>> host: congressman james comey, come back sometime after recess to chat with us. >> guest: thank you very much for having me. i washington journal continues. host: we welcome back to our desk democratic >> we welcome back to this democrat congressman ted lieu of california. before your political career you worked as a prosecutor here the term quid pro quo has come up a lot this week. our viewers mentioning it seen or not see an the story. can you explain what it is and

how you prove that? >> guest: : sure. as a former prosecutor we don't look at individual items of evidence in isolation. look at everything in context. so in this case donald trump had halted military aid to ukraine that congress specifically approved because it is going to help our national security interest, ukraine was pushing back against one ofy our adversaries and then a week later donald trump calls the ukrainian leader and lead us to ukraine leader raises issue of military aid, trump request a paper. a actually two favors, one of which is to investigate biden. what a a quid pro quo would mean is i hold your military aid company requesting you to do me a favor and what's implied is if you don't do this favor, you are not getting this money. >> host: what, this was welcomed by those released yesterday that you read and seen, where is a leading you next in terms of who you want to talk to about it? >> guest: the whistleblower complaint was very detailed and

what was stunning about is was the whistleblower complaint identified that call between donald trump and ukraine leader, all the elements and that was verified by the actual raw transcript the white house put up. that means a lot of credibility to the whistleblower complaint. in addition the inspector general trumpmp appoint himself being the complete urgent and credible. the whistleblower complaint lays out not just this call for trump essentially tries to get ukrainian leader to investigate his political opponent, he alleges a massive cover-up where the white house new was said in the call was wrong. they put into a whole different lockdown system from very sensitive information related to national security. this had to do with political considerations a lot of people involved in that cover-up and we want to know who they were as well. >> host: putting a prosecutor hack back on, does it week in your case that the whistleblower acknowledges there were not a

direct witness to most of the eventsne described? >> guest: it would have weakened the case at the widest at that released its own rough transcript that verified exactly what thehe whistleblower basicay said. the whistleblower provides a big road that for congress to investigate. the house intel committee is a lead on this. they will track down all the different witnesses and the administration can either provide the information if there's nothing to hide, or if they don't in the american people can draw the inference they are hiding a lot from both congress and the american people. >> host: what is the judiciary committees role? judiciary had taken the lead when it came to the mueller investigation and various other aspects, so what do you do now in the judiciary committee? >> guest: the house intel is going to take a lead undoing the investigation of this ukrainian scandal. at some point they will conclude it and send information to judiciary and then we look at it and if necessary we will hold a

hearing and draft articles of impeachment and have a markup on, because articles of impeachment had to go through the judiciary committee? >> guest: if there were going to be articles of impeachment would first come out of our judiciary committee tremor do think those those articles will be narrowly focused on ukraine or could you include some of what you were all relook into when it came to the mueller investigation and other topics? >> guest: i don't know the answer to that. we will see all of the evidence and then make a decision. i do want to say that impeachment, like the power to declare war, our two of the greatest powers of congress. it should never be our first option. we have to take this with a solemn responsibility of what members of cards need to do which is to assess the facts and make the decision based on our constitutional duties and responsibilities. >> host: do you have any sense of how long the process could take? something that might happen

before the end of the year, by the 2020 elections? >> guest: i believe if there were going to be any articles of impeachment that were to be passed it would happen before the end of the year. >> host: congressman ted lieu take your phone calls for about the next 22 minutes on the "washington journal." donna is in ohio, a a republic. you are up first. are you with us? then we'll go to anita in maryland, a democrat. good morning. >> caller: i would just like to say that everyone keeps talking about biden, you know, calling for the firing of the prosecutor and how his son was under investigation. as i understand it, it was an entire year since his son had been under any kind of investigation when biden started calling for the resignation of his prosecutor.

