Houseur reaction to the impeachment inquiry against President Trump. Laying out the next steps in the investigation. Washington journal is next. Is next. Host good morning. It is thursday, october 31, 2019. One of the most consequential dates in the impeachment inquiry yet. Procedures for future closeddoor and public hearings. With the house set to gavel in at 9 00 a. M. , we will spend two hours getting your thoughts ahead of todays vote. Give us a call on phone lines as usual split by political affiliation. For republicans, it is 2027488001. Democrats, 2027488000. Independents, 2027488002. You can also send us a text message. That number, 2027488003. If you do, please include your name and where you are from. Otherwise, catch up with us on social media. On twitter it is cspanwj. On facebook it is facebook. Com cspan. A very good thursday morning to you room you can start calling now. It is a wet washington, d. C. This morning. We are on the house side of capitol hill overlooking the house of representatives and that is where the action will take place today. The resolution being voted on es660. Is hr it is about 8 pages long. The lead sponsor is jim mcgovern, the chairman of the House Rules Committee. He will be on the floor managing the resolution. He talked about the resolution yesterday during the markup, here is what he had to say. [video clip] no one runs for congress to impeach a president , but the facts compel us to. There is evidence the president may have violated the constitution. No special prosecutor has been named to investigate President Trump on this, there is no single report from which this congress can make a decision whether or not to impeach President Trump on his dealings with ukraine, that is why the Intelligence Committee has been gathering evidence and hearing testimony. Reasonable confidentiality has been paramount so accounts could not be coordinated and witnesses were not unduly influenced. It is a process, by the way, that even trey gowdy, who chaired the benghazi committee, has endorsed. He said if you are going to have private investigations with unlimited time for questioning, that is a good thing. I agree. I am proud of our process so far. Continue gathering evidence, they are preparing to prevent present their findings as we enter the public facing phase. I introduced a resolution yesterday to ensure a clear path forward. We are marking up that resolution here today. I dont know whether President Trump will be impeached, only the facts and how we respond to them will dictate that. This process of determining whether he should be impeached will be open to the public view just as it should be. I know some republicans are resistant to investigating the president at all, but that will not stop the American People from hearing the facts. Host congressman jim mcgovern yesterday in the House Rules Committee ahead of todays floor vote. He will be managing the resolution on the floor on the republican side, managing their response to the resolution will be tom cole, the Ranking Member of the House Rules Committee and he spoke at yesterdays markup. [video clip] todays resolution fails to give the president the right to due process that president s clinton and nixon enjoyed and fails to preserve the right of the minority to participate in the proceedings. It also differs from the nixon and clinton resolutions in another key way. Both of those resolutions were written in a bipartisan manner. We are not involved in any way in the construction of the resolution we are considering today. It was dropped on us with 24 hour notice. Thise simply presented to this resolution, frankly, is not bipartisan and done with full consultation with the minority. It was written only by democrats without even a pretense of consulting republicans. I did not even see a copy of this resolution until it was released publicly. We can certainly do that or than that and better then we are doing today. When president nixon, president clinton impeached, the process was a collaborative one and the minority was able to participate. The president was given the right to have counsel present and participating and that preserve the rights of the minority, the president , and insured due process was the touchstone in the house. Without due process or a fair process, i do not believe the American People lagardere this process as legitimate. A legitimate process offers protections for everyones in everyone involved. This will be seen as just another partisan exercise the majority has been pushing for since the first day of the 116th congress. Yesterday. Ole you will be seeing more of him on the house floor along with jim mcgovern starting in two hours when the resolution gets voted on. The debate will begin in two hours. We are looking at a vote between 10 30 eastern and 11 30 eastern. Getting your thoughts on phone lines as usual. 2027488001 for republicans. 2027488000 for democrats. 