our thanks to donna edwards, to eugene robinson, to barrett berger, to jonathan lemire.nd let's not forget claire mccaskill who joined us at the start of all of this. live coverage of the senate impeachment trial of donald trump continues tomorrow morning. live on msnbc thank you for being here with us. good night from our nbc news headquarters in new york. >>> well, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. day 1,099 of this trump administration, meaning 285 days to go until the 2020 presidential election. house managers have now wrapped up their second day of opening arguments against the president. he spent this evening in miami at a trump property for a republican national committee gathering. the president returned to washington a short time ago. today's focus, as you know if

at our table this evening, donna edwards, eugene robinson, berit berger, and jonathan lemire.erit, as the senior ranking attorney here, i'm curious as to -- obviously they have a contrary point of view for their readership. they are trying to get attention. what do you think of the legal reasoning? >> yeah, i think it -- i agree with that legal reasoning. i think that impeachment does not require a crime. but more importantly i think that adam schiff and the rest of the house managers did a really good job today at attacking this argument. and this goes to this sort of prebuttal concept that you were talking about earlier. >> right. >> they know this is going to be the focus of the republicans' case. they know this is what they're going to harp on. so they did a nice job of tearing that down and starting with, you know, the framers of the constitution going all the way to how this has been used in other impeachments, right? so they not only quoted lindsey graham, they quoted, you know, ronald reagan's solicitor general. they were able to draw from a lot of different historical

back with us, donna edwards and rick wilson. rick, explain to viewers who may not get the stakes of such a thing why such a thing is important. >> attacking cultural landmarks, attacking religious sites, attacking civilian population centers is not just frowned upon in warfare as something that's counterproductive and wrong. we've actually codified it and made it into part of the western value set of how we wage war. we do not wage war by destroying the cultural artifacts and religious sites of other countries. that's what isis does. and so donald trump is basically saying, we're going to be like isis when it comes to iran. and, you know, you can have a full package of every kind of chaos. if we had to go with iran tomorrow, there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of legitimate military sites that could get a good whacking. there's no reason to go after mosques and hospitals and things like that. this is a president who loves being transgressive and loves being a bully and loves being a thug. so he's trying to do this thing

for the nixon impeachment, she was a staffer for a judiciary committee member, donna edwards of california. she was a member of the judiciary committee on the clinton impeachment. and now a member of the house administration which oversees elections, and a manager. with that, i thank them all for their leadership and service. i will now proceed to sign the article. speaker pelosi: [inaudible] the president pro tempore: the senate will receive a message from the house of representatives. the majority secretary: mr. president, a message from the house of representatives. the house clerk: mr. president, i have been directed by the house of representatives to inform the senate the house has passed h. resolution 798, a resolution appointing and authorizing managers of the impeachment trial of donald john trump, president of the united states. the president pro tempore: the message will be received.

there was no impeachable offense. >> donna edwards, is that how you see it? how i see it at all. i'm a lawyer, maybe not as good as hugh. but my reading of the house's brief is that they state really clearly, i think, a strong constitutional argument in the beginning of the brief that lays out the history of impeachment, really reminding us that high crimes and misdemeanors was left to the definition of the legislators. it doesn't mean the breaking of the law. they talk specifically about the abuse -- abuse of power allegations and that the abuse of power is exactly the kind of abuse of public trust that the founders had in mind. and so i think it's a really strong and compelling argument. and the question is whether there's going to be a fair trial so that democrats can really present the argument against the president. >> one quick question on the obstruction article. in hindsight should they have waited longer to file that one and fought in the courts or use mueller's obstructions to strengthen that article? >> no, i actually think that the article is stro

joining us, donna edwards and paul buck. what are your thoughts on her picks?you know, i was not surprised by some of the picks. i think what the speaker did is she chose workhorses, not show horses, chose people she knows. we have judges, investigators, litigators, people who have been in congress and served in leadership roles. so i think it is a well rounded group of picks and a narrow group, too. i think it is important for the speaker to keep a small group of managers so work can be divvied up, so they can control the narrative they're presenting, the case they're presenting into the united states senate. >> what do you think? >> i think that's absolutely right. there were two things that struck me. one was the number seven. in 1999, there were 13 managers that came down. here w wts to keep it tight. it will wind up being adam schiff's show. he has been in charge the entire time. nancy pelosi clearly trusts him. important to point out there was no reason for all of the hearings that took place last year to be in the intelligence committee, there was no jur

