WEBVTT - A Day In The Life 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:03.280 The Senate is heading for a nailbiter vote on whether 0:00:03.360 --> 0:00:06.960 to call additional witnesses or to end this impeachment trial 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:09.760 once and for all. The Senator and I sit down 0:00:09.840 --> 0:00:13.280 in daylight for a change to get his strategy before 0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:16.360 he heads to Capitol Hill. This is Verdict with Ted Cruz. 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:28.160 Welcome back to Verdict with Ted Cruz. I'm Michael Knowles, Senator. 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:31.760 I don't remember the last time I saw you in daylight. Well, 0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:35.200 hopefully the sunshining indicates we're near the end of this journey. 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:39.040 I want to get your thoughts on the likelihood of that. 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:41.479 I want to get your strategy on the last day 0:00:41.520 --> 0:00:45.400 of questions today. There are some reports coming out that 0:00:45.600 --> 0:00:49.560 John Barrasso, the number three Republican in the Senate, says 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:52.159 that the momentum is heading in the direction of not 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:55.400 calling additional witnesses. There are other reports that we might 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:59.120 get a fifty fifty vote perfectly split, in which case 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:02.000 I want to know who breaks the tie. You know, 0:01:02.040 --> 0:01:06.360 it's an open question. It is close right now. We 0:01:06.400 --> 0:01:10.440 need fifty one votes to definitively say the trial is done. 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:13.760 Don't need additional witnesses. Let's move on to final judgment. 0:01:14.040 --> 0:01:15.920 If we have fifty one votes, we can wrap this 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:18.959 up in the next couple of days. If we don't, 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:21.360 and I hope the momentum's going that way. As we 0:01:21.400 --> 0:01:23.520 talked about in the last podcast, I think they're at 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:26.760 least two Republicans who are pretty clearly going to vote 0:01:26.760 --> 0:01:29.640 with the Democrats, Mitt Romney and Susan Collins. That means 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:34.200 they have forty nine votes. There are the two next 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:37.480 most likely or Lisa Murkowski and Lamar Alexander. I don't 0:01:37.480 --> 0:01:39.520 know where they're going to be. They're very They're holding 0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:42.520 their cards very close to the vest. They could end 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:44.720 up on either side of that, and I think they're 0:01:44.760 --> 0:01:47.680 considering it carefully. They seem to be genuinely struggling with 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:52.040 this decision. If it ends up fifty fifty, we're in 0:01:52.080 --> 0:01:56.640 a little bit of uncharted territory under the scheduling order 0:01:56.680 --> 0:02:01.480 we adopted. I think Republican leadership argument would be fifty 0:02:01.560 --> 0:02:04.440 fifty means witnesses or not in order. In other words, 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:07.880 let's move on. I can't have additional witnesses, okay. I 0:02:07.920 --> 0:02:11.079 am certain that the Democrats will argue if it's fifty fifty, 0:02:11.080 --> 0:02:14.919 it means witnesses are in order, so who decides them? 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:18.840 Who knows. Look, look, there's not a whole lot of 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:21.920 precedent here. There's under the Senate rules, it's not I 0:02:21.960 --> 0:02:24.280 can make the arguments on both sides of that. I 0:02:24.320 --> 0:02:27.400 understand the arguments on both sides of that. It is 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:31.160 possible the Chief Justice will have of you. It is 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:33.880 not clear. So the Chief Justice doesn't play the role 0:02:33.880 --> 0:02:35.919 of the Vice president. You know, normally in the Senate, 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:39.320 the vice President breaks ties. That's not the Chief Justice's role. 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:42.359 The Chief Justice's role is to preside. Now, there's some 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:46.800 historical precedent for the Chief Justice breaking a fifty fifty tie. 0:02:46.960 --> 0:02:50.639 That happened in the impeachment of Andrew Johnson twice. But 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:54.400 then the Senator's got unhappy with that, and the Chief 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:56.200 Justice receded and said, Okay, I'm not going to do 0:02:56.240 --> 0:02:59.359 that anymore. So, as with so many aspects of this trial, 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:02.640 we really don't have a lot of precedent to go on. 0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:06.960 We are in on charted territory. If if Chief Justice 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:10.800 