prepared to welcome him that day. he can send a printed copy, which was for a long time the tradition, the president would send a copy of his state of the union address, or he could ask us to postpone it if in fact he wants to have it after all of this is resolved. but the timing of the investigation of the trial of the president for obstructing congress and abuse of power should not be hastened because of a speech he wants to make to the congress of the united states. thank you all very much. >> for the third time in history, a president son trial in the u.s. senate. the impeachment trial of president trump has begun. the senate trial began with house intelligence chair adam

schiff joining the rest of the house impeachment managers to read the two articles detailing president trump's alleged abuse of power and obstruction of justice. a short time ago, chief justice john roberts was sworn in for the trial along with senators. you can watch live over on c-span2. >> the impeachment of president trump. watch unfiltered coverage of the senate trial on c-span2, live as it happens, and same-day reairs. follow the process on demand at c-span.org/impeachment and listen on the go using the free -span radio app. >> as the trial proceeds in the senate, earlier house minority leader kevin mccarthy spoke to reporters and was asked about impeachment.

mr. mccarthy: where is chad? want to congratulate him. tell him we congratulate him on the promotion. he gets promoted and stops coming, what's up with that? where's the love? i don't see it. today we had a conference and republicans in the house and across the country received very good news from our conference chair this morning, liz cheney, anounsing she'll remain on our leadership team and remain in the house. she's a fighter, she's a powerful voice for conservatives and is the type of person we need to help us lead the charge to win back the majority. i speak on behalf of our members when i say thank you for your commitment to the republican party and to the vision that

will help propel americans across the country toward a better future. what you need to read into it is there's a real chance we're going to win the majority. the idea that our conference chair had the opportunity to go to the senate and chose to stay here, to help us win the majority. i thank her for that. now let me shift to what we saw yesterday in this chamber. taxpayer-funded campaign stump for the democrats. they took america's hard-earned dollars and funneled them into years of worthless, baseless investigation meant to discredit this president. and after three years with zero facts to back up their accusations, democrats rammed impeachment down the throats of the american people. if this was real, if this was really as serious as they claimed this would be, yesterday was no cause for celebration. but in that case, democrats did what you would expect in a campaign event. pose for pictures, smiled, handed out gifts to one another, speaker pelosi even fist pumped

on the house floor during what should have been a serious debate. i'm sure most of you got a pen as well. the behavior is disgusting and appalling. everyone person in this country should be enraged at the fraud, the waste, and abuse they have seen from democrats in this majority. millions of dollars spent, countless hours lost, in their unrelenting pay hey tread toward this president. it is not enough that speaker pelosi and her colleagues have been determined to embarrass the president in our own country through best a worse trend. whenever the president is helping to strengthen our country on the international stage, democrats are trying to bring him down on capitol hill. let me point that out to you. september 24. the president was at the united nations general assembly. speaker pelosi had her press conference to announce impeachment. december 4, the president was at the nato leaders meeting. democrats hold a hearing with law professors. and yesterday at the -- as the president was on pennsylvania

avenue signing phase one of a trade deal with china, speaker pelosi after needless waiting for a month decides it is a day she'll send articles of impeachment to the senate. her sabotage has failed. her juvenile behavior only succeeded in showing the american people the sharp contrast between this failed majority and what real leadership looks like. it was pro-- there was progress on the china trade deal yesterday and today the sthath is expected to pass the united states-mexico-canada agreement. promises made, promises kept. most people did not think this president could accomplish this. he kid something others could not. he promised the american public he would do it and he carried it out. he carried it ourt at the same time that this majority spent their entire time trying to investigate him. he never let that get him down. i'll guarantee you this. when we are back in the majority, we will take our responsibilities seriously and we will stay committed to helping you, the american

people. open for questions. >> republicans have -- reporter: the president maintains that the president and administration did nothing wrong, the g.a.o. report says they did break laws. do you maintain it was a sham investigation? that they did nothing wrong? mr. mccarthy: o.m.b.'s response was they disagreed with the g.a.o.'s opinion. o.m.b. makes sure taxpayer dollars are properly spent. these are taxpayer dollars going to another country where people believe there's corruption with a new administration. i think they was rightful thing to do. reporter: yesterday, lev parnas said president trump was fully aware of the efforts on his behalf for information. i'm wondering if this changes your view in any way or if you have any reaction to the fact

