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Trump's Defense Team Delivers First Day Of Opening Arguments; Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Blasts NPR Reporter After Post- Interview Confrontation, Claims He Was Lied To About Off The Record Talk. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired January 25, 2020 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:00:03]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN NEWSROOM: And they kicked off with a familiar message, read the transcript, saying the president's call with Ukraine's president shows he did nothing wrong. And their closer, it should be up to the voters to decide the president's fate at the ballot box.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAT CIPOLLONE, WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL: We ask you out of respect to think about, think about whether what you've heard would really suggest to anybody, anything other that would be completely irresponsible abuse of power to do what they're asking you to do, to stop an election, to interfere in an election and to remove the president of the United States from the ballot. Let the people decide for themselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Today's opening arguments come after the Democrats spent more than 21 hours making their case for why the president should be impeached, convicted and removed from office.

We have our team following all of the developments here. Let's start with Lauren Fox on Capitol Hill. And, Lauren, I want to ask you, how are these opening arguments by the president's legal team being received there by Democrats and Republicans?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Well, very differently. Obviously, Brianna, Republicans are arguing that they feel very competent in the way that the president's defense team laid out their case today. Essentially, one of the fears from Republicans in leadership was that the defense team would come out with a fire and brimstone type message, one that may alienate some of those moderate Republicans that Democrats are trying to win over in this fight for witnesses, like John Bolton and Mick Mulvaney.

But they felt like today, the defense team was really evenhanded in the way they delivered their message. They said the fact that they went shorter rather than taking the full eight or nine or ten hours today was very important and a very smart strategic decision because members are tired, they're frustrated, they are ready for a break over the next couple of days before everyone has to come back Monday.

Now, Democrats were arguing that essentially what the defense team did today was it made it easier for them to make their case, that more witnesses and documents are needed. Because the defense team repeatedly said that there was no direct evidence that the president was asking for any of this. And what the Democrats are saying is if you want that evidence, you need people, like Mulvaney, you need people like Bolton, to come and actually testify.

So that is where Republicans and Democrats stand, after just about two hours of opening arguments from the president's defense team.

KEILAR: And, Jeremy, we're actually hearing the president is pleased with the performance. Tell us about this.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Brianna. A Republican source close to the president who actually spoke with him today told me that the president was extremely pleased with his legal team's presentation. He thought that they made a compelling case. And we are hearing as much frankly from the president on Twitter who writes just an hour, a little over an hour ago. He wrote, any fair- minded person watching the Senate trial today would be able to see how unfairly I have been treated and that this is indeed the totally partisan impeachment hoax that everybody, including the Democrats, truly knows it is. This should never be allowed to happen again.

Now, Brianna, we know, of course, that the president had been pushing for a much more theatrical, kind of flashy defense. That's why he considered for so long putting some of those fiery House Republicans directly on the Senate floor to make the case for him. But for now at least, it appears that for a president who has known sometimes for undercutting his staff who are trying to put out a message that's beneficial to him, that's going to help him in the long run, that the president is giving his team some leeway.

Another interesting thing I want to note, Brianna, to Lauren's point there about the argument that Democrats are making, that the president's legal team essentially made the case for witnesses today. We just got off a call with sources close on the president's legal team, and one of those individuals told me, in response to the question, that it's a desperate interpretation the Democrats -- for Democrats to argue that the president's legal team made the case for witnesses.

They are arguing instead that House Democrats initially said they had overwhelming evidence. But now they are asking for witnesses, they're asking for additional evidence to be introduced, and the president's legal team saying they're not putting much stock in that Democratic interpretation of their arguments. Brianna?

KEILAR: A very consistent interpretation that they're having. Jeremy, thank you. Lauren, thank you.

And with me now is Lawrence Tribe. He's a constitutional law professor at Harvard's Law School. He's also the co-author of the book, To End a Presidency, The Power of Impeachment. Lawrence, thank you so much for joining us.