joined by congressman denny hack of washington state who serves on house intelligence committee, donna edwardsa contributor for "the washington post," former director of the cia, john brennan, and jeff bennett, nbc news correspondent. thank you all. congressman, i want to talk to you and have you speak about the moment today of this impeachment articles, these two impeachment articles going over to the senate. you've admitted or confessed to a real emotion to this whole process. >> well, chris, if there was any wave of emotion today, it was one of frankly being quite somber about it. if i had to put words to it, i would tell you what i was thinking or feeling. it was, we have done our duty and now we pray to god that the united states senate does its duty. but there wasn't much drama. it was more ritual than trauma dra drama. there is the drama of high and expectation as to whether or not there will be four united states republican senators who are going to be willing to subpoena witnesses and reveal more documents because obviously the parnas revelation is the tip of the iceberg. we need to k

and msnbc contributor and political columnist to the "washington post" and former congresswoman, donna edwards of maryland. welcome all. first, john bolton. karen, how do we read this? he's certainly on board regarding iran but iran is not on the articles of impeachment and says he will testify if subpoenaed. we don't know if mitch mcconnell has the clout, he certainly looks as though he does, to not subpoena any witnesses. >> ambassador bolton was one of the chief internal critics to the president's actions with respect to ukraine. he has reportedly said, i don't want to be part of this drug deal. i think his testimony, if mitch mcconnell and republicans in the senate, decide they want it, could be crucial hear to add a lot of context to this. i think not offering to testify was becoming increasingly untenable for him, because he does have a book he is working on and a number of other things. it would be hard to justify writing a book about all of this if you were unwilling to talk to congress about it. >> he is a lawyer as well. he's certainly observing these judicial court rulings so far ha

mickey edwards, donna edwards, surlina maxwell, thank you for being here tonight.ant to say this clearly. war with iran is madness and it is strategically and morally a disaster in the making and don't believe anyone who tells you otherwise. that is all in this evening. the rachel maddow show starts right now. good evening, rachel. >> good evening, chris, my friend. appreciate it. thanks for joining us this hour. it will all happen at once. no matter how much we might wish that was not true, it will all happen at once. and because of that, part of our responsibility as citizens in this country at this time will be for us all to maintain the capacity to see multiple things at once. to follow multiple stories. to follow more than one bouncing ball at a time. and, yes, it would be easier to follow, it would be easier to absorb, it would be easier

former democratic congresswoman, donna edwards, former trump national security council spokesperson, anton. michael, does the decision to escalate dramatically, we would agree it was dramatic escalation to take ought qassem soleimani, does it make the u.s. more safe or less safe and if iran decides, to keep its promise to retaliate dramatically, does the trump administration have a strategy. >> i don't know that i agree it is dramatic escalation. you could interpret it as justified retaliation for all types of things you talked about earlier in the program iran has been doing without much of a response. the main point i want to make, iranian regime since 1989, getting very aggressive, getting used to not facing push back and not getting retaliation, when they finally do get pushback, they go back down and go into turtle mode for a while. that may happen again. we've seen that happen again. they haven't faced much retaliation as you said spending enormous windfall out of the iran deal around the middle east, creating proxies, little colonies, building out their empire. i think they go

moa leath even georgetown and donna edwards former congresswoman and national former national trump securityson michael antone. michael does the decision to escalate dramatically and it was a dramatic escalation to take out some on it, does it make us more safer or less safe? and if i iran decides as it keeps its promise to retaliate dramatically, does the trump administration have a strategy? >> i don't know that i would increase this is escalated. you can say is dramatic. iran has been doing without much of a response. the main port i want to make here is the regime has been very aggressive. getting used to not facing pushback, not getting retaliation. and when they finally do get pushed back, they tend to back down and go into turtle mode for a little while. and that may yet happen again.ap we have seen that happen in the past. they have not faced metro tap italia should in the past for spending in a normal artists when vile they got out of the iran deal creating proxies and thttle colonies, building out their empire. and i think they got overconfident, and to some extent that overconfide

joining me now, steve kornacki, noah rothman, and former maryland democratic congresswoman donna edwardsybody, welcome. tom, i am going to start it with you. lev parnas's interview, i know there is questions about his credibility. those are valid question, but does that put more pressure on somebody like john bolton to testify? somebody who had those direct communications with the president about ukraine? >> i think it does. i mean, i think it puts more pressure on anyone who has firsthand knowledge about what happened in the president's attempt to extort the government of ukraine and president dl zelensky to come forward and testify. everybody knows in any given trial there is an opportunity to bring witnesses forward who may not have been available during the investigation, too bring evidence forward that may have come late in an investigation into a trial. trials involve evidence and witnesses and testimony. the american people know that, and they expect that from republican senators. >> let's play that moment from last night. lev parnas and rachel maddow talking about john bolton. wt

