you may remember joe lockhart, the presr bill clinton during his infamous sex scandal.st a tot. but his whole strategy is saying, i know what everyone is thinking is thinking. >> dana: and this is the trial, everyone is pointing out your thoughts and opinions don't work. evidence is what is presented at a trial. and it is tempting and kind of fun to make up a conversation to put up 2 on twitter. my friend did something about what trump said. it seemed like something trump would say but he didn't say and it caused a whole firestorm. adam schiff made up a whole phone conversation and has paid the price ever since. we keep making these comparisons come of this impeachment versus clintons. i do wonder what it would've been like if someone like joe lockhart, the press secretary then, had had the tools of social media to be able to directly community it with the american people rather than through the media. >> greg: given that is the topic of clinton's impeachment was about sex, can you imagine? the gifs. gifs or gifs? anyway. >> jesse: i know what some of the republicans ar

. >> joining us now, john deane, joe lockhart. john dean, the president's attorneys make their case today. they're upset it's a saturday morning it's just a teaser, because the president doesn't like the viewership on a saturday. what are you listening for this morning? >> what i'm listening for, if we have a repeat of what happened during the amendment process and they dissembled. i find it stunning, the house managers corrected them repeatedly. there will be nobody there to check them this morning. and we know a lot of their defense is based on misinformation so i'll be curious to see how that plays. fortunately, i think i think the members of the senate are educated enough to not really think well about that kind of approach, you know. >> they're going to accept, obviously, people are locked into their sides and their own belief systems. i think you pose a really good question, what does happen if the president's lawyers are not fact-based. and we have evidence to suggest in the past they haven't been. if they don't tell the tr

joe lockhart is back with us. also joining us is rachael bade.porting for "the washington post". i want to look forward here because we've been talking about when those article wills go over, what did nancy pelosi get out of the delay. that's by and large done. so the question is what's next. susan collins, republican senator from maine, is now saying she is trying to work out some deal with some group of republicans that would mean there would be witnesses. listen. >> i am working with a group of republican senators and our leaders to see if we can come to an agreement on some language that would be in the initial resolution setting out the parameters of the trial in the senate that would include an opportunity for the house to call witnesses and the president's counsel to also call witnesses. >> so it would take just three of her friends to go along with her, rachael. how real is this from susan collins? what's the significance? >> yeah, i mean, you made the point there. the question is how big is that small group she's talking about? three rep

joining us now, ana navarro, joe lockhart, and bianna golodryga. cause we've heard a lot of people question why nancy pelosi held on to the articles. did she achieve what she wanted to achieve. you were a member of a group who thinks it was a good move and she got what she wanted. why? >> because she focused the main issue for the senate trial. the senate trial is not necessarily going to be about what is the white house defense going to be? will it be witnesses? and she's created a litmus test for this trial. if there are no witnesses, then a lot of people are going to be able to say, this is a cover-up. this is a sham trial. and again, i think she had a very weak hand and played it as well as she could have. >> do you think it worked? >> i think it has. and i think she also got the unexpected gift of john bolton announcing in the midst of all of this that he was willing to testify. i really don't understand how any republican can go back to their home district, their home state -- i got two -- and justify not wanting to hear from john bolton. i go

joe lockhart, white house press secretary during president clinton's impeachment. ou. if president trump tomorrow or monday or tuesday is able to claim that he was acquitted and vindication, what does it mean for a president who has already said article 2 of the constitution allows him to do whatever he wants. sdwhat what does it mean for the future of his presidency? >> it's hard to separate the two. i think there's a massive expansion of presidential power and a massive contraction of power. they were shortsided here in saying we want to protect our guy but in the process, they had limited their powers. going forward, particularly given with -- so getting to the trump presidency, there will be no oversight because there will be no cooperation. there's no reason for him to cooperate. the republicans have shown their hand, and i think it has and will upset in a very significant way the balance and the separation of powers between the house and the senate and the white house. >> there really are two separate questions. what does donald trump do as of tomorrow or sund

