Sentenced to 30 years and released. This should not have happened. I am sorry for your loss and appreciate the voice you give to this young woman today. Well hear what police have to say next hour. Dana right now the first public hearing on the Biden Impeachment Inquiry is about to get underway. Republicans plan to present all the evidence theyve uncovered so far as they investigate whether President Biden abused his Public Office for his familys financial game. Welcome to a new hour of americas newsroom. Im dana perino here in california. The sun is finally coming up, bill. I see it. Bill its the Dark Of Night that crushes most, right . Good morning to you. Im bill hemmer in new york and republican investigators have collected mountains of evidence, they say. Today they plan to lay it out all and possible crimes the bidens may have committed outlining the basis for the Impeachment Inquiry gets underway now. David spunt is live with a preview. David, hello to you. Good morning. Good morning to you. This will last 6 or 7 hours. Already at capacity inside the hearing room. A line over my right shoulder right now. A new era for the biden white house. If you ask people at the white house it is not a welcome new era. This is an Impeachment Inquiry hearing just means theyre gathering facts. Not an actual full blown impeachment. James comer the chairman of the Oversight Committee says hell go wherever this committee will take him. Wherever the evidence takes him. He says this will look simply from joe bidens days as Vice President when he was not Vice President anymore when he was a private citizen all the way up through his presidency. While joe biden is the obvious subject of today, another name well hear over and over again in hunter biden, the first son and more about his overseas business dealings. Democrats are protective over the president. They say there is nothing that has led them to believe that he has done anything wrong meaning the president of the United States. Again this will last about 6 or 7 hours, probably seven maxim owe told. There are four witnesses, two law professor including jonathan turley, a forensic Tax Accountant and former d. O. J. Tax official as we get underway right now. Bill and dana. Bill david spunt. Were watching along with you for this hearing today. Thank you. Want to turn our attention quickly to last night, dana. Welcome back here. How are you feeling . Dana yes, sun is coming up. It was great. I enjoyed the experience from start to finish. Everybody at fox news every aspect could not have been more supportive. They made this place look incredible. The stage they built was absolutely beautiful. One thing i thought was interesting was the fact we know President Trump wasnt there. Ron desantis made it a point to say he should have been. Watch. The people in washington are shutting down the American Dream with their reckless behavior. They borrowed, they printed, they spent and now you are paying more for everything. They are the reason for that. So please spare me the Crocodile Tears for these people. Where is joe biden . He is completely missing in action from leadership. You know who else is missing in action . Donald trump is missing in action. He should be on this stage tonight. Dana that came up early on, bill. Bill yeah. When you think about that, reflect on the Polling Numbers that came out this past weekend, right . Between biden and trump in a headtohead matchup on abc or nbc as well. Abc poll had him up ten. There are a lot of problems for the president. He has a lot of issues to deal with. Now you have the First Campaign ad that targets only trump and listen, in the end this might be the preview of whats to come for 24. Watch here. He says he stands with auto workers but as President Donald Trump passed tax breaks for his rich friends while automakers shut erred plants. Michigan lost manufacturing jobs. Bill whats interesting about all this when you think about the election in michigan me 2016, the campaign in 2020 it was razor tight in 2016, really close again among 5 million votes cast in michigan between biden and trump in 2020. I think most of america was watching your debate last night in california but those auto workers and Union Workers had half an ear on donald trump and what he had to say in detroit last night. You have to think thats the case and whether or not he was able to convince some of them that joe biden sold your jobs down the river. Nikki haley will come up in a moment. I want to go to you for that back in california. She had a quick night, too. Right . Dana she is here. Great to have her here. Welcome back to the debate arena that you were here. What do you take away from last night in terms of President Trump not being there . Do you think he should have been there . You cant win if you are absent. I think that he has got a lot of questions to answer to. He has got to talk about the Out Of Control spending that happened under his watch and why he wasnt tougher on china and allowed them to buy land and kill americans with fentanyl. He has to talk about why he is walking things back on ukraine. There is a lot of issues i think americans will want answers to and the more these debates play out and the more he is not there, they will have a problem with that. Dana the ad that bill just played did catch my eye yesterday. The Biden Campaign is fine, well start doing basically general election ads. President trump does have the commanding lead. If President Trump and joe biden are both basically running General Election Campaigns now, does it leave everybody on the Stage Fighting for scraps . I dont think so. I know the media says that and polling is saying that. If you go to iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina people are talking about inflation, they are talking about how expensive not just groceries and gas but rent. Unable to buy a home. 50 of