[captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] announcer: wednesday on c-span, the house meets at 10:00 a.m. eastern for general speeches, followed by legislative business at noon. on the agenda is a bill that would define clear standards for banning illegal insider trading. the senate returns to consider judicial and executive nominations. on c-span three, the house judiciary committee holds a hearing with legal scholars to discuss the constitutional framework for drafting potential articles of impeachment against president trump. that gets underway at 10:00 a.m. eastern. over the next three hours, we are asking the question of whether you think president trump's actions are impeachable. we will also hear what members of congress think of the impeachment inquiry as it enters

a new phase with today's health judiciary hearing. "washington journal" is next. [video clip] >> this is about our democracy, our national security, whether the american people have a right to expect the president of the united states will act with their interest in mind. ♪ host: house intelligence committee chair adam schiff unveiling the 300 page impeachment inquiry report. the committee approved the report last night 13-9. a pick up the process today with their first public hearing. live at 10:00 eastern on c-span 3 already getting a look at the house longworth office building

where the committee will hold its hearing. good morning and welcome to washington journal for wednesday, december 4. we will begin the program -- spend the entire program asking are president trump's actions impeachable? if you think so, 202-748-8000. if you think no, 202-748-8001. send us a text, make sure you include your name and where you are texting from. 202-748-8003. on twitter, we are @cspanwj. already a number of post on our facebook page, facebook.com/cspan. we will spend some time speaking with members of the house as the house comes into session as the committee gets underway this morning. the reporting of the new york thes and their headline in newspaper report describes actions by trump to undermine u.s. assertedocrats

president trump abused his power by pressuring ukraine to help him in the 2020 presidential election releasing a report that found the president placed his own personal and political interest above national interest of the united states. the report was a sweeping indictment of the president's behavior, including that he sou ght to undermine democracy and work to conceal actions from congress. democrats left it to another committee. the report -- the grounds on which the house will charge him. places histive who perfect -- his personal interest above the country, impeachment. we have posted the entire report at our website, c-span.org. we will go through it this morning and some of the key findings.

the report says president trump and senior officials may see nothing wrong with using the power of the office of resident to pressure a foreign country to help the president toss reelection -- help the president's reelection campaign. the permanent select committee on intelligence in coordination with the committees on oversight and reform and foreign affairs were compelled to undertake a serious and expeditious investigation into whether the president's was warrants- misconduct that. largeheless, due in measure to public servants who copart -- who provided the committee with evidence of the president's actions, the committees uncovered significant misconduct on the part of the president of the united dates -- united states. adam schiff is the chair of the

committee, here is more of what he said yesterday at his news conference. [video clip] >> first of all, this is not about ukraine. this is about our democracy and national security and whether the united people have a right to expect the president of the united states will act with their interest and security in mind and not some illicit political reason. americans should care deeply about what the president of the united states is betraying trust took tothe oath he protect our country and defend its institutions. we should care about this. if we don't care about this, we can be assured the president will be back doing this all over again. host: are the president's actions impeachable? a couple already. nate says not one single witness

testified there was a quid pro quo. tony says laid out in the impeachment report, it is clear to everyone that trump was extorting ukraine. nixon was guilty of digging up dirt of a political rival by having people break into the dnc, this president went to another country to obtain dirt on a political rival. i would say he went a step further, so i would say this is impeachable. john says the average american does not know about impeachment or the findings to form an intelligent opinion. we are too busy working and paying our bills, politicians are using impeachment as a sport instead of spending time on more beneficial things. let's go to cindy in connecticut, welcome. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i am very angry about this. adam schiff and everybody things

we are not intelligent. we are not going to use quid pro quo because we are too stupid to know what the word means. i am tired of this and let's start working for the american people. this is not about ukraine. it is about we cannot accept the result of the election. you want to talk conspiracy theories, i will give you one. the president looks exhausted. i think it is their hope to put this guy -- the heart attack story, i think that is what they are hoping for and i will call this a soft assassination of the president. i give trump kudos because he puts up with this, how he can withstand this, i don't know. in the president of ukraine said he was not pressured, not one witness said the word quid pro quo and adam schiff is looking

for things, still investigating. that is not how it is done. i am tired of people saying trump is a liar. name one that has not lied to the american people. if you are going to impeach the president, let's make standard the same for everyone. joe biden, hillary clinton. there is no fairness and the storman people ought to the capital. we are too busy working. host: here is bob who thinks the actions are impeachable, ohio. it is veryhink impeachable, trump is nothing but a new york mafia boss. all he cares about money, he does not care one thing about the american people. he just wants to steal money with both hands, him and his mafia family are ripping off this country every day. they cannot get enough money and

this woman from connecticut, she stupid.d and i don't know why the gop people voted this guy in. colorado, doesn't think the actions are impeachable. good morning, joe. caller: i sat through the watergate hearings, i remember them. what nixon was guilty of was standing behind his people after the fact and that was his prime mistake. i don't believe trump's actions are impeachable. i think the problem we have here is democrats in congress are not getting anything done. impeachs been a move to president ever since he got in. from day 1, they were screaming impeachment.

this has gone on long enough and if nothing else, hopefully at some point adam schiff will be brought up before the ethics committee and i think his role in history will go down as a bad note in history. host: charles in tennessee, tell us what you think about the impeachment. certainlythink he will go down in history and i think he surely needs to be impeached and as quickly as possible. as far as that last caller talking about not getting anything done, what do you mean? they have passed i don't know how many bills. i don't understand even the thinking at all of these people. brainwashed.be if he hasn't done anything, why would he not have witnesses?

the democratic party, if they -- the people in the united states are not ready for a first gentleman in the white house. host: the hearing room is the same one used by the intelligence committee during their hearing and it was used by site of the u.s. house in 1950. the committee that clicks at the mantle of impeachment writing about that. the washington -- washingtonpost.com -- members ready to tumble. defenders of president trump often describe the impeachment a circus. after the theatrics expected

duringduring wednesday first he, they might need a stronger word. when jerry nadler -- jerrold nadler gavels, some of the most aggressive and colorful characters will be on the dais ready to inject new friction and hostility. wanted to show you a look at the morning playbook report from politico echoing the term the circus. this is the playbook, get ready for the circus is the headline. i will scroll down a little bit and read this and for the benefit of our radio listeners, i will change one word. house judiciary committee chairman jerrold nadler had a blunt message as he privately addressed democrats the day before his panel assumes a starring role in the impeachment inquiry. i am not going to take any stuff

word from the democratic prompted lawmakers to sit up in their chairs according to multiple people in the room. on the others, it will be doug the nextpotentially senator from georgia. here is the front page of the washington times, trump gets a colorful defender in the next phase. reportersns spoke to yesterday. [video clip] >> we have a saying down south. when something is going to be important, put your sunday best on and we will go to town. democrats put on their sunday best and said we will have rules for impeachment and we will take care of the president. the president will have a chance to be a part of the process and look at witnesses and this is where we are at now.

the judiciary committee was the only place to do that. starting tomorrow, they failed miserably to provide any modicum of fairness. why would they want to sit through a constitutional law class? --provides nothing expect except a dreary eyed proposal for this country to watch. they are having one big problem and the problem is the president did nothing wrong and they cannot pollute it. -- cannot prove it. host: are president trump's actions impeachable? if you think so, 202-748-8000. if you think not, 202-748-8001. you can also send us a text, 202-748-8003, as did lynn from massachusetts. yes, everything turns is accused .f is impeachable

remember what lindsey graham said, you do not have to be guilty of a crime to be impeached. how will the integrity of the impeachment process be insured -- be assured? bill says the entire force -- farce is nothing more than a predetermined verdict in search of a crime. randy in texas who does not think the actions are impeachable. thank you for taking my call. according to adam schiff, the president's wrongdoing, withholding aid to ukraine, let's get down to the nitty-gritty. the president has a right to delay aid if he believes there is corruption. if they're just so happen to be

a president candidate he is running against that has some wrongdoing in a foreign country because it is against the law for a government official to have a son working in a foreign while the sun is taking aid from a foreign country and the vice president of the government agency is employed by the government, that is against the law and my other point i want to make, president trump ran on foreign aid. he said he was going to make sure everyone paid their fair share. aid onants to cut back these foreign countries, we are taken to the bank. i don't think it is impeachable. , thinks south carolina the president should be

impeached. morning.ood these powerful sons of powerful people, if you want to go down that road, i seem to recall giuliani has a son working in the white house making $95,000 or some exorbitant amount. you have to understand something, the republicans have control and could have investigated until they were blue in the face, but he was not running for president at the time. burgerbeen a big nothing . when it comes down to impeachment, there is one question republicans cannot deny and you cannot offer -- answer truthfully because you know you have to admit it. if this was bill clinton or president obama, you would have had a putrid -- impeachment done. being a tool of the russian

oligarchs and putin is disgusting, particularly when doingve a guy like nunes deals behind the committee's back and calling people names, that is all you have. the actual facts are you cannot ask for quid pro quo to release is inen one of our allies a time of war. personally, it is illegal. no matter how you paint this -- i don't know about you, but i will quote a saying. when it comes to these two russians or ukrainians or whoever they were that were associates of that crooked lawyers giuliani, if that guy actually has all this material it has been rumored he has, something like 9 terabyte worth, i will quote somebody famous and tell you republicans.

i hope there are tapes because then you will have to shut it up and eat it. host: we will read the story on the implications of the giuliani phone record in a moment read john in new york. caller: he isn't guilty. this is nuts. he looks like he could be a putin want to be himself, they blame it on trump. governor is the best new york has ever had. look who we are stuck with now. miles whojersey, favors impeachment, good morning. caller: i believe whatever happens in this impeachment thing, the republican party, his base is not going to believe -- democrats, anything else they say.

