WEBVTT - The Bolton Bombshell 0:00:00.600 --> 0:00:05.040 What a day. John Bolton throws impeachment into chaos. President 0:00:05.040 --> 0:00:08.119 Trump's legal team comes out swinging on their first full 0:00:08.200 --> 0:00:12.560 day of arguments, and the senator of this very podcast 0:00:12.880 --> 0:00:15.880 drives at least one journalist completely up a wall. This 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:25.799 is Verdict with Ted Cruz. Welcome back to Verdict with 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:28.560 Ted Cruz. I'm Michael Knowles. Thank you so much to 0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:31.160 all of the listeners who have kept this show at 0:00:31.200 --> 0:00:35.040 the top of the charts again now into our second week. 0:00:35.400 --> 0:00:38.440 What a big day. It started as a crazy day 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:42.160 before the impeachment trial even began, because of a leak 0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:45.880 from the new memoir of John Bolton, the former National 0:00:45.880 --> 0:00:48.839 Security advisor, leaked to the New York Times, and it 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:54.880 alleges that President Trump tied Ukraine aid to an investigation 0:00:54.920 --> 0:00:57.960 of the Biden's quid pro quo. He's guilty as charged, 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:01.760 isn't that right? Well, today was a big and consequential day, 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:04.000 and you're right, it started off crazy. We all had 0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:06.920 off yesterday, so I flew home, was home with my family, 0:01:07.319 --> 0:01:09.440 then came back to DC at the crack of dawn, 0:01:09.600 --> 0:01:12.640 walked into the Capitol. The press was going nuts. They 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:14.920 were in a total tizzie The New York Times had 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:17.880 broken the story that Bolton says there was a quid 0:01:17.880 --> 0:01:20.280 pro quo, and I got to say when I sat 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:23.679 down at lunch today before we started the trial, there 0:01:23.720 --> 0:01:25.720 were a lot of Republican Senators who were feeling a 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:29.080 little rattled by it. I mean, it was designed to 0:01:29.120 --> 0:01:31.160 shake people up in it. It had a little bit 0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:34.320 of that effect. I'm actually somewhat surprised that this shook 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:38.399 up Republican senators because the story itself made all of 0:01:38.400 --> 0:01:41.360 these headlines a big splash. And yet it seems to 0:01:41.400 --> 0:01:44.200 me just reading about it, and especially given our previous 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:47.000 conversations on how the quid pro quo was not really 0:01:47.000 --> 0:01:49.280 a big deal, that it's a lot of sizzle and 0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:52.880 no stake. Well, that's exactly right, and one of the 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:56.520 most important things for people to understand. It does not 0:01:56.960 --> 0:01:59.280 matter if there was a quid pro quo or not. 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:02.960 It does not matter. It doesn't make a difference for 0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:05.840 the issues before the sentence. Something we talked about last 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:08.919 week in our first couple of podcasts. Look, quid pro 0:02:09.040 --> 0:02:12.120 quo sounds scary. It's a Latin phrase. I don't know 0:02:12.160 --> 0:02:14.680 what it means, but it sounds really bad all. Quid 0:02:14.680 --> 0:02:17.240 pro quo means as you exchange one thing for another, 0:02:17.440 --> 0:02:21.119 and this is not an exaggeration. Every president, yea, from 0:02:21.160 --> 0:02:24.760 George Washington to today has done quid pro quos by 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:29.040 the hundreds, and foreign policy does it every single day. 0:02:29.320 --> 0:02:32.079 So whether or not it's a quid pro quote doesn't matter. 0:02:32.680 --> 0:02:36.040 The question is did the president commit high crimes and misdemeanors? 