Friends -

Every day of the impeachment trial, Senator Murphy is writing a bit about his read of the day’s events. He’ll share his thoughts and insights and try to give some behind-the-scenes vignettes. He wants to make sure the trial is as transparent as possible.

Below are Senator Murphy’s takeaways from the House managers’ first day of opening arguments.

- Team Murphy

All the other crises don’t stop for impeachment. I spent the morning at the CBS News bureau talking about Trump’s dangerous failure to be straight with America about the intel and injuries surrounding the Iran strikes.

Later, I spend a little time catching up with the pages as the trial begins. They are high schoolers who spend a semester working in the Senate. This is exam week so they got home at 3 a.m. last night and had an exam first thing this a.m. So I have no right to complain about being tired.

Milk is the big news today. Senate rules allow senators to have water or milk at their desks, and today senators (including my seatmate Senator Elizabeth Warren) are going with milk. I stick with flat water (and a secret Diet Mountain Dew in the back room fridge).

I’m thinking today, as I look across to the Republican side, how many of these senators campaigned hard against Trump in the primary. So many of them warned how out of control he would be. And now they are readying to green-light his corruption. Corruption they saw coming.

Schiff and the managers are kicking ass. So prepared. Such good storytellers. Their use of video is especially sharp. I wonder if some of my GOP colleagues are seeing this Sondland and Taylor testimony for the first time.

I let Senator Warren on to my new impeachment trick. During the short breaks, unwrap a few hard candies and put them in your desk drawer. That way you avoid the noise of unwrapping them when you sneak one mid-trial.

I’m struck by how good speech cadences can make long remarks much easier to listen to. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and Rep. Val Demings are especially good at varying their pacing as they go along. They are both impressive speakers.

Finally, today was the day that I became part of the trial. Around 8 p.m. Rep. Zoe Lofgren puts the notes of my September meeting with Zelensky into the record. I’m part of history now.