Hoover brought to you by robert granari. Additional funding is provided by Corporate Funding provided by stevens inc. Se repative will hurd, welcome to firing line. Thanks for having me. Youre abeepublican m of house of representatives representing texass 23rd district. Thats right. Wo 29 counties,ime zos, 820 miles othe border. Which makes t you only republican in the house of representatives that represents a border. District with the u border and mexico border. Thats correct and the longest border. Youre also on the how Intelligence Committee which has this week been undergoing impeachment hearings of we at the endf the second week public testimony and this week,e heard from dr. Fiona hill. President rumps former Russia NationalSecurity Council adviser. Heres what she said in her ening statement. Lets take a look. I refuse to be part of an effort to legitimize the n vernment that the ukrain government is the adversity and ukraine not russia attacked us in 2016. These switches aharmful, even purely domestic political purposes. When we are consume partisan rancor, we cannot combat these external forces as they seek to divide us against each other,ur degrade institutions and destroy the American People and our democracy. The president and some republicans seem to be subscribing to this narrative that ukraine interfered in our slections in 2016. Although there deem to be no evidence thats the case, do you subscribe to this . Well, lets start withth wha russians did. Theres this notion that republicans on the Intel Committee are not supportive of the fact that the russians tried 2016. Nipulate our elections in everybody agrees to that becse their goal was to sew disco tic iss trudistrust in our democ institutions. Thats still going on. Its clear the republican report that the russians were involved and my fear that we are not doing enough to counter the disinformation that the russians are continuing to tryo do in 2020 and in my hearing again after the mueller investigation, bob mueller saidhe sitting today, the russians are still trying to do it. Do you think part of the Russian Disinformation Campaign is this idea it was actually raine . It was subscribed interfering in our elections, not russia . Sure and theres elements of the russian government making it sound like it was ukraine. Is i helpful to have the president , what happens when the esident is spreading a narrative not true about our foreign allies . Its bad Foreign Policy. Its also bad Foreign Policy when you have demrats on the House Select Committee on intelligence suggesting that republicans dont believe that the russians we involved in the 2016 election that actually contribut to all this disinformation. Youve spent this past two weeks hearing fro members of our Foreign Service and served in similar positions as you have in government. One of them is the former ambassador to ukraine, Marie Yovanovitc for nearly four minutes. But you said tpent the first mi about her accomplishments and her awards. Take a look. Youre tough as nails and youre smart as hell. Youre great example of what our ambassadors should be like. Youre an honor to your family. U are an honor to the Foreign Service. You are an honor to thntry and i thank you for all that you have done and will continue to do on behalf of our country. Ou why dido that . I think its unfortunate that there have been many members of our foreign se been smeared over the last couple of years. And i think ambassador yovanovitch is a perfect example of the kind of Foreign Service officer that we need doing our National Security around the country. And for me, think it wasn example of, shes been in tough places. Shes won countless awards. And i think one of the benefits of these hearings that theres very few, in my opion, that we got to see some of the men and women in our diplomatic corps that oftentimes dont get the accolades they deserve. And yet ambassador yovanovitch, while she was abroad,s, and serving overseas while ambassador in ukraine became the target of a spear campaign by president trumps lawyer and his associates. The psint later referred to her as bad news and said that shes going to go through some things. When he spokede to the pre of the country she had served in. And then the president tweeted while she was testifying in front of your committe saying everywhere Marie Yovanovitch has went turned d. She started off in somalia, how did that go . Fast forward to ukraine. Where the new ukrainian president ok i want to show you her reaction about t president s tweet when she was testifying. Now the president realtime is attacking you. What effect do you think that has on other witnesses willingness to forward and expose wrongdoing . Well, its very intimidating. Designed to intimidate, i it not . I mean,ant speak to what the president is trying to do but i e think theect is to be intimidating. What did you think about the president s tweet to marie yonovitch . I think it was terrible and it shouldnt have been done. And ultimately, evebody has agreed that the president has the ability to select his ambassadors and just do it. If you wanted somebody p different,ick somebody different. You dont have to go through the process they went through and some of the things she had to deal with. Was that witness intimidation . You know, i think witnesson