Constitution gives the house the sole power of impeachment and the power to determine its own rules. When president nixon, during the time he was going to be impeached, the chairman of the rules committee, chairman mad n madden, actually spoke on the house floor and snouannounced t would be a rule on how that procedure would move forward. When clinton rules of impeachment were brought forward, there was unanimous request to kind of govern how we conducted ourselves. Im not sure how likely it would be that we would get a unanimous consent request. Id like to ask for unanimous consent without objection to enter into a record a letter written by the Judiciary Committee signed by seven people, including kevin mccarthy, the republican leader. The key line here is we will avail ourselves of every parliamentary tool available to us to highlight your inaction. Translated it means to try and delay to make this process as
impossible as it can be made. Im not sure, in light of this letter, that w
Whether or not Speaker Pelosi votes. Its tradition the speaker doesnt often votes but on a day like today i would think she would want to lead from the front. Well see. It seems like unprecedented times. Hagar, felipe, congressman, thank you so much. Well hand off to ari melber. Good morning. Im ari melber reporting live from nbc headquarters with coverage of todays events on msnbc. The breaking news coming out of capitol hill, lawmakers in the house about to take their first ever formal votes on how to proceed with the Impeachment Inquiry of president donald trump. This new resolution maps out the blueprint and rules of the road
for what democrats say is the next public phase in this impeachment probe. Now many are expecting a Party Line Vote today. Lawmakers will vote on these ground rules which includes moving the closed door depositions of all of these key witnesses into public hearings. Weve seen squabbling over this process. Were expecting in our special coverage to hear from Spe
And one that once again will work with the president to get things done for you and your family, then join with us in rejecting this baseless impeachment. Thats whats wonderful about this system of ours. We are a government of, by and for the people. Always remember we work for you, not the other way around. Now i will say this stronger and with more conviction than i have ever said it before. In this time of great trial and tribulation, may god bless america. I yield back. [ applause ] gentleman from california is recognized. House will be in order. Gentleman from california. Madam speaker, i recognize myself for the remainder of our time. Gentleman is recognized. Madam speaker, my colleagues, after eight hours, let us return to where we began with the articles themselves. Article one charges the president of the United States with abusing the power of his office by coerce an ally into cheating in a u. S. Election on his behalf. It charges the president of the United States it charge
Which i believe according to the laws of physics is impossible, and of course driven by ill motives. The story broke land wednesday. We are six days into this and the speed i guess we knew there was a whistleblower complaint coming out of the dni. One of the defining features of the trump era is the incredible speed, ferocity with which information happens. It was apt that we would end up here after all these months of waiting around, that the thing that turned out to be the trigger could turn it this quickly. Its a great point, it was last wednesday the Washington Post broke the story about the whistleblower complaint being tied to the president s conduct with ukraine. It snapped everyone square in the face. Theres nancy pelosi. Tuesday we observed the anniversary of the adoption of the constitution on september
17th. Sadly, on that day, the Intelligence Community Inspector General formally notified the congress that the administration was forbidding him from turning over a whistleblo
Power like a weapon against his own people, erodes our decency, degrades our dignity. I dont yet know how they will tell the story of this era, but i want to tell you the story of this day. Let the record show that today justice won, that we did our job, that we kept our word, that we stood our sacred ground. Let the record show that we did not let you down. I love you. Listen to mom. Ill be home soon. Gentlemans time has expired. Gentleman from oklahoma. Thank you, madam speaker. Im going to reserve my time for the moment. Gentleman reserves. Gentleman from massachusetts. Im proud to yield one minute to the gentle woman from california, ms. Lee. The gentle lady is recognized for one minute. First let me say i taught my children that there are consequences if they broke the
law. I am saddened but im not shocked that we are here today considering articles of impeachment against President Trump. Im saddened, but im not shocked because of the pattern of corruption we have seen from this p