there were other reporters weighing in, backing me up. and still he would not accept it. >> thank you very much. don't miss full circle, our digital news show, 5:00 p.m. eastern at cnn.com/fullcircle. chris? >> i am chris cuomo and welcome to "prime time." looks like a subpoena storm is about to head down pennsylvania avenue. what do you say? let's get after it. the white house is now officially stonewalling the impeachment inquiry. several democratic sources tell cnn that means it's likely time to stop asking and start demanding witnesses make their way to the hill, associates of rudy giuliani, state department officials, including the former ukraine ambassador who was forced out. she's still on the state

department's payroll, just as ambassador sondland was ordered not to testify earlier this week. meanwhile, for the first time, former vp joe biden called for the president's impeachment, did that today. yet, we're sealing rumbles from democrats who think it would make sense for speaker pelosi to hold a formal vote on the impeachment inquiry to help diffuse claims. and president trump danced around how much his people would comply, even if he got the vote. >> a vote in the full house and the vote were to -- >> we would if they give us our rights. it depends. >> he said he was going to testify no matter what and he couldn't wait for it. is it the right thing to do or not? it certainly isn't required in the constitution and there are no house rules that say that. and the idea of precedent, i don't know that it's there.

let's discuss with elissa slotkin. she worked at the pentagon, syria and the risks there we must address as well. let's start with this instant issue of whether or not to have a vote. do you see it as a distraction or should it get some traction? >> i think -- i think it's a delay tactic, but i don't think the house of representatives would have a problem passing a vote. i think some of what happened in the past couple of weeks was a bunch of folks coming out who hadn't come out before like myself saying they would support an impeachment inquiry because of that very basic idea of the president reaching out to a foreigner and asking for information on an american citizen, so i don't think a vote is a hard thing to do. i think it's a delay tactic. but if they need to have it, i'm not against it. >> you know why they want it, a little bit is time, it's also design. as soon as you announce the vote. i would stand up and say what

about my rights, who can i subpoena? can i call any witnesses here or is it just a democrat show? this is totally unfair and the counsel will chirp up and say, what about us? can't we get involved? how do you handle that? >> i think it's important that the process is objective. i think it is important and i've expressed this to other fellow members in the house in the past couple of weeks, i think it is important that we look at the facts and we answer to the public that wants to understand what is happening. i can't be a washington conversation. this is a big deal to take the country through this. it's got to be we bring the public along. for me, it is important that we do everything we can to demonstrate to people that it's about the facts and objectivity and not about some political, you know, grudge. >> you guys don't have any rules on this in the house except that it says impeachment -- by my reading, it says that impeachment will follow the ordinary course of committee investigations. the catch here for republicans

is, they're the ones who changed the rules in 2015 to box out the minorities. they're paying the price for their own change as you go down that road of committee investigation here. how many of you do you think would want to change that to make it more fair? >> i don't know. we're all home in our districts and so everyone is scattered and back home. we haven't, that i know of, had a conversation as a caucus about it. i do think, though, i've had three town halls in three days this past week and i heard from people over and over and i took the feedback that it's important that they feel like it's an objective process. i'm open to ways to make it more objective. >> let's play a little bit of what you've been hearing in the town halls. >> the issue that got to me was this idea that the president, the most powerful man in the world, reached out to a foreigner, a foreign leader and asked him to dig up dirt on an american --

>> not true! >> fake news. >> you got a little taste of what it's like to be one of us. the idea of one of your constituents said, he never said "favor." put up the transcript of the call. this is from the white house. they gave us this. i would like you to do a favor. you see the second clump of yellow. that is not a legitimate concern. but people aren't reading the transcript, that's the problem you're dealing with. this isn't about the facts. it's about feelings about fairness and as you know, a lot of people believe you're all the same, what this president did is the industry standard and who has the right to judge him when you all do the same stuff. >> listen, obviously there's people who see both sides of these issues and feel very, very strongly, one way or the other. what was interesting in my town halls and not as sexy for the

