Hi, everyone. Harry here. No sooner did we finish taping today's talking feds now on the impeachment.

Then a new bombshell came out of a phone call between Kevin McCarthy and then President Trump that

removes any doubt. It would seem that Trump was pleased with what was going on and of course

would have meant to encourage it. When McCarthy tells him to call off his dogs, he responds,

maybe they just care more about the election results than you do Kevin, obviously showing his

lack of concern for anything other than the marauders trying to do his bidding in there and a

phenomenally exploitive-laced discussion ensues. So never a dull moment and we'll be watching closely

what the Dems try to do with that tomorrow morning. This was after both sides had completed their

evidentiary presentations and the questions and answers, but we'll see whether the House managers

try to make use of this starting tomorrow. In the meantime, here's our episode.

Welcome to Talking Feds, a roundtable that brings together prominent former federal officials

and special guests for a dynamic discussion of the most important political and legal topics of the

day. I'm Harry Littman. After a few weeks of relative calm, we returned to the bristling

electricity and angst of living history, a national spectacle of an impeachment trial that relived in

microscopic detail the harrowing events of January 6th when an angry mob of domestic terrorists

stormed the Capitol and forced the Congress to flee. The impeachment prosecutors from the House

brought home the savagery and sheer terror of the insurrection and drew a compelling connection

between the months-long campaign of the then-president to, quote, stop the steal and the violence that

erupted at the very moment the Congress was certifying the vote. As with its predecessor,

impeachment trial a year ago, this trial had an odd dual nature. It was on the one hand a constitutional

drama of the highest order, serving up a national judgment on former president Trump's conduct.

Yet on the other hand, it was a piece of absurdist theater with a predetermined ending. As jurors who

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