democrats on board. chuck schumer is somebody who will play both sides of the street on trade. he has applauded the president on certain things, especially china and currency manipulation. here, he votes no. the democrats especially in the house of representatives, they voted yes because they like the enforcement provisions. so they are going to walk these articles of impeachment over a period they will over. going to receive these articles of impeachment. mitch mcconnell, so this is all pivoting from policy to the senate trail right before our eyes. >> bret: just one thing. the markets, all three indices in record territory right now. as a reaction, perhaps, to this usmca. >> martha: lee saw that yesterday too. i am reminded of some of the conversations when this process began, and the advice that was

given to president trump. just keep doing your job, just take to the things that are at hand. do what bill clinton did. compartmentalize your impeachment and keep moving forward. and of course, president trump does a lot of tweeting. his feelings are very widely known. and i think this is one of the most fascinating things about covering the trump presidency, the actions speak a lot louder than the words, and in this ca case, the business at hand has marched on in no way that a lot of people didn't anticipate. these are big things. so china deal is a big deal. this puts us back in the clinton era when nafta was first put into play. now you have the recreation of this deal. president trump out from the beginning that he wanted to do one-on-one trade negotiations with all of the countries that we do business with, and these are two really big examples of that playing out. >> bret: just looking back at the beginning of this effort to

kind of restructure the world trade with the u.s., republicans and democrats at the beginning said this guy is crazy. this is nuts to do this, to renegotiate nafta, to pull out of the asia agreement, to pressure china the way that he has. now we have phase one of this trade deal signed yesterday, and a renegotiation of nafta, if you will, today. >> martha: i think you have to give it a little bit of time to look back and see, but in the immediacy, yes, it looks like the economic weaponry against china -- actually calling for an end to hostilities for the moment, but the president keeping some firepower in reserve, saying we are going to go back to edge. one of the things i didn't happen was the question of china basically heavily subsidizing all of their industries, which the united states doesn't do. if that is the most

fundamentally unfair part. will china actually fulfill its obligations and this promises that it made in the trade deal? we can all hope so, but of course, president trump and even succeeding administrations will have to verify that. for the left and the liberals, what has actually happened in the usmca is a lot of what they have been asking for for a long time. yet today, you have ten people -- ten senators voted against this deal. one of them is bernie sanders. the others cory booker, the senator from new jersey, and i'm sure that they will have a lot more to say about that, but it might be because they are trying to -- >> melissa: for walking across to the senate. appointed yesterday by house speaker nancy pelosi. making the walk that they did yesterday with the articles of impeachment. this time, they are going to learn to officially start this trial. adam schiff, jerry sandler leading the way.

the two committee chairman most responsible for those hearings that we sign the impeachment. >> dana: it is interesting. when we watch this play out, and you think about the fact that we have had these conversations about endless rounds of impeachment. the possibility of other articles of impeachment, and you wonder -- we listen this morning to nancy pelosi say about the president committed a crime. we may be looking at a situation where there are sort of concurrent processes here, where they start deciding that they want to bring him in on the house side. the other part of the equation is well, this is very unprecedented in terms of the way that this whole thing has played out. you hear that cameras clicking away here as we watch all of this proceed. through the capital and overage units on it, where become their show in many ways from now on. >> bret: just walking through, chatted with us again.

chad, these managers were specifically chosen by speaker pelosi. >> exactly. she says that these are members who have a background in the courtroom. she was also looking at up-and-coming leaders. adam schiff is someone who has handled and impeachment before. about ten years ago. she was impressed with his performance. it was also geographical diversity, racial diversity. women. they were not female managers last time. and the house has certain responsibilities. article one, section two impeachment. and then section three of the constitution. this is the essence of o2 house system in the united states government, brad. bret. >> bret: if they are going call witnesses, he is this guy who is coming forward with all

of these documents and accusations. he is also facing multiple indictments. that presents a bit of an issue. speaker pelosi was asked about that today. >> it sure does. if you had asked me this yesterday, i never would have predicted that he would be out in the media, making public statements because you would think that the throat to him is that he can't testify because that would convict him in the district of new york justice department. >> bret: let's listen to the senate floor. >> the impeachment of donald john trump, the president of the united states. >> escorted to the senate.

