. >> michael vanderveen, thank you for joining us. i do appreciate. okay. i see you taking off your microphone now. >> sean: he did. imagine having almost every news outlet in the country rooting against you, every tv show, every article, every headline, every pundit every second, every minute, every hour of every day. that's what this country has lived through, donald trump at his family have lived through the last five years and that is what the president's lawyers faced over the last few weeks and this is what president trump again faced were five years. journalism in this country is dead and buried. we are in the middle of an information crisis in this country and the media is not coming back to life anytime soon. joining us now with reaction, to members of the president's legal team, michael vanderveen and bruce castor are with us. thank you both for being with us. first, let me talk with you about that exchange because you were right, 100% right because the issue was based on they might have altered evidence in some way. rules of evidence in the court

lawyer michael vanderveen said you can incite what was already going to happen his lawyers also argued that trump was exercising freedom of speech to declare the election forward and they accuse the democrats of hypocrisy and played an 11 minute video of them using the word fight saying the issue was with how it had been put together we also had to have the end there that the.

one of donald trump's defense lawyers michael vanderveen says it's time for the people and politicians of united states to move on and face pressing issues like the pandemic. this contrie needs to cool the temperature we need to unite as a people there are so many common priorities that we all share that face this country in a really important way this team of lawyers are simply that we're trial lawyers we're not politicians we are not on the left side of the right side or any side at all we have a constitutional duty to defend our clients and we did that to the best of our abilities. he's more of the statement donald trump released just moments after the verdict it is a sad commentary of our times that one political party in america is given a free pass to denigrate the rule of law i always have and always will be a champion for the unwavering rule of law this has been the greatest witch hunt in the history of our country he then goes on to say our historic patriotic and beautiful movement to make america great again has a gun. let's go down to got to his in west palm beach in florida

absurd to suggest that trump's speech on january 6th incited insurrection and defense lawyer michael vanderveen accused the house impeachment managers of presenting a case driven by hate this case unfortunately is about political hatred. it has become very clear that the house democrats hate donald trump this type of political hatred has no place in our political institutions and certainly no place in the wall this hatred has led the house managers to manipulate and selectively at it mr trump's speech to make it falsely appear that he sought to incite the crowd to violently attacked the capital he didn't well they have shown another member of trump's legal team accuse the house and patient manages of manipulating and manufacturing the evidence there is significant reason to doubt the evidence the house managers have put before us let me say this clearly we have reason to believe the house managers manipulated evidence and selectively edited footage if they did and this were a court of law they would face sanctions from the judge i don't raise this issue lightly rather it is a product of what we

amy: michael vanderveen is a personal injury lawyer in philadelphia, who actually sued donald trump last. he filed a lawsuit against trump, accusing him of making repeated claims that mail voting is ripe with fraud, despite having no evidence. that is just as i know. but if you could talk about this interaction and -- the house impeachment manager getting the right to have witnesses and then going back on it, not wanting to extend the trial? >> this is my deduction, having spent most of my life you're in washington, d.c., approaching 50 years. it may sound cynical, but i think the democrats in some sense did not want a conviction which would relieve mr. mcconnell and his cohorts who are opposed to mr. trump of the headache for four years try to prevent desk confront splintered republican party because the conviction clearly would have been followed by a vote to disqualify mr. trump from the 2024 presidential election. that would mean he would be out of the republican party in politics probably. now the republicans are the ones that are facing the headache. those who voted in favor of fac

impeachment trial of the former president let's bring in 0 who sat through that with michael vanderveen and david schoen trumps defense lawyers arguing. pretty much the president trumps rhetoric is protected under the constitution under roe the 1st amendment. in answer to the question is going around everyone's head that 1st time that 1st video last that the 11 minutes and 18 seconds and of course have seen the edited highlights of it since then he's saying that although the president used the word fight it's all about the context that he had often said that he wanted people to go and peacefully protest they claim that this has been a theme of donald trump's presidency although i've been at rallies where donald trump has said that if people wanted to punch protesters he would cover their legal fees they went exactly the way we thought they would do the argued on the constitutionality that's an odd argument to make given that that was already decided by a vote on tuesday the argued about due process and they talked about how this isn't how these sort of things are done in criminal cases

