day of the trial and start with politicians have been debating the rules that will govern the remaining days and weeks of the impeachment proceedings democrats have been proposing a series of amendments to the rules laid out by the senate majority leader that's mitch mcconnell already the republican controlled senate has rejected a bid by the democrats to force the white house to provide more evidence it would take

a 2 thirds vote to convict trump and remove him from office with these amendments and they need a simple majority to pass well democrats continue to push for change calling the current rules a cover i send an amendment to the desk to subpoena certain documents and records from the white house the house managers strongly support senator schumer's amendment which would ensure a fair legitimate trial based on a full evidentiary record the senate can remedy president trump's unprecedented cover up by taking a straightforward step it can ask for the key evidence that the president has improperly blocked senator schumer's amendment that's just that. republicans are refusing to allow any amendments they say the democrats request to add new evidence as proof that the impeachment case is flawed. the 1st thing that the house managers have done upon arriving finally in this chamber after waiting for 33 days is to say

well actually we need more evidence we're not ready to present our case we need to have subpoenas and we need to do more discovery because we don't have the evidence we need to support our case this is stunning it's a stunning admission of the inadequate and broken process that the house democrats ran in this impeachment inquiry that failed to compile a record to support their charges it's stunning that they don't have the evidence they need to present their case and they don't really have a case. well let's take a look now at the trials rules as proposed by mcconnell he initially gave each side 24 hours spent over 2 days for opening arguments mcconnell's since revise that to 3 days witnesses cannot be called until the opening arguments and even then it will be left to a vote with republicans in control of the chamber that have significant power to block witnesses call by the democrats and then another change to the initial rules

mitch mcconnell will now allow transcripts from the house judiciary impeachment hearings to be submitted mcconnell's promised this will be a fair even handed process let's begin she have returned the across one is following these events for us on capitol hill and can unravel what's going on is all quite complicated she had so what about these concessions are they much of a concession. i think i mean that's the big debate right now on capitol hill is whether mitch mcconnell who's thought to be a master of congressional procedure and in the dark arts in general did something very clever on monday night he released the proposed rules which said that the democrats and the white house lawyers would only have 2 days to make their case over 24 hours and there was uproar with people say wait a 2nd i mean that's that that means potentially with with each day beginning at 1 o'clock in the afternoon local time that the arguments could be still going on in the middle of the night and in the early morning hours even given breaks and so on

then when we came in on tuesday we discovered that mitch mcconnell had relented on that he was giving each side 3 days to make their case and. the general kind of gossip and leaks around here were it's the so-called moderate republicans who said wait a 2nd we're not happy with these rules we want them to be more like the clinton impeachment clinton actually going to the other side got 4 days to make their case but now we have 3 days in this case and so much michael relented after the pressure of these so-called moderate republicans when we say moderate republicans we don't necessarily mean that they. they're centrist sort of else we just mean often that they are actually they represent swing states in the us other states that could go either way democratic or republican and they're very worried these moderate republicans that if they're seen not to be taking the impeachment process seriously they could be published at the ballot box in 2020 or so it's still not clear how much these senators who said you know we are interested in witnesses we are

interested in perhaps more evidence how much that truly means out of how much less saying that for the cameras even though they will eventually vote to acquit but the clearly mitch mcconnell is concerned about they senses too because he wants those sentences to win in 2020 as well so he can keep the republican senate majority so we're not clear yet whether this really was the result of some negotiation and if she wants us all right all right i'm hearing you we will have treaties and sort of 2 or whether this is this or some sort of plan to make sure the moderates look good as if they really are engaged and as a result as the democrats are now introducing all these amendments for witnesses for more documents which these moderate republicans have expressed interest in and before that all voting for them right now that they have a republican in a bit of a tie republican party in the senate is holding firm and rejecting each one of these amendments as you have and they're going to jump on that one and i become but you know just a 2nd we just want to listen to the senate floor where the representing the president's side constance it learning disability is talking so much about it's

nice chooses not to pursue through subpoena the testimony of dr copperman and ambassador bolton. let the record be clear that is the house's decision and they made that decision. they never subpoenaed ambassador bolton they didn't try to call him in the house and they withdrew the subpoena for charles cupper men before the judge could rule and they asked that the case be mooted and now they come here and they ask you to issue a subpoena for john bolton it's not right i yield the remainder of my time to mr sekulow. mr chief justice members of the senate. matter just said facts are a stubborn thing. let me give you some facts from the

transcripts besar someone actually testified on equivocally that the president did not tie aid to investigations instead of that he acknowledged any leak he had suggested was based entirely on his own speculation unconnected to any conversation with the president here's the question what about the aide and bester volcker says that they were tied that the aide was not tied answer i didn't say that they were conclusively tied either i said i was presuming it question ok and so the president never told you they were tied answer that is correct question so your testimony in a best provokers testimony is consistent and the president did not tie investigations a 2 investigations answer that is correct and bassett or someone also testified that he asked president directly about these issues and the president