anybody dealing with this man is going to jail. he is stopping people from testifying. i thought we were supposed to be about the law and no one is above it? , you aret a subpoena supposed to stand by that. when you tell people to back off, that is what the republican party is scared of. they know if he really is innocent, why is he keeping them from testifying? doesact is republican base not see that, that is bad for this country. if you sit there and say it is alright for this man what he is doing, they don't have to tell the truth, that is not right. if that is what america is about, we are in serious trouble and a matter what we say, each to their base. the republican does not want to

tell the truth. as far as this hearsay, if you are a cop and investigate a murder, somebody says this guy did this and that. they have all these people coming in saying they heard this -- that, but they won't come if they are so innocent, i would say go tell them what they want to know and then we will take it from there. if you are stopping people from testifying, you have something to hide. for his race to believe that -- basic to believe that, something is wrong. does addressort that, here is the 300 page report. the damage to our system of checks and balances will be long-lasting and potentially irrevocable if the president possibility to stonewall

congress goes unchecked and a future president will -- the at farwill be a nation greater risk of all 3. alan says the actions were not impeachable. good morning. caller: no. the ones that should be impeached or kicked out of office is adam schiff. he has a recording where he is trying to get from the russians. he is the one that got information from the russians and as far as all these people saying nobody is above the law, it is too bad they did not think about that when obama and hillary and obama kept all the in fastrom testifying

and furious running guns to mexico to kill border agents and nobody was screaming to impeach him. we all know why. they would not dare impeach a black man. .hat is why he got elected do you honestly think if he was right and had his record he would have gotten elected? can you answer that? host: who are you talking about, alan? caller: obama. host: we will hear from arthur in tennessee. arepresident trump's -- president trump's actions impeachable? caller: yes, they are. he lied yesterday. . don't know the guy there is something wrong with

him. host: the issue of impeachment following president trump to the nato summit, here is what he said. looking ahead to today's hearing. [video clip] >> we don't get a lawyer, we don't get any witnesses. we want biden, we want the sun, , weant -- we want the son want schiff and they said you cannot do it. when it is fair and it will be fair at the senate, i would love , ricke pompeo, mick perry, and many other people testify, but i don't want this -- then to testify when this is a fix. just think of it. tomorrow, i don't think anybody is going to watch. tomorrow, think of it.

they get three constitutional lawyers, we get 1. that is not even smart because it will not matter and they take three and give us one. who heard of anything like that? iwant them to testify, but want them to testify in the senate where they will get a fair trial. host: as the house judiciary committee gets set, a reminder of what the intelligence committee just wrapped up, 100 hours of low store deposition testimony from 17 witnesses, 7 public hearings including three witnesses requested by republicans. what will happen today is the judiciary committee will hear scholars.al several of whom -- we will try

-- 4 ofyour comments the witness testify, they say pamela carlin is a strident and unapologetic liberal professor with a clear anti-trump bias. they say he is a left-wing --fessor and democrat michael gearhart -- a registered democrat and liberal republican -- liberal professor who donates to democrats and said trump should not get away with youring impeachment comments on twitter and text. will pass on watching 4 lawyers on -- opine on what

bribery, treason, or misdemeanors means. the votes will be based on party line, not reasoning. hide and watch. should be impeached regardless of political party. the question, are the actions impeachable is a mute -- mute one -- is a moot one. you betrom michigan, what trump did and has continued to do is impeachable, embarrassing the u.s. at the nato summit as well. his fans obviously have not read one word of the mueller report or impeachment report. back to your calls, this is harold. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. -- as long as my

voting length goes, i was democrat, voted democrat most of my life. presidency is revealing the hypocrisy of the party i am associated with. i don't think trump costs impeachable at this point. it seems really petty. i don't like the hypocrisy of my party any longer. i don't like it. -- people would be in the streets, because it was obama, everybody is quiet, like the caller from washington. adam schiff, there is a recording of him accepting information from a foreign country. look at it on youtube, adam schiff on tape. it is that blatant.

what joe biden did in front of the cambrils, in front of a crowd. he told the guy, you are not getting the money. democrats are quiet about it, but they are jumping on trump. i am sick of the hypocrisy, i am walking away. sobefuddles me how we can be hypocritical. i cannot associate myself with democrat anymore. this is petty. like scorned women, you guys are weird, i am gone. host: beverly on the line for those who think the president's actions are impeachable. caller: good morning. i sat here and listened to this stuff, this is ridiculous. the man put his hand on the bible and swore to honor, obey, and protect the constitution.

he has done none of that. he tries his best three years to simply destroy the constitution simply because he doesn't want to be a president. he wants to be a dictator. he honors and trust and obeys all of those people who are haters. he legitimizes them. i think we should decide about the future of america. impeach this man and let's hope it will be led by a man who honors the constitution, not by a man who honors leaders who are dictators and to the one who said something about the blacks, , he wasust say this elected mostly by people in the west who shouted i

want my country back. i know what it meant and so did so many others. he is a dictator. he is a liar, and he is a bigot. i hope to god we survive this. we are in a very bad situation with this person. i hope we survive. host: this will be the first time in 21 years the house judiciary has gone through a process like this, hearing from scholars about impeachment and the last time, 1998 for the impeachment proceedings of bill clinton, the committee also heard from professor michael gearhart and here is what he said on the constitutional basis for impeachment. [video clip] >> the ultimate purpose was to protect and preserve the public

trust. the framers did not try to exhaust the list of potential impeachable offenses. they left it to subsequent generations and congress is to decide on a case-by-case basis. the final lesson in my opinion is in deciding whether misconduct constitutes an impeachable offense, members of congress feel the pressure to make a judgment that will withstand the test of time. host: plot is michael gearhart with the college of william and mary and now the university of north carolina law school. he will testify today, one of the 4 witnesses the house judiciary will hear from. it will stream live at c-span.org and on the radio app. byt of the report released the intelligence committee yesterday and available at c-span.org. the wall street journal reporting on the phone call portion of that report and they

write the 300 page report primarily consists of information already made public during the inquiry, but also withdes records of calls calls including devin nunes that has led the impeachment probe. parnas, anni and lev associate who help the efforts to investigate mr. biden and his son and who has been indicted on campaign-finance charges. phone records suggest deep involvement in several key episodes that have become a focus of the impeachment probe read frequent contacts between mr. nunez and two figures at the center are unusual and likely to renew democrats calls for nunez to face an ethics investigation. a lawyer said his conversations with mr. nunez in april were focused on corruption probes.

by that point, he had been helping mr. giuliani push ukraine to investigate the bidens and the alleged interference by ukraine in the 2016 election, the effort that set off the impeachment inquiry. let's go to wisconsin and hear from lawrence. caller: i, frankly, have most of my friends are hardline just try to let them have their opinion. things that are inherently untrue, i kind -- i tried to say get the facts. any time any show or news agency that comes on and says if this is true and then rambles on, when you start off a true,"ation "if this is you could go on every day of

every day and not ever really put up the truth and trump came in. he was hated by people of his own party and the biggest reason is because a lot of them are walking away multimillionaires. they have donations to them that is kept quiet and there is no repercussion for lying, outright pray that instead of sayinggeneralizing and having theirw or blinders on and not really -- it is party over

what is right for our country. but't really realize for some of the people who took the initiative in times of war and whatnot, we could be speaking german, japanese, chinese. is way more powerful than russia. manyt wish there were as people that would be looking for the truth. people do not want to hear the truth. their friends and life always voted one way. liveyou watch the

happenings. if somebody wears the wrong color of clothing or whatever, you are risking your life or your livelihood. there is no place for violence. host: you talked about the proceedings. will you be watching today? caller: for several hours, but i can only take so much, sometimes. that i just don't say anything anymore because everything from all -- racist and homophobic, go down the list. host: we will let you go and go to jim in missouri on the impeachment actions -- the actions by president trump, are they impeachable? caller: certainly.

going back to the campaign and him asking russia to dig up dirt , i could not believe he was elected after that. is anea that trump unconventional president is an understatement. norms wiped out all the of decency. oaths of loyalty, condemnation of the press. if it is a democrat, they are bad, they are wrong, out to get me. there are so many things this to has done and now -- narrow it down to one thing and say this is impeachable. there is a couple of things, bribery, treason. otherwise, it is a pretty gray

area. host: the one phrase that keeps coming up is quid pro quo and the washington times writes about that in their reporting on the release of the intelligence committee report. , a latin termuo meaning a transaction of this for that is the crux of the case that mr. trump engaged in a scheme.or obstruction the report detailed allegations that have been repeated since the launch of the inquiry. the report does not directly accuse mr. trump of engaging in bribery or extortion, which have been the mainstay of the allegation for weeks. at wednesday's judiciary committee, members will be looking to lay out for the american public the legal issues how merit impeachment and mr. trump's actions do or do not meet those standards. one of the legal scholars is

jonathan turley from george washington university who testified before the clinton impeachment panel in 1998. [video clip] >> the drafters referred to the house vote as being a guaranteed holder of office that there is conduct he will have to answer for. it is your function to detect conduct and deter it by your voice of condemnation. there is a censure provision in the constitution, it is called articles of impeachment, where we define conduct we find unacceptable in a president and when we do that, we do not just defined what a president is, we define something about what we are. you don't have to worry about ath said, you will define what we expect from a president.

regardless of whether the president is removed in the senate, you will define it for .uture presidents host: are president trump's actions impeachable? 202-748-8000 if you think they are. if you don't think they are, 202-748-8001. or send us a text, 202-748-8003. linda says he is putting on his own wants and needs above the constitution, doesn't quid pro quo misnomer is all that is necessary. everyone needs to vote this time, even if you have to hold your nose. from elizabeth in ohio, i do not support impeachment. as shakespeare said, this is much ado about nothing. we hear from tom in north carolina. in chicago.carl make sure you mute your

television. impeachable.is i had mentioned this once before when i called earlier when this was first getting started. our former governor, what he did was he asked what was he going to fill barack obama upon seat when he was a president. a federal jury found him guilty. he got impeached in illinois and the jury found him guilty. of a 14d seven years year sentence. the thing i would say to trump supporters is i hear you -- they will not forgive him ever since he took office. host: clara in chicago -- we will get back to your phone

calls throughout the program and ahead of the hearing this morning by the house judiciary committee, we are speaking with members of the u.s. house and getting their take on the report and the overall issue of impeachment. dan at theis capitol. thank you for being here this morning. the report came out yesterday, so i will not press you on specifics. in general, as the process has gone through the intelligence committee, what has been your observation? same.: it is more of the the request from the judiciary committee to the white house is vague, did not give a description of what the procedures of process would be. we don't know who the witnesses that could be called, the white house was told while the president is at a nato summit in europe that they get to bring one witness.

it is a continuation of the same real problems with the overall procedures. this thing began with really no due process, an entire presumption of guilt. we have had nearly 100 members of the democratic caucus that have signed on to petition for impeachment well over a year ago including jerry nadler, who is the judiciary chairman and when you have a presumption of guilt, it runs contrary to everything our constitutional rights are about and it is why we have the bill of rights we do. we have serious problems that continue. look at the players involved, adam schiff has been on record for being untruthful a number of times stating there was more than circumstantial evidence, running a parity and lying to the american public on what the testimony was, stating he did

not know who the whistleblower was or case staff doesn't know. we all know who the whistleblower is. look at him as one of the clans in the clown car. this guy and his lawyer have up for theng a co last three years. burisma. ecent -- iser mind the fact the ceo an international arch criminal whose current whereabouts are unknown. this thing from start to finish and let's look at evidence. people bring up this quid pro quo, this for that, it does not exist. when adam schiff left the hearing and spoke to cnn and the sondlandwas ambassador implicates president trump, mike turner looks at sondland while

he is under oath and said did you implicate the president? no. planet -- ion the am quoting mike turner. and we have fact and fact is going to win over. that is why all republicans are not in favor of moving forward with this and will not vote for it. your region is strongly in favor of president trump. as you come back from thanksgiving break, what did you hear from constituents back home? guest: they would like to see us actually do something. much of my district, the county i live in, the majority is democrat and many of them did

vote for president trump last time because they liked his straightforward approach and honesty and the president has delivered. i don't believe the president has lost one vote and i think he picked up many of the naysayers who did not think he could deliver. look at our strong economy, the strength of nato that has improved because of the president, the level of funding that has come in. look where we are going with trade agreements if nancy pelosi -- speaker pelosi would find the time to bring it to the house floor, it would passed. that is not what they care about. they care about damaging the president and doing everything they can to remove him or damage the president so he cannot win in 2020. host: you talked about usmca, the last go around, you voted against the short-term spending resolution getting the government funded through december 20. where do you stand on that?