LAWRENCE TRIBE, CONSTITUTIONAL LAW PROFESSOR, HARVARD LAW SCHOOL: Thank you, Brianna.

KEILAR: I want to start just by getting your reaction to these opening arguments from the president's legal team. What did you think about this today?

TRIBE: I think they were stylistically clever, because they were calm, they were brief, they gave reassurance to 53 Republican senators who have already made clear that their minds are pretty much made up.

[15:05:04]

At the same time, I think it is clear that every time they said, well, this was not a witness who spoke directly to the president, this was not someone who was in the room, where it happened, they were basically making the case, whether they liked it or not, for calling Mulvaney, for calling Bolton, for calling those who were in the room.

You know, when all is said and done, the case made by the impeachment managers for the House was a very strong one, but it was somewhat circumstantial. That is, at the very end, you have to make inferences, two plus two equals four, there is no one who actually heard the president say in so many words, screw those Ukrainians unless they give me an announcement of an investigation into my opponent. But, of course, that's not the way guys talk anyway.

But when we hear, if we do, from Bolton, from Mulvaney, from the others at the OMB and elsewhere, we will have reason to know exactly what happened. And if we don't, then we're really going to be in a quandary, because what we haven't heard yet is the bombastic argument of Alan Dershowitz and others who are going to say, we don't care what happened, none of this is impeachable, even if the president shook down a foreign adversary without actually committing a federal crime, or something that is crime-like. That would be a terrible precedent to set.

KEILAR: I want to ask you, because the president's attorneys today, they kept bringing up what the president was concerned about, they said was this burden-sharing, and also corruption. They tried to make the case that the hold on military aid to Ukraine was actually driven by the president's belief that other countries were not doing their fair share, and financially supporting Ukraine. The Democratic House managers sort of pre-butted that argument. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): If the issue is really Europe and burden- sharing, he has the perfect opportunity to raise that the very next day following the call. So what does he ask Gordon Sondland? Does he ask him, hey, Gordon, how is that effort to get the Europeans to do more coming, hey, Gordon, have you talked to Angela yet? No. He has only one question for Gordon Sondland, is he going to do the investigations. And the answer is, yes, he'll do anything he wants. He loves your ass. Okay, does that sound like burden-sharing to you? Of course not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: I should say they rebutted that. In the press conference after what we saw today.

Who was more convincing and were the president's lawyers convincing enough in that argument?

TRIBE: Well, not to me, but then I'm not entirely objective. I haven't taken an oath of impartiality. I would try if I were a senator. I'm not wholly impartial because Adam Schiff is one of my favorite former students. But I think he had the better of the argument. Because if it was all about burden-sharing, then what changed when the hold was suddenly lifted? Nothing really changed. The only thing that changed was that the president was caught.

In fact, all of the evidence points to the fact that the whole reason for the hold was neither a concern about burden-sharing nor a general concern about corruption. After all, the Department of Defense, the Department of State, had given clearance to Ukraine, saying they had met the anti-corruption goals, and the president was nonetheless dissatisfied. It seems to me that really suggests that his real concern was what it appears to have been, and that is, can we get an announcement that they're investigating Biden and Burisma, and this crazy CrowdStrike theory about Ukraine. An announcement, that's all they needed. They didn't actually need investigation into corruption.

Now, if you care about corruption, what you want is an investigation, an investigation that's undercover, if necessary. Certainly you don't want to alert the bad guys by saying, we are investigating you. So all together, the argument, the reason for the whole hold of this vitally needed aid was the concern of corruption and burden-sharing just doesn't add up. And if we have any doubt, then there is a way to resolve it. That is to call the witnesses who were in the room when it happened. And if they could exonerate the president, and why wouldn't they --

KEILAR: I hear you on that. Do you think the Republicans are going to allow that to happen, that they are going to allow witnesses to testify at this trial? And if they don't, how is that going to impact how this trial is viewed?

