dana? >> dana: the american people 12 days after the trial gets started, they'll be focused on the super bowl. they're not going to be focused on this. >> martha: and you'll be there. thanks for joining us. >> bret: trace gallagher is next. keep it here on fox. >> trace: bret, thank you. breaking news. chuck schumer set to speak at any moment. we'll have that live when it happens. with the president's impeachment trial officially underway. senators sworn in as the jury with supreme court justice john roberts presiding. there's new developments in the ukraine controversy at the center of it all. lev parnas, the associate of rudy guliani is now speaking out. he's directly implicating president trump in the alleged plot to pressure ukraine into announcing an investigation of joe biden. parnas said president trump knew exactly what was going on and that parnas wouldn't do anything without the consent of rudy guliani or the president.

if white house says it stands by what it has been saying. the president did nothing wrong. a government watch dog agency reports the white house budget office broke the law when it with hold hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid from ukraine. we'll have more on that in a moment. the white house pushing back on that. and the ukrainian government announcing that its now investigating whether the former u.s. ambassador to ukraine, marie yovanovich was under illegal surveillance before the trump administration removed her from her post. we have team fox coverage from the white house to the halls of congress. we begin with our chief correspondent mike emanuel. >> off the bat, mitch mcconnell emphasized this would be quiet different than what we saw in the house. >> this body, this chamber exists precisely, madam president, so we can look past

the daily dramas and understand how our actions willberate for generations. so that we can put aside animal reflexes and animosities and cooley consider how to best serve our country in the long run. >> one thing that won't change, there will be plenty of house intelligence. adam schiff serving as the lead impeachment manager. >> president trump directed executive branch agencies, offices and officials not to comply with those subpoenas. president trump thus interposed the powers of the presidency against the lawful subpoenas of the house of representatives and assumed to himself functions and judgments necessary to exercise the sole power of impeachment. >> while there's seven impeachment managers, many sources suggest for democrats, this is going to be the schiff show. trace? >> mike, there's this ongoing

fight over witnesses in the senate trial. what do we know? >> right. we expect republicans to pass a resolution to essentially pump that decision about whether there will be witsstage in the trial. leading republicans are emphasizing it's not their job to fix what the house did. >> they had a executive privilege applies to these witnesses. i won't violate it. i'm ready for this trial to vid bunch of notes that have nothing to do with the facts as far as i'm concerned and the people in question are sketchy at best. >> leading democrats counter no new documents and no new witnesses would make the senate trial unfair. >> that does not serve the cause of justice and certainly doesn't make the senate look like a responsible chamber if we don't consider new evidence, whether it's helpful or hurtful to the president. we're supposed to be making a considered judgment based on impartial justice. that means considering the evidence, all of it, good and

bad. >> several republicans have suggested the concept of witness reciprocit reciprocity. if democrats want to call john bolton, the republicans would want to call hunter biden. trace? >> mike emanuel live on capitol hill. now to john roberts live for us on the north lawn. i mentioned the watch dog agency report that the budget office broke the law when they withheld ukraine's military aid. >> it's the government accountability office. it's a nonpartisan body on capitol hill that watches how the pennies are spent and what all branches of government do. they have determined that the president violated the impound control act by withholding that military aid for ukraine. the office of management and budget here at the white house disagrees with that opinion. the spokesperson said that we disagree with the gao's opinion.

omb has to ensure taxpayer dollars are properly spent consistent with the president's priority and with the law. nancy pelosi came down firmly on the side of the gao. senator lindsey graham saying he doesn't know what the fuss is about. listen first to nancy pelosi. >> today, a day that the government accounting office confirmed that the president's actions at the center of our impeachment articles withholding congressionally approved military aid from ukraine was illegal. the omb, the white house, the administration broke -- i'm saying this -- broke the law. >> i don't know why it would. they got the money. they got the money on september the 11th. so i don't know why that interim period of time is in violation of the law. >> the democrats are using this as another reason to push for new document, new evidence and new witnesses. back in 2014, the same

