Our live coverage has ended. Go here to read more about the impeachment trial of President Trump.
The first day of questions has ended after senators spent hours asking President Trump’s legal counsel and House managers specific questions stemming from the articles of impeachment.
The question-and-answer session will resume tomorrow at 1 p.m. ET.
In case you missed it, here’s what happened today:
Watch today’s biggest moments:
Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, watched intently as House manager Hakeem Jeffries responded to her question on the Judiciary Committee report accusing President Trump of bribery.
Jeffries didn’t answer the question directly, and Collins did not appear happy with the answer, saying something while shaking her head to Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowksi, and then turning back to GOP Sen. James Risch to say something to him.
More on Collins’ importance: In a sign of the importance of their role, Senate Republicans gave the opening question today to Collins, Murkowski and Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, three Republicans who have hinted they could vote to hear from witnesses.
The Senate needs 51 votes to approve a motion to have witnesses. If all 47 senators who caucus with the Democrats vote for witnesses, at least four Republicans would need to join them to pass a motion.
During a break in the trial, Democratic Sens. Martin Heinrich and Debbie Stabenow reacted with disbelief to President Trump’s defense team’s recent line of argument on foreign interference where Patrick Philbin said at one point “it’s not campaign interference for credible information about wrongdoing to be brought to light.”
“That is counter to everything I have ever learned on the Intelligence Committee,” Heinrich said. “They don’t tell you avoid foreign powers if they offer you cash, but if they offer you information, feel free to weaponize it.”
He continued: “I have a hard time even believing they were making that argument. It should be basic common sense that we should not be weaponizing information from foreign governments and encouraging their manipulation of our elections … that’s absolutely bonkers, and immoral and wrong and we shouldn’t even be discussing it.”
Stabenow also weighed in on the defense teams’ argument.
“His White House deputy counsel is affirming that that it is the position of the President of the United States that it is all right to take foreign information to help you in your election as long as it is credible,” she said.
“Oh, we’ve all been talking about this because it’s so shocking,” Stabenow added.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is expected to move quickly to acquit President Trump if a closely-watched vote planned Friday to compel witnesses and documents for Trump’s impeachment trial is defeated, according to Sen. John Thune, who is the number two GOP Senate Republican.
Thune noted that after the question of witnesses is resolved, the organizing resolution for the trial allows for an open-ended number of procedural motions to be made by senators, something that might slow a quick end to the trial especially if Democrats demand a large series of debates and votes on motions.
Each motion is debatable for two hours as are any amendments to them, according to Alan Frumin, a former Senate parliamentarian.
A top Democratic aide declined to speculate how many motions Democratic senators might offer.
Thune said McConnell, as majority leader, has the right of first recognition, giving him the chance to move to go to closing arguments, possible closed-door deliberations, and then votes on the two articles of impeachment.
“If that vote were defeated on Friday, you’d be through the part where the organizing resolution governs what happens and then it’s pretty much open motions. The leader would have the right of first recognition and if he wanted to move to closing arguments I suspect we’d do that,” Thune said.
GOP leaders have not said how much time is expected for each side to make closing arguments nor if they expect the Senate to go into closed-door deliberations before casting final votes on the impeachment articles.
A final vote on the articles could happen as early as Friday or could slide to Saturday or later depending on how events play out.
House manager Rep. Zoe Lofgren claimed President Trump “attempted to upend the constitutional order for his own personal benefit” when asked today on the Senate floor whether the President’s plan to have Ukraine investigate his political rival needed to succeed in order for him to be impeached.
What lies at the heart of impeachment: The President demanded that the newly-elected Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, publicly announce investigations into a political rival that he apparently feared the most, former Vice President Joe Biden, and into a discredited theory that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that interfered in the 2016 presidential election.
Asked about being invoked in hypothetical questions today, Republican Sen. Mitt Romney joked, “That’s not where you hope to be mentioned — is in an impeachment trial.”
Romney added, “I did tell my son, quickly divest yourself of that million dollars that I heard about. I’m not quite sure what that was about.”
Hours earlier, Rep. Adam Schiff, the lead House impeachment manager, asked senators how they’d react if President Barack Obama had asked Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev for an investigation into Romney, his 2012 political opponent, while withholding military aid to Ukraine as leverage.
Later, Republican senators asked Schiff if Obama would have had the authority to ask for an investigation if he had evidence that Romney’s son was being paid a million dollars per year by a corrupt Russian company, while Romney acted to benefit that company.
President Trump’s legal team did not answer question on whether the President believes that foreign interference in American elections is illegal. Instead, Trump’s counsel pivoted to whether information from a foreign country would violate campaign finance laws.
Chief Justice John Roberts read the question from Democratic Sen. Chris Coons on the Senate floor.
“In June, 2019, President Trump said that if Russia or China offered information on his opponent, ‘There’s nothing wrong with listening,’ and he might not alert the FBI because, ‘give me a break, life doesn’t work that way,’” Roberts read aloud. “Does President Trump agree with your statement that foreigners’ involvement in American elections is illegal?”
Here’s how Trump’s team responded:
The Senate impeachment trial is back in session.
Senators are continuing to ask questions of both the House managers and President Trump’s defense team.
Senators are taking a break until 10 p.m. ET.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell indicated that the question-and-answer session would continue after the break.
The senators appeared to be taking notes as President Trump’s defense team and House manager answered questions.
