Biden says he won’t be part of witness deal some Democrats reportedly eyeing

Joe Biden, the 2020 Democratic presidential frontrunner, said Wednesday he wants "no part" of a witness swap reportedly being discussed by some members of his own party.
Under the hypothetical deal, Democrats would reportedly offer up Biden or his son Hunter Biden to testify at President Trump's Senate impeachment trial in return for testimony from a Republican figure, such as ex-national security adviser John Bolton.
The Washington Post quoted the former vice president admitting that it was "not an irrational question" but said Trump's trial was a "constitutional issue." He said he does not want to see the trial turn into a "farce or some kind of political theater."
Biden, while campaigning in Iowa, denied that talks of a witness swap were taking place. When told by a Post reporter that the topic was being discussed, he responded, "No they're not," the paper reported.
A witness swap that would result in Hunter Biden and Bolton testifying would be the most dramatic development in the trial thus far. At the heart of the impeachment trial is Trump's July 25, 2019 call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump said the call was focused on corruption in Kiev and raised Biden as an example.
Hunter's position on the board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma while his father was vice president has been a rallying point for Republicans as they try to defend Trump against impeachment charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Democrats see Bolton as a potential witness who could provide first-hand testimony linking Trump's decision to withhold U.S. aid from Ukraine directly to the country's willingness to investigate the Bidens.
Fiona Hill, a former top White House expert on Russia, testified in November that Bolton shared her concern about what she saw as a push to get Ukraine to conduct the investigations.
She testified in front of the House Intelligence Committee and recalled Bolton expressing his own concerns about the push and told her to tell National Security Council lawyer John Eisenberg that he does not want to be a part of this "drug deal."
"He was saying that sarcastically, of course, I mean, just to be clear. Actually, he was angry, but he was also sarcastic. I mean — he wasn’t inferring that they were cooking up an actual drug deal in the War Room," she said.
Trump and Zelensky have both denied any quid pro quo. Trump called the entire impeachment process a political witch hunt. There is no evidence of wrongdoing by Biden or his son.
The Post reported that some of the Democrats taking part in the discussion about a potential witness swap believe Biden could actually benefit politically from testifying because it would give him a chance to deliver a statesmanlike performance.
Both Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have spoken out against the potential of a witness swap.
"Trials aren't trades for witnesses," Schiff said.
Fox News' Brooke Singman and Adam Shaw and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Schiff warns of Russian attack on US mainland, as Day 2 of Trump's Senate impeachment trial concludes

