You can follow me on facebook or instagram or on cnn. Our coverage on cnn continues right now. Right now. We will see you tomorrow. Captions by vitac www. Vitac. Com im wolf blitzer in the situation room, and we are following breaking news. Historic impeachment developments, and developments unfolding on capitol hill right now, and at any moment the newly appointed impeachment managers are going to begin walking the articles of impeachment against President Trump across the u. S. Capitol to the u. S. Senate, but even at this hour, even at this hour, it is still unclear how this will all play out in the next hour or so. Lets go straight to capitol hill right now, and our senior Congressional Correspondent manu
raja has been speaking to everyone. And what you know and it is still a little bit of a mystery, but walk us through what is anticipated to happen . Yes, House Speaker nancy pelosi is going before the cameras to sign the formal records that is going to lead to the articles of impeachment, and she going to be flanked by the seven people she selected today as the impeachment managers. And after she signs the papers then the house clerk is going to sign papers as well. Then afterwards a procession is going to occur in which they will march from the managers will march from the house clerk and the sergeant at arms from the capitol stahalls through th senate doors. This is the last time this happened was in 1999 in the clinton trial, and so a number of the house procedures are murky. They are debating a lot of the procedures as they go, and lot of the things are not written in stone, and some unpredictability
of how this is actually going to play out. But wolf, it is a historic moment to unfold in a matter of moments when pelosi signs the articles and start to move into the trial phase and then after the ceremonial aspects take place today and tomorrow, the actual substance of this case will be argued on both sides starting tuesday, wolf. The signing is going to take place and we are showing the viewers, manu, the rayburn room on the house side of the capitol. It is a historic room where a lot of major events have unfolded. Yeah, no question. And throughout the course of the impeachment inquiry itself. After the house impeached the president in late december, and nancy pelosi went to this very room to make her case about why the president should be impeached at the time and questions were asked by me and others about when the articles would be actually delivered to the senate, and she had not indicated for some time when that would happen. She said that first she wanted to understand that the senate was going to have what she
considered a fair process then she wanted to understand the arena was in which the managers would go prosecute the case. Ultimately she decided late last week they would release the articles of impeachment this week, and this is after weeks of back and forlt of pelosi and Mitch Mcconnell, the Senate Majority leader, to set the stage for this historic trial that is going to start in earnest next week. And the socalled engrossment ceremony taking place in the rayburn room. And this is live pictures the seven house managers led by the chief adam schiff, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, they will walk over to the senate together, and the house clerk and the house sergeant of arms, but then what happens next, because it seems a little bit murky. Yeah, it is some back and forth and discord between the House Democrats and the Senate Republicans as we kick off this trial. The Senate MajorityMitch Mcconnells office is saying they will not formally officially receive the articles of impeachment from the house. The reason why is this, essentially they say that there is a twostep process that has to occur. First they have to deliver a message to the senate, and the message is that they have appointed the impeachment managers and ready to deliver the articles of impeachment, and then the senate has to send a message back to the house to say they are ready to receive the impeachment article and they will say that tomorrow is when the impeachment articles can be formally presented in the senate. And then tomorrow is when they are the impeachment managers will read from the articles of impeachment themselves and make the case of why the president , to read the text of the articles of impeachment, and then after that, then these chief justices of the Supreme Court will be sworn in. John roberts is going to preside over the case, and the senators acting as jurors, all 100 of them will be sworn in after the fact, but nevertheless, Nancy Pelosis office is saying they will walk over today with the two articles of impeachment, and they will be in a blue folder
held by the house clerk walking from the house side to the senate side, but that folder, it contains the articles of impeachment, and according to Mitch Mcconnells office wont be formally accepted until tomorrow. So it is going to be interesting to see how this is playing out, because the House Democrats believe they are delivering them and trans mitted today, and the hou Senate Republicans say, not yet. No uncertainty, but the trial will Begin Next Week as we get through the procedural and the ceremonial aspects of this. The photographs have arrived and Staff Members have arrived. It is a moment that the people in the house of representatives and the have been waiting and what are you anticipating to be seen, because as manu explained, it is a little bit up in the air, and what do you see . There is a word that goes with what manu is describing, and that is power play. This is in Nancy Pelosis court,
in her house, and now it is being handed over the Mitch Mcconnell where the republicans control the speed, the time and so, he is exerting his influence now. So we will see at about 5 30 i was told that the managers walk over, and then they will have delivered it. Then the bureaucratic sort of tussle here of when it is officially accepted. It is, wolf, worth remembering what was said today when those managers went to the floor, because we are seeing history here. We are seeing this orchestrated playing out and the drama of them walking across, but you also heard some politics today. You heard jerry nadler talk
