basically they climbed the stairs and gradually move upwards. the second generation goes to the lower schools, the next generation to the second lower. the tech boom expanded and so they rose much faster. so they entered the sector and moved much more quickly. >> sunday night at 8 p.m. eastern on c-span's "q&a." host: i want to remind everyone at the top of the show the senate trial will resume as soon

as we finish at 10 a.m.. of course you can listen to it any time on the c-span radio app or c-span.org/impeachment. we will hear closing arguments from both sides -- the house impeachment managers and president trump's lawyers, but let's take a the senate. let's go back to the beginning of the arguments from president trump's lawyers. his legal team began their arguments in front of the senate by arguing the process was unconstitutional. >> the article of impeachment before the senate is an unjust and blatantly unconstitutional act of political vengeance. this abuse of the constitution only further divides our nation when we should be trying to come together around shared priorities.

like every other politically motivated witchhunt the left has engaged in over the past four years, this impeachment is completely divorced from the facts, the evidence, the interests of the american people. the senate should promptly and decisively vote to reject it. no thinking person could seriously believe that the president's speech on the was an incitement to insurrection. the suggestion is patently absurd. nothing in the text could ever be construed as encouraging, condoning, or enticing unlawful activity of any kind. host: they used just about three hours, less than one quarter of

the 16 hours they could've used to defend the ex-president. the new york times has what we can expect to see. with the bulk of the trial complete, house managers will have up to two hours to make their closing arguments on saturday. senators could hold an up or down vote almost immediately after. a few procedural surprises are still possible. beginning at 10:00, we could begin to hear closing arguments and we could have a vote today. this in trial -- entire trial could be over today. what do you expect the senate to do today? how do you expect the senators to vote. let's start with max from florida on the democratic line. good morning.

caller: thank you for taking my call. first of all, i think it's highly unlikely that the former president will be convicted. that's not reasonable to expect with the divisions between the parties. to turn to the evidence that was put in, i think you will find the house managers presented a brilliant case. they covered everything that would be necessary to establish that the president, former president, was guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors. they properly began their case long before the gathering on january 6. host: did you hear anything from

the defense attorneys that changed your mind in any way? caller: not at all. i thought their presentation was ill prepared did not address the points. it was deceptive and what they cut and put in. many of the examples they gave were not comparable to anything that existed when they were trying to analogize things like that to what occurred on january 6. all the things the president had done up until that particular time, most telling of all i think is the fact that when they were asked questions, one of the major questions was by senator collins and senator murkowski in

which they asked whether the president -- when the president knew of the invasion and when he knew vice president pence was not in trouble. what did he do and when did he do it? they asked them to be specific. the defense team said absolutely nothing. they offered no evidence whatever. they said the house managers had not conducted an investigation. host: let's go to dan in arkansas on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. i won't take too much of your time. i think this should have lasted two days.

that's just a waste of money. the democrats ought to pay this money back to the taxpayers for putting this goofy stage on here. we have one of the best presidents we've ever had. they treated this guy terrible. host: did you hear anything from the impeachment managers that convinced you in any form or fashion? caller: no. there was nothing. they would take it and turned around like most lawyers do. this guy was honest. he is sincere. he didn't try to start no trouble. like i said, the best president we've ever had. the people are going to suffer from this right here. thank you. host: let's go to curtis from new jersey on the democratic

line. good morning. caller: good morning. i love the bowtie. what dan just said, it doesn't matter that he was great. did he do something wrong? by having people storm the capital? i didn't hear anything from the republicans to say he didn't do anything wrong. host: one of the impeachment managers argued during the question-and-answer session that the president's team did not bring any evidence in front of the senate to prove that he should be acquitted. this is what she said yesterday. >> if defense counsel has evidence, you are welcome to give it to us. you had an opportunity to give us evidence that would take the

president. the founts -- defense counsel wants to blame everyone else except the person most responsible. that is president trump. donald trump. he is the person who could foresee this the most. he had the reports. he had access to the information. we all know how he is an avid cable news watcher. he knew would was going to happen. he cultivated these individuals. these are the undisputed facts. the national guard was not deployed until two hours after the attack. mayor bowser does not have authority over the capital or federal buildings. she could not deploy national guard to the capital.

that is outside of the jurisdiction of the mayor of the district of columbia. at no point did the president of the united states, our commander-in-chief, tell anyone or the american people that he was sending help. he did not defend the capital. the president of the united states did not defend the capital of this country. it's indefensible. host: let's look at what some of our social media followers are saying about the impeachment trial. we have several people who have texted this morning. here is one text that says the republicans don't care what trump has done. they never have.

another text says most of the republican senators will not look at the overwhelming evidence and will vote to acquit trump. they have no backbone and are scared of trump's future tweets. it's a sad day for the country. another says too bad they can't be prosecuted for their lies. i think the case was awesome and truthful, unlike democrats. another text says i think the house managers did a great job. the republicans are going to let him walk. it is a sad day for our country and sends the wrong message to the rest of the world. one last text, they provided a powerful and very effective presentation. this was so overwhelming that the managers resorted to the race card. we want to know what you think about the senate trial going on.