government accountability office found that president obama violated the law with the bowe bergdahl prisoner swap. some democrats raised the idea why they weren't notified of it. almost to a person, democrats supported that swap. so how you feel about a gao opinion would seem to determine or depend to some degree on who that opinion is directed at. trace? >> meantime, five days ago, john, how is the white house preparing for the impeachment trial? >> the attorneys are preparing their case. they have to deliver that brief to the senate on monday. meantime, the white house is presenting a demonstration of contrast here saying that while democrats are up on capitol hill trying to remove the president from office, the president is doing the nation's business at this hour. he continues to hold a religious freedom event garrening people the right to pray in school and the press secretary, stephanie grisham -- going to schumer

apparently right now. >> good afternoon to everybody. now, as everyone here knows -- whoops. get your footing or whatever it is. so as everyone knows, we've always been sworn in by the chief justice of the united states to serve as judges and jurors in the impeachment trump of president trump. when the chief justice walked in, you could feel the weight of the moment. i saw members on both sides of the aisle visibly gulp. the weight of history sits on shoulders and produces sometimes results you never know will happen. for some of us here, this is the first time we've done this. for others like myself, it's the

second time. i assure you, there's no difference. even though i've gone through this before, for all of us, the solemnity, the gravity of the moment in our history hits you square in the back when you take that oath. a separate oath designed by the senate only for senators that will serve on a court of impeachment. the feeling in the senate chamber is solemn, serious, profound. the weight of history, the eyes of history, you feel it, are upon you. i know every one of my colleagues felt it. i hope that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle felt it. you all heard the articles of impeachment read by

representative schiff at night. it proves crimes against our democracy it so to actually hear the charges read, even though we've heard them many times before, i'm -- impresses the seriousness of the charges. this is not something that can be dismissed. president donald trump is accused of coercing a foreign leader to interfering in our elections and doing everything in his power to cover it up. he's are exactly the kind of offenses the founders most feared when they forged the impeachment clause in the constitution. to we want foreign powers to determine our elections? do the american people want someone from overseas determining who is their president? who is their governor, who is their senator, who is their congressman?

this is what the nation has feared for centuries. we fear it today more than ever with this president. this is very, very serious stuff. this is not trivial. because it's hard to imagine a greater subje greater sub version of our democracy for powers outside our borders to determine elections in our borders. and for a country to attempt to do it on its own as russia has done is bad enough. for an american president to deliberately solicit such a thing to blackmail a foreign country with military assistance, to help them win an election is unimaginably worse. i'm actually filled with anger when you read the attempt to sub

vert our democracy. so these charges are serious, very. it's on those charges which the senate has to render a verdict. remarkably crucial pieces of information related to the charges against the president are still coming out. last night lev parnas, an associate of the president's personal attorney, rudy guliani, gave an astonishing interview on national television that further implicated the president in a plot to remove the u.s. ambassador and pressure ukrainian president zelensky into announcing investigations into one of the president's leading rivals. just today through the good work of chris van holland, who you'll hear from shortly, the gao found that it was illegal, illegal for president trump to withhold military assistance from ukraine to pressure them to interfere in the 2020 elections.

both the revelations about mr. parnas and the gao's opinion strengthened our push for witnesses and documents in the trial. the gao opinion, especially makes clear that the documents we requested in our letter to leader mcconnell are even more needed now than when we requested it last month. because president trump simply put broke the law. every senator will get a chance to vote to obtain these documents next week. now returns to how i began. the oath we all just took will weigh heavily on senators to consider this question about how fair a trial we have. we have asked for four fact witnesses and three specific sets of relevant documents. the witnesses are not democrats.

they're the president's men, his top advisers who he appointed. the documents are not democratic documents. they're just documents, period. every senate impeachment trial in our history, all 15 that were brought to completion featured . leader mcconnell is fond of citing precedent. we heard him about 1999. the precedent in impeachment trials in the senate is to have witnesses, to have no witnesses would be a dramatic break with precedent. it would mean the first impeachment trial of a president in history with no witnesses. the first impeachment trial of anybody that went to completion in the senate's 200 some odd year history without witnesses. so in the coming days, each of

us, every one of us, democrat and republican, will face a choice about whether to begin this trial in the search of truth or in service of the president's desire to cover it up. now that every senator has sworn a solemn oath before god and the american people to do impartial justice, let every senator reflect on that choice and let history weigh on every one of our shoulders. senator harris. >> thank you, leader schumer. i would argue that not only is this an impeachment trial, the very integrity of the united states senate is on trial. what is before us are charges that are the most serious charges levelled against a president of the united states. where there's abandonment of the responsibility to withhold the

