california democratic -- congressman ted lieu. we will take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. "washington journal" is next. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪ host: good morning. it is september 27, 2019. yesterday, after 6 -- 6 weeks after it was filed, the contents of the whistleblower complaint remade public. the complaint, which included new allegations of white house cover-up was released minutes before yesterday's high-profile hearing with joseph maguire about his handling of the complaint. this friday morning on the "washington journal," we will continue to hear from you about this story that has dominated national headlines all week long. phone lines split by political party. democrats, it is 202-748-8000.

republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. you can also send us a text. that number, 202-748-8003. if you send us a text, please include your name and where you are from. otherwise, catch up with us on social media. on twitter it is @cspanwj. on facebook it is facebook.com/cspan. a very good friday morning to you, you can start calling in now. most of the major news headlines focusing on this couple of -- cover up angle. focusing on what the white house said was the white house acting to conceal the actions of the president. complaint describes white house effort to lock down the efforts of trump's call with president zelinski. the new york times put various aspects of the whistleblower's complaint on their front page, including this graphic that got

so much attention, the whistleblower saying i learned from multiple officials that white house officials intervene to lock down all records of the phone call, especially the word for word phone call of the trade -- transcript of the phone call. another revelation from that complaint, the whistleblower acknowledging he -- and we know from the latest reporting -- seems to indicate he was not actually a witness to most of the events described. you can see it for yourself available at the intelligence committee's website. that revelation led to a lot of questions by republican members about the credibility of the whistleblower and in one exchange with dni, joseph maguire, the chairman of the tomittee, asked mr. maguire weigh in on this credibility issue. [video clip] >> you don't believe the

whistleblower is a political hack, do you? >> i believe the whistleblower is operating in good faith. >> they could not be in good faith if they were acting as a political hack, could they? >> my chairman -- my job is to support and lead the intelligence community. that individual works for me. therefore it is my job to make sure i support and defend that person. toyou don't have any reason suggest they are beholden to some other country? >> absolutely not. i believe the whistleblower followed steps every step of the way. was one in this situation involving the president of the united states -- matters under my supervision did not meet the criteria for urgent concern. i think the whistleblower did the right thing. i think he followed the law every step of the way. >> then why when the president

called the whistleblower a political hack, why did you remain silent? >> i did not remain silent, mr. chairman. i issued a statement to my workforce committing my commitment to the whistleblower protection and ensuring i would provide protection to anyone within the intelligence community who comes forward. the way this was playing out, i did not think it was appropriate for me to make a press statement so that we counter each other every step of the way. >> there is nothing that would have given more confidence to the workforce than hearing you publicly say no one should be calling this professional who did the right thing a hack or trader or anything else. host: president trump has not shied away from this issue all week long. he is up and tweeting about congressman adam schiff, calling him little adam schiff and talking about the dishonest lame

stream media, that was the president about a minute ago --ing the low rating cnn small but never ending situation with cnn, here is what the president had to say yesterday about the whistleblower complaint. [video clip] >> i just watched a little bit of this on television, it is a disgrace to our country. another witchhunt, here we go again. adam schiff and his crew making up stories. really a disgrace, a terrible thing for our country. theycannot do any work, are frozen, they are going to lose the election, that is why they are doing it and it should never be allowed what has happened to this president and this fight, i think i have done more than any president in his

first 2.5 years in office. a very few could compete with what we have done. we have the best economy anywhere in the world by far. we have rebuilt our military, done so many things that are so incredible with tax cuts and regulations and i have to put up with adam schiff on an absolutely perfect phone call to the new president of ukraine. that was a perfect call. host: that was president trump yesterday on his way back from washington to new york. we are talking about the story that dominated the week in news. phone lines split by party. democrats, 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. joe is up first from summit, new jersey. independent, good morning. caller: i want to talk about why

like democrats stop being spoiled brats. they are complaining about this and that and get nothing done. they call the president a they and everything. he is not a bigot. they keep calling him a racist. send themse he said back home. how do you know where he was going to send them back home? he was talking about going to their states. host: this is julio, maryland, a democrat. caller: thank you for taking my call. i just want to say it is unfortunate what is happening michael flynn and

all this russia stuff, the president has got to know something. he is the commander in chief. everybody around, it has been too much turbulent water around it.and he did nothing about unfortunately, it is hard to trust the president, he lied so much and i command my american fellows, let's do the best for the country. let's put party aside and focus on what is best for our country. let's pray for a brighter future and see what is going on. host: luis is next, colorado springs. republican, good morning. caller: good morning. print out about what

you guys put online about the phone call and i listened to the adamng this morning and schiff was like something out of hollywood. he wrote up some kind of parity and it is just a bunch of lies. he wants to bury us in the facts. host: where do you think he should have asked questions -- what were the right questions he should have been asking? caller: i would say did they it is alle -- hearsay, so did they investigate and talk to the so-called people that heard all this stuff initially? that is where i would want them to start. john solomon wrote a thorough piece on the hill which was put

out. , honest,ell-known investigative reporter and he investigated all of this and he investigates before he speaks and he said there is nothing to this, so people can read that online. there was a treaty signed by bill clinton when he was back in office that basically says ukraine and the united states will cooperate and investigate any kind of crimes on either country. i don't know if you know that or not, but president trump hasn't .one nothing wrong i think the democrats didn't think he would release the transcript, is what i think. host: that column by john solomon, this is the latest one from yesterday, these secret memos cast doubt on joe biden's

ukraine story published by the hill. jim, chicago, independent. you are next. caller: good morning to you. donald trump has no one to blame but himself. he is the one who made the phone call to the president of ukraine even though he was told not to and he was the one trying to manipulate and pressure the president of ukraine to get information on joe biden. democrats had nothing to do with that. he is the one that made the phone calls and why is he withholding money from ukraine until they got the information regarding joe biden? it was donald trump that caused all these problems for himself. without the phone call or the transcript, nothing would have happened. blame himself, not the democrats. host: carl out of chicago,

democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you doing sir? host: i am doing well. caller: i want to echo a bit the last caller. most of the stuff donald trump does is not the media or .emocrats making noise this is sort of overdue. i've noticed this the last few days, republicans calling in, they have no defense of what he is doing. the ones that called this morning, they are saying he --itted he made the call they were asking for something and i am from chicago. i hope people remember back when therecame into office, was a case where our formal --

former governor was impeached, prosecuted. he said 7 years into his who ice right now asking am going to give his seat to in the senate. republican said there was quid pro quo and bribery. this is no different than that. they cannot defend what he said. they talk about everything else do.pt what they always they are going to talk about the witness, democrats, the media, and all the stuff trump spins that they buy into, but they are not going to answer the question since he has been trying to collude with a foreign avernment to get dirt on

foreign rival as president of the united states. host: coming up on seven: for dean, here is where we are on the washington journal. it will be a shorter show because the house is coming in at 9:00 a.m. -- when the house doesn't come in, so a two hour program and we will be joined by two members of congress in about 15 minutes, we will be joined by james comer, a member of the house oversight and reform committee and about 8:30 eastern, we will be joined by ted lieu, member of the judiciary committee, so stick around for those discussions and get your calls in during those segments. we mentioned a little bit ago we now see reporting the whistleblower is a he. the new york times leading the way with some of the reporting about the details of who this is. this got a lot of attention

