We are still a few minutes away from the start of the serious study group hearing, while we wait, ill look at conversation from todays washington journal. Back at our table this morning, a member of the Intelligence Committee a democratic from connecticut, lets begin with the argument being made by republicans about how this impeachment inquiry was launched and how its being conducted. Here is the Senate Majority leader on the floor yesterday. Now, Speaker Pelosi has finally crumbled and allowed her impeachment caucus to dictate the houses actions. I dont think many of us were expecting to witness a clinic in terms of fairness or due process. But even by their own partisan standards, House Democrats have already found new ways to lower the bar. This is about the most consequential process the house of representatives could possibly engage in. Overruling American Voters and nullifying an election. Surely any such process must be conducted with the utmost fairness and transparency. It must be held to the most exacting of standards and yet House Democrats have wasted no time throwing fairness and precedent to the wind. Already they have denied their republican counter parts certain minority rights, like equal subpoena power that republicans provided democrats during the clinton impeachment. Already, theyve made clear that president trumps counsel will not be allowed to participate in hearings, present evidence, and cross examine witnesses. All important rights that republicans provided to president clinton. Congressman, your response . Well, i guess i have two responses to that. Number one, process is what every republican on capitol hill is talking about and the reason for that of course is that they dont want to engage, and they dont have the courage to say what every american knows to be true which is the president asking for his own Political Goals to be advanced by the machinery of the federal government, by the state department, led by people like Rudy Giuliani and two individuals who were indicted last week, theyre not willing to say what Everybody Knows to be true which is that that is wrong. Thats why we get these process arguments. The thing two is, hes wrong. Hes simply wrong in what he is saying. In other words, there is no rule in the constitution or in the house rules or anywhere else that says that an inquiry can only be launched by a vote on the house floor. He is also wrong that proper procedure is not being followed. I have sat on any number of these interviews and i will tell you that the time in these interviews is divided equally between democrats and republicans. Both sides, and both sides lawyers have an opportunity to interview these witnesses. Hes also wrong that the president s attorneys are not being afforded an opportunity to present evidence. What hes talking about, and he knows this, and this is why he knows hes being dishonest. A trial in the senate, the president s supporters would have the opportunity to confront with witnesses, to cross examine and do all of that stuff. What were doing in the house right now is more akin to a grand jury proceeding. Grand jury proceedings do happen behind closed doors, and theres other reasons for that happening. Mitch mcconnell knows he is lying into the camera there by saying that the protections that would be afforded in a senate trial are not being afforded in the house of representatives. Again, the big point here, were proceeding on this inquiry the way we do all other Committee Meetings with tiles equally divided between the two sides. Everybody has an opportunity to ask questions, sometimes theyre closed, sometimes theyre open, if this goes on to a trial in the senate, everything that Mitch Mcconnell is talking about, he will be in charge of making sure that that happens in the senate. By not following precedent, though, of previous impeachment kwa inquiries, by holding a full vote on the house floor, are you not giving the opposition, the republican party, a legitimate argument that this is not fair, that this is not transparent. Youre not putting people on the record on launching an investigation. Well, were giving them an argument, whether its a good argument or not is a very different question. In other words, the reason in the couple of impeachment proceedings that have happened in the house in American History prior is because the house had to vote in order to grant committees subpoena power. Thats why those votes were held. Today under the rules, committees have subpoena power, and by the way, the minorities in these committees can ask for a subpoena. They need to persuade the majority of the members of the committee to vote for that subpoena but they have that authority today to ask for a subpoena, again, this is largely a smoke screen. Who knows, at some point Speaker Pelosi argues to take this off the table. Now the republicans dont have the main thing to talk about, and they have answer uncomfortable questions about whether the president s behavior is good or not, impeachable or not. But look, we know the republicans, if we hold a vote this afternoon, and it passes, which it would, theyve got another one that is equally specious in terms of whether this process is being conducted fairly. What about their argument that this is being done behind closed doors, and i understand that democrats argue it needs to be done behind closed doors because its similar to a grand jury type investigation. However, republicans like debbie lesco who was here this morning, democrats, you say you want to do this behind closed doors and then staff or whoever is going out and leaking only what they want the media and American People to know what is being said behind closed doors. There is good reason to do this behind closed doors, and the way to think about this, and you can talk to