ideals and the words of the united states constitution by the president of the united states, that responsibility now rests on the shoulders of each member of the united states senate. which is to uphold the integrity of our system of democracy, uphold the intech -- integrity of our system of justice and senate who has to do fair and i'm partial justice and demanding that the american public and each member of this body receive all evidence, documents and individuals that are witnesses so that we can engage in a fair deliberation and make a decision that reflects the ideals and the values and the very principles of the united states system of justice. so that is what is before us today. and we took a very solemn oath. it's a very serious matter which each of us should take responsibly and take seriously,

understanding that whatever the party affiliation of the president of the united states right now it is incumbent on the united states senate to do the work of upholding american's constitution and our very system of justice. >> thank you, senator harris. senator coons. raising my rights hand hand swearing to do i'm partial justice was a solemn moment. a weight when the moment of history becomes clear. to be in the chamber as the chief justice of the supreme courted strolled up and took his oath to do impartial justice made clear the gravity and the historic nature of this moment. over the coming weekend, we have two weeks that i think our colleague needs to wrestle with. one is this going to be a trial. there's a simple reality. in america, trials have evidence and cover-ups do not. trials have evidence.

they have documents, they have witnesses that are relevant to the matter in front of us. leader schumer has been letter asked that we consider four different witnesses who are directly relevant, who are senior leaders in this administration, who are in the room, on the e-mail chain and could testify if they testified truthfully to whether the president did or did not inappropriately block aid to ukraine and has been charged. this is a big departure from previous investigations of presidents for impeachment that president trump has used an overly broad assertion of executive privilege to try to block critical testimony. president clinton even president nixon directed his closest advisers and cabinet officials to co-op right with an investigation which leads to the second issue. the second article is obstruction of congress. the president has to decide is he going to present a defense. if he hopes to claim

exoneration, he has to put a defense in front of this senate. so far the evidence developed and presented in front of the house that led them to take up and vote to articles seems very compelling. largely because the president has declined to present a defense. he will have his chance in briefs over the next few days and in the conduct of this trial. so i would say to my colleagues on the other side, please, spend the weekend reflecting on the importance of this moment, on the ways in which i would agree the senate itself is on trial and see whether you can be open to the idea that we should have a trial, not a cover-up that features documents, evidence, witnesses rather than a historic sham that fails to meet the moment. thank you. >> senator blumenthal.

>> i thought that senator schumer captured well the extraordinary drama of this moment. i was struck by the deep steep sense of solemnity and there was a knot in my stomach when the chief justice came in to the chamber and then pronounced the name, donald john trump. the difference in the reference to president trump struck me as really distinguishing proceeding from any other. in fact, nothing we do while we serve in the united states senate will be more important and consequential than putting country above party in this proceeding.

the report released by the gao, an independent nonpartisan watch dog agency squarely raises the importance of mick mulvaney as a witness. he was the acting director of the omb that withheld the money. he took the president's order. john bolton was the witness that tried to dissuade the president from this so-called drug deal. direct contact with the president of the united states. robert blair and michael duffy, not just the president's men, they were the president's henchmen. they executed the drug deal. each of these witnesses had eyes and ears on the president of the united states. they have first hand knowledge. they are the witnesses that must

appear and maybe they will have evidence to show the president's innocence. >> trace: you can see the senators lining up there saying their piece. some said this is the weight of history on their shoulders. a couple things going on here. the president just spoke. he was holding a meeting about prayer and public schools. in that meeting, of course, he went off and talked about a variety of things. we're going to play that tape back in about 90 seconds. we have dana perino here with us, the host of "the daily briefing," the co-host of "the five." all of these senators say this is a solemn oath. do you think america with the way this has gone thinks these people are going to be impartial? >> dana: i think the way the whole ceremony was conducted today was pretty solemn and sober. but i also think when you have a press conference like this where the word sham and cover-up is used, that it does bring to mind the fact that they've talked about this a long time.

