WEBVTT 00:01.966 --> 00:04.700 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% JOHN YANG: The stage is set tonight for the next act in the impeachment drama: a Senate 00:04.700 --> 00:07.233 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% trial of President Trump. 00:07.233 --> 00:11.666 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% But there are questions about just when that will happen. Those questions arose after House 00:13.600 --> 00:16.700 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% Democrats finished their work last night, and the answers remained unclear today. 00:18.733 --> 00:23.533 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% The morning after the House voted to impeach President Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch 00:24.666 --> 00:26.633 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% McConnell reassured the president's allies. 00:26.633 --> 00:29.466 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): The Senate exists for moments like this. 00:29.466 --> 00:34.466 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% JOHN YANG: He slammed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has said she may delay sending 00:36.466 --> 00:39.233 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% the articles of impeachment to the Senate, a necessary step to start the president's 00:39.233 --> 00:41.400 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% trial in that chamber. 00:41.400 --> 00:45.233 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL: House Democrats may be too afraid, too afraid to even transmit 00:47.233 --> 00:50.733 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% their shoddy work product to the Senate. Mr. President, looks like the prosecutors are 00:52.166 --> 00:55.833 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% getting cold feet in front of the entire country. 00:55.833 --> 01:00.833 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% JOHN YANG: Today, Pelosi said she wouldn't set the wheels in motion for a Senate trial, 01:02.833 --> 01:05.966 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% including naming the House managers who would prosecute, until she got assurances that the 01:06.700 --> 01:08.833 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% rules would be fair. 01:08.833 --> 01:12.633 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): The next thing will be when we see the process that is set forth 01:14.633 --> 01:17.866 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% in the Senate. Then we will know the number of managers that we may have to go forward 01:19.666 --> 01:21.366 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% and who -- who we would choose. 01:21.366 --> 01:24.666 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% JOHN YANG: In the Oval Office, the president blasted House Democrats. 01:24.666 --> 01:29.566 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: We think that what they did is wrong. We think 01:29.566 --> 01:34.566 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% that what they did is unconstitutional. And the Senate is very, very capable. We have 01:35.700 --> 01:37.766 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% great senators, Republican senators. 01:37.766 --> 01:42.366 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% JOHN YANG: The Senate is at loggerheads over Democratic leader Chuck Schumer's request 01:42.366 --> 01:44.366 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% to call trial witnesses. 01:44.366 --> 01:47.866 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Leader McConnell is plotting the most rushed, least thorough, 01:47.866 --> 01:51.300 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% and most unfair impeachment trial in modern history. 01:51.300 --> 01:55.333 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% JOHN YANG: The president's defenders, like Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey 01:55.333 --> 01:58.033 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% Graham of South Carolina, rejected that. 01:58.033 --> 02:01.966 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): If there's a witness request by the president, I'm going to say 02:01.966 --> 02:06.966 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% no. If there's a witness request by anybody, I'm going to say no. I want this to end quickly. 02:11.500 --> 02:16.500 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% JOHN YANG: Today, the president also got support from a fellow world leader, Russian President 02:17.100 --> 02:19.166 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% Vladimir Putin. 02:19.166 --> 02:22.833 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% VLADIMIR PUTIN, Russian President (through translator): The U.S. Senate will be unlikely 02:22.833 --> 02:27.833 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% to remove a representative of their own party from office on what seems to me an absolutely 02:28.566 --> 02:29.733 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% far-fetched reason. 02:29.733 --> 02:32.233 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% REP. NANCY PELOSI: Article one is adopted. 02:32.233 --> 02:37.233 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% JOHN YANG: Last night, as the House impeached him, President Trump was rallying his supporters 02:38.100 --> 02:40.500 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% in Battle Creek, Michigan. 