families cant afford diapers. They talk about lack of transparency in the classroom and how to catch up the kids. They dont like the open border. Worried about china. They arent talking about trump. They are talking about who will take us forward and why i think we need a new generational leader. We cant keep looking at the old news from the past. We have to go forward. When it comes to that commercial it is interesting. Biden wants trump to be his opponent without question. Two, to go an sit there and talk about auto workers. Biden did this to the auto workers. The reason they are picketing is because of inflation. The reason they are picketing is they cant afford things and living paycheck to paycheck. He did that with all of the stimulus package. Dana and the push to Electric Vehicles and doug burgum brought that up last night. What needs to happen between now and the third debate for you . Do you think the field will finally narrow . Last night was important to contrast. Americans want to say whats the difference between all of you . I hope that i was able to show that whether its talking about china and tiktok. Whether talking about what we need to do in education and healthcare. Really putting Policy Solutions up. Dana one of the things that Vivek Ramaswamy was trying to say is republicans need to be on the platform if thats where the voters are going to be anyway. Does that hold water with you . If you are asking to be the leader of the free world, to go on a platform that is really controlled by our biggest enemy is not what you need to be telling young people. You need to be telling them the truth. You need to not do what is easy because they are on it. You need to say did you know china can jump into your phone and take your Financial Information and take your contacts and get into your microphone and camera . This is a major espionage tool that china is using. Why are you getting on it . It disqualifies him right off the bat. Dana you can see the hearing is underway. James comer is starting the first Impeachment Inquiry hearing into the questions about hunter biden and joe bidens finances. Where do you stand on this . Do you think it should go even further . Department of justice didnt do anything about this. The house is doing the right thing by saying there are more questions than answers. Dana youre an accountant. Does some of this information as an accountant do you think it sounds fishy . Yes. You look at Bank Accounts and say if you had millions of dollars going in, what did you do to get that money . Secondly, why did Family Members and acquaintances get the money, too . What did they do to get that money . There are more questions than answers and theyre right to ask the questions. This isnt about joe biden or donald trump. This isnt about republican or democrat. This is about are we going to allow our elected leaders to go and start moving their power around to gain money in the process. Dana do you think biden was doing that or hunter was trying to do that and using his father . No way joe biden didnt know this was happening. No scenario he can prove to the American People he didnt know hunter was getting paid a lot of money and he didnt know when he called in during those special times that something wasnt there. He knew what was going on. We all look at him and say he is old and didnt know any better. He knew when the money hit his bank account he got it from somewhere. Dana safe travels to iowa. Go to nikki haley. Com. Bill nice transition. The House Oversight hearing titled basis for an Impeachment Inquiry of president joe biden. What evidence will they make public today . We were just watching the republican james comer, who will run this hearing. So lets dip in with Congressman Smith out of missouri talking. Between joe bidens office and Hunter Bidens Business Partners. According to a worksheet provided by i. R. S. Whistleblower ziegler, then vice President Bidens april 2014 official visit to ukraine occurred only days after a series of white house meetings with hunter biden and his Business Associates regarding ukraine. Shortly after joe biden returned stateside, the Ukrainian Company burisma announced Hunter Bidens appointment to its board. New evidence provided shows hunter biden using his fathers position to gain favor with Billionaire Miguel including having joe biden host them at the white house in February Of 2014 at the Vice President s residence alongside Mexican Billionaire Carlos Slim In November of 2015. And then in 2016, using air force two to shuttle hunter biden and his Business Associate to mexico city. Whether it was lunches, phone calls, white house meetings, or official foreign trips, hunter biden cashed in by arranging access to joe biden, the family brand. The biden family and their associates received millions in payments from foreign sources including from russia, china, ukraine, romania. In one email hunter biden even braged he cut a deal for 10 million from Just One Company for, quote, introductions alone. Yet the d. O. J. Wanted to keep the spotlight as far from joe biden as possible. One of the items we released yesterday was an i. R. S. Interview with james biden, the president s brother, in september of 2022. The agency was barred in the interview from asking him about joe biden and about whether joe biden was involved in Hunter Bidens deal with a Chinese Energy company. When hunter biden had his Tax Liability of over 2 million mysteriously paid for by a Democrat Party donor named kevin morris who he barely knew, something i. R. S. Investigators saw as a possible Campaign Finance violation, assistant u. S. Attorney leslie wolf said she did not want any of the agents to look into the allegation. Behind on the board are notes agent shapley took from that meeting. He notes that wolf told investigators that she was not, quote, personally interested in pursuing it. This is the