when americans think about impartial juries and if you've been on jury duty, you know what that means. that's not what this is. >> we have about 30 second left. the whole point is, bernie sanders held a news conference saying we need witnesses and a trial. it's not a trial. bring the senate decides -- >> on the issue of witnesses. i think the democrats are being effective. they're talking about it every day. the republicans need to get out and do more. the rules won't be set till next week. right now i think on the public opinion, they could be losing. >> trace: are they ready to do the one for one? >> dana: the republicans are going to try for no witnesses. we'll see. >> trace: the president is -- two-minute warning is over. this is tape play-back. the way this works is, they run it out to the truck, stick it in and play it back. we get a two-minute warning. so the question on the witnesses become if there is a one for one, you said the republicans are not going to want to have witnesses. >> dana: i don't know for sure.

but i think that it is believed that if you want this done quickly and the republicans do and the president does, that you really -- if you're going to have witnesses and go to court, that can drag on for weeks and week. >> trace: even without witnesses, don't you think they were saying we could get this done in two weeks, this >> dana: if all the stars were to align and no delays, you might get this done guess what. >> the morning of february 4, the day the president is to give the state of the union. mitch mcconnell is a good tactician, a good strategist. what happened today before this solemn ceremony? all the senators went in and voted on the trade deal for usmca redo. so he has all of those senators doing the people's business. giving the president a win and then they started this. >> trace: the dichotomy is amazing. you have his biggest achievement and the articles of -- >> dana: i don't know if it's the biggest achievement. of this week.

>> trace: it's a huge accomplishment. i think that can be debated in the future. the tax cuts that led to the economic growth spurt that we've had over the last three years and the unemployment rate being down, wages going up, that is the biggest achievement. the trade deals are important but it will take awhile to figure out if they live up to it. >> trace: now we have a one minute warning. it's interesting you say in the state after the union address. there's push back. if this is the middle of the trial and should they go forward, you're under -- >> dana: speaker pelosi said she knew she was delaying the articles coming over. so she -- in her own planning she had given the president an opportunity to give a state of the union address as the president was being impeach. right around there. so i think because she had already issued the invitation, the president accepting it, i absolutely do not think the white house should delay the state of the union address. i think this they have done the right things, getting these

things done, having the religious freedom meeting today, going to go to davos and talk about global issues. come back, go to the super bowl. i don't know if he's going -- >> trace: watch the 9ers and titans. we have the play back right here. watch. >> we're all about 2020. you just wanted joe biden out. what is your response? >> i don't know. i don't know parnas other than have pictures taken with thousands of people including today that i didn't meet. just met him. i don't know him at all. i don't know what he's about. i don't know where he comes from. i know nothing about him. i can only tell you this thing is a big hoax. it's a big hoax. we call it -- this is the current hoax. we've gone through the russian witch hunt, gone through a lot of them from probably before i came down to escalator. certainly since i came down to escalator, you take a look at

what has happened. meantime, our country -- he's trying to make a deal for himself. i don't know who this man is. other than i guess he attended fund raisers so i take a picture with him, i'm in a room. i take pictures, thousands and thousands of pictures with people all the time, thousands during the course of the year. oftentimes i'll be taking a picture with somebody and say, i wonder what newspaper that one will appear in. i don't know him. perhaps he's a fine man. perhaps he's not. i know nothing about him. i can tell you this -- >> he says that -- >> i don't know him. >> he said on the phone -- >> i don't believe i've ever spoken with. i meet thousands of people as president. i take thousands of pictures. i do -- and i do it openly and i do it gladly. if i have a picture where i'm standing with somebody in a fund raiser like i believe saw a

picture with this man, but i don't know him. i never had a conversation that i remember with him. certainly -- let me tell you, you have to take a look at the pictures, take a look at the polls. you see i don't need anybody's help. we're doing well. the economy is the best it's ever been. we have never had an economy like this in history. we just made the two best trade deals in the history of our country. we're doing well. i don't need the help of a man that i never met before other than perhaps taking a picture in a fund raiser -- >> you make it sound like -- [inaudible] >> i will probably be going to davos. i've been invited. we have tremendous world leaders and the great business leaders and we want them to come to the united states. some of the businesses left the united states because they were disgusted with what happened. now they're all coming back. we are booming. our country is the hottest country anywhere in the world.

