. >> i want to bring in jeff zeleny. he joins us as well. jeff, it's interesting. this is the president's first road trip out to talk to people. we had politicians like barack obama, joe biden is among them showing sympathy out on the campaign trail and also connecting with voters. almost every answer was a personal aside before answering to voters in the crowd. >> don, it was. and that is classic joe biden. i just stepped out of the room just as the town hall was ending. and really to awe e person, to individual questioner, he drew a connection. he told an old story about something his mother said or how, you know -- a lot of us have heard these before. but this is the first time this president, he is doing this. so, he is relatable in every measure of the word. yes, he rambles from time to time. but he's absolutely relatable. and i think that is something that americans like to see from their president. but, don, it was that moment that kaitlan was just referring to with the second grader that he offered reassurance. he said, don't be scared, honey. he said, you

let's get to jeff zeleny at the white house. and jeff, president biden strong words as he tries to walk a fine line on trump's impeachment trial. i find it fascinating he did not want to directly say how he would vote. >> erin, he has really always shied away from saying that. we've known for weeks he has not had the appetite for this impeachment trial. the fact of it matter is former president trump is going to essentially take all the oxygen not out of washington next week but also out of the legislative process which president biden is trying to work through to get his covid bill passed. so we know president biden is not thrilled about this, but he didn't have a choice. had he spoken out against it, there would have been, you know, massive turmoil inside the democratic party. house democrats were sitting in the capitol on january 6th. they experienced all this. they wanted to do something. they wanted to punish the former president. so president biden has watched all this quite frankly at a bystander. he's very comfortable to

how do you describe that. >> jeff zeleny joins us now from capitol hill. what else are senators expect to hear from trump's legal team? >> reporter: simply wanting to know what trump was doing in the hours of january 6th. we've seen a tweet. we've seen a statement. but in the rest of the hours our report show he was cheering on the insurrectionists. senators want to know what he was doing to fill in the blanks. a big question hanging over tomorrow's defense by the trump legal team is how much they talk about this stolen election. of course those are falsehoods, but the president changed his whole legal team over that specific matter. he wanted his lawyers to focus on that. these lawyers said they would ra rather not. it's one of the reasons we're hearing this could be a shorter affair, perhaps using three of the 16 hours allotted. this could be wrapped up by the end of the weekend. >> cnn legal analyst joins us, john hardwood, jim acosta. jim, you have new reporting about what to expect tomorrow from the defense. >> yeah, i spoke with bruce castor, one of

cnn's jeff zeleny there. jeff, what specific issues, what specific problems does the president need to address today? >> well, president biden, brooke, is going to talk about the need for increased production of this vaccine supply. of course, there have been issues with the storms across the country slowing down the distribution of this, but there are also issues with the production. one of the reasons that he signed the defense production act to speed up some of the mechanisms behind the scenes here of getting the vaccinations out quickly so we were told he's going to talk about the need to speed this up somewhat as well as he's making his case for that covid economic relief bill as well here in michigan. his plan is $1.9 trillion. a lot of that money has to do, you know, producing and distributing the -- the vaccine as well as economic relief, of course, so he's going to be just drawing attention here on the need to focus on this -- this vaccine, but, brooke, also interestingly we saw just a few moments ag

jeff zeleny, i know you talk to people inside the administration here. how is he approaching that evening? >> before i get to that, i'll echo everything that dana said, brooke. can't wait where you go from here. some island time in your future, i hope. >> you and me. >> look, this is president biden's chance to really get that megaphone back. he's been sharing it essentially for the last three weeks, for the first virtual month of his presidency with the impeachment trial so this is a chance this week for president biden to seize that bully pulpit and explain his plan. americans want to hear what he's going to do in terms of vaccine supply, getting the covid relief bill passed. this is one thing a president can do. he's lived his life in the u.s. senate and as vice president but now he's president of the united states. that commands, you know, aed by stall unlike any other. >> yeah. >> so he's taking his plan to the country to sell that. you know, he's definitely going to use his empathy tonight as well because that's where his strengths are. the challen