House Democrats launched into lengthy arguments that broke little ground, if any, in President Trump's impeachment trial Wednesday -- as the head impeachment manager, California Rep. Adam Schiff, suggested that Russians could attack the U.S. and insisted that removing Trump from office was necessary because the integrity of the 2020 election could not be "assured."
Trump's lawyers sat by, waiting their turn, as the president blasted the proceedings from afar, threatening jokingly to face off with the Democrats by coming to "sit right in the front row and stare at their corrupt faces."
The challenge before the House managers has been clear. Democrats were given 24 hours over three days to prosecute the charges against Trump, trying to win over not just fidgety senators sitting silently in the chamber but an American public, deeply divided over the president and his impeachment in an election year.
Most senators sat at their desks throughout the day, as the rules stipulated, though some stretched their legs, standing behind the desks or against the back wall of the chamber, passing the time. Visitors watched from the galleries, one briefly interrupting in protest.
Almost immediately after Chief Justice John Roberts gaveled in Wednesday's session, bored and weary senators started openly flouting some basic guidelines. The Associated Press reported that a Democrat in the back row leaned on his right arm, covered his eyes and stayed that way for nearly a half-hour, and some lawmakers openly snickered when Schiff said he'd speak for only 10 minutes.
"I do see the members moving and taking a break," freshman Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., one of the House prosecutors, said mid-speech at the center podium. "I probably have another 15 minutes."
"You just have to stretch and you just got to stand. Those chairs, they look nice, [but] they are not comfortable chairs," Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, a key swing-vote moderate, said of the restlessness while Schiff spoke.
The previous day of the trial lasted for more than 12 hours, and ended well past midnight on a testy note as Roberts admonished both sides for their conduct. On Wednesday, Murkowski slammed Democratic impeachment manager Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., for arguing the previous evening that senators who didn't vote for immediate subpoenas were defying their oaths of office: “As one who is listening attentively and working hard to get to a fair process, I was offended," Murkowski said.
Perhaps sensing the ennui in the chamber on Day 2 of the trial, Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, sought to keep the stakes high. He suggested at one point that military aid to Ukraine was essential so the U.S. would not have to fight Russians at home, as soldiers did in the videogame "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2."
"As one witness put it during our impeachment inquiry, the United States aids Ukraine and her people so that we can fight Russia over there, and we don't have to fight Russia here," Schiff said, drawing rebukes from commentators across the political spectrum.
"Liberals used to mock Bush supporters when they used this jingoistic line during the war on Iraq," wrote journalist Max Blumenthal. "Now they deploy it to justify an imperialist proxy war against a nuclear power."
Schiff attracted the most criticism, however, for later making the head-turning argument that Trump must be removed from office by the Senate -- rather than by voters in the 2020 election -- because it is impossible to be sure the 2020 election won't be compromised.
"The president's misconduct cannot be decided at the ballot box, for we cannot be assured that the vote will be fairly won," Schiff remarked. He did not elaborate.
Constitutional scholar Alan Dershowitz, who will speak against impeachment, is expected to argue before the Senate that removing a president is a fundamentally undemocratic remedy that requires "criminal-like" conduct -- a standard he will argue is not met by Democrats' two articles of impeachment, which do not allege federal crimes.
But, both Republicans and left-of-center commentators didn't wait long to deride Schiff's incendiary arguments in more direct terms.
"And right here is proof of the Democrats’ plan all along," Trump campaign director of communications Tim Murtaugh said in response. "Every moment of the impeachment sham has been geared toward interfering with the 2020 election. Schiff is preemptively calling into question the results of an election that is still more than 9 months away."
Aaron Mate, a contributor at The Nation, added: "For all the talk about Russia undermining faith in US elections, how about Russiagaters like Schiff fear-mongering w/ hysterics like this? Let's assume Ukraine did what Trump wanted: announce a probe of Burisma. Would that delegitimize a 2020 US election? This is a joke."
And during the proceedings, Trump retweeted a post from Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul: "The more we hear from Adam Schiff, the more the GOP is getting unified against this partisan charade." Trump added, "True!"
Meanwhile, the Republican House leader, California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, suggested during the day that Schiff should be censured by the House for constantly lying, including by apparently misrepresenting key documents from Lev Parnas, a Giuliani associate.
Schiff, though, was undeterred. Attempting to underscore the human cost of Trump's temporary aid holdup, Schiff further asserted that the money was "designed to help Ukraine defend itself from the Kremlin's aggression" and that "more than 15,000 Ukrainians have died fighting Russian forces and their proxies."
Republicans erupted when Schiff made a similar argument during last year's House impeachment probe. Trump's lawyers were likely to fire back when it's their turn to present arguments -- in part because former President Obama provided less aid to Ukraine than the Trump administration has.
Additionally, Republicans have pointed out that the temporary lack of aid has not been directly linked to any casualties, and that the U.S. cannot reasonably be held responsible for the actions of Russian-backed militants in Ukraine.
Schiff also repeatedly made the false claim that White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney had said people should "get over" the idea that Trump was tying foreign aid to political investigations. Mulvaney, in fact, had remarked only that politics and foreign policy sometimes overlap.
Schiff, who had previously claimed to have evidence that the Trump campaign secretly colluded with Russia, was outlining what the Democrats contended was the president's "corrupt scheme" to abuse his presidential power and then obstruct Congress' investigation.
He called on senators not to be "cynical" about politics, but to draw on the intent of the nation's Founding Fathers who provided the remedy of impeachment.
"Over the coming days, we will present to you—and to the American people—the extensive evidence collected during the House’s impeachment inquiry into the president's abuse of power," Schiff argued. "You will hear their testimony at the same time as the American people. That is, if you will allow it."
The proceedings were unfolding at the start of an election year, and there have been few signs that Republicans were interested in calling more witnesses or going beyond a fast-track assessment likely to bring a quick vote on charges related to Trump's dealings with Ukraine.
Some Democrats sounded a note of concern that Republicans haven't expressed much interest in crossing the aisle concerning witness and document requests. "I can only speak for myself: strikingly little," Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said after the proceedings adjourned, when asked how much Republican outreach he has seen.
The trial has marked just the third time the Senate has weighed whether an American president should be removed from office. Democrats argued Trump abused his office by asking Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden while withholding crucial military aid, and also obstructed Congress by refusing to turn over documents or allow officials to testify in the House probe.
Republicans have defended Trump's actions and cast the process as a politically motivated effort to weaken the president in the midst of his reelection campaign. Specifically, Republicans have pointed out that Ukrainian leaders said they felt no undue pressure; that the longstanding constitutional executive privilege shielded the White House from having to respond to comprehensive subpoenas; and that the Democrats' case was based largely on hearsay.
Trump's legal team also has argued that Democrats' impeachment case couldn't be as "open-and-shut" as advertised given the apparently urgent need for new evidence even after the House impeachment inquiry.
In any event, the White House has said Trump's suggested probe into Biden was appropriate.
A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed the public was slightly more likely to say the Senate should convict and remove Trump from office than to say it should not, 45 percent to 40 percent. But, a sizable percentage, 14 percent, said they didn't know enough to have an opinion.
One question on which there was wide agreement: Trump should allow top aides to appear as witnesses at the trial. About 7 in 10 said so, including majorities of Republicans and Democrats, according to the poll.
The strategy of more witnesses, though, seemed all but settled. Wrangling over rules for the trial stretched past midnight Tuesday night, with Republicans shooting down one-by-one Democrats' efforts to get Trump aides including former national security adviser John Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to testify.
Senators are likely to repeat those rejections next week, shutting out any chance of new testimony.
One longshot idea to pair one of Trump's preferred witnesses — Biden's son Hunter — with Bolton or another whom Democrats wanted was swiftly rejected.
"That's off the table," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters.
Trump, who was in Davos, Switzerland, attending a global economic forum, praised his legal team and suggested he would be open to his advisers testifying, though it seemed unlikely. He said "national security" concerns would stand in the way.
After the House prosecutors present their case, the president's lawyers are set to follow with another 24 hours over three days. They are expected to take only Sunday off.
"There's a lot of things I'd like to rebut," Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow said at the Capitol, "and we will rebut."
Sekulow also said that he thought it was unlikely that Democrats would meet the threshold necessary to demonstrate the need for additional witnesses, but that the Trump team was preparing for every contingency.
Then there will be 16 hours for senators, who must sit quietly at their desks, no speeches or cellphones, to ask written questions, and another four hours for deliberations.
The impeachment trial is set against the backdrop of the 2020 election. All four senators who are presidential candidates have been off the campaign trail, seated as jurors.
Campaigning at stops in Iowa, Joe Biden also rejected having his son testify, or even appearing himself. "I want no part of that," he said.
"People ask the question, isn't the president going to be stronger and harder to beat if he survives this? Yes, probably. But Congress has no choice," Biden added, saying senators must cast their votes and "live with that in history.”
Some Republicans expressed disdain for it all.
Iowa GOP Sen. Joni Ernst spoke sarcastically about how excited she was to hear the "overwhelming evidence" the House Democrats promised against Trump. "Once we've heard that overwhelming evidence," she added, raising her voice mockingly, "I don't know that we'll need to see additional witnesses, but let's hear about that overwhelming evidence."
The trial began with an apparent setback on Tuesday for Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell, who backed off his plans to limit each side's arguments to two days, as the White House had preferred.
But, in a strong show of Republican unity, the GOP-led Senate repeatedly resisted Democrats' amendments to McConnell's rules, and ultimately approved a rules package pushing off a final decision on whether to seek additional testimony until late in the trial.
Schumer bemoaned the remaining limitations, saying Wednesday the impeachment trial "begins with a cloud hanging over it, a cloud of unfairness."
Republicans have been eager for a swift trial. Still, Trump's legal team passed on an opportunity to file a motion to dismiss the case on Wednesday, an acknowledgment that there were not enough Republican votes to support it.
The White House legal team, in its court filings and presentations, has not disputed Trump's actions, but the lawyers insisted the president did nothing wrong.
Fox News' Chad Pergram, Marisa Schultz, Adam Shaw and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Pencil Neck Cartoons

