Democrats Set to Debate; Senate Preparing to Begin Impeachment Trial.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Moments ago, the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, just announced that, with the House set to vote on transmitting those articles of impeachment against Trump tomorrow, his chamber can now take its next steps.</s>SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): The House is likely finally send the articles over to us tomorrow, and we will be able to, we believe, if that happens, in all likelihood, go through some preliminary steps here this week. We hope to be able to achieve that by consent, which would set us up to begin the actual trial next Tuesday.</s>BALDWIN: CNN's Manu Raju and Lauren Fox are both on Capitol Hill. And in just a matter of hours, we have gone from uncertainty about Pelosi's next steps to an actual date for President Trump's impeachment trial. Manu, the trial is likely to start next Tuesday. The White House wants it wrapped up by that State of the Union on February 4. You have learned that one Senate Republican says that probably won't happen. Who is it, and what is he saying?</s>MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is Senator Roy Blunt, who's in a key position. He's involved with a lot of the impeachment trial logistics, member of the Republican leadership. Just talked to reporters off the Senate floor coming out of this lunch where they discussed the impeachment process going forward. And he made it pretty clear that he does not believe that the impeachment trial will be wrapped up by February 4. I asked him directly about that, and he said it's -- quote -- "hard to imagine" that it could be wrapped up by February 4, that it would only last two or three weeks, and he said in part because of the delay in getting the articles of impeachment from the House, and all the steps, procedural steps that need to be taken on the Senate floor before they would actually begin the trial. It looks like they're also preparing to get out of town essentially this weekend, after the articles are delivered, probably tomorrow, after that vote happens, and the House names the impeachment managers. Then there will be the ceremonial steps. The senators will be sworn in. The chief justice, John Roberts, will preside over the trial, will be sworn in. Senators are expected to leave town for that Martin Luther King weekend. In the meantime, some of the trial work and preparations will begin behind the scenes, and then Tuesday is when they would actually vote on the actual formal procedures of the trial, and then the arguments will take place on both sides. The Democrat impeachment managers, who we don't know who those individuals are yet, will make the case, and then the president's defense team will make its case. And that could take a couple of weeks. And that's why Roy Blunt is making it clear, Brooke, that he thinks it's unlikely the president can be cleared by the State of the Union, which is exactly what the White House wanted. They wanted the president to have that nationally televised address making the case that he was exonerated. But it could be like what we saw in 1999, when Bill Clinton delivered his State of the Union during the Senate impeachment trial -- Brooke.</s>BALDWIN: All right, so TBD on February 4, whether he can stand up there and say, hey, I'm acquitted. But in terms of the substance of this impeachment trial, Lauren, over to you, because, also, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell just flip-flopped on the dismissal of charges. So, what is he now saying, and what's behind that?</s>LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Well, Majority Leader McConnell for a long time has been making the case behind the scenes that a motion to dismiss is unnecessary, and here's why. Essentially, he knows he does not have the votes, the 51 votes that would be needed in order to just dismiss this case outright. Instead, the case he's been making to his own members and to the president of the United States has been, look, wouldn't it be better to hear the arguments and then acquit the president outright? So Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said today at the mic that that is his plan. He also walked his members through what this process is going to look like. Remember, Brooke, this is going to be very tough for lawmakers who are used to talking and kibitzing on the Senate floor who are going to suddenly have to just be listening to this argument without their cell phones, without any kind of technology to distract them. At least that's what the expectation is at this point. So McConnell giving them a little bit of a debrief on what that's going to look like, when this all gets started next Tuesday -- Brooke.</s>BALDWIN: OK. Lauren and Manu, thank you. Once things do get started over in the Senate, the Democrats' push to hear from the likes of John Bolton and Mick Mulvaney may get an assist from a small, but potentially influential group of Republicans. Mitt Romney, Lamar Alexander, Lisa Murkowski, and Susan Collins all say they are open to hearing from those at the center of the president's efforts on Ukraine, something Mitch McConnell addressed today as well.</s>MCCONNELL: All 53 of us have reached an understanding, very, very similar to the one that was achieved at the beginning of the Clinton impeachment trial 100-0 that would set up the arguments by the parties, the prosecutors, and the defense, and then a written question period, and then after that the more contentious issue of witnesses would be addressed by the Senate.</s>BALDWIN: Tom Foreman is with us there in Washington. And so walk us through what each of these moderate Republicans has said about this.