Potentially drawing up articles of impeachment against the president. House democrats invited three positive note scholars to testify. A Harvard Law School professor, gerhardt,an, michael a professor at the university of North Carolina school of law, and stanford professor pamela karlan. Republicans invited jonathan tur ley, a professor of Public Interest law at George Washington university. The House Committee on the judiciary will come to order. Mr. Chairman youre upsurping the right to object. Objection is noted. I receiver tzrbreserve the r object. Peropportunity to cause g, im furnishing you with a demand on minority hearings on this subject signed by all the republican the gentleman will suspend. Pursuant to cause 2 j 1 rule 11 im furnish you with a letter signed by all the republican members of the committee. I request you set this date before the Committee Votes on any articles of impeachment i withdraw my reservation. We will confer on this later. The quorum is present. This i
Professor. Here is the hearing in its entirety. Order. House will come to object. E the right to i am furnishing you with the subject signed by all republicans. Pursuant to clause, i am furnishing you with a letter signed by all the members of the committee can i request that you set this date before the Committee Votes on any articles of impeachment. I withdraw my reservation. Later. Ill confer on this hearing wethe first to housecting pursuant resolution 660. Here is have the committee will proceed for this hearing will openingill make it an statement and then i will rubberneck just recognized a member for making an Opening Statement. I now recognize myself for no Opening Statement. For anve the time Opening Statement. The facts before us are undisputed. President trump called roses was zelensky andent asked him for a favor. That was a concerted effort to solicit an advantage in the next. Lection to obtain that private political advantage, President Trump elected from the newly presi
Where i have the right to do whatever i want as president. I did. And as someone who cares about the constitution, the second in particular struck a kind of horror in me. And, professor gerhardt, in forming your opinion that President Trump has committed the Impeachable Offense of obstruction of congress, did you consider the Intelligence Committee report and its findings including finding nine that President Trump ordered and implemented a campaign to conceal his conduct from the public and to frustrate and obstruct the house of representatives impeachment inquiry . I read that report last night after i submitted my statement, but i watched and read all of the transcripts that were available. The report that was issued reinforces Everything Else that came before it. So, yes. So, we talked first about abuse of power and bribery, and then about obstruction of congress. Professor gerhardt, i would like to ask you questions about a third Impeachable Offense and that is obstruction of just
Republicans hes cautioned against beach meant and of course at the heart of all this youre recall is the democrats that the case for the democrats is the allegation that president try to leverage a white house meeting and military aid which was sought by ukraine to pressure the ukrainian president vladimir selenski to nongenetic ations a former Vice President joe biden any son hunter by the so happening right now in the House Judiciary Committee 45 minute question period for the republicans and the republicans so far interesting only focusing on their witness Jonathan Turley professor of law Washington University lets continue to listen you have to understand the most the senators when when it was said. They jumped into their political graves it was true most of their political careers ended they knew they would and because of the animosity of the period triangle said the following once this set the example of an peaching a president for what when the excitement of the hour shall have
Out to each other. They wanted to reconcile before they died and they met and they did. Maybe that is something that we can learn from, but i think that the greater thing i would point to is the seven republicans in the johnson impeachment. If i could just read one thing to you and everyone often talks about one of the senators blue not this one. Thats trumable. You have to understand that most of these senators when it was said that they jumped into their political graves. It was true. Most of their political careers ended. They knew they would end because of the animosity of the period. Trumbull said the following. He said once this set the example of impeaching a president for what. No future president will be safe who happens to differ from the majority of the house and twothirds of the senate. He said i tremble for my country. No alternatives are left to me. He proceeded to give the vote that ended his career. You cant wait for calmer times. The time for you is now. I would say th