he wasn't alone and calling for the resignation of the prosecutor. there were several in the european union also calling for it. also,, last may ukraine said tht both bidens were cleared of wrongdoing. so i understand why they keep picking oni him except with wht they did with hillary. the republicans just won't admit that the president was asking for interference in our election. >> guest: thank you for raising those points. people are certainly entitled to their opinions but they are not entitled to their own facts and you're absolutely correct. in this case the ukrainians came outab and said look, hunter bidn had be held responsible for acts of this company that occurred two years before he even went on the board of this company. the ukrainians also said they did an investigation and found there was nothing improper or either d hunter biden or joe

biden. you're also right that at the time it wasn't just joe biden calling for the prosecutor to resign. it was the european union, a lot of people looking at this saying this prosecutor needs to go because he was not doing the job you supposed to be doing. but just basedne on a timeline, there is evidence whatsoever there was any wrongdoing by the bidens, that this simply ang political hit job and you see the president was trying to get the ukrainians to launch another bogus investigation into his lyrical opponent. >> host: remind folks who -- >> host: a corrupt person that both biden and a lot of european union wanted to get removed. >> host: the "washington post" reporting reporting on some of his first common sense these revelations about the phone call and the conversation. this is from the story of the "washington post" yesterday. he's also the former ukrainian prosecutor. he said from the perspective of

ukrainian legislation, hunter biden did notuk violate anythin. the "washington post" noted it is his first interview as we said. >> guest: you can follow up on that. because biden was calling for him to the remote interaction was going to put more light on this company that he was allegedly not investigate. their action was going to be against bidens on self interest for him to do that. there's really no better there and what repugnance or making up right now. >> host: right in michigan independent, good morning. >> caller: i want -- christian co-was a corrupt person. you have no proof of that and you know that. -- poroshenko. there's some principle still involved in all this, meaning robert mueller, rosenstein, shawn henry, the legal groups perkins court.

this is all heading back to here name one. all heading back that way. you cannot sell enriched uranium, and it really don't to about the board or timothy geithner and any of that garbage. you cannot sell enriched uranium can turn around a few years later and act like rush is the worst people in the world. you can'tac do it. >> host: you want to talk about uranium one? >> guest: so your pennies, , no idea what you'ree talking about. >> host: came in for his republican. good morning. >> caller: well, i have a couple of questions. i'm going to try to stay on topic. you claim your are prosecutor, okay? as a a prosecutor you should knw that information that the whistleblower put in his complaint is all hearsay which is inadmissible. so how can you base that trump did something wrong in the conversation when you got

somebody that's making a claim that he neverth even heard the conversation? >> host: thank you for yourho question. again you are entitled to an opinion but not your own facts. as a former prosecutor i know when a suspect makes admissions against his own self interest, that is totally admissible. that is a classic hearsay exception, absolute admissible in court, all the stunning admissions donald trump made either on national tv or in this phone call. second, yes, the whistleblower said he didn't have firsthand knowledge of the phone call, but guess what. the white house released the rough transcript of this phone call that verified exactly what the whistleblower said. so at this point it's really sort of irrelevant what the whistleblower said because we got to summarize note of that phone call. get it? >> host: the "washington post," -- the newark times had a column today, and the headline of that column, he's guilty of

impeachment, he's guilty but impeachment is a mistake. so focusing on the politics of this for a second, one thing david brooks right is the democrats uplink trump's game. trump has no policy. he's incompetent at improving the lives of the american citizens or even his own voters but he's good one thing, waging reality tv personality wars against coastal elites. now over the next few months he gets to have a personality war against nancycy pelosi and jerrd nadler. democrats are having an exciting a substantive presidential primary season. this is what democracy is supposed to l look like. why do did want to distract frm that is beyond reason. >> guest: so i have no idea whether, if we do formal articles of impeachment, if it would help trump, hurt trump, be neutral. my belief is we shouldn't do

impeachment for political reasons.f we also should not not do impeachment for political reasons. it's just got to be based on the facts and the law. we will assess what the evidence is. it needs to be our last option. but if we conclude a president of the trent halted military aid to a critical ally at a critical time and then in the content of that stopping military aid had a conversation with ukrainian leader to investigate an american citizen for political purposes, that is a high crime. >> host: anthony, baton rouge, louisiana, independent, good morning. >> caller: good morning. it's not working. it's not working. all trying to tell us, i used to vote democrat, it's not working. you are trying to tell us that what mr. trump said, that all the stuff he sang, what he's trying to tell, get ukrainian people, no, sir, we're not believing in that. >> host: what do you believe?

don't believe mr. trump was trying to get, tried to do the things that they are trying to say he was doing. >> guest: again you're entitled to your opinion. i'm just going to tell what the actual rough transcript of the phone call said. it shows that after ukrainian leader raise the issue of military aid from the united states, specifically javelin missiles that would help the country pushback against its adversary, which is also our adversary, trump immediately asks him for a favor. one of the favors trump asked for was to investigate trump's political opponent, biden. and this is done in the context of donald trump having halted military aid that congress to ukraine a week before the phone call. none of those facts are disputed. you can draw whatever conclusionsts you want but the facts are staring you in the face.

