Transcripts For FOXNEWSW Americas Newsroom With Bill Hemmer And Sandra Smith 20190508

I just kind of felt like flashes and we heard bangs. Teacher told us to hide behind the equipment in the room. There is weight equipment. We hid behind that. We just stayed there until the cops came in the room and busted in the room. Bill what we know at the moment. Two suspects in custody. The second Deadly School shooting in a weeks time after two young people died at the university of North Carolina charlotte. Police holding a press conference. We had officers on the street that were there with inside two minutes. Once at the school, they immediately engaged the suspects and started to rescue the children that were injured. Bill Jonathan Hunt is live on scene Highlands Ranch colorado. The big news from the press conference that wrapped up a short time ago. The revelation from the sheriff that one of the alleged shooters is a female student who was studying here at the stem school. No age given. She is under 18. Police have been searching her home and the home of the 18yearold male suspect who was due to graduate in just three days time. Police confirming this morning they removed a car from that 18yearolds family home yesterday and that the car was covered in some graffiti described by reporters who saw it as disturbing. Now the two students, according to police, opened fire inside two separate classrooms. According to witnesses, one of the shooters was carrying a gun in a guitar case. There are no metal detectors inside this school but one Armed Security guard was on the premises of what is a large school and apparently played a role in taking the shooters into custody. This all playing out for terrified students and parents just seven miles from Columbine High School and 20 years after the massacre there. A point not lost on the District Attorney who says colorado has seen far too much gun violence. If you had suggested to anyone behind me or in this room that within 20 years and 20 miles we would have dealt with columbine, aurora theater, the shooting of zach parish and other deputies we would have thought you mad. Yet here we are again. The 18yearold male suspect will make his First Court Appearance this afternoon. It is not clear yet when the female suspect will appear in court. The d. A. Also saying today, bill, that while the identity of the 18yearold male is obviously already public, the identity of the young female suspect will inevitably become public. We and the people here in Highlands Ranch and across the country should not focus on them. We should instead focus on the innocent victims of this tragic shooting. Bill more to come on this and we need answers. Thank you, sir. Julie get ready for another day of drama on capitol hill. We have it all for you. One hour from now stay tuned House Democrats on the Judiciary Committee will be proceeding toward Holding William barr as the Justice Department refuses to turn over the unredacted Mueller Report. Last night republicans pulled no punches as they sounded off on the move. I dont think that they wanted barr to testify. They knew if they made the requirement so ridiculous we wont have the attorney general of the United States come to congress and be questioned by staff. We should all be concerned if our government is going in a war. We have to make sure it never happens again. Is the mueller issue dead now . Case closed. Mueller spent two years on this. Interviewed hundreds of people. Reached the conclusion there was no collusion on the president s part. What else do we need to know . Its time to move on. Julie well talk to senator john kennedy in moments but we start with Catherine Herridge joining us live on capitol hill this morning. Good morning. What is happening today is called a markup, not a hearing. Well get an Opening Statement from the democratic chairman jerry nadler and ranking republican doug collins and other members, both sides can table amendments so were looking at anywhere between half an hour or maybe even three hours depending on where it goes. A short time ago the democratic chairman arrived on site and earlier gave an extensive interview to cnn where he described the next steps. Technically the Committee Recommends to the house a contempt citation and then has to go to the house floor and then the house will vote it. Do you believe right now that the house will vote to hold the attorney general in contempt . Yes, i do. The house has no choice. Any more than we on the committee do. The house must protect the right of the public and through congress to get information about how the government is running, possible wrongdoing. Otherwise we have a monarchy. The democratic chairman did not emphasize that what is happening this morning is happening against a back drop where there is no formal or official impeachment proceedings and critics are calling this mornings markup impeachmentlike or faux impeachment. The other point to emphasize is a lot of material is grand jury material and the attorney generals hands are tied. He needs a court order in order to make the material available to capitol hill. This morning chairman nadler said he was willing to go to court but hasnt done so at this point. The Justice Department sent this letter to the chairman and said theyre trying to negotiate in good faith but if they continue down the citation path they will have no choice but to urge the president to invoke executive privilege on a lot of this material so effectively dropping the current on any release or access to that material. A final point, the democratic chairman was asked whether he is on track to bring in special Counsel Robert Mueller may 15th. He said he believes Robert Mueller will come but less confident today than he was a few days ago. Bill a lot to cover now. Lets bring in the republican senator from louisiana john kennedy who serves on the Judiciary Committee. A lot to get to in the next four minutes. Within the last hour james comey was on cbs and asked this question. Watch here. Attorney general said he believes spying occurred in looking after the president s then campaign. What do you think about that . I have no idea what he is talking about. The f. B. I. Doesnt spy, the f. B. I. Investigates. We investigated a very serious allegation that americans might be hooked up with the russian effort to attack our democracy. The republicans need to breathe into a paper bag. Bill not sure what you brought to work today. What do you think of that response there . I think its clear to most americans that mr. Comey is not and never was a Law Enforcement professional. He is just a hack politician. It doesnt give me any joy to say that. I think he is worried, and he should be, that mr. Barr and the Inspector General are going to look further into the genesis of the investigation of the Trump Campaign. And the investigation of the Clinton Campaign. And i think theyll find that all roads lead to mr. Comey. Why he did what he did, i dont know. But it is breathtaking to the extent that he has hurt the f. B. I. , which is the premier Law Enforcement agency in all of Human History and which we need to work hard toward getting their reputation back thanks to mr. Comeys tarnishing of that agency. Bill the wall street journal front page story. The headline. Watchdog probes f. B. I. Reliance on dossier in surveillance of trump aide. The investigation apparently underway wants to know why you relied on a dossier that was paid for by the dnc. Doesnt that go back to james comey yet again . I think all roads lead back to mr. Comey. Mr. Comey is not the only one up here in washington, but he is part of the washington insider political elite. They think theyre smarter than the American People. They think theyre more virtuous than the American People. They didnt think the American People in 2016 were smart enough to pick a president. So mr. Comey and others tried to put their thumbs on the scale and he has hurt a lot of people and he has hurt a lot of important institutions to our system of government in the process. I think mr. Comey is lashing out now because he knows whats coming. Bill Mitch Mcconnell said the case is closed. He delivered a stinging speech on our program yesterday. Senator schumer followed up by saying this on the floor of the senate. Our leader says lets move on. Like Richard Nixon saying lets move on at the height of the investigation of his wrongdoing. Of course he wants to move on. He wants to cover up. He wants to silence on one of the most serious issues we face. Bill so there you have the back and forth and in an hour we see the hearing. What gives today in this contempt hearing with bill barr do you think, senator . Well, the theory of senator schumers case seems to be that somebody is covering up a crime that was never committed. This one is not hard to figure out. Many of my democratic friends are not happy unless they are unhappy. They dont like the results of the Mueller Investigation. They thought that mr. Mueller was going to indict the president. The Mueller Report comes down and it recommends no indictments of the president. The Mueller Report is all of a sudden an impurity in their punch bowl, a hair on their biscuit and they cant get mad at mr. Mueller and criticize him because they have worshipped him for two years and they turn on bill barr. What theyre doing to bill barr is ludicrous. Theyve accused the man of everything. Bill he seems to be a clear target right now. He is clearly a target. Theyre asking barr to go to jail. They are telling him release the grand jury information to us. They know he cant. Its a violation of federal law. They want him to do it and if he did do it they would say you ought to be prosecuted. It is about deflecting from the results of the Mueller Investigation. Bill were watching for headlines from the hearing in 45 minutes. Thank you for coming back. We have a lot to get to. Andy mccarthy is up in 20 minutes. The headliner next hour former independent counsel ken starr is here as well. Stay tuned for all of that. Julie another big story today. Were getting brandnew information from President Trump at this hour after a New York Times report claims he avoided taxes for nearly a decade but there is a good reason. Well tell you how the president is firing back. Bill today a bold move from the trump team taking action to make Prescription Drug prices transparent when you watch television. The secretary alex azar will be here live to explain what it means then for your bottom line. Julie breaking news out of iran, the rogue regime is threatening to pull out of parts of the nuclear deal. How the pentagon is responding this morning. This is a president thats trying to get us out of the middle east. I dont always agree but he is trying to get us out on the middle east. Do you think he would inject us into the middle east with force unless it is justified. Every american should be glad theyre doing it. Im glad theyre doing it. Will it feel like the wheend of a journey . P working, or the beginning of something even better . When you prepare for retirement with pacific life, you can create a lifelong income. So you have the freedom to keep doing whatever is most meaningful to you. A reliable income that lets you retire, without retiring from life. Thats the power of pacific. Ask your financial professional about pacific life today. Well, heres to first dates you look amazing. And you look amazingly comfortable. When your vneck looks more like a uneck. Thats when you know, its halfwashed. Try downy fabric conditioner. Unlike detergent alone, downy helps prevent stretching by conditioning and smoothing fibers, so clothes look newer, longer. Downy and its done. Noso lets promote ourke Summer Travel deal on choicehotels. Com like this surfs up. Earn a fiftydollar gift card when you stay just twice this summer. Or. Badda book. Badda boom. Book now at choicehotels. Com my time is thin, but so is my lawn. Now theres scotts thickr lawn 3in1 solution. With a soil improver seed and fertilizer to feed now yard time is our time. This is a scotts yard. Julie breaking news out of irans rogue regime. Tehran threatening to pull out of parts of the nuclear deal and giving a 60 day deadline to reach a new agreement. Senator marco rubio says the u. S. Needs to make sure to protect its people and interests in the middle east. Watch. If god forbid tonight or tomorrow or days to come American Forces in this region come under attack by shia militias it will be at the direction of iran. If naval vessels come under attack in yemen those are agents of iran. Julie lets talk about the parts of the deal theyre pulling out of in this 60 day window that theyve given us. Right. What this iranians are talking about is the enrichment of uranium. They are saying theyre not going to enrich uranium is for civilian use but threatening our european allies are still in the deal that if they dont receive some accommodation in the oil and banking sectors theyll consider taking those measures. Thats essentially nuclear blackmail. Quite telling. Our maximum sanctions are taken effect and the iranian economy is in free fall and the government of iran is looking for redress and how they seek to get it. Julie the deal brokered by the Obama Administration the president was not impressed by. They were under the 2015 agreement, trump withdrew that agreement. He wanted to negotiate the terms with the remaining partners in the deal. The question is how could this breakaway further escalate tensions between tehran and washington with a 60 day deadline . Its a flash point for us in the middle east and it starts in iraq. But it is also in lebanon and in yemen as senator rubio noted and in syria as well. Iranians are using their proxy groups to target israel. Weve sent the u. S. S. Abraham lincoln to the persian gulf out of concern the iranians who have harassed our military shipping boats in the past, my do so again and there is concern iranian proxy militias in the region may attack us. Were clear about our message to iran. If they seek to attack us well respond and thats what deterrents is all about. Julie secretary of state pompeo made an unscheduled visit to iraq yesterday and discussed irans includes in the region. Thats a problem between israel and hamas. Increased dangers not only to israelis but danger to americans. Adam schiff the House Intel Committee chairman comes out and he warns the Trump Administration that its heading down a quote path to war. Here is part of what he said. Recent comments, recent statements and actions taken by the administration have heightened my concern of a cycle of escalation with iran. One that could put us on the path to a war. That would be destabilizing, costly and contrary to our national interests. How can schiff say the Trump Administration is the one on the path to war when wasnt it iran who first made that move by moving short range Ballistic Missiles off its shores . According to intelligence officials they considered preparing attacking the u. S. Forces in the region. How are we escalating to a possible war here . Lets all remember that iran is the state sponsor of terrorism. Theyre the ones responsible for aggressive military action throughout the region destabilizing neighbors in the gulf and attacking u. S. Persons and our installations throughout the regions. We are sending a clear message to iran. Were seeking to deter their further aggressive action. If we did nothing we would be subjecting to attacks because iran would take that as weakness. Julie daniel hoffman. Thank you so much. We appreciate you coming on. Bill nice to see you, dan. New ruling backing up the Trump Administrations stance on Asylum Seekers. Brandon judd calls it a game changer and will explain in a couple of minutes today. Also details from trumps tax returns have now been published in a new report going back years. What did we learn and how much of it is new . Live at the white house for that answer coming up in a moment. Live in the days of the kardashians and the New York Times has descended to that level. Donald trump is rich. It is not a shock. Other taxpayers helped make him rich because he did legally what he is allowed to do. Dealing with Psoriatic Arthritis pain was so frustrating. My skin. It was embarrassing. My joints. They hurt. The pain and swelling. The tenderness. The psoriasis. I had to find something that worked on all of this. I found cosentyx. Now, watch me. Real people with active Psoriatic Arthritis are getting real relief with cosentyx. Its a different kind of targeted biologic. Cosentyx treats more than just the joint pain of Psoriatic Arthritis. It even helps stop further joint damage. Dont use if youre allergic to cosentyx. Before starting, get checked for tuberculosis. An increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur. Tell your doctor about an infection or symptoms. If your inflammatory bowel disease symptoms develop or worsen, or if youve had a vaccine or plan to. Serious allergic reactions may occur. I got real relief. I got clearer skin and feel better. Now, watch me. Get real relief with cosentyx. But we all know were paying too much for it. Enter xfinity mobile. Americas best lte, with the most wifi hotspots combined for the first time. When youre near an xfinity hotspot youre connected to wifi, saving on data. When youre not, you pay for data one gig at a time. Use a little, pay a little. Use a lot, just switch to unlimited. Its a new kind of network. Call, visit or go to xfinitymobile. Com. Bill President Trump pushing back on the report from the New York Times. Story about a decade of his tax returns. The report publishing some figures showing that trump reportedly lost about a billion dollars, was down about a billion in that period. The president tweeting the story is highly inaccurate. Thats a quote from his tweet. Kevin corke, north lawn. Take us through this story today. Good morning and what have we learned here and what is new . A lot like that second book, bill, that the president has actually talked about before he was president , the comeback. Let me say this, 1. 