-On impeachment, Leader Schumer last week agreed
to that impeachment trial will start in two weeks.
But is there a risk that Republican opposition to Trump
will fade the longer you wait?
-You know, I can't imagine how Republican opposition
to insurrection would fade over the space of a couple of weeks.
We are talking about a president who stood in front of a mob
and told them to go to the Capitol and invade.
Told them to go to the Capitol
and stop the lawful business of government
so that he could try to stay in the White House.
That is so fundamentally wrong.
-You have come out strongly against the idea
of holding this impeachment trial,
but now it is going to happen.
What do you think the rules should be
about the length of the trial
and whether or not to allow witnesses to be called?
-Well, first of all, I think the trial is stupid.
I think it's counterproductive.
We already have a flaming fire in this country,
and it's like taking a bunch of gasoline
and pouring it on top of the fire.
Second, I look back at time, for example.
Richard Nixon, who had clearly committed crimes and wrongdoing,
and in hindsight I think we would all agree
that President Ford's pardon
was important for the country to be able to move forward.
And history held Richard Nixon
quite accountable for what he did as a result.
In terms of the rules,
I think the president's entitled to due process.
I think he's entitled to have a defense.
I think he's entitled to present testimony
and evidence, if necessary.
And the House doesn't have
much of a record of witnesses and so forth
because they frankly rammed it through very quickly.
-We saw President Trump after the first trial --
gonna show those pictures right here.
When the votes weren't there to convict,
he waved the "Acquitted" headline,
said this was vindication for him.
You concerned that could happen again?
-My colleagues have not yet committed
about what they're going to do.
And the news we just got out of The New York Times
yesterday, that the president was actually
actively trying to take out his own attorney general
and put in an unknown bureaucrat conspiring with him?
I think we're gonna get more and more evidence
over the next few weeks,
as if it's not enough that he sent an angry mob
down the Mall to invade the Capitol.
Didn't try to stop it, and a police officer was killed.
I don't really know what else you need to know.
The facts were there.
We saw it right there on the platform
during the inauguration, as you can still see
the spray paint at the bottom of many of the columns.
-Do you believe Donald Trump
committed an impeachable offense?
-To begin with, I think it's a moot point
because I think right now Donald Trump
is no longer the president.
He is a former president.
Constitution and I think --
and I know there are other people out there
that may disagree with me, but Article 1,
Sections I think it's 6 and 7 specifically point out
that you can impeach the president,
and it does not indicate that you can impeach someone
who is not in office.
-Only 10 Republicans, as you know,
supported impeachment in the House.
Do you think that you will find more in the Senate?
You're gonna need to. You need 17, of course.
-Ten was a historically high number.
That was a bipartisan impeachment,
and so, I find that to be heartening and encouraging
because there was clarity in the folks
who voted to impeach the president.
Take a look at the words of Liz Cheney, who said,
"He assembled the mob, he incited the mob,
and he lit the flame.
The president is responsible."
I take heart in that.
There is clarity in those 10,
and I hope over the course of the remaining days,
as we 9 prepare this trial,
more and more elected officials will pay attention to their oath
and see the egregious high crimes and misdemeanors
that this president was so desperate
and capable of on the last weeks of his term in office.
-You were the only Senate Republican to vote to convict
and remove the president the first time.
Of course, now, as a juror again,
I'm sure you want to hear the evidence.
But I want to put up what you said on January 6th,
the day that the mob attacked the US Capitol.
Here's what you said.
"We gather today due to a selfish man's injured pride.
What happened here today was an insurrection,
incited by the president of the United States."
Senator, it sure sounds like you're gonna vote to convict.
-Well, there's no question but that the article of impeachment
that was sent over by the House suggests impeachable conduct,
but we have not yet heard,
either from the prosecution or from the defense.
I'll get a chance to hear from them,
and I will do my best as a Senate juror
to apply justice as well as I can understand it.
-I think that President Biden, the night before he was sworn
in, laid down the predicate.
He said, "To heal, we must remember.
Sometimes it's hard to remember,
but we must do that even as a nation."
We must remember.
I believe that this impeachment trial,
I hope conviction, ultimate disqualification
are the very first powerful steps toward unity
in our country moving forward.