welcome to a special two-hour edition of inside politics. i'm john king. to our viewers in the united states and around the world, thank you for sharing your sunday. breaking down the president's impeachment trial building and critical votes this week. the president's team has the floor right now. in their opening statement saturday, the defense opened with a barrage against the democratic prosecutors. >> for all their talk about election interference, that they're here to perpetrate to

the most massiv interference in an election in american history, and we can't allow that to happen. the american people decide elections. they have one coming up in nine months. >> house prosecutors use their three days to paint a damning picture of presidential obstruction. the president seeking re-election help from ukraine, then withholding, stone walling congress when it demanded documents and witnesses. >> if right doesn't matter, it doesn't matter how good the constitution is. it doesn't matter how brilliant the framers were. it doesn't matter how good or bad or advocacy in in trial is. if right doesn't matter, we're lost. >> whether minds are changing on

the senate floor is a big question and a giant decisive test of that will come later this week when the democrats demand more witnesses and documents. the democrats say those witnesses and documents are essential to getting to the truth. but most republicans seem held bent on a quick resolution of this trial. get it over. asap. >> seem like groundhog's day in the senate from what we heard from the managers yesterday and the day before. it is the same thing day after day after day. >> i watched schiff over and over again today repeat the same argument. it was like watching bad reruns of the brady bunch. >> repetitive arguments over and over again based on little more than hearsay and the house democrats' objections to donald trump being the president. >> with us to share their insight and reporting, julie pace of the associated press, michael share with "the new york times." the paul cain from the "washington post." the president's team took two

hours of their opening presentation saturday. we do not have yet a full picture of the defense strategy. the overview crafted with two clear goals. one, keep the president happy. >> you will find that the president did absolutely nothing wrong. >> the president had reason to be concerned about the information he was being provided. >> inted to show overt next several days that the evidence is overwhelming that the president did nothing wrong. >> goal number 2, give republicans something to cite. if they have to explain a vote to acquit or, before that, a vote to deny democrats what they want, witnesses and new documents. >> how do they try to overcome the direct words from president zelensky and his administration that they felt no pressure? they tell you that the ukrainians must have felt pressure regardless of what they've said. >> the speaker had said articles

of impeachment are going to be drafted and where there were no plans to hear from any fact witnesses. that's not due process. that's why the president declined to participate in that process. >> it was low key. most politicians or defense lawyers would take all their time. they want to make friends with the senate, if you will. give them a quick early day. was it effective in giving republicans, if you want to say this is in dispute or they rushed the process in the house. was it effective in giving republicans a place to go, which is all this is about now. do no harm, the math is on your side. >> giving the senate republicans initial talking points which they seem to be taking on. one of the biggerser questions is where they go on monday. the trump legal team leaned in to preview their defense to reporters, they would bring up joe biden, hunter biden. some who are uncomfortable with the trial taking a turn in that

direction. on two points, the defense of trump on the substance that he did nothing wrong. that's a message aimed at the whole office and the occupant there. two, i think this is salient to a lot of republicans. democrats are going to try to impeach trump on something. this is what they've arkd and say what democrats stumbled upon. for republicans who take that home to their home states, i think, is a pretty good message. >> if you listen to jay sekulow who has been the president's attorney. he was playing to the president and -- one of the arguments of democrats is come on, it was russia, not ukraine that meddled. come on. the president -- why is the president listening to rudy giuliani when he has an array of career established foreign policy officials? jay sekulow going back to the mueller report and the president's suspicion about the fbi and the intelligence community, going back to the abuses. there were abuses by the fbi in the pfizer court when -- maybe you don't agree with the president. but he had to right to think these things. >> here's the bottom line.

this is part one of the mueller report. just six-tenths of a mile from this chamber sits the foreign intelligence surveillance court. also known as the fisa court. the house managers in a 23-hour period, kept pushing this false dichotomy that it was either russia or ukraine but not both. >> now, if you go into the details, especially the president is specific, he talks about the server. there can't be two democratic security servers. either russia or someone else hacked it. you can run mr. sekulow through a fact check machine and you'll have problems. for the president's political purposes and the republicans' political purposes, effective or not? >> it's effective. mitch mcconnell is happy if they don't go too far into the conspiracy theory world, he want them to try to stay where they

