The Daily Signal - Putin Says He Would Take Biden Over Trump, Senate Mayorkas Trial Is TBD, Trump Trial Date Set | Feb. 15

Episode Date: February 15, 2024

TOP NEWS | On today’s Daily Signal Top News, we break down: Former President Donald Trump’s trial involving alleged hush money payments is set to begin on March 25th. Judge questions Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on her relationship with prosecutor Nathan Wade. What the Senate is and is not required to do once it receives the Mayorkas articles of impeachment.  One person was killed and another 22 wounded in the shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade.  Listen to other podcasts from The Daily Signal: https://www.dailysignal.com/podcasts/ Get daily conservative news you can trust from our Morning Bell newsletter: DailySignal.com/morningbellsubscription   Listen to more Heritage podcasts: https://www.heritage.org/podcasts Sign up for The Agenda newsletter — the lowdown on top issues conservatives need to know about each week: https://www.heritage.org/agenda Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Get the yes you've been waiting for at Capital One.ca.ca. slash yes. Terms and conditions apply. I'm Virginia Allen and this is the Daily Signal Top News for Thursday, February 15th. Here are today's headlines. Former President Donald Trump's trial involving alleged hush money payments is set to begin on March 25th. The judge set that trial date this morning. The trial is expected to last about six weeks. This case revolves around charges that Trump falsified business records related to payments to Porn Star Stormy Daniels back in 2016. Trump is accused of taking part in the payment scheme that was carried out by his lawyer, Michael Cohen. Trump had asked the judge to dismiss the case, but that request was denied. Trump faces 34 felony counts in the case that will be heard before a jury. This case marks the first time that a former president will stand trial in a criminal case.

Trump was in the courtroom in Manhattan today for the judge's announcement. of the timing of the trial. Before entering the courtroom, Trump claimed that the case was election interference and represents a great double standard. Trump's Manhattan criminal case was not the only one making headlines today, though.

Down in Georgia, Trump is facing a case regarding election interference in Fulton County. Fulton County District Attorney, Fannie Willis, brought the case against Trump, but we learned in January that Willis faced accusations of her own wrongdoing related to the case. Willis hired prosecutor Nathan Wade to be the lead prosecutor in that case. But critics claimed earlier this year that Willis was in a romantic relationship with Wade.

Today, a judge held a hearing to examine the situation and determine if Willis hired Wade before their relationship started or after. Willis and Wade say their relationship began after Willis hired Wade as the lead prosecutor in Trump's case, but a former friend and co-worker of Willis gave testimony today that directly contradicts that claim. Robin Yerty is the former friend and coworker and says Willis and Wade's relationship began before Willis hired Wade. If that's proven to be true, Willis might be removed from the case, and Willis's removal would likely delay the trial, maybe even until after the election. election. Stay tuned. The House impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday,

and now it's in the Senate's hands. The Senate has the power to remove Mayorkas, but that would require a two-thirds vote, and given that Democrats control the Senate, that does seem unlikely. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says that the upper chamber will hold a trial, but it's unclear what exactly Schumer means when he says that there will be some. form of trial. So here with us to explain a little bit more is Heritage Foundation Senior Legal Fellow Hans Vons-Bakovsky. Hans, thanks for being with us. Sure. Thanks for having me. By the way, yeah, it is in the hands of the Senate, but not officially yet in the hands of the Senate. The official handoff has not happened yet. You're right.

That will happen when the House sends the formal resolution over and hands it to the clerk of the Senate, and that has not yet occurred. And then what happens next? What are the options? constitutionally that the Senate has and what are they under the Constitution, what are they obligated to do once those articles, two articles of impeachment are physically in their hands? That's a very good question. Does anyone know the answer? The only thing the Constitution says is that the Senate is in charge of trying impeachments that are approved by the House.

That's basically it. Okay. So constitutionally, it doesn't say a word about. about when they have to hold the trial or thing like that. What we have here is a, there's actually a Senate resolution. It was passed a long, long time ago that sets out the rules for impeachments. And normally, if you look at that carefully, it says trial is supposed to start at one o'clock the day following the formal impeachment resolution being handed to the Senate. But if you then keep going, and this probably is no surprise to anybody who's ever looked at parliamentary rules, you know, if you keep going, there's an option in there for the Senate rather than holding a trial in the entire Senate.

