>> i'm going to be an office worker again. i'm not going to be here doing this. i'm moving out of the situation. >> reporter: making a night's rest enabled, she says, by a safe parking space all the more important. dan simon, cnn, los angeles. >> dan, thank you so much for that. thank you all for joining me on "inside politics." ma manu raju starts right now. welcome to "inside politics." i'm manu raju. john king is off today. the new legal challenge tied to the impeachment of the president. senator elizabeth warren seems to have other hen ghoher own gh wine cave. we start with the major

story on capitol hill on impeachment. mitch mcconnell is at home in kentucky and he wants voters to remember who started the standoff. >> as i've said repeatedly, we can't take up a matter we don't have. and so hopefully they will be on the way over at some point. >> four republicans have filed to primary you. do y are you worried about your job at all? >> i'll get two in the primary, one in the general. >> we reached a stalemate over impeachment. today mitch mcconnell telling fox news that if speaker nancy pelosi wants to keep withholding articles of impeachment, that's fine by him. >> i'm not anxious to have this trial, so if she wants to hold all the papers, go right ahead. we're at an impasse. we can't do anything until the speaker sends the papers over, so everybody enjoy the holidays. >> yeah, there's probably one

key player who is not enjoying his holiday vacation, and that is president donald trump. the president made it clear both publicly and privately that he wants a speedy trial and the chance to clear his name in the senate. that puts him directly at odds with the majority leader. the president tweeting his frustration at nancy pelosi, accusing her of being, quote, unfair, breaking all rules, even predicting she'll lose the house majority in 2020. her response? defiance, insisting she wants to know what sort of trial the senate plans to conduct before she does anything. now here to share the reporting and their insights, cnn's sara murray, oliver knox with sirius xm. it's pretty clear there's been no movement since they met last week. mcconnell left town without any

deal moving forward. nancy pelosi won't send over the articles of impeachment until she knows what the process is going forward. she needs to meet with the impeachment managers, but the house has to vote on those impeachment managers and that's not happening until january 7 at the earliest. we're looking at a prolonged stalemate, potentially. >> they're both playing games of chicken. we were talking about how popular amongst voters, even though many don't support the impeachment of the president, a lot of them do want to hear from these key witnesses. mick mulvaney and john bolton. as democrats are making that point, they're giving republicans a bit of leverage in not sending over the articles. this gives the gop, the president, the sort of talking point about process, and what are the democrats doing? are they playing with politics? are they trying to keep trump from being acquitted in the senate? we'll have to see which talking point breaks through with the public more and who leaks first, because both sides have

arguments they're trying to make, and democrats trying to make this a real trial with real witnesses that they think are important, they're also potentially undercutting themselves. >> the question of leverage is an interesting one because mcconnell says he's in no rush, he would rather not have the trial at all, he wants to move on to other issues. the president last week tweeted he wanted an immediate trial. he said, so after democrats gave me no due process in the house, no wntitnesses, no lawyers, no nothing, they want to tell the senate how to run their trial. actually, they have zero proof of anything, they will never even show up. they want out. i want a speedy ytrial. here's what the vice president in chief said. >> it's a really untenable position, we think, for speaker pelosi to say this president is such a clear and urgent danger to the world, to the globe, that we have to basically trample his constitutional rights to force a quick impeachment and then say,

well, we're going to hold up impeachment papers and articles of impeachment to send to the senate. how can you possibly justify the contrast to say this is urgent to then say, well, we'll have to wait and see. >> josh, you covered for the "washington post." the president wants a speedy trial. does that give him any leverage to force mcconnell to agree to anything or no? >> they want witnesses, to have hunter biden, to have others, they want adam schiff to testify. that's not going to happen, even if you talk to people close to the president. the president wants some sort of vindication, though. he watched a house trial and he made the decision pretty early on, we're not going to participate in this process because we don't think the outcome will be what we want it to be. the senate trial, he thinks the outcome will be what he wants it to be and he thinks he has more control. he wants to see that happen. mcconnell is telling him behind

