jeremy diamond is at the white house. >> reporter: good morning, dave and christine. this is the week that the house of representatives will vote to impeach president donald trump. that will be certain this week, as the house takes up the articles of impeachment that passed the house judiciary committee last week, on abuse of power and obstruction of okay. but here, it has shifted to the senate, where the president will face a trial if he is impeached by the house. senate republicans and the white house have been coalescing around this nation otion of a s impeachment trial and would have no witnesses coming forward. as that conversation is happening, we're hearing from the top democrat in the senate, the senate minority leader, chuck schumer, and he is making his own pitch for how a senate trial would go forward. he would like to see witnesses come forward. he would like to see documents be subpoenaed. the four witnesses he says senate democrats want to see come forward in what he is describing as a fair trial, would be the white house chief of staff, mick mulvaney, h

let's go to jeremy diamond who is traveling with the president. jeremy, how is the trump administration responding? >> reporter: well, ryan, we're hearing from the president himself via twitter, and the president clearly is trying to hold iran directly responsible for the protests that we are seeing now happening outside and in parts of the u.s. embassy in baghdad. the president tweeting that iran is orchestrating an attack on the u.s. embassy in iraq, and he says that they will be held fully responsible, so we see also there a warning from the president. now, as for whether there will be any u.s. action as a result of this, the white house press secretary stephanie grisham, she told me in a statement this is an escalation from iran and also saying it will be the president's choice how and when we respond to their escalation. but beyond the president's words and the words of his press secretary, we are also seeing some action from other elements of the trump administration. the secretary of state mike pompeo, he has been on the phone with the prim

jeremy diamond joins me from west palm beach, florida, where the president is now in his second week of vacation. do you have any more details about their conversation? >> reporter: no, we don't. it's been hours frankly since the kremlin has put out this read-out of the call between president trump and russian president vladimir putin. nothing so far from the white house. here's what we know from the kremlin. russian president vladimir putin called president trump earlier today to thank him for intelligence information that was provided by the united states to the russian security services. now apparent they information led to the arrest of two russian nationals on friday who were plotting a new year's eve terrorist attack in st. petersburg, russia. this is not the first time that u.s. intelligence has helped thwart a terrorist attack in russia. the same thing happened back in 2017. now, beyond that, the russians are also saying that president trump and russian president vladimir putin also discussed issues of mutual interest between the two countries. we don't know what those issues

jeremy diamond, what more do we know? >> reporter: anna, senate republicans had only started to get on the same page. what they've been looking for is a short impeachment trial and one that likely would not include any witnesses. now we are hearing from the top democrat in the senate, chuck schumer, with his request for a senate impeachment trial. he is asking for witnesses. he's asking for four key witnesses in particu

let's go to white house correspondent jeremy diamond. white house expectations, do they see this as an opportunity? do they see this as damaging these coming weeks? >> well, what we already saw from the president this morning is he framed yesterday's first impeachment hearing in the house judiciary committee as a failure calling it an historically bad day. what is clear, jim, is that the president and the white house are really turning their attention to the potential for a trial in the senate. he said if you are going to impeach me, do it now fast so we can have a fair trial in the senate and so that our country can get back to business. and the president also making clear that he wants witnesses to come forward in his defense, in a potential senate trial. that was the message from the white house lifting affairs director speaking with reporters where he said the president wants his case to be fully made in the senate. so it's clear, jim, that even as things are still going on in the house, the white house is very much beginning to prep

of course some of those could be going to saudi arabia. >> jeremy diamond there for us. let's talk about the situation now with an expert. i'm joined by a retired u. s. air force officer. colonel, thank you for speaking with us. good to see you. >> good to see you, too, natalie. >> i want to get your reaction to hearing about this "new york times" report. the playing of mass shootings at a dinner party there before the saudi national began his mass shooting, he had someone apparently filming it and others watching it carry out. all of this on a base where they were serving and where we lost some heroes. >> yeah. that's a really tough thing to consider, the fact that if this, as reported, is in fact, true, that he viewed videos of mass shootings that is a difficult thing for all of us not only to understand you an indicator that should have been reported if it was noticed by others as should have been reported to authorities. that's something i think that investigators will have to take a serious look at, to what extent did this saudi air force hraupbt actually have conne