[silence] >> we will make the proclamati proclamation. >> hear ye, all persons are commanded to keep silent. the house of representatives exhibiting through the senate of the united states, articles of impeachment against donald john trump, president of the united states. the managers on the part of the house will now proceed. >> mr. president, the managers on the part of the house of representatives are present and ready to present the articles of impeachment, which have been

preferred by the house of representatives against donald john trump, president of the united states. the house adopted the following resolution, which, with permission of the senate, i will read. house resolutions 798, pointing and authorizing managers for the impeachment of donald john trump, president of the united states. resolve the mr. crow, ms. garcia of texas are appointed managers to conduct the impeachment trial against donald john trump, president of the united states. that a message be sent to the senate to inform the senate of these appointments and that the managers may in connection with the preparation and conduct of the trial, exhibit articles of impeachment to the senate and take all other actions necessary, which may include the following: employing legal, clerical, and other necessary assistance and incurring such

other expenses as may be necessary to be paid for amounts available to the committee on the judiciary under applicable expense resolutions or from the applicable account of the house of representatives. over two, sending four persons and papers and filing on part of the house of representatives. any pleadings in conjunction with or to the articles of impeachment that the managers may consider necessary. with the permission of the senate, i will now read the articles of impeachment, house resolution 755. house resolution 755:impeaching donald john trump, president of the united states for high crimes and misdemeanors. resolved that president -- donald j. trump, president of the united states, is impeached for high crimes and misdemeano misdemeanors, and that the following articles of impeachment be exhibited to the

united states senate. articles of impeachment exhibited by the house of representatives of the united states of america in the name of itself and of the people of the united states of america against donald john trump, president of the united states of america and maintenance and support of its impeachment against him for high crimes and misdemeanors. article one. abuse of power. the constitution provides that the house of representatives shall have the sole power of impeachment. and about the president shall be removed from office on impeachment for and in conviction of treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. in his conduct of the office of the president of the united states, and in violation of his constitutional oath, faithfully to execute the office of president of the united states, and to the best

of his ability preserve, protect, defend the constitution of the united states. and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. it donald j. trump has abused the powers of the presidency and that using the powers of his high office, president trump solicited the interference of a foreign government, ukraine, in the 2020 united states presidential election. he did so through a scheme that included soliciting the government of ukraine to publicly announce investigations that would benefit his reelection. harm the election prospects of a political opponent, and influence the 2020 united states presidential election to his advantage. president trump also sought to pressure the government of ukraine to take the steps by conditioning official united states government acts of

significant value to ukraine on its public announcement of the investigations. the president trump engaged in this game or course of conduct for crop purposes in pursuit of personal political benefit. in so doing, president trump use of the powers of the presidency in a manner that compromise of the national of the united states and undermined the integrity of the united states democratic process. he thus ignored and injured the interests of the nation. president trump engaged in this game or course of conduct to the following means: number one, president trump acting both directly and through his agents both in and outside of the united states government corruptly solicited the government of ukraine to publicly announce investigations into haiti, a political oppone

opponent, joseph r biden jr., and b, a discredited theory promoted by russia, that ukraine, rather than russia, interfered in the 2016 united states presidential election. number two, with the same culture motives, president trump acting both directly and through his agents within the united states government, to code official acts on the public announcement that he had requested. a, the release of $391 million of the united states taxpayer funds that congress had appropriated on a bipartisan basis for the purpose of providing vital military and security assistance to ukraine to oppose russian aggression, to which president trump had ordered suspended. and b, head of state meeting at the white house, which the president of ukraine sought to

demonstrate continued united states support for the government of ukraine in the face of russian aggression. number three. faced with the public revelation of his actions, president trump ultimately release the military and security systems to the government of ukraine but has persisted and openly and corruptly urging and soliciting ukraine to undertake investigations for his personal political benefit. these actions were consistent with president trump's previous invitations of foreign interference in the united states elections. and all of this, president trump abused of the powers of the presidency. by our reading national security and other vital national interest to obtain an improper personal political benefit. he has also betrayed the nation by abusing his high office to enlist a foreign power and corrupting democratic elections.

