priorities and it was felt that high education wasn't one of those priorities like . the big universities the ones with. the ones we the elite used to go and preach the fees by double digits the logical thing to do because as the subsidies gave you when the reading quality you. the poor universities couldn't do it so they did increase fees but by no one month. this is a special moment for me as i symbolically as. the vice chancellor stripped of that university. god

was my god. was my. god. they didn't make me sit on the floor die came to them and i said. i was criticized by the vice-chancellor they said i gave birth to the struggle to give oxygen to substances their right. i did i do you know those who didn't want. to move you know to you know to new don't want to do to you tomorrow do you understand now that was. i was and it is to keep this university. quality institution

and that means i need to keep its income streams so there's no way i'm giving. until the state makes up the. i don't have be but in his student days was probably the equivalent of what we are now. i don't know i know him that he wasn't life but we hear that he was progress. tedham sees himself both as a scholar of the left and as a participant and now finding himself in a position of authority in which that authority has constantly been challenged by this emerging student. i believe profoundly that the world will be a father better place. if we lived and created a more egalitarian outcome. the struggle for the free education system is an important player in that together.

to. have. had anything of this nature taken place where the university management the executive committee of council would have to sit in front of students and engage with the students it is what i wouldn't tell you who's in who's who to. know who's under new management and not management to sit in the. you see. people you see.

ya. mr fitz there's only been nine university assemblies this is a creation where the entire university comes and decides on a particular issue a burning issue hope you get blocked off suddenly the class that completely shut it down did the private security tempest control but campus control was on our side was and we understand that they wanted to do it on the lawns because it's much easier to disperse people in an open area oh ya around one o'clock they still hadn't opened it up i was talking to who own

the power structure in the university been immersed and actually the students really for a moment for a while were in control is the response was in the last time we had a significant generational conflict was the sixty's early seventy's. and i think we entering that moment again you're beginning to see it in multiple manifestations you seen it in the emergence of student protests in south africa. the was that statue symbolizes the exclusion of black bodies from a particular space and it stands there proudly at the entrance of the university

and that symbolism is a representation of how much needs to change was was. judging. if you can have an education that is number one f. or centric way african ideas. at the center and important and over emphasize as whiston ideas ah where we have african ideas being valued. african knowledge systems being valued. then for me that is d. couldn't i say shit.

my we got comfortable a settlement house. it was so important in building unity in silly down amongst ourselves. my mom. and dad education team also started to playing around with the idea of what would the library look like they'd provided also in no tentative it created a world we wanted to live in. full it took us to come into ideas will find expression let's put them to a test this thing through together. i mean there was something about affirming a way of knowing something that has not been affirmed in this place was a language a song a grandmother sang with you to feel something you know in your whole life has been affirmed. and for you to claim like that space is to take you own the land.

last. by monday we had a call to meet the minister and when the minister had engaged us the idea of the six percent which is inflation no real increase. we bought into the.

stakeholders agreed to encourage there to spread to constituencies to engage in institutional new causations at universities with a view to achieve if increase of not to higher than the a c p i have related increase of six percent for twin to sixteen. he. says genders don't accept this respect to. students my smallest nephew was. the anger among students had left those had joined us. students had entered the back of parliament and eleven a side in the gate was open in the frank and me just intake was when you got

inside that's when the shit hit the fan. please respond differently to why protestors and so quite spontaneously whitehurst curtis's were asked to to offer themselves into the front of the march such that they could protect some of the black students. and it worked once or twice but when it got to parliament and people realized that they these people doesn't matter what color they're going to storm this parliament this is like and they started given that we need to stop this. thank you was i was i was i had never seen the power of students like that i think back to eat sleep was. like you i was

it was. you doing this for your children also you can't afford these studies as well and you know he has one job he was. was. was was thouse was was. the emergence of some sort of beginnings of a national coalition that exists outside of the control of the a.n.c. allied northants but it really just represents a growing movement that people are realizing that they need to work together and other to make it against. militant islam to me

was. i was i was. was. with him and she's standing there on the stage and i see because this is not going to have this guy must come down it's all staged to be assumed by us. you know people. oh i was the old the your reasons for movement came about ok nikki it belongs to everyone and no one at the same time and i think that's something that i'll do sometimes forget that we started in a very different way to the politics that they used to. i got a call from the presidency saying what he thinks i have to consult asian my v.c. said i released a statement saying the university vice chancellors about construction citizens.