media to pick up, a lot of people who, you know, were there legitimately, they probably didn't agree with me, but they wanted to understand how i had made this decision and they asked respectful and civil questions. there was one woman who raised the specific issue saying he didn't say do me a favor, and i said, ma'am, that's what's in the transcript. and she said, okay, i stand corrected. it may not get as much media attention, but there are a lot of people who are seeing what the country is going through, trying to sort of understand why we're doing this and why it's important and that's the -- those are the people that i'm interested in having a conversation with. even if we disagree. >> hamilton warned us, this can't be just about numbers. impeachment has to be so big that it draws partisan support otherwise maybe impeachment isn't the right route. let's talk about something that is getting bipartisan upset

right now in congress, he said i'm getting out of syria, i promised i would. people want their boys and girls back home. right after he announced it, turkey said we're moving in. we expect a bloodbath. you know this situation so well, you worked on deconfliction in the area. how big a deal was the message the president sent and what happens now? >> yeah, it's a very big deal. someone who was at the pentagon working on these issues, there are short term issues and long term issues. and the short term issues is what's going to happen with the fight against isis, what's going to happen with all of the isis fighters we have detained that are being held by these forces in northern syria, are they going to be broken out of jail, running around. what's going to happen to all of the people who are leaving their home and is walking and running away from these towns and villages. the long term impact for me, frankly, is just as big a deal and that's the american handshake has to mean something.

we went in there, four-star generals, we said, hey, we have a common enemy, it's isis and we want to work with you to root them out, particularly of their capital, and we're going to give you, you know, military support and advice and counsel but we're going to need you on the front lines. we shook their hands, they accepted and they went and fought. and while americans lost their lives in syria, the number is less than ten. i believe it's six americans, which is tragic, but they lost 10,000 people, or upwards of 10,000 people. so to me, the next time we go to fight somewhere, and we don't want american men and women on the front lines. we want to work with a partner force, what is that partner going to say when we reach out our hand and say, come with us, fight with us, let's do this together. if you're that partner, you're thinking twice now because you've seen what happened in

northern syria. >> what's the chance of a fix given that after the president did this, you know, he's making calls to mcconnell saying, hey, all of our boys and girls are line, everybody has my back, the republicans have been angrier with him than anything i've ever seen him do. we can talk about whether or not it warrants it. but bad timing for him. do you think that increases the chance that this policy changes? >> he's already changed it once. i think it's important to remember, general mattis, our secretary of defense at the time resigned over this very specific issue. when the president said i'm going to pull back and let the turks go into northern syria. he reserved his decision, we had democrats and republicans vocally coming back to the president saying no and i think the republican voice had a huge impact on him. i was part of a group that wrote a letter and he reversed the decision and here we are less than a year later in the same moment. i don't know what's changed, but

the same impact is there. i think that republicans see the impact that this will have on future conflicts just as democrats do and it's a national security issue. >> it's hard to see why he did this, other than the idea that people want people to come home. but no one had been talking about it, but they sure are right now. thank you so much for your perspective on two very pressing matters to the american people. be well. >> thank you. if the house does this vote on an impeachment inquiry and the ideas of precedent squishy, what does the white house want out of this? what are the republicans wanting? why aren't we hearing more republicans standing up for protecting this whistle-blower? isn't that what whistle-blower protection is all about? one of the president's most vocal supporters is here to make the case. what is the perspective of brother schlap, next.

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the rules that they wrote to force compliance with congressional subpoenas are no longer fair. they want a vote. they want changes. so does the president. let's hear the case from matt schlapp. good to have you, sir. >> great to be with you. >> help me understand what is wanted now and why it is the fair and right thing to do. >> what is wanted now is that we would have a congress that would focus on the policies they ran onto get the majority in 2018 and that's what we should be focusing on. instead i think -- >> in terms of impeachment. >> i think congressman green said it the best, if they don't impeach him, he might just win again. when it comes to impeachment, let's get it started. you go down to the floor of the house of representatives, just like republicans did with bill clinton, with some democrats voting for them by -- voting with them, by the way, and they started -- why is that vote so

