welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. thank you for sharing your day with us. it is a very, very big week here in washington. the house scheduled to vote wednesday on two articles of impeachment. one says president trump abused his powers. the other said he obstructed congress as he looked for answers regarding his ukraine policy. democratic leader chuck schumer asked for four trump insiders to be called as witnesses. don't count on that happening, but it's a warning to trump

allies who have their own wish list. and this is a very tough one for democrats in tough districts. >> you may walk to the stage, congressm congressman slotkin. >> i'm glad there is so much enthusiasm for civic engagement. >> we begin there, the tough decision you just saw. congresswoman slotkin is a yes. that's more proof that the democrats have the vote to impeach the president. the articles of impeachment should come wednesday. the democratic leader on that side of the capitol today laying down his marker and immediately causing a stir. senator chuck schumer outlying his trial demands in a letter to republican leader mitch mcconnell.

schumer asked for four more witnesses, all of them trump insiders. his list includes the white house chief of staff, mick mulvaney, former security adviser john bolton and micharo blair and michael duffey round out the lists. we wait for the two leaders to try to negotiate the trial rules. >> i don't know what they'll say. maybe they'll say something exculpatory about president trump. no one, no one has given a reason why these shouldn't testify. if president trump is so certain that he did nothing wrong, what is he afraid of? what is he hiding when he says mulvaney or bolton or the other two witnesses shouldn't testify? >> schumer today also criticizing leader mcconnell saying it is, quote, totally out of line for the senate leader to promise to coordinate every trial decision with the trump white house. manu raju live for us on capitol

hill. manu, republicans will have the vote, we think, responding to this proposal from schumer. >> reporter: there's not been an official reaction from the majority leader's office yet, mcconnell saying they'll have these skudiscussions with chuck schumer behind the scenes. but the argument to the proposal is starting to take shape. what republicans i'm taulking t are saying is there is no need to hear from these four individuals because that was the house's job. according to the republicans, the house was the fact-finding body. that was the one that was supposed to hear testimony from these four individuals, and it was the decision by the house democrats not to go to court to try to enforce their subpoenas, try to compel these people from coming forward. they made that calculation not to pursue that route, and as a result, the senate is left with what they have, which is the testimony from the existing witnesses, and there is no need in a senate trial to act like a body doing the fact finding.

you'll hear arguments start to take shape among republicans as they push back against what schumer is proposing. ultimately, john, the question will be how the votes come down on the senate floor, because if schumer and mcconnell don't meet an agreement on witnesses or whether to have wntitnesses, senators can have a move on bringing in a number of witnesses, and a majority of senators could vote to bring some of those witnesses forward. so if four republican senators were to break ranks and join 47 democrats, then there would be a majority to hear testimony from the likes of mick mulvaney or john bolton or the like. the susan collins of the world, the mick murkowski and others, cory gardner, martin mcsally, those people will be under pressure to cast votes about whether to hear from some of these witnesses who could provide information to help the president or provide more information the public has not

heard yet, or make the argument in siding with the republican leadership to not hear from these individuals. a lot of this will play out in the coming days and weeks, but at the moment you're hearing republicans behind the scenes throwing cold water on what schumer is proposing as members come back to town today, john. >> the first move but an important move in a very important game of chess we'll watch play out in the coming weeks. manu, thank you for being with us on this important day. in the studio, cnn's kaitlan collins, rachael bade with the "washington post," vivienne salama sand. this is schumer's way of saying, if you look at the list, four people central to the questions of ukraine. it's not an unreasonable list if you're going to have questions. every one of them, you can see

the lodge ingic for calling the. when a trump supporter or the president himself says, i want hunter biden, or the whistleblower, chuck schumer can say, you want those? you give me these. >> it's smart on chuck schumer's part, because the republican party said all these witnesses that came forward, it's all hearsay. nobody heard the president say, i need you to do this to get ukraine to look into our election. democrats are going to sort of hit that over and over again and say, if you really want to get down to what happened, let us talk to these key witnesses. i think that the real question is, can he pick off three senate republicans, including those up for reelection, in 2020 who need to show that they're taking this seriously? can schumer convince enough of those republicans to vote with democrats to hear from these witnesses? >> and the way mcconnell keeps them from breaking is promising

