chief for lee enterprises. he will preview the ♪ host: good morning and welcome to washington journal. the end is in sight for the impeachment trial with lawmakers playing a wednesday vote on whether president donald trump should be removed from office. republicans blocked democrats from calling any witnesses before the senate which signals trump's expected acquittal in the boat. house that happens, managers and the president's lawyers conclude their cases. what do you think about the senate not having witnesses and moving to a final vote on president trump's impeachment?

we want to know what you think. republicans, your numbers going (202) 748-8001). democrats (202) 748-8002. keep in mind you can always text us at (202) 748-8003. and we are always listening on social media on twitter and on facebook. let's set the schedule. on senate trial will resume monday with four hours of arguments from the house managers and the president's attorney. the senators will have two days to debate the impeachment articles before coming up for a final vote on wednesday. let's look quickly at what the wall street journal had to say about what happened on friday.

republicans rejected democrats demands to call new witnesses and documents in the impeachment trial, clearing the way for acquittal on abuse of power and obstruction of congress charges next week. the vote on friday represented a major victory for republican which wants to complete the trial as quickly as possible and avoid testimony. democrats have been calling for the senate to subpoena john bolton and other officials. seeking testimony about mr. trump's efforts to pressure ukraine to launch investigations that could benefit him politically. two republicans, mitt romney and susan collins, joined every democrat vote for the senate to call new witnesses. some of therols seeds. chuck schumer came out after vote, here51 to 49

is what he had to say. to not allow a witness or document, no witness or document in an impeachment trial is a grand tragedy. one of the worst tragedies that the senate has ever overcome. america will remember this day, unfortunately, where the senate did not live up to its responsibility, where the senate turned away from truth, and went along with 8chan trial. -- schama trial. if the president is acquitted with no witnesses, no documents, the acquittal will have no value. americans will know that this trial was not a real trial. it had no witnesses, no documents. it is a tragedy on a very large scale. again, the final vote will be coming up on wednesday. keep in mind, you can watch all

of this from monday through wednesday right here on c-span. the president's personal attorney argued that there were flaws in the house democrats case and argued that there are political realities that have to be acknowledged. here is what he had to say. >> we talk a lot about the court system and the fact that they were seeking witnesses. when it got close to actually having a court proceeding, decided they did not want to have that witness go through that. they actually withdrew the subpoena to move the case out. how many constitutional challenges will we have in this body because they placed a burden on you that they will not take themselves in putting their case forward? if we look at our constitutional framework and our constitutional structure, that is not the way it is supposed to work.

our opposition to this motion is straightforward, as i have said. we came here ready to try the case on the record that they have presented, the record that the managers told us was overwhelming and complete. mr. schiff went through every sentence of the articles of impeachment just a few days ago. prove,blem is would it is not an impeachable offense. witnesses approved a lot of things, if there is not a violation of the law, if it constitutionalhe required process, do these allegations rise to the level for sufficient of removal of office for a duly elected

president of the united states? so, when we are in an election year. host: we want to know what you think about what has been going on in the senate during the impeachment trial. our phone lines are open. let's go to our first caller which is going to be helen calling from greens borough, north carolina on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning to you. as i watched this trial, portions of it, i did not watch it all because i do not watch adam schiff and all of his lies. what amazes me is they were they wereis back when trying clinton, all these democrats, what they were doing to him was awful. justturned right around, like when a prosecutor, he may have a case, but he don't have

,nough to get a guilty verdict so he don't bring charges at that time. he keeps investigating. schiff,not what adam nancy pelosi, and all them crooks up there in washington dc . i am ashamed of my government officials at the things they do. i would love to see them investigate adam schiff. pull his emails. see who he has talked to. it is awful, sir. it is awful. and i hope and pray that the american people will wake up and see who these people are. thank you and you have a good day. host: let's go to bernie who is calling from deerfield beach, florida on the democratic line. good morning. caller: what bothers me the most

is that the house did not have to make anything public. the house is acting as the prosecution going to a grand jury. if there is probable cause for a trial, that is what a grand jury vote for. that is what the house voted for. now we come to the trial. say we don'teed to need witnesses because they did not plan to have a trial. that is where the evidence is presented to the jury. not at the grand jury hearing, but at a trial. the senate is supposed to conduct a trial. where is the trial? where are the witnesses? where are the documents? none. zero. kis, because they are afraid of the truth coming out to the public. they are notham.

holding a trial. they are holding a that is the y ofhe prosecution --litac the prosecution. there is no need for that. they did the right thing. the house and its majority voted to send it to trial. where is the trial? host: let's go to michael who was calling from pennsylvania on the republican line. michael, good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call and thanks for c-span and i completely agree with helen, your first caller. i do think that this was a sham and the child never should have happened. -- trial never should have happened. it was a three hour campaign commercial against donald trump. paid for courtesy of the american taxpayer. they could not get him out of office with a vote so they

decided to impeach him. host: let me ask you this question. s the factnk it taint that republicans would not allow any witnesses in front of the senate? caller: i do not believe so. i believe the democrats did not have a case. charge. not even have a they kept switching their evidence before the charge. it was their job if they were to follow procedure to do things the way things have been done in previous trials. the house was supposed to call, they were not supposed to call all these people in secret. they were supposed to have witnesses back then. that was their time to subpoena things. they were in such a hurry to do this campaign commercial, not to impeach a president because they had nothing to impeach him on. it started from the very getting

to impeach him. -- the very beginning to impeach him. managers kept going back to bribery and corruption which were unproven charges. the articles did not even talk about bribery and corruption. host: are you concerned in any leaks coming out with john bolton's new book that seems to be saying the same thing that the democrats are charging question mark --? caller: these are all leaks. all they want to do is bleak. they will tell the american people whatever they think the democratic party wants them to hear. there is no substance to these leaks. in anolton had admitted

radio-free europe, he did not mention any charges or anything that he did wrong in the cause to the ukranian president. he had no problem with it. all of a sudden, now that he has a grudge against president trump everybody wants to hear him. host: let's go to walter was calling from butler, indiana on the republican line. good morning. caller: thank you very much for taking my call. i am fascinated. three years this man came down the elevator, we have to impeach. klan a nazi, he is a member. he is an agent for russia. we have undoubted pre--- proof. the report comes out it is a big dud. a year or two ago, we should never have an

impeachment unless it is bipartisan with democrat and republicans. what happens? just democrats go. it is not the senate's job to pull witnesses. that is what the house is supposed to do. they pulled 17 or 18 witnesses. rushwere in such a wash -- that they pushed it through. if you do not have your stuff together, if the student did not do his job and finish his homework, it is not the teacher's job to do. they come before the senate, and bolton, it will be somebody else. none of the witnesses that the democratic -- democrats called say, i heard donald trump quote, if you do not investigate the bidens, i am holding up the aid on you.

when it is all said and done, now they are saying we are not going to accept this outcome. they cannot still get over -- except for the election. the democrats are going to get blown out of the house and we can get back to the business of the people. when you say, should they call witnesses, it is not the senate's job to do. it was the job of the democrats and they could not wait to call witnesses. there will always be a witness that says, -- look at the whistleblower. ideaschiff says, i have no who he is. god bless donald trump. henry who iso to calling from new york on the independent line. the morning. caller: good morning. first i would like to start with a compliment. you are really in the best tradition of c-span and brian lamb. you engage the callers and you questioned him and you do it in

a fair and impartial way and compliments to you. you are a great journalist. the only thing i can say because everyone else has made my point for me is that it is a sad moment for our country. we have a president that is very polarizing and it really is dividing the country. it is sad to see. two things, the first thing i will start with is the seed at i will useof this the word elicit moneymaking going on. getting 50,000 per month. $50,000 per month. the rest of our politicians went to washington poor.

money,y are dripping in buying big houses, and that is wonderful for them and their families. they are cashing in on public service. it is a free country, i guess they can do that. the last point i will make is why didn't someone, including the senate, alexander is a great republican. i am not a republican i think he is in the best tradition -- he said his mentor which i believe said theybaker, he proved their case. this is not impeachable. impeachment is a very high bar. censureenate would just the guy. the senate has the option to do censuring. that is my main point. what he did, i disagree with. i think he is the type of person that if he is not disciplined in some way, he is kind of an

undisciplined person. censure would help to discipline him. i think he might take it seriously and it would be a fair process and we could -- i think a lot of the country could get behind censure. host: i will ask you the same question i asked earlier. are you concerned about the drip that we are hearing from john bolton in his unpublished manuscript? there seems to be a new story about what john bolton said he heard from the president every other day. caller: you are a great journalist. that takes us back to my point about cashing in. mr. bolton wants to cash in. he is going to get a big payday, i guess. i smile every time i hear it, we need to hear from john bolton. the democrats hated don bolton. john bolton was a right-wing nut that was going to get us into an -- a war with iran. and john bolton is a bad guy.

now, suddenly, every word that falls from john bolton's lips is like gold. censure the guy and let's try to be together as a country because we are caring ourselves --tearing ourselves apart over this. the american people, we are the ultimate in teacher's --impeachers. host: let's go to the new york times and see their latest story about what they have to say. more than two months before the as ukraine to investigate opponents, president trump directed john bolton, is national security advisor, to help with his campaign to strike damaging permission on democrats from ukrainian officials according to an unpublished manuscript by john bolton. mr. trump gave the instruction, mr. bolton wrote, during an conversation in make that mulvaney, rudy

and pat cipollone. mr. trump told mr. bolton to call zelensky who had recently won the election as president of ukraine to be sure that he would meet with mr. giuliani to discuss the investigations that the president sought. mr. bolton never made the call, he wrote. the undisclosed directive that bolton describes to be the earliest instance of mr. trump seeking power to advance his pressure campaign against ukraine as he did later on the july call with mr. linsky which triggered a whistleblower claim. zelensky which triggered a whistleblower complaint. house impeachment manager, adam

schiff, elaborated on the details of the new york times article in front of the senate. here is what he said. >> according to the new york times, more than two months before he asked ukraine to investigate his political opponents, president trump directed john bolton, is national security advisor, to help with this campaign to extract damaging information on democrats and ukrainian officials according to an unpublished manuscript by mr. bolton. mr. trump gave the instruction, mr. bolton wrote, during an oval office conversation in early may mulvaney,ded mick rudy giuliani, and the white house counsel, pat cipriani. pallone -- you will see in a few moments and you will confirm that the

house manager was concealing facts from this body. he said all the facts should come out. there is a new fact which cipollone was in the loop. just as we predicted, the facts will come out. they will continue to come out. today ision before you whether they will come out in time for you to make a complete and informed judgment as to the guilt or innocence of the president. the times article goes on to say that mr. trump told mr. bolton thatll zelensky to ensure he would meet with mr. giuliani who was planning a trip to ukraine to discuss investigations that the president sought in mr. bolton's

account. mr. bolton never made the call, he wrote. never made the call. understood that this was wrong. he understood that this was not policy. he understood that this was a andstic political errand refused to make the call. the manuscript portrays the senior white house advisers as early witnesses in the effort that they have sought to distance the president from, including the white house counsel. host: once again, we want to know what you think about the senate impeachment trial. remember our phone lines are open and we are waiting to hear from you. go to bill who was calling from maryland on the republican line. bill, good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. you probably have a larger vocabulary than mine.

