rosen arguing there was no fraud to investigate.ing the president to move forward with his plans to fight the results and fire rosen. pat cipollone advised the president not to fire rosen, according to "time's" and trump was warned that several top doj officials will resign if he fired the acting ag. it took several hours, sources tell cnn, but eventually trump was swayed the resulting chaos doj wasn't worth eliminating rosen. but the damming details now emerging of a constitutional crisis averted are adding to the president's calls that the president needs to be convicted in the senate. the president was actively trying to take out his own attorney general and put an unknown bureaucrat, conspireing with him, i think we're going to get more and more evidence over the next few weeks as if it's not enough that he sent an angry mob down the mall to invade the capitol. >> reporter: incoming senate judiciary dick durbin says his committee is investigating trump's reported plans to fire rosen and rely on clark to further his claims of fra

rosen, he was trying to undermine mr.en and the entire department of justice to facilitate the president's desperate bid to hold on to power in the closing days of his administration. >> david laufman, former counter counterintelligence chief at the justice department. thank you for joining us on short notice. i really appreciate it. >> thank you, rachel. >> again, we are learning tonight about the timing, the schedule for the president's senate impeachment trial. it looks like that will be conveyed on monday and then the trial will start on february 9th. what was just reported in "the new york times" tonight may affect perceptions telephone presidents cupability for what happened here and how that impeachment trial goes forward. all right. we'll be right back. stay with us. stay with us so you want to make the best burger ever? then make it! that means selling everything. and eating nothing but cheese till you find the perfect slice... even if everyone asks you... another burger truck? don't listen to them! that means co

rosen refused, according to the times, but what rosen didn't realize was that trump has been introduced to the man heading up the civil division of the doj, jeffrey clark, and that clark told the president, he agreed that fraud had affected the election. >> you can't ever accept when they steal and rig and rob. >> reporter: the president was fixated on georgia and jeffrey clark was ready to rally with trump behind the scenes. a clark reportedly drafted a letter to georgia state legislatures that incorrectly said that doj was investigating accusations of voter fraud in the state and that georgia officials should invalidate biden's win. top doj officials told clark he was wrong and rejected clark's request that doj hold a press conference, announcing an investigation into voter fraud, according to the times. clark then met with trump the weekend of january 2nd. and after the meeting, clark informed rosen trump was going to fire the acting attorney general and clark would take over, according to the times. clark denied calculating a plan to oust rosen to "the times" and said his conversati

rosen to do it as the acting attorney general.n that didn't work, he had a conversation with mr. trump in which he came away from that conversation thinking that trump would replace rosen with himself and then he offered mr. rosen the opportunity to remain at the department as his deputy. >> he hatches a department of justice coup with the president and offering him -- the boss is going to make me the head of the department of justice so -- this is my words, not yours. i'm characterizing. the boss is going to make me the head of the justice department so we can make this coup. you can stick around as my deputy, but this is what's going to happen. but there's a meeting in the white house with clark, rosen and the president? >> yes. and this is unusual times because it happened on january 3rd which is the exact same date that georgia secretary of state released, you know -- leaked the audio of his phone call the prior day with mr. trump. so you have the entire world listening to the audio of trump and the secretary of state in georg

rosen, he was trying to undermine mr.acilitate the president's desperate bid to hold on to power in the closing days of his administration. >> david laufman, former counterintelligence chief at the justice department. thank you for joining us on this story and on short notice. i really appreciate it. >> thank you, rachel. >>> again, we are learning tonight about the timing, the schedule for the president's senate impeachment trial. it looks like that will be conveyed on monday and the trial will start on february 9th. it was just reported in "the new york times" tonight may affect perceptions of the president's culpability for what happened here and how that impeachment trial goes forward. we will be right back. stay with us. we will be right back. stay with us oh yeah, we gotta take off. you downloaded the td ameritrade mobile app? yeah, actually i'm taking one last look at my dashboard before we board... and you have thinkorswim mobile- -so i can finish analyzing the risk on this position. you two are all set. choose th

