We have to recognize the Senior Member here, and treat to welcome current and former colleagues and i have worked with this panel in some form or another inside and outside of government. It is a treat to welcome everybody here on the nyu school of Law Community where i am a distinguished fellow. Welcome to the program and my colleagues. This is a treat for me to be joined together with you once again to talk about a really important and timely subject, the issue of National Security and how the executive branch and the legislative branch address some of the most Critical Issues of our time, and i will do some very brief introductions in a minute, but you will understand that the theme here is that every single one of the distinguished Public Servants served in the executive branch in the National Security community and the searching topic for today is how has that service informed your view as legislators and how can we be best poised from both branches perspective to confront some of
On your important oversight role thank you very much for. I think a director. Would you agree that the whistleblower complaint alleges serious wrongdoing by the president of the United States. The whistleblower complaint in involved that the allegation of that i did it is not for me the Intelligence Community decide how the president conducts his Foreign Policy for his interaction with leaders of other countries so im not asking you to opine on how the president conduct Foreign Policy im asking you whether as the statute requires this complaint involved serious wrongdoing in this case by the president of the United States an allegation of serious wrongdoing by the president of the United States is that not the subject of this complaint. Yes that is the subject of the allegation of the complaint and 2 things mr chair and let me ask you about that. The Inspector General found that serious allegation of misconduct by the president credible did you also find that credible i did not critici
The chair reserves the right to recess at any time. The president ial oath of office requires the president of the United States to do two thing things, faithfully execute his or her office, and protect and defend the constitution. That oath cannot be honored if the president does not first defend the country. If our National Security is jeopardized or undefended then to successfully execute the office is moot there is no country, there is no office to execute. And so the duty to defend the nations foundational for the president ial responsibilities. But of the second responsibility to defend the constitution quicks what does that really mean we are not speaking of a piece of parchment parchment with the institutions of our democracy to defend the system of checks and balances the constitution and trying to defend the rule of law upon which the idea america was born to be a nation of laws. We do not defend the nation there is no constitution. But if we do not defend the constitution, t
Heidi where do we start basically i mean this seems as a say theres been a lot of back and forth youve youve seen some quite shall we say robust questioning particularly from the. Republicans but i think the thing which ive heard the most from mr mcguire is his continued statement that no one is above the law. Yes he has said that many times but at the same time we have to keep in mind that he is a trump appointing that got this job no more no more than 6 weeks ago and he has been very careful in his responses to not pass judgment on actually the the contents of that call between trump and president s olinsky of ukraine when asked by democrats whether he thought that predicating assistance from the United States depended on the ukrainians helping to investigate trumps political rival joe bidens family the director of National Intelligence would not say that it was wrong doing he said that that is in his words the president s business to conduct calls of foreign leaders as he saw fit an
Online at cspan. Org or listen with the free cspan radio app. The acting intelligence director testified today about a whistleblower complaint concerning a phone conversation between President Trump and the president of ukraine. Director maguire took questions from members of the house Intelligence Committee. You can read the whistleblower complaint at cspan. Org. The meeting will come to order. Without object, the cheer reserves the right to recess the hearing at any time. The president ial oath of office requires the president of the United States to do two things, faithfully execute his or her office and protect and defend the constitution. That oath, of course, cannot be honored if the president does not first defend the country. If our National Security is jeopardized, if our country is left undefended, the necessity to faithfully execute the office becomes moot, where there is no country, there is no office to execute, and so the duty to defend the nation is foundational to the p