guest: we have ourselves a problem. it is groundhog day. we passed the overall appropriations bill, we passed the 12 appropriations bill where once again, we are primarily held up with homeland security any negotiation, the president and republicans have said we need $1.5 billion and the counter was zero dollars. it is very much where it began a year ago and we are going to have to see. we have this problem. i will tell you how it will end. it will end by democrats running a poll to see if shutting down the government will damage the president more than it will damage them. never mind what is best for the country and border security and those trying to come here illegally. let's do what we can do to

damage the president and if shut down does it, that is what they will be four. host: would you consider a one year spending freeze including --a pay freeze? guest: we should not get paid if a shutdown does occur, but the american people want us to improve our military and have the backs of our brave men and women in the field. they also want border security. a year ago, it was denied that we had a border problem. they finally came around and said we do. the president had to spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to provide security. no longereason we have 100 40,000 illegals coming across the board -- not due to democrat involvement or help, it is the president past relationship with the mexican

president and the mexican president put 15,000 troops along the border in armored controlled vehicles and tanks ushering illegals did not come across and they moved the asylum to the first country of entry into mexico. mexico has made not necessarily a wall -- a material wall, but they made a wall with our military that they are paying for. thank you for checking in with us. throughout the program, checking in with you, we are asking you are president trump's actions impeachable? if you think so, 202-748-8000. if you don't think so, 202-748-8001. this morning's hearing coming up in two hours and 10 minutes. that will be live on c-span 3

c-span radio. richmond, virginia, shirley, go ahead. caller: good morning, america. how are you today? host: we are doing great, go ahead. caller: yes, i think mr. trump is impeachable, number 45. the reason i say that is i watch 1, 2,gton journal, c-span and 3. all the news channels, i watch say and everyone wants to he is doing bad things and he is doing bad things. he is stealing from every fund we have to do whatever he is doing with putin. we have to stand up and fight for our rights and one more thing before you hang up on me. running asll in the

far as i am concerned because we have a right to vote for anyone we want and i will be voting for you. host: dennis, you don't think the actions are impeachable. tell us why? caller: when clinton was in office, i did not think that was impeachable either. i am just one of the sheep. i work every day, i work hard to make a living for my family. i don't have time for these circuses these people we are sending to washington, republicans and democrats alike. we don't have time to watch tv like the maxine waters supporter from virginia a minute ago that sits around watching all the networks so they can spin and decide how she feels about these issues. i don't have time for that, i am working. we need to wake up. they are playing these games wanting to impeach these allidents we vote in and the while, i am looking at a

website right now, usaid. all of you need to get on here and look at this data. sent 500 22,000,600 87,997 divide -- over half $1 billion to ukraine we spent -- sent to them. that is one country. meanwhile, we are sitting here debt and wellion in have indebted every citizen of america over $60,000. a lot of this is sent to foreign countries. meanwhile, we have families that cannot pay their bills. the income gap between business we the worker is so wide and send these politicians to washington to participate in the swamp, they approve all they stayed to foreign countries and set it up to where money flows

into their pockets. look at joe biden and his family. pelosi and her family who made millions on their inside information on the visa credit card scheme 10 years ago. it flows through their pockets like these inside deals like joe biden did with his family. host: asking your thoughts on the impeachment process, whether president trump's actions are impeachable. ,e are joined by peter welch democratic congressman from vermont and a member of the intelligence committee. what would you want folks to pay attention to in that report? guest: there are two issues and a goes back to that phone call president trump had with president zelensky. will you do me a favor? the evidence is overwhelming that president trump was

determined to use the power of his office, withhold that white house meeting and that approved zelensky and unless agreed to make an announcement he would investigate a political rival, joe biden. essentially, you had the classic concern our founders had when they were drafting the impeachment clause for the constitution, the fear of a person in high office using public trust for the benefit of personal gain and that is what happened there and on the theruction -- this goes to question of maintaining our constitutional order of checks and balances or to see that crumble. other presidents have always acknowledged the authority of the congress, republicans and democrats to do an impeachment inquiry, nixon, andrew johnson and bill clinton, they had people testify and produced

documents. president trump has said no documents, no testimony. what is at stake is the constitution. it is the question of whether anyone is above the law, the president believes he is and whether we are going to maintain a system of checks and balances that has been essential to maintaining our democracy. one of the scholars is jonathan turley from george washington university and we are getting word on his testimony. a tweet from the new york times saying jonathan turley will say one can oppose president trump's policies or actions, but concluded the current legal case for impeachment is not just woefully inadequate, but dangerous as the basis for the impeachment of an american president. i know that is new to you, but

what are your thoughts? guest: that goes to the heart of the responsibility each one of us will have to make. the constitution says the house of representatives has the authority to do impeachment. there is not a prescription to what it is. i gave you my definition. each of us will have to decide whether the conduct we feel is proven is sufficient to vote for impeachment. i disagree with turley on his assessment read it is extraordinary. if you were the mayor of a city and you wanted to have a police budget passed and the mayor said to the police chief i will not send that budget to the city council unless you agreed to do an investigation on my political rival. we would throw that mayor out. if the governor did it, the same thing and that is what happened with president trump. what is quite striking in the report is president trump's

actions were not just a phone call. as gordon sondland said, everybody was in the loop. the vice president knew what the deal was, the secretary, secretary of energy, rudy giuliani wasn't running the site shall. i disagree with the conclusion, but each of us in congress will come to that judgment on checking with our conscience and the constitution. host: you invited the president to testify before your committee and the president and his attorney saying they will not participate in the judiciary process. what is your thought about that-2 it is further resistance --what is your thought about that? guest: it is further resistance. he says he has all this exculpatory evidence, we would love to see it.

he says he would love to have his people testify, they are welcome. some of the information people like bolton, giuliani, vice president pence, secretary of state pompeo passed, that would be relevant and if the president would make them available, we would love to have them testify. president clinton, who hated the impeachment process and president nixon, they had their high officials including chiefs of staff testify, answer questions, answer interrogatories. the president has this option he claims he is innocent. the evidence we have is this is far from perfect, it was a scheme that put our national security secondary to president trump's personal interest in getting dirt on joe biden. host: i imagine you are glad the intelligence committee's work is done with the release of the report read are the

cosponsor of the prescription drug legislation. looking at the other work the house and senate have to get the house do you hope can get done before the end of the year and the next -- into the next session? guest: we have to get our budget done. number 2, the house passed an enormous number of bills in the senate. president trump is accusing the house of spending time in impeachment. we have done significant legislation, violence against women act, budget bills we have sent to the senate. senator mcconnell is turning his attention to one thing and one thing only and that is the approval of judges. we are acting. what i really hope we can do and there has been bipartisan support, is a very serious prescription drug bill that would bring down the punitive

everybody. senator grassley in the senate is doing a great job. we expect to take up a bill and get it over to the senate, and i hope president trump will follow through with pledges that he wants to stop the pharma ripoff. host: what is your timeline? do you think the house will vote on articles of impeachment by christmas? guest: my view is we should do it sooner rather than later. the report we have from the intelligence committee provides the basis. the judiciary will take that up and have to decide on articles, but the work, the substantive investigatory work has been done so i would rather see this sooner than later and not be dilatory. host: peter welch, seven-member

-- thank you for being with us. of presidentns trump impeachable? we welcome your comments and on text as well, (202) 748-8003 john in yuma says -- no, do not impeach. trump has not harmed the country. he has been doing his job well, even with the obstacles placed in front of him. from mike in shepherdstown, west virginia -- the democrats might have been able to gain more support had they not been hell-bent on it since the day trump took office. article two of the constitution gives the president discretionary power on any issue congress fails to act on. of dollars being misappropriated by the previous

president of ukraine would justify that discretion. no, they should not impeach, says ralph in connecticut. crime.t find he did a one of those who will testify is jeffrey rosen, the head of the national constitution center in philadelphia. he was on this program earlier this week. here is what he said about specific charges. rules,rding to senate the senate has to take it up and the constitution, although it does not say the senate must try , it shall have the sole power of impeachment and the chief justice shall provide, so that anticipates if the house impeach is then the senate will hold a trial in which the chief justice presides. claim youbeen some could hold a perfunctory trial

and dismiss the charges after a day. the johnson impeachment lasted only three days. the votes just were not there and it was pretty quick. senate rules specify a more withrate seizure presenting evidence and the chief presiding, and that is why the senator said the trial would last at least a week. host: national constitutional center jeffrey rosen is not testifying before the house judiciary committee this time. 1998. testify in let's get back to your calls. in biddeford, maine, we hear from joe. caller: thank you for taking my call. just a quick comment. if anyone watched the two congressmen or senators who just spoke and cannot realize that the republican is freaking nuts.

he is talking about crazy, conspiracies that the russians are promoting. just admit that. the impeachment is absolutely, absolutely has done enough to be impeached. the republicans mentioned the word "crime." you don't have to commit a crime. everyone knows that. he is going to be impeached. it will go to the senate and when it comes time for the senate to vote, what is going to happen is the senate is like -- senators like senator collins, other senators, sasse who will be on the line, and will hear real testimony under oath, not devin nunes spouting whatever all thesends out and other ones, match lap. -- matt slap.