intimidas a very specific term used to influence somebody th coming to testify in a judiciis proceeding. Asnt a judicial proceeding but i think it was ill advised and something that shouldnt have happened. Another person who testified sondland, the american gordon ambassador to the European Union and he spoke directly with the president about ukraine on at least a half dozen occasions. Lets watch a portion of his opening statement. Sure. I know that members of this committee frequently frame these complicated issues in the form of a simpl question. Was there a quid pro quo . I testified previously, with regard to the requested white house call and the white house meeting, the answer is yes. In your opportunity to question ambassador sondland, you asked him about a contradiction in his testimony, it seemedo yo where he said on the one hand, there was a quid pro quo, and the oer hand, when he spoke with the president , he said there was no quid pro quo. Do you think theres a material difference of whether there was a quid pro quo for a meeting with the president of the United States or for the 400 million military aid . Theres a very big difference because ultimately, what the democrats are alleging is that some type of bribery happened, and under theal fed bribery statute, a meeting or calling someone is not counted as something that can be offered for abribe. And so the difference between aid and bribery is significantly different and also, when you look at all the individuals that were involved tndt weve had conversations about, many of them couot say that they knew at the time tha aid was involved. Now we have this preponderance of information how this series events has unfolded. Why was the aid withheld . It sms to me we wont know that until we have people who had direct knowledge of thet presid intentions. Does that mean to you, it seems to me we should need to hear from the people to know. E0 . Do w need to hear from rudy 100 . Dr. John bolton . We need to hear from Rudy Giuliani, mick thlvaney. E were the first two. Secretary of state pompeo. Secretary of stoue pompeo come as well. I think theres a lot more people that we should hear from. I actually think we should hear from hunter biden. I think we should hear from the whistleblower and be able to protect the whistleblowers ulanonymity. Mately, who did the whistleblower have contact with before the whistle was own . Why does it matter . It talks a ut their intention and was there direction in their eorts in doing, in ultimately bringing that, the complaint. Do you think he didnt have earnest intentions . I dont know the intentions. Hes what i do know. Adam shiff had to correct a statement on his offices coact with the whistleblower. I would love to hear from am shiff and have him answer questions about what was his officesonnection and involvement with the whistleblo prior to the complaints being brought forwad fter the complaint. The whistleblower came to his office and his office sai that they couldnt deal with it, so advise to seek legal counsel. Should we just take one statement orot answer questions . What would we learn from hunter biden . All the things that went around burisma. All this because the name biden wa mentioned on the july 25th phone call betweenpresident tr and mr. Zelensky. So his role in this company, c thpany has been investigated multiple times. The leaderth o company is fairly wel t knowno have built the Ukrainian Government and i thins an important piece because theres been a lot of conversation about burisma and mr. Biden. If he can clear up some of this, i think its actually helpful. We shoulrohear everybody. This is not, and i said this a billion times. Were n building somebody off th island in season 12 of survivor. This is one of the most serious do. N s a member of congress it shouldnt be rushed. This is being rushed prematurely because the democrat gett done before the election that start in new hampshire, and theri pri in new hampshire. Theres a lot of people we should still be talking to and understanding more information, but theyre trying to ph this. And this is a serious, this is a serious. Matt it should be an overwhelming evidence o this kind of behavior and what we have seen in the couple weeks of hearings you call this part of an. Exercise. Youve criticized the way the process has bn ndled. Do you think the hearing so far has been helpful or usefu to the American People . Has information come out that has been helpful . I think ultimately, if you hate the president , every piece of information you sawas an example of why you should impeach. If you love the president , every piece o information you saw was an example of how he should be exonerated. Geto truth and i believe to this is, well, theres still more peoe that we shoulde able to talk to and a key person we have to talk to is ultimately Rudy Giuliani. Thats why i ask the questions as many times to try to understand, who was Rudy Giuliani talki to ultimately within the zelenskyregime . Quid pro quo or bribe and ng or Rudy Giuliani is ahead of it, who did he bribe . Wa wh the peoplee was talking to because ultimately, the president of ukraine, the foreign minister of ukine, his senior aide, the secretary of defense for ukraine, non of them believe they were being pressured. Nos my democratic colleag will say. They