the navy secretary said he is everything good about our nation and his story deserves to be remembered and pret. it will be the first time a navy carrier is named after an african-american in history. just 24 hours before donald trump's impeachment trial begins, the two sides lay out their legal briefs. >> abuse of power is at the center of what the framers intended impeachment to be. >> abuse of power can never be the criteria for impeaching a president. abuse of power is a fair criteria who to vote for. >> republicans and democrats battling over the timing of the impeachment trial while mitch mcconnell keeps democrats guessing. >> we will force votes on witnesses and documents.

it will be up to four republicans to side with the constitution. >> we've tried to enter negotiations with the other side but they won't have any conversation until we deal with witnesses up front. that's not what we did during the clinton trial. >> now and then, president trump's uncertain future three years to the day after the took the oath of office. >> the constitution of the united states. >> so help me god. >> so help me god. >> congratulations, mr. president. >> this american carnage stops right here and stops right now. >> and good day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington where we are learning new details just now about a legal brief sent this hour from the trump defense team to the senate, outlining its case for the president's acquittal. this as house impeachment

managers at the capitol are facing serious legitimate hurdles on the senate trial, take their walk to the senate floor with no idea about how mitch mcconnell plans to run the proceedings, clearly a tactical move unlike in advance of bill clinton's senate trial. joining me now, these three. jeff, the white house brief has just been laid out. i think you've gotten briefing on it. tell us what is their essential argument. >> reporter: great to see you. the legal team met their 12:00 p.m. eastern deadline and submitted this brief. with a call to reporters about what is ongoing attached to this effort have mounted a plan, they say, to undercut the two articles of impeachment. the first one, abuse of power,

officials say that is a novel theory, and new defense to allow congress to second-guess the president's policy decisions. we heard alan dershowitz, one of president trump's attorneys float this over the weekend and had a fuller conversation with hallie jackson in the 10:00 o'clock eastern hour. the point dershowitz makes is president trump did not commit an impeachable offense and should not have been impeached and cannot be removed from office. on the second article of impeachment, obstruction of congress, the folks say that is frivolous and dangerous and undermines separation of powers. if the house demands something by way of evidence or testimony with the executive branch, if the executive branch resists it on the grounds of executive privilege the house can't turn around and try to impeach the president for not complying. on the substantive issue, we didn't hear a full-throated

defense on particularly what democrats are making, this phone call between president trump and zelensky didn't happen in isolation, part of a well coordinated pressure campaign that started in the spring of 2019 with the sidelining and smearing and ouster of marie yovanovitch and continued when they released the aid, democrats say, because they got caught red-handed. this is the sense we're getting from the white house as president trump's legal defense mounts this defense starting tomorrow. they're calling for a swift acquittal. just how swift is the question, what kasie and our hill team has been tracking all day. >> with that handoff to kasie first, i want to read a brief expert from the legal brief just filed where the white house lawyers are saying house democrats were determined from the outset to find some way any way to corrupt the extraordinary power of impeachment to use as a political tool to overturn the result of the 2016 election and

affect the 2020 election. all of that is a dangerous perversion of the constitution that the senate should swiftly and roundly condemn. and even though managers still do not know from mitch mcconnell what the rules will be. this is extraordinary unlike what happened with bill clinton, he's not telling them exactly how it should proceed but what do we know about the timing of the opening arguments? >> reporter: you're right. mitch mcconnell basically trying to take tactical advantage and holding very close the terms house democrats have to come and argue their side of this case. we don't expect to see that document from mitch mcconnell likely until tuesday morning. as you point out, it really underscores the differences in the way the senate operates now compared to how they were operating in 1999, when bill clinton was undergoing his

impeachment trial. we thought it was bad then, partisan then, it's nothing compared to what it's like right now. as you point out, the last time around, yes, there was consternation and arguing on how to do this, but the way of solving disagreements was go behind closed doors and get all 100 senators on the same page and come out with an opening way of starting the clinton trial both sides agreed to. that is not the case here. mitch mcconnell knows he has 51 votes in his own republican conference to get this passed. you have to remember throughout the course of this trial. if 51 senators can do basically whatever they want, in terms of setting rules, calling the motions, some things we have seen before in setting an impeachment trial, but there are some things we can imagine we haven't seen. there are only two precedents in american history, one in the television era. i think it's important to remember so long as mcconnell