when it comes time to vote, all they need is six senators to say, i am going to abstain, i am not going to vote. republicans say they all start together and voted. that is a lie. three senators stained in the last vote. if they -- abstained in the last vote. if they abstain, they will lose the vote. andtor republicans democrats, if it is easier to take the easier way out and abstain from voting, that is what they are going to do. that is what cowards do. they are protecting a lying president. host: fort lauderdale, jim is next up. caller: good morning. your last caller, and congressman welch are good examples of what the problem is that we are facing today. they are basically saying that

congress can impeach a president for whatever reason they want to think of. it is pretty ridiculous. the other problem is that speaker pelosi, she is the speaker of the house. she is not the speaker of the democrat party. what we have is a speaker of the democrat party. she knows that an impeachment process should be bipartisan, and this is the most non-bipartisan effort i have ever seen. the other thing is that there is no legal basis for impeaching donald trump because according to the defense act of 2018, he is supposed to certify there is no corruption in the ukraine. this is specific to the ukraine, not in general, and that is what donald trump was doing. the other thing is that, you want to compare this to the irs , tormentlois lerner

and suppressing voters of the republican party, you want to compare that to this? that is ridiculous. obama should have been impeached. host: from "the new york times" this morning, this is the oneline -- "mysterious dash and other calls show how giuliani pressured ukraine." they showed the president's personal lawyer executing in irregular foreign policy. rudy giuliani tweeting this morning -- the mere fact that i had numerous calls with the white house does not establish any specific topic. remember, i am the president's attorney. milwaukee, we hear from joy who thinks the president's actions are impeachable. go ahead. man,r: yes, yes, yes, that

impeach him. his whole clan has fell like dominoes. go back and pull up trump's advertisement, you know i was a snake before you let me in. crooks, his whole clan is crooked. host: cheryl in north carolina, good morning. caller: mi on the air? host: you are. caller: i wanted to say no on impeachment. i wanted to say this president has been investigated since 2015. he is still standing. and look at the policies he has gotten done to help, not hurt, the united states. this is all personality over policy, and the democrat party over policy. 2015 areemocrats since

cuts, buteath by 1000 he is still standing. half of america knows what is going on and what the dems are doing. the other half are too blind to see. no on impeachment. host: throughout the program this morning ahead of the hearing, we are hearing from members of the house on impeachment. we are joined by don bacon, second district of nebraska. congressman bacon, welcome. do you think the process has been fair to the president? guest: it has been stacked against him. he hasn't been allowed to have his attorney present and for the most part, the republican side has not been able to bring in their own witnesses. we need to be honest about it. for three years, the democrats are talking about impeachment

and we have had multiple votes on impeachment even before the ukraine phone call. this is on the agenda for the democrat since inauguration. i have been hearing about impeachment since the inauguration. business is not getting done in the process. no budget. we don't have a defense authorization bill. our military is weakened by this process. that aren'tse items getting done on the continuing resolution, you voted against the last term cr. why? guest: i spent the last three years trying to get our military back on its feet. on january 17, half of the navy aircraft couldn't fly. we have the oldest air force in the history of the air force. we spent the last three years restoring that military.

now under the leadership of nancy pelosi, we are seeing that being undermined and we are going backwards. cr's hurt our military. that was the third, and they want us to vote on a fourth, and it is wrong. the military cannot for kier different kind of weapons -- procure different kinds of weapons systems in their budget. that is about a 2% budget cut for what we programmed for this year. it is going backwards because of a cr. host: has the focus on impeachment on the floor and in the committees, and the partisan atmosphere in the house, has it made it tough to get work done on the committee level? guest: generally, one on one i work very well with members across the aisle. i am a caucus chair for the four country caucus that is half republican and half democrat.

i am also on the problem solvers caucus, so there is under the surface democrats and republicans working together, but you have to look at reality. we have spent the past however many months focusing on impeachment. we don't have a budget, defense authorization bill, or a trade deal, which nebraska sorely needs. america's business is not getting done because a speaker controls the agenda. we have a defense bill ready to go but she wants to put outside bills that have nothing to do with defense into it, which is bottling it all up and it is wrong. host: on the trade deal, let's focus on that, and on the news of additional likely tariffs from the administration, where do things stand on passing a trade deal in the house? how close is it? to 260we have 250 members who are verified yes for

usmca, the u.s., mexico, and canada trade deal. we only need 218 votes and this would pass easily if speaker pelosi would bring it to the floor. i believe it would be near 300 votes if she put it on the floor, but she doesn't want to. she is trying to use it as leverage to get other things that are not trade related and not defense related, to put in a more liberal agenda and force the president to accept that with a trade deal. she is holding it hostage with other issues. host: we are just a couple of days back from thanksgiving. what do you hear from folks in the omaha area on impeachment and on the business that congress is or is not getting done? guest: i did a lot of nonpartisan events. i did not do a town hall or strictly republican events. i did rotary clubs, retirement

centers, and did three or four events a day along those lines. i did hear ovi roaming late that folks -- overwhelmingly that folks in my purple district do not like impeachment. they do not necessarily condone the president's statements but do not think is impeachable. america's business is not getting done. number one issue in nebraska, and they want the trade deal past. they want to expand trade opportunities. what i heard from independent moderate voters is the election is in 11 months. let the voters decide. , of the omahan area, also serves on the agriculture committee, we appreciate you joining us. guest: thank you. actions of the president trump impeachable?

yes, (202) 748-8000 and no, (202) 748-8001. on text we are (202) 748-8003. saysen, washington state -- yes, i believe president trump is impeachable because of his actions. in panama city, carol says -- yes, and the gop knows full well is warranted. ottawa, iowa,m from randy who thinks so. caller: good morning, america. can i make a brief comment on -- he is blaming nancy pelosi and the democrats because the republicans lost the house. , just another conspiracy theory in their past.

i do believe that house oversight is imperative, that the republicans because they have been so partisan, they have hands,the democrats' that it is a constitutional need to support the constitution, by the constitution for them to impeach. i am really disappointed in the republican party because if you go back over the decades, and you read the powell doctrine and the stacking of the courts of judeupreme court, you read plan to ski and his bankrupt the united states, the two santa claus theory. this leads us to where we are under the republican regimes, deep in debt and with a court that is stacked against -- in their favor.

so the only other point is that i find that it is appalling that the republican party would turn helpy foreign country for in domestic problems, and would not take the word of the fbi and cia. if you look at president trump's appearance on television yesterday where he was talking that was straight out of a gangster movie. he was the head of the family, the godfather, talking to his america, and i find it appalling. the republican party is complicit in this and it is the democrats' duty for oversight and to follow this wherever it leads. defendsadline -- trump nato, slams macron delinquent on defense. of coveraget, lots

yesterday, his meetings with foreign leaders. he is speaking now with angela merkel. we can listen in for a moment. has [indiscernible] u.s. sanctions against iran. have you talked about that? >> no, but we well. i am not going to say what i will say, but we will. we will talk about a number of things and have a good meeting. will the u.s. put sanctions on north korea? >> we have not determined that yet. i think it is a problem, but it is a problem that germany is going to have to work out for themselves. maybe for germany it will not be a problem, but we will be talking about that. host: president trump with angela merkel, not seeing the

german leader yet, at news conference streaming live on c-span.org. this -- president trump held a previously unannounced one-on-one meeting with turkey's president erdogan on the sidelines of the nato summit. dorothyff, arkansas, thinks yes, the president did commit actionable -- impeachable actions. good morning. caller: i want to say that president trump has been operating the country like he is a mob boss. he has had giuliani out there working against the american government and he has been a pathological liar. he is unfit to run this country. he should be impeached and the republicans should vote him out. he is unfit to run this country and it is time our teach -- children see a real clean-cut

president who can have some more character, and he does not have it. host: priscilla, west hills, california, good morning. caller: thank you, c-span, for having everybody being able to tell what they feel about what is going on. i went through and watched the nixon impeachment, the clinton impeachment. retired so i can watch all the hearings in this so-called impeachment. i think it is a shame what is going on with our country right now. president trump, i read the transcript. the only thing he did was say, will you do us a favor, not me? he said, will you do us a favor? we have heard about things going on over there. we want to make sure this money is being well spent. he is looking out for my taxpayer dollar and for

america's taxpayer dollar. i see what he is doing with nato. he is getting more money, making them pay their fair share. in his campaign, he said he wants to clean up, he wants america not to be piggy banks. he helped ukraine more so than anybody. he has helped this country more so than any president that i have known, and i go far back. i remember truman, way back then. our country is in good shape and he is not taking a salary. he gives his salary to charities. he is not trying to -- he didn't want, didn't need somebody to help him out with the 2020 election. he went through 16 republicans who were really good. joe biden is not somebody that he is afraid of. he can beat him hands down, any

of the democrats. it is a shame. you know they would do jesus christ the same way if he was here on earth today. host: one of those testifying before the committee today is the university of north carolina law professor. melanie with politico tweets this -- michael gerhart will call president trump's actions "worse than the conduct of any other president." another says it is "the thinnest evidence and the narrowest grounds ever used to impeach any president." the hearing of the house judiciary committee, the report issued last night and our coverage on c-span three live at 10:00 a.m., on c-span radio, and live on c-span.org. if i did not mention it, the entire hearing, which could go

quite some time, will re-air tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span. this is the lead editorial in "the wall street journal" -- mr. schiff's impeachment opus. they warned once the machinery was up and running it would be impossible to stop. adam schiff released his house intelligence committee report on ukraine that finds president trump guilty, but it is clear that his real sin is being the willful, on -- donald trump voters elected. they reveal the weakness of their case with overstatement -- "the president placed his personal interest above the national interest of the united states, sought to undermine the integrity of the u.s. election process, and endangered national security" -- yet every president seeks some political advantage

in foreign policy, including barack obama. as for undermining election integrity, that was bill clinton when he vacuumed foreign campaign contributions from the ,ealities and other foreigners or hillary clinton when her campaign finance christopher steele sped russian disinformation on mr. trump to the media and fbi. mr. trump in his reckless way asked mr. zelinski for the "favor" of denying -- itestigating mr. biden, but is more evenhanded, his events were resisted across washington and ultimately failed. the of this undermined elections or "endangered" u.s. national security because there was no investigation and the aid

was never withheld. even if the aid had been withheld, that would merely have put the u.s. policy back to where was when mr. obama denied ukraine lethal military aid for several years until trump approved it -- provided it. from gary india -- gary, indiana, kathy. republicans need to call themselves publicans. that is what they are. enriched these people? trump has cheated on everything he has ever done. people say he is protecting our tax money. tax money that he never paid. he finds a way out. trump has no interest in anything that this country spends.

he wants it to be run like russia. he has taken his playbook from russia. that is what he is trying to turn this country into. black people who call in talking about they support trump, when have they seen a black person with putin? that is the way america is going to be. host: william in asheville, north carolina. caller: i am really perplexed about what i am hearing on the television this morning. since the time that trump got elected, i think it was within a week, all the democrats and everyone started just going crazy. i mean, because he made a statement that he is going to drain the swamp. backlashis democratic

and all of this confusion that they are creating within our country because of the fact that this man has done wonderful things for this country, he is a human. he makes mistakes like everyone of us do. however, we got more people working. our economy is strong. thing, how do people get hold of his phone numbers, his phone calls? that is eavesdropping on the president of the united states. they need to keep their nose out of his business and let him do what he needs to do to keep our country stronger. host: the record for that was released -- the phone call was released by the white house. they keep a record of those phone calls particularly with

foreign leaders. , edward saysryland yes, actions were impeachable. caller: good morning. c-span, i want to thank you for being who you are. you truly represent the democracy of the united states. my comment is for the supporters of trump and republicans. i wanted to say this, this is pretty plain. everybody onbe this side against him and everybody over here for him. when trump took office, he took an oath to defend and protect the united states. that is all of americans, all americans. bet this to his -- banter's to his little segment and is like, to hell with the rest of america.