about how you cant, and a trial without witnesses is not a trial. It is a coverup. So they are going to be playing both sides of this. And lets talk about this to neil about the seven house managers named by the speak ooher to dooh speaker today, and led by jerry nadler, and Hakeem Jeffries and zoe love gren and Sylvia Garcia and val demings and jason crow. It is an impressive group. Yes, it is a powerful group that represents the diversity of the Democratic Party and litigators, and they have experience in courtrooms as zoe lofgren has experience with past impeachments and thinking of somebody like val demings, a Law Enforcement officer from orlando, florida, and that what nancy pelosi is thinking of how to get a group together who can put on a case and be familiar with the details of these cases, this case, and these people are
obviously from some of the committees that tried this case and brought for waward witnesse so if you are the democratic caucus, you are happy with this. But there is speculation that somebody like justin amash who voted for impeachment articles might be named and he is a independent and former republican, but that is something that did not happen. Some wanted it to happen, but nancy pelosi said it is not something that she really considered. So you have this group here. People like schiff is out front as well as nadler. Their job, and they are the prosecutors, dana, and they have to go forward and once the formal trial begins tuesday in the days that follow, they will have to go before the United States senate and the chief justice of the Supreme Court who is going to be presiding and they have to make the argument of why the president of the United States was impeach and now should be convicted and removed from office. That is right. A lot of differences between the impeachment trial and any
impeachment trial and the court of law, but there are a lot of similarities and the biggest for the people who are familiar with how the Court Battles work and court cases work, whether it is l. A. Law or anywhere else, you are or law and order you are looking at the prosecutors as you said, the house managers and they are making the case and trying to convince the jury. The jury are 100 senators. 100 senators sitting there listening to the case that the house managers prosecutors make, and then the defense is the president s team. We dont know who is on the team yet besides his chief counsel inside of the white house jay sekulow and a lawyer outside of the white house who will fill up the team, and there is a lot of pressure on him by his supporters and backers in the house to include some of the House Republicans that we saw make the case so forcefully in the house deliberations, and we
will see if that happens. That is what we expect once this trial is going to actually get under way in earnest next week. And jeffrey toobin, we dont know whether or not there is going to be witnesses or new documents to be submitted or new evidence coming forward until after the opening arguments of both sides are delivered. That is correct. That could take, you know, several days. If the schedule works the way it did in the clinton trial, both sides will have 24 hours of time in the courtroom, that is the senate, to make their case and answer the written questions from the senators. And so it is going to be on the order of three or four days before theres even a vote on whether, whether to hear from witnesses. I think that this presents a particular challenge for the house managers, because they are going to be doing a dual task. They are going to be making the case that the president is guilty of high crimes and
misdemeanors, but also making the case that in order to make a fair evaluation of the evidence, you, the senate, you must have witnesses and additional documents as well. So it is going to be interesting to see how the house managers do that, pursue the dual objectives. And brianna, it is interesting that the pressure is clearly building on several of the more moderate republicans to go ahead and say, yeah, we need some witnesses, because of a whole bunch of new evidence in recent days has emerged. Well, that is true, except you will hear as manu raja has been reporting that senator collins when asked about the new parnas revelations threw cold water on it and said it should have been introduced sooner and taken place in the house investigation, and so, yes, behind closed doors there is clearly pressure as the new evidence does continue the come out, and i would expect more evidence to come out over the next couple of weeks from the like of parnas and other
intrepid reporting. That having been said, i think that the wild card is to watch what the president does and his reaction to all of this whether in fact he is going to be in the country next week. He is scheduled to be attending the World Economic forum in davos. On the one hand, a good way for him to deflect what is happening at home, and meet with the world leaders, but of course, he is likely to be wanting to watch everything play out as well. Last year he didnt go lastminute because of the government shutdown, and we will wait to see whether he is going to be here, and we have not heard from him as of late of the need of more witnesses and the likes of biden and the whistleblower and that could change at any moment, and of course, we know that Mitch Mcconnell would prefer to have a short trial with no witnesses. But i think one thing that resonates is what you are continuing to hear from nancy pelosi is that she knows that her power is coming to an end is that it is transmitted to the senate is what she continues to say is that regardless, this