so the pressure on rosen begins. he and his deputy are fighting off demands from the president to open special counsel investigations, to file litigation on behalf of his own legal team, his campaign legal team. and while they are doing that, what they do not know is that one of their own colleagues, a top official in the justice department, jeff clark, who runs one of the biggest parts of the department, the civil division, has quietly been communicating with mr. trump. he was introduced by a pennsylvania politician, and basically communicated to the president that he actually truly believes these unfounded theories that the election was stolen. so as the acting attorney general is trying to defend the department from trump, he has no idea that within his own department he is facing another growing threat. that sort of comes to the fore through december. >> one of the questions i have about the reporting in your article, there's a line in here that says mr. clark had been introduced to mr. trump by a pennsylvania po

the original plan wasn't to get rid of jeff rosen, it is just once rosen made clear he wasn't going to do it and jeff clark spoke to the president about it, he came away from that meeting believing that the president intended to make him the new attorney general. >> and what did that letter say? >> you know, the letter essentially said, "dear georgia state legislators," you know, because the justice department is investigating massive amounts of voter fraud -- keep in mind that the justice department has said many times to the president and the public that they've never seen amounts of voter fraud. in the letter it says because we are investigating massive amount of voter fraud, we believe you should take into consideration when you look at the results of the election in your state, it is probably not valid. >> so there wasn't anything in the letter, there wasn't anything legally that the justice department could do to force georgia to do anything? they had absolutely no power whatsoever? this was just a letter saying, please do this? >> right. you know, this is what we would highly re

and cnn confirming trump plans to fire the acting attorney general jeffrey rosen and replace him with an official who dever viced an plan to force georgia to overturn the election results and the reason wasn't put into action was the threat of mass resignation by other top doj officials and that is not all. jessica schneider is here with all of it. and it is a lot. walk us through everything that came out in the past couple of days. >> reporter: this is an extensive and weeks long effort by then president trump and a top justice department official that took other leaders at doj completely by surprise. so much so that they agreed to band together and resign if the president's plot went into effect and it is starting on december 14th when the "new york times" said that electors secures joe biden's win and bill barr announced his resignation and that is when trump started prodding the new acting attorney general jeff rosen to file legal briefs to over turn the election and appoint special councils to vest the nonexistent voter fraud and wanted a special council to investigate dominion,

jay rosen: we would be better off as citizens.an to earn trust under a different claim, which is, "here's where we're coming from. we all have views of the world. but there are some objective facts, and we've discovered what they are, and we are specialists in verification. we know when things have been verified and when they haven't." and i think some combination of high standards, the verification, high standards and transparency, saying, "here's where we're coming from," would be a stronger basis for trust. soledad: it seemed to me trump would tweet and a lot of reporting was sort of palace intrigue, explaining what was happening behind the scenes and chaos. and from all indications, a few days then, -- a few days in, it looks like the biden administration is going to be very different on that front. how do you think that's going to reflect in the content then that people are seeing? jay rosen: i think the shift has to be to problem solving. that's what people care about, is the government solving my problems, our problems? it'

rosen refused.nwhile, clark, sucking up to the president like a lamprey streetwalker, drafted a letter that he wanted rosen to send to georgia state legislators that wrongly said that the justice department was investigating accusations of voter fraud in their state, and that they should move to void biden's win there. and if that worked, they'd send georgians new stickers that said "i voted, but then some guy wrote a letter, so forget it." rosen, who owns a spine, refused to send the letter, but clark went straight to the president, who-- surprise! --loved the idea. so rosen got a call from clark telling him the president intended to replace rosen with clark, who could then try to stop congress from certifying the electoral college results. i don't know exactly how clark thought he was going to do that, but i have a pretty good idea what he was going to wear. n aseputyn added that rosen attorney general, leaving mr. rosen speechless. i would be speechless, too. that's like a husband saying "honey,

, really interesting _ states. jeffrey rosen, really interesting and _ states. jeffrey rosen, reallyey rosen, really interesting and useful to - states. jeffrey rosen, really| interesting and useful to talk to you. interesting and useful to talk to ou. . ~ interesting and useful to talk to ou. ., ,, interesting and useful to talk to ou. ., ., interesting and useful to talk to ou. ., and we will be speaking to south weathers, who was the georgia state director of donald trump's 2016 presidential campaign in a few moments. let's get some of the day's other news. protests have erupted in brussels after the death of a 23—year—old man in police custody. a police station was briefly set on fire and local streets vandalised. the belgian king's car was hit by projectiles as it passed through the area. one of the largest anti—mafia trials in decades has begun amid high security in southern italy. it's targeting more than 350 people suspected of links to the organised crime group the �*ndrangheta. those accused include politicians, police officers and civil servants. charges range from abuse o