i wonder who chuck schumer was talking to. the elites i suppose would know what that word means. i have never heard the word perfidy before. this has been such a waste of my tax money. from day one, from prior to this president being elected or running for office. he is doing exactly what we voted him in for which is to stir things up in washington. i am glad he is there and i am glad he is doing it. i hear so much of the democrats talking about the american people and what we want and what we think. i think all you have to do, i don't get my news from fox or cnn or any of the networks at all. c-spanmy news is from hearing in person what these people are saying, our

representatives in washington. i have been listening to you guys for probably, i forget how many years you have been in business. . am 50 --58 the only thing i wish the republicans would do differently is i don't think they speak very well to the african-american, hispanic community, the minority communities. i don't think they do a good job of that. the republicans i know are good people, generally. they are not prejudiced. there are a handful that are probably are much just like there are a handful of democrats. i am glad he is there. i hope he gets elected again. from listening to you this morning and from what was broadcasted last night, the american people think this has been a hoax and a waste of our time and tax money. god bless you and have a good. -- god bless you and have a good day and you are good -- doing a

good job. host: i want to remind you that the state of the union is coming up on tuesday and you can watch as president trump delivers his third state of the union address live from the house chamber followed by the response. our coverage begins at 8:00 -- 8:00 p.m. eastern. you can also listen on the free c-span radio app. make sure you tune in on tuesday for the state of the union. listen to the deputy counsel to the president. he was offering arguments against the house manager's demand for more witnesses and he addressed some of those articles we have been talking about. here is what he had to say. >> the first is this idea that if you come to trial, you always have to go to witnesses, have new witnesses come in. but that is not true. in every legal system and in our legal system, there is a way to

decide right up front in some quick way whether there is really an issue, whether you need to go to all the trouble of calling new witnesses and having more evidence and something like that. there is not, here. there is no need for that. these articles of impeachment on their face are defective. we had explained that and let me start with the second article on the obstruction charge. we have explained that that charge is really trying to say that it is an impeachable offense for the president to defend the separation of powers. that cannot be right. it is also the case that no witnesses are going to say anything that makes any difference in the second article of impeachment. that all has to do with the validity of the grounds the president started, the fact that he started long-standing constitutional prerogatives in specific ways to resist specific deficiencies and see subpoenas that were issued -- and the

subpoenas that were issued. on the first article of too isment, that, defective on its face. we heard it again today here. thisay they have subjective theory of impeachment that we will show abuse of power by focusing on the president's motives. show thee way they can president did something wrong is that he defied the foreign policy of the united states. we talked about that before, this theory that he defied the agencies within the executive branch. he was not following the policy of the is a can of branch. that is not a constitutionally coherent statement. the theory of abuse of power that they framed in the first article of impeachment would do great damage to the separation of powers under our constitution.

malleable,come so they can pour into it anything they want to find illicit motives for some perfectly permissible action. it becomes so malleable, it is no different than maladministration, the exact ground that the framers rejected during the constitutional convention. host: before we get back to our callers, let's look at our social media followers and our viewers who are texting us to see what they have to say about the senate impeachment trial. fromis one from mike orlando, florida. republican senator's were terrified of witnesses. there were no profiles encouraged yesterday. turnountry has now made a toward a dictatorship. so sad. says, howtweet that much justice did the democrats give the presidents -- president in the intel hearing?

none. it was a sham cover-up. also, illegal subpoenas. says,s another tweet that it was not trump's fault the bidens were involved in a corrupt company. one more tweet that says, imagine when the defense attorney has called no witnesses i guessl winds --wins. the prosecution had no kit -- case. one last text that says, if trump had committed an impeachable offense, the senate and most americans would not have wanted an acquittal. keep in mind as we begin the top of the hour, if you want to call in, republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats (202) 748-8000.

, (202) 748-8002. we are talking about the senate and you trial. list -- let's talk to barbara. good morning. caller: thank you for this program. iwant to start off by saying love the united states. i love my country. i have always been very proud of my country. all of this going on right now and the way the senate is acting -- i am sorry,g i am kind of nervous being on here. witnesses.g in i am embarrassed of this. i am embarrassed of my country. i have never been so ashamed of what is going on in my life. i just wish things would be

better and according to the way they should be. everything that we believe in is not here anymore. this is a big sham. host: when the senate gets around to going on wednesday and if the senate acquits president trump as it seems like they are moving toward, will you accept and be satisfied that this is over? or do you think the democrats should try again if the john bolton book brings out new charges that they can come up on? caller: i don't think we should have to wait on his book. we just need him. we need to hear from him. we need to hear from witnesses. we don't have to wait on books. it should all have been done now. if he makes money on the book, good for him. i think that is ok. now, is not waiting for things like that. i am embarrassed.

no, i would not be satisfied at all because it is not right. we are not doing the things that we need to do and we are not following the constitution and we are not following our laws. i am embarrassed for that. i think we have a dictatorship going on here. i don't like it. i don't like where rich people can buy off and do whatever they they wantet whoever to be on their side. it is all about the money. i think if something were to happen that he would be kicked out of office or have a different outcome with the president. it's all about the money. host: let's go to john who was calling from florida on the

democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. unfortunately, after this coming wednesday, we will no longer have a constitution and the rule of law, we will have a dictator. god help us. thank you for taking my call. host: let's go to conrad calling from california on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. i am an independent. it is really difficult for us to unbiased andof untarnished opinions because the media is either one way or the other.

the opinions that i have heard all night long and all day long, they go to extremes based on a lot of what you hear or what you read. soundbitesther media or articles. what has happened to our country is now it is a very partisan kind of situation where our supporters and our citizens are torn apart and they are very right. beginning ofe very this trial, of this impeachment -- it started long before the official impeachment started. it was already being tried in the media. whicht went to congress was totally biased, now they are

going to the senate and they expected that this thing was going to short out. it was all highly partisan. i don't understand what people expect from the government. think whend, do you the final vote is taken on wednesday that anything has been resolved at all or do you think that this is the beginning of election year? caller: absolutely nothing will be resolved. we will just go back to the same political partisan bickering that has been for the last several years now. it is getting worse. that is why you are getting more taking sides on how we should make decisions. host: would it have made a difference to you if there have been witnesses in the senate trial? caller: absolutely not.

what would have happened is that the democrats would bring bolton and their witnesses and the republicans would have to have their day in court, so to speak. they would bring on all of the witnesses that they were not allowed to bring on in the hearings. what happens? months.l go on for system -- political how did we get here? host: let's go to paul calling from florida on the republican line. good morning. people who say they love their country, i have a question for those people.

if we are going to impeach a president of the united states, should we all agree and shouldn't we all be united to do that? that is a very basic question. look at the votes. we could not be further apart. this cannot go forward when this kind of divide is going on in our country. coup.as an attempted there is no doubt about it. they really thought they had him this time. they walled off president trump from his best defense with the transcript of the call. and they walled him off from call -- talking to the whistleblower who really was not a whistleblower. what was said in the telephone with reference to the bidens was already in the public domain. there was nothing said on that

phone call that was not already reported. president trump did nothing wrong on that phone call. comparetleblower, let's vindman. heblower to was on the call. did he get up and try to be a whistleblower after the call? yet, this whistleblower, everybody knows his name, it is ridiculous. he is an operative for the democratic party. he patches together something schiffsees schiff and says we will wall him off from being examined and call him a whistleblower. there is no law that says the whistleblower cannot be unmasked. that is another thing going around. the democrats want to convict president trump for what was said.

what really matters is what was done. nothing was done. if you talk about robbing a bank and tell all of your friends but you never robbed a bank, should you be arrested for robbing a bank to mark that is what is going on -- should you be arrested for robbing a bank? host: if they had called any witnesses from the senate, what everyone assume before this started that because of the vote, president trump was not going to be removed from office. would it have made a difference if there had been witnesses? i think we lost him. from go to a caller washington. good morning. are you there? caller: can you hear me? host: now we can hear you.

go ahead. 75 or 79% of the people who wanted to see some integrity . we need some integrity in the white house. they certainly have not shown any that they cannot bring any witnesses. nothing is shown. they want to block everything. faith. have any also, a member of my family about voterething registration -- christian

registration. numbers dealing with they can put on your voter registration. they are saying over 200,000 people, it was voter fraud. get all ofying to ,heir people to come on, donate and they give you a number so that your name will not be taking off of the records -- taken off of the records because they plan on going to the records of every state. i urge everybody, if they move or anything, to be sure and make notnown so that you are scrubbed also the voter registrations. host: i will ask you the question i was asking the previous caller. there have been enough votes to acquit president trump this whole time. the assumption was always that the house was going to impeach

but that the senate was going to acquit. does it matter that there were no witnesses in the senate, knowing that the senate republicans have pretty much said that he was not going to be removed from office. does it matter that there were no witnesses? caller: yes. we are the government. we pay their rages -- wages. we deserve to hear the truth. the american people deserve that. let's get one more caller in. let's go to dennis calling from north carolina on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. of some of those deep south trials back in the 60's when they were killing people and they just get off. it also reminds me of that trial

in california in the 90's with the four cops and rodney king. sort of like, in-your-face, we can do this in your face and you cannot do nothing. it is sad. it is very sad. with this country, we look for justice. if you do not have witnesses at a trial, what type of trial is that? let me ask you the same question i asked the previous caller. -- everyone pretty much knew what the votes were going to be in the senate. everyone pretty much knows what the votes will be on wednesday. unless something shocking happens, the senate would likely -- was likely never going to remove come from office. did it matter that there were no witnesses with everyone pretty much knowing how, everyone pretty much knew how it was

going to end. did it matter that there were no witnesses? caller: i will put it to you this way. i see what you are asking. if you are on trial and you have witnesses, would you want your witnesses present at the trial or would you want someone in that trial, either the prosecutor or the defender, lawyer, whichever way it goes with your situation to block your witnesses and say no, you don't need witnesses and go ahead and adjudicate the case? that is not justice. back in the day, we had this thing called just us. and that is what that was. it does that make any sense to me. if the man did not do anything wrong, fine. let's get some information on the ground from some of the

reporters who have been covering this. we are going to talk to a senior staff writer for the hill. good morning. us what actually is going to happen over the next few days and how we got to this point given the big vote that happened yesterday. eporter: we have more clarity this morning after a long night in the senate. the senate voted along strict party lines. late last night on a resolution that lays out the timeline for the next several days. essentially, it sets up a vote for trump to be as you mentioned likely acquitted on wednesday afternoon. the senate happens, is going to come back into session on monday morning at 11:00. they will have a chance to wrap