dont believe they were being pressured, at leastt they saidut publicly do you take them at face value . Yes, because you can say the president of the other country is going to lie to his people and going to o liee rest of the world because hes worried about some aid from another thats completely disrespectful tot leader. The Ukrainian Government is involved with a hot war with russia. They are holding own and by implying that hes subserento the United States and would lie to his ownountry this aid to me is crazy when theres no evidence to suggest that happened. Lets talk about what an impeachable off actually is and wha goits going to rise to Impeachable Offense. In one episode at the height of the watergate hearings in 1973, spoke t what he believed rises to not just an Impeachable Offense but an offense worthy o removing the president from office and id like you to take a look. You must not punish the republic by this. What e impeachmen instrument is. The impeachment instrument used not to punish a pson but remove him. If you think the safety of the state requires that the person be removed, then you invoke it, but you dont invoke it for high crimes and misdemeanors without recognizing that the principal casualty is ourselves rather than the president. Ithe president s offense, as buckley says, does not imperil the safety of the state, do you agree with buckl that the primary casualty of a removal of the president is actually the country . Instead of thepresident . I think thats right. And ultimately, i would add to what mr. Buckley had said. What rises to an Impeachable Offense, theres 535 different opinions on that and that the members of the house and the its ultimately a political process and each person has to have their own opinion ohat rises to that level. Is your opinion of what rises to that lel ariminal violation of the law . Yes. Soth you believe tha president should be impeached if there is a proven legal oruc criminal co yes. He said theres53 different opinions about what institutes anofmpeachable nse. Is abuse of power an Impeachable Offense . I think if there was a abuse of power that was iolved in a violation of the law, then yes. So trying to define what an abuse of power is i going to be one of those things that youre going to also have 535 dferent opinions on. An abuse of trust, as alexaider hamilton and many legal scholars say is also grounds forpe hment. It doesnt just have to be a criminal violationa the cri violation, thats my definition. To be clear, from your perspective, an abuse of power is not, for you, an Impeachable Offense. The United States president has to be proven to have broken a law or committed a cre. I thi the abuse of power or committed a crimes ultimately the same dothing. T know what the scenario is that you have an abuse of power thats not a violation of the law. It may not be illegal to ask a foreign leader to open an investigation into your chief political opponent, but it could be argued that is an abuse of can also argue thats power. Inappropriate or shouldnt have been done. But how did the person that was receiving that request view it . And ultimately, president zelensky and their foreign minister have made it very cle that they didnt feel like their arms were being twisted or that they were being pressured to do anything. You will soo t likely have vote, as it turns out. Quite likely, have toote on meticles of impea and whether to send him to the senate. Do you believe,ause youve spoken that this process is inherently partisan and youve seen the partisanship as it plays out, do you believe that chairman shiff has kept an open mind to this process . Of course not, he hasnt. The articles in his report has already been written and thats whats goingo ultimately get transmitte to the judiciary. Were going to see that happen, ultimately, for the end of the year. Do you think anyone in the house of representatives has kept an open mind in this process . Ye , i have. Right, and my goal has always been to understand the facts. And i have not seen anything in the number of hearings thai have participated in, and that includes the public hearings, the depositions that suggeste thevidence of are you waiting for more already . Or have you decided ll dece wn we get to that actual vote. I dont know if there are going to be more hearings but as ive said, theng hea that ive participated in to this point, i ve not seen evidence that says, that confirms there was a bribery or extortion. But you havent heard from Rudy Giuliani. Havent heard from rudy. Havent heard from a lot of people. Does that mean your mind isl stpen or that you decided to vote against articles of impeachment . Nt i dont know whats in f of me. Again, i know what i know up until this point, theres more information, im alway going to evaluate new information before i make some cisions. Lets switch gears from the impeachment inquiry. You announced in august youre not going to run again for reelection in 2020. After winning in potentially the hardest year for republicans in a district that was, Hillary Clinton won by 3 points and he won by less than a thousand so safe to say, could have won. Election in 2020. Of cour the six republican members of t the housof representatives from texas who are not running again. Whats going on . Every member has their yoown