we're joined by joe lockhart, he is familiar with this, he was bill clinton's press secretary during e impeachment. also with us call rosensteig. joe, i want to start with you, hopefully your blood pressure is back to normal. >> it was bizarre and it was difficult to watch because it was almost as if he was using this session to, you know, cleanse his soul or say, you know, some version of it wasn't my fault, but the reality is that ken starr was appointed looking into a land deal, he spent the next three or four years looking for something to bring a charge against the president, he found the relationship with monica lewinsky, but he did it in a way that was so aggressive that he left -- even if the house didn't want to impeach he left them very little choice. i always remember that, you know, he had an ethics adviser named sam dash who resigned in protest because he said that ken starr was improperly inserting himself in the process. he wrote the starr report as an indictment, a charging document, rather than here is what happened. in that, and, again, the president had no due proce

let's bring back joe lockhart and elie honig. i thought that was interesting. you know how courtrooms work and strategy. i think that it was like if they didn't mention biden, it would be the elephant in the room, i guess. but by mentioning biden, do they -- was their thinking that they would take the taboo off of it and make it -- normalize it somehow by talking about the bidens? >> i think it was a tactical misstep the way they did it. you know something's coming from the defense. you believe it's irrelevant and a distraction. like you said, it's a conundrum, what do you do? but you can't give it too much attention. after an hour, they went deep into the weeds of the bidens and they fed it. you don't want to completely ignore it. make it hurt less when they say it, but you brush it off. you say, they're going to go on and on about the bidens and whether the bidens did wrong or not. it doesn't matter. either way, what donald trump did was wrong. so you address it, pull the sting, but don't dwell on it. >> what do you think, joe? there's the law and then there'

joining us now cnn's senior political analyst john avalon and joe lockhart.he impasse appears to be breaking today there's going to be movement and we have heard from at least -- well, just four republican senators have signaled by saying out loud that they would like to hear from witnesses. they are open to hearing from witnesses. so that's also seems to be a break in what has been an impasse. >> words are the new form of signaling and that is a very big deal because it's a four-person threshold that needs to be crossed and there are even some potential folks who people think are likely based on competitive swing state general elections coming up that may be added to that. that's a big deal because you need at least four to say, look, you can't block witnesses unlike every other senate impeachment trial in american history. so the dam seems to possibly be breaking. nancy pelosi i'm not quite sure what her -- bought her but time but that seems to be moving forward as well so the impeachment looks like it is on. >> that we can all agree on, she's going to anno

back with us, john avalon and joe lockhart. what am i talking about?w what you're talking about. >> the president saying the quiet part out loud again. there's a show called "his dark materials," right? >> that's what this is. >> we're doing very well. i got to watch enough. i thought our team did a very good job. but honestly, we have all the material. they don't have the material. >> exactly. >> that's the point. >> exactly. that's the point. you have the material and they don't. do you really believe, though, chuck schumer's claim last night that they're making gains for the republicans? >> i think they're making progress. are they making enough progress? and we just won't know that. i don't think that a serious person and there are a few serious people in the united states senate on the republican side. not many, but there are some. they can't listen to this and not believe that the president did something wrong. they may not believe the president may be removed for it. i think many of them will say that at some point in the process. or in their qu

about all of this, we have seung min kim for "the washington post" and cnn political commentator joe lockhart just gets worse. it just gets worse. every week there is more evidence that comes out about this shadow diplomacy or whatever operation rudy giuliani was doing over in ukraine. and this is particularly disturbing. these text messages just laid out. let me read some because no wonder yovanovitch didn't feel safe. when she testified that she -- people were making threats. she started to feel unsafe. when somebody told her to get on the plane now, she didn't really ask questions. she got on a plane right then because she was so concerned about her safety. so this guy robert hyde who's this republican candidate, huge trump supporter says things like this. they are moving her tomorrow. the guys asked me what i would like to do and what's in it for them. here's what he says about marie yovanovitch. her phone is off, computer is off. she's next to the embassy, not in the embassy. she has private security. been there since thursday. they'll let me know when she's on the move. he knows a lot o

joining us now is kaitlan collins, david gregory and joe lockhart. joe, i know you have been waiting for this moment. impeachment in the senate is beginning. it seems to be after a cooling off period. today the managers -- what are you looking for in terms of what will be announced today by nancy pelosi? >> today is primarily ceremonial. i think who she names as the managers are important. i think she will go smaller than the republicans did. >> adam schiff, jerry nadler? >> i think she will want a diverse group. i look at people like al democratings, hakeem jeffreys. eric swalwell. people on both committees have an advantage, two of the three i just mentioned. i think it will be six or seven. she wants the most effective people as opposed to the whole group coming over. it won't be 12 or 13 angry white men coming over. it will look like the democratic party, which looks like america. the ceremony is important though. you literally are going to have, my guess is adam schiff reading the charges against the president of the united states. that brings it