Roberts decided to vigorously assert himself and make a ruling, 0:03:10.840 --> 0:03:12.680 I don't know what would happen. I don't think that's 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:16.080 all that likely. I think, you know, you may recall 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:18.680 it as confirmation hearing. He used the analogy of wanting 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:21.280 to be an umpire in baseball. I think that's what 0:03:21.320 --> 0:03:24.320 he wants to do. And so one of the nice 0:03:24.400 --> 0:03:26.440 things he did, which he didn't have to do. But 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:30.160 but yesterday he enforced a five minute time limit on 0:03:30.240 --> 0:03:34.240 answers to question. That was the same thing Ranquist had done. 0:03:34.400 --> 0:03:37.040 There's nothing the rules that makes him do five minutes. Yeah, 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:39.160 but I think every senator was grateful because if it 0:03:39.160 --> 0:03:41.320 hadn't been a five minute time limit, he would have 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:43.880 just seen the lawyers on both sides filibuster forever and so, 0:03:43.960 --> 0:03:45.400 and you would have only gotten into a handful of 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:48.600 questions instead of all okay. But that's an example where 0:03:48.600 --> 0:03:52.040 that was within his discretion. Although that being said, if 0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:55.160 enough senators disagreed, fifty one of us could have overruled it. Right, 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:58.680 So it's it's that sort of ruling is a perfect 0:03:58.720 --> 0:04:02.200 example of everyone agreed with it. So it was fine. 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:05.360 But where it runs into problems if the chief Justice 0:04:05.520 --> 0:04:09.760 is is disagreeing with the majority. By the way, you 0:04:09.840 --> 0:04:13.560 saw the House managers suggest something last night. They said, 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:17.800 we're perfectly fine with the Chief Justice deciding everything, deciding 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:21.520 evidentry emotions, deciding everything. Now, look, you gotta understand that 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:27.120 argument makes perfect sense when you're in the minority. They're 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:30.880 forty seven Democrats. On any party line vote, they're gonna lose. 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:33.600 They know that. Remember we had eleven motions on day one. 0:04:33.640 --> 0:04:36.680 They'll host all eleven. They understand that. So if you're 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:39.440 going to lose on any party line vote, it's in 0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:42.039 your interest to find any other decision maker. Give the 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:44.600 power away, let somebody else make them. Even if they 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:46.960 think they're not going to win with the Chief, they 0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:50.320 got a better chance if they know that they're outvoted. 0:04:50.800 --> 0:04:54.359 It's sort of like, all right, an election recounts. Have 0:04:54.480 --> 0:04:58.440 you noticed that when an election is close, the prevailing 0:04:58.520 --> 0:05:01.960 party never calls for a recount, right like whoever has 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:03.880 been declared the winner, even if by one vote. You 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:06.400 don't see that person saying we need a recount. It's 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:10.080 always the guy who's lost. Yes, because if you've lost, 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:13.440 recount is the only thing that can benefit you. That's 0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:15.159 a little bit the same as what's going on here. 0:05:15.279 --> 0:05:19.040 So obviously then today is going to matter a lot 0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:21.320 before we get to this vote. The reason I wanted 0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:24.280 to sit down today before we get to the impeachment 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:26.440 trial is I want to hear a little bit about 0:05:26.480 --> 0:05:29.520 your strategy, how you prepare when you're going in, when 0:05:29.520 --> 0:05:33.200 you're writing these questions, What are you trying to accomplish? 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:34.720 What are you going to ask today when you get 0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:37.120 to the hill. Well you're looking at all, right, what 0:05:37.240 --> 0:05:39.600 parts of the story haven't been told, What hasn't been 0:05:39.640 --> 0:05:43.120 told as effectively as it should, What additional facts need 0:05:43.160 --> 0:05:47.880 to be brought out? What weaknesses in the defenses or 0:05:47.960 --> 0:05:51.400 the house manager's case. Should you shine a light on 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:55.000 some of what I'm looking at some of the areas 0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:59.400 that there are still aspects of the evidence of corruption, 0:05:59.440 --> 0:06:02.440 the evidence of corruption a bearisma the Ukrainian Natural Gas 