ari fleischer, good to see you everybody, thank you. it over to martha maccallum and bret baier live in washington and new york for a special coverage of the senate impeachment trial. thanks for watching "outnumbered." ♪ >> bret: oh, hi again. this is special coverage of the senate impeachment trial of president donald trump live in washington, i'm bret baier. >> martha: i martha maccallum, good to see you everybody, good to be back in d.c. today. house impeachment managers and president trump's legal team heading back to the senate chamber for debate today as republicans say they think they have enough votes to block witnesses. >> bret: g.o.p. senator john barrasso says he thinks it's just a matter of time before they acquit the president. >> i think the democrats may try to throw a couple hail hail mary passes, i can't tell you on

"the beat with ari melber" starts right now. hi there, ari. >> hi, katie. thank you so much. thanks to everyone at home for joining us on this federal holiday, martin luther king day. but it is not a holiday for the news. new action in donald trump's impeachment trial beginning tomorrow. tonight we have new reporting on his defense strategy and why it's different from what the house republicans had been focusing on. we also have a special preview of donald trump's new lawyers. many have tv experience, including interviews on this show. in fact we have two renowned lawyers here tonight to handicap these new editions and how they can shape the trial tomorrow. also, we have one of our special reports tonight, something we have been working hard on. we think it could be pretty relevant. it's everything you need to know about rudy giuliani's foreign business work and why it may have helped bench him from this trial. so all that is coming up. >>> but our top story is the race to tomorrow. we are now 19 hours away from the beginning of a fate that donald trump has desperately tried

thanks for having me, ari.appy new year. >> happy new year to you and the folks behind you, a campaign tradition. we of course begin with the very serious foreign policy stand off. you are critical of what the president did. what would you, as president, do different? >> well, i never would have pulled out of the multi-lateral nuclear agreement with iran that ended up causing all of these provocations that have now been escalating to a point where we're at the brink of war. we need to head the opposite direction. the vast majority of americans want nothing to do with a war in iran, and i would lead us back from the brink and reinvest in diplomacy to try and get tensions under control in the region. >> what if that doesn't work? what if as the folks in this administration say, and frankly as many last administrations said, although they did reach a kind of deal that iran does sponsor terror, that it does sew discord in the region, and it does work against u.s. interests and if that doesn't work, then what? >> we

ari, looking at trump's legal team, what is your take away? >> they are superstars.ut are they superstars who will work well together and divide the labor appropriately? that is the real question. there certainly have been great names, legal names. each have storied histories. you know, a lot of this work is the leg work, getting information on witnesses, to poke holes and witness testimonies in case the witnesses are called. that is a lot of hard work that is going to have to be done in a short amount of time. >> laura: i think they have divided it up witnessed by witness an argument by argument from the constitutional to the fact based arguments, so i think that is already in the process. tom fitton, what we have heard from the media are sip alone he is not media person, not a lot of sexy trial work. i guess trying to raise expectations, lower expectations for him, but i love the fact, full disclosure, he is a close friend of mine, so i know he is going to be fantastic. i love the fact, he is kind of an enigma to them because he is not someone who seeks the limelig

ari melber, good to see you. >> we have a lot on the beat tonight. cascading twin pressures of the impeachment process, news on that late in the day breaking, and we have it for you, as well as everything that is going on with the enduring fallout from donald trump's choices in iran. >>> first let me tell you this, right now nancy pelosi is hud ling behind closed doors. that's why we have the empty microphone shot for now. but we know she's speaking with her democratic speakers. this is the first time they've huddled in the new year and she could come out and address the microphones. late today, president trump linking the defense with the situation in iran. we'll unpack that and why many see a disturbing parallel to nixon, someone who tried and failed to pink the impeachment process. we begin with the big news. you may have already heard some of the hints. the republican leader mitch mcconnell is now saying he will move forward with plan to conduct a trial of donald trump, the impeachment trial, and they won't reach any initial agreement about witne

david: ari, you never heard the word terrorist in npr article i quoted from.y never used that word terrorist to describe him. maybe they did in some other article but not in the one i quoted. they continued to say assassination. that he was assassinated. a word i never used for osama bin laden when president obama was in power and oversaw the killing of osama bin laden. the point is is that he was a terrorist. he was in a battle zone, and he was about to commit a terrorist act. doesn't that make him a fair military target, in which case it would not be an assassination. >> call him what you want, call him mickey mouse or donald duck, it doesn't matter he was in charge of the most poet ept force in the region -- potent force in the region, organized and created hezbollah in iraq. the number was killed in the convoy muhandis was the most potent iraqi who considered himself a soldier of soleimani. let's put this into perspective. here's what's going on, bret said tactical. i want the president to be strategic. we did something right. are we going to escalate or a

