year and a half, so this is just another feather in the cap if you will. it doesn t surprise me. what really at the end of the day, the appeals court will not make a ruling on a mcgahn issue until probably february, march or april because it s going to be a three-judge panel, they all will want to write some fulsome pete buttigi opinion for history books. i would be shocked if there was a ruling. is there anything democrats can do at this point? they ve handed this over to the senate at this point. seems unlikely that mcgahn is going to be a part of this process. is there anything democrats can do? they can t do a thing. the mcgahn issue is sitting on a back burner in the court of appeals. what the democrats and members of the senate should do is focus like a laser beam, present their
issue. you have jim kliburn saying he could hold the articles indefinite indefinitely. then you have republican senators saying i don t know how long democrat senators saying i don t know how long you can wait here. how long can the democrats wait before it becomes a problem for them? you said we have to expedite this, we have to impeach now because the 2020 election is at risk. depends if they can win the war for public opinion. this is about fairness and witnesses and not gamesmanship. the pressure gets greater. they re certain especially democrat house members who are nervous. they don t want to campaign putting their stakes in this and
congress today don t remember that. they don t assert their authority. so what we tried to do is with this lawsuit was to not just address the issue on the table, but to make the point that the president and his officials in the executive branch are not above the law, that the congress has a right to ask for and to get responses to their subpoenas and to be able to ask questions. it s a fundamental question. it is a fundamental question. congressman smith, there s a fundamental power that congress has that it doesn t use and that s the power of contempt. it has not been exercised. would you advocate for that given all the stone walling? the fact of the matter is that inherent contempt is a tool that can be used. if the situation is dire enough,
it should be used. i have great respect for the fact it wasn t used because we have somebody the difference i make between richard nixon and the current president, donald trump, nixon knew when he was breaking the law. he knew when he was doing the wrong thing. when he got caught, he came to it. that is not the case today apparently. so i think the exercise of inherent contempt could have led to an absolute current and present crisis in which there were law men and women on both sides protecting and trying to seize. i have respect given this president s temperament and amorality when it comes to power, i think they were wise to not use it. congressman edwards, the mcgahn issue is separate from
to testify like mick mulvaney. the question is whether they re going to go with institutional considerations or partisan considerations. there was a lot of focus on democrats where trump carried their districts. now we have republicans in swing states for 2020 like corey gardener, susan collins. they on one hand are unlikely to break from the president on the ultimate issue. i think they need to convey to their voters they re taking this seriously. to some extent the balance has been reversed in terms of which party faces the tougher political consideration. there are a few democrats who will be cross-pressured as well. there are two lanes on that