jeremy diamond, cnn, the white house. >> all right. so what a week to watch in washington. let's talk about it with our guest thomas gift. he's live for us in london. he's a lecturer in political science at university college london. thanks so much for coming on, thomas. >> thank you, natalie. >> let's even begin to break this down. we just heard there that the senate minority leader chuck schumer is wanting to ask for witnesses from the majority leader mitch mcconnell. but very slim chance that will happen because it's almost looking like this trial won't really be a trial. what are your thoughts? >> well, i would agree with your assessment. i do think that one of the main unresolved questions is how the impeachment trial in the senate will be conducted. chuck schumer's calls for new witnesses reflect a broader desire by some democrats to turn this into more of a full-fledged process that's designed to ensure all of the relevant information is assess the and evaluated on the merits. they've really pushed back on what they see as an effort by republicans to remove the venee

cnn's jeremy diamond is at the white house for us. jeremy, remember a few days ago north korea sent a strange warning, saying they will send a christmas gift to the united states. so is there any correlation here? >> reporter: well, this does not appear to be that gift that north korea was talking about, but it could, fred, potentially pave the way for that, quote, unquote, christmas gift that north korea ominously warned about some days ago. a few days ago they received some imagery that it appeared north korea was testing engines used to propel satellite launchers and icbms, intercontinental ballistic missiles. that is the concern, that the christmas gift north korea warned about could be the intercontinental ballistic missile. that would be the first test of a long-range missile from north korea since november of 2014, and it comes amid heightened tensions between the u.s. and north korea with a top diplomat recently saying denuclearization was off the table. the president, though, for his part seemed to strike a semi-hopeful note

jeremy diamond, what more do we know? >> reporter: anna, senate republicans had only started to get on the same page. what they've been looking for is a short impeachment trial and one that likely would not include any witnesses. now we are hearing from the top democrat in the senate, chuck schumer, with his request for a senate impeachment trial. he is asking for witnesses. he's asking for four key witnesses in particular who all have knowledge of this ukraine scandal. the white house chief of staff mick mulvaney, his senior advisor, robert blaire, the former national security advisor, john bolton as well as michael duffy who is the associate director of national security programs. one of those officials who signed off on several of the documents authorizing that hold on $400 million on aid to ukraine. chuck schumer is also asking for the senate to subpoena key documents that house investigators were not able to obtain from the white house, from the office of management and budget and the state department. now earlier to

cnn's jeremy diamond reports the u.s. won't rule out more action. >> reporter: well, the president's top national security officials emerged sunday after briefing president trump at his mar-a-lago estate on those u.s. military strikes carried out against an iranian proxy group. three strikes were carried out in iraq, two strikes carried out in syria, all against this same iranian-backed militia group. now, the message that we heard from those top officials, secretary of state mike pompeo, the secretary of defense mark esper, as well as the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, mark milley, was to both explain the rationale for taking these strikes and also to warn iran about future actions. >> i would add that in our discussion today with the president, we discussed with him other options that are available, and i would note also that we will take additional actions as necessary to ensure that we act in our own self-defense and we defer further bad behavior from militia groups or from iran. >> reporter: that was the warn

and let me bring in jeremy diamond. we're hearing about a guest visiting the president in florida which hey tie into somae stories that we are been the reporting? >> reporter: we know that the president ordered the strikes carried out in iraq and syria. and now we know that the secretary of state mike pompeo, secretary of defense mark esper as well as the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff mark milley, they have all landed this palm beach where the president is spending his holiday vacation. cnn has confirmed that they landed and we do have exclusive footage now of that military aircraft carrying those three top national security officials which was captured by our photojournalist. so we have that footage. we knew that they were expected to come here to brief the president on those strikes carried out by the u.s. military. and also as the united states monitors any potential response by iran or by those iranian proxies in iraq. >> jeremy, let me ask you this. president trump spoke to vladimir putin by telephone this

let me bring in jeremy diamond. putin reportedly spoke on the phone about mutual interest in counterterrorism. do we know anything more about this conversation? >> reporter: we don't know whether the president actually discussed this particular set of strikes with the russian president. we do know that according to the russian readout of that call that it was, at least in part, about a u.s. intelligence that helped foil a terrorist plot in st. petersburg in russia. but what we do know about these strikes today, martin, is that a took place at 11:00 a.m. eastern time while the president was actually at his golf course. we actually spotted him a couple hours later on the golf course golfing. we don't know whether, at that time when the strikes were taking place, whether the president was perhaps in a secure facility at the golf club, or if he was indeed on the golf course while those strikes were indeed taking place. but we are also now expecting the president to meet later today with his top foreign policy and defens