0:02:36.120 --> 0:02:38.880 And a quid pro quo is not. Whether it is 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:41.840 or not, it is not the constitutional stand. So then 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:43.880 why is this such a big headline? Because that was 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:45.520 my reaction to I said, hold on, I got to 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:47.680 talk to the Senator about this last week. I can 0:02:47.680 --> 0:02:50.440 see through the headline. Why is everybody making such a 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:54.160 big deal about the John Bolton leak. Well, look, part 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:58.079 of it was that the defense team on Saturday had 0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:00.959 some fun pointing out that the evidence was contradictory whether 0:03:01.000 --> 0:03:02.600 it was a quid pro quo or not. So they 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:05.680 leaned in a little bit saying there wasn't clear evidence 0:03:05.680 --> 0:03:08.400 there was a quid pro quo, and so that let 0:03:08.440 --> 0:03:11.120 the New York Times say, oh goodness, now we have 0:03:11.240 --> 0:03:18.040 someone saying there was. It doesn't matter because look, quid 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:23.760 pro quos. Obama's a rand deal is a quid pro quo. Right, 0:03:25.080 --> 0:03:28.520 Russia sanctions. I just passed last month sanctions on the 0:03:28.520 --> 0:03:31.919 Nord String to Russian gas pipeline. If a company builds 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:34.120 the pipeline, they get sanctioned. That's a quid pro quo. 0:03:34.200 --> 0:03:36.400 You build the pipeline, you get sanctions. You're admitting to 0:03:36.440 --> 0:03:40.400 a quid pro quo right now. And Venezuela sanctions. We're 0:03:40.400 --> 0:03:44.400 telling Venezuela today that if Nicholas Maduro steps down from Venezuela, 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:46.920 will lift sanctions. And we do by the way carrots 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:49.920 and sticks all the time, where we'll give you aid, 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:53.960 will impose sanctions. That's how we conduct foreign policies. So 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:57.200 the Bolton leak, the quid pro quo news, that doesn't 0:03:57.240 --> 0:04:00.800 matter to the argument for impeachment itself. And yet surely 0:04:00.880 --> 0:04:04.440 it matters to the impeachment trial, because now we're hearing 0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:07.800 more reports that we could drag this thing out weeks 0:04:07.800 --> 0:04:11.320 and weeks and finally hear from the witnesses, which the 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:14.120 Democrats have been asking for now for weeks. So I 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:16.719 think the chances of the Senate hearing witnesses and of 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:20.000 the trial being dragged on that those chances have increased. 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:23.880 We will vote probably on Friday, whether or not additional 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:27.320 witnesses will be brought in. All forty seven Democrats will 0:04:27.400 --> 0:04:30.560 vote yes, if four Republicans join them, if fifty one Republicans, 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:33.320 if fifty one Senators vote yes, then we're going to 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:37.080 have additional witnesses. Do you think that those four Republican 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:40.280 senators will go over and now vote for the witnesses? Hey, 0:04:40.279 --> 0:04:42.280 you know, I'm not certain about that. I think there 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:44.200 are a couple who have been pretty clear they will. 0:04:44.279 --> 0:04:46.839 I don't know if we get to four. And you know, 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:49.440 one of the striking things, I don't know that I 0:04:49.520 --> 0:04:55.320 have seen two Senate meals more different than lunch today 0:04:55.760 --> 0:04:58.520 and dinner today. How so what's the difference? All right, 0:04:58.560 --> 0:05:00.760 So lunch today everyone had just out and back they 0:05:00.760 --> 0:05:03.240 were there. The press was all in a frenzy about 0:05:03.320 --> 0:05:05.760 John Bolton. We're talking about, oh, we gotta have witnesses, 0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:08.080 quit pro quo. Not sure what quid pro quo is. 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:12.880 And then we had this afternoon where the Trump defense 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:16.160 team finally got to put on their arguments and their 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:20.160 evidence and listen, as you know, I have been begging 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:25.880 them put on systematically. Clearly the evidence of Barissma and Hunter, 0:05:25.960 --> 0:05:28.839 Biden and Joe Biden, all of the evidence of corruption. 