that some people have said that this is a flip flop actually i don't buy that we see ourselves as progresses but in that kind of managerial position and who are governed by the systemic that i am it is. and when spaces open up we take the opportunities and when systemic and i mean to open up afterward his name only who hate you take the gap now flip flop it's understanding how social struggle. i worked and to actually think engage in what i call a structural transformative struggle was. was . really. that there will be a zero increase of university fees in twenty sixteen

was. the one you know that has been taken up until now from here on the fee for people from the oval office and just through the system of the north. was was. the. was. the. we continue to use the machinery keeping your younger. but. what is your true for you i want to find out we're not. going to. give up my. yacht.

yes vits when we got there we saw things we as leaders felt that it would be irresponsible to take students inside. defiant. we sold showed us that we went exactly as united and as on the same page as we thought well what resort as like kind of middle class activists was these guys taking the cops on and wanting to storm the union building. these are students from poor black high education institutions who in fact been struggling around exclusion for a long time was a. whole. lot that stuff and i feel it was time it got to come those who were inside solvents marching politely on the outside and renovates when students wanted to jump on the bus some of these other students were in the end wanted to attack them and say this is how you guys go back to your we

started to white institutions and settle for north percent and everything's ok we can do that we're going to be excluded next year because we can't afford even the north pacific god. is nothing more violent than poverty and we come from poverty stricken homes and that is why we are fighting for free education you say it like you will not be cheap you would not stare into as if it's a choice but it really isn't because if you do retreat already lived where it was. the. last. may on al-jazeera. the world's biggest democracy goes to the polls we focus on the economic challenges facing india and the rise of ultranationalist

a new series of you want a winning environmental which meets some of the people striving to protect the planet twenty five years after coming to power can be a unseen maintain its political dominance in south africa and a massive documentary series. talk from lives of two young lives and rule kenya end up in brazil of a defense twenty years and with great fit still looming and populism on the rhine across europe will these elections become a referendum you. may on al-jazeera. the official story is unfair and unfair we all feel sorry i don't care about the official story what has the media been telling join me nearly as an all out front of my guests from around the world take the hot seat and we debate the week's top stories and big issues here now does it. is no one way of telling a story keeping a steady right and to respect the best artist there is a great message to know the person for the time. when your fiancee leaves behind

bars. the engagement also becomes a life sentence. zero world hears from three palestinian women whose lives have been dictated by their relationships with men in prison. wedding on hold on al-jazeera. iraq mothers and in doha the top stories on al-jazeera we can xander join in a song has told a london court he will fight extradition to the united states is wanted for alleged computer hacking hearings been adjourned to the next session on may the thirtieth asylum's is serving a prison sentence for skipping bail before staying in the ecuadorian embassy in

london the lawyer representing jerry and our songes said the outcome of this case could have serious ramifications on the future of investigative journalism. despite what you heard from the prosecutor in the courtroom today this case is not about hacking. this case is about a journalist and a publisher who had conversations with a source about accessing material encourage that source to provide mr material and spoke to that source about how to protect their identity this is protected activity that journalists engage in all the time and any prosecution and extradition of mr sands for having done so or alleged to have done so. will place a massive chill on investigative journalism the world over. ugandan opposition politician bobby wian has been granted bail why is being held in a maximum security prison since monday on charges stemming from protests last year against a social media tax his lawyers and his supporters say the charges have been made up