jeremy diamond joins me for more on that call, and jeremy, what else are we learning? >> well, martin, we know that president trump and president vladimir putin spoke by phone today and the call was actually initiated by the russian president, not by president trump. according to a readout of the call provided by the kremlin, that is, the russians, vladimir putin thank ed the president fo providing intelligence information that helped ford a terrorist plot. apparently there was a terrorist plot being planned in st. petersburg in russia for new year's eve. the services arrested two russian nationals on friday who were planning to carry out this plot. and according to the kremlin, that was thanks to information that was provided by the united states. this is not the first time, actually, that we have seen such intelligence cooperation. the united states also actually provided information to a terrorist plot back in 2017 as well. we have not yet received a readout from the white house of this conversation. sometimes, martin, we see slightly different variations in how the

>> the clock is jeremy diamond, thank you so much. congressional reporter for politico melanie zanona, impeachment law professor at tulane law school. and ross garber and the former director of the nixon presidential library and cnn presidential historian tim naftali. good to see all of you. happy holiday weekend. >> happy holidays. >> ross, the white house has a little over three hours to decide if its lawyers will be present at the white house judiciary committee's first hearing on wednesday which focuses on how constitutional and historical standards on impeachment are met. so what would be the role of those white house attorneys if they were to decide to be present wednesday? >> it's a great question. i assume the potential role would be the ability to question these legal experts, but what we're hearing is the legal experts will have been chosen by the democratic majority, and so i would be very surprised to see white house lawyers show up particularly for this hearing but also for the whole process. i think from the white house'

>> jeremy diamond, thanks very much. and we have new jersey's democratic governor on later in this hour. he'll be talking about the case of jeff van drew. he is the democratic congressman who is now upset about the impeachment process and says so much so he may change parties. we want to find out about what is going on there. >>> with me now, though, is shan wu. he's a former federal prosecutor and a senior legal analyst. shan, always good to see you. thanks for joining us. >> good to see you, martin. >> how can senators mcconnell and graham honor their oath to do impartial justice when they both appear to have decided what the outcome of this case is going to be already? >> they certainly don't seem to be very impartial, martin. i think for them the illegal escape hatch here is that unlike the oath that jurors take in a courtroom, this one is a little different. in the courtroom there is a lot of scrutiny. judges ask the jurors, lawyers ask the jurors, have you already made up your mind before you hear the evidence? thi

jeremy diamond, cnn, the white house. >> let's talk about the week ahead. i'm joined from england by natasha lynn stat. she's a professor of government at the university of essex, natasha, thanks for coming in because it's going to be quite a week. let's first focus on that schumer letter to mr. mcconnell requesting witnesses. what do you think the chances are of that happening? >> i think there's absolutely no chance of that happening. the republicans have absolutely nothing to gain by this trial being long, by it dragging on, by it involving more witnesses and by allowing some of these documents to come forward. what they want is for this trial to go as quickly as possible and then they can move on from this because the more people that are involved, for example, if they were able to get john bolton to testify or mick mulvaney, none of these witnesses would be particularly good for the president. we've seen mick mulvaney at press conferences openly admit, oh, yeah, we do this all the time, these quid pro quos. it happens all the time. just get over it. i

jeremy diamond is at the white house. >> reporter: good morning, dave and christine. this is the week that the house of representatives will vote to impeach president donald trump. that will be certain this week, as the house takes up the articles of impeachment that passed the house judiciary committee last week, on abuse of power and obstruction of okay. but here, it has shifted to the senate, where the president will face a trial if he is impeached by the house. senate republicans and the white house have been coalescing around this notion of a short impeachment trial and would have no witnesses coming forward. as that conversation is happening, we're hearing from the top democrat in the senate, the senate minority leader, chuck schumer, and he is making his own pitch for how a senate trial would go forward. he would like to see witnesses come forward. he would like to see documents be subpoenaed. the four witnesses he says senate democrats want to see come forward in what he is describing as a fair trial, would be the white house chief of staff, mick mulvaney, his

