the impeachment inquiry. >> the house judiciary committee holds a hearing next week with constitutional scholars as part of the impeachment inquiry on president trump. it's intended to focus on the constitutional grounds for presidents on impeachment. according to a statement from jerrold nadler the president has been invited to attend and have his legal counsel participate by answering questions we will have a live question on c-span3. you can also watch online at c-span.org or listen live on the free c-span radio app. host: this is adam goodman who joins us from st. petersburg, florida. he serve as a republican media strategist to talk about the impeachment inquiry. thank you for joining us on this hanksgiving day.

guest: the impeachment inquiry is made for a television experience for americans. and as with any you might say series or show, you quickly develop characters and caracters at times that tend to drive not just the storyline of people's impressions. the impeachment inquiry to date has put on the table for most americans, they find it maybe very highly partisan, highly political. did the president do something maybe he shouldn't have done? that's an open question.

i really fear though, pedro, for he country moving forward if the partisan that has taken grip in washington and elsewhere is used to drive impeachment inquiries like this for any future president because if it's all about politics and less about due process and right and wrong. we've moved ourself in a place where future president could stand, judged to be guilty enough to be impeachmented -- impeached and washington will resort that into doing all the things they should be doing which is investigating themselves 24/7 as opposed to investing themselves in the things that will move the needle for this country. host: you talk about characters and caracters, what did you see out of those two fronts from the public impeachment hears we had over the last two weeks? guest: well it all began, pedro,

when these things were launched and i think that you could make the observation, the objective observation that the democrats who were very eager clearly to move forward with impeachment were too transparent and in a way prejudging the proceedings before we ever heard from the first witness. there was a sense in america that this was a done deal, that the house was motivated to impeach, to be followed by the u.s. senate, which is in republican hands, republican control, which will be motivated o exonerate and then on we go. the bottom line is that most americans, i hope would agree, that the biggest judgment we should render in this should not come from politicians judging politicians but from the public weighing in and judging whether or not they find this rises to

the level -- in something called an election. -- in something called .n election we are less than a year away from the 2020 election and i think the american people that should be judge and jury and not those from opposing sides in a partisan divide that has grown into a chasm, especially in washington. host: as you viewed the impeachment hearing, the democrats bolster their case when it came to the charges they want to lay on the president. the republicans have sufficient pushback to that. ofst: the simple kind messaging coming from the democrats leading the impeachment inquiry and the house is built around quid pro quo and around not following the will of congress which is a bad -- which is a badge of honor now given congress takei rating among the public. some of the witnesses have been very squared away. fiona hill and others were good

examples of people that are trying to do their job and trying to do the right thing. as far as whether or not this measures up to what has become a 24/7 political docudrama that has gripped the country and frozen any real progress we wanted to make in terms of immigration, in terms of our economy, and terms of health care, major issues that drive normal conversations in america, unfortunately they have been silenced or muted as the politicians have added. -- have at it. host: adam goodman speaking with us. if you want to ask him questions you can do so on the phone lines. democrats, (202)-748-8000. republicans, (202)-748-8001. independents, (202)-748-8002. youru want to text us

thoughts, you can do so at (202)-748-8003. you can post on twitter and on our facebook page. mr. goodman, the president's personal response to the inquiry. were they effective? guest: i think they have been effective. it took a while for the white house to get their sea legs underneath them and the counter narrative, what has become the prime and of -- prominent narrative coming out of the democratic controlled house. i think they have done much better in the last week. better, more effective spokespeople beyond the president himself. pam from florida, i know her very well. she has done a very effective job in the counter effective -- counteroffensive. jim jordan has been tremendously compelling, painting a counter point of view.

a representative from the -- from new york has become a rock star overnight for her willingness to challenge the process. i just hope -- there has been some suggestion that maybe these hearings will continue to drag on much beyond the house into the senate. the senate has the opportunity if they so chose to extend these hearings and bring their own witnesses into play which may include people like congressman schiff who led the house inquiry on the others of the aisle and hunter biden and others. i hope it doesn't go that way. i can tell you also that the democratic candidates seeking the presidential nomination don't wanted to go that way either because frankly as we move closer and closer to iowa and new hampshire and a vada in south carolina, that seems to be drowned out as well or mitigated by this conversation which seemingly is moving in only one direction.