"the beat" with ari melber starts right now. hi, ari. >> hi, katy. thank you so much. >>> we begin with negotiations breaking up negotiations over the senate trial. a key witness agreeing to testify. with the world obviously on edge over the continuing fallout from president trump's deadly strike against iran's top general, today the white house surprised by new impeachment pressure from one of donald trump's highest ranking aides and a well-known iran hawk, john bolton, who picked today of all days to release this new formal statement announcing for the very first time thaefr he is actually agreeing to testify in the senate trial of his former boss donald trump. as you hear bolton's new position, keep in mind this is a statement that no one in the white house wanted and that most senate republicans oppose, and that as far as reporting goes, this is an answer that few journalists were asking for right now. because bolton's moment had already passed effectively during the impeachment probe in the house. you may recall democrats withdrew the court effo

ari melber. he needs to sleep. >> i'm anchoring in the morning, lawrence. >> the guy who has been carrying us through the trial every day. great coverage. thanks for staying with us tonight, ari. really appreciate it. >>> when we come back, the trump defense now comes down to the dershowitz defense. the dershowitz defense is being countered by harvard law school's professor of law school lawrence tribe who will join us next. man: sneezes skip to the good part with alka-seltzer plus. now with 25% more concentrated power. nothing works faster for powerful cold relief. oh, what a relief it is! so fast! as parents of six, this network is one less thing i have to worry about. (vo) why the aceves family chose verizon. we all use our phones very differently. these two are always gaming and this one is always on facetime. and my oldest is learning to be a pilot. we need a reliable network because i need to know he's safe. as soon as he lands, he knows he better call mama. mama! (vo) the network more peop

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i also just want to get back to ari fleischer's point that is interesting. the question of how many of these senators that are on the fence about witnesses believe that the phone call was not perfect or believe that perhaps the president had opened the window to saying, you know, perhaps i shouldn't have brought that up there. moved on. whether or not this would have been an entirely different story, but he has dug in hard on his belief that ukraine is a corrupt country and he didn't want that money to go there and concerned about that and that's what he was expressing. also the biden question going back to 2016. they're dug in and i expect the defense to be slimmer than what we're hearing. >> bill: i'm not going to rip off chris wallace. go ahead. >> i kind of disagree with martha. i think that they have to take on the case. they don't have to -- it's not like they have to prove he's not guilty. they've been complaining over and over again, you are ripping me up. here's adam schiff. >> bill: i owe you one. by my clock, democrats have 14 hours left to make t

do you want to jump in, ari?f the founders wanted it to go through court of law, it would've gone through a court of law. they put it in the senate, a political body. that's how the system is designed. it's a political impeachment. the house impeachment politically in the senate will acquit him politically. >> trace: we have to jump in. >> reporter: a lot of questions being asked in washington and across america about what evidence you had qassem soleimani was planning attacks against american targets. what can you tell us about what you knew prior to ordering the attack? >> president trump: his past was horrible. he was a terrorist, so designated by president obama, as you know. he wasn't even supposed to be outside of his own country. he was. so right there. in the way, that's the least of it. we had an attack very recently that he was in charge of where we have people horribly wounded. one dead. the number now as of this morning i believe is t two dead. he was traveling with the head of hezbollah. they weren't

it should take a lot of time, ari. we're talking about displacing the president of the united states because he tried to cheat and win an election. and so i expect them to take their time. i expect them to lay out the case methodically, and the case is a very, very strong one. and i think as long as the american people actually watch the evidence, i think that there is a very strong chance that lots of people will vote at the end of the day to convict the president. >> but let me press you a little more on what i'm getting at, because i think viewers will be interested in it from you, which is how would you tell the house managers to present? politicians as we know are accustomed to a certain speaking style -- i'm being diplomatic -- or we might say, and i hate to say it with congressman jeffreys here, obviously i'll exclude him, but sometimes ball hogging or looking for certain moments. but in all seriousness, if you're going to do the job well in the senate trial, you're really focussed on the 100 senate jurors in th