TRIBE: I think they probably won't. And I think that's sad. I think among other things, that means the trial will be viewed as not a real trial.

[15:10:03]

A real trial, everybody knows, has witnesses. A real trial has evidence. I think it will be viewed as a whitewash, as something where the fix in was with McConnell to begin with. And that means the president will not really be exonerated. He will be impeached forever. And that is a burden he will take with him, talk about burden-sharing, into the 2020 election. And I think that's what history will say. It will say that Republicans didn't do all they could to get to the bottom of things, but simply gave a pass to their guy in order to stay in office, not to have Trump go after them with primary opponents who would destroy their careers. They care more, it seems, about their careers than their country. And I don't think that's the way I would want to be remembered if I were a public figure.

KEILAR: Just hours before these opening arguments, there was new audio that surfaced of the president apparently demanding that former U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch be fired. She, of course, was the ambassador to Ukraine. And the president has since responded to this audio. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEV PARNAS, INDICTED RUDY GIULIANI ASSOCIATE: The biggest problem there I think where we need to start is we need to get rid of the ambassador she is still left over from the administration Clinton administration.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: What, the ambassador to (bleep)?

PARNAS: She's basically walking around telling everybody, wait, he's going to get impeached. Just wait. I mean, it's incredible.

TRUMP: Get rid of her. Get her out tomorrow. I don't care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out, okay? Do it.

I probably would have said it if it was Rudy there or somebody, but I make no bones about it, I want to have ambassador, I have every right. I want ambassadors that are chosen by me. I have a right to hire and fire ambassadors.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Do you think that new reporting, Lawrence, impacts the case against the president at all?

TRIBE: I think it does in a number of ways. For one thing, the language, take her out. That's kind of something that's echoed in the semi-transcript of the call later, she's going to go through some things. It shows a degree of vindictiveness and recklessness that makes this guy seem dangerous.

Besides that, it shows that there is a constant flow of new information that keeps coming in, so that Republicans who vote to acquit this president are taking the risk that when the trial is over, all kinds of stuff, like the Bolton book and everything he has to say, will come out, making it look like they gave their guy a pass.

Even though he had his own interests at stake, was not doing things for the good of the country. I think that's going to look terrible for those Republicans who by simply casting a vote to hear the actual witnesses who were there, and to demand the documents, after all, zero documents were produced in response to all of the requests from the House. It's going to make them look pretty bad.

And the stonewalling of this administration, totally unprecedented, not just invoking real legal privileges but demanding that Mulvaney, Bolton, everybody else just shut up, clam up, no documents be turned over. You know, if you're innocent, you don't take that stance. If you're innocent, you would want the stuff that would show your innocence to become public. That's not what this president has done.

KEILAR: Lawrence Tribe, thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate it.

TRIBE: Thank you, Brianna.

KEILAR: And up next, a juror in this trial, Senator Tom Carper, reacts to the Trump team's accusations that Democrats are trying to interfere in the 2020 election.

And this morning, veterans are demanding an apology from the president after he down-played traumatic brain injuries sustained by soldiers in Iraq after the Iran missile strikes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:15:00]

KEILAR: Day one of President Trump's impeachment defense is now in the books and the president is reportedly pleased. Earlier, I spoke with Senator Tom Carper, and I asked him about the president's lawyer accusing Democrats of wanting to overturn the 2016 election.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. TOM CARPER (D-DE): My first reaction as I recall in the last election, presidential election, he actually got three million fewer votes than his Democratic opponent did, and in the last, the follow-up to the last election, 17 intelligence agencies, of this country, this government, all concluded unanimously that the Russians had intervened in the election, and that they had done so in an effort to help Donald Trump.

They never mentioned that. They try to put up a lot of distractions. I call them shiny objects to keep us away from that. They focused a lot on burden-sharing. That's not the issue that's here. The question is, is this, did the president of the United States intercede to stop the flow of a lot of money, almost $400 million, to our ally, Ukraine, fighting a war with our adversary, Russia, and in an effort to get favor for the president, an investigation into the Bidens. That's what this is all about.