them no hunter biden, no whistleblower, no circus. >> right, and the tablds are turned, because throughout this process where the republican minority has been pushing the fact this is an unfair process and they want certain witnesses to come on board, now the table is turned where the democrats are the minority in the senate trial. they're now starting to put their demands forward so when things start to get going, they can say this is not a fair process and the republicans will jeopardize the whole hearing, so it's interesting to see how they make their case moving forward. >> it is interesting. we're going to go forward and look at the house math. we'll hear how many decide to abandon their post. you're looking at the senate where it is interesting, and again, schumer trying to force a conversation. list ton the ten to the two dif ways. listen how different they speak.

>> i think it would be extremely inappropriate to put a bullet in this thing immediately when it comes over. i think we ought to hear what the house impeachment managers have to say, give the president's attorneys an opportunity to make a defense and then make a decision about whether and to what extent it would go forward from there. >> i have clearly made up my mind. i'm not trying to hide the fact that i have disdain for the accusations in the protcess, soi don't need any witnesses. >> there is no indication that pat toomey is going to break from the president. we should be fair, we should be thoughtful, we should listen this out. lindsey graham says, i'm voting no and i don't care what anybody says. >> that's a reflection of the different composition of the senate where you have republican members who will be facing tough reelection battles, have trump at the top of the ticket, and they're in a tough spot. you have well over 90% of the republican party behind the president, but when you look at these independents, the picture

is a lot more divided. it's not quite a majority of independents that support impeachment and removal, but it's in the 40s. it's a tough position. >> so what happens at the white house? the press secretary was criticizing chuck schumer for releasing this letter late in the day. she should retwitter after midnight. the guy she works for does a lot of thing late in the night or late in the day, however you see it. the president did quiet down middle of the week, but at the end of last week, he was stirring for the whistleblower, he was stirring for hunter biden. his administration is trying to tell him, no, you have the votes right now, don't mess it up. >> and it comes while mcconnell is under fire saying he's going to be taking his cues from house counsel. the president has made it clear he does want wntitnesses to com here. what schumer is asking for, i think voters would go along with

it with respect to the timing. then he throws in this request for witnesses. now, at the white house, they talked about this yesterday, the broad outlines. a lot of the impeachment people were out of town. you saw pam bondi doing hers yesterday. it's quite unlikely they'll go along with what the democratic senator is proposing, but he does have to meet with mcconnell this week and they'll have to come guaforward with what their proposal will look like. the question is whether mcconnell can appeal to the president and say, no, it's not in your favor to have these people questioned. >> john bolton, through his deputy fiona hill, on the record saying, i thought this was a drug deal. what's happening? he wanted no part of it, told his aides to tell his lawyers about it. mick mulvaney in that white house briefing said on camera, there was a quid pro quo.

get over it. that's how we do things. then he tried to pull back. it's a counterbalance. so a lot of the weekend fwas spent on jeff van drew who may be a former house member before this all played out. he was already a no. conservative democrat already a no. facing a primary challenge as he looks for finality. >> a lot of republicans are troubled by what the president did -- >> like who? >> i'm not going to get into any names, but some have said we need to see more facts. there are a good number of republicans who are troubled by this, who say, i'd like to see all the facts. all we need is four. >> do you think there are still minds to be changed in america and in the usa? >> yes, particularly on what a trial is like.

>> it's interesting. this week will be about the house and about speaker pelosi and about her leadership of the house democrats. but chuck schumer, there hasn't been a lot of legislating in the last year or so. chuck shchumer will get a spotlight here, too, to see how he manages it, both the politics and the math. >> when you do look at the numbers, you see this movement from independents. it's not from people who supported the president, right, it's from people who didn't support the president but wasn't quite sure about impeachment. republicans need to conduct a trial in such a way that it seems fair, and the people in the purple states can vote to remove the president, can vote to keep the president in office without invoking the teek.