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:33.919 That's what matters. The central question in this trial is 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:37.200 whether a president can investigate corruption, and the answer to 0:05:37.240 --> 0:05:41.440 that is obviously yes, if they're real incredible allegations of corruption. 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:44.599 With Hunter and Joe Biden, Barissma that there was enormous 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:48.080 evidence of corruption. We finally heard that today and by 0:05:48.120 --> 0:05:53.279 dinner time the Republican senators were happy. The last serene 0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:58.239 it was totally different because we'd just gone through several 0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:02.039 hours of the actual defense in the case, which finally 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:03.640 got to be able to put onto. Okay, well, I 0:06:03.640 --> 0:06:05.560 want to get into those arguments then, because this was 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:07.880 a pivotal day. We got a little preview of the 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:11.000 Trump team's arguments on Saturday, but today was the first 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:14.480 full day. Last week the Democrats make their arguments, and 0:06:14.520 --> 0:06:16.800 then this week the Trump team gets to do it. 0:06:16.800 --> 0:06:19.760 It opened up with Ken Starr, who was the star 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:22.960 of the Clinton impeachment trial back in the nineties. Then 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:25.800 it went on to some of President Trump's other lawyers. 0:06:25.960 --> 0:06:29.320 Toward the end, you get Alan Dershowitz, very famous lawyer, 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:32.200 a professor of yours. I believe you know him well. 0:06:32.320 --> 0:06:34.640 Taught me criminal law one oh one my first week 0:06:34.680 --> 0:06:37.680 in law school, and I've known him twenty five thirty years. 0:06:37.720 --> 0:06:39.359 So I hate to put you on the spot because 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:41.600 you know one of the lawyer. You know multiple lawyers 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:45.080 who were arguing today. How did they do? They did 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:47.960 very well. This was a very good day for President Trump. 0:06:48.040 --> 0:06:50.320 This was a very bad day for the Democrats. And 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:55.760 I gotta say watching the Democrats at council table, when 0:06:56.960 --> 0:06:59.159 Pam Bondi got up, when so Pam Bondi is won 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:01.719 a President Trump's law right and Eric Hirshman, who are 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:04.200 two of the lawyers for the for President Trump, they 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:07.960 both got up and they laid out the evidence of Barisma, 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:11.520 the Ukrainian natural gas company that was built in corruption, 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:15.120 that was paying Hunter Biden a million bucks a year. 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:19.640 And they finally showed the tape of Joe Biden bragging 0:07:20.120 --> 0:07:21.960 about how you want to talk about quid pro quo? 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:27.320 So on Donald Trump. The evidence is conflicting on whether 0:07:27.360 --> 0:07:29.440 there's a quid pro quo. There's some evidence that some 0:07:29.480 --> 0:07:31.920 testimony said there was, some testimony said there was. It 0:07:31.920 --> 0:07:35.000 doesn't matter, do you know, the one undisputed quit pro 0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:39.440 quo in this in this entire proceeding, Joe Biden. Joe 0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:42.920 Biden on video said he told the President of Ukraine 0:07:42.960 --> 0:07:46.760 he would block a billion dollars in aid unless he 0:07:47.040 --> 0:07:52.080 fired the Ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating Barisma, which was 0:07:52.120 --> 0:07:54.240 paying his son Hunter Biden a million bucks a year. 0:07:54.280 --> 0:07:56.880 And as you know, Biden ends it with going, well, 0:07:57.000 --> 0:07:59.760 son of a bitch, they fired him. That's a quid 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:02.360 pro quo, and Biden not only admits to it, he 0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:05.160 brags about it. He's proud. And I got to say 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:07.080 playing that, I think the Trump team did a good 0:08:07.160 --> 0:08:10.360 job laying it out. I think they walked through the evidence. 