>> jeremy diamond at the whieshgs thank y white house, thank you. let's bring in former assistant to president bush, scott jennings. everyone expects the president to be impeached by the house on wednesday so it's i'll really all eyes on him now. here's the message from a top republican, lindsay graham. >> i am trying to give a pretty clear signal. i have made up my mind. >> i wasn't in any doubt. i'm telling you right now if mueller had found something against trump i would have been his loudest critic and would have told the president to his face. what i see happening today is just a partisan nonsense. >> you have voiced strong opinions about this impeachment place, but you are, along with the rest of your senate fellows jurors. is it appropriate to be voicing your opinion even before this gets to the senate as a trial? >> well, i must think so because i'm doing it. >> this comes after mitch mcconnell said there was no chance trump would be removed from office. are they doing their duty as senators, as americans, scott, to not even bother to liste

cnn's jeremy diamond joins us now. what have you learned? >> reporter: well, chris, as you said, the president publicly has been criticizing these articles of impeachment, down playing them, calling them flimsy and pathetic and saying this is impeachment-light. that was the language he used last night at his political rally in pennsylvania. but privately we're told that the president has been griping about these articles of impeachment, really unhappy about the fact that he is likely all but certainly to become the third president in american history to be formally impeached by the house of representatives. that is not a stain on his legacy that he is relishing at all. at the same time, chris, we're also learning from the office of management and budget their latest official explanation for why in fact that security aid, that nearly $400 million in security aid to ukraine was indeed frozen. let me read you a portion from this legal memo that we obtained. >> please. >> from the general counsel for the office of management and budget. he write

jeremy diamond is joining me from palm beach. any more details about their conversation? >> reporter: well, there is not too much information aside from what the kremlin put out earlier today. we do know that this call was initiated by the russian president. vladimir putin apparently calling president trump to thank him for the u.s. intelligence information that was provided to the russian security services. that information apparently led to the arrest of two men on friday, two russian nationals who were apparently plotting a new year's eve terrorist attack in saints petersburg. this is not the first time that u.s. intelligence has led to preventing a terrorist attack in russia. the saints thi same thing happened back in 2017 with another plot planned for st. petersburg. what else that they discussed, again as understand matters of mutual interests. and there is a range of issues, of course it came the same day that president trump authorized the strikes in syria and iraq. we do not know if that came up in the conversation or if perhaps domestic politics the issue of imp

jeremy diamond joins us now. >> the president publicly has been criticizing the articles of impeachment and saying this is essentially impeachment light. that's the language he used last night in pennsylvania. but privately, chris, we're told the president has been griping about the article cas of impeachment and griping about that fact that he's about to be impeached. that's not a stain he is relishing at all. we're also learning their latest official explanation for why, in fact, that nearly $400 million security aid was the deed frozen. let me read you a portion from the legal memo we obtained from the counsel for budget. it was understanding a brief period was needed prior to the funds expiring to engage in a policy process regarding the funds. omb took appropriate action to insure funds were not lifted premature canly. they're saying this was a routine policy process and we, as the agency responsible for doling out these funds or holding them back, we heldthem back. >> your testimony counts. isn't this something you would have said? >> this is from the government accountability off

jeremy diamond, traveling with the president, west palm beach, florida. >>> joining me now via skype. thanks for doing so, professor. we have seen it in the intelligence committee. that's where the drama was. it is now judiciary committee. how different might that look and do you think the trump administration will take part? >> reporter: well, the house intelligence committee was sort of like a grand jury where you assembled the evidence. you had 17 witnesses behind closed doors, 12 in public. and then the house intelligence committee has to almost in effect serve as a grand jury say is there enough weight of evidence here to proceed to the next stage. the house judiciary committee will probably not hear from a great deal of new witnesses on the evidence. they will talk to constitutional lawyers about whether these are impeachable offenses, whether it constitutes bribery. if the lawyers say yes, the judiciary committee will draft articles of impeachment. those articles of impeachment will be voted on. in effect, the house judiciary committee will be the procedural body in a says yes

here's white house correspondent jeremy diamond with more about it. >> reporter: well, the trump administration is preparing to announce the withdrawal of about 4,000 troops from afghanistan. that would take the total number of u.s. troops, which is currently estimated to be between 12,000 and 13,000, to the range of 8,600. that is the number that the president himself floated back in august when he said that the u.s. was likely going to be drawing down the number of u.s. troops in afghanistan. so this is something that has been in the works for quite some time. now a senior administration official is indeed telling me that is a plan to move forward with this troop withdrawal and that it could happen as early as next week. of course the timing is very much in flux. that was the note of caution i got from this senior administration official. all of this of course coming as the u.s. has resorted peace talks with the taliban following president trump's visit to afghanistan over the thanksgiving holiday. that was the president's first visit to afghanistan during his presidency. and while he was the