did for most of it. where you just don't get into ukraine, crowd strike, those things. he wants them to stick to, this is not an impeachable offense. not something you can rule from office. nine months away we have an election. mcconnell will be happy and appear somewhat dignified. >> there's a delicate balance to it. i think the timing question. there was something somewhat powerful about having a two-hour approach, which they repeatedly contrasted with 20 to 1, 2, 3 hours the democrats put. there was something powerful about the idea we're going to be able to take that detailed and tedious presentation down in a couple of hours. on the other hand, there were some senators that we all talked to afterwards who were at least eager for a little bit more to hang this on. right? they did want to see a little bit more detail, a little bit more of a -- the meat of the white house defense so that when they go home to their districts,

they can actually point to an actual defense. >> to that point, some of the bigger names that the president added to his defense team, we have not seen them or heard from them in the senate trial. ken starr, the former independent counsel in the bill clinton days. a powerhouse lawyer. alan dershowitz, the former harvard law professor. they will get the floor tomorrow. mr. dershowitz says he's going to make a case that this does not rise to the test of impeachment. mr. starr will make a similar case. it doesn't reach the -- the president snows when you talk about the death valley of television, maybe he wanted to save them for the weekday. he knows how important the first day was. by all accounts, he was pleased with his team. >> what the defense said yesterday was kind of get the top line points out, that the president did nothing wrong, that this is a way to, for

democrats get in the way of the 2020 elections going on. gives a tidbit for the sunday shows today and it has a big preview or a show for monday. we don't expect the president's team to use all their time. i would be interested to see what kind of argument they lay out. we haven't heard too much, for example about the bidens. how much will the white house counsel team delve into that. we saw a little bit how the house managers tried to pre-butt that argument in their arguments. that gives us -- that gives the white house team a clear explanation to go into them at length. maybe those are the fireworks that the president is seeking on monday. we'll have to wait and see tomorrow. >> to that point, one of the the things that -- in a trial, you're the defense, you're trying to stir up reasonable doubt. look how he held up aid to ukraine. they made that out to be

exceptional. they detailed with dam ning evidence that -- about the people being startled and stunned. when it happened. about people raising questions whether it was legal. jay sekulow, you might be suspect about this. he's trying to create a safe place for republicans. we froze aid to ukraine. not unique. >> president trump has placed holds on aid a number of times. we just take basic due diligence to figure this out. in september 2019, the administration announce thad it was withholding over $100 million in aid to afghanistan over concerns about government corruption. >> if you go back and study the history, they are very different issues in how they were handled and how the process worked. >> but it was announced. >> you know whether it's the central american countries or afghanistan or other places, they announced it, they told congress as they have a duty to

do. i think there's a big difference. that's an example as you say, of mr. sekulow and the white house team giving republicans a talking point. but it doesn't necessarily stand up under scrutiny when you look at the details. >> so the lead house manager, adam schiff came out quickly with his team after. >> i wouldn't say quickly. it took a half an hour in a hot room as he was once again, relitigating afterwards. >> his point was, the democrats know the math here. they do not have the 20 votes. even if they kept all the democrats to convict or remove the president. the only way in a miracle, is to first get witnesses and extend the trial. that is their main goal. he came out afterwards saying the president's lawyers did a good job but forgot some things. >> there's no mention of the president's chief of staff. what about mick mulvaney who admitted in a press conference just like this, of course, we did. it happens all the time. get over it.

no mention of the president's chief of staff. why is that? they said the house managers' goal should be to give you all of the facts. that is our goal. it's just not theirs. because mick mulvaney has some of these facts. >> it's a very strong argument to make to the american people. there's a lot more we could learn if the senate would demand the documents. but most of the senators at that point were gone. are they listening? >> democrats felt after yesterday that that was the one thing that the white house legal team really made a mistake on. they were opening the door at several different points as they made their case, to oh, well, yeah, the way we can figure that out is if we call mulvaney. if we call bolton. they felt like they cracked the door open. but we'll get into it in more detail. the witness question, the numbers aren't there yet. >> that's where we'll come back to. up next, the prosecution case and the senate math. it's either the assurance of a 165-point

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democrats case against the president was relentless and yes, repetitive. president trump solicited foreign interference in the u.s. election for one particular objective. to benefit his own re-election. to seek help in cheating in a u.s. election. >> no president has ever used his office to compel a foreign nation to help him cheat in our election. >> he is trying to cheat to win. >> even republicans who are solid votes for the president gave the democrats high marks. but this late friday was seen as an unforced error. >> cbs news reported last night that a trump confidant said that goch gop senators were warned vote against the president and your head will be on a pike. i don't know if that's true.

