Page 40 - Murkowski News Today

Theres nothing there or on the other hand he should be impeached yesterday, thats wrong. in my view, thats wrong. >> joining me now, reporter covering the white house and washington daniel lipman and former counsel to the house judiciary committee in the nixon impeachment michael con way. good to see both of you. daniel, how many republicans are you hearing privately on board with senator murkowski? what influence might that have if not on removing the president from office on allowing witnesses...

Clained theyre remarkable but those beacons are critical. thank you for that. back stateside, president trump is on a bit of a twitter tear over impeachment. late last night and again today going after democrats in general and nancy pelosi in particular and he complained that the impeachment scam makes it much more difficult to deal with foreign leaders calling congressional democrats vicious, liars and hypocrites. the presidents frustration as the trial in the senate remains in limbo with pel...

Him asking ukraine for a favor is essentially what all these leaders do, isnt it? so i think it really leads us to what we saw on sunday. the vice presidents chief of staff in front of fox news chris wallace saying the things he said and saying lets investigate both russia and ukraine. and then he -- it was just -- this is remarkable. theyll do anything. >> rina, do you expect any republicans in the senate to stand up and at least have some kind of backbone in demanding witnesses and a fair tria...

Chris wallace saying the things he said and saying lets investigate both russia and ukraine. and then he -- it was just -- this is remarkable. theyll do anything. >> rinna, do you expect any republicans in the senate to stand up and at least have some kind of backbone in demanding witnesses and a fair trial if not at least going through and acquitting the president but at least demanding a fair trial? >> i still have hope. i hold out hope for senator romney, senator collins, murkowski. these are...

Extremely strong. but some of the iis could be dotted, some of the ts could be crossed. and id be amazed if someone like murkowski and romney could stand up in way that makes any sense at all, no, we shouldnt hear from these witnesses. i dont think their own constituents are going to stand for it. and weve seen as you said at the opening something like two thirds, i think it was the end of rachels show, two thirds of the republicans are in favor of hearing witness. after all, thats what a trial ...

Dont -- the judge doesnt get to rule and then the parties can overrule him. the judge is the last word. so its a very unusual position. but i still think the democrats have a play there, which is that if the democrats want to force a vote, they can make a motion to the chief justice, and then the real issue is either the chief justice will rule on it or the republican senators are going to have to say no, we are against having more witnesses. and i think thats pretty unappetizing. >> i think its...

If she transfers votes as many i think schumer is onto something and that he knows there are potentially three or four senate republicans who if they vote dpens hearing from these particular individuals, this could blow back on them at home. and hes going to use that to his advantage. >> and think about this. go back to the kavanaugh confirmation hearing when the committee agreed to add additional hearing time to hear from dr. ford. it was a few of those senators including collins and murkowski ...

Nothing to do with what the president is accused of doing or his chief political rival, which remains joe biden. so, you know, well have a quick -- well end up with a quick trial. but to your question, i think they do -- schumer does have leverage, and heres where he has leverage. half the country, and 50% of the country, wants this president to be impeached, and some portion of them, a majority, a large majority of those 50% want him not only impeached, but removed from office. that puts tremen...

People, the conservative democrats that used to be a caucus, and is now -- >> and the moderate republicans meet in the basement of the rnc in a small room. i actually have been there. there was plenty of room. >> i dont want to know why you were there, chuck. >> they couldnt get caught talking to me outside of the basement. >> susan collins, murkowski, these are serious people, they want to hear it. >> im going to end the topic here, but to remind people, after impeachment is all over, were stil...

Has been sort of very feefvered speculation that some of the moderate republicans might part ways with the white house. we have yet to see that happen. one of the wild cards for the president and one thing they have to be concerned about is whether moderate republicans break not necessarily on whether or not to remove the president but on whether or not to give democrats the 51 votes that they will need to officially call in witnesses who the white house wont want them to call in order for democ...