Senate approves impeachment trial rules, rejecting witnesses

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Senate plunged into President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial with Republicans abruptly abandoning plans to cram opening arguments into two days but solidly rejecting Democratic demands for more witnesses to expose what they deem Trump’s “trifecta” of offenses.

The daylong session started Tuesday with the setback for Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell and the president’s legal team, but it ended near 2 a.m. Wednesday with Republicans easily approving the rest of the trial rules largely on their terms. The result is Trump’s historic trial, unfolding amid a watchful public in an election year.

“We have a great case,” Trump said as he began his second day at a global economic forum in Davos, Switzerland. He said he thought his legal time was doing a “very good job.”

The trial is now on a fast-track with almost no signs of Republican resistance to the actions that led to his impeachment.

“It’s about time we bring this power trip in for a landing,” said White House counsel Pat Cipollone, the president’s lead lawyer, lashing out at the House Democrats prosecuting the case.

“It’s a farce,” he said about the impeachment proceeding, “and it should end.”

Chief Justice John Roberts gaveled open the session, with House prosecutors on one side, Trump’s team on the other, in the well of the Senate, as senators sat silently at their desks, under oath to do “impartial justice.” No cellphones or other electronics were allowed.

As the day stretched deep into the night, lawyerly arguments gave way to more pointedly political ones. Tempers flared and senators paced the chamber. Democrats pursued what may be their only chance to force senators to vote on hearing new testimony.

After one particularly bitter post-midnight exchange, Roberts intervened, taking the rare step of admonishing both the Democratic House managers prosecuting the case and the White House counsel to “remember where they are.”

“I think it is appropriate at this point for me to admonish both the House managers and the president’s counsel in equal terms to remember that they are addressing the world’s greatest deliberative body,” the usually reserved Roberts said. He told them that description of the Senate stemmed from a 1905 trial when a senator objected to the word “pettifogging,” because members should “avoid speaking in a manner and using language that is not conducive to civil discourse.”

Over and over, Republicans turned back Democratic amendments to subpoena documents from the White House, State Department, Defense Department and budget office. By the same 53-47 party-line, they turned away witnesses with front-row seats to Trump’s actions including acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and John Bolton, the former national security adviser critical of the Ukraine policy.