let's welcome professor jeffrey rosen. prof. rosen: thank you so much. to addressan honor you today. teaching civics is the most urgently important task in american democracy. james madison said a popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is a prelude to tragedy or farce, and your efforts to educate young americans about the essence of american government and its fundamental principles will determine the future of the republic. polls show that young people are more likely to support authoritarian alternatives to democracy than the older generations, and yet those in thed in civics and funnel principles of constitutionalism are more likely to support institutions like an independent judiciary, to resist overturning judicial decisions by popular vote, and to support the essence of constitutionalism. and that is why your task is so urgently important and i am grateful for it and honor you for it. my task today is also important. you have asked me to address a fundamental question -- what would james madison think of ameri

rosen as acting-attorney general. the goal. replace him with jeffrey clark. a doj lawyer, who reportedly told trump he had a plan to cast doubt on the election results, and could put pressure on politicians in georgia to overturn the election. which is something acting-attorney general rosen refused to do. as the reporting lays out, mr. trump's decision came, only after mr. rosen and mr. clark made their competing cases to him, in a bizarre, white house meeting. the two officials, compared with an episode of mr. trump's reality show, "the apprentice." albeit, one that could prompt a constitutional crisis. ultimately, trump decided to keep rosen in place. leader schumer responded just a short time ago. calling for the justice department inspector general to launch an investigation, with the senate-impeachment trial on the horizon. it is a lot to get to. joining me now, joyce vance, former u.s. attorney in the northern district of alabama. she is also an msnbc contributor. joyce, good to see you, always. your reaction to this news that president trump had a pla

that ultimately persuaded trump to keep rosen in place. so, don, the question to you is, are you surprised that that sort of informal pact sueded trump? >> look, with donald trump, we know there's never a bottom. every time you think you've gotten to the worse thing he could possibly have done, we hear more things. and i'm not surprised that it persuaded him, because i've been hearing these kinds of stories for four or five years, about how cabinet secretaries and subcabinet secretaries would have to go to him and walk him back, talk him out of some pretty extreme activity. but here's the thing -- the trial in the senate is a much more fluid and dynamic situation than we realize at this point. mitch mcconnell has told his members, vote your conscience. i think it will not be beyond the pale that mitch mcconnell will vote to convict donald trump, and this is not the last thing, in my view, that we're going to hear about. there now -- it's february 9th before this trial actually starts, and there's plenty of time for more reporting to come o

rosen was dismissed.wer was unanimous, they would resign. >> joining me is carol lenning and msnbc contributor and reporter with "the washington post" and coauthor of the book "a very stable genius, donald trump's testing of america" and she broke that new york times story that i just read you a quote from. good morning to both of you. katie, i was puzzled. i saw this story when it came out last night and i was thinking when the rest of us things were calming down and donald trump was out of ammunition and every stunt he had tried had failed they were not just continuing to try, they were trying at the highest levels. the idea that the trump installed acting attorney general would be thrown out by trump to try to overturn this election is mind-boggling. in yes. i mean, this really shows two things, one, it's the kull minh asian of trump's relationship with the justice department in general. we've seen this he spent four years trying to bend law and order to his will. it is very unlikely that he was going

pat cipollone was in the meet with trump, rosen and clark and pushed back on changing attorney generals and against filing a supreme court case to overturn the election, an idea noted by trump's outside attorneys. he warned of mass resignations at doj if the plan went through, according to people familiar with the meeting. michael schmidt, i'm beginning to think, as trump's attorneys maybe beg for time to prepare, the time is actually what is needed for everything to come out. and it's probably not on trump's side. because as we learn more, it only gets worse. >> yeah. and it's -- in some ways, it's very new and it gives us a very good insight into what was going on around the election. throughout the president's term, he has tried as hard as he could to use the justice department to help him politically. time and time again he ran into problems. he was most successful when he was able to sort of obstruct and to throw barriers up for them, to stop them from looking into things he thought could be damaging to him, where he struggled was to get them to go to the offense and to investigate