the scenes which we've reported, i think others have as well, we don't want all these witnesses. we don't need it to be six or ten weeks long, let's get this done quickly and move on. whether he can be assuaged to do that or not remains to be seen. >> he's giving different messages to different people depending on what they say. will any senate break ranks? there will be a moment where there will be votes for witnesses, and four republican senators, if they were to break ranks, could join democrats to compel witness testimony. it remains to be seen if we get to that point whether anyone will defect. the modern members on the republican side, the democratic side, it's interesting to see how they position themselves, being very cautious. susan collins the main mad rode up for reelection in a tough state. she said, it would be inappropriate for me or any senator to comment on the merits of the house's inquiry at this point. i've challenged president trump

in many cases, including during his campaign. i will continue to speak out when the administration acts inappropriately. i've asked her many times about the merits of the case. she said, i'm a juror, i'm not going to comment, et cetera. doug jones, who is a moderate from alabama, someone who is in a very difficult race as a democrat. republicans, of course, are targeting that race, he says he hasn't made a decision on whether to convict or acquit the president. >> i'm trying to see if the dots get connected. if that is the case, then i think it's a serious matter, it's an impeachable matter. but if those dots aren't connected and there are other explanations consistent with innocence, i will go that way, too. what i really want to see, though, is to fill in the gaps. there are gaps. >> i guess the question is, if these senators were to break ranks running for reelection, how much would their base revolt against them if they were to acquit the president, doug jones did that or if susan collins were to vote to convict the

president? it will be very difficult for them to survive a reelection. >> 20 years ago we had a similar dynamic in terms of calling witnesses or not calling witnesses to the senate impeachment trial of bill clinton. a couple things happened. the senate voted behind closed doors on whether to call witnesses. they argued over what format it should be. what we had was videotaped testimony taken behind closed doors of monica lewinsky, of clinton's friend jordan and blumenthal, the white house aide. back then the problem for the white house was a number of moderate democrats who were publicly very critical of the president's behavior, joe lieberm lieberman, for example. i don't know how this plays out with doug jones, but it's a similar dynamic to 20 years ago. >> and they will criticize the president even if they don't say it's impeachable, and now you're seeing republicans even failing to criticize the conduct.

yesterday roy blunt, who is a member of the senate intelligence committee, who is a member of the republican leadership in the senate was asked by dana bash whether the president did anything wrong, and he tied it to obama. >> did he make a mistake? >> do presidents make mistakes? i don't know if this call was a mistake, but there have been plenty of mistakes made by both president obama and president trump regarding ukraine. >> why is it so hard for republicans to even say the president did anything wrong here? >> because they're cowards and they're afraid of the president's power and they're afraid he's going to fire off a tweet and criticize them. i think the republican party that is very concerned about the president's approval advocated a lot of their conscience during the 2016 campaign and they're going to kind of keep chugging forward. they haven't really faced any repercussions with voters, at least in the senate, so i think they really do believe that mitch mcconnell in the senate is going to protect them. he's going to make sure

republicans are not in a worse position when it comes to this vote. he's going to make it at palatable as possible to say, we couldn't connect the dots. never mind we couldn't connect the dots because the white house won't provide the documents or witnesses who are at the center of this mess. we couldn't connect the dots so we have no choice but to not convict the president. this was all a sham and let's move ahead to 2020. >> what was astonishing to me was when the president said you can't say the call wasn't bad, but it doesn't call for impeachment. the president said, stop saying that, say the call was perfect. the house republicans all fell in line. a lot of the senators just went quiet. you look at his popularity in a number of states where he's 85, 90% among republicans, obviously his popularity is way lower, historically low at some levels overall, but with republicans he has a grip on the party like no one else does. so when he goes out and says,

you have to defend me, and if not, i can go to your state, i can punish you in a whole myriad of ways, these people get on line and follow him quickly. >> mitt romney was like that. he said what was said in the call was disturbing and he didn't approve of it, and right away we saw conservatives go after mitt romney in terms of ad. so the president and his allies laid down a marker early and said if you say something that's wrong, you're going to have repercussions. >> that was bad news for these people up for reelection. will they be able to break ranks with the president or are they concerned of the stranglehold the president has on the party if they do break ranks? it will be interesting to watch. up next, a set of newly released emails sheds light on parts of the impeachment case. what it means for a trial in the senate. fit me! foundation from maybelline new york fits skin tone and texture. blurs pores. stops shine. 97% of women found their fit.