president is forever impeached and that is going down as an asterisk next to his name, and she repeats it time and time again and that is clear that it is hitting the president hard. And dana, we are showing the viewers what is looking like the two articles of impeachment, and these are the articles of impeachment that we are showing the viewers right now, and they are going to be signed in the socalled engrossment ceremony and then delivered to the United States senate. Look, it is going to be probably, we said it many times as the house was moving this through before christmas, but it bears repeating now as we are seeing the two articles and anticipate the House Speaker going to actually sign them that how far she has come in her evolution forced evolution to get to this part, to this place. When she became speaker and the democrats took the majority, and you know, about a year ago, she was not just reluctant, but she was adamant that we are not
going to talk about this, and we are not going there on this, and that, and the whole thing that was front and center at the time was of course the Mueller Investigation and the questions about 2016 and about potential collusion and about obstruction of justice and then the ukraine situation bubbled up and everything changed in her mind thanks to the support of some of the moderate democrats who gave her the majority who were reluctant and they changed her mind. That happened pretty fast. Here we are, it is done, and she is sending it over to the senate. The trial will begin. And it is interesting, neil, the seven house managers were selected by nancy pelosi, and not a huge surprise that adam schiff who is the head of the Intelligence Committee and jerry nadler of the Judiciary Committee who were so involved in putting together this impeachment case, but some of the others a little bit of a
surprise . A little bit. But sort of a parlor game in washington as to who might be on that list of house managers, and nancy pelosi said that she wanted to wait to see what the senate was going to do to figure out the team in terms of the mangers and in the clinton trial 13, but here 7, but she wanted to look at geographically a body of managers to represent the party and geographically and also have the experience to try the case, and familiar with the case and some of the folks wither on the dias and asking the witnesses questions and pointed questions in many ways, and that is what you ended up with. A lot of the people didnt even know that they were going to be a house manager and found out just recently as we all did. So there are going to be folks front and center for this impeachment. And one of the seven is congressman jason crow who is a freshman and one who i was
referring to as a front liner. He is from colorado. He beat a moderate republican who the democrats thought they could beat cycle after cycle and they couldnt, but he did it in 2018, and the combination of his support early and the experience as a prosecutor, but also where he is from geographically is case in point of the geographic and political diversity that you are seeing among the managers. And the president has tho put together the Legal Defense team, and pat cipollone, the white House Counsel will be involved and jay sekulow, one of the private attorneys will be there and the pressure is on to bring the House Republicans into the process as well. And Mitch Mcconnell has a lot on his plate in balancing all of this. It is not just that as Mitch Mcconnell told the republican conference lunch, i believe it is last week, he said that this is going to be unpleasant and i dont know about the rest of you, but i like to get through
the unpleasant things as quickly as possible, meaning, translation, he does not want witnesses. The other thing that he has to balance is donald trump. And we have heard about mark meadows and we have heard about other house members. One thing that Mitch Mcconnell has made clear is that he doesnt want this to be a circus. He feels that if he has his way there will not be House Republicans over there. We will see who wins that one. And donald trump wants his people, right, the folks that he saw in the house process, and people like jim jordan and mark meadows as well, and as you said Mitch Mcconnell likely feels differently. Once it leaves the house of representatives, dana, this two articles of impeachment, and how they are delivered whether it is an hour from now or nancy pelosi the speaker is now walking in. You can see her with adam schiff
and some other members who are going to be signing the two articles of impeachment, and you can see jerry nadler in the middle as well. But once these articles are delivered to the senate, then it is no longer a matter of the house of representatives, but it is a matter of the republican majority in the senate meaning Mitch Mcconnell. That is jamie has been saying so eloquently, it is the woman in the center there, the woman in charge and the decisionmaker and she has no power once this is going over to the senate. And then, it is certainly going to be all up to Mitch Mcconnell of how to handle it. And if you are donald trump, you are happy about that, right . This is the day you have been waiting for in many ways to have it out of her hands, and the houses hands where nancy pelosi is in charge, and into Mitch Mcconnells hands, and people know that ultimately, there is not enough republicans to come on board to remove the president
from office, but having Mitch Mcconnell will help to shape everything. There they come. I assume that the speaker is going to speak, and that is what the speakers do. Lets listen in. Good afternoon. As you know on december 18th, the house of representatives upheld its constitutional duty and voted articles of impeachment against the president of the United States, donald trump. He said in the course of the debate that he did not uphold his oath of office and protect and defend the constitution of the United States. The president takes a special oath, a little different from the congressional oath. With that, in fact, he takes an oath that was taken by president
