Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 11212019 20240713

Intelligence committee continues another week of public hearings. You can join the conversation by phone or send us a comment on facebook and twitter. Washington journal is next. Host good morning. It is thursday, november 21, day 5 of the impeachment hearings. Explicit quid pro quo done at President Trumps direction. 10 leading president ial primary candidates took to the stage in atlanta for the fifth debate of the 2020 election cycle. You can join us by giving us a call. Democrats, 2027488000. Republicans, 2027488001. Independents, 2027488002. You can also send us a text this morning. That number, 2027488003. If you do, please include your name and where you are from. Otherwise, catch up with us on social media. On twitter it is cspanwj. On facebook it is facebook. Com cspan. You can start calling now and we will begin by showing you the front page banner headline of usa today. Everyone was in the loop. Yes, there was a quid pro quo. I followed the directions of the president. [video clip] i know members of this committee frequently frame these comp located issues in the form of a simple question. Was there a quid pro quo . As i testified previously with regard to the requested white house call and the white house meeting, the answer is yes. Mr. Giuliani conveyed to secretary payer, secretary perry, ambassador volcker, and others that President Trump wanted a Public Statement from president zelensky committing to investigations of recent election. D the 2016 mr. Giuliani expressed those requests to the ukrainians and to us. We all understood these prerequisites for the white house call and the white house meeting reflected President Trumps desires and requirements. Host much more from Gordon Sondland and the rest of yesterdays witnesses as well as a preview of day 5 of the impeachment hearings. At 9 00e will come in a. M. Eastern and we will take you there for live coverage. Online firstes from the liberal side of the political spectrum from the huffington post. Ondlands testimony was a bombshell and republicans pretended it was a dud. Testimony hadds serious fireworks and went through a list of what they heard and one more from the blaze, the headline focusing on jim jordan asking questions of Gordon Sondland on his quid pro quo claims. When did it happen . It never did was the headline. We are getting your thoughts, your headlines from yesterday on phone lines for democrats, republicans, and independents. Georgia, a democrat, good morning. Caller good morning. Thisustration with all of is the failure of the media and thatemocrats to explain number one, the reason this is election meddling is it is in the middle of a democratic primary. If the president was so concerned about joe biden and hunter biden, why did he give aid in 2018 . Why did he give aid in 2017 . Why didnt he ask the other president of ukraine to investigate the bidens . Why didnt he send Jeff Sessions . Why wasnt the fbi or any other Law Enforcement agencies why wasnt there a parallel investigation against the democrats . Do you know what i am saying . It doesnt make sense. The fact it is occurring during an election which is designed what it will ultimately do is stop the presses, it will have everybody talking about joe biden and doing everything to overturn things like it was with trumpsclinton while issues with russia were never disclosed. The fact it is happening during election time is what makes it problematic. The 2020 mentioned election, did you get a chance to watch the debate last night in atlanta and what did you think . Caller i did watch the debate. I dont think i think they need to spend more time on issues. I think they need only one moderator. I dont think it worked yesterday to have 4 different moderators. I think Rachel Maddow is good at interviewing, drawing people out, asking really thoughtful questions and i think it took away from the candidates being able to explain themselves when we have 4 different moderators. I think Rachel Maddow would have done well on her own. Host talking about the msnbc Washington Post debate, one of the key moments coming out of that debate occurred when Vice President joe biden spoke about Marijuana Legalization and the support he has in the africanamerican community. [video clip] i think we should decriminalize marijuana period and anyone who has a record should be let out of jail, their record is expunged, completely zeroed out. I think it makes sense based on data that we should study the longterm effects for the use of marijuana. Everyone gets out, record expunged. I am part of that obama coalition. I come out of the black community in terms of my support. I have more people supporting me in the black community because they know me, they know who i am, three former chairs of the only blacks, the africanamerican woman elected to the senate is here. Her one i said the first. [laughter] my point is i was picked to be Vice President because of my longstanding relationship to the black community, i was part of that coalition. Host former Vice President joe biden last night. The top tweeted moment according ov, the secondmost tweeted about moment, senator harris questioning Tulsi Gabbards commitment to the Democratic Party and the third most tweeted about moment, mayor pugh did crudest Pete Buttigieg criticizing tulsi gabbard. Lots to get through, lots of phone calls. Om, you are next a republican, good morning. I saw as far as what yesterday, it was democrats and republicans. You only showed the democrats. What is up with that . Host what do you mean, tom . The hearing showing gaveltogavel. Caller right before your show, i saw the democrats. Host perhaps you were talking about the opening of the hearing, the replay of that in the time before our program came on, but we have been covering the hearings in their entirety. There the pull for hearings, so all the images are cspan cameras in the room. We have been showing it all and we will be doing it again today. You want to, if watch uninterrupted, head over and if you have questions, a great place to go is cspan. Org impeachment. Links to the hearings, documents, a great resource for you to check in throughout this process. In texas, good morning. How are you doing this morning . Iam calling from texas and wanted to say one thing. A couple of things. Had obama or any other democratic candidate or itical, alecto official elected official done anything what trump is doing and got caught, the impeachment outcry would have been from coast to coast. We know this because they are still brick bringing up obama and he has been out of office for going on three years. He hasnt touched one document. Host we show you this scene in the Longworth House Office building. That is the ways and Means Committee room normally. One of the most ornate rooms on capitol hill showing you the press and members of the capitol Hill Security teams gathering as we take your phone calls. Democrat. Lorida, a beler trump should impeached, no question about it. Know why he is hiding his tax returns and he doesnt allow some of his Administration People to testify. Jim jonesdy remember who took his followers to indiana and what happened to him . Andou put up a cockroach trump, i am voting for the cockroach. Host republican in texas, good morning. Caller good morning. I appreciate your show. A does not take a very smart person to realize what is happening. Did something wrong, terribly wrong, and he ought to be held accountable. Giuliani, he is a long guy to do the job. Is this ahis is at conclusion you have come to over the course of the impeachment hearings or did you feel this way before . Caller i did not. I really believe our president called this. Why did all these problems start . Host that is jessica in texas. The president did respond briefly as he was leaving the white house yesterday to Gordon Sondlands testimony. Here is a bit from the president as he departed the white house. [video clip] just a quick comment on what is going on in terms of testimony with ambassador sondland. And i noticed one thing would say that means it is all over. Ukraine . Ou want from he asked me. I keep hearing all these different ideas and theories. This is ambassador sondland speaking to me, just happened. What do you want from ukraine . I keep hearing all these different ideas and theories. What do you want . What do you want . It was a very short and abrupt conversation he had with me. They said he was not in a good mood. I am always in a good mood, i dont know what that is. What do you want . I hear all these theories. What do you want . Here is my response that he gave, just gave. Ready . Do you have the cameras rolling . I want nothing. That is what i want from ukraine, that is what i want from ukraine. I want nothing. I said it twice. Question, what do you want . Not know him well, i have not spoken to him much, seems like a nice guy, though. Host this is what the president was holding in his hands as he was making the statements. The pad saying i want nothing, i want nothing, i want no quid pro quo and more from the president in his handwriting. Some photographers at the white house catching that picture. As the president made his comment about Gordon Sondland, many in the press pointing back to the president s own twitter page. It was october 8 where the president had this to say. I would love to send ambassador sondland, a good man and Great American to testify this is when he was originally requested to come before the committee, but the president said, unfortunately, he would be testifying before a totally compromised Kangaroo Court where republik and rights have been taken away and true facts are not allowed to the public. Alan in North Carolina. Caller i