joining us, karl rove and ari fleischer. karl rove and ari, you both served in administrations.ur reaction tonight, karl, to what you see happening? >> well, let's put this in context, soleimani is the highest-ranking official on the quds force. he is a close ally and associate of ayatollah khamenei, who put him in charge of this project. he has the blood of many american soldiers on his hands.s. he's the guy who engineered it so the iraqis who were fighting against the u.s. had explosive charge, ieds, with what are called safe charges -- they could -- the special devices that could literally blow a hole through the most heavily armored vehicles we had. the iraqis were not able to develop this themselves. it required sophistication. it was beyond their skill. and this is the guy who gave them those weapons. by 2007, i think it was, about 2/3 of the u.s. casualties were a direct result of these munitions being given to the iraqis by -- by soleimani. he's also the guy who, after that, as we got more and more sophisticated in tracking down the bad guys, he's the guy whoho gave them

i actually concur with ari fleischer.e on "america's newsroom" or with bret baier on "special report" and make some sort of statement and get some sort of clarification here and i think that would be helpful. >> sandra: we of course welcome any of them to appear here on "america's newsroom." we want to finally ask you about the doj putting out the statement a short ago on bolton not informing ag barr about the trump-zelensky call. they say it's a misrepresentation of the chronological order of events. the times reporting that bolton warned ag barr that president trump had mentioned him on the call. they are saying that's not the case. the department of justice denying that sequence of events, important to put that out here before how things were discovered to come a lot of people are taking that "new york times" report for what it is. one source. ari fleischer made the case this could be taken out of context. after all, it is a leak. your final thoughts? >> that's a problem with "the new york times." we have seen this tim

joining us with reaction, dan bongino, ari fleischer. ari, let's start with you. i would expect, i am leaning, believing that i don't think they certainly don't get the four votes, republican votes for witnesses, it will be interesting if any democrats go along with the republicans. i -- if i had to guess, the republicans will get the 51st vote. >> i hesitate to guess about the vote count. you never know when he gets this close. i will say if there are no witnesses, it's very logical, good reason. this is an impeachment case that never should've been brought to the first place. there was no crime. there's been no compelling evidence brought to the senate to make senators think there was a crime. so if you know you're going to lose in the jury, it's basically dismissing the case outright and letting the jury go home. no need to hear the witnesses. i would not be surprised if that's the case because that's the outcome. >> sean: i agree. dan bongino. >> i think ari is right. i would like to double down on that. witnesses to what? there is no crime here. you've alread

ari fleischer, great to see you. thank you for your perspective. >> thank you, harris, harris. >> harris: a suggestion by some republicans the situation with iran could force congress to put impeachment on the back burner. this is both political sides remaining over the standoff of how the senate should handle any impeachment trial. >> this was an act of war, sean, by any reasonable definition. the president has all of the authority he needs under article two to respond. >> harris: reaction from capitol hill. whether democrats are right to criticize the president when it comes to iran. i will talk with an iraqi veteran. senator joe ernst is next. ♪ i have huge money saving news for veterans. mortgage rates just dropped to near 50-year lows. one call to newday usa can save you $2,000 every year. and once you refinance, the savings are automatic. thanks to your va streamline refi benefit, at newday there's no income verification, no appraisal, and no out of pocket costs. activate your va benefit now. one call can save

dahout ari tll the tywe'll contino ue to do things appropriately, lawfully and konks constitutionally. we've been consistent about that. >> secretary pompeo, thanks for your time this morning. >> thank you, george.