let's go back to the phone lines. billy is calling from rocklin, new york. -- brooklyn, new york. caller: good morning. after the mob stormed the capital, threatening lawmakers' lives, they voted against certifying the results. they hate democracy. they want to disenfranchise millions of voters in states they don't even belong. they want to disenfranchise voters in other states, how many times has texas cried state rights when they want guns in synagogues? then they went to decertify ballot election results in other states? trump literally after the mob was saying hang mike pence and

built a noose on which to hang him, trump tweeted that mike pence was a coward. if i were mike pence, he is not apologize. host: did you hear anything in the defense team's presentation yesterday that made you think in any way the president shouldn't be convicted in this impeachment trial? caller: from the defense? it was all what aboutism . elizabeth warren said fight climate change, that's like a soviet propaganda strategy. they say democrats are common nests and using a soviet propaganda strategy as the basis for their argument. host: let's go to bob calling

from pittsburgh on the republican line. good morning. caller: i watched 16 hours of democrats same old junk. they went back to raskin. they went on to racism. the people attacked by white people, it's racist. the democrats look like fools yesterday. 16 hours, the republicans took three hours to turn it all around. i think all of these democrat senators have been making remarks. vice president harris giving money to people who were looting. anyone is going to know.

they should end this today. the biggest fear the democrats have is next year or two years from now if the republicans take over the senate and house. guess what they are going to do and i don't blame them. host: steve is calling from missouri. good morning. caller: good morning. it's just one word, disinformation. i can tell you from a personal standpoint, i dad started listening to rush limbaugh in the 90's. that's when bill clinton became president. his whole mind changed. he went kind of insane. if you mentioned that clinton was doing a good job, he would hang up on me and tell me not to call him no more. we've got fox news and qanon. these people are brainwashed.

we could end this if these republicans would come out here and say trump lost the election. host: let's go to phil calling from wisconsin on the democratic line. good morning. i think i lost phil. let's go to joe calling from north carolina on the democratic line. good morning. are you there? caller: yes. i would like to give my opinion. what i've been watching for the last year or so, i watched trump call people losers, fake, all of these things. he is the biggest loser of all. he has to save face. by creating the problems.

most of these people that follow him, they have lost their minds. they can't see the truth. that's the thing between good and evil. anyone with common sense can see that. god isn't in the picture with republicans. they are about lying and cheating and doing what they can do to ruin the country. host: did you hear anything from the defense team that makes you think he should not be convicted of inciting the riot? caller: i didn't hear anything from them. they made up their minds for the trial even started. common sense will tell you that. host: yesterday, the defense team argued that the house impeachment managers did not

legally connect the attack on the capital to the former president. this is the argument they made in the senate. >> the critical issue in this case is the very narrow issue that is charged against the 45th president. that issue is did the 45th president engaged in incitement? there clearly was no insurrection. it's defined in the law and evolves taking over a country. taking the tv stations over. having some planning what you're going to do when you finally take power. clearly, this is not that. what our colleagues across the aisle meant is incitement to violence. to riot.

the word incitement is the critical case. the critical issue in the case. the first time you heard from us, i told you that you would not hear from our side that what happened on january 6 was anything other than horrific. the 45th president of the united states and his lawyers and his entire team adamantly denounce that violence by those criminals that occurred in this very chamber. there was a reason why we started our presentation back on tuesday in that way. i did not want the senators to consider there was any challenge to that particular fact.

and yet, the house managers knowing it was not contested at all, chose to spend 14 hours showing you pictures of how horrific the attack on the united states capital was. they spent no time at all in connecting legally the attack on the capital to the 45th president of the united states, which is the only question that needs to be answered. was donald trump responsible for inciting the violence that came to this building on january 6? host: the question many people are asking today is how many if

any republicans are going to vote to convict president trump. politico has a story today that talks about that specific issue. how many senate republicans plan to vote for conviction? i want to read a few paragraphs from that story to you.

the question, when the senate gets to the vote which may be later today, how many senate republicans plan to vote for conviction? at 10:00, you will get to see the senate trial begin right here live on c-span on c-span 2. listen live on the c-span radio app. you can watch any time at c-span.org. let's go back to the phones and see what you think about what's been going on at the senate trial. gloria is calling from mississippi on the democratic line. good morning. caller: thank you so much for taking my call.

these are republicans, cop killers. that's who they are. they are not going to do what needs to be done. they are afraid of donald trump. please make it be known, these are cop killers. host: let's go to roy calling from georgia on the republican line. good morning. caller: through the summer there were riots. you saw them in other cities. he was arrested at the capital. kamala harris were advocating riots throughout the year, including the election.

wasn't he following their instructions? weren't they encouraging these groups to act? this man was arrested in utah for riots. now he's arrested in washington. host: are you trying to say that one person out of the hundreds of people who have been arrested means that a group that the police and no one has said is involved is now involved in what happened at the capital? caller: the fbi arrested sullivan. host: they have arrested hundreds of other people. caller: trump people were nonviolent. antifa and all of their members, they are known for violence. host: i think you might not be watching the same thing the rest of the world was watching.