number one, he is not honorable. the office of the presidency of the united states is an honorable office. signs thatant any can look like your integrity is being encroached upon. michael cohen, his attorney, gone to jail. paul manafort, his assistant, in jail. michael flynn, i think he is about ready to go to jail. -- i am 70th putin years old and ever since i can remember as a kid growing up, we used to go through air raid drills because the russians would attack. i can see diplomacy and that kind of thing, but how the hell are you going to meet with your ,dversary and not the allies the president of ukraine? host: thanks for your call. the program checking in with members of the house on capitol

hill ahead of this morning's house judiciary hearing. -- by thened from the democrat of the third district in california. there has been some talk that the house -- articles of impeachment could be expanded. what are you hearing? guest: it will be an opportunity for the judiciary committee to review all the allegations and information that has been available, certainly the report released yesterday by the intelligence committee's case one. that is the ukraine situation which you were discussing, and which the president clearly extorted and literally bribed the president of the ukraine to engage in the american election. we also have the mueller report, almost 24 month effort by a special counsel appointed from the department of justice to

investigate what was going on with russia in the 2016 election. that report is also available to the judiciary committee. would that be part of the impeachment? possibly it could be, remains to be seen. today, they are doing an important foundational issue that is, what is impeachment? what was intended in the constitution for impeachment? what are the purposes of it? what are the structures and what is around the impeachment question? host: let's talk a moment about foreign aid to ukraine. you served on the armed services committee so in a house committee like yours, like foreign affairs, develops the budget for the upcoming year, the foreign aid budget, the military budget to other countries. what is the general expectation of how that will be delivered? guest: in the case of ukraine,

there were two different parts. one was u.s. military personnel and others assisting the ukraine military in training and preparing to continue to successfully fight its war against russia. that is one piece of it. the second piece is the $391 million military equipment that ukraine needs to execute the war. past, the obama administration had been providing substantial military aid, but not what is known as lethal javelin antitank missiles, but nevertheless a lot of equipment was provided over the previous five years to the ukraine. this year, the 391 million dollars which is in question, which the president clearly held up, and the testimony would indicate, was held up for political purposes, to get the

ukraine government to initiate an investigation against trump's principal rival joe biden. host: we had your colleague don bacon on a short while ago and he talked a bit about the concerns he had over the delay servicesd -- the armed bill, the authorization bill passing. what is the status on that, and why is it seemingly being held up? guest: it is being held up for many reasons, but the two big reasons are within the house version of the bill, we essentially eliminated the opportunity for the president to appropriate money on his own, without congressional approval, to build his wall. over 5.5 billion dollars out of the defense department and transferred it to the department of homeland security to build his border wall. our version of the bill said you

cannot do that. if you want to build the wall, do it the constitutional way and get an appropriation from congress. there is also some additional issues having to do with the question of what we are going to our strategic to submarines becoming ballistic missile launchers. it is a major change in the purpose of our strategic nuclear submarine force. that is yet to be resolved. there are several other smaller issues. the fundamental problem goes back to the issues of the power of congress to maintain the power of the purse. host: for those of us who watch the house every day, do you wonder how you can get all the things you have to get done before the end of the year? on the continued resolution, the spending for 2020, how will that

be resolved? guest: these two things are tied together. billion ofome $730 appropriation that dovetailed with the national defense authorization act, which authorizes, and the appropriations provide the money. that is one of the issues. most of the issues are resolved with the exception of what to do with the department of homeland security, and these are all of the border security questions, the questions of immigration. all of those are tied up in the department of homeland security appropriation bill. host: what have caucus leaders told you about the timeline for potential house floor votes on impeachment articles? guest: sometime before christmas is the general word. there has been no definitive word on that, nor do i expect one. we will see what happens with the judiciary committee as they

conduct their work, how they are up the two issues that before them, the mueller report and the intelligence committee report. they may call witnesses. that may take more time. we do not know. this is an evolving situation. it seems every day there is something new we learn. we learned there are records of telephone calls made by giuliani and others to the white house, to the office of management and budget. that may lead to additional investigations. as chairman adam schiff said yesterday, the intelligence committee will continue to investigate several threads that are still out there. ,ost: john garamendi representative from the third district in california, thank you for dropping by. guest: thank you. host: news of another california

congressman -- duncan hunter pleads guilty to misusing campaign funds. they say he showed no emotion when he pleaded guilty to misusing campaign money in san diego. he declined to say when he would leave office. the prosecutor noted his honorable service in the marine corps and a place in a family that has been a southern california political dynasty, but had a sharp rebuke that the investigation was a "witch hunt." no figure, guard list of what office they occupy, should be allowed in this country to cry witch hunt or fake news and attempt to deflect their criminal wrongdoings. let's get to trenton, michigan, kirk. caller: good morning. thanks for c-span. my comment will be very quick,

may seem trivial, but i think it is crucial. representative welch was on earlier this morning. ,esterday you had robert costa the reporter from "the washington post." both made a statement when talking about the ukraine memo and used the phrase "do me a favor." that phrase does not appear in the memo or the transcript, but remember when schiff did his parity of that phone call, he said i have a favor i want from you. everyone has been taking that and now they use that phrase "do me a favor" but that does not appear in the transcript. what trump said is "do us a favor." that is an important distinction in terms of legality and any possible impeachment. host: we had that posted on our website.

it may still be there, c-span.org/impeachment. i will see if i can bring it up and get to what you are talking about, that point, the actual phrasing of what the president said, but go ahead. caller: i want to bring that up because i think people, as they watch the hearings today or any of the other proceedings in the future, they should have their ears tuned to listen to people saying "do me a favor" as opposed to "do us a favor." immediately after he said that, he said in the very next sentence, he talks about because our country has been -- needs this for whatever. us aes the phrase "do favor" and then he says "our country," so when people try to spin that and say it was for his personal favor, that is so

inaccurate that people should be alerted to that every time they hear it. every time representative welch this morning, reporter costa yesterday, they keep using that same phrase and that is just spin. host: max, naples, florida. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking the call. floridaatively new to and have been a new yorker. -- i served as -- what the president did his impeachable. -- is impeachable. the simple request for assistance in a u.s. election from a foreigner is a crime, irrespective of whether there is a quid pro quo.

said,as the caller just if you want to try to interpret the words of the president, i think you look to all the testimony that was elicited, including those who the president could not prevent from testifying who are part of the administration, including his , instructed to take assistance or guidance from mr. giuliani. of emails or texts that were shown. any doubt witht respect to what the president ofd has resolved in favor announcement, not

necessarily the prosecution, but the announcement of investigation into the biden, at the time when he recognized biden was perhaps the most serious threat to his reelection. beyond that, there is a considerable amount of evidence which would justify an affirmative vote on impeachment, and move the case to the senate. however, the question is -- many people said whether there should be on impeachment when the election is approaching in a year or a year and a half. that, i think it is appropriate to do that because we are dealing with the issue of whether there would be a fair election. the evidence is overwhelming that the russians have interfered with the past

election, 2016, and they are in the process of doing that again with respect to 2020. whether,eason to doubt and how successful they will be in affecting the outcome in the 2020 election. for that reason, i believe it is important that the impeachment process go forward irrespective of how it ends in the senate. caller from wisconsin talked about the language people have used in the committee, on news programs. i wanted to read the exact language. this is the transcript of the phone call on august 25 between president trump and the ukrainian president, the language in particular. like youdent: i would to do us a favor, though,

because our country has been through a lot and ukraine knows a lot about it. that is available at c-span.org/impeachment. other documents available, the full report from the house intelligence committee, the judiciary committee today is meeting at 10:00 a.m. eastern. they will hear from four legal scholars. at thefrank bowman university of missouri law "hool and author of the book high crimes and misdemeanors: a history of impeachment for the age of trump." about the definition of "high crimes and misdemeanors ." >> one thing people here is it sounds like it is referring to crimes in the ordinary sense, and because of that, it tends to confuse people and mislead us, tends to draw us into

discussions about whether a president's behavior falls within the narrow parameters of some particular statutory crime at the moment which we are having an impeachment controversy. that is not what it is about. it really is fundamentally about cases where the executive to thents a danger thetitutional norms that republic has held onto for many years. it is that kind of thing that the framers were most concerned about. schoolniversity of law -- university of missouri law frank bowmansor not testifying. marilyn., tennessee, have: -- caller: i

listened to some of your callers. let me tell that one lady, yes, obama sat down with the russians. this was in 2012. tell them i can do more for them after i win the election. how did obama know he was going to win? that is neither here nor there. as far as the impeachment thing goes, it is a joke. they tried and even told maxine waters, don't say that, we will lose the elections. they won, and that is all they have done. that is all they have done, is try to come up with anything they could come up with. he has done nothing different than a lot of other presidents except he is more transparent, and that is a cuss word to our senators, our house, and anybody that works for the washington government. don't be transparent. this man is way too transparent.

we get papers out from different organizations showing what happened and most of it is blacked out. you can't maybe get one word. you get papers on trump and it is wide open. that is the biggest fear that washington and the senators all have. host: michael in fort lauderdale, florida, good morning. caller: good morning. there is reason to impeach the president. awe about what is going on. likee never seen anything this in politics. in 11 months, we can make things change. if people love trump or hate trump, we have no more middleground anymore, and that is part of the problem. you cannot even talk to one

another anymore. that is a difficult way to negotiate forward in any government, and it is scary because i have never been this concerned about our administration at the top at this point. host: you don't think there is a way to get to a middle ground in this impeachment process? caller: there is steps along the way, and the democrats have responsibility to their oath of office to uphold the constitution. if they let it slide, this president will go more and more into the depths of god knows where. host: adam schiff yesterday was asked by reporters on the release of the report, if he personally supports the senate trial and the president's removal from office. >> i am going to reserve any kind of public judgment on that until i have a chance to consult with my colleagues, with our leadership, and i think this really needs to be a decision

that we all make as a body. i am going to continue to reserve judgment, but as you can tell, i am gravely concerned that if we merely accept this, that we invite not only further corruption of our elections by this president, but we also invite it of the next president. i am keenly aware of the significance of the precedent we set in whatever direction we move. host: adam schiff yesterday at his news conference, all of that at c-span.org. one senator who could sit in judgment of the president, senator kamala harris. the headline in "the wall street senator -- california ends campaign. back to capitol hill to speak with warren davidson of ohio, chair,edom caucus policy

joining us to talk about the impeachment effort and more. thank you for being with us. what is your take? it is a 300 page report, but what is your take? guest: i thought the clip you just aired where adam schiff said he is keenly aware of the precedent that he is setting, i wonder if he was considering that as he was issuing subpoenas for our colleagues' phone records. if you look at the way he has targeted private data, this would never hold in a court of law and in the political process, what crime did you consider devin nunes probable cause that you had to issue a warrant or subpoena? you see the president -- precedent, a fishing expedition for devin nunes and his staff, and in the financial services committee, a fishing expedition for the trump and family members