same Attorney Wolf who in an email we released yesterday responded to i. R. S. Investigators seeking approval for a Search Warrant with, quote, there should be nothing about political figure one in here. That being a reference by definition of joe biden. The biden family sold access to joe bidens power and the Biden Justice department protected the biden brand. We must continue to follow the facts. I yield to representative jordan. I think the this is a tale as old as time. Politician takes action, that makes money for his family and then he tries to conceal it. Never forget four fundamental facts. Hunter biden gets put on the board of burisma. Gets paid a lot of money. Hunter biden is not qualified to sit on the board. Not my words, his word. He got on the board because of the name. Fact number three, the executive at burisma asked hunter biden to weigh in and help them with the pressure they are under from the prosecutor in ukraine. Fact number four, joe biden goes to ukraine on december 9th, 2015, gives the speech attacking the prosecutor that starts the process of getting that guy fired. Those facts, by the way, are consistent with what the confidential human source told the f. B. I. And the f. B. I. Recorded in 1023 form. The same form that the Justice Department didnt want to let this committee see. And all those facts, all of that was further confirmed yesterday with the information that the ways and Means Committee released from the whistleblowers shapley and ziegler. A communication from hunter biden from an executive with burisma. We feel comfortable with Blue Star Strategies and the ability of sally and karen to deliver. Hunter biden put burisma in touch with Blue Star Strategies. What were they going to deliver . That was in a communication released yesterday as well. U. S. Officials in ukraine and in the United States need to express support for burisma and nikolai to the highest level decision makers, the president of ukraine, the president s Chief Of Staff and the Prosecutor General. Thats what they were going to deliver. Were they successful . The Interior Minister confirmed that he is no longer wanted. We won in less than the year. Communications between the folks at blue star and eric sher within, Hunter Bidens business partner. Congratulations to you guys. Those are the communications. Thats what they got done. Remember, when this happens in october 2016, when the pressure is taken off the case is dropped aga against the second prosecutor comes in and drops the charges. Thats what they wanted done. The final step, the final step is the Biden Justice department tries to sweep it all under the rug. They slow walk the investigation. They let the statute of limitations laps for the most important years 14 and 15, burisma years when all the income is coming in. They try to put together a Sweetheart Deal and get it past a judge and we learned yesterday in the Search Warrant examining Hunter Bidens electronic communications, they werent allowed to ask about political figure one. Political figure number one is the big guy, is joe biden. And they would have gotten away with it all. They would have gotten away with it all except for two brave whistleblowers who sat in those seats two months ago and told their story and their story has stood up. Two brave whistleblowers and a judge in delaware who said they wont let this happen. Thats why were here today and this is so important. The oldest story in the world and those are the facts. I yield back. Chair now recognizes Ranking Member raskin of maryland for his Opening Statement. Thank you. Before i give my Opening Statement, i have a parliamentary inquiry. Given the committee has not been authorized by the full house to conduct an Impeachment Inquiry am i correct in assuming that were obligated to follow the rules of the house including section 370 of the rules and manual which prescribe engaging in personalities towards the president . Considering this is an investigation of joe biden, i assume his name is going to come up. Right. But the house has not authorized this as an Impeachment Inquiry but operating with the general rules. I think saying the president lies is engaging in a personality. In fact, section 370 says accusations that the president has committed a crime or even has done something illegal are unparliamentary. Were operating with the general rules of the house. The house has not authorized. The speaker of the house has authorized the Impeachment Inquiry. It has been authorized. Okay. All right. Parliamentary inquiry. Ranking member. Miss alexandria ocasiocortez. I believe changing of the rules must require a vote from the full house of representatives. The rules of the committee. The chair overrules the point of article. Articles of impeachment are not directly before the committee. Were looking into the potential wrongdoing of the president. The hearing topic, these words will not be ruled out of order. So Ranking Member please proceed. Thank you for clarifying, mr. Chairman. We have an honest disagreement about that. Lets get it straight. Were 62 hours away from shutting down the government of the United States of america and republicans are launching an Impeachment Drive based on a long debunked and discredited lie. No foreign enemies ever been able to shut down the government of the United States now maga republicans are about to do just that. But they dont want to cut off Public Services to the people and deny paychecks to more than a million Service Members without 1 launching the Impeachment Drive even when they dont have a shred of evidence against President Biden for an impeachable offense. You think im being harsh . Here is what some republicans have had to say over the last week about the actions of the republicans. As they watch up close quote the Dysfunction Caucus at work in the words of our gop colleague from nebraska, don bacon. Clown