. >>> joining me now is ann guerin and matthew cognetti and donna edwards. ann, let me start. want to play the following exchange between speaker pelosi and a reporter yesterday and try to understand what has changed. take a listen. >> are you satisfied that there will be a fair trial in the senate? >> no. >> what feedback have you gotten from your colleagues on not sending the articles? >> absolutely total cooperation. it cracks me up to see on tv, oh, the pressure, the pressure. >> no. >> i have news for them. you don't have a story. >> we have a thousand flowers blossoming. >> yesterday she was waiting to get indications. mcconnell didn't do anything. >> no. >> mcconnell has done what -- look. pelosi and mcconnell might be the two best leaders that either party could have. this feels like she was trying to smoke out mcconnell and she failed. >> well yeah. a couple things happened. to your point, nothing happened between yesterday and today that at least as far as we know was -- had significantly changed the playing fild. what changed was the calculation. yesterday she felt

donna edwards, your colleague hakeem jeffries finished up his presentation, it is one of the more wholistic, telling the story on abuse of power and obstruction a separate matter. when you see the democrats now leaning into prime time, tell us when you are on the house floor, you usually have a keen sense of when it is obscure and when everybody is watching and it would seem that these house managers know tonight, prime time, no rebuttals for two more days, this is a big moment for them tonight. >> well, it is. and i think that democrats also know that they can't count on holding the audience for another day or two. and so tonight really is it. and i was struck in lawrence's comments about corruption, we have to remember and hakeem pointed this out, the president undercut his own argument because the administration had already checked the box for ukraine having passed the bar to open the door to the aid that was promised them. and so i think what hakeem did is that he started from the beginning to the end of the story. and he used the testimony, he used documentary evidence, and he wove tha

a former democratic congresswoman donna edwards and former trump national security council spokespersonon. michael, does the decision to escalate dramatically and i think we would agree it was a dramatic escalation to take out qasem soleimani, does it make the u.s. more safe or less safe, and if iran decides -- keeps its promise to retaliate dramatically, does the trump administration have a strategy? >> i don't know that i would necessarily agree that this was a dramatic escalation. you could interpret it as a justified kinds of things that iran has been doing without much of a response. the main point i would want to make here is the iranian regime since 1979 has a history of getting very aggressive, getting used to not facing pushback, not getting retaliation and when they finally do get pushed back the next ten to back down and go into turtle mode for a little while and that may yet happen again. we've seen that happen in the past. they haven't faced much retaliation for, as you said, spending the enormous windfall they got out of the iran deal all around the middle east, creating p

let me bring in the panel, loni chen, donna edwards, carol lee, chuck rosenberg. carol, i want to start with you. the question is how much of the white house knows what's in the bolton book, how many folks reviewed it. there seems to be the white house legal team, i guess they're leaving the impression they don't know what's in there, they haven't denied they read it. >> right. they're trying to say it is isolated to the national security council, didn't go beyond that. we know that ambassador bolton sent one hard copy of his book to the white house, specifically to national security council to do a routine review as anyone that's written a book in any administration would go through for national security purposes. from the bolton team perspective, clearly it wasn't like they were passing around one hard copy. >> we know copies were made. >> there is belief copies were made, got into more hands than intended to. and that leads to look, they want to distance themselves from the idea bolton was behind this. the argument is that they didn't leak it, they were above b

mickey edwards, donna edwards, surlina maxwell, thank you for being here tonight. i want to say this clearly. war with iran is madness and it is strategically and morally a disaster in the making and don't believe anyone who tells you otherwise. that is all in this evening. the rachel maddow show starts right now. good evening, rachel. >> good evening, chris, my friend. appreciate it. thanks for joining us this hour. it will all happen at once. no matter how much we might wish that was not true, it will all happen at once. and because of that, part of our responsibility as citizens in this country at this time will be for us all to maintain the capacity to see multiple things at once. to follow multiple stories. to follow more than one bouncing ball at a time. and, yes, it would be easier to follow, it would be easier to absorb, it would be easier to anticipate what was going to happen next if these kinds of world-changing and historic calamities would please happen in sequence, or even bless us with a break in between them. but in our time, in our country, that is