explicitly told them that he did not want anything from ukraine i want nothing i want nothing i want no quid pro quo tells alinsky to do the right thing similar comments were made to senator johnson those are the facts. but that's the facts. no one is above the law here is the law as every member of congress knows. undoubtedly aware separate from even state secret privileges is the presidential communication executive privilege to communications and performance of a president's responsibilities the presidential communication privileges constitutional origins courts have recognized a great public interest in preserving the confidentiality of conversations that take place in the president's performance of the official duties because such confidentiality is needed to protect the effectiveness of the executive decision

making process in re sealed cases that was decided in the district of columbia court of appeals the supreme court found such a privilege necessary to guarantee the candor of presidential advisers and to provide a president and those who assist him with freedom to explore alternatives in the process of ultimately shaping policies and making decisions and to do so in a way many would be unwilling to express except in private for these reasons presidential conversations are presumptively privileged there's something out something else about this privilege communications made by presidential advisors again quoting courts and by the way lawyer said jay sekulow personal lawyer to donald trump defending the rules of the impeachment process presented by the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell and we had also from pensacola and he's white house legal counsel let's bring back shepherd tansey

she had this tuning and fro ing of evidence presentation and from both sides we have to remember that some of the things that they're talking about will come up later in the trial itself but all the talk about is just the rules. right and actually what we are seeing is very much a rehearsal of the arguments we will hear from the opening statements from the from the white house and on the democratic house members when the trial actually begins actually that was quite a nice bit that we that we just listened to because there were 2 main parts of the white house defense in what we just heard which is 1st of all that the house impeachment was entirely based on witnesses who don't have any 1st hand knowledge of quid pro quo of a quid pro quo of trump saying all right we're going to withhold this age till you have an investigation of joe biden although all the evidence is based on 2nd hand witnesses people who either assume that that was the case or heard from someone else or you know and so on so that's part of the white house argument is you can't base an impeachment on 2nd hand on 2nd hand witnesses but then the democrats say

wait a 2nd the reason we have 2nd witnesses is because you prevented those with an intimate knowledge of the discussions in the white house from testifying claiming executive privilege and then the white house says yeah because there is executive privilege under the separation of powers of the constitution congress and the white house the chief executive the commander in chief the whatever you want to call it has to be able to have private deliberations with his or her advisors about foreign policy and it is the president's purview to create foreign policy to guide foreign policy even though congress has a say in it so therefore it would be a terrible terrible precedent if now suddenly you know that the president has to reveal all of these private conversations that go into the into the into the ruminations about foreign policy you know trump and is always saying look this is we need to do this for future presidents so that congress doesn't think you can overstep the mark that that the separation of power in the constitution remains sacred president can have private deliberations with his advice all right she have

thanks very much. ok let's listen to adam schiff she's on the floor of the senate. 1st counsel said well. the house would like to call john bolton but the house did not seek his testimony during its investigation 1st of all we did we invited john bolton to testify and you know told us i'm not coming and if you subpoena me i will sue you i was a censor i will sue you mr bold as represented by the same lawyer who represents dr cupper men who actually did sue us when he was subpoenaed so we knew that john boat would make good on that threat now. the 2nd though says something about lawyer lawsuits not i have to confess i wasn't completely following the argument but something about lawyer lawsuits that we are against lawyer lawsuits well i don't know what that means but i can tell you this the trumpet justice department is in

court in that case and other cases arguing congress cannot go to court to enforce its subpoenas so when they say something about lawyer lawsuits and they say there's nothing wrong with the house suing to get these witnesses a show up and they should have sued to get them to show up their own other lawyers are in court saying the house has no such right they're in court saying you can't have a lawyer lawsuits so that argument cannot be made in both directions what's more in the copperman litigation i'm sorry in the gambling geisha which tested the same bogus theory of absolute immunity in that lawsuit it once again involving the president's lawyer don mcgann the one who was told to fire the special counsel and then to lie about it that lawsuit to get his testimony judge

jackson ruled on that very recently when they made the same bogus claim is absolutely immune from showing up and the judge says that's nonsense there's no support for that not in the constitution none in the case law that is made out of whole cloth. but you know the judge said something more that was very interesting because what we urged john bolton's lawyer is you don't need to file a lawsuit dr come from and you don't need to file a lawsuit there's one already filed involving donegan that's about to be decided so unless you're real purpose here is delay unless you're real purpose here is to avoid testimony and you just wish to give the impression of a willingness to come forward you just want to have the court's blessing if that's really true agree to be bound by them again decision of course they were not willing. at him shifa democratically impeachment prosecutor let's not embarrass his