show, foolishness, terribly misguided, stupidity, failure to lead, lunatics, new low, pathetic. Enabling chairman xi. People that have serious issues. Those folks do have a plan and shows how broken they are and individuals that want to burn the whole place down. Now, if i said any of these things they probably take my words down but these are republicans talking about republicans. So lets be clear. This isnt partisan warfare america is seeing today. It is chaotic infighting between republicans and republicans. It is maga versus extreme maga as if anybody in the real world could tell the difference between the two. What a staggering failure of leadership. Speaker mcgarth east appeasement of the most fanatical elements of his conference now threatens the wellbeing of every american. Some people think members of the gop caucus arent interested in anything logical. They want to see the world burn as alfred penny worth put it in the dark night. I see a method in the madness. A week ago donald trump posted a comment saying a Government Shutdown, quote, is the last chance to defund these political prosecutions against me and other patriots. You get it . To delay Justice Donald trump would cut off paychecks to a couple million Service Members and federal workers and furlough more than a million workers and pay them later for having not worked. They would halt Food Assistance to millions of moms and kids and keep n. I. H. In enrolling any more patients in life and death Clinical Research trials. Trump is convinced if we shut the government down these four criminal prosecutions on 91 different felony and Misdemeanor Charges will be defunded and delayed long enough to keep him from having to go before a jury of his peers before the 2024 election. Like Flying Monkeys on a mission for the wicked witch of the west trumps followers in the house carry his messages out to the world shut down the government, shut down the prosecutions. But the cult master has another command for his followers which brings us here today. August 27th he posted this edict. Either impeach the bum or fade into oblivion. They did it to us. The standard isnt whether they did it to us or whether the president committed crimes. The constitution is ir. What counts is what donald trump wants as ken buck of Freedom Caucus member told cnn the other day President Trump has gone on the social media account and said we should be impeaching President Biden. Kevin mccarthy said we have an Impeachment Inquiry. You draw the conclusion. Directly or indirectly, this Impeachment Inquiry was a result of President Trumps pressure. So we move from the trump ordered Government Shutdown to a trump ordered Impeachment Process and yet back in the realitybased world the majority sits completely emptyhanded with no evidence of any president ial wrongdoing, no smoking gun, no gun, no smoke. In fact, we have had to slide a awkwardly without the benefit of the floor vote that Speaker Mccarthy insisted was necessary when donald trump was impeached. They went to the department of justice and got an olc opinion saying quote, no committee may undertake the momentous move from legislative oversight to impeachment without the delegation by the full house of such authority. Olc opinion january 19th, 2020. Thats why the house voted in the case of donald trump but thats exactly what has not happened here because they dont have the votes. Dozens of republicans recognize what a futile and absurd process this is. The title of the hearing is the basis for the impeachment of president joe biden. They have invited three witnesses to test phone, not one of them an eyewitness to a president ial crime of any kind. Not one of them is a direct fact witness about any of the events related to ukraine and burisma. Not one of them has participated in the eight months of investigation that the chairman has boasted he received 100 of everything he asked for. I quote. Every subpoena that ive signed as chairman of the house Oversight Committee over the last five months weve gotten 100 of what we requested where the f. B. I. , banks or with treasury. That means we are the real witnesses here. In fact, the committee has received 12,000 pages of bank records. Here they are. Right in front of us printed doublesided and not a single page shows a dime going to president joe biden. Weve received 2,000 pages of sars reports and held hearings and conducted interviews with everybody from Hunter Bidens Business Partners to a federal agent assigned to that investigation and still we found no evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden. If the republicans had a smoking gun or even a dripping water pistol, they would be presenting it today but theyve got nothing on joe biden. All they can do is return to the thoroughly demolished lie that Rudy Giuliani and donald trump launched five years ago, the burisma conspiracy theory. A fairy tail and one of its oughtors has repudiated it. The president and most western governments targeted ukraine Prosecutor General shokin for removal because he was threatening the Burisma Corporation whose board hunter biden served on. Trump synthesizeed the lie in a post. The guy got bribed. He paid people off and he wouldnt give 1 billion to ukraine unless they quote got rid of the prosecutor. Trumps story is the opposite of the truth. When biden was v. P. He worked as a key player in the Obama Administration and Global Community efforts to combat corruption in ukraine. In late 2015 as part of a Coordinated Global Effort Biden called for the removal of victor shokin, a corrupt ukrainian Prosecutor General who did nothing other than to participate in it. Rather than assist british authorities who were looking at burisma. He consistently frustrated their efforts. The leadership provided by biden was part of a broad Bipartisan Campaign to oppose corruption in ukraine. In early 2016, republican senators