Consider the sole article of impeachment, charging mr. Trump with inciting that insurrection at the u. S. Capitol. The trial is slated to begin two weeks from today on february 9th. Moments after all the senators took their oaths, republican senator rand paul of kentucky raised a point of order, to question whether it is unconstitutional to try an expresident. Senate Minority Leader Mitch Mcconnell voted in favor of pauls motion, though it did ultimately fail with five republicans, only five joining democrats to move forward with the trial. The vote was 55 in favor of proceeding with the trial, 45 opposed, saying its unconstitutional. The nonpartisan Congressional Research says, quote, most scholars who have closely examined the question have concluded that congress has authority to extend the impeachment process to officials no longer in office, unquote. Surely some of those 45 votes may have been based in diverge enter constitutional law, lets be cleareyed about the politics at play here and what todays vote foretells. To convict donald trump democrats will need to win over 17 republicans. Rand paul says todays vote showed that conviction is dead on arrival. Joining me now is cnn Congressional Correspondent ryan nobles. Walk us through what happened on the Senate Floor Today and what this procedural vote actually means. Reporter jake, the trial itself is not expected to begin here in earnest on capitol hill of the former president for about two weeks, but we learned a lot about the thinking of those senators who are going to serve as jurors in this trial of former President Trump. Now this test vote, which essentially is what it was that was brought up by senator rand paul asked the question, do you believe that this impeachment trial is constitutional . And as you very rightly point out, 45 republican senators said that they agreed with rand paul, that this is not a question that should be brought in front of the senators, essentially because President Trump is no longer the president. Now, even though that motion failed, and it was tabled by democrats effectively and not moved forward, it does tell us a lot about the thinking of these republican senators. Its important to point out that it will require 17 of those republican senators to cross over party lines and vote to convict President Trump in order for him to be convicted. So we learned today that even though there were a lot of republicans that were very concerned about what happened on the day of the capitol insurrection on january 6th and many of them who specifically blame President Trump for his role in all of it, it seems very clear, at least from this vote today, that there is not enough of them that want to see him essentially called for his actions and convicted here through this impeachment process. Jake . Ryan, one of the things we havent heard a lot of is if not conviction, then what consequences do these 45 republicans believe should happen . What have you heard from republicans today, after todays proceedings . You raise a great point, jake. Weve been asking republicans that. Whats interesting about the position many of them have taken in the wake of this vote is that theyre not actually talking about the merits of the impeachment trial itself. Theyre not talking about the president s role on that day on january 6th. Instead theyre talking about the process, that this is unconstitutional because he is no longer sitting in office. Now, weve asked what other option is there to hold the president accountable . Could they do something along the lines of censuring President Trump . I spoke to bill cassidy of louisiana who has come out and said that he believes the impeachment trial is unconstitutional. He told me censuring is an option but isnt sure where the rest of the conference sits. That question hasnt even been presented to the senators at this point. The impeachment trial right now is the only option for holding President Trump accountable. Well have to see when this is all said and done if they take that next step or like many want to seem to do, put this all in the rear view mirror. Jake . Thank you. Joining us to discuss, democratic illinois senator tammy duckworth. Rand paul questioned the constitutionality of this trial. His motion died. You voted to kill it. Explain why you think this trial is constitutional. Well, if you looked to our history, jake, every official who has been barred from holding future office was out of office. And so we have historical precedence that shows it is constitutional to have a trial that will bar somebody from Holding Office in the future because weve done it in our nations past. Its clear that it is constitutional. Rand paul says this vote suggests that impeachment is dead on arrival. I mean, mathematically, that seems correct. Dont you think . Well, it looks like that way. But i will tell you that we have thot yet looked at the evidence. We all lived through it. Im sitting here in one of my offices here. I still have plywood on the window that there used to be a window there. I still have broken glass on my floor. My door behind me still has marks from where they were trying to batter it down with whatever they used as a battering ram. This is all very fresh and we cannot allow any official, whether its donald trump or someone else to not be held accountable for their actions. When that action is inciting a violent insurrection that has left at least five people dead that we know of. We must move forward with this. We heard people like mitch mcconnell, the Senate Minority leader, say he holds President Trump responsible for what happened, but some of your colleagues are saying that he cant be held responsible for inciting the riot. Take a listen to Something Else that senator