the rebuttal focusing on hypocrisy in the unconstitutionality of this impeachment, martha, michael vanderveen also made a very concise argument. impeachment is an unjust and blatantly unconstitutional act of political vengeance. i want to play this. this is, when he laid out the reasoning why the attacks were premeditated and were not spurred just on that day by the president's words. >> the fact that the attacks were apparently premeditated it as alleged by the house managers, that demonstrates the ludicrousness of the incitement allegation against the president. you can't incite what was already going to happen. >> sandra: a really interesting moment in their argument there. >> of course i think the house managers with double back on that and say that they laid out a case for how this had been building for some time and they tried to create over the course of the weeks and months before come all of this played out. and they played back on the terms of the clinton impeachment back on 1989, talking about a rush to judgment and the illegitimacy in his mind of impeachment process. i just think

michael vanderveen, one of his attorneys, claimed mr.ould not incite what was already going to happen. he argued the former president was simply exercising freedom of speech, but he said the election had been stolen. reporter: much of this impeachment trial has turned on one section of donald trump's speech before an angry crowd on january 6. >> you have to fight like hell and if you don't fight like hell, you are going to not have a country anymore. reporter: the trump defense team are not in the least bit defensive. this is political knockabout and produce their own campaign style video to highlight how democrats use the exact same language. >> fight that fight. >> i was fighting very hard. >> i think we should be fighting. fighting for reporter: -- fighting for a policy is not the same as urging -- jane: clearly we are having problems with that video. barbara usher is on capitol hill. after three days of hearing the defense and prosecution, what does this trial now rest on? guest: i would say the democrats came into this wanting to ma

this is a good time to explain when the lawyers when the lawyer i should say for donald trump michael vanderveen was talking about the need for discovery and depositions what he's talking about discovery is part of the american legal process whereby you're supposed to get the opportunity to question witnesses before you go to trial and that is that they are going to it's going on right. a couple of things to point michel vanderveen just said 1st of all he said that this is why they bring up the question of what this is no this is when you bring up this is in the process that he also said he'd only 8 days to prepare for the case that's not the host manager's fault that's donald trump's fault donald trump had a set of lawyers they walked away from the case he then had to find someone else a very short notice they knew the date of this trial the whole process is that jimmy rascon wants to speak to a representative from washington state who is quoted as saying she had a conversation with kevin mccarthy immediately after he spoke to the president on the day of the 6th of january that conversation all

host: michael vanderveen one of mr.resident's former attorneys and in front of time.com, their story, trump faces uncertain road despite acquittal. the photos of a couple attorneys michael vanderveen and one of the other attorneys. in bristol, connecticut, steve is next up, independent line. go ahead. caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: i don't know too many people know it but when we were attacked by pearl harbor that's when the fence went up on the white house and now january 6 we've been attacked by terrorists and we'll see that fence permanently around the capitol. this was an attack and the republican party and trump represent terrorists now. that's a fact right there. and that's my comment. host: in delaware, next up, republican line. ray, hello there. caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: c-span you do a pretty good job of letting everybody get their word in. my big thing is this is nothing but a power struggle, ok. until we get some kind of term limits in here to limit the amount of tim

are right meanwhile the trumps attorney michael vanderveen said that if the democrats wanted to call a witness he would ask for $100.00 witnesses the only thing that i ask you if you vote for a witness is do not handcuff me by limiting the number of witnesses that i can have i need to do a thorough investigation that they did not do i need to do the 911 style investigation that nancy pelosi called for or for the latest on this developing story we're joined now by the washington bureau chief in us paul innes hello to you so listen the senate was poised to vote on whether to convict trump today then came this surprise vote to allow witness is what happens next. this is really a foster moving story today and it really shows kind of how chaotic the situation is right now in the senate of the united states to put tensional witnesses were expected to be called now the senate obviously has a deal to move forward to conclude the trial without hearing the witnesses what does that mean the democrats will enter certain evidence into the record into an exchange of that they will not hear from wi