</s>TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the reason he says it's contentious, Brooke, is this. The White House, the president and his defenders, they not only want an acquittal. They want as little damage done as possible, meaning they don't want to lot of witnesses coming forward saying once again what was done and why that was wrong. But people like Mitt Romney from Utah said, I'd like there to be witnesses. So, there's one voice weighing in. Now, think about the numbers here. Lamar Alexander, you mentioned a moment ago. He's not standing for reelection. He says, yes, I am open to witnesses. Lisa Murkowski from Alaska, she's had differences with Donald Trump on numerous issues. She says she's working to have a process for a vote on witnesses or documents. And then Susan Collins from up in Maine saying, I tend to like information. She's pushing for a chance to call witnesses. These are only four people. Why would that matter? It matters because the Republican advantage in this chamber is 53 people, 53 people. Now, for an impeachment conviction, you have to have a two-thirds vote, but for all sorts of procedural matters like witnesses, all you need is a simple majority. So this is more than enough to tip it over, if they were to go with the Democrats on anything, and say, yes, we're going to have witnesses. No, we're not going to move to a swift acquittal. There are all sorts of procedural votes they could weigh in on, and that's the rep right now for Republicans. Republicans in large part just want this thing over with. They want Donald Trump to be able to walk out there and say, I was acquitted. But some of them are saying, we don't think that represents a fair process, and we don't want our party branded as a party that railroaded the presidency, railroaded it further down into an exoneration here, when that's what they don't think is a fair process. So, only a handful of people, but, Brooke, this handful of people could make all the difference in the world as to the nature of the hearing that Donald Trump gets.</s>BALDWIN: No. If Mitch McConnell is saying, hey, we will address potential witnesses as the trial rolls on, those are the four to be watching.</s>FOREMAN: Absolutely.</s>BALDWIN: Tom, thank you.</s>FOREMAN: You're welcome.</s>BALDWIN: Meantime, six Democratic candidates are making last-minute preparations for tonight's CNN presidential debate, in partnership with "The Des Moines Register." This is the final face-off before the very first votes are cast in the 2020 race in the Iowa caucuses. Two candidates everyone will be watching tonight, progressive senators, both Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Here is Warren doing a final walk-through of the debate stage just a little white ago. Senator Warren confirmed a conversation she had with Senator Sanders back in 2018, where he allegedly told her that he didn't believe a woman could win the presidency in 2020. Senator Sanders has since called that claim, in a word, ludicrous. CNN's Leyla Santiago is live in Des Moines. And here's the question. If the senators, if Warren and Sanders are confronted about this, this evening, how do you expect that to play out on stage tonight?</s>LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's the big question. That is what everyone is waiting to see. As you mentioned, Senator Warren just had her walk-through just minutes ago here, and I know we have previously seen Warren and Sanders next to each other in other debates. That will not happen here. Biden will be right between them, but many people, before they even get to their podium, will be watching to see, how do they shake hands? How do they look at each other? Because that tension that has been rising, especially after yesterday's back and forth over that 2018 conversation that you mentioned, Brooke, is very much fresh on the minds of folks. And this is a bit of a shift, because, all along, Sanders and Warren as the two, you know, progressives in the race have sort of stuck together, really haven't bad-mouthed each other and have said they're friends, but then this happens, and that's quite a change in tone. So, how they handle it tonight, I suspect they will want to move through it quickly, but what each role takes in that, we will have to wait and see. That's something to watch tonight. Something else to watch tonight, foreign policy, see how Iran comes up. In the last Quinnipiac poll, 51 percent of registered voters said they're not happy with the way President Trump is handling Iran right now. So, it will be interesting to hear from Biden on that and how the rest of the Democrats also react on stage when it comes to foreign policy. And this is a big moment, Brooke, because we are three weeks away from the Iowa caucuses, so pretty soon it will no longer be that we're relying on polls or pundits. It will be the votes themselves that speak to who the Democrats want to put up against President Donald Trump, once those caucuses are here in Iowa.</s>BALDWIN: February 3, the big day. We have been talking a lot of those Iowans are really indecisive, so many candidates. They're mulling through it all in the last couple of weeks.</s>SANTIAGO: Right.</s>BALDWIN: We will be watching tonight. Leyla, thank you. Make sure you watch tonight's debate, as the top Democrats square off in Iowa for the CNN debate, in partnership with "The Des Moines Register." Tune in 9:00 Eastern here on CNN. So much more to watch for tonight, including the fact that there won't be a single person of color on that debate stage. Let's talk about that, the impact that's playing. And they're doing it again. The same Russian military unit that tipped the scales of the 2016 election for President Trump, they're now attacking Burisma, the same Burisma at the center of the impeachment investigation. So what does that mean for 2020? That's ahead. And as the administration continues to change its story on the killing of the Iranian general, I will talk with a national security expert who says this is all because the president sees himself as the star of his own action movie. He will explain that. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. We will be right back.