Why should we pay for Meghan Markle's private security if we don't pay for Justin Bieber's security? I'll tell you why, and why we should pay for Drake's and Meghan's security.
00:22:28.840The trial should be fair to the House, which has been wrongly deprived of evidence by a president who wishes to conceal it.
00:22:41.760It should be fair to the president, who will not benefit from an acquittal or dismissal if the trial is not viewed as fair.
00:22:51.180It's remarkable that after taking the action of the breathtaking gravity of voting to impeach the duly elected president of the United States,
00:23:01.780and after saying for weeks that they had overwhelming evidence to support their case,
00:23:05.780the first thing that the House managers have done upon arriving finally in this chamber after waiting for 33 days is to say,
00:23:14.700well, actually, we need more evidence.
00:23:28.800I've got to tell you, I'm bored already.
00:23:31.140I mean, I will pay attention to this because it's a media criticism story more than anything else.
00:23:36.920But what you saw there were some vignettes from the impeachment of Donald Trump.
00:23:43.560It moved from the House, which is dominated by Democrats, and you saw Adam Schiff there, to the Senate.
00:23:49.000The House, if I can, and I'll be corrected in a minute by our next guest, but the House puts the accusation and the Senate tries it.
00:23:58.060One is like the prosecutor, Schiff, and the other is like the jury, the Senate.
00:24:03.660And I think one of the reasons I find this trying and boring and uninteresting is because it's deja vu.
00:24:10.080I saw all this for three years in the form of the Mueller inquiry, hundreds of witnesses, thousands of interrogations, search warrants, interviews.
00:24:23.420And at the end of it, Robert Mueller and his massive team of Democrats found there was no evidence that Donald Trump was in collusion with the Russians.
00:24:34.640And they had their big shot, and they shot it and missed, and I feel like this is a bad sequel to a bad movie.
00:24:42.820Joining us now via Skype from worldheadquartersofbreitbart.com is our friend Joel Pollack, who has been following most closely this impeachment, and we're glad to have him break away for a few moments.
00:24:53.540Joel, I know I should be more interested just for the flavor and the interest of it, but I don't think even the Democrats believe this is the kill shot they once thought it would be.
00:25:06.760I think that their hope is to cause as much political damage to the president as they possibly can while minimizing damage to themselves.
00:25:14.580But I think that the first day of the impeachment trial did not go particularly well for them.
00:25:20.560They did have all of the airtime, essentially, and the president's lawyers, the White House counsel, chose not to use all their time.
00:25:27.580They just made their points and sat down.
00:25:29.460The Democrats basically used 11 or 12 hours to make substantive arguments on procedural motions that they were bringing to demand more witnesses, to demand more documents.
00:25:41.600And that clip you played earlier where one of the White House lawyers said, look, you can't show up on the first day of the trial and say you need more information.
00:25:50.340You've already said we believe we can prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
00:25:53.840But now you say you want us to call these witnesses, you want more proof.
00:25:58.220It's noteworthy also is that the Democrats did not allow Republicans to call any new witnesses in the House.
00:26:03.760So why should the Republicans in the Senate allow Democrats to do the same, especially when the Senate is the later part, as you pointed out, of this entire process?
00:26:11.540The Democrats are now going to lay out the opening argument to get 24 hours of total time to do it over, I think, three days.
00:26:19.900So they're going to have eight hours a day, followed by the White House counsel laying out their response.
00:26:25.420We're not clear that they're going to need to use all of those 24 hours.
00:26:29.300In fact, I described this to someone earlier today as being like a baseball game.
00:26:34.880If your team is the home team and they're winning in the ninth inning and the visiting team strikes out three outs, you don't have to bat in the bottom of the ninth.
00:26:47.420Trump's lawyers can simply stand up and say, there's nothing proven here.
00:26:52.180This is unconstitutional and sit down.
00:26:53.860They could theoretically dispose of this in five minutes.
00:26:56.500I think it'll take a little longer than that.
00:26:58.040They have some points they want to make.
00:27:00.060But basically, the president's case is that there, first of all, is nothing impeachable here.
00:27:06.000Secondly, there's a legitimate interest in finding out about corruption in Ukraine by Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, election interference from Ukraine.
00:27:14.080If there's any legitimate interest in what the president was asking Ukraine to do, there's no grounds for impeaching him.
00:27:20.220And the Democrats have come in saying there is no possible legitimate interest.
00:27:25.980I don't know why they've done that to themselves.
00:27:28.040They've made a number of mistakes along the way.
00:27:30.360So we're basically sitting, as you pointed out, we're sitting here and listening to the same thing we've heard for the last several weeks in the House, for the previous three years on the media, on CNN and in the House and in the Senate and online and everywhere else.
00:27:45.080So this is going to be quite a grueling, boring marathon.
00:27:50.400There are a few fireworks here and there.
00:27:52.320The chief justice had to intervene to rebuke.