when i read that, i was struck by the irony, by the irony. i hope it's not true. i hope it's not true. >> a lot of people in the chamber said that a lot of republican senators were visibly angered at that. including republican senators who matter on the question of witnesses. >> i will point out later, they were very angry at that. but, again, people like susan collins, lisa murkowski that we're closely watching. they clarified later saying they might have lost me on that argument, but that's not going to matter at the the end of the day also from our reporting at the "washington post." the president has taken a hands off approach to those swings because he doesn't have established relationships with collins or murkowski. he notes that overt pressure on them directly does not matter. i think mcconnell especially and particularly the white house and the president has been trying to

give them space to make the decision that they will ultim e ultimately come to the end of the day on witnesses. >> we look at every statement they make and try to see if something read into it. susan collins, i tend to like information and would anticipate i would vote for more. that would tell you she's a likely yes vote. mitt romney, i think it's likely i'll be in favor of witnesses. i vbt made die sigs. lamar alexander, we're going to listen to the answers. lisa mour could you ski, they're basically saying you guys got to go through the courts. we didn't. but we need you to. that's the most telling. she seems to be laying the groundwork. she would be key. there might be two. to get four, you need lisa murkowski. she would be three. she seems to be making a case, you know what, no. >> four senators in this current climate for republicans is really, really difficult. there's simply not a track record of republicans taking a position opposed to the

president or mitch mcconnell in this climate right now. you could see maybe one or two doing it. four to move forward on witnesses seems difficult. murkowski's argument has some resonance within republican circles. if you feel like these witnesses are so important, if this is something we should have heard from, why not do it on the democratic side? how could you have impeached the president without this level of information? it's actually not a bad argument. >> the democrats understand this. they know the math and they know loyalty. a to the president and b, mr. mcconnell. so they're trying to almost guilt the republicans. because they know that privately, a lot of republicans don't like this. they don't like rudy giuliani running foreign policy. they don't like when they read the transcript the president says it's a perfect call. hakeem jeffries trying to say you know better. >> in a perfect call, the president would not pressure a foreign government to target a u.s. -- for -- in a perfect

call, the president would not solicit foreign interference in the 2020 election. this was not a perfect call. >> many, if not most republican senators would tell you privately this was not a perfect call. that does not mean they're going to vote for witnesses when they get there, correct? >> yes. they've said it over and over. mike brawn, from indiana, he's said that. it wasn't a perfect call. it's not the way -- >> significant, indiana. mike pence -- >> he is very much on trump's team. he's one of the senators who races down to the microphones when there's a break to try and join in on the trump defense team. so it's just a high hurdle to get four. i don't think you're going to get four unless you get 14. you have to have a real dam break to get there to get -- >> which is why. the democrats get the math.

which is why adam schiff in his close was trying to anticipate. we had two hours yesterday. we'll have at least monday. my big question, will the president give up tuesday, will he just take up one more day and give up a day of tv time and say you don't have a case? adam schiff trying to make the case, you'll hear a lot from the president's lawyers, please don't believe it. >> those managers are just awful. they're terrible people. especially that schiff guy. he's the worst. he's the worst. and exhibit a, he mocked the president. for a man who loves to mock others, he does not like to be mocked. never mind i said i wasn't using his words before i said it and i wasn't using his words after i said it, and i said i was making a parody of his words. >> he was right in that in one of the white house presentations yesterday, right out of the bat, there was adam schiff at a hearing doing what he did say was a parody of the president. but mischaracterizing using

slang in other words to give a more crass take of the call. >> yeah. he knew that. he has made himself a central figure in this case. we were talking about this off air. there was less than 23 hours of time of the democratic side. he spoke almost 40% of the time, he knew this was coming much he had to try and get ahead of it. we'll see how much more they go into that and how much they tie this to the whistle-blower reaching out to his staff before filing the complaint. i think there's more to come on that. >> the more you make it political, the less likely you are to get republicans to break. if you make it about the politics, not about the substance of the democratic case, which was pretty compelling, then you shut down the witnesses. we'll continue the conversation. up next, two legal teams with very different arguments and approaches and what this trial could mean for future impeachments and washington's balance of power. with new nicorette coated ice mint. layered with flavor... it's the first and only coated nicotine lozenge.

