Hoover brought to you by robertgranari. Additional funding is provided by corpora funding provided by stevens inc. Representative will hurd, welcome to firing line. Thanks for having me. Member ofa Republican House of representatives representing texass 23rd district. Thats right. 29 counties, two time zos, 820mi s of the border. Which makes you the only republican in the house of representativethat represents a border district with the u. S. Border and mexico srder. Thaorrect and the longest border. Youre also on the how Intelligence Committee which has this week been undergoing impeachment hearings of were at the endf the second week public testimony and this week, we heard from dr. Fiona hill. President trumps former Russia National Security Council adviser. Heres what she said in her opening statement. Lets take a look. Ani refuse to be part of effort to legitimize the government that thrnukrainian gont is the adversity and ukraine not russia attacked us in 2016. These switches are harmful, even purely domestic political purposes. When we are consutid by pn rancor, we cannot combat these external forces as they seek to divide us against each other, degrade our institutions and stroy the American People and our democracy. The president and somepu icans seem to be subscribing to this narrativene that ukr interfered in our elections in 2016. No evidence thats the case, do you subscribe to this . Well, lets start with what the russians did. Theres this notion that republicans on the Intel Committee are not supportive of the factthe russians tried to manipulate our elections in 2016. Everybody agrees to that becse thr goal was to sew discord and kiss trudistrust in our dem. Institutio 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 try to do in 2020 andmy iearing again after the mueller investigation, today, the russians are still trying to do it. Thedo you think part o Russian Disinformation Campaign is this idea it was actually ukraine . Dit was subscri interfering in our elections, not russia . Sure and theres elements of the russian gernment making sound like it was ukraine. Is it helpful to have the president , wt happens when the president is spreading a narrative not true about our foreig allies . Its bad Foreign Policy. Its also bad Foreign Policy when you have democrats othe use select committee on intelligence suggesting that republicans dont believe that the russians we involved in the 2016 election. That actually contribut t all this disinformation. Youve spent this past two weeks hearing from members of our forei service and served in similar positions as you have in government. One of them is the former ambassador to ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch who you questiod for nearly four minutes. But you said tnt the first minu talking about her accomplishments and her awards. Youre tough as and youre smart as hell. Youre a great example owhat our ambassadors should be like. Youren honor to your family. You are an honor to the Foreign Service. You are an hon to this country and i thank you for all that you ve done and will continue to do on behalf of our country. Why did you do that . I think its unfortunate that there have been many membe of our Foreign Service that have 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 sy around the country. And for me, think it was an example of, shes been in toh 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 ouriplomatic rp that oftentimes dont get the accolades they deserve. And a yetassador yovanovitch, while she was road, was, and serving overseas while ambassador in ukraine became the target of as r campaign by President Trumps lawyer and his associates. The presint later r erred to her as bad news and said that shes going to go through some things. When he spoke to of the country she had served in. And then the president tweeted while she was testiing in front of your committee sayingr everyw Marie Yovanovitch has went turned bad. She started off in somalia, how did that go . Fast forward to ukraine. Where the new ukrainian president spoke. I want to show you her reaction about the spresidenweet when she was testifying. Now the president realtime is attacking you. What effect do you think that has on other witnesses willingness to come forward and expose wrongdoing . Well, its very intimidating. Designed to intimidate, is it not . I mean,t i speak to what the president is trying to do but i think theo effect is intimidating. What did you think about the president s tweet to Marie Yovanovitch . I think it was terrible and it shouldnt have been done. And ultimately, everybody has agreed that the president has the ability to select his ambassadors and just do it. If you wanted somebody different, pick somebody different. You dont have to go through th procey went through and some of the things she had to deal with. Intimidation . Itness you know, i think witness intimidation is a very specific term used to influence somebody thats coming to testify in a this wasnt a jud g. Proceeding but i think it was ill advised and something that shouldnt have happened. Another