robert: full speed hailed for senate republicans. friday's critical vote onin summonwitnesses fails after key g.o.p. senators stand down. foritional witnesses. 's a need robert: democrats cry foul. >> no witnesses no, documents i an impeachment trial. it's a grand tragedy. america will remeer this day, unfortunately. robert: we go inside the impeachment trial, next. announcer: this is "washington funding is provided by -- >> before we talk about your >> well, audrey is expecting. >> twins. >> grandpares. >> want to put money aside for them so change in plans. >> levtsd see what we can

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like you.an you. once again from washington, mod reator robert costa. robert: good evening. we begin tonight with the latest on president trump's impeachment trial. it remains a fast-movingto s and we've gathered five of the best reporters on the beat to scuss the developments just days before the iowa caucuses and the ste of the union address. here is what you need to know.t, fi the senate debatever witnesses was jolted on thursday when retiring tennessee senator lamar alexander declared that the president's conduct was inappropriate but he decided to not push for witnesses. >> i agree he did something inappropriate but igr don't he did anything akin to treason, bribery, high crimes and mled. robe: his decision left democrats struggling to findur republicans to support their effort to summons john

bolton and others. and the remaining holdout, senator lisa murkowski of alaske anno that he -- she, too, would not support calling witnesseri shecized house democrats for sending over "articles o impeachment that are rushed and flawed."se nd. "the new york times" reported early friday that bolton's upcoming book accuses the president of directing bolton to "help with his pressure mpaign to exfract damaging information on democrats from ukrainian offials." and by friday night, right now, senator majority leader mitch mcconnell held hisde l in line and the volt to call witnesses did tail with only two senators voting in favor. senator susan collins of maine. joining us tonight. karoun demirjian, congressional reporter for the "washington

post." jake sherman, sister writer and co-author of political play book. important for "thyork ngton core times" and here with me at the table, ayesha rascoe, white house reporter for national public radio andus s page, washington brewo chief for usa today. t's start with the dean of senate reptering, carl hulse. there's been a question about the timing of the final vote on the articles of impeachment. what can yotell us about the politics and negotiations behind at decision? >> a lot of wrangling going on trying to get to an end game here. so what has happen sled that there's been w a decision th cleared with perspective trump to have a fal vote on wednesday. i think at 4:00 p.m. now, that's important, because the state of the union, of course, is on tuesday, so theim achment will still be going

on. the trial. so first onony,ou'll have closing arguments from the defense and the house managers. nesn the floor will be open, the chief justice won't be in the arpe for speeches bitch senators and that can go on for a few days. what happened was there was pushback from moderates, republicans who didn't really like the rush to finishp today so mr. mcconnell, as he usually es, found a way to keep his people united and move forwa. over democratic objections, of course. robert: jake, when you look at leader mcconnell able to keep that conference ited, what explains his ability to do so. how did he do itse? get t 51 republicans together? >> it's a very important question. he i thin a master at knowing the mood of his conference and he knows where people are going

to land before they land in and i think it's also impornt toth realiz everybody kind of agreed to the end game. they knew t that president would be acquitted and they had to figure out the path of least resistance to there but mitch mcconnell is a very adept operator. he is able to stay patient and calm and not blink ithe face of adversity. his opponents, democrats and some republicans, that frusates them but it's what makes himouccessful is his ability to navigate these very choppy situations and, rank democrats didn't have much power here. they're i the minority and they stuck together but we'll see. there's a very real possibility that democrats at the end of the day e voting to acquit donald trump so that will be a big e victory for resident at the end of this impeachment effort. robert: susan, what are y hearing about that point? about possibly seeing senator