>> but that shows schumer positive ternlly, if you do this how the president wants, you may lose your voice. they think this was reckless. they think rudy giuliani flying around ukraine was reprehensible. some say it was not impeachable in their view, but they don't like it. >> when you hear from members anonymously whether or not they will put their name on a quote and what you're hearing publicly, there is a difference of the a lot of them expressing private concerns. what schumer has tapped into and realizes is it doesn't matter what the president wants in terms to this trial. it doesn't matter what mcconnell wants, to some extent. if a group of rofrt erds want to sit the, look, mr. majority leader, or, we're not

comfortable with joe biden. they'll control a lot of what they see, and it's going to come down to what moderate republicans tell mcconnell they need for this election. >> and mcconnell being against these witnesses is not only because he knows it's bad for these witnesses to come out and say his conduct is improper, he also doesn't want his members taking votes. >> he's got his own issues to worry about it, too. >> but the president does not often do what's necessarily good for him, so there is no prediction for how any of this could go. the leader is trying to bring him to the water. we'll see if the president drinks up. next, the house needs to make it by wednesday. ...she keeps us centered. love you. introducing the center of me collection.

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about your final wishes to your loved ones. and it's yours free. it's our way of saying thank you just for calling. so call now. the list of house democrats who are publicly undecided on impeachment is shrinking. this morning elissa slotkin wrote an op-ed to explain her decision this hour. today in michigan, she explained it. >> the thing that's different for me is this very, very basic idea that the president of the united states would reach out to a foreign power and ask for an investigation for personal, political gain. while we may not agree, i hope

you believe me when i tell you that i made this decision out of principle and out of a duty to protect the constitution, and i will stick to that regardless of what it does to me politically, because this is politics. >> wow. you see the contention in that room. yes, some cheers, some boos, some other noises. watching that are more than a dozen other house democrats who have yet to announce their intentions. this group has something in common. their districts, yes, went blue in the 2018 house races but they also voted for president trump back in 2016. there you see it, right there. welcome to politics in america. the congresswoman saying, i will vote yes. the congresswoman also saying, indy might lose my job for voting yes. >> we is a similar scene a

couple weeks ago from mickey in new jersey where she held a town hall questioning the legitimacy of the impeachment inquiry. this is a really dicey time for a lot of these people. a number of them are freshmen members of congress and they really have something here to prove to their constituents, and a lot of their constituents are not on board with this impeachment, so they're really having to juggle the demands of their constituents with what they think is right. >> i want to give congresswoman slotkin some credit. whether you agree with her or disagree with her, i don't live in her district, but she wrote a letter explaining herself and then did a public town hall. a lot of these, because these town halls do get contentious, they do get in your face, and they have to send people out of the room. it takes courage to go to a room and do that, and more and more politicians in both parties are shying away from it because it is contentious. >> the political calculation, though, of the universe of people who would consider voting

for someone like congresswoman slotkin, more of them are in favor of impeachment. the problem is the republicans who are opposed to impeaching the president who see this as a sham situation are motivated by that. even those democrats who won in texas and louisiana governor seats, yes, they won. it was tight and they won in a red state. that's really hard for democrats, but democrats on the ground there argue they won by less than they could have had the impeachment not happened, because the impeachment was so motivating for supporters. how big a thing this is once we get to november, we don't know, but we know that the president is certainly going to keep bringing it up. >> anyone who thipgs they know is making tup. i remember i was covering the white house in the 1998-1999 clinton impeachment. the republicans were the cross party, if you will. the as impeachment was playing