hon, i want to turn to my panel now, former white house press secretary for president clinton, joe lockhartpeakers for paul ryan and john boehner. joe, democratic chair woman in iowa told the "washington post" just this morning that voters are pa-- are paralyzed by the fr of picking the wrong person to take on trump. so i think electability is still a vote tating factor in this -- voting factor in this. >> the numbers, if you push hard democrats all over the country, it's beating trump. and i do think there's some anxiety around who's the best person -- >> to do that. >> -- to do that. and i think biden started at the odds on favorite as the best candidate. he stumbled. he a couple of bad debates. i think he has done much better recently, and i think, the world, i think the more we are in a situation of crisis in the world, the more experience matters and that helps biden. but by no means has he sealed the deal. >> and another way to look at this is this field is consolidated. i mean, democrat voters have not chosen their guy or gal yet. but they have eliminated a whole bunch of people. lik

rachael bade broke this story, she is back with us, along with joe lockhart and john avalon.rst of all, interesting it that mcconnell and friends think they need a contingency plan, even more interesting what you report that plan s tell us. >> basically this was the mastermind i guess you could say of the trump white house defense team. this is something they came up with and have been sort of talking to senate republicans about over the weekend. it's this notion that if we lose the witness battle, if they're going to call witnesses they have this plan b and the number one goal is to make sure that john bolton does not testify live on national television in a senate trial. just to be clear a lot of my senate sources are still saying they don't think democrats will get a fourth republican to vote on witnesses. so they're sort of expressing confidence but also it shows that they are not even sure that they are going to win on this night. that's why they're putting this plan together. it's two pieces, the first one is that the white house would claim executive privilege over bol

joe lockhart, tweeted, over heard combo from senators that only fox news and later he said, okay, maybehe combo, but you know exactly that's what they're thinking and he apologized. >> yeah, i know joe and we are living in an area -- era that it's dangerous to take satire to twitter, people take it out of context. the same people who take the most umbrage of what joe did were also the same people who defend the president's many inaccurate statements as well as you know the point he's trying to make, don't take him quite so literally, again, it's a very tribal thing, you attack the people you don't like when they do it. howie: coming back how is impeachment playing as a television show with adam schiff the lead actor this week and does that matter. later, bernie sanders getting tougher media scrutiny now he's surging in the polls. ♪ ♪ ♪ howie: adam schiff, the lead house prosecutor with opening statement with high praise from pundits. >> i thought it was dazzling, best second courtroom address like a courtroom that i've ever heard. >> i thought adam schiff's opening was brilliant. rivett

it's a world where buffoonish joe lockhart with mustard stains on his shirt is a renowned expert on whatomen really want.'s hilarious, ask his first wife. but no one in zucker land thought it was necessary at all. onward to battle, bernie must be stopped. it almost seemed personal and in some ways it was personal. just four days ago cnn settled d lawsuit with its unionized employees for a record $76 million. it was the single largest payout ever collected in the 84 year history of the national league of relations board. when that deal was announced bernie sanders issued a statement celebrating the win for cnn's oppressed and miserable workforce. and they are. congratulations to america for this victory. this is a result getting the workers the justice they require. but in the end it didn't work. and by the way, it won't work. americans may dislike politicians but they hate the media more. if forced to choose between bernie sanders and cnn, most people will go with burning. chris plante spent many years a working at cnn but thankfully he is gone now and hosts the chris plante show which i

