Transcripts For CNN CNN Newsroom With Poppy Harlow and Jim S

To that and how they will defend him. Weve got a lot to get to. Lets go to our colleague lauren fox on capitol hill. Good morning to you, lauren. So at least the optics were of progress in the oval office yesterday. Susan collins leading that meeting with the president. But was there substantive progress . Well, sure. I think republicans felt it was a good meeting, a Good Opportunity to speak directly with the president about what their hopes are for their own covid relief package. But, look, democrats are charging forward with their plan to use that budgetary tactic to go ahead and pass that 1. 9 trillion bill with just democratic votes. They are arguing essentially that republicans are willing, if they are willing, they are allowed to come forward and vote for this process. They are welcome to be a part of it, but they are saying they need to be bold, they need to go bold and you saw that yesterday reflected in the statement from the White House Press secretary after that meeting had wrapped. Essentially democrats plan to move forward. Were going to see that Budget Resolution today from senate democrats. Its going to give Committees Instructions to go ahead and begin writing this bill. Im told that process is really going to start and get under way next week. Youll have House Committees working in consultation with the Senate Committees to write that legislative text. And its going to look a lot like the 1. 9 trillion plan that the biden Team Released months ago. So thats where they are headed, but i will tell you, democrats are not going to wait for republicans if they dont want to come along on this. Jim and poppy . Republicans who have the challenge of whether they want to vote against aid like that. The other issue 4 still unresolved is a Power Sharing Agreement in the senate. You have a 5050 split but with the Vice President making the ties in effect. Were weeks in to this new congress. Whats holding up an agreement here that allowed votes, for instance, on the president s nominees . Well, you are starting to see some of the wrinkles of not having an organizing resolution really show up. One of them, of course, the fact that Lindsey Graham who is still technically the chairman of the Judiciary Committee saying hed like to see a twoday Confirmation Hearing for the Attorney General nominee, but one of the concerns he has is theyre going to start that Senate Impeachment trial on february 9th. They were scheduled to begin the Confirmation Hearing february 8th. Hes saying thats not enough time, but one of the reasons that this isnt already wrapped up is the fact that democrats and Republican Leadership aides are still squabbling about what this organizing resolution could look like. Im told they could come to an agreement as soon as today that the discussions are really weedy and its just a difference of opinion on how to move forward and these are some small changes they need to come up with. But essentially its halting Senate Business here on capitol hill. Well see when that changes. Lauren fox, thanks very much. Jeremy diamond is at the white house. If no bipartisan deal was within reach, they are willing to do this without republicans. I just wonder, theyve. Talking about this twotrack approach for some time, right . Proceeding with reconciliation, while keeping their ears open to possible compromises here. But after that meeting yesterday, is there a path . Are republicans willing to come up on that figure, democrats down . Its not clear. What we saw yesterday was the potential and the limits for bipartisanship with President Biden in the white house. And the current makeup of the house and the senate. We had on the potential side that twohour long meeting hosted by President Biden. His first meeting at the white house with lawmakers. Intended to send a clear signal that he isnt just talk but hes serious about these calls for unity and bipartisanship. Both sides, the republican, the ten republicans who were meeting with the president as well as the white house, making clear that this was a goodfaith discussion, that there were some points of agreement but then in terms of the limits of bipartisanship, what you saw in the wake of this was the white house making very, very clear that they do intend to move forward with this legislation and theyre certainly not going to compromise more than they believe is necessary and more than they believe is necessary in terms of what is needed for the american people. You look at these two plans and you can see how tremendous the gap is. More than a trillion dollars separate these two plans. What President Biden is proposing and what the republicans you look at the Stimulus Checks. You can see big differences there. And this issue of the minimum wage and state and local aid. None of those neither of those are in the republican plan. So you are going to see the white house move forward here, approaching a Budget Reconciliation that appears to be the direction the white house is headed. Still keeping that line open so those republicans on