President nixon said a similar thing. That is not what the constitution provides. Thats not what the country demands. He does not have the right to do whatever he wants. Turning to the second concern, the betrayal of the power. The america people suffered when President Trump treated military aid that had been approved, tax payer dollars and tried to treat it as his own checkbook to further his own reelection chances. That reflects what the founders were concerned about. Finally corruption of our elections. The framers knew that corrupt leaders or leaders acting corruptly concentrate their pow powers to manipulate elections and under cut adversaries. They talked about it frequently. Thats why the framers thought it was a critical abuse and could support and lead to impeachment. The American People learned last election how dangerous foreign intervention in our elections can be. Let me show another clip from candidate trump on the campaign trail. Russia, if youre listening, i hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Russia was listening. Within approximately five hours, five hours, of President Trumps invitation to russia to interfere in our election by trying to hack and obtain the emails of his political opponent russia tried to do that for the first time. The very officers indicted by the department of justice, they took candidate trumps invitation. Now, the American People learned a lesson. President trump unfortunately learned a different lesson. Lets look. Well, i would think that, if they were honest about it, they would start a Major Investigation into the bidens. Its a simple answer. They should investigate the bidens. So this was President Trump answering a question about what he wanted president zelensky to do. Even after he got caught, he is saying this vulnerable, dependent on u. S. Support militarily and otherwise, again, hes telling them what to do. Unlike in 2016 when he only had a Campaign Platform which campa extend the invitation to a foreign power, now he has the levers of government in his control to not only request it and invite it, but to pressure that country to do it. Thats exactly what he did. Youll hear more about that in the presentation from the house Intelligence Committee. Whats most striking as we come back to this issue, is there a continuing risk of wrong doing, the fact that President Trump did this after he was caught shows the risk. Shows the risk of what will happen if this body doesnt act. He really does believe he can act as though he were above the law. He believes as evidenced by this conduct that he can put his personal and political interests over the nations interests, over the Nations National security interest, over the nations integrity of its elections. So, of course, we have an election coming up. Thats totnot a reason to postp this discussion. Its a reason we must have this discussion. To make sure this president doesnt do it, to make sure future president s do not do it. It is the hope that in these discussions we can put aside political rancor, disagreements and have a fair discussion about the facts and this conduct, not just as it relates to President Trump, but as to the presidency itself and future president s. My son, our children, our grandchildren, they will study this moment in history. They will read all of your remarks. They will learn about all your actions. That is in tnot a reason to votr or against impeachment. For that you must vote your conscious. That is a reason for us to have a fair debate about what the undisputed facts show. To recognize that it is wrong, it is very wrong and it cannot happen again with this president or any president. It is a reason to talk about whether we want our children and grandchildren to live in a country where the president elected by the people can put his own personal and political interests over the interests of the people who elected them. It is a reason for these debates to, again, fairly focus on the facts and to make sure the presentations were going to hear will not distort the record, focus on process points, raise extraneous matters that are intended to distract, rather than focus on what the conduct was at issue here. It is a reason to focus on the facts and what is in the countrys best interest. History, future generations will be the judge. Thank you mr. Berke. Mr. Castor, you aregn chairman, point of point of ord mr. Castor is recognized. Mr. Chairman, point of order. Point of order. The witness has violated rule 17. Point of order. The witness used language which impunes the character of the president. Point of order is not sustained. Appeal the ruling of the chair. The topic of the hearing is the president s misconduct. None of us should find it surprising were hearing testimony that is critical of the president. I do not find the witness comments are disorderly. I find theyre pertinent to the subject matter of the hearing. The witness would be able to continue except his time has expire. Mr. Chairman. Gentleman its not that his rules are they violate the rules of the house. This is not about his conduct. Hes talking about the motives. Gentleman will suspend. Talking about the character of the president of the United States. The rule os of i appeal the ruling of the chair. Its not a ruling. Its subject to a vote. Its appealed. Thats a rule. The point of order is not sustained. Appeals to the ruling of the chair. I move to table the the motion made to table the ruling move the motion is made in writing. Its not in debate. All in favor of the motion to table say aye. Opposed. Motion