17 billion dollars in losses between 85 and 94. Thats a massive number no matter how you look at it and though we dont see actual tax forms, the times to be blunt, bill, has been incredibly detailed in its work. Investigation appears to show a pattern of writeoffs, charges and losses. The times found when it compared results with detailed information that the irs compiles on high income earners, then private citizen trumps core businesses lost in 1990 and 1991 more than 250 million each year. More than double those of the nearest taxpayers in the i. R. S. Information for those years. The times goes on to report overall mr. Trump lost so much money that he was able to avoid paying taxes on his income for eight of those 10 years. The president as you can imagine is pushing back on twitter offering what amounts to a bit of an explanation saying Real Estate Developers in the 80s and 90s more than 30 years ago were entitled to massive writeoffs and depreciation which would, if one was actively building, show tax losses in almost all cases. Much was nonmonetary. Sometimes considered tax shelter. You would get it by building or buying. You always wanted to show losses for tax purposes. Almost all Real Estate Developers did and often renegotiated with bank. It was sport. Additionally the very old information put out is highly inaccurate, fake news, hit job according to the president. Democrats on the hill who think there is a lot more to this story. Again, this shows a propensity to lie, please lie to the American People and may provide one of the answers to why the president is disobeying the law and instructing the Treasury Department the law and not supply the ways and Means Committee with a copy of his tax returns. We expect to see the president at the Cabinet Meeting at 11 30. Now back to you. Bill nice to see you kevin corke from the white house today. 27 past. Julie Mitch Mcconnell says it is for everyone to move on from the mueller saga. People are somewhat suffering from trump derangement syndrome. They cant accept the fact that the president won the election. The investigation is over. Julie time to move on he says. House democrats dont agree because in less than one hour they will be getting ready to fight the attorney general for contempt of congress. How the Justice Department is firing back. We have reaction from Andy Mccarthy coming up next and senator Amy Klobuchar taking the National Stage tonight. Front and center for a fox news town hall. What can we expect . We have a live report coming up from milwaukee. So simple, so good. Get the recipes at walnuts. Org. Not to worry about changing their minds in retirement. You may have always imagined your dream car as something fast. Then one day you decide it just needs to be safe enough to get her to college and back. Principal. We can help you plan for that. Julie fox news alert. The markets now open one day after a huge selloff over fears of a trade war with china. The president says he believes beijing will be ready to reach a deal this week. Fox Business Network jerry willis is live at the new york stop exchange. Fingers crossed for a better day today. It is better already today. The dow right now down 7 points. It is moving to the down side. Weve expected the markets to open as much as 100 points down. It was a tweet from the president who brought us back from the brink. China has just informed us that theyre coming to the u. S. To make a deal. Well see. Im happy with over 100 billion a year in tariffs. Great for the u. S. Not great for china. As you know the president has said he will put on board higher tariffs on chinese goods coming into the u. S. , 25 on those compared to 10 before. Big questions why he made those statements on sunday. Now we find out that china had basically red inked some 150 page agreement with the u. S. Saying they werent going to do many of the things the u. S. Found essential. So that has been a big sticking point. The trade negotiations continue today. It will be very important what happens today. At 12 01 a. M. On friday those new tariffs go into place. On the floor of the exchange theyre watching it carefully. The earnings coming up from Companies Really just about done. No big Economic News this week. So this is the big thing that all traders are watching. I have to tell you theyre concerned that we will retest some of those. The dow was down 648 points yesterday. Julie lets keep our fingers crossed. Bill 30 minutes from now house Judiciary Committee will make bill barr the target. Both sides now are digging in on this. Here is a sample of that. The Mueller Report has been filed. The case is closed. We have their report. My view is its time to move on. This is not closed. The facts, the data, the evidence, the truth is what we want to base our decisions on. And the administration should be willing to share that unless they have something to hide. Bill lets bring in Andy Mccarthy. Fox news contributor, former u. S. Attorney. Nadler will gavel in here in about 30 minutes. You look at history. Eric holder was held in contempt. Lois learner was held in contempt. Nothing happened to them. Other than the fact that bill whats this about . Other than the fact it was a mark on their legacy it made no difference practically speaking. This something different. Projecting the image that there is a coverup under circumstances where there is none. Holder got held in contempt for actually withholding documents and misleading congress. Here were talking about a report that barr didnt have to give congress that is 95 unredacted and they are going through this dog and pony show anyhow. Bill do you know how many have taken advantage of reading this report in the unredacted form . Ive got Lindsey Graham and doug collins, the republican on this committee. Anyone else . I have not heard anyone else. I havent heard many on the democratic side. If you take a historic step like holding the attorney general in contempt you might have wanted to go look at the information yourself. Bill doug collins is the Ranking Member on this committee. James comey was on cbs earlier today. Did you hear his interview . I heard of it. Bill we played a clip for senator kennedy 30 minutes ago. Christopher wray was asked about spying on the hill yesterday. He gave an answer that seemed to disagree with the a. G. Bill barr. Here is the question and answer on cbs. Attorney general says he believes spying occurred in looking after the president s then campaign. What do you think about that . I have no idea what he is talking about. The f. B. I. Doesnt spy, the f. B. I. Investigates. We investigated a very serious allegation that americans might be hooked up with the russian effort to attack our democracy. The republicans need to breathe into a paper bag. I know jim for 30 minutes and have a lot of respect for him. I think were playing semantic games here. Spying is a form of investigating. The attorney general explained in his testimony what he meant. He thought that spying was a good word because its the most inclusive description. He said there is no real synonym for it. Its the most inclusive description of a covert collection of intelligence and information. I dont really think there is a lot of daylight between what barr said and what director wray said because what wray went on to elaborate was that regardless of what you call it, the question is, is the surveillance correctly predicated. Is there enough evidence to do whatever tactic . Thats what we should be talking about. Not what you call it, bill. Bill you have a very interesting theory and perhaps the theory is proven in fact over time. The Inspector Generals report will be out in 4 to 6 weeks. During my podcast last week you offered the following. You said when the investigation officially begins in july of 2016 they dont think trump will win the election. As they get closer to the election different moves are carried out that extend well into 2017. Your thinking is the reason why james comey made decisions that he did was not to cover his tracks, but to justify his tracks. What does that mean . I dont think it was singular to comey. I think it was an Obama Administrationwide move. They didnt think trump would win. Once he did win, they had control of the government for another 10 weeks before he got sworn in. They knew that once trump won it was inevitable it would become public. Bill because he would have access to the information. He would have access to all the classified information. They had a choice. They could either do nothing and sit to wait and see how trump would react when he found out or use the 10 weeks to project the idea there was something very serious in the way of a conspiracy between trump and russia to investigate. I believe thats what they did. Bill they got the dossier, they knew it was funded by the dnc. It reads like somebody with a poor translation from russian to english. The more serious thing with that, bill, is that they knew that the sources were not corroborated. They keep calling steele the source. He is not the source. He is the accumulator of information. He is like a case agent in a normal case. The sources are the people who made the observations that the court has asked to rely on for purposes of probable cause. With respect to those people, there is no indication who they were, how many levels of hearsay theyre removed from the thing they say they saw or heard, and there is nothing about their biases, etc. And thats the big problem. I actually think it is not just a problem from the f. B. I. And Justice Department. Why didnt the fisa court focus on it . Bill do we get answers in the report . I sure hope so. Fisa abuse is what theyre looking at. Bill nice to see you again. We have more with julie. Julie the wait is over. The newest member of the royal family appearing in his first photo op. Prince harry and meghan showing us a glimpse of their baby boy as we wait the hear the little guys name. The proud parents are over the moon. He has the sweetest temperament. He is really calm. He has been a dream. So its been a special couple days. Julie special private days. Queen elizabeth and Prince Phillip meeting baby sussex this morning. Their eighth grandchild and seventh in line for the throne. Bill whats the name . Oh, William George is taken. I think phillip will be. Julie it will be somewhere as a middle name perhaps, i dont know. Well see. It is exciting, though. Bill does it matter . Julie no, but it does. Everybody gets so excited about this baby so it does matter. Bill happy for them, too. They seem delighted. Drivers for uber and lyft going on strike across cities. What it means for millions of commuters. Julie a legal victory for the president. A court rules in favor of a policy to send refugees back to mexico to await court proceedings. Our next guest says its a game changer. The president of the National Border Patrol Council brandon judd will explain why next. Democrats in congress may not have gotten that message yet. The growing recognition among the American People that we face a crisis at the border cannot help but reach the congress. So. Youre driven, and you have a ton of goals. But youre stuck in the vicious cycle of credit card payments. Its time to get a personal loan from sofi. Borrow up to 100k to pay off your credit cards, and then pay us back with one monthly payment. And its all with zero fees. Get a personal loan, and pay no fees. Get a personal loan, and pay no fees. Tech at safelite autoglass, we every chip will crack. This daughter was Home Visiting when mom saw a chip in her windshield. Mom honey is that a chip . Tech they wanted it fixed fast so they brought it to us. Mom hi. Tech with our inshop chip repair service, we can fix it the same day. Guaranteed. Plus with most insurance a safelite chip repair is no cost to you. Mom really . Drive safely. All right. Acoustic music singers safelite repair, safelite replace. What do you look for i want free access to research. Yep, td ameritrades got that. Free access to every platform. Yeah, that too. I dont want any trade minimums. Yeah, i totally agree, they dont have any of those. I want to know what im paying upfront. Yes, absolutely. Do you just say yes to everything . Hm. Well i say no to kale. Mm. Yeah, they say if you blanch it its better, but that seems like a lot of work. No hidden fees. No platform fees. No trade minimums. And yes, its all at one low price. Td ameritrade. The president wanted to lay out two broad things to immigration reform. Its addressing the crisis at the attorney border. Reforming our asylum laws. The second part was something which i worked a lot over the last few years. Shifting to a highskilled, meritbased immigration system. Julie senator tom cotton on the need for action on immigration reform. The comments after the white house revealed new immigration plans to respond to the crisis at the southern border. And as an Appeals Court upholds the administrations stay in mexico policy for Asylum Seekers. Lets bring in brandon judd. President of the National Border Patrol Council. How big of a win is this for the Trump Administration, the Trump Administration has been pushing for Asylum Seekers to be processed in mexico. If theyre processed in the United States they disappear and never seen again. Initially shot down by a San Francisco judge. A big win. This could completely change the dynamics on the border. The major magnet that draws people to cross the border illegally and break our laws is the fact that they know they are going to be released once they come into the country. If were allowed to send them back to mexico pending claims nobody will come here to break our laws anymore. They come here because they can then disappear into the shadows of society like obama said. And then never show up to the Court Appearances and know that the radical left is never going to go after them to deport them at a later date. This was a huge win by the president. He knows that congress is not going to act. So he is using his authorities and he is realizing this is a marathon, not a sprint. Knowing that judicial activism at the lower court levels is going to stymie him initially but then he is ultimately going to win in the end. Thats exactly what he did. Julie slow and steady wins the race. Lets go to the plan. It has six goals. Lets lay it out. Fully secure the border, make sure to protect american wages, retain the best and brightest minds in the world. Unify families, protect labor and Critical Industries and preserve humanitarian values and how at this point the question is how will this plan assist and make sure all people crossing the border are inspected while stopping the flow of drugs into the u. S. Isnt that the mission here . Yeah. Whats amazing about this is you look at those six points and you have to ask yourself why would the democrats push back against this . Isnt this exactly what we want in this country . Dont we want our citizens and those that come here legally, dont we want them to be able to prosper . This is Jared Kushner from a business standpoint pushing this and then, of course, you have Stephen Miller from a policy standpoint pushing the policies that allow us to secure the border. The Trump Administration is working as hard as they can again realizing that they have to use the authorities that they currently have because congress is going to refuse to act. It is interesting that you mention those six points because politico came out today and said the democrats are saying that this plan is already dead upon arrival without them even considering it. I cant secure the border if the democrats arent going to help me. Julie lets talk about the need of the border and southern border apprehensions. Theyre up and thats why the need is there. From 2018, 396,000 to 2019, 414,000 and counting. The ruling by the federal Appeals Court yesterday i want to break that down a bit. It requires certain i want to make emphasis on this, nonmexican Asylum Seekers to wait in mexico pending resolution of the cases. Can