My own view -- I'm from Delaware, and Delaware is the first state to ratify the Constitution, we have a special place in our nation's history, care a lot about what's in the Constitution, and even the success of our nation, of our Democracy for 240 years has been a system of checks and balances.

I have an old minister said to me, the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing, the main thing is the sanctity of our system of checks and balances, three co-equal branches of government, the ability to make sure we know the truth and the truth will set us free.

[15:20:00]

If the people know the truth, they will be okay. If the Senate knows the truth, I think our country will be okay.

KEILAR: Let's revisit that point of burden-sharing that his team made, that if it appears the point they were trying to make is that the president was trying to push America's best interest when it came to burden sharing, meaning that the U.S. was helping more than it should be compared to other countries, that was one of the points that President Trump made on the call, they seemed to be linking that to arguing that the president was concerned about corruption. They seem to be saying that the president was looking out for America. What do you say to that?

CARPER: Well, the European Union provides a whole lot of aid to the Ukraine, mostly economic. They provide a fair amount of help to the Ukraine as well, mostly military. There is a sharing of responsibility, and there should continue to be. But the issue here isn't the appropriate amount of burden-sharing from the European Union or from us. The question is, did the president hold up aid to an ally, fighting the Russians, in order to try to get -- to extract from the president of Ukraine an agreement to call a couple of investigations both which would to discredit Joe Biden and help this president.

KEILAR: The lead impeachment manager, Adam Schiff, gave his closing remarks last night. Many Republicans were angry at what they heard from him. Let's listen to part of it.

SCHIFF: CBS News reported last night that a Trump confidante said that GOP senators were warned, vote against your president, vote against the president, and your head will be on a pike. Now, I don't know if that's true.

KEILAR: So let's listen to what Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican colleague of yours, had to say about that.

She said, I felt that the final moment was over the top. It was unnecessary. And she said it really offended a great number of us. What did you think about that, that head on a pike comment? Was that too much?

CARPER: I thought he pulled his punches, quite frankly, and said this is something that CBS, a reporter, didn't just say, I just made this up, or I heard this here. He said it was actually reported by CBS, and said (INAUDIBLE).

Here is the deal, Lord help us, Lord help us if my Republicans friends find most offensive to them in the last three days, the testimony that we heard, was that alluding to a CBS News report. They ought to be offended by the statements, the words, literally caught on tape by this president with respect to our U.S. Ambassador, to the Ukraine. We got to get rid of her. Get her out of here. I mean that is one of most highly recommended ambassadors who handled that part of the world in my lifetime and that's the way we're going to treat her? That's offensive and that was the president's own words.

KEILAR: Inside the Senate chamber, you said that you have been taking more notes yourself. I'm curious why that is. But also there have been a number of other senators who have been taking them as well. Joni Ernst, Lamar Alexander, Cory Gardner, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, David Perduie, they could all be seen taking notes, I guess, in a sort of marked way, when the deputy White House Counsel, Mike Purpura, gave a list of what he called the six facts that refute the Democrat's argument.

Why have you taken more notes and when did you see Republican colleagues doing that?

CARPER: I frankly wasn't watching my Republican colleagues take notes. I will say this. When Adam Schiff has literally closed the last two day, his closing segments, which I thought were just extraordinary, almost every Republican they put down their notes, they watched, they weren't talking to one another, they weren't getting up and walking around, they listened that what he had to say. And my hope is that the American people were similarly listening too.

I was taking notes force a couple of reasons. One of the primary reasons is every time I would hear a distraction, I would right write that down. Every time that I would hear like a bright shiny object that takes us away from the real core subject, I would write that down. Every time I heard them mention burden-sharing, suggesting that that was the source of really what's wrong (ph), I would write that down.