therefore, president trump, by such conduct, has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to national security and the constitution if allowed to remain in office. and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with self-governance and the rule of law. president trump faces removal from office and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the united states. article two. obstruction of congress. the constitution provides that the house of representatives shall have the sole power of impeachment. and thought the president shall be removed from office on impeachment for and in conviction of treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. in this conduct in the office of president of the united states and in violation of his

constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of president of of president of the united states, and to the best of his ability preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the united states, and in violation of his constitutional duty to care that the laws be faithfully executed, donald j. trump has directed the categorical and indiscriminate defiance of subpoenas issued by the house of representatives, pursuant to its full power of impeachment. president trump has abused the power of the presidency in a manner offensive to you and subversive of the constitution. and now the house of representatives has engaged in impeachment inquiry focused on the president trump is solicitation on the government of ukraine to interfere in the 2020 united states presidential election. as part of this impeachment inquiry, the committees undertaking the investigation serve a subpoena seeking documents and testimony deemed

vital to the inquiry from various executive branch offices and agencies and current and former officials. in response, without lawful cause or excuse, president trump directed executive branch agencies, offices, and officials not to comply with those subpoenas. president trump mass interpose the powers of the presidency against the lawful subpoena of the house of representatives and assumed to himself functions and judgments necessary to exercise those sole power of impeachment. bested by the constitution in the house of representatives. president trump and abused the powers of high office through the following means: number one, directing the white house to define a lawful subpoena by withholding the production of documents sought therein by the committees. number two. it directing other executive branch agencies and offices to

defy level subpoenas and withhold the production of documents and records from the committees, in response to which the department of state, the office of management and budget, the department of energy, and the department of defense refused to produce a single document or record. directing current and former -- number three -- directing officials not to cooperate with the committees, in response to which nine administration officials defined subpoenas for testimony. namely john michael mick mulvaney, robert blair, john eisenberg, michael ellis, preston wells griffith, michael duffy, brian mccormick, and t overcorrect -- this was consisth his efforts to undermine

investigations into foreign interference in the united states elections. through these actions, president trump sought to himself the right to determine the scope and nature of the impeachment inquiry into his own conduct. as well as the unilateral prerogative to deny any and all information to the house of representatives in the exercise of its sole power of impeachme impeachment. in the history of the republic, no president has ever ordered the complete defiance of an impeachment inquiry or sought to obstruct and impede so comprehensively the ability of the house of representatives to investigate high crimes and misdemeanors. this abuse of office serves to cover up the president's own repeated misconduct and to seize and control the power of impeachment and with us, to nullify a vital constitutional

safeguard rested solely in the house of representatives. in all of this, president trump acted in a manner contrary to his trust as president and subversive of constitutional government to the great prejudice of the calls of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the united states. wherefore, president trump, by such conduct has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to the constitution if it were to remain in office. and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with self-government and the rule of law. president trump thus warrants impeachment and trial, removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the united states. mr. president, that completes the exhibition of the articles

of impeachment against donald john trump, president of the united states. the manager's request of the senate take order for the trial. the managers now request leave to withdraw. >> thank you, mr. schiff. the senate will duly notify the house of representatives when it is ready to proceed to trial. [silence] >> bret: the trial of president donald j. trump has officially begun. this is not -- this is only the third time in american history that this has happened as you watch the house impeachment managers. the seven of them leave the senate chamber. now, we wait until -- this is senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. >> proceeding to the articles of impeachment, chief justice of the united states will preside.