i don't think there's any question of who the people who were inside the capital were supporting. that is former president trump unless you were watching something the world was not watching. caller: let me ask you one last question. wasn't john sullivan arrested inside the building? host: i have no idea who john sullivan is. caller: he is the nt for leader. host: let's go to illinois on the independent line. good morning. go ahead. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: good morning. i'm talking. host: go ahead. all right, let's go to patrick from kansas on the republican line. good morning. caller: i think the people who

watched the impeachment proceedings, i'm an attorney. if you wanted to convict donald trump before the started, you still feel that way. if you feel he was improperly charged, you feel that way. i'm a republican. i think people who believe donald trump was an agent of vladimir putin for three or four years and tried to compete him over that, you believe what the house managers are saying now. the one thing i would like to comment on is c-span. i am old enough to a been watching c-span when brian lam first brought it on the air. you couldn't tell if he was a republican or democrat. it was really objective presentation of what was occurring in society. right now, i'm sorry.

the prejudice. i feel like i'm watching msnbc. you interrupt republican callers with lessons. you choose clips that are presidential -- prejudicial. what has happened to c-span? we have msnbc. why did you lose your objectivity? host: let me interrupt you quickly to say you must be watching the wrong show this morning if you think we are playing clips that are only prejudicial to president trump. i think we have had several times the defense team on screen. let's go to anthony calling from minneapolis. good morning. caller: good morning, jesse. host: go ahead.

caller: what we are seeing right now is the dissolvement of our republic. the republicans aren't listening to anybody. i fear that this is the end. i want to also say one thing to the people who are talking about the riots and there were no riots. in 1968 in detroit, they burned more than they did last summer. the reason why black lives matter, the one time we were sold as a commodity and could be killed at any time by our owners. that's why it is so important. we have lost our country. when the senators do not convict donald trump after all of this,

there is no way. we are going to have the same crap at the end. host: let's find out what's going to happen in the senate later today. let's bring in one of our experts, the senate reporter for national journal. good morning. host: what do we expect to see at 10:00? guest: the senate will make an important decision. they will decide whether to call witnesses, to subpoena additional evidence from the last two days. you have heard from house managers and the president's attorneys lay their case. yesterday, centers had a chance to ask questions of both sides.

that was a chance for them to repeat the same points they had made earlier on. when they get past this witness phase, if they don't call any witnesses or issue subpoenas, they will go directly to closing arguments. the trial could and today with a vote. host: what are the odds on the senate wanting to actually hear from witnesses? we heard recently that former president trump has said he does not want or intend to testify. we hear back and forth between senators about telephone calls. we are hearing a conversation about kevin mccarthy and the call to the white house. do we expect the senate to talk about these issues? guest: there have been few senators who want to bring in witnesses.

they want to wrap the trial up quickly. the outcome is more or less known. there won't be enough republicans to convict. a lot of senators say let's move on. they want another covid aid project. they have a march deadline before employment benefits expire. the cabinet needs to be confirmed. there isn't much interesting in drawing out the process when the final objective is known. the call you are referencing between kevin mccarthy and president on january 6 has attracted a lot of interest. there are house republicans who have said he should speak up now . there are people who have direct knowledge about what president

trump was thinking and if he was supporting the insurrection against the capital and celebrating it as the capital was being mobbed at the time. sheldon whitehouse said we should bring those people in. again, this is something that has very little interest at this point. host: we suspect democratic senators will vote to acquit. -- to convict. what is happening on the republican side? what do we know about what the senators plan to do on the republican side? guest: a number of your viewers should know it's 44. they voted that the senate did not have jurisdiction over the trial.

their concerns were on constitutional grounds. he is the first former president to be tried in the senate. all others that happen when the president was still in office. trump was impeached for acts committed in office. there is a distinction there. there have been officials who have been convicted and impeached after they left office . this is not unprecedented. it's hard for republicans to say they found the trial unconstitutional and vince decide to vote in the same trial. what most people are anticipating maybe five or six republicans, the one that did vote to the trial was constitutional would vote. mitt romney, ben sasse, all of them voted with democrats to

justify the constitutional grounds. those would be the names to watch. host: what about mitch mcconnell of kentucky? where is he standing on this entire process? is he whipping his caucus one way or the other to get them to vote on this trial? guest: the short answer is no. they are not sure where senator mcconnell is at this point. he hasn't really said one way or the other how he will eventually vote. if you read the tea leaves, there is an opening there. it seems unlikely he would vote to convict. he might surprises i the end of the day. he has been as still as a statue

listening to both sides, listening very intently. he has not indicated one way or the other which way he is leaning. the only indication is that he's undecided. host: what about the three most obvious trump allies? ted cruz, mike lee, lindsey graham? what will be their roles moving forward? there is been conversations about them meeting with the defense team and serving as jurors, being able to vote to acquit. what will their role be? guest: this has the trappings of additional proceeding. this is a good example of how it's a political proceeding. all of the witnesses, all of the victims, the jurors are the same people. they were there on that day. their workplace was mobbed and

we are asking them to weigh in on the guilt or innocence of the person charged with inciting them. that would never happen in a real court. you have this blurring of the judicial process and the political process. graham, lee, cruz have met with the president's attorneys. that happened in his first impeachment trial. mitch mcconnell was very adamant at that time. he was not an impartial jury. he was adamant it would end in acquittal. we expect them to be supporters of the president. there is not much of a role for them at this point, especially if the senate votes to dispense with calling witnesses. they will be part of the vote to acquit. host: do we see if the senate acquits president trump on