nsion of west virginia and other moderate democrats vote to acquittal president trump? >> i think it is likely that there will b at least some democratic support for the president. ng mansion b the most obvious. his state went by p 42centage points to trump in 2016 sond undersle but democrats did hold together on this vote today on witnesses and it wi be a victory for trump to be able to say he was cleared in a bipartisan way. he's -- it'im not theg he wanted. he wanted to be able to stand up the state of the union and claim vinled occasion and he won't beab to do that on tuesday night as this timetable callses for. robert: to that point about the white house's perspective, what's their aim now for the state of the union knowing that this vote will not hpen until wednesday, the day after? >> they'reaying they're going

to have this vy optimistic speech that's going to be comeba killed a it's going to be -- the had the the -- president is going to take that to do some victory laps, all the thingse's beenable to accomplish and there are things. the trade deal with canada and mexico. he's had some vtories and he wants to be able to show that but he's not going to be able to have this victory over impeachment. not that d but he knows that he's going to ultimately get the aquill -- aquiet -- a" -- acquittal. but is thatng go be enough for president trump? he likes to homed a grudge, not i think that's going to be hanging over him and also say we should all come tother as a country. not exactly his style but i'm sure you'll hear a little about

thro. rt: some republicans tonight outraged about senator romney utah, senator collins supporting the ca for witnesses. who were there only two senate publicans at the end of the day who voted to push for tha vote. >> collins and romney seemed to be sounding the most. in the questions they the statements they were making as if they wanted to hear more of what people like john bolton had to say. we were watching lisa murkowski and lamar alexander as well b it seems like people like alexander took the argument that alan dershowitz gave them, that even if all of this is tru and bolton corroborates all of this, so what? that's not worth removing the president in office. murkowski alluded to that in

certain ways, even though she was expressing the pros says that had gone on in her statement toeey. we that that argument works to be the framework that a lot of repubcans voiced over the last few days anhad that'st ended up convincing alexander, a who woul needed two additional republicans to join m democrats for o have the votes to carry the witnesses seems they found that compelling reason to say we don't neat to -- need to keep this going any longer. robert: are were over sene republicans watching senator alexander on thursday night? were othersbo thinking maybe crossing that line? was thatey the thursday night? >> i think so. i think some of the senators let senator alexander speak for them. i melt with the senator today. he was very thoughtful about his decision. a big thing for him was thefa

s that the caw culls were on monday. he thinkthere would be bad public reaction to try and remove a president right now ana hented nothing to do wit it. he did talk a lot about the fac that he thought the public would not semithis decision at this point. i thinthat weighed heavily in his deliberation. robert: susan, beyond those consideration, what about president trump's influence on how republicans voted? is ts totally his party at this moment? susan: yeah, this is trump's party. even senators - republican senators running in competitive states in places like arizona and colorado stuck with the president on this because they've made the clarification that they want to get re-- calculation if they want to get voted for this november, theyne to stand on trump's side. just this evening,mitt romney,

who didn't volt, by the way, to contributeruresident. he only voted the listen to some witnesses. was disinvited by t cpac, the convert political nference that is a big deal next year in washington. as a sign that it is unacceptable enl to say i'd like to hear from john bolton. >> yeah, at this point republicans are with trump and if you're not with trump, you're not in good standing with the republicans and you're certainly not in office. you look at former senators bob corker and jeff flake.th 're looking at this from the sidelines. that's because they deded to speak out against trump so if you don't want that to happen, you have t stay that line. you cannot go and cross him and he's not going t let it go. they're going to make sure -- even know theret was twhole big thing over the heads on the pike and all of that.