reform especially people counsel to the u.s. house of representatives joins us from washington d.c. listening with interest to what's going on and out and just taking on the thoughts of our correspondents you have returns he was saying that in this debate about rules we are hearing very much echoes of all humans to come on way yes we are this is kind of. the prelude to before the curtain goes up on the main the main show. and we can pretty much see the positions being staked out i thought that. senator mcconnell in his opening statement almost guaranteed to unless he can be persuaded otherwise he is not going to allow witnesses now if 4 of his colleagues on the republican side insist on it will be surprised but if they do then of course the democrats will combine with those 4 republicans will have the vote to. insist on calling at least some

witnesses but the impression i get is that mcconnell if he keeps his people in line he is not going to allow witnesses what we're getting now is just a prelude to nothing right and if you're right about the position about witnesses what would that how would that go down with the population at large in the united states. i think they will be very not only disappointed but angry because this is this is a public business this isn't a bunch of politicians just sitting around the table carving up what ought to be the reason right result this is the nation's business and to not be willing to put witnesses on if they're stonewalling the democrats when they were trying to then in the house when they were trying to call witnesses. it's really i would be very surprised if they the republicans do not pay a price for that down the road look the result in this impeachment trial in the

senate is pretty much you know cooked it's that you're ducking to get 20 republicans to join the democrats and impeach this president it's not going to happen so then the question is why are we going to this through this whole thing and i think the answer is the election coming up in 2020 this is not going to just go away if the last vote is taken and it's concluded that the president is not impeached this is going to be a drumbeat that's going to go on through the rest of the year and will not basis then mcconnell's position on witnesses could be perceived to be a complete misjudgment in an election year. i think that's right the the the odd thing is this mcconnell's a very savvy politician but i think he may be outsmarting himself on this he knows he can control the final result not guilty he can afford to

be generous. along the way let the democrats have the witnesses you know they can have the good with all the good songs but he gets the final result that he wants and for him to stonewall and not allow the witnesses has got to leave questions not in the minds of the hardcore republicans who will under no circumstances buck the republican party but the large number of moderate republicans who clearly left the party in the congressional elections in 2018 and the independents they have to be asking themselves why why are they not allowing these people to testify why are they not allowing these documents to be produced what are they are doing it must be something much worse than what we even know and that will be that will come back to haunt them i think he's making a strategic mistake but all of the sentences taken his oath of impartial justice

what would be the thinking behind this when everybody's aware that this is an election year and it is and how important the optics are what could be the reason from the point of view of not wanting to hear from bolton old mulvany or from blair well i think part of that may be their constituents. you know there's not. the lines have hardened on both sides and i think that the republicans believe that you know there's no nothing conciliatory going to go on and they're just going to tow the party line and that's it there's no deviation and anyone who deviates from it is a kind of you know acting in a like a traitor. that flexibility the reaching across the aisle the compromise those that all seems to have gone it's just not part of the lexicon of the political scene right all right. thanks very much depreciate. well the u.s.

president don trump is half a world away at the world economic forum in davos there he delivered an upbeat address telling the gathering of political and business elite that america was experiencing an economic boom like never before diplomatic editor james bates reports now from dallas on the day of the start of his trial for peach but this was the dabble style version president trump on the world stage in a place surrounded by business leaders where his advisors knew he would look presidential it's clear from his recent comments and his posts on twitter that the us leader is obsessed with impeachment but this was a speech over half an hour long in which the i word wasn't mentioned once today i'm proud to wear that the united states is in the midst of an economic boom the likes of which the world has never seen before. we've regained our stride.

rediscovered our spirit in reawakened the powerful machinery of american enterprise america is thriving america is flourishing and yes america is winning again like never before. many of the world leaders who were in the room know how much now depends on the u.s. electorate this could be troublesome last starforce but they're preparing to for the possibility of a 2nd term this is a global forum dealing with global issues and so we have more and more conflicts breaking out across the world that need everybody around the table to solve them and we need the united states as part of that conversation and the united states needs an effective state department needs an effective diplomatic corps and soft diplomacy as well in order to be a true partner and i think people are genuinely worried that this is a place where donald trump feels comfortable he was never invited to speak at davos as the head of the trump organization now he feels part of this elite club as the

u.s. president his advisors cleverly using this as a backdrop for a speech to a domestic audience james. divorce. well it's an important day and a complex process for more analysis on the impeachment procedure in the senate let's cross over to pedicle hate in washington d.c. who's standing by with a pile of guests to illuminators all. hey there nick thank so much so this is a day that will be remembered in the history books but the question is how big of a chapter is according to be well that's going to depend on what happens over the next few days so to talk about all of that what to expect i'm joined by this really excellent panel of experts 1st we have jeff houser he's the executive director of the revolving door project at the center for economic and policy research jason nick a lot is also here is a professor at the university of maryland at a democratic political analyst and brian darling is here ways the former senior

