i'll be covering it with wolf and jake tapper and all the rest. news continues. want to hand it over to chris for "cuomo prime time." chris? >> thank you very. excellent coverage tonight. i'm chris cuomo. welcome to "prime time." reality is setting in for this president. he is about to be impeached in all likelihood. what's unreal is how in this final moment that could define how this goes, he's trying to burn down the house in a letter for the ages that the speaker is calling sick tonight. here's the letter, but you will not believe what's in it but more importantly what it does to this president. it is some the wildest trump arguments yet. a night like this, compared with what bill clinton did, we'll do that tonight, you'll see how the choices you make can lead you to very different places. we have clinton's former chief

of staff to talk about what impeachment was to them and how different it is than what we're dealing with right now. let's get after it. >> all right, look. like i said, i hold in my hand this six-page letter. it's unlike anything i have ever seen from a sitting president, really anything i've ever seen even from donald trump, marshaling the weight of the world's most powerful office to declare himself as the sole arbiter of what actions are impeachable. have you read this? he does so without any kind of real deep thought. it's just a stream of consciousness bombarding you with mistruths, with lies and personal animus and a staggering lack of comprehension for the reality that he now finds himself in and as a result the rest of us do as well. set aside the absurdity that is littered throughout this thing. you can read it for yourself. here's some of the highlights. he says pelosi has cheapened the importance of the very ugly word

impeachment, that she views democracy as her enemy. or when a sitting president in an official letter declares an attempted coup is under way. the basic facts that he tries to present are not on his side. he attempts to defend his conversation with the president of ukraine by saying he put the transcript of his phone call immediately out, but the call happened in july. we didn't see a word of it until september. remember when that was. it was after the whistle-blower went public. as for his instance that every time i talk with a foreign leader i put america's interest first, we wouldn't know. his white house quit releasing readouts with calls of foreign leaders. now they just changed the rules so even fewer can hear what he says. there's been a dozen between two that you should hear, though. >> i have president putin, he just said it's not russia. i will say this. i don't see any reason why it

would be. >> i keep playing that because it was the most embarrassing moment i've had as an american vis-a-vis our president. in helsinki before the world next to putin, the guy responsible, you can see a little smile on his face as the president threw his own country under the bus, but he just keeps talking to him and obviously taking his advice. all this is undercut in the very next paragraph where the president blows up any argument. this was about broader corruption fighting by launching into a tirade against joe biden. he offers up this sharpie-worthy testimony of his donor buddy turn turned ambassador, gordon sondland. despite questions that persist about whether that call happened. it just happens to have the president saying everything he needed to say to clear himself from this using language that only the whistle-blower used, certainly not the latin that this president is used to saying. so i don't even know that it happened.

but he uses it and states it as fact. he ignores the full context and nobody of this is new for this president. he tee'd off on another target, adam schiff for what he called shameless lies, fantasy language. despite the fact that schiff said this at the same hearing. >> it reads like a classic organized crime shakedown. sure of its rambling characters and in not so many words, this is the essence of what the president communicates. >> look, while we're pointing out the fact hume mistake, there is always the president's insistence that you found nothing when it comes to the mueller report. in fact, the special counsel listed at least ten instances of potential obstruction and he clearly wanted to leave it for congress. he also said this, mr. mueller, about the president's conduct. >> the president was not

exculpated for the acts he's allegedly committed. >> i think the democrats should be scrutinized for not including those in the articles of impeachment. why? because back then they were talking about impeachable acts. it was a play that pelosi didn't want to follow until she ultimately had to. now they didn't include them? i think that's worthy of scrutiny if you're going to have one for the history books. and make in mistake, donald trump can be a uniquely skilled politician, but when it gets personal and he gets into the mode of him or anybody or anything else, this is the letter you get. he can't admit that he did anything wrong so he must be the victim, bemoaning the pain inflicted upon the loving members of my family. the irony here is that there's a long line of families like gold-star father khizr khan and

greta thunberg who have been targeted by the most powerful man on the planet. people don't go after him and his family the way he does others. and even if they did, since when is the president of the united states equal to his worst opponents? there is one person in himself office, he is arguably the most powerful person in the world and yet people around him and obviously he himself believe that it is okay for him to act the same way as his worst opponent. since when has that been the standard of conduct for a sitting president, for a higher power, for someone who believes in that and yet here he is assuming he's speaks for all americans of faith by attacking the speakers saying you are offending americans of faith by continually saying i pray for the president. does me not understand prayer? prayer doesn't change things. it's an attempt to change people. it would be pelosi asking for help for him but in as much doing that help for herself to deal with her situation.