am trying to be ishodical about this and it dealing with republicans. I have been watching your show for a long time and listening to people talk concerning the president. First, the president won the election by the people and everybody understands that. Was there some problems dealing with the russians involved . Absolutely, yes. That has been confirmed. They talk about the president being impeached from the very beginning. All that is true, the president has done some good things economically, but some foreign things, he has not done very well. There are some things that came out dealing with russia, he should have been out of there. We have all this information identifying the loop with the president , this is just like he does not act like an american president , he acts like a dictator and he has all these sondland said,ke from the Vice President to the secretary of state down to the chief person. These people knew this back channel was going on and it is wrong. We have to have integrity because we are representing the United States. If we dont get this right, our country is already tribal lysed tribalized. Bad. Is going to go if this guy gets away with this if donald trump gets away with what he did, our country in regards tog what democracy really looks like. In ohio,ther alan independent, good morning. Caller good morning. Did everyone miss where biden isma rippedmy bur off millions of dollars from taxpayers . Would you like to see republicans controlled the senate . Would you like to see the Senate Committees launch an investigation to that affect . Caller yes, i would. Involved going after him, but why isnt somebody investigating all the money missing from the taxpayers . He triedt looks like to do the right thing by having it investigated. Host dottie in georgia, democrat, good morning. Would like to i say i wish everybody would stay on the topic. I dont want to hear anything about Hillary Clinton did this and joe biden did that. I wrote down what i wanted to say. He says he does not know him 1d, but he gave million and he appointed him to be an ambassador and then he wont let the people in on it testify. Why would he send Rudy Giuliani . Rudy giuliani does not work for the United States government. He works for donald trump. He said his job was to defend his client and his client is donald trump. When the man called in and says why dont they investigate the bidens . It has already been investigated, they said there is nothing to it and while he is worrying about investigating what hunter biden is doing, i dont think they care what the trumps are doing. They are all over the world making money. Host republicans have said there is something to it. Caller i dont care what republicans said, they lie all the time. I had a town hall meeting the other day with my representative and he sat on the phone and said we just built 100 miles of wall. Everybody knows there is no new wall down on the southern border. Host what are you looking for from todays impeachment increase hearings . It is the 11th and 12th witnesses that will appear on the fifth day of the open impeachment hearings. Ist i just want caller just want confirmation on what sondland said. He has no reason to lie, he just did not want to go to jail. Host who will be at the witness table today . Latestolmes is the addition added this week after giving his position late last week behind closed doors, a counselor for Political Affairs at the u. S. Embassy in ukraine and worked under then ambassador yovanovitch and later, the head of the Ukrainian Embassy, bill taylor. He was the one who overheard the phone call between President Trump and ambassador sondland we heard ambassador sondland testify about. He will be seated next to fiona hill, former National Security Council Senior director served under john bolton, responsible for coordinating u. S. Policy on the european union, nato, russia, turkey, and ukraine. July before that phone call between President Trump and president zelensky. A little from fiona hills deposition transcript. A lot of focus in her deposition on Rudy Giuliani and on what ambassador bolton thought of the actions Rudy Giuliani was conducting in ukraine. This one of the questions asked of her during that deposition, did you discuss ambassador yovanovitch with ambassador bolton . I did. What was his reaction to this . His reaction was pained about john bolton and basically said he directly said Rudy Giuliani is a hand grenade that is going to blow everybody up. He made it clear he did not feel there was anything he could possibly do about this. More about her interactions between bolton and what was happening with giuliani in the later part of her deposition she said ambassador sondland was talking about how he had an agreement with chief of staff theaney with a meeting with ukrainians and my director was looking completely alarmed. I came in as this discussion was underway and went back to speak to ambassador bolton and he asked me to report this to john eisenberg. He told me go and tell eisenberg i am not part of whatever drug deal sondland and mulvaney are cooking up on this. Two parts that have been highlighted since the release of her deposition. Perhaps you will hear more about that today and questions on that topic. James in tennessee, a republican. Good morning. Caller good morning. One thing i am not hearing and i watched the hearing yesterday. Excuse my voice. Sondland, once he was pressed by jim jordan said there was not when he pro quo and did he want . Hat he said he wanted nothing. That is not in any of the headlines. In the media is doing a good job brainwashing people because the headline are saying sondland said there was a quid pro quo, but there is not one snippet about what he said when he was pressed and he said it was not a quid pro quo. Cured hehink you are to thence directly to white house meeting. Mike turner pressing Gordon Sondland on that point and this is a part of the impeachment increase yesterday that a lot of republicans are pointing to. [video clip] after you testified, chairman shift said he gets to impeach the president because of your saysmony the banner sondland ties trump to withholding aid. Is that your testimony that you have evidence donald trump tied the investigation to the aid . I dont think you are saying that. I have said repeatedly i was presuming. So no one told you. Not just the president , giuliani did not tell you, pompeo did not tell you, nobody else on this planet told you donald trump was tidying aid to these investigations, is that correct . I think i already testified. Is it correct . No one on this planet told you donald trump was telling this aid on the investigation. If your answer is yes, the chairman is wrong and the headline on cnn is wrong. Yes or no . Yes. You really have no testimony today that ties President Trump fromscheme to withhold aid ukraine in exchange for these investigations . Other than my own presumption. Which is nothing. Hearsay is when i testify what someone else told me. Do you know what made up testimony is . When i just presume it . Thesee assuming all things and giving evidence they are running out and doing press conferences and cnn is saying you are saying the president should be impeached because he tied aid to the investigation. I never said the president of the United States should be impeached. You have left people with the confusing testimony you are giving evidence that you are not. Here is one of the headlines on that topic from todays washington times. Sondland dated tied giuliani did tie giuliani to the agreement for the aid. Getting your thoughts this thatng a day after testimony and in an hour and a half before that testimony. Eileen in new york, a democrat, good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call and thank you for taking everyones call. What i think is also very important right now is secretary of state bolton and Mick Mulvaney testify under oath. Testimonyndlands made that clear. Thank you. Host jeremy out of wisconsin, independent. Good morning. Caller thank you for cspan. Remarksas alans ,oncern us from North Carolina i would like to point out if president Donald Donald j. Trump is a dictator, why did mark sandy cash the check . Host elizabeth in louisiana, a democrat, good morning. Caller good morning and thank you so much for your call. I have a couple of things i want to share with us americans because we are so divided, it is sad. People need to understand when he went out there and said i did nothing wrong, what he was talking about was after the press and everything had leaked out and that is when he said that. Also, i want all our americans with burismahis and hunter biden. They had the house and senate and did nothing to investigate this, people. Did that not tell you there was nothing there . Just like this president. I try to respect him. Let me tell you something, he talked about obama before the man got in office. So many times he put lies on this man and nothing could be verified because if they had something on this man, which john mccain said he is a good man, a good, family man discouraged or talk about him when he was at a campaign. People, open your eyes and close it. You are not a democrat, you are not a republican, you are just an american. Host out of maryland, a republican. Good morning. Caller good morning. Can you hear me . Host yes, sir. Caller i am calling about how you open the show. When you open the show, you showed all the papers and showed sondland said this and this and this and the one word you did not put in there was presumed. He presumed all that. The only contact he had with the president was the president said he did not do it, i just want him to do the right thing. If you were given a baseball score, it would have been