impeachment, do we see any idea of moving to another procedure like censuring the president? guest: there has been some talk about censuring the president, invoking language of the 14th amendment for bidding those engaged in insurrection from holding public office in the united states. this was an amendment passed after the civil war targeted at those states that were in rebellion against the union as a way of keeping those people out of office. it is part of the constitution that could be invoked if the president seeks to run for a second term in 2024. some of these senators have said we are not going to get the two thirds necessary to convict, a censure resolution only requires a simple majority and some

republicans are interested in it. that depends on how the rest of the trial plays out and how the language is adopted. the real hurdle is on both sides, there is not much interest. democrats feel like a trial is a better way to hold the president accountable. it is much more historic. republicans will not be interested in censure, at least for many of them. it has some hurdles attached to it. just because president trump may be acquitted does it mean some of this could come up in actual to additional courts. -- judicial courts. many writers stormed the capital that day. -- rioters stormed the capital

that day. host: is the ending preordained? guest: the one surprise we could see this morning is if they do decide to debate or call for a vote. that is something the house managers could ask, to bring in witnesses or vote to bring in witnesses. that would extend the trial beyond closing arguments. what they would do is allow for a deposition of those senators or call them to the stand. tommy tuberville is a freshman senator who talked to the president on january 6 around the time mike pence was being evacuated from the senate chamber. if they call witnesses, it's a whole new ballgame. the likelihood of that happening is still slim.

the number of senators calling for witnesses is pretty small and managers have not said they are in calling witnesses themselves except president trump. host: we would like to thank zach:, the senate reporter for national journal for bringing us up-to-date and telling this what to expect. the impeachment trial continues. thank you so much for your time. let's go back to the phone lines and see what you think about the senate impeachment trial, which will resume at 10:00. you can watch it live here on c-span2. nathan is calling from maine. good morning. caller: i am looking from an interesting perspective. we are here in the northern indicted states. we have a tendency to look at things different leap.

i watch fox and i watch npr during the week. i think what is scaring me the most about this whole thing is the involvement of religion. that's the big elephant in the room. it seems to be more of a problem on the right than the left. religion was never supposed to be a part of politics. it is a driving force behind the republican movement. they are thinking they are being disenfranchised by immigrants and people moving into this country. they are running in fear. you are seeing the manifestation of that fear coming out in the riots and in the movement we are seeing. if we don't address this soon, this republic will collapse. that's what happens when we start dealing with ideology as opposed to covenants. host: from detroit michigan --

detroit, michigan on the democratic line. caller: i just wanted to make a statement. 16 republicans will be up for reelection. i'm not understanding why they would not convict donald trump of doing wrong. what are they teaching the kids? thank you. have a blessed day. host: antony is calling from new jersey on the democratic line. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i was watching yesterday and i believe it was mr. castor. i have come to the collision that words have no consequence. i would like you to ask to see if any of these brave patriots

who marched on the capital january 6 would call to see who or what they wanted to do in occupying the capital. host: did you hear anything from the defense team that makes you think he should not be convicted of inciting a riot? caller: i didn't hear him say go occupy the capital directly. i heard a lot of unit on -- egging it on to a crowd who is waiting for someone to light the spark that ignited the powder keg. going into this trial, there were 50 people on the democratic

side who wanted to convict before any evidence was given. 50 people on the others seemed to be dead set against that, mostly dead set against conviction. i would never want to go to court with that roadblock in front of me myself. host: let's go to andy in kentucky on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. i am very concerned about what is happening right now in washington. all of this is nothing but a joke. the democrats have since 2016, they have been after president trump. trump did nothing wrong. he went up there and fought against trying to get rid of the

corrupt politicians that were up there in washington. we need to have term limits. i used to be a democrat. the democratic party has lost their way. they support things that are not biblical. they support abortion. they support the homosexual lifestyle. they do not stand up for israel. israel gave $150 million to iran. thank the lord that trump got that money back. joe biden used to be -- stand up for pro-life. the democrats have said the same thing on the campaign trail, he would like to take trump behind the barn. vice president harris gave veil

money to get antifa out. -- bail money. host: let's go to glenn in virginia. good morning. caller: i think a big problem we have in this country started years ago with an increasing amount of meanness in our mass media, the radio programs, the various different opportunities people have with the internet now to get news and information. when trump started calling the news media enemy of the people and cap hammering and hammering on that, the fourth estate has been losing a lot of its credibility. a lot of organizations are suffering in the eyes of the public as far as what's real and

what's truth in front of us. to me people are looking at different truths on the same ideas. i think it's destroying a lot of our democratic process. host: mary is calling from tennessee on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. trump did insight that right. he told them to go to the capital and fight. that he would be there with him. he went right back to the white house, looking what was going on. he delayed calling the national guard. we heard police officers calling for help. we saw police officers being abused. trump is the cause of this. trump lied and people died. he is doing the same thing

again. we've got those coward republicans. when you saw them running with everybody else on tv. host: let's go to georgia on the republican line. agnes, good morning. caller: i've been thinking about riots. the people rioted and they attacked the capital. then you think about the school situation going on in this country. the kids have been out of school for a year. they can't get them back. all these politicians and journalists, they are not doing anything.

you wonder about the parents who see their children deteriorating. what kind of other -- why they don't go down there and shake up those lawmakers down there. their children haven't been in school for a year. they sit there and they don't do anything. host: you're not advocating that anybody do what happened on january 6? caller: no. maybe there is a reason for people getting so frustrated that they have to do things like this. there is no other alternative.