george washington, the patriarch of our country, and the famous picture that we stand here. So sad and so tragic for our country that the actions taken by the president to undermine our National Security to violate his oath of office and to jeopardize the security of our elections, the integrity of the elections has taken us to this place. So today, we will make history when the managers walk down the hall, we will cross a threshold of history delivering articles of impeachment against the president of the United States for abuse of power and obstruction of the house. To make that history, we are making progress for the american people. Progress in support of our constitution. And progress in honor of the sacrifice and the vision of the
founders, progress and honor of the sacrifice of the men and women in uniform, and progress for the future of our children. Make it be very clear that this president will be held accountable that no one is above the law and that no future president should entertain the idea that article ii says that he can do whatever he wants. So with that, i will sign the resolution transmitting the articles of impeachment to the senate which will be delivered by our managers from our very proud when they bring it over to set in motion a process on the senate side. Probably tomorrow and i dont know their schedule, but it may be as soon as tomorrow, and the senators will take an oath of
office. They will take a special oath of office to do impartial justice according to constitution and the laws. Lets hope that they uphold that oath that they take tomorrow. And so now i am very honored the be here with our six chairmen who worked so hard to help us to uphold the constitution with their legislating, investigating, their litigating. You know the chairman of the Judiciary Committee is part of the manager committee, and that is chairman schiff of the House Committee on intelligence and Maxine Waters is the chair of the national committee, and madam chair of the oversight
committee, and congressman and mr. Chairman eliot engel of the Foreign Affairs committee, and richie neil, chairman of the ways and means committee. We thank them for all of their difficult work. We honor our darling Elijah Cummings who said that one day when we are dancing with the angels, what will we say about what we did at this difficult time in our countrys history. And then im very proud that mr. Nadler and mr. Schiff are part of the managers, but i want to acknowledge the other managers who are with us a. Fre. A freshman member and i should not say freshman, but been here one year and accomplished great things congressman jason crow of colorado. Congresswoman val demings of the
state of florida. Congresswoman garcia of texas. Where is hakeem . Our distinguished chair of the caucus, and Hakeem Jeffries of new york. Is that everybody . And zoe lofgren, and this is zoes third impeachment, and here for the nixon impeachment, and staffer, and for a Judiciary Committee member don edwards of california, and she was a member of the Judiciary Committee of the clinton impeachment in her own right, and member of the Judiciary Committee and now a member of the judiciary here of the House Administration which oversees the elections and important to all of this and a manager, and with that, i thank them all for the leadership and the service, and i am now going to proceed to sign the articles. So apparently she has a lot of pens there, and she is going to be handing out the pens to all of the special guests who are accompanying her in this signing ceremony. She is signing the two articles of impeachment, and which will now be formally delivered to the u. S. Senate in another ceremony and the impeachment managers all seven of them together with the house clerk and the house sergeant of arms will proceed through the National Statutory hall to the Capitol Rotunda to present the articles of impeachment to the secretary of the senate. Hold on. Thank you all. We will lead the way to the senate side. So clearly, she is giving the pens that she used in the signing ceremony to the chairman of the relevant committees as well as the house managers walking over to the senate for this delivery. We are told that the delivery is not going to happen, and the senate is going to inform the house managers when to come back for a formal ceremony to come back, and manu raja is watching this very closely and may i have to interrupt you, but walk us through what you anticipate now. Right after this is when the seven managers, and the impeachment managers are expected to walk to that side of the capitol with the articles of the impeachment articles that are going to be deliver and carried by the clerk of the house, and the clerk of the house is going to sign the documents herself, and she is going to carry those over in a blue folder we are told from the house side to the senate side and accompanied by the house sergeant of arms and first from where they are now to the statutory hall into the capital rotunda and at that point they arrive in the senate side of the capital and that is where things are going to be interesting, because the house, the Senate Republicans, Mitch Mcconnells office is saying that they wont
formally accept the articles of impeachment tonight, because of the process laid out under the Senate Procedures and the process is this, the house clerk is going to read aloud a message to the senate saying that they are ready to deliver the articles of impeachment and has named the impeachment managers and at that point, they will go back to the house and say come back tomorrow, and at that point they can formally present the articles of impeachment, and read them allow and oud and the the impeachment managers to present their articles. And they will be carried across and then the senate will be saying come back tomorrow. So the House Democrats will be there when they walk on the floor. They do have floor privileges on the senate side of the capitol, and so they will walk in, but they wont be formally recognized in any way, but this is a procedural aspects, and the ceremonial aspects of the trial