. >> reporter: according to press secretary, joe lockhart, he was getting concerned. >> we could seewas not screw it up. when they went into private session, 100 senators, there's a high probability they could screw it up. >> they wouldn't know for sure until friday, february 12th, when the vote finally began. >>> this is a special report from cnn. >> the cnn special report, the trial of william jefferson cl t clinton airs tonight. 9:00 p.m. eastern, cnn. we'll be right back. liz, you nerd, cough if you're in here! shhhh. i took mucinex dm for my phlegmy cough. what about rob's dry cough? works on that too. and last 12 hours. 12 hours? who studies that long?! mucinex dm relieves wet and dry coughs for 12 hours with 2 medicines in 1 pill. >>> we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. right now, military threats are being made and neither side appear to be backing down. iran's leaders telling cnn the united states can expect a military response after the killing of a top iranian general two days ago. these images are being carried through the capital of

joining us now, cnn white house correspondent kaitlan collins, david gregory, and joe lockhart. thank you all for being with us. i want to play a little more from this debate last night and specifically having to do with this tension between bernie sanders and elizabeth warren. because you saw them both take it head on. but then elizabeth warren tried to do something else with it as well. she didn't want to engage fully in the back and forth with sanders over what was said behind closed doors. but she tried to make it an argument about electability. listen. >> look at the men on this stage. collectively they have lost ten elections. the only people on this stage who have won every single election that they've been in are the women. amy and me. >> i have won every race, every place, every time. every single person that i have beaten, my republican opponents, have gotten out of politics for good. >> i don't know why i find that so funny that amy klobuchar said she didn't just one by drove them out of the business. david gregory, the dust has settled. who got the most out of last n

. >> according to press secretary, joe lockhart, he was getting concerned.e have to do is not screw it up. when they went into private session, 100 senators, there is a high probability that they could screw it up. >> they would not know for sure until friday, february 12th, when the vote finally began. >> this is a special report from cnn. >> the senator expected to open its door to the public and vote on the two articles of impeachmentmen. impeachmentme. impeachmentmet. . we were highly tuned in. we started to hear the yays and nays. vote guilty or not guilty. >> on the 1st article of impeachment, perjury. . >> guilty. >> mr. akaka, not guilty. >> 55 not guilty. two-thirds of the 67 votes needed to convict. the president of the united states is not guilty as charged from the first articles of impeachment. >> article two, obstruction of justice. >> mr. warner? >> guilty. the final tally, 50 guilty and 50 not guilty. sure again of the 67 votes needed for conviction. >> the senate, william jefferson clinton, the president of the united states is not guilty is

start" anchoar laura jarrett, political analyst, and politics and white house editor at axios and joe lockhart, political commentator, president clinton's press secretary during that impeachment. this new audio, you know, as we say, it seems like many mornings here, well, new evidence continues to come out. and we wake up, and there is new evidence. and this one seems important. this one is a conversation we're told an hour and a half long it happened -- it's about marie yovanovitch. you can see, even hear in it that the president appears to be irate when lev parnas tells him that she wants to see him impeached. we don't know that that's true. lev parnas might have been making that up for effect. let's listen. >> in fact, there's testimony to the contrary of that. there's been direct testimony refuting that ambassador yovanovitch ever said anything like that. >> i'm glad you said that because lev parnas had an agenda. parnas wanted her gone because lev parnas was doing allegedly corrupt things. so let's listen to a little bit more of this new audiotape. >> the biggest problem, though, i think

joining me now, joe lockhart, former white house press secretary during clinton's impeachment and cnn legal analyst and expert on impeachment ross garber. good to see you. thank you for being here. joe, pelosi, just on the moment at hand, pelosi keeping everyone in the dark maybe not on timing anymore, but now on the house managers, what is the point at this point, do you think? >> a little bit of a cat and mouse game going, she announces the managers, that will give the white house some sense of strategy. she wants to hold out as long as she can. i can tell you, though, that couple of things, one is the group going over to the senate will not look that white and that male, and secondly, the people who are the house managers i think have known they have been house managers for a while. >> are you telling me, when members of congress have been evasive with no comment, when i asked them on air, they really may have been -- may not have been telling me the truth? >> those who said i haven't talked to the speaker yet, they're not house managers. those who said i don't want to answer your

joe lockhart, bill clintons former press secretary in a new op-ed is ripping into bernie sanders sayings to take back his support for communist leader fidel castro of cuba. that he basically is flip-flopping on guns. he is also saying in the '70s sanders called for the government to get rid of the cia, get rid of coast guard, cut pentagon funding in half, return to local militias. they're playing hardball. clinton crowd going after bernie sanders. >> well they are, because they're afraid of sanders' message. it will not be accepted. they know it. they know he will get down to huge defeat. as it is i think biden would get defeated too. this is about the philosophy of the democratic party right now. that is more government, more control, centralized things in the hands of government. we haven't learned from history, have we. castro certainly has given people food in cuba and medical care but it's lousy food and medical care. liz: yeah. >> the american experience is all about competition and quality. liz: and optimism. optimism. >> and optimism. liz: i want to get this quickly, a final poi

