moment. first a democratic congressman, ted lou of california. he s on two of the panels that are part of the formal inpeachment inquiry. thank you. good afternoon. thank you, shep. how concerned are you that the whistle-blower process will become more difficult now, that future whistle-blowers might step back and say what s going on right now is too much for me? thank you, shep, for your question. let me first say that i served active duty in the united states military because i believe america is an exceptional country. one of the things that makes us great is our shared understanding we re all americans and it s wrong and no american president should ever solicit a foreign government to target an american political opponent. the whistle-blower did the right thing by bringing this to the inspector general. whistle-blowers are in america and we re all americans, this is not a partisan issue. the american public is watching.
white house itself released yesterday. shepard: the new york times has some details on the whistle-blower. those are not a name or anything like that. details about who this person or person is. what is your level of concern? an organization like ours would never put a name out there because we understand that whistle-blowers need to be protected. what is your level of concern that some website with nefarious intentions might leak that name and damage this process? so i am disappointed that the media will release a name of the whistle-blower. the whole point of the whistle-blower protection law that congress passed is to protect whistle-blowers. they have been verified because the white house released a rough transcript that showed that the president requested the ukrainian lead tore investigate joe biden and also because donald trump admitted on national tv that he said the same thing to the ukrainian
coverage live at the white house. john? shep, we started this hour with some reporting according to the new york times. the person who filed that whistle-blower complaint with the intelligence community inspector general was a cia agent that was detailed to the white house and received information from white house officials about that call. it s also believed by the new york times again that this person had extensive knowledge of the process for transcribing and archiving calls here at the white house and also had a lot of expertise about the ukraine, which may narrow down a little bit the possibilities of who this person is. the new york times is also reporting in a separate report that this morning a meeting with the u.s. mission to the united nations that the president said he wanted to know who the person is that filed the complaint and who gave that person the information. the president is saying that is close to a spy adding, you know what we used to do in the old days wh
shepard: the president is back in washington after meeting with foreign leaders including the ukrainian president on the sidelines of the general assembly in new york city. catherine herridge reporting live on capitol hill. hi, catherine. thanks, shep. justice maguire testified for the matter to be an urgent concern, he testified that it had to be classified, an abuse or violation of law and had to involve intelligence activities. at the conclusion of the justice department is that it did not meet that threshold because it was a diplomatic contact and not an intelligence activity. the events that followed are set out in the statute and he saw advice on executive privilege from the white house because it was the president s communications. here s how maguire defended his actions. it was not stonewalling. i was trying to work through the process and the law the way it s
these documents, both the testimony in terms of the transcript and also the whistle-blower complaint, shep. shepard: so now in the middle of this, it s vacation time on the hill? two weeks back in their home directs. a leading liberal voice in the house says it s valuable time well-spent. they re going back and having town halls, talking to their constituents. we need to explain what is happening to the american people. unfortunately people don t really understand fully as you well know the seriousness of the moment but also the process that we re going through. a leading senate republican says he worried this impeachment fever here on capitol hill will derail the legislative agenda. a lot of the important business that the congress should be doing to lower prescription drug costs, provide for a highway bill to help people around the country to pass the trade agreement, all of those are getting pushed to the side in pursuit of a political agenda and it s a shame.