out, newt gingrich ran ads against clinton using his behavior. then newt gingrich lost his job as speaker and bob livingston lost his job when he was trying to commit. so don't predict the power of impeachment. i just want to put up here, there's 15 house democrats we're waiting to hear their decisions. they will be very mindful of what they just heard from their congresswoman. there are 15 of them in all. when you fade them away, the ones you still see there are in districts that the president carried by four points or more. so it's a more risky decision. now, they insist they're doing this on principle, they're not doing this on politics, but politicians are politicians. >> yes, of course, that's part of the calculation. as of last friday the democratic leadership was expecting between two and six defections, but you have to sort of wonder if what we saw happen over the weekend makes moderates sort of recalculate what they're going to do. we saw jeff van drew had to switch parties because his polling in his district with democrats was so bad because he

opposed impeachment, went on fox news, blasted his own party. if they vote against this, you mentioned the base. there could be people that don't donate to their reelection campaigns, which are going to be very contentious, so that also is risky even if they wouldn't be propelling some i understand voters. but i do think a lot of moderates, what i hear privately, they see this as a legacy vote. if you're going to lose either way, why not just do what your conscience is telling you. >> if you're a democrat from a swing district, you have to win most of your votes from democrats. yes, you're hoping to get a small percentage of republicans and try to build that over your career, but the base are the democrats. matt cartwright in pennsylvania says, i'm going to vote for impeachment. we may hear an explanation when it gets to the senate, but he thinks it's worth impeaching and sending to trial. angie craig trying to say she's doing this on principle, and

chris pappas saying the president has brought this upon us. >> they're waiting to see what the response is, because they think if they're vulnerable, they can convince them not to vote with it. but if it's by principle and they say they're voting for him to be impeached, they're publishing that, making it clear how these voters feel about this, because they want to be able to pressure him, but they want to get as many votes as possible. that's why the van drew thing is interesting. if he was going to switch to republican before the vote, wouldn't it make more sense to vote against impeachment and they can say, here's another democrat who voted against this? >> a number of democrats could presumably go for one ask nnd n the other, and they can say, i basically used my discretion in trying to decide which one.

>> but that voting point is crucial in the narrative of how we're all going to look at this thing and how it gets translated down to voters in terms of who won or who lost in politics. whether democrats lose by two votes or six votes means a lot. there is a fatigue by voters. there is a sense that the country knows how this is all going to play out. and maybe they do, but how it plays out matters a lot for politics. >> elissa slotkin, you saw the contention in the town hall. she said she is not going to be whipped. they're also telling these candidates, a, vote your conscience. b, if you have to make a tough political call, you need your voters. as we go to break, the defense secretary mark esper in luxembourg today, paying tribute to those 75 years ago fought the battle of the bulge. >> today, 75 years later, we

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click, call or visit a store today. impeachment in recent weeks, anyway, has overshadowed the race for president, but iowa votes in just severen ween week.

a debate is scheduled for friday night. we end the year, she writes, as it began. the two best-known dem candidates, bernie and biden, after stumbles. questions about irrelevancy and even a heart attack are leading the polls for the nomination. you have a top tier in this new national poll. top tier here of joe biden and bernie sanders, 24% and 22%. that's essentially a statistical tie. elizabeth warren at 17, pete buttigieg at 13, andrew yang at 5. let's break it down by gender. interesting breakdown by men, bernie sanders has a clear lead. followed by senator warren, b

buttigieg and yang. what are the top issues for democrats? as we get closer to voting and a big debate thursday night, this is interesting. health care and climate change, runaway leaders. gun policy and immigration down on the list. they understand health care, climate change. first and second on the minds of the voters, that's what ends up on the tv ads. from the moment he took office, donald trump has tried to destroy obamacare. no one is more determined to protect it than joe biden. >> our climate is in crisis. i'm andrew yang. the time to end it was decades ago. as president i won't end it. it's been a national race for most of the year. it's been overshadowed by impeachment. the impeachment vote is likely

