Majority, have said theyre open to witnesses. Yeah, so well see. All right. There is speaker pelosi. She is going to meet with members of her caucus. Lets hope theres some news out of it. Waiting for a lot of answers. The white house doesnt even want it to get as far as potentially calling witnesses in the middle of this trial. The president s team wants a quick end to the impeachment, and some in the party backing him. The white house wants to put immediate dismissal of this whole thing up for a vote on the senate floor. So far Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell doesnt have enough votes to make that happen. Lets go to our congressional reporter lauren fox. I heard you. Valiant effort to get pelosi to answer those questions as she was heading in. Mum is the word, right . I will tell you that members going into this meeting this morning have a lot of anticipation because everyone is waiting to see whether or not pelosi will announce who those house managers will be during this caucus meeting. Those managers are the individuals who will make the case on the senate floor for why President Trump should be removed from office. And those individuals, obviously, this is a very highly anticipated decision by pelosi because they are going to have the major job of making the case for why President Trump needed to be impeached, and why senators should vote to remove him. They could also have an influence on those on the fence moderate republicans as to whether or not those individuals want to hear from witnesses. Poppy and jim . As we look at this, lauren, help me do a vote count here. Lamar alexander, the latest republican senator to say hes open to witnesses down the line. And by my count, mitt romney, Susan Collins, senator murkowski on the list. Thats if they decide to vote yes. At least the possibility of witnesses is very real now. Well, look, jim, we know at some point there will be a vote on witnesses, and that republicans and democrats have equal weight but call up who those witnesses should be and force the full senate to vote on them. Whether or not Lamar Alexander who is going to retire would vote to have john bolton be deposed or come to the well of the senate is another question entirely. What weve heard from alexander is he might be open to witnesses. He might not be. Hes going to wait and see. The biggest question today is what is that organizing resolution look like in the senate that will govern the rules of this senate trial . We dont know at this point but john cornyn who is a Top Republican in leadership said we could expect that to be unveiled soon. Well have more details on how this will be structured. We have to wait and see whether there are enough moderate republicans to vote for witnesses. Jim and poppy . Lauren fox on the hill, thanks very much. Joining us to discuss all this, Laura Barron Lopez for politico and shan wu. Thank you for being here. Shan, let me begin with you. Republican and other republican senator from missouri, roy blunt, heres what he said in terms any of effort to dismiss this trial before it really even begins. I think im safe in saying theres almost no interest in a motion to dismiss. Certainly there are not 51 votes for a motion to dismiss. You think republican senators potentially in politically dicey reelection zones are wrong to think that they need at least the optics of a full airing of a fair trial here. Why . I actually think they are wrong because the base they are concerned with is not going to care whether its a motion to dismiss some legal term or a trial which may not have any witnesses. They just care that the president is going to be acquitted. So actually their idea that they need to appear fair by having a full hearing is misplaced. They are much better off getting through it as fast as possible. Mcconnell has the right strategy even though i dont really agree with the outcome. Okay. It does look a little like, though, laura, thats not going to happen. They dont have the votes there, but this question of witnesses, and its interesting. Its a reminder in this whole process, never forget there could be surprises because it was only a few days ago the talk on the hill was there arent the votes there for witnesses. But now you have Public Comments from sitting republican senators saying they would go there. As you look at this, is that becoming a probability as opposed to a possibility hearing from witnesses . I think we can expect a vote on the witnesses and when that vote finally comes, you know, Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer is going to be happy about that because it allows democrats to place pressure on those vulnerable republicans. And whether or not Susan Collins is sure what the best route is for her, shes clearly facing pressure back in her state of maine. She made comment to politico just a few days ago, very aware of the fact that democrats are spending a big amount in her state to try to flip that state. So a number of these republicans are feeling intense pressure. Especially adding to that, the fact that bolton said hes willing to come up if they subpoena him. Thats true. Shan, john cornyn, influential republican senator, really does not want the white house to use members of the house to be on their defense team in this trial. He said lets not infect the senate withs circuslike atmosphere of the house. Is that wise counsel . I think that is wise counsel. I dont think theyll make the best impression if they just have people throwing bombs on the floor. They want to get lawyers in there or the house managers defense team who can cut through the circus atmosphere and get the substantive legal defenses. There are ways of looking at the elements of the impeachment articles and trying to put on the substantive defense. And as long as they do that, they know they have the votes to win. Rather than just contributing to this partisan atmosphere. Laura, on the question of witnesses, Mitch Mcconnell has warned both his republicans and i think democratic colleagues of