here with me now to talk about these confession, cheryl gates stolberg, and david jolly, a former republicanbutor. cheryl, what was it like in that room today? >> it was very grave. i think you could really feel the weight of the moment. there's been a lot of partisan bickering back and forth in the capitol in the months and weeks leading up to this day, but when chief justice john robert strode into that chamber, i think senators on both sides of the aisle really felt the moment and they felt history looking upon them, and in fact, they said so afterwards, senator chuck schumer said that he could hear on both sides of the aisle a gulp when roberts took the presiding officer's chair, and john cornyn, the republican of texas, said afterward that senators really felt the gravity of the situation that was upon them. >> you know, david, there's a sort of duel roles, right, u.s. senators are political creatures as i was saying senator blumenthal, necessarily they are, that's how you become a senator and stay a senator. they're also now essentially impartial jurors but there's always been a tensio