to stop him criticizing the government. venezuela's opposition leader is urging his supporters not to lose hope after their protests failed so toppled president nicolas maduro the president's supporters held a rival rally in the capital caracas a woman was shot dead and dozens more injured during fighting with security forces . south sudan's warring parties are meeting about ending this six year civil war the talks and ethiopia's capital addis ababa before the deadline runs out to form a unity government a peace deal was signed in september of president salva kiir rebel leader like much of and other rival factions. meanwhile susser down has rejected un allegations it was behind the killing of two prominent government critics back as a born and dong samuel look disappeared in kenya in twenty seventeen where they lived in exile and the government has repeatedly denied responsibility for the disappearance on this day international is calling for an independent investigation

into the alleged execution those are the headlines coming up next on al-jazeera that's what this life and. it was a very very difficult point in the movement because there were clear reasons why we had to continue and then there was just not enough momentum. and not enough energy. to get. the syria to scene feel increment in one week maybe if we can push for longer we can achieve more. we have leading this city by the scruff of the nation i

believe. and we can squeeze. more out of that. number was less significantly less than it was before but the work was still there in the original number that they were so it was very difficult to look workers in the eye and say to them we're done we'll see you later. you know what i know for. much of what they need. anymore but not a lot and about me like you do. you know. something i don't know about you but if your hands at that and said. you could say yes immediately. but by i would be in violation of my mandate i would not have to understand the financial implications of the decision i cannot make a decision now and declare bankruptcy three months later that would be a response. to

. the. all or. the. was precinct is an education is able to transform radically society what is the primary source of a university it's not the papers that get annoyed in a gimmick journals it's the young people young minds that come through an institution. this is been a system that has really almost

a he didn't curriculum to everyone who comes to a university that it's ok to treat poor black people as if they are sub human we've managed to show that if we united and if we're mobilized we actually have a very strong voice and we have a very strong influence over what happens at our universities and if an employer society. we have to find the money arjun fifty million cut you can do once you can do it again and if you implode this institution you break the institutional mechanism that can address inequality in this. number not in the world security instruction is no guns. no purpose for. children but you can't have a weapons of aggression if you like the strict controls. the way improve the arabic you know. it was

a ridiculous amount of effort to ensure that students didn't have safe places to meet it was about taking the movement. to university space as a space of intellectual robust intellectual encouragement of open democratic discussion debate need to be protected protests must be seen as part of in my view the learning exercise must be seen as part of what students in cage with because there was no occupation we didn't have the time. i now wrote a lot of issues and really deal with the heart of what we are fighting for. ended up fighting a lot in meetings and obviously the loud in prominent voices would be the ones that are heard when we spoke as women you could tell by the our body language it's like they get bored up until one person stands up and say you know what we will not be

led by women. and we will not be gay people because this thing of gay ness it was started by the treats when they were at boat. so for those april happened after the is this history. books was a way number line of of existing and resulting but then it was also a way of saying that we're tired of being those wonderful fragile people we won't stand up for ourselves and we won't fight. but. the make up of the movement is as important as the outcomes of the movement because who makes up the movement translates into like the movement become. the. other.

some of the complications is when you try to hold the b.c. agenda in a conscious agenda with its kind of history of masculinity and the sergeant it's very difficult to hold that with intersectionality or the idea that patriarchy must fall to we've had many conversations with with our comrades where are they saying but really how can you take patriarchy away from ours this is the one thing we have and now you coming to say we must change ourselves what do you mean. even when. women. it was nothing to the mills so that is that it. no one from known to no name that we can't leave. a clear

people cannot be here. there's no membership to the struggle even as i want to feel ages. haitian i carry a lot already and i cannot say ok let us focus and see education now and will focus on me being a woman later for for living is about all forms or symbols of pride of oppression you know all of them must for the must be numbered to live. was a crime was outside of. the drug price students at that university get it at the admin buildings to hear minister of higher education platonism idea deliver his cabinet's decision on student fees was one of the challenges that turned from all sides. and have concluded that the best approach would be to allow the universities individually to

