To have very different worlds. We certainly will. This is a moment that a lot of people have been waiting for. Well see what happens. We will have special live coverage throughout the night, of course. Thanks very much for watching. Im wolf blitzer in the situation room. Our special impeachment coverage continues right now with erin burnett out front. This is cnn breaking news. Good evening. Im erin burnett. Out front tonight, the breaking news, just moments from now, you see the room. The House Judiciary Committee will begin debate on two articles of impeachment against donald j. Trump. This is only the fourth time in American History that a president has faced articles of impeachment and this is live what is happening in that room. Members are getting seated. This is prime time, the first time that any of these hearings have happened during this time. This is the debate and this is how they are choosing to start it. The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee jerry nadler is about to gavel the hearing into session. I want to go straight outside
the hearing room to manu raju. Man manu, youve been seeing everyone come in. What do you expect . A contentious fight, theyll make the case on why the president deserves to be impeached on these two counts and the republicans, contend this process as unfair and theyll argue that the president did Nothing Impeachable and demand that they should have their own witness e es, as well. Expect that to be from the top. They each will get a chance for five minutes to make their case to the public about why they believe the president should or should not be impeached and this is a formal consideration of those articles of impeachment. Sorry, manu to interrupt you. Chairman nadler has gavelled the session. Pursuant to Committee Rule 2 any house rule 11 clause 2, the chairman may postpone further proceedings today on the question of approving any measure or matter or adopting an
amendment for which the ayes and nays are ordered. Today we meet to begin the articles of empeachmeimpeachmen donald j. Trump. As i informed the Ranking Member i believe that for such an important and solemn occasion as this, it would be appropriate for all members to have an opportunity to make an Opening Statement. Before we begin i want to note the absence of our colleague ted liu who acquired a medical procedure monday evening and will be unable to attend this markup. I understand he is in good spirits and plans to be back at work next week. His statement will be made part of the record, and i know that all of my colleagues join me in wishing him a speedy recovery. I will now recognize myself for an Opening Statement. Today we begin two articles of
impeachment against president donald j. Trump. The first article charges that the president used the powers of his Public Office to demand that a Foreign Government attack his political rivals. The second article charges that the president obstructed the congressional investigation into his conduct. Other president s have resisted congressional oversight. President trumps stonewall was complete, absolute and without precedent in American History. Taken together, the two Articles ChargePresident Trump with placing his private, political interests above our National Security, above our free and Fair Elections and above our ability to hold Public Officials accountable. This committee now owes it to the American People to give these articles close attention and to describe their factual basis, meaning and importance. I believe that three questions should frame our debate. First, does the evidence show clearly that the president committed these acts . Second, do they rise to the level of Impeachable High Crimes And Misdemeanors . Third, what are the consequences for National Security, for the integrity of our elections and for our country if we fail to act . To the first question, there can be no serious debate about what President Trump did on july 25th of this year, when he spoke to president zelensky of ukraine by telephone, President Trump had the upper hand. Ukraine had been invaded by russia. Zelensky had only recently been elected. He badly needed our help. He needed it in the form of military aid already appropriated by congress because of our National Securityinterests in ukraine. And he needed help in the form of an Oval Office Meeting so he can show the world that the United States stands with him against russian aggression. President trump should have focused on Americas National security and the interests of the American People on that call. Instead, he completely ignored them in order to push his own personal, political interests. President trump asked for a favor. He wanted ukraine to announce two bogus investigations, one into former Vice President biden, his leading opponent in the 2020 election, and another to advance a Conspiracy Theory that ukraine, not russia, attacked our elections in 2016. These were not legitimate requests. Neither was supported by the evidence. One investigation was designed to help President Trump conceal
the truth about the 2016 election. The other was designed to help him gain an advantage in the 2020 campaign. Both were divorced from reality and from official u. S. Policy. The evidence proves that these requests were not related to any real interest in rooting out corruption. President trump eagerly does business with corrupt governments every day. The evidence shows that President Trump did not care if investigations took place. A Public Announcement that the government of ukraine was investigating his rife will val have been enough for him to release the aid whether or not an actual investigation ever took place. After the call, President Trump ratcheted up the pressure. He dangled the offer of an over wil Oval Office Meeting. He withheld 391 million in military aid. His personal lawyer traveled to