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:06.760 company of Joe Biden and Hunter Biden that that still 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:09.800 haven't been fleshed out. And then I think need to 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:16.040 um so for example, uh, there there is an email 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:19.600 exchange that that happened when when Chris Hines. So, Chris 0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:23.400 Hines is the stepson of John Kerry. John Kerry was 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:27.840 was Obama's Secretary of State. Chris Hines was business partners 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:31.880 with Hunter Biden and with this guy Devin Archer, who 0:06:31.880 --> 0:06:35.440 was Chris Hines's college roommates. Three of them were business partners. 0:06:35.640 --> 0:06:38.800 First Devin Archer and then Hunter Biden both joined the 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:40.919 board of Barisma. They both are getting paid a million 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:44.039 bucks a year. And Chris Hines does a couple of things. 0:06:44.120 --> 0:06:47.479 Number One, he sends an email to the to his 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:50.120 stepfather's chief of staff, to John Kerry's chief of staff, 0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:54.720 and and and he says, apparently Devin and Hunter both 0:06:54.800 --> 0:06:57.159 joined the board of Barisma and made a press and 0:06:57.200 --> 0:07:00.880 a press release went out today. I can speak to 0:07:01.040 --> 0:07:04.280 why they decided to do so, but there was no 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:07.599 investment by our firm in that company. Trying to clear 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:11.200 his name, to associate himself, It's fascinating that he sends 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:14.480 this email. It's also fascinating John Kerry's chief of staff. 0:07:14.520 --> 0:07:17.280 Notice he doesn't say Devin Archer and Hunter Biden. He 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:19.760 says Devin and Hunter. So the chief of staff knows 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:22.840 exactly who these guys are. He knows what Barisma is. 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:26.920 He doesn't explain Barisma is this Ukrainian company. You may 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:30.160 not know it. Chief of staff knew exactly what Barisma was, 0:07:30.320 --> 0:07:32.800 knew exactly who Devin and Archer was, and what did 0:07:32.880 --> 0:07:35.840 Chris Hines do? He went on to say he terminated 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:38.720 his business relationships with Hunter and Biden, and he said 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:44.920 it was unacceptable to work for Barisma. Now, the White 0:07:44.960 --> 0:07:48.080 House Defense team briefly got into this, but the House 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:50.559 managers have never had to ask a question and answer 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:53.840 a question on this. They've they've never had to address. Now, 0:07:53.840 --> 0:07:58.160 wait a second. If Chris Hines thought it was unacceptable 0:07:58.200 --> 0:08:01.960 to work for Barisma, did John Kerry think that? Did 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:08.440 his stepfather think that? And did Joe Biden that? And Look, 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:11.200 one of the things to keep in mind also what 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:17.280 really matters legally? We've talked about in any litigation, you 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:21.320 want to simplify. Your enemy is getting so complicated and 0:08:21.320 --> 0:08:23.160 you get bogged down in the weeds. You want to 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:25.840 simplify the question that matters. You know, I did Sean 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:27.559 Hannay a couple of days ago, and he had five 0:08:27.640 --> 0:08:29.880 points that are critical. Remember, look, that's fine, I said, Sean, 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:33.280 there's one you want to simplify to what matters? What 0:08:33.360 --> 0:08:36.320 matters legally? As does a president have the authority to 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:39.640 investigate corruption and credible evidence of corruption? If the answer 0:08:39.720 --> 0:08:42.600 is yes, that's game over. This this case is done now. 0:08:42.760 --> 0:08:49.000 And on the fact side, it's worth remembering that. Listen, 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:52.640 the question is not really whether Hunter Biden is corrupt. 0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:58.080 Hunter Biden, by all appearances, has led a troubled life. 