speaking of the media, this is joe lockhart saying some really explosive stuff about the president. >what i thought when i was watching it is this is un-american. this is what you hear from stalin, what you hear from mussolini, from authoritarians, from hitler. all the authoritarians who rationalized, in some cases,, based on what was in the public interest. >> jesse: alan dershowitz being very effective in the media's going after him big time. time. >> greg: i'm going to miss this. i hope they don't vote on this tomorrow because i'm starting to like this a lot. >> jesse: know you are not. >> greg: with the media is doing is intentionally misrepresenting what alan dershowitz said. he said you can't be impeached for doing something in the national interest if it also helps your reelection because everything you do that is good helps you in a reelection. impeachment about this, which is about investigating corruption in the ukraine, you could just as easily impeach him or introduce a middle east peace plan or a trade deal, because that also helps his personal interests. >> juan: i alway

. >> governor kasich, joe lockhart, thanks for being with us. appreciate it. >> god bless the work of martin luther king and all those great and tremendous patriots who rode and drove civil rights from the bottom up so we could have a more fair and balanced society. long way to go but made a lot of progress. >> a picture of the martin luther king memorial in our nation's capital. governor, thank you so much for remembering along with us. joe, thank you as well. >>> so we still don't know what the proposed rules will be for the trial of the president. we will speak to one of the senators who will be a judge and juror next. does your broker offer more than just free trades? fidelity has zero commissions for online u.s. equity trades and etfs, plus zero minimums to open a brokerage account. with value like this, there are zero reasons to invest anywhere else. fidelity. this round's on me.eat.s to invest anywhere else. hey, can you spot me? come on in. find your place today, with silversneakers. included in most medicare advantage plans. enroll toda

here to break it all down we have our cnn political commentators, joe lockhart, former white house press secretary for president clinton, karen finney, former senior adviser to hillary clinton's campaign and paul begala, democratic strategist. karen finney, i'll start with you. what are you looking for tonight? what dynamic interests you most? >> i think we'll see an interesting dynamic between bernie and warren, but i'll tell you what i bet most voters are looking for. this is where you have to be pivot to be presidential. right before you go to vote, you want to see a president on the stage. no doubt also the commander in chief test given what's happening with iran, the polls we've seen. people are still very concerned. they'll be looking at those candidates saying, is this someone that can take on iran? do they have a plan? no doubt, i suspect brnie will have a back and forth about who voted for the iraq war. that's something bernie brings up a lot. i think it will be about how do we go forward? how do we revive america's relationships around the world? >> that's interesting. the bide

independent counsel, paul rosen swag served on the white water investigation of bill clinton, and joe lockhart, served as the press secretary during the impeachment trial. you hear some of what evan is going through. as i think what evan and i are emphasizing, there's more to transmit. anything they can get in before tomorrow is part of the trial. anything after is under discussion about whether to admit it. nothing has changed. she's still not moving. it's confirmed. she's been there since thursday night. never left the embassy. these are the text messages between robert hyde and some number in belgium. >> right. it just further solidifies this idea that there was a surveillance operation. now, we don't know why they're surveilling and what their intent was but this is a serious thing when a member of the u.s. government, a u.s. ambassador, is being surveilled by some pretty shady characters. you know, maybe they just wanted to know when she left or maybe they had something more sinister in mind. i think the striking part about this is the secretary of state has spent this week talking about

joining us now cnn political commentator joe lockhart. is what john bolton now after the entire impeachment investigation conveniently ys. since my testimony is once again an be issue i have had to resolve the serious president did here. you can't remove him from office. he may be moved, but he is not -- >> moved by four republicans. >> by four republicans. >> mitt romney says he wants to hear from him. >> on the second question i think, you know. >> and then people in the senate can decide whether you are an important witness or not. the likelihood of john bolton accepting a democratic subpoe subpoena -- >> why? he says i've given it careful consideration and study, he can't say but not for the house. if you want to tell your story, tell your story. >> if you follow the timeline of what bolton has been saying none of it makes sense except if you remember at the end of the day he wants to sell books and if he's seen as being someone who resists both sides, no one is going to buy his book. and that's -- if you really want to understand wha