important that the republicans took against bill clinton on the floor of the house of representatives? because it sets up the process because the constitution tells us this is the legal way that you can take a president and actually put them through a legal process about claims that they violated the law -- >> it's not a legal process. the constitution doesn't say that. >> yes, it does. >> it's a political process. it is not a legal process -- >> let me just say, i believe that there are -- impeachment is with politics, but the reason it's in the constitution is because there has to be a remedy for the president who's the most powerful person in our government when there's wrongdoing -- >> for anybody, not just presidents. >> let me try to answer the question. the reason why you need the vote on the floor of the house of representatives, it sets up the process by which the person who's claimed to have broken the law also has rights and has the ability to call witnesses, to subpoena, to call -- to subpoena

documents. so just like bill clinton had the ability to have that process, to cross-examine those who were making charges, a legal process is established with that vote. what nancy pelosi -- >> hold on one second. let's take it a step at a time. one, you're early, okay. unlike with nixon and clinton, here, congress has to do the investigating to -- >> that's not right. >> absolutely. hold on. >> why did joe biden say -- >> with nixon you had a grand jury in place. with clinton, you had the starr investigation. when those were over, they turned to the house. that's more recent with people with clinton. once starr was done, that's when they had their vote and then starr came in and that's the only person was able to deal with. they didn't call their own witnesses. that was for the senate not the house. >> the reason this is different, you just showed a clip of joe

biden saying the president should be impeached. >> i didn't show it, it was anderson. >> nancy pelosi has said over and over again, the president needs to be impeached. these democrats aren't saying, we need no start a process by which we consider whether the president should be impeached, nancy pelosi said that for a year and a half. she's saying he should be impeached. nobody, nobody in the democratic caucus is saying, look, my mind is open, i don't know whether he should be impeached, but let's start a process to investigate him. they're not doing that. >> you have a handful of holdouts and a lot of people who say they're open and they want investigation -- >> not in the leadership. >> what's holding up the investigation is your side. they won't comply. >> that's not true. >> it's absolutely true, they won't comply. >> there's never been a president who's been investigated every minute of his presidency like donald trump -- >> doesn't mean he's complying. >> he's completely complying.

>> they won't give people up, they had corey lewandowski claim that he had executive privilege. they're not complying. >> let's take it step by step, the ambassador was not allowed to testify because there's been no vote on the floor of the house of representatives -- let me finish. that ambassador had no ability to bring a counsel with him. he had no idea what the rules of the road would be for this investigation. the democrats won the majority. they have the right to play the politics as you said impeachment is politics. they have the right to do this -- >> who gave them the right to do it this way? >> the american people. >> no. >> the american people -- >> no. the republicans gave them the right to do it this way. >> that's not right. >> it's right. you got sick of obama delaying your requests and your subpoenas so you changed the rules. this is a matter of fact. >> i'm sorry. those rules can be changed by a majority of the house and so

nancy pelosi k-- >> are you saying they were not changed by the republicans. >> i'm taking your word for the fact that the republicans -- >> they were changed in 2015. >> after they had to hold obama's attorney general holder in contempt of congress because he failed to turn over documents. >> you have a white house who won't comply but you want the democrats to change the rules. >> let's get to the bigger picture. the democrats are in a position that the republicans were in with bill clinton. the american people perceive that the republicans were being too aggressive and too partisan. what ended up happening in the next election in 1998 is the republicans lost a lot of seats. >> that goes both ways but then they end up winning the presidential election and some say they were pay back for clinton. >> and the second piece is that both nixon who was not impeached but would have been and clinton who was impeached, they had just won their second terms. there was not another time for

them to be on the ballot. we are right in the heart a year away of a presidential campaign. if these democrats want to beet donald trump, just beat him. why would you want to put the country through this? it's the only way you can beat him. it's the scandal -- >> what democrats say we have to do this -- >> congressman green, i'll send you the clip -- >> you got one member of congress. nancy pelosi was slowing them down. nadler and she had all this conflict about whether or not to do this. >> look, she seemed reasonable for a period of time now. i think she seems hell bent on impeaching the president. they're waiting for something to turn up. why are they all saying he should be impeached. every leader, adam schiff, jerry nadler, nancy pelosi, jim clyburn, all of -- >> i hate to use your own