yankees 5, you did not hear the other side. Why didnt you have at least some of both parts of the hearing . I watched the whole hearing. I thought democrats did well in the end,ning and in they got blown out of the water. Host what was the turning part turning point in your mind . Caller everyone is using sunderland as the reason they are saying what they are saying. The president of the United States told him i dont want anything, i only want him to do the right thing. All these other people are coming with secondhand, thirdhand information and the guy who actually talk to the president said it did not happen and then he used the word presumed. ,n the beginning of the show you basically put out the propaganda host he said there was a quid pro quo, he said when it came to tying the aid, he presumed that. He did not actually talk to the president about that and we showed that clip of mike turner having that discussion with him and pushing him specifically on that point. Caller what did the president say . Host we show the president yesterday as well. He said there was no quid pro quo in his conversation with sondland. We played that clip as well. Debbie in ohio, good morning. Caller good morning and how are you . Host i am doing well. Caller we watched the hearing yesterday actually for the. Ast five days everything i watch, most of your witnesses were i believe, i feel, my opinion or come where are the my opinion. Where are the people that actually know . Why is it when the news reports this, it is never what they say . I like the republicans. I voted democrat when obama was in office. The second term, i regretted it. I really like trump, i like what he is doing. The reason i voted for him, he is not a politician and what we are seeing on capitol hill is a joke. Host that second panel yesterday it was early evening when they finally got and david hale, the undersecretary of state for Political Affairs was the thirdhighest ranking person in the state department. Did you stick around for that testimony . Caller i did and i was impressed with both of them because when they were asked something, they did not give an answer that everybody was the democrats were looking for, they. Old the truth when you clean about the hold on Security Assistance, her testimony members of her staff had told her ukraine a lot sooner than what was originally thought. Here is the chairman, adam schiff, going back and forward on that point. [video clip] i want to begin by asking informed us of. As early as july 25th the same day President Trump spoke with president zelensky on the phone and asked for this favor, the same day president zelensky thanked the United States for its military support and signaled it was ready to purchase more javelins, on that got you got your staff inquiries from someone at the Ukrainian Embassy concerned about the status of the military assistance, is that correct . That is correct. I would say specifically the Ukrainian Embassy staff asked what is going on with Ukrainian Security assistance. Connote to you they were concerned something was going on with it . Yes, sir. Your staff received more than one inquiry on that date. What was the nature of the other inquiry on july 25 . That was the one inquiry to i staff, but the other points had raised were emails reflecting outreach to the state department. So the Ukrainian Embassy was also contacting the state department to find out about its portion of military assistance . Yes, sir. Was that similarly a concern about what is going on with our military aid . What was a question about is going on with Security Assistance. Your staff or one of the other Department Staff heard in august additional inquiries from the Ukraine Embassy about a potential hold up in military assistance . I want to be careful about how i phrase this. My staff recall having had meetings with Ukrainian Embassy representatives during the month of august and they believe the topic came up at some point during that meeting, but they dont recur recall the precise date or specifically what the nature of the discussion was. Your staff at least gleaned that the Ukrainian Embassy was aware there was some kind of a hold on the assistance . The way i would phrase it is there was some kind of an issue, yes. Witnessre now the third before our committee who has testified the ukrainians found out about a problem or hold on Security Assistance prior to it becoming public, but the first two indicate that may go back to the date of the president s call with president zelensky. Host chairman adam schiff with laura cooper yesterday. You can go back and watch it in its entirety at cspan. Org. As we have been having this conversation, the president tweeting about five minutes ago, here is what the president had to say. The Republican Party and me had a great day yesterday with respect to the phony impeachment hoax and yet when i got home and checked out the News Coverage on much of the television, you would have no idea they were reporting the same event, fake and corrupt news. Anthony is next this morning, go ahead. Anthony, are you with us this morning . Caller yes. Host go ahead, sir. Caller i have a comment because i dont know if you announced it yet or not on your channel, but the fbi contacted the whistleblowers lawyer and they want to talk to the whistleblower. Host what are your thoughts on that, anthony . Caller it is going to blow everything up. Host why do you think that . Is going tohink it blow everything up . , since thel whistleblowers statement in the rest of the story does not match , it doesnt look like democrats are going to get anyplace with the hearings. Host the fbi seeking an interview with the whistleblower whose complaint led to the impeachment inquiry of the president. The special bureau contacted one of the whistleblowers lawyers last month and the fbi and legal team have traded messages. Two of the individuals spoke on the issue of anonymity to discuss the matter. No date for an interview has been set and it is not clear whether one will be. Declined tos comment. Spokesperson for the Justice Department and fbi declined to comment. The fbi is interested in the substance of the whistleblowers complaint. The complaint centering on that july 25 phone call. An independent, good morning. Caller your first democratic caller went on about why didnt President Trump ask for the threeigation the first years he was there and why did he wait until biden run for president. The answer is the mueller investigation. Anye would have requested investigations, the democrats would be saying he is tampering with the investigation. See, i have one suggestion, could you consider 10 minutes a day or 30 minutes at the end of the week to allow people and correct falsehoods from the opinion journalists you have and the socalled experts and politicians both parties. Host that is the beauty of the call and format, the open forum, you can call in during those segments and ask those folks directly, that is what we try to do, connect the viewers with the folks here writing the news stories, with the members making legislation with the individuals doing the being efforts in washington, that is what we are trying to do, to let you call in and ask the questions you want to ask. Isler one quick example tens of thousands of times journalists and opinion journalists and politicians say on cspan President Trump called all mexicans racist and he only said some are. If he said all opinion journalists he respects i would be lying. He respects some opinion journalists and some socalled journalists, but he does not respect all journalists. Host is there 2 or 3 opinion journalists see you respect . Caller opinion journalists . Host yes, sir. Aller really none of them some are more credible than others. Host which once . I donti will say want to give you one. Host that is david in west virginia. Democrat, you are next. Caller thanks for taking my call. I am thinking the question democrats should be repeating over and over is why has the white house not released to evidence that has been lawfully subpoenaed and allow the test witnesses to testify. If the white house had any information that would help their case, they would have released it all hold time a long time ago. When he thought the transcript released it. M, he why is he preventing people from testifying . Why is everybody that testifies implicating the white house one way or the other and everybody that refuses to testify is the only one protecting trump because they are not testifying. Host a few comments via our twitter page and your text messages, this is carol referring to the president s tweet from a few minutes ago. Thank goodness we have fox. Trumps judicial nominees will be his greatest legacy, this is how he made America Great again. Lynn saying when President Trump said i want nothing, that was said after the whistleblower ratted him out. Text, what is so amazing is every time you see trump saying he doesnt know someone, you always see a video of him sitting down and breaking bread and eating dinner with this person. Karen in alabama, republican, good morning. Caller good morning. Ould like to reiterate what do you want from ukrainians . When the republican toresentative asked him confirm this is the only direct evidence you have, correct . He said yes. Why would you show President Trump talking about it when he had written it down . One side of the place. Host you dont want us showing President Trump . Caller you do, but you need to show the testimony. People assume he is making that up. Host we showed the exchange with Michael Turner in which he was pressing him on what he talked to President Trump about. Caller i saw that. There was another exchange between another representative where he recounted the entire