you explain what happens to mexican Asylum Seekers . We can send mexican Asylum Seekers back to mexico because its a country that is right next to ours. It has always been more difficult when you are looking at countries where we have to fly them back. Thats why this is such a big win. As long as we can keep them there were going to be able to get rid of that magnet. Julie brandon judd. Thank you very much. Bill nice to see you. 12 minutes before the hour. Cutting edge plan to bring down sky high drug prices. It involves all those drug commercials that you see on television. The secretary of health and Human Services is alex azar and he is live from the white house to explain how this Program Works coming up live right after this. Bill this could be a revolution. Pharmaceutical Companies Soon will need to reveal the prices for the drugs they advertise on television. The regulation is designed to disclose the cost of the drug if covered by medicare or medicaid. Got that . Health and Human Services secretary alex azar live from the north lawn. Thank you for coming back on our program here. Lets go ahead and educate our viewers here. What would it do . Lets start there. This is a great day for american patients. President trump today is requiring that Drug Companies that run those tv ads that we all see, that they have to disclose the list prices of their drugs in those ads. Its time for the Pharma Companies to start leveling with the American People what their drugs cost. It is unfair if you are buying if they are running tv ads saying talk to your doctor about this drug, you have no idea if that drug costs 50 or 5,000. But you will have to shell out hundreds of bucks to see a doctor, ask the doctor about the drug and you dont know. Now you know because President Trump is requiring they level with the American People. Bill all very interesting stuff. Lets look at it simply. Why are you doing this . Were doing it because we believe that transparency in healthcare is important. That you have a fundamental right as a patient to be in control and being in control means when you go see a doctor, when you go into the pharmacy, you ought to know what something costs before you go in and before you are handed a surprise bill. Bill what change to you expect from this, mr. Secretary . We think list prices will go down. We think it will cause Drug Companies to see an impact on their sales if their prices are too high and people find theyre too high. Theyll have informed discussions with their doctors and they will say hey, i cant afford that. Are there other affordable options especially because were delivering other tools we proposed. A realtime Prescription Drug price tools that the drug plan will have. You have to be able to find out how much youll pay outofpocket for a drug. The doctor can advise you there is another affordable option for you. Bill a lot of people will pawn it off on the insurance company, right . They dont even see the price. Thats the pharma talking point. They say list prices dont matter. They do matter. For 47 of americans we have high deductible healthcare plans where we bear the full cost of the drug. For americas senior, every senior has a drug on their plan they pay a percent of the list price for the drug and they have deductibles. List price matters. To say that doesnt matter saying we dont have a problem with drug prices in the country and nobody believes that except the Drug Companies. Bill how have the Drug Companies responded to the regulation . They will fight this. Theyll fight it tooth and nail. He wants patients informed and he wants to get those prices down. Bill got it. Can they fight this if its a regulation its a requirement, right . Its a requirement. Im sure theyll try to fight it. They arent happy about it. Bill where and how . Ill leave that up to the pharma lobbyists to try to challenge this. 60 days from when this rule is published americans will know what the prices are for their drugs. Thats new. Thats the amazing thing. You cant right now find out the list price of a drug. Isnt that amazing . Go online and try to find the list price of a drug. You cant find it unless you pay for a very expensive Subscription Services to guess that. You cant find it. President trump is delivering that knowledge to you now. Bill a minute left here. Will this change my behavior or someone else watching this . I hope it will change your behavior as a patient. I hope now youll be informed and be able to talk to your doctor and say i heard about this drug. Lets see if i get it under my insurance. If i dont how much will it cost me. Are there cheaper alternatives . Would a generic drug work . Bill why not do it before is my last question. Do you have a quick answer . We havent had leadership in the form of President Trump who is willing to take on the Pharma Companies and mandate this. Bill sir, thank you for your time. Lets see how far you get and what change you exact. Alex azar from the white house. Thank you. Julie moments away from another showdown on capitol hill over the Mueller Report and bill barrs handling of it. House democrats arent backing down from a fight and getting ready to start contempt proceedings. Republicans say its political theater. The real focus should be on the antitrump dossier. Coverage continues with former independent counsel ken starr. He joins us next. We now know the author of the dossier, Christopher Steele, was on the payroll of the democratic party. Not a reliable informant. Trying to restore trump because he was paid by the democrats to take trump down. They should have known all this before they applied for the warrant. P. Earn a fiftydollar gift card when you stay just twice this summer. Or. Badda book. Badda boom. Book now at choicehotels. Com with uncontrolled moderatetosevere eczema,n who got an awful skin condition. Or atopic dermatitis, you feel like youre itching all the time. And you never know how your skin will look. Because deep within your skin an overly sensitive immune system could be the cause. So help heal your skin from within, with dupixent. Dupixent is not a steroid, and it continuously treats your eczema even when you cant see it. At 16 weeks, nearly four times more patients taking dupixent saw clear or almost clear skin compared to those not taking it, and patients saw a significant reduction in itch. Do not use if you are allergic to dupixent. Serious allergic reactions can occur, including anaphylaxis, a severe reaction. Tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems, including eye pain or changes in vision. If you are taking asthma medicines, do not change or stop your asthma medicine without talking to your doctor. Help heal your skin from within. Ask your eczema specialist about dupixent. When you have nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea. Girl, pepto ultra coating will treat your stomach right. Nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea. Try pepto with ultra coating. What do all these people have in common, limu . Oug [ paper rustling ] exactly, nothing. Theyre completely different people, thats why they need customized Car Insurance from Liberty Mutual. Theyll only pay for what they need [ gargling ] [ coins hitting the desk ] yes, and they could save a ton. Youve done it again, limu. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Coach its kinda hard to see the ball. Ive been there. I had a tv service with hardly any sports in 4k. Couldnt see any of the quality details. I switched to directv, now i get the most live sports in 4k. So how does that help me . You know what . It really doesnt. I dont know why i told you that. Go get em sport live sports that arent in 4k are just kinda tv. Dont just kinda tv. Directv call 1. 800. Directv bill 10 00 in new york. Fox news alert. Watching House Democrats turning up the heat as the Judiciary Committee puts bill barr in its crosshairs. Im bill hemmer. Well see what we get now. Julie do we ever get to sit back on this show . Im julie banderas. New escalation between the house and democrats after lastminute negotiations with the d. O. J. Failed to reach a compromise. Republicans say its time to move on, folks. I cant get mad at mr. Mueller and criticize him. They have worshipped him for two years so they have to turn on bill barr. And what theyre doing to bill barr is ludicrous. He is clearly a target. Theyre asking barr to go to jail. Theyre telling him release the grand jury information to us. They know he cant. This is all about deflecting from the results of the Mueller Investigation. Bill that from last hour. This hour complete coverage ken starr in studio with analysis. Catherine herridge live on the hill with our reporting coverage that begins now. Hello there. Thank you, bill. Let me walk you through what we expect this morning. This is called a contempt citation or contempt resolution and will begin with an Opening Statement from the democratic statement jerry nadler. Then a statement from a ranking republican doug collins and we anticipate a series of amendments that will be tabled. The timeline really is unknowable. Anywhere from a half hour to three hours to get it all accomplished. The next step will be to send it to the house leadership if voted out of committee and they will ultimately decide whether it goes to the full floor for a house vote. Under what terms or conditions. Will it be criminal, civil, or what is called inherent . It would be enforced by the congress. The democrats are not emphasizing this morning is that all of this is happening against a back drop where there is no official or formal impeachment proceedings. Thats why critics are calling it faux impeachment or impeachmentlike and not emphasizing the key component. Special counsel report is the grand jury material. The attorney generals hands are tied. He needs a court order to share that information with congress. Chairman nadler said on cnn this morning he was willing to go to court but he hasnt done so at this point. Against the back drop the Justice Department has been working on some kind of 11th hour compromise allowing more of the members to get access to the full special counsel report and to take notes and to be able to share those notes on a limited basis. But they warned if they proceed along a contempt citation theyll urge the president to invoke executive privilege. That would be like dropping the curtain on a bulk of the material covered under that limitation. Here is the democratic member jamie raskin. I can tell you that there is rising alarm within the Democratic Caucus about the declining intransient of the Trump Administration. Unprecedented that the president ordering the executive branch of government not to comply where the fact finding powers of congress. The other headline we heard from the democratic chairman this morning was on this anticipated testimony from the special Counsel Robert Mueller. Right now Robert Mueller remains just Justice Department employee so his direct report would be the attorney general and ultimately the president and the president has said he does not want mueller to testify. Chairman nadler told cnn this morning he believes mueller will ultimately testify but he is less confident about that in the short term, bill. Bill Catherine Herridge watching that. Back to you in a moment. Well take our viewers to the hearing when it is relevant. Ken starr is todays headliner. Nice to see you here in new york city. You say your main point is this, the Mueller Report is wildly, detailed. Too much detail. Take one segment. The meeting of the Russian Ambassador with then senator Jeff Sessions during the campaign. Is there collusion is the issue. In about a page and a half we learn everything about that meeting. It starts out with there is no suggestion of collusion whatever. At the end of that discussion no suggestion of collusion and yet we read all of this detail. Elaborate footnotes. 17 footnotes. There are over 1,000 footnotes. Why . The point of this report is simply to say why i prosecuted or why i didnt prosecute. This is not a term paper. Bill answer your own question. Why is there so much detail in that then . Why is that necessary . It is special counsel overkill. Special counsel is an independent counsels go the extra extra mile to be thorough. An occupational hazard. We tried to eliminate that through the regulations that said we dont want these full, highly detailed reports such as the one that i authored a long time ago. We dont want that anymore. We simply want to restore the Justice Department traditions, provide a confidential report, mr. Special counsel, or ms. Special counsel, to the attorney general and then the attorney general will provide an explanation, not the report. So what is being debated bill if you can give a bottom line conclusion and all the other details arent necessary. Julie what do you think about the letter written by Jerrold Nadler being compelled to request the executive privilege here . The letter states that barr would be compelled to request that if he chooses to but it remains unclear whether democrats would necessarily seek to hold barr in civil or criminal or inherent contempt of congress. There are a lot of things to be answered. I view all this as needlessly provocative. When you look at the report and here it is, the Mueller Report. Julie thats a hefty binder. It is a hefty report. 446 pages with all this, as i say, elaborate detail. Less than 10 are redacted and each time there is a redaction we have a specific explanation. Grand jury or whatever it is. Ongoing investigation. So why do you really need this . And plus there has been an accommodation. The way i read the correspondence the Justice Department has said well allow a number of members of congress to look at the full unredacted report. So its this back and forth negotiation right now and the negotiation isnt offer. Julie what do you make of jerry nadler not reading that report . How do i know he hasnt read it . Julie congressman andy biggs said he hasnt gone down to read it. He has asked him. Excepting that i would be surprised and disappointed. I would say dereliction of duty. If you are going to demand this and you have access to it, mr. Chairman, why dont you read it . It seems to me to be the responsible thing to do. I would like to assume he has read it and that it is needed and up to the Justice Department to respond to that and to say now we have assistant attorney general boyds letter saying were ready to discuss these issues and for you to have oversight ability. Theyre looking for an accommodation. Bill whether democrats want to go down the road of impeachment. You say they already are. How so . Because of all the saber rattling and the suggestion by the speaker of the house that we may be given no choice whatsoever. I think its unfortunate. I wish but it is were in the political season people say why do we really need this entire report to be out in the Public Domain . Some of the material apparently has to do with the privacy of individuals and so forth. National security information. And thats what we want. I think the Justice Department from the outside is trying to do the best that it can in navigating this and yet the Justice Department and bill barr specifically are being accused of all kinds of high crimes and miss demeanors. It is really unfair. Bill before we go to the hearing you made headlines two days ago and i want to share this clip with our viewers and ask you a specific question about the word you chose to use. Here is ken starr from monday. His letter that was then leaked on the very eve of bill barrs testimony was essentially, i believe, an unfair whiney complaint when he wasnt saying that the letter the march 24th letter from bill barr that summarized the conclusions that he was obliged to do it. He was obliged to do what he did. Then the letter and its leaked. Thats the unforgivable sin. Bill why is that the unforgivable sin and why call him whiney . I love bob mueller. Julie i love my children. I call them the same names. Quit whining. I view it as highly unprofessional because he reported as a subordinate officer to the attorney general of the United States. If he had an issue. He was given the opportunity to review the letter is my understanding and he didnt do it. If thats true, if thats true, if he saw the march 24 letter, there it is, if you want to see it, it is yours to review and he didnt do it. Thats it. We call it its too late to complain. Also he apparently in the conversation with the attorney general did not suggest that the letter was inaccurate. So it didnt fully capture or fully convey. Bill barr testified that he offered mueller to see everything he passed on to congress and the public and that bob mueller passed on the opportunity to see it. Secondly, once you receive the letter barr has to know at some point its going public which is why he said he called bob mueller and said pick up the phone, bob. I think what bill barr and bob mueller know one another. They arent two strangers or two foreign governments dancing. They have