the house will impeach, the senate will exonerate. there will be split opinion america about whether the president did or didn't do things he should or shouldn't have done and then we will have the most important verdict of all from the most trusted source, which is the american people. host: as a person who looks at media and optics and the discussion going on, what the president or his team should take part in the next round of public hearings, what would you advise? guest: that is a slippery slope. on the one hand, you really want to hear from the principal directly. we do, but not by virtue of sitting behind a bench and having politicians grill you but by courtesy of twitter and other social media. i think we would like to hear from the president more on this and on other issues but in terms of him actually testifying as much as he would like to,

because they think he is very convinced that he did nothing wrong and certainly nothing that measures up to the level of impeachment, but that is not going to happen. i think we will see a truncated process. i think republicans in the senate are going to be motivated , i hope to move this forward swiftly when it comes over there side of the aisle and then we get back to the nation's business and there is a lot of business to be done. host: our first call comes from lin for florida, freeratse -- line democrats -- line for democrats. caller: it is not the democrats who are providing any condemning evidence against president trump. that hes own people does so chronically and continuously that you can set your watch by it, he throws his own people under the bus.

soldier, lieutenant colonel , thean and dr. fiona hill ambassadors. these people work for the trump administration. many are republicans. when they got on the stand they were under oath and told the truth. but with president trump one minute you are the best thing since sliced bread. as soon as somebody tries to, i guess, be your friend by telling the truth, he totally dis acknowledges them. far asnd point is as concentrating on the impeachment instead of health care, nobody really has brought of health care for the last four years.

people are paying more for their health care insurance that does not cover anything than they are for their mortgages. brush with the health care industry for sickness or is getting to be a worse and worse experience all the time. yes, it would be nice if somebody -- that is why i like bernie sanders. he mentions health care. host: thank you. mr. goodman? guest: steve, thank you for your comments. let me address the second part of your statement, which is health care. we are going to have a healthy debate on this issue, clearly. you mentioned bernie sanders. that could include elizabeth warren and others who are strong advocates of medicare for all. that will help drive this. from the back burner back to the front burner of the national

conversation. we need to have this conversation. whatever you think of obamacare, thinkfordable care act, i the american public, even though they are largely ok with major parts of obamacare, they are not fully satisfied attic covering all the bases it needs to. that is where the ugly side of politics sometimes enters the fray. people get very hardened in their views. we should be open to taking a look at any adjustment that makes you and i feel more comfortable going to sleep at night. that her health care is covered and we will not have to worry about one major event becoming not only life-changing but perhaps for some blood once life-threatening. onesr loved life-threatening.

theologically, for full disclosure, i don't agree with bernie sanders on just about anything theologically. however i think people like that he comes off and has from the beginning of his entrance onto the national stage as someone that feels genuine. he is putting it out there and really believes what he is putting out there as opposed to trying to play politics with something that is so integral to the american experience. i think that is to be admired. survived sanders had the primary process in 2016 against secretary hillary clinton, i think it would have been a hell of a contest against donald trump in the fall. both of them are really outsiders to the process. both are taking on from different sides of the aisle and from different ideological planks. they are taking on the system. that was the key to the 2016

campaign. ofrote a column in april 2016 and made a prediction that of observation and my experience of nearly 40 years in the field that donald trump was well-positioned to win. he was the candidate that was tapping into the unspoken major issue of the cycle, which continues to this moment. a system that is letting a lot of people down. i still think that kind of anti-systemic populism will fatesa lot of political in the 2020 cycle and beyond. we will have a much more intense conversation about health care and about other parts of the national landscape that have been unfortunately delayed for the last couple of months as politicians have taken out after

each other under the umbrella of impeachment. host: republican line. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call and happy thanksgiving to both of you fellows. i will try to be brief. it is hard to in this day and age but i will try to. number one, i would like to see both political parties deal with medicaid andre and social security, and then taking care of the national debt instead of fighting over power and which party is going to be the dictatorship over the taxpayers. how many years do we have left before social security and medicare go broke? thank you for your time. have a nice thanksgiving.

guest: that is a great question. we don't have all that much time. regardless of how you feel of the current administration and the administration that preceded it, it is proceeding faster than ever before. that bill will come in and have to be paid and the selfishness of pushing that question downstream onto our children, onto our grandchildren is the most unconscionable example of malpractice by political leaders on both sides of the aisle. i think we have to deal with this. i'm concerned about it, as i think we all are. there is a mentality in washington more so than the state capitals -- i'm in florida. the florida legislature is held

in pretty high regard. it has been controlled in terms of majority controlled by republicans for more than the past 20 years. there is a sense angst could get done here. in washington there is a sense nothing can get done except character access to nation, political assassination, etc., under the heading of whatever it takes, anything it takes to win. you have to ask yourself a question. what are we winning? at some point you ask, what are we actually winning? when we have a process that seems to have ground to a halt, we are not making great advantages on the biggest issues of the day. climate change for instance. it has become much more of a national crusade if we take our heads out of the sand and know it is something we will have to deal with. whether you believe it fully or not, the global climate change, i always say in the off chance