nothing even close. every world leader sees me and says what have you done. >> the most incredible thing. i understand the stock market broke 29,000. when i came in, it was a fraction of that. it would have been cut in half had the other person or the other party one. the number would have been cut in half. we're doing so well. i want to get more. we have tremendous room for growth in our country in terms of the economy. tremendous powerful room for growth. i'm going to be going to davos. i'll be meeting the biggest business leaders in the world and get them to come here and meeting with foreign leaders. okay? >> you talked about prayer and faith today. what is your message to the millions of catholics in the united states? why should they vote for you? >> i have a great relationship with catholics. i've done a lot for catholics. take a look at the abortion issue, the mexico city issue. the different issues.

my relationship with catholics and the catholic church is very good as you know very well. >> mr. president, rudy guliani wrote a letter to zelensky requesting a private meeting and he said it was in his capacity as private counsel to president donald trump. this is before the inauguration. did you authorize him to write that letter and what was your understanding of what the meeting was supposed to be about? >> i don't know anything about the letter. certainly rudy is one of the great crime fighters in the history of our country. he is probably the best the last 50 years. he was also the greatest mayor in the history in the city of new york. rudy was truly an outstanding mayor. as an example, his endorsement of bloomberg got him elected. he was the greatest crime fighter and rudy is somebody that frankly having him on my side was a great honor for me. it has been a great honor for

me. rudy guliani did a phenomenal job over a long period of time in fighting crime. frankly, he's a very legitimate guy, a very straight shooter. i didn't know about his specific letter but if he wrote a letter, it wouldn't have been a big deal. rudy was always -- it was very important to rudy that i be a great president and that's okay with me. it was very important to a lot of people. because our country was going to hell. now our country is on a path that we haven't seen in decades and decades. we've never done better. go ahead. not you. >> the trial is starting next week. what is your view on how long it should take? >> i think it should go quickly. it's a hoax. everybody knows that. it's a complete hoax. the whole thing with ukraine. so you have a perfect phone call. this is a call fortunate. it was two phone calls. you people don't report that. two calls. both perfect calls. in fact, probably among the nicest calls i've ever made to foreign leaders. so you have these perfect calls.

everybody says it now. before they knew they were so good because fortunately they were transcribed, you had other people saying terrible things about the calls. you had a fake whistle-blower that wrote a report that bore no relationship to what was said. everything was false. now you have the ukrainian. and the foreign minister of ukraine saying there was nothing done wrong. they said it was absolutely no pressure whatsoever. everything was perfect. and they impeach. it's totally partisan. we get 195-0 republican votes. i guess we got a democrat that came over to the republican side. we had 195-0. this is a hoax, a sham. i did the biggest deal ever done in the history of our country in terms of trade and probably other things, too, if you think about it. the deal with china. that was the second story to a total hoax. today we just had passed the

usmca. it's going to take the place of nafta, which was a terrible deal. the usmca will probably be second to this witch hunt hoax. which hopefully everyone knows is not going anywhere. there was nothing done wrong. this was a perfect phone call. think of it. the president of the us who has led the greatest growth, the greatest economically viable of any country anywhere in the world is the united states as big as it is. we're doing better than any other country by far. our unemployment next are the best in over 50 years. african american, asian african american, hispanic american unemployment best in the history of our country. i have to go through a hoax. a phony hoax. put out by the democrats so they can try to win an election that hopefully they're not going to win. it was put out for purposes of winning an election. our country is doing great. our country has never done better. so they figure the only thing

they can do, they failed on the mueller report. that was a bomb. after 2 1/2 years, they failed. now they said what can we do. they pick up a phone call that was perfect. they didn't know it was perfect. they only found out later. they made up a phone call. what they did -- what they did, you have a corrupt person, adam schiff. he made up a phone call. he went out -- you'll hear about this as you grow older. he went out and said quid pro quo eight times. there was no time. he said don't call me, i'll call you. that's a mob statement. i never said that. fortunately i released the transcript of the call. the transcript was perfectly accurate. now everybody agrees. it went through a lot. they said can you add a word here or lieutenant colonel said well, i think they should have -- they added the word. everyone agrees the transcript

is perfecto. done by professionals. right? i released that after they had done these fraudulent acts and you get impeach on this. we have the greatest economy in the history of our country. we have the highest job numbers today. it was just announced. more people working in the united states than ever before in the history of our country, almost 160 million people. we're doing an incredible job. absolutely no reason -- for absolutely no reason i got -- it's a disgrace and a hoax. thanks very much, everybody. >> the president spoke for about nine minutes in the oval office there. he touched on a lot of subjects. we should know the dow is up 227 points. i want to bring in bill mcgurn.

