Trump To Unveil Middle East Peace Plan Today.
CAMEROTA: President Trump's lawyers have been described as slick, polished and well-prepared as they presented their case Monday. But how did they fare when it came to the facts. John Avlon has our reality check. John, what's the answer?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.</s>JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: But truth was in short supply at the impeachment trial yesterday. In its place was a surreal parade of denial, lies, and gaslighting. But denial is how the defense dealt with John Bolton's upcoming book ,which says that Trump told him that aid to Ukraine would be withheld until it announced an investigation into the Bidens. Now, this destroys a key defense talking point. They decided to ignore it until the very last hour, adopting the approach of "See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil." Now, the delay prompted Republican turned Independent Congressman Justin Amash to tweet, "The defense team strategy rests on pretending that news doesn't exist." But if that seemed like gaslighting to you, wait until you see who the defense decided to open the day with, Ken Starr, who condemned with a straight face the age of impeachment that he helped usher in. Now, that didn't give you whiplash. The Trump defense team, again, essentially ignored the evidence against him and instead, argued about process and repeated nonsense like this.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The record that the House Democrats collected through that process already shows that the President did nothing wrong; it already exonerates the President.</s>AVLON: They dismissed Rudy Giuliani as a colorful distraction, while piling on hours of distraction in the form of attacks on Joe Biden, repeating the lie that he pressed for the firing of Ukrainian prosecutor to protect his son's business interests. And saying that President Trump was motivated solely by his deep desire to combat corruption. But the facts don't back that up. Now, Biden was acting in accordance with official U.S. policy in coordination with our allies, and at the request of Republican Senators, to press for the removal of a corrupt prosecutor who was investigating Burisma or corruption overall. And even if combating corruption was President Trump's goal, it's odd because he never mentioned the word corruption in his call with Ukraine. His budget proposed cutting billions of dollars devoted to fighting corruption. This is all just project and deflect, a signature move to make people think that everyone in politics is corrupt and lies as much as the President does. But check out this analysis of Trump's public mentions of Biden by fact base, because it shows that Trump didn't really start fixating on the former veep until Biden announced that he was running for president in April of 2019. See that spike? And then, polls showed that he was the toughest for Trump to beat. But the big reveal came in the last presentation when Bolton's bombshell made its first and only appearance.</s>GIULIANI: Nothing in the Bolton revelations, even if true, would rise to the level of an abuse of power or an impeachable offense.</s>AVLON: Now, this is a glimpse of the final argument, that even if the President has been lying this whole time, even if he did illegally withhold the military aid to pressure a foreign power to investigate a domestic political rival, it doesn't matter. The last defense seems to be "so what?" facts and evidence don't matter because alternative facts can always be found. The American people's opinion doesn't matter. And historic precedent doesn't matter. All that matters is that the President is in power, and his party controls the Senate. But if there's any independence and integrity left, then it's time for some senators to ask whether this is really what it means to make America great again. And that's your reality check.</s>CAMEROTA: Thank you, John.</s>BERMAN: So, a few hours from now, President Trump will reveal his administration's long-awaited peace plan for the Middle East, that's alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian groups are already denouncing the plan, claiming that they weren't even consulted. I want to bring in CNN Global Affairs Analyst Aaron David Miller. He served as the State Department's Middle East negotiator under Republican and Democratic administrations. And Aaron, I don't know where to begin, because there's breaking news on this front, which is that the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was just officially indicted on these corruption charges that have been hanging over him. This has been a long process, but now it's official. So, you have an indicted Prime Minister meeting with an impeached President to talk about a peace plan, which one side says they weren't even consulted on. You write, "Even in our most incompetent moments, never came close to that of Trump's peace team. Releasing a plan untethered from anything other than politics six weeks before Israel's third election within a year and without regard to Palestinians, takes diplomatic malpractice to new levels." If I can, I want to separate things and start with the plan and so far as we know the details with the political reality and reasoning behind introducing it today. So, the plan, we don't know everything about it, but we know it only provides conditional autonomy to the Palestinians. Most of Jerusalem stays with the Israelis. The Israelis keep settlements and whatnot. The contours of the plan itself and so far as you know, what do you make of them?