that istion and said the only direct evidence you have and trump denies he wanted else in of anything exchange for military aid. The coverage is onesided against trump. Host that is not what we are trying to do, we are trying to give people a sense of what happened yesterday and what is going to happen today. These hearings start in about an hour and 15 minutes and you can watch it all on cspan 3. It to wrap up the fifth democratic president ial debate, a very busy news day trying to get it all in. Usually it is three hours for the washington journal, but it is 3 2 hours today because the house is coming in at 9 00 a. M. And we will go there for gaveltogavel coverage. New mexico, independent, good morning. Caller can you hear me, john . Host yes, sir. Caller that one dude that called into talked about rnalists, and colder is ann coulter is a good one. Host she was on this Program Friday of last week talking about the impeachment inquiry among other topics. Viewers can watch that on our website. Go ahead, richard. Times it is already 8 quo. Witness said nonpro this is like crying wolf. They cry and cry and cry. Regina, kansas city, missouri. Watched the hearings, all of them with jovanovich yovanovitch and every witness that was there. She was so compelling, but the one thing she did not say was she was angry about being fired and taken away from ukraine and she seemed to be more sympathetic and hopeful for the Ukrainian Government then she did hours. The other one, lieutenant col. V indman talked about his father being ukrainian and russian and how proud his father would be and he was offered 3 times the defense minister of ukraine, three times. That means he wouldve been ahead of the whole ukrainian army. I really like sondland. I thought he was funny, i thought he was exasperated, jerk. Was a he already said the same things over and over again, but he was more mad at Rudy Giuliani then he was the president and when it came to the president , he had to quid pro quo, no in free inquiry, nothing. He wanted it straightened out with ukraine so he could be sure our money was being spent wisely. We were selfemployed for years and that tax money is hard to come up with in april. A goodthe president is steward and tight with our money and most importantly, with our boys blood. Host in louisiana, democrat, good morning. Caller thanks for taking my call. Because the impeachment i look at this. Everything people say about him, he says he did not do it. Even little kids in school talk about they need to impeach the president. President trump is arrogant, he is an arrogant man, he talks to people like they are nothing, he tells them to shut up. If that was obama, they would have thrown him out of office. Host did you get a chance to watch the democratic debate last night . Caller yes, i did. Host who do you think did well and who do you think did not do so well . Biden done good. I dont like to criticize anybody else, but some of them ofe a wonderful job and some them failed, in my idea. Host who do you think failed last night . Caller i really dont want to say because i dont want the upset with me when they vote for the other one. Host the Washington Post has their list of winners and losers from last nights debate. Here is what aaron blake thinks on that topic, the winner is Pete Buttigieg, the number one winner from last night positive a saying mayor pete has real momentum in the first contest in iowa where a Des Moines Register cnn poll had him up 9 points last week. He seems likely to be the target of many rival attacks, his most tense backandforth was with tulsa gabbard. In theabbard listed losers column for last nights debate along with joe, aaron blake writing joe bidens shaky debate performances have not cost him thus far, but that does not change the fact they are almost unfailingly shaky. This was the second most tweeted about moment last night according to twitters official staff. Seesng about the rot she in the Democratic Party and her response attracted the attention of senator Kamala Harris. [video clip] our Democratic Party is not the party that is of, by, and for the people. It is a party that has continued to be influenced by the Foreign Party establishment in washington, represented by Hillary Clinton and others Foreign Policy, the militaryindustrial complex and other greedy corporate interest. I am running to be the democratic nominee that rebuilds our Democratic Party, takes it out of their hands and puts it in the hands of the people of this country, a party that hears the voices of americans struggling across this country and puts it in the hands of veterans and fellow americans calling for an end to this ongoing bushclintontrump Foreign Policy doctrine of regime change, wars, overthrowing dictators, needlessly sending my brothers and sisters in uniform into harms way to fight in wars that undermine our National Security and have cost us thousands of american lives. I think it is unfortunate we have someone on the stage attempting to be the democratic nominee of president of the United States who during the Obama Administration spent four years fulltime criticizing president obama. That whole time, criticizing people on that stage affiliated with the Democratic Party. When donald trump was elected, not even sworn in, bloodied up to steve to get a meeting with tower,trump in trump fails to call a war criminal by what he is as a war criminal and spends fulltime during the course of this campaign criticizing the Democratic Party. Host Kamala Harris and tulsa gabbard last night. That debate hosted by msnbc and the Washington Post. On her concerns about the cost of foreign wars, a new report on that front, axios picking up reporting on that report that came out from brown university, the Watson Institute of international and Political Affairs noting american taxpayers so far have spent 6. 4 trillion on cost related to an by post 9 11 wars and conflicts that have taken place in more than 80 countries. Axios noting because the conflicts have been largely paid for with deficit spending, the total cost will continue to rise from Loan Interest even if the u. S. Withdraws from major war zones by the end of the fiscal year. They note Operation Enduring freedom in afghanistan and pakistan, the longest war in billion. Ory cost 978 appropriations for the iraq and syria wars totaled about 880 2020 and allgh operations in the global war on terror including those in the u. S. , europe, africa, and other regions averaged more than 100 billion each year. Axios with the reporting and Brown Universitys Watson Institute of international and Public Affairs with that report. John out of texas, good morning. Caller good morning. I did not watch the democratic , but i wantedght to put the entire impeachment hearings in context so our democratic voters can understand what really is going on. What the washington elites are trying to do with their toocratic media masters is undermine and remove the ability of the people to choose their leadership and by extension, the policy direction of the United States. If we do not establish as we have had for the last 300 years, the preeminence of people to determine their own leadership, this is the core of selfgovernment and what the United States is about, we will can only country and i say the one thing the Democratic Party now, which is a radical, socialist, communist party is good at is centralizing power and removing the people as the principal determinant of who the leadership is and what brought this impeachment hearing into the barrthe fact that investigation is now uncovering the absolute corruption and gravy train to the Democratic Party and even some republican establishment folks have been using to enrich themselves and what is happening now is they are uncovering all the activities that went on prior to the 2016 election and that is what got them moving into making up this absolute sham. I want to say one other thing that is extremely troubling. This lt. Col. Then men, heutenant colonel vindman, presumes to establish himself as the arbiter and policymaker of contravention of what the u. S. People have decided is their leadership and under the constitution, the president is the one who determines Foreign Policy. If we wanted to pull out of nato tomorrow, the president could do that. Should impeachment be used . Caller impeachment should be clearlya person has itd in some sort of should be so rare, like it is very hard for me to understand. I can think of no example in my history where impeachment would have been warranted because what impeachment is is an overthrow of the will of the people and the frequency of our elections make it such that if the people disagree with what the current leadership is doing, they have the opportunity to vote that person out of power. Host do you think the framers were wrong to put impeachment in the constitution . Caller i think it probably needed to be there, but because of its ambiguous nature, it opens itself up to abuse and there is no question the Democratic Party is abusing its rights as the majority of the house only. In newhis is a democrat jersey, good morning. Caller good morning, everybody. I listened to the call before me and i agree with him. I am a registered democrat. I am waiting to hear the horowitz and durham reports. I think this is the motivating factor for democrats to do what they are doing because they are panicking and they have to be panicking about the election because when you look at the boobs at the debate yesterday, there is not one person you could put in as president of the United States. When the democrats call and say there was no investigating going with this, itump is alive because horwitz has been out 18 months investigating what has been going on with ukraine