Booker, senator from new jersey in u. S. Politics. Tonight were going to be joined live here on set by senator booker for an exclusive interview about his decision to end his campaign and what this past year has been like for him in this rolypoly president ial primary. Before senator booker tonight, we are also going to speak with the leader of the democrats in the United States senate. Senator Chuck Schumer is here tonight at a very crucial time. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi now confirming that shes going to take one last occasion to consult with all the democrats in the house as to how theyre going to proceed with the articles of impeachment against President Trump and the impeachment process. That dramatic caucus meeting will convene in washington tomorrow morning at 9 00 a. M. Eastern. After that last opportunity for discussion and consultation among all of the democratic members of the house, the house will then vote on a resolution that will name the impeachment managers who will act as prosecutors in the senate trial of President Trump. That resolution will also formally convey the impeachment articles over to the United States senate. Now we have sort of talked about here from the beginning, ive sort of tried to advise here from the beginning that we should all be very humble when it comes to predicting anything about how a president ial impeachment is going to do. There have been very few president ial impeachments. Theyve all happened in different centuries. Theyre all very different from one another. Impeachment is a big enough, weighty enough, frankly scary enough deal that i think we should be humbling about talking about how were sure its going to go. I think impeachment is rare enough and strange enough that it should be seen as a little bit of a wild beast. So to that end, tonight were going to talk with senator schumer about what he is planning and what he thinks will happen in terms of the start of this Senate Impeachment trial. But, you know, stay humble. Even just today and into tonight, weve got really interesting new reporting that is totally recalibrating all the Washington Common wisdom as to what were about to see as President Trumps impeachment moves into the senate. For example, because Mitch Mcconnell controls a 53seat ruana jordan in the senate, from the very, very beginning of even the prospects of impeachment, people have pontificated that mcconnell might just decide to technically convene the Senate Impeachment trial, but then instantly take a vote to dismiss the articles, dismiss the charges, and that would be it. We could just gavel it open and boom, vote, gavel it closed. The trial would be over. The whole thing could be done in five minutes that prospect has loomed large since it game even remotely possible that President Trump was going to face an impeachment trial before this senate. Well, take that common wisdom and educate it, because tonight cnn is reporting that according to republican sources, there are not enough votes in the u. S. Senate even with that republican majority there are not enough votes to pass a motion to dismiss the charges against President Trump. Without moving ahead with at least some version of a trial. If that reporting is accurate, and if that math is accurate and mcconnell does not have the votes to pass a motion to dismiss, well, senator mcconnell have to decide whether he even wants to bother or risk taking that vote, which he will probably lose, whether he might just skip that, which would be a departure from how they handled it in the clinton impeachment, and he has been saying he wants to follow the same rules they had during the clinton impeachment. So thats interesting enough. Mcconnell might not have the votes to dismiss. Mcconnell does not believe he has the votes to dismiss. Does he even bother putting dismissal on the table then . Interesting. And around the same time that cnn broke that story, cbs news broke a story that is even more surprising and may mean that were about to have a way more interesting january than you were planning on. Cbs reporting tonight that the Trump White House believes senior officials in the Trump White House believe that not only does Mitch Mcconnell not have the votes to outright dismiss the case against the president in the senate, but at least senior white house officials believe that democratic leader Chuck Schumer in fact has the votes to insist that the impeachment trial of President Trump not only go forward, but that it include testimony from witnesses. Quote, senior white house officials tell cbs news they increasingly believe that at least four republicans and likely more will vote to call witnesses. Remember, four is the crucial number. If all 47 Democratic Senators vote that they would like to hear witnesses, they only need four republicans to join with them to put together a majority vote that would result in their being witnesses at the president s impeachment trial in the senate. And cbs again tonight is reporting that there are at least four, quote, and likely more at least in the estimation of white house officials who of course are following this closely, as if their careers depended on it, because maybe they do. So if Mitch Mcconnell isnt going to be able to gavel open and then gavel shot the impeachment trial immediately, and if mcconnell is not going to be able to stop witness testimony at the trial, and if all of that is about to start imminently, because the house tomorrow is preparing to send the articles over to the senate, well, yes, then, the person i want to talk to about all of that is Chuck Schumer, the top democrat in the United States senate. He will join us here live momentito. But before we bring senator schumer on board, we told you it was a big show. Before we bring senator booker on. Before we bring senator schumer on, told you it is a big show. We are going first to go to congressman adam schiff. He is the head of the Intelligence Committee. He of course led the impeachment investigation in the house. And there is a lot to ask him about. But most urgently, as of tonight, there is this really remarkable new reporting in the New York Times, and maybe we should have seen this coming. I didnt. This is like welcome to the 50 shades darker remake of the 2016 Russian Election interference effort to reelect donald trump, because you can see the headline here from the New York Times. Russians hacked Ukrainian Gas Company at center of impeachment. Quote, with President Trump facing an impeachment trial over his efforts to pressure ukraine to investigate former Vice President joe biden and his son hunter, Russian Military hackers have been boring into the Ukrainian Gas Company at the center of the affair. The hacking attempts against burisma, the Ukrainian Gas Company on whose board hunter served began in early november as talks of the bidens, ukraine and impeachment was dominating the news in the United States. Its not yet clear what the hackers found, or precisely what they were searching for, but the experts say the timing and scale of the attacks suggest that the russian could be searching for potentially embarrassing material on the bidens, the same kind of information that President Trump wanted from ukraine when he pressed for an investigation of the bidens and burisma, which of course set off a chain of events that led to his impeachment. Quote, the russian tactics are strikingly similar to what american intelligence agencies say was russias hacking of emails from Hillary ClintonsCampaign Chairman and the Democratic National committee during the 2016 president ial campaign. It is 2016 redux. Its even the same units, the gru, the Russian Military intelligence hacking units, a specialized