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.
A planned summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump is in jeopardy. In a statement this morning, North Korea's foreign minister said the country has no interest in a "one-sided discussion" on its nuclear program. On Tuesday, North Korea also canceled planned talks with South Korea.
Starting today, Amazon Prime members will receive exclusive discounts at Whole Foods. Customers will now get 10% off hundreds of sale items in stores and will also get access to rotating weekly specials. The perks are only available in Florida as of today but will be rolled out nationwide starting this summer.
Chris Carter and James Peisker, co-founders of Porter Road, join us to talk about their expansion into the digital landscape. Porter Road is a whole animal butcher shop based in Nashville, but the founders recently decided to take their business online.
Mayor Karen Weaver is exploring legal action against the state of Michigan for its decision to stop providing the city with free bottled water three years after unhealthy amounts of lead were discovered in Flint's water supplies. "When you had the biggest hand in poisoning a city and making this crisis happen, you ought to have some moral, some ethical responsibility to seeing us through this crisis," said Weaver.
The Seattle City Council passed a new law that will require companies making more than $20 million a year to pay a 'head tax.' Amazon and other Seattle-based companies will pay a tax of 14 cents per employee per hour worked, which comes out to roughly $275 per employee each year. The tax will raise money for affordable housing since home prices have risen recently in Seattle. In response, Amazon's vice president said this move "forces us to question our growth here." A Starbucks exec criticized the city for spending "without reforming and fail[ing] without accountability."
A number of top Tesla executives have left the company in the past few months. Aaron Cole, managing editor at Motor Authority, joins us to discuss whether investors should be worried that this 'drain brain' will have negative consequences for the electric carmaker. The company is ramping up production to meet its ambitious Model 3 targets.
Cheddar's Brad Smith speaks with Joe Gibbs, Pro Football Hall of Famer and owner of Joe Gibbs Racing, at a special event outside the New York Stock Exchange celebrating Stanley Black & Decker's 175th anniversary. Gibbs talks about how NASCAR is focusing on expanding its digital outreach to reach a younger audience. He also weighs in on the Supreme Court's decision to reverse a ban on sports gambling.
The Supreme Court decision to effectively lift the ban on sports betting in most of the U.S. will create a vast, competitive market for online bookmakers, says Jason Robins, the CEO and co-founder of the fantasy sports site DraftKings. He has positioned his company to quickly take advantage of the opportunity to get into the legal sports gambling business.
The tax overhaul and President Trump's tough stance on the world stage has left the Republican party in a strong position to hold on to its majority through the midterm elections in November, says the former press secretary to Vice President Mike Pence.
The Daily Show host says the dinner is "weird" because it creates an environment where "the press, and the people the press are reporting on, are all chummy-chummy." But he'll step up and take the mic...if President Trump personally asked him to host the annual dinner.
Richard Painter, a former ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration, is running for U.S. Senate in Minnesota as a Democrat because he says the Republican party has been hijacked by President Trump and his supporters. "No one is allowed to run for elected office at the federal level who does not really swear allegiance to Donald Trump," Painter says.
The coffee chain announced anyone who walks into a store can use the bathrooms, even if they didn't make a purchase. This is "the absolute right thing" to do, says communication and reputation strategist Deirdre Latour. Starbucks came under fire last month after arresting two black men accused of "loitering" at one of its stores.
The president laid out a plan that promised to bring down the costs of drugs. But it could amount to just minimal changes that don't end up pressuring drug makers enough to bring down prices, says Adriel Bettelheim, health care editor at Politico.
The state became the first in the U.S. to require almost all new homes to have solar panels, part of an effort to get half the state's electricity from renewable sources by 2030.
