And he also staunchly defended the president during the impeachment inquiry.

The pair of campaign together at Rallies and Gates, his district in Florida and that state has 29 key electoral votes.

Mr.

Trump narrowly won Florida.

You'll remember in 2016 Politico reporter Marion Levine joins me now from Capitol Hill.

So Marion Congressman Gates supposedly has a theory about why he was not picked for President Trump's impeachment team.

What does he think?

So mad? 00:00:56.690 --> 00:01:7.450 Gates is essentially accusing Eric Ueland, who's the White House legislative affairs director, of preventing him from being on the House on the White House's team on impeachment. 00:01:7.450 --> 00:01:15.670 And he's essentially saying that it's because Gates and voted to restrict Trump's war powers authority earlier this year and so he can't.

He's essentially saying he suspects that you want is behind the move.

So a vote is what prevented him, or what prevented the president from choosing him to be an impeachment advisor.

Can you tell us a little more about why he would even want to be an impeachment advisor?

What does that role?

D'oh!

So Gates is essentially arguing that that, yes, a vote had an effect on on whether on the fact that he was not picked, what an impeachment advisor essentially is is essentially a trump story. 00:01:45.330 --> 00:02:4.740 It basically you're giving advice to Trump's lawyers and White House essentially about how they should be approaching impeachment, how they should be doing media, what the strategy should be and essentially consists of a group of House Republicans who have been pretty strong, staunch ally, strong trump allies over the last couple of years. 00:02:4.850 --> 00:02:14.380 And you would think Gates would be one of them, because so far he has not really held back from you from ever saying anything negative about the president.

He's always been on the president's side.

What is he now saying, though, about this strategy and about the president's lawyer strategy?

It seems like he's feeling a little better.

He's essentially saying.

He recently criticized to my colleague that the way the White House's lawyers were going about their impeachment presentation.

He's essentially said that the Democrats who had their opening arguments today have video that essentially that they're ready for cable news.

And he essentially compared the president's presentation to eighth grade book report.

So I think that kind of gives us an idea of how he's feeling about how the White House says Team is presenting their message to the public. 00:02:53.730 --> 00:03:4.010 Well, that is a big criticism, and one of the big questions of this trial is whether any members of the GOP are going to be joining the Democrats in calling for witnesses. 00:03:4.140 --> 00:03:13.550 So is what happened to Gates, an example of the kinds of consequences that Republicans could face if they decide they're going to break rank with their party.

It's an interesting warning sign.

I think it's important to note that House Republicans were unanimous in voting against impeaching Trump and I think Trump really likes touting the fact that the Republican Party has his bag.

So a move Thio to join Democrats and ask for additional witnesses could in fact spark higher from the president, but we know that there were at least eight other House Republicans that did make the cut, who are now advisers to the president.

Can you tell us a little bit about them yet?

So, as you mentioned, there's eight others, and a lot of this is not a huge surprise.

Mark Meadows is one of them.

He's been essentially floated quite often as a potential future chief of staff for President Trump. 00:03:59.520 --> 00:04:0.010 You have. 00:04:0.010 --> 00:04:11.790 Jim Jordan has been a pretty strong trump ally, at least Stefanick, who made a really big impression during the House hearings in defending the president and questioning the House impeachment case.

You also have John Radcliffe, who's a former prosecutor.

And so there's really a long list of congressmen who and a congresswoman who essentially tried to defend the president.

And essentially, they're taking on those rules from the House into the Senate impeachment trial.

A lot of Republican superstars are up in coming Republican leaders in the Republican Party or part of this team.

Let's switch gears a little bit here.

We know that you've been reporting on on what is happening in the chambers during this trial.

We know the Senate has imposed harsh restrictions on media coverage of the trial.

But that has not stopped at least Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer from going on a media blitz.

Tell us about your reporting on that. 00:04:56.330 --> 00:05:2.740 So Chuck Schumer, who's always loved the media, has really embraced the impeachment trial. 00:05:2.740 --> 00:05:11.110 He is essentially holding press conferences at 11 a.m. Every day on this media blitz has really started since he sent that letter in December 2.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell outlining what his vision waas for the Senate impeachment trial.

Since then, he's been really active just on the first true day of the trial.

On Tuesday, before 8 a.m. He had gone NPR, CNN Morning Joe, So he's just been very active in driving out the Democratic message that they want witnesses and documents.

He's told his colleagues on that weekly lunches.

Thio also get on the airwaves and talk about the need for witnesses and documents, and I think it's interesting is his his?

His style is quite different from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who essentially wants the results on the floor to speak for themselves and is not doing the same type of media blitz that Chuck Schumer is doing?

Yeah, we're certainly not seeing that same sort of strategy on the Republican side.

Marion Levine. 00:05:58.740 --> 00:06:0.650 Thank you so much for your analysis. 00:06:1.140 --> 00:06:2.050 Thanks for having me.