ron johnson, rob portman and mark burke wrote to the ukrainian president Assailing Corruption in his country and urging him to press ahead with urgent reforms to the Prosecutor Generals office. Yet in 2018, as President Trump saw biden as a strong rival in the 2020 election, he worked with giuliani to twist all the facts around and to sudden life accuse biden of corruption in calling for the dismissal of a corrupt prosecutor. A few months ago, Chairman Comer and the Committee Received an insiders account of the plan to concoct and spread this lie from an extraordinary letter sent to us by Rudy Giulianis right hand man. They searched high and low to find anyone who would endorse their contortions about biden. Their failing crusade culminated in the phone call to zelensky in which trump threatened to withhold hundreds of billions of dollars in Security Assistance to ukraine unless zelensky embraced their ridiculous fabrication and falsely advertised to the world that ukraine was investigating joe biden. This shakedown became the basis for the first house impeachment of President Trump. Giulianis big lie has been thoroughly debunked by multiple sources as congressman buck, a former chief of the Criminal Division of the u. S. Attorneys office in colorado and member of the house Freedom Caucus said there is no evidence that shokin was engaged in an investigation of burisma or that joe bidens role in his firing was in any way connected to burisma. He continued, what is missing, despite years of investigation, is the smoking gun that connects joe biden to his never do well sons corruption. It is scandalous to use impeachment to establish a counterfeit moral equivalent between President Biden, an honorable Public Servant never indicted or convicted of more than 50 years in public life and donald trump, a twice impeached president who has recently been found in court to have sexually abused and defamed a woman and fraudulently inflated the value of his Real Estate Properties while facing 91 criminal charges in four separate indictments on everything from conspireing to overthrow an election and defraud the American People to make criminal Hush Money Payoffs to stealing Government Documents and hiding them while obstructing justice. Impeachment is the peoples final weapon of constitutional selfdefense against a president who behaves like a king and violates the public trust by committing trees on, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors equivalent to them. It is reserved for extraordinary public offenses like inciting a violent insurrection against the American Government and trying to overthrow our president ial election. That offense in 2021, whose related crimes have resulted in hundreds of criminal convictions and hundreds more being prosecuted led to Donald Trumps second impeachment in the house on a massive bipartisan vote of 232 to 197 and a similarly lopsided bipartisan vote of 5743 in the senate. I wonder how many of my esteemed republican colleagues here who all voted against impeaching donald trump, if they were in the house at that point, can reconcile their votes against impeaching trump for the grave crime of inciting a violent insurrection against the government with their calls supporting impeachment of joe biden for allegedly committing a high crime and misdemeanor not even defined yet much less proven. Mr. Chairman, if this Dysfunction Caucus is going to insist on going forward, we must receive the testimony of Rudy Giuliani and lev. The insiders who know the origins of lie upon which the sham impeachment is based and work to spread it. We know he is willing to testify and mr. Giuliani will agree to enlighten us on everything with rule 11 i move the Committee Subpoena Rudy Giuliani and par natz to come and testify and ask for a vote and debate. Table it . I didnt hear a Motion To Table. Mr. Chairman. Chair recognizes mr. Jordan. I move to table the motion. There is a Motion To Table mr. Raskins motion. A second . I would like forask for a recorded vote on that. The subpoena of the two key figures, Rudy Giuliani. Key figures for what. In your theory why President Biden should be impeached. This is an informative hearing for you, mr. Ras gins. There is no fact witnesses. Sit back and let the American People see the hearing. You have gone over your time. We are going to have a well go by the rules here. Okay . Im glad you brought the box of bank statements. If we had a box of all the foreign money the bidens took it would have reached to the ceiling. Lets just have listen. Everybody will get five minutes. I will present the witnesses. Everyone is going to get a chance, five minutes. I let the Ranking Member go way over time in his Opening Statement but we are going to abide by the five minute. A Motion To Table on the floor. A motion on the floor. Roll call. Its a nondebatable motion on the floor. Will the clerk will the clerk get prepared for the roll call . Mr. Raskin has made a motion and then mr. Jordan made a Motion To Table. It was seconded. The vote will now be on the Motion To Table mr. Raskins motion to subpoena Rudy Giuliani. And les parnoff. Neither one of them is in jail now. This is the Motion To Table mr. Raskins with motion. [roll call vote] [roll call vote continues] how has mr. Fallen been recorded. He votes yes. Okay. Regular order, mr. Chairman. Request for regular order. Were seeking regular order, mr. Chairman. We have Members En Route to vote. How is mr. Palmer recorded . Mr. Palmer is not yet recorded. Mr. Palmer votes aye. Motion to close the vote. Mr. Chairman . Second. Mr. Chairman . How is my vote recorded . Has ms. Greene been reported. She voted aye. How am i recorded . Mr. Timmons voted aye. Ms. Boebert has voted aye. Mr. Chairman . Mr. Chairman . How am i recorded . Mr. Fallon has voted aye. Mr. Chairman, parliamentary inquiry. There is a motion to close the vote and it was properly seconded. Will the clerk call the roll . Mr. Chairman, on this vote the ayes are 20, nays are 19. Motion passes to table the raskin motion. Im pleased to welcome an expert panel of witnesses who each bring experience and expertise to todays hearing. I would first like to welcome professor jonathan turley, the Shapiro Chair for Public Interest law at George Washington University Law school. He is a nationally recognized legal scholar published work in areas from constitutional law and legal theory. Next ms. Eileen oconnor, former Assistant Attorney General tax division. As former Assistant Attorney General she supper fivesed d. O. J. Litigation of civil, criminal, trial and appellate tax cases. Next we have mr. Bruce, the founder of a consulting company, a forensic accountant. 