anouldtn pary,orkd world. insll s insll, beckworth,ded in pary, pary, pary,orkd world. e beckworth,arys insll, beckworth,ded in pary, pary, prty,orkd world. e beckworth,ary,beckworth,ar pows, cook it anouldt anouldtn pary,orkd world. insll s insll, beckworth,ded in pary, pary, pary,orkd world. e captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, january 5:la esng tensions in the middle east. and in our special peril and promise series we continue our reporting along the missisppi river exploring the challenges of climate change. next on "pbs newshour weekend." >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: ar bernard and irene sc. sue and edgar wachenheim iii.ch thyl and philip milstein family. rosalind p. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg. charles roselum. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow

so what you have here, ari, is not just a rush to judgment.tually be part of the crime as far as i'm concerned. this is part of the cover-up. to not have real deliberation and a process in the senate and eliminate the deliberation that even occurred in 1999. >> well, you lay it out there and it's something for people to really consider. that's the serious stuff. on a slightly lighter note, as a former senator i did want to give you the chance to weigh in. do you have a view on senator romney taking the chocolate milk to the floor like that? >> well, first of all, i'm irritated that we didn't get to take milk out there 20 years ago. if i had known i could take milk even chocolate milk out on the floor instead of water it would have made it a lot easier. so these guys are getting off easy, ari. >> well, you make a wisconsin point. can you bring the whole cheese head down to the senate floor? depending on the day and the topic, may be. >> might have been more problematic. >> thank you so much, senator feingold. lematic. >> thank you so much, sena

let's begin ari fleischer, former white house press secretary, joining us now. ari, good morning.very familiar, the present overseas as the impeachment trial is underway at home. your thoughts this morning, ari? >> what a perfect almost split screen. i think washington is consumed with this partisan leverage game of one party hates the other, the other party hates the other back, and that's what you see in the schumer news conference. while the present is conducting the nation's policies and business. i think that's the exact image the president wants to portray and should portray throughout the next couple weeks as impeachment drags on. >> sandra: it's almost interesting how he has taken very few questions on impeachment, were very few questions at all, while he's been in davos. this morning he gave a powerful academic speech. charles payne said it was the best he's delivered in his presidency. and he has had several bilateral meetings this morning, but he is somewhat quiet on impeachment back here at home. earlier he called it a hoax, taking one question on it. ari, so far this

andrea mitchell, ari melber, and vicki noonan. ari, you're a lawyer. i got to think, every lawyer dreams of the opportunity to be able to take a case and sometimes thunder away and rapture a moment. you wonder can these people meet the moment. whatever you think of adam schiff, you can't say he has not met this moment. it may go for nothing, but i will say this, i did not expect him to be able to do the trial lawyer thing. that's what we knew he was so very competent, but this was quite the dramatic. >> athletes like playoffs, lawyers like big cases, they come down after the evidence to the argument you want to make. as you mention, a lot of people from what we can immediately tell responding to that, also goes to the dual challenge, speaking to the room and senators there and unlike other managers and lawyers that may have lost the room as you were reporting, he may have held some of the senators in that room, made them think twice. >> you love these word smiths. i have to think you were impressed with his game. >> yes, i was. there is so much data in

if -- ari melber.ndments that have been proposed and both have been voted on, voted down in fact, to be tabled, specifically the first amendment proposed by the senate democrats was to subpoena documents from the white house. the second to subpoena documents from the state department. the third, which we just had was to subpoena documents from omb. a

again, we're 20 minutes from top of the hour. >> i wonder, ari, what you see.lk about norms being obliterated by donald trump, we talk about donald trump as a hostage to television production. this would seem to also put on trial any remaining vestige of respect for traditions, institutions, in this case, chief justice of the supreme court and power of television to maybe remind republicans that everyone is watching. >> everyone is watching and the founders prodescribed it. the chief justice takes over for those reasons. we are looking at footage of the chief justice walking in. notice, he walks in in his suit. he will go to a private room where he will put on the ceremonial robes and will walk through the main corridors into the main room of the senate, past the clock corridor. we are witnessing something that's very rare. this chief justice has never been called upon to do this, as you mention, he was supported by many senators on the republican side of this chamber. when he comes out, he will take up a position that's so different from the way he rules acros