Every time they mentioned the work of the Mueller probe, and I would take that down, because they never mentioned 17 intelligence agencies, including the FBI, the CIA, and a whole host of others, all agreed on one thing. And what they agreed on was the Russians intervened in our election in 2016 and they agreed that they did so on behalf of Donald Trump and were successful.

KEILAR: And I'm just curious about this, how many pages of notes did you take?

CARPER: All together, I an probably up to about 15, and I write small. I write small. And my staff would tell you, not very well. My first grade teacher would say, not very well.

KEILAR: We all have areas for improvement, Senator.

[15:25:00]

Thank you so much, Senator Tom Carper, we appreciate it.

CARPER: Thank you so much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: A reporter says the Secretary of State screamed and cursed at her after an interview. Also pop quizzed her. What she asked that made mike Pompeo so upset.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blasting an NPR reporter after she claimed he cursed at her during a conversation that Pompeo says was off the record. The fiery exchange between Pompeo and Mary Louise Kelly came after their contentious interview on NPR.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[15:30:00]

MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I have defended every State Department official. We've built a great team, the team that works here --

MARY LOUISE KELLY, REPORTER, NPR: Sir, respectfully, where have you defended Marie Yovanovitch?

[15:30:00]

(BEGIN AUDIO FEED)

MIKE POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE: I have defended every State Department official. We built a great team. The team that works here is going amazing work around the world.

(CROSSTALK)

MARY LOUISE KELLY, ANCHOR, NPR: -- defended Marie Yovanovitch.

MIKE POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE: I've defended every single person on the team. I have done what's right for every single person on this team.

KELLY: Can you point me toward their remarks where you defended Marie Yovanovitch?

POMPEO: I said all I'm going to say today. Thank you.

Thanks for the repeated opportunity. I appreciate that.

(END AUDIO FEED)

KEILAR: Following that conversation, Kelly said Pompeo's aide asked her to come into his private State Department living room without a recorder and that's when Pompeo repeatedly directed the "F" word at her. And says that Pompeo also said, "Do you think Americans care about Ukraine," and, "People will hear about this."

Kelly said Pompeo had an aide bring an unmarked map to quiz Kelly on where Ukraine is, and she pointed to Ukraine on the map, and then she said the secretary put it away. At no point did the aide say that the conversation was not reportable,

according to Kelly.

And this morning, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo responded claiming that Kelly lied twice. First, when setting up the interview last month, and then again yesterday, when he says Kelly allegedly agreed to have that post-interview talk off of the record. And then he went on to slam her decency, and also the media, as a whole.

Let's bring in CNN global affairs analyst, Susan Glasser, to talk more about this.

You have covered Mike Pompeo extensively. You are also very familiar with Mary Louise Kelly and certainly her fine work. I mean, I think you can hear in that interview that she is a pretty straight-talking journalist.

I just want to get your off-the-top reaction when, not just to the statement, but just when you heard what had happened in this interaction between them, after the interview.

SUSAN GLASSER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, first of all, Brianna, I have to say, I've known Mary Louise Kelly for three decades and she is a person of unimpeachable integrity, and you know, professional courage.

And, frankly, it takes a lot of professional courage at this point, to be attacked baselessly by the secretary of state.

I have to say, in this day and age, when it is hard to maintain your sense of shock and outrage, when there are so many things, I've never seen a statement like this from the secretary of state.

I was the editor in chief of "Foreign Policy" magazine. I have a biography of secretary of state coming up. That's a disgrace to the State Department.

That statement that you just presented to your viewers, has multiple outrageous lies and falsehoods about a fine reporter impugning her career.

First of all, he says she lied twice. She has, in writing, confirmation with his staff that she was going to ask him about Ukraine. Second of all, he claims that the conversation was off the record. It was not.

I have spoken with her. She says not only was it not off the record, she would have refused to go into his office on those conditions.

