Plus, out of sight but not out of mind. The senate prepares for another trump impeachment trial. Senators will have to decide if Donald John Trump incited the insurrection. And the vaccine rollout. The new president says help is on the way. This is a wartime undertaking. We will get through this. Welcome to inside politics sunday, im abby phillip. Thank you for spending part of your weekend with us. Last week a new era dawned in washington, the era of joe biden. It was an inauguration speech for these unprecedented times focused squarely on healing the nation after four years of the Trump Administration and a deadly transition. Faith and reason show the way, the way of unity. We can see each other not as adversaries but as neighbors. We can treat each other with dignity and respect. We can join forces, stop the shouting and lower the temperature. Without unity, there is no peace, only bitterness and fury. No progress, only exhausting outrage. No nation, only a state of chaos. Biden is inheriting unprecedented challenges. The top priority, ending the covid19 pandemic. The death toll will likely top 500,000 next month. The cases will continue to mount. We didnt get to this mess overnight. Its going to take months for us to turn things around. Were still in a dark winter of this pandemic. Its going to get worse before it gets better. He also got right to work reversing key parts of the trump legacy using executive orders to end the travel ban that targeted mostly muslimmajority countries, halt the border construction, rejoining the paris climate accords and the world health organization. His top legislative priority is a 1. 9 trillion rescue plan that he hopes will win bipartisan support. Today his top economic advisers will meet virtually with 15 senators from both parties who the white house will hopes will make a deal with him. But former President Trumps impeachment trial is going to add to the difficulty of this. Many republicans are arguing its unrealistic to work toward bipartisan goals while the democrats push what they consider to be a divisive impeachment trial. So lets begin with kaitlan collins, jeff zeleny and Seung Min Kim from the Washington Post on this and a whole lot more. Jeff, youve covered president s obama, trump and now biden. How does this first week of the biden era compare to his predecessors . Good morning. I think its different in so many ways because there is still this feeling that President Trump is still hanging over the biden presidency very much unlike george w. Bush was hanging over the Obama Administration at that point. But i think one thing is similar, as we talks about this 1. 9 trillion spending bill, if youll think back to the early days of the Obama Administration, they had a similar economic stimulus bill and they wanted to get bipartisan support. Zero republicans in the house voted for it and only three republicans in the senate voted for it. And President Biden was key to try to get more bipartisanship on board. So that is why theyre trying to get some republican buyin on this 1. 9 trillion bill. If it does not, it certainly will set the tone for the rest of this year, certainly and perhaps even longer, is bipartisanship possible . As you said in the opening, this is unprecedented challenges. The pandemic changes absolutely everything. But there is a sense, i believe, among republicans, that they need to do something. So the dynamic in the senate with Chuck Schumer and Mitch Mcconnell is something we have not seen before recently. This 50 50 power share, and the impeachment coming up in two weeks time. The next two weeks in washington are so urgent and critical for President Biden to get at least part of his agenda through and more importantly his nominees confirmed before that impeachment trial threatens to blow up everything. Yeah. Theres not a there are a lot of differences between the biden years now and the obama years 12 years ago. But president obama in his first month passed three major pieces of legislation within days after taking office, including his economic stimulus bill. And President Biden is taking a little bit of a different strategy. Hes got this 1. 9 trillion Economic Relief plan, thats more than twice the size of obamas and it includes stimulus checks, jobless aid, ban on evictions, food stamps, housing aid, money to reopen schools and distribute vaccines plus a 15 minimum wage. Its an all in one kind of approach. But is there a risk that putting so much into one bill could backfire and he ends up with nothing at the end of the day . Yeah, its a huge risk. And white house officials know that. They know the end result is probably not going to look like what hes called on congress to pass so far. But one thing he said last week as we were just getting into the early days of this was joe biden said that he knows his entire presidency is going to be judged on how they handle this crisis right out of the gate. And i think so many presidency are set, the tone of them, the first year in office. But this is going to be so much more so than any other time weve seen. This is what he promised on the campaign trail that he could come together with republicans, get Something Like this passed. But washington has changed a lot. We