how are these parents going to get their kids back to school? host: yesterday, after the end of the proceedings, ron johnson brought -- talked to reporters about what he thought about the defense team and how they did. this is what janet -- senator johnson had to say. >> i think they blew the case out of the water. they legally eviscerated them. they showed the distortions of tweets, the selective editing. they proved the first amendment applies to political speech more than anything. i think they blew the house manager case out of the water. host: let's see what some of our social media followers think about what's been going on in the senate.

this is a text that says the defense team had nothing. they showed the same videos over and over. they featured entertainers like madonna and johnny depp who are irrelevant to the case. there is a correlation between what was said and what happened. it's a sad day when people put on blinders where they can't see the truth beyond their politics. here is another text that says republicans despite overwhelming evidence will not convict trump. the defense was pathetic. one final text says the house managers presented an airtight case. republican senators will allow the formal president -- former president to get away. we want to know what you think

about what is happening in the senate trial. let's go to susan calling from michigan on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. i would just like to say i watched all this. i have seen all this nonsense. a lot of gas lighting is going on here. when you were talking to the man saying this doesn't work, onto the next. that isn't the way our country works. if anything, president trump has shown us how sickening washington dc is and how they think these politicians that don't care about the people, trump was far from perfect, but he was trying to do stuff for america. they were there.

he hadn't given his speech yet. look at those people that broke in. they had all their stuff. the cops are asking ridiculous. that's not how it works. i am independent. i used to be a democrat. everything changed with the way they sell them to fight in the street and no one says a word about that. our country deserves better. host: let's go to patsy in st. louis on the democratic line. good morning. are you there? caller: yes. i've been holding for a minute. good morning. i wanted to say we saw the trouble they had the capital.

the first impeachment, the republicans were blatantly saying no to the conviction of president trump. they should have a silent vote. if they are so bold, when they vote for conviction, they should say i will give up my democracy for president donald trump. if they say yes to the conviction, they should say i'm not willing to give up my democracy for donald trump. host: yesterday, the legal team accused the house impeachment managers of selectively editing the speeches. this is what they said on the senate floor. >> words matter.

they edited the president's words over and over again. they manipulated video, timeshifting clips and making it appear the words were planed to a crowd when they warrant. let's take a look. >> we are going to walk down. i will be there with you. we are going to walk down to the capital. we are going to walk down to the capital. we are going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women. we are not going to be cheering so much for some of them. you will never take back our country with weakness. you have to show strength and you have to be strong. we have come to demand congress do the right thing and only

count the electors who have been lawfully slated. i know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the capitol building. to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard. >> we are going to walk down to the capital. why are we walking to the capital? they cut that off. to cheer on members of congress. the supreme court ruled that there is a clear standard for incitement. whether this speed was intended to provoke lawless action. go to the capital and cheer on some members of congress but not others. they know it doesn't meet the standard for incitement. host: let's go back to the phone lines. let's see what you say about the senate trial going on.

let's go to clarksville, indiana on the republican line. good morning. caller: this is a sham. i've never seen anything like this. who is the judge? the democrats are up there being a gang. john roberts ain't presiding over it. the democrats being judge and jury and executioner. i think that's totally wrong. even john roberts knows that. he's not going to sit there over and impeachment of somebody that left office. incitement of insurrection, all of these people that showed up, many of them are police and other cities.

they are walking in one door and out another door. it just ate right. biden is an empty shell. if you ask a question, he will walk away as fast as he can. he has no answers. there is nothing he is going to do for our country. host: let's go to glenn in madison, illinois on the democratic line. good morning. caller: all the republicans don't know what's happening. go back and pull up that video of trump sitting in the office with don jr.'s girlfriend, doing the hokey pokey while all of this is going on. i was in there on my 61st birthday. -- 65th birthday.

you will not believe how beautiful that place is. you watch thesesuckers tear it . something has got to give. get rid of this instigator that wants to be a dictator so bad that he will throw everything away. thank you. host: let's go to carol, who is calling from west virginia on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. i tried calling in on the independent line. i could not get through. i think what's happened -- i have heard rhetoric from both sides, and, so, to basically say one person is responsible for everything that happened, no. those that went into the capital are the responsible -- capitol

or the responsible people, just like when black lives matter was protesting come you cannot say all the protesters in black lives matter are at fault. where their instigators that had infiltrated both kinds of protests? yes. those are the ones that needs the blame, not everybody. is there going to be peaceful protests where they are going to have people that is in those protests just to cause problems? yes. you cannot say the ones that protested the capitol and went in there and done damage, trump should be held responsible for them and not hold anybody that would not stand up and say no, we do not do this. if you are going to condone it

on one side, you need to condone it on both sides. host: let's go to anita calling from missouri on the independent line. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call and thank you for c-span. i noticed you have some one issue people who have been calling in, like the man from kentucky. i would like to mention to him what i think is the most important issue of all, and that is one of the things that the house managers in their videos did not show. there was a time in one of trump's rallies where he said something to the effect of he would be president again and maybe for a third time and maybe even for longer than that. he has demonstrated over and over that he wanted to be america's putin, and so he was

