-Members of the House Intelligence Committee
are going behind closed doors to review their report
on President Trump's dealings with Ukraine.
-The House of Representatives is back from Thanksgiving recess
and is quickly moving to the next phase of impeachment.
-One House committee prepares to give way to another.
Members of the Intelligence Committee
will send their report over to the House Judiciary Committee.
That committee will in turn hold its first impeachment
hearing on Wednesday morning.
-This is the result of a president
who believes that he is beyond indictment,
beyond impeachment, beyond any form of accountability,
and, indeed, above the law.
And that is a very dangerous thing for this country.
-Meanwhile, President Trump is headed to London
for talks with NATO leaders.
-The do-nothing Democrats decided
when I'm going to NATO -- This was set up a year ago.
-Their concerned that if they do not impeach this president,
they can't beat him in an election.
This is exactly what Alexander Hamilton warned us about.
-Good morning.
It's week 3 of the public hearings
in the impeachment inquiry.
We're switching to the Judiciary Committee today,
but we're staying in the same room.
And I might be on time.
-Four law professors are expected to testify
about the historical and constitutional basis
for impeachment hearings
without anyone present from the Trump White House.
So, while we've been walking,
there's been a little bit of news breaking.
My colleagues have gotten ahold of the planned testimony
that some of these constitutional experts
are going to be giving today.
Some of them are going to be testifying
that what Trump has done is the perfect example of why
the framers of the Constitution invented impeachment.
-This week's witnesses are law professors,
experts on the Constitution.
The three Democratic witnesses indicate they believe
President Trump committed impeachable offenses.
-The founding generation,
like every generation of Americans since,
was especially concerned to protect our government
and our democratic process from outside interference.
The very idea that a president might seek
the aid of a foreign government in his reelection campaign
would have horrified them.
Based on the evidentiary record,
that is what President Trump has done.
-If what we're talking about is not impeachable,
then nothing is impeachable.
-Saying, "Russia, if you're listening" --
You know, a president
who cared about the Constitution would say,
"Russia, if you're listening, butt out of our elections."
-This is precisely the misconduct
that the framers created a constitution,
including impeachment, to protect against.
-Jonathan Turley, the sole GOP witness in the hearing,
says he is not a Trump supporter and did not vote
for the president, but insists Democrats
haven't proven the case they say they have.
-Close enough is not good enough.
If you're going to accuse a president of bribery,
you need to make it stick because you're trying to remove
a duly elected president of the United States.
-What?
Like you don't do this every day?
It's so cold in here.
This is not, like, the emotion of the Yovanovitch hearing.
This is not like the revelations of the Sondland hearing.
There is not a [gasps] "Oh, my goodness!
I didn't know that!"
moment that's coming up, unless you feel that way, generally,
about constitutional law,
which, I'm sure there are some of that do,
but by and large, it isn't hitting people like in the heart
and in the feelings and in the gut and in the surprise.
-If the President of the United States
attempts to abuse his office,
that is a complete impeachable offense.
The possibility that the president might get caught
in the process of attempting to abuse his office
and then not be able to pull it off does not undercut
in any way the impeachability of the act.
-It's technical.
This is doing the fine needlework
of actually sewing together the articles of impeachment,
and you have to go through it, but it's not exactly ideal
TV programing the way some of the past hearings were.
Although, I'm not a TV producer,
so maybe I'm totally wrong about that.
-President Trump did not merely seek to benefit
from foreign interference in our elections,
he directly and explicitly invited foreign interference
in our elections.
He used the powers of his office to try to make it happen.
He sent his agents to make clear
that this is what he wanted and demanded.
He was willing to compromise our security
and his office for personal political gain.
-No offense to our professors, but, please, really,
we're bringing you in here today to testify on stuff
that most of you have already written about,
all four, for the opinions we already know.
You couldn't have possibly actually digested
the Adam Schiff report from yesterday
or the Republican response in any real way.
Now, we could be theoretical all we want,
but the American people is really gonna look at this
and say, "Huh?
What are we doing?"
-I don't feel like this is necessarily
going to shed new light on details
that people are going to consider
or necessarily resolve anything.
It feels like we have two camps
that people are digging away into,
not finding some sort of an epiphany of a middle ground.
I think it's also just really interesting at the end,
Nadler said...
-A majority of this country is clearly prepared to impeach
and remove President Trump.
-I haven't seen a poll that lets you hang your hat on that.
-Having finished their portion of the impeachment inquiry,
House Intelligence Committee Democrats
are closely watching what happens
in the Judiciary Committee.
-To this day, it is, I think,
ambiguous what the political affects of impeachment are,
meaning, in those states where the presidential election
will be won or lost,
impeachment is a very much ambiguous thing.
And, so, the notion that this is sort of a continuation
of some sort of witch hunt is just false on the face of it
because I think Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff
were dragged to impeachment by the outrageous fact pattern
associated with Ukraine.
-This is about whether or not a president of the United States
can abuse his office, engage in bribery,
and then cover it up and do so with impunity.
-The president, back from NATO meetings in London,
continues to attack the impeachment inquiry as a hoax.
-It's a hoax. It's a big, fat hoax.
-But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi,
who controls the House voting schedule,
signals Democrats will move forward soon.
-The facts are uncontested.
The president leaves us no choice but to act.
-Today, with the Speaker announcement,
she has weakened this nation.
It was not new news.
They always had this pre-written time line
from the day they got sworn in.
Here was the president, oversees making America stronger,
and what were the Democrats doing -- dividing us further.
-As Pelosi leaves her news conference,
one particular question
from a reporter stops her in her tracks.
-I don't hate anybody.
I was raised in a Catholic house.
We don't hate anybody.
I think the president is a coward
when it comes to helping our kids
who are afraid of gun violence.
I think he is cruel when he doesn't deal
with helping our Dreamers, of which we're very proud of.
I think he's in denial about the climate crisis.
However, that's about the election.
Take it up in the election.
This is about the Constitution of the United States
and the facts that lead to the president's violation
of his oath of office.
And as a Catholic, I resent your using the word "hate"
in a sentence that addresses me.
I don't hate anyone.
I was raised in a way that is a heart full of love
and always pray for the president,
and I still pray for the president.
I pray for the president all the time.
So, don't mess with me when it comes to words like that.