of congress. the day richard nixon failed to answer that subpoena is the day he was subject to impeachment because he took the power from congress over the impeachment process away from congress and he became the judge and jury. so you would have expected right now those quotes to come from democrats but those of course are republicans years past. the president s wing man lindsey graham during the clinton impeachment and trey gowdy who at the time was railing against hillary clinton over benghazi. now he is joining team trump to help advise on impeachment. michael smerconish is a cnn political commentator and host of smerconish. thank you for joining us. as you look at this, trey gowdy moving onto this team, what does that mean to you? consistency in short supply. i think that s the tip of the iceberg in terms of individuals who said things in the mid 90s when it was bill clinton at issue that are now going to be at odds with where we are today
these are not people who dhiem came to the defense of the obama administration when they were fighting with congress over benghazi or fast and the furious. these are not people who defended bill clinton when cong republicans were trying to impeach bill clinton. thaw only discover their respect for the limitless power oz of the presidency when the president happens to be a republican. they re hall of fame hypocrites. interesting. jennifer rogers, you want to weigh in on that or do you want to move on? up to you. let s talk about the house intel committee releasing the transcripts of cohen s testimony. he told congress it was it trump s attorney ewho suggested saying the drump tower moscow project ended in january of 2016. and sekulow knew it was false. if cohen is right is sekulow in legal hot water. is he in trouble?
he s done things publicly or statements disingenuous at best. we re seeing somebody who i think is clearly taking a side almost as defender for this particular president. and in a search for the truth. if could jump in because now you see barr jumping in and mask raiding as the defender of the insthufgz presidency andden don himself said they re not doing this for me. they re doing iting it to defend the office of the presidency. this is putting one side in a selective interest in the powers of the presidentancet because i don t remember bill barr or donald trump defending the presidency when the president was a democrat. these are not people who dhiem defense of the obama administration when they were fighting with congress over benghazi or fast and the furberous. these are not people who defended bill clinton when cong republicans were trying to impeach bill clinton.
two years and they had no oversight, no accountability. they didn t ask questions about his violations of the emoluments clause, his nepotism and hiring people in his family, they didn t ask question about jared kushner s security clearance, they didn t ask questions about the $25 million fraud settlement he paid two days before he took office. they spent years investigating hillary clinton over benghazi and they won t ask the basic questions the american people need to know, where are president trump s tax returns. what are his finances about? he hasn t divested his business from his personal holdings. americans are finally getting to know the answers to the questions and it s overdue. what do you say, scott? is this actually what the president wants? the more investigations, the better right now? well, i think the democrats may have played into his hands a little bit. the sweeping nature of all of these letters that went out today may appear to some americans like a festivus like
house, to do this. to have these investigations. judge napolitano: their base wanted it. leslie: not just democrats, there are people who want the whole truth. there was testimony that devin nunes did not reveal that i think congressman adam schiff is going to put out there interview in the sense that let it be decided on their end of the court of public opinion. obviously there will be able to do anything in a court of law. lisa: so is mueller not getting to the truth? leslie: i think he is going to the truth. quite frankly, lisa, how many investigations were there over butthurt emails? over benghazi? the list go on s. it seems right now that we are in this investigatory political climate. it could hurt the party. melissa: nothing ever comes of these investigations. leslie: i would agree with you. melissa: elizabeth warren continues to be dogged over the controversy of her past claims of having native american heritage on official forms. why the firestorm is hardly over.