00:27:54.580He rebuked both sides because he's got to look impartial.
00:27:56.800But really, it was to rebuke the Democrats.
00:27:59.360House Democrats came in and accused the White House counsel of lying, which you don't really do.
00:28:03.680It's considered not just uncivil, but unprofessional for lawyers to do that.
00:28:09.540And he also, as Adam shifted, said that the Senate would be derelict in their duty if they didn't vote the way he wanted them to vote.
00:28:17.060No, the Senate has a duty to vote according to its own conscience, according to its own conclusions, but they don't have a duty to vote the way Democrats want them to.
00:28:46.080I think that the Democrats have a tougher task ahead than they did in the first day of the hearings because they're going to repeat themselves over and over and over again.
00:28:59.800The other House impeachment managers are a little better.
00:29:03.060One or two of them have surprised me by being better than I thought they would be, but most of them are pretty poor.
00:29:08.460Representative Garcia of Houston essentially put everybody to sleep on the first night.
00:29:13.380So it's going to be long, grueling, and boring.
00:29:16.240The president's lawyers generally did a very good job.
00:29:19.220Pat Cipollone, the lead counsel, was excellent.
00:29:22.520And I think the highlight is going to be Alan Dershowitz coming in.
00:29:25.460Dershowitz is not coming in to make an argument about the facts.
00:29:28.600He's coming in to make an argument that this entire impeachment is unconstitutional based on his expertise as a constitutional law scholar and historian.
00:29:36.680He's written several books about the Constitution, about the Bill of Rights.
00:29:40.300Adam Schiff has twice now trashed Donald Trump, excuse me, trashed Alan Dershowitz.
00:29:45.820Schiff has trashed Alan Dershowitz by saying, well, he's just a criminal defense lawyer.
00:29:50.100He's not really an expert in constitutional law.
00:29:53.460Not only is it a lie, but it's a completely ridiculous ad hominem personal put down.
00:29:58.040And I think it's just going to give Alan Dershowitz an appetite to come in and absolutely destroy the Democrats' argument.
00:30:13.180But let me give you a little report from up here in frozen Canada.
00:30:17.140I was interested in Donald Trump going to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he gave quite a speech.
00:30:26.560And we'll have that speech on tomorrow's show.
00:30:29.200And all the Canadian media seem to be saying on Twitter, online is, how can Trump even be thinking about other things?
00:30:37.100He's running away from the impeachment.
00:30:38.800Why won't he talk about the impeachment?
00:30:40.020Like, the Canadian media were riveted by this.
00:30:45.100So even if it is constitutionally and legally improper, even if Adam Schiff is unlikable and another one of the impeachment managers is boring,
00:30:56.040the Canadian media thinks that this is catnip.
00:32:16.940And he may be called as a witness if Democrats succeed in opening up new witnesses.
00:32:22.840If they get John Bolton, who, by the way, will probably not be a very good witness for them.
00:32:27.320But if they get John Bolton and whoever else they want, you can be damn sure the Senate Republicans are going to call Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, the whistleblower, and anybody else they want to.
00:32:34.900And Biden's going to be pulled off the trail.
00:32:37.320And this is all happening with less than two weeks to go before the Iowa caucuses.
00:32:43.020So, yes, Democrats are getting airtime to talk about impeachment.
00:32:47.400What they're not doing is talking about health care.
00:32:50.700They're not talking about Green New Deal and climate change.
00:32:55.320They're not talking about anything that is of interest to their own primary voters, most of whom, including those on the left, see this as a distraction.
00:33:04.980There's no way the Senate's going to remove him from office.
00:33:07.000You need a two-thirds vote to do that.
00:33:08.380The Republicans are not going to split like that.
00:33:10.620You're not even going to get more than one or two Republicans to vote for that.
00:34:05.040Trump is showing the American people that he's still at work.
00:34:08.500Are you going to impeach and remove a president who is representing the country on the world stage, who is concluding trade deals, who is bombing bad guys, who is running and boasting about the world's strongest economy?
00:34:24.080So Trump is basically saying, look, you can impeach me, but you're risking all of this.
00:34:29.140You're also undermining the country's negotiating position if you take me out of the game.
00:34:34.300And all these world leaders have to get to know somebody else.
00:34:37.260So I think that this is actually Trump prosecuting or defending his own case in the impeachment trial by doing what he was elected to do so he can show the American people that he is staying focused while the Democrats are stuck in the Senate chamber.
00:34:54.420Well, I mean, that's the thing is especially 10 months before an election, if people want to get rid of Trump, they can do it pretty cleanly in November of this year.
00:35:07.260Are there districts where a Democrat won in Congress or Senate and Trump won the presidential vote that there's enough of an independent electorate that would say,
00:35:22.580we really don't like what you're doing, it smacks of undoing an election, it smacks of trickery, and we're going to take it out on our congressman, our senator, any other, because of course there's a lot of different people up for election in November, not just the president, every congressman, and a third of the Senate.