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first day of the president's impeachment defense was a low key but persistent assertion that the prosecution, the democrats, were shading the truth. >> they come here to the senate and they ask you, remove a president and they don't bother to read the key evidence. the democrats' entire quid pro quo theory is based on nothing more than the initial speculation of one person, ambassador sondland. >> president trump has placed holds on aid a number of times. you didn't hear about any of that. for my democratic colleagues. >> cnn legal analyst and impeachment experts join us. julie pace with us as well. >> michael garber, i want to start with you. if you run that through a fact check, most of what we heard

yesterday, you'd have serious flags. as lawyers trying to create doubt or give republicans a safe lace to go, how did they do? >> i think it's an understandable argument that the white house counsel is making. it's been pointed out already this morning but it's true, siel is particularly, it was -- stylistically it was effective. it's a good talking point. but it lacks any factual foundation. it's not just ambassador sondland. it's a mountain of evidence that supports the point. the president deviated from congressional policy to freeze this aid and here's the key. to freeze it not because of some general concern about corruption. there's nothing in the record about a general concern about corruption. there's a lot in the record about the concern about biden. >> it's an excellent point. there were legal arguments put forward. it is without a doubt the president said no, no, no, no, hell for every request for a witness and documents. democrats say it's beyond nixon, it's beyond anything and clear

obstruction of congress. the president's lawyer said we had every right too say no. listen. >> they focus a lot on an october 8 letter from the counsel to the president, pat cipollone. they didn't show you an october 18th letter that went through in detail why subpoenas that had been issued by manager schiff's committees were invalid. the house had not taken a vote to authorize the committee to exercise the power of impeachment, to issue any compulsory process. >> this, ross, has been a standard, the roons said this in the house. the republicans will say it in the senate. now they'll say the subpoenas were invalid because they were issued before the full house authorized the impeachment inquiry. is there any legal basis for that argument? >> they make a lot of arguments. these were sweeping denials of information. the better argument, i think, is that the assertion of privileges

and immunities by the white house with respect to subpoenas, including congressional subpoenas isn't new. lots of administrations have done that. the last administration, the attorney general was held in criminal and civil contempt of congress. so that piece is not new. i was surprised, though, by the -- by the way the white house asserted these privileges and i am munts. i was surprised they weren't more detailed and frankly, weren't more thoughtful. >> we have two more days. we'll see if they use all two days. one the things we learned last night watching anderson cooper who spoke to dershowitz. he says he's not really consulting with the team. he'll give them a draft of his brief, but he says, michael, listen to this. he says congress has charged the president with abuse of power and obstruction. alan dershowitz says, not impeachable. >> i'm going to argue very firmly that those are not appropriate criteria. if they had put to the framers, the framers would have rejected

those criteria as too open-ended in the terms of madison. it would turn america into a parliamentary-type democracy in which the president serves at the pleasure of the legislature, something none of the framers really wanted. >> solid, michael or not? >> completely not solid. i'm really kind of surprised that alan would make that argument. in the law, we say does it pass the straight face test. this one does not. if you look at the constitution convention, read the comments in the ratification campaign and from justice joseph story. they agree that abuse of power is owe open the reason impeachment is in the -- every example given by the framers in the convention was presidential abuse of power. so to turn around and say, well it's not abuse of power lacks any factual foundation. >> i think the key question

though, is how grave is the abuse of power. i think focusing on the heading abuse of power is the mistake. i mean, that is the question. is it such a serious abuse of power that it affects the ability of the president to continue in office. >> do we ever see this? is this an only team trump moment. alan dershowitz says i'm not talking to them. i'll probably share my brief with them. the president is on trial for impeachment. alan dershowitz is going to make a big constitutional argument -- >> it's extraordinary. we know from reporting that trump really sought out dershowitz to be part of his team. i think it will be interesting after dershowitz gets up there and draws a distinction between what he's actually arguing for the constitution and an actual defense of trump, how trump reacts if he's happy with that. trump really wanted dershowitz to play this role on television. >> if dershowitz sticks around for the q and a. >> that's a great point. whether they have the higher profile names, if you will. we're focusing on the here and

now, the trial. can the democrats get the witnesses. will the president be acquitted. will there be a motion to dismiss. adam schiff, trying to play the institutional pride of the senators, he's trying to say if you let this go, there will be a democratic president someday and the balance of power will be forever changed. >> if we're to decide here that a president of the united states can simply say under article 2, i can do whatever i want and i don't have to treat a colloquial branch of government like it exists, that will be an unending injury to this country because the balance of power that our founders set out will never be the same. if you can't have the ability to enforce an impeachment power, you might as well not put it in the constitution. >> unending, michael, is he right? >> i think he's right. i think there's a lot of dangerous ramifications from the president's arguments and the president's actions. let me zero in on one.