"the beat with ari melber" starts now. ari, man, it's a weird washington day a lot of breaking news happening. >> a ton. and we are watching the same story on the floor of the house there as well as other things. good to see you, chuck. >> thank you. >> we have a big show with news breaking right now. the house voting on limiting trump's war powers against iran. there are a lot of clues that the democrats have the vote. also, something special you won't see anywhere else. six senators who voted in clinton's impeachment trial join me together. it's a beat exclusive. >>> the top story is the looming trial of president trump. there are new senate leaks it could start as soon as monday. speaker pelosi doubled down on her strategy signaling to gop leader mcconnell today she still holds the cars on timing and she'll act when she is ready. >> no, i am not holding them indefinitely. i will send them over when i'm ready and that will probably be soon. we want to see what they are willing to do and the manner in which they will do i

>> right, well, ari, good morning to you.ook, some four weeks after the house adopted the two articles of impeachment against president trump the house speaker is formally bringing the house portion of the proceedings to a close. by doing two things. naming these house impeachment managers and then ultimately transmitting both articles of impeachment over to the senate. as you mentioned, the house impeachment managers that's the group of house lawmakers who will present and then prosecute the case against president trump on the senate floor. as i know you know back in the '90s during the '99 impeachment trial house republicans who were in control at the time they picked 13 members of the house judiciary committee. all of them at the time happened to be white men to prosecute the case against then president clinton. this time around, house speaker pelosi will settle on a group that's smaller and more diverse. we have seen staffers for adam schiff who of course chaired the house intelligence committee, jerry nadler, they are he

i want to welcome back ari fleischer. it's been 21 years since we had something like this happen in our history, ari. just want to get from you some thoughts about where it goes from here and also on the politics of it from both sides. >> you know, dana, the first thing that jumps out at me is the gap of what i call the professional tv watchers, the news industry and the punditry including me that notice this and watch it. what i think the american people are thinking, this is a waste of time. we know the outcome. i don't think people are really convinced a crime was committed or anybody sitting on the edge of their seats thinking the president might get removed and they'll watch. i've never seen a bigger dichotomy and what i suspect is much of the rest of the country. >> dana: politically, what do you think the best approach for the white house would be? we've talked about the president just continuing on to do the business of the people, to be the commander-in-chief. he's going to davos, a state of the union to prepare

"the beat with ari melber" starts right now. hi there, ari. >> hi, katie. thank you so much. this federal holiday, martin luther king day. but it is not a holiday for the news. new action in donald trump's impeachment trial beginning tomorrow. tonight we have new reporting on his defense strategy and why it's different from what the house republicans had been focusing on. we also have a special preview of donald trump's new lawyers. many have tv experience, including interviews on this show. in fact we have two renowned lawyers here tonight to handicap these new editions and how they can shape the trial tomorrow. also, we have one of our special reports tonight, something we have been working hard on. we think it could be pretty relevant. it's everything you need to know about rudy giuliani's foreign business work and why it may have helped bench him from this trial. so all that is coming up. >>> but our top story is the race to tomorrow. we are

>> the rule is really simple, ari.anyone they want for whatever reason they want as long as they have the votes, so all that is required is that the subpoena passes the vote to subpoena, so i had never heard even during my time in congress or after my time in congress that congressional committees are restricted from issuing subpoenas. so that's that. and then to claire's point earlier, i think we're reminded of how low the bar was for the president's attorneys today. really, their audience in the chamber was only about 10 to 15 republican senators who they had to avoid embarrassing or offending, and i think they certainly reached that goal, and you can tell from the comments from joni ernst and others, the only risk for the president's team today was to fluster or to embarrass senate republicans. after some of those senators were uncomfortable last night when chairman schiff made those pointed remarks, they knew that their goal today would be to avo avoidflumoxing. >> the benefit of making a facially invalid argument,

ari fleischer. thank you. i am harris. "the daily briefing" starts right now. >> fox news alert, and impeachment will be in the senate hands, house lawmakers voting to send the articles of impeachment along with the impeachment managers across the capital ped hello, everyone. i am dana perino. and this is "the daily briefing." ♪ >> the president violated his oath of office, undermined our national security. he jeopardized the of our election, tried to use the appropriations process as his private atm machine to grant or withhold funds granted by congress in order to put his personal and political advantage. >> dana: as the house gets ready to turn impeachment over