up closing arguments, to hear from both sides of the defense and the prosecution. they will have a few more argrr -- hours to argue their cases, make their closing arguments and then handed back over to the toators who have been forced remain quiet through this entire process and set their silently. silently. they will finally get a chance to speak and provide some insight. especially some of these andrates like susan collins mitt romney. ,ver the course of those days monday, tuesday, and wednesday, senators will have a chance to explain how they plan to vote and deliberate and debate some of these arguments they have heard during the course of this long trial. host: we know that nothing happens in the senate without

mitch mcconnell and chuck schumer. were they the ones who came up with this schedule? how much influence did the white house have on this upcoming schedule knowing that the state of the union is going to be on tuesday? reporter: from what we were hearing last night, this really was an internal debate happening among republicans. mitch mcconnell was huddling with some of these moderates that i mentioned, susan collins and mitt romney. beenresident's allies have arguing for a quick vote to acquit. they wanted to work through the night and get this wrapped up early sometime this morning. they were hoping that the trial would be over by this morning and that the president would be able to take a victory lap of sorts when he gives his super bowl interview on sunday and then appears on capitol hill for

his state of the union address on tuesday. that looks like that is not going to happen because these moderate republicans insisted that they have a chance to follow what they call the bill clinton trial model which did give senators a chance to explain their votes on the senate floor. it looks like mcconnell realized that would be in the best interest of the party given that it's people like susan collins who put mitch mcconnell in the majority in the first place. he realizes that it is a narrow majority that susan collins is somebody who is up for reelection. she is facing a tough reelection. she needs to do a good job in explaining this vote the her constituents back at home in reelection.r to win those are some of the discussions and behind the scenes deliberations that were happening late last night that led us to this place. host: you make this, the white

house wanted it done and over with. some of the moderate public and want to talk about their vote before they actually make their vote. in my understanding that correctly? reporter: that's correct. wantedsident obviously to take this victory lap heading into these two big events. his super bowl interview which will have millions of people who will be tuning in. also, the state of the union address on tuesday. it will be a very interesting time on capitol hill on tuesday because he will be addressing both the house and the senate along with the supreme court justices while continuing to face this impeachment trial. host: what is the mood on capitol hill right now especially after they closed --

after the vote yesterday. our democrats and republicans still in the same places? did that vote yesterday change anything? reporter: i'm not sure it changed anything. there was a little bit of suspense in terms of the vote on whether to call witnesses. i think mcconnell knew where his members were. he gave people like susan collins and mitt romney a little bit of space. is one surprised i will say lisa murkowski who ultimately decided not to break ranks and decided to stay with her party. she pointed to some comments in directly that elizabeth warren had made a question directed to the chief justice questioning and having chief justice roberts read a question about whether he and the supreme court would lose

credibility presiding over a trial with no witnesses or documents. lisa murkowski thought that was an inappropriate question to be asking the chief justice and to have the chief justice breed himself. she said that was part of her --read himself. she said that was part of her thought process when she decided to vote and remain with her party. she said that to put the senate and the chief justice in a tiebreaker situation meaning she would have been the 50th vote. she did not simply want to put the chief justice in that very political position of having to be the arbiter of whether or not witnesses and new documents should come before the senate in this trial. host: it is going to be a crazy week next week with the iowa caucus monday, the state of the union on tuesday, and the final vote on wednesday. what are you watching for this

week? where should we have our eyes when next week begins? goodter: you raise another point. that is that between the super bowl, the iowa caucuses on monday, and the state of the then on tuesday and then likely vote to acquit the president of the impeachment charges, this will be a week to remember. what this resolution does in the nting this decision until next week, it gives people like bernie sanders and elizabeth warren, amy klobuchar a chance to get back on the campaign trail in the final days before the iowa caucuses. they have been sitting in this chamber silently for days and momentum asing other candidates have been on

the campaign trail like joe biden, like pete buttigieg. they have already returned back to iowa. they are going to be out on the campaign trail this morning. firing up their crowds and getting their people to these iowa caucuses and off to new hampshire and places like nevada even before they will return to washington and vote on the impeachment trial itself. host: anything special that we should be looking for next week or is this going to be one of those crazy weeks? .eporter: i think i laid it out the state of the union address, those weeks are normally crazy and busy just by itself. having all of these other events ,oinciding all at the same time

this really is the super bowl of politics when you think about it. host: we would like to thank the senior reporter for the hill newspaper for being with us this morning. thank you so much. reporter: thanks for having me. host: speaking of the iowa caucuses, there are several events that i want to tell you about that are happening on c-span today. i will start with pete buttigieg. todayl hold his rally live at 11:00 eastern on c-span. warren willbeth hold her rally at a high school in iowa city. that will be live today at 4:30. his:30, joe biden will hold waterloo life at 6:30 eastern on c-span. you can see all of that at c-span, c-span.org, and on the free c-span after we have to

point -- c-span cap. c-span will bring you the results from the caucuses. life coverage will begin at 9:30 p.m. eastern on c-span, c-span.org, and on the live c-span radio app. from alabamaaller on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you this morning? host: just fine. go ahead. caller: i would like to make a really quick comment. there was a lady that called in the first week and she was calling our president all kinds of different names. didended up by saying she not like the words that came out

of his mouth because of her grandchildren. let me express something. in the floorildren in front of the tv and the things that they watch on television have worse things come through the screen then donald trump says over the air. i wanted to get that off my chest. i had a question that i needed answered. i hope someone answers it for me because it is bothering me. an can hunter biden get on airplane with his dad when joe biden was vice president, how was hunter allowed to get on an airplane with him and fly to ukraine? -- and my question

next question, i am so glad that this is finally fitting to be over. but i don't think it is. i think they will keep digging and digging and if it is not one, it is going to be the other. who are they going to attack next? and another thing, i can say anything, put it on paper, and put it in a book, that still don't make it so. this bolton thing has attacked everybody that comes around. what goes around comes around. it is going to be the democrats past dougto get there into. --dug into. we all, everyone that is breathing on this earth, has a past. i am so glad that people are not my judge. host: let's go to david calling from los angeles on the independent line. good morning.

caller: good morning. been an exercise listening to your call in people this morning. one thing that occurred to me is the question on the statement that trump made earlier about being able to shoot someone and get away with it. what i gathered out of that which would deserve analysis because i think we are living in the manifestation of that possiblend why is that ? i look at trump-like, he is this -- i look at this trump character. bill was elected with all of those people who were encouraged to stick their heads out the window, and say i am mad as hell

and not going to take it anymore. these people are in power now. all of this nonsense that went on in the senate is a manifestation that bill has more power than all of those so-called republican senators. bill crowd is winning things especially in the senate. some bizarre way, have some symptoms of a democracy. democracy. will, is bill if you actually exerting his power. the people do have the power. a percentage of them do, and they are exercising. this should be instructive to democrats, progressives, and our so-called independents that once

you are united behind your people, those that you put in power, and they actually kowtow , then whatn to you you have is an example of the people's power. let's not be confused. itself trunk in and of is just a manifestation of the power the people have given to him. call let's take one more from harold calling from illinois. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to commend you on the job you're doing. i have been watching you since the first day you came on. it looks like you are improving every day and getting more comfortable with yourself. great job.

as americans, let's just agree that our parents taught us that you don't cheat, and you don't lie. just basic things that parents try to teach their children along the way. about h.w. bush lied raising taxes. lie, and it still haunted him until the day he died. obama lied about keeping your doctor. ieat would not have been a l if the republicans have not canceled out most of the obamacare thing, but he lied, and everyone was up in arms. this guy lies every day. this guy lies more than casey anthony. universalent to the studios and went all the way to the door of the office before she confessed. this guy doesn't even confess then. now we don't cheat on anything. we don't cheat to win.

i see more people up in arms today over the baseball signal cheating. they are going to cheat on my baseball game, and i am upset, but i'm not upset over cheating on my boat. i don't get that part. trump, they say you have been against him since day number one. that is because since day number one, he has been cheating. en is in prison right now for ker withff his hoo his money, and trump did not even pay him back. he is a co-conspirator. when everybody says he did not do anything wrong, that was one thing he did for sure. that is why he is so adamant on being reelected. if he don't get reelected, the southern district of new york is going to bring him up on charges

because cohen is sitting in jail for him. congress, i hold you responsible. the senate, i hold you responsible. you know better. the american public, you can for them. -- fool them. educatedarvard yell lawyers. -- harvard and yale educated lawyers. if you let him go, you are responsible for anything he does over the next month, which could be bomb north korea or whatever. if you really want to do something, it sounds like we are all on the same page on getting rid of the corruption. hunter biden, bring him in. sonhe same, rudy giuliani's works for the white house. he is the liaison to the liaison

of the guy that sets up the sports teams to come in to the white house, and he makes $90,000 a year doing that. this guy, all he does as the liaison to the liaison, i think he gets to get autographs and hobnob with the famous players. let's take a second and reset the argument for the people that are just joining us for the top of the hour. the senate has just decided they will have their final vote on president trump's impeachment trial on wednesday. if you want to talk about what is going on in the senate impeachment trial, we want to give those numbers to you. republicans, you can call (202) 748-8001. democrats, we want to hear from you at (202) 748-8000. independents, you can call (202) 748-8002. keep in mind, you can always text us at (202) 748-8003.

and we are always reading on social media, on twitter, and on facebook. i want to turn just to set the stage for those that are joining us at the top of the hour. i want to turn to the story in the washington post and read to you what they reported happened yesterday. here is the story in today's washington post. voted to bar new evidence in the impeachment trial, paving the way for trump's acquittal, even as several top republicans admitted his actions towards ukraine were not appropriate. 11 days into the trial, the highly anticipated vote revealed the partisan divisions in the chamber over whether to subpoena witnesses and documents, a step democrats argued was crucial to weighing whether trump abused his power in pressuring ukraine

to investigate his political rival. only susan collins and mitt romney supported the resolution. in declining to add to the case senatete democrats, the all but guaranteed trump will remain in office. democrats argued that trump's expected acquittal will be illegitimate, and alternate of their looming -- an acknowledgment of their looming defeat." we want to hear from you. call in. text us. tweet online. let's go to our first caller of this hour. it is good to be marked from tennessee on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. like your tie, by the way. host: thank you.