02:40.500 --> 02:44.233 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% DONALD TRUMP: This lawless, partisan impeachment is a political suicide march for the Democrat 02:45.733 --> 02:48.266 align:left position:40% line:89% size:50% Party. 02:48.266 --> 02:50.566 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% JOHN YANG: And he sparked controversy by seeming to suggest that the late Michigan lawmaker 02:50.566 --> 02:54.700 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% John Dingell was looking up from hell. 02:54.700 --> 02:59.233 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% The president recounted a conversation with Representative Debbie Dingell, John Dingell's 02:59.233 --> 03:01.733 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% widow, about memorials after his death. 03:01.733 --> 03:06.733 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% DONALD TRUMP: She calls me up. It's the nicest thing that's ever happened. Thank you so much. 03:08.666 --> 03:11.800 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% John would be so thrilled. He's looking down. He would be so thrilled. Thank you so much, 03:12.266 --> 03:13.466 align:left position:40% line:89% size:50% sir. 03:13.466 --> 03:15.466 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% I said, that's OK. Don't worry about it. 03:15.466 --> 03:19.000 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% Maybe he's looking up. I don't know. 03:19.000 --> 03:20.000 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% (LAUGHTER) 03:20.000 --> 03:22.500 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) 03:22.500 --> 03:25.033 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% JOHN YANG: Tomorrow, Congress begins a two-week holiday recess, returning to the Capitol and 03:25.033 --> 03:28.966 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% any future action on impeachment in the new year. 03:28.966 --> 03:33.733 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% This evening, Senate leaders McConnell and Schumer met for an hour to talk about the 03:33.733 --> 03:38.200 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% impeachment trial. McConnell said they had a cordial conversation, but remained at an 03:38.200 --> 03:40.266 align:left position:40% line:89% size:50% impasse. 03:40.266 --> 03:44.200 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% Now, just what is House Speaker Pelosi trying to do by threatening to delay the process, 03:45.366 --> 03:47.833 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% and what are the rules about this? 03:47.833 --> 03:50.533 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% Michael Conway was counsel to the House Judiciary Committee in the impeachment inquiry of President 03:50.533 --> 03:52.100 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% Nixon in the 1970s. 03:52.100 --> 03:54.133 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% Mr. Conway, thanks so much for joining us. 03:54.133 --> 03:56.200 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% MICHAEL CONWAY, Former House Judiciary Committee Counsel: My pleasure. 03:56.200 --> 03:59.966 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% JOHN YANG: First of all, what are the rules? What -- when does -- or does the speaker ever 03:59.966 --> 04:03.900 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% have to transmit these articles of impeachment, or could she hold on this them forever? 04:03.900 --> 04:08.600 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% MICHAEL CONWAY: Well, she could hold on to them forever, at great political risk. 04:08.600 --> 04:13.600 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% The Constitution says sole power only twice. It says the House has the sole power of impeachment. 04:15.566 --> 04:19.366 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% The Senate has the sole power of trying the impeachment. Until she lets go of the articles 04:19.366 --> 04:23.133 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% of impeachment, Nancy Pelosi can do with them what she wishes. 04:23.133 --> 04:27.733 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% And the U.S. Supreme Court in the early '90s in a case involving a federal judge that was 04:27.733 --> 04:32.733 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% impeached said the courts have no role whatsoever in regulating impeachment, either in the House 04:34.800 --> 04:38.033 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% or the Senate. So there's no other recourse the senators have if Nancy Pelosi decides 04:40.000 --> 04:42.500 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% to hold onto the articles until there could be a negotiation about witnesses in the trial. 04:42.500 --> 04:47.466 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% JOHN YANG: And help us understand the -- sort of the political calculus here. 04:47.466 --> 04:52.466 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% What leverage does this create by holding on to these articles of impeachment, by not 04:54.433 --> 04:57.833 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% triggering the trial in the Senate against the president? 