Right now we're going through just some procedural business N.P.R.'s Kathy Snell is actually on the Hill right now can you explain what's happening right now so this is the beginning of the day as we would normally see it when they're considering just about any legislation they would say opened with a prayer and with the Pledge of Allegiance and then they the clerks would come in and announce what is to be voted on for the day but unlike other days today they announce that we are voting on the articles of impeachment and you we heard Reverend Patrick convoy during the convocation there with some somber words which were I think unusual you know I think it's very interesting to watch the prayers at the beginning of both the Senate and the house each day the they tend to try to reflect what is happening in Congress the mood of Congress and a message about how members should proceed with the day and how they can think about their service to the country all right we are also joined in the studio by n.p.r. National political correspondent Mara Liasson Good morning good morning what are you watching for today. I am watching to see if we hear a clear consensus on the Republican side about how they want to defend the president up until now there have been 2 tracks one is to say well maybe I don't agree with what he did but it's not impeachable ords to close to an election the voters should make this decision the other track which has been less loud but it's getting a little more prominent is either no he didn't ask the president of Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden which is just false on the face of it but some members are actually saying that and the other is what he did was Ok In other words that it's fine for a president to ask a foreign government to intervene in an election where we are expecting Republicans to put up challenges to the day's proceedings the 1st one has arisen now I understand Kelsey that Republicans have have have levied have suggested a motion to adjourn the entire proceeding this is something that the minority party does often in the house when they object to that to whatever is on the floor they will try to say it's time for the house to just go home instead of voting on the thing that is ahead of us it looks like it was Congressman and he begs who offered this motion to adjourn their voting right now and what this will also do is this will cause all of the members of the House who have kind of been trickling into their offices over the past hour to cause them all to come to the floor and they will be present and available here inside of the Capitol many of them will probably come through the outdoors their offices are about a block away to walk past crowds of protesters who are who were gathering even an hour ago even though we're not expecting a final vote until later today. There are a number of Democrats who represent districts that President from one in 2016 in some cases they want them usually. What present from when those districts easily what is this moment like for those people who are try. To balance the politics of this vote this is for some of them incredibly difficult and for others that I have talked Do they seem extremely firm in their belief that this was what they had to do often and almost exclusively They say that they went through the information that came out and in the hearings and from testimony in the House Intelligence Committee and they see before them a case that they cannot deny they say it is their constitutional duty to take this step it's one that they don't like taking some of them politically some of them worry about what that will do but to a person the ones that have told me that they are voting for impeachment have told me they're doing it because they see no other choice and guilty do we know why Representative Diana De Gette was chosen She's a Democrat from Colorado she has been in leadership for quite some time she was the chief deputy whip so one of the people who is in charge of counting votes for the past 14 years she is close with the speaker and with the rest of her leadership team and she is you know from a state that is politically important this year I don't know that that played necessarily into the speaker's calculus here but it is definitely something will be on the minds of some of the people as they're walking into the chamber getting back to the sobriety of the moment it's my understanding Democrats are not whipping on this vote either you know House Speaker Pelosi said that she wants her members to vote their conscience and that they know why they took an oath of office and what their oath of office means to them and how they need to do go about upholding that oath and so she said it will be up to each individual member to cast a vote on their conscience we should just explain what that means that is the process by which. You go around and you try to get people to come out and vote on your side and basically Democrats are saying that this vote is is too important it's not something that they want to leave up to rip think they want each person to make up their own decision you know the one thing process is something that can range anywhere from a polite ask. Some pretty serious arm twisting and that plus who decided to forgo that process entirely here speaks to her feeling about what it takes for each member politically and personally to make a decision to impeach a president are Republicans whipping the Republicans are whipping and they have been very actively working with their members to make sure that they all stay in line we got a notice from their web Steve schoolies of Louisiana I'm sorry he's not yes he sent his information letting reporters know just how hard they were working to make sure Republicans knew that they should be sticking with the president for Marlise and what is that was that idea of that's something that's really interesting to me I mean the Democratic coalition in the house is very broad it's a big tent it has much more ideal it covers much more ideological bandwidth than the Republicans who are more ideologically cohesive party so in some ways it should be easier for Republicans to keep their troops all together than rip than Democrats but here you have Democrats saying this is a vote of conscience we're not going to ask you to vote with leadership you're on your own you vote the way you think is right whereas the Republicans have as a goal to get 100 percent unity I don't it was interesting to me to see how hard Steve Schoolies is working maybe Kelsey has an insight into this because I wouldn't think it would be very hard all of us to get Republicans to