" jeffrey clark defaulted to the false claims of election fraud and nearly convinced him to remove rosen. clark declined to comment. here to talk about it the form ehrmann in charge of the cyber securi security. when you first read this reporting between the former president and this department of justice official to overturn the results of the election, i'm wondering what you thought. did you imagine you would see a day when something like this might occur in a white house and a department of justice? >> well, thanks for having me. good to see you again. i don't have any information independent of that reporting that would suggest it's true or false. in reading it, though, it was fairly shocking and if it's true as reported, i actually think the most surprising aspect is not that it was contemplated but the fact that the president didn't follow through with it. that's based on all the other shocking things that the president attempted of course with january 6th. but it does fit a pattern of behavior and attempts to use the federal executive branch and various agencies and departments to

if rosen fires, they would all resign en masse. on to say they didn't do that because then president trump backed down. well, schumer tweeting this out saying unconscionable. would conspire to subvert the people's will. must launch an investigation into this attempted sedition now and the senate will move forward with trump's impeachment trial. the most important line of that tweet, ana, is the last one. it simply suggests that they may put this into, encapsulate this into the senate trial, the hearing and the case they're making against the president to demonstrate the lengths to which he allegedly went to overturn this election. that process, that trial to move forward in earnest officially on monday when the house managers deliver it to the senate. >> suzanne malveaux, thank you. nick is a former watergate prosecutor for and sofia nelson contributing editor for the grillo and a legal mind. does this reporting make its way into the impeachment trial, should it? >> oh, absolutely. it will be evident, right? remember, the indictmen

rosen, mr. rounds, mr. rubio , mr. sanders, mr. sasse, mr. schatz, mr. schumer, mr.scott of florida, mr. scott of south carolina, mrs. shaheen, mr. shelby, ms. sinema, ms. smith, mrs. stabenow, mr. sullivan, mr. thune mr. tester, mr. tillis, mr. toomey, mr. tuberville, mr. van hollen, mr. warner, mr. warnock, ms. warren, mr. whitehouse, mr. wicker, mr. wyden. .. .. [silence] [silence] [silence] [silence] senate. [silence] [silence] [silence] [silence] the knees are what you buy. emotion is agreed to. not sustained. majority leader. >> mr. president. >> majority leader. >> i have a resolution to organize the proceedings at the desk.. >> clerk will report. >> senate resolution 16 to provide for related procedures concerning the article of impeachment against donald john trump, president of the united ustates. >> i asked for the yeas and nays. >> there is a sufficient second. click will call the role. [roll call vote] [roll call vote] [roll call vote] should. [roll call vote] [roll call vote] [roll call vote] [roll call vote] [roll call vote] [roll call vote] [roll call

rosen and mr. clark made their competing cases to him in a bizarre white house meeting that two officials compared with an episode of mr. trump's reality show, the apprentice, albeit, one that could prompt a constitutional crisis. so if it weren't for these d.o.j. officials threatening to resign, things could have been even worse than they were. i mean, we really were at the brink here. >> we were, don, and that's what's so chilling. we keep seeing mounting evidence about just how close we were to having a free and fair election overturned by our own chief executive. this is the kind of thing that i used to just be in admiration and respect of john mccain marching around the world holding autocrats responsible and accountable for activities just like this. and it's appalling and humiliating. he told us he was going to do this before the election. we had a tell well before the election about what happened. we're talking about an impeachable offense for inciting that riot. the impeachable offenses cl

one of their peers, we were told, had devised a plan with president trump to oust jeffrey rosen to wield the depend's power to force georgia state lawmakers to overturn its presidential election results. jeffrey clark his des vising ways to cast doubt on the election results and bolster trump's continuing legal battles. it was a plan that ultimately did not come to pass, but would have sent shockwaves through the department. sources characterize it this way -- nearly touching off a crisis at the country's premier law enforcement institution. the other report out this weekend, "wall street journal" finding donald trump's attempt to find the department of justice invalidate joe biden's victory wen even further. after the texas tbs case was dismissed on december 11th mr. trump began pushing the justice department to file its own lawsuits again the states directly in the supreme court. frustrated his wishes weren't being implemented, trump at one point planned to bypass the attorney general and telephone the acting solicitor general directly. one of trump's outside lawyers sent over a draft