capitol hill, but the emphasis from the white house here is the sense of urgency to pass needed aid. And thats where theyre going to focus on. Jeremy diamond, thank you very much from a beautiful looking washington, d. C. , this morning. Two big developments on top of all that we just talked about, two big developments in the second Impeachment Trial of former President Trump, but any moment, house Impeachment Managers will provide a detailed legal analysis of their view of the constitutionality of impeaching a former president. The legal team faces a deadline today. Actually next hour for the democrats and noon for the republicans to respond. Cnns john harwood and legal analyst norm isen with us. He was Impeachment Counsel during President Trumps first Impeachment Trial and also special counsel to president obama. Lets begin with you because over the weekend there was talk that one reason the president fired his initial legal team was because he just wanted to quadruple down on the idea the election was stolen from him. But is now the focus with his latest legal team just to go after the Constitutionality Argument . Seems pretty clear from the argument that the lawyer made on Television Last night. And that is the obvious place for President Trump to go. Hes had 45 republican senators already vote to affirm the idea that it is unconstitutional to have this trial. Never mind that the consensus of legal scholars is that it is constitutional. There is precedent for it. Mitt romney has said has made that point. Mitt romney, of course, was one of the ones who voted the other way. But that seems the shortest path, the path of least resistance for the president. He clearly is consumed by this idea, this false idea, the lie that he spread that resulted in the insurrection that he won the election, that it was stolen from him, but what lawyer, what selfrespecting lawyer wants to stand up and make that argument when Everybody Knows its not true. Good point. But things do surprise us. Norm, the what were going to see, our reporting is in the document put forth by house democrats, Impeachment Managers next hour, is that theyre not only going to argue the president incited the violence at the capitol and insurrection, but theyre going to say it was intentional and months in the making because of his lies. I wonder how high the bar is to prove intentionality. Well, poppy, thanks for having me back. The intentionality stems from the known facts here. Theres just no other way to look at the president s long pattern of misconduct. He started attacking this election before it happened saying if he lost, it would be rigged and just continued to accelerate the false statements. Hes responsible for what happened. And his behavior was appalling throughout this process. Its norm, i hear you, and i know youre on the side against the president last time around. Im wondering legal, like opinions and politics aside, isnt a bar for proving intentionality pretty high . They dont need to meet that legal bar here. This is an Impeachment Trial. They need to show a high crime and misdemeanor. Inciting an insurrection, including using the Fighting Words on january 6th, on top of the long pattern that came before it, that is more than sufficient to meet the standard of a high crime and misdemeanor. Can they make that case without sccalling a significant number of witnesses . Democrats fought for witnesses in the first trial and got blocked by the white house. Why not push for a significant list of witnesses if youre proving that case. Beyond january 6th, right, you could talk to the folks the president pressured across the country to overturn the election. Jim, im sure that they are looking at which of those key witnesses they can bring in, but, remember, theres an enormous amount of evidence that is already in the Public Record here. We know from the previous trial that this is a team that is going to put on devastating audio and visual evidence, including the president s own words. Not just on january 6th, bad enough, but over a period of months inciting this insurrection. So while witnesses are always an important part of a trial, we also have to be mindful of the fact that there is a pile of information, and nobody has put it all together yet. I think were going to see that in this trial. John harwood, yesterday senate Judiciary Committee chairman, because there are no Organizing Rules agreed on so republicans are still leading these committees, responded to senator dick durbin in terms of durbins call for the Confirmation Hearing for Attorney General nominee Merrick Garland to be ahead of the Impeachment Trial. Graham makes the case the last five Attorney General nominees had twoday Confirmation Hearings. Is he right on that, and where do you think this goes . Obviously, the senate could go ahead and confirm Merrick Garland if they wanted to. Lets just review a little Lindsey Graham history here. 2016, participated in the blockade of Merrick Garland for the supreme court. Later said use my words against me if theres a republican president , well not rush it through in an