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CNN Live Event/Special

2020 Primary Season Kicks Off with Iowa Caucuses Today; Trump Defense Team Delivers Closing Arguments; Soon: Trump Defense Team To Deliver Their Closing Arguments. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired February 03, 2020 - 12:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[12:30:58]

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Tonight as we await, senators are coming back after their brief lunch break for Team Trump to give their final closing statements.

We are also hours away from the start of the Iowa caucuses. You see Senator Klobuchar, obviously, in Washington. But of course her focus is on tonight. And this tonight will be our first real look from voters at the 2020 Democratic race. Pete Buttigieg right now is campaigning in West Des Moines, Iowa this hour using every minute he has. They put out a list of all the town halls he has done, 55. He says, since January 12th. You can do the math, it's February 3rd.

Brian Todd is live from Sioux City, Iowa. And obviously, we see Senator Klobuchar here in Washington on one side of our screen, Brian, talking to reporters as she heads back into that impeachment trial. You on the other Iowa, where her and so many other Democrats are focused tonight and you're watching a precinct there in Sioux City. What are you expecting?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erin, we expect some real buzz around here just in a few hours. The moment is almost at hand as you mentioned the first votes of 2020. It's getting very exciting around here. We are at precinct six in Sioux City. This is the Carpenters Union Training Center. But we're going to take you inside to show you how this is going to work tonight.

What's interesting about the Iowa caucuses is it's such a physical way that you actually show your preference for a candidate. It's not like going in to a standard primary and casting a ballot behind a screen anonymously, and then leaving. You have to be physically accountable for your vote. And in this hall is where it's all going to take place.

They are going to section off little corners of this hall, corresponding to a candidate. There's going to be assigned for each candidate. The people who want to support that candidate go to that corner. They basically raised their hand. They count them in the first round. So it's going to be basically marked off alphabetically.

Michael Bennett will be about here, then Joe Biden, Michael Bloomberg, and so on, in each corner of this room. They do that first round of counting. And people then fill out this thing. This is the Iowa Presidential Preference Card. You put your name in there, your first preference. That's how they count the votes in here in the first round.

Then they determine who is viable to move forward as a candidate and who is not. If you don't get 15 percent of the votes in this room, you will not be viable, those votes won't be counted. But what's really cool about this is, if you support a candidate here, that does not get 15 percent of that vote, you have the option to go to another candidate. So then they go to a second round of voting, and they count those votes, and people fill out this side of the preference card with your second preference.

And that will be a, you know, the final count of the evening will be what determines who wins this precinct and about 1,600 other precincts across the state of Iowa. So it's a very exciting way to look at the vote. It is such a physical way to count votes. And that's what makes the Iowa caucuses so cool to watch and to cover. We're going to be showing all that to you in real time tonight, Erin. And it'll be happening in just a few hours.

BURNETT: All right. I mean, look, it is a fascinating and interesting way. Of course, so much debate as we all know on Iowa and its role and whether this caucus system is the best thing or not for the Democratic Party.

We are going to take a brief break. I will say just before we go to that, one college campus in Iowa, a student there says in terms of their door knocks, the rank was number one knockers on your door of who's trying to get your attention by Senator Warren and number two Senator Sanders. That's in terms of how many people they had on the ground knocking on the doors, one college campus in Iowa.

And we are going to get back to the action on the Senate floor. You can see that on the side of your screen, getting ready to come in after their brief lunch break. We're going to go to the White House next as we await senators returning talk about the President and the how he of course is watching so carefully what is happening on the Senate floor today.

More live CNN special coverage after a quick break.

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[12:39:09]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JASON CROW (D-CO): What you decide on these articles will have lasting implications for the future of the presidency, not only for this President, but for all future presidents. Whether or not the office of the presidency of the United States of America is above the law that, is the question.

REP. VAL DEMINGS (D-FL): President Trump weaponized our government and the vast powers entrusted to him by the American people and the Constitution to target his political rival and corrupt our precious elections, subverted our national security and our democracy in the process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: House managers are banging this morning on two very obvious messages. One, you know what you're doing GOP and you know it's really wrong, and it's not just about now, it's about what this will mean going forward.

[12:40:05]

Will that resonate? Probably not, but it may have political implications and surely it's going to affect how these senators are covered going forward, and how they'll have to answer for what they do over the next couple of days.

Let's bring in CNN's, Kaitlan Collins. She's at the White House, of course. Now, Kaitlan, from the president's perspective, what is he putting out, what's resonating with him?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it certainly doesn't seem to be this idea that people like Senator Alexander are putting out there, what he said yesterday in an interview, that essentially he thinks the president is going to learn his lesson from all of this, and he's not going to repeat it.

The president doesn't seem to think that there is anything to learn from here, except that he believes that Democrats have orchestrated this campaign against him. And as they've been making their closing arguments this morning, the president has been in the residence. He's been watching closely. And of course, he's been tweeting.