person who testified this week was ambassad gordon sondland, the American Ambassador to the European Union and he spoke directly with the president about ukraineon at least a half dozen occasions. Lets watch a portion of his opening statement. Sure. I know that membersf o this committee frequently frame these complicated issues in the form of aes simple on. Was there a quid pro quo . Withstified previously, regard to the requested white house call and the white house meeting, the ansr is yes. In your opportunity to question ambassador sondland, you asked him about a contradiction in his testimony, it seemed toyou, where he said on the one hand, there was a hand, when he spoke with the president , he said there was no quid pro qu 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 in military aid . Theres a veryeig differe because ultimately, what the democrats are alleging is that some type of bribery happened, and under the federal bribery statute, a meeting or callingso one is not counted a something that can be offered for abribe. And so the difference between aid a bribery isnt signifi diffent and also, when you look at all the individuals that were involved and that weve had conversations about, many of them s could not that they knew at the time tha aid was involved. Now we have this preponderance of informati how this series of events has unfolded. Why was the aid withheld . It seems to me we wont know thateontil we havee who had direct knowledge of the president s intentions. Does that mean to you, it seems to me we should need to hear from the people to know. 100 . Do we need to hear from Rudy Giuliani . 100 . Dr. John bolton . We need to hear from Rudy Giuliani, mick mulvaney. Those were the first two. Secretary of state pompeo. Secretary of state pompeo should come as well. I think theres a lot more people that we shear from. I actually think we should hear from hunter inbiden. I we should hear from the protect the whistleblowers anonymity. Ultimately, who did the whistleblower have contact with before the whistle was own . Why does it matter . It talks aboutntheir inn and was there direction in their efforts in doing, in ultimately bringing that, the complaint. Do you think he didnt have earnest intentions . I dont know the intentions. Heres what io know adam shiff had to correct a statement on his offices contact with the whistleblower. I would love to hear from am shiff and have him answer questions about what was his offices connection and involvement tlth the whlo prior to the and after complaint. Ght forward the whistleblower came to his office and his office said that theyouldnt deal with it, so advised him to seek legal counsel. Shoul we just take one tatement orot answer questions . What would we lear hunter biden . All the things that went around burisma. All this because the name biden was mentioned on the july 25th phone call between President Trump and mr. Zelsky. So his role in this company, this company been investigated multiple times. The leader of the company is fairly well known to have built the Ukrainian Government and i think its an important piece because theres been a lot of conversation about burisma and mr. Biden. If hele can up some of this, i thin its actually helpful. We should hear fromeverybody. This is not, and i said this a billion times. Were not s buildinebody off th island in season 12 of survivor. This is one of the most serious things a member ofongress can do. It shouldnt be rushed. This is beinghed prematurely because the democrats want to gett don before the election that start in new hampshire, and the primariesn new hampshire. Theres a lot of people we should still be talking to and understanding more information, but theyre trying to push this. And this is a serious, this is a serious matter. It should be an overwhelming evidence of this kind of behavior what we have seen in the couple weeks of hearings is not overwhelming evidenth. You cal part of an exercise. Youve criticized the way the process has been handled. Do you think the hearing so far has been helpful or useful to has information come out that has been helpful . I think ultimately, if you hate the president , every piece of information you saw was an example of why youhould impeach. If you love the president , every ece of information you saw was an example of how he should be exonerated. I ultimately wanted to try to geto the truth and i believe this is, t well,res still more people thate should be able to talk to and a key person have to talk to is ultimately Rudy Giuliani. Thats why i ask the questions as many times to t to understand, who was Rudy Giuliani talki to ultimately within the zelensky regime if there was an arm twisting or quid pro quor some bribe and Rudy Giuliani is ahead of it, who did he bribe . Who was the peoplee was talking to because ultimately, the president of ukraine, the foreign minister of ukraine, his senior aide, the secretary of defense for ukraine, none of them believe they were being pressured. Now, my democraticllolleagues say. They dont believe they were being pressured, at leastt they said publicl