027488002 for independents the impeachment inquiry continuing today despite that vote on the resolution taking place. Here is the story from npr on the individual testifying behind closed doors, his name is tim morrison, scheduled to testify in that impeachment inquiry, set to leave his white house post imminently according to sources who talk to npr and verified by other news organizations. Morrison writes who has served as the senior director for european and Russian Affairs on the National Security council had been working on arms control and bio defense issues when he was elevated to the russia portfolio by trumps then National Security advisor john bolton. He started in that role in july, overlapping with his predecessor, fiona hill, who announced her plans to leave the white house earlier this year. John bolton, mentioned his name in that npr story. House investigators looking to talk to him as well. A lot of moving parts even as the resolution gets voted on today. We are getting your thoughts on all of it. Florence up first out of philadelphia, democrat. Your thoughts this morning ahead of that vote on that resolution. Caller good morning. Host good morning. Caller good morning. This is a long time coming. This to say this president is as crooked as a dogs hind leg insults the dogs hind leg. Has been caught red with his own words, his own efforts and the excuses these republicans and americans continue to support this guy, stop being l your head out. Stop being three monkeys that dont three see any evil, hear any evil. The koolaid is a bitter flavor because they are bitter people. Treat people anyway, abandon the kurds. He brags about our success killing baghdadi and embellishes stories like he said schiff did about his record or whatever letter that was that they hid. Lets be for real. Host that is florence in philadelphia. Our line for republicans, coral out of california. Your thoughts this morning. Caller i dont think there will be any serious impeachment coming out of this at all. As far as drinking koolaid, i get a fresh breeze from the ocean here and i think very clearly. I think what is coming down the strzok,er for peter john brennan, james clapper, hillarys bunch and obama is not going to look good and this is all a bunch of hooey to be pushed into the eyes of the American Public by using the media constantly trying to assault us and lie to us and create an opinion which puts the polls down enough that it scares republicans. This is not going to happen because he has not done anything wrong. I hope he investigates all the bidens. I hope he investigates whys pelosi why pelosis son served on the board. We need to straighten it out and President Trump is the first one to be able to do it, for some reason. I dont understand why previous republicans have not done it and charged in. I think everybody was getting along too well in washington and it was about time to stir things up and i appreciate what the president is doing. Host to our independent line, nelson in upper marble, maryland marlboro, maryland. Good morning. Caller i support the impeachment process. I think this president has committed more crimes than any person in recent history and republicans keep saying he is trying to drain the swamp. To us. Ght the swamp i am a supporter of this. I think he is insulting our veterans. That is a disgrace. For someone to say he supports America First and he denigrates john mccain it is a disgrace. All republicans supporting this guy, lets wait and see after the impeachment. Host that is nelson in maryland. The house will gavel in at 9 00 a. M. And that is when we will end washington journal. There will be a few minutes of one minute speeches, the usual members making speeches and around 9 15 a. M. Eastern is when the debate will begin on this resolution. S660. It is not technically a bill, it is a resolution. That expected to go between an hour and an hour and a half 30 a. M. 10 30 and 11 eastern. Just to read you a little bit from that resolution being voted on today and by the way, you can read it yourself at cspan. Org impeachment. That is where we are putting all of our documents and coverage of the impeachment inquiry. This is what the resolution begins with, resolved that the Permanent Select Committee on intelligence and the committees on financial services, Foreign Affairs, the judiciary, oversight reform and ways and means are directed to continue their ongoing investigations as part of the existing house of representatives inquiry into whether sufficient grounds to the power tofor impeach president donald john trump. That is how that resolution begins. We will be going through that resolution a bit more this segment and talking about reaction to that resolution yesterday throughout the day on capitol hill. It Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell speaking about it in his opening remarks on the floor of the senate yesterday, this is what he had to say. [video clip] Speaker Pelosi initiated a bizarre process starting with the fact she began with a press conference instead of a proper vote in the house. The process seems to be treating german schiff as if he were a to prosecutor his strange behavior including fabricating a lengthy quotation and attributing it to President Trump during an official hearing. At the house inquiry has been conducted behind closed doors and they denied republican counterparts privileges which clinton democrats received during the clinton impeachment when they were in minority and unlike during the inquiries around president clinton and nixon, they have denied President Trump a sic Due Process Rights and are cutting his counsel out of the process in an unprecedented way. The new resolution does not change any of that. It does not confer on President Trump the most basic rights of due process or, seemingly, alter chairman schiff unfair process in the house Intelligence Committee in any way whatsoever. Chairman schiff can continue doing this behind closed doors without the president s participation so long as he holds one public hearing at some point. He is not even required to make all the evidence he obtains public. He alone gets to decide what evidence goes in his report. The resolution does not even give the president any rights in a public hearing that requires chairman schiff to hold. The resolution merely seems to contemplate that maybe, maybe some day in the future at some other phase of this due process in,t, might finally kick but only if the House Judiciary Committee feels like Holding Hearings and calling witnesses. In other words, no due process