As day six of the impeachment trial headed into the evening hours, Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas told Cheddar his experience as a judge and lawyer tells him "in every trial, there are sort of twists and turns, things we can't expect to be answered instantaneously, but will be answered by the time the trial will come to an end."
"I expect to give both sides an opportunity to put this in context. We don't even know what this book says," he said, referencing a book written by ex-national security advisor John Bolton. So far, President Trump's lawyers had yet to bring up Bolton's book in today's session, the manuscript of which was leaked over the weekend and left Republican senators reportedly "blindsided."
Sen. Cornyn added that though he believes The New York Times is biased against the Trump administration, he "frankly would like to see the book itself, but I'm sure the parties will have a chance to answer that." Bolton denied that he, his publisher, or his literary agent coordinated with the Times.
The president's defense team, which had 22 hours left in the trial schedule at the start of today's session, focused on what they described as the threat of the increased use of impeachment, questions of due process, and the ability of the president to withhold information from Congress through executive privilege. Across the way, the White House reportedly prepared for a split in the party that could lead to a request for testimony from Bolton.
Republicans did not bring Bolton up in the first five hours of the day. Defense lawyer Jane Raskin did spend time on the president's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and warned senators not to be "distracted" by how Democrats portrayed his involvement.
Executive privilege was brought up continuously throughout the afternoon as defense lawyers underscored the president's reasoning for barring aides from testifying in the name of "immunity."
At times, Senators appeared inattentive through the early portions of the day's sessions. Democratic Senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Cory Booker of New Jersey had their hands clasped under their chins for much of the time.
Some remained engaged throughout the session, such as Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who, at one point, asked her neighbor Senator Chris Coons of Connecticut for what looked like a pocket copy of the U.S. Constitution, which she read from as the former independent counsel who investigated President Bill Clinton, Ken Starr, read from the preamble of the document. Most senators at the center of the debate for adding witnesses took down pages of notes, like Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine.
As the day wore on, the White House defense team focused on Hunter Biden, whose work in Ukraine was central to Trump's fateful July phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.
But the reverberations from the John Bolton manuscript remained the day's main storyline with two Republican Senators, Mitt Romney and Susan Collins, saying that the disclosures could spur other Republicans to seek new evidence and hear witnesses, like Bolton.
If that happens, the fast acquittal that Donald Trump was hoping for will be much slower to arrive, and the president could face the prospect of delivering the State of the Union address with the threat of a trial still hanging over his head.
An recently conducted AP-NORC poll found that majorities of the Black and Hispanic populations in the U.S. still find themselves either somewhat worried or extremely worried over the pandemic, while more than half of white Americans responded with either being not too worried or not worried at all. Dr. Chris Pernell, the chief strategic integration and health equity officer at University Hospital, joined Cheddar News to talk about how perceptions of COVID-19 differ between groups of Americans. "We’re still seeing people get infected, and because of the toll of the disproportionate impact, we have concerns among the Black and brown community about whether or not they have an increased risk of exposure because of where they work, because of the use of public transportation, because they live in homes that they may not be able to safely quarantine and or isolate in, and because they have at baseline chronic health conditions that may make coronavirus more severe in those persons," she said.
Judith Enck, a former regional administrator for the EPA and the president of Beyond Plastics, joined Cheddar News to talk about the role of plastics in the climate crisis and California's investigation of ExxonMobil and other oil companies for misleading the public on the ability to recycle plastics. "The reason why petrochemical companies like Exxon have gotten away with selling more and more plastic is that they've lied to the public and told us don't worry about all those negative upstream impacts and downstream impacts of plastics. Just be sure to recycle it. Well, guess what? Plastics largely are not recycled," Enck said.
The ongoing war in Ukraine and the Fed's hawkish stance toward reining in inflation might be causing a frenzy among investors. Craig Erlam, a senior market analyst at foreign exchange OANDA, joined Cheddar News to talk about the current "mixed bag" markets. "It's hard to read too much into it. These are just the market conditions we have right now," he said. "Ultimately we're a little directionless at times overall, but these intraday moves are causing a lot of volatility this week."
Catching you up on what you need to know on April 29, 2022, with President Biden asking Congress for a $33 billion aid package for Ukraine, a shrinking GDP potentially leading to a recession, Beijing banning weddings and funerals while closings schools amid COVID, and more.
Buying a new home is tough right now; but for first-time buyers, it's an especially challenging time, with obstacles like rising mortgage rates and record-breaking home prices. The housing market is not expected to get much friendlier, as mortgage rates are expected to continue to climb as the Federal Reserve proceeds with its plans for rate hikes in an effort to stifle inflation. Jonathan Miller, President and CEO of real estate appraiser Miller Samuel, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Tyler Moran, former senior adviser to President Biden on migration, joins Cheddar Politics to discuss the recent controversy around the administration's decision to end the use of Title 42, a public health order allowing the U.S. to expel migrants without going through the asylum process.
Christian Heyne, vice president of policy at the gun safety group Brady, joins Cheddar Politics to discuss President Biden's executive action on so-called "ghost guns," and to reflect on the Brooklyn subway shooting.
Jasmine Burney-Clark, founder of Equal Ground Education Fund and Action Fund, joins Cheddar Politics to discuss the redistricting process in Florida, and how the state's Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis proposed a map reducing the power of Black Floridians.
Ryan Thoreson, an LGBT rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, joins Cheddar Politics to discuss claims of grooming made by Republican politicians during efforts to pass so-called 'Don't Say Gay' bills.