And he just tweeted a few moments ago saying, he hopes the Republicans and the American people realize that the totally partisan impeachment hoax is exactly that, a hoax. So very clearly the President is not walking away from this with this ideology that you're seeing. Some Republicans say that what the president did was wrong but not impeachable.

He does not believe he did anything wrong here. So it's really hard to see, based on the people we've spoken with that he's going to subscribe to that idea that Senator Alexander is pushing here. So of course, the question is going to be how does this affect the rest of his presidency going forward?

Now, the other thing he's doing here today at the White House is getting ready for that State of the Union Address tomorrow night. He will be on the Senate floor like you saw those House managers, but he will be in the House chamber. And Chris, it's going to be really notable just in the first few moments of when he arrives to see the interaction between President Trump and the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

What we're hearing from a Pelosi spokesman is the two of them have not spoken since October. It's been months since the two of them and that any interaction at all. So it will notable to see how it is tomorrow. And of course, remember that last time that they did interact was when they had the Syria briefing here at the White House or was supposed to be a Syria briefing.

But Democrats said the President came in, he said he didn't even want them there that they were the ones who essentially wanted to show up for that briefing. And it ended with him not even being able to agree which insult the President had logged at Pelosi.

So needless to say, they are not on good terms. And it will be really notable seeing did they shake hands? What is that interaction like tomorrow night?

CUOMO: All right, Kaitlan, thank you very much. I appreciate it.

The president has absolutely learned a lesson. And the lesson is he owns this party. He has them in his hand. And when he squeezes his hand, they squeal. He knows he can do whatever he wants. He has more power than any president I've seen in my lifetime within his own party. He's also right that it is a hoax, because the idea of finding things to be wrong and sitting as a senator on a tribunal where you're supposed to be a trier of the facts and not having witnesses is a hoax.

And that's why the other night, I said go back and look at the movie network 1974 Paddy Chayefsky wrote it. And it's just as true today and you have every reason to be mad as hell in what these senators have done in your name and with your power. Let's take it to the panel.

So the idea of the president's perspective on this, Laura, which is, boy, has this been unfair? I said it was fausty. And you'll start to hear this. Faust made his deal with the devil. He wanted everything now, and he'd sell his soul later on. The crossroads here is the vote on witnesses. When you went bad on witnesses, you surrendered your dignity as a senator who was doing a job pointed by the constitution.

LAURA COATES, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: And, you know, the interesting argument you're making because that's exactly what Hakeem Jeffries and Schiff and others have been saying throughout. The lesson that needed to be learned was not by the president of the United States. He feels empowered and emboldened ever since the Mueller testimony where he the very next day went to the Ukrainian president and did just this thing to continue this pressure campaign.

The larger lesson is for the Republican members of the Senate who at some point those tables are going to turn. And at some point, everyone will have to pay the piper. And right now making yourself an impotent compared to the executive branch and impotent branch by saying, I'll cede you the power. You didn't just take it. I'll give it away. I've always been so struck by the obstruction of Congress article of impeachment, because it's the one where the senators could have prevented in the sense of, they could have gotten behind like a mama bear behind a cub and actually roared in advance and said, hold on a second. It was a congressional subpoena that went out not just a House one, a congressional one. So now if I take away and say, I'm not going to fight for that, well, it's not the President who has just gone above the law, you've put a merit by saying, I will cede my power that will be consequential down the line.

CUOMO: It is a user to loser preposition.

[12:45:01]

Ross, let me hold for a second here because we want to get some reporting in about what the timing is coming back. So, stay with us, we're going to take a break, figure out what the timeframe is here and what's going on. Check right back with us. We'll be back in just a moment.

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BURNETT: And welcome back. Senators are heading back in after their lunch break. We anticipate Team Trump's response here. Their closing arguments will begin momentarily.

[12:50:08]

As we get ready for that, Jeff, just to give people a sense of what's happening, right, senators have been milling around outside. We obviously saw Senator Klobuchar, Senator McConnell has been out there. Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat from Arizona, currently undecided, purple state on her vote to acquit or convict, was having a conversation with the sort of the vote counter on the Republican side, John Thune. Senators Collins and Murkowski joined. We understand part of the conversation was casual, but nonetheless, certainly talking to senators.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: It's a data point. I don't know what it means. You know, I think as we look ahead to what the president's lawyers are going to say. It's a time for the Hippocratic Oath.

You know, first, do no harm. You know, don't say anything that will upset the apple cart that will cause controversy. You know, revisit the arguments that you've made in the past that this is something that should be decided by the voters, that the House investigation was in inadequate and unfair. I think those are arguments that everyone has heard before.