that's what prayer is. it's not magic. and it's certainly not offensive to anybody of faith. if we had more prayer from our people in elected office and from all of us, we'd be in a better place no matter what you believe. now, the statement's not true. it's not offensive unless you mean it in a negative sense. it's a terrible thing you're doing, but you'll have to live with, not i, he says. not i? can you really believe that what you said and what you did doesn't follow you? now, look, i'll let you decide for yourself what this letter says about our president. and just the mere notion that he takes prayers on his behalf as an affront. i have repeatedly said i'm not sure if removal from office is the appropriate remedy. i don't even know if impeachment is the right mechanism here because the founders did not anticipate one party refusing to do its job in the situation and just out of deference stand in defense of a president. i don't think they encountered that.

what they were worried about was someone like the democrats right now in power just using numbers to muscle through a case, but that's not what this is. we've never seen the party of president refuse. and clinton, 31 democrats voted to move forward with the inquiry, five voted to impeach him. he was saved by republicans in the senate. why? because clinton worked to get things done while he was impeached and there were foreign entanglements that he handled the right way and that boosts the president. god forbid we have to see that in this situation. he wound up with 73% because of how he handled it and he apologized. he apologized his heart out. that matters. not this president. there's a big difference between discussing the weight of the moment and accusing democrats of violating their oaths of office, breaking their allegiance to the constitution, declaring open war on american democracy. these are things that a pundit should think about saying, let alone a president.

are you really going to use the power of your office just for the sake of your own protection to threaten the democracy and have the millions and millions of people who for whatever reason believe what you say to believe that we're at war? that our democracy is tearing apart and people like me and anybody who you see as a critic is an enemy? do you really want that? and would you be comfortable living with the consequences of people acting on your ambitions? i hope you think about it because tomorrow we will be at the most sensitive period in our collective history since this presidency. this is heavy stuff. and it's going to hit hard in a way that we will have to deal with. the constitution made what the duty was for this house and it is clear. i have argued many times i don't know about this mechanism when

you know you have no buy-in from both side, but if you're going to look about what they were worried about, the founders, he checks every box. you want to oppose, that's fine, you want to criticize them and say they're not doing it the right way? that's fine. you want to say you don't agree, that's fine. but if you want to say they're enemies of democracy, you better think about it. if you want to try to bring in that people who believe in something higher than themselves, that they should see theelz democrat these democrats an enim-cical t their faith. you better think about it. you are not sheep. this man is your president, these people are elected officials you put in office. you rule them. you gave them this power and tomorrow you're going to have to think about where it has brought us and we're going to have to figure out where we go from here. point of perspective. when it was hamilton and he was trying to make the case about what this would be and who to hope you'd never have to deal

with, he quoted this, "the hope egrandize agr agr agrani confusions of their country." that's fancy. he was a genius. this is simple. beware a leader that takes what he knows is sensitive, what he knows could divide and takes that string in his hand and yanks it for all it's worth because he wants to put more cushion under his own feet. where does it leave the rest of us? there's a lot in this letter. but right in the middle is this paragraph. you are the ones interfering in america's elections, you are the ones subverting america's democracy, you are the ones obstructing justice, you are the ones bringing pain and suffering to our republic for your own personal political and partisan gain. the facts make it very clear that all of those allegations apply equally or greatly more so

to this president. we are in this situation because of what he did. rudy giuliani is in the situation that he's in largely because of what this president did. he was an agent, not a principal. he was inserted like a virus into our diplomacy to get the very special thing that trump wanted and that only he wanted and that he wanted for himself. he didn't even have to do it this way. if mr. giuliani finds proof about biden's perfidy or any illegality, i welcome it on this show because you deserve that truth. it still doesn't make what this president did right. how you use your power matters. if you thought something was wrong wit biden, go to the doj, go to your friends in the senate. why did you not? because you know that this looks better politically, let the stink be on somebody else, no the on me. that mitigates it. mr. trump is very savvy, he always has been and he knows how to play us like a fiddle. he's doing it again tonight, having me recite his letter. so why do i do it?