that he has said not only was mr. trump aware but the attorney general was read in, mike pence was involved, everybody was involved? mr. mccarthy: not at all. this man lacks all credibility. this is the pattern with cohen work avenatti, the media tries to build something into it. it show he is went on, the nature of what he spoke. this is the same man who said devin nunes was in vienna when he was not. he doesn't have any credibility. reporter: are they putting pressure to have more witnesses come forward to be part of the senate trial to determine hether or not -- mr. mccarthy: you have the transcript of the phone call, that's all you need. you have the phone call. that's what they based their impeachment on. even though their managers have decided on impeachment, you have hakeem who voted for it, two

years almost to this day, a year before the phone call even took place. you have adam schiff who met with the whistleblower but lied. said he had proof beyond circumstantial, we found out that was not true. you don't need anything more. they made their case for impeachment, the senate will judge it. that's what they'll do. reporter: do you think that the state of the union should be layed until the trial is concluded? mr. mccarthy: the trial could be completed by then. how weak the case is itself. but i'd leave that up to the president. i think it could be appropriate to im to be able to speak the american public and they can watch and listen. every time he's given a state of the union, walking away, the country feels stronger, has a better understanding of with where they're going, has more hope and opportunity. unfortunately the way he speaker has held her papers when it was

such an urgency, when she got nothing in the process of holding it but really harming any senator that's running for president, they'll be sitting in their chair for six day no phones, can't campaign, i'm not sure nancy pelosi was waiting on those pens to arrive, i'm not sure why she held the papers. she achieved nothing by it. any other questions? reporter: a week ago today you told -- this exact day. at a conference you told me bout lev parnas, i guess i met him one time. we found out that's not true. my question, why do you need to ess how many times you met parnas, along with igor freedman and others who -- didn't your

team look into this? will there be an audit released to the public ans pre? mr. mccarthy: i don't know how much money he gave me. it came out in the press. if you look, i have been pretty successful, i have raised more money than -- as the leader of the republican party as the speaks of the republican party before me. people come to events and take photos with me. this seems to be the case. i saw a photo he had on there that he actually walked up to me at the inaugural, put his hand around me and snapped a picture. like hundreds of thousands of other people did as well that seems to be of interest to you. when i found out this individual had given money to take -- i don't know -- to protect the house, it was given away to charity. i don't know what more you need by that. you come back every week with the same question. reporter: every week you avoid answering it completely. mr. mccarthy: let's be honest

and fair. you just said a week you asked me the question, i answered. now i answered the same question again. we can do this each and every week but the facts don't change. last week when you asked me the question, the money he provided was sent to -- do i get to answer as well? you did. reporter: can i ask a question? mr. mccarthy: let me answer. last week the question was the same. reporter: my question is, given that these donors who donated $100,000 to protect the house, more than $100,000 to protect the house, will your team audit what happened and given the different appses and make that audit available for the american people? mr. mccarthy: that we gave the money away? reporter: what happened, how

many times you met him, you said i guess i met him one time. can you look into it and just release the findings of whatever you look into, whatever you find? mr. mccarthy: let me release everything i know and everything i find. reporter: about mr. parnas a central figure in the impeachment. mr. mccarthy: done with your question? ok. this is the same question you've had every week you've asked me. i do not know the man. he came to the fund raiser, provided me money. i lirn head provided money from to the a fund. on learning that information we gave that to charity. if you come back next week you'll get the same answer. reporter: thank you, congressman. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

>> for the third time in history, a president is on trial in the u.s. senate. the impeachment trial of president trump has begun. a short time ago, supreme court chief justice john robs was administered the oath to preside over the impeachment by charles grassley, the senate president pro tem, and each senator has signed the oath book. you can continue watching the proceedings which will continue live on c-span2 at 1:00 eastern ext tuesday, january 21. >> the impeachment of president trump. watch unfiltered coverage of the senate trial on c span 2 live as it happens an same day reairs. follow the process on demand at c-span.org/impeachment. and listen on the go using the free c-span radio app. >> over the next two weeks, on