communications director for senator rand paul of kentucky so obviously that makes him a republican gentlemen thank you again for being back here so i want to go just briefly from all 3 of you what do you make of today brian let's start with you well i think today it was important to see it get started finally i mean after all the talk and all the wait for nancy pelosi to send over the articles of impeachment and it's finally doing something they're debating the rules and we know of that's all going to play out mitch mcconnell is going to get what he wants he's going to get his rules they're going to move forward with that but it's good to see this start and we know that it's going to end at some time in the not too distant future but i'm happy to see that finally you know the house members are there and they're actually doing this and they're getting it started jason did i never had such a good day i think they had a really good day i think both sides actually tried to make a strong argument for their side and i think democrats succeeded particularly again their arguments were longer their arguments had visual aids it showed historical

precedent and i think that that was really strong and that's going to play out with the american people very into the visual aid so it's not an absolutely i mean you know sort of the whole point i got to hate powerpoint anyway jeff what do you think i think today went well but it's really more about how this wears over time it's what feedback the members of the senate start hearing from their constituents it's me a lot of effort to astroturf that is to make artificial noises. seems like it's actually the residents of their state expressing opinions but it's going to be some it's going to take some of it's going to be real and it's going to be what you though it's republican senators who are potentially gettable by democrats what are they hearing from their states what's the constituent phone calls what's the local media coverage what is it look like so i think actually more important what happens today in some ways is the information that comes in overnight and early tomorrow morning what is the feedback in those early morning meetings tomorrow with senators with their staff about how is this playing that's really to me the big thing to look

forward to what is the politics of this brian explain it as a republican i mean because you look at this that this is a president unlike the last 2 presidents have faced a beach been in modern history he's really unpopular so why are they go in lockstep with him when he's very popular with the republicans only 27 percent of 27 percent of the country considers themselves republicans that's not a general election strategy if you're a republican in the senate you're obviously going to you're going to live and die politically with how president trump does in the fall elections and i think most americans are watching the impeachment but that's not going to determine are going to vote all they're going to vote in the fall on the economy is doing. health care as to how issues that matter to them are going to impact them on a daily basis not impeachment i don't think they care and when you look at this big picture too more democrats are going to vote with president trump than republicans are going to vote to impeach him and move him from office there's not

a chance that one republican is going to vote to remove president from from office not one ok but that said i'll get let you jump in there jason people keep saying this in washington because washington logic tends to be very circular you think this i think this well you're gray we don't know how this ends we don't know if there's witnesses we don't know if john bolton comes in and says let me tell you about this other conversation which he's indicated that he wants to do so that i think is the broader message but go ahead you. we were itching to get into well so i agree that we do know how this is all going to and 20 republican senators are not going to vote with democrats but i think it is very possible that a majority you know a simple majority of $51.00 senators vote to remove donald trump that will be a mark on his legacy with him being impeached already is he is the 1st president to be impeached during his 1st term in office i mean he didn't waste any time and breaking laws according to the courts of the g.a.o.

but i think that again an accountability office just for people at home who don't live and breathe washington it's not your logic i think that you know this is going to play out in the history books and you said that people don't vote. based on impeachment that they're going to vote their interests and i agree with that but this president has failed on things like health care and that's why democrats have a shot that's why he is incredibly unpopular that's why he's the least popular president since president carter if any one quick point so we heard during the debate in the house there's a possibility that republicans were going to cross over and vote to impeach president trump that didn't happen democrats crossed over i think it's wishful thinking that think any republican is going to vote to remove president trump from office it just isn't likely to happen jeff lurie to how this plays out i think one of the biggest so let's say hypothetically either if brian is right or jason is right and trump is president he's been impeached but he's not been convicted by

a full 2 thirds of the senate to me the biggest political issue over the course of 2020 will be whether or not democrats can connect the fact that trump is in impeached president and corrupt to the types of issues that brian rightly identifies as probably more important to american voters so can they connect the fact that trump is best questionable ethics and questionable level of corruption can they connect that to how he. governance on the issues that the american people care about more than foreign policy i'd like to think they can but that's the challenge is for democrats to make this issue of foreign policy relevant to swing voters for his base though it doesn't seem to matter yeah i was i was actually going to you know i'm going to make the republican argument here is that i think many of us knew that he had some questionable ethics prior to that selection was a videotape that gave it away to me it could have been any of the you know i have family in atlantic city new jersey and he literally tank that city all of his own

people in that city are still struggling because of trump and his handling of that and of course the way he treated you know his contract was as you discussed earlier that doesn't matter to his base really doesn't and i think his base is small but they're loud and that's what i think republicans are afraid of you know is that loud voice in the room you know gets people all you know riled up it's not a bunch of them but there are there are enough of them to make noise that scares and rattles these people who want to keep their jobs and that's when it clearly elaborate that when you look at the trumping ministrations failure to keep its promise to get drug prices under control and go after the big pharmaceutical companies if you look at that failure if you can start connecting the fact that trump yeah he's not just questionable in his personal life and how he treats women which obviously important issues but 46 percent of americans didn't think they were important enough but if you can connect that issue that his personal moral failings