yesterday. a cia officer detailed to the white house. they say people familiar with the matter. the officer first shared information about potential abuse of power and white house cover-up during an anonymous process. the lawyer shared concerns with the white house and justice department officials following policy around the same time the officer separately filed the whistleblower complaint, which .as gotten so much attention, lawyers refused to confirm he worked for the cia and said publishing information about him was dangerous. some tweets and comments about that, jeff bennett writing about the response from one of those lawyers, here is the quote. publishing details about the whistleblower will only lead to

identification of someone weather our client or the wrong person, this will place this individual in a much more dangerous situation. that topic taken up by a member of usa today's board of contributors and his column in today.ed section of usa he notes the new york times reporting and says this is a problem because there are people who want to do harm to this whistleblower and his colleagues. prominent among them is the president of the united states who has already said he would like to know the identities of those who place them in jeopardy. made public by the president yesterday -- those comments first reported in an audio transcript by the l.a. times, here is that audio reporting the l.a. times put

online. [video clip] >> basically that person never saw the report, never saw the call, heard something and decided -- i want up -- i want to know the person who gave the whistleblower -- who is the person who gave the whistleblower information? that is close to a spy. we used to do in the old days when we were smart, with spies and treason -- we used to handle them a little bit differently to them. host: that is the new york times with president trump speaking at that private event with members of the u.s. diplomatic corps. the person who provided that audio recording attended the event -- the event was arranged so the president could think the u.s. ambassador to the united nations, kelly kraft and her 4aff as he wound up the --

games of meeting. a lot of moving parts, we are trying to keep you on top of all of them. debbie in new york, you are next, independent. caller: how are you? host: doing well. caller: my comment is if this is thever-up where they moved transcript to another server or computer, it seems silly it would be a cover-up because he let the transcript out. i don't think this guy is a whistleblower. i feel more like he is a leaker hiding behind whistleblower protection. host: what is the difference between a leaker and a whistleblower? caller: i think your intention or motivation read i feel like most whistleblowers are tortured people. they have seen bad things and they have been asked to do

things they cannot reconcile with their conscience. this person seems more to me like a person who wanted to leak something to the press and did not want to get in trouble for that, so they are hiding behind being a whistleblower, you get a lawyer, you get everything, that is how i feel about it, i don't but -- that is crazy host: frank in ohio. readr: my comment is i that transcript and i don't see where anywhere in that transcript the president is asking for a favor. i believe he is more into the corruption in the past and if son was so innocent, how

ine mr. biden shut down that -- that investigation. i don't see anywhere in the transcript where the president said he was going to withhold money from the ukraine. the way adam schiff and democrats treated that man disgrace. it was a democrats came out looking like idiots. host: to a question posed by usa they's editorial board, if ukraine call was perfect, and you say you did not see anything wrong with it, why try to bury it? there was this effort to immediately cover it up and send it to a more secure server. host: how do we know that is true? caller: it is all secondhand information. i looked at that whistleblower complaint and to me, it is too

perfect. 9 pages, dates, times, everything precise. it almost seems like there was a team of writers coming up with this and like the last caller, to me, a whistleblower would have firsthand knowledge. this guy had a second, third, even fourth hand knowledge. to me, it doesn't make sense. host: david and washington, d.c., a democrat. good morning. caller: why should somebody hold information and don't let them know what is going on just because you are going to go to ukraine? host: what do you mean by that, david? caller: i should not have to go countryne or any other

for protection, yeah, but go and say get dirt on somebody else, no, that is supposed to be inside the country, in your own place. host: you are saying president trump should not have been talking about joe biden or his son at all? caller: thank you. not over there, over here and then send somebody to investigate. host: who are you referring to, david? caller: president trump should to ukraine to say on the help, dirt elections and before the time

money to't get the them that is supposedly directed to them and then he is holding back. host: one of the other key players in this story has been the president's personal lawyer, mentioned by president trump in the memo released by the white ande about that phone call referred to several times by the whistleblower. giuliani in the front page of the washington times today says he is coming to the rescue in the ukraine case. giuliani becoming one of the prime culprits for democrats seeking president trump's impeachment, but giuliani saying he is the hero of the story saying "it is impossible the whistleblower is a hero and i am not. that was his to giuliani talking to the atlantic magazine.

"i will be the hero. these morand's, when this is over, i will be the hero. rudy giuliani coming up in the intelligence committee hearing yesterday. this is one of the exchanges. this is congressman mike quigley talking to mcguire about rudy giuliani. [video clip] >> what is your understanding right now of what mr. giuliani's role is? >> congressman quigley, i respectfully refer to the white house and to comment on the president's personal lawyer. >> you see that he is his personal lawyer. we read in the complaint and this modified transcript, he has your reactionmes to the fact this civilian has played this role. sir it i am just saying i

know what the allegations are. i am not saying the allegations are true. >> i don't think there is any question the credibility of the complaint. the mentioned -- the president mentions and speaks highly of mayor giuliani. i would like him to call you. i will ask him to call you along with the attorney general. in the complaint it talks about our national security. the inspector general talks about this as the highest responsibility among those that the dni has an obviously is to giuliani is playing this role. does he have security care -- security clearance? >> i am neither aware or unaware other this to giuliani has a security clearance. >> before this happened, were you aware of his role or understanding what his role was doing what you do?

of what mr.nowledge giuliani does, i have to be honest with you, i get from tv and the news media. i am not aware of what he does for the president. >> are you aware of any communication between mr. giuliani and your office about how he should proceed with this role given the classified nature, national security matters in the transcript and the role he is playing? >> i have read the transcripts as you have, so my knowledge of his activity is limited to the conversation the president had with the president of ukraine. host: dni director mcguire talking to mike quigley yesterday in the house intelligence committee hearing. you can watch it in its entirety on our website. about five minutes left in this segment to get your comments,

but we will be talking about this story all morning long. one other story did want to make you aware of is what is happening with funding for the federal government. the senate passing that funding bill that would avert an end of .onth government shut down it will keep the government running through november 21 as we talked about last week, the democratic led house passed it last week. mr. schumer said the easy part is passing the stopgap bill known as a continuing resolution, but the hard part will be passing the full year spending bills for fiscal 2020, starting october 1. they have this gap period to craft the rest of those funding bills. richard shelby said if democrats cannot work out a deal with the president on border security,

congress might have to pass a full year continuing resolution that would essentially keep funding at its current levels through next september saying that is not the outcome he is hoping for. that is what is going on with government funding. we want to hear from you about the story of the week we have been talking about and patty has been waiting in connecticut, independent, good morning. caller: good morning. are you there? host: yes, ma'am. caller: i called up because the whistleblower from the cia, i think it is a plant from brennan . they are going to try and accuse barr because he works with trump. if i remember correctly, fast and furious, eric holder stuck up for obama, fought with him, and was held in contempt.

what do you call that? if they have not put up a pole, who committed the biggest crime, to or trump, i am sure biden will lose. we have three senators who polluted with ukraine going over there trying to get dirt and one of my senators here in connecticut, murphy, another one trying to get dirt on trump. where is the justice? this whistleblower had thirdhand knowledge. it is hearsay. if you were in court, they would throw it out. host: a few tweets and texts from our text line. mickey from wisconsin saying watergate was not so much about the crime, but rather the cover-up. a tweet from middleton saying no one is wondering why is the president taking the lead of the so-called corrupted discussion.