lawyer michael vanderveen said you can't incite what was already going to happen his lawyers also argued that trump was exercising freedom of speech to declare the election for de lint they accuse the democrats of hypocrisy and played an 11 minute video of them using the word fight saying the issue was with how it had been put together we also had to at the end there that the officer eugene goodman would be receiving the congressional gold medal for his bravery. on january 6th how he and how he behaved. and helped people out on the day of the riots we can turn to alan fischer our correspondent on capitol hill washington d.c. has been watching the events unfold over the course of this evening talk us through the highlights from today allan. at the end there we saw a real piece of unity in this chamber and that was for the awarding of the congressional gold medal huge in goodman just a reminder he was the officer who directed a number of the senators away from danger more particularly mitt romney who was walking towards the rioters mitt romney not big fan of donald trump who knows what may

january the 6th didn't we get a look at perhaps how the strategy is going to shape our when michael vanderveen spoke about will call people like nancy pelosi will the strategy turn towards trying to put some of the responsibility for any at allegation of a failure to intervene to protect the capital on people on the democrat side as well. if i were the house manager right now i would say to him you want to 100 witnesses says he suggested bring them on because nothing that nancy pelosi could say would damage the case for the house managers in any possible way she was one of the people who was most targeted and hunted by the insurrectionists her experience of that would be chilling and would i think have quite an emotional impact on the proceedings i think the last person that they would like to call in fact that the defense team would like to call is nancy pelosi so i don't believe for a minute that that's going to happen but there are multiple issues that could be raised now that were not really discussed for example why was the national guard deployed so late donald trump is supposed to be th

his speech on january six, here is strong counsel michael vanderveen. >> the senate should be extremely careful about the president the president this case has set. consider the language that the house impeachment article alleges to constitute to incite. if you don't fight like hell, you not going to have a country anymore. this is ordinary political rhetoric that is virtually indistinguishable from the language that has been used by people across the political spectrum. for hundreds of years. >> and he had the example. >> democrats are going to fight. >> we fight. >> we are going to fight like hr hrll >> we are going to fight like hr hrll. >> it's language that they've used, that republicans have used , big deal. it shows nothing. number two, the attorney responded with this. rather inconvenient fact. >> democratic candidates complained that an election was stolen because of russian collusion. that is in no way incitement to an insurrection. somehow when democratic candidates decry an election as stolen or illegitimate, it is never a big lie. we have been doing it for years. >> of cour

i need to do the 911 style investigation that nancy pelosi called for i think more michael vanderveen who is donald trump's lawyer seems to forget is that this isn't a court of law there are different rules for impeachment hearing so it's not quite the same he of course isn't a constitutional lawyer he's not a civil rights expert he's a personal injury lawyer from philadelphia and so he doesn't get to decide in a court of law he could see why i need this witness and that was it's not the same in the senate it's completely different and what was interesting when it came to the votes of who to call witnesses lindsey graham who has been a big supporter of donald trump has talked about how this is a sham impeachment is just driven by hatred of donald trump he changed his vote and voted to call witnesses. how that happened or why he suddenly changed with no idea we might get an idea when they finally break up any comes out to face the media but that was a huge surprise. so allan right now there's still work out they have adjourned are still working out some of these details i assume on wha

the capitol before the president spoke and that the riot started while he was still speaking michael vanderveen said you can't incite something that was going to happen anyway their charge was that it was the speech that incited a riot to some degree prosecutors are stuck with the charges that they bring. >> john malcolm, appreciate that thank you. >>> the defense presented was as political as it was legal. doug hi was once the communications director. the defense used veiled threats for republicans who go against trump. we heard it from the president's own words. you could be primaried if you fail to fight for him or, in this case, if you vote to convict. break down the political consequences >> this is not new we've heard it from his family members. some variation of it's a nice little republican party you have here it would be a shame ifsomethin happened to it we saw it obviously play out today. this is exactly what republican members of congress and republican senators are most concerned about. their own re-election. what a shock politicians are concerned with their own re-election. it's no