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:12.560 But but I spent a good chunk of it just 0:08:12.720 --> 0:08:16.840 watching the house manager's faces. I gotta say Adam Schiff 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:20.280 was ashen. I mean really that their faces were horrifying 0:08:20.320 --> 0:08:22.600 because we couldn't see that. I certainly didn't see that 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:25.640 they so you would see him kind of try to 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:28.280 smile and like puff up his chest and then it 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:31.720 sort of slumped down. But the interesting thing is they 0:08:31.840 --> 0:08:35.360 knew this was coming. It's why several days ago, I said, 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:38.760 the house managers through Joe Biden un the bus because 0:08:38.800 --> 0:08:42.240 when they spend several hours of their presentation making the 0:08:42.240 --> 0:08:45.960 case that there is zero evidence to investigate Borismo or 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:49.960 the Biden's for corruption, which is a laughable proposition, they 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:54.280 knew to a metaphysical certainty that today would happen. In 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:56.240 other words, they knew. They knew about the Son of 0:08:56.240 --> 0:08:57.960 a Bitch video. I mean, it's not like they're living 0:08:57.960 --> 0:09:01.000 in a cave and they set it up. They team 0:09:01.120 --> 0:09:03.320 about the video we played last week on the podcast 0:09:03.360 --> 0:09:06.000 where ABC asked Hunter Biden, would you have gotten this 0:09:06.120 --> 0:09:09.960 job been paid a million bucks a year if your 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:12.920 name wasn't Biden. He's like, no, I mean, they knew 0:09:12.920 --> 0:09:15.679 that was coming, but it was still painful. But did 0:09:15.760 --> 0:09:18.360 you know that the Trump team would be so aggressive 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:20.760 because I going into it, I had this fear, and 0:09:20.800 --> 0:09:22.800 we talked about it on the show that the Trump 0:09:22.800 --> 0:09:25.800 team would play it cautious, play it's safe, simply answer 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:29.840 the Democrat accusations from last week, and instead they got 0:09:29.920 --> 0:09:32.959 pretty aggressive. Well, I think they heard from a lot 0:09:33.000 --> 0:09:37.319 of voices that they needed to affirmatively present the president's 0:09:37.360 --> 0:09:40.360 defense that the president is innocent and there's a reason 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:43.320 he's innocent. It is perfectly okay, and in fact that 0:09:43.360 --> 0:09:47.280 the president's got a responsibility if there's credible evidence of 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:52.199 corruption to investigate that evidence. Yeah, and you know it 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:54.520 was striking. You remember in the first couple of days, 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:57.920 Jerry Nadler, one of the house managers, he said, out 0:09:57.920 --> 0:10:02.480 of hundreds of thousands of Ukraine companies, why would Trump 0:10:02.559 --> 0:10:07.800 be interested in this one? And the screaming answer as well, 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:10.640 as far as I know, it's the only Ukrainian company 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:13.080 that was paying the son of the vice president a 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:16.200 million bucks a year. And the point is, it's not 0:10:16.320 --> 0:10:20.960 about some abstract interest in Ukrainian corruption. It's not like 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:24.280 the President's worried about someone knocking off seven elevens in Ukraine. Right, 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:27.840 This is about American corruption. This is about the prospect 0:10:28.320 --> 0:10:33.160 of a corrupt foreign company effectively bribing the vice president 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:34.880 of the the United States. Now that may not be the case. 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:37.840 I'm not saying that happened, but there's more than enough 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:40.800 evidence to investigate it and find out whether it did. 