worked together over the course of 30 years. The responsible thing would be to say bill, mr. Attorney general, i have a problem. Lets talk about it. Julie this hearing is about to start any moment. Walk us through what were about to see. Well see a lot of arguing but theyll hold a vote. The vote will be do we proceed down the road to contempt . It is all another phase in this continuing march down toward the road of impeachment. Julie criminal contempt. It has backfired in history if you look at eric holder and many others. How does history play out here . How might it affect or help barr . It doesnt have to same teeth as it used to. No. It seems as if every administration gets into a tussle will congress. Congress fires the weapons but at the end of the day there is not much happens. Bill the chairman of the committee jerry nadler. Recorded vote for the yays and nays are ordered. Pursuant to notice i now call up the Committee Report for resolution recommending that the house of representatives find william barr, attorney general, u. S. Department of justice, in contempt for refusal to comply with a subpoena duly issued by the committee on the judiciary for purposes of markup and move the Committee Report favorably to the house. Mr. Chairman. I demand the question of consideration. Before we read the bill . I believe this is when the motion lies. The question is not debatable. The question is shall the committee consider the Committee Report. All those in favor say a, opposed. The ayes have it. Roll call is requested. The clerk will call the roll. Mr. Nadler . Aye. [votes being counted] [votes being counted] [the clerk calls for votes] [the clerk calls for votes] [the clerk calls for votes] bill gentleman from georgia . Mr. Johnson of georgia votes yes. From florida . The there any member of the committee who wishes to vote who hasnt voted . Clerk will report. Mr. Chairman 22 ayes, 12 nos. The motion for consideration is adopted. The clerk will report the Committee Report. Resolution recommending the house of representatives find william p. Barr, attorney general, u. S. Department of justice, in contempt of congress for refusal to comply with a subpoena duly issued by the committee on the judiciary. With that objection the Committee Report is considered as read and open for amendment at any point. I will begin by recognizing myself for an Opening Statement. Today we consider a report recommending that the house of representatives hold attorney general william barr in contempt of congress for defying a valid subpoena issued by this committee. This is not a step we take lightly. It is the culmination of nearly three months of requests, discussions and negotiations with the department of justice for the complete, unredacted report by special counsel mueller into russian interference in the 2016 election along with the underlying evidence. I appreciate the fact that the department responded to the offer we made to them last week and met with us yesterday in a lastminute effort to reach and accommodation. We heard the department out, we responded to them in good faith, and after all was said and done we unfortunately were still unable to Reach Agreement and we proceeded with our markup today. As i have said before, we remain ready and willing to consider any reasonable offer made by the Department Even after todays vote. But if a letter i received late last night from the department is any indication, i am concerned that this department is heading in the wrong direction. In response to our latest good faith offer, the department abruptly announced if we move forward today it would ask President Trump to invoke what it refers to as a protective assertion of executive privilege on all of the materials subject to our subpoena. Just minutes ago it took that dramatic step. Besides misapplying the doctrine of executive privilege since the white house waived these privileges long ago and the department was open to sharing these materials with us yesterday, this decision represents a clear escalation in the Trump Administrations blanket defiance of Congress Constitution nallly mandated duties. I hope the department will think better of this lastminute outburst and return to negotiations. We must have access to the materials we need to fulfill our Constitutional Responsibilities in a manner consistent with past precedent. This is information we are legally entitled to receive and we are constitutionally obligated to review. I would remind the members the Mueller Report is no run of the mill document. It details significant misconduct involving the president including his campaigns willingness and eagerness to accept help from a hostile foreign government. Numerous misstatements if not lies concerning those acts and 11 separate incidents of obstructionive behavior. If congress is not entitled to the full unredacted Mueller Report, one must wonder what document we would be entitled to. Our exhaustive negligent yaixs with the department of justice have left us back where we began. Obstruction by the administration that announced its intention to block all attempts at congressional oversight of the executive branch. It is our constitutional duty to respond. Let me be clear. Information we are requesting is entirely within our legal rights to receive and is no different from what has been provided to congress on numerous occasions going back nearly a century. We do not need to go back that far to find a precedent. As recently as the last congress under republican control the department produced more than 880,000 pages of sensitive investigative material on the investigation of Hillary Clinton and other material relating to the russia investigation and other ongoing investigations. That production included highly classified material, notes from f. B. I. Interviews, internal Text Messages and Law Enforcement memoranda. In past cases involving cases of misconduct of president s on high ranking Public Officials the department of justice as a matter of course has sought to permission of court to get information to congress if not the public. Several cases were not impeachment inquiries including the investigation into mike espy and the irancontra investigations and others not governed by the independent counsel law. No matter the law and history support the release to congress of this kind of information, the Trump Administration has taken obstruction of congress to new heights. Unfortunately the attorney general has been all too willing to support the president in in endeavor. I would also like to respond to two other concerns often raised by the Ranking Member. He asks how can the committee hold the attorney general in contempt for merely complying with the laws on the books . How can we hold him in contempt when i have refused an offer to allow me to see certain redacted portions of the report . The answers are simple. First, we issued a val eyed subpoena for the full report and all the underlying evidence. The department has come nowhere close to satisfying its obligations under the subpoena. The department has never cite i had a legal bases for withhold the underlying evidence including last nights threat to invoke executive privilege. As is the assertion or the statement that they will assert executive privilege by the white house this morning. To the extent we have asked for access to grand jury information which is protected by federal law, all we have ever asked is that the department join us in petitioning the court to determine if it is proper for us to have access to this material. The department as i said has done this on many occasions in the past. We ask for commitment to join us in that effort again last night as it has done in many previous cases and the department refused. Second, with respect to the offer to limit to lift some of the redactions for me and the handful of my colleagues, the department has placed unacceptable limitations on access to that information. Their offer would block the members of this committee from reading those sections of the report for themselves. It would require me to leave my notes behind at the department of justice and prevent me from speaking with my colleagues with other members of the committee about what i might see. What good is it . Of what use can this committee make of information that i have but cant discuss with any other member of the committee . I have consistently stated that if we are to do our jobs as members of the house Judiciary Committee all of the members require meaningful access to the report and underlying documents. We need to be able to confer with each other about what we have seen. We need to be able to take official action on what we have seen if warranted. And if necessary, we need to be able to inform a court of law of what we have learned even if perhaps under seal. If we can find an accommodation that satisfies those basic principles i would be happy to continue negotiating with the department of justice. But now by invoking executive privilege on all the materials that process has come to a halt. The administration announced it does not recognize congress as a coequal branch of government with Oversight Authority and will continue to wage its campaign of obstruction. When the Administration Says it will oppose all subpoenas regardless of its merits it is saying that it does not recognize congress having a constitutional Oversight Authority over the executive branch. And to those who consider the matter case closed in the words of some of our leaders, and who urge us to simply move on, i would say to do so is to announce loud and clear that such a course of action has the effect of aiding and abetting the Administration Campaign of total and blanket and unprecedented obstruction. The Trump Administration brazenly try to cover up the misdeeds uncovered by the special counsel. In this committee well represent the American People and insure that truth is known. I urge my colleagues to think about how the departments latest position, their insistence on ignoring our subpoena effects our committee over time. Our fight is not just about the Mueller Report. Although we must have access to the Mueller Report. Our fight is about defending the rights of congress as an independent branch to hold any president accountable. Every day we learn of new efforts by this administration to stone wall congress. And through congress to stonewall the American People. The ways and Means Committee has been denied the president s tax returns when the law states clearly that they are entitled to them upon request. The chairman of the oversight and Reform Committee has been sued in his personal capacity to prevent him from acquiring certain financial records from the trump organization. The president has stated that his administration will oppose all subpoenas and virtually all document requests are going unsatisfied. Witnesses are refusing to show up at hearings. This is unprecedented. If allowed to go unchecked, this obstruction means the end of congressional oversight as a coequal branch of government we should not and cannot allow this to continue or we wont be a coequal branch of government. I urge my colleagues whether or not you care to see the full Mueller Report. We should all want to see the complete report, to stand up for the institution we are proud to serve. I expect that well have a full debate today on the measure before us. I hope at the end of it well do what is right. No person and certainly not the top Law Enforcement officer in the country, can be permitted to flout the will of congress and defy a valid subpoena. No person, not the attorney general, not the president can be permitted to be above the law. That is what is at stake today. I urge all of my colleagues to support this report. I now recognize the Ranking Member of the committee, mr. Collins, for his Opening Statement. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, this and the folks watching here this slog continues. Last week you and my fellow members to respect the history and traditions of this committee and conduct the business. Here we are wasting another valuable week of legislative calendar against the war against the administration. Were considering a bill to hold bill barr in contempt of congress. Lets go through this. What is the justification for holding him in contempt of congress . That he failed to abide by the special counsel regulation . No. He went above and beyond what the regulations required by transmitting the full report to congress with miment limited redactions. Did he fail to accommodate the chairmans demands for information . No, he offered to let the chairman and five ot democrat leaders review the less redacted including a 9. 9 unredacted volume. In an odd move for anyone demanding access for information the chairman and other democrats giving access declined to view that report. The attorney general volunteered to testify about the committee in his role in sharing the report and as we all witnessed the democratic gamesmanship forced him to forego the scheduled hearing last week. Monday the Justice Department offered to meet to discuss accommodationsed yesterday they made a reasonable offered and once again they were rebuffed and the chairman declined. Perhaps then the democrats believe there has been an unreasonable delay in the Justice Departments response to their subpoena. Thats not true, either. The chairman is moving to this contempt resolution at lightening speed. It has been less than 20 days since the chairman nadler subpoenaed documents from the Justice Department. When the Oversight Committee healed attorney generaler i can holder in contempt. 250 days had passed between the subpoena and committees vote to hold him in contempt. More than 450 days passed between the committees initial request to the Justice Department and the committees contempt vote. Judiciary democrats are moving more than 10 times faster than oversight did withholder. They have moved from request to contempt vote in only 43 days. And yet the Justice Department is still at the negotiating table waiting for the democrats to arrive in good faith. Why this rush . Without any valid legislative reason we can assume the democrats have resuld to sully bill barrs good name to accomplish two goals. Theyre angry the special counsels report did not have the i feel compelled to remind everyone the report found no one from the Trump Campaign knowingly conspired with the russian government and you cant help but notice the phrase russian collusion has vanished from the democratic talking points and left a void in the narrative. Since the special counsel did not make a determination of obstruction, his job, the attorney general and the Deputy Attorney general did so according to their mandate as lawens forcement officials while giving no credence to the Legal Counsel opinion regarding that of sitting president s. Theyre angry that they had the audacity to decide the evidence didnt support charges and investigation into something the president didnt do. Second, democrats are afraid of what the attorney general will find when he completes his review of fisa abuses of the Justice Department including how the russia investigation began. Those conclusions could be explosive and ind careers and lead to criminal prosecution. The democrats are resolved to neutralize bill barr. What a counter productive irresponsible step. Economy is surging. Unemployment historic low. A recent poll shows cradling support for impeachment. Democrats have no plans and agenda beyond attacking this president. How many bills passed by this committee have been signed into law . Mr. Chairman, i implore you to see reason and ask you recognize the insincere politics that yield no dividends for the American People. Weve talked on multiple occasions that i stand ready to work with you to promote solutions. I will not become a bystander as we assail the attorney general and this committee. Our democracy deserves better. Finally, mr. Chairman, i with like to quote a fellow member of congress. As a member of congress i treat assertions of executive privilege seriously and used only sparingly. It seems clear the administration was forced into a position by the committees insistence on pushinging forward with contempt. Despite the attorney generals good faith offer it did not have to be this way. We could have postponed todays vote and instead by not honoring the constitutions charge to seek accommodations when possible the prestige of this committee has been diminished. As a result that should concern us all. I quote elijah cummings. In that case, of course, the committee did seek accommodations and in this case this committee did not. And in just a difference of opinion between me and the chairman there has been no escalation of this except on the side of the majority. You have to have both sides at the table for accommodations, thats the way this process works. That is what i just laid out. 10 times faster than even eric holder. When we get into the other issues here again how we deal with this is Going