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they told a federal appeals court to avoid weighing in on the testimony of former house counsel don mcgahn. here a i quote. if the court were to involve the merits question in this case, it would appear to be weighing in on a contested issue in any impeachment trial. that would be a questionable o propriety. oral arguments will be happening in that case. the democrats are still going to respond in a brief, probably making the case this is all a pattern of behavior by the president in the way he handled the questions about investigations of him and obstruction questions and the like. but the underlying evidence here for the mueller probe is needed for the impeachment inquiry.

the argument they'll have to make is they need this information, still, and it won't undercut their case. how do you expect the democrats will balance this delicate dance they have from the court? >> the democrats had a legal fight with the white house regardless of impeachment. i mean, they have issued dozens of subpoenas for witnesses and documents on a whole bunch of investigations including one related to mueller's probe right here that we're talking about, and the white house ignored them. so even before the impeachment started, democrats were going to go to the courts to try to fortify congress' right to do oversight and subpoena the administration, which the administration totally ignored. i do think they sort of potentially open themselves up to a problem when they said we need this as part of impeachment. now, behind the scenes, if you talk to any democrats in the house, and i'm sure you did as well on the hill, they were never looking at mueller -- having hearings for mueller. nobody thought they would have don mcgahn as part of an

impeachment hearing. but they did make the argument that they had a timeline, we need this right way, and now that impeachment is done in the house, the white house is trying to drag this out. >> and they need to get information from the mueller probe which they argue is necessary for the impeachment inquiry, but now we're in the new phase. that will be the question going forward. also the question going forward is about some of the new information that's come out over the course of this over the weekend. there was news over the weekend of an email that was released through a separate lawsuit of an outside group that was pursuing information in that request, and they got information from michael duffey who essentially put the hold on the ukraine aid from going forward. what was interesting about this email is showed the interaction he had about 90 minutes after that phone call between president trump and president

zelensky of ukraine in which the president urged ukraine to open an investigation against the bidens. he says in this email, he said, based on guidance i have received and in light of the administration's plan to review assistance to ukraine, including the ukraine security assistance initiati initiative, please hold off on any additional dod obligations of these funds, pending direction from the process. they said they were announcing a meeting on july 18 and they were saying this line was out of context. what do sara, what does it shed light on in this investigation when they say they were holding military aid against president zelensky? >> they were, and until they said this hold was going to happen, it wasn't until the day of president trump's call with zelensky that dod made the move

to freeze this money. this order comes from the white house from michael duffey, who is a political appointee, he's not the kind of person that would normally order this flow of money. another line that follows up is, let's keep this quiet just between the people that need to know, because michael duffey realized at that point it would be a problematic, offensive issue. omb complained this was taken out of context, and if it was taken out of context it's because that other 50% was redacted. if you didn't get to spend time until midnight that friday reading it, i can assure you a lot of stuff around it was redacted. this is why we see chuck schumer coming out and saying, we really need these documents, because they really do paint a picture of how this phone call set off other actions. >> on the schumer question, you mentioned he did put out a letter to all senators today demanding several areas of

documents from the administration. they talk about pressure to ukraine announcing investigations. that's one area he wants information about. also withholding a white house meeting from president zelensky, which was considered a quid pro quo in order to freeze military aid for ukraine. the white house blocked it, they chose not to go to court to get this information, but we're seeing more and more information come out that the democrats heard on moving impeachment quickly through the house instead of going to court. >> one of the details does come from omb. omb is repeatedly putting taer hol -- temporary holds on this money. dod says we need this in writing. they're skeptical. you see the bureaucratic infighting play out because no one understands why suddenly the president has called for a hold on this money. but omb, as you said, was

stonewalled. these deputies have not testified. the only person with omb who testified was one career official, mark sandy. everyone else is in a black hole. "new york times," cnn that have filed for four years have tried to get documents from omb. what's interesting in omb is in the white house, both documents don't have to go. at some point more and more and more is going to come out with what happened inside omb through lawsuits, through information requests, through lots of things they have to comply with that the white house doesn't. how long could the democrats have waited? what if they stalled three months, six months? how long can that process play out? i don't know that that works, either. >> it may get delayed until the president gets reelected, maybe it goes to the new term, maybe