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:43.320 So you think that the Trump team did a good argument, 0:10:43.480 --> 0:10:48.199 Ken Star, Alan Dershowitz, everybody in the middle. I actually 0:10:48.240 --> 0:10:50.640 think that the biggest fireworks of the day were not 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:53.360 presented by the Trump legal team. I think they were 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:56.000 presented by you when you were talking to the press, 0:10:56.040 --> 0:10:59.000 because during one of these breaks you had a press gaggle. 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:02.120 You were answering their questions and speaking to them. You, 0:11:02.280 --> 0:11:05.319 more than anybody that I've seen, have been very aggressive 0:11:05.360 --> 0:11:08.120 on this, saying that this impeachment is about Bisma, it's 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:11.840 about corruption in Joe, a potential corruption by Joe Biden 0:11:12.040 --> 0:11:15.680 in the Obama administration. Go after that. I think you 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:19.840 got under the press's skin so much that at one point, 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:24.480 one of these reporters suggested throwing your nine year old 0:11:24.600 --> 0:11:30.199 daughter in jail. Do we have the clip? Basically got 0:11:30.200 --> 0:11:34.040 a job that vice president? If that's a crime, I name, 0:11:34.120 --> 0:11:37.640 shouldn't half of your children be in prison? My children 0:11:37.640 --> 0:11:39.720 are nine and eleven. I'm sorry that you want to 0:11:39.720 --> 0:11:42.439 throw a nine year old in prison, but at this point, 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:47.120 my my third grader plays basketball and softball at our school. 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:50.240 So so stop playing the nasty no, no, stop playing 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:58.520 the nasty Washington game attacking a nine year old. All right? 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:01.880 You know, I I love that you kept your cool 0:12:01.960 --> 0:12:04.280 there and you kind of laughed it off, but that 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:07.559 is pretty deranged for a reporter to say they want 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:09.439 to throw your kid in jail. Well, you know, it 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:15.160 shows the desperation of the press corps. So Trump has 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:18.000 had a lot of consequences for America, many of which 0:12:18.000 --> 0:12:20.720 have been fantastically good in terms of policy, in terms 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:24.200 of substance. One of which that has been also really 0:12:24.200 --> 0:12:27.960 really good is exposing the rampant bias of the media. 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:32.000 And Donald Trump has broken the media that their role 0:12:32.160 --> 0:12:34.760 right now is they're desperate to be the defenders of 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:38.079 the Democrats. And so I had just finished standing up 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:41.160 and saying today with devastating for the house managers and 0:12:41.280 --> 0:12:44.280 walking through a little bit of the evidence of corruption 0:12:44.360 --> 0:12:46.840 that was laid out, the media doesn't want to cover 0:12:46.920 --> 0:12:49.240 any of this. So what that guy was doing, I 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:51.360 mean he was trying to say, well, everybody does it, 0:12:51.440 --> 0:12:54.520 Come on, your kids do it? And they're desperately Okay, 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:57.680 so I got news for the media. No, everybody doesn't 0:12:57.679 --> 0:13:01.040 do this. I promise you. If there's anybody else in 0:13:01.120 --> 0:13:04.560 Washington that has a kid making a million bucks a 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:08.640 year from a corrupt company that is getting favors from 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:11.400 the Vice president of the United States, that ain't something 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:16.000 everybody does. Like. Look, I mean it's they're trying to 0:13:16.040 --> 0:13:19.120 cover it up as Oh, it's Uncle Joe, it's no 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:26.440 big deal. This is bad stuff. This stinks. You know. 0:13:28.080 --> 0:13:31.400 One of the things the Trump's defense team did today 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:34.240 is they played from the ABC clip with Hunter Biden 0:13:34.280 --> 