jeremy diamond is traveling with the president and has more from west palm beach. >> reporter: good morning. the president is beginning his second week of his holiday vacation. but it appears that his time in florida certainly has not led to those frustrations with the impeachment process subsiding. instead, it appears the president is becoming increasingly frustrating and he's not hiding it. we've seen him tweet dozens of times, tweeting, retweeting criticisms of the impeachment process, criticizing the democrats that have made him the third president in american history to be impeached, including the latest tweet from the president on sunday, going after the speaker of the house, nancy pelosi. while the president has been at his mar-a-lago estate, he's been quizzing many of his aids and allies about his impeachment strategy and who should be on the defense team. much of this remains to be determined. that's because we still have not seen the speaker of the house, nancy pelosi, transmit the articles of impeachment to the senate. we haven't mcconnell, the senate majority leader, as to what

jeremy diamond has more on that. >> reporter: today the house judiciary committee is indeed convening to hear the evidence formally for the first time against president trump in this impeachment inquiry. but neither the president nor any of his attorneys will be attending that hearing. that is despite an invitation from the house judiciary committee democrats for the president or his attorneys to attend and participate in that hearing, even giving them the ability to cross-examine witnesses. and that's also despite the criticism over these last several months of this impeachment inquiry from the president, from the white house that they have not been able to participate in the process thus far. nonetheless, the white house making very clear in a letter on friday from the white house counsel, pat cipollone, to the house judiciary committee, that this white house will not be participating in any of these impeachment hearings carried out by the house judiciary committee. in that letter, cipollone calls the impeachment inquiry completely baseless, and he also warns that impeaching trump,

jeremy diamond, traveling with the president, west palm beach, florida. >>> a professor of government at the university of essex in england joins me now via skype. good to see you again. this impeachment investigation of course has been in the intelligence committee. that's where we have heard the drama. it now goes to the judiciary committee. how different does that look? and do you think the trump administration will take part? >> well, one of the big differences is they will be bringing in legal experts. and they're at the stage where the judiciary report mentioned where they are going to have to lay out what the articles of impeachment are. of course the big difference, as you already noted, they have invited trump and counsel to participate. i don't think there's any chance that he is going to participate. i think he likes to keep everything in suspense. he likes to delay. he likes to distract. and he likes to delegitimize the whole process. and that seems to be what he's doing. i think we need to talk about the big picture and why the delaying process works so well here. we have

cnn white house correspondent jeremy diamond joins me now. this is unusual. are we seeing fallout from the ukraine call, the white house saying none of your business? >> look, jim, this white house has not followed any kind of clear pattern when it comes to the release of these readouts of foreign leader calls between president trump and other foreign leaders. sometimes they don't release any readout at all, but typically when another country does release a readout of a call this white house usually releases its own readout that same day. we are not at that point now where it has been nearly 24 hours since the kremlin released its readout of the call. there are some questions as it relates to what else the two leaders discussed. the kremlin did say that president putin reached out to president trump to thank him for intelligence information that was provided to the russian security services that apparently helped thwart a terrorist plot that was planned for new year's eve in st. petersburg, russia, but the kremlin did say the two leaders discussed issues of m

let's go to white house correspondent jeremy diamond. white house expectations, do they see this as an opportunity? do they see this as damaging these coming weeks? >> well, what we already saw from the president this morning is he framed yesterday's first impeachment hearing in the house judiciary committee as a failure calling it an historically bad day. what is clear, jim, is that the president and the white house are really turning their attention to the potential for a trial in the senate. he said if you are going to impeach me, do it now fast so we can have a fair trial in the senate and so that our country can get back to business. and

. >> jeremy diamond at the white house, thanks. on friday you voted against the articles of impeachment. i have to get your reaction to what the president just tweeted. he is claiming house speaker's nancy pelosi teeth were falling out of her mouth during a press conference last week. minutes later he tweeted calling her crazy nancy. do you condone the president of the united states speaking about a woman, much less the speaker of the how is this way? >> the president has a very unorthodox style of messaging. it's not the way that i talk or i would tweet. but the president is very frustrated about he's been treated. he lashes out sometimes and i think a lot of the american people understand that. it was mentioned just a moment ago in your discussion that he really hadn't gotten due process, he didn't get a fair trial in the house. that's very bothersome to him because there's going to be an asterisk in the history books that he was the third president to be impeached in the house. >> you said democrats would pay a heavy political p

