Welcome to the commentary magazine podcast for Thursday, January 30, 2020.

I am John Pudhoritz, the editor of commentary with me as always, senior editor Abe Greenwald

Hi, John, associate editor of Rothman Highknowing and in Washington senior writer Christine

Rosen, high Christine.

Hi, John.

So second week of the impeachment trial, we've moved into the question and answer period is

what we've mostly had yesterday, I guess Wednesday.

It was interesting and large measure because it meant that the speech of fine was limited

to five minutes or two and a half minutes if the question was asked of both the White

House Council and the impeachment managers, the House managers.

And my general sense of things, and I guess the general political sense of things right

now is that it didn't go that well for the Democrats or for the case that the Democrats

had prosecuted so aggressively in the previous week because the Republican nervousness about

this whole question of John Bolton and his book and he should testify in witnesses,

the Republican seemed to be settling in or so it would appear to deny the calling of

new witnesses and to basically end the trial with alacrity, with an acquittal.

I watched almost all the proceedings yesterday and I was struck by how the questions elicited

some kind of peculiar answers that you would have thought that the House managers would

have had better responses to having basically been arguing the same case now for three months.

In particular, I think the most striking moment came when I think Tom Cotton's question

came to what do you say to the argument that there was a hold of four weeks on aid to

Ukraine that was lifted before any money was really suspended and thus could be argued

...