has his conference together he is going to be able to control this. for democrats, they are left with essentially messaging opportunities. that's how chuck schumer is betting right now. he is going to try to make a play, we know, on witnesses and documents at the outset. we will see debate on this tuesday when this motion comes out. they will argue, we need to have this conversation about witnesses right now before we actually get this started. the reality is they don't have the votes to actually push that through. we know many republicans have come out and said, we're still open to witnesses, we just want to answer that question after we've heard these opening arguments and had an opportunity to ask our questions. that puts that at the end of this process, andrea. >> kasie and geoff setting the stage for what's going to happen tomorrow as much as we know what will happen tomorrow. that is the suspense in all of

that. bob bower, you were white house counsel and alan dershowitz a celebrity lawyer and constitutional lawyer on with hallie jackson, my colleague in the 10:00 o'clock hour. let's watch. >> do you personally believe, donald trump right now, with the evidence you see in front of you, as one of his attorneys, abused his power, yes or no? >> i'm not going to answer that question, yes or no. it's irrelevant. it's like asking me if i think he's a good president. >> do you? >> that's not what i'm here to discuss. this is not a political consideration. my issue is do i think he committed and impeachable offense and that's all i'm saying as his lawyer. >> he is saying the only impeachable defense is breaking the law. let me ask you, you're the lawyer. i've always been told high crimes and misdemeanors is something to be determined by senate jurors and you don't have to break a law and if you have

to break a law and you can't be indicted according to the so-called office of legal counsel prescription robert mueller followed there's no way to take a president into account for anything he's done. >> professor dershowitz' position is one basically rejected across the board by most constitutional scholars. he's taken an extreme position and a book called "the case of impeaching donald trump." >> and donald turley. >> donald turley said there weren't enough facts and thought they were rushing to judgment. dershowitz say the facts don't matter because the articles of impeachment are defective and he's taking a much stronger view and his view is stronger than he would like people to imagine it is. number one, it has to be a crime, number two, it has to be a crime akin to treason and bribery. for example, a president who

murders somebody has not committed a high crime or misdemeanor impeachable offense under alan dershowitz's version. >> he can go out on fifth avenue. >> reporter: that donald trump has that and not face it. it's quite remarkable. even though the term of public trust and abuse of power in those terms appears in alexander hamilton's federalist 65 quite strikingly he dismissed this weekend the significance of that. he believes he has a better vision of the constitutional retirement than alexander hamilton has. it is not sustainable. he will make it but he's dead wrong. >> what about the addition of ken starr to this case? what legally does he bring to this case? >> a mystery to me. i'm not quite sure. i suspect what they want to say -- to be honest the more i

think about it the less i understand about that. ken starr was independent counsel and decided bill clinton in an appropriate relationship with the white house intern ought to be impeached. his view was that's an impeachable offense and bill clinton's desire to keep it private is impeachable offense but soliciting assistance for federal government is not an impeachable defense. i think that's a curious view of constitutional safeguards we should go after bill clinton for trying to hide an inappropriate relationship but let donald trump go with soliciting foreign assistance. quite a strange way of looking at things. >> let me ask you about witnesses because the democrats seem inclined in their eagerness to have testimony from john bolton to let the republicans get their way and get hunter biden or even joe biden there, whether or not they're material,

having the votes to get them in front of the senate as well. the biden camp put out a memo today pushing back, saying in the memo, trying to remind people of materiality or lack of materiality, saying, since trump was exposed to debasing his office in an unpresidential way, they're providing malfeasance and debunks it. it is malpractice to ignore that truth. that is a reminder that will not affect a lot of the twitter verse or some of the cable news on one particular channel. republicans could say, okay, you want bolton, we want hunter biden. >> i would distinguish the rhetorical swordplay what republicans are trying to accomplish.

he has sent out every possible signal he wants a short trial and doesn't want witnesses. he doesn't want witnesses because the relevant testimony would be damaging to donald trump and doesn't want to hear john bolton's testimony and other documents produced republicans are not eager to have on national television as part of the proceedings. it is distinguished from the real objective, to end this. i would add, listen carefully to the arguments dershowitz is making and how they jive, mesh with the white house argument pre-viewed in a six page letter sent last week and now i haven't reviewed it, in the brief. the facts don't matter here. there are no relevant facts because the arguments don't allege an impeachable defense and if they don't, there's no facts to be had. >> it would argue for dismissal? >> it would argue for dismissal. >> thank you, bob.