Only on one amendment, to allow more time to file motions, did a single Republican, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, join Democrats. But it, too, was rejected, 52-48.

“It’s not our job to make it easy for you,” Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee leading the prosecution, told the Senate. “Our job is to make it hard to deprive the American people of a fair trial.”

As the visitors’ gallery filled earlier with guests, actress-and-activist Alyssa Milano among them, and Trump’s most ardent House allies lining the back rows, the day that began as a debate over rules quickly took on the cadence of a trial proceeding over whether the president’s actions toward Ukraine warranted removal from office.

Cipollone led the prosecution, scoffing that the House charges against Trump were “ridiculous,” insisting the president “has done absolutely nothing wrong.”

The White House legal team did not dispute Trump’s actions, when he called Ukraine and asked for a “favor,” which was to investigate Democrat Joe Biden as the U.S. was withholding military aid the ally desperately needed as it faced off with hostile Russia on its border. But the lawyers insisted the president did nothing wrong. “Absolutely no case,” Cipollone said.

Schiff, the California Democrat, said America’s Founders added the remedy of impeachment in the Constitution with “precisely this type of conduct in mind — conduct that abuses the power of office for a personal benefit, that undermines our national security, and that invites foreign interference in the democratic process of an election.”

Said Schiff: “It is the trifecta of constitutional misconduct justifying impeachment.″

The other lead lawyer on Trump’s team, Jay Sekulow, retorted, “I’ll give you a trifecta,” outlining complaints over the House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry process.

The impeachment trial is testing whether Trump’s actions toward Ukraine warrant removal as voters are forming their own verdict on his White House.

All four senators who are presidential candidates were off the campaign trail, seated as jurors. “My focus is going to be on impeachment,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent, told reporters.

McConnell stunned senators and delayed the start of proceedings with his decision to back off some of his proposed rules. He made the adjustment after encountering resistance from Republicans during a closed-door lunch meeting. Senators worried about the political optics of “dark of night” sessions that could come from cramming the 24 hours of opening arguments from each side into just two days.

Collins and Sen. Lisa Murkowksi of Alaska, who often buck party leadership, along with a substantial number of other Republicans, wanted to make the changes, according to people familiar with the situation.

It was only when the clerk started reading the dry language of the resolution that the hand-written changes to extend debate to three days became apparent. It also allowed the House impeachment record to be included in the Senate.

The turnaround was a swift lesson as White House wishes run into the reality of the Senate. The White House wanted a session kept to a shorter period to both expedite the trial and shift more of the proceedings into late night, according to a person familiar with the matter but unauthorized to discuss it in public.

“READ THE TRANSCRIPTS!” the president tweeted from overseas, at a global leaders conference in Davos, Switzerland.

That’s the transcript of his phone call in which he asked new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for “a favor.” The Democrats cite that transcript as solid evidence against Trump, though he repeatedly describes it as “perfect.”

The House impeached Trump last month on a charge of abuse of power for pushing Ukraine to investigate Democratic rival Biden and his son Hunter Biden as the White House was withholding military aid from Ukraine. Trump also was impeached on a second charge, of obstruction of Congress, in the House probe.

Trump’s legal team, absent its TV-showcase attorneys, Alan Dershowitz and Kenneth Starr who were not in the chamber, argued that in seeking new evidence the House was bringing a half-baked case.

But Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, one of the House managers and the first woman to argue for the prosecution in a presidential impeachment trial, said the House wasn’t asking the Senate to do the job for them. “The House is asking the Senate to do its job, to have a trial,” she said. “Have you ever heard of a trial without evidence?″

The White House had instructed officials not to testify in the House inquiry, and refused to turn over witnesses or documents, citing what is says is precedence in defiance of congressional subpoenas.

The ambassadors and national security officials who did appear before the House delivered often striking testimony, highlights that were displayed on television screens during the Senate proceeding.

At one point, Democrat Schiff displayed video of Trump himself suggesting there should be more witnesses testifying.

One by one, the House managers made the case, drawing on their own life experiences.

Rep. Val Demings, D-Fla., a former police chief, said she never saw anyone take “such extreme steps to hide evidence.″ Rep. Jason Crow, a former Army Ranger who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, seemed to capture senators’ attention when he told them near he knew the hour was late, but it was morning in Ukraine where soldiers were waking up to fight Russia, depending on U.S. aid.

It was when Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the House Judiciary Committee chairman also leading the prosecution, said the White House lawyers “lie” that Cipollone and Sekulow retorted that Nadler should be embarrassed and apologize, leading to Roberts’ admonition.

No president has ever been removed from office. With its 53-47 Republican majority, the Senate is not expected to mount the two-thirds vote needed for conviction.

___

Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick, Eric Tucker, Alan Fram, Laurie Kellman, Andrew Taylor, Matthew Daly and Padmananda Rama in Washington, Jamey Keaten in Davos, Switzerland and David Pitt in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.