also, under the previous order, the presiding officer has been authorized to the committee of four senators, two upon the recommendation of the majority leader's, and to go up on the recommendation of the democratic leader to escort the chief justice into the senate chamber. i asked that the presiding officer do so now. >> the chair, pursuant to order, january 15, 2020, on behalf of the majority leader and the democratic leader, appoints mr. leahy of vermont, mr. graham of south carolina, and mrs. feinstein of california to escort the chief justice of the united states into the senate chamber. >> so, with further information, there will be protocol at 2:00 p.m. today.

unanimous consent of the senate stand in recess subject to the call. >> without objection, the senate stands and resource subject to the call of the chair. >> bret: senator chuck grassley, he is the longest serving member the senate. and do you hear that now the senate is in recess. it has officially started with this trial, as we are looking at this all happen. as i mentioned, it is only the third time in american history that it has happened, and now it all begins in earnest as i chief justice john roberts is sworn in at 2:00 p.m. the real trial, martha, starts tuesday of next week after the holiday weekend, and that is when the house managers that you are looking at here will start presenting their case. but we have to remember that the president and his team also will be sworn in and will present the president side of this, which is different from what we saw in

the house effort in those committee hearings. >> martha: i was just thinking the same thing. we have seen the house process, the democrat side of this process. now we will hear from the president's white house counsel, jay sekulow, also on his team. and potentially some other members on the republican side. john ratcliffe's name has been put out there. both of whom were very aggressive questioners, strong proponents of the president side of this equation in the house side of this process. so i think for the first time, folks at home are going to see the defense of the white house. he wrote a very descriptive and aggressive letter not too long ago, so it about letting the white house perspective on the process of this on the house side, and their feelings that this had been sort of railroaded through on the democrat side. but we are going to see and hear that for the first time when all this gets underway on tuesday.

we think midday, bret. >> bret: we will bring it against b-17s up on capitol hill. where we stand there waiting for the chief justice to be sworn in. >> that's right. something is going to happen, something that chuck grassley mentioned. if you look at the senate floor often, they sit in these that are not really quorum calls, sometimes for hours at a time. they go through the alphabet very slowly. so that they never get to the end. that is basically a timeout. this will be a real or on-call, assessing who is there. this is the bona fide, real thing. so that will happen at 2:00. what is going on now, the democrats are going in to one room. they have lunch there. the republicans are going into another room. you can guess what is number one here, what is going to be the strategy us? what they will hear from the impeachment managers, then come back out. a little bit after 2:00. >> bret: let me clarify one

thing. it during the trial, all senators need to be seated. they can't be talking. there is no cell phones in the senate chamber, and they have to be there, which is obviously an issue for some of those candidates on the 2020 campaign trail. >> that is an interesting question. when we go back through the rules, there is a little bit of vagueness they are in the six impeachment rules. now what you could potentially do, bret, and i don't know that they could get agreement on th this. they will try to move on tuesday, that's a thumbs-up framework. if you don't have an agreement on the framework, whether it is like what they had back in 1999, or what will probably be the too make a decision. is it more important to be there or be out on the campaign trail as iowa and new hampshire approach? that said, when you talk to some of the senators privately, they say that they take this duty as being a senator, and an impeachment trial is the second

most important thing next to a vote of work or moving military hostilities. they take this very seriously, and some of them may agree to forfeit their campaign time and sit adjustmen in judgment of tht on the floor. b5 iowa, right around the corner. they will have to make the choice that chad describes. it is obviously very high-profile position for them to be in the senate in the middle of all this too. i could be useful for their arguments against president trump as well. >> this morning, i was reading an article. the local iowa press, where they interviewed somebody in western iowa who had been supportive of elizabeth warren early on, but has recently been very frustrated and apparently had expressed this to her, that she had not been in western iowa enough. one of the things that's happens in iowa is that the voters, they want to see you. they want to shake your hand. they want to see if you have what it takes to be the nominee.