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the democratic primary will face its first big test 10 weeks from today in the iowa caucus. we have one democratic debate before iowa votes on february 3rd. there will be a -- there will not be a debate or caucus until then. how is the senator feeling after last week's debate? >> reporter: she's feeling quite bullish. if you can sit her down long enough, she's meeting people here in iowa and she'll tell you she had a very strong debate,

that she was able to break through some of the chaos, that she made her argument to an audience and she's bringing that argument here to iowa. there are 96 counties she will hit by the end of today, 99 counties by the end of the week, the only candidate, her campaign claims, who will have gone to every single county in iowa who will be on the january debate stage. what she is seeing along this bus tour, as we've been watching, are rooms in these small towns that are filled, that are enthusiastic. some people say, yes, she is my one, but overwhelmingly, a lot of people are now giving her a hard look saying she's up there in their top two, top three. one of the most persuasive arguments they found from her is she is arguing she is the one to rebuild the blue wall. here is what the senator means, as she told us aboard her bus. >> i don't think that donald trump has some kind of monopoly on votes in rural america or in suburban america, not for a second.

and you saw a lot of suburban and rural voters that voted for women, they voted for democrats, including independents and moderate republicans. so the evidence is there. the people want to check on this guy. >> reporter: and the check being not just from the base, manu, but that you have got to energize the base plus open up the tent, win in trump country, and she is the candidate who proved she can do that in minnesota, and she believes she can do that throughout the midwest, manu. >> thank you for that report. in the last iowa poll from the des moines register cnn poll, it showed klobuchar in fifth place. there's still time. she's met some inroads but still behind. she's trying to appeal to the moderate, of course. biden is trying to do similarly. how does she distinguish herself from biden as he appeals those voters?

>> that's a very good question. she's a woman, she's younger. joe biden has been in politics for decades and decades and decades. she's clearly going after iowa. she had a good one-liner. it was a memorable debate because we no longer had 35 candidates on stage. but to capitalize on all that, you can hear when she's campaigning, she asks people, did you see the debate? do you remember the debate? how she distinguishes herself from biden, i think, is youth and gender. >> speaking of biden, yesterday he was in rural iowa, he was talking to voters, he was trying to make the case for his candidacy. here's what he said in perry, iowa yesterday. >> you know, i put forward an ambitious plan to revitalize rural economies. by the way, mine is a rural state. everyone thinks i come from delaware and it's a corporate entity. the truth is the biggest city in my state is 86,000 people, but

it represents what you people have, the heart and soul of the country. my plan is to restore rural middle class for rural america in rural america. >> biden started off with this formidable lead. he's in third place tied with bernie sanders in that poll. if he loses iowa and then he heads into new hampshire, this is a game of momentum. you win, you get momentum, you have steam heading into the next race. this could be devastating for joe biden losing in two states. it seems possible. >> that absolutely would be devastating. the thing for joe biden that obviously set himself apart from the other candidates from the outset is people pretty much knew who he was. in a lot of cases people had a favorable view of him. you talk to people and you're on tv all day. this happened for every candidate that is a known quantity. people seeing it in iowa and new hampshire, they like to kick the tires on these other candidates.

they jump around a lot. a lot of people don't make up their mind until the very last minute. i think the race is very fluid. if you're someone like joe biden, it's also very scary. >> you said people make up their mind at the last second. that's the argument cory booker is making because he's registering high in the polls. he says this happened in the past. voters don't decide until the end and the way the system is set up is not fair. >> anybody who has campaigned in places like iowa sees how strong our campaign is on the ground. remember, john kerry, john edwards were polling at 4%, 2%, 6 or 7 in the field and a month later they went on to finish first and second in the polls. it's the kind of thing worth thriving on in the energy. >> i don't know if you want to compare yourself to john edwards, but does he have a point, though, that the first primary here is almost making the dnc's threshold to compete in these debates? >> we've seen it before.