anybody whos a lawyer or did 20 minutes of law school. These proceedings that are prior to a trial a generally done behind closed doors, because not only do you want to make sure witnesses dont coordinator their system, and you know what that guy said and you can coordinate testimony, and its also done because in this fact finding stage, peoples names get mentioned, personally identifiable information, you need protections around that process. As to the leaks, i dont disagree with my republican colleague. They shouldnt be happening. Its not a partisan thing, though. I have now been on this committee for a long time, and i have seen both parties go out and leak information that is, you know, they think is helpful to their cause. But look, what the American People really need to understand is that these, the transcripts of these hearings, once they have been scrubbed of classified information, thats the other reason these have to happen behind closed doors, once it has been scrubbed of classified information, once its been scrubbed of personal information of people who are not involved, they will be released to the public, the American People have the right to see what was said in these hearings. Lets get to calls in bloomington, indiana, democratic caller. Yes. I have a comment and a question and thank you for taking my call. And it just seems a lot more serious than it is being approached by mainly the republicans seem to not be doing what they need to do by speaking up and telling the truth. Ive been watching this for three years and im very concerned our country is getting stepped on. And i really appreciate you being on, jim, thank you for taking my call. Thanks. I do step back every once in a while because youre talking about things beyond just this impeachment inquiry. I do step back every once in a while and remember the previous presidency, and remember the way donald trump attacked Hillary Clinton for the high crime, the deadly sin, the moral catastrophe of having a personal email account. Something that it turns out Donald Trumps children do, the people in his administration do, that was, according to the current president , something that she should go to jail for. Now we have a president that has basically sidetracked the official policy of the United States government as it relates to russia and ukraine for his personal political benefit. We have a president who has run his businesses and his children have been making millions and millions of dollars while hes president , and this president has the gumption to criticize hunter biden because hunter biden went on a board in ukraine. We have a president that regularly calls the media the enemy of the people and says his political opponents should be jailed who uses language in rallies that i would ground my two daughters for a month for using and yet my republican colleagues just grin and bear it because this is some how okay. Obama would have been impeached ten times before lunchtime for any one of the things that i just mentioned that this president does on a regular basis. Lets go to robert in michigan, republican caller. Hi robert. Yeah, heres why the American People dont understand and dont believe the democrats and republicans and whos lying and whos not lying, because the woman you had earlier said there was no confidential information for them to have meetings behind closed doors. Why dont they have them through the public instead of going behind closed doors if it there aint no confidential information on there. He called Mitch Mcconnell a liar because he said Mitch Mcconnell is lying about this, lying about that, now i dont know whos lying and the people thats watching your program dont know whos lying. We dont know if hes lying or Mitch Mcconnell is lying. Thats why it should be open to the public. Okay. So what robert is saying, congresswoman lesko, understands there is no classified information being disclosed in these closed door depositions so she thinks it should be made, you know, a public hearing. First of all, congresswoman isnt in the room, so im not going to say shes lying, but she doesnt know what shes talking about because she hasnt been in those hearings. I have been. When senior diplomats, when am ambassador liquors a ambassadors are speaking freely as they must in these situations, they often refer to classified information. Thats why these transcripts need to be scrubbed prior to their release to the public. Lets grapple with the larger issue that the gentleman raised there. Its true. You know, the republicans are saying one thing and the democrats are saying another. But heres my argument on that. Were all american citizens. We have the immense privilege of being american citizens the what would you rather be than that . That does not come for free. That does not come without Strings Attached and one of those Strings Attached is that you do the work to become a critical thinker about your government. So i accused Mitch Mcconnell of not being honest about the fact that the president doesnt have his lawyers in the house impeachment proceeding. So the gentleman who just asked the question or anybody else in america could look up the process around impeachment and see if what i mean m saying is or not. An indictment is issued, thats what happens in the house, and then they should do a little bit of work to determine whether in a grand jury proceeding or traditional in impeachment proceedings, the president s lawyers have been in the room. What the gentleman will discover is the answer to the question is no, and when Mitch Mcconnell says the house isnt doing that, he is not being honest about both either the rules or what has happened historically. My larger point is, yeah, i get it, and its immensely frustrating to me that people dont touch base to the truth more than