This is just a lie. And the secretary of state should retract that statement. To malign the integrity of a journalist doing her job, is just out of control.

KEILAR: One of the things that I thought was such a tell from the statement, and I wonder if you'll agree with this, too, the idea that she is -- he basically says she didn't pick out Ukraine, as the country, that she picked Bangladesh. Bangladesh is not Ukraine, the statement says.

I have the biggest difficulty imagining that really any journalist who has covered Ukraine at all, would make that mistake, and certainly, in her case, with her experience that she would make that mistake.

GLASSER: Well, look, I mean obviously, it is on an entirely different continent, and you know, if you know where Russia is, you know where Ukraine is.

And of course --

KEILAR: But my point is do you think this is a lie in the statement?

(CROSSTALK)

GLASSER: It is a falsehood. It is a falsehood.

And by the way, what he said in the interview with her on NPR was also a lie because he said, I repeatedly defended Marie Yovanovitch, and he ended rudely the interview when she correctly challenged him on it because, in fact, he has never defended this career ambassador, who was smeared and fired by the president of the United States.

And you know, that's a fact that he misrepresented in the interview, which caused him to shut is down.

Pompeo has done an interesting thing. Since he's become secretary of state, he has essentially walled himself off from rigorous questioning by the national press.

(CROSSTALK)

GLASSER: It is not the first time that he's attacked a journalist --

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: Cursed at them like this?

GLASSER: Absolutely. My sources tell me repeatedly in what he thought were private settings or where he did say off the record, he has sworn and cursed and used the "F" word as he did with Mary Louise. The only difference is now he has now been called on it publicly.

KEILAR: Susan, thank you so much. Susan Glasser, we really appreciate you being here.

[15:34:36]

And still ahead, the spread of the deadly coronavirus is accelerating. We'll have the latest on the growing crisis.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: The death toll from the intensifying coronavirus outbreak is rising. And officials now say it is at 41 people in China have died. There are now 1400 confirmed cases globally. Two of those here in the U.S.

The Centers for Disease Control confirmed to CNN that it is working with the U.S. government to evacuate all U.S. citizens from Wuhan, China, which is the epicenter of this outbreak.

CNN senior producer, Steven Jiang, joins me now from Beijing.

And, Steven, during the meeting on the coronavirus, the president of China Xi Jinping says China is facing a grave situation and he warned that this outbreak is accelerating. Tell us how things are where you are.

STEVEN JIANG, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER: That's right, Brianna, a warning from China's most powerful leader in decades. And he used some war- like globalization language and saying among his top priorities is to save lives and also to stop the spread of this virus at any cost.

Now, to that, of course, the authorities have locked down an entire province. Six million people, affected. There's no way for them to basically leave where they live.

[15:40:01]

And of course, the more visible involvement of President Xi is probably going to inject some sense of control over an increasingly chaotic and depressing situation on the ground, Brianna.

Because in the past few days, what we have been hearing most is the local hospital system has been completely overwhelmed in Wuhan where people are lining up for hours only to be turned away, even when they were displaying all of the symptoms of this virus.

Now, they are saying that they are sending in reinforcements in medical supplies, and medical personnel. And also, building two brand new facilities with more than 2300 hospital beds, from scratch, and promising to complete the construction within two weeks -- Brianna?

KEILAR: Steven, the CDC released a statement about the effort to get U.S. citizens out of Wuhan saying quote, "The Department of State has the lead for the safe and expedient departure of all U.S. citizens from Wuhan, China. The CDC is aware and coordinating in the planning."

What more are you learning about that effort?

JIANG: Well, details are still being finalized as we speak, but you know, they are still trying to find out what kind of aircraft to send, a narrow body Boeing or wide body, the flight plan and where this plane where be landing in the U.S.

And a lot of this, of course, depends on what the Chinese authorities allow the U.S. to do. But my source is telling me the Chinese have been very cooperative.