devon level of increase their institutions require to ensure that they continue to operate effectively the fear just men should not go above eight percent. wow. so you want to make me. on. several university campuses have been shut down a following the announcement by higher education minister blade nzimande. i think you just have to prove it on the radio you yes i do question if you think you . know. you sometimes academics are standing up and saying we must

protect you question how you question and basic education as a public good students made their way up the side of house they were blocked from entering by private security. how do they do you. how do we attain fiji cation having a conversation about what our priorities are as a society is it increased to monetise ocean is it the ability for us to exist as equals participate in the shaping of society has equals being able to have as members of a south african population the ability to realize our dreams. i

must know of. no no no. i was given up it's enough what do you want didn't sign up picked up. enough to know to follow. the law if you're no good. because i know what i. think the. situation that you can hate is a bunch of confrontation you need to use complete the nature of the engagement between protesters and police in the context. we know that in south africa yes we

have a legitimate government but we do know more people have died in police custody in the post ninety four period than during apartheid and. had cited that a very significant move forward would be to get the university to publicly say that they support for education and they're willing to do what it takes with students to hold the state accountable they beat the students they meet us to meet the students develop a pledge we would support the goal of free education. then we asked will you back

to us and go to the senate and council can i say will you walk march senate and council agree to sit in council it agrees to the goal of the education sciri of a general assembly he agreed to that. the university was demanding that if they were to come to the university assembly and commit to this that we would end the shutdown both the university and students knew very well that immediately when we opened our gates when classes started properly we would lose all bargaining power with the state. it is good to have to get the three announced the postponement of the general assembly that was to be held today. for the protesting students effectively one to the general assembly and the one to the much to the constitutional court to continue but they diffused to

commit that the academic program will commence on monday it was previously we had discussed pete. did you think it was going to be tough yes and what would you have out on the mat need to lose the academic year so that's the question that i was confronted. obduracy into us we don't want to talk to the st jude you know police in other ways one could say that to the university was basically outsourcing its response. was. to.

our judgment. after running battles with authorities on of its campus the students and then was pushed off onto the streets fronting. world war.

the rage shooting and shooting to liberty into the church grounds we not extraordinary need to. through things. like that from the right and my friend. thanks for bearing with both. hands. there is absolutely no reason for the kinds of scenes that we would see that took place like for you to do this different from us gothic that i was there for what to do and looking at that there were more storms and so on that's a vine that is and it's something that should have no place in a democratic south africa no matter what the issues are president jacob zuma has set up a ministerial tossed team to normalize the situation entire education institutions

. this is a process. this is an authentic a.n.c. government that just. by. notes be able to weed power through the ballot box and they went to discredit. them and try to fold ultra left elements. with never really had put it to felt how in south africa. is must ha. ha. ha. i. shouldn't be surprised if political parties have an interest in of course they do that this was one of the most important protests in the post and i think for people but within. these student protests have been orchestrated and controlled

by an outside force that see the deliberately mischievous or betraying profound lack of understanding of the student politics. so they wanted to into the protest couldn't allies us but only after that will they do anything with us it will be justifiable because what could in those but. student leader meanies to appear in the huge problem magistrates court this morning and what police say was part of an investigation into the intimidation and violence that we feen meeting has been denied bail by the johannesburg magistrates court let me is facing charges of malicious damage to property theft assaults and position of

dangerous weapons. political arrests are now being used to kill the movement. within it with the situation. security that it no trained students you know at four o'clock in the morning would have you know people coming to see you know the minister wants to meet with. us and it is then that we realise that actually what we're dealing with is bigger than you know. didn't know we knew that it wouldn't really touch with the news and the way we could defend ourselves was to stay in the public eye. i become part of what you know i come to bear on the proper protocol but i can know i grew up much calmer and i was. the safety in numbers as well as being public in re numbers was safe but

this is definitely a targeted attempt at it i mean that we're sitting in prison my colleagues are sitting in hospital we are known as going to some form of id. we are on the list there's no doubt about that. but i always say that i can't hide like or after we have to come out and do what we have to do obesity to not be alone be with with with students that's a safe space but also you know if they're going to come for you they're going to come to my. god. we were walking to an open area of grass and along that will quickly that particular group of police had just kind of popped out of nowhere. i tried to speak to the police officer and you know me trying to have an