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:02.600 This is someone with who's made some unfortunate decisions in 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:07.319 his life. The question is whether Joe Biden made decisions 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:09.959 that made him part of that corruption. And I don't 0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:13.679 think so far the connection as to why this is 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:17.400 Joe Biden's decision. I'll give you another example. So there 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:19.120 was a question and I joined it. It was a 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:22.079 question that Josh Holly asked that I joined, and the 0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:24.559 two of us asked together, and it was about did 0:09:24.600 --> 0:09:27.040 Joe Biden never seek an opinion from the White House 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:30.000 Counsel's office if he could keep being the point man 0:09:30.920 --> 0:09:33.080 on Ukraine while his son was getting paid a million 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:36.840 bucks a year from Barisma. And the White House team said, 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:38.320 not that we know it, We have no you know, 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:41.280 you know, one of the things one does in government, 0:09:41.320 --> 0:09:43.640 if one has a potential conflict, you should go to 0:09:43.640 --> 0:09:46.000 the lawyers and say, hey, do I got a conflict here? 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:47.840 And you get an opinion and they tell you what 0:09:47.880 --> 0:09:52.199 to do, and sometimes they tell you recuse yourself, don't 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:54.680 be involved. So Joe Biden could have said, you know what, 0:09:55.200 --> 0:09:59.040 this doesn't look good a ton of countries on planet Earth. 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:01.520 I'm just gonna stay to Ukraine stuff. I'll worry about 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:04.120 all the other countries. I'm not going to get involved 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:06.600 in Ukraine because my son's getting rich off of Ukraine 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:09.320 and maybe it's not right for me to do this. 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:12.960 So the house managers, the Democrats did not have to 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:17.040 answer this question yesterday, and you're going to ask it today. 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:19.360 That's exactly. Are you worried that Adam Schiff listens to 0:10:19.400 --> 0:10:21.120 this podcast and he's going to get a heads up? 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:27.760 You know? No? Um and And look, I will say 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:31.640 this though Schiff is talented, he's good on his feet, 0:10:32.400 --> 0:10:37.840 but it's interesting the questions that rattle him. The questions 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:40.200 that rattle him are when you're getting close to the target. 0:10:40.360 --> 0:10:43.040 So you're going to ask this question, are you going 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:45.800 are there going to be questions on the same topic 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:47.280 you're hitting, or are you going to change it up 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:51.079 and go after another angle in question time today as well? Well, Look, 0:10:51.080 --> 0:10:55.360 I'll give you another example. So Joe Biden told reporters 0:10:55.360 --> 0:10:57.960 that he's never discussed his son's business dealings with him 0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:02.960 and that it was discussed yesterday. But what wasn't discussed 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:08.600 is there somebody who disagrees with that. And that's somebody 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:14.360 who disagrees with that is Hunter Biden. And Hunter Biden 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:18.160 said that he talked to his dad about his serving 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:23.120 on the Barisma board and Hunter said, quote, dad said, 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:25.840 I hope you know what you're doing. So one of 0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:29.319 the guys said I do. So why is it that 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:31.559 Joe Biden and Hunter Biden are telling different stories that 0:11:31.640 --> 0:11:33.880 Joe says he's never talked to about it and Hunter's like, oh, yeah, 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:35.360 I talked to you about it. One of these guys 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:38.040 is lying, Joe Biden or Hunter Biden, They're not telling 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:41.680 the truth another way to put it so, well, this 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:45.040 sounds very interesting. I mean, I assume that the Democratic 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:46.800 House managers are going to just try to evade the 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:49.400 question and filibuster, but it sounds like you've got a 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:52.280 couple different angles to come at today. I want to know, 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:56.400 beyond the impeachment trial you have, you have more work 0:11:56.440 --> 0:11:59.680 to do than just sit on this impeachment trial. What 0:11:59.880 --> 0:12:03.880 is is a day in the life waking up doing 0:12:03.880 --> 0:12:05.880 whatever you do in the morning, then going to the 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:08.240 impeachment trial. I know what you do from ten pm 0:12:08.280 --> 0:12:10.800 until about two in the morning. But what does a 0:12:10.880 --> 0:12:12.480 day in the life look like? All right, So let's 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:15.839 take yesterday. Yeah, yesterday I got up. First meeting I 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:20.080 had was at nine was a meeting with Benjamin nah 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:23.280 Prime Minister of Israel. And so he's staying at Blair House, 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:25.400 which is the residence right next to the White House. 