before they get into the nittygritty and the substance of the trial to get into thorny issues of the witnesses and whether to kor new evidence or reco reco consider new evidence or witnesses, and that is all started here with nancy pelosi signing the documents for a historic and unpredictable trial in the senate that we are unsure how long it would take. And so, dana, we heard the speaker say that today we will make history and this after she said that President Trump did not uphold his oath of office and as a result he was impeached by the house of representatives and the two articles of impeachment. This is history unfolding for the third time in American History that we are seeing the developments. That is right. It is a ceremonial, and the one thing that i will say and as we were watching it, we are used to seeing signing ceremonies handing out pens at moments of
celebration, when a president is signing is legislation, when even sometimes, and rare occasion, but it has happened when the house sends over a landmark piece of legislation. It was unusual to see that kind of ceremony and handing out the pens and smiling for a picture in this kind of situation where the House Speaker has bent over backwards to say publicly and privately that this is somber and no time for celebration, and understandably it is history and people want to mark the moment, but i did not expect to see it. I felt that was jarring and certainly off message, because you heard nancy pelosi say that this is a sad sand tr and trac day and then holding up the pen and having photographs there, and so it is a little off message for somebody who has tried to set a serious tone and here she is posing for the
photographs with the pen and probably not the most and so the Committee House chairmans will have the pens for the rest of their lives. Absolutely. In the end, they are politicians, and in the end, nancy pelosi knows her caucus and that this is part of history that they would all like a piece of. That said, this was the last time she is really able to speak about this. Not that she wont talk about it in public, but this is the last formal time. And she really, the tone was up until the signing, the tone was very solemn, and the words that she chose today we will make history and by the way, we are showing the viewers some live pictures of the documents now taken from the house of representatives through statuary hall there, and going through the Capitol Rotunda to the senate to present the articles of impeachment, and the
secretary of the senate who will then inform them, you know what, come back tomorrow. Go ahead. Just that the words that she chose were very careful. Today we will make history. She talked about abuse of power that she wanted to make sure that the president , and it was clear that he would be held accountable and that no president is above the law. I think that the other thing that we were talking about, the managers there, and seven managers and six of the seven are lawyers and val demings is a sheriff. And so very tough. I think that she picked a group that legally would know what to do, but also represent the party. This is, dana, i want to remind the viewers that the house clerk, and the house sergeant of arms, they are there
leading the procession followed by the seven house managers and the chairman adam schiff and the chairman of the Intelligence Committee and jerry nadler, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Hakeem Jeffries and val demings of florida, and she was orlandos first female chief of police, and Sylvia Garcia, and jason crow and zoe lofgren. They are walking by the Old Senate Chamber and reminds me and us who were around 21 years ago, it is the Old Senate Chamber that all 100 senators agreed in a bipartisan way unanimously to the rules of the road to that impeachment and how different it is, and now they are walking past Mitch Mcconnells office. That is Cheryl Johnson who is holding the two articles of impeachment signed with all of those pens by the speak oer of e
house. And this is history unfolding here. The parlor sergeant at arms is also escorting. A big day for this white house, and a day that some people never thought would happen. Nancy pelosi was never someone who was on board with this, and then everything came to a head with this ukraine scandal, and now we have a time when, the third time in the nations history that a president is going to face an impeachment trial in the senate, and you keep hearing nancy pelosi saying forever and ever, this is a president that will be impeached. Manu, we are showing the viewers some live pictures from the u. S. Senate. You were mentioning before that the house managers as well as the clerk and the sergeant of arms at the house of representatives, and you can see them, they are about to walk into the senate. Yeah, right about to walk into the senate. They have floor privileges and we will see if they walk in, because you can see the house
this is house h978, resolution of appointing and authorizing the managers of the impeachment trial of Donald John Trump, president of the United States. The message will be received. Mr. President. The majority leader. I ask with unanimous consent with rules one in accordance to sitting in on impeachment trials, that the house be notified that the senate is
receiving the articles of impeachment against Donald John Trump the president of the United States agreeably to the notice communicated to the senate. Further that at the hour of 12 00 noon on tuesday january 16th, 2020, the senate will receive the managers on the part of the house of representatives in order to present an exhibit, the articles of impeachment against Donald John Trump, president of the United States. Is there any objection . If not, so ordered. I ask unanimous consent that pursuant to rules 3 and 4 of the rules of procedure and practice when sitting on impeachment trials that at the hour of 2 00 p. M. On thursday january 16th, 2020, that the senate proceed to the consideration of the articles of impeachment and that the presiding officer through the secretary of the senate notify the chief justice of the United States of the time and place fixed for consideration of