Forward with what will be the precedent for the future and will be the precedent for what we have. With that i yield back. Thank you, mr. Collins. With that objection. Other Opening Statements will be included in the record. I now recognize myself for purposes of offering an amendment in nature of a substitute. The clerk will report the amendment. Amendment in the nature of a substitute for the resolution recommending the house of representative find william p. Barr. It will be considered as read and base text for purposes of amendment. I will recognize myself to explain the amendment. Amendment in the nature contains a technical change to page 2 of the Committee Report changes the reference on the page to jude ishii xhishy to the committee of the judiciary. I urge support for the amendment. I recognize mr. Collins for any amendments. I dont have any as far as the amendment. I will make one comment that was made in your previous Opening Statement. The chairman over Oversight Committee was not served in his personal capacity but official capacity. A clarification for the record as we go forward. Other than that i have no objection. Any amendments to the amendment in the nature of a substitute . Mr. Chairman. For what purpose i move to strike the last word. Gentleman is recognized. Our democratic colleagues seem to be on a mission. They are determined to destroy attorney general barr or discredit him in the eyes of the American People. The attorney general agreed to appear before this Committee Last week and was ready to answer any and all questions about the Mueller Report. However, mr. Chairman you and your democratic colleagues on this committee decided that instead of just answering questions from members of the committee while we unprecedentedly would also require him to be grilled by a bunch of partisan staff lawyers. You are determined to find him in contempt. In my view for somebody who served on the committee for 25 years its disgraceful. The majority set up an empty chair last week, ate chicken and made a mockery of this committee. A committee that was once led by the likes of daniel webster. It is worth noting that attorney general did appear before the senate Judiciary Committee the day before he was scheduled to come here where the unreasonable demand that he be queried by staff attorneys was not made. Senators did the questioning themselves as is normal and the same should have been the case here instead of chicken gate. Lets be clear. It wasnt a day at the beach in the senate for the attorney general. The senators themselves were perfectly capable of being rude, abusive and arrogant all by themselves. They didnt need their staff to do it for them. So why this passion to tear into william barr, an attorney general at least up to this point in his career considered a person of upstanding in fact outstanding character . Well, first our democratic colleagues are apparently really ticked off about the Mueller Report that it found the russian collusion thing was a big fat zero. Even though the obstruction of justice allegation wasnt as clearcut but there wasnt evidence to pursue a charge against President Trump or anyone else for that matter. William barr did that. Democrats are mad about that. But what i think is even more important is that our democratic colleagues are afraid. They are afraid that unlike former attorney general sessions who had recused himself from anything related to the Mueller Investigation, bill barr is going to dig into the origins of the bogus russian collusion allegation itself. The Clinton Campaign funding of the steele dossier was the actual collusion between the russians and the political campaign. Is that something thats finally going to be looked into . That was the real political collusion with the russians. The f. B. I. s involvement in trying to tip a president ial election in favor of one candidate over another, the whole peter strzok, lisa page, all of that. The idea that trump may have been right that his campaign really was spied on by elements of the Obama Administration despite the fact that this accusation was met with such dear dear ition by the mainstream press. Many democrats in the house and senate apparently believe that finding out the truth in these matters may not be helpful to them in the upcoming election cycle and the best way to undermine the results of the investigation, the true investigation, which is really about to happen, might just be to destroy the credibility of a guy who is doing the investigation, the attorney general william babb. Lets begin that process with the folks on the other side of the aisle by finding him in contempt. Thats the way we can really discredit him. Thats the way i see it. I yield back. Before i proceed to the next statement let me point clarify a point of apparent confusion. We are not proposing to hold the attorney general in contempt for not showing up last week. He didnt show up last week. That has nothing to do with this motion for contempt. We are proposing to hold him in contempt for ignoring for not satisfying the subpoena for the production of documents namely the unredacted Mueller Report and underlying evidence. Who seeks recognition . Mr. Chairman. The lady from texas. For what purpose . The last word. She is recognized. Im pausing for a moment because i do think its a moment in history. And i appreciate my good friends on the other side of the aisle but having received a letter both from a copy of the letter to the president of the United States by general barr and a letter from the department of justice, indicating after their purposeful collapse of the negotiations well intentioned by the staff and house Judiciary Committee i can only conclude that the president now seeks to take a wrecking ball to the constitution of the United States of america. For the first time in the history of the United States, a president is now exerting executive privilege over every aspect of life that the American People desire to have information. Whether or not they are Affordable Care act is dissolving, the preexisting conditions, whether or not children are being separated from their parents. Environment being destroyed. Anything Congress Wants to do on behalf of the American People is to be alleged to be under the jurisdiction of privilege. Then of course we have to surmise this is an absolute lawless behavior by this administration. The general attorney general actions are con tem taouous and insulting to congress but were the tools. To the American People. To broaden the executive privilege and ignore the constant accommodations that chairman nadler has made and our staff in working to work out three simple points. Give us all of the documents unredacted Mueller Report for the American People to see. Work with us on grand jury materials not to undermine, if you will, any ongoing investigations and work with us to list the documents by priority. Thats very simple. To recount facts of yesteryear doesnt speak to the fact of the hundreds of investigations that my good friends, when President Trump and the Republican House and senate existed. They never ceased. They never ceased going after secretary clinton, getting 880,000 documents and a benghazi hearing that went forever and never found anything. I happen to believe 700 former prosecutors who indicated that the Mueller Report described several acts that satisfy all elements for an obstruction charge conduct. Congressman jackson lee didnt say this. Chairman nadler did not say this precise statement as a former federal prosecutor, it is 700 who have indicated that the actions of this president warrant an obstruction charge. In addition, we have a right to understand the underlying reasons regarding the collusion report. But the very fact that the collusion part of the Mueller Report recounts the constant interaction of trump operatives with russian adversaries, the American People should be wary and they should ask us why. And we should write legislation. Ive introduced legislation that says if you interact with a russian operative or foreign adversary as a Campaign Committee or candidate you must report it to the f. B. I. And so this is part of our legislative work. I would argue the case that our friends on the other side of the aisle should not be noted in history of standing at the door of justice in this room and putting up a stop sign that we cannot pursue the truth on behalf of the American People. We have gone over and over and over again that there are allegations of obstruction of justice that need to be heard in front of this committee. I say this. Mr. Mueller, a former marine, a man of integrity, i will say to him in the opening proceeding we welcome you to come and explain your position on how disturbed you were that the attorney general characterized your report as an exoneration of this administration. Secondly, i want to say to mr. Mcgahn, you are a private citizen. You have every right to present yourself to this body. And also that the conduct of President Trump described in muellers report would in the case of any other person if not having the office of Legal Counsel policy against indicting a president would result in felony charges. There are people incarcerated right now because of lesser charges. I dont want to target the president , mr. Chairman. I simply want to find the truth for the American People and thats why were here today to vote on this citation for lacking of producing of documents. I yield back. Mr. Chairman. Gentleman from wisconsin. Mr. Chairman, i think we ought to step back from the political rhetoric and ask exactly what this contempt citation deals with. Im going to try to use my time to do that. First and foremost and most concerning to every american or at least it should be, is the fact that they want an unredacted report that includes information on grand jury testimony. The committee, by making this insistence and issuing this subpoena, is telling the attorney general of the United States to commit a crime. Because it is a crime for anybody to disclose grand jury material to anybody else. That includes the attorney general, it includes the prosecutors in the Justice Department, it includes the witnesses who have been subpoenaed and have testified before the grand jury. It means everybody. If the grand jury system is to work and remember, witnesses cant even bring their attorneys into a grand jury, then the secrecy is going to have to be maintained. Now, all of us know that it is really impossible for the people who work on this capitol hill to keep a secret. If there is an unredacted version, completely unredacted version, including the grand jury testimony which is unredacted, it will be on the front page of every newspaper in the country within 48 hours and talked about incessantly on the table news shows whether you watch fox news or msnbc. Now, i think it is absolutely shocking that the majority of this committee is going to ask the chief Law Enforcement officer of the United States to commit a crime. Shocking. And there are no exceptions to what is to be disclosed in this unredacted version. That includes the grand jury testimony. And by citing the attorney general of the United States for contempt of congress for saying im standing up for the law, i am not going to break the law by complying with that part of your subpoena, shows an overreach on the part of the majority. If we are to be a government of laws and not of men or people, then we have to obey the law on this end of pennsylvania avenue as well as on the other end of pennsylvania avenue. And we are not doing that. Now what else has been redacted . There has been redactions relative to ongoing investigations. Now, do we want to let the people that the Justice Department is investigating know all about the ongoing investigations . I dont think the Public Interest is served by that, whether somebody is guilty or not should be determined by a jury in a trial. Thats what the american system is. And thats what a lot of the bill of rights protects. You also have a protection against people who are peripherally involved in that. They were just on the edges of this, they were interviewed and nothing came of the interview because they didnt have any evidence on what was being investigated. But there is a character assassination squad running around this town that even if you are on the periphery and went and voluntarily talked to the f. B. I. Or mr. Muellers team, you are going to end up having your good name and your reputation smeared even though you didnt do anything. So this is definitely an overreach. Those reactions redactions, excuse me, ended up being justified redactions and i can understand the reluctance on the part of the attorney general or anybody else that watches the way this institution and the people who work here operate, that anything that is supposed to not get out in the public realm will get out in the public realm with a leak. And if this place werent as leaky as a sieve, i would not be opposed to what the chairman is doing. Ive stood up for oversight during my entire career in this body. But it is leakly as a sieve and i think what were doing here is forcing the attorney general to break the law, the place in jeopardy innocent people who are not involved in any of the things that mr. Mueller ended up investigating, and shaming ourselves in the process. My time is up. What purpose is the gentleman from tennessee to seek recognition . Recognized. The attorney general has been contemptuous of the committee and congress. When he couldnt come, when he couldnt dictate the terms of the hearing. He is contemptous this week when he will not bring forth papers. The chairman has tried to reach and accommodation with the Justice Department. All cases in the past when such issues have been raised about grand jury testimony, the attorney general has gone with the majority party, the chairman, to the District Court and asked that that information be released to the committee for its purposes. This attorney general has not done that. If he would have done that and tried to make a reasonable accommodation to join with us in going to judge howell we might not be in this situation. There has been nothing reasonable from this attorney general. Mr. Sensenbrenner talks about people on the periphery. We dont know who those people were but we know that bill barr decided which testimony would be redacted because people were on the per iphery and protect their reputations. This is the man reflect the character and spirit of the report and he knew mr. Mueller objected to it for not being an accurate representation of his work and yet he did it and when asked about it by mr. Crist in committee he had no idea that mr. Mueller or anybody in the mueller special counsel investigation would have objected. Thats not true. He lied when mr. Crist asked him that question. Thats beyond contempt. Thats a lie. So were depending on mr. Barr determining who was on the periphery and what reputations would suffer. We are talking about the opportunity for congress to do its proper oversight as described in article one of the constitution which is being trampled upon. The Trump Administration refuses to respond to any subpoenas, destroying article i in congresss prerogatives. Now, we had a question i think it was maybe the Ranking Member said we should be doing legislation and how many signatures how many bills have been signed into law by this committee . Well, ask Mitch Mcconnell who has declared the senate is a graveyard for all legislation that comes from the house. We have passed outstanding legislation out of this committee. It has gone to the graveyard where Mitch Mcconnell who first killed Supreme Court nominees of the last president of the United States in his one year before and voids and frustrates the constitutional prerogative of the president to nominate members to the Supreme Court but now frustrates the other house by not having hearings whatsoever. Somebody said were afraid. Yes, were afraid. Were afraid of the loss of the rule of law. Were afraid of the loss of the power of congress to be an independent and coequal branch of government and we think today if we dont stand up. Somebody else said nothing with russian collusion. The Mueller Report said there was sweeping and systematic efforts by the russians to influence our election and done to help trump. And the Mueller Report showed lots of connections between the Trump Campaign and russia, lots of contacts. And didnt but didnt show that he had all of the elements to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they conspired together. A big difference between not having connections and having guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Then mr. Trump gets on the telephone with mr. Putin and has a 90 minute conversation or Something Like that where he can see on a phone call that he smiled at him and gets flattered and never broaches the subject of russian interference in our next election or russian interference whatsoever. That was one of the prime parts of the Mueller