Trending on AP News

Outraged speeches mark impeachment trial’s debut as McConnell partially retreats

Everyone knew it would be a long day when Chuck Schumer held a morning presser to object to Mitch McConnell’s rules.
And that’s precisely how the President Trump’s impeachment trial started off a couple of hours later.
These are questions that have been debated in some form for many weeks in the court of public opinion. Now it’s before a legislative body acting as a court.
In short, the Senate trial began Tuesday with elaborate arguments over process. Now process is crucial in this context, in many ways the whole ballgame. But rather than focusing on whether Trump violated his oath of office by pressuring Ukraine to investigate a political rival, the lawmakers spent much of their time debating procedures—and Republicans gave a little ground.
Many Democrats used the televised forum to repeat their accusations about Trump, Ukraine and obstruction—charges that those who have been paying attention can practically recite from memory.
With the president in Davos talking about the world economy, McConnell took the floor to respond to the Schumer news conference, in which the minority leader said “a trial with no evidence is not a trial at all—it’s a coverup.” The majority leader said his rules were “straightforward” and that pursuing witnesses could indefinitely delay the trial. Then Schumer took the floor to respond to McConnell’s response.
And the outraged speechifying began.
White House counsel Pat Cippolone was relatively brief in his opening statement, saying “there is absolutely no case” against Trump.
But Adam Schiff delivered a stemwinder for the Democrats, complete with graphics and video. The House manager said Trump tried to cheat in the election and that under the president’s approach, he “cannot be indicted, cannot be impeached. It makes him a monarch.”
Another Trump lawyer, Jay Sekulow, said the articles contained “a vague allegation about a non-crime…Why are we here? Are we here because of a phone call?” Cippollone called the charges “ridiculous” and “dangerous to our republic…A partisan impeachment is like stealing an election.”
A series of Schumer amendments were defeated over the course of the day; the GOP had the votes.
Yet McConnell did back off, under pressure from Susan Collins and other Republicans, by allowing evidence to be automatically entered into the official record, which he had tried to bar. And after insisting that each side use its 24 hours of debating time within two days, he lengthened that to three—making it less likely that the sessions would stretch into the wee hours when most of the country is asleep.
For what it’s worth, 69 percent of those in a new CNN poll say the Senate trial should call witnesses, including a 48-44 plurality among Republicans. But McConnell didn’t budge on that point for now.
The day was spent voting on a series of Schumer amendments. In the first pair of tests, Republicans beat back Schumer’s bid to subpoena White House emails and other documents and State Department documents. Both votes -- 53-47 -- were, as expected, along party lines.
There was, of course, a certain predictability to the trial’s first day, just as both sides fully expect Trump to be acquitted. I seriously doubt if the lawyers and lawmakers thought they were changing a single mind in the chamber.
And yet, as they spoke under the watchful eye of Chief Justice John Roberts, there was a sense of the gravity of the moment. This was not another cable-news debate; this was the trial of the president. And in some ways the senators are playing to a broader audience, and to the verdict of history.

Trump, in Davos, appears confident of Senate impeachment trial outcome: ‘We have a great case’

President Trump voiced optimism regarding the Senate impeachment trial as he arrived for a breakfast meeting with American CEOs and business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday morning.
“We have a great case,” the president said to reporters gathered at the Davos Congress Center after his motorcade arrived from the Intercontinental Hotel. He added that he thought his legal team was doing “a very good job,” according to the Associated Press.
The brief comment from Trump came just hours after a marathon first day of the impeachment trial concluded across the Atlantic in Washington, capped off just after midnight by a shouting match between Republicans and Democrats that prompted Chief Justice John Roberts to admonish both sides.

President Trump flashes a thumbs-up as he arrives at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020. (Associated Press)

The confrontation was sparked when Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., accused Senate Republicans of “voting for a cover-up” after a series of trial-rules amendments proposed by Senate Democrats went down in defeat in party-line votes.
The amendments had called for permitting testimony from new witnesses and the release of documents, but were rejected 53-47 each time.
While most of the Senate spent Tuesday sitting in silence at the impeachment trial, Trump spent part of the day boasting of a robust U.S. economy in a speech to the global business community at the Switzerland gathering.
“Today I'm proud to declare the United States is in the midst of an economic boom, the likes of which the world has never seen before,” he said, vowing to never to let “radical socialists destroy our economy.”
Trump was expected to participate in a pair of bilateral press conferences with leaders from Kurdistan and Iraq before returning to Washington later Wednesday.
Fox News' Rachel O'Neill and Edmund DeMarche and the Associated Press contributed to this story.