Sen. Bernie Sanders wrote something down on a long, rectangle piece of paper when Trump’s defense team answered a question from Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Sen. Tammy Baldwin leaned over to see what Sanders was writing, and as Sanders was trying to put the note in his jacket pocket, Baldwin asked to see what he wrote and Sanders showed her.
When Sen. Mitt Romney asked a question about the date the military aide was put on hold to Ukraine, Sen. Susan Collins leaned over to Sen. Lisa Murkowski and both of them wrote something down.
In the first half of the hour, there were way more chairs on the Republican side that were empty, but in the latter half of the hour, it was the reverse.
When House manager Adam Schiff answered Sanders’ question about why people should believe anything Trump says given how many times it’s been documented that he lied and he said “I’m not sure where to begin,” there was audible laughter from the Republican side.
President Trump’s legal team didn’t answer directly when asked about the date that the President officially held up military aid to Ukraine. The question came from Republican Sen. Mitt Romney.
He said that the President asked questions about the assistance and “burden sharing” with NATO allies as early as June.
“There is an e-mail from June 24 that has been publicly released from the chief of staff down to a staffer in DOD relating on the subject line ‘POTUS follow-up’, it’s a follow-up from a meeting with POTUS, the President of the United States, concerning a question that had been asked about Ukraine assistance,” Philbin said.
Philbin continued, reading from the email, “’What was the funding used for? Did it go to US firms? Who funded it, and what did other NATO members spend to support Ukraine?’ So from the very beginning in June, the President had expressed his concern about burden sharing, what the other NATO members do.”
Philbin added that others knew about the hold as of July 3.
“There is testimony from later in the summer that the President had raised concerns about corruption in Ukraine, and so that is the evidence in the record that reflects the President’s concern,” he added.
Chief Justice John Roberts was able to review questions from senators who submitted them prior to the start of today’s proceedings, according to two sources.
It was during that period it was communicated to GOP leaders that he would not read the name of the whistleblower if it was included in a submitted question.
As CNN reported, Republican Sen. Rand Paul has a question that does just that.
That’s what’s been driving the dispute up to this point.
Roberts made clear he wouldn’t do it, and GOP leaders are attempting to work around that.
There have been several other whistleblower questions, some that even included identifying information, which Roberts has read. It’s the alleged name itself that is his redline, sources said.
Sketch artist Bill Hennessy was in the Senate chamber today to capture lawmakers as they listened to House managers and President Trump’s legal team answer questions about the articles of impeachment.
Press access to the Senate chamber for trial has been severely restricted, and the only television coverage is through cameras controlled by the Senate itself.
Here’s what Hennessy sketched today:
White House counsel Jay Sekulow believes the impeachment trial will go on for “months” if witnesses are called, in part because President Trump’s legal team will subpoena “anybody we want,” he said tonight on the Senate floor.
Sekulow went on to suggest the trial could go on for “months.”
Sen. Doug Jones, a Democrat from Alabama, is keeping an open mind when it comes to whether he will convict President Trump on the two articles of impeachment.
On the question of witnesses: In a sign of the importance of their role, Senate Republicans gave the opening question today to Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitt Romney of Utah, three Republicans who have hinted they could vote to hear from witnesses.
Collins’ question, submitted through Chief Justice John Roberts, asked the President’s legal team how senators should consider if the President had multiple motives when he held up US security aid to Ukraine.
The Senate needs 51 votes to approve a motion to have witnesses. If all 47 senators who caucus with the Democrats vote for witnesses, at least four Republicans would need to join them to pass a motion.
During a 45-minute break today, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer spoke about a question GOP Sen. Rand Paul attempted to ask that would have revealed the whistleblower’s identity.
Schumer called that potential scenario “despicable.”
More on what happened with Paul’s question: Chief Justice John Roberts essentially said no to reading it, a source told CNN.
It is not clear how this is going to be resolved at the moment, but it doesn’t appear to have de-escalated yet.
The question-and-answer session has resumed.
Senators are continuing to ask questions of both the House manager and President Trump’s defense team.
Senators get 16 hours total over the course of two days to ask questions.
A question that GOP Sen. Rand Paul hasn’t been allowed to ask would have named the alleged whistleblower, a source told CNN.
Chief Justice John Roberts has essentially said no to reading it, the source said.
It is not clear how this is going to be resolved at the moment, but it doesn’t appear to have de-escalated yet.
It will be discussed during the dinner break to see if there’s a resolution that can be agreed to.
Anne Milgram, a legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, spoke with CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Full Circle this afternoon about how long Americans should expect the impeachment trial to go.
One viewer asked if it was possible for the trial to last until the November elections.
Here’s how Milgram responded:
What we do know: Over the course of next two days, senators will have 16 hours to ask both the House prosecutors and President Trump’s defense team questions.
The Senate is poised to debate whether to subpoena witnesses on or around Friday. If the vote fails, the Senate could vote to acquit Trump then. If senators vote to have witnesses, the trial will continue
President Trump believes his lawyers were “great” today in the question-and-answer phase of the impeachment trial, a White House official said.
Trump watched for a “bit,” according to the official.
Meanwhile, the President has been active on Twitter.
He tweeted a video of his former national security adviser John Bolton describing the calls between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “warm and cordial.”
Along with the video, Trump tweeted, “GAME OVER!”
The video was referenced on the Senate floor today by Trump’s legal team prior to the President’s tweet.