00:35:43.920Are there Democrats who must be saying, hey, please get us out of this mess?
00:36:16.080Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, these are unpopular figures in these districts, and remember, these are districts that voted for Trump.
00:36:24.200So you see a lot of candidates coming out now in these districts on the Republican side who are running against impeachment and doing very well.
00:36:32.480I'll give you a district I know well back in my old hometown of Chicago.
00:36:37.580There's a suburban district on the west side, the 6th District, was once represented by Peter Roskam, who was a real great congressman, really one of the best.
00:36:45.240Free market guy, pro-Israel, strong foreign policy, great congressman.
00:36:49.860He was ousted in the blue wave, and they elected a guy named Sean Kastens, a businessman with a very sharp tongue and not much else behind him in terms of political experience.
00:37:01.800He was elected on essentially a moderate platform, albeit with a very bare-knuckle style of politics.
00:37:09.040He tried to imitate Trump in insulting his opponent.
00:37:12.300But Kastens has voted for impeachment, and his opponent, a woman named Jeannie Ives, is now running on that.
00:37:18.660The district leans more toward Democrats in terms of overall party preference, but she is beating Kastens in early opinion polls by something like 10%.
00:37:33.480So the Republican challenger is beating the incumbent.
00:37:39.380Jeannie Ives is beating Sean Kastens in early opinion polls because of impeachment.
00:37:44.120That's how unpopular impeachment is in these districts.
00:37:46.840They want a Democrat in Congress, some of these districts, because a lot of suburban districts have moved against Trump.
00:37:52.640They don't like his rhetoric, women don't like him, whatever it is.
00:37:55.700But the impeachment thing is pushing a lot of those voters back into the Republican column.
00:38:01.160Democrats have wasted their mandate on impeachment, and that's what's happening in those districts.
00:38:05.980That's why Republicans are cautiously optimistic that they can win back the 18, 19 seats they're going to need to retake the House of Representatives.
00:38:18.320I want to let you get back to things because you're really covering this closely.
00:38:21.540I'm grateful for you shoehorning us into your day.
00:38:24.520I look at the Democratic presidential roster of nominees, and it seems weak to me.
00:38:31.220I think every one of them has a major flaw.
00:38:34.840Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg.
00:38:38.280I just, maybe I lack imagination, but I can't imagine any of them beating Trump, and I really have trouble imagining them being effective presidents.
00:38:46.640Can you give me your latest thinking on that and on the possibility?
00:38:51.740And it's almost too ridiculous to suggest, but I just want your thoughts.
00:38:54.720Is there a chance that Hillary Clinton will jump back in?
00:38:59.340I know that's absurd to ask, but I just want to ask it.
00:39:03.540Well, to the first part of your question, no, there is no Democrat who yet poses an alternative to Trump.
00:39:10.020There's no Democrat who really comes out as a leader, who comes across as someone who can rival Trump in their ability to achieve something, do something.
00:39:18.980There is one person emerging, and I have to say, I have to give him credit because he's emerging as the new frontrunner in at least one poll, in the CNN poll, despite the fact that he's stuck in the Senate with this impeachment thing, and that's Bernie Sanders.
00:39:35.980Bernie Sanders is coming out strong as Biden starts to fade a little bit.
00:39:41.240Now, we don't know how Iowa is going to vote.
00:39:43.020We don't know how New Hampshire is going to vote in the beginning of February, but Bernie Sanders is moving ahead.
00:39:49.020And I think one of the reasons he's moving ahead is precisely that Democrats have lost faith in the field as a whole.
00:39:56.780And Sanders, being the most authentically left-wing, he's the original Democratic Socialist, spent his honeymoon in the USSR, all that stuff, he, in a way, is a protest vote against the party establishment.
00:40:09.340And so if Democrats can't get a candidate who they think can actually win, they're going to go for a candidate that makes them feel good when they cast their vote.
00:40:57.840He was literally watching the impeachment, so I'm glad we stole 15 minutes from him.
00:41:01.940So very, very interesting, especially those thoughts about Bernie Sanders.
00:41:06.820And I don't know if you noticed, but just the other day, Hillary Clinton came out with a broadside against Bernie Sanders, saying no one likes him.
00:41:15.480You know, I know Hillary doesn't, and she put the knife in him.
00:41:18.640But I don't like Bernie Sanders' ideology, but I agree with Joel.
00:41:23.500He's got a likability, and maybe it's because he reminds me of that TV character, Larry David, from the show Curb Your Enthusiasm.
00:43:05.200For those who have real estate, for landlords, people with construction companies, banks, cell phone companies, low-skill employers like Tim Hortons,
00:43:42.080Yeah, AWR said that yesterday, and that's exactly right because everyone's on good behavior.
00:43:46.220You don't try something, you don't get a moment of road rage, you don't have an impulse when you don't know if the guy two rows over in the church pew is packing.