what do we have intelligence agencies for? if trump was not wanting the dirt, why else would he be the lead? maggie saying god bless one of our earlier collars, but she needs to open her eyes. nixon had the same supporters in the facts came out and he went down. get off the burning ship. a few comments from those watching along and sending tweets and texts. lynn from texas, you are next, a republican. toler: i am just listening all of these people and it seems all you have to do to get anything started against trump is say something, anything and the media and the democrats will just run right through. nobody is supposed to know what was on that call. that is the only way our governments have of speaking to

each other and keeping the world safe and here you have some yahoo going around asking everybody what is going on and everybody telling the yahoo anything is just as guilty as he is and he wants to keep who he a a secret and call himself whistleblower, a tattletale is more like it and you are supposed to grow out of that when you are a kid. these democrats, i am fed up with it. for themot vote anymore. i will give you an old southern lady saying, "less their hearts." host: what makes the difference between a tattletale and whistleblower? caller: a tattletale usually tells the truth. host: our last call in this segment. if you are waiting on the lines and did not get in, stay on the lines because we will stay with

this topic all morning long and we will be joined by two members of congress over the next hour and a half. first up, we will be joined by james comer, member of the house oversight and reform committee and later, ted lieu of california, member of the judiciary committee. we will be right back. ♪ matterer: the black box book party.ter at the end of the day, those founding fathers never realized

they would be questioning bill bush, barackge obama, and never imagined donald trump would be there either. i stand on the pillars the founding fathers put in place. my story is your story. >> andrew pollock, the founder of the -- the father of the student killed in parkland florida offers his thoughts on school safety and guns in his book, why met a died. why was going to find out my daughter got killed and it was all these leniency programs of these kids like they had the first kid before school. he was not allowed in with a backpack. he threatened to shoot the school and was not arrested. >> sunday at 9:00 eastern on afterwards in his book, the years that matter most, paul

tough reports on the challenges and costs of a challenge edge of -- college education. he is interviewed by the hope center -- the founder of the hope center for community and justice. >> we are still debating about weather a 12 grade education is enough. it is obviously not enough. all the signs are that it is not enough. predecessors able to respond to those basic we are fighting about it and turning it into questions of identity and snobbery and politics and partisanship when clearly there is a sign our young people need our support, need our help, need more credentials and skills in order to prove -- survive in the current economy. >> watch book tv every weekend on c-span 2. "washington journal" continues.

host: kentucky republican james comer joins us. he is a member of the house oversight committee. after speaker pelosi announced her impeachment inquiry, you called it a political stunt. has anything that has come out over the last 48 hours changed your mind about that assessment? guest: not really. i think speaker pelosi overreacted. and on pete -- impeachment inquiry is unprecedented. to call for one without having a transcript of the call, hearing from the whistleblower, that is a rush to judgment and i think it is a disgrace to the constitution. host: what was your reading of the conversation? did you think what was said was perfect and appropriate? guest: this is donald trump we are talking about and he is not politically correct and he does things outside the box.

i did not see anything wrong. the president asked about a potential act of corruption between the biden family and a -- itially you corrupt think the president had every right to ask that question and democrats say that his collusion with ukraine, we have heard this conversation before with collusion with russia. if the democrats had not already cried wolf so many times with respect to president trump in the past, i think this complaint might have more credibility with me. until i say something that strikes me as impeachable, i am going to consider this another -- took off her call -- tout -- took

call for inquiry without anything pertaining to the campaign and michael cohen, this is a new thing that popped up. host: a question asked by usa they's editorial board, if ukraine was perfect, as the president said, why try to bury it? that is a good question. i think that is something the oversight committee or judiciary committee should ask. i think that is fair game, but does it warrant a full-blown impeachment inquiry? at this point, i don't think so. let's take the fact she officially called for impeachment inquiry. in my mind, nothing has changed. for the past year and a half, every committee has been trying to investigate president trump for a menu of different

crimes.l i don't crimes. i don't think they found anything. host: take us to the house oversight committee. what is on the menu? what are your thoughts on that investigation? guest: the menu changes every day. it is a daily special with democrats and the chairman of the committee. the committee is supposed to look at waste, fraud, and abuse in government. that is something i am passionate about. quote become -- i hate to the president, but it has become a witchhunt. likeyou bring people michael cohen before the committee right before they go to jail for lying to congress, that hurts your credibility a little bit. theink there are things oversight committee can look into. host: such as what?

guest: my question is what role is rudy giuliani playing? i think that is a legitimate question. role was the biden family playing in all of this? why was hunter biden getting plate -- getting paid by ukraine? ethics rules are clear that family members -- or anyone is supposed lobby of foreign agent you have a severe conflict of interest. i know democrats are quick to always point out potential conflict of interest with members of the government staying at the trump hotel. what about the son of the vice president getting paid by a ukrainian oligarch to do who knows what at a time when relations with the united states and ukraine are somewhat contentious? i think there are a lot of questions that can be asked in

oversight. democrats have a right to ask questions about president trump, but i think republicans have a lot of questions. a jim jordan and mark meadows and myself are going to have a lot of questions pertaining to the biden thing. the president has a right to ask about corruption in his own country and i don't see anything wrong with that. host: to circle back on the first question, are you concerned rudy giuliani overstepped his role and -- or should have not had a role at all? guest: i don't know. my question is what role did rudy giuliani have? serious,t be anything but to me, of everything i have read about the transcript, the two things that stand out in my mind our what was rudy giuliani's role? and why was biden getting paid by ukraine? at the end of the day, the potential for this to backfire on democrats again is pretty high.

just like the mueller report, democrats went all in on the mueller report and it was by all accounts, a dud and then they thought we will give mueller an opportunity to come before congress and go into greater detail and it was a dud. the democrats clearly want to impeach president trump. this has been their goal from day 1. in my mind and in the minds of most kentuckians, there have been no impeachable offenses committed. host: congressman james comer with us until 8:00 a.m. the house scheduled to be in at 9:00 a.m. our phone lines are open for you to call in and give us questions and comments. democrats, 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. scott, seattle, washington, independent. thanks for hanging around since our last segment. caller: where do i begin now?

i have been hanging on here for hours. politics is one thing and life is another, apparently. the only trouble you ever hear about in life comes from politicians. what about this right we have? can't we assemble as a militia, pick up arms and get rid of rogue governments like the entire 116th congress? think about it because we are thinking about it. host: are you saying you are thinking about taking up arms against the government? caller: no. host: what are you saying? caller: we have the right to abolish any branch of government we feel is being abusive or not operating with our consent. do you understand that? host: i will let you jump in.

americans will have a right and have the thisty to judge weather instance or any of the previous instances with respect to the mueller report or the president's personal life, voters will have an opportunity to get rid of donald trump in one year and my mind -- and in my mind, to start and impeachment inquiry when we are clearly in a reelection cycle, becausemewhat confusing if they are confident that donald trump is a terrible president, if they are confident he is a corrupt president, they have the right to make that case over the next 12 months with who ever their nominee is. i think it is going to be elizabeth warren. most people in washington i talked to think the president will be reelected and last -- unless democrats impeach him.