</s>AARON DAVID MILLER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: I mean, I think it's clearly oriented toward the Israelis. Mr. Netanyahu would not be hawking it so intensively, nor would he show up in Washington to have it announced in the company of the President. So, I think basically, John, it's really not an operational document, it's a vision. And I think I was mistaken. It's really not diplomatic malpractice. It's driven in large part and tethered to the President's persona and his own personal politics. Number one, I think they would like to have Mr. Netanyahu around in November to help with evangelicals, Conservative Republicans, and what percentage of the American Jewish community they can shave off for the Democrats. That's one. Number two, there was never a good time to release this, and if they waited for a new Israeli government, they may be waiting until May or June or another Israeli election, and that is going deep into the electoral clock. And then, I think there really is the vanity piece of this. Mr. Kushner who's largely presided over it shepherded through now three years. It's reported to be 60 to 80 pages long, nothing -- United States has never done anything quite like this. And I think in a way, this demonstrates a certain measure of proof of life. So the fact is, while it has zero chances of succeeding in terms of setting into motion, a negotiation or inspiring confidence between Israelis and Palestinians, it may well serve the political objectives of the administration and of Mr. Netanyahu.</s>BERMAN: I asked you to wait to talk about the political implications here; the idea that the President is an impeached President with a now-indicted Prime Minister up for reelection, but you're suggesting that you really can't divorce the two, that the Trump administration and the White House is proposing this today, you say, to help Netanyahu in the reelection. This is about Israeli electoral politics. Explain.</s>MILLER: Yes. And I -- you know, I think it will help shore up the right-wing. There are maybe 200,000 voters that Mr. Netanyahu lost between the April and September elections. He'd like to get them back. Mr. Gantz is going to be hard pressed to oppose this if it lays the basis for annexation of large settlements blocks, which are consensus among most Israelis, and setting Israel's eastern border however harmful it will be for the Israeli-Jordanian peace treaty. Most Israelis would be supportive of that. So, in a close election, as my grandmother used to say about her chicken soup, it probably wouldn't hurt. And I think the administration has made that calculation whether it's accurate or not, John, is another matter. Remember, two Israeli elections, a third within a year, both producing inconclusive results with Mr. Netanyahu losing ground.</s>BERMAN: And very quickly, what do you think there were reaction will be from Arab nations in the region?</s>MILLER: To sum it up in one sentence, the Palestinians will say no, probably, hell no. The Israelis will say, yes, but -- and there probably will be key Arab states, the Saudis, the Emirates, that will probably, in the interest of not alienating their key patron, Mr. Trump will work to find a way to say maybe, but this is going to sit, John, through the elections, for sure. It's not ready for primetime, even though in several hours, it's definitely coming out.</s>BERMAN: Aaron David Miller, we always appreciate your help understanding these things. Thanks for being here.</s>MILLER: Thanks, John.</s>BERMAN: And thanks to our international viewers for watching. For U.S. -- CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster is next for our U.S. viewers. A new report, new information coming out about what is in John Bolton's book. How will this rattle the White House this morning? NEW DAY continues right now.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Bolton's book is further evidence that a large number of people were, quote, in the loop on this scheme.</s>GIULIANI: Nothing in the Bolton revelations, even if true, would rise to the level of an abuse of power.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like war, impeachment is hell.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We think witnesses who are not eyewitness to what happened shouldn't be part of this.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hunter Biden's activities created a conflict of interest for Joe Biden.</s>JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: These guys were attacking me and my family. Well guess what? I don't hold grudges because presidents can't hold grudges.</s>ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.</s>CAMEROTA: Morning, everyone. Welcome to your new day. It is Tuesday, January 28. Eight o'clock in the east and Capitol Hill. Sources say the pressure is building on Senate Republicans to allow witnesses in President Trump's impeachment trial. CNN has learned that former National Security Advisor John Bolton's claims that President Trump personally tied the military aid to Ukraine to his own political favors blindsided GOP lawmakers. This morning there are new allegations from Bolton's manuscript. This of course from his upcoming book.