What we do know is the U.S. is pulling out about three dozen diplomats and families from Wuhan. And also offering a chance to buy a seat on this plane to any Americans in the city who have registered with the consulate which, of course, is now closed.

And this flight will be staffed with medical personnel to treat anyone with symptoms and to also contain the virus on board if needed.

And, Brianna, this is now the only -- the U.S. is not the only country doing this. Britain and South Korea are doing some things very similar, to pull their people out of the epicenter -- Brianna?

KEILAR: Steven, thank you so much. Steven Jiang, in Beijing, for us.

America's largest combat veterans organization is demanding an apology from President Trump after he down-played the injuries that some U.S. servicemembers sustained from the Iran missile strike in Iraq earlier this month.

The Pentagon initially said no one was injured but is now confirming 34 servicemembers have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries from the missile attack.

Earlier this week, the president told reporters he does not consider the brain injuries to be, quote, "very serious" compared to combat wounds visible from the outside of the body, for instance, a limb. And he went on to minimize the severity of the injuries as just headaches.

Of the servicemembers that were injured, there are 17 who are still being treated and the others have returned to duty in Iraq.

Still ahead, the election is just nine months from now and the president's legal team does not want you to forget it. Will this strategy pay off?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:47:36]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAT CIPOLLONE, COUNSEL TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: They're asking you, not only to overturn the results of the last election, but as I've said before, they're asking you to remove President Trump from the ballot in an election that's occurring in approximately nine months.

They're here to perpetrate the most massive interference in an election in American history and we can't allow that to happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: That was White House counsel, Pat Cipollone.

And with me now are two CNN political analysts, going to break this down with us, Julie Pace, Washington bureau chief of the Associated Press, and Ryan Lizza, chief Washington correspondent for "Politico."

I wonder -- largely, I'm curious, how you thought today went, but just specifically, that argument, where Cipollone is saying, you know, he's turning what Democrats have said on their head, this is about abuse of power on the part of Democrats, this is about Democrats messing with an election.

What did you think, Julie?

JULIE PACE, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It is interesting because both sides have been trying to hold out the election as something to consider in this process.

Republicans say hey, if you want Trump out of office, you can do that in nine months through the electoral process. But Democrats say, imagine Trump goes and wins re-election, imagine how emboldened that he would be if he does. There will be no check on his power. So it is interesting how they're both holding that out.

I think, for Republicans, it's interesting that they're skipping past some of the substance of what Trump did, and just saying, if you actually want him out, if you actually think what he did was bad, there's another way to deal with it.

KEILAR: What did you think?

RYAN LIZZA, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I think that has always been one of the most powerful arguments against impeachment. It gives Republicans a way out, a way of not deciding this on the merits but to just say, I'm going to defer to the voters in the fall. They now have all of these facts before them.

So if you really -- don't actually have to take a position on the case, by playing to this, let-the-voters-decide argument.

This is the first impeachment that has happened in the first term in modern history, right? So Nixon, obviously, resigned but had already been re-elected and Bill Clinton had already been re-elected.

And there's always been this argument that is available to the president and his defenders that wasn't available to the last two presidents who faced impeachment.

[15:50:56]

Schiff hit this head-on in his final presentations on Thursday and Friday. I was in the chamber on Thursday and Friday. And the Republicans were really paying close attention to his final presentation on the first article.

He addressed this. He said the reason you can't let the voters do this is because the whole case is about the Democratic process. He repeatedly said he cheated and got caught. He'll do it again.

The argument -- one thing that strengthens the argument, Democrats would say is, after the Mueller report came out, this behavior sort of accelerated. Exoneration --

(CROSSTALK)

PACE: His call with Zelensky came right after the Mueller report.

KEILAR: Right after the testimony --

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: -- Mueller's testimony, right?

LIZZA: Yes.

KEILAR: Anything stick out to you? Anything surprise you? Anything makes you say, no, we're not going to see witnesses or maybe we will. What did you think?