Report that the russians interfered and that our intelligence officials had confirmed and told us and their f. B. I. Has told us and that we know they did it in 2018 and theyll do it more in 2020. But our president did not even mention it to mr. Putin. That is scary. We are afraid of interference in the 2020 elections and we need to be. And we need to be because weve got a man who has been suggested might be financially dependent on the russians. Why would he be financially dependent on the russians . He lost over a billion dollars in the decade of the 80s and 90s. He was broke. If he wasnt president he would be in prison with Michael Cohen today as individual one and he obstructed justice as the Mueller Report says. Were in danger. We need to respond. And we need to act for the people of the United States of america. I yield back the balance of my time. For what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition . Ask to strike the last word. Gentleman is recognized. Thank you. Im really hearing mourning for a once great Judiciary Committee. My first term in 05 and 06 i saw our current chairman as a champion for privacy rights, for civil rights, for Fourth Amendment rights, fifth amendment rights, and something dramatically has changed over the years. There was concern back then about too much power through the fisa courts. The patriot act, and we shared a number of those concerns. And now this committees majority is on the wrong side of a very important historic time. Weve never had the Intelligence Community, the f. B. I. , people at the top of the d. O. J. Abusing their powers to create a case against a president where there was none. Where assets were actually used to try to set up members of the Trump Campaign. When there was no case. To try to create a case. We ought to be all over that. We ought to be demanding answers from the fisa judge or judges who were either a, content to have fraud committed against their courts or were complicit. Maybe it was Peter Strzoks buddy that he bragged about in his text that would be the fisa judge that signed warrants where there was no probable cause of anything. This was an attempted coup and history is bringing that into focus more and more clearly. And what does this committee do about the abuses, the attempted coup . It comes in and decides we are going to go after the attorney general who is trying to clean up the mess. Christopher wray sure hasnt. Instead of asking from the Intel Community let us see the 100 certain proof you have that Hillary Clintons personal server was hacked by china, no, he covers it up and we still havent seen it. They havent asked to see it. There is a disaster that has occurred in our Justice System and this committee has oversight responsibilities and we are abusing those. This motion for contempt is not being done in good faith. Im not going to call anybody on this committee the names that my colleague from tennessee just did in violation of our rules of decorum. But the truth is, we know that this Committee Majority is not acting in good faith. How . Because they are moving for contempt for an attorney general failing to turn over material that this majority at least some, maybe its just the staff, but some people know that you cant hold someone in contempt you can vote to do that but you cant be in contempt for failing to produce things that are illegal for you to produce. How do we know somebody over there knows that this is wrong is because there was an offer. Look, attorney general barr, if youll join us in going to court and getting a court order so that we can get the grand jury proceedings in evidence, then we will disregard the contempt. Well, thats evidence of a state of mind by the majority that at least somebody over there knows you cannot be in contempt for failing to produce what would be illegal to produce without a court order. Youre on the wrong side of history and there is no joy here in seeing the abuses. I hope and pray literally for the day when we can join forces and quit trying to push this idea of an attempted coup and uncover the abuses that have truly gone on. My time is expired. The committees is, too. The lady from pennsylvania, for what purpose do you seek recognition . I move to strike the last word. Recognized. You know, its easy to lose focus when the white house and our colleagues across the aisle engage in what aboutism or what is the distraction of the day or even misleading legal arguments. Nobody is asking the attorney general to disobey the law. Were asking the attorney general to obey the law and produce the Mueller Report and supporting documentation. The underlying evidence that weve been requesting for a couple months now and that the American People have been waiting for two years. Why is this important . If you think there is no collusion and no obstruction, you havent read the Mueller Report. I admit it is not an easy read but it clearly states that there was coordination, there is evidence of coordination, it clearly states there are multiple instances of obstruction of justice and it clearly refers that over to congress to deal with. Over 700 federal prosecutors have now reviewed that evidence just the redacted evidence, not even the underlying evidence and stated unequivocally that it shows multiple instances that would be felonies if it was anyone other than a sitting president. And thats the reason why mueller didnt charge. He says in his report it was a sitting president under the rules im operating under, i couldnt file charges. Thats why it is congresss job to do something about it. And thats why were staying focused on our job. Im not joyful about this. Im not afraid of where it takes us. What i am is profoundly saddened that were in a position where we have an administration that is stonewalling, yes, even acting in contempt of, not just congress, not just the rule of law, but the American People. With that i yield back. Who seeks recognition, for what purpose . Strike the last word. Gentleman is recognized. Bill barr is following the law . His reward . Democrats hold him in contempt. I dont think todays actually about getting information. I dont think its about getting the unredacted Mueller Report or last weeks hearing was about having staff question the attorney began ral. As my colleague said earlier. Its trying to destroy bill barr because democrats are nervous he will get fought bottom of everything and how and why this investigation started in the first place. Never forget what bill barr said a few weeks ago, 3 1 2 weeks ago when he testified in front of the Senate Finance committee. A lot of important things. He said four very interesting things. He said there was a failure of leadership at the Upper Echelon of the f. B. I. We all know thats the case. Director comey has been fired, Deputy Director mccabe fired, lied three times under oath according to the Inspector General. Jim baker demoted and left and under investigation. Lisa page demoted and left, peter strzok, deputy head of Counter Intelligence demoted and fired. Strzok who read the clinton and russia investigation. There was certainly a failure of leadership at the Upper Echelon of the f. B. I. Second thing the attorney general said in front of the Senate Finance committee. Spying did occur. Said it twice, yes, spying did occur. Third he said there is a basis for my concern about the spying that took place. Maybe the most interesting thing two terms he used, frankly i find frightening. He said there was in his judgment he thinks there may have been unauthorized surveillance and political surveillance. Scary terms. We have to go back to january 3, 2017. Senator schumer on the Rachel Maddow show talking about then president elect trump says this. If you take on the Intelligence Community, they have six ways from sunday at getting back at you. I dont know if the f. B. I. Went after President Trump in six ways, but i sure know they went after him in two ways. The first one is the now famous dossier. On october 21, 2016, the f. B. I. Used one partys Opposition Research document as the basis to go to a secret court to get a warrant to spy on the other partys campaign. That happened. Democrat national committee. Clinton Campaign Paid the law firm who hired fusion gps and hired Christopher Steele who talked to russians and put together this unverified document that was the basis to get a warrant to spy on the Trump Campaign. When they went to the court, they didnt tell them important things like who paid for it. They didnt tell him that Christopher Steelerd already told the f. B. I. And Justice Department he was desperate to stop trump and that he had been fired by the f. B. I. Because he was out talking to the press. They did that. And second, just last thursday, just last thursday New York Times story f. B. I. Sent investigator posing as an assistant to meet with the trump aide in 2016. F. B. I. Sent someone in pretending to be somebody else to talk with George Papadopoulos who was with the Trump Campaign. You know what they call that . You know what they call that . Its called spying. They did it. They did it. They did it twice and who knows how much more. What i know is bill barr said he would get to the bottom of it. Think about the term he used again. This is important. Political surveillance. The United States of america. I will not yield. Think about that term. He is going to get he said he will put a Team Together and investigate all this. This is critical. Never forget the guy who ran this investigation, peter strzok, ran the clinton investigation and then launched and ran the trumping russia investigation. Dont forget what he said. Trump should lose 100 million to zero. We need an insurance policy. Told lisa page dont worry, lisa, well stop trump. This is what bill barr wants to investigate. As my colleagues have said, this is the house Judiciary Committee with the history this committee has in protecting the constitution and fundamental liberties. Last week another important document. Flood sent to the attorney general. A couple sentences. Under our system of government, unelected executive Branch Officers and Intelligence Agency personnel are supposed to answer to the person elected by the people. The president and not the other way around. This is not a democrat or republican issue, it is a matter of having a government responsible to the people. To we the people. In a partisan in the partisan commotion surrounding the Mueller Report it would be well to remember that what can be done to a president can be done to any of us and this committee is supposed to look out for that fundamental fact more than anything else. And we are not doing that today. I yield back. I would simply observe that to his credit, mr. Jordan has been second to none in asking for access to the materials were asking for for simply asking is he still supporting his own request for that the committee and the congress be given access to the entire report and the ongoing information . Consistent with the law. I would ask the chairman. My understanding is mr. Mueller is going to be here next week. Youll get the guy who wrote the whole document. We will get to ask him questions. Hold off on the contempt until the guy who wrote the thing with democrat lawyers putting together. Ask him next week before we do this contempt resolution. Well, essentially because it would be useful to read the material before we have him in front of us. The gentleman what purpose is the gentleman from georgia seek recognition . Move to strike the last word. Gentleman is recognized. For most people in america, the end of the Mueller Investigation did not equal the end of the story. The American People want to see and hear the full story and they deserve to do so. And, in fact, investigate a mueller intended for the American People and for congress to have the full story. He did so in his unredacted summaries for both the obstruction and the russian influence investigations. And what happened when he issued his report william barr did something unprecedented. He put together his own fourpage summary which was misleading, which failed to properly and adequately and accurately characterize the conclusions of the mueller investigators. He did that. He waited for about a month while that narrative marinated among the American People. And it was reduced down to four words, no collusion, no obstruction. And they ran with that for a month before finally the redacted report was issued by bob barr. Before he issued the report, two hours before he issued the report he had a press conference to again summarize the Mueller Reports findings. And again he failed to accurately portray and represent those results. And so finally the redacted report was revealed to congress and to the American People and the American People and congress saw clearly that bob barr was a part of the president s ongoing obstruction. He obstructed the russia investigation, he obstructed all matters that mueller was investigating, and now he is trying to obstruct congress and the American People in finding out what is in that report. And what is very troublesome as my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are aiding and abetting them in their coverup. So still the full results of the Mueller Investigation are not known. Congress, the house of representatives, the Judiciary Committee has demanded an unredacted report that should be available to all of the members of at least the house Judiciary Committee. The attorney general barr has stonewalled as he has been instructed to do by the president and he is a willing participant in this, mind you. They are obstructing the American Peoples ability to understand what happened. They are hiding behind rule 6e of the federal rules of evidence which make grand jury proceedings secret. But as my colleague from wisconsin should know, there are five exceptions listed in 6e that enable the disclosure of grand jury information. He knows that. There is no reason for the American People to be misled about that. And Bob William Barr knows that also and he also knows that previous attorney generals in his situation have gone to congress have gone to the courts with the house of representatives and obtained grand jury materials when necessary. And so this is all part of a coverup. And it is up to this committee to insure that we get that report because we have lawful responsibilities, Constitutional Responsibilities, to engage in, one of which is possibly impeachment. How can we impeach without getting the documents . So we must get this document. The American People expect us to do it. Once we get it, our hearings can continue and lead to whatever they may lead to, including impeachment. And so i ask my colleagues on the other side to stop and start carrying out your constitutional responsibility and with that i yield back. The gentleman from florida is recognized glad to see the microphone is working this week. M good friend from georgia just asked the operative question. How can we impeach if we dont get the documents . How can we impeach if we dont get the documents . Ladies and gentlemen, this hearing is not about the attorney general. It is not about the Mueller Report. 92 of which everyone in america has had the opportunity to read. It is not about the fact that even the portions that the American People havent been able to read, the chairman has been able to read had he chosen. This is all about impeaching the president. Now, why dont they just say it . Why dont they just jump to the impeachment proceedings like their liberal media overlords are telling them to do . The reason is the American People dont support impeachment and it is easy to understand why. They went and elected donald trump president of the United States. I dont think people are going to support impeaching a president who is doing so well. Youve got 3. 