precedent we have indicates that a point of order does not lie to delay consideration of articles of impeachment finally, past judiciary committee practice and precedent don t support the gentleman s point of order. last year a number of other members and i sent then chairman goodlatte a minority day request. the chairman never responded to our request and never scheduled a hearing. i don t believe a single member of that majority argued in favor of us being allowed our hearing. then chairman sensenbrenner scheduled a minority day hearing but cut off witnesses, shut off the microphones and lights and ended the hearing while members were seeking recognition to speak. again, no one in the majority argued in favor of protecting our rights. no committee practice or precedent supporting the gentleman s point of order. i do not sustain the point of order. mr. chairman. what purpose does the
these closed-door hearings in the basement. i was denied several times several times the right to go and hear what these fact witnesses said. yet i m supposed to vote on this today. we have not had one single fact witness here in this committee at all. then i hear from my republican colleagues that were on the intelligence committee that republicans were refused to have any of their witnesses in that committee. and then on top of that, republicans were told interrupted, silenced, by chairman schiff when they tried to ask witnesses questions. he would say to the witness don t answer that. so now here in judiciary committee we are supposed to vote on something when we haven t even heard directly
wasn t using official channels like the department of justice to ask for investigations. volker, the person who asked for an official request was yermak? volker said yes, don t cite it. taylor, i won t, you re right. this is not good. we need to stay clear. august 22 ambassador sondland emailed mike pompeo and others to make clear that to break the log jam, releasing the military aid, president zelensky would have to quote move forward on the issues of importance to trump again meaning the investigation. and the list goes on and on. so this claim that this is the thinnest of evidence is simply not true. there is overwhelming evidence of the existence of a scheme led by the president, led by his personal lawyer rudy giuliani to corrupt the american elections, to continue to withhold military aid until such time as a public announcement was made that would smear the president s chief political rival and with that, mr. chairman, i yield back.
the ones right now that should be hanging their head in shame. we had two hearings. none of which featured fact witnesses. not a democrat in this room that should be happy about this. the solemnty should be on the death of this committee s process and procedures. don t talk about solemn about impeaching the president. you ought to take it and rejoice and go at it. this is what you wanted. when it comes to the hearing, when it comes to the minority rights, when it comes to once which we ve seen time after time and time and i have had to right this chairman multi-page letters on the abuse of procedural issues in this committee, this is a travesty. write about it and talk about it if you want. the american people see it. the american people understand hinerently fairness. they understand due process. why? it s what american was based on. it is what america takes pride in.