04:57.833 --> 05:02.833 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% MICHAEL CONWAY: Well, you just played the clip of -- Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell 05:05.300 --> 05:08.666 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% have also said they want to have a very abbreviated trial, no witnesses, no drama. Let's get it 05:09.266 --> 05:11.333 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% over with. 05:11.333 --> 05:15.133 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer don't want to do that. There are existing rules for prior 05:17.033 --> 05:20.000 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% impeachments. In 1986, the Senate had a whole series of rules you can find on Senate.gov 05:20.000 --> 05:22.600 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% about impeachment. 05:22.600 --> 05:26.400 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% And in Bill Clinton's impeachment, they added two new resolutions. Those provided for witnesses. 05:27.800 --> 05:29.800 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% There were witnesses in Bill Clinton's impeachment. 05:29.800 --> 05:34.033 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% If Mitch McConnell followed the rules that were adopted unanimously in 1999, there would 05:36.066 --> 05:39.033 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% be witnesses. But the Senate has absolute power to change it. The question is, does 05:39.033 --> 05:41.033 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% he have 51 votes to do that? 05:41.033 --> 05:45.100 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% JOHN YANG: Is there a potential downside, or is there a risk to what House Speaker Pelosi 05:45.100 --> 05:47.133 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% is doing? 05:47.133 --> 05:50.600 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% MICHAEL CONWAY: Of course. You just heard the Republican talking point, which is that 05:50.600 --> 05:54.933 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% the managers now have cold feet, that they don't want to send the case to the House. 05:54.933 --> 05:59.933 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% But I think one of the real variables here is, how is President Trump going to react 06:02.033 --> 06:04.400 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% to this? He's already reacted to the issue that he's been impeached. He believes -- and 06:04.400 --> 06:09.400 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% you just heard his words -- that he -- the Senate will, he says, exonerate him. That 06:10.800 --> 06:14.233 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% won't happen, but they can find him not guilty, acquit him. 06:14.233 --> 06:18.933 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% If the trial is prolonged, and he doesn't get that day, he may actually put some pressure 06:18.933 --> 06:23.933 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% on McConnell to come to some agreement about witnesses. And he's famously said he himself 06:25.800 --> 06:28.733 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% wants to call Representative Schiff and others as witnesses in the trial. 06:28.733 --> 06:33.733 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% JOHN YANG: This idea of withholding the articles from the Senate, it was floated by professor 06:35.133 --> 06:37.100 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% - - Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe. 06:37.100 --> 06:41.766 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% He got -- the idea was that you essentially indict the president, you charged him with 06:44.233 --> 06:46.833 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% these articles of impeachment, and you never give him the opportunity to -- for the acquittal 06:48.166 --> 06:49.166 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% in the Senate. 06:49.166 --> 06:51.200 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% Is that viable? 06:51.200 --> 06:55.100 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% MICHAEL CONWAY: Well, it may be viable, but the public may not think it's fair. 06:55.100 --> 06:59.600 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% In Robert Mueller's report, he put a footnote that's -- where he said that he couldn't take 06:59.600 --> 07:04.200 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% any action and recommend whether there should be criminal charges. And he said that that 07:04.200 --> 07:06.200 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% would be decided in impeachment. 07:06.200 --> 07:10.500 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% And one of his rationales was, the president had no opportunity to vindicate himself. And 07:12.566 --> 07:14.800 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% so I think, if the president really had no opportunity to vindicate himself, there was 07:14.800 --> 07:19.100 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% never a trial, I think that would backfire on the Democrats. 07:19.100 --> 07:23.133 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% One other thing to think about, the Democrats have been in court. They have a hearing on 07:23.133 --> 07:28.133 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% January 3 on two lawsuits in the court of appeals in Washington, one for Don McGahn 07:29.266 --> 07:31.266 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% to testify, one for the grand jury material. 