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for only the second time in a generation, president trump is about to go on trial in the u.s.

senate. when bill clinton went on trial, the two sides worked it out on witnesses. not so now. when they're locked especially democrats demand for witnesses. and former democratic senators part of the clinton impeachment trial in 1999, welcome. thank you for joining us. let's talk about the witness issue. there was agreement between locke and tom daschle on a lot of the trial procedures. we weren't waiting, for instance on knowing how much time there would be for when they would start and finish each day. mitch mcconnell is making it very difficult for house managers to prepare their arguments, coming into tomorrow. they don't have that resolution. senator conrad, what do you think of the tactic, keeping the opposition off guard? >> what's more troubling to me

is that the senate ma jord leader has taken a vow of impartiality, a pledge that is required by all senators. in fact, it is so unusual, i think none of us can ever have forgotten, going to the well of the senate and signing in a giant pledge book our promise to be impartial during and impeachment consideration. mitch mcconnell has taken that same vow and signed that same book, yet he says he is coordinating with the white house on strategy for impeachment. really, i don't know how he can be qualified to continue as part of the jury, in effect, in the united states senate when he is clearly breaking the promise he has made. >> senator feingold, let me ask you, is that any different from some of the democratic senators who have come in here and said this is an impeachable offense

and he should be convicted? >> i haven't heard a democratic senator saying they decided they would vote a certain way. i certainly -- first of all, i'm delight to see ken conrad, one of my favorite colleagues. he couldn't be more right than to talk about impartial justice on martin luther king's birthday. when you hold an oath for impartiality and tactics being used, forcing the house managers to talk for 12 hours a day and not let the american people hear the debate and get it in digestible chunks and not allowing reporters to film the house managers outside the chamber today and using alan dershowitz's arguments, really, not valid arguments about high crimes and misdemeanors is all in an attempt to turn this into a show trial soviet style. that's what this looks like to me. >> what about the witnesses, senator conrad?

three key witnesses deposed on videotape and then excerpts shown on the bill clinton trial. what do you think senator schumer should do if he can't get witnesses in front of the senate? >> first of all, i hope senators who have to vote on this issue will decide they should hear witnesses. you're exactly right, andrea, we did have witnesses, we had three witnesses. they weren't in front of us but came to us on videotape. key excerpts of their testimony was provided to us by videotape. those were important elements of a trial. whoever heard of a trial without witnesses? i remember so distinctly lindsey graham telling us at the time, 20 years ago, you couldn't have a real search for truth, a real search for justice without witnesses. now, he says, we don't need any witnesses.

that is the flip-flop of a generation. >> i wanted to play also something joe biden said on sunday, in south carolina at an editorial board meeting there about lindsey graham when he was asked about lindsey graham's posture right now. >> i have to tell you, i'm really disappointed. i'm not very good at holding grudges, that's what i get criticized a lot for. i know lindsey knows better. i know he knows better. i don't know quite frankly what has gotten into lindsey or what happened but i don't have any time to hold a grudge. >> senator feingold you worked so closely with lindsey graham's best friend in the senate on campaign finance law overturned by the supreme court. tell me your take on lindsey graham. i'm sure you know him very well,

knew him very well. what would john mccain be saying to? >> i went with him to iraq and worked with him on campaign finance reform. i, along with joe biden, i'm shock head would say he's not going to be impartial. he urged us to be impartial. he was wonderful in his presentation as a house manager to the point i actually was the only democrat to vote to hear witnesses in the trial because i thought they made a good enough case witnesses have to be heard. we've never had an impeachment trial in american history that's gone to completion where there weren't witnesses. this would be the first time. this would be an example of really a show trial. they're really spitting on the constitution here, as senator conrad suggests, when they disregard the oath for impartial justice. >> what was it like, senator feingold, you were the only democrat to go against your party, not willing to dismiss without witnesses.

how much pressure did you get from the white house or your own minority leader? >> there was some pressure. people were ribbing me a little bit, teasing me about it, are you going to vote with the republicans again? they basically let me do my own job and make my own judgment. in the end, that videotape of monica lewinsky's deposition was persuasive to me that actually the president, clinton, had not tried to obstruct justice, he just didn't want his spouse to find out about these gifts, which was not a crime. >> russ feingold and ken conrad, former senators, thank you for helping us understand the future as we look back at the past. up next, the west wing, john podesta, bill clinton's chief of staff is next, what the white house is like with the president on trial. use is like with the pt on trial