keep in mind the president of the united states ordered the executive branch not to cooperate with the congressional inquiry. he told everybody in the executive branch, do not respond or comply with subpoenas. don't cooperate in any way. then the president or his lawyers turn around and say, well, how come the house didn't have these witnesses? it's because the president ordered them not to be there. so that's a really key element in the house's case. it's something, i think, that the white house lawyers basically misrepresented and republican senators have to dance around. >> under their breath, ross, they say president trump stretched the ee allastic in soy ways. they're saying when he's gone it will snap back. >> i don't think this will necessarily snap back. i think there will be a lot of lessons learned from these episodes, sure. we don't know what those are yet. it's still too early. >> michael and ross will be back in the next hour. julie, i think, is leaving us

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first votes of the 2020 presidential race will be cast one week from tomorrow. bernie sanders is making a statement. take a look. sanders tops the field in iowa with 25%. that's a poll by sienna college. pete buttigieg, joe biden and

elizabeth warren follow and amy klobuchar is 5th. the sanders effect is also in other polling. sanders is the green line on the rise of late. in our poll, now ahead of former vice president biden. a new "washington post" abc poll out today has biden in the national lead. sanders, if you see that, the only democrat in striking distance. >> if you believe that health care is a human right, not a privilege, we are that campaign. if you believe that together we've got to fight in an aggressive way to save this planet for future generations from climate change, we are that campaign. if you believe that every working person in this country deserves a fair wage, we are that campaign. >> cnn's abby philip and lisa

layer join the conversation. >> you look at this new york times sienna college poll. you talk to people in the campaigns. i do it from afar. you do that there. bernie sanders, one week to go is holding the baton. >> right. this is -- look, this is for all the talk of clowe men tum, which is amy klobuchar gaining in the polls. this is the time when you want o to see the numbers go up. this is what every campaign hopes for here in iowa. that you hit a week or so, ten days before the caucuses and the numbers trend upward. it looks like senator sanders is consolidating support, certainly among the liberal wing of the party, in a way that could -- that puts him in a strong position a week out in the caucuses. >> we've spent a lot of time will sanders around warren split the progressive vote and allow the moderates to emerge. you could make the argument, between biden, buttigieg and

klobuchar, you have three candidates splitting the center. bernie sanders consolidating on the left. listen to the centrist in the last week of the iowa campaign saying, please, come to me. >> the next president is going to inherit a country that's divided. >> we need a president who on day one is ready to be commander in chief. >> you can call anyone in minnesota you know, over 5 million job references, they will say i am hard working. i have people's back. i'm honest. i'm blunt. but i'm someone you can trust. >> just imagine putting the chaos behind us. putting the divisiveness behind us. putting the tweets behind us. wouldn't that be nice? >> those are messages you could easily see against president trump in a general election. do they work in the last week of a primary, especially i'm fascinated by this. i don't know the answer. when democrats believe the president is go about to get off, if you will. i know impeachment doesn't play

on big on the trail in the minute to minute arguments by the voters. you're going to watch, in their view, get off. does that incite the passionate people who tend to be more sanders? >> this is one of the big questions i had. where are the mind of democratic voters? do they want someone fighting tooth or nail or giving ayu nighter in chief kind of message. i do think there's, first of all, iowa voters are not as ideological as the polls would suggest. that bernie sanders' rise has as much to do with the sense that he has made the-electability case for iowa voters as it is about his policies or approach to governing. what the moderates are trying to do, trying to appeal to the voter who is not comfortable with the sanders either temperamentally or policywise. they're appealing to those independent minded, actually

historically democrats or not. there are a lot of those voters in iowa up for grabs. they're hoping there are enough of those voters to rival bernie sanders who after two election cycles now for a lot of democratic voters, he's proven to them, he has some staying power. i think that's what's behind him rising in these polls and in the last few weeks. >> his rush to the -- [ inaudible ] both of them said a lot to come out in the final week. he's now ahead in this poll. expect a lot to come after me. this race has been gentle so far. i've seen pretty tough races. differences over health care and differents over social security. it's been gentle so far. bernie sanders says more could be coming. he is a democratic socialist. he's not a member of the democratic party. listen to this interview with tbs. i suspect one of the other democrats will bring this up. bernie sanders has a lot of plans. how do you pay for them? >> the price tag for that is estimated to be $60 trillion over ten years. correct? >> well, we have political