07:31.266 --> 07:35.233 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% Their whole rationale is, it's part of an impeachment inquiry. So, what are the Democrats 07:35.233 --> 07:39.500 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% going to say on January 3? Is the impeachment inquiry still going on? Or is it over? 07:39.500 --> 07:43.033 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% JOHN YANG: And also help us. We're going to be -- people are going to be hearing a lot 07:43.033 --> 07:44.566 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% of terms they haven't heard before. 07:44.566 --> 07:48.233 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% We heard Speaker Pelosi talking about appointing House managers. 07:48.233 --> 07:49.933 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% MICHAEL CONWAY: Right. 07:49.933 --> 07:52.566 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% JOHN YANG: Who are the House managers, and why is that important? 07:52.566 --> 07:55.466 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% MICHAEL CONWAY: The House managers are essentially the prosecutors. They're very important. They're 07:55.466 --> 07:59.700 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% members of Congress. They will go to the Senate. They will serve as the prosecutors in the 07:59.700 --> 08:01.700 align:left position:40% line:89% size:50% trial. 08:01.700 --> 08:05.733 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% And I believe a lot of Democrats would like to have the designation and the status of 08:07.666 --> 08:11.933 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% being a House manager, but it's really a job. It's not an honorary position. They're going 08:11.933 --> 08:15.800 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% to have to present the evidence in the trial, whether they're witnesses or not. 08:15.800 --> 08:19.833 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% And the fact that they may not subpoena new witnesses, they can still bring the witnesses 08:19.833 --> 08:24.833 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% who appeared before the Intelligence Committee, Ambassador Yovanovitch, Lieutenant Colonel 08:26.966 --> 08:31.066 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% Vindman, and others. So they better be skilled prosecutors, skilled questioners. 08:31.066 --> 08:33.633 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% And I think Nancy Pelosi understands that. 08:33.633 --> 08:38.533 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% JOHN YANG: And you also said that the speaker and also Senator Schumer, the Democratic leader 08:40.533 --> 08:44.833 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% in the Senate, want to slow this process down. They seem to be racing to get the impeachment 08:44.833 --> 08:47.600 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% done in the House, but why would they want to slow things down now? 08:47.600 --> 08:51.000 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% MICHAEL CONWAY: Well, they want a set of ground rules. They want witnesses. 08:51.000 --> 08:55.100 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% And I think some Republican members of the Senate are going to be under some political 08:55.100 --> 09:00.166 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% pressure here. If Senator Schumer asks that these four witnesses or others -- he wants 09:02.200 --> 09:05.833 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% John Bolton, he wants Chief of Staff Mulvaney to be witnesses and two others. They can ask 09:07.700 --> 09:11.700 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% Chief Justice Roberts, who will be presiding over the Senate trial, to subpoena them. 09:11.700 --> 09:16.700 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% And the rules provide for subpoenas in the Senate. That can be overruled. Chief Justice 09:19.200 --> 09:22.533 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% Roberts, in a normal trial, what he says goes, but not in the Senate. The Senate, by a majority 09:23.700 --> 09:25.733 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% vote, can overrule him. 09:25.733 --> 09:29.766 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% But let's take Republican senators up for reelection in hotly contested states like 09:29.766 --> 09:34.766 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% Colorado or Maine. The question is going to be, do you want witnesses or not? A recent 09:36.766 --> 09:40.133 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% poll shows that 71 percent of the American public want the witnesses to testify. 09:42.633 --> 09:45.300 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% So they're going to have a tough vote. And whether Mitch McConnell can keep his 53 Republicans 09:45.300 --> 09:47.400 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% in line will be the question. 09:47.400 --> 09:50.433 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% JOHN YANG: Michael Conway, a lot of issues we're going to be talking about for weeks 09:50.433 --> 09:51.433 align:left position:40% line:89% size:50% to come. 09:51.433 --> 09:52.433 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% (LAUGHTER) 09:52.433 --> 09:53.900 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% JOHN YANG: Thanks a lot. 09:53.900 --> 09:54.033 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% MICHAEL CONWAY: You're more than welcome. Thank you.