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president trump's grip on senate republicans remains firm ahead of tomorrow's impeachment trial. that wasn't exactly the case 21 years ago when president clinton stood trial. peter baker of the "new york times" mr. clinton opened his

trial reasonably confident he would not begin convicted much as president trump does today and could not be quite as sure as president trump does. democrats were angry and unable to express it out loud as democrats and president trump. joining me john podesta, former chief of staff and campaign chair for hillary clinton in 2016. one noteworthy example from peter baker's article, continuing he wrote, senator leahy called president clinton, i don't know if you recall this -- >> president clinton called senator leahy. >> he was now facing impeachment and so when the phone rang one night after dinner he cursed the commander in chief. you're a fool, the senator told the president. he was the judiciary chairman. you're a damn damn damn fool. the senator's wife was aghast.

that's the president. the president was bill clinton and senator patrick leahy from vermont. >> he tells you what he thinks. >> there was no one in the senate in the house who was saying president clinton's conduct was perfect. what they were saying was it wasn't an impeachable offense. i think this has kind of flipped on its head. the republicans have sort of fallen in line and defended the president's actions, which are at the heart of what the founders were concerned about, foreign inference in a young u.s. democracy. they don't want to talk the facts and look the other way and ignore the evidence the house assembled or hear more witnesses because they don't want to hear the truth. >> isn't the dershowitz argument similar to the clinton argument then, it was not an impeachable

offense and not a crime and didn't rise to high crimes or misdemeanor? >> i think when dershowitz was teaching constitutional law to harvard students he would have flunked them if they made that argument. the heart of what the impeachment clause was inserted into the constitution to do was to guard against a foreign leader either trying to -- the president of the united states either be influenced by a foreign leader or trying to influence a foreign government to interfere in democracy. i think it is at the heart of what is a, you know, a high crime and misdemeanor. that's really what the trial is supposed to judge. it's kind of remarkable, i think, that the republican senators would just want to just close their ears, close their eyes, not want to know what the facts are, completely ignore what these nonpartisan senior officials in the government, including people trump appointed to the national security

council, acting ambassador in ukraine, he wasn't someone who was part of the deep state, he was someone pompeo called out of retirement to come back into -- and serve his country one more time. it really is incredible they just want to just not know the facts, rely on the kind of circus the president produces. >> i want to ask you about ken starr, another member of the defense team, maureen doubled writing on sunday, starr, who once clutched his pearls over bill clinton's sexual high jinks is now going to bat for president "access hollywood" after playing an avenging javert about foreplain the oval, starr will now do his utmost to prove that they abuse over foreign policy is piffel. only she can write that way. >> reassembling the defense

team, there is a reason the president reached out to these people. he likes watching them on fox news. he's put them on his team. really, what he wants to do, senator feingold likened this to a russian show trial. he wants it to be a circus, have people ignore it because it's sort of -- it is meaningless. it's just one more entertainment tv. it's not a joke and it's not a joke he strong-armed an ally, leader of a foreign government trying to interfere by getting dirt on his political opponent. it's a very serious allegation and should be taken seriously. as both senators noted, the senators taken an oath of impartiality. they ought to hear that evidence and consider whether the country is really -- they may decide, look, it's not grounds for removing him from office or not.

but the fact that they pooh-pooh the underlying facts is really a remarkable indictment of the republican party today. >> tom podesta, thank you so much. thanks for being with us. coming up, calling for calm, virginia residents praying today's rally at the state capitol is not a repeat of the horrible 2017 charlottesville disaster that ended in a young woman's death as white nationalists and gun rights activists take to the streets again. andrea mitchell only on msnbc. a. one of seven delicious entrées - like new hawaiian-style garlic shrimp. and, get a sweet dessert. three courses. one amazing price. so come in today. ♪ ♪ ♪

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authorities in richmond are on high alert this hour as gun rights and militia groups and supposedly some white nationalists are rallying. mlk jr. day is attracting a bigger crowd this year because democrats are proposing a gun control measure because democrats gained control. they have canceled the vigil for fear of clashing like in 2017. the governor declared state of emergency and temporarily banned guns from the state capitol. joining us now, sherilyn from the naacp civil defense fund. thank you for marking martin

luther king jr. day with us, a day of great significance back in the '90s. >> thank you, andrea. >> the president tweeted today the democrat party and great commonwealth of virginia are working hard. he says democrat party, as you note, diminutive and hard to take away your second amendment rights, vote republican to make it happen. it took a while to talk about mlk day because he was on his tweets this morning. what are the challenges over this gun issue and the way virginia is handling it? >> first of all, andrea, thank you for centering the conversation on the fact it is martin luther king day. i'm quite conscious of that. it took a lot for coretta scott