Hacking Group nicknamed fancy bear. Its the same units that carried out the 2016 attack. Security researchers describing this attack on burisma as a cookiecutter version of the 2016 russian hack to hurt clinton and benefit trump. The russian government hackers used fake websites and spearphishing emails designed to steal email names and pass words like they did on the dnc in 2016. With those purloined user names and pass words, they apparently were successful. They apparently did get themselves inside burismas servers to dig up or unleash what . Who knows. Stay tuned. The Iowa Caucuses are in three weeks. Well presumably find out at some convenient time. I mean, this is remarkable. You might remember on friday nights show, we covered this sort of vague but still alarming report from Bloomberg News. Reporter chris strom reporting at bloomberg on friday that u. S. Law enforcement and intelligence agencies were investigating some sort of effort by russia to try to target joe biden, to try to mess with the biden president ial campaign, much as russia messed with Clintons Campaign four years ago. We highlighted this report on friday nights show, saying there is not much detail here, but its obviously of concern if u. S. Officials, Law Enforcement and intelligence are monitoring or investigating if russia is targeting biden. I dont know if this is what Bloomberg News was referring to on friday night, but this new reporting tonight on the front page of the New York Times says at least that Russian Military intelligence hackers are at work. Perhaps trying to dig up for President Trumps benefit the stuff he wasnt able to leverage out of the government of ukraine by force. I mean, the house has already passed its impeachment articles against President Trump already. But what happens next here . Here is evidence of russian government highway, potentially trying to deliver for trump the deliverable that he was trying to pry out of ukraine for which he got impeached. Heres also an alleged participant in the ukraine scheme for which the president got impeached, lev parnas is currently under indictment in the Southern District of new york. Here is lev parnas now delivering the contents of his iphone to the House Intelligence Committee this weekend and the contents of another one of his phones apparently today that reportedly includes thousands of pages of material, including this lovely new picture we hadnt seen before of mr. Parnas and President Trump. This is reportedly from march 2018 in florida. Also, here is the department of energy telling a federal judge as of today that they will finally agree to hand over some of Energy Secretary rick perrys communications around the ukraine scandal. You may remember him as one of the three amigos in the middle of that scheme. Here also is the Government Accountability office, the nonpartisan investigative arm of congress reportedly about to publish their own findings as to whether President Trump holding up the military aid to ukraine violated the law. That gao report is expected within the next few days. So i mean, if youre adam schiff on the Intelligence Committee, youve just completed an impeachment investigation which resulted in two articles of impeachment already being conveyed, or theyre about to be conveyed to the senate. And that raises fascinating issues about how the senate is going to handle this. But if you are the guy who just headed up the impeachment inquiry, and you remain responsible for leading congressional oversight of the Intelligence Committee by running the Intel Committee, what do you now do with this rising tide of new material and alarming new reporting that is absolutely all about the scandal you have already turned into articles of impeachment . Joining us now live is congressman adam schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Sir, really appreciate you making time to be with us tonight. Thanks for your time. My pleasure. So let me get your topline reaction to this new report from the New York Times this evening that just as the impeachment investigation was starting up in november, Russian Hackers from the gru reportedly started targeting burisma, the Ukrainian EnergyCompany Whose board hunter biden served on. This is the company that President Trump wanted investigations about that he thought he could use against biden and the campaign. Whats your reaction to this new report . I have several reactions. First, that it would not at all surprise me. This is indeed exactly what bob mueller warned about in his testimony that the russians would be at this again. Director ray has said the same thing, and they appear that this reporting is correct to be in the midst of another hacking and potentially another dumping operation designed to influence another election in Donald Trumps favor. It is clear if thats the case that once again they have a favorite. They dont want joe biden it would appear from this target, and this would help donald trump. And i think the other thing thats apparent from this, if this reporting is correct is the message that Vladimir Putin has gotten is not to stay out of american elections but youre welcome to get involved in american elections as long as it helps donald trump. It seems to be the message that President Trump has conveyed, at least the message that Vladimir Putin has received. So were going to start by finding out what our intel agencies know about this. I have to say, rachel, im a bit distressed to see this for the first time in a newspaper report. If the Intel Committee community is aware of this, that should have been brought to our attention by now. But i dont find it surprising. I do find it deeply disturbing, and i would hope that maybe both parties can get out ahead of this, even if the president wont, and condemn any russian effort to influence the next election. It is disturbing to hear you say that you learned about this first in the New York Times and that the Intelligence Community hasnt come to you and your committee with this. According to the times and to the private Security Firm which is called area 1 that reportedly detected this attack, they say that whatever was going on here with these gru hackers and the other hackers who were involved in the dnc attack and the Hillary Clinton campaign attack in 2016, theyre saying it was successful, that they did get into burismas servers, although there is no report what they actually did once they were in there. If these Russian Hackers stole stuff, or if theyre otherwise going to try to release stolen information or disinformation to try to affect the campaign, to try to hurt Vice President biden, are we at all inoculated against that now . Does the Intelligence Community have a plan for that, given what we went through in 2016 . Were really not inoculated against it because what would have provided the innioculations the first time it happened or thereafter the president led a consensus to reject foreign help. But of course all he has done is to invite foreign help. The very subject of the impeachment went beyond trying to influence ukraine in the next election, but to coerce ukraine by withholding hundreds of millions of dollars of military aid by using the power or abusing the power of his office to solicit and coerce that kind of interference. Were not inoculated. We have a president who has made it abundantly clear time after time he is more than happy, more than willing to make use of foreign help. What we can do about it is we can expose it. So if indeed the Intelligence Community has been on top of this, if there are reports of the russians doing this, if there is evidence that they intend to use this in the u. S. Election, we can do our best to inoculate the public by telling the