2 growth in the economy. The trump economy is hot. The reason were doing so well is consequence of the president s policies and so at a time when my democrat colleagues are focused on the next election and not solutions to the problems facing americans, they cant attack the president s policies. People are doing well. So typically they role next to identity politics based on what you look like, who you pray to or love you cant possibly support republicans. But africanamericans are doing better, hispanics are doing better, women are doing better. Were seeing a rising tide that is lifting all boats in this country. Now we have this effort not to argue with policies, not to typically go to the identity politics that functions as the organizing principle of todays democratic party. They have to delegitimize the guy people voted for but they dont have the guts to do it directly so they go after the attorney general. The gentleman from georgia said were hiding behind the rules. Hiding behind the rules . These are federal laws that dictate what the attorney general can and cannot do. We arent hiding behind the rules. We just like to follow them. It is not following the rules that got us into trouble in the first place. When the Inspector General testified it is during the investigations of Hillary Clinton and donald trump you saw continuous examples of a one off here, a violation of protocol there. The inspect oror general said he had never seen the very same Team Investigating Hillary Clinton would then investigate the other person that was involved in the 2016 president ial contest. About a month ago in this committee i laid out the stages of grief, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. I think folks watching at home can fol oel along and see where were headed. First the democratic colleagues were in denial. When they saw there was no collusion after saying for 22 months that the president was an agent of the russian government and that there was actual evidence of collusion, they were in denial when they saw the conclusion that there wasnt. Then there was anger. It had to be the attorney generals fault. Mueller didnt make a decision on obstruction. Somebody had to. The attorney general did. They got mad at him and a lot of anger. The third step, bargaining. Well, mr. Attorney general, youve given us 92 of the Mueller Report. But we have to bargain for the remaining 8 . Thats where we think the action is. Well, mr. Attorney general. You spent five hours before the senate Judiciary Committee. Three of our president ial candidates got to question you. You offered to come before the house Judiciary Committee to come for an additional hour of questioning. We have to bargain so our staff lawyers can ask you questions. Now, i dont think its a good sign that the next sign after bargaining is depression. So i feel for my democrat colleagues but after that we get to acceptance and thats sure something that im looking forward to because there is some really good ideas that my democratic colleagues have once they get to acceptance on the no russia collusion thing. My friend from rhode island has a great idea to my colleague from the state of new york is right if the First Step Act is the only step act then that would be a bad thing. We need to do more on criminal justice reform. My colleague who is not with us from california mr. Swalwell, he has great ideas to unlock potential medical can business reforms. I have a bunch of my friends on the other side of the aisle that there are actual bills that would impact the lives of americans would get heard instead of this garbage. The Obama Administration ran an intel operation against the Trump Campaign. Peter strzok opened it up, the dossier kept it going and now the democrats need to get over it. I yield back. Mr. Chairman. I move to strike the last word. The gentleman from florida, what purpose . Move to strike the last word. Gentleman the recognized. Mr. Chairman. Were here today because were witnessing the breakdown of the foundations of our nations constitutional order. Thats why were here today. In 1974 in u. S. Versus nixon the Supreme Court warned of moments just like this when they said once executive privilege is asserted, coequal branches of the government are set on a collision course. The court went on to explain said it places courts in the awkward position of looking into the claims of autonomy and pushes difficult situations of separation of power and checks and balances. These occasions for constitutional confrontation between the two branches are likely to be avoided whenever possible. Why are we on this collision course today . Because the attorney general of the United States refused the provide information that is not privileged and is subject to the committees subpoena. The committee issued a subpoena for information gathered by the special counsel. There is no privilege for this information. Executive privilege is not a cloak of secrecy that drapes across our nations capitol from the white house to the Justice Department. Yet last night the attorney general threatened to blanket privilege claim over materials that he knows are not privileged. As retribution for the markup were holding now. This morning he asked the president to do just that. It is striking how empty that gesture is. Chairman nadler pointed this out last night. The attorney generals request of a blanket privilege claim of is empty of merit or legal or factual support. The attorney general ordered his staff to send what he would define as a snitty letter last night. Those words were empty. Executive privilege exists to insure that the president gets good advice and make important decisions without interference from congress. But thats not at stake here. Were asking for information that is no longer held in confident among the president and his closest advisors. Were asking for the truth that many already know but the being withheld from the public. Investigators know the truth. Private attorneys know the truth. The Ranking Member have seen it. The privilege no longer applies. What does apply is the American Peoples interest in the truth and the need for this committee to do its job. To protect our elections, protect our National Security, hold the president accountable and to draft legislation to insure that no one, not the attorney general or the president is above the law. Yet the attorney general continues to mislead the American People. And after being caught in a lie in his testimony to congress he has joined the president in this ongoing obstruction of the house. Congressional hearings and document requests are normal. They are normal. This committee holds and oversight hearing with the attorney general every year. Thats normal. But this collision course the president and the attorney general set us on in not normal. The collision is the definition of a constitutional crisis. And the breadth of this obstruction is beyond anything in our nations history. The president has said that mueller should not testify here. He has ordered without authority dan mcgahn to refuse to testify here. He has ordered in violation of the law that the treasury secretary continue to hide his tax returns. He has blocked or delayed more than 30 requests from congress. He has blocked testimony about the security clearances granted to his family members. He has blocked testimony about the humanitarian disaster caused by the trump family separation policy at our southern border. This sweeping repudiation of congress and congressional investigations is unprecedented and it is unconstitutional. This is a government of, by and for the people, the attorney general of the United States is stonewalling the people. He is misleading the people. And he is working actively working to suppress the truth. I dont understand still every time we have one of these hearings how it is that none of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle seem at all concerned about russias attack on our democracy and their desire to do it again. I close with this. The Mueller Report finishes by reminding us that the protection of the criminal Justice System from corrupt acts by any person including the president accords with the fundamental principle of our government that no person in this country is so high that he is above the law. We will continue to assert our Oversight Authority out of a duty to maintain the checks and balances that preserve the powers of separation and coequal branches of government. A failure to do so would be a failure of our constitutional system of government. I yield back. What purpose is the gentleman from colorado seek recognition . Amendment at the desk. The clerk will report the amendment. Mr. Chairman, i reserve a point of order. Do you have an amendment . Bill there has been a lot that has transpired over the past hour and 20 minutes or so as this hearing continues i just want to let you know the Trump Administration has invoked executive privilege over the Mueller Report and all the subpoena materials. Thats the action of the white house. Back inside the hearing. We do expect a vote on contempt regarding bill barr. Thats what were waiting on. We have heard some extraordinary claims this morning. Ive been taking notes as my colleagues have commented on all of this. Congresswoman lee said the executive branch is taking a wrecking ball to the constitution. Mr. Chairman you said the d. O. J. Doesnt recognize congress as a coequal branch of government. Mr. Cohen said were trampling upon article one. Anyone who looks at the facts knows the truth is exactly the opposite. The attorney general and d. O. J. Are objecting to the charade based upon the rule of law and trying to protect the integrity of our institutions. Mr. Chairman you said the assertion of executive privilege this morning was a lastminute outburst. The opposite of that. The letter that the d. O. J. Sent to you this morning says and i quote, regrettably you, mr. Chairman, have made this assertion necessary by your insistence upon scheduling a premature contempt vote. Letter goes on to say youve terminated our ongoing negotiations and abandoned the accommodation process. As we have repeatedly explained, the attorney general could not comply can with your subpoena in its current form without violating the laws court orders and threatening the indetense the facts matter. The letter that the attorney general sent to the president this morning says the committee demands all of the special counsels investigative files which consist of millions of pages of classified and unclassified documents bearing upon more than two dozen criminal cases and investigations, many of which are ongoing. These materials include Law Enforcement information and grand jury information that the department is prohibited from disclosing by law. Thats the letter the attorney general sent to the president explaining all this. Were attorneys on here. Most of us are attorneys on this committee. What does the law say . The courts have repeatedly affirmed the rules on all this. April 5 just last month a u. S. Court of appeals for the d. C. Circuit ruled that District Courts may disclose grand jury materials only when they have positive authority to do so with the exceptions to grand jury secrecy in 6e. The court of appeals explained the vital interests that the rule of grand jury secrecy seeks to protect including preserving the willingness and cannedor of witnesses called before the grand jury. Not alerting the target of an investigation who might the flee or interfere and preserving the rights of a suspect who might later be exonerated. These are critically important principles and traditions for us to uphold and it is again the law. That the chairman can file suit for access to the 6e material but he blasts the attorney general. Why hasnt the chairman taken that steps . Perhaps he knows his rationale for demanding the unredacted report is wholely insufficient. This bears repeating. The chairman claims he needs the full unredacted report as march of the investigation 81 individuals and organizations related to President Trump. Lets make a couple of facts clear. The investigation we dont even know if its still ongoing. We havent much about it. The lack of activity around the investigation makes clear the majority here isnt ifnted in pursuing this for legislative purn. Its about scoring political points. The chairmans public come interests surrounding his need for full report are focused on obstruction. Another important fact. 99. 9 of the obstruction volume is available for the chairman to view but he hasnt done that. Six lines in only 182 pages is redacted. This isnt about seeking the truth. It is about raw partisan politics. Our democrat colleagues from weaponized our oversight responsibilities and moving to hold the a. G. In contempt is not only premature and unwarranted it is shameful. I hope the American People will review the facts and look at the correspondence and get beyond partisan politics and understand why were taking the stand today we are. I yield back. For what purpose is the gentleman from louisiana seek recognition . I would move to strike the last word. Gentleman is recognized. Mr. Chairman, i would just say that today is a very serious day. Today is a very regrettable day. Unfortunately, we have an administration that is choosing to have a temper tantrum that is designed to accomplish one thing. That one thing is to never let the real facts of the Mueller Report come to light. To never let the American People hear the whole story. The other side would have us congratulate them for telling 92 of the story. I wish when i was a child i could get away with telling 92 of the story to my mother. I would always tell the same good 92 . And i would leave all the bad deeds, lies and crimes in the 8 that i dont tell. So you get no profile in courage. You dont get the Nobel Peace Prize and no award for honesty for giving out 92 of the whole story to the American People. But the real story of what were doing today is that the president needed something to hang his hat on to prevent anyone who had anything to do with compiling the report from putting their hand on a bible and taking an oath to tell the truth. And that is what we are going to ultimately have is the president obstructing the testimony of everyone involved in the Mueller Report. While he tells the National People and continues to promote and articulate and push and offer lies and fake news about the contents of the report without ever letting the American People see the whole truth and nothing but the truth. But i will tell the American People that are watching today that we have a solemn obligation to the constitution. We have a solemn obligation to defend our democracy, to protect the homeland, to protect the right of the american citizens to have a free, open, Fair Election without the interference of any foreign countries, especially russia. The bad news is that this is this will never be neat, this will never be clean, this will never be easy, this will never be convenient. This will be messy. But the one thing that the American People should know is that were here at the right time to protect our democracy and that the democrats are not going to give up on our constitutional duty. Were not going to run or abandon this country or our citizens. We will never run, we will never retreat when we are fighting to save our country. And for the messiness, it will be that way sometimes. But the fight is necessary to protect this great country and continue to move it towards being a more perfect union. There are too many people in this countrys history that have given their life, blood, sweat, and tears to get us to be the great country that we are today. We will not let one administration, certainly not one person, we will not let one party be enablers to the crime all acts that we see over and over again. So i can deal and speak in fact so people wont just think that here the democrats go again. There have been 199 criminal acts that have come out of the investigation. There have been 37 34 individuals charged with crimes. There have been three companies charged with crimes. So lets just look at the orbit around this administration and see how fake this is. The former Campaign Manager in jail. Former National Security advisor in jail. The president s personal lawyer, in jail. This is not a witch hunt. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quakes luke a duck its a luck. If it looks like obstruction, sounds like obstruction, smells like obstruction, it is obstruction. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I yield back. Mr. Chairman. Gentleman for what purpose is the gentleman from arizona seek recognition . Move to strike the last word. Last week we saw an attempt to change the rules of this committee that defied the historical precedent by applying only impeachment proceedings to attorney general william barr. And today were zipping right along and we know that my colleagues on the other side have the votes. Theyll try to hold this attorney general in contempt. But im interested to see the look on the judges face when my colleagues from the other side present these facts. Court is going the say what did you do . Were you in negotiations . We were but we scuttled that. Because we refused to hear from the attorney general because we changed the rules, judge. We changed the rules so the attorney general didnt come in. He offered to let us view the less redacted report but i didnt do that. I didnt even bother to go down there and look at that report. He offered to have Staff Members view the less redacted report with me. I said no, were not going to do that, either. He permitted us to take notes on the less redacted report and we rejected that as well. He asked us to continue to negotiate and see if we could work out our differences but i rejected that as well. We attempted to compel him to respond in spite of federal law on rule 6e, the grand jury material weve heard so much about today. We knew there were some other witnesses that were important that might have shed light on this as well but we didnt hold a hearing did rosenstein, we didnt hold a hearing on mueller before we issued our contempt citation. We didnt seek closed door confidential classified hearings with any of these individuals. In fact, judge, you know what we did . We undercut our whole argument by making the argument to mr. Barr saying look, you know, mr. Barr, why dont you just join us . Why dont you just join us in asking the court to authorize release of 6e material . What does that do . It says quite frankly that the folks that will be sitting there before a court propounding execution of a contempt citation, they will have the great privilege of saying yeah, we put a sort of damaclese over william barr. We said guess what . You either be held in contempt or you violate federal law because thats the way we do things in Judiciary Committee these days. Thats just the way it is. That is unprecedented and will hold this committee up to derision as my colleague from louisiana said, there was a case that just came out last month that said this gets to my colleague from georgia who said there are exceptions. Thats right. The court said you must fit within one of those exceptions before you can release rule 6e material. Nothing were doing here today fits into the rule 6e exceptions. There is not an authorization under the 6e provisions right now. So there will be a problem and i cant wait to see the judge the look on the judges face when these guys try to explain we were trying to pigeon hole into something of 6e. Ill just close in this area. When i hear that the wrecking ball is being taken to the constitution, that its being trampled upon, that were continue to breakdown the constitutional order. These kinds of arguments made over and over again, i cant help but say if you think this administration, this president is so dangerous, why arent you acting on the many resolutions for impeachment youve already introduced . I mean, mr. Johnson was pretty clear, this whole thing is about impeachment. Well, take it to the American People. Take it, file your resolution. You filed them, act on them. With that my time is up. Thank you. For what purpose is the gentleman from new york seek recognition . Move to strike the last word. I expect that when the court does hear this challenge if it comes to that i expect that she will rule in favor of the constitutional separation and checks and balances in our oversight function. I really dont understand the arguments that have been articulated by my colleagues and as i understand it there have been three Different Reasons that have been suggested for opposing our effort to simply uphold our article 1 responsibility as a separate and coequal branch of government. This whole thing is a politically inspired witch hunt, nonsense. They want to all of a sudden protect the reputational interests of innocent americans. Nonsense. Three, this blanket assertion of executive privilege, nonsense. Lets take all three. First of all, 17 different intelligence agencies have concluded that russia interfered with our election, attacked our democracy for the sole purpose of artificially placing someone at 1600 pennsylvania avenue they were successful. And thats also what the Mueller Report shows. This is not a politically inspired witch hunt. Im confused. Every Single Person at the helm of this investigation is republican. The person who initiated the investigation, former f. B. I. Director james comey, republican. The f. B. I. Director who replaced him and presided over the investigation, christopher wray, republican. The person who decided to appoint a special counsel to preside over the investigation and then monitored it at the helm of the department of justice, the Deputy Attorney general, rod rosenstein, republican. The person who actually conducted the investigation, a war hero, a Law Enforcement professional, bob mueller, lifetime republican. Who is the attorney general going to investigate, the republican party, the notion its a politically inspired witch hunt is one of 10,000 or more misrepresentations that have been spun out of 1600 pennsylvania avenue. It is a shame that you choose to adopt it and parrot it. Second thing reputational interests, really . Many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle actually perpetrated a witch hunt as it relates to securing more than 800,000 documents from this very same department of Justice Without regard to the reputational interest of americans who have served this country. You werent concerned with the reputational interests of Hillary Clinton. In fact, the Top Republican said the sole objective was to undermine her, the former first lady and secretary of state of you werent concerned with the reputational interests of peter strzok and lisa page. You embarrassed those two. You made mistakes but you embarrassed them. You werent interested in the reputational interests of andy mccabe. This very same department of justice turned over 800,000 pages of documents but they wont turn over a single page pursuant to a legitimately issued subpoena. And then you want to assert executive privilege. Are you kidding me . You cant assert executive privilege after the fact. When the closest advisors to the president have already spoken to team mueller. Wait a second, lets try to go through this. White House Counsel don mcgahn talked to mueller. There is no assertion of executive privilege. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders talked to mueller. No assertion of executive privilege. White House Communications director hope hicks talked to mueller. There was no assertion of executive privilege. It is a phony argument. The house is a separate and coequal branch of government. Were not a wholly owned subsidiary of the Trump Administration. We dont work for donald trump, we work for the American People. We have a constitutional responsibility to serve as a check and balance on an out of control executive branch. The attorney general is totally out of control. He will be held in contempt of congress. I yield back. What weve been watching is the buildup and the fallout for moving to hold the a. G. Bill barr in contempt of congress. 41 members of that committee. 34 are there today. It will go on for a while. As soon as the gavel dropped at 10 05 a. M. The white house made its move asserting executive privilege over the Mueller Report as a result of the proceedings against barr. Now a move by some senators to push for more information on the investigation and ron johnson, wisconsin chairman of the senate committee. We wont leave the hearing for long. What are you pushing for at the moment, sir . Im working with senator grassley and also senator graham and we want to ask the questions that quite honestly Robert Mueller did not ask and investigate. Exactly what was the predicate for this entire investigation . What were doing is were releasing certain texts and emails that will hopefully prod in this case the Inspector General and Intelligence Community to look into potential leaks out of the Intelligence Community. And so we released one text from peter strzok to lisa page on december 15th and it reads think our sisters have begun leaking like mad. Skornd and worried and political theyre kicking into overdrive. Pretty interesting text. What are they worried about . What have they been leaking and what are they kicking into overdrive. In april of 2017, an email that strzok sent to his f. B. I. Colleagues im beginning to think the agency got in a lot earlier than we thought and hasnt shared a complete with us. Might explain all these weird seemingly incorrect leads the media folks have and highlight agency as a source of some leaks. There are so many Unanswered Questions and so many things this raises a concern that i think the American People have the right to know what was happening inside the Obama Administration. Bill lets get context here. I heard the first one you read already. The second one is new. What was going on of the investigation of the f. B. I. Or c. I. A. Around that time that suggests youre on to something, senator . In the first text this is news stories starting to appear there was connection between trump, his campaign and russia. The first time the news stories really appeared. So you might think that maybe the leaks had something to do with developing that story, that narrative. In the april emails it refers specifically to a news story that British Intelligence informed f. B. I. About potential connection between trump and russia. So again this is a narrative, a story that produced the mueller special counsel investigation 18 months later and we finally found out what devin nunes found out in the House Intelligence Committee over a year ago, that there was no collusion between Trump Campaign and russia. Bill so it is my understanding there is an investigation already underway into the very things youre talking about. Thats what Michael Horowitz is doing right now. Are you contributing to what he is doing or is this something separate from that . This is something separate. Michael horowitz is looking at all the leaks that he found out during his clinton email scandal investigation, all the leaks coming out of the f. B. I. What were asking the Intelligence Community Inspector General is to investigate leaks coming from one of the agencies. We dont know which one. Were asking those questions. Again i think we need to look at that very seriously as well. We need to take along at this entire story that was spun up that resulted in 19 months of investigation and gone a great deal of harm to this administrations ability to govern. Bill a leak if proven is criminal. They may be or may not be if theyre approved by higher ups. The American Public wants to know. We want to know the source of these leaks and are they illegal leaks or approved by higher ups potentially in agencies that would be a serious matter. Bill give our viewers a sense about where this hearing is headed. It appears the ending for the story today is obvious. You move the contempt vote out of committee. Wait for it later to be voted on in the full house. Weve seen contempt votes in the house against eric holder and lois lerner and they go nowhere. What is today about what the white house exerts executive privilege about the Mueller Report . Is it a stalemate or more than that . Bill its all politics. Its a stalemate and what we were warning the American Public. If you put democrats in charge of the house it wont be about moving our economy forward and good governance. It will be about investigations and talk about impeachment and thats whats happening in the house Judiciary Committee today. You mentioned eric holder. It took 255 days for the Republican House to get so exasperated with his stall tactics they voted him in contempt. This is taking chairman nadler 19 days is what the count is. A highly politicized house, not involved at all or interested in governing or improving our economy and the lot of the American Public. Its politics trying to win the 2020 election. Bill thank you for your time. Well stay in touch with you and your office. Ron johnson, republican senator from wisconsin. As this was happening now, Sarah Sanders is speaking at the white house. I do believe we have that. She was on camera, we have a little bit of tape turnaround. A number of questions on the hearing, the executive privilege and this is how that went from a moment ago. I think its so absurd this idea that congress doesnt get to see the Mueller Report. In fact, there is a less redacted version of the Mueller Report sitting there waiting on them to come and look at. Not a single democrat has even taken the time to look at it. Theyre asking for information they know they cant have. The attorney general is actually upholding the law. Chairman nadler, take a minute to let this sink in. Chairman nadler is asking the attorney general of the United States to break the law and commit a crime by releasing information that he knows he has no Legal Authority to have. It is truly outrageous and absurd what the chairman is doing and should be embarrassed. Julie lets bring in Andy Mccarthy, former assistant u. S. Attorney. Lets talk about what has just transpired. Contempt we all knew would eventually go through. Were waiting for that to churn out. But the whole idea that the republicans have been putting up here is that he was upholding the law. He could not actually release this report unredacted because he was upholding the law. How do you hold bar in contempt when he is upholding the law . It is ridiculous and politicized. The other thing thats interesting here if they ever tried to enforce this contempt in court the first thing a judge would say to them would be rule 6e, which controls the grand jury material, is statutory. That means you guys in congress are in control of it. Have you done anything in the last six weeks to amend rule 6e so it would demand or you could demand under it the executive branch give you this material . They havent lifted a finger. Which is exactly what they would have done if they were actually interested in the material instead of projecting the false image of a coverup. Julie the attorney general could not comply with nadlers subpoena. A letter was sent to nadler by the assistant attorney general. The reason for it is it would not only violate the law but violate court rules and orders without threatening the independence of the department of justice prosecutorial functions. The breaking news during all this is that the president has invoked executive privilege. What now happens due to that . Well, now well have an argument about that. Like how broad is the assertion of executive privilege . There are certain people in the executive branch that the claim is much stronger as to. The president has his own close aides on the white house staff where the assertion of executive privilege with respect to somebody like mcgahn would be quite strong. On the other end of the spectrum you have the executive agencies like the Justice Department created by congress by statute that congress has a strong constitutional interest in conducting oversight over. With respect to them if he tries to withhold information it will be more difficult. Bill three republicans have taken the option to read the unredacted report. Lindsey graham, Mitch Mcconnell and doug collins. I dont think any others have done it. They want to take the position, they want to sweepingly say it is not sufficient. Bill you cant sit in the hearing and argue against the way its gone, right . Again, besides the grand jury material, all the unsavory stuff about trump is out. The stuff that theyre holding back are things like methods and sources of intelligence gathering against russia, which no american in his right mind should want us to publicize. Bill thank you, stand by. If there is a vote well go back inside the hearing. They havent voted yet. Well squeeze in a commercial break and begin in about two minutes here. Need cash . At newday, veteran homeowners can get 54,000 dollars or more to consolidate high rate Credit Card Debt and lower their payments by 600 every month. iep7s1h95] tech at safelite autoglass, we every chip will crack. W ha 8 mom honey is that a chip . Tech they wanted it fixed fast so they brought it to us. Mom hi. Tech with our inshop chip repair service, we can fix it the same day. Guaranteed. Plus with most insurance a safelite chip repair is no cost to you. Mom really . Drive safely. All right. Acoustic music singers safelite repair, safelite replace. Wgreat tasting, hearthealthys the california walnuts. Ever . So simple, so good. Get the recipes at walnuts. Org. Front slams on his the hbrakes out of nowhere. You do, too, but not in time. Hey, no big deal. Youve got a good record and Liberty Mutual wont hold a grudge by raising your rates over one mistake. You hear that, karen . Liberty mutual doesnt hold grudges. How mature of them for drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise their rates because their first accident. Liberty mutual insurance. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Bill novo we have but on. Julie it has come we did a lot of listening, though. Still no vote. They have a lot to say. We will continue to watch it here. For now we are done. Well be back tomorrow. Bill we will see you then. Julie outnumbered starts now. Think youre watching. Harris we continue with the breaking news on fox right now, we are awaiting the democratled house Judiciary Committee to go to hold attorney general william barr in contempt of congress. Adding to the drama today, the white house has announced that it is asserting executive privilege over all previously redacted portions of the special counselor parts. You are watching outnumbered. Im harris faulkner. Here today, melissa francis. Fox news contributor, lisa boothe. Former Ohio Senate Democratic minority leader, capri cafaro. And in the center seat, right on time every time he shows up, former arkansas governor and Fox News Contributor Mike Huckabee is with us. House democrats are moving ahead with their push to hold attorney general barr in contempt of congress. We are expecting the vote to come at any moment. Last night the justice de