go ahead. caller: i served this country. served in the marine corps 10 years. it was abraham lincoln said to stand by doing nothing while injustice is being done makes a coward of me. kudos to the late senator john mccain, who is a republican. senator mccain is a war hero. .w., he had the chance to come home while he was in prison, but he elected to let others leave and come home before he came home. fors to john mccain stopping that woman when he was running for president who was about to bash barack obama. fors to john mccain defeating donald trump with one

finger. down, andat thumbs that was very powerful. in front of the republican senators. the united states senate should stop acting like they don't have power. they have power. start using it. i tell you somebody else who has power. i have power. you have power. the american people have power. donald trump is not our boss. don't trump show who he was during that access hollywood tape? the republican party has been doing they thought they was going to get him in and tame him. donald trump is ignorant to the way washington works. i think we all as americans, if you want him out of office, forget about witnesses.

forget about this stuff. mcconnell is going to plow through just like he did the judges. go out and vote just like they did after donald trump got elected. thank you. tim from's talk to south carolina on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i was listening to your last , about thereporter supreme court and warren's question for the chief justice. i noticed in the trial adam schiff was more or less buttering up to the chief justice. rules, but ithe thely stood out to me that

bottom line is that wouldn't it be to donald trump's advantage if they had to go for preference, if it went to the supreme court, there likely, decision. just quickly, the supreme court will never go to this supreme court. it is only done by congress. caller: what about the presidential preference? host: what do you mean? are you talking about the presidential election? caller: no, the presidential, for calling witnesses in his cabinet. host: that would eventually end up in front of the supreme court. unfortunately, it would take months for that to happen. even if they started that today,

it would be months before the supreme court would make a decision. if it went to the supreme court, it would be nine onees compared to just sitting on the impeachment trial. barbarat's go to calling from new york, new york, on the independent line. caller: good morning. i think this whole thing was a sham. if you look at the timeline, nancy pelosi brought these impeachment charges the week after bernie sanders held his rally in queens and 25,000 people showed up. i think her intent was to knock him off of the new cycle and slow his campaign. to was trying to time it take them off the campaign trail right before the iowa caucuses.

nancy pelosi, steny hoyer, chuck schumer, and tom perez are so corrupt. it is unbelievable. even michael bloomberg's campaign, his whole point is to take the jewish vote from bernie sanders. this is all about bernie sanders. i believe they would rather have they can take the senate back because they know they can manipulate trump. they know they cannot manipulate bernie, and the party would be over if he is elected. host: house impeachment manager val talked about her thoughts regarding president trump's guilt and the threat he posed to the next presidential election. here is what she had to say. [video clip] >> i would like to address one question. there has been much back and forth about whether if the house

believed it had sufficient evidence to convict, which we do, why do we need more witnesses and documents? i would like to be clear. the evidence presented over the past week and a half strongly supports a vote to convict the president. overwhelming.s we have a mountain of evidence. it is direct. it is corroborated by multiple sources. it proves the president committed grave impeachable offenses to cheat in the next election. , ifevidence confirms that left in office, president trump will continue to harm our american national security. he will continue to seek to corrupt the upcoming election,

and he will undermine -- he will undermine our democracy, all to further his own personal gain, but this is a fundamental question that must be addressed. is this a fair trial? is this a fair trial? is this a fair trial? without the ability to call witnesses and produce documents, the answer is clearly and unequivocally no. host: before we get back to our calls, let's look to what some of our social media followers and what some of our viewers who are texting us are saying. here is one text from sherry from indiana who said, "the senate did its job. the senate heard their evidence. it was handled properly. the democrats are now complaining it was not a

legitimate trial was based on the evidence and witnesses they presented. time to move on." here is another text from chris "17 kansas, who says, witnesses were called in the house. 13 of those had portions of their testimony presented in the senate. stop saying no witnesses. there were no new witnesses and soviet. -- so be it." joe says, "truth doesn't matter in trump's kingdom." epublicansays, "r senators were terrified of witnesses. there were no profiles in courage yesterday. the country has now made a turn toward dictatorship. so sad." we want to hear from you. jim, calling from

pennsylvania on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. i think this is a foregone conclusion from the beginning that trump was going to be acquitted. the republicans are pretty much afraid to go against this guy, knowing that if they say anything negative about him that he will attack, and they know that back home trump has enough supporters that no matter what they arer how he lies still going to back him. if they republican comes out against them, they know that they will be primaried. they will lose their seats in congress. we know this was a foregone conclusion. more witnesses would be nice, they already said they heard enough that no matter what they

hear, they are not going to go against this guy. the trump supporters, they believe all of his lies. in, the word was the republicans were going to do everything they could to stop him, and yet i keep hearing we have got to let this guy do what he wants to do, give him a when theyck him, forgot that they were totally against obama when he was in. badm very concerned how things have gotten, how you have this idea that if you are a democrat, you hate america. my two kids are bleeding heart liberals. they both served in the military. my daughter is still in the military. she is in naval intelligence. when they hear that, i am

greatly offended. we do love our country. we don't like this guy from the beginning because he is a big it. condemn aome out and whole group of people, hispanics, by saying they are murderous crooks, that is bigotry. when you say a judge who is hispanic cannot give me an honest opinion because he is hispanic, that is bigotry. and i note yout, cannot totally condemn anyone of butgroup, that is wrong, there has to be something in the background that makes you a racist too. i know not all republicans are, but if you are backing this guy, how can you say you are not when this man is a racist? host: let's go to conway calling from arkansas on the republican

line. good morning. for your honesty and your bias, it is very hard to find nowadays. i would like to start off with a .omment on your last viewer i believe he said if you support trump, somehow or another, you are racist. that has been the problem in the beginning. i am of native american descent. i believe everybody has the right to be free, to better their self. i don't know if folks really know the laws. i have watched since day one. i stayed up all night and watched the election. i have seen states that turned that never would. that is a major accomplishment. it does not matter what side you are on. there is numbers of things that have been done that have never

been done by this president. i think the acceptance from the election was already known. i think that is what upset the other party. most of the viewers and the people that have called in i think have gotten into the routine of secondhand knowledge. one of the greatest judges that i love to watch is judge judy. she will tell you that if it does not come straight from your mouth, it is secondhand knowledge. we have been on third and fourth hand knowledge. i would also like to say thank you to gain a piñata who was at the trump rally. hearing fromo to north carolina on the republican line. good morning. caller: thanks for taking my

call. i think the democrats just started off wrong to start with. they committed the cardinal sin thisno republicans wanted impeachment. it was a partisan impeachment. that is where they went wrong to start with. another thing is it don't matter how many witnesses the democrats would have got, you really think you could have got 20 republicans to impeach the president? think about that. all the democrats wanted to do was damage this president before the election. they knew they could not impeach him. it was a partisan impeachment. they knew it would not happen. all they tried to do was damage him before the election. thanks for taking my comments.

i love c-span. callingt's go to ben from mississippi on the independent line. good morning. c good morning. how are you doing -- caller: good morning. how are you doing? i'm good. host: i'm good. he said to russia if you listening, that was a crime. he said a lot of other things about people of color listeninge countries. that was impeachable to me. a republican is going along with this guy is because he says things about people of color that no other republican has said, and that is

what they want to say, but they don't want to do it in public. he is doing it in public. any one of those guys that was running in the primary against him could have done the same thing that he has done. they could have nominated anyone of them, and they would not be doing the things he is doing now against people of color and mexicans and other races that he don't like and they don't like. that is just wrong. high crimes and misdemeanors. day.ord this show every i work every day. i am off today. i record every day. republicans talk about how good this guy is, how much he has done for this country, and i go back to listen to what they said

when obama was in office. they hated this guy. they wanted to impeach him for affordable care. it is just hypocrisy. these people try to say they are not bigots, they are not racists. they are lying. they are. host: house impeachment manager argued that the house impeachment managers could witness testimony done in a week. [video clip] >> we are interested in the full truth, in a trial that is fair to the parties and to the , and the facts are so critical to this trial. it is why we said we will not go to the court. we will follow all the rulings of the chief justice.

we can get the witness depositions done in a week. i know we can because if you the senators order it, that is the law. you have the sole power to try impeachments. if questions or objections come up, including based on executive privilege, the senate itself and the chief justice in the first instance can resolve them. we are not suggesting that the president wave executive privilege. we simply suggest that the chief justice can resolve issues related to any assertion of executive privilege. as the supreme court wreck nice in the case of judge walter nexen, judges will stay out of disputes over how the senate trycises its sole power to impeachments. that is why we propose we andend trial for one week, during that time you go back to business as usual.

while the trial is suspended, we will take witness depositions, review the documents that are provided at your direction. the four witnesses you should hear from are readily available. investor bolton has already said he would appear. move quickly to depose these witnesses within a week. the documents are ready to be produced. we are ready to review them quickly and present additional evidence. meanwhile, the senate can continue going about its important legislative work, as it did during the depositions in the clinton impeachment trial. host: here was the response to that offer from patrick philbin, deputy counsel to the president. here he responded to what zoe lofgren suggested. [video clip] >> they also suggest that it is not going to take a long time, that they only want a few witnesses, but of course if

things are opened up to witnesses, and it is going to be fair, it is not just one side. it is not just the witnesses that they would want. the president would have to be permitted to have witnesses, and with all respect, mr. chief justice, the idea that if a subpoena is sent to a senior advisor to the president, and the president determines that he principles ofthe immunity that have been asserted by virtually every president that that will just be resolved by the senate right here in the senate by the chief justice sitting as presiding officer, that does not make sense. that is not the way it works. the senate, even when the chief justice is the presiding officer, cannot unilaterally decide the privileges of the executive branch.

that dispute would have to be resolved in another way, and it could involve litigation. it could take a lot of time. the idea that this will all be done quickly if everyone just does with the house managers say is not realistic. it is not the way the process would actually have to play out in accordance with the constitution. that has another significant consequence. again affecting this institution as a precedent going forward, the new normal is an express path for precisely the sort of impeachments that the framers most feared. the framers recognized that impeachment is could be done for illegitimate reasons.

they recognized there could be partisan impeachments. if this is the new normal, this is the very epitome of a partisan impeachment. host: let me remind you that the senate impeachment trial of president trump will resume on monday with four hours of closing arguments from the house managers and the presidents attorneys. to senate will have two days debate the impeachment articles before a final vote on wednesday. you can watch all of this on c-span. calls as back into our we talk about the senate impeachment trial. brock, who is calling from south carolina on the independent line. good morning. caller: thanks for taking my call. i can sum up the impeachment process in five seconds.