to be wednesday. then you have the candidates' meeting on stage on thursday. what do we expect? >> well, it's going to be fascinating because this is a much smaller debate than we've seen in the past. it's seven candidates and seven candidates who are in the polls and in this thing. i think overall, yes, the national leaders are the same as they were in the beginning of the year, but the race is really muddled, and primaries, as we know, are not a national ref referendum. pete buttigieg is really strong in iowa, warren could win new hampshire, joe biden could get south carolina, and bernie sanders in nevada. then cue mike bloomberg for super saturday, and who knows what happens, it's an interesting story. >> you say cue michael bloomberg, so be prepared to cue michael bloomberg. to that point, look, he spent more than $100 million. he's at 4 or 5% of the national

polls. ubl you could look at that and say, that's all you got for $100 million? or you could look at it and say, he just started campaigning, he is moving up, and he's campaigning on what you just laid out. different winners in a certain part of the contest, and nobody looking really strong so he can raise his hand and say, look at me. >> i don't know that i'm taking votes away from anybody, all i know is it's three weeks ago today that we started the campaign. and i think we've done very well since then. i haven't talked to anybody that said i took my vote away from somebody else and gave it to you. when i talk to people, they keep saying to me, you did a good job in new york, we want you to do the same thing. >> so his take is it's 4% something of the delegates. i'll be waiting on super tuesday when things get crowded.

the flip side is he is only at 5%. he won't be at the debate stage saturday night and maybe there is contention and it's down the you know what. >> not only that, there are democrats still angry he jumped in at the last minute and bought his way into this race. if he was thinking there is not going to be a consensus candidate, some people would say the reality of them picking him is pretty slim. >> again, there is a flip side to every argument, though. if you do get a muddled message saying, oh, my god, is there anybody who can beat trump? we will see what works in bloomberg's favor. we'll see what happens when they start going state-by-state. have you made up your mind? this is from the nprmaris poll.

for any candidate that purple 76 is the, i'm hanging in. >> that's why this race is so muddled. i think a race where democratic primary votes are focused on one factor, which is electability, you can't deny it shaking up by folks showing they're electable by winning things. that could potentially be a major problem with michael bloomberg's argument, and once candidates start winning, all these things could be scrambled. i think if you're in that top tier of candidates, you have to win an early one. >> if you look at the polling, you see the different bases between biden and sanders who are at the top of the race right now. it's just interesting. biden tends to do very well among white women with no college degree, in the south with african-american voters and

voters over 45. senator sanders does better with progressives in the northeast and with younger voters. that doesn't mean those voters wouldn't come together to support the ultimate nominee, but as we go through the prime list, it's interesting to see the unique coalitions each of these candidates has. >> it also raises the question of whether supporters from the other candidates, whether or not they throw their support beyond him or whether it fractures the party in some way. we saw that in 2016 with bernie sanders supporters. after hillary clinton won the nomination, a lot of them just weren't ready to support her, so it's a question we have to ask around him, too. coming up, debate of a different sort. president trump suggests he might play hookey during next year's general election debates.

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six aides of the congressman have resigned after learning he plans to switch parties. the democrat who opposes impeachment now plans on defecting to the republican

party. that would allow him to avoid a democratic primary for his seat next year. his director and his scheduler among those quitting. president trump considering ski skipping next year's election debates. he tweeted this morning, i look very much forward to debating whoever the lucky person is who stumbles across the finish line. he said it's stacked with never trumpers and trump haters. he says, the debate is up to me and i'll make a decision at the appropriate time. james comey now conceding there was really sloppiness in the bureau's effort to obtain fisa warrants against the campaign adviser. comey insisted last year that investigators acted responsibly when they applied for warrants against carter page. but the prior director found 16

errors and omissions. here's what he told fox. >> significant errors in the fisa process, and you say this was handled in a thoughtful and appropriate way. >> he's right, i was wrong. i was overconfident in the procedures that the fbi and justice had built over 20 years. i thought they were robust enough. it's incredibly hard to get a fisa. i was overconfident in those. >> the president is still tweeting he wants jim comey to go to jail. >> real sloppiness is also a pretty generous account about what it was the inspector general found. i think both things can be true here. the president was wrong, his claims that obama had wired trump tower and was not out to get him like he said and portrayed over several years. also there were serious mistakes that the american people should know more about, and we got this look and it was not a flattering look in any sense of the word.

