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tv   Washington Journal Steve Israel  CSPAN  October 15, 2019 2:36pm-3:01pm EDT

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ratings are about whether unfavorable ratings are. that means people are not even waiting to learn who they are before having an unfavorable opinion of them. simply the d after the name gives them that unfavorable edge. that this can part of this crisis confidence. we don't even have enough confidence in our leaders who just elected to give any kind of space to do anything because of simply pigeonhole them as definitely two liberal democrats are too liberal conservative republicans. i don't have get out of that but something were going to do for a long time, you can follow his reporting. thank you very much for your time. >> guest: thanks. >> host: joint as as a steve israel, former coxswain from york and also was the head of the political chair for democrats from 2011-2015. congressman come what do you think are the political vulnerabilities of this impeachment inquiry forra
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democrats? >> guest: it depends on the district you represent and the same holds true for republicans. let's step back and stipulate that impeachment is one of the most serious and sobering post any member of congress can vote on. you would hope that political calculations are excluded but it should come as no surprise to anybody that every member of congress, every member of the of thewill as part decision-making process analyze how it's going to affect them politically. so if you are a democrat in one of the 30 districts that elected a democrat but also elected president trump, that equation becomes more complicated. if you're a democrat on the upper west side of new york or in los angeles or in chicago and everywhere you go people just can't wait for you to cast a vote on impeachment, it's a little easier if you are one of three republicans in the house
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who represent districts that hillary clinton won, it's more difficult. at the end of the day members of congress are going h to make tht decision based on d the evidenc, based on what the bleep is best for the country but also ace on the calculations and analysis they apply to the next election year there's no question about that. >> host: we've heard the speaker say that when she is been pressed about holding a full vote in the house, she has responded by saying that she's not required to, one, but two, republicans are nervous about that vote. how you respond to that? >> guest: again it depends on what kind of district you represent. look, i talked to my former colts on both sides of the aisle almost every day, and i think i get the unvarnished truth because i'm not there. i have no agenda. i can just talk to them about their thought process.
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a lot of anxiety on this. there are republicans who believe that impeachment is completely unwarranted, i know that they have to vote against impeachment but are legitimately concerned that on the other side of that vote between that vote and their election, more comes out, that another whistleblowero emerges. then that vote looks pretty bad. there are democrats represent districts that president trump won handily who are concerned about whether voted against impeachment revs up a primer and can stem the democrats, or voting for impeachment loses some crossover republicans. there are different levels of anxiety, depending on the district. when you look at the districts, there's a district in minnesota represented by collin peterson for president trump won that district by 30 30 points. if you're in the district you might have somee concerns about the boat.
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in new york, max rose in staten island in new york city, president trump won the ten-point. in new mexico, congresswoman small, ten-point. in maine, holden, ten-point lead for the present. in those districts for democrats it is a tough political vote but again you would hope they would put the politics on hold because of the gravity of the boat like this. >> host: should the speaker of the house the concern politically about complaints from republicans that she has not held this full vote in the house, and two, we've heard republicans complained about these closed-door depositions andou the process for them. how do you respond to those complaints? >> guest: i was with adam schiff last night in new york city. he spoke very specifically about the issue. first of all, at these closed-door depositions, these
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hearings, republicans have absolute equal time. they attend the hearings if they're on the committee. they get to ask questions. they get to look at the evidence. this is not one party shutting the doors and not allowing the other party to participate in the process. secondly, this is an investigation, and we all know in any investigation when you were interviewing witnesses you don't want to publicize what one witness says he does another witness can say we say square the story. you want to be able to fairly and adequately interview witnesses, get information, compare that to other information you received in closed-door testimony. this is how grand juries operate. they don't have an open session and a vote by the grand jury. this is a similar process. it's an imperfect analogy but a similar process. >> host: let's get too cold. david in albuquerque, new
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mexico, republican. >> caller: yes. i'm really concerned here that the tape that was playing about biden intimidating the russian president to take out the prosecutor from his son, that right there is the concern, and america is not down. we know what intimidation is, and that right there should be the focus of this investigation. and also, adam schiff, whitish as a think about all the stuff that he's making up, during the hearing? or the committee? all those lies that he was telling, making up. >> host: let's get a t response. >> guest: david, you say lies he made up come i think you might referring to the one instance where he paraphrased the recording or the transcript, the edited transcript of the recording and he paraphrased what president trump said.
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he acknowledged that he was paraphrasing. you call that a made-up, you call that a lie but it was clearly reflecting the conversation that, in fact, was summarized and memorialized in that memo. look, impeachment is going to rile up emotions. if you are a hard left democrat, you can't understand why the president hasn't been impeached by now. ifta you're hard right republicn you can understand by the democrats are getting away with what they'reu getting. the bottom line is the constitution of the united states of america, which gives congress oversight responsibility that was exhausted by republicans when they had the majority and had concerns about president obama. that oversight responsibility should not be lessened because there's a a democratic majority now with president trump trump himself is building a case for obstruction. he tweets and he goes on television and he talks about
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refusing to allow people to cooperate with this investigation. i think he would be better served both politically and morally by saying i have nothing hide. get in if you come get the post and let's move on. >> host: was hunter biden wrong to serve on that board and should his father hadun done moe to stop him from serving? >> guest: as you know he did this interview last night on abc and he owned it. he said he doesn't believe that ethical lapse but he made a mess judgment. family house on to torment. that is a family that has lost members of the family tragically. beau died recently. one of the things i've learned is that human nature and family relationships are a very big deal. so maybe vice president biden should have said in the middle of this torment, hey, by the
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way, i'm concerned that you serving on this board. i think he should get off. what he did say doctor was a hope you know what you're doing, and it was never ever a conversation about ukraine or that company betweenev the two. so wasas it a political act of judgment? may be. but was it an ethical problem? there is no evidence, and the conspiracy theories that it was have been debunked in the ukraine, by the "wall street journal," across the united states. those conspiracy theories despite rudy giuliani have an absolutely and unequivocally debunked. >> host: politically fell, as this impeachment inquiry and the ukraine story stays in headlines day after day, is the former vice president vulnerable when his son was making $50,000-$80,000 a month serving onon this board? >> well, i think that president
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trump believes that joe biden is vulnerable. there's no question thatt president trump and this campaign has in my view rightly concluded that joe biden is his greatest threat in thehi general election primary. and so they -- i'm sorry, in a general election. so it needed to dig up whatever dirt they could to take him down, either to disqualify biden in the primary for use against him next year.r. i'm told by my republican friends in congress that these allegations were to be an october surprise, but october 2020, not october 2019. but because of this whistleblower who emerged who had concerns about the phone call, not even john bolton, no liberal democrat, who also had concerns about the handling, the issue kind of blew up. now it is, in fact, part of the narrative and that narrative serves donald trump pretty well.
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if you can be talked about joe biden of talking about his issues, then he owns the narrative and he excelsss at th. >> host: john, hot springs national park arkansas democratic caller. >> caller: hello? >> host: go ahead. >> caller: i'm sorry. i wanted to ask you about the connection between vladimir putin and donald trump. we all know putin is a big fan of trump and trump is a big fan of putin. get themd to readmitted to the g7 just a couple months ago. the connection between the two of them to me seems to be deutsche bank. i don't have any proof but putin is one of the richest men in the world. they say he is worth $200 billion. i don't if that's true or not but that's what i've heard. i don't see how we could make that kind of money being the president of a country that has an economy no bigger than california. i think there's something crooked going on there.
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and trump on the other hand, over here on the side of the ocean, he is wealthy, too, and i really believe there's some connection between them and deutsche bank and maybe some money laundering going on. like i say i can't prove it but that's just a feeling i've always had because they are such big fans of each of the everything trump does in some way or another and if it's russia. >> guest: john, first of all i love hot springs, and i served with your former member of congress mike ross. we're both elected in 2000. he was r a good member of congress. on your question, one of the deep concerns that and every american should have is this, have thehe policies of the trump administration and the behavior of the trump administration either wittingly or unwittingly empowered vladimir putin? so in 2016, donald trump won the electoral college vote and hillary clinton won the popular
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vote. but i think vladimir putin won the election. he won the world. take a look at what's happening. we are castigating our nato allies. russia now has established a very bold footprint in syria, which it never had. there are assaults, rising assaults on democracy and liberal democracies across europe. the russians are advancing militarily in the north, in the arctic. they are penetrating. they have disrupted our elections. it's clear disrupted our elections. they have penetrated our social media. they have this screaming at one another. the end result of all of this is that democracies and democratic movements and the united states seems to be weaker against russia than it was in 2016. that's what this impeachment is really all about. it's not about, i mean, there
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will be investigation as to the role of deutsche bank, et cetera, but impeachment passed to arise at one fact and that is or when judgment, and that is have the interest of the united states of america been harmed, undermined, or damaged by the context or activities of a president? [inaudible conversations] samuel is inid chippewa falls wisconsin independent. your next. >> caller: thank you for taking myon call. i was stunned when chairmanship gave a parody for the beginning of impeachment. that just does me. one of the think i would like to say. my wife has worked with the mentally disabled for 35 you. >> she's making 50,000 a year and she's doing more good than joe biden i think ever did. >> guest: your wife, first on your wife deserves towi be paid far more than she is being paid. and again, that parity, , i
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understand how it would irk you, it was a parody that chairmanship acknowledged was a parody based on the real record of the call. now it has become a distraction. let me just say one of the things on this. this process, both democrats and republicans have responsibility for this over the past several years. when you have a process like this that can become highly partisan, the side site on defe has to go on offense, and so they will level whatever charges they can. they will attack you for the choice of breakfast cereals that you may have made. i want to be fair. whenen the republicans were investigating president obama and had multiple and redundant hearings on benghazi, it was democrats who went on the attack and tried to discredit
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republicans. that'san exactly what republicas are doing now. they are trying toth discredit chairmanship because he is at the head of this process. we learned last night that many of the republicans in these private interviews with witnesses complaint about leaks, but chairmanship said lastt night, they don't sit for the entire hearing. they run out and give interviews to the media when you're complaining about leaks, which is a leak itself. i think both sides would be well advised to be deliberate, to be sober, to bees methodical, and e should try in a partisan environment that heightens over impeachment, we ought to try to kind of diffuse those anxieties to the best of our ability. >> host: steve israel, if adam schiff paired is in your word a distraction, should nancy pelosi reverse course and change the process of how this house will
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vote, et cetera? >> guest: there's nothing in the constitution requires a houseboat, number one. the constitution so this is congress shall have power to impeach a president for acts of high crimes and misdemeanors. but there's going to be a vote, make the mistake about that. if the committees that are involved in these investigations reached the judgment that there are articles of impeachment that should be presented, they will do so. there would be a vote in the house of representatives, every member of congress will be required to cast a vote either for or against the impeachment of the president. and then if that vote prevails it will go to the senate where every member of the senate will make a judgment as to whether the president should or should not be removed from office. so there's going to be a vote if, , a big if, if the committes makes the determination there
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wereat impeachable offenses and that determination has not yet been made. >> host: hot springs, arkansas, republican, good morning. hello? >> guest: good morning, yes, i have something really like to know the truth about, and it's kind of bothersome to watch that. i watched soap operas and this whole thing is beginning to look like a like a soap opera to me. and i know when mr. adam schiff got up and read that letter and he said i have called you a htmes, i'm not going to call you again. you call, i'll call you, don't you call me. why didn't some of his republicans jump up right then, grabbed the letter and read it to the whole world? and the next thing i want to say is, sometimes i turn over and watch rt news and it told whole think about joe biden and his son, bill and hillary clinton getting take information about
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president trump. and they said adam schiff was getting money from ukraine. >> host: you watch that on russia today, rt? , yes. it's on 280 and they tell the truth all the time. if you want to know the truth, they do tell the truth about what's going on and actually laugh about it. >> host: steve israel? >> guest: arche, russian television course is an apparatus of the government ofs russia. rt is a mechanism, an amplifier supported by the russian government that attempts to change minds t and influence opinion here in the united states. i'm always happy to come on c-span. you will not find me on rt. i promise you that. i don't think it's a very credible. >> host: bryan, , connecticut, democratic caller. >> caller: mr. israel, your name such as the country israel
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to me when i first came on today to watch the special you are on. the amateurish move, the total amateur move which of course is all about money, donald trump's move to allow erdogan to go into turkey come to going to syria to wreck the kurds. our allies whoo lost 11,000 souls, people in helping us wreck isis. the idea that the amateurish move that this guy has done, and he's done 1 million amateur mers since he got in there, the whole business with the ukrainian quid pro quo is only, is one of thousands that could cause him to be taken from office. i just, however, want to have you, given the name israel -- >> host: we will move on. we lost brighter carol in catskill new york independent.
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>> caller: yes. i don't know, first i applaud this gentleman to go forward with impeachment i don't even understand the whistleblower, why it's necessary. trump himself comes out no further, no morele than when the income the mueller investigation was dry, mueller came out -- i'm sorry, trump came out and said that ukraine, i want you to do me a favor. you talk about all here about is hunter biden, , hunter biden. what about ivanka trump and little donald? what about, and her shoe connection in china? she's serving in the united states, in the white house right now. yoush know, you talk about the debt is overblown. but no one talks about the money that we're spending on his golf trips every week. every weekend he's going on his
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golf trips. he said in helsinki and sat right with putin next to him that he doesn't believe he believes putin over our cia information. a a syria, the evangelical say they want to regulate right to life but the people in syria, the kurds are getting slaughtered. what more do you need? this manou tells you himself why he should not be president of the united states. what more do you need? >> host: steve israel? >> guest: thank you. first of all, it seems that the whistleblower is actually less critical and vital now that we have a memorialized summary of the call. we don't know whether there are actual recordings. we don't know whether the summary is 100%er accurate.
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there are ellipses. we don't know what might've been said during those ellipses, but the fact of matter is you have a prettyre damning summary of that call with the the president ofe united states who is withheld funds vitally needed military funds the ukraine, saying to the leader of that country, now do us a favor though. that speaks for itself and it speaks volumes. but if i may, want to touch on what the call the race in terms of syria and the fire caller who got cut off, tried to raise with respect to the president's decision to abandon the kurds. i served on the armed services committee and appropriations defense subcommittee. two very bipartisan committees. i've been to iraq and afghanistan probably 15 times. i've traveled -- >> "washington journal" live every day at 70 eastern and you can find online at c-span.org. we will leave here to fulfill
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our commitment to the live senate coverage. they are about to start the week momentarily. with debate expected on the nomination of barbara barrett to be the next air force secretary. vote to advance of that nomination scheduled for 5:30 p.m. eastern. now live senate coverage here on c-span2. the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. today's opening prayer will be offered by pastor andrew brunson from chapel hill, north carolina. before i pray, i want to thank the senate. i am standing here because so many of you fought for me. i'm deeply grateful. you were unified fighting for my release. thank you. the guest chaplain: let us pray.

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