the house has control. they could have called all the witnesses they wanted to. they said they needed to get it through as quickly as possible. they sent it over to the senate. now they want witnesses in the senate. that is not how it works. call the witnesses in the house. here all the witnesses. let the senate judge. that is it. that is the impeachment from my perspective. sitting here listening to this, my head is about to explode from the people calling in. i was a person that supported barack obama, and i grew up in central pennsylvania in a republican background. this idea that we are stuck in the 1850's, that race is something people judge people based on is ludicrous to me. martin luther king said judge me based on my character, not the color of my skin. i am somebody that has supported barack obama, but has switched over to support donald trump

because he said he would go in and smashed the establishment in washington. you have a caller a little bit ago who was speaking about bernie sanders and that the democratic party did not want the power to shift to bernie sanders. that is what america is frustrated with. they are frustrated with the establishment. n and sayomebody call i donald trump does not like mexicans, no. what i heard when he said that was i am sick and tired of the illegals coming in and wrecking our system. i am sick and tired of all of this corruption that goes on in the system, and the system needs shaken. we need to go back to the constitution, which protected individual liberties. we are all free to do what we want to do. i am a conservative libertarian. if you want to do something, you should have the freedom to pursue that at the best of your abilities.

if it brings you trouble, my hope is that god is there to catch you and turn you back to what is right. thank you for taking my call. host: let's go to marry, calling from pennsylvania on the democratic line. caller: good morning. i just wanted to let the american people know that we hold our politicians and judges to a higher standard. president trump or any of these politicians can be prosecuted at -- while they on are in office. we use everybody's electronic footprint. if you committed a crime based on your text messages, you are emails, bank records, irs data, weekend prosecute you -- we can

prosecute you. especially someone in the position of making laws. thesek at everything politicians do closely, and this is on a state and federal level. when i saw where the security exchange commission representative resigned as soon as president trump got in office, i knew something was wrong based on the politicians in place. keep that in mind. he can be prosecuted at any time. they are actually looking at documents that they created, and we cannot erase that permission off the system you can -- system. you can thank president reagan for that. callingt's go to david

from new york on the republican line. good morning. caller: i have been trying to get my head around this thing. it is pretty arbitrary in its interpretation. i have to say this. from the beginning, this looks like the court of public opinion. i am part of it. i am watching this, and when the next election comes, and i'm pretty sure trump will be in it, that is when we are going to render a verdict. it does not have to be a unanimous verdict. it just has to be a majority verdict. it is going to be the lesser of two evils like all elections. i will say one more thing about this with people mounting up on this high moral horse and riding around on it. that is not even all across the board. there is sin everywhere.

leading up to this impeachment, , itoth sides, to me, well is kind of one-sided because the media does not go after the left like the media has gone after the right on this one. that is about all i have to say. one more thing, and this is a quote from abraham lincoln. with public opinion all things are possible. without public opinion, nothing is possible. that is where i think we are going with this. going to have to make the decision in the long run. host: let's go to john from new jersey on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. the only thing is he should have been censored. it was ridiculous. the majority in the house said convict him.

the majority in the senate is going to say free him. it is just impossible. the one person who can beat him in the election is mayor bloomberg. he would have a bipartisan cabinet, and he would work for bringing the country back together. thank you. newsmakersweek, interviewed the president of emily's list, the group working to elect pro-choice women. [video clip] >> we have reelected for a blast five presidents to a second term. last five the presidents to a second term. whatever would we see from your organization and others here in

washington? >> i would imagine you will see a massive battle over who that person is going to be and what is going to happen. emily's list as an entity is set up to be an electoral arm of the party and the movement. our job is to elect pro-choice democratic women. we think the best way to present tovent that scenario is make sure the senate is in the democrats. we are focused on winning in hopefullyas, maine, catching a break in texas. it is all about who is sitting in those seats and who is going to make those votes. the fight is now. 2020.ght is right now in

we have to win as democrats if we want to see a strong fair justice sitting on the u.s. supreme court. if you care about the courts, you have to get involved right now. this election matters. it matters immensely for the judicial system all the way down. the fight is now. host: you can see the entire interview with stephanie sherlock this sunday at 10:00 a.m. on c-span. you can hear it on c-span radio and find it online at c-span.org. i want to let everyone know about the events coming up live on c-span today. on livetigieg will be this morning at 11:00 a.m. eastern when he holds his get out the caucus rally at the national cattle congress in waterloo, iowa. at 4:30 elizabeth warren will hold her get out the caucus

rally at a high school in iowa city. then former vice president joe once againbe live from the national cattle congress in waterloo, iowa. he will hold his get out the caucus rally at 6:30. coming up tomorrow, there will be more live events. tomorrow at noon, you'll see senator amy klobuchar. she will hold her get out the caucus rally in cedar rapids. tom steyer will hold a town hall event in coralville, iowa at 3:00 p.m. eastern. you can see all of these events coming up on c-span, c-span.org, and the free c-span radio app. keep your eye on c-span for all the live events coming out of iowa over the next couple of days. that's go back to her phone lines and talked to joseph from

california on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning, america. i would like to make two points this morning. when i joined the military, i was informed that you have to follow the military code of justice. two laws, the civilian loss and the military laws. you don't have more freedom. you are under restriction. that is why these are requirements. you are not free to do anything you want to do. al is to talk about something that can bring this country together. as a christian, i have recognized that our military support for non-muslim nations is an attack against the christian church. we need to recognize how we have

been fighting this war against ourselves, the church. to saudin is given arabia, not democratic muslim nation. we need to recognize this war is being fought against us as a as an and then unify church people and tell congress to stop funding nondemocratic muslim nations with military funding. every one of us can stand up and unite as a country to bring peace to the world. t, who is's go to bur calling from kentucky on the independent line. caller: i am getting so tired of hearing the witnesses at the senate hearings. where was everybody during the first three days of these hearings? we heard over and over and over

17 democrat witnesses from the house hearings, where the republicans had zero witnesses. just saying that the evidence is overwhelming, like the democrats did, does not make it so. say it over and over and over. they only want one thing to be done. they want to convince democrats that saying it over and over must make it through. it doesn't. right now, the democrats have realized they are not going to impeach trump. the purpose of anything they do from now until election time has one purpose, that is to convince people to vote democrat. that is all.

host: before we take our next call, let's look back to what our social media followers and what our viewers who are texting are saying. yorkis one from jay in new who says, "the average american knows how trials work. witnesses are called. evidence is presented by both sides. when that does not happen, americans understand that's probably because the defendant is guilty." "theis bobby who says, senate determined witnesses don't matter because 51 of 100 senators have made up their minds to acquit." another tweet says, "the american people and the constitution lost yesterday. it is no longer about the constitution. it is about one man, donald trump. the house did its job. the senate failed because they

support the king and show loyalty only to him." "the senate is the jury. the house is the prosecutor. the prosecutor was the prepared l-prepared." let's go to john calling from virginia on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. you can rob american people, but you cannot outsmart them. what we have seen here is highway robbery. the senators are not loyal to the constitution. they are not loyal to the people who put them in position. these senators have no guts to say, donald trump, make a decision, let the american people, 76%, they want to hear

the witness. this is not something we all have to worry about. that is beside the point. this country belongs to all of us. you have to understand one thing, read the books. go back to donald trump when he filed six times bankruptcy. he borrows money. he files bankruptcy. he hires lawyers, and he gets off. that is how he operates. this is how he is running the country. he is telling people whatever he wants. he will attack the media. he will attack the senators. bolton, people, who are conservatives cannot work with this man. this is today. republicans can say whatever

they want today. democratl be a president, and he will do the same thing, and you will cry again. i love this country. let us respect our constitution. let's go to mike calling from wisconsin on the republican line. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. host: go ahead. we can hear you. caller: ok. there are a few things i would like to find out. about this quid pro quo, now basically, if you look back, she told her congress that if you vote for me, i will give you chairman chip. that happened -- chairmanship.

that happened three times. that is pretty much quid pro quo or bribery maybe. ukrainians forwo against ouring bad laws. i believe they were sentenced to jail. if the united states can prosecute people from ukraine, why can't the ukrainians investigate joe biden? just because he is an american and basically a runner for the presidency, i would like to know myself before we vote for him what kind of man he really is. who iset's go to clara, calling from arizona on the democratic line.

good morning. caller: what i have a problem with is from the onset, even before impeachment was brought up, i knew there was never going to be a compromise. here in arizona, the republican politician, when they are put up a sign saying make no apology, make no compromise. there is not going to be any getting along with your fellow american. i am a democrat, but i am extremely conservative because i have never been welcomed into the republican party. home.d 44 years, same husband did his job the same place. it is difficult listening to all of this and knowing that we were ndermined from the get-go.

it is difficult to say trump is for all americans when we have a coming into new york, severe, and he says get them off. when there is a fire in california, he says their fault. if we want unity, we need to stop doing this and recognize where we are going wrong. time when wey sad have people calling in, and they are registered republicans, and they say i am a true american. win98 percent are white in the are white in the republican party, what does that say about the rest of the country when you say you are not racist? host: we wanted to bring up a couple of other bits of news that has been happening while the impeachment trial has been going on.

one is about the coronavirus going on around the world right now. i will read a little bit from the new york times. "the u.s. and australia are temporarily denying entry to noncitizens who have recently traveled to china, hoping to limit the spread of the coronavirus. the american restrictions announced on friday exempt immediate family members of american citizens and permanent residents. prime minister scott morrison announced australia's temporary ban on saturday, saying that australian citizens, residents, dependence, and legal guardians or spouses will still be allowed into the country. officials said that any u.s. citizen returning home from china within the past 14 days will be quarantined for up to 14

days. hhs secretary alex is our -- az ar outlined temporary measures." [video clip] returning. citizen will be.s. from hubei subject to up to 14 days of mandatory quarantine to ensure they are provided proper medical care and health screening. this applies only to u.s. citizens who have been in hubei province in the past 14 days prior to their attempted entry into the u.s. any u.s. citizen returning to the united states who has been in the rest of mainland china within the previous 14 days will undergo proactive entry health

screening at a select number of days of entry and up to 14 of monitored self quarantine to ensure they have not contracted the virus and do not pose a public health risk. hastionally, the president signed a presidential proclamation using his authority pursuant to the immigration and nationality act temporarily suspending the entry to the u.s. of foreign nationals who pose a risk of transmitting the 2019 novel coronavirus. as a result, foreign nationals other than immediate family of u.s. citizens and permanent residents who have traveled in china within the past 14 days will be denied entry to the united states for this time.