i don't think there is any need to overthrow the government or anything, but i believe the people have the right to overthrow the president in one year. they have a right to overthrow congress and we will see what happens. i think with the president's legislative accomplishments with the strong economy and with the socialist nature the democrat candidates for president have seemed to embrace, i think donald trump will be reelected unless they can find a silver bullet to impeach him and i don't see anything that happened this week that would relate to that silver bullet. host: dallas, texas, hermann, democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you doing? host: doing well. caller: my comment is whenever inald trump is in trouble and have watched you or a morning show or whatever, his defenders

defend him -- they do the same thing, defend and attack. weather it is senators or -- whether it is senators or representatives or callers, defend and attack. -- he feels invincible, so he keeps crossing lines. that is the frustrating thing and then they come back on and when he is in trouble again, they defend and attack. host: what is the line you are most worried about? where has he crossed the line and which one concerns you the most? caller: he crossed the line as a started hisust campaign with russians and making deals and stuff that he should not have been making and throughout his presidency. host: what deal do you think you think he should not have made?

he should not had the people that have had the people russiason's office from talking about making the deal and he should not have had the call that we are talking about now, this recent thing that has caused -- allowed -- guest: i think that is symbolic of the democrat's mindset. they don't like the president. they don't know that he has done anything criminally wrong. they don't have evidence of

impeachable offenses, they want to get rid of him. i go back to when republicans were in control of the house and barack obama was president. disliked obama as much as the democrat base dislikes president trump. never at one time did republicans in congress try to call for an impeachment inquiry. what republicans tried to do was beat obama at the ballot box and obama won reelection. republicans continued in a constitutional way, to challenge obama's policy and initiatives, but never once did they abuse the power of the office by trying to call for an impeachment inquiry. i think it is unfortunate we are here talking about impeachment officially. we have talked about impeachment for the last two years. now it has been called and i

think democrats really don't have anything to impeach him for. host: phone lines split as usual. democrats, 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. a reminder, the house coming in at 9:00 a.m. today, so we will be ending our show then and take you there for gavel-to-gavel coverage. frank in florida, republican, you are next. caller: good morning. thank you very much. c-span replaythe last night of the hearing and i noticed the chairman of the keptttee, mr. schiff, he mentioning a manufactured -- manufacture dirt, that was the objective of president trump and i thought that was rather

prejudicial. i thought the committee should be finding the truth and justice, not to have already made up their mind that it is a manufactured thing, which is not true. biden did in the ukraine was obstruction of justice. with theonversation president of ukraine is about reopening the case and trying to not the truth and justice, about anything manufactured. this all went back to 2016 and they charged the mueller investigation, exonerated collusiontrump of any with the russians, but what biden did in 2016 has not been

resolved. host: that is frank this morning. guest: he mentioned adam schiff. i think adam schiff is the least credible member of congress. he had a bad run as chairman of the house intelligence committee . if you go back, he had evidence -- 100% proof that donald trump colluded with russia and he never produced it. it was made up. that is a severe loss of leadership.to his i take what adam schiff says with a grain of salt. host: how do you feel about your chairman? elijah cummings? guest: i think elijah cummings is a good person. i think you wants to do the right thing. i think nancy pelosi deep down wants to do the right thing. the problem is these new

progressives are pulling them so far to the left, they can't stop them and the new progressives are getting so much media coverage, they are enjoying so much popularity from the base that they have caused pelosi and cummings to do irrational things. if you look at their career, they never would have done before. i have never agreed with anything policy wise pelosi has done or elijah cummings has done, but at the end of the day, whatare way over bound in they have a right -- a constitutional right as a member of congress to say about president trump and took call for. we can have hearings, i am all about having hearings. until you get more evidence, until you know who the whistleblower was, what their motives were, is that whistleblower, in fact credible? i cannot imagine calling for an

impeachment inquiry. host: brenda in south carolina, democrat, good morning. caller: i have one question i would like to ask the .ongressman i feel like everyone has heard the tape. i saw the hearing yesterday and every time something comes up that donald trump does wrong, it is the democrats, it is the democrats, it is the democrats. biden.obama, biden, the situation with biden and his and was explained over over, but they take soundbites that don't tell the whole story. asfar as the president, it is not democrats not liking the president, it is the stuff he does. he shoots himself in the foot all the time. one day after the mueller report, he goes and makes a deal to make -- get dirt on another

opponent. we are tired of him doing things he think he can get away with because republicans don't hold him accountable. the: the basis -- guest: basis of this impeachment inquiry was the president was trying to get dirt on joe biden. democrats have been obsessed trying to get dirt on donald trump the past year. that is a hypocritical thing to say. host: what democrats are saying yesterday was he was using the powers of the presidency to do that. guest: the president asked his ukrainian counterpart -- you might have looked into see if there is anything corrupt that took place with the former vice and a corruptn ukrainian oligarch and his company. i think the president has every right to ask that. i want the president to ask that

to a country we give foreign aid to. not theresident is correct person to ask about that potential corruption or conflict of interest, who is? theave a real problem with intelligence communities right now. for whatever reason, i think there is a bad disconnect between the president, his administration, and the intelligence community. i know both sides have said a lot of bad things, not just james comey and klapper, but a lot of employees come on television, fox, cnn, msnbc constantly criticizing the president. to me, that is a serious problem. host: who is? responsible for that problem? guest: i don't know who is responsible for that, but i can

understand president trump's distrust because in his eyes and my eyes, there was no reason to launch the russia investigation to begin with. if we are going to investigate more things on president trump, i would like to investigate what was the genesis of the russia investigation? was it the steele dossier? democrat opposition research firm trying to dig up dirt on trump. the same thing the caller said with trump on biden. not many people in washington in the republican have ever thought biden would be the democrat nominee. we always thought it would be elizabeth warren, kamala harris, maybe even bernie sanders. had the right, in my mind, to ask his ukrainian counterpart about potential corruption between the united states and the ukraine. says frank in long island democrats are putting our intelligence agency in grave

danger. they are weakening the office in its effort to discuss business and policy with foreign leaders. most democratic talking points were hearsay and hypothetical scenarios they put forth. frank texting us. that number, 202-748-8003 is how you can send us a text or give us a call like mary in louisiana. republican, go ahead. caller: let me wrap this up in a neat package for you. the democrats hate donald trump because donald trump stands up and fights back. the democrats are used to doing anything and saying anything and have branded republicans as racist. they would rather them rollover and take it because they know most people that vote democrat are not going to read and go through history and find out the

truth about democrats. and another thing, they tell children working in the white house getting paid. they are not getting paid. donald trump does not take his pay. they say he has to take, he donates that to charity. guest: what do you think about mary? i like her attitude. the thing i will say with respect to this investigation and i think she alluded to that is they have called for so many investigations on the president. how many times can you cry wolf? it just seems they built up so much hope among their base that the mueller report would be the silver bullet that would lead to impeachment and when that came out and the testimony was such a dud, i think they have thrown another hail mary with respect

to this ukrainian phone call. ukrainian phone call is public record. everyone i have consulted with don't see a problem with it. thecan argue, was it perfect call between the united states and ukraine, probably not. they wanted someone outside the box to disrupt washington, d.c. and drain the swamp and that is what they have. he asked a question about corruption. i think he has every right to do that. host: lisa in massachusetts, independent. good morning. good morning. i watched the hearings yesterday and i have to say we have all worked for people we don't like and we still do our jobs. watching that hearing yesterday, how they treated the acting dni yesterday was appalling. as it relates to trump in this entire 2.5 years, almost three

years, this is nothing short of workplace harassment. if this was us working in our normal life and business, any organization, this is blatant workforce harassment. a president for no other reason then to drain the swamp. he has done nothing but try to do that. at every turn, it seems like there is some sort of roadblock, some sort of undermining of his vision, which we elected him for, just like our private bosses. you don't like them, they have a vision, they have a mission, that is their course of action. guest: i agree with what she said. america is 50-50 and it was like that under obama. 50% of the american citizenry liked obama, 50% did not. it is the same with trump.