meanwhile trump's attorney michael vanderveen said if the democrats wish to call a witness he would ask for 100 himself the only thing that i ask if you vote for a witness is do not hand off to me by limiting the number of witnesses that i can have i need to do a thorough investigation that they did not do i need to do the 911 style investigation that nancy pelosi called for its cost rate to d.w. washington bureau chief in his paul who has been following this trial closely so in his dishes a surprise on several levels what can we expect today will there be a vote or will we hear from the witness absolutely michael in a totally unexpected turn of events democrats and 5 out of 50 republicans decided that they want to hear from witnesses so the timeline for this trial has dramatically changed and we really don't know how much longer this will last and we really do not know where this is going from here but we do want know that this will make it much more difficult for president joe biden to move on with his agenda because he needs the senate to confirm for example the stimulus package or a

in his opening remarks, michael vanderveen dismissed the house managers evidence.ident sent via twitter once the incursion of the capital began were, stay peaceful and no violence, because we are the party of law and order. michael van der veen also asked whether the word �*fight�* was off limits. a boxer fighting with a boxerfighting with his hand tied behind his back. members of congress fighting. rudy being rudy. these are the metaphor rhetorical uses of the word fight. we all know that, right? suddenly, the word fight is off limits? spirits the hypocrisy and false indignation. —— despair s. it is a term used over and over and over again by politicians on both sides of the aisle. and of course, the democrat house managers know that the word fight has been used figuratively and political speech forever. he also said the impeachment process was unconstitutional. not only is this impeachment case preposterously wrong on the facts, no matter how much he in a motion is injected by the political opposition, it is also plainly unconstitutional. in effect, congress woul

but defense attorney michael vanderveen insisted otherwise. >> the answer is no. at no point was the president informed the vice president was in any danger. >> reporter: vanderveen dismissed the point beyond the question. >> it's not relevant to the charges for the impeachment in this case. >> reporter: after two days of dramatic testimony from house impeachment managers including this security footage of vice president pence being rushed to safety, the trump defense team sought to rewrite the narrative of that dark day in america. they sought to falsely equate the former president's own words -- >> we fight like hell, and if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore. >> reporter: -- to routine political speeches of democrats, zeroing in on their use of the word "fight." >> to continue fighting. we each have an important role to play in fighting. >> never give up this fight. >> i'm here to fight back. [ cheers ] >> this is not what about-ism. i am showing you this to make the point that all political speech must be protected. >> report

did not incite his supporters on january 6th to storm the capitol building and defense lawyer michael vanderveen accuse the house impeachment managers of presenting a case driven by hate this case unfortunately is about political hatred it has become very clear that the house democrats hate donald trump this type of political hatred has no place in our political institutions and certainly no place in the wall this hatred has led the house managers to manipulate and selectively at it mr trump speech to make it falsely appear that he sought to incite the crowd to violently attack the capitol he didn't. well donald trump's defense team also dedicated much of their time to showing examples of members of the democratic party and independent senators using political rhetoric talking about fighting and the use of violence. in a fight democrats are fighting as hard as we can democrats are standing up to fight we know because we eat a lot of that like to democrats are going to fight like you know we fight like you know from a partner that i will fight like and we're going to fight like hell i'm going to

anna, i remember throughout the impeachment trial, the second one, one point his attorney, michael vanderveen was asked about whether or not he thought the president won the election. he said he wasn't going to answer that, said his opinion was irrelevant. the question, given what we just heard, how are republicans going to react to the former president showing no contrition about the lies about the election and even continuing to spread them? >> i think there's a lot of exhaustion on capitol hill among republican senators, in particular, of donald trump feeling like -- i think there was a hope, whether it was well founded or not, that he was going to go to mar-a-lago and maybe sunset his political career and focus on other things. they're tired of answering for his what was every tweet but now it's statement or interview on fox news. i think there's also that section of the republican party that the lindsey grahams of the world who say that it is the party of trump and they're looking for him to play a role in 2022. this is really that internal party warfare coming up, continuing to bubble u

