This one says chuck schumer, the democratic leader will speak on the senate floor at about 3 50. We passed that. You can follow that over on our companion network, cspan2. Were getting your thoughts on the potential impeachment of the president and the whistleblower complaint filed with the director of National Intelligence. 2027482940, the line for democrats. 2027482941 for republicans. Or all others, 2027488922. One more tweet before we go to calls. This is not a partisan matter. The president authorizing the release of the transcript of the phone call with the president of ukraine. Lets hear from shawn in georgia. Go ahead. Caller thanks for taking my call. Yeah, i have a complaint. I mean, two things. Number one, i agree with nancy pelosi, watching her today, they are looking for the facts to get the whistleblower information. They waited for the mueller report. They waited for basically to get the facts. For some reason, with all the things that this president has done, its been swept under the rug by the republicans. I mean, what kind of country do you guys want to see . A president that doesnt respect the law, doesnt respect his political ponets . You see this time and time political opponents . You see this time and time again. Yet people are supporting this president. I dont understand it. I think at some point we have to look at ourselves in the mirror and say, like joe biden said, who are we . What kind of country do we want to leave for our kids . Our kids are watching this every single day in the news, something this president has done. Hes not a role model for our kids, not a role model for adults. Its a shame. Thank you for taking the call. Host independent line. Hi, maddie, you are on the air. Go ahead with your comment. Caller hi. You know, im so disgusted with what theyre trying to do to the president of the united no s at taxpayer expense, less. Theyre wasting time. They are not proposing anything good for the taxpayer. All theyre doing is going after one person who has been trying to do his best. Now, we were long time democrats. Weve switched over and supported trump. And this is and this is really getting bad and were going to again vote for trump. Host on that, heres what President Trump tweeted this afternoon. He says, the democrats are so focused on hurting the Republican Party and the president that they are unable to get anything done because of it. Including legislation on gun safety, lowering of Prescription Drug prices, infrastructure, etc. , so bad for our country. Well go to annapolis next and hear from steve on the republican line. Caller hi. Thank you very much for taking the call. Im really disappointed with donald trump, where hes coming back and hes saying, im going to release the transcripts tomorrow. Where the speaker, nancy pelosi, is talking about setting the bar now, saying that they were talking about impeachment. Donald was stale mating nancy stalemating nancy and the senate and congress is trying to question about the mueller report, then the president gives a letter saying you can only answer questions pertaining to the report. Everything about what hes done is very disappointing. As somebody backing the president , i understand that. I used to be in the military. We had to. But as a civilian now, i voted for both republicans and democrats. I want the best person for the job and right now he doesnt set the bar high enough to be voted back in. Host all right. Heres carl on the independent line, calling us from lancaster, pennsylvania. Go ahead, carl. Caller thank you so much. My names carl. Im from lancaster, pennsylvania. And i just wanted to say that i had issues with both parties recently. Ms. Pelosi, not getting behind many of her democratic constituents who were looking for an impeachment investigation. And President Trump not showing respect and answering questions or allowing his White House Administration to answer questions that the congress put forward to his personnel. And recently, with this stuff thats happening now with ukraine, the president is offering, offering to have the transcripts of his phone conversations. The the question in fact is whistleblowers investigation. There is an investigation right now going on that doesnt just cover one phone call. It covers at least eight. It covers a president asking nother country to commit a crime. Host good point. There wasnt an additional tweet from the president. You talked about the eight. There were certainly several phone calls. The tweet from the president earlier seemed to refer to one, not sure if it refers to all of the conversations with the ukrainian president. Caller well, anyway. Its just that right now hes not offering anything of any real value. Hes got to give everything up, everything. Because right now, Speaker Pelosi is 100 behind impeachment. Host kind of a dual track thing going on here. You saw the video moments ago. Members making their way, House Democratic members making their way to their caucus meeting. The word is that the speaker will indeed call for impeachment proceedings against President Trump. Well know for sure once the meetings over. She has a briefing scheduled for 5 00 eastern. Looks like well have that for you here on cspan live or when it gets started. As long as its before the house actually coming back in. The word is that that will be at about 6 20 when they come back for their series of votes. But members are filing in to that meeting room in the basement of the capitol. That meet willing get under way, if it hasnt gotten under way. Meanwhile, the president has said in a tweet that he will release transcripts of the phone conversations with the house and senate conversations. What the house and senate, particularly democrats, are trying