40 years of investigative and dispute consulting and testified in over 80 trials including trials involving criminal and civil financial fraud. Lastly we have professor Michael Earhardt who serves as the distincted professor at the university of north carolina, chapel hill. He is a law professor and the author of seven books and wrote dozens of articles in news publications. Pursuant to Committee Rule 9g witnesses stand and raise your right hand. You all solemnly swear or affirm the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god. Let the record show the witnesses all answered in the affirmative. Thank you, you may be seated. Appreciate you all being here today and look forward to your testimony. Remind the witnesses weve read your written statements and appear in full in the hearing record. Please limit your oral statements to five minutes. As reminder please press the button on the microphone in front of you so members can hear you. When you speak. When the red light comes on your five minutes is expired and ask you wrap up your testimony. I now recognize Professor Turley to begin his Opening Statement. Thank you, Chairman Comer. Ranking member raskin, members of the committee. It is an honor to appear before you today. To talk about what is undoubtedly the most weighty constitutional decision that you have under article one other than the declaration of war. And that is the potential impeachment of a president of the United States. It was roughly 25 years ago that i appeared in the Impeachment Proceedings with other experts in the impeachment of president william clinton. It was four years ago i appeared in the Impeachment Proceedings for President Donald Trump. And then it was just three years ago that another impeachment occurred without any hearings at all. The Shortening Intervals between impeachments should be a cause of concern and Circum Spec Shun for all the members on both sides. I want to emphasize what it is that were here today for. This is a question of an Impeachment Inquiry, not a vote on articles of impeachment. In fact, i do not believe that the Current Evidence would support articles of impeachment. That is something that an inquiry has to establish. But i also do believe that the house has passed the threshold for an Impeachment Inquiry into the conduct of President Biden. Having said that, i want to just address three facts to led me to that conclusion. First, President Biden has indeed spoken falsely about these foreign deals, the Washington Post and other newspapers have noted that some of his past comments are untrue. Second, President Biden was the focus of a multimillion dollar Influence Peddling scheme. Finally, President Biden may have benefited from millions of dollars as part of that scheme. Now those facts should not be taken out of context. They are merely allegations and they should not become presumptions of impeachable conduct. Indeed, as ive said in past impeachments, selfdealing is a difficult issue under the impeachment clause. The framer sought to avoid ambiguous standards and its one of the reasons that purfaty was rejected. Why it may not sit well the many President Biden and other president s can be dishonest and even lie to the American People and that would not constitute an impeachable offense. Most president s have lied to the American People. Thats why i have not liked any president since james madison. Now, dishonesty alone is not impeachable so what i lay out in my testimony are what i call guardrails or best practices. Those are designed to protect this process. Frankly, a number of the things i lay out benefit President Biden, as i say in my testimony. Because president ial impeachment shouldnt be a closed question or a rush to judgment and you should avoid the type of Confirmation Bias that can occur in this process. This is, as people say, a political process but also a constitutional process. Influence peddling is a form of corruption. The United States has signed treaties to combat this form of corruption around the world. And that is also an inescapable fact. We need to find answers as to some of these questions. Im Running Out Of Time so i would like to make one last observation if i may. These are constitutional moments that demand the best from each of us to transcend the politics and passions of our time. It calls for something that is difficult. It calls for solemnity and clarity for members. Weve become addicted to rage and we can feel that. This body is a powerful teacher and you can teach that or you can teach a respect for this process. It begins here and now. We can disagree with each other without hating each other. These are important issues and i think they are close issues and i think some of these issues really do gravitate in favor of the president. So i would simply say that this is a moment where members and citizens can stand together without prejudging the evidence and thank you for the honor of appearing before you today. Thank you, Professor Turley. Bill he made his opening comments. Want to get back to this hearing in a moment. Ron desantis is with me. Not a lot of