dana perino is still here. the president is getting going on his defense today. >> this is the first time he's going to have his defense heard. that's one of the distinctions between the senate trial and the house impeachment process. >> trace: the interesting thing is, pat cipollone will have a chance to defend this. a lot of the country will say now we're getting two sides. >> dana: pat cipollone for the white house general counsel will be joined by three other lawyers. one of the things that will be interesting. not only will you get to hear from him, but mitch mcconnell said you have to turn in a written brief by noon monday. the democrats get to do the same. but i think those written briefs will be very interesting. hopefully they won't be 500 pages long and boring. >> trace: one of the big things people were looking for, he did respond to the parnas thing. he said i knew what was going on. i didn't do anything without the word from rudy guliani. the president said i don't know this guy.

>> he has his own issues, this is flavor of the month. the big problem democrats may have, they just bored americans to death. i don't think people are watching the impeachment outside the way we watched before. we pretty much know the outcome. it's up likely the democrats will get 20 votes to remove the president. so i think the impeachment makes miss pelosi look weak. it's like the old japanese movies where you throw everything at godzilla and he still comes at you. >> you think boring is good for the republicans. no shockers, no -- mundane -- >> dana: i'm not much of a flashy person myself. senator mitch mcconnell, more importantly, he wants a sterile proce process, keep it calm. get it done. he's not much for flash. he doesn't need fireworks. that can happen on cable news at night if you want to. in the senate chamber, it will be a solemn affair.

get it done, just the facts. i think this rules package is really important. will there be witnesses or not. i have to say i think the democrats are kind of doing a better job on communication on that issue. typically if you ask americans do you think you should hear from more people before the president is impeach. they'll say yeah, we should hear from more people. if the republicans are going to say no witnesses, they need to figure out a way to articulate that better and quickly. >> trace: what do you think of the witness thing, bill? it's one of the things that if the republicans have no witnesses, which mitch mcconnell wants, then people are going to say wait. >> i agree with dana. on the substance, there should be no need for witnesses. the house picked their impeachment agenda. if they felt the need for the witnesses, they ought to have called them. one way of showing the senate's dis approapproval of this goldb impeachment that nancy pelosi presided over is to hear it without witnesses.

most ordinary people say let's hear from people. but it's a double edge sword. then let's hear from hunter biden and joe biden and let's hear from adam schiff. he met with the whistle-blower. i'm not sure -- does amy klobuchar want that? >> you have the democrats that are running for president. they can't be in iowa and new hampshire and south carolina and nevada. i think they're going to want it over quickly, too. >> trace: has anybody heard what john bolton's blockbuster might be? ever town -- >> dana: we knew what it was. he was against it. he said i'm not going to get involved in that drug deal or be a part of it but i also don't think -- we worked with him. he won't do anything to hurt any president and their ability to do anything as the commander-in-chief. i think it's possible that the democrats should be careful what they wish for here. >> trace: you ask john bolton and he's a dud and who is next? >> dana: they're assuming that john bolton will have some smoking gun.

i agree with dana. i think he's going to say i didn't like this. i fought against it. i don't think it's impeachable. >> trace: if you get john bolton, do you give hunter biden? >> a lot of republican votes will depend on that. insist on it. >> rand paul made a good argument. hunter biden is at the center of this. we'll give you john bolton, we want hunter biden. >> dana: americans might say we want to hear from more people. they would think it's unfair for more evidence to dribble out. the senate could say they could use the lemon law and is a say we bought a car from the house. it's a lemon. they have to take it back. we're not going to deal with this because it's incomplete. >> i agree. the problem democrats have is we know the outcome. there's no drama here. there's questions that interest us, how many republicans would defect, how many democrats might defect. the outcome is not serious.