those who are climate deniers maybe you are wrong, 100 you are wrong, shouldn't we be doing something about this? the answer is yes. what it will take unfortunately dimthe parties is the munition of the parties and taking control of the process as opposed to representing them. -- things i've at it a lot advocated a lot, and i hope all viewers listening to this take we believe things can change under the current we will be living with for the rest of our lives and our children live with for the rest of their lives, we have to change the rules of the game if we want significant change to occur. the way to do that is

constitutional reform. rewriting rules. number one, campaign finance. we have to find a way where our leaders are not bought and paid for coming out of the gate. where they don't spend their time doing things that advanced their self-interest for reelection. we have to get to a balanced budget. we need to address things like citizenship, which i know is an uncomfortable subject for a lot of people. we have not really entertained that question in a serious way 1869 after the civil war when an amendment was passed that said basically we want to make sure future congresses do not turn their backs on newly emancipated african-americans. if you want change and to pursue things that really help, my opinion is we do it, the people

do it through constitutional reform. host: gordon, go ahead. caller: i want to thank c-span very much for your broadcasts. i heard a viewer last week say c-span is biased. messed uphave c-span for cnn. this is all about impeachment. do the democrats have anybody in mind that will take over this mess? if not, are they planning on impeaching the vice president? i want over the democrats are going from here. guest: i think the democrats are asking themselves that question. what is the next act? to be fair the democrats or anyone in that position -- this is a moving target in an evolving story. you have to remain flexible about what that proper next step is. andink it is fair to say,

you can see it in the polls among swing voters and independents, there is a sense of fatigue that is setting in over impeachment. that suggests it would be in their best interest to bring this in for a landing sooner rather than later. how best to do that i think it is what is consuming speaker schiff representative and others in the drama. host: pennsylvania, zach. caller: good morning mr. goodman. guest: good morning. caller: a couple of things. treated worse was than trump will ever be treated. 70% of the people were for the affordable care act, for obamacare, and then it dropped to 37%. when it comes to dems getting things done, there are 100 bills sitting on mcconnell's desk he

refuses to take up. when it comes to the it ishment, in my eyes basically republicans against republicans. the democrats are adjusting control of the process. they are telling us the dems want this. these are republican patriots coming forward to help us protect our democracy. -- democracy from what i call the acting zombie. most of trump's people are acting. they are not controlled by the senate. -- confirmed by the senate. fires power over them to them, throw them under the bus, tweet about them. we have a government ruled by tierney big -- tierney -- tyranny. anything from the white house can damage their careers. guest: i really appreciate the

question. i also appreciate the tone of the question. i think you are sincerely interested in trying to find a better way for all of us to move forward so i appreciate that. good point.raise a -- i'm sorry if i belabored that. it is america on trial here in my opinion. we ask ourselves, what is the right thing to do? this is really not a trial. it is a piece of political gamesmanship on all sides being played. it is a fairly certain end. in terms of president obama, i feel the same way as you do. took a president obama lot of criticism from the word go. by the time he left office i think he did a lot of things well. i think they were things

president obama tried to do or validatedt really american desire to seek change. one thing he did not do as well in ai think put us circumstance is as commander-in-chief, he was uncomfortable having to make certain decisions with the exception of osama bin laden. wherek we live in a time more and more people feel empowered to offer their opinions on everything under the sun. on one side of that, it's a healthy thing. it is nice an important and vital that the conversation goes beyond elected leaders and to the american people. on the other side i wish for all of us to become better informed. to the we should go back days of civics being taught in school. that should be mandatory.

a lot of people are offering opinions about how to move the needle in america, yet they are doing it at of near-complete ignorance of the process itself. thate you agree with me the motivation behind it. we the people should go back to the constitution, article five, which says as things change we need to change with the times. i think changes are mandatory if we want to cure the process of a winner take all mentality by leaders of both sides of the aisle as opposed to america wins all on every side of the aisle. host: mr. goodman, i want to play a little bit of it clip from the president. he appeared in florida recently talking about a couple of different things. then we will come back to you. [video]

president trump: thank you to the great state of florida. thank you. [cheers] president trump: less than one year from now i will join voters across the sunshine state, my home. polls and to the together we will win back the house, we will hold the senate, and we will keep the beautiful, beautiful white house. we will keep it. we will keep it. you saw that, right? the stock market just did another all-time in history high , meaning 401(k)s and jobs. everybody is getting rich. and i am working my ass off, let me tell you.