the articles and request his attendance as presiding officer pursuant to article one, section three, clause six of the u. S. Constitution. Is there any objection . So ordered. I ask unanimous consent that the presiding officer be authorized to appoint a committee of senators to upon the recommendation of the majority leader and two upon the recommendation of the democratic leader to escort the chief justice into the Senate Chamber and further ask that the secretary of the senate notify the house of representatives of the time and place fixed for the senate to proceed upon the imimpeachment of Donald John Trump in the Senate Chamber. Is there any objection . If not, so ordered. I ask unanimous consent that access to the senate wing, the senate floor and the Senate Chamber galleries during all of the proceedings involving the
exhibition of consideration of the articles of impeachment against Donald John Trump, president of the United States, and all times that the senate is sitting in trial with the chief justice of the United States presiding be in accordance with the allocations and provisions announced inthat i send to the desk and ask it to be printed into the record. Is there objection . If not, so ordered. I ask unanimous consent that the house rez 7441 be submitted today. The clerk will report. Senate resolution 471 is authorizing the taking of a photograph in the chamber of the United States senate. Is there objection to proceeding to the consideration . Without objection, then the senate will proceed. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table with no
intervening action or debate. Without objection, so ordered. Now, mr. President for the information of all senators, a few moments ago the senate was notified that this house of representatives is prepared to proceed with the articles of impeachment, and by unanimous consent, we have laid some of the groundwork that is going to structure the next several days. We have officially invited the house managers to come to the senate tomorrow at noon to exhibit their articles of impeachment. Then later to tomorrow afternoon at 2 00 p. M. , the chief justice of the United States will arrive here in the senate, and he is going to be sworn in by the president protem, senator grassly, and then the chief justice is going the swear in all of the senators. Well pledge to rise above the petty fac chunallism and do justice to the institutions, and the states and the nation. And then we will formally notify the white house of the pending
trial, and summon the president to answer the articles and send his counsel. So the trial will commence in earnest on tuesday. But first, mr. President , some important good news for the country. We anticipate the senate will finish the usmca tomorrow, and sent this landmark trade deal to President Trump for his signature. A major victory for the administration, but more importantly, for american families. So let me close with this. This is a difficult time for our country, but this is precisely the kind of time for which the framers created the senate. Im confident that this body can rise above short termism and factional fever and serve the best long term of our nation. We must do this, and we must. You have just watched history unfold on the floor of the United States senate for only the third time in American History, the articles of impeachment against the president of the United States are being submitted right now. We did learn manu raja that at tomorrow at noon the house managers will come back to the senate to formally make the two articles of the impeachment, and we saw the signing ceremony from nancy pelosi a short time ago, and then the chief Justice John Roberts will come to the floor of the senate and this formal process that could last a few weeks will begin. Anticipate what you know, manu. Yes, he locked it in. And first he said when the house came in and brought across the articles of impeachment, they did not formally present the articles of impeachment to the senate, and instead, they notified the senate that they were ready to deliver the articles of impeachment to the senate, and Mitch Mcconnell said that the house managers are
invited back at noon eastern tomorrow to essentially present the articles of impeachment, and at that point, they will read aloud from the text of the impeachment, abuse of power and obstruction of congress. Later at 2 00 p. M. , that is when the chief justice and the Supreme Court will be coming in to be sworn in. They will be escorted into the Senate Chamber and he is going to take his own oath, and after this, then the senators themselves all 100 of them who are acting as jurors in this will be signing an oath, and sign a book saying that they will abide by their oath, and they will listen to proceedings. They also have to follow a very strict set of rules, decorum rules that Mitch Mcconnell has laid out. Manu, i wanted to interrupt, because we will see the managers walking back from the senate through the rotunda through statuary hall and back to the house of representatives. And then tomorrow, we will see the president is officially
summoned to present the case to the senate, and that is when the president s defense counsel is eventually going to have to come to make a case, and this is another historic moment when the Senate Summons the president s team to make the case on his behalf, an after those proceedings half tomorrow which should take up through the course of the day tomorrow, then things will be quiet for some time and behind the closed doors, the president s team will write briefs and making their arguments of why the president should not be removed from office and the House Democratic managers will write briefs of why he should be remove office and then the for mall arguments will begin tuesday. In the big question is the days ahead of how they will deal not only with the witnesses, but the evidence and the new evidence in particular that may come out after the trial ultimately begins, because at that point, senators will have to vote to allow any Additional Information to be presented and be admissible in the trial, and there could be more information, and already we saw documents from a giuliani associate coming