>> dana: we skipped ahead and read the end of the book and now we have to go back and read every word. >> trace: it's going to be fascinating to watch it unfold. >> dana: it will be amazing. watch us on our special panel. >> trace: october. dana perino, thanks. thanks, bill. >> thanks. >> trace: senators just sworn in. joining me, david purdue from georgia. thanks for joining us. we talked were the panel about the oath of impartiality. you think this body will be impartial and listen to the ed and vote on the evidence? >> i think you'll see a dramatic difference between what we conduct in the senate and the sham that we saw in the u.s. house of representatives. we take this seriously. first of all, i partially believe that what why just witnessed in the house was an illegitimate process. they denied the accused basic due process. they had plenty of time to call witnesses. now they want us to do their job

for them. right now you'll hear the house's case, you'll hear for the first time the president's defense and then we'll move to a period of questions from the senate floor from members and reach the decision point at that point what resolutions to hear. you'll see a sober process. i hope it goes quickly. frankly, we're legitimizing an illegitimate process from the house. >> trace: what do you think of the prospect of the senate going in and initially dismissing this obstruction of congress article and just focusing on the main article of impeachment? >> well, i personally am of the opinion and i have spoken my piece now, i thought we ought to dismiss it right now. it's illegitimate. read what alexander hamilton wrote. they didn't do that. having said that i'm supportive of the first phase doing the way we did in president clinton's case. not addressing witnesses or

anything else until we get to the end of this first phase. with regard to either article right now in my mind, i think we ought to hear both cases, give the president an answer to both articles of impeachment. >> trace: there doesn't appear to have an outright dismissal.ng you've said in the past couple weeks that senate should give a fair trial. in your estimation, what does that comprise? what is a fair trial in your opinion? >> it's a special legal proceeding. it has a political dimension as alexander hamilton talked about. our process is to hear the case made by the house. the house hasn't made that to the senate yet. that will do that tuesday. then we'll have an opportunity for the first time to hear the president's defense. then we have every opportunity to acquit, to dismiss, to call witnesses. whatever we desire to get to a proper adjudication. whether these articles, these two articles, not any extraneous articles, but these two articles

alone reach the level of impeachment. i'm persuaded right now based on what i've read and seen that they do not even if they were to make the case, neither of these rise to the level. we'll see when we have both cases presented. >> trace: when you see and hear about the evidence and the gao saying that the president broke the law, when you hear the lev parnas allegations coming in, what do you think of the noise from the outside as we go in to the trial tuesday? >> it shows how weak the house's case is number 1. number 2, now we hear all of these opinions and people that want us to do the house's work for them to go look at other issues and talk about other things. we'll hear a lot of noise in the next two weeks. that it's one reason why i hope we move fast and get both cases presented. we heard that that will happen today probably in two days on each side. then a couple of days for questions from the senate members. then move to those motions that you're talking about in the earlier conversations about witnesses and maybe we move to a quit at that point. we'll see.

>> trace: david purdue. good to see you, sir. thank you. >> thanks, trace. >> trace: we'll hear from the 0 they're side of the aisle next. tom carper joins me after this. our retirement plan with voya gives us confidence. we can spend a bit now, knowing we're prepared for the future. surprise! we renovated the guest room, so you can live with us. i'm good at my condo well planned, well invested, well protected. voya. be confident to and through retirement.

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>> trace: and back to fox's top story. the chief justice of the united states swearing in senators to act as jurors ahead of the president's impeachment trial. let's bring in tom carper from delaware. good of you to join us. at the top of this broadcast, we played the news conference, chuck schumer and the other democratic colleagues talking about the waist of history is on their shoulder a and used words like sham trial and those things, which you can imagine has a lot of skepticism when

people think about the impartiality of the senate going in. your thoughts about that. >> i take my oath seriously. i'm a retired navy captain. i've taken an oath to defend our country and constitution in times in my lifetime. delaware is the first state to ratified the constitution 232 years ago last month. we became the first state when the constitution was written in philadelphia. one of the greatest concerns -- one of the things that philadelphia at that convention agreed on, they didn't want a king. they disagreed about a lot of things. they didn't want a king. they put in checks and balances. part of that was the process we're going through right now. it's like the civil process we have in the real world where you have a grand jury, a prosecutor calls for a grand jury. the grand jury indicts or doesn't indict. they have a trial. when they have a trial, other