0:12:25.760 --> 0:12:27.760 So I went over to Blair House and met with 0:12:27.840 --> 0:12:30.600 him from nine to nine thirty. And I know Babie 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:33.120 quite well. I've met with him many times in Israel 0:12:33.160 --> 0:12:37.080 and in the US. We're friends. When he and I meet, 0:12:37.160 --> 0:12:40.000 it's it's nice because they're one on once. We don't 0:12:40.000 --> 0:12:41.600 have staff in there, just the two of us. We 0:12:41.640 --> 0:12:44.480 sat and had a cup of coffee. We talked. We 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:47.960 talked some politics. Look, he's in a crazy situation in Israel. 0:12:48.000 --> 0:12:50.880 They keep having elections that he hasn't been able to 0:12:50.920 --> 0:12:53.000 form a government, and so I was getting his thoughts 0:12:53.080 --> 0:12:56.360 on what's going on on that and what the dynamics are. 0:12:58.040 --> 0:13:01.240 We also talked a lot about Iran. I think Beebe's 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:05.000 leadership when it comes to stopping a rand from getting 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:10.319 nuclear weapons has been extraordinarily important, particularly when Obama was president, 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:13.600 and when Net and Yahoo we invited him to speak 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:17.440 on the Joint Session of Congress and he called out 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:21.000 the danger of the Ayatola Kamayee with nuclear weapons, and 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:23.439 the adjective I've used a bunch of times for Net 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:27.200 and Yahoo is church Chillian, because it was like Winston 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:30.960 Churchill when the Nazis were a gathering storm that he 0:13:31.080 --> 0:13:33.559 spoke out. He spoke out with a clarity, spoke out 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:37.800 with a gravity and a weight, and it helped stiffen 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:41.600 the spine, frankly of a lot of members of Congress. 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:45.079 One of the reasons Trump pulled out of the Obama 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:48.320 nuclear deal is because Beebe was so strong that he 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:54.199 had that. You didn't have Republicans in Congress just to 0:13:54.240 --> 0:13:56.480 give up on it, say oh well, this is this 0:13:56.600 --> 0:13:58.719 is done. Let's move on. And so I think that 0:13:58.840 --> 0:14:01.120 was very important. So I started the day meeting with Beebe, 0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:05.560 met with him from nine to nine thirty, then went 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:09.320 and met with my staff, my team, and we talked 0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:13.240 strategy for the impeachment hearing. We worked on questions for 0:14:13.280 --> 0:14:16.160 the impeachment hearing. We just went back and forth. Okay, 0:14:16.240 --> 0:14:17.920 where do we want to press and spend about an 0:14:17.960 --> 0:14:20.720 hour doing that. Then I went back back to the 0:14:20.720 --> 0:14:23.680 White House and and was there we talked yesterday about 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:28.320 the signing of the USMCA, the US Mexico Canada trade agreement, 0:14:28.960 --> 0:14:30.840 that was out on the south lawn of the White House. 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:35.400 President was there, Greg Abbott, Governor of Texas, was there. 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:37.440 A bunch of senators, a bunch of House members were there. 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:41.680 You know, wait, look, it was fun. We heard heard speeches. 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:43.600 The President gave him, gave a pretty good speech. He 0:14:43.720 --> 0:14:45.960 was He was pretty funny. Actually, he was almost like 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:48.680 a stand up comedian. He was spending a lot of 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:51.320 times sort of almost tongue in cheek, kissing up to 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:53.720 the senators and saying, hey, I need your votes, guys, 0:14:53.840 --> 0:14:56.160 my fate is in your hands. And what was amusing 0:14:56.240 --> 0:14:57.800 is he said, House members, I don't need you, guys. 0:14:57.800 --> 0:15:00.200 You already voted. So you're like, yeah, I can ignore you. 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:02.000 But hey, the senators, you know, I mean it was 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:05.800 and so he signed it. He was giving out signing pens. 