>> host: houston, texas, democrat, good morning, oh, my goodness, i cannot begin to tell you, mr. lieu, how it is absolute i mean, my absolute pleasure to speak with you this morning. john, i'll let you know when i'm done. mr. lieu, i want you to know him and you tell all of your other congressmen and women that the american people support you. we stand with you. he's going to fight dirty. you stand tall because god is with you, because you have the truth on your side. let us know what we need to do. get to the different organizations to get out to the differentti communities. what you want us to do to support you, because i'm behind you. i'm retired. i'll do whatever youam need. and also to the republicans, the ones that, trump supporters,

there is a silver lining and the silver lining is, donald trump has finally beat president obama. he's going to be impeached, and president obama was never impeached. thank you so much for taking my call. day.a greatim >> guest: so thank you for your call. i do want to note that this is not a partisan issue. what we have here is the american president soliciting foreign interference of our elections of a foreign power. he did that in the context of halting hundreds the minds of dollars of critical military a that congress specifically approved. this is really an american issue and that's why you nowov see two republican governors come out and publicly said they support this impeachment inquiry. youen had congressman turner, republican of ohio, yesterday saying at an open public hearing

that what thec president did was not okay. >> host: hannah, , clarksburg maryland democrat, good morning. >> caller: that morning. i've been a democrat for 30 skiers and i've never been more disgusted with my own party. it is been hijacked by economist, marxist socialist. it is no longer the democratic party of jfk or my parents or grandparents. and you should be completely ashamed of yourself. when this hearsay become the new standard in which we destroy people? you attempted to do this with capital with christina for an i don't member went over or how. this is ridiculous. here's the credibility here's the credibility you have no integrity did you have no integrity because you turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to what biden did with ukraine he was, with the 1.0 to the prosecutor was invested his son was five. that's quid pro quo. >> guest: thank you for your

call. so let me address some of those things that you've raised. hearsay is absolutely i admissie if it's an admission against self-interest. so when donald a trump says he's asking for a favor of the ukrainian confessed to his political opponent, that is absolutely admissible. it is exception to the hearsay rule because it's basically an admission against trump's own self-interest. but let's just take the whole hearsay think way because guess what, we've got the actual summarized transcript of their phone call. that says trump did exactly what the whistleblower said trump did. thank you. >> host: angela, oklahoma city, oklahoma, independent. good morning. >> caller: good morning. i am still for trumpet the event after trump ever since he got in office. [inaudible] >> host: yet to listen through your phone and talk to phone. turn down yourav television.

we will let you figure that out while we go to teresa in wyoming, a republican. good morning. >> caller: all had tobl say is that you, mr. lieu. you hold your head up and you be proud.d >> guest: thank you for your call. i appreciate that. >> host: less than ten minutes before the house comes in for the day. after today the house is headed to two weeks of congressional recess. i wonder what your plans are over recess when it comes to this issue. do you expect this to be the focus? >> guest: that's a great question. the house intel committee as a lead on this issue. they will continue investigating but there's lot of other work house is doing. we've introduced a major deal to lower prescription drug prices. this will be something that we talked about in the next two weeks. we have introduce legislation on background checks for guns that we've already passed,

bipartisan. bipartisan. it's before the u.s. senate. we will be putting pressure on the use senate to take that up for a vote, and we also have bills on election security and root out corruption. >> host: on the gun legislation, we've been waiting for a while from the promised legislation from the white house. i wonder what your thoughts are about cooperation on some sort of strengthening aor background checks in the wake of this story and that the president has responded to congressional inquiries about it? >> guest: so for a long time the nra would say, background checks would never have stopped any of these countries. it turns out the last yesterday, background checks would have stopped it. we have -- >> host: which one are you referring to? >> guest: the very last one with the person actually had tried to getet a cut and was denied by a background check and then got it through a sale that

