To have very different worlds. We certainly will. This is a moment that a lot of people have been waiting for. Well see what happens. We will have special live coverage throughout the night, of course. Thanks very much for watching. Im wolf blitzer in the situation room. Our special impeachment coverage continues right now with erin burnett out front. This is cnn breaking news. Good evening. Im erin burnett. Out front tonight, the breaking news, just moments from now, you see the room. The House Judiciary Committee will begin debate on two articles of impeachment against donald j. Trump. This is only the fourth time in American History that a president has faced articles of impeachment and this is live what is happening in that room. Members are getting seated. This is prime time, the first time that any of these hearings have happened during this time. This is the debate and this is how they are choosing to start it. The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee jerry nadler is about
That we find ourselves in. And i thought the threat to our nation was wellarticulated earlier today by professor feldman. When you said if we cannot impeach a president who abuses his office for personal advantage, we no longer live in a democracy. We live in a monarchy or we live under a dictatorship. My view is that if people cannot depend on the fairness of our elections, then what people are calling divisive today will be absolutely nothing compared to the shredding of our democracy. After the events of ukraine unfolded, the president claimed that the reason he requested an investigation into his political opponents and withheld desperately needed military aid for ukraine was supposedly because he was worried about corruption. However, contrary to the president s statements, various witnesses, including Vice President pences special advisor Jennifer Williams,
testified that the president s request was political. Take a listen. I found the july 25th phone call unusual because in con
Time teethered to a second article was approved by a vote of 2711 and 2810 respectively. The second article of impeachment alleged unlawful use of the cia and its resources including covert activity in the United States and interference with the Law Enforcement actions of the fbi. The crimes alleged were serious involving unlawful electronic surveillance of a opposing political party, attempts to alter testimony under oath. Six Republican House Committee Members joined all 21 democrats in supporting those two articles. My congressman was among those six house members. Another one of the six was a young congressman who maine who later became a member of this body serving with distinction as a senator and as bill clintons secretary of defense. That was bill cohen. A third of the six was representati representative caldwell butler. Together these six republicans made history. They did so with no sense of triumph and no fist bumps but only in the words of my congressmen with deep reluctanc
Another surprise, republican senator mitt romney voted with democrats. In the end, the president was acquitted on both points. They are speaking out tonight as a group for the First Time Since the president was acquitted. First of all, assuming you all get newspapers, when you woke up today and you saw this, when you saw the headline i just saw it. What did you think . What do i think right now . Yeah. I think hes not been exonerated. What do you mean by that . Well, it is hard to have an acquittal without a fair trial. This was the first impeachment trial in American History where we didnt have witnesses and documents. I think the American People realized that. As we sit here right now there are thousands of americans walking into courthouses across the country that have taken their oath and they will be sitting as jurors in trials and they will hear from witnesses and documents. They are asking themselves why washington and donald trump should be any different. Of course, the answer
Violation of law. It is passed in an Election Year and were sitting here on the day that election season begins in iowa. It is wrong. There is only one answer to that. And the answer is to reject those articles of impeachment, to have confidence in the American People, to have confidence in the result of the upcoming election, to have confidence and respect for the last lex aelection and not thro out and to leave the choice of the president to the American People and to leave to them also the accountability for the members of the house of representatives who did that. Thats what the constitution requires. Point number two, and i think that should be done on a bipartisan basis and thats what i ask you to do. Point number two, i believe the American People are tired of the endless investigations and false investigations that have been coming out of the house from the beginning, as my colleague mr. Sekulow pointed out. It is a waste of tax dollars. It is a waste of the American Peoples ti