interaction with him as i walked forward they formed and to line and already i was scared but i had to try and be very you know brave for that for the students who were fighting as was the. not the ok ok ok. the information that backed a student leadership collar was a job shot ten times is still receiving treatment and there are her movements are being traced at this stage i have to run a center here on the university's campus and. i try to speak. to the police officer i tried to i tried to speak to him i tried to . explain to him that really don't want any trouble and that if they wanted us to disperse we dispersed peacefully but we didn't even get to that point because if it

didn't seem that they were there to make a decision it's in that all the decisions had already be made. at the end of it seem to have been that it was thirteen rubber bullets it just felt like a spray of. things hitting my back and i couldn't sit or lie on my back for about a month. all of that is insignificant to the kind of discussed in this appointment you have with a government to toot its own children. from a short maybe it would have made sense because i perform a christian in almost all the time but you know this war is continuing in the prison and all is asking that we approach it differently asking that we do different things to different when they did that to show you that we knew that this

is. actually going to break us as a general thing our academic program was completed and that was our responsibility it was my responsibility in every academic's responsibility to ensure the twenty sixteen academic year was not. spirit of is most full just found in our bodies and used us and prove that to find other bodies. we love his ms for i will continue fighting for free education until we get it but not the same way the same strategies that we were using they're not sustainable anymore so we will do what we did in the beginning will surprise people the next and. i can

stand and talk about the future of the movement but it would be disingenuous given that this movement doesn't belong to me and i don't decide it is a collective process that we hold in very sacred to god and students will ultimately take this way it needs to be and i have faith that we will achieve. our demand for free colonized education but not without a fight. mr

struction and despair a group of friends resist. rescuing books from the rubble they build a refuge for freedom and democracy. a secret library of hope from which they endeavor to rewrite their story and that of their country. to witness. a library under bombs on al-jazeera.

hello there we've got lots of showers eva south america at the moment plenty of them stretching through brazil and down just into the northern parts of paris why there are also plenty of cloud over parts of chile and in and in tina and this is going to stick around as we head through the day and into friday in between that there's a good deal of sunshine around that's where it's looking most settled but those show is over the northern parts of really going to get going as we head into friday so some very heavy downpours here and those are likely to tipple just into the northern parts of argentina where there's been quite a bit of flooding in recent days and it looks like we're going to see yet more as we head through the next few as well a bit further towards the north and we've got a rather an active system that's making its way across the bahamas at the moment so lots of showers here that's stretching its way northwards into florida there for us on thursday and behind it they'll just be a few residual showers so a couple of showers perhaps forcing cuba as we head through friday on fimo down

towards the southwest as well it's quite a model will be catching a few of those further north and we've had some very lively weather over parts of north america very heavy downpours and those downpours have been slow moving so they've caused a fair amount of problem we have seen some flooding already and the system is still with us as we head through the day on thursday there's likely to be more severe thunderstorms out of this. whether sponsored by cattle or employees. as we embrace new technologies rarely do we stop to ask what is the price of this progress what happened was people started getting sick but there was a small group of people that began to think that maybe this was related to become a disclosure and an investigation reveals how even the smallest devices have deadly environmental and health costs we think ok we'll send ari waste to china but we have to remember that air pollution travels around the globe jeff i design on al-jazeera. one of the really special things about working for al-jazeera is that

even as a camera woman i get to have so much empathy and contribution to a story i feel we cover this region better than anyone else would be for that is you know it's very challenging me but in this particular because you have a lot of people that are divided on political issues. with the people who believe that tell the real story so i'll just mandate is to deliver in-depth journalism we don't feel inferior to the audience across the globe. this is al-jazeera. hello and welcome to this news hour with me rob matheson in doha coming up the u.s. attorney general refuses to face a second round of questioning in congress after being grilled about his handling of

the russia by. the u.n. says schools and hospitals have been hits during the worst airstrikes in rebel held syria for more than a year. pretty pretty joining us out supporters of the wiki leaks founder rally outside a london court as he fights extradition to the united states. ugandan opposition m.p. bobby wine is freed on bail after being arrested on charges he says were made up to silence and. i'm joined again with the sports is the head of outlet takes puts caste system and its case behind him. i think this is pretty straightforward and it's very straightforward for any international federation in sport and a limp a can world champion prepares to run what could be her last eight hundred meter race.