to something like drug prices i think you can use impeachment as a halfway step to get from he is not trustworthy to there are real world consequences your drug prices are too high because president trump the impeached president trump is corrupt i want to even you know all these senators you know how they talk behind closed doors what's the calculus here because we're not just talking about if they win elections. we're talking about how they're written the 1st line of their a bitch where for democrats and republicans it will be they that this is their defining moment at their careers while i think members of congress house members and senate members care number one about getting reelected and if you are a republican right now you're going to either win or lose with a trump wins or loses in the fall if you're cory gardner in colorado if you're susan collins in maine you have your tied to the. future of don't trump and how he does this fall so i think you're going to hear

a pivot right away from impeachment when this is over and right back to economic issues because the strength of this president is the fact that the economy is very strong strong stock market unemployment at record low levels massive growth the greatest barely moving well i mean if you have unemployment lower record lows i mean people are happy to have a job they're doing better and the median wage is actually doing pretty good i mean the economy the consumer confidence is at a good place right now so when you look at all of the economic indicators they're going to matter and you know it's going to matter and people go vote and they're going to show how they feel when they vote so if i was a democrat i'd be a little bit nervous and i wouldn't want to overplay my hand and say oh he's impeach we're going to win jason well then i think the idea of that is you got over a question here does it to get in there recent never be overconfident i think that's a learn a lesson learned from 2016 so i will agree with you there but 1st of all in terms of wages real wages have dropped 1.3 percent since 2017 which is adjusted for

inflation and cost of living so this idea that our economy is so strong $1.00 of the one of the talking points that kingston representative kingston brought out was african-american. unemployment is at record lows and they love to shop this out i don't know if it's because i'm here for a while but they love the truck that i'll put one of the things that's not talked about is how. levels how motor ship is at its lowest level since 1970 that's not going to play that that's where most of our wealth is unless you're super billionaire and i don't know if i'm not most of your wealth is in your home this is these are the issues that i think democrats can talk to their constituents about and be like oh by the way this guy is corrupt. it's argument the economy is doing really great but it's not going great don't believe your eyes believe what i'm telling you no democrats are continually talking down the economic the great

economic numbers we're getting i don't understand you know we had just come to show our audience an exact for a view of the 2020 alexion now you know it's going to be it's always it what did they say it's economy stupid i'm not calling you stupid that's other people so i that's we're going to be back in a little bit to have more of this conversation about this really we can't say it enough it is a story day in washington but for now let's toss it back to tell. you what you are mine about top stories this the u.s. senate has begun a series of votes on. the president on. democrats of several amendments to the white house talking points has already been voted down by senate republicans i mean georgia leader mitch mcconnell says the democrats' request to evidence is proof that the impeachment case is floored. first the senate

will hear an opening presentation. we will hear from the president's council 3rd senators will be able to further information by posing the written questions. through the chief justice. and forth with all that information and i and the senate will consider whether we feel any additional evidence or witness witnesses are necessary to evaluate whether the house case has cleared or failed to clear. bar of overcoming the presumption of innocence and on doing a democratic election let's look at the numbers a 2 thirds majority of $67.00 votes in the senate would be required to convict donald trump and remove him from office as why that's very unlikely in all their all 100 senators 2 from each of the 50 states republicans full majority holding 53

seats on the democratic party has 45 the other 2 seats held by independent sentences bernie sanders and angus king both of whom caucus with the democrats say 20 republicans would need to turn against donald trump and so far none has said that they would so that's an hour is very unlikely she had returned his life for us on capitol hill as she had right now on the senate floor that counting votes taking votes i think all in a subpoena to subpoena state department documents that's like it's go along party lines as the previous votes have already all part of this setting out of the rules of the game. in fact actually that has been voted on already of the republicans remaining united 5347 seconds 2nd the motion or amendments to the original motion for mitch mcconnell to get documents from the state department has been rejected by the sight of the 1st of us to get documents from the white house now

a 3rd amendment is being introduced which is going to ask for which is asking for documents from the office of management and budget this is the departments in the government that actually was in charge of physically approve giving the money to ukraine the military aid to ukraine that it is alleged was held up in order for a for for the whole trump to try and lead on president selenski to boost announce some sort of investigation into joe biden the republicans denial that it's now they want the information it was just the democrats are trying to get information that they weren't allowed during the house in the impeachment hearings that sort nicci gritty of actually those who who have who responsibility was to disburse the money to the ukrainians what orders were they getting where what what was their understanding of what was happening and so on that would be relevant they say to a conviction in this trial once again though the arguments are being made by the republicans look you came here having already impeached or trouble you saying that

