clearly. the knowledge of those payments, that s not new. the knowledge they were illegal, that isn t new either. michael cohen famously went to jail for that months ago. what s new is democrats saying they could actually reach an indictable crime by the president treating trump as a co-conspirator. so what is new about that? well, basically, the aggressiveness, by at least some house democrats to zero in on what they call their criminal and what is in their view, impeachable acts, which can be publicly pinned on donald trump. now, how do you pin something on trump when he has been obviously stonewalling so many of these probes? the news tonight here is democrats saying some of these crimes are effective lip different for any impeachment-style probe, because they involve evidence from before donald trump became president. that means no executive privilege claims can hide the underlying evidence or testimony to again, as i m saying, pin this on the president. democrats say these new hea
welcome back. democrats have launched an impeachment investigation with house judiciary chair nadler saying trump, quote, richly deserves i am impeachment. today the i am impeachment caucus is swelling to 108 members, nearly half the democrats in the house backing an i am impeachment inquiry. today nevada congresswoman joined the list. the mueller testimony might not have been made for tv. he certainly brought out that the president had been less than truthful. and after those hearings, i got lots of calls from people in my district saying, do it now. the calls have increased in number and in intensity. but still lead ers in the party are hesitant about taking that next formal step. watch this. i worry equally, though, chuck, about the message of taking i am impeachment case to trial. losing that case, having the president acquitted and having an adjudication that this conduct is not impeachable.
he richly deserves impeachment. he s violated the law six ways from sunday, but that s not the question. the question is can we develop enough evidence to put before the american people. all right. with me now is democratic congressman emmanuel cleaver of missouri who today called for an opening of an impeachment inquiry. congressman, good to see you. thank you. back in june you cautioned against a rush to judgment on impeachment telling your colleagues this, quote, the president will be held accountable for any crimes he may have committed, but in order to ensure that transpires, we must be patient. what s changed for you? well, i still think that we must be patient. i don t think that we can afford to haphazardly and thoughtlessly run out and start screaming impeachment. but i sat down and had a conversation with chairman nadler, listened to adam schiff, i ve listened to individuals on the judiciary committee and i have been convinced that we do
need more information. now, do we have enough information for impeachment? absolutely. if it only involves the people in congress. but we re talking about 300 million people in the united states and many of them are not convinced. and so we ve got to have, i think, some rather commanding information to present to them. and all i have seen is the redacted version of the mueller report. there is also grand jury testimony, and chairman nadler is saying, look, there is a lot of information that we don t have. and some of it we may not get because, for example, in the southern district we re talking about counter intelligence, and that may be so sensitive that with our intelligence community, that may not be available to us, but maybe it s available to the house and senate leadership. but we need to be able to have the judiciary the third branch of our government agree that now that we re moving
hyde amendment and people change their minds over the years. they evolve on specific issues. and maybe that s the case here. are you okay with how they handle it? you have to be definitive in what we re doing in this business. i am opposed to the hyde amendment and i have been for years. i get your position. i m very clear. his position is moving around we ll see what that means in terms of his opponents and party. next item, so where are you guys on impeachment? pelosi has been slow. she has said we need consensus. let s get the facts out there and let that lead the way. more and more members of your party aren t satisfied with that. chairman nadler has an interesting proposal. not impeachment proceedings but impeachment inquiry. a distinct with a difference. let s put it in place and ask