get on that he's Philly's a suspect or suspects there might be a defection today I don't know that he necessarily expects that there will be a defection at this point you know it's just that there was a lot of a lot of feeling among Republicans that they couldn't be split on this and that there really wasn't a chance for them to take any risks here he was looking through the the whole list of actions that his staff says that he took he held impeachment member meetings every single week that they have been in session starting in October and there have been staff level briefings it has been a very involved process for Republicans and not to mention what what President Trump has done. Inviting members from the Senate and House Republicans to Camp David to the White House kind of showering them with all sorts of perks and and. You know things that are that are fun to do he hadn't done anything like this on a regular basis until it was impeachment time well let's talk about this a little bit Mara because we have seen the Republican messaging on impeachment shift over time and you think that this is the product of some of the wooing and talking that the president has done at the beginning they were talking about well he might have done something wrong but then you know but it wasn't impeachable and now they're really saying there wasn't anything wrong well they're not they're not complete Not all of them are saying there was absolutely nothing wrong but they are united in the the impeachment is a partisan process it's unfair they just want to undo the last election what the president has asked for is a defense on the merits to say that the call was perfect that asking the president of Ukraine to investigate the Bidens is fine. That I don't think the Republican Party has embraced completely yet that we're going to see in the Senate when it gets to a trial but I do think that the Republican Party has unified very energetically against impeachment as a process and they're really most of them aren't talking about the president's behavior at all they're just talking about all the horrible things the Democrats have done they've done things you know that have shut Republicans out of the process. So so I think the defense is still mostly on process but you are seeing more and more of more voices. Condone the cut the conduct also you know it's interesting we saw Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell come out recently and say I am not an impartial juror because this will move after the House vote to a Senate trial and he has said this is a this is an entirely political proceeding which it is you know I don't you know the Democrats made a big fuss about that saying you're supposed to be an impartial juror Well they do take an oath to be impartial. And the trial starts in the Senate but this is not the kind of jury trial that you see in a courtroom out in the real world where the jurors can be struck even if one attorney or the other thinks they're not they're not going to be fair this is a political process I think when the when Doc when Mitch McConnell says that I'm not an impartial juror or where Lindsey Graham says I don't need to read any of the evidence I've already made up my mind they're speaking to an audience of one that says they want to communicate to Donald Trump that they have his back so still don't worry Mr President stay quiet stop tweeting we'll take care of this right let's listen to that clip this is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell speaking yesterday not an impartial jury this is a political process is not a thank you this is all about impeachment is a political decision. Partisan political decision. I would anticipate we will have a largely partisan. In the Senate I'm not impartial about this at all and Democrats in the Senate have said that they want their own witnesses right including a former national security advisor John Bolton and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney Here's Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer talking with us Steve Inskeep on Morning Edition this has to be a fair trial and there are a good number of my Republican colleagues who have said that you know they need more evidence there are no better people in presenting this evidence than this so our Republican colleagues Leader McConnell and the president have 2 choices do they want to get all the evidence out or do they want to hide the evidence resist letting the facts come out and basically engage in a cover up and Republicans are rejected that proposal yesterday right Mara how do you think this is going to play out both of you if the House votes to impeach the president well what's so interesting is you heard Chuck Schumer there the shoe is on the other foot in the Senate it will be Democrats complaining about the process because they are in the minority and what Chuck Schumer was saying is we want to hear witnesses with direct. Knowledge of what the president did and said so number they were any way any John Bolton boat former National Security Advisor remember Republicans complained bitterly in the house hey this is all hearsay secondhand we are not hearing anyone with 1st hand evidence there were a few witnesses that had listened in on the call for instance or talk to the president directly like Gordon Sunland But the witnesses that would have provided direct evidence were all blocked by the White House they they refused to honor the subpoenas for Mick Mulvaney his testimony for instance so here we go into the Senate where Democrats are going to be in the minority they're not going to be have as much control over the process and you know you've got Chuck Schumer laying trying to frame the argument that the president has not only done something that was wrong but also tried to hurt the President Trump has said he's not be watching today do you believe him unclear but often says he's not going to be watching and that's what it's about but he is definitely making his thoughts known releasing a letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi this was a regurgitation of some of the same talking points that he has used but very strident language I guess is one way to describe a lot of explanation points kind of like a 6 page tweet he said that the people on trial in the Salem witch trials had gotten more due process than he had in the house he he said he didn't believe Nancy Pelosi when she said she prays for him she is a devout Catholic he also said that he the other thing that seemed to have really offended him and kind of gotten under his skin was he didn't like it that she was saying this was a solemn process