a little bit because that's what's happening in the media, but i don't have that excuse. not on this show. you know this is about our unique take on what's going on. i do it because i want you to know what he is willing to do to defend himself. and just remember this. in that call that he calls perfect, he ordered a favor. he made it a favor, a favor is not for us, it's for the person asking it. this is what he says -- >> mr. president, do you take any responsibility for the fact that you're about to be impeached? >> no, i don't take any. zero to put it mildly. >> look, the letter is the perfect illustration of why. despite what he says in front of the cameras, you will never see this president testify under oath about any of this because his main inclination is to fight the truth, to find ways to get away from it, not to admit it. six pages tells you everything you need to know about where his head and his heart are and you're not mentioned in it

anywhere except to drive a wedge between me and you and anybody else that he sees as an opponent. just know that, all right? tv is about time. i took too much time here at the top because this show should be about the guests, but i have never told you anything that matters more than what i'm talking about tonight. i am worried about where we are. i believe this country is stronger than any single situation and i think its institutions will outlive us all and they will only get better with time with generations that understand each other better than we do today but i have to remind you this is very heavy and it's not going to last just a day. tomorrow's a vote. every day after that, including the senate trial and way beyond is going to be the effect of those events, and god willing we will be in it together because in this country that's all we have. now, bill clinton was in the same boat 21 years ago. we have to look at how he handled it and what difference it made in that process.

we have former clinton chief of staff john podesta. he's next. thank you for listening to what i had to say. you don't let a cold ruin your day. you take dayquil severe liquicaps and crush it. dayquil severe. the daytime, coughing, aching, stuffy-head, fever, sore throat, power through your day, medicine. oh, come on. flo: don't worry. you're covered. (dramatic music) and you're saving money, because you bundled home and auto. sarah, get in the house. we're all here for you. all: all day, all night. (dramatic music) great job speaking calmly and clearly everyone. that's how you put a customer at ease. hey, did anyone else hear weird voices while they were in the corn? no. no. me either. whispering voice: jamie. what?

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most cold medicines may raise blood pressure. coricidin hbp is the... ...#1 brand that gives... powerful cold relief without raising your blood pressure. president bill clinton's former chief of staff john podesta is here. welcome to "prime time." i haven't seen you in a while. the best of the holy days to you and your family. you know, i was going to go through this exercise with you because you should all remember the podesta emails was really the largest part of the trove of the hack of the dnc server. i wanted you to help us understand that there was no server, it was a cloud system. if people don't know that, it's because people don't care about it at this point so forget it. you made a very different decision, podesta, on how to handle impeachment with the president. what led to the decision you guys made about how to handle

impeachment and messaging of the same and what difference did it make in your situation? >> well, look, i think we respected the process that we were going through. we didn't think the president should be impeached or removed from office. we fought about that with people on capitol hill but we respected the process. our lawyers participated in the process, witnesses were called, we made the argument and ultimately prevailed. the american people stood with the president. i think they -- they understand that he was doing a job for them and was spending his time continuing to do that job. >> that was the key. you guys called it compartmentalization. the president went on an ambitious agenda. unfortunately we had some foreign entanglements to deal with in iraq and he had to deal with it. he decided, again, this compartmentalization. let me get things done. the approval rating was 73% job approval. his personal approval was a different story.

but what went into that calculation? >> i think that, you know, first of all, he admitted that what he did was wrong and apologized first and foremost to his wife and his family and to the american public. but then he moved on and said i got elected to do a job for the american people and my best defense essentially is just to do my job, not spend my time in self-pity and wallowing and the kind of statement that you just read that the president offered up but to do the job he was elected to do. i think that proved to be the good judgment, the right judgment. the american people saw that, and they saw that he was spending his time, as you said, on foreign policy matters and also domestic policy, trying to get things done. serving up the budget, the state of the union. we, in fact, had a pretty productive 1999 following the impeachment and the trial in the senate. he prosecuted and reversed the ethnic cleansing going on in