democratic party politicians in the u.s. house of representatives are going ahead with their hearing on special counsel robert momos russia report that's despite the fact that the man who's supposed to be in the witness chair attorney general william barr is refusing to show up these live pictures as house judiciary chairman general convenes the hearing about his decision to skip it because of a disagreement over questioning means he's avoiding another grilling after testifying before the senate judiciary committee on whether the state attorney general's been under pressure since publishing a censored version of the mobile report which he says cleared donald trump of colluding with russia to kill his joining us now live from washington d.c. these a slightly strange pictures what is the committee trying to achieve by holding this meeting. political theater at its very best in washington so basically they want to

give a visual to say that the attorney general william barr is defying congress they say the hearing is going to go ahead and not sure how that happens when you have no one to question we could just see members take the time to basically give themselves on video talking about the mother report talking about bar on both sides something they can use in their future campaigns but this is not the end of the story basically the deal is here the bar said he didn't like the format so he testified before the senate and the way those hearings usually work is each member of congress gets either five to seven minutes to ask their questions but it goes democrat republican democrat or republican so they never really get a chance to sort of follow up to build play gets to basically get in any of the question so what the house wanted to do is do can god congressional questions but with their attorney they could basically butt in and say but wait a minute i want to ask you more about that getting rid of those time limits and that would be a much more difficult hearing for william barr as the democrats say he has shown.

an ability to sort of run out the clock he can speak in legally very long sentences parse the questions sort of walk that legal line because he's a very skilled attorney it's much harder to do if you have an attorney basically question you as if you're in a courtroom so bar what had none of that so he basically said yeah i'm not going to go the question now is what is the congressional congress going to what is the congress going to do there's been talk that they will try to cite him as in contempt of congress that could also lead to contempt of court charges there's a lot of legal avenues they have to try to get him to not only testify to get other people in the report to testify to get the full report which is the subpoena he's ignoring now and then it goes to the courts the courts throughout history have been deferential to congress in its ability to use its subpoena power to conduct oversight and the constitution that is one of its jobs so the courts in the past have been very reluctant to interfere with congressional subpoena power but it's clear that the trumpet ministration is going to take that tact they're fighting

every subpoena whether it be for financial records or tax returns testimony from people within the white house outside of the white house they're fighting it every step of the way so it appears that they are set for a showdown it's not going to be quick it is going to be in the courts and we'll see what happens but it does look as though from the outside it is the the attorney general is absolutely determined that he is not going to answer questions on this matter to give the fight where in the run up to an election we're talking about how this appears to the wider public is there a sense and in washington about whether or not this is simply be turning into a waste of time or whether there is political gain to be made out of this. it's resonating with democrats democrats have been waiting for their opportunity to take on this president remember the first two years of his presidency was pretty much unchecked by congress because it was controlled by his own party so democrats came out in force during the midterm elections they gave democrats control of the house because they wanted to see this kind of oversight there is

a political concern though because it isn't necessarily resonating with the voters if you ask them the possible impeachment of the president or even lower down the scale of the possible impeachment of the attorney general it's not their top concerns those are climate change gun control the economy the economic stability those are the things they're talking about health care so if you look at polls the vast majority of americans don't believe that this congress should go down the path of impeachment when nancy pelosi is doing is she's basically taking a slower and she's the house speaker obviously in charge of the house democrats and in the congress she's saying let's investigate let's put all of the evidence on the table and then let's see where the american people are you see the republicans taking the tact and say hey look it's over it's been pretty. pretty surprising actually if you think about if what william barr wanted to do i'm sorry what was that. but i'm just going to interrupt you there just for a second the chairman of the committee is speaking now he's making his opening