so if you are bernie sanders, warren, and amy klobuchar, you're going to have to get yourself back to washington, d.c., and sit there. you heard what senator grassley said. you have to be silent under threat of imprisonment. it is not only that you get kicked out of the chambers. you can't even go to i would. you may have to go to prison if you talk. this is a big issue for the senators. of course, they will have circuits that can get out there and speak on their behalf and i will, but there is a reason this is only bent on three times in history. it is so divisive. it is also the first time that it outspent down on such a narrow, partisan basis. you do not have broad bipartisan support for this. >> bret: juan williams, it is tough for the president, saying that he has been waiting for the g.o.p. control center to take the reins here in this impeachment process, to you have to watch adam schiff reviewed in detail the articles of

impeachment from the senate floor. >> juan: i imagine that the president is watching, and i imagine that he is frustrated because you don't get over a bottle at this juncture. u simply get the articles of impeachment, and it seems to me that in the way that adam schiff read it, it went a little bit beyond the mere repetition of the specific language. he spoke about corruption specifically had about a continued threat to democracy and elections and the like, even getting into listing the names of people who had been denied the opportunity to come and present before congress or the house because of the president's position that no one should cooperate with the impeachment. so that's why i imagine as he is watching, or he is aware of it, but he is frustrated because i think he's a real fighter, and he wants to get into the fight. the interesting part to me is you are going to have 24 hours,

bret, 24 hours of those people that you just come into the senate and leave, they will have 24 hours to make his case. the president will also have 24 hours. then you get 16 hours in which the senators themselves can pose written questions. that's all long period. and i think that is where we are going to see the actual conflict, the trauma that is going to drive us in terms of public opinion. i saw it referred to today as being the ultimate discourse in this impeachment proceeding. >> bret: >> bret: thank you. we are going to say goodbye to our fox affiliate stations. please stay tune for continuing coverage. for martha maccallum in new york, new york, and bret baier in washington. back with our panel, andy mccarthy, this case is a case. it is not a court room, but it is a case i will be presented on the senate floor, and that is how we have to look at this.

the question is one form it will take. >> yeah, and along those lines, i would like to just make an observation about what we have just seen because as a public spectacle, this is actually a high water mark for the presentation of the case against the president. in a normal criminal trial, one of the most important moments in the trial is when the prosecution, because it has the burden of proof, gets to go first and lay out to the jury, the case that is going to be presented. that is not exactly what we are today. all adam schiff did was read the charges, but the charges are written in a very narrative, accusatory way, that is kind of like an opening statement. and what i would underscore here, as a prosecutor, but i always thought that if you have a strong judge who visited on

the jury and everyone in the courtroom, the importance and the solemnity of the proceedings, so that everyone knew that they were in federal court. i was at an enormous advantage, being able to get up and be the first voice heard to influence the jury about what the case was about, and here, the democrats not only got the advantage of that, but all the normal politicking that we would hear, and the back and forth in the center, that i was suspended for now. importantly, there was not a representative of the president to go second after adam schiff and say let me tell you all the things that he didn't tell you, or let me give you some of the rebuttal to what you just heard. so schiff got an opportunity to present the case and was very compelling, accusatory document on the circumstances where there is no rebuttal, and i will be ringing in people's ears until next week. >> martha: that is a great point.

sort of half of an opening argument, andy, as we watch this play out today, and it gives perhaps a little bit of an advantage. i want to bring in juan williams. in regards to what jonathan has been saying throughout this process, the fact that he felt that they did not continue prosecuting their case. he didn't preclude the fact that he thought that if they did, they might get where they wanted to go. they might draw those conclusions. they might continue to press for witnesses in court cases. sort of asserting executive privilege of the white house. then jonathan talks about the four weeks of nothing. what did they benefit? will they ever get about a time opportunity back? >> juan: i don't think they view it that way. so you view the period as having opened the door to the presentation of witnesses, and mitch mcconnell so that he

wasn't going to open the door appeared to sleep for about their burden, the way that the constitution lays it out. >> juan: in terms of executing their burden in the house, they felt that because the president was denying, or defying it, discouraging people from acknowledging those subpoenas and going to, that they had no alternative. that is the polar sea, the schiff, the jerry nadler you are strategy is to slow walk us, take us to court, mr. house leader. adam schiff. take us to court, says the president. we will wait until the courts decide this. we could not have had a decision on impeachment until after the election of november 2020. so the house position was to say we are not going to buy into your strategy. we are going to go on a different direction, and we will proceed with what we are able to

