The Note: Trump, McConnell tag team to keep witnesses from trial

The TAKE with Rick Klein

The impeachment trial has brought the Senate full circle this week. But it didn't get there on its own.

The unlikely, unwieldy and often uneasy alliance of President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has the Senate impeachment trial moving toward a conclusion with witnesses not feeling likely.

Trump's contradictions and attacks haven't always looked wise in the moment. But combined with McConnell's maneuvers and his sense of his caucus, even stunning new information and head-scratchers from Trump surrogates haven't moved the Senate needle.

Trump attorney Alan Dershowitz said a whole lot about both the defense and the mindset of the Republican Party with this argument: "If a president does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment."

Likewise, the president's turn on his former national security adviser John Bolton has been simultaneously shocking and not at all surprising. It has taken approximately no convincing for the Republican National Committee, Rudy Giuliani and other Republican entities to turn their fire on Bolton.

With no realistic shot at conviction and removal, Democrats may be pleased to move on from impeachment and focus on defeating Trump that other way -- via Monday's Iowa caucuses and beyond.

But Democrats came into the trial searching for four Republicans to join them in seeking additional witnesses and testimony. They're still looking for four -- and basically the same four -- because of two Republicans in particular.

The RUNDOWN with MaryAlice Parks

Outside money is playing an outsized role in the final days before the Iowa caucuses.

According to data analytics team Kantar/CMAG, the super PAC supporting former Vice President Joe Biden has spent more money on television ads in the early voting state than his official campaign. As promised, those ads have steered clear of attacking other Democrats -- so far -- and instead have focused on boosting Biden.

The former vice president himself has been taking hits in ads from outside groups too.

"It's simple. They're smearing me to try to stop me and they know if I'm the nominee I'm gonna beat Donald Trump like a drum," Biden told reporters, responding to the new ads from Republican-backed groups that question whether the impeachment trial on Capitol Hill could hurt his ability to win.

Asked if he thought Sen. Bernie Sanders too could beat the president, Biden said Wednesday that he thought "anyone" could.

It's true, hypothetical general election polls show both Biden and Sanders with slim margins over Trump at this early stage, though their teams clearly see different paths to winning. Sanders appeals to young people by huge margins, but struggles with older voters and vice versa for Biden.

Sanders though got some love from his opponent Andrew Yang overnight. Yang told reporters that while he is "nowhere" near starting a conversation about endorsing another candidate, he thinks his supporters "would naturally head to Bernie."

The TIP with Sasha Pezenik

Four senators are sitting when they'd rather be running. Sens. Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar and Michael Bennet have all been pulled from their campaigns and into the impeachment trial of a man they're looking to unseat. And, they're now faced with a catch-22: if they demand testimony from Bolton and other witnesses, they'll prolong the trial and preempt their return to the trail.

"I have to be here and I will be here. I'm doing my job. If you're asking me would I rather be campaigning and in Iowa in the last week, I would," Sanders told reporters Wednesday, prompting the question of whether he and his fellow 2020ers could be stuck there even come caucus day.

"Ask Mitch McConnell," Warren said Wednesday on the Hill. "If the trial's going on, I'm going to be here."

Meanwhile, candidates who have Iowa all to themselves are sympathetic -- "I feel terrible for them, I know they want to be here," Yang said from Des Moines. But hamstrung by the scales of justice, the four senators' primary fate now rests in the hands of two opposing parties: their Hawkeye doorknockers and the GOP.

THE PLAYLIST

ABC News' "Start Here" Podcast. Thursday morning's episode features ABC News contributor and former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., who talks about the first day of questioning in the Senate impeachment trial and the likelihood of new witnesses. Then, ABC News Political Director Rick Klein discusses Sen. Bernie Sanders' surging poll numbers in Iowa and what it means for the Democratic primary race. "He could win this thing and it could start in Iowa and New Hampshire," Klein says. http://apple.co/2HPocUL

ABC News' "Powerhouse Politics" podcast. Political attention is divided these days and will remain so, particularly as uncertainty about witnesses leaves the possibility of the Senate impeachment trial spilling into voting season. https://bit.ly/2w091jE

FiveThirtyEight Politics Podcast. To better understand what it's really like to run for office as a woman, we spoke to women from every state who have done it -- 97 women in all. These are their stories.https://apple.co/23r5y7w

ONE MORE THING

What happens when a 22-year-old first-time candidate -- a woman and a person of color to boot -- enters the world of local politics in her Ohio hometown? Tiffany "Tiff" Piko, who makes a living selling used clothing online, made history in her hometown last fall when she became the first woman on the ballot for mayor of Lancaster, Ohio. ABC's "Good Morning America" followed the mayoral campaign of the recent college graduate who wanted to change her community and the world with big ideas about "sustainability" and "inclusivity."

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