and that she had gone gone about this tried to go about this in a very dignified somber way he said nobody believes you and that's interesting because Kelsey have we heard any reporting that behind the scenes Nancy Pelosi is glow full org leading glow full or that gloating or gleeful about about impeachment I haven't heard that no that is absolutely not what we have heard. Some of this may also be because Palosi was gloating a bit about some legislative wins that Democrats have had because it's the strange thing about this moment is that even as impeachment has been marching forward to this day Democrats have been working with people from the White House not necessarily the president himself but with his representatives to get some major legislation passed the House has passed spending bills a 1000 pages or more of spending bills almost $1.00 trillion dollars They passed a major National Defense Authorization Act which included 12 weeks of paid leave paid parental leave for all federal workers and they're getting ready to try to vote on u.s. M.c.a. The president's renegotiation of NAFTA This is a big legislative week and it's it's almost head snapping how much we are seeing 2 different Washington's this week you know what's so interesting about that when President from 1st came into office there was a theory that he would be able to triangulate and do all sorts of deals with Democrats he even said that he's a great deal maker and even more than that ideologically on so many things he was closer to the Democrats than the Republicans he wasn't a free trader like traditional Republicans are he believed in lots of government spending no entitlement reform and what you saw on trade is Democrats traditionally had been against these big free trade agreements the new u.s. M.c.a. Agreement is not really a free trade agreement it has a lot more protectionism in it it has things that the unions liked so he did really triangulate there and the same thing on spending demo Republicans traditionally were fiscal conservatives didn't like big deficits now the deficits have gone up higher under Donald Trump than any other president so he's in the end did triangulate make deals with Democrats that may Democrats very happy. And it shows you that when he wants to or feels he needs to he is happy to triangulate which means make a deal with the opposite party and leave your own guys. An aside I should say the Democrats that I talked to point out that it wasn't the president himself negotiate right it was Robert light hisor who's a managed trade guy forever and also the treasury secretary is the person who negotiated the spending bill and that Democrats feel that they have found their partners in the White House when they need to get things done and that this this fight over impeachment is the more personal thing for the president right but he didn't object to these I mean he did not and you know she ate them himself but he didn't object to them and while and while the president has has tried to use this on the campaign trail he talks about impeachment he tries to blame Democrats calling them partisan calling it a witch hunt trying to gin up his base No president wants to be impeached more and he doesn't want to be impeached he's made that very clear he says it's an ugly word that he doesn't want to be impeached he says that he thinks he can use impeachment to his political benefit and you know we'll see if he might it certainly worked to put Bill Clinton's benefit Well let's talk a little bit about the polls I mean we've seen a collection of polls website 538 says 47 percent back impeachment 46 and removal because that is very important right know just that's. Ok but what I'm saying is 57 percent say that he has committed an impeachable offense however they're not convinced that he should be removed from office it's a really mixed bag it's on the look the question the relevant question is do you think the president should be impeached and removed big majorities were for the impeachment inquiry they were happy about that then we had a kind of split on it doesn't matter what they think about impeachment it matters what they think about impeachment and removal and what we've seen is even though big majorities around 70 percent in many polls said what the president did was wrong when he asked a foreign government to investigate a political rival the numbers of people who think he should be impeached and removed because of that are much lower and we've seen the country split some polls recently have shown a little bit of slippage for the people who support impeachment and removal but. Poll recently still showed about 50 percent for impeachment and removal and I think like 47 percent which means by and large these many many weeks of. Mine to some degree that can be I mean there was an effort by both sides at towards the end of this just to kind of shore up their own members there was a lot of talking to the people inside of the Capitol when we were seeing say at the judiciary hearings where people were making their statements it was not as much about trying to change hearts and minds what's so interesting is the Democrat when they get outside of the hearing rooms Democrats go home and they really don't want to talk about impeachment they want to talk about lowering drug prices of course they're just passing some legislation on that they want to talk about. Other things that they're doing to help people deal with the problems that people actually care about like the high cost of housing and college and health care and retirement Republicans when they get out of Washington want to talk about impeachment because they have found that impeachment is something that energizes the president's base there is a theory among Republicans that it also is becoming unpopular among independents but there's different polling on that. So so we don't know what the political end game of this will be will there be a backlash against impeachment will there be a groundswell for impeachment will it be a kind of stain on on Donald Trump we don't know yet well we're 11 months out from . A long long time will impeachment really be on anyone's marginal I'm talking about something else you know you can you could just give us the lay of the land of what we're expecting to transpire over these next hours yeah we've got a little bit more detail over the past few minutes here now as we were discussing Diana De Gette of Colorado will be presiding over the majority of the day but Speaker Pelosi will be coming to the floor and will preside over both a vote on the articles of impeachment and she will give a speech at the open of the gener