you don't have enough evidence to convince us that he should be convicted without taste of shows how weak your case is that's the constant that's the constant rebuttal from the republicans i gather i would imagine we're going to hear that again in the coming at the at the most maximum 2 hours of debate on this 3rd amendments and then maybe maybe another member to come up to that we haven't heard about with this as we understand that minority leader chuck schumer wants so you get on the record their wish the desire for more witnesses in the in the in the actual impeachment trial so we probably expect another a moment there and potentially another 2 hours of debate on that before a vote which strikes it down but it's very symbolic procedural and mitch mcconnell has said look. the time for talking about more documents more witnesses will come but only after the opening statements only after the cross-examination then we'll have 4 hours of debate on whether to introduce more evidence but clearly the republicans mitch mcconnell donald trump want to get the start as soon as possible . off ultimate hope is to get all of this done and donald trump acquitted by

february the 4th is to tuesday's time so that he can make his state of the union address and say i want all right chad thanks very much that's a picture from capitol hill but as you have a tendency to let's bring in michael isikoff who's chief investigative correspondent for u s news joins us from washington d.c. michael so listen to what you heard so far have things gone pretty much expected from your point of view or has the framing changed at all. no there there it's gone pretty much what we expected at the start of the day in terms of the vote so i mean we knew mcconnell had the votes of all his republican caucus members and therefore he was going to prevail on these amendments offered by the democrats but there is another question out there and you know that could be a little tougher for mcconnell and the republicans and that is how is all this playing it is no question that adam shifted

a very effective job of laying out the house case in his opening presentation today and and i don't think that the white house lawyers were quite as effective and on for somebody who's not already locked into a position on this and let's granted that's not that's probably a small percentage of the american public but the democratic argument that we should have witnesses we should have documents we should get to the truth is a more appealing argument to the average citizen then what the white house is arguing here and so how's that going to play with some of those moderate republicans i don't know but if there is some blowback against the white house position here on witnesses it's going to make it very

awkward next week when the real votes take place about calling those witnesses and subpoenaing those documents said you think this could be a misjudgment for mitch mcconnell the his his. position on witnesses and could prove to be a mistake. no because it's really the only plays god he's trying to balance a republican caucus most of whose members are solidly. in the president's camp and a few moderates who are not so much including those like susan mccollough. who is who are up for reelection this year and that's you know that's important because mcconnell's number one goal is to preserve the republican senate majority so he knows he's got to keep susan collins a seat in maine he's got to keep. cory gardner seat in colorado and martha make

sallies keep seat in arizona so he's got to be open to the positions verin and the balancing act they've got so he's doing what he can with the cards he's got it's not they're not great cards i think at the end of the day he knows he's got the votes on the ultimate outcome but there's going to be some there could be some very bumpy roads ahead right with theists with witnesses we don't actually know what the likes of john bolton would precisely say which side of the fence his version of events would come down on which side would be supported. that is the you know probably the biggest wildcard in this what would john bolton say if he were subpoenaed it's not clear to me that anybody has a clue which means this is a it's a wild card for both the democrats and the republicans i mean they could get their

wish it is very possible that 4 republican senators will vote for witnesses and john bolton will be subpoenaed. there's a lot of hurdles before and we'll actually get the testimony if that happens because the white house says it again and strongly they're going to go to court they're going to evoke executive privilege that's going to tie things up in the court for some period of time it's likely to end up before the supreme court which makes it really interesting to watch how chief justice roberts handles this but if at the end of the day they get bolton he could totally blow up in their face and say the president never mentioned to me anything about the investigations into the bidens and ukranian unfair interference that was all rudy giuliani and gordon seidlin but the president never said that to me and if he does the president is home free that is about as a good

a get out of conviction card you could get or he may not he may say precisely the opposite and if he does that's going to be really embarrassing moment for the white house they could lose some more republican senators and at a minimum even if the democrats don't get to the magical $67.00 for removal if they get north of 50 voting for conviction and removal of the president that's a black eye going into an election year. michael isikoff thanks very much we'll have more on the trump impeachment trial and a little while but 1st let's update you on some of the other news and lebanon 1st lebanon has a new government off to hezbollah and its allies reached a deal ending 3 months of political deadlock president. signed off on 20 new cabinet ministers off the meeting with the prime minister and the up but the

announcement is i could protest as it's in hold in our reports from beirut. lebanon's new prime minister has sunday has finalized his cabinet lineup it took weeks of political horse trading even though those who are fighting over seats are allies and part of the ruling alliance jobs critics call him a pawn of the political elite but addressing the nation he tried to defend his cabinet at a time of mass protests over lebanon's worst economic crisis in decades was a family party to him we will endeavor to answer that demands to ensure that we have an independent judiciary to bring back stolen money to fight corruption to protect the poor of social classes from high taxation to tackle and employment and to put in place a new electoral law that brings everyone together under one national identity that the street has asked for the use of the government announcement brought protesters who have been demanding a new leadership back onto the streets they gathered in central beirut the