arena makeleave the sure you registered to vote. we can't take any chances. we are doing great in florida. you have a great governor. we are very happy with ron. he is doing a fantastic job. make sure you are registered to vote. as we gather together for thanksgiving -- some people want to change the name thanksgiving. they don't want to use the term thanksgiving. that was true also with christmas, but now everybody is using christmas again. but now we will have to do a little work on thanksgiving. people have different ideas why should not be called thanksgiving, but everybody in this room i know loves the name thanksgiving and we are not changing. host: for the first artifice statement about florida being his home, was his move their a

political one when it comes to 2020? guest: i would like to say he likes the weather in florida a lot better than in washington, but i think that would be disingenuous. florida has 29 electoral votes. it is the ultimate melting pot of american politics. the interstate between orlando and tampa is the biggest swing area, the most important face iner of political the country. it gets a little bit more difficult for republicans to put together the electoral map to win the presidency without florida than it does for democrats. florida with 29 votes. you have the other battleground states of wisconsin, pennsylvania, north carolina. increasingly arizona. all-important, but there is nothing like florida for testing

out one's ability to carry a national campaign to victory. that is one reason a lot of testing is done in the state of florida for consumer products. there is the kind of cross-section of america that best reflect perhaps within a single state's borders the will of america. the other thing he talked about, which is important to keep in mind is the stock market. i wrote a column a couple of months ago and tried to suggest to all voters across america that instead of getting bogged down on polling, who was up, who is down, it was going to win iowa, who was going to lose iowa, the most important polling number out there is the dow jones industrial average. in my opinion if the average, which is now around 27,500.

if it is 26,000 or better, the president is in very good shape, everything else being equal to win reelection. if it is between 22000 and ,6,000, they could be katy bar the door. anything below 22,000, he is in trouble. i would say you take a look at the dow jones industrial average and see how the mood of the country is economically. after all the passion plays of the primaries and the debates in the general, what i hope everyone in america wants a front row seat to, if the sense of the economy is relatively sound or better, that is have the that will president and very good stead at the end of the line. host: republican line, george.

caller: thanks for taking the time to give us the opportunity to express our opinion. i appreciate it. isly, this thanksgiving mired by the democratic party, the impeachment. another divisive action that is killing the american people, tearing the country apart. i have a couple of comments about previous callers. i thought obamacare was supposed to solve all the problems. plan, we juste got a bill for $200 for a mammogram. i thought that was covered. social security. all you have to do to corrected is eliminate the income tax. most people pay 100% of their tax on the income because most people make less than $135,000. i think that will solve the problem. democrats had control of everything when president obama was there.

they did not do anything to secure us. people are starting to realize what is going on. regarding the impeachment, when it goes to the senate trial the democrats will be in big trouble. then the republicans will have their day in court. that believe in impression of what is going wrong with this country. host: appreciate that. , what could the senate try out when he gets to their portion should it go that far? guest: it probably will go that far. what republicans have is an option, which i hope we don't play or maybe mishandle. they can call their own witnesses. one part of this story. if you look at the mueller

investigation which happened over an ungodly amount of time, and then to a non-indictment of the president but that was not good enough apparently for some. they are trying to revisit that. some things that were not covered in that investigation can be covered in a republican senate. in terms of ukraine, i think everyone wants to know what the deal is with hunter biden. whether you are a biden supporter are not, at least we should have some testimony brought to bear on that. no reasonable person could say that hunter biden was brought to the board of the ukrainian company at huge compensation for reasons of his personal skill, tact, fitness to help that company in that situation. it had everything to do with the connection with his dad, joe biden.

i think that is worthy of theination and republicans will present the other narrative, which explores things that have not been talked about. that should be a part of it. i would be surprised if hunter biden was subpoenaed would appear. i would be surprised if adam donor, aho had a major russian donor who would benefit greatly from military sales to ukraine, why that would not also be something that the senate would not bring to bear if they wanted to belabor the point. myself,aking for as enticing as that may be for some people and as a republican, i hope we don't go down that trail for very long because that's another x number of days, weeks, months that has very little to do with politicians

attacking other politicians in washington. host: missouri, independent line. anthony. caller: your comment about hunter biden is justified. the investigation into the corruption in the ukraine is justified. when barack obama was president he was caught on mic telling putin he would have more latitude. he did not supply ukraine with weapons was so the russians could attack ukraine and crimea. mr. obama made a deal with mr. putin to protect his iranian nuclear deal. -- shiite muslim connection through his father is proof. he was protecting himself from the investigation by the republican senate. thank you. guest: thank you for that

