house sent to speaker pelosi, saying there would be no cooperation with the inquiry. the president hinted he could change his mind if the house votes on impeachment. the republican party has been treated extremely badly by the democrats. very unfairly, because they have a tiny margin in the house. they have eviscerated the rules. they don t give us any fair play. the rules to previous impeachment proceedings, you ll participate in that investigation? if the rules are fair. trump went on to predict his showdown with the democrats would likely end up at the supreme court. the problem for him is he is up against this clause from the constitution, quote, the house of representatives shall have the sole power of impeachment. that s what it says in article
legal reasoning. msnbc guest appearances than actual legal underpinnings in the course of eight pages. trump heads into the impeachment inqui inquiry, having created a rift in his own party. as we discussed here tonight, over syria. washington post sums up the president s plight this way. instead of enjoying uncontested gop support as he plunges into a constitutional showdown with house democrats, prepares for a bruising re-election campaign, trump is now fighting on two fronts within his party. with us tonight, donna edwards, former democratic member of congress from the great state of maryland, washington post columnist and tim o brien, executive editor of bloomberg opinion and author of trump nation: the art of being the donald. welcome to you both. congresswoman, i would like to begin with you. this was, it strikes me, another day in a series of days, wide ranging comments from the president. make of them what you may. but a whole bunch of them that
president trump continuing to stonewall house democrats in their investigation efforts. the white house sending a scathing letter to nancy pelosi and house committees refusing to cooperate. calling the impeachment inquiry illegitimate and unconstitutional. pelosi sending her own strongly worded warning writing, mr. president, you are not above the law. you will be held accountable. the president is obstructing congress from getting the facts that we need. it is an abuse of power for him to act in this way. and that is one of the reasons that we have an impeachment inqui inquiry. reporter: the war or words heating up after the white house blocked gordon sondland from appearing before house committees on tuesday. his attorney writing in a statement, ambassador sondland is profoundly disappointed that he will not be able to testify. house democrats immediately
. there is the request to talk about documents from the vice president of the united states, mike pence now finding himself deeper into the mix of this controversy. should he be concerned? . well, i think that the republican response by the white house up until this point has been to stonewall and to block requests tore subpoenas. and i think you re going to see that continue going forward. they want a full vote to formally launch an impeachment inqui inquiry. they will say until you do that, we to the floor to respond to your requests. president trump has acknowledged that the house has the number of votes to do so, burr he will force them to put their names on the record. and wants to see the pressure of anyone who wants to put their name on the record.
are all on break holding town halls across the country. hey, fred, good afternoon. one of those representatives is max rose, the democratic congressman, one of the last in new york city, that was a hold out when it came to deciding whether or not to support this impeachment pro menment probe, his name to the list of moderates supporting nancy pelosi s efforts to find out more about this impeachment inqui inquiry. it is a change of heart for more moderate democrats in congress who at one point refused to go anywhere near the word impeachment. i have not been supportive of an impeachment inquiry up until now. it prompted a not so warm