he s a democrat from illinois. thank you very much for joining us. you said on the oversight and the intel committee, so busy week for you. it is, good morning, bobby. so you have said that you expect a super bowl sized audience to watch these hearings. we ll see. that would be a lot. but the chairman of the judiciary committee, jerry nadler said over the weekend there s very substantial evidence that the president is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors. obviously a bar there for impeachment. you have been in the pelosi camp of holding off on beginning impeachment proceedings. do you agree with those words from jerry nadler? yes, there s evidence. i think that a lot of people are going to pay attention to what bob mueller says about that evidence, as well as a number of issues. i just want to point out in the intelligence committee, which is what i sit on, we re going to be talking about volume one, which is about russian interference in
with those other issues. i don t think it change it is fundamentally where people were on the issue. they were where they were. the question becomes putting aside, i agree with constitutional issues and the morality issues is to what extent is nancy pelosi s concern that she doesn t actually have the votes within the democratic caucus. remember, 31 democrats won. she was part of the leadership that helped the democrats take back the house. if you re thinking about those 31 votes right, and you have the number of votes you have to get to, to get an articles of impeachment out of the house. notwithstanding the senate, do they have the votes? is that her concern? what conversations are happening? this conversation around al green s resolution does not change that calculus. well because i think that of the 85 house democrats who had previously publicly endorsed the idea of beginning impeachment
do it all again should make people understand the urgency of beginning impeachment proceedings against the president. and i just think i ve said before that i believe that it s a mistake not to be forward with impeachment because the substance is there that he either obstructed justice or tried to obstruct justice. i know there is some concern about political ramifications. i don t think you should look at this through a political lens. how frustrated are you about the quality of the conversation surrounding this issue? it is so often reactive to what the president does or policy that he puts in place or threatens to put in place. even within the democratic party. is there a frustration that it s not being dealt with in the way in which you re dealing with it? you put out a 15, 20-page policy proposal to deal with immigration. you re not getting i imagine the kind of traction you d like to get on that. the most disappointing thing is that too often in our politics we let fear and
i actually don t think she s a talented person, incapable of doing deals. she s a nasty, vindictive horrible person. she made a statement. while you re overseas. if i made any statement, would he do that while he s overseas. she s a terrible person. i tell you, her name is nervous nancy because she s a nervous wreck. we ll get to the irony of that in a moment. the statement of issue was delivered wednesday by speaker pelosi in a private meeting of house democrats as she yet again tried to calm talk of beginning impeachment proceedings. politico has reported, and it is stunning, i don t want to see him impeached, spoker pelosi said. i want to see him in prison. so there is the protocol, if you will, she said that when the president was overseas. he s right about that. he s sitting there in the american military cemetery, one of the most solemn one of the
inquiry, it hmay come to that. phil, this is important in light of reporting that s emerging from inside the democratic caucus. this isn t going to be easy for the speaker who has her membership, and as a subset of that, a powerful one, these committee chairs. that s exactly right, brian. she is dealing with a very sort of difficult and ever-changing political situation within her own party, and it s troubling for president trump because there appears to be growing momentum among democrats to proceed with beginning impeachment proceedings, but there is not a majority within the democratic caucus to pursue impeachment. and you have in pelosi someone who is determined to do this in a merthodical and slow way to avoid her party of being accused of a political witch hunt, of