willing to do a coup to overthrow our government. that is the most important single issue that there is right now beyond anything else. if you do not save the republic, all the rest of the issues are knoll and void. please keep that in mind to the man from kentucky. host: i want to bring more information to you about what we were talking about. cnn has a story about the telephone call that happened between house republican leader kevin mccarthy and then president donald trump that happened during the riot that has brought some questions about what is going on during the impeachment trial. i am going to read a couple of paragraphs to you from that story. "in an expletive laced phone call with house minority leader

kevin mccarthy while the capitol was under attack, president trump said the rioters cared more about the election results than mccarthy did. mccarthy insisted that the rioters were trump supporters and begged trump to call them off. described as a shouting match between the men. a furious mccarthy told trump who the blank do you think you are talking to according to a republican lawmaker familiar with the call. " this is one of the questions that the senators may bring up in the trial that may begin at 10:00 a.m. and whether the

senate needs to bring in witnesses to find out what was going on between these telephone calls between the white house and the capitol on the day of the riot. let's go back to our phone lines. let's talk to jacqueline, who is calling from stratford, connecticut, on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning, c-span. the one question senators are asked to vote on today is this -- did donald trump incite the violence on the sixth? donald trump put out a video saying to the violent terrorists during the violent attack, we love you, you are special. this is proof that he wanted the terrorists to incite the violence. americans listening, this is the proof. please call your senators to tell them to convict. thank you. host: let's go to dan, who is calling from georgetown, massachusetts.

dan, good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for having me on. just to that last caller, also in that same video message, he told them to go home. that is the typical democrat response here, just like the spliced together videos and audios. they should be held in contempt of court for editing speech in videos and presenting that on the senate floor. that is pretty despicable. but, um, these two groups that have been singled out as being the main violence agitators -- the poor boys and the oath keepers -- isn't that right, jesse? host: i do not know who the poor

boys are. caller: oh boys, the proud boys, sorry, i am thinking of some band. the proud boys and the oath are being singled out as the ones that really agitated the violence with that mob? host: those names have come up during the investigation, yes. caller: guess what, the leader of the proud boys, henrique taro , guess what? he is a longtime fbi informant. the fbi is calling him a prolific fbi informant. his specialty was getting groups of people together to commit violent acts so the fbi could bust them. that is the head of that group. the head of the oath, his name is thomas caldwell.

he is in a jail right now in virginia. his lawyer stated yesterday this guy has worked for the fbi for a long time. he is getting paid by them. [caller laughs] the fbi said this guy is the head of this oathkeepers group. thomas caldwell has said he has never been part of that group. he has been working. number one, he has high security clearance with the government. host: let's go to diana, who is calling from milwaukee, wisconsin, on the democratic line. diana, good morning. caller: good, jesse. i was thinking about kevin mccarthy. he was really scared in his office. i equate that to i know he was

upset, but what do you expect? they did the same thing to pence. they left pence hanging out by himself. i think that is wrong. what raskin was trying to explain to them is you do not leave the door open for another president to come in and do the same thing, and these people -- the mob, the protesters, insurgents -- they remind me of the civil war, like you had the north against the south. they seemed like relics of the civil war, except they drive f-150's instead of covered wagons. host: connecticut senater richard blumenthal came out and talked to reporters after friday's proceeding, and we want to bring you his reaction to what he heard on the senate floor. [video clip] >> i think today was about

distraction by the defense, a false equivalence trying to compare what the president did to peaceful protests and trying to throw a lot of red herrings and false equivalency across tv. i think this was an appeal to president trump and his base. i will be talking to my colleagues overnight. i think a number of my republicans are so deeply troubled they feel in their heart that the right thing to do is to convict donald trump them but whether they have the backbone and grit to stand up and speak out remains to be seen. host: let's see what some of our social media followers are saying about the senate trial of ex-president donald trump. here is one tweet that says, "the trial was over before it

began because the outcome was preordained by the gop, who must court trump as their party boss and avoid angering his mega cold." "i have to admit the trump lawyers inserted reasonable doubt as to trump inciting the insurrection. they threw out a lifeline to the spineless republicans." "trump's defense team was brilliant. all they had to do was expose the truth about dem and media lies, which they did, and it was finally a relief." "the gop will not convict, but i will watch fulton county, where the da is investigating criminal charges. republicans will not have a say so in that case."

"house managers, corrupt." tom calling from quaker city, ohio, on the republican line. tom, good morning. caller: i think it was a disgrace on what happened to our capitol. a lot of what it boils down to me is no matter how you want to title these groups, we need to uphold -- we need to get our law enforcement -- we cannot let any of this happen to any of our cities, and it has always -- we have had an embarrassment right now. it has never happened in the u.s., only in other countries. if you do not nip this real quick, every time there is something major that they are not happy about, it is going to get worse. just like an infection, i think we need to nip this really hard. host: let's go to mary, who is calling from massachusetts on

the democratic line. mary, good morning. caller: good morning. i am a democrat, but i totally agree with that person who was just on from ohio. we just cannot let this happen. really, what happened was when he was first elected, within two days of him being elected as president, he was hollering to anybody who will listen that he lost the state of new hampshire because thousands of illegal immigrants were bus loaded from massachusetts into new hampshire to vote, which was a total made up story. he just made it up. there was no proof of it at all. i am disappointed that the republicans are not having a backbone in this impeachment trial, but the democrats, too, they needed to show a backbone