seeing see that come out. Host why are you still a registered democrat . Caller because i get to vote in the primary and put the guy i want in. Host you said you do not like any of the folks. Caller they are horrible. They are a disaster. Host what will you do at the democratic primary . Caller i will vote for one of them. It doesnt matter. Democratdry henry, out of montrose, virginia. Caller for the impeachment thing, if President Trump would let his guys keep stopping from testifying, we could clear this up in a little while and get on with the problems of the country. I know that he got a right to do what he want to do as the leader of the country, but look what happened in syria . We better get ready because those guys are mad and there will be some more conflict. Disastert a mess and a , that lady was just talking about. A disaster is happening now because we have all those guys in there, and no one is going to jail. When you start locking them up and telling them to tell their kids and grandkids, grandma and grandpa up will be in prison for thanksgiving and christmas, they will talk about the rest. Host we are just under an hour away from day five of the open impeachment inquiry hearing taking place at 1100 Longworth House Office building before the house Intelligence Committee. Yesterday, ambassador Gordon Sondland, the Eu Ambassador sending shock with his testimony. He is the focus of nearly every front page of the National Newspapers today. Here is more. [video clip] sondland we were faced with the choice, abandon the efforts for a white house call and visit between president , which waselensky unquestionably in our Foreign Policy interest, or do as President Trump directed and talk with rudy. We chose the latter course, not because we liked it, but because it was the only constructive path open to us. Over the course of the next several months, secretary perry,mbassador voelker volker and i were in contact with Rudy Giuliani. Secretary perry agreed to make the initial calls, given their prior relationship. Severalor volker made of the early calls and informed us what was discussed. Giulianied with mr. Months later. So giuliani emphasized the president wanted a Public Statement from president zelensky committing ukraine to look into the corruption issues. Mr. Giuliani specifically mentioned the 2016 election, including the dnc server and burisma as two topics of importance to the president. We kept the leadership of the state department and the nsc informed of our activities, and that included communications with secretary of state pompeo, his counselor, his executive secretary, and also communications with ambassador morrison,. Hill, mr. And their staff at the nsc. They knew what we were doing and why. That was ambassador Gordon Sondland yesterday on capitol hill, President Trump up and tweeting this morning, a few more in the past several of minutes, focusing on the investigation by new york prosecutors looking at his financial records. This was the president from 7 58 a. M. Bob mueller, after spending two years and 45 million went over my financials and taxes and found nothing. The witchhunt continues with local prosecutors going over every financial deal i have ever done. This has never happened to a president before. What they are doing is not legal but i am clean. When i release my Financial Statement sometime prior to the election, it will show i am much richer than people even thought and that is a good thing. Jobs, jobs, jobs. Pete, new jersey, republican, you are next. Caller you are talking about quid pro quo. There is a short video clip on youtube of Vice President biden boasting at a council on Foreign Relations meeting how he threatened ukraine to withhold a billion dollars in aid unless they fired the prosecutor burisma and his son hunter. Host you say you would like us to play that . Caller yes, play that clip. That is the actual corruption President Trump was trying to have investigated. Host i think we can play that for you now. I am desperately concerned about the backsliding on the kiev in terms of corruption. I have got one concrete example. I, but that just happened to be the assignment i got. I got all the good ones, so i got ukraine. I remember going over convincing we should be providing for low guaranteeings loan guarantees. We went over 12 to 13 times two kiev and i was supposed to announce there was another billion dollar loan guarantee, and i got a commitment from poroshenko that they would take action against the state prosecutor and they didnt. They walked out of the press conference. We are not going to give you the billion dollars. They said, you got no authority. The president set i should call. I tell you, you are not getting the billion dollars. I will be leaving here in i think six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you are not getting the money. Son of a bench, son of a bitch, he got fired and they put someone in solid at the time. They made genuine, substantial changes institutionally and with people, but one of the three institutions, there is now some backsliding. January 2018, former Vice President joe biden at the council on Foreign Relations. Why did you want us to play that . Caller that is quid pro quo in action. He is threatening to withhold a billion dollars in aid unless they fired the prosecutor investigating burisma and his son hunter. Host let me ask you about the idea of a quid pro quo. This is from barbara mcquaid, a former u. S. Attorney in michigan , professor at university of michigan law, and she talks about quid pro quo and focuses on the president saying it is an element of bribery which is specified in the prosecution as an impeachable act. Brian blair is described as demanding a thing bribery is described as demanding a thing of value in return for an action. He could have used the announcement to attack the former Vice President. An official white house visit and release of military aid could each constitute the performance of an official act, in other words, quid pro quo. It all adds up, she writes. I think we lost the caller. Tracy in league city, texas, independent. Caller i do have thoughts i was going to discuss. It seems like people are getting confused that there is two things. When someone said he was confirming there was a quid pro quo, what he was referencing was the actual meeting with the ukrainian president at the white house with trump. He confirmed that to his knowledge, there was a condition on that meeting and the condition was that he first had to openly acknowledge that he was going to investigate bu risma, basically hunter and joe biden, and the 2016 election. He is making an assumption on the fact that everything was held up based on the meeting, and what was associated in dealing with the whole process with ukraine was the money. It is common sense that both of them were conditioned on the ukrainian president playing ball with what trump wanted him to do. Also, i am just really concerned with what i am hearing when the republican constituents with the republican constituents. It seems like they are not being responsible citizens. This is our government. These people are sending millions of dollars worth of our tax money that if we dont pay we are penalized, to other countries. For us citizens to not look at what our president is doing objectively and not just to look at it from a position of, i am a republican so therefore this person can do no wrong in my eyes, to me, it seems like they complain about having a swamp when you are electing people who are unethical, to serve our government. This is a representative government, so if you are electing people like donald trump who are clearly unethical, are corrupt in their behavior, then of course you were going to have a government of people who you define as the swamp. Host that is tracy. Republican. Texas, good morning. Caller i am not sure how they pick for the intelligence question, but my maybe you could help me with this, how come at least 75 of the people on the Intelligence Committee on the democratic side are from the state of california . I myself originally was born and raised in california, lived there 30 years, left because the place became a dump. If these people would spend more time cleaning up their state, maybe more people would stay in it. Host what is your concern about the membership, and who are you most concerned about . Because iam saying, was watching the program and all the republicans were from california the democrats, im sorry, the democrats. Host the only democrats from the committee on cal of from california are adam schiff, swalwell, anderic that is going to do it of democratic members from california out of the 13 democratic members on the team. Caller i thought there was a little bit more, but i was just wondering because i am thinking to myself, it is very odd. Aboutre bitching something that is so irrelevant. My son is in the army and i went home for his wedding two years ago. That place looked like a dump. Host that is caroline in texas. Arlington, texas, independent, this is bob. Caller i want to tell you how lucky you are to have brian lamb as a tutor. Host i completely agree with you. Thanks for that. Caller you all were talking about joe biden, and i really have some family value issues with joe. Son hunter started dating his dead sons wife, joe was so happy and elated, i dont think a lot of people knew about that. Host how did you know about that . Caller an article in people magazine. People are too chicken to ask him about that. Son huntern joes has been charged with impregnating a girl who lives in arkansas. I would take that brown eyed, handsome man by the ear and get a dna test. Host the story on that front from todays washington times, the story noting