i'm a high wire act every night, ari fleischer, first your general observation. then -- we have to look at everything, 287 days away from the ultimate jury, the american people see this through the political prism especially the president in davos, the president keeping another promise, the china deal as nancy pelosi preferably, solemnly smiling with her commemorative impeachment pan. >> let me step back from the daily maneuverings and personalities on the senate floor in washington. i want to talk about the american people. the american people are a fundamentally fair, sensible, well grounded people. if a crime were committed, this would be bipartisan. and that the flynn mental flaw in impeachment. because no crime was committed and instead you have the one party partisan push for impeachment for people who never liked donald trump in the first place, but there is a tremendous group of americans who are independent, don't really follow politics, republicans as well, who if they thought donald trump committed a crime, they would say so! because crimes are obvious

tripoli the center what does the central bank do i think it sends it to the militias to the nurse in aries and the rest of it whatever's left to corruption. meanwhile in tripoli the home of the u.n. backed government of national unity there was also large demonstrations many supporters of fires i'll summarize his administration said while they were in favor of peace they rejected the planned peace talks in berlin. after 9 months of fighting they see that there will be a meeting in berlin but now we have the power and are able to return have to our back to where he came from. and i myself will not agree with anything nor will i be accepting any dictators i may. nevertheless both. in general have to are expected to attend sunday's peace talks in berlin. and so to 2 other men whom observers considered to be the decisive players in the conflict turkish president red chip type one who supports a raj and russia's vladimir putin who backs. the goal of the bill in conference is to turn the fragile ceasefire both libyan leaders have a greater into a long term solution and hold foreign military inte

>> that's exactly right, ari, and here's how it sort of transitions. when you first gather facts and present them, it's sort of a dry, often stayed recitation. at this stage, what the best prosecutors do and the best defense attorneys, for that matter, is they take facts and they argue them, meaning use your common sense, would you do this in your own life. think about what they said. how does that hit you? what does that mean? right, it's not just the bare bones recitation of the things we learned from witnesses. >> like if this wasn't wrong, why did you keep hiding it. >> for instance, yeah, exactly. what you're seeing, and i think you see it particularly from congresswoman demings of florida who by the way was a cop and from adam schiff from california who, by the way, was a federal prosecutor, is that integration of fact and argument, and that's what is making this for me compelling. look, i've heard this before, but i haven't really heard it argued before. >> you haven't heard it argued and stitched together as a case. >> correct. >> our whole pan

ari fleischer has an opinion on that. after this. >> we could be sitting here in october of this year, and nancy pelosi could still be sitting on the articles. if the senate does not act, there is no end in sight. you have a brother in the second battalion? yes sir. they're walking into a trap. your orders are to deliver a message calling off tomorrows attack. if you fail, we will lose sixteen hundred men. your brother among them. we need to keep moving. i can't see! you keep hold of me! come on! what the hell are you doing lance corporal? trust me! >> nancy pelosi is attempting to obstruct a senate trial. that's all there is to it. we need to change the senate rules to allow the senate to dismiss this case if she refuses to send the articles over. >> bill: josh hawley, republican senator, hitting back against the speaker, accusing her of playing political games. now they are proposing changing the senate rules to remove her from the process altogether. i want to bring in ari fleischer, former white house press secretary,

aries kindness and control were one and the same. mary washington was a woman who used the facade of motherly virtue to cover her desire to control her son. in the same way he led a country to break away from its overpowering imperial matriarch. to stepad to struggle away from the power of his demanding mother. give us ways in which george had to break away, and prove his independence to his mother. guest: one example i gave you about the cabin boys, joining british navy. when he joined the french and indian wars, when he was in the british army fighting the french and indians in the ohio valley, she implored him not to go, and he went, despite her. on the other hand, he was very dutiful about delivering an allowance to her several times per year, sometimes more than a few times per year. host: and you mean part of his salary. guest: part of his income from mount vernon and things like that. he would take money to her in fredericksburg, for her to help make ends meet. battles overtrast, property, battles over whether or not he joined