many times over during his presidency. everybody just rolled their eyes . oh, he is blithering on like he does. truly, people believe that what comes out of his mouth. he is the president of the united states. people who are not from our area at that time, they do not know if he is telling the truth or not. i am disappointed in the democrats, too. we keep overstepping -- everything he says and does that is not the truth throughout four years, we have just been overstepping and overstepping. it is no wonder it got to this point. host: let's go to beverly, who is calling from myrtle beach, south carolina, on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. i think that it is a waste of time because he has been in the chair for four years, and

everything that they tried to do -- impeachment -- good morning. host: no, keep going. we can hear you. caller: he has been impeached. it is like they do not have eyes to see or ears to hear anything that he has done wrong, but when it comes to anything the dems do, all of a sudden eyes popped open, and they have ears to hear. it is a waste of time and money because they will not impeach him. host: let's go to dave, who is calling from bedford, new hampshire, on the republican line. dave, good morning. caller: good morning. yeah, what happened the sixth was really terrible. no doubt. i think it is both ways, and it has got to stop, number one.

number two, donald trump said he was going to drain the swamp, and that is perfectly what he is doing. we have seen both sides what they did. all summer long, the democrats had their peaceful protests, which we know it was not peaceful, but the news keeps on pushing the opposite. now, we have seen what the news can do. we know the news does what they want to get their narrative through. we have seen how crooked the stock market is, so he is just draining the swamp, and that is all i got to say. host: let's go to sergio, who is calling from schenectady, new york, on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. thank you to c-span for

providing the opportunity to reach across the aisle to speak to all americans. what we saw on january 6 is what we can expect if we do not told donald trump accountable for what he has done, what he has set forth in this country. i implore all of my patriotic americans -- freedom, freedom, everybody is talking about freedom and patriotism. what kind of freedom do you think we are going to have when we allow our government to dictate to us under the shadow of a news like they held up for mike pence? host: let's go to mark, who is calling from huntsville, alabama, on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. i was trying to get through while you had a guest on. hopefully, maybe, somebody who calls in after me will have a response to this.

what i wanted to know is i know they talked about impeaching trump, so -- not impeach him, but subpoena him, so he has to testify. so if you send him a subpoena, he is going to have to show up on the house and answer questions, and i imagine his attorneys will tell him to plead the fifth so he does not have to say anything, but we all know donald trump come and he just loves to hear himself talk, and i assume he is going to answer one question, and once he does then he has so-called open the door. you can keep asking him questions on a relevant topic. he can keep pleading the fifth, but once he has opened the door and answer the question, i don't know why they don't subpoena him. host: some senators are talking

about perhaps bringing in some witnesses. we have a tweet from sheldon whitehouse where he is saying one way to clear it up, talking about the conversation between trump and mccarthy and another conversation between senator tommy tuberville and the president, one way to clear it up, suspended trial to depose mccarthy and tub are built under oath and get facts. ask secret service to produce for review communications back to whitehouse re vice president pence safety during siege. what did trump know and when did he know it? there are some senators talking about witnesses. as they concluded yesterday, former president trump's legal team said in defense of

president trump that the trial they are going through now is distracting the senate from work that they should be focused on. here is what his team concluded with yesterday. [video clip] >> members of the senate, our country needs to get back to work. i know that you know that, but instead we are here. the majority party promised to unify and deliver more covid relief, but instead they did this. we will not take most of our time today, us of the defense, in the hopes that you will take back these hours and use them to get delivery of covid relief to the american people. let us be clear. this trial is about far more than president trump.

it is about silencing and banning the speech the majority does not agree with. it is about canceling 75 million trump voters and criminalizing political viewpoints. that is what this trial is really about. it is the only existential issue before us. it asks for constitutional cancel culture to take over in the united states senate. are we going to allow canceling and banning and silencing to be sanctioned in this body? to the democrats who view this as a moment of opportunity, i

urge you instead to look to the principles of free expression and free speech. i hope, truly, that the next time you are in the minority you do not find yourself in this position. to the republicans in this chamber, i ask, when you are next in the majority, please resist what will be an overwhelming temptation to do this very same thing to the opposing party. host: i want to remind everyone that when this show ends at 10:00 a.m., the senate impeachment trial of president trump will resume. you can watch live on c-span2 and on c-span.org, and you can listen live on the free c-span

radio app. you can find plenty of information at c-span.org /impeachment. let's see if we can get a few more calls in on the segment. we will start with sylvia, calling from virginia on the republican line. good morning. caller: thank you. thank you for c-span. i was watching all that happened on january 6, and my granddaughter was here, too, and i had to turn it off because she was here. i feel that the democrats and the republicans that were there were living what happened. i believe that what they said about president -- mike pence was horrific, and to have him have to go and hide with his family made me very shaken up. the witnesses -- the witness from virgin island did a great job.

my heart goes out to all of them that had to live that day on january 6 at the capitol. thank you. host: let's go to jack calling from florida on the independent line. good morning. caller: hi. i just want to emphasize everyone that if trump had not been speaking at that meeting that he summoned and then assembled on the sixth, would what had happened on the sixth ever occurred? if he had been playing golf at mar-a-lago, would we have had innovation of the capitol? he has set a precedent that we don't want other presidents ever to do. we don't want our president to challenge the elections in the court, and then when the courts reject his challenges, assemble a mob and declare the election was a fraud.