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:08.520 I've got a sighting pen from USMCA. So that was fun. 0:15:10.400 --> 0:15:13.280 And then from there went back to the back to 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:16.040 the Capitol and we went into the trial. Trial started 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:18.880 at one o'clock and the trial went from one o'clock 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:24.200 till about eleven fifteen at night. Yeah, stayed in the 0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:26.520 cloak room for about forty five minutes trying to see 0:15:26.560 --> 0:15:30.480 if we could find a deal to get us to 0:15:30.600 --> 0:15:33.160 fifty one and end this trial. So it was negotiating 0:15:33.160 --> 0:15:36.280 with other senators. Got in the truck headed over here. 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:41.480 We recorded the podcast. I got home, oh, probably about 0:15:41.480 --> 0:15:44.560 two in the morning last night, turned on the DVR, 0:15:44.600 --> 0:15:48.360 and watched about a quarter of the Rockets Jazz game. 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:50.160 Don't tell me who won. I only watched the quarter 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:54.240 and then although if I will be amazed if the 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:57.720 Rockets won, because we're so shorthanded, we're missing Harden and 0:15:57.720 --> 0:16:00.600 Westbrook and Capella, so if we want to it's a miracle. 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:02.840 But I have to believe in miracles. I have to 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:05.120 admit I missed the Rockets Jazz game last night. I'll 0:16:05.120 --> 0:16:10.600 try to catch it tonight. And then went to sleep 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:13.960 about two thirty. Woke up this morning. First thing I 0:16:14.000 --> 0:16:16.720 had this morning was a text for my scheduler saying, Hey, 0:16:16.760 --> 0:16:19.680 Lindsay grit Graham, Ney's talk to you on impeachment. So 0:16:19.720 --> 0:16:22.600 I called Lindsay. Lindsay had just gotten off the phone 0:16:22.640 --> 0:16:26.280 with the President, and so we talked about he and 0:16:26.320 --> 0:16:28.840 I are both working to see is there a way 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:32.000 to get the senators who are not sure where they 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:38.680 are on additional witnesses, to get them, get them to yes, 0:16:38.720 --> 0:16:41.120 to get them to ending this trial now. And so 0:16:41.200 --> 0:16:44.560 we're continuing to negotiate and discuss that. And then I 0:16:44.600 --> 0:16:46.280 headed back to see you. Then you came here. We 0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:48.080 had a cup of coffee and did the show. This 0:16:48.120 --> 0:16:51.040 brings up a fascinating point because in the way that 0:16:51.080 --> 0:16:53.400 I was imagining how impeachment goes, and I think for 0:16:53.440 --> 0:16:56.720 a lot of Americans, it's all kind of pre planned. 0:16:56.760 --> 0:16:59.560 It's all scripted. Nothing is happening in the moment. Nobody 0:16:59.640 --> 0:17:01.240 needs to wake up and call the White House and 0:17:01.240 --> 0:17:04.640 then call your other senator friend and this and yet, 0:17:04.680 --> 0:17:07.040 from what you're describing to me, running into the cloakroom, 0:17:07.080 --> 0:17:10.280 hearing something, writing down a new question, calling Lindsey Graham, 0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:12.119 he's on the phone with the President. A lot of 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:15.119 this is happening in real time. It's not inevitable. We 0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:17.600 don't really know how this story ends. But look, I 0:17:17.600 --> 0:17:21.320 think that's very much right and that's not true of 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:24.600 every senator. There are a lot of senators who are 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:27.640 just kind of sitting there listening. They're going to cast 0:17:27.680 --> 0:17:32.199 their vote and that's it. I like to be active, 0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:35.760 I like to be engaged. As as as I told 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:38.240 Lindsey this morning, I have to admit I'm I'm having 0:17:38.280 --> 0:17:40.359 a hell of a lot of fun now. It's not 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:41.800 good for the country. I don't want to see it 0:17:41.880 --> 0:17:44.199 dragged on. I'd like to see it ended. But but 0:17:44.440 --> 0:17:52.560 it is. These are complicated, tough, strategic, legal, political factual 0:17:52.640 --> 0:18:00.720 questions that are there nuanced. They're difficult, and and I 0:18:00.760 --> 0:18:04.240 think we're going to end up in the right place, 0:18:04.840 --> 0:18:08.000 which is the president being acquitted. But how long that takes, 0:18:08.119 --> 0:18:10.679 how long that takes and how we get there is 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:13.520 a different story. Could you just take us really quickly through. 0:18:14.600 --> 0:18:16.480 You're going to get this vote tomorrow, I guess, And 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:19.760 whether to call additional witnesses. If they vote no no 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:22.239 additional witnesses, what do the next two weeks look like? 0:18:22.600 --> 0:18:24.920 So if we vote no additional witnesses, if we get 0:18:24.920 --> 0:18:27.560 fifty one who say no additional witnesses, that we've heard enough. 