people come from behind and all of a sudden they're in a winning state and they have all this momentum. there is a chance for candidates to break through. that's why you see people like klobuchar and booker, they're out working in this holiday break, because they'll be locked in a jury room with the senate in an impeachment trial for the president. they're trying to break out. if klobuchar can tap in to that debate and break in on the polls, she has to do it now because she'll be faced with voting for impeachment. >> josh, what do you think? >> he says crazy bernie, pocahontas sometimes. think people still want a candidate as they see more left, not a moderate candidate, they want someone more left. they think the president can

demonize and convince voters -- his argument has been a lot recently, i know a lot of you don't like me, but you have to vote for me, anyway. he told different groups various things about policy where he says, you might not like my tweets, you might not like my personality, but you have to vote for me, anyway. they think that strategy works best and klobuchar is far left on the spectrum. i think that's what we'll see them try to do. up next for us, john bolton gives harsh criticism for the president's approach to north korea. stay with us. stops shine. 97% of women found their fit. fit me! matte + poreless only from maybelline new york

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topping our political radar today, they sentenced five people to death over the murder of jamal khashoggi. there were men with close ties to the saudi arabian government. former national security adviser john bolton issued a fresh criticism of how the white house is handling north korea's nuclear ambitions. bolton tells "axios" the idea that we're somehow exerting maximum pressure on north korea is just unfortunately not true. bolton also says that the white house was serious about halting nuclear weapons and they would be pursuing a different course. john bolton sharp with the white house's handling of north korea.

josh d aa wrdawsey, he'll fight court but the lawyer says they can talk about interests not explored in the impeachment inquiry, now he's out there criticizing the president on north korea. >> john bolton wants to issue a book next year. he has a lot of interviews where he says, i have a lot to say. we must re-engage on these policies. he said through lawyers, i have a lot to say, i have a lot of info. he hasn't disclosed it. he's repeatedly criticized the president. he hasn't ix up and doexpanded . he's trying to stay relevant, stay in the headlines because he wants to sell his book. >> let's see if he says anything more before that book deal. the taliban is claiming responsibility for the death of

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senator george washington's ad campaign came out trying to take a stance on big dollar donors. >> i'm not doing big dollar fundraisers, i'm not selling staff to donors. my first priority as president will be to pass the biggest package of anti-corruption reform since watergate. >> the ad comes as warren had to

defend her own campaign. they called it the wine wars. fox news saying warren has been called out for her past events. yesterday warren acknowledged she fundraised a little differently in the past but says this time it's different. >> i've been to those fundraisers, and i think we can do better. and that's what i'm trying to do. when i first got into this presidential race, i said, i'm not doing these closed door meetings, i'm not doing special call time and special access to people with money, i'm going to run a grassroots campaign. >> so pete buttigieg said he doesn't want to engage in purity tests and he was asked over the weekend about the optics of this whole wine cave debate. here's what he said in perry, iowa. >> i'm not focusing on optics,

i'm focusing on what needs to change in this country. i made very clear what my positions are, what we're going to do. anybody checking into this campaign, no matter their background, their story, or how much they can give is scupportig that message. >> so who is winning this war? >> bernie sanders. >> there you go. >> i'm only kind of kidding. one of the reasons for her building a movement and taking small dollar donors is bernie sanders. he's always had the small dollar donors, he's always said come with me on this. unless you're a multi, multi, multi-millionaire or billionaire, you're not going to get big funds. you have to raise this cash somehow. but she also doesn't want to give bernie space to attack. >> watch out for the chandeli s

chandeliers. i mean, she made herself a target there. all you have to do is look back a couple years and you see she was doing big fundraisers with big donors at the same time. i think that clearly there is a debate in the democratic party -- well, democratic primary voters, they do care about money in politics right now. this is something people are really sincere about. but to the extent you start attacking each other when people are sort of moving in that direction but maybe you haven't gone as far as warren wanted them to go, it starts to look really petty. maybe there is no winner because everybody is attacking each other. >> president trump does these huge dollar fundraisers almost every month. $35,000 for a photo, $100,000 for a dinner at his hotel, at his properties. what's it like to go to a $100,000 event with president trump? it's like a campaign rally. the speeches aren't all that different. when you talk about big dollar

