Sources: White House Worried About Support from Key GOP Senators
HARLOW: Welcome back. Sources tell CNN, White House officials are worried about some Republican senators ahead of the likely impeachment trial. Democrats need Republican support if they want to see any of their requests met for the rules in the process of the trial. Right now, we're watching 10 key senators who may budge on key trial-related issues such as having certain people testify. With that upend, GOP leader, McConnell's coordinated plans with the White House. With me now, Democratic Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania. So nice to have you, Senator Casey, thank you for being with me. Let's just begin with this. Should this go to a trial in the Senate which looks likely now. Have you decided which way you will vote on impeachment?</s>SEN. BOB CASEY (D-PA): Poppy, I have not because we have to consider all the evidence. The record developed by the house, both with regard to the proceedings and the House Intelligence Committee as well as the Judiciary Committee. Both, as you know, have issued reports that I'm just going through, beginning to go --</s>HARLOW: Right --</s>CASEY: Through.</s>HARLOW: Right.</s>CASEY: So, we have -- we have hundreds of pages of reading there. We also have to do a lot of reading about the process, the procedure. We're going to be casting votes on that to set up the trial itself. So --</s>HARLOW: Right --</s>CASEY: We've got a ways to go. But there's no question here based upon what transpired here, the president's conduct and all the underlying information is what I said back in September. I think a textbook case of abuse of power by soliciting the interference in a national election --</s>HARLOW: So --</s>CASEY: And using the power of his office to do that. So, I think the predicate for this is pretty clear.</s>HARLOW: Yes --</s>CASEY: But we have to examine all the evidence, and I take an oath to do that --</s>HARLOW: Sure --</s>CASEY: Fairly in front of -- before the Senate.</s>HARLOW: All U.S. senators take that oath. That is part of your job. My question to you -- because what you're saying really echoes exactly what we heard yesterday on this program from Senator Cardin, what Sherrod Brown told Jake Tapper over the weekend -- reserve judgment, hear all the evidence, hear the defense of the president. But some of your fellow senators including Senator Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren said back in October that they would vote to convict the president. Is that a mistake to pre-judge?</s>CASEY: Look, every senator has to make their own determination about how they approach this process. This is going to be a trial, and we are serving as jurors. So we've got some -- so, we've got some work to do prior to that. But then as we're sitting there -- and I think maybe a lot of Americans may not realize how different this will be than the house procedure over the house process. We will be silent.</s>HARLOW: Yes, you can --</s>CASEY: Except --</s>HARLOW: You can't talk, you have to write your questions for witnesses.</s>CASEY: Correct. That's correct --</s>HARLOW: Yes --</s>CASEY: So, it will be -- it will be a different process. What folks will see on the Senate floor for the most part is not hearing from the Chief Justice or the senators. It will be the house managers making the case.</s>HARLOW: Right --</s>CASEY: We don't know how many of those managers will have. And then, the president's defense lawyers or others will make the case the other way. So --</s>HARLOW: So, if I could get your take on some new CNN polling that came in overnight, a few numbers that really are striking, I think. First of all, nationally, support for impeaching and removing the president from office is down 5 percent from a month ago. It's at 45 percent now. It was at 50 percent in November. And when you look by party among Democrats, when they are asked, should the president be impeached and removed from office, it was 90 percent in November, it is 77 percent now. And then looking at battleground states including your state of Pennsylvania which the president won in the election. A majority of battleground voters don't think there's enough evidence for the house to vote to impeach the president. Do those numbers worry you?</s>CASEY: Well, I guess that -- I'd say they don't because I try not to provide some kind of conclusion from that. There are different --</s>HARLOW: Yes --</s>CASEY: Polls that will have different results. And, frankly, a lot of politicians and even some pundits analyze polls in ways that don't often make a lot of sense. So, I try not to get into that, even when it comes to polls of a candidate's re-election or things like that. But here's the key, here's the key --</s>HARLOW: Yes --</s>CASEY: That I think the United States Senate has to discharge its duty to fairly evaluate this information. I think it was a step in the right direction when our Democratic leader Senator Schumer proposed not just a process, but asking for four witnesses who have direct knowledge --</s>HARLOW: Yes --</s>CASEY: Of the withholding of the aid. A very -- witnesses -- four witnesses for a very limited but important, relevant purpose.</s>HARLOW:  I -- CASEY: So, we're going to debate that, but I think the key in the end is, this is not going to be a process driven by polls, every senator has got to make their own determination based upon the evidence.</s>HARLOW: So, I hear you on that, and just picking up on the request from Senator Schumer for those four-fact witnesses. I think a lot of Americans want to hear what Mick Mulvaney would testify to, what John Bolton would have to say. But it is also a fact that back in 1999 during the Senate trial to impeach President Clinton, then-newly a Senator Chuck Schumer didn't want any new evidence or testimony admitted into that trial. And last night, Republican Senator John Cornyn, of course, a member of the leadership team told CNN, quote, "the house passed articles of impeachment. We are the jury, so we shouldn't be trying to retry it or redo something they have already had a shot at. He says no new evidence. Who is right? Senator Cornyn now and Chuck Schumer in 1999 or Chuck Schumer today?</s>CASEY: Look, all I can tell you is what I believe should happen. The predicate here, obviously, is the investigation conducted by the house. An exhaustive review of the evidence with sworn testimony. It's interesting that, the folks who have made the case in a very compelling way, I would argue against the president's point of view have all been under oath. I'm not sure we've had anyone under oath who has made the opposite -- the opposite conclusion. But, look, it's going to be a determination, we have to make individually, reviewing all the evidence.</s>HARLOW: Right --</s>CASEY: I think that these witnesses that Senator Schumer has proposed would supplement and fill in some of the information that we don't have right now. But I think what's already on the record is compelling. Look, Poppy, let me just say it personally. When I read the memorandum of that call, I was offended personally. Here's why? Because as a public official, you are always supposed to keep a very bright line between the work you do in government and how you do that work, and the work you do as a candidate. And there are ways to obtain information for an election. You cannot use a government telephone or do it on government property or do it in a way that violates your oath of office. That's very troubling. It's even worse, and this offense has greater gravity because it involved foreign assistance, interfering in a national election and investigating a political opponent. We've never seen this before in American history.</s>HARLOW: I appreciate your time, I'm sorry to cut it a little short. We have a lot going on today as you know with that rules vote ahead. I appreciate it, we'll have you back soon. Thanks, Senator Casey.</s>CASEY: Thanks, Poppy.</s>HARLOW: You got it.</s>SCIUTTO: Well, just one day before the house's historic vote on impeachment, where do voters stand? We have new CNN polling. And we're just moments away from the opening bell on Wall Street. The Dow looks set to open the day flat, one stock to watch, Boeing. Stocks sliding after the plane manufacturer says it will temporarily halt production of its troubled 737 Max jets beginning next month. Boeing continues to wait for the FAA to re-certified the aircraft just months after two deadly crashes. It sold only 30 of the 737 Max jets since the grounding.