Chief Justice Roberts admonishes both sides at Senate impeachment trial, after marathon session erupts into shouting match

A marathon, 12-hour first day in the Senate impeachment trial against President Trump erupted into a shouting match well after midnight Wednesday morning, as Trump's legal team unloaded on Democratic impeachment manager Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y. -- in an exchange that prompted a bleary-eyed Chief Justice John Roberts to sternly admonish both sides for misconduct in the chamber.
Nadler began the historic spat by speaking in support of the eighth amendment of the day, which was proposed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., just as the clock struck midnight. The proposal would have amended the trial rules offered by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to immediately subpoena former National Security Advisor John Bolton.
McConnell's rules, which were eventually adopted in a 53-47 party-line vote at 1:40 a.m. ET Wednesday and largely mirror those from the Bill Clinton impeachment trial in 1999, permit new witnesses and documents to be considered only later on in the proceedings, after opening arguments are made.
But Nadler, who was overheard apparently planning to impeach Trump back in 2018, said it would be a "treacherous vote" and a "cover-up" for Republicans to reject the Bolton subpoena amendment, claiming that "only guilty people try to hide evidence." Bolton has reportedly described Trump's conduct as akin to a "drug deal," and he has indicated he would be willing to testify and provide relevant information.
“It’s embarrassing,” Nadler began. “The president is on trial in the Senate, but the Senate is on trial in the eyes of the American people. Will you vote to allow all the relevant evidence to be presented here? Or will you betray your pledge to be an impartial juror? ... Will you bring Ambassador Bolton here? Will you permit us to present you with the entire record of the president's misconduct? Or will you instead choose to be complicit in the president's coverup? So far I'm sad to say I see a lot of senators voting for a coverup, voting to deny witnesses, an absolutely indefensible vote, obviously a treacherous vote.”
Trump's legal team, which has argued that Democrats' impeachment case couldn't be as "open-and-shut" as advertised given the apparently urgent need for new evidence even after the House impeachment inquiry, immediately rose in response.
"We've been respectful of the Senate," an animated White House counsel Pat Cipollone fired back. "We've made our arguments to you. And you don't deserve, and we don't deserve, what just happened. Mr. Nadler came up here and made false allegations against our team. He made false allegations against all of you; he accused you of a cover-up. He's been making false allegations against the president. The only one who should be embarrassed, Mr. Nadler is you, for the way you've addressed the United States Senate. This is the United States Senate. You're not in charge here. ... It’s about time we bring this power trip in for a landing."
Then, Trump attorney Jay Sekulow hammed Nadler for suggesting that executive privilege, a longstanding constitutional principle protecting executive branch deliberations from disclosure, wasn't legitimate. The White House has said the privilege prevents Democrats from forcing administration officials to provide testimony before Congress.
"At about 12:10 a.m., January 22, the chairman of the [House] Judiciary Committee, in this body, on the floor of this Senate, said 'executive privilege and other nonsense,'" Sekulow said. "Now think about that for a moment. 'Executive privilege and other nonsense.' Mr. Nadler, it is not 'nonsense.' These are privileges recognized by the Supreme Court of the United States. And to shred the Constitution, on the floor of the Senate. To serve what purpose? The Senate is not on trial. The Constitution doesn't allow what just took place. Look what we've dealt with for the last, now 13 hours. And we hopefully are closing the proceedings, but not on a very high note."
Sekulow accused Democrats of hypocrisy given that Attorney General Eric Holder had similarly cited executive privilege to avoid providing documents as part of House Republicans' "Fast and Furious" gunrunning probe. Holder was later held in contempt of Congress.
"'Only guilty people try to hide evidence?'" Sekulow asked, quoting Nadler incredulously. "So, I guess when President Obama instructed his attorney general to not give information, he was guilty of a crime? That's the way it works, Mr. Nadler? Is that the way you view the United States Constitution? Because that's not the way it was written, that is not the way it's interpreted, and that's not the way the American people should have to live."
The outbursts prompted Roberts, who as Chief Justice of the United States is constitutionally required to serve as the presiding judge in the impeachment trial, to issue a highly unusual rebuke to both sides of the debate.
"It is appropriate at this point for me to admonish both the House managers and the president's counsel in equal terms to remember that they are addressing the world's greatest deliberative body," Roberts said. "One reason it has earned that title is because its members avoid speaking in a manner, and using language, that is not conducive to civil discourse. "
Roberts continued: "In the 1905 [Judge Charles] Swayne trial, a senator objected when one of the managers used the word 'pettifogging' -- and the presiding officer said the word ought not to have been used. I don't think we need to aspire to that high a standard, but I do think those addressing the Senate should remember where they are."
The vote on the Bolton amendment, like the roll call on Schumer's previous failed quixotic proposals on the day, was not a final determination on any witness or document request, because McConnell's proposal would allow new evidence to be considered later on in the process.
At 1:30 a.m. ET, Schumer introduced his last amendment to McConnell's rules-- and he unexpectedly put Roberts back in the spotlight. The proposal would have allowed Roberts to decide the appropriateness of witnesses, which Republicans nixed because the Constitution affords the Senate the "sole" power over impeachment trials.
That last amendment was tabled by a 53-47 party-line vote, just like ten of Schumer's other proposals.
When McConnell thanked Roberts for his "patience" as the proceedings wrapped up at 1:40 a.m. ET following that vote, Roberts remarked to applause, "It comes with the job." The trial adjourned until 1 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
As some Democratic impeachment managers told Fox News that they were exhausted from the "long day" while staffers streamed out of the Capitol complex at 2 a.m. ET, McConnell smirked and simply told Fox News that it had been a "good day."