out yesterday and more documents are expected to come out in the days ahead and there is a lawsuit pending for freedom of information act and a lawsuit pending from a outside group that has gotten more information and so if more evidence does come out, the democrats may want to present nit in trial, and at that point, the chief justice could rule on the admissibility or the senators could vote to allow it to come forward and 51 senators would have to vote to allow this to be present and i am talking to senators who are not allowing the House Democrats to provide new evidence. So that is all part of what is going to happen in the twists and the turns of the impeachment trial and a lot of unpredictability about not only the documents, but the witnesses. Will the republican senators break ranks and all of those questions will be answered after Mitch Mcconnell set the groundwork for this trial that could take a couple of weeks at least, wolf. Dana, stepping back, big
picture, this is history unfolding right now. Yes, and just the ceremony of it especially walking over delivering the articles of impeachment, and having the president protem which is senator Chuck Grassley in the chair, and the Senate Majority leader ready to talk. These are the people in the official roles, but they dont always sit in those chairs, but it is something in the situation and the event where they want to be, and also if i may, just watching them walk through those halls which i have walked around in for a few years, and just thinking about the history that they are walking through. For example, they came back through statuary hall where there was the House Chamber and intense battles and debates over slavery and things that were existential crises to this country, and yet, the country survived and in part, it
survived, because of the roadmap of the constitution, and what impeachment is, as infrequent as it is, when it comes to a president of the United States is a roadmap that they are following. There are gray areas and senate rules and house rules that they will have to figure out as they go along, but that is what is happening which is remarkable, and as solemn as it is, it is something that we should, you know, take note of. Yeah, a and the land the las saw it 21 years ago, nia, i was watching it very closely as a correspondent for cnn and president bill clinton was going through the impeachment process, january 1999. And now, 21 years later, we are going through it again. And some people werent watching it as closely as you were, front row to history as you were covering it. And now, there is a sort of generation of people who are going to be informed about the impeachment process, right . As it is unfolding, we will see
the pomp and circumstance and the formality and the seriousness of this and we will see it unfold over the next couple of weeks and practically, i think that some of the senators there, and particularly the Democratic Senators are probably a little bit nervous about what that mean for them in terms of having to sit there if you are running for president , but listen, taking the jobs quite seriously and you heard Mitch Mcconnell there saying that it is time to get serious. And the senate is the body to handle this in a way that he was obviously saying that the house couldnt handle it. You have heard the republicans say that pretty frequently that the process in the house was not fair, and so you have Mitch Mcconnell there essentially saying that it is time for the grownups to take charge. Manu, this is very, very smooth this transition over the past hour or so from the house to the senate. Yeah, it is. And also interesting, too, wolf, that the house clerk now appears to be Still Holding on to the articles of impeachment from what we can tell from the cameras who are looking at the
screen right now, and she is appearing to be holding on to the articles of impeachment, and while they did deliver them, the formal transmission is not going to occur until tomorrow. That is what we were talking about earlier, the process to be happening here, and they notified the senate they were ready to deliver the articles of impeachment. The senate said come back tomorrow. You saw them walking back Still Holding the articles in the blue folder. Tomorrow is when the big day will occur and they will begin the presentation of the articles of impeaecachment and they will sworn in and the president s team will be summoned. Interesting to see what part of the debate had been they should have republicans believe they should have waited for the actual presentation was delivered and they agreed to come to deliver the articles of impeachment but democrats said they were going to move forward today which they just did. The house clerk appears to be
Still Holding onto the articles that will be read aloud before the Senate Chamber tomorrow. Were showing from moments ago this is video tape of what we saw. You owe i want to stay on top of the history of the moment, as a student of American History people will be studying this for a long time. One of the things that the Founding Fathers decided, there was a debate about who should be the jury. Should it go to the Supreme Court. I believe it was Alexander Hamilton that said he felt the
senators would be independent enough to do the right thing. They all knew it was going to be partisan. It will be very interesting to see the political impact here. Mitch mcconnell wants the republicans to hold the senate. Part of this is going to be whether he can give vulnerable republicans like susan collins, the kind of cover that she needs for her election. Yet, still do what he thinks is best for President Trump and that is get it through quickly. Jeffrey, we heard the Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell announce that at 12 00 noon, the seven house managers will return with the articles impeachment, make the formal