kosovo. we ended up with major agreements with the speaker on things like providing health care to people with disabilities so -- >> right. it created a different dynamic when it became clear -- >> we kept our nose to the grindstone. >> no politician in a position of power could ignore that. they were going to get both what they wanted anyway. they were going to impeach him anyway. but it wound up making a different in the senate and in the climate of the country. where do you think this current process leads us? he's going to be impeached tomorrow in all likelihood. we don't know how many democrats won't go along with it but it should happen. where does this leave us at the end of the day? >> well, you know, i think -- nobody really knows. i think you see the leader in the senate, mr. mcconnell, saying he's already prejudged the case -- >> so he gets acquitted and it's quick. then what? >> i still think there's an important element to having the trial in the senate. the american people deserve to see that, they want it.

"the washington post"/abc poll just showed that 71% of the people think that his top aides should come before the senate. 64% of republicans think they should testify. and i think that's an important -- as you were noting in your opening, it's important to educate the public about what really happened. the fact that he actually leaned on, extorted, asked for a favor of a foreign leader to interfere in our democracy. and i think that getting those witnesses who were in the room with him who he ordered not to testify before the house is an important function. i think senator schumer's asked for a very limited number of witnesses. i think that's wise. he's asked for similar treatment, a truncated process but a real process and i think the american people want to see a trial. and for mcconnell to say that, well, there shouldn't be any witnesses in the trial.

well, then what is a trial? >> he said something different as all republicans did when they were on the other side of it. but the democrats are making a lot of same arguments, they just have a better set of facts than republicans had back in '98/'99. >> well, you quoted the founders. and what the founders were most worried about and why they included the impeachment clause and the emoluments clause. we were a young democracy. we were susceptible to foreign interference and i think they were worried about that. that's why they included it. that's why they didn't make a king, they had a president. and i think that the facts in this case are really right at the heart of what they were worried about. >> john podesta, thank you very much for your perspective. appreciate it. >> thanks, chris. >> all right. now, what bill clinton did not have at the time of his impeachment, that was a trial stacked with a majority of jurors from his own party. remember, the republicans were in control of the senate, not the democrats. and he didn't have a fox news to use as a trumpet for his own cause and he didn't have this

kind of loyalty. where does it leave us? i want to talk to republicans on this show, you always know that. i believe in perspective and i believe that if we don't get there together, we get nowhere. so let's talk to an impeachment player next. things happen. and sometimes you can find yourself heading in a new direction. but at fidelity, we help you prepare for the unexpected with retirement planning and advice for what you need today and tomorrow. because when you're with fidelity, a partner who makes sure every step is clear, there's nothing to stop you from moving forward. male anchor: ...an update on the cat who captured our hearts. female anchor: how often should you clean your fridge? stay tuned to find out. male anchor: beats the odds at the box office to become a rare non-franchise hit. you can give help and hope to those in need.

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good to have you on "prime time." i wish you and the family the best for holy days. he's going to get impeached. you can have an argument about whether or not you think what he did warrants it. if i was to quiz you, you would say you wouldn't do what he did. if i were to ask you, would you say you think nancy pelosi looks like her teeth are falling out, you would say, no, i wouldn't say that. am i correct? >> i would agree to those general conclusions this has devolved down to the worst of partisan politics in my humble opinion. >> but i think that one aspect of it is that the idea that it is universal is untrue. that letter today could only be penned by one president, by one man in elected office right now, not even steve king would say the kinds of things that he did. tom, i'm telling you, you and i know each other. i had sean duffy on here last night. i like and respect duffy. >> good man.

>> he could not say, yeah, he shouldn't have said that about nancy pelosi, it was wrong. all he can say is what i hear from all of you, which is you got to look at the other side, though, chris. you got to look at what they say about him. he's frustrated. he's angry. people beat you up, tom reid. you're going to have a tough time, too. would you talk about the teeth of your opponent? would you save he's a bum and he's bad for democracy and he's an enemy? you don't talk like that but you won't tell trump not to and that's why he won't stop doing it. >> i've always had a personal relationship with the president. i've expressed my concerns with him personally. i don't talk about it and throw bombs on the public airwaves. but the bottom line is this, he wrote it. it for the american people to judge that letter. i appreciated your reference in the opening segment that people can read this letter and hear what the president is trying to say. i understand what the president is frustrated with. i understand that this partisan politics is dividing the country even further. that's what i also saw in that letter on display from president