to do is theyre trying to get release of the complaint, the whistleblowers complaint to the director of National Intelligence office and we want to let you know too that the acting d. N. I. , joseph maguire, will be testifying before the house excuse me, house select Intelligence Committee. Thats coming up thursday of this week. Well have that live over on cspan3 coming up at 9 00 a. M. Eastern on thursday. As things move along here. We continue taking your phone calls and well get the comments of Speaker Pelosi from earlier in just a moment. Lets hear from marie on centerville, maryland. On our republican line. Caller yes, i just think that this stinks. I think, where is the republicans who stand by this president . The people voted him in. Remember one thing, the democrats can take us out. Cant take all of us out. Were all going to stand up and take care of that president. And let the republicans have a voice. Thank you. Host thats marie in maryland. We mentioned Speaker Pelosi earlier this afternoon attending the ideas festival here in washington. She spoke about the potential then of impeachment. Shed make her announcement at hat event. Ms. Pelosi by law, when a complaint comes from a whistleblower, the Inspector General has 14 days to investigate and then the director of National Intelligence has seven days to report it to the Intelligence Committees in the law. It says shall. It doesnt say may, should. It says shall. And thats a very fraught with meaning word in legislation. But this administration is blocking the d. N. I. From conveying that to the Intelligence Committees. The d. N. I. Is at the present time breaking the law at the direction of the administration. Its really unfortunate. So to the substance of the we dont know well, we sort of do. The president has, in so many words, said that hes raised these questions with the ukrainians and hes in effect admitted that. Hes intervened on the quoteunquote biden issue. Ms. Pelosi again, and he has referenced that and if that is the case, that the president of the United States would ask a Foreign Government to assist him in a political way, that would be wrong. Would it be impeachable . [laughter] ms. Pelosi let me just say that everything weve been doing up preserving about that republic that Benjamin Franklin said, a republic if we can keep it. That means its not a monarchy. And we have a system of checks and balances in our constitution. Three coequal branches of government to be a check on each other. And that, that is a republic is a democracy. The not a monarchy. The president has said, article ii says i can do whatever i want. That is in violation of the spirit of the constitution. Now, our founders wanted to provide for, shall we say, some activities that they might not themselves engage in, and they put up guardrails. But they never could suspect that a president of the United States would jump over those guardrails. I want to widen out the apper tour and talk about this, the whole of this presidency. Let me just stay on this for a minute. If what were describing is accurate, and if its not impeachable, if youre not willing to say its an Impeachable Offense, what is impeachable to you . Ms. Pelosi ill be making an announcement at 5 00 today. Not here, right now. Youre more than welcome to make it right now. [laughter] [applause] ms. Pelosi its really sad to ink that a president would perform an Impeachable Offense. Its hard. Its hard to say weve gotten to that place. But what would be an Impeachable Offense would be that which is roven in an investigation. Host as you may have heard there from Speaker Pelosi, she will announce her decision on moving forward with impeachment this afternoon, 5 00 eastern. We will have that live for you here on cspan. The House Democratic caucus is meeting at this hour, got under way just a couple of minutes ago. According to our capitol hill producer, discussing the way forward on impeachment and news reports say that they will indeed announce that they are moving forward with an impeachment proceeding. Largely propelled by the whistleblower from the office of director of National Intelligence, the whistleblowers report on conversations between President Trump and the president of ukraine. There is also a resolution coming to the house floor about that. Sara wire from the Los Angeles Times just tweets this. House rules committee tonight taking up the resolution, quote, expressing the sense of the house of representatives with respect to the whistleblower complaint. The resolution orders the director of National Intelligence to hand over the whistleblower complaint and protect all documents related to it and to inform the whistleblower how to contact congress. It also orders President Trump to stop trying to discredit the whistleblower. 2027488920 is the number to call for democrats, your thoughts. Republicans, 2027488921. And for independents and all others, 2027488922. Lets go to rick who is in caseyville, illinois, independent line. Caller yes, i understand what the republicans and the democrats, you know, they got to get along. [indiscernible] seemed like he lies, lies, lies. [indiscernible] but you know what, they have to get their act together. But i dont blame for them to do what they want to do right now. Because im for it. Because i think donald trump has to quit lying to us. I mean, you know. Like i said, i voted for him, you but i cant [indiscernible] anymore. In older guy but i just just cant do it no more with this. They have to do something. If they got proof, do it. But another thing is, if theyre going to do that, go get a tax and everything. Let the people take it from there. If youre a republican, fine, you want donald trump, stay with him. If youre democrat, vote