argument on you. the constitution doesn't say it and there is no law or procedure that says they have to do what you want. >> no -- >> they don't have to do it just like the president saying i don't have to turn over my taxes. >> chris, chris. >> and he's saying i don't have to comply with congressional investigations which might get him impeached, by the way. >> the democrats were given the majority by the people. they can handle themselves in office any way they want. my only point is, is that if it looks like they're being too partisan and they're not allowing ambassadors to be deposed with lawyers and such, to me that's almost un-american -- >> having counsel is a good issue -- let's take it one by one. having counsel is a good issue. the idea of due process during an investigation, no defendant gets to have a hand in their own investigation. you do have republicans -- >> that's not what we're asking. we're not asking for the defendant to be able to set up what the process is. but the defendant needs to know what the process is. i'll give you an example.

the normal place where impeachment would go would be the judiciary committee. for some reason, nancy pelosi has issues with jerry nadler. i do not know what they are. they've been in the house for a long time. in her latest reiteration who would look at this, it was the foreign affairs committee, the judiciary committee -- >> because they think it's going to be more expea dirgs if you let the committees continue to look. >> the question is -- >> they're investigating -- >> why not pick one committee, it could be a select committee, pick one committee, right, with a dedicated staff. that staff will have plenty of lawyers. those lawyers will work out these subpoena and is what information flows back and forth with the white house. that's the way it worked with bill clinton. >> it was nothing like this with bill clinton. you had an independent counsel. >> you're completely right. so did we, for 2 1/2 years we had --

>> not on this. >> that's untrue. >> what do you mean untrue? mueller didn't look at this. >> chris, if you say that this has nothing to do with the mueller investigation and the russia hoax, what's the crime they're going to write an article of impeachment on? >> here's what i'll tell you. there is no meaning -- >> there's no crime. >> there's no need for a crime. >> there's no crime. >> you know who tries crimes, prosecutors and courts. >> not for presidents. read the constitution. >> it's not in the constitution. >> it is. the president -- >> one legal opinion from the office of legal counsel, but it's not -- >> you know who wrote that opinion? a democrat obama-appointed judge. it's been contested. either way, either way -- >> why didn't they list murder? why didn't they list kidnapping along with treason and bribery. >> the reason why our founders in their wisdom thought this was

the right way to handle this was because when you are elected and donald trump was elected just a couple years ago. >> yes, i remember. >> he's going to be on the ballot again in a year. the american people are going to get to have their say. if you don't like trump, you get to vote against him -- >> it's for an election. >> but the problem they have is even if you're right, that the president could be tried in court, there's no crime. name the crime. >> if there were a crime, it would be prosecuted in the criminal justice system. impeachment is for removal of people in an office for abuse of their power. read federalist paper 65 from hamilton. he says in caps, political crimes. political crimes. >> my copy is dusty. what you're trying to do is to give cover for the fact that the democrats can be as political as they want because our founders thought that was fine. that is not true. >> they thought the opposite.

the founders said if this is about raw numbers, it's a mistake and if it's about a majority forcing it through, it's a mistake. impeachment is not the path for political agreement. >> which is why it was smart for the republicans when they voted on the floor of the house of representatives to have democrats along with them for the vote. nancy pelosi said all along, we will not do this without republicans in the house. >> they're still investigating. i appreciate you making the case. they're investigating, thaps what they're calling it. >> there's no crime. i want you to tell me. tweet me later, what is the crime? >> i'll call you on the phone. i don't believe you need a crime, but they have to reach a very high bar -- >> you're admitting they don't have a crime and they can impeach him anyway. that's honest. >> i think that's what impeach is about. i think that courts in the criminal justice system are for crimes. i think this is partner abuses of public trust. thank you very much.

be well. the president said today, no one respects the fbi more than he does. i don't think andrew mccabe is going to buy that. what does he see in these latest developments and investigately, what's the through line for the democrats to keep in mind and for all of us, next. day 23. i'm about to capture proof of the ivory billed woodpecker. what??? no, no no no no.