rand paul said on the Senate Floor Today. Were not going down the road that democrats have decided, this low road of impeaching people for political speech. I want the democrats to raise their hands if they have ever given a speech that says take back, fight for your country. Who hasnt used the words fight figuratively . Whats your response . You know, listen, he knows hes wrong. And stop covering for donald trump. We all saw with our own eyes, heard with our own ears President Trump and what he did to incite the violence. We also heard from all of the people in the riots who spoke up and said they were doing this because President Trump told them to do so. Thats why you have a trial. You present the evidence and then you make a decision based on that. If rand paul wants to be President Trumps lawyer, then he is more than welcome to go do that. Frankly, i think the American People deserve to see the evidence presented to them that this president did, indeed, incite violence, did, indeed, incite insurrection against our nations capitol. President biden tells cnn the impeachment trial must happen but does not believe that 17 republican senators will vote to impeach donald trump. As time passes do you think it will be harder to change minds . Earlier on there seemed to be some willingness of republicans to listen to the evidence but you onl got five today, collins, murkowski, romney, toomey and sasse. Showing the evidence and replaying video footage from that day, replaying the audio from that day so the American People, so my colleagues on the other side of the aisle can see and hear all of the evidence again is really important. Thats why it is so important to move forward with impeachment trial, so we can actually review all of the evidence that there is. House impeachment managers say theyre still considering whether or not to use witnesses to try their case. But, you know, the senators themselves all saw what happened. Many of them saw it from inside the capitol, and many of them still will not blame trump. Do you think more witnesses, more evidence would change minds, or are peoples minds just locked down at this point . Well, if their minds are locked down, then the American People deserve to see that they have elected senators on that side of the aisle who refuse to look at the evidence, who are so in former President Trumps camp that theyre not even willing to do their constitutional duty. And its shameful. As i said, i am sitting in an office where there is still broken glass on the floor, where there is still plywood boarded my window up right here, where my door has marks from a battering ram of some sort that they used to try to force that door open. I can show them the evidence myself. Im happy to show it to my colleagues, but first they need to listen to the evidence and not close their minds to it. The house impeachment managers are also weighing if and how to incorporate video into their case. Sources tell us the impeachment managers are thinking about using some of this footage gathered by just security. Take a listen. Youll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength. Yes invade the capitol building. Lets take the capitol. Take the capitol. Take it take the capitol. Take the capitol right now. Take the capitol. Just to be clear, because i dont know if you even saw that as opposed to just heard it. You hear President Trump in that clip saying youll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength. Then you hear people in the crowd saying invade the capitol building. Take it. Take the capitol. Take the capitol. Take the capitol right now. Whats your response . Well, my response is you take that video and then you look at the fact that the president did not try to stop or tell the insurrectionists to cease their attack on the capitol until well after the attack was well under way. And even then it was a halfhearted statement. Its clear that the insurrectionists were doing exactly what the president wanted. Once he saw what was happening, he still didnt come out and ask them to stop and go home. Not for a long time. And even then it was a halfhearted attempt. It was very clear they were carrying out exactly his wishes. Thank you very much, senator tammy duckworth, democrat of illinois. Always good to see you. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. Breaking news about the spread of the coronavirus that could impact every parent whose kid is doing virtual learning. Does this look staged to you . Of course it isnt, but thats the official position of republican state officials in one part of the country. They are not alone. Stay with us. Its my livelihood. Rock music man so im not taking any chances when something happens to it. So when my windshield cracked. My friend recommended safelite autoglass. They came right to me, with Expert Service where i needed it. Rock music man thats service i can trust. No matter what im hauling. Right, girl . Singers safelite repair, safelite replace. Lets get checked for a full range of conditions. Lets get fast, accurate results. Introducing letsgetchecked Health Testing you do at home. Know your health. Know yourself. Order now at letsgetchecked dot com [narrator] grubhub perks give you deals on all the food that makes you boogie. upbeat music get the food you love with perks from [crowd] grubhub. Get exactly what you want on wayfair. Grub what you love. Hi. Last piece. Kelly clarkson . Youre welcome. Like an updated kitchen in just an afternoon. Its a whole new look. Drinks . From the new kitchen cart . Yes. The bedroom style of your dreams. This room is so you. I got it all on wayfair. Yeah you did, and so did i. The perfect setup for game night. I know this its the singer, its the singer yes i got next