election year. We saw what happened with amy coney barrett. In 2016, he ran against trump who said hes a xenophobic bigot and then became trumps best friend. Same pattern on ukraine. If its a quid pro quo, its really bad. Then when a quid pro quo was proved, it wasnt really bad and with the insurrection he said in the moment of the violence, im out. Then he got right back in. I dont know how you avoid the conclusion that Lindsey Graham is an energizer bunny going straight in the direction of what is the most expedient thing for him in that moment and this seems to be another example of that. John harwood, ambassador eisen, thanks to both of you. Still to come Senate Minority leader Mitch Mcconnell, interesting to say those words, does something most of his colleagues in the house will not do. He publicly calls out congresswoman and Conspiracy Theorist extraordinaire Marjorie Taylor greene, condemning her, quote, loony lies, calling her, again quoting, a cancer for the republican party. Will leaders in the house follow his lead . Yeah, its a really extraordinary step. Well get into that. And this congresswoman alexandria ocasiocortez detailing the moments she experienced during the insurrection at the capitol. And also for the first time publicly opening up about her own sexual assault. And distribution is not the only challenge facing the vaccine rollout. How Debunking Disinformation is key to getting more americans vaccinated. With so many new pet owners, your groomers cant keep up. You need to hire. I need indeed. Indeed you do. The moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a shortlist of quality candidates from a resume data base. So, you can start hiring right away. Claim your seventyfivedollar credit when you post your first job at indeed. Com groomer this morning, there is growing pressure on the top House Republican Kevin Mccarthy to act, speak out, as Senate Minority leader Mitch Mcconnell delivered a sharp rebuke of congresswoman Marjorie Taylor greene, though he did not directly name her. But he was quickly referring to her when he confirmed, quote, loony lies and Conspiracy Theories as a, quote, cancer on the republican party. Greene fired back in a tweet saying the real cancer is in her mind weak republicans. All of this put House Republican leaders on the spot. Brandon buck is with us. Hes a former top aide to house speakers tom ryan and john boehner and you worked for Kevin Mccarthy as well. So ive got to ask, given how rare it is to hear a leader in the senate speak about an issue in the house in this way, whats your read this morning . Yeah, it is really rare. Typically theres an understood rule that Senate Leaders take care of their own conference, dont mess with whats going on in the house. So theres one of two things going on. Either Kevin Mccarthy asked for Mitch Mcconnell to back him up a little or Mitch Mcconnell is just really concerned about the direction that the party is heading, and feels like in the absence of anybody else saying something, he needs to speak in defense of liz cheney and make clear that Conspiracy Theories arent welcome here because hes worried about the longterm political implications of a party that welcomes Conspiracy Theorists. The trouble, of course, is those Conspiracy Theories and lies are not confined by any means to Marjorie Taylor greene. The most popular man in the republican party, donald trump, has been a Chief Propagator of lies. For years, right, and continues with the election lie. I just wonder, do you find Mitch Mcconnells rebuke of greene and by the way, hes rebuked trumps lies on the election as well, but is she an avatar for a larger battle here, the party attempting to, or some in the party attempting to marginalize trump himself . Yeah, absolutely. Mitch mcconnell seems to be the only person in Republican Leadership right now who recognizes that the longterm political damage of continuing to welcome in anybody into the party, whether its Conspiracy Theorists or dismissing White Supremacists or anything the president sort of winked and nodded at, its a disaster. You cannot have a functioning party thats not willing to set clear principles on basic things like shootings of children are staged. You cant have a party that welcomes people when people think you are a Conspiracy Theorist. So hes taking the long view. I think on the house side, a lot of the leaders there are more frankly playing the short game. Theyre more concerned about keeping the House Conference at ease and not creating any pressure on themselves where Mitch Mcconnell sees this is a bad path to go down, and were in trouble if we dont change course right now. Kichb mccarthy stripped steve king from iowa of his Committee Assignments and he didnt get elected again. He has the same power to do it again this time. I wonder if hes going to. I wonder if his thinking is different this time and i wonder what you think about Marjorie Taylor greene last night saying dont do this democrats because the precedent is bad and its going to come back to bite you. Well, i think the president will be this is something each