You dont think that affects our National Security, if you think ukraine is our ally as i believe you do and i do . I just dont accept the premise of your premises of thoughts. All right. What value for ukraine do you see in the oval office visit that was being sought . Youd have to ask ukraine. Do you recognize that such a visit would send a strong message to russia sort of like lavrov being in the Oval Office Last week and the rest of the world that the United States supported ukraine and was ready to defend it against russian aggression. I think a better statement was when mr. Trump sent russian weapons to shoot down russian assets. That ignored the fact that the aid was withhold and hot war was going. All due respect were going in circles. I do not believe there was anything wrong for the reasons stated. And mr. Trump did more for the ukrainians in the hot war than was previously done. You know, ive heard that before. Im not going to elaborate. But i can assure you if they point as
The rules committee will come to order. The rules committee will come to order. Its unfortunate that we have to be here today. But the actions of the president of the United States make that necessary. President trump withheld congressionally approved aid to ukraine, a partner under siege. Not to fight corruption, but to extract a personal political favor. President trump refused to meet with ukraines president in the white house until he completed this scheme. All the while leaders in russia, the very nation holding a large part of ukraine hostage, the very nation that interfered with our elections in 2016 had yet another meeting in the Oval Office Just last week. These are not my opinions. These are uncontested facts. We listened to the hearings. We have read the transcripts. Its clear that this president acted in a bay that not only violates the public trust but jeopardized our National Security. He undermined our democracy. He acted in a way that rises to the level of impeachment.
Who was one of the worlds leading anticorruption fighters. And she understood that ukraine had a chance with the election of president zelensky. Instead of bolstering ukraine. Helping them get the aid photo voted for them, approved by the department of defense having cleared all anticorruption criteria we legislated and the department of state which had done that, all the ts are crossed the is dotted, the set together and the president holds it up and this other team is put in action to get the headache down of president zelensky to get the domestic political errened run that he wanted. Its in my judgment a shame, what happened. And my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, i cant believe they wont address the facts as you have outlined and as i have attempted to and the chairman has. All they want to talk about is process. This aint about process. This is the president abusing his power. And you all will pardon me for not using my inside voice. But yall dont either. I yield back,
Constitution, our laws and the american way. There was one among the four, however, balanced, appealing to a higher level of conduct, jonathan turley, Constitutional Authority admitted he voted forward hillar for hillary cl. And he reasoned more to a higher standard than base partisanship. Impeachments have to be based on proof, not presumption. This would create a dangerous precedents for future impeachments. This would be the first impeachment in history where there would be considerable debate in my view, not compelling evidence of the commission of a crime. And secondly the abbreviated period of this investigation. Lou as the house dimms continued their drive to overthrow President Trump. He took time out from the nato summit meeting while he conducted the nations business in london. President trump think of it. They get three constitutional lawyers and we get one. Just that little statement. They get three, we get one. We had no representation. We couldnt call witnesses. We couldn
I object. Objection noted. Quorum is present. We are conducting this hearing on the impeachment inquiry into president donald j trump. Presentations from the house select midi on intelligence in the House Judiciary Committee pursuant to House Resolution 660 and a special Judiciary Committee procedures that are60 described in section four a of that resolution. Here is how the committee would proceed for this hearing. I will make an Opening Statement and then i will recognize the Ranking Member for an Opening Statement. After that we will hear two sets of presentations. We will hear 30 minuteco opening argument from counsels for the majority and minority [inaudible] order in the room. Order in the committee room. [inaudible] the committee will come to order. Obviously, i should not have to remind everyone present that the audience is here to observe, not to demonstrate and not to indicate agreement or disagreement with any witness or any member of the committee. The audience is here to o