witnesses can be called that have other information that can be secured and admitted for consideration of a jury. i think what our side is looking for and what the american people are looking for is not witnesses just out of -- we pull out of the air but witnesses with relevant information that have something to contribute for about the charges. and witnesses that will testify under oath. >> trace: you said last week you were in favor of nancy pelosi holding the articles because she should fight to have the witnesses appear. she turned them over and there's flow decision on witnesses. your thoughts about her strategy as we look forward to the trial on tuesday? >> i'm not going to second guess her. i think she's doing a exceptional job. what we want to have is the ability to have an up or down vote on whether or not witnesses with relevant information can be called to testify under oath. i'm encouraged we'll get that. >> trace: if those witnesses

come forward and you get john bolton on the top of the list for the democrats, are the democrats willing to say okay, then maybe hunter biden should testify or the whistle-blower? your thoughts on that? >> the key here, trace, witnesses with relevant information. the charges here are against donald trump. the charges say -- this is what we're told by the house and their work. this president used his powers to never to bribe a leader of another country to get involved in an election. this helped decide the outcome of our election. we don't want to do that again. >> trace: senator rand paul made a case saying hunter biden is the center of this controversy. if you need to hear from anybody, it's hunter biden. >> it's malarkey. it's crazy. we look at the charges here brought by the house are against this president for trying to bribe the leader of another

country to change the election. that is the charge. we can find plenty of weather channelses. chuck schumer has asked. there's may be others. that's what we're looking for and relevant information. can you imagine having in a court -- a jury system, judicial system that we have today that someone would be indicted by a grand jury, go to trial and the trial no more witnesses with relevant information, no more evidence can be admitted? they would be laughed out of court. >> trace: senator carper, thank you very much. >> thank you so much. >> trace: it's been a historic afternoon on capitol hill. we'll check back in with chad pergram to break down a very busy and historic day.

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tuesday. tuesday will be the magic day where they will get into the heart of this in a trial. they grew from some deadlines and monday, that is the other thing to watch for. the president was formally notified of this. he said in the past hour that nancy pelosi indicated that there are risks in this. there are risks for both sides because you don't know what it is like. there's always twists and turns especially when you get into an impeachment trial on the senate floor, the fact that we have only done this with presidents twice before. the first impeachment trial did not involve a president. it involved a lawmaker from tennessee. this goes back to the beginning of the republic. he was impeached by the house and he was a sitting senator. the question was raised, does this violate article two section six? the civil officers -- this is a big question.

they try to impeach him on multiple occasions from 1797 to 1798 and 1799. they sent the sergeant and arms to go get him, because he was not an office anymore. they found out that he was i in the speaker of the tennessee house. they wanted him to come back for their trial. he said i'm not going to come. they eventually dismissed the charges because they did not have jurisdiction to try to prosecute him because he had been a sitting senator at a time and it was the house that did the impeaching. >> trace: it is important to understand the historic perspective about this and how the founders decided to handle impeachment. >> right, i talked recently with alan beyer. he is a law professor that worked on impeachments for the house. >> there was a lot of controversy about where the power should live. eventually they had decided on a legislature. they weren't sure that that was

a great idea. it seems like the best of the choices that they had. i think they made the right decision. it is a political process. >> that is basically what we are looking out right now, this political process. to this day, assisting congressman from florida. convicted by the senate, also walter nixon who was a federal judge. about ten years ago, samuel can't. you know who worked on those impeachments? adam schiff. nancy pelosi was impressed with how he handled those federal judiciary -- that's one of the reasons she asked adam schiff to be the lead manager in the impeachment trial of president trump. >> trace: thank you for all of your work today. it was fantastic. we are set tuesday 1:00 east coast time. the senate impeachment trial of the president will begin.

i'm trace gallagher. in new york, "your world" with neil cavuto. the dow up 269 right now. >> neil: what impeachment? no sooner did the senate give president trump his biggest legislated victory so far, that we heard this. >> i announce their presence on the part of the house of representatives to conduct proceedings on behalf of the house concerning the impeachment of donald john trump, president of the united states. >> neil: the senate formally accepting the articles of impeachment as this in a officially gets underway. on wall street, they are just continuing what they are doing, making records almost every day. investors are more than excited about trade deals and worried about impeachment articles. it