President Trump’s legal team offered an extraordinary new defense during the president’s impeachment trial on Wednesday. Attorney Alan Dershowitz said that a sitting president could take any action to boost his re-election chances if he felt his re-election was in the public interest.

Alan Dershowitz: “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.”

Meanwhile, Democrats are trying to secure enough votes to get Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton to testify. Bolton has written in a forthcoming book that Trump personally told him he wanted to maintain a freeze on military aid to Ukraine until Ukraine turned over materials related to former Vice President Joe Biden. The White House is attempting to halt publication of Bolton’s book, claiming it contains classified information. This is Virginia Democratic Senator Tim Kaine.

Sen. Tim Kaine: “Before there’s a vote on conviction or acquittal, there’s going to be a vote on whether this is a trial or a sham. That’s what the vote’s going to be, likely, on Friday: Is this a trial, or is this a sham?”

Hundreds of protesters descended on Capitol Hill Wednesday to demand the Senate call witnesses as part of Trump’s impeachment trial. This is Reverend William Barber speaking at the protest.

Rev. William Barber: “What we’re seeing in the United States Senate is as bad as what we saw in Jim Crow. It is McConnell and other senators bringing old Southern justice to the United States Senate.”

We’ll have more on the impeachment trial after headlines.