McConnell's rules package

Under McConnell's final, adopted rules resolution, both the Democrats' impeachment managers and Trump's lawyers will now have three session days, totaling 24 hours, allocated to present their case.
McConnell's original resolution had allowed 24 hours of arguments over only two days. Democrats complained that that would push the trial into “the dead of night,” and McConnell expanded the timeline with a handwritten note on the resolution on Tuesday after the GOP moderates voiced similar concerns.

A copy of revised U.S. Senate Resolution 483, which provides procedures concerning the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, released Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020 on Capitol Hill in Washington. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has abruptly changed his proposed rules for President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial after some of his fellow Republican senators objected. (AP Photo/Wayne Partlow)

A spokeswoman for Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins said that she and others had raised concerns. Collins saw the changes as significant improvements, the spokeswoman said. Additionally, Ohio GOP Sen. Rob Portman and a substantial number of other Republicans from across the party's ideological spectrum reportedly wanted to make the changes.
The rules for Clinton’s trial give the two sides 24 hours each for arguments but didn't specify how many days. They each took three.
The rules for senators’ questions are identical as compared with the Clinton trial: “Upon the conclusion of the president’s presentation, senators may question the parties for a period of time not to exceed 16 hours." Per underlying Senate rules, upon which both resolutions were based, the senators have to submit those questions in writing.
After the senators' question period, Trump’s trial will follow Clinton’s format with debate over witnesses. In the Trump trial, the House prosecutors and White House defense will have four hours of debate over the question of whether to subpoena witnesses or documents.
The Clinton resolution was similar, but it gave the two sides six hours of debate. Both sets of rules also require witnesses to be deposed before they testify publicly.
In Clinton’s trial, the Senate eventually decided to depose three witnesses and allow video excerpts to be played on the Senate floor. But the public had already heard from all three of those witnesses, as they had been interviewed by Starr’s team.
It’s still unclear what will happen with witnesses in Trump’s trial.
The Clinton rules resolution provided that there would be a vote on a motion to dismiss the charges. McConnell’s resolution does not mention a motion to dismiss, known as a "kill switch" in GOP circles, but does not rule it out.
Trump has tweeted that he would like such a motion, but Senate Republicans have indicated that they don’t have the votes to pass it and that they would prefer for the president to be acquitted, as he is expected to be. Still, any senator could offer a motion to dismiss the two articles.
With the rules debate resolved, all indications are that the days ahead are likely to be acrimonious. Shortly before the trial dragged on overnight into the wee hours Wednesday with a series of Democrat-proposed subpoena requests that Republicans methodically shot down one-by-one, McConnell had offered Democrats an option: bundle all of their document requests into a "stack" for a single vote, so that the process could move along.
But, Schumer was having none of it -- and made clear that he wanted individual votes on each of Democrats' proposed amendments to McConnell's trial rules, no matter how long it took. McConnell's rules passed 53-47 followed immediately by adjournment until 1 p.m. Wednesday.
"A number" of additional amendments were going to be offered, Schumer promised. Indeed, at 10:30 p.m. ET, Schumer rose to present his sixth proposal of the day: a subpoena for the testimony of White House budget aides Robert Blair and Michael Duffey. Debate on that proposal wrapped up in a little over an hour before the Senate voted to table it.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, arrives at the Senate for the start of the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Then, at 11:19 p.m. ET, Schumer introduced yet another amendment, in the form of a procedural modification requiring that if any party "seeks to admit evidence that has not been submitted as part of the record of the House of Representatives and that was subject to a duly authorized subpoena," then that party "shall also provide the opposing party all other documents responsive to that subpoena."  However, Trump's lawyers objected to the premise that the House's subpoenas were "duly authorized," given that the subpoenas were not issued pursuant to an impeachment inquiry authorized by a vote of the full House.
The Bolton amendment came next, followed by another procedural amendment on subpoenas.
In all, the Senate handed President Trump a series of wins throughout the day Tuesday by voting 53-47 ten separate times to effectively kill a series of previous proposals from Schumer to subpoena White House, State Department, Defense Department, and Office of Management and Budget documents, as well as testimony from acting White House Chief of Staff Mike Mulvaney, Blair and Duffey, respectively.
The party-line votes demonstrated GOP unity at the start of the trial, which is all but certain to result in the president's acquittal.