And then that's normally what happens if it's a president. Okay. But in the past, for example, more than a decade ago, the Senate actually impeached a federal judge for bribery. actually was there and watched the trial. You covered that. It's amazing. In those circumstances, the Senate has the option of handing over the impeachment to a committee. Okay. And what happens is they leave it up to the committee to investigate and kind of hold a mini trial. That's what they did with this federal judge. They set up a committee. The committee investigated. The committee, not the entire Senate held a trial. And at the end of it, the Senate made a recommendation that this particular judge be impeached.

That was then voted on on the entire Senate. I see. So if, for example, Schumer wants to delay all this, well, that's what he'll do. You know, he'll say, oh, we're going to send this to a committee. They'll investigate. they'll handle, they'll do a trial, and who knows how long that will take. Is the Senate obligated to hold a vote? You know, there's probably some disagreement among constitutional scholars about this,

but I don't think there's actually anything in the Constitution that says they have to act on it. Okay. So it could be assigned to a committee, and the committee holds a trial, and it never moves beyond that, correct? Okay. Yeah. So that's, like I said, the Constitution is very sparse and what it says about this. Okay.

Well, Hans, I appreciate your expertise on this. If you were a betting man, what would you guess that Schumer is going to do here? Well, I think what Schumer will do is he'll accept the formal articles of impeachment from the House. And then he'll say, I'm assigning this to a special committee. To hold a trial, quote unquote trial. Who will investigate and potentially hold a trial. And who knows, maybe he'll name who that committee is right away, but if he really wants to delay things, he might say, I'm going to assign this to a committee with members to be named later to take this up. And that might be his way of putting it off.

And there's no formal timeline that that committee is under to bring. I don't believe so, no. Fascinating. All right. Well, Hans, thank you so much for your time. Hans von Vakoski, senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Russian President Vladimir Putin says if he was choosing between Trump and Biden, he would prefer a Biden presidency. Putin made the remarks during a Russian state television appearance on Wednesday. When asked Biden or Trump, listen to how Putin responds with translation via

Bloomberg television. Biden. He is the more experienced person. He is predictable. He is a politician of the old formation. But we will work with any U.S. leader who the American people have confidence in. That was the first time that Putin weighed in on who he would like to see win the 2024 election. Trump responded to Putin's comments last night saying what the Russian leader said was a great compliment. Tragically, one individual was killed yesterday at the hands of a shooter. during the Kansas City Chief's Super Bowl Parade. As many as one million fans were at the parade

to celebrate the Chief's big win when shots were fired. Three suspects have been taken into custody in the shooting, two of whom are juveniles. USA Today reports that the shooting may have stemmed from a personal dispute, but the situation is still being investigated. 22 people were wounded in the shooting. The woman who was tragically killed

is 43-year-old, Lisa Lopez Galvin. She leaves behind two children. One of the suspects in custody was tackled by two Kansas City Chiefs fans. Tray Filter tackled the gunman along with another gentleman as that gunman ran through the crowd and his wife Casey took the man, sorry, take one more time. Tray Filter tackled the gunman as he ran through the crowd with the help of another man and his wife Casey took the man's firearm. The couple joined Good Morning America to recount the story. I saw a flash next to me, and I remember, I jumped and remember thinking, I hope this is the food they were talking about. So, me and that gentleman got pretty, we were pretty elated

once we knew we had him, and they started yelling that there's a gun, there's a gun. so we were pretty steadfast in holding him down there. Casey says that when she saw the gun on the ground beside the tackled man, she grabbed it quickly and says that she first thought it was a toy, but upon picking it up, realized it definitely was not. Among the more than 20 who were wounded in the shooting, about half are reported to be children. And with that, that's going to do it for today's episode.

Thanks for being with us here on the Daily Signal's top news. make sure to join us tomorrow morning for a great conversation as we head into the long weekend. I'm sitting down with The Chosen's Joey Vahiti, who plays Thomas, and Kirk Wooller, who plays the Roman soldier, Gaias. If you're not familiar with the hit TV series, The Chosen, it depicts the life and ministry of Jesus and his disciples. And right now, you can catch season four of The Chosen, the first three episodes of Season 4 of the Chosen in theaters. So be sure to catch that conversation. As we kind of go behind the scenes of what it's like to be a cast member on the set of The Chosen. Also, take a minute if you haven't already to subscribe to the Daily Thuddle podcast wherever you like to listen.

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