hunter biden is the father of an arkansas womans baby, according to a paternity test, details in court papers filed wednesday. Dna was established to a scientific certainty that the defendant is the father of the child, fathered by alexis. Oberts, 28 years old she filed a petition for paternity support against mr. Biden. The younger mr. Biden is not expected to challenge the results of the dna test or the testing process. Do you want to finish your thoughts . Caller that makes joe a grandpa again. Why dont he confess to it . Why dont he talk about it . He need to confess to that because his son is a sorry soandso. He shouldnt ever have any respect whatsoever. Thats family values for you. Host marjorie, indianapolis, indiana, democrat. Caller pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, because i am laughing my ass off because of this. Host who is the man behind the curtain . From it is a childrens book, i cant think of it now. He wizard of oz host in terms of the news today . Caller the man behind the curtain is trump, my point being for whatever reason, trump is certainly outstanding and he in funny books about the empire state elting and somewhere building. Host bring us to the impeachment inquiry. Caller i kind of am. Becauseit kind of funny he is worse and i particular simple,it is relatively and it doesnt seem to be reaching daily. Heeds himselfs he as far away from the reality. People go and say, people are telling me, but he doesnt himself put his voice on the voicemail. You know what im saying . Host do you think Gordon Sondland pulled back the curtain yesterday . Caller somewhat, yeah, absolutely. Host more from yesterdays testimony by Gordon Sondland, in exchange with republican congressman jott Radcliffe John ratcliffe, concerns about some of Gordon Sondlands presumptions. , whichke this proceeding has been largely based on presumption and opinion, this is direct testimony and direct evidence, and to that point, not of that included evidence about the bidens and none of it included evidence about military assistance because President Trump never mentioned either of those to you, correct . That is correct. The july 26k to call, you didnt remember it because it did not strike u. S. Significant. Is it fair to say that if the president of the United States was asking you to do or Say Something unlawful, that would have been significant . Yes. If that call was part of a bribery or extortion scheme that you were part of, you would remember that a significant, wouldnt you . I was not a part would have remembered it. I understand and i agree with you. Lets turn to the quid pro quo because it has been reported that this was blockbuster testimony about quid pro quo and new evidence. To be fair to you, according to your statement today, as you say on page 14 as you testified this was your opinion that there was a quid pro quo, correct . The 20s burisma016 election and in return for the white house meeting, that is correct. Host ambassador Gordon Sondland and representative john ratcliffe. You heard him saying it is going to be a spectacle tomorrow and today is tomorrow, the fifth day of the impeachment hearings. Two witnesses, fiona hill and david holmes. David holmes, the counselor for Political Affairs at the u. S. Embassy in kiev. He worked under ambassador Marie Yovanovitch and bill taylor when he headed the Ukrainian Embassy. David holmes, the most significant we have heard about him in recent days because he apparently overheard that phone call between President Trump and ambassador sondland that took place at the ukrainian restaurant. He will likely be asked about that. Fiona hill, former National Security director served under john bolton and responsible for coordinating u. S. Policy. She resigned from the nsc in mid july before the july 25 phone call, but a lot of her closed door testimony focused on concerns that she had about aid and what was being withheld from ukraine in terms of the potential quid pro quo. Mike is next in more bang, oklahoma in moore, oklahoma, republican. Caller i just have a statement. About four or five days ago a person called in and said that cspan was so unfair as to the callers who call in. He referenced you and all the other people on cspan. The only thing i have to say is i have been watching cspan for a long time. I see nothing but fair and honest, out of all of you people there, and i wish that person would watch a little bit closer. You do not cut people off. You let them finish their statements. You let them say whatever they need to say. You cannot be more fair and honest then what cspan has done for the United States. Host appreciate that. Go ahead. Caller as far as this impeachment is going and i realize this and hope the American People realize this if it gets to the senate, it is dead. It is not going to matter one way or another. There is not enough votes in the senate to totally and irrevocably finish this out and impeach the president of the United States. I am sorry for this situation. To me, it is all political, but i will keep watching and hope i am more informed than i am today. Host do you think what has happened over the course of the hearings and 10 witnesses, that any mines have changed in the senate . Changed in the senate . It would take quite a few. Caller no, i do not, and it boils down to politics. Politics can have a very brutal name and i think we are seeing it play out, unfortunately. Host here is the story in todays Washington Post focusing on republican senators, their reaction yesterday to Gordon Sondlands testimony, a couple of quotes from a couple of them, this from senator lindsey graham, saying i say sans blend changed his story several times and one needs to be suspicious. I think what he said, compare it to the facts. Senator mike braun saying i ds opinion and presumption and that makes it confusing. Sayr allies in the senate even if there was a quid pro quo , there were other factors to consider. I dont think the quid pro quo is the issue. If you are talking about an illegal quid pro quo, there are legal and illegal quid pro quos peer that was quid pro quos. That was john kennedy. The story in the Washington Post as we show you fiona hill coming in. She will be at the witness table in just over a half an hour before the house Intelligence Committee. Philadelphia, democrat, good morning. Calling basically to say, my concerns with President Trump are along the lines of bernie made off, ofoff, who scammed a lot people and a lot of people trusted in him until they found out he was stealing their money. Biden,e we focus on joe or while the republicans are focusing on joe biden, i think it is the same playbook they d two scam Hillary Clinton to scam Hillary Clinton. They used her emails, the way they are using whatsapp now, they are using personal emails and personal phones but there is no outrage like there was with Hillary Clinton, and the personal emails. That type of duplicity is part of the problem, where there is outrage on one side and not on the other. They are acting more like gang members than politicians. In addition to that, it is the same playbook where they are taking out of context joe biden being sent to ukraine because a prosecutor was not prosecuting corruption, including his sons position. The prosecutor stopped prosecuting. It was not just joe biden. It was america. It was other partners in nato and pretty much everybody that wanted that prosecutor removed, so i think the media is falling down and not focusing on the facts, and focusing too much on opinion and spin. Where are the days of the Edward Murrows whodward got to the facts . Host here is more from President Trump via his twitter page from about 15 minutes ago. I never in my wildest dreams thought my name would be in any way associated with the ugly word impeachment. Calls, transcripts were perfect. Nothing was wrong. There was no problem with ukraine. Great corruption by shift schiff. Keep fighting tough, republicans. You are dealing with human scam who have taken due process and Republican Partys rights away from us. But we are winning big and they will soon be on our turf. The president of the United States. Trisha, temple, georgia, democrat. Caller good morning. Guilty in ukraine as he was with the russians, involve his self without dust involving his self with that involving his self without. He is a dictator. I have seen his signs. Host take us to the hearings. Did you watch . Caller i watched and will watch today. Host what are you looking for . Is your mind made up . Caller my mind was made up before he came down the escalator because he is a white supremacist. Nobody is Pay Attention paying attention to him. He does the sign. Host that is patricia in georgia. Norman out of amherst, massachusetts, good morning. Caller thanks for taking my call. I just want to speak up for how fair cspan is, not just fair, but vital and important. Host i appreciate that. It looks like david holmes is getting ready to enter the longworth house building, about to enter security. Go ahead, sir. Caller so i wanted to speak about the jovanovich testimony. By cspan or airing the entire thing, it hasnt been picked up by the press yet, but she put out a shout out to this group in ukraine, the heavenly hundred, nazi was a monument to the fighters involved in the 2014 revolution. People need to have memory and understand, and it is overlooked. Signed a90s, the u. S. Nuclear nonproliferation treaty, handsoff ukraine, the u. S. Would never aid ukraine, so any aid to ukraine is violating that treaty. Ofruary 2014, at the end february, victoria newman who was in the Obama Administration, state department, announced the u. S. Had already given 5 billion to wade the revolution in need the revolution to aid the revolution in ukraine