PACE: One of the things that was surprising today is it seems like Trump's team is saving some of their arguments about Joe Biden for Monday when they expect there will be larger audience. That's probably in line with what President Trump wants them to do.

They have been previewing this idea that they will turn the tables on Joe Biden. It does seem like they are saving that.

The other takeaway I have is that there's 's very little movement among Republicans in terms of interest among witnesses. We heard Mitt Romney, a few others who said they are open to it. But they need four Republicans. Democrats need four Republicans to vote yes on witnesses. That's a really, really tough hurdle for them at this point.

KEILAR: Ryan, you've been in the chamber.

LIZZA: Yes.

KEILAR: Give us a sense of what is it like? What sort of struck you that you kind of have to be in there watching to notice?

LIZZA: It depends on the time of day. When it starts at 1:00, people are very engaged and taking notes. As you get later into the evening --

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: Chugging candy.

(LAUGHTER)

LIZZA: People's attention flags.

And it depends on what the presentation is about. When Schiff was presenting, he would go first or last and kind of tie everything together. He tended to seize every one's attention.

When some of the other managers were taking people through the slog of facts, you could see people's attentions was just sort of flagging a little bit especially on the Republican side.

You have some people who are very aggressive note, like Elizabeth Warren. During the 2020 campaign as well. So paying a lot of attention to Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.

KEILAR: Klobuchar.

LIZZA: Amy Klobuchar. And they have different styles. Bernie Sanders is not a note taker. Elizabeth Warren taking very detailed notes, in her handwriting.

It's really strange, the Senators themselves, they look up at us, in the press gallery, because they know there's like a fish-bowl quality to it.

I think after the first day, when there were lots of tweets and commentary about what everyone was doing, they were on better behavior because they knew they were closely watched.

(LAUGHTER)

KEILAR: I wonder, do you think there will be witnesses. And can you imagine -- let's think into the future, a decade or two looking back, and if it would have mattered if there weren't witnesses.

PACE: I think it's a great question. In terms of whether there will be witness, we have seen so few examples over the last couple of years of Republicans really acting counter to the president or Mitch McConnell's wishes. It's just not what they do.

I was talking to a couple of Republican sources who said there could be three who will go for witnesses, or nine if it looks like there's a big rush but can there be four.

Is there one brave Republican Senator who will say, I'll be the fourth and put you over the finish line?

Couple of people you might want to watch. Again, Romney has said he looks likely to vote for witnesses. Susan Collins, certainly. Lamar alexander, a real institutionalist, who is retiring. And another Senator, Cory Gardener, in Colorado, who has a tough re-election fight.

But they have to decide what do they think is in their political interest short term versus, your point, what might be the best vote to make for history.

KEILAR: Real quick, what's your bet on this?

LIZZA: I wouldn't predict. I don't know.

It does seem like most Republicans are looking for an argument to -- they are looking for something to seize onto where they don't have to make a judgment about whether a future president can do exactly what President Trump did. That's what's happening here. We're setting a precedent about presidential behavior.

When I talked to Republicans, that's the thing they worry a bit about. They want to move past this but not endorse the inviting a foreign power to interfere in the election.

And even with some of the commentary over the last few days, when people got mad at Nadler for being too mean or Schiff talking about the head on the pike thing, you get a sense that Republicans are looking to find something to move past this.

So I think it's less likely they will have witnesses, but I wouldn't predict it.

(CROSSTALK)

[15:55:00]

KEILAR: All right. We'll stay tuned.

That's a really long way of saying I don't know.

(LAUGHTER)

KEILAR: Ryan, Julie, thank you so much. I did enjoy it. Thank you both.

That does it for this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. Don't go anywhere. We have more on the first day of president's legal team's opening arguments in the Senate impeachment trial after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:00:04]

KEILAR: Hello. I'm Brianna Keilar, in Washington. You're watching CNN's special coverage of the impeachment trial of President Trump.