was not covered by the current background check so there's a loophole.at what we have now is not only bipartisan support, we have an actual case where back rent check if it was universal would have worked. it's before the u.s. senate. we are calling mitch mcconnell to take that it up for a vote. >> host: the other question is that government funding, the senate passing yesterday i containing legislation to keep the government funded for another six weeks. i wonder your thoughts on being able to come up with a bill that can pass the senate and get signed by the president to continue to fund the government for fiscal 2020? >> guest: i do support their short-term cr, continuing resolution, to have the government funded. i do believe when we come back we do have to focus on making sure we have a longer-term funding strategy because it makes it hard for agencies, , fr our military and for other stakeholders to play when we only have these short-term crs. >> host: can congress focus on

that that the will be a lot of focus on an impeachment inquiry? >> guest: yes. with multiple committees going on or appropriations committee,, a budget committee and with committees focusing on their missions. right now house intel will take the lead on the green issue but all this other work in terms of making sure that we reduce healthcare costs or the american people, that we increase wages, put them into good jobs, that will all continue. >> host: five minutes before the house comes in. until then your phone call for congressman ted lieu of california. robert is in new mexico, a democrat. good morning. >> caller: thank you c-span. i love your coverage. i appreciate you guys for doing this. it's nice to talk to someone within the range of our congress. it's good to see you. i just think you're playing into trump's hands. anybody is playing into trump's hands because attention his attention, and when he gets

attention he thrives on it whether it's good or bad. all that needs to stop and when you do something about the infrastructure of our country. all our roads of potholes, all our bridges or crumbly. we're going to get the last dollar, that's just how it is. we need to concentrate on what we can do, and i'm sad to say this but trump is going to win if we keep fighting each other the way they are, all the democrats raising their head saying they will give illegal immigrants free healthcare when we had have to pay for our own health care. that's playing into trump's hands. you will need to get together and stop all the bickering and fighting and quit talking about donald trump. >> guest: i appreciate your call. in terms of infrastructure, laster my introduce legislation that would find our infrastructure needs. it was tagged at $2 trillion. even some within my own caucus were saying that's too much. within the president in a state of union speech later voted 1.5

joint and say and say i was not that much. it turns out we have a $4 trillion infrastructure deficit for the next ten years. we have to work on infrastructure i agree with you. our congressional committees are working on infrastructure. unfortunately, the white house earlier this year walked away, took all the marbles and we know. they may want to come back and talk infrastructure wc. in the meantime our committees will work on these infrastructure bills and we will be passing those later this year. >> host: west virginia, republican, good morning. >> caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. i just want to say, i am 89 years old. i have never in my lifetime seen our country in the shape it's in. and if people doesn't turn back

and pray and ask god to straighten us out, the democrats are going to bring our country to disaster. >> guest: thank you for your comment. >> host: margie in philadelphia, a democrat, good morning. , good morning. i'm all for impeachment and impeachment should be the constitution of the united states. that's why he's been impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors. and as far as the democrats keep, i mean, the republicans keep calling coming in a democa they call in on all three lines and c-span does nothing about it. first thing, i'm a democrat but i was a democrat but i'm republican. then they start to go on and talk about how you know, it's just ridiculous. trump said he could shoot somebody on fifth avenue at it and get away with it.

these are the people on fifth avenue the say it's okay. go on and shoot me. >> host: margie on the phone lines. this show only works if people do call in on the cracked lines and we do try to rotate through the light to get different views. we trust our callers to play by the rules here to have this conversation. .. the president here cut off critical military aid to ukraine which helps push back against one of our adversaries, helping protect the actual security. no one disputes donald trump halted military aid. there was a phone call where

donald trump after ukrainian leader, trump requested a failure and one of those was to investigate his political opponent, that is not disputed because the white house's own transcript of the call says exactly that. these artifacts you can't dispute. that is why you have republican supporting this impeachment inquiry including republican governors and when you ask the american people this question, a majority who support the impeachment inquiry. they read these documents themselves, you can read the lower complaint online. they can make their own decision. these are very grave facts. >> reporter: always appreciate your time, please come back

again. >> we are live awaiting comments from hillary clinton who is appearing at an awards program honoring women working to advance global peace and security. this is live from georgetown university in washington dc. live coverage on c-span2. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

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