now maybe some later, but only if we feel like it. Somee process now, maybe later, but only if we feel like it. That is not even close to fair. No due process now, only some later if we feel like it should not be a standard applied to any american and it should not be applied here to the president of the United States. Leaderenate majority Mitch Mcconnell, the senate in at 10 00 a. M. This morning, one of the pieces of legislation they are working on is a spending package to fund the federal government. That deadline coming up on the 21st of november, quickly approaching and we will be hearing more about that as the deadline gets closer. On the resolution on the impeachment inquiry into President Trump, more discussion on the floor of the senate. This was Chuck Schumer. [video clip] yesterday, Lieutenant ColonelAlexander Vindman testified before congress. Wase his testimony announced, and especially in the past 24 hours, he has been vilified by individuals in the media and elsewhere. Although he served our country for more than 20 years and he is recipient of the purple heart after being wounded serving in iraq, he has been called derogatory terms and some have gone so far as to call him a spy and question his loyalty to the United States. These attacks are unacceptable, outrageous, not unlike the attacks the president and his thees levied against whistleblower. The president publicly suggested the whistleblower is treasonous and a spy and public reports suggest a republican member of the house Intelligence Committee is actively trying to expose and leak the whistleblowers identity. This is so, so wrong. Disclosing or causing to be disclosed the identity of a whistleblower is such a breach of faith with our whistleblower laws, which are designed to see the truth gets out. Everyone seeking the release of the whistleblowers identity is frustrating the truth and in violation of federal law. Not only that, the disclosure of the identity may result in reprisals and threats to their personal safety and the safety of their families. I am sending a letter to the secretary and chief of staff of the army asking them to provide us with what actions the army is taking to ensure vindman is protections. Whistleblowers like him are standing up to the constitution print e an oath to defend. Their lives and families must not be put into jeopardy by an outrageous attack or disclosure. Host Chuck Schumer yesterday in the senate. The action will take place today on the house side, expected to get underway at 5 15 this morning. Currently 432 members of the vacancies. Ere are 3 one independent the magic number for democrats for this 217lution to pass would be democrats expected to easily achieve that number according to the reporting today. No republicans likely to vote for that resolution. Michiganash from expected to vote for this resolution, so some names to watch on the floor of the house. Getting your thoughts on all of it. It democrats, republicans, and independents, this is glenn out of new jersey, a republican. Caller good morning. You are seeing a fight for the survival of the deep state vindman. State they have been trying to destabilize the middle east. They take the conflict energy you have got to get george webb on your television show. Far downore we get too the Conspiracy Theory road. Caller it is not a conspiracy, these are facts that can be fined found out easily. Is the fencing operation. Host talk about the resolution being voted on today and the impeachment process. Wentr they knew when they into battle that they were going to throw everything they got. Isis was created by our deep state and the man that called earlier was right. Str, mccabe, struck zock, page. Host a democrat, good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I think donald trump is tired, he should go on getting impeached. He is in the early stage of alzheimers. Judged when he was he voted loudly and clearly that our africanamerican citizens should be allowed free, open housing. We had an open housing controversy. When it comes down to it, mitch will vote him out and that is all i have to say. Maryland, is dave in independent, good morning. Caller good morning. Cspan. To i really look for a nonbiased news source. What is going on right now with the president in the house i wish you guys would take a hippocratic oath or something because this is one of the biggest schemes this is bigger than Joseph Goebbels could ever dream up. We are about to take down an administration and there is no crime. They have been trying to find a crime for the last two years. Now it is all behind closed doors. I read an article last night they could even bring down pence, the Vice President with no crime. That means pelosi would be president and she is the one spearheading all of this. In a democrats will call point to what they see is a quid pro quo in that phone call and the president s dealings with you cream ukraine. You see no crime . Caller i appreciate that, but the first whistleblower turned into a second whistleblower with third and fourth hand information. You can for anybody you want out and put people up there, but there doesnt mean there is any real merit behind what they are saying. When is it going to come out . Something is not right about this whole thing in the sense that it is not a real investigation. Really, the whole thing seems like Opposition Research than anything else. Host you are concerned about closed doors, this resolution being voted on today says the chair of the permanent select anmittee shall designate open hearing or hearings, no specific time or how many hearings there could be, but directing adam schiff to have an open hearing at least and you heard Mitch Mcconnell a few minutes ago, his concerns about