half the people in america like him and half the people don't. the republicans never tried to impeach obama. we tried to defeat him at the ballot box and if people don't like donald trump, if they don't like his style, if they are embarrassed by how he represents the united states on the foreign stage, they will have a right soon to get rid of him and if they don't like how republicans in congress react to the baseless claimshave a right to y soon as well. host: are you holding a town hall in the next two weeks? guest: i will have one in kentucky. everywhere i speak in southern kentucky, we open it up for questions. host: how you think this story plays in the first congressional district of kentucky? guest: 75% of the people will have the same attitude last caller had. they asked me why won't the

democrats let donald trump lead. why do i have to call for impeachment every day. why don't they just leave him alone and let him do what he said he would do. enjoys hight popularity in my congressional district but there are a few don't like him and they really don't like him, just like all across the united states. trump district in kentucky. host: come back again sometime after recess to chat with us. up next, more of your phone calls, stay on the line and we will get to you in the upcoming segment. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. .ndependents, (202) 748-8002 we will be right back. >> this weekend on american

history tv, saturday at 2:00 p.m. eastern, historians talk about the lessons learned from the reconstruction. after the civil war. >> the concept of whiteness before the civil war was a barrier of inclusion. whiteness was used to exclude others. in the civil rights act, whiteness becomes a baseline. if white people enjoy certain legal rights, everyone else has to enjoy those rights come also. >> at 8:00, the deindustrialization of the united states in the 1970's and 1980's. sunday at 2:00 p.m. eastern, the psychological impact of flying on war pilots. >> there were cameras all over the place. no idea how i have long it is been on me. i did not say anything about it.

we did not know the term sexual harassment or hostile workforce. there are two different ways to think about that. -- it is harassing and uncomfortable. the other way to think of it is, let them look and let them know, but everyone who is not in this damn room know, there is a woman here, i am here, get used to it. onexplore addition's passed -- explore our nation's passed on american history tv. >> washington journal continues. host: time for more of your phone calls this morning on the washington journal, a day after the acting director of national intelligence went before the national intelligence committee to talk about the handling of this whistleblower complaint at the heart of this ukraine phone

call story. more from yesterday's hearing, here is the ranking member and his opening statement yesterday. [video clip] >> what other information has come to light since the original falsely part of a promise being made? >> we have learned the complaint relied upon hearsay evidence provided by the whistleblower. the inspector general did not know the contents of the phone call at issue. the inspector general found whistleblower displayed political bias against trump. the department of justice investigated the complaint and concluded no action was warranted. again, this supposedly scandal ends up being nothing like what we were told and once again the democrats, the media arehpieces and leakers ginning up a fake story with no

regard to the monumental damage they are causing to our public institutions and to trust in government and without acknowledging the false stories they have propagated in the past, including that trump colluded with russia to hack the 2016 election. we are supposed to forget about all of those stories but believe this one. in short, what we have with this storyline is another steele dossier. in the democrats attempt to overturn the 2016 election, everything they touch gets a politicized. with the russia hoax, intelligence agencies were turned into a political weapon to attack the president. whistleblower process is the casualty. host: house intelligence committee ranking member nunes.

the entire hearing in its entirety is on c-span.org. house speaker nancy pelosi announced the impeachment inquiry would begin and the current investigations ongoing in several committees would fall under the umbrella of an impeachment inquiry. yesterday on capitol hill, she seemed to indicate the potential articles of impeachment would focus on specifically this ukraine phone call. this was nancy pelosi yesterday. [video clip] >> have you decided the inquiry would be focused to ukraine and what the committees are directed to focus on? inquiry in thee caucus's that our focus now is on this allegation. we are seeing evidence of it and the president thanks this is

thinksory, the president this proves his innocence. it goes to show how he does not understand right from wrong. it is not about -- this is the focus of the moment because this is the charge. contempt of congress by him. those things will be considered later but right now we are in the inquiring stage. let's not make any conclusions about articles of impeachment. we have to get the facts. host: speaker nancy pelosi on capitol hill yesterday. democrats, as usual, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001.

.ndependents, (202) 748-8002 the line for text messages, (202) 748-8003. saidin annandale, virginia we will finally get the democratic accusers to testify under oath, the hoax would be exposed to all. another text message, steve saying donald trump wonders how a government drowning in obvious corruption, he is the only target. i always wonder that myself. one more from new hampshire, if the economy goes down from this impeachment inquiry, the american voters can thank the democrats at the polls in 2020. getting your phone calls, as well. georgia, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning. i listen to you every morning. i watch the news, i saw the hearing yesterday, i read the

letter. in aboutis calling stuff you are not even talking about this morning. what i had to say was very short. he released a letter. he held up the money and then he said, we need a favor from you. i need a favor from you. and then he goes into joe biden. he was not talking about policy. he was not talking about anything to do with the u.s. government. why would he send a private citizen to negotiate with another country? , asking another country to help you with an election is illegal and he is already said if somebody brought me something, i might look at it. and then i might send it over to the fbi.

they have already said is a foreign country offers to help you with an election, you should report it to the fbi and he did not do it. and then he put william barr in there. host: in your mind, do you think the case is pretty clear-cut? caller: yes, he did it himself. he said i asked him for a favor. the money had already been appropriated he held up the money and then he tells the man he wants a favor from him. that is not right. host: frank is in new york, republican, good morning. caller: good morning, how are you today? host: i am doing well. caller: this has to stop. the house democrats ran on health care and rx reform and debt crisis, none of that is being done. this is ridiculous.

if something is going to happen, they say they can walk and chew gum but when will they start walking? none of these bills are being put up to even be looked at and all we hear is about impeachment inquiries. if you are going to impeach, impeach, otherwise let's move on and get stuff done. host: maryland, democrat, you are next. caller: i was hoping to get on when the representative was on air but he said several things that were not correct. the impeachment inquiry it came because the whistleblower decision or report did not go through the proper channels. iat was the first time, when saw the hearing yesterday, that was the first time that was ever done. there is a certain law, it shall be done that way and the trump administration did it a different way. he did not agree to release the

information until the impeachment inquiry. that was the purpose for that. i would like to get information on biden correct. the difference with rob is if he wanted it he should have gone inside the united states. he went to a different country. they probably would have told him he could not do it. asking whyblicans people are coming after trump. i don't like him but that is not the problem. he keeps doing stuff and they keep covering it up. if they keep covering it up he will keep doing it because he knows he can get away with it. to me, he is in the news all the time because he is tweeting all the time. i would love for them not to cover his tweets. if he does not want to be in the news, tell him not to tweet. i don't think he can go one day

without tweeting. i am tired of reading about the tweets. saw aeminds me of if we criminal drug dealer there are complaints about the police continuing to come after him, there is a way to stop it -- stop doing stuff. obama did not do anything that was impeachable. you did not see obama doing stuff and still the republicans wanted to make sure nothing he put through got passed --. -- host: the president has five tweets so far today, three of them focusing on adam schiff, the chairman of the house intelligence committee, including his actions yesterday at that high-profile hearing.