joe lockhart is with me. good to have you here.ue with that argument is it's not apples to apples, right? the witnesses and clinton were already deposed, there's not a ken starr here. >> what they don't want to say to finish the sentence is that everyone involved in the clinton affair have been in the grand jury. every document had been produced. all of this was in a 2,500-page report by the independent counsel. so the facts were known to everyone. it was just a political question of whether it was worth removing the president from office for that. this is very different. this is we haven't seen the documents that senators haven't heard from the witnesses. so on the face of it, it's not a fair comparison. >> there has been some reporting that cnn has that at least some republicans in both chambers want to see this happen quickly but want the president to be able to stand up there on the state of the union on february 4th and say i've been acquitted, essentially. let's compare that and what we know the president could inform us as t

dent cnn political commentator and former republican congressman and cnn political commentator joe lockhart, the white house press secretary during president clinton's impeachment. alan dershowitz is arguing for unchecked presidential power. the president can do anything, because that is somehow in alan dershowitz' mind synonymous with the national interests. >> well, i tell you, i learned something new that you can engage in quid pro quo, the quid being an official act if exchange for something that benefits you, your campaign. somebody should tell chris wray at the fbi, people in allentown are sitting in jail for that reason. i think this is stunning. every member of congress knows you cannot exchange an official act for personal or campaign benefit. absolutely prohibited. again it is stunning, it is jaw dropping. i don't have the harvard legal education, any politician worth its salt knows this is a standard and it crosses all lines, somebody got to get chris wray on the record, the department of justice on this one. >> it opens the door to a staggering degree of actions. any president w

. >> out front now, coed tor and chief of "just security" ryan goodwin, ann millgram, and joe lockhartan, let me start with you, did fi philbin's comments make a case for why there should be witnesses here. >> i think so. it didn't serve his purposes to make that comment, but it puts us to facing the fact not providing for witnesses, president's side is saying there shouldn't be aniens withes and what would witnesses do but under cross-examination get to the truth. if we want to case, let's get john bolton, put him under cross examination under truth. >> and in this very eloquent way, this greatest legal engine ever invented for the discovery of truth. >> there are three or four points today where they completely opened the door to witnesses and documents in addition to philbin saying this. they talked about the burden of proof which is the burden is held by the democratic managers. that would mean they can call witnesses. they talked at one point pat cipollone said they should give you the facts. they were cherry picking. if you want the facts, let them call witnesses and let you cros

joining us now joe lockhart, john avalon, margaret talev. and i want to start, if you'll allow me at the end with the chief justice of the united states speaking out louded ed admonishing both sides. it's interesting. two, i think this is a microcosm of what happened yesterday and what might happen over the next few days. where democrats are really trying to focus this on being a cover-up and put pressure on republicans in that chamber. the president's defense team is trying to make this about anything other than the actual charges against him. and the chief justice in the senate is trying to get through this. so watch. >> i think it is appropriate at this point for me to admonish both the house managers and the president's counsel in equal terms to remember they are addressing the world's greatest deliberative body. >> what's the upshot from that moment? >> look, i think he obviously said in equal terms. the senate has not done a great job of distinguishing itself as the world's best deliberative body in recent years. i think in the overall

white house counsel john dean, congressional reporter for "the washington post" rachael baig and joe lockhartent clinton's press secretary during his impeoplement investigation. john dean, let's start with the facts here in terms of how this was handled by bill barr, any good reason for him to redact all the emails and i want to make it clear to people, because i'm showing the ones at the top of my pile, this goes on for hundreds of pages. any good reason for barr to do that? >> redaction demo speaks for itself. it's way beyond the norm, and erin, the criteria for what can be redacted under freedom of information act request is well defined, and i hope that they'll go back in to court and try to presshe department of justice on this abuse of power that we're seeing here. >> joe, what do you think? is this what you would have tried to do or is it clear bill barr would have known that this could be abuse of power? >> no, listen, i think it shows how corrupt the justice department has become under bill barr. there's no way, you know, on this planet that janet reno would have done this to protect