sleep. He is with me now. Wanted to squeeze you in and get your reaction to the events of last night. However, i want to begin with the hearing that we have right now on the president. Do you support the investigation into President Biden and his son . Absolutely. This family is potentially the most corrupt president ial family in history. Joe biden already lied about the business dealings. We know that. We now see a quarter of a Million Dollars going to bidens address from china. So this stinks to high heaven. They are right to do it. I support it. I would also point out that you talk about things like impeachment, one of the things that is just violating your oath of office and i look at what is happening at the southern border, he took an oath to support and defend the constitution, make sure the laws are faithfully executed and he is absolutely defaulted on that obligation and we see the carnage thats happened. Think think there is a host of things to look at but this corruption is real. They need to produce the goods, of course. Where there is smoke, there is fire. If all this was on the up and up he wouldnt have been lying about it all these years. Bill lets talk about last night quickly. Okay . I thought one of your better moments was the top of the second hour when you were talking about education and your experience in florida as governor and then you went into what i think many would consider a rare moment. You talked about your military service. Watch here. Had a lot of opportunities to make money but i wanted to serve and i will never forget coming back on the plane from iraq, landing in coronado, California North island and feeling the breeze off the Pacific Ocean and saying i am lucky to have been born in america. I think being able to serve, the first president elected since 1988 who has actually served overseas in a war. Bill the reason i wanted to play that. Some republicans have been critical of you because you lack a personal touch. That answer was different. Why did you go there . Well, bill, i think sometimes people want to know more about you. I want to tell you what i will do for you but when you are in president ial situation people wants to know what drives you. I was a Blue Collar Kid and got degrees from yale and harvard. Came out more conservative. I had a lot of opportunities to do very well financially coming from blue collar roots most people would have taken that. I felt the obligation to serve. I left a lot of money on the table. Being able to wear the uniform. Volunteering to go to iraq is an important part of who i am and it will inform my judgments about how to do it and interesting being back in california where that was where we had deployed from and where we came back and so it brought back a lot of old memories. We did an event on sunday night at the vfw in coronado with a lot of great veterans and people are appreciative to have a veteran running for office. Bill a few more before we get back to the hearing. Debate one in milwaukee you didnt go after donald trump. Last night you did. Why . Well, he is missing in action, bill. This is something you have to earn. Nobody is entitled to this. I remember back in 2020, i had a big party in tallahassee for that first debate that trump did with biden and the reality is, Biden Beat Trump in that debate. Biden i dont know how you could lose to biden in a debate but it happened. So were in a situation now we arent getting a mulligan on the 2024 election. Three election cycles in a war as republicans have underperformed. Not in florida, we set the standard. We have to get it right. We see the country is in decline. We cant just be content with managing the decline, we have to reverse it. We need an american revival. What weve shown in florida, it is possible to do. President reagan was somebody when he came in. We were in his library. People said it count be done, were in an era of limits. The carter performance was optimal for america. I reject that here right now and i have the ability to get job done. He owes it to the voters to defend his record. To defend the decisions he has made and also to defend why is he running on the same program in 2016 that he did not actually implement . For example, draining the swamp. He didnt fire christopher wray. He didnt fire anthony fauci. He didnt do anything to clean house. Now all of a sudden he will sleigh the Administrative State when he gave fauci and award his last day in office . What about the spending and debt . Reracked up massive amounts of debt in his last year in office. Of course you will end up leading to inflation when you do that. So i think on issue after issue, he owes it to the voters to come out and do it. I would say the final thing, bill. He has had a lot to say about me on social media since 2022 right before the midterms election he started attacking me when we were supposed to be united to a red wave. One thing to do it behind the keyboard. Do it to my face. Im ready for it. You used to say im a great governor. Now you say the opposite. Lets have the discussion. We can do it oneonone. I was with sean last night. Lets do that. Lets get the American People the choice they deserve. Bill you have may not get that opportunity. I dont know if he will participate in any primary debates. You saw the Polling Numbers from nbc and abc. You trail him in some cases significantly. Yeah, but when you get into the early states, bill, it is very fluid. Youve seen this. You talk about the polls. They say 20 are definite trump, 35 in iowa are deaf nifty knitly not. The rest are considering trump or others. A lot of voters are just starting to pay attention. The idea you take a poll in september and you disenfranchise the voters ability to make chair choices. In iowa and New Hampshire those voters expect you to show up. They expect you to participate in the process. And i think he is running a risk for