-- next in injury maryland, republican. caller: hello, how are you. host: good, go ahead. caller: you mentioned adam schiff, i think that when committee members are holding a session that they should be under oath and it would take the political theater and division of this country out of this nasty political game. this is just crazy. they are holding anything up from getting done, obstructing and dividing for the best of political power and retaining it for the next election cycle. minutes before the house comes in for the day. on these will vote senate passed joint resolution to terminate the president's border national emergency

declaration. he used that to move funding toward his border wall project. the senate passing that resolution to terminate the border emergency declaration earlier this week, though it is house and senate have the numbers to overturn a veto by the president. we will see what happens with that in the coming days after this house a vote. also today, house minority leader kevin mccarthy will offer another resolution to disapprove of the actions of speaker nancy pelosi when it comes to the initiation of this impeachment inquiry. the house voted on this on wednesday, they voted to table the resolution by the minority leader. vote along2-193 party lines as you would guess.

action all beginning on the house floor starting yet 9:00 a.m. eastern. we will take you there live in the house gavel sin. fred in california, you are next. caller: if the democrats were actually realistic about everything going on with the whistleblower, my question is why wouldn't they turn around who is givingt first-hand information and put them up to ask questions to them? host: there has been efforts to move in that direction in the past 24 hours. some sank this whistleblower complaint is a roadmap for future investigations. do you expect to see some of these people in the coming months? caller: if the democrats want to know the truth, that is what

they would have to do. they are not getting the truth out of secondhand and thirdhand information. independent but i have trump i am leaning toward in 2020. host: did you vote for him in 2016? caller: yes, i did. host: beverly in north carolina, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning, how are you? i listen to these people calling in and i listened to the congressman who talked and i wonder, have any of them glanced at the constitution of the united states? it is ridiculous, these things they are saying. this man took an oath to honor and protect the constitution and since he took it he has been constantly deleting it.

they are upset saying this happened a few days ago, it happened months ago. as i have said before to a lot of friends of mine, why did this man who was on yesterday, why didn't he simply say he took it to the wrong people? murders to find out what kind of merger it was. everything needs to be investigated when it comes to this president. his abuse of power has been so blatant. noticed it has been corrupted. he obeys no rules. he put his hand on the bible and swore to obey and protect he should have been gone a long time ago. host: do you think president trump could win the 2020

election? caller: excuse me? host: do you think president trump could win the election in 2020? caller: no. host: do you think impeachment would help or hurt him? convicted byn't be the senate, no president -- the other two, johnson and clinton -- not of them were. host: what does that mean for 2020? caller: he will not be elected again. simple as that.

>> he has made promises about the wall that it would not cost the american people, that was a lie. florida to people in

when the school was shot up, he was going to do something. nothing was done. say that thentists world is changing, the weather is changing because of the pollution, he does not agree with them because he is the president and he knows so much more. the foreign country said they did not commit a crime, he says we will see. he believes them. when it comes to pollutant and -- when it comes to vladimir putin and he said he did not do anything wrong and our intelligence says he did, he believes him. he said he believes he could kill someone and people would

still vote for him. that is the way it seems to be. house minority leader kevin mccarthy was on capitol hill, laying out his defense of president trump. [video clip] >> is the president defensible in this case? >> yes. what in this case rises to impeachment? this is the president of the united states, who had a conversation with a leader in another country. never before has a president had to put forth their conversation. the reason he had to put forth his conversation, a whistleblower, who did not hear the conversation, does not have any primary source about anything else, had now he released it not just to the members of congress but the entire world. that just weakened national security for every president in the future. when you read the transcript,

tell me one thing in their that is impeachable. the speaker of the house moved for impeachment against the rules without having the full body vote for it without one bit of evidence. host: the minority leader of the house kevin mccarthy looking to get a resolution of disapproval passed in the house today for how nancy pelosi has moved forward with the process of impeachment inquiry. that is expected to go down on the house floor later today. week,e tried earlier this the effort was tabled by the -- they of the members democratic majority of members in the house of representatives. bethesda, maryland, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning. my statement is pretty clear. i am a conservative democrat.

i don't believe the president will be impeached but i believe he has things wrong. that there is nobody on the others of the aisle other than romney and some other standup republicans that will admit he is doing things wrong -- this situation is completely, it is completely wrong. the fact they are saying you should be able to do this, it sets up the next president and the one after that. if trump can do it, i can do it. i don't understand why they aren't saying this truly is wrong. you should not be able to do that. your response? host: i want to hear the responses of other colors, as well. -- i want to hear responses of the other callers, as well.

journal -- then new york post, the masked singer, who is the whistleblower? the daily news, tricky trump showing president nixon and president trump in a split screen. palm beach post, whistleblower alleges white house cover-up. in north carolina, republican, good morning. caller: good morning, how are you doing today? host: i am doing well. caller: a couple of comments, people are totally forgetting, there is nowhere in the conversation that mentions the 2020 election to start with. the other thing people are totally forgetting, when he -- is peopleavor

will read back, crowd strike was the beginning of the russia hoax. it was the one that took the dnc's servers, which the dnc would not let the fbi have -- for what reason i do not know. said,ly, with that being they don't want trump to get hold of those servers because that will show evidence against the democrats with the russia hoax that will set them up for failure like they have never seen before. that is why their heads are about to explode. thirdly, you have joe biden on camera saying you are not going -- that is alion quid pro quo if i have ever seen one. he is on camera bragging about it. if it is against the law and

legal to do something like that, where is everyone going against joe biden? ,bama did it with the russians saying i will have more flexibility after my election. where is hillary? asked for help from the russians and ukraine. independent,k, good morning. caller: good morning. there was no crime committed. but there has been impeachment since the beginning because they don't want trump. trillion on the military. if hillary clinton was the president, she would not have spent two cents. he wanted to build the wall, nancy pelosi said i would give him one dollar. they don't want to work with

this president because they don't want him spending the money where he is spending it. they want the border open. they want these people coming in for votes. they don't want to spend money on the military. we have aircraft that we are using parts from a graveyard. he rebuilt everything. this is because he is doing so well. they are not working together. one thing about nancy pelosi, pass the bill for the usmca because you are losing the union votes. i am a union man. the democrats are against the unions. allowing these people to come over the border and take our jobs. not passing this in protecting our jobs, they will feel it in the polls.