trump, that there's a frustration where d.c. is at, and i agree with that frustration. this shouldn't be about partisan politics day in and day out. we need to get things done for the american people like what we did today in our committee on mexico and america's trade agreement. that was a huge win for america's farmers and manufacturers. >> imagine if that's what he was talking about all the time. imagine if he was going after the democrats for not signing it and going through the conditions that in his opinion bettered the american workers' situation. >> but he did talk about that, chris. >> but it's a minority of his time, tom. he talks about himself and his people and his perceived opponents. that's what he does. that's not a criticism. it's not even a commentary. it's an observation. he shouldn't be bothering his time with me and up know it. no president would. no president would ever dane to give a journalist that kind of attention, let alone to set him up as an enemy of the democracy.

we are where we are, tom, because he has been given full freedom to exercise averou -- freedom to exercise averis with everything he says and does. >> i disagree with that. he's in office because the american people elected him and he'll be standing for reelection based on what the american people do. and i think fundamentally that's where the american people want this to go and us to do our work in congress that impacts their lives on a positive basis day to day. what you see today in regards to the impeachment process i see it all just evolving and devolving into this partisan, political, us versus them and getting through this as quick as possible. >> who says that more than the president does? i know he was legitimately elected. i keep making the argument to him and his defenders, stop saying russian interference means you didn't win. you did win. you crushed it in the electoral college and opened up all our eyes to the realities that it's not just about how many, it's about where they are and which polls to monitor. and by the way, we're making that mistake again early on until we started looking state to state. i know the president's strong.

that doesn't hurt me to say. what worries me, tom, is he is the divider most often. not you. not the head -- not even nunes, not jordan. they take their cues from him. none of you call him out and say, mr. president, don't say this. you say you say it in private. you know that's not enough, tom. >> i've said it publicly before when i've criticized on certain comments here and there. the bottom line is i keep the personal conversations between me and the president and i think that's more appropriate. i think what we need to be doing is focussing more on where can we united country and that's what i can control in my day to day activity and i try to do that, and i appreciate you recognizing that, chris. >> how can you unite when the team leader is talking about the teeth of nancy pelosi and saying that democrats are enemies of democracy and any reporter who says something he doesn't like is an enemy of the people? >> but this goes both ways. you see democratic members we're going to impeach the mother blank and we're going to engage

in this kind of partisan -- we got to impeach him now so he doesn't get re-elected -- >> and we call them and out and we say that they're premature and we're say that they're rude and now people like me will say, man, you were talking this people talk all through mueller, he gave you those ten counts and you don't include it? they're not even in power but they must be held to account as well. i'm saying if you guys don't talk about your own, you talk about everybody else, it's just him, top. tom. you never, ever step out of line where the president is involved. what makes you think he would ever toe a line other than the one he wants to walk? >> well, you know, i disagree with your assessment of our actions. i'll leave that, again -- the record's clear. people can judge that in our own district. at the end of the day, i look at the impeachment, this is an historical vote, chris. when you talk about impeachment, when you had mr. podesta on there, the lessons of clinton -- president trump has the presumption of innocence. when you look at the prior impeachments, clinton and nixon

i think are great test case to look at. when you look at what they were involved with, there was no legitimate government function by the president in those cases. it was a burglary at watergate, it was lying under oath about sex in the oval office with an intern. you know, that to me -- where's the government operation here? here we had the legitimate issue of corruption and with the presumption of innocence, i think we can get through this rather quickly and i think that's what the senate's going to do. >> i hear the alarm for the vote there. i don't want to make you late for the job. i would argue it in reverse. because this was so intimately involved with the function of government, it exactly what the founders were worried about but we didn't need to be here. if he admitted he did it the wrong way and he didn't have any corrupt intent, that the people were wrong about that, he wouldn't be where he is tonight. congressman tom reid, i welcome you always on this oshow to mak the argument. i wish you the best for the holy days. >> thank you and happy holidays to you and your family as well. >> we know what's going to

happy tomorrow. it's not the only thing going on. there is crime in this country that is going in the wrong direction. property crimes but also homicide. and this crime that just happened in new york city that people are starting to catch on to, i haven't seen anything like it in decades. college freshman tessa majors walking through a place in new york city, right by columbia university that is supposed to be safe, that has been safe. not only is she murdered. not only is it brutal, but it involves kids in a way that i haven't seen since the central park five. the mystery here and which way it's taking us is staggering. they had a 13-year-old suspect in court today. he was saying things that people couldn't even understand. it shook them. the details next.