epicenter of a 3 month old movement to topple the political class they accuse of mismanagement and corruption protestors disputed insistence that the 20 ministers who are specialists with no political loyalties i'm here because i don't trust this new government that's going to be formed because it came from the people who have been in charge for the past 30 years and in bad doesn't bring good and bad only brings bad. the. government is also being criticized for being controlled by the iranian backed hezbollah and for being one sided political opponents of the ruling alliance including outgoing prime minister saad and heidi refused to join the government. they're just playing the same hope that they played $100.00 days ago so as a foot of the just stopping us in the face are laughing at us still like who are those people and what are they doing on the streets the government faces many

challenges in the midst of an unprecedented nationwide terror. uprising deb's government is expected to receive a vote of confidence in parliament but it is the support of international investors and donors that lebanon needs to get out of the economic and financial crisis the last time created international support for lebanon in december it made no financial pledges and instead called for a credible government that the since the public opinion expressed in the ongoing popular uprising. 2 for weeks many lebanese have been struggling to make their voices heard seen told the security forces protecting parliament building that the steel and concrete barriers won't be able to protect those in power was i'm here to demonstrate against the corrupt regime that has been. raping this country for 30 years or more they were

the warlords that by the killed each other and the sex groups to kill each other. there is determination to continue their struggle or what people here coal their revolution but the government announcement on tuesday sent a clear message that the established parties are still in power lebanon's crisis is not over sena for their beirut. a former head of interpol has been sentenced to 13 years in jail for bribery in china ways trial was one of the most high profile during president xi jinping is anti corruption campaign he went missing after resigning 2 years ago after his arrest in china admitted receiving $2000000.00 in bribes while a government minister. there are growing fears ever a deadly new virus that appears to be spreading to a number of countries the disease originated in china and the case is being

confirmed in the united states while others have been reported in thailand and in south korea doctors in china say the strain has killed 6 people and infected almost 300 others brown has more now from hong kong. china's tightly controlled state media says the mysterious virus has now spread to some of the country's major cities. in addition to more deaths new infections including hospital workers. and for the 1st time confirmation that this respiratory virus can be passed from person to person noted by them that you saw some cases happened in 2 places one in guangdong the other 111 where human to human transmission has been confirmed that the disease was 1st identified in wu hand late last year the majority of the confirmed cases of the virus in china are here but a handful have also been identified in other parts of asia where authorities are

ramping up their defenses with a mandatory screening of air passengers from who had this week china becomes a nation in motion as people travel home to mark the new lunar new year but many are also traveling overseas and from will hand it's now possible to fly to 40 international destinations which is why i say some experts this outbreak is going to be more than just china's problem china has been here before 17 years ago another virus called sars severe acute respiratory syndrome claimed the lives of around 800 people almost 300 of them in neighboring hong kong at 1st china's leaders asserted there have been only a handful of cases but later admitted providing false information about the epidemic a city mayor and health minister revenge sacked professor really open of hong kong university was one of the 1st scientists to decode the sars virus he says the city

has improved its disease control work but he and other scientists were racing to understand this new virus is it very efficient or not. right now we only know that there's a limited human to human transmission but what does it mean we need data to actually come up with a more our career estimation so it's a race against time. i agree we need more information pharmacies are stocking up on face masks the growing health emergency across the border now replacing media coverage of the young growing protests demanding political reform and while there is no panic there is deepening concern adrian brown al-jazeera hong kong. you're watching a reminder of our top stories this hour the u.s.

senate has begun a series of votes on rules that will govern the impeachment trial of the president donald trump democrats have put forward several members. the 1st of those efforts to subpoena white house and state department documents have already been voted down by senate republicans majority leader mitch mcconnell says the democrats' request to add new evidence is proof that the impeachment case is flawed. it's been a historic busy complex day to unravel that let's go back to washington d.c. started by the power gets pretty heavy. thanks so much nic it really has been an intense day and let's not forget it's the 1st day of however many days nobody knows but to talk about what we've seen to joy this is jeff hauser he's the executive director of the revolving door project at the center for economic and policy research jason nichols is a professor at the university of maryland at a democratic political analyst and brian darling is former senior communications director for senator rand paul of kentucky so that would make him

a republican and i was talking fast as we don't have that much time and we've all established all 3 of you have just told me this it does not impact trump that he's not going to get impeached so brian does this impact the upcoming presidential election of course i mean the fact that president drum is been impeached by the house and you know the senate will have this trial is going to hurt him a little bit but all timidly i think that he can overcome that by stressing his out going on the ground heard his trade deals his supreme court nominations which have turned out pretty good i think he's got a record to run on that's pretty good and i think that'll overcome him being an impeach president running for reelection if you're christine lacy for it but jason yeah i have well i think it will impact trump i think number one this is something that he thinks about he obviously thinks about his legacy he thinks about what goes on i think because it's bothering him. and this new thing called twitter so i think he really really does care about this and i think you know it will play out in

