more information comes out. but i do think we can t just take a kitchen sink approach and start throwing everything in one big basket and saying we re going to go after everything. what s important to me about this specific process is it s been clear, strategic, and focused. i think that s how you bring the american public along with you. did you at all consider splitting your vote on these two articles? you know, when i sat with the materials this past weekend, i just sort of did what i ve been trained to do. i had all the reports and the documents. i went back and reread the constitution and the federalist papers that speak to the issues of impeachment. for me, it was pretty clear, that there was an abuse of power, and that there was an obstruction of congress. and the data was there for both. i think for me, there wasn t really that like calculus of should i say yes on one and no on the other. the data was there on both. congresswoman elissa slotkin, democrat from michigan, th
potentially cost them their seats. but the party has stayed largely united and right now it appears speaker pelosi has the votes to impeach the president, certainly by our count, it looks like she s in the 230s minimum here. so far only two of those vulnerable democrats, minnesota s colin peterson and new jersey s jeff van drew, said they won t vote for impeachment. van drew confirmed today he is considering switching parties. one of the democrats declared yes votes is elissa slotkin from michigan who faced a rowdy town hall in her district, a district that trump won in 2016. i hope you believe me that i made this decision out of principle and out of a duty to protect and defend the constitution. i feel that in my bones and i will stick to that regardless of what it does to me politically. and congresswoman slotkin joins me now. congresswoman, good for you for that town hall. i know they re harder and harder to do these days because they re not really a cross-section of
feelings about this impeachment proceeding but they shouldn t really come to a final conclusion until they hear all the facts and the evidence and then cast their vote and then make their statement after they do it. i think most of them should really just try to keep their powder dry and say less. less is more. we learned this morning, congressman, that democratic congresswoman, one of the freshmen democrats in a risky district, lisa slotkin, will vote for impeachment. she laid it out in an opinion piece in the detroit free press this morning. this is the part that struck us. quote, to be clear, both parties have leveraged the pourl role of the united states to get foreign countries to do what s in our interest but here s the fundamental difference. president trump used the power of the presidency for his own benefit to give himself some advantage in the very election that would determine whether he remained from office. what will a statement like that mean for her and other
welcome back. as we have been talking about this morning, this week will be yet another pivotal week in the impeachment probe. joining me now from rochester, michigan, nbc news correspondent leeann caldwell. i talked to you about seven hours ago or so on the air when this story first broke so happy to have you on with me. can you tell us what you re hearing from the democratic congressman lisa slotkin on what she plans to vote on impeachment and what you re hearing generally about undecided house democrats. so i m in rochester because lisa slotkin one of the moderate districts that the president won is holding a town hall on the eve of this impeachment vote and she is undecided and she hasn t announced how she is going to
these are swing districts that she s been trying to protect all along. now it seems many of these members of coming out saying, i support an impeachment inquiry. these are her most vulnerable members, to be honest, joe. and i remember going out and speaking with abigail spanberger in virginia and elisa slotkin and many of them doubted they could pull off a feat like that. it speaks to the gravity of the moment. but in speaking with unthese members confidentially last night. they said we can t take it anymore. this is the president violating the constitution, violating his oath of office, and actually taking money that is appropriated by the united states congress to fight corruption in order to help himself, in order to benefit himself politically. so it did feel like there was this momentum building, if you kind of looked, you can read