0:13:36.200 a component. We still don't know, by the way, how 0:13:36.280 --> 0:13:38.439 much money Hunter Biden made. Well, we know he was 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:41.320 driving around Hollywood in a very expensive Porsche, so I 0:13:41.320 --> 0:13:43.719 think he did pretty well well. An ABC asked him, so, 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:47.160 how much did this corrupt Ukrainian natural gas company pay 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:49.680 you while your dad was vice president? And why while 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:53.040 he was leading Ukraine policy for the Obama administration, And 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:54.360 he said, well, I'm not going to tell you. I 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:58.120 don't have to be open kimono. Well, do you know 0:13:58.160 --> 0:14:00.079 that nobody knows how much he was paid with We 0:14:00.200 --> 0:14:02.720 know it was at least eighty three thousand dollars a month, 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:05.400 but he's never answered that, and the house managers have 0:14:05.559 --> 0:14:08.600 no desire to know the answer to that. Well, what's 0:14:08.600 --> 0:14:11.200 so shocking to me about many of these interviews, and 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:14.360 that clip in particular, is the media have been going 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:16.800 after not just you, but a lot of Republican senators, 0:14:17.040 --> 0:14:20.720 and they've been assailing you all for not being objective 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:25.000 and completely without an interest in this impeachment trial, because 0:14:25.040 --> 0:14:28.920 you know your Republicans. Of course, in impeachment trials different 0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:31.280 than other trials, right, you're going to have interests on 0:14:31.320 --> 0:14:34.440 both sides. The one group that is supposed to remain 0:14:34.920 --> 0:14:38.680 disinterested objective is the media. And then the moment you 0:14:38.760 --> 0:14:41.680 get over the target of what this impeachment is all about, 0:14:42.480 --> 0:14:46.080 they clearly lose their minds. Well, you know, Judge ken 0:14:46.160 --> 0:14:48.480 Starr started the argument today and he did a very 0:14:48.480 --> 0:14:51.040 good job of pointing out so a lot of folks 0:14:51.080 --> 0:14:53.720 in the media like to say, oh, the senators are jurors. 0:14:54.440 --> 0:14:57.760 That's not in fact, right. And in the Clinton impeachment trial, 0:14:59.400 --> 0:15:03.080 a Democrat senator objected to senators being called jurors, and 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:06.760 Chief Justice Rank quest sustain the objection. Starb actually put 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:09.680 it very well. The Senate is a court, which means 0:15:09.720 --> 0:15:13.240 the Senate where the judges, where the jurors were deciding 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:16.040 questions of law and fact. And we're not supposed to 0:15:16.080 --> 0:15:19.320 be disconnected from the process. The framers knew what they 0:15:19.320 --> 0:15:21.720 were doing when they handed it to the upper Chamber 0:15:21.720 --> 0:15:25.920 of Congress. But you know what we do need to 0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:29.160 do is keep the focus on the actual legal question, 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:33.080 which is whether high crimes or misdemeanors were committed. And 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:38.480 it's why. Look, the fundamental answer, the reason the House 0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:43.320 Manager's case fails and the president will be acquitted is 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:48.800 because presidents, it's not an impeachable offense to investigate credible 0:15:48.840 --> 0:15:51.200 evidence of corruption. By the way, it would have been 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:55.400 very different if Trump had said to Ukraine, hey, would 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:59.600 you concoct some fake and bogus material on Joe Biden 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:02.920 and fraudulently accused him of something. Look, we'd have a 0:16:02.960 --> 0:16:05.600 totally different case there, right, But that's not what he said. 0:16:05.760 --> 0:16:07.880 All of the evidence, one hundred percent of it said 0:16:08.320 --> 0:16:12.280 investigate what happened. This is bad Biden bragged about getting 0:16:12.440 --> 0:16:16.800 the prosecutor fired. It is not an impeachable offense to 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:21.120 investigate credible evidence of corruption. That's the issue that matters, 0:16:21.760 --> 0:16:24.960 and the press is going to try to change the subject. 