his candidacy by not doing it. He would run a risk by getting on the stage. Not something he is willing to do. You owe it to the voters to get up and defend your record. Bill you trying to get to all 99 counties in iowa. Lets see what it happens. Foreign policy ive listened to some of the positions you have taken. However, on ukraine, last night you said there should be no blank checks. As you are aware, there is a debate within the republican party, especially in the house now, about how much aid should go to this current war. When you say no blank checks, are you suggesting that there is support on your behalf of those republicans who think we should pull back from the aid we give to ukraine . As i understand a lot of those republicans, they are making the point of how do you do that while ignoring these massive problems here at home . For example, with our own southern border. I think an issue that was kind of raised last night and we didnt get to flush out. Bidens policy is europe first. He is not doing what he needs to do to deter china in the indopacific. He will say and some people on stage will say the way you deter china is continue ukraine indefinitely. Basically a blank check. I think china would benefit from a multiyear quagmire. We need to bring the war in europe to a conclusion but we have to do more in the indopacific. We dont have adequate hard power. If somebody like xi is looking at a taiwan amphibious invasion he will calculate what the resistance is. If we have a strategy of denying him an ability to do that, successful deterrent strategy, it will make all the difference over the course of the next decade. My approach to National Security is going to be take the china threat as the preeminent threat. Make sure we are doing what we need to do to deter them in asia and work with the european allies to get a suss tanable peace in europe. They should be doing more than they have done. We have done an awful lot. Thats just the reality. How do you leave your own border wide open . There are russians coming in across the southern border right now. There are iranians coming across the southern border. They have to deal with their own country first. I think what americans are frustrated with is you have a ruling elite in d. C. That constantly ignore their concerns and the things that they care about. I think this border issue is one of those. Where they dont care about that but they are willing to Hotline Stuff all across the world and so lets make sure we are taking care of our own folks first and as president on day one we will get the border. It will be a front burner issue and people are not going to have to worry about my commitment to that. Bill we took a lot of time away from the hearing but appreciate your time. You may not get your oneonone with donald trump but you will get a oneonone with governor gavin newsom. Thats coming up in several weeks. People can keep tabs on us. Go to ron desantis. Com and keep you posted on the newsom debate and the other things were doing for the campaign. Thank you. Back to james comer inside that hearing. The first hearing on an inquiry as to impeachment against President Biden. President biden, i think a good place to begin is with the federalist papers and in the federalist papers Alexander Hamilton warned of the dangers of Trivializing Impeachment through petty partisanship. He saw impeachment may agitate the passions of the whole community and to divide it into parties more or less friendly or an im call to the accused. It many cases it connects itself with preexisting factions on one side or the other and in such cases there will always be the greatest danger that the decision will be regulated more by the relative strength of the parties than by demonstrations of innocence or guilt. I think Alexander Hamilton knew what he was talking about and what he said may well describe the current set of proceedings. One thing i might add to all of that is that the framers designed an Impeachment Process to follow or comply with several safeguards. And it is important that we keep these safeguards in mind as these proceedings go on. The first is the necessity for credible evidence of the commission of treason, bribery and other high crimes an misdemeanors. There is not yet such credible evidence. Let me give you an example of what i fear is similar to the current proceedings. Hunter biden is arrested for speeding in a car owned by his father and the police go after the father. I dont think thats how the law should work. I dont think thats how impeachment should work. I respect members of this committee enormously. Im just a law professor and citizen and i come here with great awe when i speak to an important body like this. But i listen to congressman jordan, whom i respect a great deal when he said there are four facts. Hunter biden was on board of burisma. Hunter biden was not qualified. So far nothing about President Biden. Third, there were executives who asked hunter biden for help. Again, not yet any proof about any kind of complicity of President Biden. Lastly, joe biden gave a speech. If thats what exists as a basis for this inquiry, it is not sufficient. I say that with all respect and i think that is part of the problem, i think, and Many Americans think, may exist with respect to these proceedings. A second safeguard is the fifth amendment due process clause. It requires fundamental fairness. I think in these proceedings, something has happened to President Biden that was said to have happened to President Trump in 2019. That is, the burden has flipped to President Biden the prove his innocence. Any further investigation is being done to insure that mr. Biden has to prove his innocence rather than the committee being able to Connect The Dots in a convincing and persuasive way. It is not me you have to persuade its the American People whose trust you deserve and you have t