collect. >> dana: jim trusty, a lawyer that we have on "the daily briefing" yesterday, and of course andy mccarthy could weigh on this. the founding fathers set up this process in which we have three branches of government, and if you have a problem, you can take it to court, to get to the judicial branch. the house decided not to do that, but the president have the right to defend himself in court, but they decided not to go that direction. one of the articles is on obstruction of justice. of course, that would be different. they didn't go through this process. the house doesn't want to do it. he had suggested that one of the things that they might be able to do is dismiss -- if a to dismiss, get that off the table. >> martha: i thought that i was very interesting. let's go back to you guys in d.c. >> bret: child, as we are

talking about how this is going to go forward, the job of congress continues. we just saw the usmca pass. what else, potentially, gets done is this trial gets under way? >> well, again, there's only so much news oxygen up here. other things might be going on behind the scenes. especially house democrats are going to try to portray this, we sent all of these bills over to the senate. one wonders if they try to sell that narrative to the voter, going into november, especially in swing districts, there's a lot. that's the reason that they flipped it, this is a shoving match. when they are competing, it is on network television, day today. i went back and calculated how much time they devoted to the center trial in 1999. there were 22 total days that they met, 104 hours and 22 minutes.

that is not focusing on new hampshire. not other issues and i would appear that a significant periods so the other thing that we might see here our efforts to try to get an agreement. they found that the government. we don't have to worry about that until september 30th. that is not going to be an issue for a while. they have really not passed, frankly, a lot of bills, other than those measures to keep the government open. a lot of nominations. there is not a lot of traffic there. the focus is going to be for the next month or six weeks or however long this lasts, on these managers, what case do they prevent? what case does the president seem present, and how that works out in the court of public opinion. many of them that i spoke to yesterday indicated that they had not been notified until about 24 hours before they were tapped by house speaker nancy pelosi, so they are going to spend the next couple of days huddling, dividing up what their portfolios are, how they decide

to present the case. it do you handle this or that? as we say, 24 hours for the prosecution. divide that by seven. if that is a lot of time. 13 managers as you did in 1999, they had a much more narrow birth. so that is going to be the issue. i will throw another wild card in here. one of the most memorable things that happened in 1999, and thought kind of close the deal for president clinton. he had just retired literally a few weeks before as a democratic senator from arkansas and was generally known as the most powerful in the senate of the time. they brought him in for cleanup for president clinton. his speech, when you talk to academics who study this, probably one of the most remarkable speeches, regardless of what you think of president clinton. and it closed the deal for president clinton. some people thought that there was a chance -- even the majority leader told me a couple weeks ago, he thought there was a chance that they would in fact convict and remove

president clinton. we don't know what i wild card's, whom i come in. certainly some witnesses. >> bret: that's exactly right. at 21 years later, the next impeachment trial. this one of president donald j. trump. continuing coverage here on fox news channel will continue right after this. i have major money saving news for my fellow veterans. va mortgage rates have dropped to near 50 year lows. call newday usa. one call can save you $2000 a year. with the newday va streamline refi there's no income verification, no appraisal and no out of pocket costs. and my team can close your loan in as little as 30 days. one call can save you $2000 every year.

i "191including best director, x0mbest original screenplay... there's only one way this ends. and best picture of the year. last man standing.