0:16:25.000 --> 0:16:28.440 You know what, this this Bolton bombshell today. It won't 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:31.000 be the last bombshell. We'll see another one coming up 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:33.440 later this week. And actually, a bunch of us in 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:36.560 the Judiciary Committee who went through Kavanaugh, Yeah, we were 0:16:36.600 --> 0:16:38.840 saying we're kind of stealed to this because we saw 0:16:38.880 --> 0:16:41.960 I remember, day after day there was another revelation. By 0:16:42.000 --> 0:16:44.240 the end of it, they had him in high school, 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:47.600 like drugging people and like participating in you know, all 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:51.600 sorts of I mean, it got Remember Michael Avanettie, briefly 0:16:51.680 --> 0:16:54.200 the media wanted him to be the Democratic nominee. He 0:16:54.240 --> 0:16:56.960 was this lawyer who would go on CNN. This was 0:16:57.040 --> 0:17:01.600 during now Justice Kavanaugh's information hearings to the Supreme Court. 0:17:01.800 --> 0:17:05.040 It was the timing of every big scandal bombshell. It 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:08.320 seems so perfectly coordinated. And that's what I mean, that 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:12.159 is the big news of the day. Is this Bolton bombshell. 0:17:12.240 --> 0:17:13.879 I'm sure you're right it won't be the last. But 0:17:14.160 --> 0:17:16.960 for those of us who don't know the inner machinations, 0:17:16.960 --> 0:17:19.520 how this was leaked, who leaked it, Who's going to 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:22.080 leak the next one? I guess the question all of 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:26.400 us have is what happens next. Let's say that because 0:17:26.440 --> 0:17:31.119 of this bombshell from John Bolton, we now get witnesses 0:17:31.119 --> 0:17:34.280 and this trial drags on well passed Saturday, maybe for 0:17:34.359 --> 0:17:37.000 weeks and weeks. What are we going to look forward 0:17:37.000 --> 0:17:39.880 to next? So we don't know for sure. Tomorrow will 0:17:39.880 --> 0:17:42.639 be the last day of arguments opening arguments for the 0:17:42.680 --> 0:17:45.600 Trump legal defense team. Okay, so they'll start tomorrow at 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:48.399 one o'clock. Go as long as they go. Then the 0:17:48.520 --> 0:17:51.640 next two days we're gonna have questions from senators eight 0:17:51.680 --> 0:17:55.040 hours a day for two days. We ask questions, but 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:57.000 we don't get to ask them ourselves. We write them 0:17:57.000 --> 0:17:59.800 down and the Chief Justice asked them for us. So 0:17:59.840 --> 0:18:02.320 I will say to the folks listening to this podcast, 0:18:02.960 --> 0:18:06.320 if you have questions that you want me to ask, 0:18:06.880 --> 0:18:11.200 either the House managers or Trump's legal defense team, suggest 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:13.920 them you can. You can tweet them. I'm at Ted 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:17.040 Cruz and just put hashtag verdict. And we are looking 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:20.240 at what's what's what's online on Twitter and looking for 0:18:20.440 --> 0:18:24.240 questions that will help help focus on the issues that matter. 0:18:25.080 --> 0:18:28.080 After the questions are over, then at the end of 0:18:28.080 --> 0:18:30.280 the week, we're going to vote up or down our 0:18:30.320 --> 0:18:34.320 additional witnesses necessary. If we get fifty one Senators who 0:18:34.359 --> 0:18:39.000 say yes, then frankly, it's Katie bar the door. If 0:18:39.000 --> 0:18:41.080 it ends up that there are four Republicans who join 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:43.320 the Democrats and say, okay, we need to hear from 0:18:43.400 --> 0:18:45.639 John Bolton, I think that's possible. I will give you 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:48.840 some good news if that happens. I'm extremely confident we 0:18:48.880 --> 0:18:51.880 will also hear from Hunter Biden. So you don't think 0:18:51.880 --> 0:18:54.439 there's a world in which they vote for witnesses. But 0:18:54.480 --> 0:18:57.600 the only witness who is called is John Bolton's zero, 0:18:57.680 --> 0:19:01.600 chancel zero. And the Democrats are terrified about that. You know, 0:19:01.680 --> 0:19:03.600 Chuck Schumer's like, no, no no, no, we can't call Hunter Biden. 