and appropriated another 5 billion. Host sum it all up. Caller in her testimony, she said she was fired for not officially glorifying this nazi party. The new president zelensky ran, i got elected on running against the nazi incursion as was overwhelmingly elected. The fact that cspan allows this testimony to get out in the public, even though Corporate News doesnt cover it, thank you. Host pamela in arizona, democrat. Caller i would just like to say that i think donald trump should be impeached. All the lies he has told from the time he has come in office should be printed on paper for everyone to see, and i also feel releasehe would just all the documents in regards to this impeachment and have all those in his administration testify, we could really get to the bottom of what is really going on. Thank you. Host john in maryland, a republican. Caller i was listening to the hearing a couple of times last night and today. I really did not hear anything that proves anything to me. I support President Trump and to listen to some of the callers on here, the democrats, i believe they are terrible people and i feel bad for President Trump and anybody who would want to take office and have that job, because you are hated no matter what. Host do you think all democrats are terrible people . Caller no, just some of them. To listen to the way that they talk, i wasnt brought up like that. I hear and feel a lot of hatred. Host that is john in maryland. Randy in rome, new york, independent. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I just have a couple of points to make over the last couple of days of testimony. I am retired from the military so i have been watching every bit of it. Obviously,he only, neutral coverage, so i appreciate you guys doing that. One other note, i want to apologize to you for the fact that some people say cspan is biased. I am shocked, but whatever. If they would listen to all of your program instead of just snippets they would understand you are doing the best you can. You cant help everybody. My point i want to make, with d, i read his deposition, read them all as they have been given to us, but i was shocked in the morning when he flipflopped saying there was a quid pro quo, but then later as the day went on and sometime during the day if you could play, i am not sure which one of the democrats talked to him about it, but he them attacky having his businesses in oregon. He is trying to threaten. There are people talking about him donating a Million Dollars to the trump campaign, which is not true. Host are you referring to the part of the testimony where i think Sean Patrick Maloney and that it took a lot to get him to where he is today in terms of his testimony, is that the part you are referring to . Caller i dont think so. I dont think it was a democrat. I do remember this part yesterday, where they were talking about the difference between his deposition and what his Opening Statement was about the quid pro quo, that he never mentioned from that perspective in the deposition. Host got it. I am not exactly sure which part you are referring to, but perhaps my producer can look into it as we hear from brian, plymouth, wisconsin, republican. Caller thank you for taking my call. A few observations. Has absolutely no faults around what he says. I find it hard to believe that through four years of the campaign and when he served in office, and this phone call he was looking for a quid pro quo that he would not just come out and say, that is what i want, because that is how he has always spoke. He says exactly what he means. All, the memo of the things they wanted, they alleged quid pro quo, they didnt get the Public Statement. They didnt get the investigation. Certainly, what this is going to lead to is just every time there is a house that is different than the sitting president , we are just going to be going through the same exercise. Host were you around for the nixon impeachment investigation . Caller yes, i was. Host what do you make of the comparisons in todays papers and coming out yesterday, of Gordon Sondland to former white House Counsel . Caller nixon was trying to obstruct justice, no question about that. If nixon had come right out in the very beginning in watergate, i dont know that we will ever know if he ordered the breakin or if that was done by his underlings. It was a bad idea and he didnt need to do it. Law,utely, nixon broke the no question about it. The republicans were absolutely behind the effort to get rid of him. This is something entirely different. Issuet, the whole ukraine with trump in the with the 2016 campaign, the dirt that was dug up for governments by the democrats. So basically, trump is trying to clear his name here and looking for evidence. Host brian in wisconsin on the john dean comparison. This is the front page of the new york times, the peter baker story with his news analysis, noting that even john dean thought ambassador sondlands testimony was a bit of a john dean moment. He decided to put the truth over party and president because the president cannot be pleased with it, mr. Dean said. It is going to change the dynamics of the proceedings. Here is more from Gordon Sondland, this backandforth with Sean Patrick Maloney. You said it is wrong to investigate political empowerment. We have a great on that . Yes. That is what we know the president was asking for. Who would have benefited from an investigation of the president s political opponent . I dont want to characterize who would have and who would not have. I know you do not, but that is my question. Restate your question. Who would benefit from an investigation of the president s political opponent . Presumably, the person who asked for the investigation. Who was that . Forf the president asked the investigation, presumably it was he. We are not talking about hypotheticals. When he asked about the biden investigation, who was he seeking to benefit . He did not ask me about the biden investigation. When he asked about investigations, which we all agree means the bidens, we did this about 30 seconds ago, it is a simple question. When he asked about investigations, i assume he meant who would benefit from an investigation of the bidens . They are two different questions. Who would benefit . I assume President Trump would benefit. There we have it, see. [applause] didnt hurt a bit. I have been very forthright and i resent what you were trying to do. You have been very forthright. This is your third time to do so. The first time we had a declaration coming out and now we are here for the third time and we have a doozy of a statement from you. We appreciate your candor, but lets be clear on what it took to get it out of you. Host ambassador sondland with congressman Sean Patrick Maloney. Righto Gordon Sondlands at the witness table was his lawyer, robert luskin. This is a story about mr. Luskin , 69 years old, cancer survivor, as colts it a reputation reputation. He said he would not represent jerks, using a more profane term. He will not serve as a public attack dog and will not defend those who lack a healthy respect for the fear of legal proceedings. The story notice noting that s. Sunderland sondland testimony yesterday wooden hand, middle finger raised sits atop luskins coffee table. He is the first male attorney to wear an earring while addressing the supreme court, rides a two caught a motorcycle. Ducati motorcycle. He is a partner at the law firm of paula hastings. Case wassatisfying overhauling the labor union of north america as part of a settlement of a civil racketeering case. He cut a deal with the Justice Department that allowed the union to create its own internal system that fared out corruption rather than be rolled out i ruled by a Court Appointed monitor. Carol is in san francisco, independent. You are next with about 20 minutes to go before the hearing. Caller thank you for taking my call. I know you gave a legal opinion about quid pro quo, but technically for the latin, this for that. Any kind of negotiations, there is usually an exchange of one party to another bringing stuff to the table in a negotiation. I think donald trump, you are assuming his mindset was to go after joe biden, which i dont think he is a friend of joe biden that all or his son. Ukraine is known for corruption and what he was trying to do is pull the transparency by saying, we want the corruption gone after. You are assuming he had bad intent, but you read from jfk, the intent of the quid pro quo. You are all assuming it was a bad intent. The whistleblower statute, it is true they need protection, but the president should be able to face his accusers. Constitutionof our. Why wouldnt this person come forward with information, which was third and fourth hand information anyway . We have seen nancy pelosi on tv topics uses smear tactics and goes after them. It is bad for the country that you continue to attack the president this way and a quid pro quo was not a wrong thing. Host james out of raleigh, North Carolina, democrat. Caller good morning. For the life of me, i cannot understand how so many intelligent people can back a corrupt man like that. They are saying about the phone called, i need you to do me a favor. Who is to say he didnt call putin in 2016 and ask same thing . I was observing earlier, a call from texas said that the people voted him in. The people didnt vote him in. Then you have a caller that called in about a video of joe biden. It seemed to me like that video was already queued up because it took like two seconds to play it. Host it is certainly a clip that viewers have asked us about four in the past couple days, so yes, it was something that i had ready because we were asked about it yesterday and did not have it on hand, so we