certain parts of the country i think that there are parts of the country who are paying attention to this want to believe that their leaders are moral and just i think also one of the things that happened in the last couple of weeks was the christianity today article or. i think that that's going to come back and bite him and if you can tie all of those pieces together and he loses enough of that evangelical base and he loses enough because people think that he is morally bankrupt and corrupt. as a leader it will hurt him enough democrat has a chance to win that election jeff let me ask you this because there were a lot of personality characteristics we knew about donald trump that he was elected president so having it having people because obviously this is a country that's not real into foreign policy having does this argument sway any people who are on the fence about trump because there's that many people day there is a lot of the country that really hates him and

a lot of the country that really likes up so does this impact that middle group that will determine the election so it's important to member the president got elected by winning 3 states by less than one percent amidst losing the national popular vote and he's right the national popular vote doesn't really matter but it's a vocative of the fact that he started with a small base and if you look at the 20000 midterm elections that base was growing smaller many more voters switched from trump to voting for a democratic candidate for congress than vice versa so the trends in 20000 were bad even as the economy installs 20000 was fundamentally no better or worse than it is now and so i think that having impeachment occur after we've already seen trump weekend from what was a very weak position puts him in an incredibly weak position entering reelection now i mean the biggest wildcard out of this is whether or not if he is if he is not kicked out if he's impeached but not kicked out of the office of the presidency is

he emboldened that he do more questionable conduct with respect to foreign adversaries and otherwise try to influence the election i'd like to think not but to me the best that might be his last best chance to get reelected if you take the 20 midterms as seriously as i do as evidence that his position we can 2016 is likely weaker in 2020 well in the head and i think a lot of people made the point that the report came out ahead of whatever word this has was a very weak performance on capitol hill the next day picks up the phone he's like hey. a craving can you do me a favor though so does this change his behavior because 1st your point it's really annoying him that he's going to go down in history is impeached but does this change his behavior does this give people all across the globe who's watching this right i mean like oh my but it's going to happen next does it to you and it is not going to change at all i don't think and i don't think that's necessarily a bad thing i mean i think he is running

a very unique campaign against washington even though he's president the united states and i think he's similar to broad to bomb in one sense his supporters are hard core and very dedicated to him if you look at barack obama's 1st midterm election democrats could destroy in the election but they showed up when he was up for reelection i think that trump supporters many of which don't show up in the polling they're going to show up on election day and i think the polls lower than he actually does with the american people because a lot of the american people just don't want to get that phone call from a pollster they're just not going to say hey i'm voting for donald trump if you look like you and you have a 20 seconds but you know i don't rock obama deltron about the same so i don't think that they're anything alike but i also think that now for the president from supporters are out and they were willing to say that they are president trump supporters i don't think that they're hiding information you know how you can tell they have happened. to get

a lot of kind of flags all over that in certain parts of the country gentlemen this is really been delightful but a pleasure i think you shared some really great insights with us and it's not over because it's we don't know what it's going to be over so we'll be back some time that we know it's going to be a couple of days but we'll be back here bringing you more analysis from our d.c. studio for now back to nick in doha a long time long way to run its course is that the story we have been following the events of trump's impeachment trial if you look at the senate floor right now you can see jason crow that's a democratic impeachment manager a prosecutor we could see. the trial is underway but currently immersed in leave my new shy of technicality over how the trial should be conducted we've had a series of em amendments put forward by the democrats have been voted down along party lines the 1st to subpoena white house documents already voted also to subpoena state department documents voted down more on this and a couple of minutes to get a website dogs or dot com is the address for me by 4. when

the news breaks today the current government has lost trust the people they can't do anything because the projects that are against them when people to be cut by thought well the represent the lofty goals for opponents of brecht's that troika the conservatives al-jazeera has teams on the ground it now hopes the meeting in paris will push politicians to create a competent and credible government to bring new moon when documentaries and

lightning on air and online big stories generate thousands i like the media angles in this story are too numerous for comfort with different angles from different perspectives thing has never really been believe the money in the war to even separate the spin from the facts the misinformation from the journalism is so clear and it sounds to me and clear people this think that with the listening post on al-jazeera. in a 2 part series. observes the lives of 2 children. over 20 years. where insights into circumstances that shape lives. in a rapidly changing world. 20 years of mean continues with good morning groups in young on al-jazeera.

told stories from asia and the pacific. president drums impeachment trial is underway in the u.s. senate says the republican majority blocks efforts to release white house and state department documents. this is not a process for. this is the process for redress. democrats accuse republicans of covering up evidence that the president abused his power. and this is. also coming up in the program after months of uncertainty lebanon a fine.