breaking overnight, acting attorney general jeffrey rosen releasing a video statement on the capitol riot and the ongoing security threat. >> we will have no tolerance whatsoever for any attempts to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power on january 20th. we will have no tolerance for any attempts to forcefully occupy government buildings. >> reporter: rosen's message nedeabout the rioters fr an tea the day bere t attack. the norfolk, virginia, fbi extremists heading to washington were looking to wage war sharing maps of the tunnel system and arranging meet-up points. one threat stated, be ready to fight. congress needs to hear glass breaking and doors being kicked in. >> we're looking at significant felony cases tied to sedition and conspiracy. people are going to be shocked with some of the egregious contact that happened within the capitol. >> reporter: new pictures show the cache of weapons taken from one of the suspects. multiple firearms, a crossbow and a cooler molotov cocktails and now capitol police say they're preparing for 10,000 armed trump supporters to descend on the cap

rosen could stay on as his deputy attorney general leaving mr. rosen speechless. even as mr.ronouncement was sinking in, stunning news broke out of georgia. state officials had recorded an hour-long call published by the "washington post" during which mr. trump pressured them to manufacture enough votes to declare him the victor." other news organizations have now confirmed katie benner's reporting. jeffrey clark issued a written statement to "the wall street journal" saying, "it is unfortunate that those who were part of a privileged legal conversation would comment in public about such internal deliberations while also distorting any discussions. observing legal privileges which i will adhere to even if others will not prevents me from divulging specifics regarding the conversation." that is a lie. there is no legal privilege that prevents anyone involved in those conversations at the justice department from publicly revealing everything about those discussions. jeffrey clark will, in fact, be forced to reveal what he said in those conversations to the justice department in

trump decided against firing rosen after officials threatened mass resignations.stent with the law. trump declined to comment. the latest report could have an impact on the former president's upcoming impeachment trial. rosen and clark could be called as witnesses. >>> and coming up on this week after democrats took control of the senate last week, senators amy klobuchar and rand paul how they plan to balance biden's legislative priorities with the impending impeachment trial of donald trump. you can watch thist 8:00 this morning on abc 7, ahead, discussing social justice. the cast of grownish sits down with julian glover to talk about how they're tackling serious issues on the show. >>> and here is a live look outside this morning from our golden gate bridge camera. pretty quiet out on the road this sunday. 5:36. quiet. no rain at the moment. we'll talk to lisa again when we get back. advanced non-small cell lung cancer can change everything. but your first treatment could be a chemo-free combination of two immunotherapies that works differently. it could mean a

rosen served as acting ag through the end of trump's term.ight senate majority leader chuck schumer is calling on the doj to investigate after that "the new york times" report. we'll see if democrats choose to add rosen or clark to their witness list. when asked for comment, trump's team did not specifically respond to those allegations in that report. tom? >> andrew, thank you for that. >>> let's turn to weather. the bone-chilling cold settling in for millions in the northeast. slick conditions on the road in utah as snow falls across the rockies and midwest. those systems will become more organized as they push east. let's get to abc's senior meteorologist rob marciano. good evening. >> reporter: hi, tom. that cold air certainly has moved in. look at the numbers in the morning in the east. single digits in new york. boston, 3. minus 5 will be the wind chill in albany. that will set the stage for snow, with these systems coming into the west. rain in southern california. this precip comes together tomorrow, and during the morning hours on mo

according to the "new york times" rosen demanded to hear the news straight from trump and arranged aings with the president on the evening of january 3rd. that same day we learned mr. trump's now infamous call pressuring georgia's secretary of state to find him votes. >> during the meeting rosen and doj lawyer jeffrey clark made competing cases apprentice style. trump backed down after he was told top justice department officials had all vowed to resign together if rosen was fired. there's more. here's more. >> reporter: christine and laura, the former president put pressure on the department of justice to file a lawsuit with the supreme court to try and get them to overturn the election. the journal citing multiple officials say that the attorney general at the time, bill barr, and two top officials at the doj resisted, said they had no standing, no reason to file this lawsuit. they said because the department of justice doesn't have any reason to take either biden's side or trump's side in the election they would not pursue the lawsuit. so it went nowhere. also the journal notes th