ting to make this day a holiday. a holiday is designed to help us engage in principles martin luther king believed in, first of all, non-violence. watching men walk through the capitol in virginia carrying weapons of war is at odds with the essence of who martin luther king was. he was also killed by a man brandishing a high powered gun, and we can't forget that as well. this entire rally stands in opposition to the meaning of this day. it's imperative for us not to turn this day over to the objectives of that group but remind ourselves what we are supposed to be about and challenges we face you correctly point out and we face challenges of issues of gun violence. we know martin luther king supported non-violence. you see terrible mass shootings happening around the country, gun violence in cities across the country, we know this is at

odds with what he believed. our job today is engage the things martin luther king called us to, to believe in peace and justice and beyond the gun issue, voter suppression and housing segregation, these are all issues with which dr. king was deeply engaged. >> i want to ask you to react to something kellyanne conway said when she was asked what the president was doing to mark mlk jr. day. >> what is president trump doing to observe martin luther king day? >> i can tell you the president is preparing for davos and agrees with many of the things dr. martin luther king stood for, for many years, including unity and equality. he's not the one trying to tear the country apart through an impeachment process and lack of substance. >> your reaction?

>> what an embarrassing incompetent answer. there is no answer that would be acceptable because he's doing nothing to commemorate mlk day and it would be hypocritical if he tried to do that. the tweets he put up knowing this rally was put up today and knowing the governor of virginia declared a state of emergency because of concerns and fears and threats of violence given what happened in 2017 in charlottesville, we now reset what the president is supposed to do, he's not supposed to call for calm and peace and not supposed to call to our higherselves and not supposed to demonstrate leadership. he gets to tweet what ever he wants to put him in a better political position. he's not doing anything to commemorate mlk day and important we do that work. we don't need mr. trump to leaped us in knowing what to do around equality and justice. we have a blueprint. we have leaders who have given

their lives for this work. that's what we should be focused on today. first and foremost, as said, we should be focused on the issue of voter suppression. this is 2020, the election is ever before us. our democracy is at stake. it's not just about mr. trump's desire politically, it's about latinos and african-americans of this country to participate in the political process. dr. king called voting civil rights issue number one and it remains civil rights issue number one today. >> let me ask you briefly about an experience you were tweeting over the weekend when you were asked to get out of your seat on a regional amtrak train between, i guess, heading to baltimore, has that been resolved at all? >> well, the matter is being investigated. i won't be saying very much

about it beyond what i've already said. i've been in communication with amtrak officials and will continue to do so. it was a disturbing incident and the response was quite disturbing. in the coming days, i will be leaning into this issue quite aggressively. thank you for asking about it. i'm not doing press at this time. i will address the issue with amtrak. >> we will come back when it is addressed, when it is resolved. >> absolutely. >> hopefully. thank you very much, sherilyn ifill and commemorating martin luther king day today. >> as the nation prepares for its third impeachment hearing in history, what has changed. you're watching andrea mitchell from msnbc.

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also you can stream like this. smartphones. because we give you that. judy: "i love you guys." we also give you that. so you can stargaze like this. all because of that. will president clinton be allowed to stay in office or will he be thrown out? that is the simple and critical question at the heart of an historic trial that opened today in the u.s. senate. there were no thundering orations or surprising moments of a john grisham novel or

partisan food fights. the drama came by republican i attacks and republican prosecutor to answer to the rule of law and to america's children. >> nbc's tom brokaw anchoring "nightly news" on january 14th, 1999, the day the clinton impeachment trial opened. when house prosecutors said the president violated his oath of office and should be removed. the author of the book "presidents of war." presidents under impeachment now. the contrasts are so stark in terms of the relative relationship comity between daschle and the house won't even tell them how to proceed with arguments. >> and we would probably lament the fact civility has broken

down in the senate and house and life is no longer the way it used to be. it was tom daschle and trent lott were able to agree on rules. 100 senators voted for them. the trial opened at least of no everybody agreed on the ground rules. history is not repeating itself that way nowadays. >> how has a u.s. senator taking an oath signed to the fact they're impartial, having said they're not impartial? >> that's a very hard thing. that's another example of that is the fact that here we are in a situation. i'm always looking for ways in which the past is going to tell us what to predict. that's happened before. but the other thing is that you've never had a situation where the president who is in the dock had a party that controlled the senate at the time of the trial and we're now seeing the fruits of that. >> and we've never had a president in the dock in first term up for reelection in the