i think comey could have been more critical of that and more forthcoming which the fbi director now, christopher wray, very much was in his interview after the inspector general's report came out, and i think that is the problem here. you can say that mistakes were made and you don't have to agree with the president that obama wiretapped trump tower. i think both things can be true at once. >> both things will be true and it will be interesting, a, chris wray and can he shore up the process. do we really think the president would skip debates next november, as he's threatening or suggesting, or do we just thichthichnk, a, he likes to vent because he doesn't like any establishment, and b, maybe he's not going to do three, but he'll do one or whatever. >> he likes to say he doesn't need them and it's an irrelevant process, so we'll see who the

nominee is. i reckon if joe biden wins the nomination, he's not going to be able to resist confronting biden face to face. but we'll see. he's said it before that if he's in a secure enough position in the polls, maybe he does back out. >> he risks critics calling him a chicken if he decides not to. democrats will paint this as him being too afraid to stand up to whoever the nominee is, so he puts himself at rick if sk if h this. >> but it still lays the groundwork for him not to do three. if he wants to do one or two, he's laying that out early. >> his campaign held a briefing last week, and when they asked him about this, the reporters would not commit that he's going to go. anyone who knows the president will know it's hard for him to see this debate. they'll make a lot out of it if he doesn't show up. up next, the house due to vote on impeachment. guess where the president will be? at a rally.

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president trump planning his calendar quickly. he will rally and that is the day the full house is likely to impeach him. the political climate around impeachment has solidified around party lines and not only in washington. at pbs news hour's poll, you

look like there, 50% are for removing the president for office. this is the test as we watch the votes this week, and we go to a senate trial. do the numbers move? or if we assume the house is going to impeach, the senate will not convict and remove, the issue is then handed over to the voters that it just stays in that partisan line, or are we looking for some move on the margins? i guess that would be independents? >> i think that's why everybody is watching those independent numbers. i'm a little skeptical. if you take a look at president trump's approval rating which is a slightly different metric, last week or so it was 43%. want to guess what it was in january 2017? 43%. so i think ideas about the president are pretty baked into the electorate at this point.

the question is, you know, how impeachment kind of reflects back on and how the process reflects back on democrats and on these sort of swing state republicans. >> also the support may not be increasing but it's also not going down for impeachment and that is something that is concerning to people inside the white house and the president's campaign. they see despite the fact they've been messaging this as a sham and a witch hunt, it's not going down. i think the other thing from the fox poll that was really interesting and it's something that matters and not now is that 53% of the voters believe the president abused his power of office, 48% think he obstructed congress and 45% think he conducted bribery. that's not a good thing going into a new election. that's not going to bode well when it comes time to go into a

new election. >> i'm hearing from moderate democrats who are saying, this is supposed to be a high mark for us. we just had all these hearings with more than a dozen current former trump administrations that said damaging things about the president. they think when this goes to the senate where the republicans can control things, the numbers will go down further. that's a concern for the mods at the same time. >> having lived through clinton days, i would just caution anybody out there, we have what we have today. the polling numbers are kind of paralyzed among party lines but we shall see. thank you for joining "inside politics." dana bash in for brianna keilar. she starts after a quick break. have a good afternoon. ucing ther of me collection. because every 'your love keeps me centered' begins with kay.

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♪for the holidays you can't beat home sweet home.♪♪ we go the extra mile to bring your holidays home. i'm dana bash in for brianna keilar, live from cnn's washington headquarters. underway right now, a historic week. the stage is set for president trump to become only the third american president to be impeached by the house. and it comes as the senate democratic leader announces what amounts to his party's opening bid in negotiations with republicans over what the senate impeachment trial should look like. plus, as one house democrat in a trump-won district faces constituents over her decision to vote for impeachment, another is a no and is set to switch