>> o'donnell: and talk about the historical significance of this, let's bring in jeff rosen and jeff, as a constitutional law expert, what did the framers, what were they most concerned about? >> the framers' simple concerned when they drafted the constitution in 1787 was mob violence, madison said in federalist 55, in all large assemblies passion never files wrest the scepter from reason, even if every infinity socrates would have still been a mob. the framers are concerned about farmers in western massachusetts mobbing the courthouses because they don't want to pay their debts and their central goal in drafting the constitution and creating the electoral college was to deny congress any direct role in electing the president. that was why they created an electoral college because they were afraid that if congress elected the president the president would be in the thrall of factions and of mobs. so the conduct of the president and the conduct of some congress people in abrogating powers that the framers tried to deny them have resulted in the framers greatest nightmare. >> o'donnell:

why didn't trump end up firing rosen? >> that is what's so fascinating about this story, which we were clamoring to confirm last night after "the new york times" broke it. it wasn't that hard to confirm luckily on a friday night late lucky for us. >> think that's a sign of good sourcing, carol. >> and good luck, too. but what was so amazing to me and what your question is dead on about is there were a group of people who have been loyal, steady, stalwart supporters of the president's agenda, and they on a call and in person said this will not stand. my understanding is the white house counsel, pat sippalone, remember, pat defended the president in impeachment, said his call with ukraine, if you can remember that far back, the start of last year, said that that was a perfectly defensible call and all of the efforts to pressure the ukraine government were appropriate. that white house counsel told the president this was essentially nuts and he should not do it. >> carol, excellent reporting as always. so happy to have you.

democrats could even call rosen and clark as witnesses. >> it will be soon. i don't think it will be long, but we must do it. that's our responsibility, to protect and defend the constitution of the united states. >> reporter: house speaker nancy pelosi says she'll send over the article of impeachment on monday. according to the constitution, the senate trial will begin at 1:00 p.m. the next day. senators will still be sworn in as jurors on tuesday, but both sides are going to be given two weeks to prepare, something minority leader mitch mcconnell had lobbied for on behalf of the trump team. this also helps democrats as the senate can use the time to work on other business like biden's cabinet confirmations. two have been confirmed so far or his $1.9 trillion economic rescue package. meanwhile, the dragnet around those rioters on capitol hill continues to close. scott fairland, the new jersey man seen allegedly punching a capitol police officer arrested friday. and then the new court documents show tties h aarsenal stockpiled. the fbi saying that agents disc

according to the "washington post," trump wanted to replace rosen with jeffrey clark, the head of doj'safter clark tried to press the acting a.g. to pursue baseless claims of voter fraud on the president's behalf. if installed, clark was to file a case with the supreme court to overturn the election, which rosen refused to do. sources also told the paper clark also wanted to wrongly inform georgia legislators the department was investigating fraud claims in their state and they should void the state's results. white house counsel pat cipollone was in the meeting with trump, rosen, and clark, and pushed back against changing a.g.s and against filing a supreme court case to overturn the election, an idea that had been floated by trump's outside attorneys. he warned of mass resignations at doj if the plan went through, according to people familiar with the meeting. just keeps on coming. >>> meanwhile, the fbi and justice department are in early discussions about not charging some of the rioters at the capitol insurrection. the "washington post" reports that doj officials are debating wheth

new york times" report that clark nearly convinced trump to fire his then attorney general jeffrey rosenwhy? because rosen had refused to force georgia's state lawmakers to overturn the presidential election results out of their state and when justice department officials got wind of this plot of what they were trying allegedly to do, these justice department officials held a conference call and essentially agreed that if rosen goes, if he's fired, they're all going to go and all going to resign en masse. allegedly, rump gtrump got wind this and backed down on the plans. schumer now in this tweet is saying, unconscionable, a trump department leader with conspire subvert the people's will, the snpt finspector general must moe forward and the senate move forward with the impeachment trial. ana, what's interesting about that tweet is the very last sentence mentioning the impeachment trial. this could be something that they include in their case against the president making the case the lengths to which he'd go through to overthurn this election and that begins in earnest as they bring over

and he's soon going to be tried in the senate. >> laura, do you think rosen or some of these officials will be called to testify? >> they should because they would provide some greater context to the president of the united states, which is going to be very, very key in trying to build an offensive tack against what will be a defense of free speech and first amendment. the idea he's not trying to incite a riot. the only way they can prove he was is if they have contextual clues before, during and after. this would be part of the before period of time to figure out what he was intending for his audience and recipients of his message to believe, what he was hoping for them to convey and relay in their actual conduct. so it is part of and part of a longer discussion about the president's thoughts regarding the department of justice as a collection of yes men as opposed to those supposed to be objective and blind towards the law -- i mean only regarding the opinions and only regarding the facts are they able to really dig their heels in and compel a particular result. >> it's interesting,

