Good Thursday morning, I'm Jake Sherman and welcome to your political playbook audio briefing

presented by Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. We're now on day three of the impeachment trial

of Donald Trump. The House managers have presented the same detailed case they laid out in their

report and in their marathon hearings. Little is new, of course, because these events have been

laid out for months and months in hearings and in the press and in nearly 300-page committee report. Yet the main observation Republicans seem to have is that none of this is new. Two and a half hours and nothing new, said John Barrasso after Adam Schiff's stem winder of an opening. John Cornyn said this. So far, we haven't learned anything new. Cornyn, who spoke to us just outside the Senate chamber in the mid-afternoon, was asked by Ted Barrett, a hill vet. If he was troubled by the president's behavior, Cornyn responded, that's not really the question, Ted. I mean, the question is whether this is treason, bribery, or another high crime and misdemeanor. I mean, this is the nuclear option under our Constitution, to remove a duly elected president by the vote of the House and the Senate.

This is something we should not do unless that constitutional standard is met, and I'm struggling to see how that's even close.

This was indeed the fear of many Democrats who slow walked toward impeachment.

About six months ago, a top Democrat who was resisting the growing calls to impeach

Trump laid out his thinking. He said he was wrestling with two competing arguments. The most

attractive thing to me about impeaching this president is it's the strongest form of censure we

have. Even if he's acquitted, it puts a stain on his name in history. But as I mentioned,

the flip side is terribly tragic, true, which is

an acquittal will be trumpeted as a vindication and that sends its own message to history.

Half a year later, that Democrat is Adam Schiff, a man who has left his mark on a capital

he once wandered without discernible impact, now confronts the exact scenario he once feared.

The Senate is likely to put its stamp of approval on Trump's

solicitation of dirt on a campaign rival from a foreign government. As far as we know, there's

no plans to allow Republicans who are troubled by Trump's actions in Ukraine to express their

disapproval in some formal way, be it a resolution or another official action. All they could do is

go on the record with their concerns. What that means

is unless the dynamic in the Senate changes in the coming days, U.S. Congress will soon say it's okay to

use the power of the presidency to conduct opposition research on an opponent. Precedent matters

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