♪ >> we have a responsibility to call witnesses and subpoena documents that will shed light on the truth here. god forbid we rush through this trial, and only afterward, the truth comes out. how will my colleagues on the other side of the aisle feel if they rushed it through, and then even more evidence comes out? >> i think what the democrats

are trying to do here is backdoor their failures in the house to actually rush through, then they sat on the articles for a month. it made absolutely no sense. they rushed through, and i think that senator collins said it best yesterday. they didn't do a thorough process. >> martha: all right, let's bring in chief white house correspondent john roberts off of those two sound bites over the issue of witnesses and trying to get a do over from the outside, john. >> this is a point that the white house is making. in the president made it on twitter the other day. it was supposed to be the house that tend t took care of impeachment, so why are we tryig to do this all over again in the senate by calling witnesses and putting forward new evidence? and an awful lot of evidence was dumped in the last 48 hours in reference to this rudy giuliani at associates. somewhat in question. even democrats are saying that it needs to be checked out.

but i think what you are seeing here, even as the white house counts -- michael, patrick, and then outside counsel, they are spending so many hours a day preparing for their role, which will begin in earnest next weekend. the contrast here, and that was illuminated by a tweet that stephanie grisham, the press secretary, but out a short time ago. "after yesterday's historic trade deal with china and usmca pass today, the democrats are now reading their sham articles of impeachment which they manufactured in order to stop president trump from his continued success on behalf of america. he's working. or they are whining." so we saw that yesterday with the u.s.-china trade agreement. the president is continuing his trip to switzerland next week where he will be speaking with the global economic leaders, and other global billionaires will be there as well. they will be working on behalf of the united states, even as

the trail opens to determine whether or not he can continue as president. the white house is trying to say about the president is out there working for the country, and all democrats are trying to do is throw against the wall whatever they think and stick to try to take the president down. and you saw senator schumer there just a month ago, saying what was the case be like if we were to leave any piece of evidence out of this and let the truth come out later? the white house is saying how much more truth do you need? we went through this process for how many weeks, and know you want to keep going? it is time to get this over with so that the president can get on with his work in the country. a lot of critics would disagree with that, but that is the perspective of the white house. >> martha: with regards to the state of the union, what is the discussion there about whether or not that is on schedule, given his calendar? >> here is the one thing, though one point that the president is making in all of this, that he is not going to let impeachment

the real him from what he needs to do as president. so at this point, that is why the dabo strip is on. that is why he is still planning on giving the state of the union address. bill clinton gave state of the union in the middle of his impeachment trial. i think he is saying i have got my work to do, and i'm not going to let the stuffed distract me from the work of the country. we will see how longthat up. bill clinton was amazing at compartmentalizing. donald trump, i think less so, but you will notice that he has been uncharacteristically quiet the last few days regarding impeachment, so maybe he has got that discipline down. >> martha: may be. we will see. >> bret: how many times has john roberts... [laughs] said that? [laughs] the government's accountability office, making their determination that the trump

administration violated the below the law, and i think we have two sound bites. number eight and number nine. listen. >> that was a tv show. not a court of law, and this is somebody who i guess lie to the authorities when they were setting their bill. he has been indicted. and i think we should go by what the president himself has said. >> immediately make an announcement, literally that night, within the next 24 hours, the investigation on joe biden. there would be no relationship. that they would be a sister, no inauguration. and there would be no visit to the white house. >> bret: it has been pushed back from the doj. you know, for somebody sitting at home, how does this all play

out? >> you know, bret, if you are planning trial strategy, what you would always try to do is not to take on anything that you didn't need to prove in order to get the bottom-line result that you wanted. and this is why, from the perspective of the president, i have always been curious about the determination to fight this on the grounds that there was never any quid pro quo. there is no pressure. everything was perfect. one it has always seemed to me that the bottom-line best offense for the president has always been that nothing of consequence happened here. and the problem with taking on things that you don't have to prove to establish your innocence in this case is that anything that now comes out that disproves these things that for whatever gratuitous reason you decided to take on, anything that comes out, emerges as if it was in the nature of the

bombshell. my point has always been that if your defense is bottom-line, nothing happened, and i take it as a given that the president and his underlings try to put some pressure on the ukrainians in order to get these accommodations that he wanted, then part of the testimony, even if it was credible, and i think there is a lot of exploring that has to be done about that. but it wouldn't be that much of a bombshell. it would just be more of the same of what we already assumed was true. so i think part of the reason that this has become so sensational is the way thathenci think should have been thought through better. >> bre republicans would argue that democrats are jumping i to your point, republicans like will hurd, who said he had a problem with the call in the process of how the trump administration dealt with this, but full, he doesn't think

