-This morning, members will hear from lawyers
who will present the official findings
and represent both Democrats and Republicans.
The hearing is scheduled to get under way in a half hour's time,
and joining me -- -After weeks of public hearings,
Democrats are preparing to draft articles of impeachment
against the president.
-They're trying to distill their critique of the process
into a single moment that can then go viral.
-The most serious of such offenses include abuse or power,
betrayal of the nation through foreign entanglements,
and corruption of public office.
President Trump put himself before country.
-They still go forward with impeachment,
not because there's evidence,
but because they're afraid he will get re-elected.
-Where's the impeachable offense?
Why are we here?
-But Democrats are moving forwards and quickly.
-The framers of the Constitution recognized that someday
a president might come to office who would abuse that office,
and they prescribed a remedy, and that remedy is impeachment.
-Today, the House Committee on the Judiciary
is introducing two articles of impeachment,
charging the president of the United States
with committing high crimes and misdemeanors.
-The hearings are over,
and the articles of impeachment are public.
Democrats' charges against the president are in.
-It started off, of course,
with sort of this partisan rancor.
-Mr Chairman, since I've been implicated in this,
I'd like to -- -Without objection --
-Our comments have not been -- -Without objection --
-Mr Chairman, I appeal the decision of the chair.
-There's no decision to appeal.
There was not a ruling and a motion.
We will now recognize representations
of evidence from counsel -- -Is this when we just hear staff
ask questions of other staff,
and the members get dealt out of this whole hearing,
and for the next four hours,
you're gonna try to overturn the result of an election
with unelected people giving testimony?
-The gentleman will suspend. Mr Berke is recognized.
-Steamroll continues. -Mr Berke has the floor.
-Thank you, Mr Chairman, ranking member Collins,
and all the members.
-So, the Republicans, they've clearly been frustrated
throughout this whole process.
They say that the Democrats have not been fair to the president,
even though Democrats have given President Trump
an option to have an attorney up here at this hearing,
and the White House declined to do so.
-The committee turns things over to the lawyers, Stephen Castor,
the GOP counsel, and Barry Berke,
the Democratic counsel.
-It is a requirement that the president be a person
who does not risk national security of this nation
and the integrity of our elections
in order to further his own re-election prospects.
-The evidence does not support a conclusion
that President Trump conditioned a meeting
with President Zelensky
on investigating former Vice President Biden.
Both Ambassador Volker in his deposition
and Yermak in an August "New York Times" article denied
that Mayor Giuliani was speaking on behalf
of President Trump as his agent.
And the president -- and Volker
testifies to this pretty definitively --
the president essentially,
he doesn't order anybody to do anything.
The president says, "Talk to Rudy."
-As the final public hearing draws to a close,
neither side has budged an inch.
-These facts are undisputed.
The very nature of the fact that I say I disagree
and you say you don't is a disputed fact!
These are disputed facts.
It'll be the first impeachment
that is partisan on facts that are not agreed to.
-We know that there are no excuses for this conduct.
In abusing his office in this manner
and in obstructing the investigation that followed,
such conduct is clearly impeachable.
This committee will proceed accordingly.
-The next morning, Democratic leaders announce
formal articles of impeachment.
-After almost three months of investigating,
Democrats are finally putting out what they're gonna charge
President Trump with.
It is a crazy day up here.
-On this solemn day, I recall that the first order of business
for members of Congress
is the solemn act to take an oath to protect
and defend the Constitution of the United States.
-Today, the House Committee on the Judiciary
is introducing two articles of impeachment,
charging the president of the United States
with committing high crimes and misdemeanors.
The first article is for abuse of power.
This gives rise to the second article of impeachment
for obstruction of Congress.
-There has been a sense among the Democratic leadership
that they want to be done with this and they want to move on.
They don't want to be talking about this in 2020.
They want to be talking about pocketbook issues
that Pelosi thinks will resonate with voters back home.
And so, they very much are adamant
that they're gonna get this done.
So, they're moving especially fast.
We're not gonna sleep at all or eat or probably exercise,
but, you know, we will get through it.
-After meeting with Russian officials in Washington,
President Trump leaves the nation's capital for a campaign
rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania,
and it's clear where the president's supporters stand.
-"R"! -Give me a "U"!
-"U"!
-Give me an "M"! -"M"!
-Give me a "P"! -"P"!
-What's it spell? -Trump!
-But today the House Democrats announced these two flimsy,
pathetic, ridiculous articles of impeachment.
The House Democrats are walking back
from everything they claimed.
With today's announcement, they're now admitting
there was no collusion,
there was no obstruction of justice,
and there were no crimes whatsoever.
There are no crimes. It says it.
There are no crimes!
They're impeaching me, and there are no crimes.
This has to be a first in history.
They're impeaching me. You know why?
Because they want to win an election,
and that's the only way they can do it.
-Nothing's gonna happen.
It's all just a basically going through the motions,
trying to make him look bad, and when it's all said and done,
they're not gonna be able to remove him from office,
and it's all just gonna be a big, giant waste of money.
-They've proven nothing, they've shown nothing,
and I don't think anything was impeachable.
Nothing rises to the level of a high crime or misdemeanor.
-You know what happens? They all go down the tubes.
-After an evening of opening statements,
the Judiciary Committee returns Thursday morning
to start a long day of debating.
-I know call up House Resolution 755,
impeaching Donald John Trump, president of the United States,
for high crimes and misdemeanors.