0:18:28.520 --> 0:18:32.560 I expect that the Democrats will have kind of paroxysms 0:18:32.560 --> 0:18:38.119 of rage. So we'll see several motions. Then the motions 0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:40.760 will kind of be screw you. It'll be there's something like, 0:18:40.960 --> 0:18:42.480 I can't believe you did this to me, so I 0:18:42.520 --> 0:18:44.960 have another motion, I have another motion. And some of 0:18:44.960 --> 0:18:46.399 it is the Democrats will just need to get that 0:18:46.400 --> 0:18:50.880 out of their system. And one of the strategies Mitch 0:18:50.920 --> 0:18:53.680 McConnell is employed, which I actually think is has been 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:57.320 wise and the right thing is to make this long 0:18:57.520 --> 0:19:01.240 and brutal and painful to all one hundred senators. Mitch 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:03.600 just told us a hundred times this is not going 0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:07.760 to be pleasant because he wants the senators to want 0:19:07.840 --> 0:19:10.399 to end this. That's exactly right, and there are a 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:12.919 few things more motivating. This is a strange place. So 0:19:13.040 --> 0:19:16.320 typically we fly out Thursday afternoons to get back home, 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:19.480 and we're in our home states Fridays through the weekends. 0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:23.040 Often how things get done in the Senate is is 0:19:23.080 --> 0:19:25.879 you're getting to Thursday, everything's at an impass. People are 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:28.320 there's a roadblock, and then people want to get out. 0:19:28.359 --> 0:19:30.800 They've got a plane flight. And so the phrase is 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:33.800 jet fumes are in the air, and when jet fumes 0:19:33.800 --> 0:19:35.360 are in the air. You got a bunch of senators 0:19:35.359 --> 0:19:37.119 and some of them are in their seventies and eighties. 0:19:37.280 --> 0:19:40.320 They're looking to get out of here, and they'll agree 0:19:41.000 --> 0:19:44.479 to damn near anything to get out of here. Some 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:47.639 of the angriest I've ever made my colleagues is on 0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:50.720 fights trying to limit out of control spending when I've 0:19:50.800 --> 0:19:53.680 ended up saying no, I'm going to object, and it's 0:19:53.720 --> 0:19:57.440 ruined their weekend plans. And I mean, you cannot overstate 0:19:57.480 --> 0:20:01.719 how I mean how screaming and in race you're joking, 0:20:01.840 --> 0:20:04.520 I am not at all, I mean literally screaming at 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:11.000 the top of their lungness. Mitch knows that that's being 0:20:11.160 --> 0:20:14.879 used right now. By having these be long, grueling days, 0:20:15.040 --> 0:20:20.600 what he is counting on his senators, both wobbly Republicans 0:20:20.640 --> 0:20:23.320 and Democrats, will say I gotta get out of here 0:20:23.800 --> 0:20:28.280 enough already that they won't want to extend things forever. Tomorrow, 0:20:28.440 --> 0:20:31.640 if we have a vote no additional witnesses, I think 0:20:31.640 --> 0:20:34.960 you'll see several Democratic motions. By the way, each motion 0:20:35.000 --> 0:20:36.560 you've got an hour on each side to argue it, 0:20:36.680 --> 0:20:39.800 so it will be I expect tomorrow is likely to 0:20:39.800 --> 0:20:44.119 be a long night, but then I think we we 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:47.080 will move to the final judgment, so that would be 0:20:47.160 --> 0:20:49.920 that would be Saturday. You would say, yeah, there's there's 0:20:49.920 --> 0:20:53.320 a period of deliberation, and that deliberation is in close session, 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:56.240 so the TV cameras are off, the reporters are thrown out, 0:20:56.520 --> 0:20:59.280 and it's just senators giving speeches and talking to each other, 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:04.480 and then we vote. I'm not sure the exact timing 0:21:04.520 --> 0:21:07.240 of a vote, but but if we if we conclude 0:21:07.440 --> 0:21:10.840 that the additional witnesses are not needed, I am confident 0:21:11.000 --> 0:21:15.080 that that by Monday, this will be Stay of the 0:21:15.119 --> 0:21:18.679 Union is Tuesday, right, and and so if if we 0:21:18.720 --> 0:21:21.560 conclude there are no additional witnesses, I have full confidence 0:21:21.760 --> 0:21:24.320 we will push through whatever is necessary to get this 0:21:24.359 --> 0:21:26.120 resolved before the State of the Union. And it will 0:21:26.119 --> 0:21:28.119 be a very funny State of the Union if this 0:21:28.200 --> 0:21:31.159 is all resolved before then what if it's not What 0:21:31.240 --> 0:21:33.000 if they vote to call more witnesses, what are the 0:21:33.000 --> 0:21:36.199 next two, three, four weeks look like? Nobody knows. I 0:21:36.240 --> 0:21:39.600 mean it is presumably you'll have a motion from the 0:21:39.640 --> 0:21:43.680 Democrats to call John Bolton. If they're fifty one who 0:21:43.680 --> 0:21:45.680 just voted for more witnesses, you have to assume they're 0:21:45.720 --> 0:21:48.760 fifty one for that, presumably you'll have a motion on 0:21:48.800 --> 0:21:52.920 the other side to call Hunter Biden. I am very 0:21:53.000 --> 0:21:55.000