But what will be interesting is to see how much they want to appeal to their client by going with the, it was a perfect phone call. You know, how much are they going to actually defend the conduct as above approach? My guess is as they've done throughout the trial, they will say that, but they won't spend a lot of time on it because, for one thing, it's difficult to -- and now we'll know because there they are.

BURNETT: They are sitting down and get ready to hear what Team Trump will say. Let's listen in to the closing argument. PAT CIPOLLONE, WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL: Thank you, Mr. Chief justice, Majority Leader McConnell, Democratic Leader Schumer, senators. Thank you very much on behalf of all of us for your continued attention. Today, we are going to complete our argument and finish our closing argument. We will complete that in a very efficient period of time. You understand the arguments that we've been making, and at the end of the day, the key conclusion, we believe the only conclusion based on the evidence and based on the articles of impeachment themselves and the constitution, is that you must vote to acquit the president.

At the end of the day, this is an effort to overturn the results of one election and to try to interfere in the coming election that begins today in Iowa. And we believe that the only proper result, if we're applying the golden rule of impeachment, if we're implying the rules of impeachment that were so eloquently stated by members of the Democratic Party the last time we were here, the only appropriate result here is to acquit the president and to leave it to the voters to choose their president.

With that I'll turn it over to Judge Ken Starr and we'll move through a series of short presentations. Thank you.

KENNETH STARR, TRUMP IMPEACHMENT ATTORNEY: Mr. Chief Justice, members of the Senate, Majority Leader McConnell, Minority Leader Schumer, House impeachment managers and their very able staff. As of World War I, the war to end all wars was drawing to a close, an American soldier sat down at a piano and composed a song. It was designed to be part of a musical review for his army camp out on Long Island, Suffolk County. The song was "God Bless America." The composer, of course, was Irving Berlin who came here at the age of five, son of immigrants who came to this country for freedom.

As composers are wont to do, Berlin worked very carefully with the lyrics. The song needed to be pure. It needed to be above politics, above partisanship. He intended it to be a song for all America. But he intended it to be more than just a song. It was to be a prayer for the country.

As your very distinguished chaplain, Admiral Barry Black, has done in his prayers on these long days that you've spent as judges in the high court of impeachment, we've been reminded of what our country is all about and that it stands for one nation under God. The nation is about freedom. And we hear the voice of Martin Luther King Jr. and his dream-filled speech about freedom echoing the great passages inscribed on America's temple of justice, The Lincoln memorial which stood behind Dr. King as he spoke on that

historic day.

[12:55:17]

Dr. King is gone, felled by an assassin's bullet, but his words remain with us. Now during his magnificent life, Dr. King spoke not only about freedom, freedom standing alone, he spoke frequently about freedom and justice. And in his speeches, he summed it up regularly the words of a Unitarian abolitionist from the prior century, Theodore Parker who referred to the moral arc of the universe, the long moral arc of the universe points toward justice. Freedom and justice.

Freedom whose contours have been shaped over the centuries in the English-speaking world. What Justice Benjamin Cardozo called the authentic forms of justice through which the community expresses itself in law. Authentic. Authenticity. And at the foundation of those authentic forms of justice is fundamental fairness. It's playing by the rules. It's why we don't allow deflated footballs or stealing signs from the field. Rules are rules. They're to be followed.

And so I submit that a key question to be asked as you begin your deliberations, were the rules here faithfully followed. If not, if that is your judgment, then with all due respect, the prosecutors should not be rewarded just as federal prosecutors are not rewarded. You didn't follow the rules. You should have.

As a young lawyer, I was blessed to work with one of the great trial lawyers of his time. And I asked him, Dick, what's your secret? He had just defended successfully a former United States senator who was charged with a serious offense, perjury before a federal grand jury. His response was simple and forthright. His words come from prairie lawyer Abe Lincoln. I let the judge and the jury know that they can believe and trust every word that comes out of my mouth. I will not be proven wrong.

And so here's a question as you begin your deliberations. Have the facts as presented to you as a court, as the high court of impeachment, proven trustworthy? Has there been full and fair disclosure in the course of these proceedings? Fundamental fairness.

I recall these words from the podium last week, a point would be made by one of the president's lawyers and then this would follow. The House managers didn't tell you that. Why not? And again, the House managers didn't tell you that. Why not?

At the Justice Department on the fifth floor of the Robert F. Kennedy building is this simple inscription. The United States wins its point when justice is done its citizens in the courts. Not, did we win, not, did we convict, rather, the moral question was justice done. Of course, as it's been said frequently, the House of Representatives does under our constitution enjoy the sole power of impeachment. No one has disputed that fact. They've got the power, but that doesn't mean that anything goes. It doesn't mean that the House cannot be called to account in the high court of impeachment for its actions in exercising that power. A question to be asked, are we to countenance violations of the rules and traditional procedures that have been followed scrupulously --

[13:00:00]