presentation. Why he was impeached in the house of representatives and full scale trial will go forward. At 2 00 p. M. John roberts will come before the senate and he will have a very detailed specific role as outlined in the u. S. Constitution. Tell us about that . Well, he will have a role. That role is not specifically defined in the institution other than to preside over the trial. One of the mysteries here is how much of a role roberts will have. This is a very different impeachment than bill clintons impeachment because as i believe dana mentioned earlier, all 100 senators got together and said, we are going to do the clinton impeachment in a way that does honor to the senate. Were not going to be have partisan fights. Were not going to fight about the rules. As a result, reinquist basically had nothing to do. He used to joke, i did nothing and i did it very well. This is a very different situation. There may be rulings about evidence that have to go to chief Justice Roberts. Tlp may be tie, 50 to 50 that would go to chief Justice Roberts to break the tie. Hell likely to have something more than a ceremonial role but because weve never been here before. Weve never had a situation where in the modern, era, the Andrew Johnson president is so different in so many ways. In the modern era we never had a contested impeachment in this way and chief Justice Roberts may actually do something more than a ceremonial role and that will be a very big deal. It will be a huge deal as we watch it unfold. There will be preliminary
procedures tomorrow and the days to come but the trial itself in the senate is not scheduled to begin until tuesday. Thats when well see the arguments that will come forward. Were going to see the arguments from the managers and were going to hear what the president s defense will be and whether the president will be in the country as this plays out or whether he will be at the World Economic forum in switzerland and how he decides to weigh in on all of this. One could guess it would be quite differently than from how president clinton weighed in or did not weigh in during his impeachment trial. What was interesting to hear from Mitch Mcconnell is when he said now the senators were going to rise above petty factionalism, you couple that with what he said on fox news that hooes working in
coordination with the white house. This sense of senators rising above it all and doing whats best for the country doesnt seem to jibe where wheith where on a political sphere and howdy vi howvided the country is. I do have to say, as you were watching nancy pelosi sign the articles, think about where we were a year ago, just over a year ago where donald trump, himself, the president was weighing in when there was a question and infighting within the democratic fighting as to whether she should be their next leader. He was nudging that she should be because she had spoken out about not wanting to go down the route of impeachment and he knew that. Here we are a year later. There was some question as to whether she could be the effective speaker of the house by democrats and a lot of
democrats are probably sighing a breath of relief that she is the leader and the way shes handled this. Its not something she would have preferred. She said this many times. She says she was doing what she had to do given the circumstances and the latest developments out of ukraine. We now know the prosecutions, the prosecution team, the seven house managers that were named by nancy pelosi. What about the president s Legal Defense. How thats going to unfold. They still havent made any formal announcements. The only two lawyers we know for sure are pat, who is the white House Counsel who has not appeared in public, at all, as far as im aware. He hasnt testified before congress. He hasnt gone on television and you know how much donald trump cares about how things look on
television. That, i think, will be a real challenge for him. The other lawyers is jay seculo who is is a very experienced Supreme Court advocate. Also a very experienced television performer. I think the president will be very comfortable with his role. Then the question is who else. Will there be house members . Will there be jim jordan . Will he wear a jacket if he actually goes on the floor of the senate . America needs to know. All of those are unresoeve d unresolve d. You know Rudy Giuliani has made it clear he wants to be part of this team. We can only hope. He will be simultaneously under investigation by the Southern District of new york and one of the president s lawyers during trial on the floor of the
senate. My sense is thats not going to happen. My sense has been wrong about this and many other things. We shall see. As far as you know, jamie, is this Senate Majority leader, Mitch Mcconnell, and the white house on the same page right now sna as far as the tone they want to see . Im going to go out on a limb and say under no circumstances are they on a the same page. Mitch mcconnell, donald trump, two very different people. Very different styles. Its mcconnells show. Correct. Absolutely. In the end you will say to the president , you cant you have the votes now. Dont mess it up. Everybody, i want you all to stand by. Were watching history unfold here at the u. S. Congress. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. Im wolf blitzer in the situation room. Were following breaking news. Paving the way for President Trumps impeachment trial to finally begin in the senate. We just saw the newly named house managers take the articles of impeachment over to the senate after they were signed by the speaker, nancy pelosi. Were breaking down everything that just happened and what happens next. Ill speak live with the house Intelligence Committee, chairman adam schiff, in his first interview since he was tapped to be the lead impeachment manager. Let gee lets go to phil matingly. Just saw the articles of impeachment dlelivered to the senate for only the third time in u. S. History. The house managers and the house of representatives still have those articles of impeecachment. They will bring them back tomorrow at