' bank records in an endless quest to find a crime because of personal animosity. a horriblet is precedent and that is being set by the impeachment committee. host: the phone records of rudy giuliani included in that report , what do you think will, of that? why do you think the committee majority have included that? guest: it is a way to draw inferences without having evidence. they don't have a wiretap because they would not get one. they would need law enforcement or that, presumably anyway, maybe a whistleblower that recorded the calls. you have attorney-client privilege. of course rudy giuliani will call the president, but they can make inferences about what might have been discussed, and that is all that is here. the cards they said they had on russia, they did not have.

the cards they said they have on ukraine they did not have. that is why you see adam schiff have -- hedging and saying, should we move forward? i will leave that to my colleagues. where is all the stuff you said we had? we don't have it. host: do you think the president would be better off to testify or have his attorneys testify before the process in judiciary? guest: i don't. i think you should wait if there is an effort in the senate and i think you should give a deposition. i don't know if he should appear on the floor. it was a very political impeachment process for bill clinton and one that went to the senate, the senate sets the rule. at that time, partisanship was not so bad that they could not agree on a set of rules and the rules past 100-0. does anyone believe that the rules or the process will pass

100-0? host: part of the reason of having you and your colleagues join us is not just to talk about impeachment, but the amount of work, the things that need to get done before the end of the year, the continuing resolution, the 2020 scheduling measures -- spending measures. how do you hope this is resolved? guest: i hope we don't shut the government down. we need to function as a country and we need the government to stay open. i know otherwise, but i hope the delay is so we can find a way to cut some spending and move towards balancing the budget. in fact, just the opposite is true. they are squabbling over ways to spend more money. it is not compassionate to bankrupt america. if that is the path we are on, we need to change course. represents thean

district previously led by congressman boehner. what are folks in the eighth district saying about the proceedings? guest: when you talk about impeachment proceedings, the best way to sum it up as everyone says, when is someone going to jail? republicans are looking for when people like peter strzok, lisa page, andrew mccabe and whatnot are going to be held accountable for their actions. when i talk to democrats at political events, they want to know when people from the trump administration are going to jail. peopleitically active feel like attorney general barr has a lot of work to do and somebody needs to go to jail, and people are fed up with the whole thing. people are sick of the topic and want to know when the country will move forward and get on with everything. that is the task ahead of us. host: is house republican

leadership preparing members at all, preparing your conference at all for potential house debate on articles of impeachment and a timeline for that? guest: there is no timeline because it has not been done yet. we added a week of time, the week of the 16th through the 20th, partly because the continuing resolution only goes to the 20th of december and partly to make up for the fact that the democrats needed a 12 day recess to talk about climate change and how to keep the country committed to an agreement the president withdrew from. host: that is congressman warren davidson from ohio joining us from capitol hill. thank you for being with us. guest: thank you. host: the congressman mentioned the phone records of rudy giuliani headlined in "the ."shington post

ukrainebegan his research, harness has been charged with campaign-finance violations. president trump at the nato summit in london weighing in on this issue earlier this morning. explain why your personal attorney would need to talk to --? >> i don't know. you would have to ask him. sounds like something that is not so complicated, no big deal. host: we will get back to your calls and comments. keith in evansville, indiana. caller: good morning. i don't think the president needs impeached. i think biden and his son brought this on themselves. if they did not do what they did , he would not have to ask about it.

he ran on getting rid of corruption. i want to see hunter biden and joe biden investigated. what is the hold up? let's find out if they are guilty. how are the democrats going to hold their heads up if they find out both of them are guilty as hell? that is what trump is after. let him do his damn job. greensboro, north carolina. caller: i am a young voter and i want to start off by saying i really don't think this is -- should be a-- this republican versus democrat thing. this is about the heart of our democracy and what precedent we set going forward. let's get to the question of why should trump be impeached? he should be impeached because he has a lawless history in the

lawless things he has done. you can look back. he just got caught with the $2 million charity scam, stealing from people in his own charity, shut down. next, the cia top lawyer criminally referred him. mueller said he could be prosecuted after office. for, this whole thing was his political advancement in 2020. they want us to vote in 2020, but he is trying to subvert it by getting sham investigations through giuliani. you have this long, lawless history and then you guys expect this guy to be transparent when he is blocking every document from the state department, from the white house. all this transparency, but he is the most transparent person in the world. ae we going to accept we have president who doesn't follow our constitution?

are we going to accept that he can just lie about it and get away with it, when there is a history of criminal acts put on the table in front of us? are we just going to say, he can get away with it? he should be impeached. host: charlene in clover, south carolina. caller: i say no to impeachment. he is the best president we have ever had for our country. the economy is doing much better and pelosi is basically doing the same thing they are accusing trump of doing. keeps adding things that she knows the republicans will not approve of. you can see a lot of the

criminal activity happening in the democrat party. the republicans a stand with trump and we will revoke trump in -- re-vote trump in there. from day onehunt to keep trump from being the president. he said he was going to get the swamp out and the criminals out. he is trying to investigate into a foreign country. the transcripts basically say that he wants what is best for our country. never said this is an order from the president of the united states and i will withhold aid unless you come forth with this investigation. he never once said that. all of the witnesses said that

there was no aid spoken about being withheld. trump knows why. host: here is where things stand, we are about one hour away from the gavel coming down. the house judiciary committee in the room used by the intelligence committee. a room formerly used as a house of representatives in 1949 due to repairs going on in the capital building. the hearing will play out like this. we expect opening statements from the chair, ranking member, awso the four loc professors who will testify. gerhart at the university of north carolina and jonathan shirley at washington university. they get opening statements of 10 minutes each. majoritys each for the

and minority councils. after that, the round of questioning from the 41 members of the judiciary committee. there is 24 democrats, 17 republicans, each getting five minutes. a fairly lengthy hearing ahead. we will have you live at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span three. also on c-span radio. we will re-air it tonight on c-span beginning at 8:00 eastern. thoughts,ting your our president trump's actions impeachable? if you think yes, that line is (202) 748-8000, if you think not, (202) 748-8001. we also welcome your text at (202) 748-8003. one of the attorneys not testifying today, head of the ceo of the national constitution testifying in the 1998 proceedings, here is jeffrey

rose. many of youose, are concerned about establishing a double standard. why should ordinary standards be convicted of perjury for liv ying? while the president escapes punishment. if you ask your size -- exercise your subject not to impeach a president, when he leaves office held -- possible criminal prosecutions and conviction as well as possible civil sanctions. you may well choose to rebuke the president with a reputational sanction that no ordinary citizen faces. haslewinsky investigation been in many ways a nightmare for the country. it has also been for all of us a constitutional education. reminding all of us that even well-intentioned laws can have equences. cons

this power of impeachment the power not to impeach. your comments on twitter, we are at c-spanwj. r said i saw the light and listens to adam schiff. cindy says absolutely and impeachable offense, trump has turned the white house into a house of cards and this nation into a laughingstock. chris in ohio says the treaty to do whatpresident he did to ukraine, they don't have the right to do this to him. next, we hear from tracy in georgia. caller: thanks for taking my call. host: you bet. caller: this would be so much more relevant if they had not

started from day one with impeachment and this is a coup. after he was elected or soon thereafter the lawyer said the coup is on. has just been from day one, they have not let him do his job. have they not put this dark cloud over president trump? our country would be in so much better shape. i heard all your callers this morning talking about a mob boss , i think that is just what this is, fantasy. they cannot accept that an outsider businessman is running the country because he wants to drain the swamp. the swamp monsters are fighting back. that is the way i feel. in vermont, your thoughts? caller: good morning, thanks for taking my call.

i think this president should be -- what he has held against the constitution. the problem i have what that is when we remove him from office, who will take his place? his whole cabinet is crooked. won't allow any investigators into the white house to get to the bottom of anything. i'm really concerned about our country and the direction it will head. that is all have to say. st: we will hear from roberta next in springfield, illinois. caller: i don't believe he should be impeached. they made it more complex than it really should be. they are not looking at sequence of events. there is several things.

mr. schiff is not under oath when he speaks to anybody on the board. conversationthe that president trump supposedly and presidentne trump released the conversation, mr. schiff came back and said what he read was a parody. -- i washis morning able to catch some of what he was able to say this morning. he had the outline of impeachment, i was like wait a minute, there are several steps left to come. he also stated that we don't have all the evidence. itself, it kind of sets me back a little bit. if you don't have the evidence

on the president side or that he definitely should be impeached it should all be brought forth and taken into consideration. in regards to ukraine and the weapons, i tried to pay attention to that. the president had stated that , if there were weapons that would defend them better it would be in their best interest. those were released. people are forgetting the sequence of events. mr. biden, what he said in 2016 versus now when the president is in office.

part of the letter itself and , theyf the testimony would say not frequently. they would putke words in his mouth. host: it sounds like you watched a fair amount of the intelligence committee. will you watch today's house judiciary committee? caller: i'm planning on it, yes. people are listening to too much of the press. they are not listening to what is actually said. one word can change the definition. democrat he said democratic. that changes things. i do plan on listening to it

i'm home and i am very much involved. keep on top of these things and see what is going on. i would like to know what is going on. in.: thanks for weighing the impeachment report itself, available report is on our website, c-span.org/impeachment. here is part of it. president repeatedly threatened and attacked a member of the intelligence community who filed an anonymous whistleblower complaint. more than 100 public statements appeared in just two months. they publicly question the whistleblower's motives. disputing the accuracy of the account and encouraged others to reveal the identity. most chillingly the president issued a threat against the whistleblower.

suggesting that they could face the death penalty for treason. have laverne in virginia. caller: thank you for taking my call. the presidentf being impeached. this is why. blatantly saysna should get anynt kind of foreign help in the election. this is what has come to rise. whistleblower, yes he has put out information that has come to pass. the president even says out of about thisone thing situation where the republicans

and the democrats. stood on the white lawn -- white house lawn and said they should put an investigation into the bidens. that is wrong. todoes not have that right ask any other foreign country to investigate our electoral people. this is why it is impeachable. it is telling all the people that this is what is wrong. host: we go to massachusetts next, sean, go ahead. caller: i have -- thank you c-span, you guys are amazing and unfiltered ability to communicate with people like this.