host: a couple callers ago mentioned met romney's comments about the trump-ukraine transcript, met romney calling it deeply troubling. here is how it played in the salt lake tribune, their -- ben mcadams who had held off on calls for impeachment and their interview with him on the issues of this week, the ukraine phone call saying ben mcadams statement saying the phone call summary released by the white house suggests the president was improperly using his influence with a foreign power to damage and appointed. he said we need to get all the facts on the table before deciding how to proceed. texas, a republican, good

morning. caller: good morning, sir. commentlike to make the , i am so darn tired of hearing all of this nonsense about trump. he has done so much positive ever since he made it into office and the democrats have tried to do nothing but throw dirt on him. my question is, what has happened to the hillary issues? we don't hear about those anymore. now we have the biden issues. everything they try to throw at donald trump, it is nonsense. they are just hurting the country, it is tearing us apart. if there is a whistleblower, produce the whistleblower. they are saying the whistleblower would be protected under the whistleblower act. produce these individuals. texas, wew tweets in

have been having this conversation. mark said whenever president trump puts america first he is called a white nationalists. sharon said the fact the inspector general found the whistleblower complaint urgent and credible puts even more guilt on the president. texas, how long will our government be paralyzed by the hatred of one man because they lost. i am not getting full measure from my congress. get to work and unite our country instead of continuing to divide us. bee in maryland asking would ok for democratic representatives to reach out to other countries to investigate donald trump? before half-hour left the house comes in and joining us next will be congressman ted

lieu, member of the house judiciary committee. we will be right back. ♪ >> sunday night on q&a, as the house launches a formal impeachment inquiry into president, hear from james banner, editor of the book presidential misconduct and a historian who worked on the report back in 1974 on the impeachment inquiry into president richard nixon. thought of the utility of a report like this and turned to his friend, a member of the yale faculty and asked him to be commander-in-chief of a project

for preparing such a report, which was unprecedented. asked three people to be his field generals and they identified and recruited about 12 historians to write one, two or three sketches of that many presidencies and i was chosen to be one. we had eight weeks to do it. , email.efore fax it was done by telephone and mail and we managed to do it in eight weeks. six weeks later, the president resigned. >> watch sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q and a. >> washington journal continues. host: we welcome back to our desk democratic congressman ted lieu of california.

you used to work as a prosecutor. the term quid pro quo has come up a lot this week. some of our viewers mentioned they had seen it the story about the ukraine phone call. can you explain what that is and how you prove that? prosecutor,former we don't look at individual items of evidence in isolation, we look at everything in context. in this case, donald trump halted military aid to ukraine that congress had approved because it would help our national security interests. one week later, donald trump calls the ukrainian leader and right after the leader raises the issue of military aid, trump requests a favor. one favor was to investigate biden. what a quid pro quo would mean, i am requesting you do me a favor and what is implied is if

you don't do this favor, you are not getting the money. host: what is this whistleblower complaint that was released yesterday, where is it leading you next in terms of who you want to talk to? guest: the whistleblower complaint was very detailed and what was -- the whistleblower complaint identified the call between donald trump and ukrainian leader, all of the elements and was verified by the transcript the white house put out. that put credibility towards the whistleblower complaint. the inspector general deemed the complaint urgent and credible and the whistleblower complaint lays out not justice call for trump essentially tries to get the ukrainian leader to investigate his political opponent, it alleges a massive cover-up. they put it into a different lockdown system for sensitive information related to national

security. this call did not have to do with security, it had to do with security. host: putting your prosecutor hat back on, does it weaken your case that the whistleblower acknowledges they were not a direct witness question mark nedler: it would have weake the case if the white house released its own transcript. ae whistleblower provides roadmap for congress to investigate. the house intel committee will track down all of the different witnesses. the administration can provide information if they have nothing to hide or american people can figure they are hiding a lot. host: what is the judiciary committee's role? judiciary had taken the role -- the lead when it came to the robert mueller investigation and other aspects.

what you do now? will lookuse intel into the investigation of ukrainian scandal. at some point they will conclude and send the information to judiciary and we will look at it. if necessary, we will hold a hearing for articles of impeachment. host: that is because articles of impeachment have to go through the judiciary committee? caller: if there were going to be articles of impeachment it would first come through the judiciary committee. host: do you think those articles will be narrowly focused on ukraine? caller: i don't know the answer to that. evidence andat the make a decision. liket to say impeachment, the power to declare war are two of the greatest powers. it has to be -- two of the

gravest powers. it has to be our last option. to make a decision based on our constitutional duties. host: do you have any sense on how long the process could take? something that might happen before the end of the year? caller: i believe if there would be articles of impeachment passe d, it would happen before the end of the year. host: congressman ted lieu taking your phone calls for the next 22 minutes. a republican, you are up first. are you with us? anita and severna park, maryland, a democrat, good morning. caller: hello. everyone keeps talking about biden calling for the firing of the prosecutor and how his son

is under investigation. as i understand it, it has spent an entire year senses -- sense his son had been under investigation before he called for the resignation of the prosecutor and he was not alone in that. there were several people in the european union calling fort. last may, ukraine said the bidens were cleared of wrongdoing. i don't understand why they keep picking on him. it is what they did with hillary. the republicans won't admit that the president was asking for interference in our election. guest: thank you for raising those points. people are entitled to their opinions but they are not entitled to their own facts and you are absolutely correct. the ukrainians came out and said hunter biden can't be held

responsible for acts of the company that occurred two years before he went on the board of the company. the ukrainians said they did an investigation and found nothing improper for hunter biden and joe biden. at the time, it was not just joe biden calling for the prosecutor to resign, it was the european union. many people said he needed to go because he was not doing what you need to do. there was no evidence there was any wrongdoing by the bidens, this is simply a political hit job. remind people. personhe is a corrupt who both biden and the european union wanted to be removed.

host: the washington post reporting on some of his comments. this is from a washington post story yesterday, he is also the former ukrainian prosecutor. he said from the perspective of ukrainian legislation, hunter biden did not violate anything. because biden was calling for him to be removed, it would put more light on this company that he was allegedly not investigating. it was going to be against biden's own self interest to do that. host: brian in michigan, independent, good morning. topic, i want to stay on but the representative said the

man was corrupt, you have no proof of that and you know that. some principles that are still involved in all of this, meaning ,obert mueller, shawn henry this is all heading back to uranium one. this is all heading back that way. you cannot sell your itched -- you cannot sell enriched uranium. uraniumot sell enriched and turnaround a few years later and act like russia are the worst people in the world. you can't do it. guest: you are entitled to your opinions, i have no idea what you're talking about. i have a couple questions. prosecutorou are a

and as a prosecutor you should know that the information that the whistleblower put in his complaint is all hearsay. how can you base that trump did something wrong in the conversation when you have someone who is making a claim that he never even heard the conversation? host: thank you for your question. guest: you are entitled to your opinion but not your own facts. as a former prosecutor i know that when a suspect makes admissions against his own self interest, that is totally admissible. that is a classic hearsay exception. yes, the whistleblower said he did not have firsthand knowledge of the phone call but the white house released the rough transcript of the phone call that verified exactly what the

whistleblower said. it is irrelevant what the whistleblower said about the phone call because we have summarized notes of the phone call. get it? the headline of this column, he is guilty but impeachment is a mistake. focusing on the politics of it for a second, one thing david brooks writes is that democrats are playing president trump's game. he has no policy agenda, he is incompetent of improving people's lives but he is good at tv warsg, waging against political elites. he get to have a personality war against nancy pelosi and jerry nadler. this is what democracy is supposed to look like. why they would want to distract from that is beyond reason.