remarks we're going to go to him for a second but stick with us for a moment thank you and related matters i will never recognize myself for an opening statement through any general bar as informed us that he will not appear today although he works to accommodate his concerns the objects to the prospect of answering questions by staff counsel into the possibility that we may go into executive session to discuss certain sensitive topics given the attorney general's lack of candor before other congressional committees i believe my colleagues and i were right to insist on the extended question to my knowledge not even the ranking member was opposed to the idea of moving into closed session if necessary. but even if democrats and republicans disagree on the format of this hearing we must come together to protect the integrity of this chamber ministration may not dictate the terms of a hearing in this hearing. challenge we face is bigger than

a single witness late last night the department of justice wrote to inform us that they will ignore our subpoena for the underage acted muller report and the underlying evidence they have made no meaningful attempt at accommodating that subpoena which was due yesterday the letter references the attorney general's offer to twelve members of congress twelve out of four hundred thirty five to look behind some but not all of the redactions provided that we agree not to discuss what we see with our colleagues and that we leave our notes behind at the department of justice it is urgent that we see the documents we have subpoenaed but i cannot agree to conditions that prevent me from discussing the full report with my colleagues that prevent the house from acting on the full report in any meaningful way an accommodation designed to prevent us from taking official action is no accommodation at all every member of this committee democrat and republican alike

should understand the consequences when the executive branch tells us that they will simply ignore a lawful subpoena from congress if left unchecked this act of obstruction will make it that much harder for us to hold the executive branch accountable for waste fraud and abuse or to enact legislation to curb that kind of misconduct or any kind of misconduct no matter which party holds this chamber or the white house at a given moment the challenge we face is also bigger than the mother report if all we knew about president trump were contained in the four corners of that report it would be good reason to question his fitness for office. but the report is not where the story ends in the days since the department of justice released a redacted version of the report president trump has told congress that he plans to fight all of our subpoenas the average person is not free to ignore a congressional subcommittee subpoena nor is the president has promised to obstruct

our work extends far beyond his contacts with the russian government and allegations of struction of justice the president is also prevent us from obtaining information about voting rights a ca litigation and to school family separation policy among other matters the challenge we face is also not limited to this committee in recent weeks administration witnesses have simply failed to show for properly noticed depositions secretary of the treasury continues to ignore its clear statutory obligation to produce the president's tax returns the president's private attorneys sued chairman cummings in his personal capacity in an attempt to block the release of certain financial documents ladies and gentlemen the challenge we face is that the president of the united states wants desperately to prevent congress a co-equal branch of government from providing any check whatsoever to even his

most reckless decisions is trying to render congress and nerd as a separate and co-equal branch of government the challenge we face is that if we don't stand up to him together today we risk for ever losing the power to stand up to any president in the future very system of government of the united states the system of limited power the system of not having a president as a dictator is very much at stake. eternity general of the united states is sworn to uphold the constitution as our nation's chief law enforcement officer he has an obligation to do everything in his power to warn the president of the damage he risks and the liability he assumes by directly threatening our system of checks and balances and of limited government sadly the attorney general has failed in that responsibility is failed to check the president's worst instincts he has not only written misrepresented the findings of the special counsel he has failed to protect

the special counsel's investigation from unfair political attacks he has himself unfairly attacked the special counsel's investigation he has failed the men and women of the department of justice by placing the needs of the president over the ferry ministration of justice is even failed to show up today yes we will continue to negotiate for access to the full report for another couple of days and yes we will have no choice but to move quickly to hold the attorney general in contempt if you stores or fails to negotiate in good faith but the attorney general must make a choice every one of us must make the same choice that choice is now an obligation of our office the choice is simple we can stand up to this president in defense of the country and the constitution and the liberty we love we can let the moment passes by i do not and we have seen in other countries what happens when you allow such moments to pass by i do not know what attorney.