these actions will become effective at 5:00 p.m. eastern 2.ndard time, february host: cdc director dr. robert redfield is telling people as well about the danger to the american public. redfield says the danger to the american public is low. here is what dr. redfield had to say. [video clip] have confirmed six cases of this novel virus in the united states. the most recent case had no travel history to china but was a close personal contact of one of the previous cases that we had identified through our aggressive contact tracing. in addition, there are currently 191 individuals that are under investigation. once again, i want to emphasize that this is a significant

global situation, and it continues to evolve. i also want to emphasize that the risk at this time to the american public is low. host: let's go back to our phone lines and see if we can get in a couple more calls before the top of the hour on the senate impeachment trial. let's start with barbara, calling from taxes on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i have been trying to get him since this thing first started. i have heard a lot of calls. i think people are missing the point that what the president is trying to do is protect the office of the presidency. the house has not proven their case up to a standard of high crimes. another point is john bolton outd end all this by coming

and telling us what the washington post has come out with is either wrong or right. we have not heard from him. this whole fiasco because it was leaked by somebody that is reviewing his book, which it should not be. clarify come out and this whole thing without being called a witness. that is all i have to say because i think our biggest national security is our media. host: let's talk to linda, who is calling from california on the democratic line. good morning. hi.er: i am a democrat. thank you. i did not vote for trump. senatorskful that the

are upholding our constitution. i do think there are separation of powers. that the case was not proven. one thing the democratic side did was they said all this about a fair trial, and i know the federal rules of evidence. i am very knowledgeable about this. i believe nancy pelosi violated the constitution. it does not say the speaker of the house has the sole power of impeachment. once you call it an impeachment inquiry as part of the impeachment process, there is nothing in the house rules that gives her that authority. in my opinion that was unconstitutional. i will leave that to the lawyers. i am not a lawyer. for quieter years since early

-- fourhave been very 2015, irs since early have been very concerned about what the bidens did in ukraine. i am not that concerned about the prosecutor so much. i am more concerned about the oil leases. it would be interesting to see how burisma went over that. i am also concerned that the lobbyist who came and spoke in the united states that the lobb yists, which were blue star strategies, the head of that was bill clinton's deputy chief of staff and also was a counselor chief ofa, and kerry's and, um, excuse me,

i get so nervous. kerry's chief of staff is the head of ml strategies. there are so many things. a gentleman named sean isco started working for mr. schiff on july 26. i don't understand how people are saying republicans are being partisan. they are being no more partisan than my party is. host: let's take one more call from tony on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. i think we have to go back to barack obama to really understand what happened to the ukraine here. barack obama, who is a shia muslim. host: let me stop you right there. he was not a muslim. caller: he is a shia muslim.

host: that has been resolved a long time ago. our former president obama was never a muslim. caller: he made a deal with the russians that they could have the ukraine, and the russians would agree to give him, the muslim, the iran nuclear deal. that was all done in secret. he also allowed them to attack the crimea. that is why obama did not supply weapons to the ukraine so that the russians could attack the ukraine. it was all a deal set up by obama. they have not brought that out yet, but it is going to come out. host: thank you to all of our callers and social media followers and those who bothered to tweet or text. coming up, the iowa caucus is just two days away. we will get the state of the race with erin murphy, who is

the des moines bureau chief for lee enterprise. political scholars discussed the history of i was first in the nation caucus. here is a portion where they talk about how the caucuses have evolved over the years. [video clip] >> i think we still enjoy this myth that was created by jimmy aroundspending nights the states, building up an organization that has come and gone. -- 20 or 30he role years ago. technologically, things have changed. we have social media as a way to supportersd mobilize in a way that we did not before. caucuses themselves

have changed dramatically over 40 years. the process that was in place in 76 and 84 is different small-town somewhat west of the des moines metropolitan area. >> by my count, there were 33 media people surrounding them. there is nothing under the radar anymore. broad point is that with the issue of the recount, the

caucuses simply were not built to bear the burden that the rest of the country puts on them. what is the impact of social media on campaigning question mark --? >> it will be different because of the penchant for our president to tweet and for people to engage with him. we get more about that later. that myhe things colleague at iowa state university and i did is that we used a panel that they have done for several cycles on likely caucus-goers. we were interested in their media diet. what we have is from 2016, what ,e found is that caucus-goers information on the internet was in first place.

place.th fromgot most of their news newspaper. th. then internet was four one thing that we found that if they actively followed a presidential candidate on post,r and they liked her they were likely to caucus. we did find a social media effect. david did a little bit in his book, started doing research on that with one of his colleagues. i think this whole research, a new thing i am getting into, is the impact of social media on political processes. i think we are finding more of that interaction in each election cycle. what i am finding with this cycle. the survey i just took out of the field that showed that television sources were still above social media and internet

socialist -- socialist -- sources. after that with social media. it seems to be rising above traditional sources like radio and newspaper. the other thing i will say is that social media has allowed --didates to community indicate direct with voters. has been i think that really important in iowa is using it to organize, to get people to show up to events, to happy hours, to get them involved in the campaigns. >> washington journal continues. host: we are going to switch gears and go out to iowa and talk about the upcoming iowa caucuses on monday with erin murphy who is the bureau chief for lee enterprises. good morning. >> thanks for having me.

host: you are coming from wonderful downtown des moines where we are being hosted. we want to thank them for letting us come to des moines to talk about what is going on with the caucuses. lee us first what enterprises is and how many newspapers they have covering iowa right now. >> i am based out of des moines but our papers are all across the state. we have a footprint all across the state. host: we heard that lee enterprises may be expanding because of the news that warren buffett might be selling some of his newspapers to lee enterprises. >> we are going to have some

neighbors in nebraska a part of the team now. glad to be able to expand our coverage and have more people to help cover the news and especially politics. host: let's get straight to it. the iowa caucuses start on monday. we are hearing that a bunch of the iowa caucus-goers are still undecided, two days away from the caucuses. what are you seeing on the ground in des moines right now? >> exactly that. it is amazing. we have been writing about that a couple of weeks. i will democrats are still undecided -- iowa democrats are still undecided. reporters that have been on the ground covering this for more than a year now. it is amazing to hear how many iowa democrats still have not made up their mind. i talked to one voter who says she has narrowed her list down to four candidates which is something you would think you

would hear in august or september not two days for the caucuses. it is pretty amazing. host: what does that tell you that they caucus-goers have not made up their mind yet? is the field that strong or as the field that week? --weak? >> i think it is they really like this field of candidates. of candidates to sift through. it has gotten smaller since then. still a healthy number. think there is 11 running now. seven of them are active in iowa. iowa democrats generally like most of these candidates. they have a hard time picking between them and they are taking that decision down to the wire. host: do you see any candidates having an advantage today? we know things could change on sunday and again on monday. today on saturday, is there any one candidate that you think has

an advantage in iowa right now? polls, morerecent of them have shown bernie sanders leading. i say that with a caveat because these polls are all very close. he is leading but it is by one percentage point or two. the other three are right behind him. joe biden, elizabeth warren, and pete buttigieg. there's really a pack of four lead candidates. also amy klobuchar and it will interesting to see where she ends up on caucus night. they have all been close to taking their turns. at one point, each one of them has been the leader in the race. that is as much as we know and as much as we can say is that we go into this thing with any of them having a chance to win and it would not be a surprise. host: one of the things we have been talking about for the first couple hours of this show has been the impeachment trial. many of the democratic candidates, those who are

sitting senators, have had to be here in washington instead of being in iowa campaigning. has that heard them at all? i don't know whether it has to be honest or not. for one thing, they are still holding events. elizabeth warren's campaign had an event last night. she did not make it to. it still drew 700 people. bernie sanders had an event that drew a lot of people and he was not able to make it. i don't know this late in the game if that is going to have a negative impact for some of those candidates. we are at the point where all of those campaigns organizational structures, their volunteers knocking on the doors trying to get out the vote, those are the people that are the most important right now. they are out doing the work trying to get the turnout for their candidate. at the end of the day with bernie sanders and elizabeth

warren rather be here than not, of course. i don't know that it will hurt their efforts in the last few days. host: as we get closer to monday, does time spent in iowa over this weekend help candidates swing people to their camps in the final minutes or people will just make up their minds on their own whether they see all of these candidates are --?question mark >> i am going to contradict myself a little bit here. i do find it is valuable for those undecided voters to see an -- a candidate in person. bias, the is recency last person you saw. i have talked to people where they came to an event, saw them,

were impressed, and walked away saying this is my person, this is my candidate. especially to get in front of those people who are still undecided, i do think it helps. you are saying that the candidates are making the best effort they can. the senators are doing the best that they can with the time they are allotted. pete buttigieg gone on an remarkable campaign trail in these last few days. dozens of events over the last few days. clearly they feel that it is important for them to get out, be in front of these people, deliver their message straight to them. host: let's let some of our viewers get into this conversation. i will give you the lines right now for you to call in so we are going to do our regular lines. .epublicans, (202) 748-8001 democrats, (202) 748-8000.

(202) 748-8002. and we will have a special line for iowa residents. for those of you in iowa, even if you are not participating in the caucuses, we want to hear what you think about what is going on on the ground. (202)mber will be 748-8003. keep in mind you can still also text us at (202) 748-8003. we are always reading and -- on social media on facebook. behinde any difference how the caucuses are run this time versus four years ago or is it the same process? tell us a little bit about the process as well. keyhere are a couple of differences. for people who are not familiar

with caucuses, it is not like a normal election where you have the whole day, you cast a ball ballot, and you walk out. you have to be at the precinct at a prescribed time. for most of them, it is the clock -- 7:00. andgather in your precinct when it is time to cast your preference for the presidential candidate, you don't cast a ballot, what you actually do is you physically gather into different areas of the room depending on your candidate. if you are supporting joe biden, you go to this area of the room. you stand with the other joe biden supporters. elizabeth warren, over here. bernie sanders, etc.. therally forming groups in high school gymnasium or library, wherever you may be. directors, the people running the caucus tally of the

up thes -- tally supports. each candidate that is going to survive and ultimately earn leasttes needs to be at 50% support in the room. 15% support in-- the room. , arenes who are not considered nonviable, they will not get any delegates. the people in that group have the option to go to another candidate. let's say you were with john delaney. let's say you had decided to stand for john delaney, he is nonviable, now you have the option to go to someone else who was viable. they call that realignment. they do some more math and figure out how many delegates each candidate receives. that is what a caucus looks like. completely different than an

election. two things that are different this year. past, even a viable candidate supporters could change in the second round. if you caucus for barack obama , and he was viable, you could still go to a different candidate if you wanted in the second round and i could create unique horsetrading. that is no longer the case now. if you are in a candidate who is viable, you cannot change in the second round. the other one, and this is somebody -- something for everybody to watch for on caucus night, is that on previous caucuses they only reported the number of delegate equivalents earned by each candidate at the end of the night. reported in percentage. for example, hillary clinton had 49.9% of the delegates in bernie

sanders had 49.6%. that was the only number they reported. we had no idea who people initially lined up for and where they were in the various processes. this year that changed and we are going to get that first preference count. in addition to this final number, we will always get -- also get the first preference number, how many people lined up for each candidate in that first round. there could be some significant differences therebetween what a candidate earned work on that first round versus what they ultimately got. that is something to watch for on caucus night when those results come out. host: let me be specific. when monday night comes, at the we willonday night, find out which candidate has the most delegates. what does that second preference number tell us?