the report claims trump mulled ovary placing him and replace him with clark because rosen refused his request to use the doj to overturn the election. he decided against firing him after justice officials threatened mass resignations. trump declined to comment. it may impact the impeachment trial. democrats could call rosen and clark as witnesses. >> it will be soon, i don't think it will be long, but we must do it. that's our responsibility, to protect and defend the constitution of the united states. >> house speaker pelosi will send over the article of impeachment monday, according to the constitution, senate trial begins at 1:00 p.m. the next day. senators will be sworn in as jurors tuesday, but both sides are going to have given two weeks to prepare, something minority leader mitch mcconnell lobbied for. the senate can use time to work on other business like biden's cabinet nominations. two have been confirmed, or the economic rescue package. the dragnet continues to close. the new jersey man punching a capitol officer arrested friday, new court documents show the arsenal, one of

president plotted with a justice department lawyer to oust the former acting attorney general jeffrey rosen in an attempt to advance trump's false claims that he won the election. and the senate announcing the start of arguments in donald trump's impeachment trial will begin on february 9th. the house will deliver the single article of impeachment to the senate on monday evening. and senate majority leader chuck schumer saying the two-week delay gives senators time to confirm president biden's cabinet. lots to discuss. cnn white house correspondent john harwood is here, if i can get my mouth to work. senior legal analyst laura coates and political commentator amanda carpenter. good evening. i'm sure you all have been there before. what am i saying? good to have all of you. john, i want to start with you because i want to start with this breaking news from "the new york times." it looks like another campaign of pressure and threats to steal this election from president biden. it's also showing just where trump's mind was as he tried desperately to hold onto power. >> don, look, president tru

jeffrey rosen joins me for a more perfect union. you're watching velshi after the break. on you're watching velshi after the break. ♪♪ this is what community looks like. ♪♪ caring for each other, ♪♪ protecting each other. ♪♪ and as the covid vaccine rolls out, we'll be ready to administer it. ♪♪ we'll be ready to administer it. (announcer) welcome to the next, next level. this phone paired with 5g ultra wideband, wow! (announcer) the new samsung galaxy s21 is here and it's on verizon 5g ultra wideband, the fastest 5g in the world. available in parts of many cities. it's not just a great network. it's ridiculously fast. (announcer) stream your favorite shows in ultra hd. i'm so excited about this. streaming is crystal clear. (announcer) select unlimited plans get the disney bundle and 5g included at no extra cost. yes! (announcer) switch and get samsung galaxy s21+ 5g on us. only on verizon. there are many reasons for waiting to visit your doctor right now. but if you're experiencing irregular heartbeat, heart racing, chest pain, shortness of breath, fatigue or light-heade

stephanie: this is greg rosen trying to go for a short run a few weeks ago. >> i had to stop becausehe. stephanie: this was greg rosen before covid, sprinting to marathons across the country. >> even the active folding towels left me breathless. >> covid left me th nasty migraines. stephanie: this middle school teacher spent the better part of nine months in bed. >> it felt like a ghost or monster started to inhabit my body. stephanie: a father of three and guidance counselor has terrible brain fog. >> i get this terrible buzzing and ringing in my ears. my short-term memory is really poor. stephanie: he also struggled with tachycardia since july. that makes it tough for the former wrestler to run his wrestling school. >> if i stood in front of an athlete and tried to practice, i could not sustain more than five to 10 minutes. back in the worst of it i would not do two or three minutes. stephanie: these previously healthy individuals are in their 20's, 30's and 40's and are struggling long haul covid. >> i had acute illness followed by acute illness, for months on end. it has been six

to help us answer those and more, we're joined by jeffrey rosen, the president and ceo of the nationalstitution center and a professor at the george washington university school of law. professor rosen, good evening, good to see you. >> great to see you too. >> let's start with those questions. how would you respond to elizabeth? >> great questions from elizabeth. on the first, yes, there do have to be two separate votes. first, the senate would have to vote by a two-thirds majority to convict president trump. and then it would vote separately, and you only need a majority for this, about whether to disqualify him from holding any position of trust or honor in the united states. the second question, does the impeachment affect civil or criminal liability, not formally. remember, the president cannot pardon himself from an impeachment trial. the self-pardon might not work for a federal charge, the justice department has said it wouldn't be valid. but he could try to raise that defense in a federal trial but not in an impeachment trial. >> one of our viewers wants to know, if trump is im

