defying their own body. so what does it mean to then have a party that says it is actually not a problem for the president of the united states to seek foreign help to get elected because that s how we retain power and it s fine with us but it s also okay for the president to defy us, to defy congress. right. it s creating an elected monarch. that s the kind of behavior that the republican part of congress seems to be okay with. there s one historical note on this i think is important to think about. in his farewell address george washington gives the country two warnings. two things that he s really concerned about. one is that he wants the united states to stay out of foreign conflicts. and he was like, we don t need to be entrenched. europe is always going to war. we need to develop on our own and so on. the other thing that he warns about is the danger of what he calls faction and he calls it faction because it wasn t a word that you know, we would use now which is partisanship.
government, and when the president of the united states chooses to refuse to engage with the coequal branch of government that is this body, when the president through his lawyer makes clear that he will not respect the constitution, will silence anyone who might have information to provide congress, well, we ll instruct them to not turn over a single document, that is the obstruction of congress we re talking about. and the suggestion that it s somehow standard operating procedure in the united states of america for a president to defy congress completely and then for our friends on the other side to throw up their hands and say, ah, every president does it. the way that we resolve these
any document to congress with respect to this inquiry. it is a subzero version of the congressional power to keep the executive in check so whether you think congress is behaving well or badly, whether popular or unpopular, if you want to dictator, then you subvert the ability of congress to hold the executive in check. what is central here is do we want to dictator no matter how popular he may be, no matter how good or bad the results this policy may be, no president is supposed to be a dictator in the united states. when i hear colleagues of mine arguing that congress is unpopular and therefore obstruction of congress is a good thing, it shows terrible ignorance or lack of care for our institutions, for our democracy, for a form of government, for our liberties. i for one will do everything i can to protect our liberties,
extorting a foreign power into interfering in the election to give him help in his campaign. we cannot tolerate the president subverting fairness and integrity of our elections. the second major safeguard of our liberties designed by the framers of the constitution is the separation of powers, that power is not united in one dictator, but spread out through the executive represented by the president, the congress, and the judiciary. the second article of impeachment charges that the president sought and seeks to destroy the power of congress. congress may be unpopular and maybe should be elected or shouldn t be reelected, that s a question for the voters but the institutional power of congress
called for bush for some witnesses to broaden this out and make this more about the investigation into burisma? called the former vice president hits on the whistle-blower to try to examine that person s political motivations or democratic members of congress but there is a measure of caution here coming from other republicans who are really pushing to make this a much quicker process. they don t want to drag this in. they believe they have this on the merits that they can get these charges dropped or they can end this process and the senate will be also don t want to be opened up to democrats getting witnesses as part of this and perhaps calling the director, the vice president, or the secretary of state. dana: thank you, let s bring in ed henry, waiting for these members to come back when they had votes, not that they are just eating down there, they are voting. he pointed out right before this segment, the congressional ball is tonight at the white house.