him out. Because the senate wont do nothing with it. Theyll act like it, but donald trump got them where he wants them. Hats all i wanted to say. Im the first person calling you. I think its upset, democrats and republicans fighting each other. That aint our country, man. You cant do that. Thats sad. Think of the kids coming up. My daughter, my grandkids. My greatgrandkids. Thats sad. But i hope i watch your show a lot. Host youre breaking up a little bit but thanks for calling in. Good to hear from you this afternoon. We go to jeremiah in tulsa, oklahoma. By the way, talked about the senate will play senate, well play comments from Senate Leadership in just a moment. Caller thank you for taking my call. Cspan, youre just a Great Service to the American Society and thank you so much. As a minister and, you know, praying man and africanamerican, just listening to this, this is just beyond ridiculous. Its not even funny anymore. My thoughts, as a minister, you know, the righteousness is observation and sins of reproach in people. Were looking at rule of law. Were looking at, as the man said prior, the example were setting before our children. And for trump, President Trump asking clearly and admitting, it was problematic when he was campaigning, when he said to putin, who was an adversary to our nation, what he said. That didnt sit well with me then. But for this to be out there in a Foreign Government, and then if the shoe is on the other foot, look at how the [indiscernible] with Hillary Clinton and benghazi. You cant republicans, you cant have it both ways. As a minister, i can get you all over the place. On wednesday night bible study and sunday. But im telling you that jesus things under hose gods that are gods. You cant have it both ways. We have to follow the rule of law and youre messing with our democracy. Any citizen out there listening, wed be in court and having to have lawyers and probably tund jail. We need to stop the foolishness and get back to wisdom and righteous innocence this nation before we regret it and wish that we had not gone down this dangerous road. Host well go to to our republican line next and hear from paul in chicago. Welcome. Caller hello. I heard the gentleman a few calls back. He was talking about he wouldnt vote for trump host were just letting our folks know that nancy pelosi heading obviously into the meeting with democrats. Go ahead, paul, with your comment. Caller i heard the gentleman a few calls back saying that trump lies, that hes not going to vote for him. Well, the democrats have the full spectrum of media lying. They got all their affiliates lying for the democrats. I voted for democrats for 40plus years. Ill tell you what, no more. Since trump got in, i havent voted for them. And there aint not one democrat that i would put in office again. You can see that the deep state apparatus is at work again. Just continually pounding that drum. And its like a neverending thing. Host all right. Well let you go there. Rita in las vegas, independent line. Keith first of all, i read caller first of all, i read the mueller report. Everybody should read it. When i heard there was this whistleblower and something with ukraine, i knew automatically it was something to do with what i had read somewhere along the line about some money to ukraine. Knew instantly. I suggest everybody get a copy, got to the library, theyll have it, i waited three months to get it. But this has got to stop. If i knew something was up. And so, they have to do something and if anybody has questions, i wonder how many i havent heard any of the people that have been waiting for who said they read the mueller report. Read it. You wouldnt have any doubt what is happening. And im afraid that its going to get worse if something [indiscernible] so im happy theyll investigate it. Find out what happened. And be open about it. Dont call it fake news. Read yourself, listen, make your wn decision. I was a republican for life, i did not vote for trump and i will not vote for trump again. Doubt if ill do republican because im an independent now. Thank you. Host thats rita in las vegas. Well continue to take your calls and comments. Just an update on that House Democratic caucus meeting. The state newspaper in South Carolina says that 158 and counting are calling for opening up an impeachment inquiry into trump but not congressman Joe Cunningham of South Carolina. Lets hear what mitch mcconnell, the majority leader, had to say in the senate after the party lunches this afternoon. If there were to be articles of impeachment regarding president , would you entertain it, would you dismiss it . What would you do . [indiscernible] other republicans. Mr. Mcconnell what we have here is an allegation related to ukrainian aid by a whistleblower , thats about all we know now. The way to handle it in the senate at this particular point is the acting head of d. N. I. , the acting d. N. I. Is coming up to the Intelligence Committee on thursday. The Intelligence Committee and the senate has a reputation for dealing with things in a responsible way and in a bipartisan way and thats where it all starts in the senate. Im not going to address all these various hypotheticals that have been aired out about what may or may not happen in the house. I think all of thats quite premature. Reporter not a hypothetical question. What rationale did the administration give you this summer for holding up military tied ukraine . Mr. Mcconnell i mentioned yesterday, i was very actively nvolved in advocating the aid. Talked to the secretary of defense twice, the secretary of state once. The good news is, it finally happened. I have no idea what precipitated the delay, but i was among those a advocating that we needed to sti