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all right. we have new details tonight. i don't know if you heard about this, it just happened last week wednesday. barnard college, columbia university, a freshman named tessa majors just starting school up from virginia murdered. the case against a 13-year-old suspect will move forward.

police say there are other teens involved. they think it's about three right now but they're not sure. i've seen this happen before. and now they're getting surveillance video and it's raising all kinds of questions about the depravity that's going on in this city, the rising crime rates that are across this country, and what makes kids do something like this? let's dig in. we have paul callan and chris mahony. paul was involved in the central park five, he represented a couple of the officers. actually wound up reversing the findings, so he remembers that period very well. paul, you're a mentor of mine. feel free to back me off it. we know the rates are going up around the country. we know that in this city we're seeing it. we know that homicide is even ticking up. but a crime like this? when is the last time you heard of 13 and 14-year-olds knifing somebody this way when the 13-year-old described it, people in the court couldn't even take it. >> well, it's a horrible, horrible crime and it sends

shivers across new york city. and you're right, it brings back the memory of the central park five case, which i represented two of the assistant district attorneys who reinvestigated the case and found that the confessions were inaccurate and the wrong people were arrested in that case. but that case terrified the city because it happened in a beloved park and it really emphasized how dangerous the city had become. just to give you an indication, when i was a homicide assistant d.a. in brooklyn in the 1970s, the homicide rate was 1,600 per year and peaked at over 2,000 per year in 1980. last year you know what it was? it was 289 homicides. it had fallen to 289. now police are saying violent crime might be up as much as 25% in new york city. and you're right, it is a trend that we're seeing nationally. >> right. and, look, remember, what made

us scared at the time, these were the wrong kids that they got. and one of the reasons that they were falsely convicted, of course it was color and social socioeconomic and about police and culture at that time, but kids running around the city like a pack of dogs do terrible things was real. white kids, brown kids, all kind of kids. so that fed it. chris, that takes me to you and the psychology of this. i haven't seen it since then, and once again the shock value is there. kids don't do this. adults have to form that kind of mens rea, that mental component. what do we understand from psychology? >> that's what's so troubling, you usually see kids engaging in property crime, you know, simple mistakes of youth. you know, shoplifting is a pretty common one, maybe some use of alcohol or some experimentation with drugs. this is embracing a different level of criminality. this is adult level aggression. the willingness to strike out against adults to go there,

apparently, what is alleged, is with the intent to rob people as part of a group, whether it was a gang or just operating with a gang-like ethos. that's what's so disturbing. >> also more common for kids. kids operate more in packs. it gives them confidence. i want you to play on one other point, chris. >> right. >> let's say this kid is telling the truth. it a little convenient he touched the knife but he didn't use the knife. whatever. the idea that they passed up the guy and targeted the woman. it's still a robbery. they get her in a choke hold and it goes wrong, they stab her over a dozen times by the early reporting estimate. that's a different way to kill than pulling a trigger one, two or three times. >> it's up close, it's personal, it's hands on and it really speaks to a level of lacking of empathy. you know, not really caring about other people and just the level of commitment that, you're right, is qualitatively different than what we usually

see in kids of this developmental phase. and that speaks to what we in my profession often refer to as conduct disorder, which is the junior version of what people grow up to being the adult version of anti-social personality, there are a lot of those folks that are in prison. it starts someplace. unfortunately i think what we have is a group of kids that may be, you know, heading down that path. again, qualitatively different. >> right. no, i hear you. paul, here's the part that troubles me about this. they're looking for two other young kids. they had one on friday night. maybe that's the kid. maybe they're looking for a third. they're a little soft on the numbers and that's fine. they can't find this kid. that's unusual to not find a kid that age. they're vulnerable, they don't have resources and connections the way, you know, somebody who is connected to an organization or an adult might. what's your read on that? >> it's very, very unusual. and i have to say, chris, the picture that was described by the 13-year-old who has been