"I do think those addressing the Senate should remember where they are."
— Chief Justice John Roberts, after midnight

An additional, less consequential amendment on written responses was tabled by a 52-vote majority. Collins joined with Democrats on that vote, marking the first time a Republican did so all day.
There were signs that attention was flagging in the chamber with the night winding on. As of 10 p.m. ET, the galleries to watch the proceedings contained only 29 members of the public.
"It’s getting late," White House counsel Pat Cipollone said late Tuesday night. "I would ask you, respectfully, if we could simply start, maybe tomorrow we can start -- and they can make their argument, and they can, I guess, make a case that they once called 'overwhelming.' We'll see... Seriously, can we please start?”
Meanwhile, a report emerged in Politico that Democrats' lead impeachment manager, California Rep. Adam Schiff, may have publicly mischaracterized evidence in the case. Schiff had asserted that Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas “continued to try to arrange a meeting with President [Volodymyr] Zelensky" -- but the "mr Z" that Parnas was referring to in his text message was apparently not Ukraine's president, but Ukrainian businessman Mykola Zlochevsky.
Separately, as Democrats' amendments were being summarily shot down, reports emerged that some Democrats were privately considering something of a compromise: calling for the testimony of Hunter Biden in exchange for the appearance of some key administration officials. Biden obtained a lucrative board role with a Ukrainian company while his father, Joe Biden, was overseeing Ukrainian policy as vice president.
Trump had asked in his now-infamous July 25 call with Ukraine's president for a look into Joe Biden's admitted pressure campaign to have Ukraine's top prosecutor fired.
Republicans have sought to portray Trump's push for a probe as a legitimate request given the Bidens' dealings in Ukraine, while Democrats have alleged that senior administration officials would testify that the administration withheld military aid to Ukraine in order to secure a politically motivated probe. Mulvaney, for example, has publicly argued that there is nothing wrong with tying financial assistance to anti-corruption efforts and other U.S. objectives, even as the administration has denied specifically targeting the Bidens for political purposes.
The barrage of amendments Tuesday night killed early hopes that the senators would have time to meet in a closed session to converse -- which would be a valuable opportunity, given that the senators were legally barred from having any sustenance other than water or milk at their desk all day, and could not communicate verbally with one another during the proceedings.
The restriction on cellphone possession and oral interaction led some members to pass and flash written notes to each other like students in a classroom, as Democratic House impeachment managers and the president's legal team traded lengthy legalistic arguments.
At one point during the proceedings, former Bill Clinton press secretary and CNN political analyst Joe Lockhart wrote on Twitter that Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz could go to "prison," noting that Cruz's Twitter account was posting tweets during the trial. Lockhart was quickly mocked by social media users pointing out that it's common for senators' Twitter accounts to be run by staff, and Cruz's representatives confirmed to Fox News that Cruz had not sneaked his phone into the chamber.
Even Cruz's staff couldn't resist poking some fun at Lockhart, writing "COME AND TAKE IT," with an image of a cellphone.
It was a moment of levity in an otherwise emotionally charged day, with Democrats accusing the president of "high crimes and misdemeanors" and Republicans calling out what they see as a transparent partisan stunt.
"It's a partisan impeachment they've delivered to your doorstep in an election year," Cipollone thundered early in the day, pointing out that Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, and others, were being pulled off the campaign trail. "Some of you should be in Iowa."
"They're not here to steal one election, they're here to steal two elections," Cipollone added.
Trump attorney Patrick Philbin said Democrats' document requests were a "stunning admission" that House prosecutors, who had full rein to conduct their own impeachment inquiry, were now essentially asking the Senate "to do their job for them."

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts arrives at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020. President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial quickly burst into a partisan fight Tuesday as proceedings began unfolding at the Capitol. Democrats objected strongly to rules proposed by the Republican leader for compressed arguments and a speedy trial. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

California Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren, one of the House Democrats' impeachment managers, countered in her remarks on the Senate floor that additional documents were needed to provide "clarity."
“As powerful as our evidence is," Lofgren said, "we did not receive a single document from an executive branch agency including the White House itself."

This artist sketch depicts Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaking in the Senate chamber during the impeachment trial against President Donald Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020. (Dana Verkouteren via AP)

Lofgren specifically sought, among other materials, summary notes from an Aug. 30, 2019 meeting between Trump, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in which they apparently tried to convince the president that freeing up aid money for Ukraine would be "the right thing to do."
“It would be wrong for you senators ... to be deprived of the relevant evidence,” Lofgren said.

For his part, Trump appeared undeterred by the proceedings, and committed to conducting business as usual.

In this image from video, impeachment manager Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., speaks in support of an amendment offered by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., during the impeachment trial against President Donald Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020. (Senate Television via AP)

“READ THE TRANSCRIPTS!” the president tweeted from overseas, as he returned to his hotel far away from Washington's impeachment drama, at a global leaders economic conference in Davos, Switzerland.
As the contentious day wrapped up in Washington well after midnight, Trump posted another high-spirited tweet from Davos that again pointedly avoided commenting on the trial.
"Making great progress in @Davos," Trump wrote. "Tremendous numbers of companies will be coming, or returning, to the USA. Hottest Economy! JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!"
Fox News' Chad Pergram, Mike Emanuel, Caroline McKee, Jason Donner, and Adam Shaw contributed to this report, as well as The Associated Press.

Amy Klobuchar Cartoons