the white house doesn't have to put pressure on these senators. they know what the repercussionf are they go against the president. bert: jacob -- jake, wha are the options now for senate majority leader schumer now. . at's going on tonight at the capitol? >> he doesn't have any options. he basically has to cry uncle. he's out ofoptions so on monday and tuesday there will be a lot of talking but not a lot of action and then on wednesday is the final vote s i don't see much opportunndy for him democrats politically have to rely on the fact th believe they've created a compelling narrative that this president existutside of the bounds of the law and the -- is not lawl and h conducted himself in a way that's not be fitting of there pdency and that republicans in the house and senate are complicit in that behavior. m skeptical based only my

reportering and talking to people on capitol hill and at the party committees that any o in will matter in november. i can imagine in colorado that people are going to be asking about coreydi gr's vote to not call wins. if our reporting is correct, they'll be asking him on -- make people's jobs, better, how to give them higher wages. in colorado, i don't imagine they're going to be having abou the wnls. now, democrats influnl think witnesses are very popular. i don't doubt that but i don't think it's going to be high on people priority as they go to the ballot box nine months from now in a predential year. sent some event outside of what we know i can't imagine it's going to be a massive issue across the board in november. robert: let's look at the

argumentse. m >> every public official they know believes that his election is in the public interest and if a president does something which he believes will help him get elected in th public interest, that cannot be the kindf quid pro quo that results in impeachment. >> youre being asked to remove a duly elected president of the united states and you're being asked to do it in an election year. >> you say you can't hold a esident accountable in an election year where they're trying to cheat in that election, you are giving them carte blanche. >> no one covers chairman schiff, the lead impeachment manager better than you, car right now. he began h argument tod talking about the explosive reportering by the "new york times" aboutol johnn's upcoming book. how vexed is he and other house democrats about the inability of

all these bolton stories to move republicans? >> pretty vexed. impeachment have to go -- do with the obstruction of hngress. thse wanted to have more of the first hand witnesses close to trump come in and corroborate whathey found and me the case in the senate stronger. this has been a bit of contention in th trial because the g.o.p. said you should have brought us a bett case and no, we're not going to subpoena the first hand witsses. if these witnesses had been allowed to come forward, if forward by the administration e before this, would he have made such a stronger c that some of the republicans would have to have voted with democrats to convict the president? g that'sng to be a question we can't answer because we're probably not ing to hear from john bolton. but there's a situation where

there's aer greebate happening on whether thease is too much based on hrsay and whether anyone can speak what the president's motives were if they weren't getting their cues hyom the president. that's what -- you say the two legal teams looking at the exact same things and cooling up with two completely different explanations for it because they disagree about what the president's intentions were. whether the bidens represented aorruption if the president, that. egitimate thing for him to ask into the investigation a whether it was it have him trtting his personal trillions over the nationalions. we didn't come to a fivel conclusion of what that is or any sort of consensus because both sides never got to meet inh middle. barry: you wanted to jump in? >> i think this is why that points about what these first hand witnesses and what bolton

would have said. i think that's why alan dershowitz's arguments were so important for republicans because it gave them something to hang their decisions on because he also said that even if everything that bolton sisay true, that doesn't rise to the level of impeachment.so don't think they needed alan dershowitz to give them that idea but now they can say we have a constitutional lawyer, a respected lawyer and he says s this doesn'te to the level of impeachment and that's essentially what you had lamar alexander saying. th president did do something improper. he's saying he believes that democrats didn't make their case. we don't need a more witnesses. >> we're not going to hear from john bolton in front of the senate. we're going to hear from john bolton withndis book perhaps in other ways as well and it is t a surprise that we're eing up with the senate voting largely along party lines to

acquit the president. what's been a surprise is the ount of evidence tt has tumbled from the sky to this point and i think will continue to be emerging through the next months and weeks. robert: jake, what is next for house democrats? speaker employeesy, chairman schiff. do they try to subpoena bolton now in the house or just move on and look fwarled toward november? >> house democrats say they leave the opportunity, the option on the table. i any, i would imagine if i'm reading the tae leaves that it's going to be tempting for them to subpoena bolton but remhiber, book comes out in this six to eight weeks or so. it's notakoing to that long for us to understand what he knew and i would argue and a lot of sources have argued this to me. the house looks silly but -- by not subpoenaing john bolton if he has all this in a book that he's saying. but there's another line of thinking, whichth i house

