President for a long time now. In fact, when they took over the house, one of their members filed articles of impeachment that very day and really since Inauguration Day many wanted to impeach him. This is really all about in my view, its all about politics. Its all about hurting the president , hurting his reputation. They dislike him intensely. As i mentioned the other day they really loathe this president , and theyre trying to hurt his chances in the next election. It may well do just the opposite. One of my real concerns, and af lot of them about this whole thing. I mentioned this earlier today, im very concerned about is that The Democrats are really lowering the bar for impeaching a president in the future. Its becoming too routine. Its becoming the new normal. For 200 years in our nation wed had one impeachment, one in 200 years, Andrew Johnson and now in less than 50 years were in our third one this time around. And i really am concerned that from now on in all likelihood when
put service over self. to put the country over his personal interests. i note from my colleagues that all four of the constitutional scholars who testified including the republican s own witness have confirmed that abuse of power is an impeachable offense. president trump s actions, in fact, exemplify the framer s fears and the very reason that abuse of power is a high crime. worse than president nixon, president trump pressured a foreign government to aid in his corrupt scheme. that s the abuse of power article, but there s a second article, obstruction of congress. we know that no president in history, in history has directed the entire executive branch not to cooperate with an impeachment inquiry, has told every member
confidential information about the investigation. your 2018 memo, in it, you stated, and i quote, the framer s plan contemplates that the president s law enforcement powers extend to all matters including those in which he had a personal stake, end quote. please explain what you base this conclusion on. yes. le here is the department of justice right here. within the department of justice, enforcement decisions are being made. the president is over here. i think of it as there are two categories of potential communications. one would be on a case that the president wants to communicate about that he has no personal interest and no political interest in. let s say the president is concerned about chinese stealing trade secrets and i want you to go after this company that may
depository of all executive powers conferred by the constitution. thus, the full measure of law enforcement authority is placed in the president s hands and no limit is placed on the kinds of cases subject to his control and supervision. this is in your memo on page ten. i will ask you about it. this analysis included cases involving potential misconduct where you concluded and i quote, the president may exercise his supervisory authority over cases dealing with his own interest. the president transgresses no legal limitation when he does so. that s on page 12. in fact, you went so far as to conclude that, quote, the framer s plan contemplates that the president s law enforcement powers extend to all matters, including those in which he has