the delegate equivalents is still the most important number. that is how we choose the nominee. the state delegates translate the national delegates and see national delegates is how we think the democratic nominee. that is still the most important number. that first preference number is what we will be watching for also because it will inform us, this is how much support a candidate has when people first walked into the room. we know that they ended up here, but here is where they started. that will be interesting. we could literally have a case where one candidate had the most support at first in the first groups, but through realignments and that shuffling, another candidate wound up the night with the most delegate equivalents. that is the goal. that is what all of these candidates -- campaigns are trying to do.

it will be interesting to learn and know that first preference number. host: in addition, the democratic candidates are also blanketing the airways -- airwaves with their own campaign commercials. we will look at those commercials as they are coming up during this conversation. here is the joe biden commercial data showing in iowa right now. [video clip] progress well the could make in the next four years. imagine a world where america leaves on climate change -- leads on climate change. imagine a president who stands up to the nra. today cant we imagine be a reality. first, we need to be donald trump. i am joe biden and i approve this message. host: there has been a lot of talk about joe biden during this impeachment trial.

how has that affected him on the ground there in iowa. -- in iowa? can you hear me? let's look at a commercial that pete buttigieg has on the air right now while we get back. [video clip] >> it is time to turn the page from a washington. vision foro a bold the next generation. reverse the inaction on climate change which has brought us to the brink. move beyond endless wars and alliances built for threats. we need to break from the old politics and unify this nation. i am pete buttigieg and i approve this message. host: we just saw commercials from joe biden and pete buttigieg. joe biden may have come up over and over during the impeachment

trial especially considering his son. how has that affected him on the ground in iowa if at all? >> i would not say a whole lot. you do hear it sometimes. every once in a while a voter will bring that up. i don't think for iowa democrats it is not that they believe that the bidens did anything untoward . more concerned that the republicans will make that an issue in the campaign. that gets to a broader point that so many iowa democrats i talked to, health care is a huge issue, environment, gun safety, but the most common issue that you hear is not a policy. it is who can win. who can go against president donald trump and when in the election -- win in the election. you do sometimes hear that concern that this could be a drag on joe biden in an

election. is there enough of that -- hurtt to hurt them him in his primary? you do hear it come about there. host: let's let some of our viewers join in. this is donald calling from west virginia on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. see anyi don't candidates on the democratic side with what their policies or what they are try to run on for the american dream. biden is not going to do very well. i think bernie is going to surpass him because of the impeachment stuff. we don't need more problems in the white house. most americans perceive a lot of problems in the white house if

joe biden were elected. we are staying away from him. he did not do very well in south bend for his own city. vote. not carry the black that will be a problem for him. bernie has the most edge. bernie has the upper edge because he keeps the same momentum. he has been the same person for 20, 40 years. he is not taking his beat. he sticks to the socialist agenda. host: what role do republicans

play in the iowa caucus? is it limited to democrats only or can any registered iowa voter participate? >> there is a couple of things to point out there. one is you have to be a registered democrat to participate in the democratic caucuses. to have to be a republican purchase paid in the republican caucus. parties allowe for vegetation on site. even if you are not registered with either party or you are registered with one or the other end you want to change parties on caucus night, you can do that on your way in the door so they make it very easy for islands to participate. to participate. the republicans are caucusing this year in iowa. they have caucuses on monday night as well. it is not excited to be a big

deal because they have an incumbent president. that usually does not reveal anything unusual on caucus night. iowa, donald trump has solid report -- support within the republik and party. -- theublicans republican party. republicans just walk into the room, write his name down on a piece of paper, and you are done. host: one of the things the caller talked about was the problems that pete buttigieg was having with the african-american voters. how is the electorate in iowa made up? is it majority white, majority african-american? what is the average voter in iowa? what do they look like? >> this is one of the criticisms

as -- of iowa. it is not a diverse state. it is more than 90% white. forgive me if my number is a little bit off. i believe the black population is somewhere around 30% -- 3%. the latino population a similarly small number. criticisms of the that people say. -- state with the more devos diverse population should be in the seat. the problem with pete buttigieg is something that iowa voters have noticed. the hope for the buttigieg campaign is that he does well in iowa and that that will propel him and maybe he will get another look by black voters in other states and maybe those numbers will go up for him. it starts with iowa and at the very least, having to do well

here and seeing where that goes. it does merit mentioning he has gained support and endorsements from key black democrats in iowa and state that is leader's. legislators. inroads in iowa here with support of the black community but that does not translate beyond iowa and that is the challenge for his campaign. host: before i move on, what do iowans think about the question about whether iowa should be first. do people in iowa disagree with that? i think more islands --iowans --n not --than not

they can't dispute the facts about diversity. but they will point to the fact that in 2008, the iowa caucus winner was barack obama who went on to become the first black president. in 2016, the iowa caucus winner was hillary clinton who went on to be the first woman nominee for a major political party. supportinghistory of minority and women candidates. that is what they will say in defense of that lack of diversity. who agreeind iowans and think iowa should not be first. most people here in iowa are protective of their first in the nation status. they enjoy it and they would like to keep it if at all possible. who iset's talk to ida coming from california on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning.

that i love the judgment. -- democrat.ic i don't like is people judge anybody -- i don't like if people judge anybody, us, whoever by what person is doing for themselves, for families, for country. on the day ofump representativest of person who is doing just fine. thank you very much. david --daveook at who is a des moines resident. good morning. are you there?

go ahead, you are on the air. the only one i am caucusing for is either elsie gabbard or seth moulton. what about those candidates who are not in that top four that we talked about? where do they stand in iowa and exactly how can they jump to the --ad of the pack #is iowa ahead of the pack? they talked about the big four that have been the leaders in this race for a long time. but is there someone who can break out of that next year, jump into that top group on caucus night which would give the momentum going forward? they don't have to win but if they jump up and finished second, third, that would give them momentum going into new

hampshire. there are a few we will be watching. i think i mentioned amy klobuchar. she had been down around 5% in the polls. the more recent polls have come back, she has been up in the double digits. it will be instant to see where she lands on caucus nice -- caucus night. you have seen tom steyer a lot on the airwaves. some of the polling has shown him building support. i should mention tom steyer is not just throwing up ads. he is going all around the state. will he have a big bump, will he surprised mark another we are watching is andrew yang. event,to an andrew yang he is bringing new people to the process.

a lot of people who are interested in him and not necessarily interested in the broader politics of it. he has had events with some really big and surprising numbers. enough inn doing well the polls to qualify for the last few debates. i think those three in particular, amy klobuchar, tom steyer, and andrew yang are the ones that i will be watching for to see if they can have a breakout on caucus night. tulsi gabbard is an interesting one. she had given up on iowa. we have not seen her lately and she is focused on new hampshire. you do hear people who like ulsi. more often than not, it is a conservative who likes tulsi gabbard. seth moulton has dropped out of the race. on, let'sre we go look at more of those campaign commercials on the air.

here are the commercials for senator elizabeth warren and bernie sanders. [video clip] >> he grew up in a mansion. she grew up in oklahoma. he got millions. her dad ended up a janitor. he scanned students. she got debt forgiven for students who were scammed. when someone shows you who they are, believe them. trump's life taught him how to get rich on the backs of others. elizabeth warren will be a president who works for you. i am elizabeth warren and i approve this message. 400 years, presidents have talked about the needs that guaranty of care. behind every country in europe in this matter of medical care. >> health care not just a privilege but a right for every single american. >> now is the time to take on the greed of the health-care

care industry and finally passed medicare for all. i am bernie sanders and i approve this message. we just saw the bernie sanders campaign commercial and we have heard from some bernie sanders supporters that there is an inside bernie sanders campaign going on on the ground in iowa. have you seen anything like this? is this something that is happening in iowa? >> i don't know about on the ground in iowa. i do know that the national party is looking at different rule changes that bernie sanders supporters feel are targeted at him specifically to keep him from winning the nomination. you have a lot of democrats who will say publicly they don't think he should be. they are worried he would get beaten in a general election race because of his embracement that theist policies

caller earlier alluded to. still hard feelings among bernie sanders supporters from four years ago. they did not feel that that process was fair when he ultimately lost to hillary clinton. there is that perception that has lingered. how much of that perception is based in reality probably depends on who you ask. i do know that that is a concern that you hear from bernie sanders people. host: let's go back to the phone lines and talk to betty calling from illinois on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. i want to say i hope that people were listening to the prayers that the chapman gave -- chaplain gave at the beginning of the meeting.

party,as the democratic i like everybody that is running. years old and i was born and raised in south carolina. .e need somebody like bloomberg we all know that it takes money to win the election. he has money. he has his own money. i like the democrat party but we need money. bloomberg is the one i believe that can deal with trump because he is from new york himself. he knows trump and he is telling you about how trump really is. i am for bloomberg this time. their -- much talk of is there of michael bloomberg?

he is never dissipating in the caucuses. lote does not come up a because of what you mentioned. he is not campaigning here. he is running a few ads, not as many as the other candidates, but a few. you don't hear a lot about him. he does come up. ,ome of those undecided voters i have heard michael bloomberg's name once or twice. he is testing this notion of iowa as the first state and the in order tont state eventually secure the nomination. he is putting that to the test. he is more or less skipping iowa and new hampshire and going straight to the other early voting states and super tuesday. it will be interesting to see if he can gain traction. maybe that changes in the way that campaigns view of the early states in future cycles. host: let's talk to mary calling

from portland, maine on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. i have been voting since 1972 and i feel like this is probably one of the most elections ever. and proud to be from maine both of my senators voted the way they did yesterday. i think we need to turn our country around and we need a strong democratic candidate to be donald trump -- beat donald trump and put respect back in our presidency. we are seeing -- you saw that michael bloomberg is not in iowa. neither is deval patrick. we are seeing some of the

candidates skipped the beginning states and go straight to the next couple of states. what type of effect will that have on their candidacy? would you say that democrats or presidential candidates all need to come to the iowa caucuses this year and in the future? historyld say based on the answer is yes. iowa has been a springboard for candidates. you don't have to win here. the old phrase is free tickets out of iowa. meaning if you finish in the top three, you have done well enough to carry that on to the next few states and you have a chance to ultimately be the nominee. based on historical results, i would say iowa and new hampshire are very important. it will be interesting this year to see how the candidates --

candidacy of deval patrick and michael bloomberg turnout. if they are successful and one of them is the nominee, maybe that changes the calculus for candidates in the future. i cannot say that i know for sure. to jump in this light and build momentum,entum in -- maybe they can do it. maybe this is the year that that can be done. that would change how we do things going forward. it would be very interesting to see how that turns out or they may fall flat. nothing much happens and that reinforces that iowa and new hampshire are still important and relevant in becoming the nominee. host: we are talking to erin murphy.-aaron

he is in our studio in iowa covering the caucus. what are the topics that iowa voters are gravitating to in these last few days before the caucuses? do they want to talk about the economy or do they want to talk about impeachment? do they want to talk about the coronavirus? what are the topics that the iowa voters seem to want to candidates -- the candidates to talk about? democrats are very tuned into the impeachment trial and everything that is going on and following that closely. thatnot get the sense that particular issue or event is influencing or informing their decision. i think i would democrats see those as two separate things.