should not reinsert itself intoh mess. it should move into perhaps other areas of oversight, perhaps other areas of slating. they have closed the chapter. the president has been acquitted they now look obsessed with ew that is, in some people's and opinions, not aood look for the majority takers, the people that put the gavel in nancy pelosi's hands. robert: carl,te when youback and look at the institution of the senate, what have you learned about where it i in january 2020 and what that tells us about politics today? >> i think it's a very troubled institution andr to yarlier points, this is really sort of completing president trump's takeover of senate republicans. if you remem r at thebeginning there were a lot of people

necessary t they have fully bought in now. they know this is the way the have to go into the future so i thinko you're goingve a lot of clashes between the republicans and the democrats trying to bring out the republican economy. to trump. he i think senate, everyone recognizes, has big problems going forward. senator alexander said that today. ths very tense. things like the trade deal, ew black historical college funding bill but i don't see much cooperation going forward. these kind of things leave a mark and i think people ll be processing this for quite a while. robert: carl, real quick, on tuesday, leaderll mcconold senate republicans he didn't have the volts to block witnesses but then they wednesday morning, wednesday afternoon, it was clear he had whipped them together.

what happene >> that was all part of his tactic. he wants thm to kw, hey, look, we don't have to volts. you folks need to srt coming out and saying what you're going to do. so he played thatd card, pus everybody in that direction. i do think o of the big factors was those senators hated sitting on the floor without their phones. going to be so let's not have witnesros. rt: -- >> it's trump's republican party, i is mitch mcconnell's u.s. senate. when was the last time we had a lead we are such carom. he's not so popular with the people and h ratings in his home ste aren't that grate but he has a power over his senate that is historic. robert: carl commented on the senate but what about the house and s conscious of the executive branch? do theyeel sometime eyed each

and every step of the -- sometime eyed each and every step of the way? >> you heartc s -- schiff say if you can't let us have a letimate trial then basically co thtitution is a paper tiger. no, we won't give you any witnesses or documents, that this i g basicaling a thumbs up to the practice of stonewalling by the trump administration. he said basically the house democrats will conduct consequences too for them to conduct oversight over a white house they're not particularly fond of. for a l of peop clawing -- drawing conclusions about thise rience and what i am the means going forward to investigations that don't rise to t level ofism people. but are the basic practice of theen interplay bet the executive branch and legislative webranch. l see if th warnings of either side are bourn out. the hsse i making the point

that congress needs to be stronger whereas a lot of publicans are staying -- saying you're trampling on the executive branch's right and ths presiden branch to do things here and that's not o. that's another debates that it seems unlikely that the white house will change their approac to congressional oversight but it will be interesting to see now that we're nearing the end of the ukraine chamchamentser. state of the union snow what about the market drop on friday because of fears around the world in the. coronavir >> even as all this stuff is going onyou have this very potential -- this virus that could p be a veential global issue and could affect the economy, which is president

trump's streng. so i think you'll probably hear some talk about that them tryin this is another examplehere trump can also say he wants to beetter thanormer president obama. he had to deal with ebola. he wants to show n he can deal with this robert: that's all the time we have tonight. i really appreate ayesha rascoe here rat the table. pain page from u.s.a. todaand our friends on capitol hill. i can't believe on a busy night you're able to do this. i really appreciate it. karoun demirjian, jake sherman, carl hulse, thank you so much. we're talk about the upcoming iowa kick discuss -- caucuses. it will be on our wsite and social media. before we go, a note about gwen identify ill.

she was honored th ifill she was honored this week by the u.s. poach office. they dedicated a special stamp for her. a special hono for a special personal. i'm robert costa, good night. announcer: corporate funding is provided by -- >> i was able ton te aircraft around and the mission around and was able to save two men's lives that night. >> myirst job helped me to grow up pretty quicklyl that w happen when you're asked to respond to a coup. >> in 2001 i sned up for the air force. two days later, 9/11 happened. nathan masters: l't one

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