they do. But again, were american citizens. We have an obligation to do a little bit of work to understand what our government and what the people in our government are saying to us, and weve got lots of opportunity to do that, more opportunity than ever before because of the many outlets you can find online, on television, and something else. So again, i would urge the gentleman, dont give up. If you take your civic duties as an american citizen seriously, youll do the work to figure out whos telling the truth here. Take a look the at list of folks that have gone behind closed doors this week. You have fiona hill, whose testimony was monday, along with simone kissling, george kent, today the committee is going to hear from michael mckinley, thursday, gordon sondland, and lets talk about wednesday, thursday, friday. Michael mckinley, who is he, what do you want to know from him. Michael mckinley is mike pompeos adviser, a professional diplomat, not a political appointee, one of the senior people around mike pompeo who by the way, is a friend of mine. We worked together on the Intelligence Committee for a long time. Its important for america to understand even though the partisan fight is a tough one, theres good personal relationships across the aisle. So mckinley was his adviser, and he resigned two weeks ago, i believe. He resigned because, purportedly, we havent heard this from him, he was concerned about the fact, that, among other things, people like ambassad ambassador yovonavitch, that people like that werent getting the support that they needed from the secretary of state. Hes going to have a view on that. Were going to talk to him today to find out more about what the secretary of state was doing while the job of the state department to run Foreign Relations for the United States was hi jacked by Rudy Giuliani and a group of others whose interest was getting dirt on a political opponent of the president. We need to hear from mckinley on what he knew about that. And gordon sondland, and alrich brechpool, why do you want to talk to him. A senior guy in the Foreign Policy apparatus, in and around this whole change in policy or this hi jacking of policy with respect to the ukraine. Sondland appears to have been in the cockpit for that fight, and thats sort of an interesting thing because, you know, hes a respected businessman, wasnt originally a trump supporter. Became a trump supporter late to the game. He has interests i think well beyond in president. It will be interesting to hear how he got to where he got. And alrich is a name mentioned, not a well known name but a name mentioned in the whistleblowers complaint as well. I think thats right, yeah. Subpoenas for documents and witnesses, just want to run through that with our viewers, the vp, mike pence, subpoenas of document, whether he had knowledge of president trumps phone call to the ukraine president. Gordon sondland, documents to the house committee, pentagon officials, records outlining the delay in the military aid to ukraine, an october 15th deadline. That was yesterday. Russell vout, of omb, documents of the delay. Rick perry, documents related to his contacts with the ukrainian president , Rudy Giuliani, his documents as well, and of course the two Giuliani Associates who have been indicted. Why is all of this information necessary . Its necessary because as Mitch Mcconnell pointed out in the clip you played, the house of representatives is doing arguably the most consequential thing it can do, maybe other than declare water which is an unused power for the last couple of generations, but as such, its not okay to just say, hey, we heard this, or there was this in the whistleblowers complaint, we actually just as a court of law would do, need to build a complete record of what happened. Thats important to the impeachment inquiry and the decision as to whether the the president s behavior was impeachable and, look, opponents or supporters of the president should want that to be done well, the sail wme way evidence lots of good process would be able to anyone accused of doing something wrong. The other reason we need to understand this, whether its the president saying hes in love with kim jong un in north korea, a man who brutally murders his own people. Whether its a president who does what Vladimir Putin wants him to do, by this summary pullout from syria. We need to understand who was told what around ukraine. We have professional diplomats who have devoted their careers in places like ukraine, north korea, and places like russia. Were going to need to rebuild, both of those efforts and those peoples careers and sense of selfworth by really understanding what has happened here in so many areas where the president seems to be acting contrary to the American National interest. Lets go to birmingham, alabama, olivia, democratic caller. Yes, good morning. Good morning. Go nationals. Woo woo woo. And congressman himes, you have been straight up ever since the mueller report. You have never wavered. You have never changed nothing you say. I watch you on tv. I see you all the time. You have never changed what you said about donald trump. Im sorry, you all shouldnt give Mitch Mcconnell no credence on tv. Mitch mcconnell is the same person that said he was going to make president obama a onetime president. Look how that turned out. President obama was elected for two terms. I dont believe nothing Mitch Mcconnell say. The house had passed so many bills, Mitch Mcconnell had bills sitting on his desk that is not trying to move through the senate. America, we need to wake up. We really need to do some studying. Learn about your civics and your government, what it does. This is what Congress Also should be doing. The congress do impeachment and have an impeachment inquiry, theyre doing thei