question. off from something you are suggesting that we have not talked about today, which is what does this mean in terms of the path ahead for joe biden or anybody else on the democratic side of the fence? i will give this more of a florida perspective then a national perspective. the national perspective has been very well covered. here in florida in a swing state that is very centrist if you want to typify us slightly right of center, we are looking for things we are not finding from the democratic field today. maybe we will find that over the course of the months to come. andrew gillibrand for governor, most odd makers that he would defeat ron desantis in the 2018

campaign. he fell short. most people would agree the primary issue in that campaign was that in terms of the swing voters of florida was slightly if not more than slightly too far left and did not really want to try to get back closer to the centerline where i think most people in florida that determine elections are looking for. this is something of a challenge for the democratic party. they talk about centrist and progressives. successful,to be they will need to find their sea legs in a state like florida with someone that can race the centerline. i think the passion in this primary debate has not been in the center lane. i have great respect for the service of joe biden, and great commiseration with joe biden for

all the things he's had to overcome and survive in terms of his family and other things. that you have to at least admire. it has been clear from the beginning that joe biden is not the joe biden of old. he is just an old joe biden. he is not able to bring their case. pete from indiana did a so-so job overseeing a city in indiana. now he's rising up because a very good effort in iowa and possibly new hampshire. he is 37 years old, not overly accomplished, and he and the other centrists will have to address if one of them survives the process what the progressive left has put on the table. warren, not, elizabeth she has been on the table some very system changing ideas.

bernie sanders has made a very aggressive case once again for trying to reform the american system. i think instead of this being a referendum on the president, some of the democrats are making this a referendum on the system with a remedy that is fairly far left. if that's the way it ends up, there will be four more years of donald trump with a decent economy or better without russian. i think that is it -- without question. i think that is a problem the democrats are just now starting to grapple with. they thought maybe joe biden would be the answer. clearly i think you got tells you -- gut tells you joe will not be the one. host: st. cloud, minnesota, democrats line. caller: good morning c-span and good morning america. thank you for the comedy track. those are precious. mr. goodman, you are incredible.

a republican who believes obama did a good job. that is a thanksgiving gift right there. earlier you said the democrats already had everything lined up me,impeachment -- excuse but they were not able to look at anything else. as the evidence came through the republican leaders refused to look at the evidence. you were talking about the rockstar who was looking at challenging the process. it just kind of shows if you're only going to challenge the process and can look at the evidence and you will interrupt a process you agreed on, i don't really see how that makes a rockstar. i would love president trump to come out and testify in court. i think it would just be beautiful. great to stand him up there.

host: we have to leave it there. mr. goodman? guest: a very quick response. alicee a chapter out of in wonderland, it was verdict first. was heeachment approach is guilty and now we will prove it, which i think violates innocent before proven guilty standards in america in terms of spruanceents -- juden she has the conviction of her voice. you have to applaud that as well. this was not a fair process. the republicans were not allowed to call witnesses. they were not allowed to get information the democrats had prior to the hearings. suggestion the

whistleblower had contact with the head of that committee, which was not properly disclosed. it did not feel right. it does not feel right. i believe it is not right. this is not about whether or not you believe the president did something he should not have done or not. it is more about you have got to be kidding me that we will ourselves with a process that is basically a kangaroo trial and a process that already has a defined endgame and has a defined verdict before we even get involved. i hope as americans this thanksgiving day we step back and reflect on the fact we are all better than this and we move forward with the understanding. tot: this is adam goodman talk about issues of impeachment. we thank you for your time and thank yo

then, author and history professor discusses impeachment efforts and has believed the president trump's impeachment is inevitable. be sure to watch c-span's washington journal live at 7:00 a.m. eastern friday morning. join the discussion. the impeachment inquiry hearings continue next week when house judiciary chairman jerry nadler holds the first inquiry hearing into president trump focusing on the constitution and the history of impeachment. coverage december 4 at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span3. nadler extended an invitation for the president and

his counsel to appear before the committee. read the letter to our -- to the committee on our website. follow the impeachment inquiry live on c-span3 online on c-span .org or listen live on the freight c-span radio app. president trump and first lady melania trump invited people to the white house for the annual turkey pardoning. this takes place at the white house every year shortly before thanksgiving. >> thank you very much. always nice to begin by saying the stock market is up again, just set another record. so we should say that. substantially up. i