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now all this talk about having a vote and resisting could come with a price. the president and his team could see more subpoenaing coming, but they're different from criminal subpoenas. andrew mccabe is with us.

what's the difference? >> the difference is it's highly unlikely that anyone who refuses to comply with a congressional subpoena is going to be locked up and hauled off to jail. that's basically the difference between the two. >> and that's why it's a better gamble for this president. however, could wind up being the basis for an article of impeachment for him. but his play is to delay this and below it up into something else and that takes us to the big question. they like this and it's a good political tactic, but i think with time, it will weather. you don't have a big enough crime, andrew. you don't have a big enough crime to advance impeachment and that's the standard, high crime. your take? >> i'm not so sure that's true, chris. i think that we have a very, very serious allegation in front of the president. it hasn't changed over the course of this scandal so far, right, it is that the president used his powers of foreign diplomacy for his own benefit by

soliciting dirt on his campaign rival. with every witness that they end up talking to, every piece of evidence, whether it's the memo from the phone call or the transcripts of the diplomats that were involved in it, everything that they've seen so far supports that central allegation. now we have a second whistle-blower. now we have reason to believe there are people inside the white house who were just as concerned by the call. the further they go into this investigation, they may not uncover any new core allegations but they will shed light on that thing and that makes it a much stronger case. >> here's the difference between this world and the world that you were in, this ain't legal, this is political. i don't know why matt schlapp said it was legal. it's not legal, it's a political process with some legal trappings. but even if you get it over to the senate, the trick here, andrew is if you don't have a

big crime to hang it on, you're not going to get buy-in from people, even though this new fox poll came out saying he's over 50% of people thinking the inquiry is justified. if you don't have a big crime, you're not going to get buy-in, removal, and it asks the questions asked, is impeachment the right path if you're not going to get bipartisan buy-in. >> all good questions. you're right that the democrats have a huge burden to carry right now in terms of convincing the american people that they are onto something righteous and real and proven and convincing their colleagues in the senate. the odds of them convincing the senate to remove the president even if they pass articles of impeachment are long under any circumstances. but it seems that the congress is taking the principled stance, that is they think that this president has placed our constitution under assault, he has challenged their oversight, he's challenged the subpoenas, he's challenged their ability to move forward and hold him

accountable and they're going to do their job and go forward with this inquiry and return those articles of impeachment if in fact they think they're there. at that point they've met their responsibilities under the constitution and good for them. >> thank you very much for giving us clarity in this process. >> sure. glad to be here. >> for the rest of us, impeachment might wind up helping the president. why? because this is about politics and the perception is often the realities, is it fair, is it not, is it not. angus king is wrestling with exactly this. he would be a juror in any trial in the senate. how does he see this? he'll explain his take next. "it's the easiest, because it's the cheesiest"

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in case you're wondering what president trump's defense is for pulling troops out of syria and ignoring bipartisan outcry about abandoning our allies, here it is. >> they didn't help us in the second world war, they didn't help us with normandy, as an example, they mentioned names of different battles. but they're there to help us with their land. with all of that being said, we like the kurds. >> what? let's get to independent senator

from maine angus king. maybe that makes more sense to you. i don't know what he was talking about there, our president. >> i can't help you, chris. >> that's the first time. we've known each other a long time, senator. the stakes in syria, he has never had republicans come at him the way he is right now over this. are you hearing about any potential change in posture, he went back and forth on this with mattis. >> i haven't heard of anything -- lindsey graham and a lot of the republicans have been very strong this week and i think correctly so. lindsay said he had 95 votes. i'm one of those votes. but i haven't heard any indications. the president has watffeled, bu this is one of the worst decisions i've seen one of our leaders make. it was sloppy, morally reprehensible and strategically