opponents -- >> you don't know how much the plan costs? >> you don't know. nobody knows. >> you're going to propose a plan to the american people and not tell them how much it costs. >> of course i will. you know what health care costs -- one minute. in the next ten years if we do nothing. it will be a lot more expensive than a medicare for all single payer system. >> lisa, when i started to cover politics, you had to answer those questions. budget deficits going through the roof. can sanders get away with that? that will be one of the harpoons coming his way this week. >> maybe. but i have to say, as you point out, this has been a relatively gentle race. the only place where we've sienna tax is on the debate stage. we don't see negative advertising or tough, sharp elbows at campaign events and there are no debates between now and the iowa caucuses. he may get a little breathing room. but it does seechm, once you'ren top, you see scrutiny.

that is coming senator sanders' way. you have a democratic base that doesn't want to see democrats ripping each other down. they want to see a united front against trump. that makes it complicated for candidates to go after one another. on top of it, senator sanders, historically, his opponents have a tough time lodging shots on him. think about hillary clinton. her team never figured out how to go after senator sanders because if you go after him, you risk alienating liberals in the party and younger voters who are some of his strongest supporters. >> he's been able to use that. the anti-establishment candidate. we're going to continue the conversation in a minute. before we go to break, the voters are confused, so are the editorial pages. the sioux city journal endorses biden. in new hampshire, they endorse amy klobuchar. there's a split among editorial boards as well. how the 2020 candidates campaigned in iowa while being stuck in d.c. for the

impeachment trial. andrew yang edition. >> you know who has figured out that i am the worst nightmare for donald trump in the general? donald trump. he has tweeted about every candidate in the field except for me. one, he knows his followers kind of like me. two, i'm better at the internet than he is.

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turning now to some sunday trail mix. the pete buttigieg campaign is issuing a warning about senator bernie sanders in a fund-raising email, he cautioned quote bernie sanders is raising tons of money and he could be the nominee of our party. buttigieg insists that warning

about sanders does not mine he would not be able to win the support of the sanders supporters if he was the nominee down the road. >> if you secure the party's nomination what will be your strategy to -- >> well, the strategy i think will be to put simply remind folks what bust looks like and we're living in bus right through. at the end of the day, anyone in the tent is light years away from what we have in the white house and i won't take anyone for granted or write anyone off. >> the impeachment took many contenders off the road, and amy klobuchar told the iowa caucusgoers this. >> i'm known for getting things done. that's the number one thing you need to know. the second thing as you look at the candidates i am someone that has always won.

all the way back to fourth grade. i won every race, every place, every time. >> before heading to iowa himself after the trial broke yesterday, senator bernie sanders sent surrogates. michael moore and alexandria ocasio-cortez. their message take a risk. >> we only win when we take a risk. >> it is a risk. i'm not here to tell you it is risky, but while here to say when we hedge our bets we get more of the same. and the same has not been helping any of us. >> it is unusual to have take a risk. you don't see that in on many bumper stickers. >> it is necessary for, you know, for some people in this election because i think that's the biggest anxiety that voters have right now. is how can we be sure that any of these people are actually going to be able to beat trump? bernie sanders right now is

winning that argument based on what we're seeing in the polls. but a lot of people have anxiety about it. because he is a democratic socialist and they're worried about it around i think for sanders that's probably as good of an argument as you can get because i think that voters are willing to take a risk if they feel like it's going to be worth it. because they saw what happened with donald trump in the last election. he was not someone that anyone thought was electable and he won it. >> another busy day for the senators before they have to get back to washington late tonight for the impeachment trial resuming tomorrow. a second hour of "inside politics" is up ahead. the latest on the 2020 race. a brand-new poll in new hampshire. [ tires screech ] the big idaho potato truck is touring america telling folks about idaho potatoes. and i want it back. what is it with you and that truck?

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the president on trial. >> this is trump first. not america first and the result has and will continue to be grave harm to our nation. >> they have the burden of proof and they have not come close to meeting it. plus the debate over new witnesses. >> you can't have somebody who's a national security, if you think about it, he knows some of my thoughts. >> and one week before the first 2020