trump against nadler is the contrast trump wants to drop. if we dohave no idea articles of impeachment if it would help trump, hurt trump or be neutral. my belief is we should not to impeachment for political reasons. not dold also not impeachment for political reasons. it should be based on facts. we need to look at the evidence and it should be our last option. but if we conclude the president of the united states halted political aide to a critical ally at a critical time and also had a conversation with a ukrainian leader to investigate a u.s. citizen for political purposes, that is a high crime. host: anthony, louisiana, independent, hello. caller: it is not working. what you are trying to tell us -- i used to vote democrat -- it

is not working. you are trying to tell us that all of the stuff trump is saying , he was trying to get the people -- no, sir, we are not believing that. host: what do you believe? trump: i don't believe was doing the things they are trying to say he was doing. guest: you are entitled to your opinion. i am just going to tell you what the transcript said. it shows after ukrainian leader raised the issue of military aid from the united states that would help the country push back against its adversary, trump immediately asks him for a favor. one of the favors trump asked for was to investigate trump's political opponent, biden. this is done in the context of

donald trump having halted military aid that congress approved to ukraine one week before this phone call. none of those facts are disputed. you can draw up whatever conclusions you want but the facts are staring you in the face. democrat,ton, texas, good morning. caller: oh my goodness, i can't begin to tell you, mr. lieu, it is my absolute pleasure to speak with you this morning. john, i will let you know what i am done. , you tell all of your other congressmen and women that the american people support you, you stand with you, he is going to fight dirty, you stand tall because god is with you, because you have the truth on your side. let us know what we need to do.

get to the different organizations to get out to the different communities, what you want us to do to support you. retired, i you, i am will do whatever you need. republicans, trump supporters, there is a silver lining and it is donald trump beat president obama. he is going to be impeached and president obama was never impeached. thank you very much for taking my call, have a great day. guest: thank you for your call. i want to note that this is not a partisan issue. what we have here is the american president soliciting foreign interference of our elections of a foreign power. he did that in the context of halting hundreds of millions of

dollars of critical military aid that congress had approved. this is an american issue. that is why you see two republican governors come out and say they support this impeachment inquiry. saidessman turner of ohio in an open public hearing that what the president did was not ok. host: clarksburg, maryland, democrat, good morning. caller: i have been a democrat for 36 years and i have never been more disgusted with my own party. it has been hijacked by communists and socialists. it is no longer the democratic party of jfk or my parents or my grandparents. , you should be ashamed of yourself. when did hearsay become the measure by which we destroy people. this is just ridiculous. credibility, you

have no integrity, sir. you have no integrity because you turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to what biden did with ukraine. son was fired. that is quid pro quo. guest: thank you for your call. admissibleabsolutely if it is an admission against self-interest. when donald trump said he is asking for a favor of ukrainian leader to investigate his political opponent, that is admissible. it is an exception to the hearsay rule because it is an admission against trump's own self interest. let's take the hearsay thing away, we have the actual summarized transcript of the phone call. it says trump did exactly what the whistleblower said trump did. thank you. host: angela, oklahoma city, oklahoma, independent, good

morning. caller: good morning. i am still for trump. they have been after him ever since he got into office. angela, you have to listen to your phone and talk to your phone, turned on your television. we will let you figure that out while we go to wyoming, a republican, good morning. caller: all i have to say is thank you, mr. lieu. you for your head up and you be proud. guest: thank you for your call, i appreciate that. host: less than 10 minutes before the house comes in for the day. after today, the house is heading toward two weeks of congressional recess. i wonder what your plans are during recess. committee house intel is the lead on this issue and they will continue investigating.

majore introduced a lowering of prescription drug prices. this is something we will talk about in the next two weeks. we have introduced legislation on background checks for guns that we have already passed, bipartisan, before the u.s. senate. have those on election security -- we also have bills on election security. legislation, in wonder what your thoughts are about cooperation on some sort of strengthening of background checks in the wake of this story and how the president has responded to congressional inquiries. guest: for a long time, the nra would say background checks would never have stopped any of

these gun crimes. it turns out the last mass shooting, background checks would have stopped it. host: which one are you referring to? guest: the very last one where the person tried to get a gun and was denied by a background check and then got it through a sale that was not covered by current background checks. what we have now is not only bipartisan support, we have a case where if background checks or universal it would have worked. host: the other question about government funding, the senate passing yesterday at continuing legislation to keep the government funded for another six weeks. what are your thoughts on being able to come up with a bill that can pass the senate and get signed for the president to fund the government for fiscal 2020? guest: i support the short-term cr to have the government funded. i believe when we come back we

have to focus to make sure we have a longer term funding strategy because it makes it difficult for agencies, for military and other stakeholders to plan when we only have short-term crs. host: can congress focus on that when there is focus on and impeachment inquiry? guest: yes, we have an appropriation committee, we have a budget committee, house intel will take a lead. all of this other work in terms of making sure we reduce health care costs for american people, we increase wages and put people into good jobs, that will continue. host: about five minutes before the house comes in. new mexico, a democrat, good morning. caller: thank you c-span, i love your coverage. i appreciate you guys for doing

this and it is nice to talk to someone within the reins of our congress. i think you are playing into trump's hands because attention is attention and when he gets attention he thrives on it, whether good or bad. we need to do something about the infrastructure of our country. our roads have potholes and our bridges are crumbling. we are in new mexico and we are going to get the last dollar and that is how it is. trump is going to win if they keep fighting each other the way they are. all of the democrats raising their hand saying they will give illegal immigrants free health care but we have to pay for our own health care, that is playing into trump's hands. stop all of the bickering and fighting and talking about donald trump. guest: in terms of

infrastructure, last term i introduced legislation that would fund our infrastructure needs. it involved $2 trillion. even some within my own caucus said that was too much. it turns out, according to the american society of civil invacare's -- civil engineers, we have a $4 trillion infrastructure problem. unfortunately, the white house earlier this year walked away and took all of their marbles and went home. committeestime, our will work on these infrastructure bills and will be passing those later in the year. republican,irginia, good morning. caller: good morning, thank you for taking my call.

am 89 yearsto say i old. seene never in my lifetime our country in the shape it is in. if people don't turn back and pray and ask god to straighten us out, the democrats are going to bring our country to disaster. guest: thank you for your comment. democrat,adelphia, good morning. caller: i am all for impeachment and impeachment should be the constitution of the united states. he is being impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors. as far as the democrats -- the republicans keep calling in on the democrat line, they call in

on all three lines and c-span does not do anything about it. they start to go on and talk about -- it is just ridiculous. trump said he could shoot someone on 5th avenue and get away with it. people on 5th avenue say it is ok, go ahead and shoot me. host: this show only works if people call in on the correct lines and we try to rotate through the lines and we hope callers play by the rules. guest: thank you for the question you raise. this is not a partisan issue. it is an american issue and a constitutional issue. the president cut off critical military aid to ukraine, which

was helping to push back one of our adversaries. nobody disputes donald trump halted the military aid, that is a fact. one week later there is a phone call where donald trump, right after ukrainian leader raises military aid, trump requests a favor to investigate his political opponent, joe biden. the transcript says exactly that. these are facts you can't dispute. that is why you have republicans supporting the impeachment inquiry. when you ask the american people this question, a majority do support the impeachment inquiry because they were reading these documents themselves. they can read the whistleblower complaint, it is online, you can read the transcript of the phone call, it is online, and you can make your own decision. host: congressman ted lieu, a democrat from california, come

back anytime. that will do it for washington journal, we will be back here at 7:00 eastern. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]