robin and india arie in 2008 writing the song you hear every morning.ve it up for india arie. [ applause ] ♪ life is a journey not a competition ♪ ♪ you could still smell the roses and be on a mission ♪ ♪ just take a moment to give thanks for who you are ♪ ♪ up in the morning and get out of bed ♪ ♪ start making a mental list in my head of all of the things that i am grateful for ♪ ♪ early in the morning it's the dawn of a new day ♪ ♪ new hopes new dreams new ways ♪ ♪ i open up my eyes and i open up my mind and ♪ ♪ i wonder how life will surprise me today ♪ ♪ early in the morning it's the dawn of a new day ♪ ♪ new hopes new dreams new ways ♪ ♪ i open up my heart and i'm gon' do my part and make this a positively beautiful day ♪ ♪ la la la la la la la la la ♪ >> good morning, america. where y'all at? you know this part. ♪ la la la la la la la la la ♪ >> what? yeah. ♪ life is a journey not a competition ♪ ♪ you can still smell the roses and be on a mission ♪ ♪ just take a moment to give thanks for who you are ♪ ♪ good morning, america [ cheers and applause

if -- ari melber. two amendments that have been proposed and both have been voted on, voted down in fact, to be tabled, specifically the first amendment proposed by the senate democrats was to subpoena documents from the white house. the second to subpoena documents from the state department. the third, which we just had was to subpoena documents from omb. we are now entering the fourth amendment which is the first amendment calling for a witness. and that would be mick mulvaney, of course the man who's held many different positions in this white house. he's currently the chief of staff. we have geoff bennett who's on the hill who's been reporting there throughout the day. geoff, what's the expectation right now on capitol hill about what happens next? >> reporter: chris, as you mentioned, the senators are in the back half of their 30 minute dinner break. we should say, though, that senate time is very much unlike realtime so this 30-minute break could last, who knows, potentially an hour or so. i'm to

i'm ari melber picking up msnbc's special coverage of president trump's impeachment trial which gets back under way within the hour. we know today is a turning point because after a punishing three days from democratic house managers lawyers for donald trump now begin their case against impeachment even as the president ints complains the democrats nabbed their speaking time from wednesday through friday. donald trump's lawyers say they will begin with a sneak preview a trailer of sorts. they have also publicly revealed some of their strategy for the trial and today's proceedings. >> abuse of power, even if proved not an impeachable offense. >> i mean think about why we're here? are we having impeachment over a phone call. >> the dossier, are you going to bring it up? >> how do you not? how do you not bring up the steele dossier. look for things. like the foreign intelligence surveillance -- you want to talk about foreign interference, see what the fisa cart had to say about that. there is no abuse of power here, objection of justice. you don't get penaltyized for -- >> adam schiff h

this evening dershowitz spoke with our colleague ari melber by skype and seemed to be trying to distance himself from his role on trump's legal dream team. >> i will not be involved in the factual aspects of the case. my sole responsibility is to analyze and present the constitutional arguments against impeachment. i am not somebody who is strategizing with his legal team. i won't be involved in the decision whether to call witnesses. i am doing it as a lawyer who is not in a lawyer-client relationship with anybody. my specialized role is to present the constitutional argument, the same argument i would present if hillary clinton had been elected and she were being impeached. >> meanwhile back at the house today, the president was careful to adhere to business as usual, welcoming the lsu tigers to celebrate their national championship. after the team awarded him with a jersey with a 45 on it, the president threw this in. >> we'll take pictures behind the resolute desk. it's been there a long time. a lot of presidents, some good, some not so good. but you got a good one now. even though t

"the beat" with ari melber starts right now. hi, ari. >> hi, katy.h. >>> we begin with negotiations breaking up negotiations over the senate trial. a key witness agreeing to testify. with the world obviously on edge over the continuing fallout from president trump's deadly strike against iran's top general, today the white house surprised by new impeachment pressure from one of donald trump's highest ranking aides and a well-known iran hawk, john bolton, who picked today of all days to release this new formal statement announcing for the very first time thaefr he is

he has gone into this site ari extracted ma. it is an incredible juxtaposition of something betiful with items that are completely destroy and bullet-ridden. it just so happened that the events in syria took place after we had started planning this exhibition. i think it is very timely, because it helps to shed light on how syrian decisions have serious implitions on people. as the kurdish historically they have been oppressed. they haven't practically erased from certain parts of iraq in turkey. it speaks to an issue and a problem that needs tbe solved. dialogue is imperative to developing an understanding of other people, and i think that a rt is a way of creating a dialogue. my hope is that a lot of people co see this exhibition, and eayeah, i would like to think that somebody from the white house would see this exhibition. nada: of us here.s from all and nada tawfik. --tai am nada ik. announcer: funding for this presentation is made possible by... the freeman foundation; by judy and peter blum-kovler foundation, pursuing sol