mutually assured destruction on the question of witnesses that say, okay, say you have the votes and call a john bolton which could be damaging to the president. You may have a demand to call in hunter biden. Of course, which would not be great for joe biden who may be the president s opponent in 2020. How would that work, exactly . Would it be a complete witness list that senators would vote on, or would they vote on witnesses one by one or have to negotiate prior to the vote . Well, those are the details that were still waiting to hear from Senate Majority leader mich mcconnell. We dont know how these votes will be taken. I wouldnt be surprised if they were taken one by one. And again, not only mcconnell but, of course, senator rand paul, fierce defend er. Bringing hunter biden forward if additional witnesses are added. All right. Well have you guys back. Thank you very much. Laura, shan, appreciate it. The Russian Military successfully hacked, guess which company . Ukrainian company burisma. Thats the same company tied to the president s ukraine scandal and this whole impeachment. And remember what happened in 2016 . Russia hacked the dnc, they hacked john podesta, Hillary Clintons campaign manager, stole the emails and released them for maximum effect around the national convention. The democratic Partys National convention. I always remind people how many minutes after the release of the access Hollywood Tape did the Podesta Emails get released. It was 22 minutes. So stolen materials like this could have political effect if russia chooses to follow the same path. Matthew chance joins us live from moscow. Tell us what more we know about the hacking, where it came from, and what was stolen. Right. Look. They were going all over this again. What they are saying is that they detected activity by Russian Military intelligence hackers, the gru. Remember fancy bear, cozy bear, names bantied around as pseudonyms. Its the same people it seems that are engaged in a phishing attack, probing attack, whatever you want to call it against burisma. That gas company that employed hunter biden. We dont know what information they were seeking, what information they were taking and how deeply burisma was compromised. But as you say, there are stark similarities to the attack that took place on the dnc server. Those emails released that were stoat cause political disruption. And there is concern that the same pattern is being repeated now. Weve reached out, of course, both to burisma. Burisma havent answered their phones. Weve reached out to the russians. Theyve not given us a response to these allegations either. But in the past, of course, as we well know on this show, every time you put these allegations to the russians, they say its laughable. They deny any knowledge of any kind of hacking and say its antirussian kind of sentiment. And my expectation is that theyre going to say exactly the same when they respond this time. U. S. Intelligence knows definitively those same russian groups are the same ones that hacked the dnc and john podesta in 2016. They dont have a good track record for credibility. They are emboldened when people as high as the president say, maybe its ukraine. Mat matthew, thank you. Progressives clash hours before they are face to face on the debate stage. Senator warren says senator sanders did tell her in a meeting that he thought a woman could not win the white house in 2020. Sanders team calling that accusation ludicrous. Well take you live to des moines. Plus, as doubts grow over white house claims that there was an imminent attack from iran before the soleimani killing, now the state Department Says it was not aware of any embassy threats before the strike that killed irans top general. Normally youd have such warnings if the intelligence indicated that. And the air in australia is so smokey from bush fires, it sent a player at the Australian Open into a coughing fit and suspended practice. Well have the latest ahead. Knor almost anything. Even a gold medal grizzly. sports announcer what an unlikely field in this final heat. Hang on. Youre about to see history in the making. burke not exactly a skinny dipper, but we covered it. At farmers, we know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum vo visit farmersdotcom and get a quote today. Tonight is the night. The stage is set for the first president ial debate of the decade. Its right here on cnn tonight. Look at these candidates. These are the six faces youll see on stage vying for position with the Iowa Caucuses just 20 days away and it could get tense. After a monthslong unspoken pact, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are going after one another in public. The latest attack, warren says that sanders told her during a december 2018 meeting that a woman could not win in 2020. Sanders says thats ludicrous. Joining us is leyla santiago in des moines, chris cillizza, Senior Editor at the atlantic, ron brownstein. Warren and sanders have been bidens primary challengers, really, for frontrunner status here. And the conventional wisdom has been they split the progressive vote to his advantage. I wonder if this public spat between them also helps biden, particularly coming off some good polling lately for him in iowa. One thing we know from the past is when youre still at the point of the race where you have a lot of candidates in the field. When candidate a and candidate b get into a fight, that often helps candidate c. That was the case when howard dean and gephardt tore each other apart. So in that sense, it benefits biden. But its been remarkable how much warren and sanders have had this nonaggression pact. They do have demographic differences in their support. Her support, as he accurately pointed out in his script for his volunteers, is more upscale than hers. They are competing for the left flank of the party. Perhaps, jim it was inevitable to get to the point where theyre conflicting. Cillizza, you write in your column about cory booker and why this positive Come Together