dumb. there's nothing good about this decision. this is a gift to putin, to iran to turkey to assad and isis. >> why he did it is hanging out there is a big question mark. why do this right now? we hear that there's an idea in the air that iran made a deal with putin -- i'm sorry, turkey made a deal with putin and that now president trump was on the phone with erdogan and maybe there was a deal there as well and that's why this is happening. do you know anything about any of that? >> nothing whatsoever and this is the second presidential phone conversation that is of intense interest. we don't know what was said. what we do know, that's virtually the only input that the president had to this decision. i haven't heard of anybody in the administration, the state department, the defense department, that knew this was coming. people from the defense and state department were talking about the policy of maintaining

this kind of buffer zone and presence in northern syria on saturday. the phone call came on sunday and now we're in the mess that we're in leading hopefully not but quite easily to a massacre and if that happens, the blood is on our hands. and, you know, who, chris, is going to answer the call the next time we need help in the world? this isn't america first. it's america alone. and the kurds died for us. they lost 11,000 people in the fight against isis. they were the point of the sphere of this coalition and to turn our backs on them and leave them to the tender mercies of the turks, it's unbelievable. but it's going to have ramifications. it's morally reprehensible because we turned our backs on them. >> you say 95 votes in the senate. what you have a hundred votes in the senate. what can you guys do?

>> well, we could impose -- one thing that lindsay is talking about is imposing severe sanctions on turkey if they indeed overplay their hand. you know, they came in today with artillery and air power. that's not something that's going to discriminate between fighters and civilians. that's not very encouraging. that's one possibility whether that would slow erdogan down, i really don't know. i kind of doubt it. he's been itching to go after the kurds in northern syria for years. and what bothers me, i said at the beginning, the president as near as i can tell, the only person he consulted with on this was erdogan. and that's not a good way to make american policy. we're going to have to live with the ramification of this decision for years. >> if you pass some sanctions, the question is, what if the question refused to have them put into affect and how all of this will cascade into what

you're looking at with ukraine because if you think about it, the republicans are much more angry at him now when he needs them most. he's been making calls to senator mcconnell to say, hey, do we have all of our ducks in a line there. do you think that the disgust and the outrage at the decision with syria may redound to being against his interest in the ukraine impeachment matter? >> i think it possibly counted. i think -- i can't read the minds of my colleagues. but i think they'll try to distinguish between the two. i think this -- >> both are about abuses of power. >> that's right and i think some people may say, you know, this is a dangerous situation. chris, you know, the air ways have been full of this discussion. but this is a really grave situation. i've been a conservative on impeachment for two years. i've been saying, let's do the

election. let's not go through this thing that will divide the country. but on the ukrainian thing where you have a president of the united states using the awesome power of that office and in effect our country to enlist a foreign country in his re-election campaign, i got to the point where i said i just i can't blink at that. to honor my own oath to the constitution, i can't just say that doesn't justify at least being investigated and there's a lot of confusion. the word "impeachment," impeachment in the house, you mentioned earlier, it's an indictment by a grand jury. it's not the final determination. it's not the due process. the trial is in the senate. that's where you have combatting witnesses or depositions, they use depositions in the clinton case. but the idea now is for the house to gather the information and the president basically is taking -- as far as i'm concerned, a novel legal

president. on the one hand they're saying a president can't be indicted and tried but now they're also saying he can't be impeached because we don't like the process. the constitution says the house has the sole power of impeachment, period. it doesn't say anything about witnesses or how it's supposed to work and later on it says the senate should try impeachment. if the president is the one being impeached the chief justice is the chief judge of the impeachment trial in the senate. and by the way, impeachment is for any federal official who is -- who misuses their -- abuses their power, abuses their office. and the framers were obsessed with the idea, the concern of foreign interference in our affairs. the federalist papers are full of it, the constitution itself, you can't have a title, all about trying to be sure foreign interests weren't engaged in our campaign and here we have the

president on the record, he produced asking the president of the ukraine to do his bidding on an investigation of what, at the time, anyway, he thought was his principle opponent. >> a damning situation on its face. >> you got to have that -- somebody has got to investigate that. we've got to get to the bottom of that. >> we'll see where it goes. that will be a true moment in history. the senator has an op-ed about it right now with a reminder that abraham lincoln that these are the times that will light our way to the sneks generation. what we do now is how we will be remembered. it's great to have you. >> thank you, chris. all right, senator just gave us a great idea for what the closing argument is about. this is so confusing. i know it is. let's make an argument that clarifies the things that matter here in a factual basis. what do you say? let's get after it next.