saw that, of course, with the insurrection that happened on capitol hill and how republicans responded to that. So i think thats why youre seeing the meetings start to happen with lawmakers here at the white house. There have been a lot of conversations behind the scenes and officials anticipate there are a lot more to come because they know a lot of it does hinge on this. You cant governor by executive order as he spent largely the first few days doing. Theyre going to get some kind of legislation moving if they want to have a real effect on the economic side effects of this pandemic. Over on capitol hill, of course, youre already hearing signs that republicans are not happy. And you and your colleagues at the post published this story yesterday, turned off by bidens approach. Gop opposition to stimulus relief intensifies. People may not find that surprising, but there was this from susan collins, she said, we just passed 900 billion worth of assistance. Why would we have a package that big now . Maybe a couple of months from now the need will be evident and well need to do something significant. But im not seeing it right now. You know, if thats the starting position of one of the key moderates in the senate, do biden officials think theres a real chance they can win over the 10 republicans they need to avoid a filibuster to get this massive stimulus bill through . Theyre certainly trying at the outset and thats why you have this critical meeting with a Bipartisan Group later this afternoon led by President Bidens top economic official. Youre hearing a lot of pressure from democrats on the white house and on their fellow republicans saying, if you dont want to embrace a massive relief package that is needed by the American People right now, then we are prepared to go on it on our own in a process called reconciliation thats been used several times in washington to pass major tax and spending legislation. Democrats are prepared to go on their own and do it that way. They say, you shouldnt risk getting a great bill for the American People for the sake of picking up just a few republican votes. And thats the posture of a lot of people right now. And the white house hasnt ruled that out either, ruling out using that process to get a massive relief package done. But at the outset, they do want the semblance of bipartisanship, thats why theyre talking with republican senators later today. And for republican senators, what theyre hearing what theyre hoping to hear from the Administration Later today is just why is this package needed . Show me the targets for relief and also their big question right now is there are hundreds of billions of dollars that have not yet been spent out of that massive package that washington passed in december. So tell us what the needs are. Show us what money has not gone out the door. It could be a very productive meeting later today or it could just be kind of a show and democrats decide to go forward on their own. Remains to be seen. If both sides are ready to have productive meetings, especially since this is a little bit of a different approach than what weve seen over the last four years. Jeff, i want to shift gears a little bit to what we started with in this segment, this theme of unity that was such a central part of bidens inaugural. And you can see it just splashed all over these front pages from across the country. But he and republicans seem to disagree fundamentally, frankly, on what unity actually means. Take a listen to what some republicans have been saying. The agenda and those executive orders hes signing are partisan thats dividing. President biden sounded a lot of notes of unity in his inaugural address. But when we got back to the white house, he implemented a bu bunch of farleft policies. This is not the way to unify and heal the nation. Jeff, is this what is this what President Biden meant when he talked about unity . It seems like republicans have decided that they oppose what biden is proposing . No question about it. Winning has consequences. Theres gambling in the casino, surprise, surprise, some of these republicans arent going to embrace unity. The 2022 campaign has started, the 2024 campaign has started with tom cotton. These republicans are not the audience, necessarily. But in his inaugural address last week, President Biden said he wants to work with republicans who can come along and agree with this. There are several members who want to get things done. They dont want to live in this era of obstructionist and us versus them and no progress. But i think unity is something that President Biden was talking about, you know, in a more aspirational way about healing. Hes not naive to know that all republicans suddenly are going to come on board and, you know, embrace every piece of his legislation. He was around capitol hill for almost four decades and he knows that wont happen. On the margins, on the edges on policy matters, some will come along, he believes. Thats the test of his presidency. Is joe bidens vision of washington, is his vision of america still possible in this posttrump era of deep polarization. But he also talked about truth, sticking to the facts and, you know, asemblance of truth here. He will get