president trump's defense counsel made its case against impeachment, including remarks from michael vanderveen, one of former president trump's attorneys. >> the senate will convene. the doctor will lead the senate and prayer. >> let us pray. >> let us pray. mighty god, unsurpassed in both power and understanding, we worship almighty god, we wors. lord, when there is nowhere else to turn, we lift our eyes to you. again, this senate chamber becomes a court and our senators become jurors. and our senators become jurors. guide these lawmakers with your wisdom, mercy, and grace. lord, infuse them with a spirit of non- parted schism patriotism. unite them in their efforts to do what is best for america. as they depend on your providence and power, may they make choices that will be for your greater glory. we pray in your sovereign name , amen. >> please join me in the pledge of allegiance. >> i pledge allegiance to the flag of the nine states of america, to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> senators will you please be seated. and

and michael vanderveen, continued with his sarcastic answers and at one point barking a question at aulant senator is. republican senator bill cassidy torn which way to vote. he is the one who changed his vote to vote with the democrats. i want to play the exchange for you now. >> senator tuberville reports that he spoke to president trump at 2:15 p.m. he told the president that the vice president had just evacuated. i presume it was understood that rioters had entered the capitol and threatened the safety of senators and the vice president. even after hearing -- even after hearing of this at 2:24 p.m., president trump tweeted that mike pence lacked courage. he did not call for back up until then. the tweet and lack of response suggests president trump did not care that vice president pence was in dangered. or that law enforcement was overwhelmed, does this show that president trump was tolerant of the intimidation of vice president pence. >> council has 2:30 minutes. >> directly no. but i dispute the premise of your facts. i dispute the facts laid out in the question and unfortunatel

through so many different legal teams until this point, and some people representing him, like michael vanderveens far more pleased with what he saw opposed to earlier when he didn't like bruce castor's style or substance. we are told that yesterday he liked that people kept it shorter in the presentations and that donald trump really enjoyed the video montages that evidence that was selectively edited, even though they were accusing democrats are doing the same thing. i am told the former president liked the videos because they resembled at times campaign ads he had for his re-election effort that ultimately failed. so that shows you that this is a person obsessed with the optics of all this, and he was enjoying that. i'm also told he fully expects to be acquitted today, at least that's why aides and allies advised him not to weigh in publicly or have any on camera events as the trial continues to unfold because they don't want him to accidentally say something that could derail an all but assured outcome at this point. they're feeling incredibly confident, the defense team, but the open questio

the other main lawyer on their legal team is apparently this michael van der veen, also a philadelphia lawyer. mr. vanderveen today had to publicly deny that he recently told one of his other clients that president trump was a, quote, f'ing crook. mr. van der veen defended a guy who was prosecuted for trying to hack into the irs to get president trump's tax returns. that defendant in that case says his lawyer, michael van der veen, told him during the course of representing him that trump was a f'ing crook! that was reported by "the philadelphia inquirer" yesterday. mr. van der veen today denied he ever said such a thing in a written statement, but that's awkward. mr. vander veen is also not denying that he sued president trump leading up to the 2020 election not that long ago. reportedly, trump is not happy with those things, but he may be the only other option besides the foghorn leghorn guy for the second day of running his defense. we shall see. the president's defense, again, will not start until the day after tomorrow. we'll see the prosecution. they had their first day today. they'll have their second

corroborating evidence further confirming the charges before you well meanwhile trump's attorney michael vanderveen said that if the democrats wanted to call a witness he would ask for $100.00 the only thing that i ask if you vote for a witness is do not hand off from me by limiting the number of witnesses that i can have i need to do a thorough investigation that they did not do i need to do the 911 style investigation that nancy pelosi called for well for the latest we're joined now by washington bureau chief in has all 3 things to you in the west so yeah the senate was for is to to vote on whether to convene trouble today and then came this surprise vote to allow witnesses so what happens next i did this is a major turn of events hardly anybody really expected to happen so at the very moment the senate is trying to figure out how many businesses they want to hear who they want to subpoena and actually how to make this whole process work you know to be clear here maria we really are witnessing a pretty chaotic scene some senators were actually even not sure what they were awarding for you could h