i'm ari melber with our continuing special coverage of the trial of donald trump and joined by donna edwards, former federal prosecutor chuck rosenberg, former u.s. senator and former prosecutor, claire mccaskill and eugene robinson of the "washington post." eugene, what hakeem jeffries did was zero in on something that has hung over much of the proceedings, but he really bore down on what the president was doing with his foreign policy power. >> he did. and the way hakeem jeffries did it was to almost go line by line through the rough transcript of the phone call, of the july 25th phone call between president trump and president zelensky of ukraine. and sort of highlight and point out all the insane and unethical and improper and impeachable things that the president said in that call. i think he did that effectively. but i think if you look at the whole day, what the speakers, the managers who spoke before jeffries did was point out that it wasn't just the phone call. there was a larger conspiracy. in other words, they laid the ground work for jeffries to talk about the phone call. they ta

joining us back here in studio are donna edwards, maya wiley, joyce vance, chuck rosenberg.s commenced, i think i'm looking at all of you, i think you and i have logged the most hours together, came when chairman nadler said the constitution is not a suicide pact. that just jolted me out of my chair. let's watch that and talk about it. we don't have that yet. >> let's talk about it anyway. >> just that language. what are they trying to do? feels like they're trying to grab everyone's attention. make sure that these long hours do not make any of those hundred senators in the chamber complacent or the viewing public. >> the genius behind the constitution of the united states is that it gives flex bltd. right? it is not a very details constitution. some states in our country have very detailed constitutions. go on for hundreds and hundreds of pages and clauses. ours is not. it is a framework. right? it's purposefully ambiguous or i should say sparse. probably a better word. that can be interpreted as needs arise. the phrase, for instance, high crimes and misdemeanors, is not ve

here with me on set donna edwards, andrea mitchell, ari melber and peggy nunan. peggy, give us the details. step back, where are we? >> step back. we are in the middle of what has been a once in a generation, historical event, and even less frequent in the past, i think big things you haven't done in a generation can begin a little awkwardly. you can sort of feel things crick along in a way. i think the drama begins today at 1:00 p.m., when we have opening cases, essentially, laid out. i think yesterday as you know, the democrats are putting forward a little evidence. the republicans are putting forward a little process. there are clashes. the fact is, this is a big thing that hasn't taken on the feeling of the big thing yet. >> fair point. >> i think it's an event. and we'll see how it goes the next few days or weeks. i think the key to everything is witnesses. if there are witnesses, this thing takes off in the national imagination. >> ari melber, what is the focus today? obviously they have three days to spread this out. i would assume they have to have this m

political reporter robert costa, don don donna edwards, michael steele, and former prosecutor andrew peisman. hallie jackson at the white house. it is interesting, two questions i think we're trying to figure out. one, how much has that unpublished manuscript had on the democrats's strategy from before, and two, do overnight revelations change their tactics for today? >> i would add a third one to that, questions about what the white house counsel's office, what the president's defense team knew and when they knew about the allegations made by john bolton and the book itself, right. i think you can split it into a couple of pieces. what we have seen from the president's defense team is insistence on following the strategy that they laid out from the very beginning, from weeks ago in conversations with sources there about telling and making the argument that the president no matter what happened, right, this does not meet the constitutional threshold for impeachment. i don't think, chuck, based on what i understand from the defense team that that will change dramatically. think about

edwards, since 2016. she is an outspoken advocate for children and the family and created campaigns to support children at all stages. please welcome to the stage, the first lady of louisiana,. donnah. good afternoon. you all for having me here today. specialants to give a shout out to everyone from the great state of louisiana here with us today. being here today is important to governor johnand, bel edwards, who was sworn in for a second term as governor of louisiana, and we are proud. guidingur faith is the source in both of our lives, and we are not shy about it. daily ton our faith inform decisions that we make. we believe in the power of prayer, because we know firsthand that prayer changes things. so, as believers, we know that god is not confirm -- does not conform to man's laws. and at the end of the day, it is up to each of us to pray, and to stand in the gaps in prayer for those who need our help and to see things change for the better. [cheering] so, understand my friends and the back cannot hear it. the bible teaches us that if we love the lord we will keep his commandments, and the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. pro-life,n to being