to table. She has to put it in writing. Then you put it to a vote. Motion to table is at least youre following the rule. Roll call. Theyre going to be having a vote on the chairmans ruling that the objection from the House Republican is out of order saying the witness was impugning the reputation of the president. You heard chairman nadler say the house rules apply to members of congress, not witnesses. Mary bruce on capitol hill. Clearly a strategy from House Republicans to make the hearing go as long as possible. Were seeing squabbling over the rules. The republicans are trying to delay the proceedings. Theyre using every tool they have to delay. In this case theyre insisting the witness has been impugning the character of the president. Chairman nadler pointed out this is a hearing about the president and his actions. He says those rules dont apply. Theyre going through the vote. I suspect they wont be able to pull this off very long. One of the rules of the house whoever has the majority generally wins. You see that among republicans and democrats. Theyll go through this Party Line Vote democrats and republicans. Let me talk to our legal team about the democratic presentation there. Basically, dan abrams, a highlight reel of the last couple weeks of hearings. Yeah. It may feel a little like a letdown because of how powerful the law professors had been the other day. When we started the day listening to the law professors, i was thinking that was not going to be particularly interesting. It was far more interesting than expected. I find this to be less interesting than i expected. Thats because of the expectations. I saw our law professors nodding their heads. The vote is complete. Lets go back. May i make a i will not recognize the inquiry. Mr. Castor is recognized for 30 minutes. Good morning chairman nadler, member collins, kmi committee. My name is steve castor. For purposes of this investigation im a shared staffer with the you additijudi committee. Its not typical for a staffer to be presenting. Thanks for having me. The purpose of this hearing as we understand it is to discuss whether president donald j. Trump conduct fits the parameters of high crimes and misdemeano misdemeanors. It does not. This case comes down to eight lines in a call transcript. Let me say clearly that the answer to that question is no. The record in the democrats impeachment inquiry does not show that President Trump abused the power of his office or obstructed congress. To impeach a president who 63 Million People voted for over eight lines in a call transcript is baloney. Democrats seek to impeach President Trump not because they have evidence, but because they disagree with his policies. This impeachment inquiry is not the organic outgrowth of serious misconduct. Democrats have been searching for facts to impeach President Trump since his inauguration on january 20, 2017. Just 27 minutes after the president s inauguration the Washington Post ran a story that the campaign to impeach the president has already begun. The article reported democrats and liberal activists mounting broad opposition to trumps agenda and noted that impeachment strategists believe the constitutions molment clause would be the vehicle. There were articles of impeachment of President Trump on several different basis. Idrtles of rd congressman impeachment against the president. Representative talib said were going to go in there and impeach the president. May 2019 representative greene said on msnbc if we dont impeach this president he will be reelected. Even Speaker Pelosi who said impeachment is a somber and prayerful exercise has called President Trump an imposter and said it is dangerous to allow voters to judge his performance in 2020. The obsession with impeaching the president is reflected in House Democrats and they have used the power of their majority in the past 11 months. The democrats first announced witness was Michael Cohen a disgraced felon who pleaded guilty to lying to congress. When he came before us at the Oversight Committee he lied again as many as eight times. Oversight Committee Democrats demanded information about the president s personal finances and subpoenaed the president s account firm where large swaths of sensitive and personal Financial Information about the entire trump family. The subpoena was issued over the objection of Committee Republicans and without a vote. In the ways and means Committee Democrats demanded the president s personal tax return information. The reason they cited for wanting the president s tax returns they said was to oversee the irs audit process for president ial tax returns. You can judge that for yourself. In the Financial ServicesCommittee Democrats demanded and subpoenaed the president s bank records going back ten years. The Financial Services committee staff, the republicans tell me, the information demanded would cover every withdraw, credit card swipe, debit card purchase of every member of the trump family. The reasons the democrats gave for why they needed the information get this financial industry compliance with banking statutes and regulations. Here in the judiciary Committee Democrats sent out letters demanding information from people such as the president s children, business partners, employees, campaign, businesses and foundation. Of course the main event for the Judiciary Committee was the report of special counsel mueller which democrats believed would serve as the evidentiary basis for impeaching the president. Despite interviewing 500 witnesses, issuing 2,800 