i am not for impeachment. i do think there is a lot of things that the president does that are on presidential and riled the people up. i am looking forward to today's testimony and i am looking forward to hearing from the constitutional lawyers. i really liked hearing on c-span dr. curley and what he was theng was we will erode line for impeachment. we have to be very careful what we do. this is not going to remove president trump. him justcan impeach because they don't like the way he combs his hair if they want to. whetherfalse question it is impeachable offense or non-impeachable offense. the congress is very partisan. there is very little evidence. really degrades the

process of impeachment for the future. it hurts our country terribly. he will get exonerated and if it does go to the senate, it will be gray television. i do want to see hunter biden talked and mr. schiff about it. i think he has been very biased. less biased process. i don't think we will accomplish anything for the country by doing this. i understand everybody's disappointment and anger in the pedigree of mr. trump. i think he does care about the country. iscares about himself, that no different than any man who has been president. i would love to see a woman president. i would love to see this country progress. real strongave

sustain the man. can we get on with the evidence of the country moving forward? i think trump will work with the democrats if they let him. he is a give and take guy. i think he is open to that. host: you mentioned jonathan turley, one of the legal scholars who will testify, a guest on this program two weeks ago. he talked about constitutional standards for impeachment. turley: i did the last impeachment trial, this is a great job. it comes with a burden. you try to get it right. you try to tell the people what the standard is. ways you are many

not going to say stuff that squeezes either side. if you go on the blog or on the papers i write, you will find i'm being criticized by both trump and anti-trump people. that means i probably have it right. these are serious days. we cannot act by impulse. i'm not defending trump. he can be impeached on abuse of power. we have to think seriously about what standard will be left in the aftermath. you do not want a standard that is so low and ill-defined that any president can be impeached by the whim of congress. likeis where people madison struggled to prevent. we live in an age of rage. whatever mistakes we have made in terms of the people that lead us, we need to leave the constitution out of it and protect that document above all. that is the reason we are still here.

hill he will be up on the before the house judiciary committee this morning. his testimony posted on his blog. their,would like to read that is the opening testimony. each of those professors gets in opening statement. your calls and text as well. (202) 748-8003 for texts. the impeachment debacle started just after trump started with report thatoo -- mueller proved to be fruitless. he did nothing wrong is confirmed by the ukrainian president. in 2016 it, you lost and will lose again in 2020. tex i love

listeningt, to doug collins. could that be because the white house locked every person and every document that was involved? you can't say you have no ability to present a defense when you are blocking the significant parties. back to your calls. howard in north carolina, good morning. caller: good morning c-span, i love your show. you guys really do have the information and the facts. 1775, thereme of was if you guys riding through the town. one of their names was paul revere. he was telling american people the british are coming. we need another paul revere in the republican party to stand up and say the russian is coming.

a lot of people want to put comments on do us a favor. they want to leave out the part -- we don't know who us is. i know part of the us is donald trump. the other part could be russia. russians would benefit off of won.if they would've if ukraine would've been convicted of being involved in the 16 election, you know the sanctions would come of russia? they would have to put russia back into the g8. a lot trump is doing for himself but also for russia. host: howard in north carolina. back to capitol hill we go. termng us is 19 congresswoman from ohio marcy kaptur. perspectiveunique of the cochair of the house

ukrainian caucus, what is your take on the house intelligence committee? guest: our caucus is bipartisan, it has been from the very beginning. we have first tried to help ukraine access the free nations of the world on the european continent. today is the skirmish line for liberty in europe. our nation was involved in two massive wars in the 20th century. happening on the european continent is very important from a security standpoint. we are united in ukraine's access to the free world. russia has invaded ukraine. over 14,000 ukrainians have died.

ukraine is the eastern flank of liberty on the european continent. we are talking about a country that is threatened in many ways, certainly at this moment by russia. what do you hope comes out of today's hearings and potential additional hearings from the house judiciary committee. saw the intelligence committee working over the last several months to prepare findings. those have been turned over to the judiciary committee. the house acts like a grand jury , these findings are turned over to the senate for the actual impeachment trial. away from thee report itself, the broad issues raised in terms of witnesses not being allowed to testify? guest: very serious. we see many of the top advisers

personal his own lawyers not coming forward before the committees jurisdiction hearing. i was quite surprised. i thought the president's top people involved would've come before the house committees, which are bipartisan. that did not happen. that raises major red flags in my own mind. inhink it is a great concern terms of what we currently have. it will probably weigh very heavily as the judiciary committee increases the articles of impeachment. how has the whole process this fall from september on affected your work in appropriations? guest: our work has been conducted. we have a bill ready to be

brought forth the house and senate. we completed our work in the house. i will tell you secretary perry, the secretary of energy made many trips to ukraine. when he returned, he would always reference that he had been there. i had no idea about some of the activities in which he had been involved related to the current matters of impeachment. he led the delegations there with president zelensky. the american people have the right to know this. it is sad that information did not come forward in the house hearings that have occurred. that raised a number of red --gs that just don't seem many of the president's campaign advisers are sitting in jail for crimes that should cause every

american to be concerned. for those who are sworn to uphold the constitution and to help us govern this country domestically and with foreign relations, not appearing is quite suspect. host: the u.s.-mexico canada trade agreement affects a lot of this country. you represent the cleveland-toledo area. what are your concerns with the usmca? what have you been told about potential he taking up that measure and getting it through the house? guest: the speaker has been working very hard with the chair of the ways and means committee. a nafta2, the usmca which sounds like the marines corps but it really isn't. important that we have strong enforcement provisions in that agreement and

what was written on paper actually comes true. there have been many problems with the current nafta that there is a body you can go to to resolve differences between the country end companies. that does not exist now. toe hoping they are able perfect the enforcement provisions of the revised nafta agreement. our country and mexico primarily, many people have been harmed by the original nafta. there were no provisions with that outlawed. host: do you think the house will vote on articles of impeachment before the end of the year? guest: i hope so. the american people want resolution. some of the witnesses we believed were extremely report and -- important did not come forward. i don't know what the senate will do. some of those concerns will be reflected in the articles that are drawn up now. host: thanks for being with us.

we continue with your comments 10:00 hour. the hearing coming up at 10:00 eastern, the judiciary committee hearing will air on c-span3 beginning at 10:00 a.m. eastern. also here on c-span radio, c-span.org, our re-air is planned tonight at 8:00 eastern right here on c-span. expected to be a long one. judith, from california, thank you for waiting. caller: i am very disgusted. nancy pelosi never formally announced this inquiry. as far as i am concerned, everything else is just a farce. adam schiff is playing to his audience. fabey he will write a book. that is neither here nor there. i think after this is over nancy pelosi and adam schiff should be

subpoenaed for crimes and misdemeanors and treason. and nancy pelosi is hiding behind adam schiff. he thinks he can sway everyone. as far as donald trump is concerned, he should not be impeached. host: rick in ashburn, virginia. caller: thanks for taking my call. just wanted to say that i have been a registered republican for about 25 years. i served in the military for 10 years. i'm saddened to say that i will be changing parties from being a registered republican to an independent because of what the republicans have taken action for with this president. republican is taking stuff at face value and not doing deductive reasoning. if you look beyond what is being ,aid to you by the leadership

you would see this president use michael: to take care of sick -- michael cohen to take care of situations. now uses rudy giuliani to take care of foreign policy when he has a perfectly good state department. i just wish the party would wake up because they are acting like parents whose kid has been charged with doing a major crime. they are naive to say my child wouldn't do that. i'm so disappointed in the party and how they have taken action. it is just unbelievable. i will have to be independent now. beyond whatooking is being said to us behind partisan politics. host: you mentioned you are a

former member of the military. ,ow did you think the lt. col. the russian expert in the national security council serving the white house, i think he was handled by the committee and the reaction from his allies? number one -- i think it could've been handled better. i think vindman could've portrayed himself a little bit better. with that being said, the attack on someone who has supported the country in his position for as long as he has i think should have been treated a lot better. that goes on par with everything the president is doing to include the stuff with the navy. i think the president is putting his hand on things that the for decades has been

known to take care of. president -- ist think people realize the senator who just retired from georgia, if they listen to his comment, that was his way to take a shot at the republicans. whong listen, an individual points and calls people names really doesn't have a solution to solve this problem. it is a way to distract. host: he is talking about johnny isakson who made his farewell comments yesterday. you could find that at c-span.org. he also mentioned michael cohen. times" memo shed light. he told federal investigators that another lawyer representing mr. trump dismissed his warnings that a letter to congress describing discussions between russian officials and representatives of the trump

organization about a proposed trump tower prospect -- project in moscow. at nyuld read all of that times.com. in minnesota, we hear from cindy. people need to realize the democrat party today is no longer the democrat party of yesteryear. global constitution to destroy our country. people need to be careful about voting for rino republicans. all of these democrats, despite if you might not vote with the nonsense, your account will not be heard. it is the globalist verse the united states constitution. today would be a disaster to listen to. i will tell you why.

we have four supposedly experts on the constitution. three of them are on the democrat side. they will lie. the other one i have heard speak. he says some things factual and other things are like what we would call a rhino response. this whole process has been set up illegally. meaning they are still asking questions. is there any way we can get past asking these questions? for the house in the senate to further participate in this nonsense and the destruction of to basically be partners to an unlawful process. .hey should walk away it is all based on dissolving the constitution. every bit of it. they want to give our country over to the global powers. people need to wake up and

realize this. they will wake up one day and find out there is no more america. stand by our president and support him. stand up for truth and start praying for the eternal god who will give us the power and grace that we need to fortify ourselves in this battle against evil. tom next in maryland. caller: could you hear me? host: yes. myler: i would like to tell brothers and sisters out there don't let your hearts be troubled. what these people are trying to do in the conservative party in this country is to take us back. are trying to put on us will come on them. likewill see what it feels to live in a country where their leader comes out in virtually

says i do not like people of and i'mt colors impartial towards certain sexes and things like that. this man is the worst president we have ever had in this country that i could remember. will have to experience a declining america and our finances in order to see what type of president we really have. then maybe they will wake up. i think it will be too late. host: president trump wrapping up his meetings in london tweeting a couple of things about that. great progress has been made by nato over the last few years. countries other than the u.s. have agreed to pay $130 billion more per year. by 2024 that year will be $400 billion. nato will be richer and stronger than ever before. just finished meetings with turkey and germany, heading to

meetings with countries that have met the 2% goals. when the meetings are over i will head to washington. we won't be doing a press conference because we did so many over the past two days. safe travels to all. let's hear from john in georgia. caller: good morning. i don't think president trump that has beening an impeachable offense. you had a collar on earlier who said he served 10 years and trump should not have gotten about obama being involved in bird-dog case? the democrats have wasted three when they should have been working on immigration, health care, infrastructure, all they have done for three years is badmouth trump.