they are following closely. they know what is going on. they have strong feelings about it. it is completely separate from the thing over here which is deciding which candidate to nominate for president. i don't think those two things are overlapping. they are not looking at impeachment and thinking i need to hear this about impeachment before i decide to support. i think they are separate issues. when you talk about policy, health care is without a doubt the biggest one. that is a broad thing. we have the medicare for all discussion, whether that is right. it gets beyond that. and drugnto drug costs addiction. that is definitely the biggest one. climate policy is a big one. you hear that a lot. gun safety is a big one. policy, but the biggest issue for iowa democrats is finding that candidate that

they believe can beat donald trump. the problem with that is everyone views that differently. there is not a consistent measuring stick for that among iowa democrats. that is a personal decision that each of the -- them is making. that is the most consistently motivating factor. host: let's talk to stephanie from marshall, wisconsin on the republican line. good morning. caller: i would say i am probably more independent than republican but i am a big trump supporters right now. klobuchar is cool but nobody seems to like her. she is fun to listen to. are you there? host: we can hear you. go ahead. caller: bernie just seems real. i think that is why he is doing so great. -- has consistently kept his word and not changed on

--flips and flip-flops -flopped. it seems to me that nobody is the middle of the line anymore. you cannot find a candidate that loves both. either you are a democrat and you love the environment or you proa republican and you are not killing babies in the third term. the state of the union is coming on tuesday and you can watch it here as president trump delivers his state of the union live followed by the response. --8:overage gets at a :00 00 on c-span. you can also listen to it live on the free c-span radio app.

>> you look at favorability ratings and they are similar to the national numbers. almost state that he won four years ago. the thing that will be interesting as we move on and get a democratic nominee and it becomes a head-to-head race, especially in iowa, there have been some moves by the trump administration that have caused heartburn in iowa especially among the ag community. trade policies and his decisions to renegotiate trade deals throw off some trade markets in iowa especially in soybeans which is one of iowa's top crops. policy, he was

not strong on preserving the ethanol mandate. it includes the corn growers in this state. it has caused some concern. farmers were having a tough time in iowa before all of this. they had flooding which caused significant damage over the last couple of years. and then you have administration policies. it will be interesting to see, there have been moved by the administration that have caused heartburn in iowa especially among people who would typically be republican voters. it will be interesting to see as this campaign moves forward and it becomes a more head-to-head race and people -- more people start tuning in not just from within the parties but the broader spectrum of voters. it will be interesting to see

how much damage those things because in president trump's support in iowa. host: you mentioned earlier that republicans were also caucusing in iowa on monday. is there any surprise in that or is that the glock for president trump right now? >> i don't think we expect any surprises. that others have been making efforts here. have been in iowa. i saw congressman walsh walking the line at the trump rally for people who work lined up outside to get into the trump rally. he was talking to people and trying to change some minds. there has been a little bit of an effort. day, he is thehe incumbent president. he still has a strong support within the party especially among that poor group.

we talk about people who caucus, it is not all iowa republicans or democrats. it is more condensed, smaller, the most active people within the party. within that group, i think president trump still enjoys strong support in iowa. i don't expect any huge surprises. the president is not taking anything for chance. you mentioned he was just here, had a big rally, vice president pence was here. next week, he is sending out an army of surrogates from his staff and supporters who will be here in iowa at caucus sites rallying support for the president. i don't expect any huge surprises on caucus night on the republican side. but you never know and that is why we watch. host: let's show one last commercial. this is the amy klobuchar commercial. [video clip] whoe have a president

thinks everything is about him. his tweets, his golf courses, his ego. but i think the job is about you. school,lth care, security, family, and your future. i am amy klobuchar. i will be a president and a commander-in-chief who restores decency to the white house and gets things done for you. that is why i approve this message. host: with all of these ads on expect turndo we out to be on monday for the caucuses? it is monday after the super bowl. a lot of people will be up late from the night before. what do we expect turn out to be? the caucuses are not until 7:00 monday evening. there is plenty of time to sleep off that super bowl hangover. specially depending on how things go. there are a lot of chiefs fans

in iowa. turnout is expected to be big. in fact, they are preparing for a historically high turnout level. 2008 was the record for turnout. they are expecting it to go past that. if it is something that the state party that has been dealing on a very real level, they are looking for new sites. a lot of locations throughout the state this year our brand-new. have got used to the same precincts. democrats are trying to find the biggest space as possible. to accommodate what they expect to be a huge turnout. that matches what i have seen on the ground. when you go to events throughout the cycle, there is a ton of interest, a ton of enthusiasm, a lot of people are engaged in this process. i would be shocked if it is not a historically high turnout on

monday night. host: let's see if we can get a couple more calls. let's go to wisconsin on the independent line. good morning. caller: hello, there. i am glad to be on your show. because it wast shelved on me. --shoved on me. the oligarchs and the big are paying both parties. both parties want this money. they pick your people they want you to vote on. i got tired of voting for the lesser of the two evils. i have become completely independent. love iowa's caucus. i think it is the greatest thing because people do have choices. first, second, and even third.

and i think this is fair. if you do not get your choice, everybody has a second choice, at least. i believe that is the only way to do it. as far as the candidates, i think that they are all good. most of them are taking bernie sanders's format. bernie has not changed. i did not vote for hillary. i did not vote for trump. bernie sanders and elizabeth warren. it just so happens that i was well on the right track. people that think that socialism is communism is definitely mistaken. livesday, everybody socialism. socialism is the foundation of civilization. run out ofe going to

time. i want to ask you a couple more quick questions. who has the best ground game in iowa? >> if i had to pick, i think all of the top four have a good ground game to make them competitive and feel fun -- confident for monday night. when you talk to people who are experts in this kind of thing, elizabeth warren is the one who most people have said sets the standard in this race. she did so very early. they invested in their organization and their ground game early with campaign, much earlier than the other campaigns. it will be interesting to see if that pays off for them in such a close race. i mentioned that top four is packed. criticalout will be

and these organizations effectiveness could go a long way toward deciding who actually this this thing --wins thing on monday night. i think they are all strong. pete buttigieg invested a lot into his ground game. elizabeth warren had the gold standard from the start. host: where should we have our eyes on iowa for the next two days? is there any particular part of the state we need to watch closer than anywhere else? >> i don't know that you need to watch any particular spot closer but just watch the candidates and where they are and that tells you all about what each campaign thinks they need to do in these last few days to drum up as much support as possible. some candidates are focusing on bigger cities where the most people are. other candidates like pete buttigieg are going all across the state and that can have its

own advantage in a strategy where you try to drive off support in rural precincts. i would say don't just listen to what the candidates are saying, look where they are, too. or arey in des moines they also in mount pleasant and burlington and smaller towns. host: that is a great segue to what is going on on c-span today. we'll have a link of the live events from iowa today and tomorrow. we will start off with pete buttigieg who be live at 11:00 in waterloo. pete buttigieg live at 11:00 a.m.. elizabeth warren will be live today at 4:30 in iowa city at a high school. joe biden will be in waterloo as well at 6:30 eastern.

tomorrow, sunday, you will see amy klobuchar in cedar rapids and tom steyer that same day will be on at 3:00 p.m. at a town hall event. you can watch all of these events at c-span, c-span.org, and the c-span radio app. one final thing for you before we let you go, what is your prediction for how the iowa caucuses -- caucus is going to turn out? i don't mean to shrink from a challenge but i genuinely mean it when i say any of those four could win and it would not surprise me one bit. if i had to pick one, i think maybe bernie sanders has the right momentum at this stage and has been getting a lot of interest. he has a built in advantage of having been through this before. he started a little bit ahead in terms of his organization.

his people know where their supporters are and where do -- where to get them turned out. i think it is going to be close and i think any of the four could win and i am watching to see if amy klobuchar and tom steyer, andrew yang insert themselves in the conversation as well. host: monday night, c-span will bring you the results from the 2020 iowa caucuses as well as speeches from the candidates. live coverage will begin here on c-span at 9:30 eastern on c-span, to spend or, in the c-span radio app -- c-span.org. you can also read on the ground aaron murphy. one last question for the candidate that comes out on top in iowa, does that give them a heads up for new hampshire or south carolina? what normally happens to the top candidate that comes out of

iowa? >> i think it depends on who it is. especially in new hampshire. if you look at history, iowa and new hampshire regularly have different ideas and sent different candidates onto the next few states. i don't know that what happens in iowa impacts new hampshire. beyond that, it does depending on who it is. if it is pete buttigieg, that is a huge boost to his campaign. if it is joe biden, he does not have to wing iowa, but if he does, that is good for him to solidify that support and bridge to other states where he is doing better. if it is elizabeth warren, that gives her huge momentum and improves that she can win here. i think depending on which candidate it is, it drives a different narrative coming out of iowa. host: that see if we can squeeze in one quick call.

can you give a quick western or comment before we go off the air? -- question or comment before we go off the air? caller: the most successful president in u.s. history and they want to impeach him. hold on. host: we have to go quick. caller: the most successful president in u.s. history and they want to impeach him. all he did was hold back funds for weaponry. we all know what happened when president reagan gave north korea funds for good intention. they made nuclear weapons instead. all he did was take notice of -- 60% of the 50% state on welfare. -- 30 years on the property owned property, educated, wanted

people to keep their rights. once again, we like to think aaron murphy for spending this hour with us this morning. thank you so much. >> thank you so much for having me. it was my pleasure. host: i want to remind everyone that the senate impeachment trial will resume monday with four hours of closing arguments from house managers and the president's attorney. senators will also have two days to debate the articles before a final vote on wednesday. once again, the state of the union will be tuesday night and you can watch president trump deliver his third state of the union right here on c-span beginning at 8:00 eastern on c-span and c-span.org. monday night, you can join us .or the iowa caucus coverage live coverage will billion --

begin 9:30 on c-span. keep it on c-span. thank you to everyone who was on the show today and we will see you tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m.. have a good day. ♪ ♪ [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] c-span,g up on president trump and israeli prime minister netanyahu talk about the administration's middle east peace plan. after that, joe walsh campaigning in ames, iowa. campaign 2020 coverage can -- our live

campaign 2020 coverage continues in -- continues today at 11:00. elizabeth warren is in iowa city. at 6:30 joe biden is in waterloo. we will take your calls, questions, and messages. watch the coverage on c-span.org , or with the three radio app. -- free radio app. presidentialatic candidates have campaign throughout iowa, canvassing for votes. now it is time for the results. watch our live coverage of the iowa caucuses, monday starting at 7:30 p.m. eastern, online at [no audio], or -- online at c-span.org, or on the free radio app. house,day at the white president trump and israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu spoke about the middle