and this is not a knock on jeffrey rosen. i know a lot of people who work with him and say he's very talented, very dedicated public servant. i, like many others, felt that his conference was -- the news conference itself was somewhat change from the department of justice. and the video was somewhat strange as well. there are a lot of questions right now, and i think people want to see our government officials, the leaders of these important agencies out front, giving as much information as they can, reassuring the american public that this is a priority. we're on top of this. we're going to find out what happened. we're going to hold people accountable. we're going to charge people. one of the reason s why we're seeing these early charges is that it's very, very important for perhaps what might happen on january 20th. it may be a discouragement to people not to engage in violent activities on january 20th if they see that people that did so on january 6th are being held to account in our criminal justice system. >> yeah, peo

rosen, mr. rounds, mr. r. >> mr. sasse, mr. schatz, mr. s. >> mr. scott of south carolina,i nema. >> ms. smith, ms. stabenow, mr.. >> mr. thune, mr. tillis, mr. t. >> mr. van hollen, mr. warner, . >> mr. whitehose, mr. wicker, m. [background sounds] [background sounds] >> the senate will be in order. be in order. the acting sergeant at arms make the proclamation. >> hear ye, , hear ye, hear ye. all persons are commanded to keep silent on payment imprisonment while the house of representatives is exhibiting to the senate of the united states an article of impeachment against donald john trump former president of the united states. >> mr. president? >> the senator from kentucky. >> article to section four of the constitution says the president, vice president and all fellow officers of the united states shall be removed from office on impeachment for an conviction of treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors. article one section three clause six states when the president of the united states is tried, the chief justice shall preside. as o

all of these talks that he was trying to toss the acting attorney general, jeffrey rosen, put in his own guy, overturn the election results in georgia. and i think you put it really well, alisyn. we're realizing now how close we got, as bad as it was, to something even worse, natasha. >> yeah, if you thought the phone call to georgia election officials was bad, right, an embarrassing low, there was more to discover. so what we're hearing is that, you know, there was essentially an attempted coup buy this attorney, jeffrey clark, to replace the acting attorney, jeffrey rosen, because he would not go along with trump conspiracies. and i think what's even scarier about this scenario is that it was a lawmaker who was involved in introducing jeffrey clark to trump, and letting him know that he was open to supporting these conspiracy theories. and open to basically finding the evidence. and this is a pattern that we saw with the trump administration. that trump was willing to create evidence, anything that would support his narrative of electoral injustice. and so, the folks who stormed th

acting attorney general rosen. i asked him to get the president to issue a statement that the protesters -- you are not protesters. thugs and goons should leave the hill. i asked did you ask the president what to do about it? he didn't say yes and that appalled me. we issued a statement and then the president issued a statement. his statement was not a good statement, not somebody who saw the danger. that is typical of trump. >> [inaudible] sen. schumer: i am going to leave it to law enforcement as the best way to prosecute, but every one of them should be prosecuted with no leniency, plain and simple. >> [inaudible] not justice but between now and then? sen. schumer: i know they are taking serious measures with the inauguration. i know there will not be a lot of crowds near the inauguration, but they better look at what happened yesterday and look at the inauguration, give it a triple, quadruple look. >> [inaudible] sen. schumer: that will be up to the legal authorities. i have to look at the legal authorities. >>

a few minutes after senator rosen has a chance to ask for questions maybe we can get back to you. >>ank you so much. >>hold on, they are back . mister cintron, are you on. senator, >> i apologize, we are back on. >> mister cintron, you are back on and were going to ask you to respond to the question senator hassan asked you . thank you for your support and help with regard to getting this implemented and i agree that this is unacceptable so let's see what we can hearfrom the postal service . >>. [inaudible] >> mister cintron, are you there? >> if this was in regards to the question on china, i am, can you hear me? >> the question was and can you hear me ? now i see you. we have an an going. >> mister chair, i'm going to suggest you continue to work on the technical issues with thepost office and move on to senator rosen . >> i think that's a good plan. senator rosen, you are up and thank you for not directing your question to the postal service. >> technology is great when it all works so i guess some days we have to have a sense of humor. i do have questions from the postal service