game. Kelly clarkson. I love this sofa. Look at the storage. You like my sofa . I love your sofa. Back now with our politics lead. President trump is being impeached because of the big lie about the election that he and his supporters pushed incited a terrorist mob to attack the capitol. Five people are now dead. And that mainstreaming of lies and conspiracy theories, frankly, it might prove to be trumps most potent legacy. Some scary new extremes now in hawaii, a Top Republican official confirmed to the Associated Press he resigned after posting on the partys official twitter account a defense of qanon supporters, qanon, the same group the fbi has labeled a domestic terror threat. That same individual from the Hawaiian Republican Party posted video from a fringe bigot who denies that the holocaust happened. In oregon, that states Republican Party released a resolution last week just as insane. It endorsed a complete conspiracy theory, falsely, frankly absurdly, claiming that the capitol siege was a false flag attack, claiming instead it was committed as democrats posing as Trump Supporters in order to discredit President Trump. Its hard to describe how nuts and false that is. Oregons Republican Party, over the weekend governor doug ducey of arizona, trump supporter, he was censured by his states gop, the arizona Republican Party, for certifying the results of the election. Along with cindy mccain and former senator jeff flake, censured for endorsing joe biden. This is just some of the nonsense. Lets discuss. Ayesha, when you look at this as a whole, what do you think it says about the future of the Republican Party . It says that the Republican Party has been using the energy that they get from these conspiracy theorists, willing to kind of house and, at times, wink and nod at these people who are espousing these really outrageous, you know, lies about the electoral process and kabals of child cannibals. As we saw with the attack on the capitol, those types of lies have consequences. And you cant wink and nod at this stuff and think that, yes, it gives people riled. It might get them to the polls but it also gets violence. That is the part that doesnt seem like the Republican Party really has this under control, and you see that in all of these state parties, really just talking about these outrageous ideas. And its not clear how that gets under control if you dont have members of the Republican Party, leaders of the Republican Party actively rejected qanon and all of these, you know, theories that are floating around. And, jackie, relatedly, cnns kfile a few minutes ago broke this brand new story about republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor green from georgia. She is a qanon adherent, bigot and conspiracy theorists. Kfile reports that congresswoman green, before she was a congresswoman, repeatedly had support for executing, killing prominent democrats in facebook posts. In one post congresswoman greene liked a comment that said, quote, a bullet to the head would be quicker as a way to remove House Speaker nancy pelosi. In other posts greene liked comments about executing fbi agents who are part of this deep state working against trump. She is now a republican congresswoman in full standing and there is no apparent effort to do anything to get her under control. Shes also, by the way, a 9 11 truther. Right. And there has been no attempt to not embrace her. Shes been embraced. Shes been seated as a member of congress. There was no attempt not to have her there. Now shes there to deal with. But, you know, at the end of the day, this is about republicans trying to be in line with as i said, theyre using the momentum from some of these fringe elements to bolster their party. And much like President Trump, who aligned himself by not condemning white supremacist groups, qanon because they liked him, thats what were seeing the Republican Party kind of take that trumpian way of doing things on. And which is one of the reasons why you saw Kevin Mccarthy say condemn trump and now say its everybodys fault. They dont want to offend some of these folks that are absolutely reprehensible and offensive. Ayesha, we reported many republicans believe a conviction of trump in the senate would be critical to rid the party of donald trump. Do you think thats possible at this point . It doesnt seem so at this point. You know, as you talked about earlier in the show, right now there doesnt seem to be the support there. Obviously, you know, a lot of they may try to some senators, im sure, will say that because hes out of office, why cant the country just move on . This is too divisive. And certainly if democrats have tried to move forward with impeachment as soon sooner after the insurrection, there would have been arguments that they were moving too fast. I think part of the issue is what donald trump has said about moving ahead with primarying people and saying he is going he has this enemies list hes going to play out. I think that it is, without a doubt, on the minds of these republican senators that they would have to deal with their base. And their base has not let go of trump. While senators may want to let go of trump because hes kind of hanging around their neck right n now, their base is not. Jackie, theres this fight within the Republican Party that we see, adam kinsingers, veteran, believes in conservative values, squaring off against, you know, some of the more trumpy characters like Marjorie Taylor greene. Meanwhile, youre a former ohioan. Republican senator rob portman, widely considered very conservative and a sober legislator. Hes leaving office, not running for reelection. I cant imagine what that republican primary will look like. Oh, yeah. Sarah sanders launched her bid for