Campaign does not work right now. Anger, not hope, is the defining trait. And booker learned the hard way. So what does that if that is the case, and you are a smart guy. Glad i came on. On given days. What does that mean for the debate stage and the 20 ensuing days before if anger wins out here. I do think there is this frustration coursing through the democratic electorate aimed at donald trump. The message of, we can all come together is joe biden is running sort of on that message, too, that he can fix things. The reason sanders and warren have been able to stay top tier while competing broadly speaking for the same voter is the fact there are a lot of people who think, we need to stand up to donald trump. This is no long eer this is little tweak. We need to overhaul this whole thing. Thats one of the fundamental arguments. Joe biden saying we need to go back to where we were. Yeah, things went off track but we can get them back on. Things are so broken, the idea we can tweak, turn one knob and get back on course is fundamentally different. Those are the two visions of the party broadly, and in that embodied in those three candidates. Leila, youre in iowa on the ground here. We could have the beginning of a trial of the president. That, of course, the news in washington. I wonder, with iowa voters, how much are they talking about impeachment . Well, listen. You know, when we released on the cnn poll the top issues here, there was climate change, there was medical or excuse me, like the medicare for all health care issue. Among them foreign policy. Not really seeing impeachment as the top issue. But why that will matter in terms of the candidates and their 2020 campaigns is because that could mean three of these senators or that will mean that three of the senators will now not be in iowa in the three weeks leading up to the caucuses. Senator klobuchar, senator sanders and senator warren that will now have to find a way for surrogates to step in and speak on their behalf. Maybe find creative ways to do it through the internet. To skype into town halls or meetings. To maybe find time to get on air through the media after the hearings, to take a stand and have a moment through the impeachment trial. Or the trial in the senate anyway. So they are really going to have to find a way, even if it may not be the number one issue for voters here in iowa to get around it in order to gain ground in the weeks leading up to the caucuses. I would just note something that just crossed is jerry nadler just told manu raju he expects he will be named as an impeachment manager. Well see. We should learn those roles today. It was already somewhat of a snub to him that schiff was the lead in the house impeachment. Maybe well hear those names today. Ron, you have a new piece out thats really important that people read because its about the potential cost, if Bernie Sanders becomes president , in terms of cost of the programs that he has promised the American People. They would have to get through congress, but assuming they do, you talk to folks at the committee for responsible federal budget. And you think that voters and the media have not pressed sanders enough on this. What is the top line . Theres been no discussion about the full magnitude of his agenda. To the extent there has been, its been about medicare for all. The rest of his agenda would cost at least as much as medicare for all which would put the price tag for the entire set of proposals hes put out at about 60 trillion over a decade. That is equal to the total expected federal spending over the next decade. Were talking about doubling the size of the federal government. Measured as a share of the economy, poppy, he is proposing spending increases 30 times as large as Hillary Clinton ran on in 2016. 15 times as large as obama ran on in 2008 and 2 1 2 times as large as mcgovern in 72 or the actual increase in new deal spending according to an historical analysis of these other programs by larry summers, the top adviser to obama and treasury secretary for clinton. Were talking about an incredible peacetime increase. But the other candidates, clinton in 16 and the field this time, have chosen not to directly engage him because they dont think he can win, which may be an outdated view, and they dont want to alienate his fervent supporters. You did see very quickly, guys, joe biden, it wasnt directed at sanders but more generally at sanders and warren. Joe biden was saying, how are we going to pay for it in the debate. I wonder. Thats a big problem if Bernie Sanders is the nominee. Everyone needs to read that. Because that is the easiest thing to say. Bernie sanders wants government to solve all your problems. Its going to cost 60 trillion and how is he going to pay for it . Raise all your taxes. If electability is the most important thing, thats an issue that should be litigated in the democratic primary, even if its not a priority for democratic voters. Although in fairness, Neither Party has shown much interest in pay zero interest. Youre right about that. Weve seen a lot of proof of that. Leyla, the monmouth poll, most recent poll showing biden with a lead in iowa. Bigger than previously weve seen there. Who has the momentum as youre speaking to the campaigns there in iowa who feels they have the momentum going into the caucus. Thats what the caucuses are going to be. Thats why they are so important because up until now, weve had the polls sort of as a marker. Weve had the campaigns themselves saying, look at everything. The momentum weve been able to drive through town halls and even online, social media. The caucuses three weeks away will be the first time that its really on the scoreboard. That will be the first time were not just talking through pundits or polls but the first time we can actually see, look, this person came in with this much. And so that scoreboard will be the first time that we can get a better understanding. And that is just three weeks away. This debate is so important in terms of momentum and february