apprehended of the knife going in to tessa majors repeatedly and feathers flying from her coat, presumably she was wearing some kind of a down jacket, we'll find out later n is just haunting and horrific. >> and her crying for help. the kids were aware of what she was going through. they made a decision. and not being able to find a kid suggests that somebody is helping to hide them. and that's why i think this is an open window into what's going on here and we're going to learn more and every piece of it is troubling as hell. paul callan, thank you. doctor, thank you very much, both of you. >> thanks you. >> all right. the clock's ticking down. the president in all likelihood is going to be impeached. he doesn't have to say that he did anything wrong, but if he had, it would have changed it. i don't have an argument. i gave it to you at the top. but do i have a concern i want to share with you tonight because we're only going to be here once. everything changes tomorrow. that's next. [sneeze and sniffles]

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in all likelihood it ends tomorrow. president trump will bear the stain of being impeached. only the second in modern history. i do not envy his position or his fate. but i'm not worried about donald trump. he'll be fine. he always is. i worry about the rest of us. to be clear, we all know this is about what this president did and said. but where we are right now is really because of how he handled it. >> mr. president, do you take any responsibility for the fact that you're about to be impeached? >> no, i don't take any. zero, to put it mildly. >> and that's the problem. he said it. he did it. but remember, this is the man who has said he never needed to ask god for forgiveness. so he's being true to form. if he admitted some wrongdoing and argued that his intentions were not this corruption that the democrats say, he very well may not be where he is. but instead he's filled with enmity. it's everybody but him, and you know what?

now it's become contagious. >> i'm not an impartial juror. i would anticipate we will have a largely partisan outcome in the senate. i'm not impartial about this at all. >> just so you know, mcconnell and all the other senators are going to take an oath, and here's what it says. "i solemnly swear or affirm that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of donald j. trump now pending i will do impartial justice according to the constitution and laws, so help me god." he just told you that his fealty is to trump, and that comes before the article of faith i just read you, his oath to you and what we're about. just because he's straight about it doesn't mean it's a straight thing to say. the republicans are little more than trump's shadow. the democrats are part of this toxic tension as well, and it's hard for anybody to seem like they're better than what's going on around them. we don't even know what their eventual message or who their

messenger is going to be. so i argue we can't look to electeds to get us out of this. it's got to be on us to make things better. the practical argument is let's be honest. these people mostly do what you allow them to do. you say, i am out. if anyone has more insults than insights, if you don't have plans, if there's no progress, i won't vote for anyone in here, that would work, but it doesn't happen. we reward opposition. on a deeper level, we can't keep hating people because we disagree with them. it's not american. it doesn't just cheapen our politics. it cheapens us. it's poisoning us. here's the biggest reason. what we've got here is fragile. i've had the blessing of travel in this world as a journalist. nobody is trying to do what we have succeeded at here. it's an experiment because it's a work in progress. nobody's ever even tried what we're doing. combining faces and places, united by no real even common tongue or culture or tradition, just a respect for bigger

things -- freedom secured by law. we don't have the similarities that make it easy. so right now we must do what's hard. we cannot keep succumbing to the ease of animus. you have to be better than what you oppose. you have to be what you know matters more than division. you have to remember to disagree with decency. me too. be what your family should see in you, not some hyenas on social media. tomorrow changes everything. where do you want to go after this? it's a question of what you want. and god bless we all make the right choice. so, look, while this is going on, one of the concerns is what it means for our enemies. what's putin doing during this? how about what's his boat doing off eastern shores? bolo.

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bolo. be on the lookout. a russian spy ship is operating in what they call an unsafe manner along the east coast. the u.s. military says they're sailing without running lights, failing to respond to radio calls, just off the coast of south carolina and florida. officials suspect the ship is mapping undersea internet cables, gathering intelligence on u.s. nuclear submarines. the obvious, putin is not our pal. all right. that's all for us. time for "cnn tonight" with the man, d. lemon. and he and i were talking about the need to awaken people to the reality of what just happened in this city because it is reflective of what's happening around the country with rising crime. >> i was just reading the latest on the story you were talking about, the tessa majors story, the barnard student, and immediately when it happened everybody started texting and talking to each other about it. and there were comparisons to the central park five. >> except they were innocent. >> they were innocent.