we want to start now with jeff zeleny who's outfront live on capitol hill. jeff, how did senators react to trump's legal defense? >> reporter: erin, senators were unsparing in their criticism and that was just from republicans. senator john cornyn of texas said they rambled on and on. one republican senator said the president's lawyers were disorganized. another described them as awful. another said it was a rocky start. so that all came as they were praising house impeachment managers for presenting a strong and compelling cogent case. with part one of the impeachment trial now over, it is constitutional to impeach a former president. the tough part for democrats begins tomorrow. >> this cannot be the future of america. we cannot have presidents inciting and mobilizing mob violence against our government and our institutions. >> reporter: searing arguments steeped in history on the opening day of the senate impeachment trial of former president donald trump. tonight senate jurors asking a single question, whether it's constitutional to put a former presiden

more from jeff zeleny that's been at the capitol all day. you were watching the reaction of republican senators to what they were hearing and seeing. we weren't able to see it because maybe you can explain why, wasn't our doing, the negotiations decided by the sen senate. >> reporter: right, the rules of the senate were not changed for this. senators are not seen in this proceeding. think of it as a criminal trial where cameras are not allowed. a sketch artist is drawing sketches of the senators and a hand full of reporters are able to sit in and watch the senators. we saw a variety of remepublica senators not paying attention but when the sound was playing from the police radio, which really is a new sound track to this, people were paying attention to a person, senators were listening and paying attention. now it on open question if it changed any minds. we've been speaking with senators after, you know, the breaks and coming out and to a person they're shaken by it, lisa murkowski of alaska is likely to vote to convict said she's troubled

jeff zeleny is outfront live on capitol hill. jeff, this is really stunning, right? we knew that mccarthy had talked to trump and pleaded with trump, and trump hadn't done anything. but these are the details. pleaded with him, and trump says, they care more than you, taking the side of the rioters and opting to do nothing. >> reporter: erin, the reason why this is important, because it speaks to the mind-set of the president in those critical hours of the afternoon of january 6th when this capitol was under siege, under attack. the house minority leader, kevin mccarthy, of course a very close friend of the president, was on the phone with him, being yelled at by the white house. so that made clear the president was very much aware of exactly what was going on here on capitol hill, and that has been at the heart of the entire argument, the entire set of questions. did the president know what his vice president, what danger he was potentially in? it was this series of several questions in the senate trial this afternoon. but it is this new reporting from jamie gangel a

but first, jeff zeleny on what they saw today. >> reporter: the rioters on the hunt for mike pence. >> hang mike pence! >> hang mike pence! >> and for the first time today images revealed the secret service detail rushing him out, barely escaping the mob. >> you can see vice president pence and his family quickly moved down the stairs. the vice president turns around briefly as he's headed down. you can hear the mob calling for the death of the vice president of the united states. >> reporter: on the other side of the capitol, the target was speaker nancy pelosi. >> nancy, oh, nancy! where are you, nancy? >> the capitol police deemed the threat so dangerous that they evacuated her entirely from the capitol complex. rushing her to a secure, off-site location. we know from the rioters themselves, if they had found speaker pelosi, they would have killed her. >> reporter: this never before seen video from both inside and outside the capitol lay out in the greatest detail yet the timeline of january 6th. officer eugene goodman, saving senator mitt romney, instructing him to turn around. to

zeleny reporting, that she actually spoke to everyone in that conference. she did not apologize for casting her impeachment vote but did ask that they continue to keep her in that position. we'll have to see how that all plays out. we have resolution on the republican side from one of those controversies, jake, still learning to find out what happens in the second. >> appreciate it. congresswoman cheney, of course, is one of the ten house republicans that voted to impeach former president trump. kyung lah visited another republican in florida who also voted to impeach. >> it's the bottom line on news radio 610, kona. >> reporter: in the heart of washington's fourth congressional district. >> we're going to open up the phones. >> reporter: conservative stronghold. >> we're strongly behind president trump. >> reporter: continues to react. >> the votes from representative newhouse on impeachment. >> we need to vote him out. a democrat in sheep's clothing. >> reporter: still angry at their representative, dan newhouse, who voted to impeach donald trump. >> ther

as jeff zeleny reports, obama's chief economic adviser larry summers perhaps the most unwelcomed detractor on the size of this legislation. >> it's time to act. we can reduce suffering in this country. >> reporter: president joe biden saying bluntly today the american pain is too deep to go small and too urgent for a drawn-out washington debate. >> i believe the american people are looking right now to their government for help to do our job, to not let them down. so i'm going to act. i'm going to act fast. >> reporter: the president making clear he's plunging ahead with his american rescue plan, saying if democrats have to pass the bill alone, so be it. he invited republican help but said their proposals did not meet the magnitude of the economic need. >> what republicans have proposed is either to do nothing or not enough. >> thanks for coming down. >> reporter: whirlwind week that started with republicans in the oval office on monday. and ended with democratic leaders there today. charting a path forward to pass the covid relief plan through a budget process that only needs a simple maj