0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:06.000 You're seeing Democratic senators going no, no, no, don't call 0:19:06.200 --> 0:19:10.280 Hunter Biden. Look, today's testimony revealed if there's one witness 0:19:10.320 --> 0:19:12.720 that was called, it should be Hunter Biden because he's 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:14.760 right at the center. And remember, the issue is not 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:18.239 Hunter Biden. I don't know the guy. It looks like 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:21.600 he's led to a pretty troubled life. The question is 0:19:21.640 --> 0:19:25.919 not even about whether he's involved in corruption. It's about 0:19:25.960 --> 0:19:30.119 whether his father, the vice president, who was making the 0:19:30.160 --> 0:19:34.160 Obama administration's policy and leading it, whether he was involved 0:19:34.200 --> 0:19:37.399 in corruption. And that's a question that goes right to 0:19:37.480 --> 0:19:40.520 the heart of Trump's asking it to be an investigated. 0:19:41.000 --> 0:19:43.560 And I want to underscore a point we said last 0:19:43.560 --> 0:19:48.040 week because it people may not have focused on its importance, 0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:51.040 and it's about to become very very important. If we 0:19:51.080 --> 0:19:53.760 have witnesses, which is if Hunter Biden has called as 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:56.720 a witness. If we subpoena Hunter Biden, he will almost 0:19:56.720 --> 0:19:58.760 certainly plead the fifth He'll almost certainly come in and 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:03.240 say I refuse to answer questions. And he has a 0:20:03.320 --> 0:20:05.200 right under the under the Bill of right. He doesn't 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:08.760 want to testify and admit to committing a crime. Here's 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:13.080 a piece almost nobody knows if he does that. There 0:20:13.160 --> 0:20:16.040 is a statute that explicitly gives the Senate the power 0:20:16.080 --> 0:20:20.879 to give him testimonial immunity, which means he would be 0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:26.240 immune from being prosecuted for what he says in his testimony. 0:20:26.280 --> 0:20:29.520 Why does that matter? You may think, gosh, immunity sounds 0:20:29.520 --> 0:20:31.920 like a good thing for him, It's actually not, because 0:20:31.960 --> 0:20:35.240 immunity means we can force him to testify, because we 0:20:35.280 --> 0:20:37.919 want to get the evidence of what did your dad know? 0:20:37.960 --> 0:20:39.919 You know. One of the interesting things that we heard today, 0:20:40.800 --> 0:20:44.560 So Hunter Biden had two business partners. It's guy Devin 0:20:44.720 --> 0:20:47.640 Archer was also on the border Barisma, and then John 0:20:47.760 --> 0:20:51.200 Kerry's son in law. What a coincidence or not? Son 0:20:51.240 --> 0:20:55.560 in law stepson rather and his stepson when his two 0:20:55.600 --> 0:21:01.080 business partners joined the board. He sent an email to 0:21:01.200 --> 0:21:05.600 the State Department to his stepfather's chief of staff saying, 0:21:06.000 --> 0:21:08.240 Devin and Hunter have joined the board of Barisma. I 0:21:08.280 --> 0:21:10.600 don't know why they did this, but I got nothing 0:21:10.640 --> 0:21:13.440 to do with it, and he broke off doing business 0:21:13.720 --> 0:21:17.639 with them because of their poor judgment in getting paid 0:21:17.760 --> 0:21:20.480 millions from this corrupt company. You know, we actually got 0:21:20.560 --> 0:21:24.960 a mail bag question specifically about the ability of the 0:21:25.040 --> 0:21:28.880 Senate to force Hunter Biden to testify. And the question 0:21:29.840 --> 0:21:34.879 comes from Susan. If the Senate forces Hunter Biden to 0:21:34.920 --> 0:21:39.680 testify by granting him immunity, would he also receive immunity 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:44.000 if he perjured himself during the testimony? So if he lies, so, 0:21:44.040 --> 0:21:47.720 immunity does not immunize you from perjury, and it doesn't 0:21:47.760 --> 0:21:52.200 immunize you from the underlying crimes. But it does it 0:21:52.240 --> 0:21:56.159 does prevent any prosecutor from using your testimony as evidence 0:21:56.200 --> 0:21:58.359 against you. Well, then there's a similar follow up. And 0:21:58.440 --> 0:22:00.280 by the way, the way the statute works is the 0:22:00.359 --> 0:22:03.720 Senate fifty one senators vote to grant immunity. We then 0:22:03.800 --> 0:22:05.800 have to go to a federal district court and file 0:22:05.840 --> 0:22:08.000 that But the District Court has to grant it. Right, 0:22:08.440 --> 0:22:12.080 it's mandator into the statute that I've seen that nowhere 0:22:12.119 --> 0:22:14.959