subpoenas, executing almost 500 search warrants and spending 25 million the special counsels 19 attorneys and 40 fbi agents, analysts and staff found no conspiracy or coordination between the Trump Campaign and the russian government. After the trump russia collusion allegations didnt pan out democrats focussed their efforts on obstruction of justice. They criticized attorney general barr for making that determination when it was perfectly correct for him to make that determination. The democrats mueller hearing was under whelming to say the least. The Intelligence Committee was invested in the russian collusion investigation. Committee democrats hired former prosecutors to prepare to impeach the president. Now that the russian collusion allegatio allegati allegations didnt work, the democrats have settled on the ukrainian phone call, eight lines of a phone call with ukrainian president zelensky. The Foreign Affairs committee wasnt the committee leading the impeachment inquiry or holding the hearings, neither was the Oversight Committee. The houses chief investigative entity. The Judiciary Committee was brought back into the mix after fact finding concluded. The Impeachment Committee was run by the house Intelligence Committee and the former prosecut prosecutors. The democrats ran the hearing an unclear way. The democrats took advantage of a closeddoor process in the capitol basement bunker to control access to information. The secrecy effectively weapon iced the investigation allowing misleading public narratives to hold and catch hold with careful leaks. Democrats refused to invite republican witnesses and directed witnesses for the democrats not to answer those questions. In the public hearings many of the unfair processes continued. Democrats interrupted republican questioning and prevented witnesses from answering republican questions. Democrats voted down by a motion to table, with no notice, subpoenas for documents and testimony requested by republicans. Ill note that democrats never brought any of their subpoenas to a vote before the Intelligence Committee. This unfair process reflected the degree to which democrats are obsessed with impeaching the president. The democrats went searching for a set of facts in which to impeach the president. The emoluments clause, the president s financial records, the Mueller Report, elements of obstruction before landing on the yooukraine phone call. The impeachment inquiry is an effort to upend our political system. According to politico the speaker has drafted every step of the impeachment inquiry. Democrats have convened focus groups to test which allegations, whether quid pro quo, bribery, extortion, were most compelling to the american public. Speaker pelosi said democrats must strike while the iron is hot on impeaching the president. The duration of the impeachment inquiry has been 76 days. As professor turley testified last wednesday, this impeachment would stand out among modern impeachments as the shortest proceeding with the thinnest evidentiary record and the narrowest grounds ever used to impeach a president. The artificial and arbitrary political deadline by which democrats are determined to finish impeachment by christmas leads to a rushed process and missed opportunities to obtain relevant information. Democrats avoided the accommodations process required by federal courts and disputes between congress and the executive. Democrats declined to cooperate with the administration for documents and witnesses. Democra sometimes the threat of a contempt proceeding gets you a different result. Sometimes the witnesses choose to appear when contempt is on the table. Democrats withdrew one subpoena to a witness that asked the federal courts to rule. Either the democrats didnt want to wait for the judge to rule or didnt like the june, judge leon. Democrats told witnesses their refusal to cooperate in full would be used against them and the president. Democrats threatened federal employees that their salaries could be withheld for not Meeting Committee demands. These tactics are fundamentally unfair and counter productive for gathering information. This rushed and take it or leave it approach to investigating is contrary to house successful investigations. Congressional investigations take time. Theres no easy button. In this job you must take the information thats offered, even if you dont like the terms. You should not say no to taking a witness testimony because you would prefer the Agency Counsel is not present. If thats the only means of obtaining the testimony, you should take it. Your priority must not be on blocking information out. It must be on seeking information. In all recent investigations, for example the investigation into the Justice Department, the benghazi investigation and fast and furious there has been give and take. In the gaudy investigation it took two months before the first interview with Department Director mccabe. The Justice Department oonl began producing documents to the committee after many more months of discussions. In none of these investigations did congress get everything it wanted at the beginning, certainly not within 76 days, but with persistence and patience we received enough information to do our work. Contrary to talking points, the Trump Administration has, in fact, cooperated with and facilitated congressional oversight and investigations. For example earlier this year the Oversight Committee conducted an investigation into security clearances at the white house. The central allegation put forward was that the