former special counsel of the defense department, joe lockhart who went through this before with president clinton, and tim naf telly. what do you make of where we are right now, tim? you have these votes. they are going along party lines. 53 to table the documents, 47 against, completely on party lines, and they are done right now. so, obviously you have it here 53 to kill this amendment. it is killed. >> robert carol called lyndon johnson master of the senate. many people who looked at mitch mcconnell the way he handled the merit garland manner, preventing the nominee from being considered, thought he figured how to control the senate. today we see a much weaker mitch mcconnell. mitch mcconnell assumed yesterday he had all the votes he needed for his resolution. he presented a very different resolution -- i mean, partly the same, but he -- >> they had the 24 hours but there's a big difference between those being 1:00 in the morning or 9:00 at night. >> that means that he could not keep his caucus together because he had to make two hand-written changes. that's huge. for mitch mcconnell,

. >> how about joe lockhart who said the other day his job is to try to help the press find out what'ss that for an amazing idea. >> a little antique. >> let me ask you, let's talk about this process because there's a grudging nature to this. mitch mcconnell who i say is he elmer fudd or bugs bunny. today he acted like a legitimate senate leader. he acted like we'll receive it, we're going to do the job. we're going to take the oath of impartiality he even said. what do you make of it? >> you really felt the gravity of the situation. >> he had a striped suit on, got all dressed up for the occasion. >> and it really felt like this historic moment. on the flip side you had the president and his team really not set on a definitive strategy at this point. held a briefing call for reporters today in which they were really all over the map. they seem to think that the articles are going to wind up being dismissed even though mcconnell and the senators made very clear there aren't the votes for that to happen. they're hoping for a trial to conclude within two weeks. seems unlikely that's poss

up front now, joe lockhart who was president clinton's press secretary during his impeachment investigationcoats, and the director of the nixon library. we've got all this new information coming out. i want to talk about impeachment managers in a moment. i want to start with you, joe, because we've got new evidence. this isn't like the house had the evidence and is releasing it. this is new evidence coming from lev parnas who is an indicted, under criminal indictment, working with rudy giuliani on matters related to ukraine. so, this is evidence he's been willing to hand over and it now is out. let me get something new here that happens. this is an october 3rd email from jay sekulow and it is to jay daoud who was an attorney who worked with the president during the mueller investigation. quote, i have discussed the issue of representation with the president. the president consents to allowing your representation of mr. parnas and mr. fruman. okay. so, joe, mr. parnas, lev parnas is under criminal indictment. he's working with rudy giuliani on ukraine. jay sekulow is saying i personally have

joining us now, cnn political commentators charlie dent, cnn political commentator joe lockhart, presidentetary during his impeachment, and joshua gelzer, former senior director for counterterrorism for the national security council and a georgetown law professor. professor, i want to start with you here, because you're more educated than the rest of us. you note the house managers have been making three arguments. one, abuse of power, obstruction of congress and then the third, which is you, senators, are on the hook for what we consider to be the house managers a cover-up. today we're going to hear the case about obstruction of congress. but i expect very much for the managers to lean into that third area you're talking about. what do you think they will do? >> i think that's exactly right. on the surface, today's presentation may focus on the president and how, according to that second article, he obstructed congress. he said no documents. no witnesses. asserted the notion of absolute immunity, despite courts rejecting it. but that whole presentation will be like holding up a mirror to

he hasn't testified under oath and joe lockhart, despite mitch mcconnell saying he doesn't have the votes yet, i'm still not sure democrats will get what they need. >> i'm with you. i think mcconnell leaking out that he didn't have the votes was a strategic thing. i think he feels like he does have the votes. what he wants to do by saying that is keep the pressure, you know, from the right wing constituen constituents on these members, and i think he wants to in some ways create an off ramp, just in case between now and friday there's another bomb shell, so he can't, you know, the problem with the bomb shells is if they move a bunch of votes, it's very hard to stop four going to eight going to 12 and having its own momentum. so i think he put that out strategically yesterday knowing he has the votes, just to keep the pressure on and just as a little insurance policy in case john bolton shows up in this chair sometime in the next couple of days. >> we would never make you move. >> he would go on the couch. >> he could sit over here, but i get your point . >> again it's not mitch mcconnell'