cnn's jeff zeleny is traveling with president biden in michigan. the u.s. is approaching any day now the 500,000 covid death. president biden under a lot of pressure to ramp up vaccinations. what is he saying today? >> reporter: he absolutely is under pressure and he knows that he own this is challenge and problem. it is why he wanted to come here to the pfizer plant behind me in portage, michigan, to see firsthand and make the case that, a., vaccines are safe. we have not heard this message in a while, because there has not been -- there is a shortage of vaccinations, but as they ramp up supply, there is a worry inside the white house and across the administration that the people who need the vaccines may not be taking them. so he said i urge americans that are eligible to believe that these vaccines are safe. but then, jake, he quickly shifted to trying to urge republicans to support his $1.9 trillion covid economic relief bill. and he said, in the most political terms yet since he became president, look, the polls show that the majority of americans supp

. >> thank you very much, jeff zeleny. >> the vast, vast majority of scholars all agree that it is constitutional. out front now lawrence tribe, consultant tried on impeachment and jamie raskin has been frequent contact with you up to and including today. let me start with asking you about the interview with david schoen with "the new york times" holding trump accountable for the impact of his words, chilling the rights of any passionate speakers. it's a first amendment defense. will it hold up? >>. >> i don't think so. it's a very serious point, but it's wrong. i don't know anybody who is a stronger first amendment advocate than i am, but i fully recognize that there is a difference between the right of an ordinary citizen to express herself passionately and the right of someone to run for president, take the oath as president and then stand by the presidential seal in front of the white house and urge an angry mob to burn it down. to go to the capitol and basically take it over. that is not freedom of speech. justice scalia was a strong defender of free speech and he once said you can't ride wi

all right, thank you very must've, jeff zeleny. >> let's go to floria borger, the white house secretary jen psaki also said, i quote her, certainly the president of the united states owns the response to the americans, likievr jeff said. she continued to say it's important for people to know what we inherited when the president came into profit. already, they got a bipartisan group of governors complaining about communications from the biden administration on vaccines. can they continue successfully to blame what they have inherited much longer. >> reporter: well, welcome to incumbency. they can to a certain degree. we know this. there wasn't much of a federal distribution plan for vaccines when the biden administration came into office. we know that they have upped the number of vaccines that will be available by about 200 million. they've upped the number of total daily inoculations to about 1.6 million. but people want to get vaccinated. they want to get vaccinated sooner. and now this is a problem that they have and they own and they have to explain to the american people why it is

jeff zeleny is out front live on capitol hill. jeff, what are you learning about this meeting tonight to help with strategy, as ted cruz said, between cruz and other republican senators and the trump legal team? >> reporter: erin, we do know the trump's legal team is putting the finishing touches on its presentation tomorrow. as you said with the help of three republican lawyers, three republican senators in this case three republican jurors. now, this really highlights everything you need to know about this process. it is political indeed. this certainly is not necessarily unique to this case. that's what impeachments are. but usually it's not so blatant. in this case behind closed doors, just hours, really just minutes after the house prosecutor spent hours on their case, these republican lawyers went in and spent some time with the trump legal team. erin, the reason they are doing that is, you'll remember the lackluster performance, to put it mildly, at the beginning of the week that angered the president and worried republican

jeff zeleny is outfront. >> yeah i'm giving it another shot. >> caroline quinn lynn didn't vote for joe biden but is pulling for his success. >> i think he is a very nice man. i think he is very good. one of the last politicians i think can go across the aisle and meet with people. that's something it's a big plus. >> when we first met quinn lan in the heat of the kban last fall she was torn. >> i get it why people don't like trump. but at the same time he has done a few things i thought were important. >> but said she ultimately decided trump would do a better job fixing the economy. >> i voted for trump. >> in the end biden won wisconsin by less than 1 point and the city of cedar burg by only 19 votes. turning the reliable milwaukee suburb blue the first time in a quarter of century. with most signs of the election gone it's a new season and many voters say a fresh start from the acrimony from the trump era. >> just the tone down of the rhetoric, not having to be glued to the tv or social media to find out the latest is going on has been very refreshing. >> you're welcome, hon. >> nat