he had every opportunity in every state to challenge the election. he lost. he lost at the state court. he lost at the federal court. he lost at the u.s. supreme court. then he called the mob. if he had not done any of that, this event would not have occurred. i don't want, as an independent, i don't want a democrat to ever do what he did host:. let's talk -- what he did. host: let's talk to linda on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. i was watching on january 6 as well, and what i saw, for the most part, was, for the longest time, just peaceful protest think. i was listening to the speeches. i watched them when they went to the capitol building. they were outside. i did see when they went inside.

they were in the statutory room, and they were just marching back and forth with the flag. it was not until later that you saw the violence. i was also disturbed by seeing the photographers, so many. there was more photographers at first then there was rioters or even demonstrators. what were all those photographers doing waiting for those people together? i have another question on all of this, to. -- too. justice john roberts by the constitution is supposed to be the judge of this. from what i gathered from what was said was he felt this was unconstitutional, so by having a democratic senator sitting in as a judge, like he is not unbiased because he is a democrat, like

he is not impartial. this is like a kangaroo court. it is a fake judge and kangaroo court. host: linda, according to the constitution, the chief justice only sits in on impeachment trials when it is a sitting president. by the time it got around to the senate, president trump was ex-president trump. host: does it come out that they can have a democratic member elected to the senate sit over this of a republican ex-pres ident and try to be impartial? i do not see how it can happen. host: let's go to monique, who is calling from washington, d.c. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. this is america. 100%. you know, it is shocking,

because i live in d.c., and i went through the process, and i saw it firsthand. my heart, it was like my heart pounded every time -- i live close to the capitol. throughout that day, a lot of rioters were parking on our streets with the trump flags. also, there was a lot of stuff that was going down that the newspeople did not see. trump supporters were beating up people periodically throughout the city. my heart still pounds because this isn't the america i grew up in. this isn't the america that i

thought about, and a lot of times the republican callers have been accepting the actions of our president. the way i was raised, if you do something bad or say something disrespectful, then consequences to your actions. you have to take full responsibility of anything that you do that is not right. host: let's go to jeff, who is calling from auburn, new york, on the democratic line. jeff, good morning. caller: good morning, jesse. i am a veteran. i would like to give my veterans experience and view. first, i would like to make two quotes. if you listen to fools, the mob rules. the second, i am not black, but there are a lot of times i wish i could say i am not white. those are ronnie james steele and frank zappa respectively.

as a veteran, i am a navy veteran. i am kind of middle-aged. i am 62. i am offended by the police man that was beaten with the american flag. if i were to call witnesses, he would be the first witness i would call. he was beaten by the mob with the american flag on its pull. i respect that flag. i think the trump supporters who fly this flag tattered and dirty on their pickup trucks alongside the stars and bars, this is disrespectful to the flag. the flag is supposed to be burnt when it is dishonored and dirty and tattered, and it is supposed to be at a watchfire with the vfw or american legion. i served my country honorably. i took the same oath politicians take as a sailor in the navy to defend the constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic.

my final point being, as a veteran, i do not want to see trump's name on an aircraft carrier, school, airport, presidential library, or highway, and i do not want to see his head carved in mount rushmore. host: let's go to paul, who is calling from kansas city, missouri, on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning, jesse. i get so vexed when i hear people make the false equivalency between what happened on the sixth and black lives matter protests over the summer. i'm not going to straight too far from the civics, but what you saw in the protests over the summer was a cross-section of america. you saw black people of all ages. you saw white people of all ages. you saw asian people of all

ages. you saw latino people of all ages. you saw a cross-section of america that were out there because in america there has been a pattern over the centuries of of view of black lives as being less -- host: let's go to terry, who is calling from new bern, tennessee, on the republican line. go ahead, terry. caller: yeah. i just wanted -- everybody getting ready for this new president, you wait and see. trump has the gas prices down around two dollars. everybody wait and see this new president, gas is going to be around five dollars to $10.

all you democrats out there, you just wait and see. just wait and see. all i gotta say. go ahead. you like five dollar gas, go ahead. all i gotta say. host: let's go to larry, who is calling from memphis, tennessee, on the democratic line. good morning. caller: thank you very much for having me today. only thing i wanted to say is i just cannot believe that pence would still be cozy buddies with trump when he just left him high and dry. not about to say he threw him under the bus, but he just left him hanging. on the same token, can you imagine went black lives matter went to the capitol, they had everything from dogs, god, fbi,

cia, everybody out there. when these people, proud boys and all them old people and all this, when they came, they let them in. you know what i am saying. it is what it is. if black lives matter had done some stuff like that, they would still be picking up bodies. host: let's go to louise, who is calling from fredericksburg, virginia, on the republican line. louise, good morning. caller: good morning. i just wanted to clear up. people are calling about subpoenas. it is interesting. this is not a trial that they are doing now. this is the summation. this is the closing arguments. the trial was held in the house. they should have subpoenaed people in the house, but instead

what they did is they quickly crafted together and impeachment, and then they take their summation, their closing arguments to the senate that acts as the jurors. the trial should have taken place in the house of representatives. the questions to the witnesses should have been in the house of representatives, and out of nowhere, we have been through this before, so surely you should know how the court system works. i am pro-trump, and i am pro america. i am paying very close attention to all of this, and i tell you, it would have to be a cold day in hell before i would vote for a democrat. host: