where members will consider a senate resolution to terminate the president's emergency declaration for border wall funding on c-span. senate returns to take up a temporary spending bill that would fund the government through november 21. senators will vote on the confirmation of general john's heighten to be chair of the general chief of staff and scalia to be labor secretary. on c-span three at 9:00 a.m., joseph maguire testifies before the house intelligence committee about the whistleblower complaint involving president trump's communication with the leader of ukraine. parts of the hearing will be live on c-span throughout the day. washingtonup on " journal," as the c-span bus continues a tour of battleground states, we are in michigan. will00 a.m., richard burr join us on the bus to talk about

michigan's role as a battleground state and how the campaigns are playing out. we will take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. "washington journal" is next. " is next. ♪ host: good morning. it is thursday, september 26, 2019. yesterday the white house memo detailing president trump's july phone call was at the center of impeachment discussion. today the focus will shift to the whistleblower complaint that launched the story and the move toward impeachment. 9:00 a.m., the director of national intelligence will testify before the house intelligence committee about the handling of the complaint. we will hear from you, our viewers. phone lines are open to let us know your thoughts on the whistleblower complaint or the

inquiry. democrats can call at 202-748-8000. republicans, it is 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. you can also send us a text message. that number, frederique -- that number, 202-748-8002. catch up with us on social media. on twitter it is @cspanwj. on facebook it is facebook.com/cspan. a very good thursday morning. you can start calling now. another day with a lot of moving parts. we will start with what we are watching for, including the public release of the whistleblower complaint. the declassification process is complete, the report perhaps redacted as well. director of will testify before the house intelligence committee taking place at 9:00 a.m. eastern.

and michael maguire atkinson are reportedly meeting with the senate intelligence committee and that is expected to happen behind closed doors at 2:00 p.m. and this afternoon, president trump will return to the white house from his u.n. meetings in new york. a 1:30 p.m. arrival time expected and the u.s. says that arrival is open press, so we are likely to learn more from the president. when it comes to the memo about that phone call, here is some of the headlines about what was in that memo. this from papers outside the beltway, the daily news from president trump's hometown in in the ukraine, the president pressed for a favor to dig up biden dirt with kiev leader.

trump offered justices aid for probe of biden. asked ukraine for favor. from the washington times, trump transcript shows no explicit pressure. a lot of discussion on and off capitol hill yesterday about that memo and phone call. this is the chairman of the house intelligence committee, adam schiff at the atlantic event held late last night giving his opinion about what is in that memo. [video clip] out, i wascame shocked at how bad it was, how blatant it was and i can only think that either they were just so terribly misled by the president's own sense that he can persuade anybody of any alternate reality -- they have their alternate facts, triggers, and truth and can spin this anyway they want -- either they fully bought into that or they were convinced somebody else had

this record, somebody else was going to release that record and better they do it early because what advantage they had in the mueller investigation is the facts came out drip by drip. if the facts we knew at the end of the mueller investigation came out in a single day, if we learned about the illicit meetings and the emails where dirt was promised to help the trump campaign, we would've had a different reaction from the country. i don't know what it is, but i think people possibly at to it and now you are seeing republicans in the senate speak out publicly. imagine a worse abuse of office than this. host: adam schiff last night talking about that memo. the president also holding that press conference and getting a

lot of questions about the contents of that phone call. here is the president from yesterday. [video clip] >> with all this tremendous work we have done, the press doesn't even cover it. the democrats did this hoax during the united nations week, it was perfect because this way, it takes away from this tremendous achievements we are taking care of doing that we are involved in in new york city at the united nations. that was all planned, like everything else. it was all planned and the witchhunt continues. they are getting hit hard on this witchhunt because when they look at the information, it is a joke. impeachment for that? when you have a wonderful meeting or a wonderful phone conversation? i think you should ask -- that was the second conversation. i think you should ask for the first conversation also. i can't believe they haven't.

i believe there is a rumor they want the first conversation. it was beautiful, just a perfect conversation. i think you should do that and i think you should ask for vp conversation because he had a lot of conversations also. i can save you a lot of time, they were all perfect. host: the president adding to the conversation late last night about 10:46 p.m. eastern time, this tweet from the president calling yesterday one of our best fundraising days ever. we are getting your thoughts, your comments. phone lines split up by party. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. cindy is up first this morning out of connecticut. republican, good morning. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. i cannot even express how upsetting this is that democrats

are going to put the country through this over nothing. there was no mention in the phone call of a prude quote pro quo.id pro i cannot even believe the audacity. do you think the american people are stupid? we didn't hear anything about trump's u.n. speech on the news that night and you are undermining america. what foreign leader is going to take us seriously when they think the guy is going to get thrown out every two seconds. i think they know better that that is not going to happen bogus. all this stuff is let's have some real ground before we start impeachment hearings and queries. did these people go to college?

did they ever? hear of separation of powers? that is in the constitution for their information. i don't think we all should be privy to every conversation this president has. host: dan up next out of new york, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning. how are you doing today? host: doing well. go ahead. caller: i really think people need to look good and hard at joe biden's son and what joe biden did for his son. putting him on air force 2, flying him all around, sweetheart deals not just in the ukraine, but also china. i heard they set up some deal for him and his company that amounted through -- amounted to about $1.5 billion. those democrats in washington, d.c. do nothing but spend their time trying to get whatever dirt they can on president trump.

president trump, i voted for you as a democrat because you said you were going to clean this up and stop this. it is your job to investigate hisle like joe biden and son. 1/5 of the uranium supply going to russians. $150 billion of currency being flown into iran in the middle of the night. host: you are going to be a democrat who votes for president trump again in 2020? caller: i would like to say yes now because i think i am still -- these republicans do as much crap that they should all be held account for -- accountable for, too. i could go on for hours about both sides. host: that is dan in new york.

we only have about two hours of our program because we are ending early today taking you to the house intelligence committee hearing at 9:00 a.m. where the acting director of national intelligence is set to testify and he is expected to go behind closed doors with the senate intelligence committee later today. beginning inring less than two hours and getting your conversation -- it's having this conversation, getting your thoughts. independent,rida, you are next. caller: yes. calls -- the man talking about joe biden and russia somewhere. then you have the trump kid running around making deals with china.

the second election, he is doing the same thing. are these people blind or what? .hat is all i have to say he has not even made the nomination. host: that memo about the conversation of the president call with the new ukrainian president available for anybody to look through. several of the major papers itsy printing that memo in entirety. the text of the document released according to the note accompanying that memo is from the regulation -- recollections of situation rooms and policy staff assigned to listen and memorialize the constitution in written form.

the memo noting a number of factors can affect the accuracy of the record including variations in access or -- accent or interpretations are it i want to take you to the text of that conversation from the memo, this is the exchange and the comments by president trump that garnered the most attention. the president telling the new president of the ukraine i heard you have a prosecutor that is very good and he was shut down and that is unfair. a lot of people are talking about that, the way they shut your prosecutor down and you had bad people involved. mr. giuliani is a very respected man. i would like him to call you. i will ask him to call you along with william barr. there is a lot of talk about biden's son. whatever you can do with the attorney general would be great.

biden went around bragging he stopped the prosecution, so if you can look into it, it sounds horrible to me. that according to the white house is what the president said on that phone call with the president of the ukraine. sandra, what do you think about it? caller: thank you for taking my call. the headline should be putin wins again. make my -- make no mistake, donald trump is the swamp. i am grateful for the caller who talked about ivanka trump and her husband and his children working in the white house and close to the white house and stuff.money and all this my fear is donald trump is going to be elected again. washington -- who

?s going to fix it host: mobile, alabama. this is bill, good morning. caller: i want to talk about the story i think is being overlooked, the most important story and that is why all of a sudden are so many democrats think they are going to jump on this impeachment parade and the reason i think it is is what trump did talking about biden and how the money was funneled to his son exposed the process by which many politicians are being bribed and i would encourage the reporters in those districts who now run on the impeachment thing to get from them the names of their children's, their wife's maiden names and see how many of them are on boards, committees that bucks for nothing

because it is a way of funneling money to the congressman through his family. host: that is bill in alabama. in terms of who is four and who is not for impeachment, politico keeping a running list, they have 219 democrats as of now anporting impeachment or impeachment inquiry, 16 democrats who do not support an impeachment inquiry and and zero republican supporting. one other interesting chart on this topic is on the front page of today's washington post. it is how the numbers of impeachment, democrat supporting impeachment have ticked up over the course of this year starting with just 11 back in the early days of the year and during the mueller testimony, up to 95, 147 at the beginning of the ukraine

revelations and the washington 217 democrats as of yesterday. you can see how quickly that ticked up over the course of the past week. caller: good morning. my point is he wanted to make a mention of his u.n. speech. in his speech, he says all countries should have the right to protect their borders. by holding up funds allotted to ukraine, they were not able to protect their borders and we have to ask how many ukrainian soldiers were killed in the time waiting for these funds to come to fight against russia. trump puppet master and everybody to say lives have been lost by him

holding up those funds. he has caused murder, actually. are theynt to say blind? the other guy called in and asked if these people were lied. all the facts in front of his face, double talking, you cannot say protect your borders and everybody has a right and then you deny funds to protect your borders. those twists of timing, president trump had a meeting scheduled with the ukrainian president yesterday, they had a bilateral sit down and took questions from reporters. pre--- the ukrainian president being asked about this phone conversation. [video clip] >> i am sorry, but i don't want in elections of

usa. good phoneink a call. it was normal, we spoke about many things. i think you are right that nobody pushed me. trump and the president of ukraine yesterday on the -- two takes on the contents of that memo -- phone conversation between the two men . the washington post calling it a devastating and dykman. the white house's rough transcript shows how president trump pressured ukraine's

president. the ukraine transcript fizzle is what they are calling it. the phone call evidence is not enough to an all presidential election. democrats, 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. brad in kentucky, independent. go ahead. i just wanted to say this is a bad deal. you have your president being reported to the political bodies and the media by second-tier people with second-tier information. justnk this is probably another attempt to take him down from the military-industrial complex. back in may in an interview with

said don'tn, trump kid yourself, you do have a military-industrial complex, they do like war. there has been many situations where they have tried to lead him into war and he has navigated miraculously out of it. i think this is just another attack from the d.c. world party, which includes republicans and democrats. host: monique is next in washington, d.c.. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. all these folks keep talking about listening to his phone calls. a majority of all presidential phone calls are recorded. clarification. on the recordings of phone that, some recording that

practice has fallen off since the reported phone calls, the nixon tapes of the 1970's that part of thebig watergate impeachment effort. come of these transcripts from individuals in the rooms taking notes about what was said. in terms of an actual recording of the phone call, we don't have that when it comes to this ukraine phone call. caller: thank you for clearing that up. i meant to say the memos or the people taking notes while the president is talking. this is america. one thing we do is we investigate everything down to the bone. if we suspect somebody is doing something wrong, we are going to find out. -- juste the president like president obama. do not get it twisted, this is

just the land of the free. what is confusing me is the evidence is in the american people's face. whenever republicans get on the photo they always say the american people would do this. when i hear somebody say that, they are talking about their own race. just their own race of people. 100% of the population is not with donald trump. this world is changing and now that there president is in a situation where he is getting caught up in his lies and the falsehoods and everything else, they need to suck it up, deal with it and say he did this, how can we fix it? my kids have to grow up with some of these people calling in. i can see the aftereffect when i

watch youtube and there are 10-year-old and 11-year-old kids saying the n-word and everything else. iny have to be real careful what they are listening to and how they are responding because you can't make something that is is theot the truth, it truth. itthe man is doing it, suck up, confront the problem and try to find a way to fix it. host: edward next out of cedar rapids iowa. republican, good morning. caller: good morning, sir. i haven't heard you report yet on the story that john solomon broke last night. he said he has over 450 pages of documents that prove the american law firm representing documentsen, he has

from them and from the state ukrainent and from the prosecutor that proves joe biden's story and all it is is full of holes. i saw nothing in that released transcript of that phone call that shows any kind of pressure put on ukraine. even the ukrainian president said no pressure put on him to investigate this. host: do you think this will be something that congress takes up? republicans control the senate even if democrats control the house. do you think there will be questions raised about that? committee hearings or do you think the justice department will look into joe and hunter biden? caller: i hope they will. i believe they should. there are 450 pages john solomon put on his site. they said you can read them for

.ourself, don't take his word they prove joe biden is lying on all of this, that his son illegally got funds and joe biden put pressure on ukraine to fire the prosecutor. host: that is edward in cedar rapids, iowa. did you want to add one more thing, edward? i think we lost edward. jerry in alexandria, virginia. independent, go ahead. caller: good morning. i cannot believe that people don't have a problem with the fact the president even asked the ukrainian president to investigate biden and his son. that is very unethical and extremely inappropriate. clearly it is his biggest political challenger and i also have a problem with the smear campaign. the fact that this was based on the roy cohn school and the

roger stone school, make a lie up. joe biden did not stop the investigation of the energy company to defend his son. he fired the investigator because he was not investigating the fuel company. the model is make up, distract, put the vision on something else . there is clearly evidence. why does the president have rudy giuliani acting as an ambassador? the constitution says any appointments must be confirmed by the senate. why doesn't he use his ambassador? because rudy giuliani is a whipping boy of the president. the fact they are picking on trump is absurd, we have to wait until we hear what the whistleblower has to say and what the report reveals. host: a lot of reaction to all of this yesterday on capitol hill if you were following us on the c-span networks, you were able to catch most of it.

especially the action on the senate and house floor from c-span 2, here is senator mitch mcconnell, the senate majority leader giving his reaction. [video clip] >> the facts disappointed them, but the impeachment parade marching along. just hours after the president offer to publicize the details of his phone call with the president of the ukraine, the dam finally broke. could not hold back the far-left even longer. before any of us had facts in hand, she announced an

impeachment inquiry. if this all sounds familiar, that is because at the time, literally one week ago, the same democrats were shouting about impeaching justice kavanaugh. that rush to judgment was on the basis of a sketchy story in a major newspaper that probably had to publish an enormous correction. one week later, here they go again, threatening impeachment without the facts in hand. host: senate majority leader mitch mcconnell yesterday. also from the capital, here is chuck schumer. [video clip] >> earlier this morning, "esident -- trump released a document" of his call with president zelinski. considering this document was something the white house chose to release, it was far more damaging to the president's case

than any of us anticipated. telephone conversation, the president of the united states made an extraordinary request to the president of ukraine to investigate trump's political opponent and aid president trump's reelection campaign. does anyone think this conversation was in the national interest or was it in the president's personal, political interest? let me repeat. do any of my republican colleagues think this phone call reflects the president pursuing the national interest or was he pursuing his own political ambitions? every republican, every one of them needs to answer this question. host: senate minority leader chuck schumer yesterday on capitol hill. coming up on 7:30 on the east coast.

in about an hour and a half, hearing will take place before the house intelligence committee. joseph maguire will be .estifying long2154, you can see how the line is with 90 minutes left to go before the scheduled start of the house intelligence committee hearing. that line wrapping around the corner past the elevators and down the hall. usually the press gathering right at the beginning of that line. you can see the lights in the distance having some stand up interviews before the doors open and they can go inside after the usual security sweeps and room set up. getting your thoughts

and comments after another busy day on this ukraine phone call story and the move towards impeachment inquiry. deborah in texas, republican. you are next. about: yes, i am calling -- are you there? host: yes, ma'am. caller: i noticed they keep using the word "shall." they didn't turn over those guidelines within the seven days. i looked up the word "shall." register document handbook must and must not are the only two legal terms that can be used as mandatory terms. hall" is no longer used because it is too iffy. they need to quit relying on

that word as a point. host: we are at the point where that whistleblower complaint has now been turned over to members of congress to read. we are expecting it to be released publicly in some sort of redacted form at some point this morning perhaps before the hearing starts. at this point, what are your thoughts on that whistleblower complaint in the first place? caller: i did read the document yesterday. host: you are talking about the phone call? caller: yes, i read the transcript about the phone call and the president didn't do anything wrong. one of the democrats in the house was comparing his phone call to the way a mob person would talk in the mafia. it seems to me he has been watching the godfather too many times. i did not read it that way at all. all i read was he was glad the

president had won, he was congratulating him and proud they were going to try to get rid of and clean up their own country and he was congratulating him for that and offering him any kind of verbally tor help help clean up the mess because it was a new president. i didn't see anything -- i often listened to the news reporters interviewing that president with our president and i watch that, too. him to try andg go against our president and he got so frustrated because he kept telling them, no pressure, no pressure, no pressure. he got so frustrated he ended up

talking in spanish. i think these democrats have drank too much kool-aid together because they are off the deep end. they have been on this witchhunt for three years now and haven't done any governing. they have not done anything we put them in office to do. disappointed in them and if they dididen say not fire the prosecutor, they were not going to get the money. host: debra said she did not see anything wrong with the -- iteblower complaint

has been sent to congress and many members have been tweeting about it, about their thoughts and we are expecting that today. when it comes to the memo democratic senator who had a lot of problems with what president trump said with the ukrainian president beyond that one exchange that got so much attention yesterday that specifically mentioned joe biden and his son. this was richard blumenthal on twitter, a few important details from the release of these call notes are being lost in the shuffle. zelinski madesay sure to mention he stated a trump property likely to gain favor and flatter -- the president. looks like we will have to update our brief on that. he goes on to say trump also

asked the u.k. -- ukraine to investigate cloud strike in those notes. turn over evidence of hacked servers to the fbi. the only reason richard blumenthal says you make this request is if you believe a fringe conspiracy that the evidence was doctored and that russians never attacked. he went on to tweet it should -- the russians attacked our country in 2016 and will try .o do so again in 2020 this is a national security issue. getting your thoughts this morning on phone lines for democrats, republicans, and independents. christopher in new jersey, you are next. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. let me be clear to my republican constituents on the other line. this man for years, we have warned about his deceptions and

his work with the russians to sabotage our democracy, the greatest commodity we need. the documents clearly show he has betrayed the trust of the american people for years. we have warned of this man's deception and tried to make everyone wake up and see the truth. yesterday and the past 24 hours clearly show there was no doubt the deception has been going on for too long, especially with ukraine. this is a national emergency and people need to realize that now and takeeally stand up back our country because trump has gone too far and the line has been crossed. this is history repeating itself. you asked a great question earlier, do we need to nullify the elections and the presidency of donald trump? the answer is we have been trying for years to tell

everybody to do just that. we even asked for a special master to request this action be taken and we took it to the supreme court. congress must take back what is rightfully ours and the senate must do the right thing. they need to wake up and see the truth that there president let them down. this man has led the american people down and he is seriously someone that cannot be trusted. impeachment and nullification of the presidency, of this man must take action now. ist: george is beat, -- inver -- virginia beach. republican. caller: regarding joseph maguire, i used to work with joseph maguire at seal team 2.

he was the commanding officer. exaggerate.dency to that is one thing about him, if not lie. i see how he has not changed very much from those days. host: what capacity did you work with him in? were you a navy seal? two.r: yes, at seal team host: can you say the time you served with him and where? caller: i served with him when i was in the navy. director of national intelligence says a lot about .his administration i am sure he stepped on a lot of

little people to get where he is today. in seal team 2, he was quite the pretty boy. it has been interesting to see him morph into the old man he is now. host: what do you expect from today's hearing? caller: not sure really what he will say. look forward to watching it, though. from that is george virginia beach. joseph maguire sent -- spent 36 years as a navy seal, commanded at every level including naval special warfare command. .his from his biography he assumed the role of acting director august 16 of 2019 prior to serving as acting dni, he served as the sixth director of

the national counterterrorism center and in that role according to the bio he bolstered the national counterterrorism -- in congress -- better align the management and operations and so on with his biography. if you want to read it, it is at dni.gov. a story in the washington post got a lot of attention, including some pushback from joseph maguire himself including the national director -- director of national intelligence threatened to resign over concerns the white house might attempt to force him to stonewall congress when he testified thursday about that whistleblower complaint against the president. the washington post saying revelations reflect the extraordinary tensions between the white house and the nation's highest ranking intelligence officer. pushback from the white house

maguireire himself -- denied he had done so, that he had threatened to resign. in a statement he said at no time has i considered resigning my position since assuming this role. i have never quit anything in my life and i am not going to start now. i am committed to leading the intelligence community to .ddress the threat stephanie grisham saying this is not the reporting of the washington post yesterday. brandywine, maryland, you are next. ann, are you with us? caller: yes, i am. host: go ahead. caller: my issue with this whole -- when people put a blind eye to what the president is .oing, their country is doomed

having the transcript of the and lindseylls graham saying there is nothing to do, i am so surprised. this country is well-equipped to do that, you don't have to engage a foreign country to do that for you. that is corruption. i don't care what anybody says. there is so much in that transcript that president trump said that should not have been done. i don't think he holds the interest of this country at best in whatever he is doing. accountable.e held i cannot even begin to think

about it because this is a no no . if this country is going to be what it is meant to be, a country of law, the law must be abided by. host: getting your thoughts on phone lines for democrats, republicans, and independents very it also looking for your tweets, facebook posts, and text messages. here is a text from bonnie saying why is donald trump talking about joe biden in the first place? i would think he has a lot of other things to be addressed. tom says democrats can say goodbye to me, a 41 year democrat. they can say goodbye to nancy and hello to alexandria ocasio-cortez. steve saying democrats need to keep hammering away with investigations. one more from bill in connecticut, the age of acting with impunity must end. henry in south carolina,

independent. good morning. caller: good morning, sir and good morning, america. i am a 65-year-old african-american man and i have never seen anything like this in my beloved country. i never thought america would get to the point to where it would blindly follow anyone to the extent that they are tearing up the constitution and everything. i will be very brief, it is foolish to believe impeachment centers around this one phone call. have we forgotten about the 12,000 lies? have we forgotten about the emoluments clause is, obstruction? the domestic scandals that surround us? how the president -- we don't know what he is doing, no tax returns. have we forgotten about how this same president stood publicly and said i can shoot someone on 5th avenue and my followers will still blindly follow me.

have we forgotten about him saying when he was asked the question do you ever ask god for forgiveness and he said i don't pray to god because i don't make mistakes. have we forgotten about how he stood and said i am the chosen one? my final question to america if you are going to be honest and truthful, do you believe former president obama could have gotten away with 11 south -- one 1000th of what this man has done? for us to sit here and talk about -- think about this is all about one phone call, we are playing right into what the president said, that he could stand up and publicly shoot somebody and call it fake news and his followers would blindly follow him. america, wake up. this thing is deeper than we realize. there are spiritual implications going on and it is going right over people's heads.

host: a democrat, good morning. caller: good morning. i am with henry from south carolina. this is amazing. i have to say i absolutely do support the democrats in their move in order to implement an impeachment inquiry. is out of control, honestly. i would honestly suggest you guys read the full transcript because i was switching back and forth between stations last night and i really do believe the republican constituents don't know what is actually in the transcript because fox news is not even covering it. they would read small segments of the transcript taken out of context. when you read the memo -- rather. ast: i want to point out

viewers are still confused about a place to find that memo, we have it on our website. there is the memo our viewers can see. finish your thoughts as we continue to show you scenes outside the house intelligence committee hearing room ahead of that 9:00 hearing. caller: when you read the memo in its entirety or at least in context, donald trump is speaking like a criminal, basically. he is speaking in code and it is the same thing michael cohen testified to, that the president speaks in a certain way -- when he is trying to convey something to you that is a -- legal, the person understands what his demand is. when you read the memo in context, he is speaking to the

president of ukraine and as the -- lookingf ukraine forward to getting the missiles from you guys and additional money, donald trump immediately -- i need you to do me a favor, i need you to look into the situation with joe biden and his son. that is clearly letting this person know there is a stipulation is. the stipulation for our help in defending your country from .ussia i am with henry and i have to say one last thing. it is ridiculous this man has gotten away with everything for so long. on both their houses. if obama would have done any

small percentage of this, republicans as well as democrats would have been moving for impeachment a long time ago. the one thing i will say is trump was trying to do something as far as immigration to try to help the lower middle class and -- it ise class people unfortunate this man is so criminal that he cannot even finish a term without being corrupt. host: that is tracy in texas. more reaction from capitol hill yesterday, including from house republicans, including doug collins. viewers will know him as the ranking member on the house judiciary committee. here are his thoughts on the move towards impeachment. [video clip] >> we are seeing a continuation of complete and utter disrespect

for this house. jumping to conclusions. it is amazing that what we are seeing coming out of this is taking hearsay, stuff you have not read and say it will be impeachment inquiry. i have news to the speaker, she is not doing impeachment inquiry. it is just another decision by the house democrats to disregard over 200 years of precedent in the house. we actually have rules, things .hat matter especially when he was in new york city doing what he was supposed to be doing, it is amazing to me. i am going to say this, they are like plinko. they drop the thing in and see which way it bounces. first it was mueller and then this. they are trying to hit the --ginary target

they talk about a speaker who has lost control of the facts. we talk about a speicher who no longer can honestly stand before the american people and be a voice. when they actually attacked on a hearsay, it shows how desperate they have become and when they become that desperate, it leads to dysfunction in our committees. just a week ago, the democrats allowed a democrat donor -- large democrat donor to break the rules of this house and question corey lewandowski for 30 minutes. it was not ok. when you break the rules of the house and go against it because you are so desperate to pin everything on a president, that .s when it becomes a disgrace democrats need to explain to the

american people why they have chose to trash the house instead of help this president when he is wanting to put america first. host: house judiciary member ranking -- committee ranking member doug collins. on this program, we dug into the c-span archives to show you what democrats had to say in 1998, 19 99 about the process of impeachment when it came to bill clinton. going back to 1998 and 1999, these are the tapes of republicans including then house speaker newt gingrich. this from september 23 of 1998 on the process of impeachment and his thoughts about it in the age of television. [video clip] i don't think it is a question of olive branches. i think democrats understand as fully as we do that this is a historic and constitutional

process and we are trying to find a way to move forward that is fair to everybody and fair to the country. there were legitimate concerns raised about this kind of televisionthe age of and it is difficult. the intensity of focus is very different than what it was even in 1974. we have to be sensitive to how the speaker operates. poll suggests americans want to this president punished, but not impeached. there was suggest contempt for the will of the american people. what can you say to the will of the american people to allay this? >> we swear to uphold the constitution of the united .tates

of the fact is neither the american people nor the members of congress know this case thoroughly yet. the president has not had a chance to respond in a way that would present his side and congress will move forward in a calm and methodical way to seek justice. i don't think the people want this congress to deal with an overnight issue based on an overnight pole and i think people would be frankly horrified if congress was simply a polling institution that enacted a grotesque version of justice based on the latest poll for talkshow. >> decisions today that will committeeudicial meeting different? host: newt gingrich back in 1998 . one more to show you from days later. this from then representative lindsey graham. lindsey graham critical of the move toward impeachment today.

this is what he had to say about impeachment on october 5, 1998 as the house was moving through its impeachment proceedings of then president bill clinton. [video clip] >> good day for the democratic party because the democratic members came up with an alternative that recognizes we have to go further to find out what happened in this case. the inquiry is essential to leave a record behind that makes sense for history. weather it is center, drop the case, or send it to the senate, the record needs to make sense and we are about to test the evidence. the democratic party needs to recognize how serious this was. their resolution had a 17 day time period to do everything and make a report to our colleagues, that is impractical. our resolution follows what happens in watergate. it was not limited at the time.

he said he wants to do this by the end of the year. the most important thing to remember is the truth is not set by time, it is set by facts and it takes time to get to the facts. i know everybody out there is tired. it is about getting it right for the sake of history to justify decisions based on principle and sound law and good facts. today was a good step forward. >> next is jim rogan of california. host: then representative lindsey graham back in october of 1998. those clips, the ones we showed yesterday as well all available in our c-span archives. they were dug out this week by man on twitter. back to your phone calls. time for a few more calls before we take a break on this topic

and head to michigan as part of our battleground tour for the c-span bus. we will return to this topic before the hearing begins at 9:00 a.m. republican in georgia, good morning. caller: good morning, c-span. i have a couple comments. deborah from texas, i liked listening to her. everybody is calling in like the whistleblower had first-hand knowledge of the call, but it was not first-hand knowledge, it was secondhand. they did not hear the conversation. obama did get away with a bunch of stuff because every time they said he could not do anything, they threw the race card out could.nd said he host: do you want to finish your thought? caller: yeah, well, like i said, the raceough -- threw

card out on things they said he couldn't do. barry i.t is very -- abouteadline this morning the whistleblower citing a report the whistleblower was concerned about the handling of the ukraine call and possibly anti-trump. ax.com. newsm caller: good morning. this whistleblower case needs to be pursued under the impeachment inquiry umbrella. comments of the gentleman, his name was henry, who called before. he laid out all the important issues. it is not just the single phone

call. it is trump's actions to go out of process, withhold the funding to ukraine until after this all took place, and as i understand from various nusra warts, there -- news reports, there are eight that make the mind for impeachment. references of nullification of trump's presidency,. we are at a crucial time in american history and everyone needs to pay close attention, particularly republicans, insofar as the actions of donald trump are criminal. he has the mentality of a thug and operates like a thug.

this going to say, you do -- he is not going to make a quid pro quo that is not obvious. people need to understand the facts. people need to understand that this man is harming this country and harming respectable institutions. things must really be broken to elect someone like donald trump. last point, president carter made a reference that evidence will emerge fairly soon that wins trump really did not the 2016 election, because i believe he cheated. i believe he worked with russia to cheat and when the election.

-- between the election. -- win the election. host: what is your evidence? report whereueller they could not get answers with russia. there is much to say about some of the voting act to videos -- which it has 2016, not been answered how the votes were tallied and some potentially altered. the nullification would be to eliminate his presidency and all the judges, all the laws they amendall go away and we the constitution to make that happen. host: our last caller in this first segment of "washington journal," we will take you off of capitol hill to the wolverine

state, the c-span bus is in michigan. we will be joined by detroit burr tochard her -- discuss the issues of today and those facing the battleground state in 2020. ♪ today, live at3 9:00 eastern, as acting director of national intelligence joseph the houseifies before intelligence committee. nunes.hiff and devin assembling the whistleblower complaint on president trump, live coverage today at 9:00 a.m. on c-span3, live on c-span.org, or free on the c-span radio app. journal-- "washington

two continues. host: the c-span bus is on a tour of the campaign 2020 battleground state. it kicked off in iowa and today we are in detroit where the bus is parked at wayne state university. we are joined by richard burr. first on the impeachment story that has consumed capitol hill, one angle is the shift of democrats toward actively supporting impeachment, and several who have moved in that direction over the course of the past week reside in michigan. can you talk about that and how that move by those democratic members of congress is being received in the wolverine state? week, sure, prior to last we had four out of michigan's seven democratic house members

who supported impeachment, and within a rapid span of a few hours over monday night into tuesday morning, the final three democrats who had not supported impeachment, haley stevens, alyssa flack and who are freshman democrats who won republican seats in 2018, and debbie dingell who represents a fairly solid democratic district, but has a fair number of trump voters or blue-collar voters. they all swung around. they don't necessarily support impeachment at this point, but what they do support is an inquiry. we have had at least a few republicans say they reported -- support an inquiry, but at the republicans least

on the record say they think this is a witchhunt and democrats will not be satisfied until they kick him out of office. int: is there anyone left the democratic delegation from michigan but does not actively support and impeachment inquiry? guest: right now, the one with the fuzzy is position is -- fuzziest position is senator gary peters who is running for reelection. he is a first-term senator from metro to port -- detroit. he indicated that he was and thate of the house he would watch what they are doing, but did not outright call for an impeachment inquiry or support impeachment. he is kind of still keeping his dry.r dry he is --

he is probably doing that in part because he has a republican opponent who did quite well against the incumbent in 2018. he only lost by six points when most polls showed he would lose by double-digit tangibly. -- intentionally. because -- potentially. because he has a strong republican challenger, he is surveying the territory. to be fair to senator peters, he has always been a cautious campaigner so it is not too much of a surprise. host: richard burr is politics and government editor, joining us on the c-span bus as part of our battleground tour. we have time to take a few calls on michigan politics and how this story is playing.

a special line for michigan , (202) 748-8003. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. .ndependents, (202) 748-8002 is this impeachment inquiry story having a big impact outside of the washington, d.c. bubble and on the ground in the battleground state? is this story like the uaw strike a more important story in your state now? think anytime you have something that involves the word "impeachment," it grabs people's attention. we have had talk of impeachment for more than two years, so there might be some impeachment

fatigue. the a uw strike looks more important at the moment. the third week and talks appear to have picked up, but it has emerged as a presidential issue. we have had at least three democratic presidential candidates come to michigan and visit the picket lines here at the detroit assembly plant. klobuchar, amy elizabeth warren, and bernie sanders flew in for a quick 20 minute visit. one of the others who visited the picket lines was not in michigan but wisconsin, former vice president joe biden. wey all came here saying, want to show our solidarity with the workers. they should be getting more.

i am not sure how much impact that is having on negotiation, because that is its own kind of dynamic. obviously, they felt the need to come in and show solid diligent -- solidarity. host: remind viewers what prompted that strike, and what does the length of the strike and the attention it has gotten say about the strength of unions heading into the 2020 election? issue reportedly, the that set off this strike was that workers felt like they should be getting more compensation and that they had made great sacrifices 10 years ago when gm was going through bankruptcy. i am not sure if that is all the reason for this strike, because there was not a lot of ferment on the ground, a lot of complaining prior to the

expiration of the contract. gm did make a fairly generous uaw decided toe go on strike. one of the complicating factors is that there is an ongoing corruption probe by federal agents which has resulted in at and automaker officials pleading guilty to various corruption charges, leading to prison sentences. -- there arel on still ongoing investigations, including the fbi and irs invaded the homes of former president dennis williams and current president gary jones. one of the complicating factors for the strike is that the rank and file may not trust the current leadership, and the current leadership has to show they will stand up for workers.

anybody who saw this dynamic anticipated there would be a strike, because the leaders would have to show in some kind of tangible form they are fighting the corporation, whereas former officials had been taking kick backs and dipping into union funds to enrich themselves. they have to restore credibility. host: a little bit of time left, and a lot of callers, wayne in cathedral city, california, democrat. caller: good morning, c-span. i want mr. burr to use his words carefully, because he said trump was duly elected. trump was duly elected by the russians. there was a lot of collusion. host: we got your comment.

is there any response you want to give? guest: all i can tell you is what was in the special prosecutor's report, which was the russians attempted to influence the election. everyone has said they did not change any vote. in and changing votes that were cast system -- cast in the system. how much russian ads on facebook influence people to vote for donald trump over hillary clinton or jill stein or the libertarian candidate, who knows? there is a lot of noise out there on a presidential campaign, but since no voting systems were hacked and nobody has proved any votes were actually manipulated, and all

the votes were certified, i think we have to accept the fact that president trump was elected president. host: a lot of noise in a presidential campaign and attention lavished on the wolverine state and its 16 electoral votes. 17.4 million registered voters as of last year in michigan, president trump winning the state last year with 14.5% of the vote. -- 47.5% of the vote. we are focusing on it as part of our battleground tour. todd, northd is in carolina, independent. caller: i got a statement, question, statement. toldi was in school they me the representative system was set up because not everybody could travel to washington and participate in drafting legislation.

we got unions, and my question is, now that we have social -- thecan't we legislation system and do it ourselves on a social media platform the government should provide already? asking for town hall meetings from every representative for a obliging,and none are my comment is they are fired. did not really have a good question, so thank you. host: what did you want to pick up on? guest: he wants to change the way people are represented in congress. you have to change the cons touche and -- constitution. you have to get the consent of more than a majority of the states to do it. the republic was set up as a

form of representative directent in which the representation of the people was through the house of representatives and a broader form of represent station -- representation was set up in the senate. checks and balances between senate and congress and the judiciary, so any form of direct democracy actually runs counter to the way the founders set up the system. they did not want what they considered the potential for a mob sentiment to rule the country. if people wanted to go through government through social media, it would create the potential for hacking. that would be a pretty heavily debated concept. host: a few minutes left with richard burr on the c-span bus as part of our battleground tour in michigan at wayne state

university. we have a special line set aside for michigan resident, (202) 748-8003. mary is in bridgeport, pennsylvania, a democrat. caller: good morning. i don't have a question. i would like to speak to the american people, republicans and democrats. please listen to what trump says. the actual substance of what he says. if it is not about how criminal all democrats are, it is about how great he is. no one group is all anything. he never answers the question. he never uses common sense. it is like listening to gobble dy-gook. he has his children and the white house garnering salaries and they have no purpose.

his exaggerated ego and narcissistic personality constantly needs to be fed, and if they don't do this, they are out. that is the immense turnover in the white house in his cabinet. he did rake the buck by a bystle -- break the book intercepting the whistleblower complaint. it is supposed to go to the department of justice and the senate, and encouraging the department of justice to bury the complaint. host: that is mary in pennsylvania. richard burr, focusing on the politics of this and the battleground state of michigan, what issues does president trump want to fight the 2020 campaign on in michigan, and where does he want to go geographically to fight it and keep it in his column in 2020? guest: he would probably be

running on taxes, immigration, and he would also be running on his record, arguing that people are doing better today, a little bit better today than they were four years ago when he took office. geographically, where he needs to do well, last time what he did was he basically picked off one of the three major metropolitan -- metro detroit counties, macomb county, which is kind of a swing county which tends to lean republican but is not a slamdunk. he did very well in rural and out state counties, meaning any area where there is not huge concentrations of p all. -- people. he needs to do relatively well in west michigan which has

traditionally been a republican is gaining more support among democrats. bit of an a little uphill climb. there was a poll in late may that showed voters were asked if they could vote to reelect trump or vote for someone else, they saying they would vote for somebody else. as experts like to point out, you don't run against some mythical unknown candidate. you run against an actual candidate. , joead-to-head pairings biden has been up on president trump by about 12 points in a poll in late may. bernie sanders was up 12 and elizabeth warren was up about

four points. i am sure the spreads have changed during that time, but he faces marvin uphill climb because democrats are much more energized this time to turn out. they were not as energized in 2016 because hillary clinton was somewhat of a polarizing figure and she did not seem to capture the imagination of enough democrats, and allowed president trump to squeak through, winning vote, less than 2/10 of a percentage point. host: i want to get in one more call, hollywood, florida, republican. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. i want to say, you are doing a great job. these democrats, they hate him.

they hate the truth. host: just talk through your phone. finish your comment. caller: i just want to say, everything the president was selected as the president of the united states, they went crazy. they hate this man. look at obama. he is a divider. he divide this country. donald trump won the president because he loves this country. host: one of the past -- president trump's victories in 2016 was through michigan. has president trump been to michigan recently and is he planning on going back anytime soon for one of his rallies? -- he was last

in michigan at a rally i believe in grand rapids, which had quite a turnout. i believe it was back in march if my memory serves me correctly. we are not sure when he will come back. we have not been picking up any vibes. there was an article in "politico" that said some of his campaign of visors are worried -- advisors are worried he might not keep michigan this time. that is why you are seeing these moves where they are trying to put other states into play where they did not win in 2016, like new mexico and new hampshire that they view might be more favorable to them this time around. is politicsd burr and government editor at "the detroit news."

time andiate your joining us onboard the c-span bus. guest: i appreciate you having me. host: i want to say thank you to comcast and wayne state university for hosting us today in detroit. to learn more about the c-span , visit it schedule c-span.org/community. about half an hour left this morning before the house intelligence community -- committee is set to hear from the acting director of national intelligence. we will take you to that hearing live when it begins. we want to hear from you about the whistleblower complaint that is the focus of that hearing, about the memo of that ukrainian phone call between the president and new ukrainian president about the impeachment inquiry in general.

democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. focusing onpapers the white house memo about the phone call. shows no transcript explicit pressure, president trump taking questions yesterday at a press conference in new york while he was at the u.n. general assembly, and one question he was asked was about the release of the transcript. >> because i was getting such fake news and i thought it would be better, and now they are asking for the first phone conversation, because i had a conversation on a previous election plateau. he had hit, the current president hit a couple of plateaus, and i spoke to him previous to the call that we

released, which was a very innocent call, very innocent, very nice call. as he said, i wasn't pushed. he wasn't pressured at all. i don't like the concept of releasing calls because when a president or prime minister or king or queen calls the united wetes, we don't like to say, will release your call to the fake news media and they will make you look like a fool. it is hard to do business that way. you want people to feel comfortable, so i hated it, but you folks were saying such lies, such horrible things about a call that was so innocent and nice. host: that was the president yesterday talking about the memo on that white house call. the focus is expected to be on the whistleblower complaint. we have seen that the declassification process is complete and we are expecting to get details.

yet,n't know what form although ken delaney of nbc knees reporting that dutch nbc news reporting that congress -- nbc news reporting that congress , the redactedint and unredacted versions. the director of national intelligence has no plans to but nothing stops lawmakers from doing so. we are likely to see some of the info from that, and in about a half an hour we will hear members of the house intelligence committee questioned the acting director of national intelligence about the whistleblower complaint. we will also show you some scenes outside the hearing room as they get prepared for that hearing. dave in san antonio, texas, a

republican. thatr: to the gentlelady more or less said mr. trump is always tooting his own horn, ma'am, mr. trump needs to toot his own horn because the media is nothing that a lying propaganda machine. host: anything else you wanted to add? caller: yes, i want to add this. i have a family member that work ukrainene -- worked in and collected newspapers during that time obama was president and carrying out the coup in ukraine. those particles incriminate biden and -- articles incriminate biden and clinton. if they were to take a plane to the ukraine and get on the tarmac, i would say ukraine would put them in jail. host: niceville, florida,

democrat. caller: good morning, this is michael. host: turn down your television. caller: i turned down some. is that better? host: yes, go ahead with your comment. caller: this is quite involved, that the american people are having to deal with this business. call torump's telephone the president of the ukraine which was what, in august? july the phone call was in the whistleblower complaint was made in august. caller: that is good clarification. be aiden is going to political rival in the 2020 election against trump. my question is, is this an abuse of power? is there constitutional

violations involved in this? yet we had a television show and they that trump president of the ukraine were on a live television show. the discussion of the telephone call and the complaint and so forth in august was corneal. dial.rida there was no pressure. on that television show, trump was adamant about the democratic party, nancy pelosi, representative shift, and others in a derogatory manner -- manner, but they were demeaning he and his family. broadcast, theon democrats have made reference to -- was just grateful

disgraceful. if you looked at his face closely, it looked like he was reading a teleprompter. is, what on this thing direction is this impeachment inquiry going, and the congressional involvement, telephone transcripts? committee,gational getting down to some of this aspect is the attorney general versus the inspector general. going -- direction is it is going today is with a congressional hearing in the house intelligence committee beginning in less than half an hour. the acting director of national intelligence will be at that meeting and will head to the senate side of the capital to testify behind closed doors beside the inspector general from the national intelligence community.

we are expecting to perhaps hear more from the president today, who returns to the white house from u.n. meetings in new york. he is expected to arrive on the 1:30 lawn sometime around in an open press arrival. the president known to stop and chat with the press. these are some headlines from u.s. newspapers around the country reacting to the release of those memos of that phone call between the president and ukrainian president showing their meeting at the u.n., crain on dems parade. the front page of "the jersey gun?"l," "smoking the front page of "the los angeles times," trump asked for

a favor using that same quote. the front page of "the tampa bay times," "chaos after the calls release." deeply divided washington plunges into trump impeachment probe. , want to get your thoughts jesse in florida, republican. caller: yes, sir. i want to comment on the biden issue. have a understand how we ise where biden obviously using his influence as the vice president of the united states to influence the decisions of the ukrainians, to investigate a company that his son supposedly is involved with. morehat cannot be much

askingable than trump the ukrainians to investigate that just does not make sense to me. want a justice department probe? the former vice president not currently holding office so impeachment would not be the route. caller: no, i don't want anymore probes. if the democrats really think this is impeachable, how do they explain what joe biden did? obviously, what he did was far ise blatant than what trump accused of doing. it just doesn't make sense to me, but i do not anymore -- i think congress needs to legislate, not investigate. i am totally sick of the way that congress, the house and the

senate -- i am registered republican but i am not satisfied with any of them. host: you are taking a look inside the hearing room where that house intelligence committee panel will meet starting in about 25 minutes. we will take you there live on c-span. will be sitting in that chair at that table. you can see the press taking pictures of the placard, likely the photo they are getting now. you will see them lined up for the swearing in, and then members getting to ask their questions, getting their opening statements, all starts at 9:00 a.m. eastern today. c-span.org,c-span, or listen on the free c-span radio app. the house intelligence committee consists of 13 members -- 22

members, 13 democrats, nine republicans. the oldest member is 72 and the youngest is 35 years old. two of the key players will be the chairman of that panel and the ranking member. the chairman is adam schiff. congress,10 terms in represents california's 28th district, represents the ranking member of the house intelligence to 2019e from 2015 before taking over as chairman. he is a formal fetter -- former federal prosecutor with the u.s. attorney's office in los angeles and holds his law degree from harvard. district,s, 22nd chairman during the -- congresses before turning the gavel over to adam schiff. he launched the russia probe in

2017, released his report in april 2018. evidencert found no the trump campaign colluded with the russian government. some details on the ranking member and chairman of the panel , and you will hear a lot more from them when they hearing starts at 9:00 a.m. say here -- stay here on spring -- c-span. springhill. caller: i would like to say that the report that was out was written by barr, the same guy he wrote the report on the mueller report, which was a complete fabrication of what he had to say. host: which report are you talking about? caller: the mueller report. the same guy wrote this report too. report"?t is "this

caller: the phone conversation in kiev. host: here is what we know about that phone conversation. caller: i did not get my point out. host: what the white house released from the telephone conversation, not a verbatim transcript. the text records the notes and regulations of situation room duty officers and national security council policy staff assigned to listen and memorialize the conversation in written form as it takes place, that is how it has been described by the white house. caller: the other thing i need to point out is there is at least three facts in that report that prove that trump did break the law. first of all, it had nothing to do with anything that was going on in the united states. it did not mention any issue.

