As the Senate trial on the impeachment of President Donald Trump got underway Tuesday, Democrats and Republicans began by facing off first on procedural matters. Democrats angled to admit new witnesses and documents during the Senate trial, while Republicans seem to be largely willing to follow the rules of the Clinton impeachment which allowed Senators to decide that issue later on.
A CNN poll out this weekend noted 69 percent of Americans want Senators to allow new witness testimony.
"I wish the Democrats would have subpoenaed witnesses. They didn't do that," said GOP National Spokesperson Liz Harrington. "They didn't do their job."
Although she said Democrats should have subpoenaed witnesses like the whistleblower and former National Security Adviser John Bolton, the House did notably issue subpoenas to officials like Energy Secretary Rick Perry, acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who all denied them. Bolton's attorney reportedly threatened to fight a subpoena initially, but he recently said he will testify if subpoenaed for the Senate trial.
A CNN poll also found that 51 percent of people say Trump should be convicted and removed from office, although Harrington noted, "We've seen plenty of polling that supports the position that American voters should decide who our president is, not partisans in the House of Representatives."
She also called the impeachment inquiry an attempt by Democrats to get a president they don't like out of office, a common argument from Trump's supporters. The Democratic case, she said, is not "about evidence or facts or witnesses."
After Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell released a four-page set of ground rules for the trial Monday night, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said they seemed "designed by President Trump, for President Trump."
"It appears Leader McConnell decided to go along with the president's desire to cover up," said Schumer.
McConnell has said he is taking cues from the rules set forth in the 1999 Clinton impeachment trial. However, in that case, all witnesses had already been deposed and Clinton had provided the House with relevant documents before the Senate trial had begun in earnest. This time, Trump used executive privilege to block key witnesses from testifying and refused to turn over requested documents to the House.
Some progress was made Tuesday as Democrats and Republicans tried to come to an agreement on rules. McConnell agreed to extend the amount of time both sides have to present their cases from two days to three and agreed to allow evidence from the House hearings to be automatically entered into the record.
However, Senate Republicans struck down Schumer's amendment to subpoena documents the White House refused to turn over during the House investigation.
Trump is accused of withholding $400 million in aid from Ukraine in order to pressure the country's president to publicly announce that the Ukrainian government would launch investigations into political rival former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter and attempting to obstruct the investigation into the matter. He was impeached by the House of Representatives last month.
Both Republicans and Democrats, including two first ladies, are calling on the president to put an end to Attorney General Jeff Sessions' 'zero tolerance' border policy of separating parents and children for unlawfully crossing the border.
A federal judge sent the former Trump campaign chairman to jail on Friday for tampering with witnesses in his upcoming trials. This decision further strains the relationship between the White House and the Justice Department, as the administration considers suspending special counsel Robert Mueller and using presidential pardons. Cheddar's J.D. Durkin gets into the details.
President Trump announced on Friday a 25 percent tariff on $50 billion of Chinese exports, punishing the country for "theft of intellectual property and technology." China vowed to retaliate in equal measure, escalating tensions between the world's two largest economies, despite months of negotiations to resolve trade disputes.
The former FBI director "chose to deviate" from established procedures and tainted the impartial reputation of the agency and the Justice Department, the department's Inspector General Michael Horowitz said in a scathing report of how Comey handled the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails. Cheddar's J.D. Durkin looks into the details.
Big-time media mergers have renewed a policy debate in Washington over concentrating too much corporate control in a few powerful hands, said Axios tech reporter David McCabe.
The Republican reiterated his cautious approach to legalization, despite momentum for more liberalization in a state with some of the most tolerant cannabis laws in the country.
President Trump's statement that the U.S. is suspending joint military exercises with South Korea as Kim Jong-un considers how to dismantle his nuclear arsenal may cause some anxiety among America's allies, says Martyn Williams, editor of NorthKoreaTech.org.
President Trump and Kim Jong Un have signed a deal to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula and improve relations between the United States and North Korea. The two leaders met in Singapore for a historic summit, the first ever between the U.S. and North Korea.
Kristen Scholer and Tim Stenovec sit down with journalist and author Gretchen Carlson for a wide-ranging interview. Carlson talks about her new programming called 'Justice for Women,' her life post-Fox News, and her role in eliminating the swimsuit competition from the Miss America pageant.
Plus, Facebook will start regulating e-commerce on its platform more closely. The social media company is rolling out a new feature that will let users give feedback about companies that sell items on Facebook. If a business gets too much negative feedback, Facebook will ban that business from its platform.
President Trump and the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un signed a joint statement Tuesday that calls for the "complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula." But even with this agreement, there's a long way to go.
Art Hogan, Chief Market Strategist for B. Riley FBR and Wunderlich Securities, discusses how he thinks the global markets are going to react to the meeting between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un following the G7 meeting this past weekend.