but do you take them at face vae . Yes, because you can say the president of the other country is going to l to his people and going to lie to the rest of the world because hes worried about some aid from another counety . Thats comy disrespectful tot leader. The Ukrainian Government is involved with a hot war with russia. They are holdi o tir and by implying that hes subservient to the United States and would lie to his ownount men because hes worried about this aid to me is crazy wn theres no evidence to suggest thathappened. Lets talk about what an impeachable off actually is and wha goits going to rise to Impeachable Offense. In one episode at the height owa the rgate hearings in 1973, spoke to what he believed rises to not just an Impeachable Offense but an offense worthy of removing t president from office and id like you to take a look. You must not punish the republic by this. And this is what e immeachment inst is. The impeachment instrument used not to punish a person but to remove him. If you think the safety of the state requires that the person but you dont invoke it for high crimes and misdemeanors without recognizing that the principal casualty is ourselves rather than the president. If the president s offense, as buckley says, does not imperil the safety of the state, do you agree with buckley that therimary casualt of a removal of the president is actuallytr the co instead of the president . I think thats right. And ultimately, i would add to what mr. Buckley had said. What rises to an impeaable offense, theres 535 different opinions on that and that is thr me of the house and the senate that have that. Its ultimately a political process and each person has t rises to that level. N on what is your opinion of what rises to that level a criminal violation of the law . Yes. President should be impeached if there is a proven legal or crimal conduct . Yes. He said theres 535 different opinions about what institutes an Impeachable Offense. Is abuse of power an Impeachable Offense . I think if there was an abuse of power that was iolved in a violation of the law, then s. So trying to define what an abuse of power i is goingo be one of those things that youre going to also hav 535 different opinions on. An abuse of trust, as Alexander Hamilton said and many legal scholars sayo is a grounds for impeachment. It doesnt just have tbe a criminal violation. The criminal violation, thats my definition. To be mclear, f your perspective, an abuse of power not, for you, an Impeachable Offense. The United States president has to be proven to have broken a law or committed a crime. I think the abuse of power or committed a crime iltimately the same thing. Is that you have an abuse of power thats not a violation of the law. It may not be iegal to ask a foreign leader to open an investigation into your chief political opponent, but it could be argued that is an abuse of power. You can also argue thats inappropriate or shouldnt have been done. But how didwa the person tha receiving that request view it . And ntultimately, presi zelensky and their foreign minister have made it very clear th they didnt feel like their arms we being twisted or that they were being pressured to do anything. You will soon likely have to vote, as it turns out. Quite likely, have to vote on articles of impeachment and whether to send him to the senate. Do you believe, because youve spoken that this process isre inly partisan and youve seen the partisanship as it plays out, do you believe that chairman shiff has kept an open mindo this process . Of course not, he hasnt. The articles in his report has already been written and thats transmitted to the judiciary. T were going to see that happen, ultimately, for the end of the year. U think anyone in the house of representatives has kept an open mind in this process . Yeah, have. Right, and my goal has always been to understand the facts. And i have not seen anything in the number of hearings that i ha participated in, and that includes the public hearings, the depositions that suggest theres evidence of are you waiting for more e hearings or h you decided already . Ill dece when we get to th actual vote. I dont know if there are going to be more hearings but as ive participated in to this point, i have not seen evidence that says, that confirms there was a bribery or extoouion. Butavent heard from Rudy Giuliani. Havent heard fm rudy. Havent heard from a lot of people. Does that mean your mind is still open or tu decided to vote against articles of impeachment . I dont know whats in front of again, i know what i know up until this point, theres more information, im alway gng to evaluate new information before i make some decisions. Lets switch gears from the impeachment inquiry. Yon announced i 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 reelection in 2020. Of course. Theres a term that refers to the six republican mbers of the housof representatives from texas who are not running again. Whats going on . Every mber has their own, you know, reason for why theyre leaving. Mine is simple. I think i can help my country in