let's go live to the white house now and cnn's jeremy diamond. he has returned to the white house back to focusing on the weighty issue of his likely impeachment next week in the house. >> he certainly is and the president we're told behind the scenes has really been trying to direct a lot of the messaging effort surrounding impeachment and the white house's efforts to push back at times growing frustrated when he felt like the white house messaging wasn't hitting the mark he hoped it would on tv or on the front page but the president for now focusing on the silver lining, the fund-raising boon this has been for the president's re-election campaign. the president, in fact, tonight, he just left the white house and is on his way to a fund-raising reception at his own hotel here in washington. >> and, jeremy, according to "the new york times," a democratic congressman from new jersey, jeff van drew is thanning an event at the white house possibly in a couple of days. what do you know about this? >> reporter: well, sources are telling us congressman

for more on it, here's white house correspondent jeremy diamond with more about it. >> reporter: well, the trump administration is preparing to announce the withdrawal of about 4,000 troops from afghanistan. that would take the total number of u.s. troops, which is currently estimated to be between 12,000 and 13,000, to the range of 8,600. that is the number that the president himself floated back in august when he said that the u.s. was likely going to be drawing down the number of u.s. troops in afghanistan. so this is something that has been in the works for quite some time. now a senior administration official is indeed telling me that is a plan to move forward with this troop withdrawal and that it could happen as early as next week. of course the timing is very much in flux. that was the note of caution i got from this senior administration official. all of this of course coming as the u.s. has resorted peace talks with the taliban following president trump's visit to afghanistan over the thanksgiving holiday. that was the president's first visit to afghanistan during his presid

jeremy diamond has more on that. >> reporter: today the house judiciary committee is indeed convening to hear the evidence formally for the first time against president trump in this impeachment inquiry. but neither the president nor any of his attorneys will be attending that hearing. that is despite an invitation from the house judiciary committee democrats for the president or his attorneys to attend and participate in that hearing, even giving them the ability to cross-examine witnesses. and that's also despite the criticism over these last several months of this impeachment inquiry from the president, from the white house, that they have not been able to participate in the process thus far. nonetheless, the white house making very clear in a letter on friday from the white house counsel, pat cipollone, to the house judiciary committee that this white house will not be participating in any of these impeachment hearings carried out by the house judiciary committee. in that letter, cipollone calls the impeachment inquiry completely baseless and he also warns that impeaching trump, i

. >> jeremy diamond, thank you very much. back with me now, frank bruni, kirsten powers, and timothy nafta naftali. frank, we have to start with the reporting about alan dershowitz who may be joining the president's impeachment legal team. give me your reaction to that. >> actually, as soon as it was announced i felt this is sort of inevitable given dershowitz's role over the course of the presidency, given how much he like the president loves to embrace controversial causes and be in the spotlight. i mean, it shows a certain degree of seriousness with which the white house is taking this. you know, i -- it's interesting, though, because we're also being told that this is going to be a short really quick trial. so what are all these people going to do? what exactly is dershowitz going to contribute? trump wants to turn this, as you were saying before, into a three-ring circus and mitch mcconnell is saying, no, we're not going to even have a clown. no, not even that much. this is mitch mcconnell's house. so -- >> no jugglers,

so jeremy diamond at the white house for us. what are you hearing from there? >> reporter: in the same way that you are talking about this institution feeling quanint, tht certainly is the view at the white house here where frankly the president is looking towards the senate trial that he is liso face as an opportunity to dig in on the allegations that he has made against joe biden. and that is where the white house is, turning their attention away from the house of representatives and instead toward the senate as they prepare to mount what white house officials are calling a robust defense of the president in this likely senate trial. they do plan to bring forward witnesses and you can expect some of those witnesses if they are indeed able to bring them forward to talk about these issues that the president has been so focused on and that got him into this impeachment quagmire in the first place. and that is the situation? ukraine. but here is the president's reaction today after house speaker nancy pelosi announced that she will move forward with articles of i

. >> cnn's jeremy diamond is following the president in florida this weekend. trump is clearly not distancing himself from guiliani's ongoing dealings in ukraine. >> that is certainly right. it is fascinating of course because it is the president's efforts to pressure ukraine to carry out the politically motivated investigations and the efforts carried out on his behalf by his personal attorney rudy guiliani that have landed the president in the midst of this impeachment inquiry and his likely impeachment now in the coming weeks. none of that is stopping the president or rudy guiliani from continuing to focus their efforts in that direction. we saw rudy guiliani returning from ukraine making a series of claims including more claims about the bidens, of course we should note that none of the allegations leveled at the former vice president joe biden or his son have been substantiated. now you have the president today once again touting rudy guiliani's efforts in ukraine and all the while the president of course continuing to criticize this impeachment inquiry as