acosta was on your program the other morning. i will quote him, i have never said one bad thing about donald trump. liar and i would tell him to his face. he has never said one good thing. as far as the "washington post" and the "new york times" they are two of the dirtiest, lying -- i finally quit watching them. caller: i think the president should be impeached. he should've been impeached today he took the word of vladimir putin over our intel. he keeps saying he does all of these things. one has really happened to america is the fairness doctrine

was taken away from the people. any kind of story can be told now and there are facts being told. news is what this president speaks. what was the stock market when obama came to office? 7500. when he left it was in the 21,000 range. it is at 27,000 now. crazy that what general patton said would happen to the united states of america -- the russians would be all the way up into our white house, supreme court, congress, senate. why won't they release all the information and who took all this money from the russian oligarchs to the american people? signsa video there of the that will be part of it.

kyle cheney of politico catching that as well. he tweets the tradition of gop placards as impeachment backdrop. richard is next, san diego, california. caller: thank you for taking my call. i don't think the president has done anything to be impeached. i think the biden thing and hunter, we all know what happened there. a guy helping his son out. we know that. the thing i don't understand is how these democrats -- california, the democrat capital of the world. i have been here 22 years and it is looking bad around here. it is going downhill. pretty much anywhere i see a democrat and charge it is pretty much going downhill.

is they keepg talking so much about the constitution. we have to get the constitution, keep the constitution. , isn't will be correct wantemocrats the one that to change my constitutional rights as far as gun rights? wasn't harris or somebody on tv talking about getting rid of twitter for trump? this thing they are talking about with the constitution, we have an oath to the constitution , it is not holding water. what this comes down to is they automatically know trump will get reelected and there is not a candidate they have that could possibly beat him.

biden couldn't beat his way out of a wet paper bag. we go to north carolina, horace. caller: i believe he should be impeached. he will not be convicted. he needs to have the stain on his record that he was impeached for all the things he has done. i listen to people talk about how great he is and what a great businessman he is. wentu realize this man bankrupt? how do you go bankrupt owning a business that gives you a license to steal money from people? i haven't seen anything that he america since for he has been there. is greatl about what i

for him. a sweet gal devoting her time to the american people. what is she done? what has her son-in-law done besides borrowing money from the saudi's? photo, there is a painting of the former chairman of the ways and means committee. that is the hearing room. it is big enough to hold this hearing. the hearing set to get underway in about 20 minutes. we will continue to take your phone calls and comments. our president trump's actions impeachable? (202) 748-8000 if you say yes. (202) 748-8001 if you say no. 20 minutes until 10:00 eastern

here. our capitol hill producer reporting on where the house members are at this hour. house democrats are holding a 9:00 a.m. members only caucus meeting at the capital to hear from the intelligence committee chair adam schiff. according to house democratic leadership aide, he also says the vice president attending the house republican conference meeting this morning on capitol hill. also some a bipartisan news,'tis the season, the capitol christmas tree is eight blue spruce from new mexico will be lit this evening. speaker pelosi will be at the u.s. capitol west lawn ceremony. we hear from rick next in tennessee. caller: my comment is the president should absolutely not

be impeached. i'm insulted by this whole inquiry. we saw the transcripts of the telephone call. this has just been a way to find something else they could try to get president trump on. he has done nothing wrong. this whole process has been a fraud, like the previous caller they have called these three democratic layers to testify about the constitution and one republican lawyer. is one-sided to try to present a scenario of why justified to try and impeach the president of the united states. it is a travesty to our whole constitution and our justice system.

of the people who are for impeachment, if you listen to them very carefully, everyone goes off on some type of a tangent about what other things president has done. they lie about everything and they don't substantiate anything with fact. lowest job percentage rate of african-americans of unemployment. women in the workforce does the the highest it has ever been. tell me something that is -- tell me that is something you don't want to have. thank you. where: i cannot imagine people walking around with blinders. this president has made nixon look like a cupcake. it is one lie after another, after another. can'tot imagine people

take off their blinders. this is crazy. what can you do? democrat orout republican. a divided country as a weaker country. offn is laughing his butt right now. that is what we have to think about, uniting this country back. it is all about our government. , notnment for the people for republican or democrat. host: live video from the hearing room. we see members of the audience gathering, members of the media as well. our live coverage will be overrun c-span3. radio, also be on c-span the free c-span radio app and

streaming live at c-span.org. we will air the hearing tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern. carolina, anne is next. caller: thank you for taking my call. i have three little points i would like to make. i am a little bit nervous. you always talk about the president -- the democrats talk about the president line. have they counted how many lies the democrats have told, especially schiff? they say no one is above the law, except the democrats. third, they want adam schiff to testify and he is refusing. , why has nothing to hide won't he testify? he says if the president has

nothing to hide, why doesn't he come forward? testifyn't adam schiff if he has nothing to hide? thank you for taking my call. william in college park, maryland. thatr: my comment is donald trump should definitely be impeached. this began a long time ago. before he became president. he wasle goal was -- obsessed with obama, wanted to outdo and outperform him. everything he has done since becoming president has been nothing but lies and misdemeanors among everything else. he is racist. theyther thing is that have all these documented phone calls. why can't they get the recordings? those phone calls will show proof that he committed bribery.

held back funds during a war time when people were being murdered and slaughtered and should have had the funds to tochase what they needed fight against russia. they have this new list of phone calls. the people giuliani called and all of the people involved. why can't they get the recording? recording of the phone calls. not clear on that. the report is available online. we have included it on c-span.org/impeachment. post" reporting trump loses appeal to keep financial records from house. they can access his private financial records from two

banks. a federal appeals court ruled on tuesday signing a court public interest to block the subpoenas. the ruling from the court of appeals from the second circuit goes in the ongoing legal battle trump has waged to shield his private business records. including two cases that have reached the supreme court. bethlehem, new hampshire, next up this is jay. caller: morning. i was under the general understanding that this was something allies did on a regular basis. gathered intel on each other's citizens, which they are prohibited from doing. don't feel reason i it rises to an impeachable offense. i'm certainly not a huge trump fan. incredibly, it seems like the democrats have made them into a more sympathetic character. for future presidents and future

conversations, this will have quite a chilling effect. i never knew so many people were on the call as they say. his leader wants to have words put out in front of the media? also is incredible. i'm kind of embarrassed about how much time i have spent paying attention to it. care, infrastructure. they must be getting compensated somehow. that is really something else. since when does potentially running from office immunize you from investigation? it is kind of surprising to meguest: because you might be candidate for office sometime that you would not be subject to scrutiny or investigation.

that is all i have, thank you. cohen, agressman steve member of the committee. we hear from karen next in indiana. presidentbelieve trump should be impeached no matter what the senate does. out that ourrings senate has been a do-nothing years.for 3.5 they have not taken their branch seriously and checked this president when he has gone off the rails. i'm a democrat, i believe there is always something positive that presidents do. slick.continued to be i believe he does have a good that shouldmething be followed up by a true statement.

fair. international trade in looking at the economy from a global perspective, i'm appalled by some of the callers that havingemocrats are into some kind of world economy that will destroy the united states of america. i don't get it. on the screen is doug collins. this is from the associated press. or'stalk about the overlap . plenty of expertise in the judiciary committee when it comes to the ukraine report and impeachment in general. the associated press writes that several members sit on the intelligence committee. valve demings -- , jim jordan temporarily on the intelligence

committee. you will see him today for sure. the ap also writes that several members of the panel including representatives jim chapmanenner and steve have been through impeachment before. they were in the proceedings with former president clinton. anthony is up next in harrisburg, arkansas. good morning. i have two points. , when i look back at the and saw half the nation go absolutely nuts because of the person they d to wind not winning. that was weird enough. -- what we all should've have been paying attention to is all of this

background going on to fight he was on thefore ticket. this business about russia, -- i'm russia, russia not so worried about a small poor country that is no longer the superpower it once was. i'm more concerned with a country like china that has real power, real plans for the future self a greater superpower. i will be very interested to hear what the upcoming reports doran will and

present. there thatome things might turn this thing completely backwards. i will be glad. been looking have in like alice in wonderland. everything has been upside down and backwards since 2016. host: reports indicate that those might be out in the next week or two. headline from "politico" may perhaps set the scene or tone for today. the reporting of heather cahill. i'm not going to take any -- the judiciary committee is ready for the scrutiny coming as he takes the reins of the impeachment inquiry. willis, virginia, good morning. caller: i think he should be

impeached. i don't know if you will be impeached. when the election comes, i think the american people will impeach him. thanks for taking my call. californiaong beach, . againsti vehemently impeachment. i will tell you why. anybody that has not studied mccarthyism and has not looked into why it has such an ugly -- this isr history mccarthyism all over again. what happened to the russian collusion? what happened to trump being an agent? nancy pelosi called him an imposter. have gone from bribery to

trickery to everything under the sun. states youhe united andd not railroad someone try to convict them without having witnesses and without voicing opinions in the court of law. a presidentemove from office. we have a problem in this country. the problem is when you hate somebody, you can impeach somebody? that is big. let me say one last thing. like himident, if you or not has been called every name in the books by the left. they have called him a nazi, they have called him an imposter . i know in the state of california if somebody gets a spray can and spray cans a swastika on the building, that person would be tracked down and that person will be put in jail.

it is ok for a politician to call somebody also name. what is the difference of spraying it on a building or spraying it with verbal instruction? we have a big problem. if you think a lot of people don't hate hillary clinton, is that why we should start impeachment? we will see if there are any grounds for impeachment. host: there are 41 members of the judiciary committee of the house, 17 republicans, 24 democrats. many of them filing in now. they will get five minutes of questioning. diane in the knoxville, tennessee, u.s. house coming in momentarily. caller: good morning. this president has been doing wrong stuff from the beginning. we have never had an election interference of

another country. since this man has been in office, it has been one thing after the other. while people are walking around and cannot see what he is doing, how he has destroyed this country and divided it. repeating what russia wants him to say and do is beyond me. up, stop looking at fox news, and think. what would you have done had this been obama? host: that will about wrap up the program this morning. just to let you know about what is ahead. you are seeing live video from the hearing room. that is about to get underway. we want to make sure you know that our live coverage of that is coming up next over on c-span3.

radio listeners, hang on, the hearing is coming up shortly. we will be streaming it live on c-span.org. our responsibility and our duty is to cover the u.s. house and senate gavel-to-gavel. let's take you live to the house floor. e hoe will be in order t chair lays bere the house a communication from th eaker. the clerk: the speaker's rm, december 4, ., 2019. i hereby appoint theonable to act as spear pro tempore on this day. signed, nancy pelosi, spear f e hous oreresentativ. the eaker pro tempore: pursuant to the order of the ouse of nuary 3, 2019, the chair will now recognize mbs from lists submitted by the mari and minority leaders fomorning hour debate. the chairill alrnate recognition between thparties. all time shall bequally allocated beeen the parties and in no event shall debate continueeyond 11:50 a.m. each member other than th majoriy anminotyeaders and the minority wh shall be limited to fiveintes. the cir recogs