there was nothing between the two countries that needed to be discussed. secondly, and the order that he did this, it reminded the president of the ukraine that the united states gave him a lot of money, a lot of things, and did not reciprocate. 1000% i agree. asked for a favor to investigate joe biden and his son. this violates a lot. mi still on the air? host: yes, sir. caller: what i am saying is, if the republicans will stop trying to blame somebody else for them ,llowing trump to break the law

and actually look at the report and what it said, they will realize that this was a very corrupt thing he did. , children say johnny got away with it, i should too. they need to judge trump for what he did. if they think president obama, vice president biden, secretary of state clinton did anything wrong, prosecute them. host: that is jeff in spring hill, florida. the hearing we will take you to was about the handling of the whistleblower complaint that has been the genesis of this story, and the move towards impeachment inquiries that began this week. nancy pelosi making that announcement this week. the whistleblower complaint, we are finding out now, has been

released in a somewhat redacted form. this is what the intelligence committee put on their website. fromntelligence committee august reporting this whistleblower complaint -- i am just going to read it to you. it is nine pages long. schiff,hairman burr and concernorting an urgent in accordance with the procedures outlined in by law. this letter is unclassified when separated from the attachment. i have received information from multiple officials that the president of the united states is using the power of his office to solicit interference in the 2020 election, including pressuring a foreign country to investigate one of the president's main domestic

rivals. rudolph giuliani is an essential figure in this effort. attorney general barr appears to be involved as well. more than half a dozen u.s. officials have an warned me of various fact related to this effort. the information was relayed to me in the course of my official interagency business. tois routine for individuals share such individual touch information with one another -- information with one another. i was not a direct witness to most of the events described, however i found my colleagues recounts to be credible because they were consistent with one another. in a variety of information consistent with these private accounts has been reported publicly. i am deeply concerned the actions described below

constitute a serious or flagrant visitation of, or law or executive order that does not include differences of opinions concerning public policy matters." that is on intelligence. house.gov, coming out less than half an hour before the hearing that will focus on how this was handled by the acting director of national intelligence, joseph maguire, and by the inspector general the intelligence community. the inspector general will be in the maguire closed-door hearing on the senate side. the hearing is expected to begin in about 17 minutes. lori in north carolina, an independent. caller: good morning.

first, i would like to say i really appreciate you shoving -- showing some of the house members and the terms they have congress up on the screen. you have really made a case for term limits for congressional oversight leaders. say, i would also like to itcerning the whistleblower, is second or third hand information that has been reported. it is almost like he said she said he said in this whistleblower report. number three, i would also like issay that no one who running for president should be able to hide behind running for hidedent to be able to their corruption they committed. host: this is john, topeka,

kansas, republican. caller: good morning, how are you? host: i am doing well. caller: the democrats amaze me. general's, adjutant eric holder stated i am a wing man for barack obama. the reason biden was not investigated, they had all the power. clinton, andlary she was investigated, loretta lynch told them to not call it an investigation, call it a matter. when these democrats come up and ,ay biden wasn't investigated of course he wasn't investigated. but i had the power and were not going to investigate him. that biden tape is the biggest

admission of coercion any american can see. if anyone is fair, they cannot let that go by. it of these stations say, has already been investigated. i beg to differ. host: the gathering of the press around the witness table, it is behind those cameras there is one chair buried beneath those cameras and the members of the press. that is where the acting director of national intelligence joseph maguire will sit this morning. the whistleblower complaint, somewhat redacted but released by the intelligence committee today alongside the report from the inspector general dated august 26. the inspector general is the first person who takes a look at those complaint coming from the intelligence community. the inspector general is named michael atkinson and this is his

letter to joseph maguire about the whistleblower complaint. the key phrase, "i have determined the complaint didn't has an urgent concern that appears credible or cup you can find -- appears credible." you can find these documents that were just released. you have about 13 minutes before the hearing is set to begin. they are meeting in the rayburn house on the south side of the capital. they are getting ready to gather and we will continue to take your phone calls for a few minutes. joseph, kalamazoo, michigan, democrat. caller: i am calling in regards to this matter when it comes to trump and biden. what biden has to do with anothert obama, calling from a foreign country about

what is going on with another man he is trying to be elected, that is illegal to call another country and inquire about a person in the united states. you might as well throw all the garbage out. this is like spying. russians coming over to this country. to thinkg to tell you about this president over there, because it is illegal. why should we allow our sitting call, and somebody over here states? if we are going to have an election, keep the interviews out of it. in new ports rick richey, florida. caller: good morning, sir. if everybody has been looking for an m.o., you have one. you have the linsky, --

zielinski. now you have the attorney for trump, which is not a government attorney, going overseas to another country coming back with information, giving it to barr, and barr can say he came across information leading to the investigation of biden. o.u have an m. employeesernment transferring information through channels to get to the victim. host: mj in dumb freeze, virginia, independent. ies, virginia, independent. caller: what we are doing right and thehis present time democratic system of america is we are trying to excuse this

kind of behavior where foreign countries can get involved in elections, and we are going to look the other way. time, it becomes a democratic government going to countries and spying on another candidate, i don't know where this is going because this is another territory. thatmes normal with trump everything will go all the way wrong. i think it is the right time to do it. i am not a democrat or republican. it is about to be destroyed bipartisanship. i think republicans should see -- it does notng have to be trump. the party is messed up in the country is messed up. host: that hearing in the house

intelligence committee getting ready to get underway the whistleblower complaint released. you can see members of the press scrolling through it as you see the chairman of the house intelligence committee going into the office spaces behind the hearing room where members gather before coming out, documents being brought in as well, members of the press gathering around the table where joseph maguire will testify. one part of the whistleblower report that is getting a lot of attention, page three of that ,eport if you have pulled it up it is focusing on efforts to restrict access to records related to the call. this is what the whistleblower said in the report to the inspector general -- in the days following the phone call, i learned from multiple officials that senior white house officials intervened to lock down all records of the phone

call, especially the word for word transcript that was produced as is customary. this set of actions underscores to me that white house officials understood the gravity of what transpired in that call, the whistleblower noting white house thecials told me to remove electronic transcript from the computer system in which such transcripts are stored and kept. anotheroaded into computer system. i don't know whether similar actions were taken to concern the call, such as contemporaneous handwritten notes by those who listened in. -- we the white house will hear more about that complaint today, members starting to gather in the, -- in the room. live now, you can watcth