know, reason for why theyre leaving. Mine is simple. I think i cantr help my coin different ways. And whetheras is in play, i xas think its two separate issues, right, and i also believe texas is in play. Texas is a purpl state. Just because we dont have the t democrats doesnt mean it will play in 2020. I think democrats have the real shot of taking over a majority in the statehouse in texas which means theyre going to be responsible for redistriing 2021. So the trends that we saw happen in california, then the northeast and recently in virginia, all of those trends texas. Place in you have said in a quote in the Washington Post that if the department doesnt look like texas, there wont be a Republican Party in texas. I think it rest of the country and i would add, if the republican pties art looking like america and start appealing to all americans, there wont beic pu party in america. And why should that matter to democrats and why should that matter to independents . The only way we have ever solved big problems in this country by doing it together. They only do that is if you have a true competition of ideas in novr. November. I want to make sure by appea toe le. The three largest growing groups of voters. So we have to be able to te a message to folks like that. And helpingo change the face of the party so that we can do that is important for us. The face of the party needs to be differe a. Youresh face for the party for sure. But also, the message of the party needs to be different. Youve demonstrated that and actuly in stark contrast to the president especially with how to handle issues lik immigration and a wall. Youve been outspoken. As the only republican who represents the border with mexico, between the u. S. Andha mexico, youre not for a wall in the traditional sense. Youre in favor of what stead . Look, ive already sa, building a wall from sea to shining sea is the most expensive and least effective way to do border security. Every mile of the border is differt from every other mile. So you have to have whats n called defensedepth. You have to have different tools for everys rea. But thero broader pieces of information we can do better. Better technology along the border and more manpower. You have a different view, a moderne view or m reformed view. What else do they need tdo . I dont actually think that my position is that far out of the mainstream,right. Quite different from the president. From the president , but also, the president is not my boss. Kevin mccarthy is not my boss. The speaker not my boss. But the point is you represent a view amongst republicans which at the moment is not the majory view butot the loudest voice in the room. Not the loudest voice in the room ill agree with at but 75 of republican primaryoters believe dacca should be fixed and that dreamers should have a 76 of republican primary voters. Thats a lot. I would say thats mainstream. So thats o area. But i also, im not afraid to lk and say Climate Change is real all right. And its having, people are having an impact on i actually think that more republicans do believe that, b unfortunately, the handful of voices get magnified andyb evy believes thats ultimately something that every republan believes that way. I think thats there because ultimately, weve got to make sure theres a place for kids and grandkids to live. Ow do you keep modernizing th Republican Party . I love that question. People think the only way to get look at all the members that are running for president on the democratic side. All of them are not city elected officials. Theyre still helping and moving the party. Is the best way to be a modern republican and influence is to run for president . Thats a long way for me. In the interim period, talk es about these isnd change the face of the party and ill do because i know congress. Would you consider running fo president in 2024 . Look, my, as a kid, my mother ways told me to be committed to something larger than yourself and if theres a point where im able to serve my country in a differentwa then id evaluate that, but in the meantime, im looking forward to continuing to elevate these issung that weve been tal about in congress in a different way, do it in acadia, media, th private sector. Thats the plan and ill run tape ithe 23rd because this is a pleasure to represent my hometown. Will hurd, thank you for being at firing line. Always a pleasure. Thank yo firing line with Margaret Hoover is made possible by thed margaret aiel loeb foundation. Robert graneri through the fund. David stepper Charitable Foundation inc. Additional funding is provided by Corporate Funding is provided by stevens inc. Captions by vitac www. Vitac. Com hello, everyone. And welcome to amanpour company. Here whats coming up. We also spoke to some children who had some really disturbing stories to share wits confronting a priest accused of abusing some of the worlds most vulnerable children. We have are special rt. Then. The minute you see an average of 8 people getting kille every night, that is what our reporter was coming home with. Thats off the scale. The journalist going toe to toe with filipino president rodrigo duterte, rappler ceo maria ressa joinsme. The experience itself, what to ask for it. The oord English Dictionary makes Climate Emergency its word of the year, world renowned