ari melber is our chief legal correspondent and host of the beat.e you know is thinking of suicide call the lifeline at 800-273-8255. our show will tweet that out. please let people know this line is available. that wraps up the hour for me. thank you for watching. "deadline: white house" with nicolle wallace begins right now. >>> hi, everyone. it is 4:00 in new york. donald trump's national security team today appearing to be waiting -- wading through a messaging fog of war around their own shifting responses and explanations around questions about bombing iran's cultural sites and troop withdrawal from iraq and what killed iran's number two as the "new york times" described a direct and proportional attack on american interest, openly carried out by iranian forces, the trump administration stumbles over the messages in the wake of the killing of general soleimani. president trump today forced to back down after his secretary of defense and secretary of state openly contradicted his threat to target those iranian cultural sites which would be a war

died since the fire crisis began.re this pic was widely shared from last week, a 1-year-old receiving ary bra medal on behalf of his father who died in september. since september, 25 people have died, over 1200 homes destroyed and millions of hectacres burned out. the prime minister has announc another $1.4 billion t help with recovery. >> we make this commitment to australians that we will be there for you durin the immediate response and for the rebuilding and recovery and today in cabet we have mad a number of decisions to support th recovery effort, to do whatever it takes, whatever it costs, to me those nes,o build our resiliency for the fuiare and enable austr to be able to go forward in confidence for their futures. ros: the prime minister has been facing criticism. he went on holiday to hawaii during a weekes when f intensified. there's frustration, the the help to rural communities has been too slow, too little. remember this from last week. his sincerity iseing questioned. our correspondent t us the prime minister is slammed b,ng depicted as a slick leader. this video is some of

>> ari, because what he said was true and accurate.ittee. the committee that had the vote on this, we never saw the evidence. all of my colleagues, except for the few that you mention on those three committees who had to vote on the house floor on impeachment never saw the evidence. for that matter, democrats on the floor didn't either. >> the reason you -- to be clear, you acknowledge that house republicans on those committees did go into the scif? >> a select few did. but during those hearings, in the scif, they were not allowed due process. the president wasn't. they couldn't ask questions without being interrupted by chairman schiff. there's no exculpatory evidence. all of those things were allowed during nixon and -- >> you get time to make the point on due process. that's part of this argument but i did want to nail down that other fact that mr. cipollone said. i hope you come back. congressman mike johnson. >> i will, thanks, ari. >> thanks vetc s very much. >>> we have a lot going on, senate dick durbin of illinois will be here

i watched him on ari's program. he basically sayses a president can really put himself in trouble by abusing power because all presidents abuse u power. that was his argument. >> that's wrong as a matter of the constitution, but i think there's two objectives to this. the first is about not calling witnesses. he wants to make the case that even if everything that the articles suggest trump did are true, the facts don't matter. under the constitution, his argument is that it doesn't rise to the kind of high crime or misdemeanor necessary for removal from office. again, if you look at the history, that's just flat out wrong. what trump is accused of doing fall into categories like mall administration, abuse of office. what alexander hamilton and the other framers had in mind. the concern that someone like trump would reach office and the second thing really quickly is to give republican senators some cover for not voting to remove trump. they can say it's not just trump's own white house counsel and his own poererson

"the beat with ari melber" starts now. it's a weird washington day a lot of breaking news happening. >> a ton. and we are watching the same story on the floor of the house there as well as other things. good to see you, chuck. >> thank you. >> we have a big show with news breaking right now. the house voting on limiting trump's war powers against iran. there are a lot of clues that the democrats have the vote. also, something special you won't see anywhere else. six senators who voted in clinton's impeachment trial join me together. it's a beat exclusive. >>> the top story is the looming trial of president trump. there are new senate leaks it could start as soon as monday. speaker pelosi doubled down on her strategy signaling to gop leader mcconnell today she still holds the cars on timing and she'll act when she is ready. >> no,