were able to play it today. Caller ok. Obama,u say president you say President Trump, you say President Trump. When you say president obama, you say obama. Host i dont think i do that, but i appreciate the call. This is rich in marion, ohio, republican. Caller sounds like great conversation going on. It seems like we have a very intense foot all playoff game with Football Game with china and russia. They are currently spying on our universities. They pick universities where los angeles is, ai, and have computers where they steal the information. False things came out in the news yesterday. They thank us for being this distraction because they may win this game. Hearings,impeachment you say are the distraction . Caller yes. While this is going on, they are stealing information in our universities. They have spies here, 100,000 came across the news. They are picking a soft, doing it strategic picking us off, doing it strategically. We are paying to educate them and they are stealing our information. Beforebout 15 minutes day five of the open impeachment inquiry hearings continue today. It starts at 9 00 eastern. You can watch on cspan3, cspan. Org, or listen on the free cspan radio app. It will be before the house Intelligence Committee that has been leading the open impeachment hearings, but the open impeachment investigation being can ducted conducted by several committees. Some news yesterday on the Oversight Committee and its leadership, House Democrats elected congresswoman Carolyn Maloney to lead, making her the first woman to lead the crucial panel. She follows representative Elijah Cummings who died last month. She defeated in her election yesterday congressman Gerald Conway of virginia, 13386. She is an ally of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and has served since 1993. She ran against Elijah Cummings in 2010 to lead democrats on that committee. Murphy in shreveport, louisiana, democrat, good morning. Caller hello . Host go ahead. Caller hello . Host go ahead with your comment. Caller i am murphy and im a vet. I agree he should be impeached. On top of that, the first three days he was in office, by me being a military vet, i would be unlike the first three days in office that he was in, got himselfmen into a rage for the Obama Administration where they told him it will be for more, told him not to do it, didnt did it anyway and got people killed. Host bring us to these days and what the meetings will mean going forward. Hearings will mean going forward. Caller all the evidence has been put out there and the impeachment inquiry is to find out did he do anything wrong . That will be determined, with the impeachment what the impeachment inquiry is doing is showing them what he has done and what his intentions were. The deplorables that Hillary Clinton was talking about, calling to defend them, but like you said, dont believe what you see, dont believe what you hear, just believe me. He was the first one who stepped out and said there wasnt no quid pro quo. Read the transcript. He wants you to read the transcript. He locked the real transcript away and he knows it will take months for them to get that out of him. Host emily in san francisco, republican. Good morning. Caller thanks for taking my call. Jim jordan is the one we want to hear. Host why is jim jordan the one you want to hear . Caller he is the one that surmised everything, summarized everything perfectly. 1, 2, 3. Saying, i toldup them the president never said quid pro quo. When i asked them, what do you want me to do . I want you to just get them to corrupt, and not there is no quid pro quo. What i would like everybody to understand is what is coming up is going to surprise you very much. You have been lied to by the democrats so much, even last kimmel, hew on jimmy lied about the president being found guilty. Have two look forward to is the attorney general of the United States and the Inspector General will be coming up in a couple of weeks with all what happened to this president. Host Michael Horowitz is his name and he will testify on december 11. Let me come back to your comments about jim jordan. Here is the story we showed earlier focusing on jim jordans grilling of ambassador sondland. Do you think jim jordan has been the best voice for republicans on the Intelligence Panel as they go through these rounds of questions . He is veryl, i think good at it, but nunes is the best. Oldests the one who dive this corrupt Democratic Party, because of the socialists. They are teaching people to hate and divide us. Specific whenvery he asked his questions. The answer came from the man that he is very tired of telling the democrats that the president never said quid pro quo. Minutesss than 10 before day five of the open impeachment inquiry hearings gets underway this morning. You can watch that live on cspan3 because here on cspan, we will be heading to the house of representatives for gaveltogavel coverage because at house is said to come in 9 00 a. M. Congress has some work to do to avoid a government shutdown. The government would shut down tonight if a stopgap spending bill is not passed. This is the story from the washington times, noticing noting the house did vote on tuesday to approve a temporary funding measure which has yet to be passed in the senate and signed by the president. They agree a vote will be held in time to avoid another partial government shutdown. Fox news tweeted out a bit ago that the senate is expected to withmidday today, aligned the house, and pass the interim theding bill, noting government is currently funded just through 11 59 59 p. M. Tonight. Some action tonight on the floor of the senate is expected and the president would have to sign that. Seated, creed more sid, creed more, North Carolina. Caller i have a question for you. You say cspan is on the up and up, but i dont see no clips showing every witness that was talked to yesterday, every witness was put down by the Republican Party. It was a great day for the Republican Party, and the democrats need to suck it up, get on with this, get back to infrastructure and take care of this country. Do you hear anything out of these hearings that would impeach a president of the United States . You let me know, because i heard nothing. Host the hearings yesterday went on for more than 10 hours. We are trying to play as much as we can in this two hours we have in washington journal and trying to get in as many phone calls as we can. The good news is you can go to our website, cspan. Org, watch hearings in their entirety and search through for what part of the hearing you want to hear. Thean. Org impeachment is place to go where we put all of that in one place for you. Check it out and come back tomorrow. We will be playing more clips tomorrow. Democrat from wilmington, North Carolina, sherry. Caller i really hope john bolton testifies, especially now they say he has a book coming out next year. I will be very disappointed in him as a person overall, as an american, if he has information that he thinks is pertinent if he does not testify but publishes it in a book that comes out in july and august. I really think it is unfair that these people, we now have pertinent information, refused ,o show up, especially him because he is not even working for the white house anymore, so he should come forward and testify. Host expect to hear a lot more , and then bolton today witness who will be testifying today will be fiona hill, who served under john bolton. Conversations her conversations with mr. Bolton and various individuals throughout this ukraine investigation. Sheila, new britain, connecticut, you are next. Caller first of all, im going to comment on so many people calling that the news is biased and swayed to the left. The problem isnt the news. It is not swayed to the left. It is just that most stations are telling the truth. I happen to watch all of the stations. Cspan, i look at fox, that is one thing. It is just that fox is not report the news. Me isr thing that bothers i just dont know what all these people are listening to. I listened to every word that is , we need broadband in the rural areas because a lot of people are very ignorant about what is going on in this country. I think they can get by. This is leo out of norman, oklahoma, republican. I have seen a few things over the last few days that have concerned me. Id go through nexens nixons impeachment and clintons impeachment and those werent handled well. This one concerns me. It is a tyrant and a to radical process, and that is not what this is about. Everyone one of these witnesses who come before this tribunal, they have to worry if they dont say the right thing because they dont have any protection, that someone on this committee will see come back and say, you lied to congress. Now they have to turn around and defend themselves and we go down this road again. It is a waste of time like it has been for all three president s. I have read the whistleblowers report and the transcript. The whistleblower is not a whistleblower. He is a false witness. False witness against the president and that is against the law in this country and he should be prosecuted for that. I want to go back to joe biden. I am amazed that people are not upset by the fact that the Vice President , who was now trying to obtain the democratic nomination, took eight billion dollars of tax their money taxpayer money host we have to leave it there, because the house is getting ready to come in for the day, but i want to send you to cspan3 where you can watch this the impeachment inquiry uninterrupted. That is about to get underway, members of the Committee Filing into the dais, and we will take you on cspan two the floor of the house of representatives for gaveltogavel coverage