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we now know this president's argument for bucking almost every request from congress, and here it is in the letter. the current proceedings are nothing more than an unconstitutional exercise in political theater. unconstitutional? this is what the constitution says, article 1, section 2, all right? the house of representatives shall have the sole power of impeachment. that's it. congress can do it in the house, and they do it the way they want. and then there is this. your contrived process is unprecedented in the history of the nation and lacks the ness authorization for a valid impeachment proceeding. there is no requirement in the house rules, and there really is no pass precedent. why? the other cases were very different. specifically they were investigations ongoing. there was a grand jury in nixon. there was the starr investigation in clinton. so that all went on before the

house took over and had their vote. here the house is doing the investigating. so during an investigation, what defendant gets rights to be part of that investigation? what about confronting your accuser? sure, that's in the constitution, but it would come at trial, and that comes in the senate, not before. as for the republicans and what they want, their real enemy is them. the only relevant mention of how to impeach in house rules says that the ordinary rules of committee investigation apply. the reason the minority in congress doesn't have subpoena power as they would like is because the republicans changed the rules when they were in power in 2015. schlapp didn't know or he didn't want to respond to it, but it's the truth. also this "where is the big crime that you need for impeachment?" it's a great political argument, but similarly unfounded in the constitution. article 2, section 4.

the president, vice president, all civil officers of the united states shall be removed from office on impeachment for and conviction of treason, bribery, other high crimes and misdemeanors. what does that mean? hamilton told us in federalist papers 65 this is about political crimes of those in positions of trust. look, the point of impeachment is to punish political offenses that abuse power to such a degree that removal is unavoidable, and that is the smart part of the president's attack. it makes it look like the democrats aren't being fair. and that should be a concern to democrats even if the president's bases are flawed. hamilton warned that impeachment must be based on abuses so flagrant that it inspires bipartisan appeal. it's a high bar, and democrats should think about how they proceed because the senate trial is not the only place where fairness matters. this idea that you don't have to

do something so you won't do it, that's the same disposition of recalcitrance that democrats oppose in this president when it comes to transparency on his taxes and compliance with their investigations. so for them, they should have a guide of being better than what they oppose. and lucky for them, the bar has been made decidedly low. that's the argument. now, the u.n. is facing its worst cash crisis in nearly a decade. did you know that? the united nations. guess who owes a lot of money? its biggest member. guess who that is? bolo! be on the lookout for a fresh round of hypocrisy, next. (wheels screeching) (clapping) (sound of can hitting bag and bowl) (clapping) always there in crunch time. we have some great new ideas that we want to present to you today. [son]: who are you talking to? [son]: that guy's scary. the first item on the list is selecting

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our debt goes back years. things are so bad, the u.n. nearly ran out of money to open the general assembly debate last month. so be on the lookout to see if this president leads by example and pays up. thank you for watching. "cnn tonight" with d. lemon starts right now. >> what do you expect him to pay from that? what are you talking about? are you expecting him to pay up? aren't you a new yorker? >> i am a new yorker. >> you're expecting him to pay up? >> i'm expecting the country to pay up. >> okay. >> see, that's the problem. he is not the country. he doesn't get to hold aid back from another country because they don't do what he wants. >> yeah. >> he doesn't get to not pay things because he doesn't think people have been nice enough to him. doesn't work like that. >> well, i have before me the thick that i think is the most interesting thing of the day. there's lots going on, as you know, including your interview with matt schlapp. that's for a whole other time. but this new fox news poll, wh