year of an impeachment. >> that's right. this is in the middle of the campaign. the president in the dock is running for reelection. iowa is coming up. you'll have a state of the union which may occur during this. that happened before with bill clinton. but i think the interesting thing is that as much as we try to look to history to predict what we're going to see. we're about to see a lot of things we have never seen before. >> in the new book, a very stable genius, out tomorrow, one of the things that officials said about the president's attitude toward the gravity and allure of the white house, quote, he's ruined that magic. this aide said of trump, they write the disdain he showed for our country's foundations, the disregard for right and wrong. your fist clenches. your teeth grate. this is a quote presumably from a trump appointee. >> trump is the first to say

he's a disrupter. that's a case where there is a little bit of historical precedent. andrew johnson was a disruptive and that provided some of the grounds for which andrew johnson was impeached. >> and the other main difference is social media. and the cable -- the divisions among cable news outlets where the president has this echo chamber. >> that's right. and you think of the client impeachment at the time, it seemed as if it was dividing the country and people were exercised about it. but you didn't have the effect of social media. you didn't have grate forces that were trying to protect the president or oppose him. we're going to see all that now, and whatever happens, i think any of the division and antagonism we see on the senate floor is only going to be amplified. >> michael, as always, we look forward to hearing from you throughout this trial and creating the context we need to

understand it better. >> thank you so much. >> and up next, breaking his silence. what prince harry is saying before leaving his royal life in london. stay with us on andrea mitchel reports on msnbc. it's red lobster's new three-course shrimp feast for $14.99. choose soup or salad. one of seven delicious entrées - like new hawaiian-style garlic shrimp. and, get a sweet dessert. three courses. one amazing price. so come in today. thouwhich is breast cancer metastthat has spreadcer, to other parts of the body, are living in the moment and taking ibrance. ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor is for postmenopausal women or for men with hr+/her2- metastatic breast cancer, as the first hormonal based therapy. ibrance plus letrozole significantly delayed disease progression versus letrozole, and shrank tumors in over half of patients.

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from queen e list beth that the duke and duchess will step back from all duties and no longer use their royal titles. he made it clear the queen's decision was not his and meghan markle's preferred outcome. >> once meghan and i were married, we were excited. we were hopeful, and we were here to serve. for those reasons it brings me great sadness that it has come to this. our hope was to continue serving the queen, the commonwealth, and my military associations, but without public funding. unfortunately, that was impossible. >> nbc senior correspondent keir simmons joins me now. this is a bigger split than some of us may have anticipated. they're going to spend the majority of their time in north america, which presumably means canada. >> that speech was stunning, wasn't it?

harry is his mother's son. that speech showed the princess diana ability to connect. it was heart felt, but also designed to pull at the heart strings. i think the real question going forward now, there's going to be a battle for public opinion. will harry and meghan be viewed as diana was, as somebody who was wronged, it was in exile by had the support of the public? or will they be viewed as king edward, who abdicated the throne and was viewed as walking away from his duty for love, but also for happiness, for his own happiness? those are the two potential routes this takes. meghan's role, is unknown. harry, though, i would say, is pretty astute and in that sense, the royal family faces a pretty forbiddable player, if you like, now outside the family. >> and keir, obviously the queen

and harry we understand have had a very close relationship, she and her grandson. was the sticking point the commercial aspects? there was a video that came out showing harry almost pitching and meghan pitching for her to do voiceovers for hollywood. >> that's a good point. that's exactly the kind of thing that would worry the palace, that that would do damage to the royal brand. i think in that statement from the queen over the weekend, you saw the two queens. the two queens you always see in the crown. the family woman, the grandmother who is trying to do the best for her family, and the queen who has to do right for her skoirnt and the constitution. what you see in "the crown" and in historic moment is the tension between these two, and in the end the queen sides with her role over her family, but, of course the message in the

statement was the love for her family, for harry and meghan and archie, saying they would always be much-loved members of the family. it's tough being the queen. it's tough being a royal. maybe that's part of the reason that harry is stepping away. >> well, keir, thank you for your insights. we appreciate it. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchel reports". chris jansing is taking over. >> hello. it is monday, january 20th, martin luther king junior day. right now we are 24 hours away from the senate impeachment trial of president trump. just moments ago the white house filed the trial brief clocking in at 110 pages. it's the most detailed look we've seen yet of the president's legal strategy and a counterpoint to the democrats' 111 pages filed over the weekend. the president's legal team writing house contracts were determined from the outset to find some y,