The clerk will report the resolution.
-HR 755, impeaching Donald John Trump,
president of the United States,
for high crimes and misdemeanors,
in the House of Representatives December 10, 2019.
-It has been a little more exciting than I expected.
Typically, markups are a rather boring legislative process
where lawmakers make changes to legislation.
But there have been a couple of moments in this one
where I was like, "Whoo!"
-Does the gentleman wish to appeal the ruling of the chair?
Yes or no? -Yes.
-Appeal of the ruling of the chair is not sustained.
-Did you actually call for a vote?
How is it not sustained?
You didn't call for a vote.
-I ruled that the point of order is not well-taken.
-Well, that's painfully obvious.
-As the debate continues, the attacks turn personal.
-And I don't want to make light
of anybody's substance- abuse issues.
I know the president's working real hard to solve
those throughout the country.
But it's a little hard to believe that Burisma
hired Hunter Biden
when he could not resolve his own dispute
with Hertz Rental Car
over leaving cocaine and a crack pipe in the car.
-I would say that the pot calling the kettle black
is not something that we should do.
-Hank Johnson, who is a Democrat from Georgia,
called out Matt Gaetz, who is a Florida Republican,
for dissing Hunter Biden
for having a substance-abuse issue,
when he personally had been arrested for a DUI.
There was a moment when the room kind of went quiet.
People didn't know how to respond.
As this is going on in front of the TV cameras,
there's been a lot of sort of hand-wringing
by moderate Democrats behind the scenes,
Democrats from Trump districts,
districts that the president won in 2016,
who are worried about political blowback.
They're looking at the polls,
and a lot of these Dems are struggling right now.
The leadership has said they are not whipping this,
as in they're not gonna try to force people
to vote a certain way.
Pelosi has said this is sort of a vote of conscience.
-This is a vote that people will have to come
to their own conclusion on, and the facts are clear.
People will vote the way they vote.
-Congressman Matt Cartwright,
a moderate Democrat from Pennsylvania,
indicates impeachment is a divisive issue in his district
but says he hasn't made up his mind yet.
-They're running about half-a-million-dollars
worth of ads, trying to get constituents
to call my office and tell me to vote no.
So -- -Who is?
-Dark-money groups. -Republicans.
-But also the RNC ran some of those.
-Does that make you nervous at all?
-No, I find it interesting,
but I'm not gonna decide it by counting heads.
I'm gonna decide it on doing what I think
is the right thing to do.
-For Democrats, this is supposed to be a high point.
This is their chance,
their last chance to make the best case they can.
Once it goes to the Senate, Republicans are in charge,
and they're gonna poke holes in this.
They have more power.
This is only gonna get worse for Democrats.
It has been quite an extraordinary past few hours.
We were told this afternoon that we would
probably wrap up around 5:00,
that Republicans wanted to get to the White House for this
White House Christmas party that is happening today.
And it just kept dragging out and dragging out.
And it turns out that Republicans, it sounds like,
got very sensitive to this notion
that they were trying to wrap up the hearing
to get to this White House holiday party.
-Look -- we're gonna be here a long time tonight
and don't let anybody worry.
There's plenty of balls we can go to.
So, if anybody thinks that might be
in our midst, don't worry about it.
Keep asking, because if we have to fact-check
you all night, we will.
-And so, they sort of blew up the whole hearing
and decided to keep offering amendment after amendment.
-I have an amendment at the desk.
-Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.
-Mr Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.
-For what purposes does Mr Biggs seek recognition?
-I have an amendment at the desk.
-The gentlemen has an amendment at the desk.
The clerk will report the amendment.
-The Democrats were in the dark this whole time.
They didn't know if Republicans were gonna take this all night.
And so, Democrats were pretty annoyed by this.
When it finally wrapped up,
and Republicans agreed to cut off debate at about 11:30,
just a few minutes ago, they were expecting a final vote
and that the whole vote would happen tonight.
-It has been a long two days of consideration of these articles,
and it is now very late at night.
Therefore, the committee will now stand in recess
until tomorrow morning at 10:00 AM.
The committee is in recess.
-Mr Chairman? Mr Chairman?
-What? -In a way, I guess you could say
the Democrats were dishing back some of the same medicine
that they were getting from Republicans all day,
who were keeping them in the dark about their plans.
Things are not just breaking down
between both parties on impeachment
and the actual substance of it.
There's serious warring going on between both sides on process.
-I've been in public life now since 2006,
and I have just witnessed the most bush-league stunt
I have ever witnessed in my professional life.
-Quite a surprise to all of us who thought we would vote
and then go home and sleep in.
Alright.
But we will be here early in the morning.
-The Judiciary Committee will come to order,
a quorum being present.
The question now is on Article 1 of the resolution,
impeaching President Donald J Trump for abusing his powers.
The clerk will call the roll.
-Ms Garcia? -Aye.
-Aye.
-Aye. -No.
-My vote is no. -No.
-No. -Mr Reschenthaler?
-No. -Aye.
-Aye. -Aye.
-Aye. -Mr Neguse votes aye.
Mr Jordan? -No.
-Mr Chairman, there are 23 "ayes" and 17 "nos."
-The article is agreed to.
Without objection, the committee's adjourned.
-Mr Chairman? Mr Chairman?
-What purpose does the gentleman seek recognition?
-Pursuant to clause 2(l), rule 11,
I give notice of intent to file dissenting views.
-Notice is heard.
Without objection, the committee is adjourned.