more republicans on board with that certainly. A lot has changed since biden first came to washington. Sure. Kaitlan, the other big theme this week, covid. The president promising to vaccinate a hundred Million People in the first 100 days. But at this point, given where we are, its the baseline. Were injecting a Million People a day. Do you get this is a strategy to moderate expectations so maybe they can exceed them. What weve heard is they set this goal before people actually had started being vaccinated and so thats why they say, you know, when experts are calling it too modest, given theyre already on track to reach that goal and they havent changed anything. But i think it helps them because theyre not setting these standards and not meeting them, which is what we saw at the end of the trump time in office. Where you have the operation warp speed officials explaining why they werent where they were supposed to be initially. Experts are saying its too modest of a plan, we should be on a lockout for that. One thing that set a stark contrast in the final days of trump and the early days of biden is look how much more involved the president has been in this, where hes giving daily speeches about coronavirus, talking about what they intend to do, at least what they hope to do. Also acknowledging the loss that we faced and acknowledging where we are in the country right now. And thats what you saw from President Biden on friday. He was saying, its not going to get better immediately. We didnt get into this pandemic within a matter of days. Its going to take months for there to be real change. I think they are lowering expectations for what people should expect. They shouldnt expect the pandemic to just stop now that joe biden is in office. And so the question, of course, is once youre actually executing these things, do you actually make that much of a difference, given how critical their response is going to be. Yeah, i think the sea change in washington has been obvious to pretty much anybody whos been paying attention. Kaitlan collins, thank you so much for joining us. Up next, the senate prepares for former president Donald Trumps second impeachment. Republicans saying thats no way to unify the country, but Speaker Pelosi begs to differ. The fact is, the president of the United States committed an act of incitement of insurrection. I dont think its very unifying to say, oh, lets just forget it and move on. You dont say to a president , do whatever you want in the last months of your administration. Youre going to get a get out of jail card free. Inside politics sunday brought to you by Dana Farber Cancer institute. Protein, lets the immune system attack, attack, attack cancer. 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Nothing is everything we were the first to bring 5g nationwide. And now that sprint is a part of tmobile were turning up the speed. Upgrading over a thousand towers a month with ultra capacity 5g. To bring speeds as fast as wifi to cities and towns across america. And were adding more every week. Coverage and speed. Who says you cant have it all . Its official, the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump is set to begin the week of february 8th. The announcement coming after days of uncertainty about when democrats might start the trial and if it would derail President Bidens ambitious agenda. Democrats opted to cut a deal with republicans giving the Trump Legal Team more time to prepare and President Biden a chance to fill his cabinet. Back with us, cnns jeff zeleny and Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post. Jeff, this is a timeline that, you know, has emerged really very rapidly in the last couple of days. Is it what the Biden White House preferred . They would prefer to not have to deal with any of this, quite frankly, abby, but thats not the reality. Weve always seen that President Biden, for the last several weeks, did not have an appetite for impeachment. He knew he couldnt stop it, of course, but this is basically the bestcase scenario. They want to try and get at least some of their nominees confirmed over the next twoweek period. It allows it takes away the argument that this is being rushed and the president is not having time to build his team. So it was very interesting. For a while now, the white house and the transition officials before that said mr. Biden is not playing a role in this, not focusing on the timing. But friday afternoon he answered a question in the state dining room. He says he supports senator mcconnells plan to start this in february, and Chuck Schumer said, okay, the trial will start on february 9th. So the next window of two weeks here is really an important time to try and get things done. Its the best timeline they could have hoped for. But, again, they wished this wasnt happening at all in the first 100 days. What i love about that, for four years, the president making comments that the white house would come as a surprise to people on capitol hill. I think this time, it sends a clear message. There are also at the same time that all this is happening, new revelations in the New York Times and the wall street journal this weekend about how far President Trump has been willing to