[Cabrera:] House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she is prepared to send the articles of impeachment against President Trump to the Senate this week, but defended her decision today wait weeks. During an interview this morning with ABC News, Speaker Pelosi said the delay achieved a very positive result. New information was revealed, John Bolton came forward to say he would testify if subpoenaed for instance. Pelosi also warned of a cover-up by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell after he signed on to a resolution last week to dismiss the articles if not sent to the Senate within 25 days.
[Rep. Nancy Pelosi , House Speaker:] One of the things that I think is really important, what I think people should be very aware of, the very unusually, the leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, has signed on to a resolution to dismiss the case to dismiss the case. That in his view maybe
[George Stephanopoulos, Abc News:] But he's committed to having the presentations first now.
[Pelosi:] I'm telling you that he signed on, on Thursday, to a resolution to dismiss the case. The dismissing is a cover-up. Dismissing is a cover-up. If they want to go that route, again, the senators who are thinking now about voting for witnesses or not, they will have to be accountable for not having a fair trial.
[Cabrera:] Joining us now is CNN political analyst April Ryan and CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein. April, do you think Pelosi's cover-up message is effective? And more broadly, is her approach working?
[April Ryan, Cnn Political Analyst:] Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, is doing something we've never seen. She's very strategic in her approach with this, but she's so strategic and so cunning with how she's viewing this. And she's playing this political game to the T that they are having they're own, I guess, House sessions if you will to try to thwart Nancy Pelosi. So this back and forth with Senate Republicans versus Nancy Pelosi is going to keep going. But each side has to look at history, each side has to look at the Constitution. And if you view this the way we are looking at it through the prism of the past, hearings, you don't necessarily have to have testimony or witnesses. Trials, you do. So the Senate, at issue, this impeachment trial. And the problem is, is that Mitch McConnell is saying already that he wants to acquit the president. So, people are crying foul, particularly Nancy Pellosi. Her strategy is needed to show the Democrats and the Republicans what is factual. And what is factual is the fact that this president was impeached.
[Cabrera:] Yes.
[Ryan:] Now, will the Senate follow suit with following the order and the line of the law and the Constitution?
[Cabrera:] Let me play another clip. Something else Nancy Pelosi said today. Listen to this.
[Pelosi:] We have confidence in our case that it is impeachable and this president is impeached for life. We feel very proud of the courage of our members to vote to impeach the president. There's nothing the Senate can do that can ever erase that. We will have an election, if we don't have him removed sooner. But again, he will be impeached forever.
[Cabrera:] Impeached forever has impeached forever, impeached for life, Ron, become Pelosi's new slogan and do you think she's saying it over and over again to jab at the president, get under his skin?
[Ron Brownstein, Cnn Senior Political Analyst:] And we see from his tweets that, in fact, that's exactly what has happened. It is true. I mean, look, there's only been three presidents impeached by the House in American history and Donald Trump is the third and he can never run past that. And you know, one of the things, Ana, that has happened in this delay I think that is important, is that it has forced Mitch McConnell to argue that, in essence, by voting to proceed without knowing whether you're going to have witnesses at the beginning, all they are doing is following the Clinton precedent. And a lot of the Republicans in the Senate have kind of retreated behind that, that they didn't make the decision initially in the Clinton trial to have witnesses at the outset. But of course, in the end they did have witnesses in the Clinton trial. They did depose three figures involved in the accusations. And I think McConnell raising that precedent is going to make it even tougher, I think, for some of the Senate Republicans to explain why at the critical moment, maybe in 10 days or two weeks from now, they would be voting to abandon that president and not have witnesses. I mean, how, if you are Susan Collins, do you go home and say I didn't want witnesses when John Bolton, who was at the center of this, said he was willing to testify?
[Cabrera:] Well, it sounds like Susan Collins, speaking of which, is one of those who is trying to work with other Republicans to ensure there may be some witnesses. But let me turn to 2020 since we have limited time here and I've got a lot to discuss with both of you. Today, Senator Elizabeth Warren responded to a "Politico" report that Senator Bernie Sanders' campaign was attacking her with a memo that tells its volunteers to explain Warren as a candidate that's only attractive to the elite.
[Sen. Elizabeth Warren , Presidential Candidate:] I was disappointed to hear that Bernie is sending his volunteers out to trash me. Bernie knows me and has known me for a long time. He knows who I am, where I come from, what I have worked on and fought for. I hope Bernie reconsiders and turns his campaign in a different direction.
[Cabrera:] April, Sanders denied involvement in that memo, but also up until this point, he has avoided attacking Warren directly. Is this where things start to change?
[Ryan:] Oh, things have already changed. You're going to see candidates, Democratic candidates cutting each other off at the knees. And listening to Senator Warren, she needs to stop being apologetic in not apologetic, but saying why would you do this and toughen up and go after him. Because what if she is the nominee against Donald John Trump? She can't say, well, why did you do that? She's going to have to strike and he won't know when she strikes so she can win. So the bottom line, stop saying why, why, why and go after and take it and go after him.
[Cabrera:] Ron, I want you to listen to what presidential candidate and billionaire Michael Bloomberg said about Bernie Sanders.
[Michael Blomberg , Presidential Candidate:] I think that the number one thing is to replace Donald Trump and while I certainly would disagree with Bernie on an awful lot of things, if it's Donald Trump versus Bernie, I would support Bernie.
[Cabrera:] Senator Sanders openly criticizes billionaires and yet you have Bloomberg there saying yes, I would still vote for him. So, is Bloomberg making the case for Sanders' electability, that he would be able to get the moderates along with the progressives versus just one or the other?
[Brownstein:] Well, I think Bloomberg of course is trying to make himself acceptable within a Democratic Party that is still uneasy about billionaires and showing that he's going to be a team player no matter what and saying he's going to continue his extraordinary spending all the way through the general election. I think, you know, Bernie Sanders will ultimately face those questions particularly because his agenda has not really been vetted again in 2020 as it was not fully in 2016. You do not see the candidates fully talking about kind of the full scope of what he is proposing including things like a guaranteed federal job for, you know, everyone in America who wants it, universal free college, universal preschool. I mean, the cumulative cost of all of that, you know. Real quick, last four Iowa winners have won the Democratic nomination regardless of what happened in New Hampshire and that is not coincidence. It's probably because in this modern media environment, winning Iowa gives you a huge tailwind. But each of those Iowa winners ultimately proved very competitive with African-American voters whether it was Gore in 2000, Kerry, Obama or Clinton. And that will be the challenge for, I think, any of the possible Iowa winners, Sanders, Buttigieg or Warren, other than Biden. Can they convert that into breaking into the African-American community which is still pretty skeptical about all of them?
[Cabrera:] Right. And still largely behind Joe Biden with the lastest poll showing he is 48 percent
[Brownstein:] Yes. That's right.
[Cabrera:] of the Black vote right now compared to the next closest being 20 percent, Sanders. April Ryan, Ron Brownstein, it's great to have both of you here. Happy New Year to both of you since I haven't seen you since we hit 2020.
[Brownstein:] Happy New Year.
[Cabrera:] Let the games begin, guys. And a reminder, the last debate before that first vote is right here on CNN. Tune in this Tuesday at 9:00 p.m. eastern for the CNN presidential debate in partnership with the Des Moines Register. Royal turmoil in the U.K. The royal family is expected to hold an emergency meeting tomorrow, to discuss that shock announcement from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle as a new report says Prince William is saddened over the rift with his brother.