different ways. So i think this notion of texas and wheth texas is in play, i think its two separate issues, right, a and io believe texas is in play. Texas is a purple state. Just because we dont have the state democrats doesnt mean it will play in 2020. I think democraave the real in the statehouse in texas which means theyre going to be responsible for redistricting in 2021. So the trends that we saw happen in california, then the northeast and recently in virginia, all of those trends are in pce in texas. You have said in a i quote the Washington Post that if the department doesnt look like texas,here wont be a Republican Party in texas. I think it applies forehe rest of country and i would add, if the republican parties g start loo like america and start appealing to all americans, there wont be Republican Party in america. And why should that matter to democrats and why should that matter to independents . The onlyay we have ever solved bi problems in this country is by doing it thtogether. Only way to do that is if you have a true competition o ideas in nov november. I want to make sure by appeal to people. E three largest growing groups of voters. So we have to be able to take a message to folks like that. And helping to change the face of the party so that we can do at is important for us. The face of the party needs to be different. Youre a fresh facehe party for sure. But also, the message of the rty needs to be different. Youve demonstrated that and actually in stark contrast to the president especially with how to handle issues like immigration and a wall. Youve been oun. As the only republican who represents the borr with mexico, between the u. S. And mexico, that youre not for a wall in theraditional sense. Youre in favor of what instead . Look, ive already said, 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 different from every other mile. So you have to have whats called defense in depth. You have to have different tools for every area. But theres two broader pieces of informaon we can do better. Better technology along the border and more manpower. You have a different view, a modern vw or more reformed view. What else do they need . To do i dont actually think that my position is that far out of the mainstream, right. President. Fferent from the president , but also, the preside is not my boss. Kevin mccarthy is not my boss. Theotpeaker is my boss. But the point is you represent a vw amongst republicans which at the moment is not the majority view but not the loudest voice in the room. Not the loudest voice in the room. Ill agree with at but 75 of reblican primary voters believe dacca should be fixed and that dreamer should have a permanent legislative fix. 76 of republican primary voters. Thats a lot. I would say thats mainstream. So thats one area. But i al, im not afraid to lk and say climate chae is real. All ght. And its having, people are having an impact on that. Y i actua think that more republicans do believe that, but unfortunately, the handful of voices get magnified and everybody believes thatsma ully something that every republican believes that way. I think thats there because ultimately, weve got to make sure theres a place for our kids and grandkids to live. How do you keep modernizing th Republican Party . I love that question. People think theetnly way to things done is in congress and running for president on the are democratic side. All of them are not city elect 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 about these issues and change the face of the party and ill do because i know congress. Would you consider running fo resident in2024 . Look, my, as a kid, my mother always told to be committed to something larger than yourself and if a theres point where im able to serve my id evaluate that, but in the meantime, im looking forward to continuing to elevate these issues that weve been talking about in congress in a different way, do it in academia, media, the private sector. Thats the plan and ill run a pleasure to represent my is hometown. Will hurd, thank you for a beingt firing line. Always a pleasure. Thank you. Ring line with Margaret Hoover is made possible by the maaret and daniel loeb foundation. Robert greri through the fund. Davidpp s Charitable Foundation inc. Additional funding is provided by Corporate Funding is provided by stevens inc. Captions by vitac www. Vitac. Com [announcer] coming up next is retire safe and secure with ed slott, fully updated for 2019 your rete ement savings, theyke an eggshell, you break it and its over. Do [announcert let greedy wall street banksd taxhungry uncle sam grab your hard earned retirement savings. , ed sloericas ira expert,to worrying once and for all and have a safe and sece retirement. A safe and secure retirement means having more, keeping more, and maki it last. [announcer] follow eds simple, effective, aou critical advice so y can stop worrying about runting out of money in ment. Youve worked your whole life and you deserve to enjoy your retirement. Ed will show you how to move your money
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