it is impeachable. that is the argument that you are making are making. >> yeah, that's exactly right. we used to have, and up until very recently, this has been the history of the united states. the execution that from time to time, the chief executive would abuse his power. either doing so, something that the constitution didn't permit, or somehow overdoing the power is not the constitution gives to the president. and the expectation was not that you were going to jump every time that happened to you impeachment. there were other ways that either by political pressure or by using their power, that they would be able to rein in presidential access. the idea was that there is a lot of area between something that is wrong and something that is impeachable. and i think that is what we have lost in this issue that we have discussed in the past. i want to bring in dan and juan

here. it discussed about maladministration. that basically everybody is going to have times in their job where they step over the line or do something wrong. it doesn't always mean that they should beat the president's argument, rising to the level of impeachment. that is sort of the grounding in which this discussion will play out when the senate and the individual senators, dana, begin to make those decisions. >> dana: it would be like putting the memo in your file with human resources. they were people like mccarthy who said early on that republicans should take the off-ramp, it doesn't matter. it is not like nancy pelosi can go into all of the sunday shows and say he has been censured forever. it is not as serious as impeachment. due to the point of whether the president should delay the state of the union or whether -- apparently there were some republicans talking about that. i think that's a terrible idea. just go forward, do the business of the people.

in the four week delay, it was unlike people were not doing anything. they were gathered with family and friends, they have the holidays, their resolutions. and now they are trying to stick with that dry january commitment. how do you do dry january during impeachment? that is what i was asking myself. and we all know how this ends. with acquittal. it does feel like the president absolutely must do state of the union. >> martha: juan, with regard to that, you can write the speech and your head. it is china. it is the usmca. it is these very large accomplishments of the president said he wanted to tackle. he could also say well we are at it, love lower prescription drug prices. let's do something else while you guys are carrying out this impeachment process. these three you saw that today, 90-10. only ten democrats, but overwhelmingly, the majority of democrats voted for it. what you are getting is the moment where the question is what can be accomplished in the

midst of such really distressing partisanship in the country? what work can be done customer if the president and democrats, because democrats feel that they did get a lot of what they wanted. there were some on the republican side that were depressed about what the bill didn't address in terms of changes from nafta to now. but they were also on board because they feel that we don't want to end the trade. we are free traders as republicans, and if he didn't agree to this, they may say stopping the trade. it is an america first type of ideology. but i think your point is well taken, martha. prescription drugs, and i say this. infrastructure. why aren't we doing infrastructure? >> dana: i love infrastructure. >> juan: you do. it >> dana: i am waiting for these bills. >> juan: 's now the democrats will say are we handing the

president of the victory right before the election? >> martha: juan and dana, thanks. we will send it back to bret as weights watch this all unfolds. the next big moment comes at 2:00 p.m. >> bret: it has been infrastructure week several times. >> martha: can you feel it? >> bret: john roberts being sworn in roughly a 2:00. we will come back just before 2:00 to see us through all of that as this is the third time in american history that this trial gets underway. or just one interesting point. chief justice rob justice to preside over and impeachment trial in 1999. at 21 years ago. here we are again. so we will have you covered at the top o top of the hour. >> i wonder if he will borrow the rope with faux gold stripes on the sleeves that he wore throughout that whole process, bret. >> bret: harris faulkner up

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>> pursuant to yesterday's order at 2:00 today, the senate will proceed to the consideration of the articles of impeachment. >> harris: it is official now and this special coverage continues on fox news channel, i'm harris faulkner. articles of impeachment have been presented and read aloud on the senate floor by the democratic managers. next, we are awaiting chief justice john roberts arrival. he will swear in the senators as jurors. the trial against president donald j. trump in the senate has begun. joining me now for coverage,