fundraisers, this president is doing it more than any other president. >> and he's raising a lot of money. >> obama did a lot of big dollar fundraising. >> he started it almost as soon as he became president, which is a departure from past practices. but also interesting, as you mentioned, the back and forth between the democrats and whether or not this is going to be helpful or hurtful ultimately for the event wal nomin, ma'eve. over the weekend, alexandra ocasio-cortez went after them. >> for anyone who goes against us for purity tests, it's called having values. it's called giving a damn. it's called having standards for

your conduct by not being funded by billionaires but being funded by the people, which is different. >> these back and forths happen in every primary race. this is going to get increasingly more personal as we get into the voting season next year. but to the democrats, they're concerned this could undercut their eventual nominee while they need to go up against president trump. >> everyone freaks out when there is a crowded primary because they think it's going to undercut them. i think at the end of the day, this will be a rather small limit. yes, they do care about politics but the thing they hear the most is someone who can beat president trump. so whoever emerges and appears they can take on president trump, i don't believe democrats will suddenly say, you took money from billionaires so we're going to opt for somebody who we believe has no shot against the president. i think that falls down low on the list in this election. >> it's a totally different ball

game when we get to that. up next, away from washington but not necessarily away from twitter. the president's mar-a-lago mindset.

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most unfair trial in the history of the u.s. congress, and now she is crying for fairness in the senate, and breaking all rules while doing so. she lost congress once, she will do it again. the president will surround himself with friends and allies while he's there. "politico" said, escape to mar-a-lago: trump gets a post-impeachment mood lift. someone might be able to whisper an idea in his ear, but that's what the president loves to do, playing host, watching television, work ago way fring the confines of the west wing. >> we've seen rudy giuliani, his lawyer, we've seen rush limbaugh golfing with him. he plays a lot of golf. he gets up in the morning, sends a few tweets that send people aflurry back in washington.

he goes to the golf course. is there from about 9:00 to 2:00 or 3:00. comes back, watches television, has dinner at the club and is the star of the show. for a journalist down there, it's a lot of sitting in vans outside his golf club and drying to figure out what he's doing inside and who he's playing with. he loves mar-a-lago. he likes it more than bedminster, he likes it more than trump tower, it's the place he's gone the most as president. he has a whole host of friends, the folks that made his custom kitchen cabinets. >> trump's inner circle came and saw him this week, and you mentioned some of them, jerry falwell one of them, giuliani's spokeswoman also there. they're intervening in this war

crimes case. rudy giuliani, here is the central player in the ukraine scandal, and he's not concerned at all about the optics of being close to the president in the middle of all this. >> no, i think there are plenty of republicans around the president who are looking at this ask cringing and wishing rudy giuliani wasn't hanging around mar-a-lago right now, but so far president trump has not really thrown him under the bus. he's made a couple moves in that direction, and at the end of the day it's always the people around the president who are very concerned about rudy giuliani's behavior and trump says, i'm happy to look at what you brought back from your most recent trip to ukraine. >> will there be a point he distances him from rudy giuliani? >> we've not seen that yet. it will be interesting to see if giuliani can get in his ear about hunter biden because mitch mcconnell said he don't want to make this a circus about hunter biden in the impeachment trial. but rudy giuliani got back from ukraine, what does he got.

it will be interesting to see if he starts tweeting about that and putting more demands on mcconnell to reconsider. >> lots to see in the new year. thanks for joining us on "inside politics." brianna keilar starts right now. i'm brianna keilar live from cnn's washington headquarters. underway right now, a political stalemate, mitch mcconnell and nancy pelosi digging in their heels on where the impeachment fight goes next, as the white house considers a new talking point that the president wasn't actually impeached. an emboldened kim jong-un is ready to take denuclearization off the table as his security adviser says the security policy is a failure. a