pressure the ukrainians directly. The president deployed other agents outside the official channels of diplomacy to make his desires clear. By september, president zelensky was ready to comply to announce the two fake investigations, then the scandal broke into the open. Caught in the act, the president was forced to release the aid. When the house of representatives opened an inquiry into the president s actions, President Trump did everything in his power to obstruct the investigation. He declared across the board resistance. He ordered every official in the federal government to defy all subpoenas related to the inquiry. At his command, the administration also refused to produce a single document related to the inquiry, not one. To put this obstruction into context, during the watergate hearings, president nixon turned
over recordings of his conversations in the oval office. Later, president clinton handed over his dna. President trumps obstruction was, by contrast, absolute. Those are the facts. Theyre overwhelming. There is no denying them. Having reviewed the evidence, we come to our second question, is the president s proven conduct impeachable . The answer is simply, is simple, absolutely. Under article 1 of the constitution, the president can be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors. The highest of high crimes is abuse of power. It occurs when a president uses his official powers to serve his own personal selfish interests at the expense of the public good. To the founding generation that had fought a king and won our freedom, it was a specific welldefined offense. The first article of impeachment
charges President Trump with abuse of power. The article describes President Trumps conduct and lays out two aggravating factors that we must consider. In pressuring ukraine for a personal favor, President Trump both betrayed our National Security and attempted to corrupt our elections. When the president weakens an ally who advances americas Security Interests by fighting an american adversary, the president weakens america, and when the president demands that a Foreign Government investigate his domestic political rivals, he corrupts our elections. To the founders, this kind of corruption was especially pernicious. Free and Fair Elections are the bedrock of our democracy. If our elections are corrupt, everything is corrupt. The president faces a second article of impeachment for his ongoing efforts to obstruct a lawful investigation into his
conduct. We have never, in the history of our nation, seen a president categorically defy congress in this manner. If the president can first abuse his power, and then stonewall all congressional requests for information, Congress Cannot fulfill its duty to act as a check and balance against the executive and the president becomes a dictator. Later tonight, you will hear more about both articles of how they describe a pattern of behavior that President Trump seems determined to repeat again and again. My colleagues will also address various procedural objections that have been raised in the president s defense, but there is one of those objections that i wish to address right away. Some ask why not take more time . Why is this necessary now . Why do we need to impeach the president . Why not let the next election
handle it . This brings us to the third and final question. What is the risk if we do not act . Over the past 94 days since the house investigation began, indeed, over the last three years, one indisputable truth has emerged. If we do not respond to President Trumps abuses of power, the abuses will continue. We cannot rely on an election to solve our problems when the president threatens the very integrity of that election nor can we sit on our hands while the president undermines our National Security and while he allows his personal interests and the interests of our adversary russia, to advance. The president s personal lawyer was in ukraine again just last week. That was not three years ago. That was not three months ago. That was saturday. President trumps continuing abuses of power jeopardize our
security and our elections. The threat is urgent. If we do not act now, what happens next will be our responsibility as well as his. I will close with a word to my republican colleagues. I know you. Ive worked with many of you for years. I consider you to be good and decent public servants. I know this moment may be difficult, but you still have a choice. I hope every member of this committee will withstand the political pressures of the moment. I hope that none of us attempt to justify behavior that we know in our heart is wrong. I hope that we are able to Work Together to hold this president or any president accountable for breaking his most basic obligations to the country and to its citizens, and while you think about that choice, please keep in mind that one way or the other, President Trump will not be president forever. When his time is past, when his
grip on our politics is gone, when our country returns as surely it will to calmer times and stronger leadership, history will look back on our actions here today. How would you be remembered . We have each taken an oath to support and defend the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. I hope to be remembered for honoring that oath. I hope you feel the same, and so with a heavy heart, with clear duty to my country, i support these articles of impeachment. I urge my colleagues to support them as well. I yield back the balance of my time. I now recognize distinguished Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee, the gentleman from georgia, mr. Collins for his Opening Statement. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I find it amazing, at best, hilarious, i guess at worst that we come to quote a solemn and
amazing moment. Weve been on this path since november 2016. This is not new. Weve been trying this for almost three years if youre a Majority Member of this party. The only thing that has changed is the opportunity from last november when you became the majority. The only thing that changed in your desire to impeach this president was that you became the majority, and we have spent all year in this committee trying to impeach the president. We have occasionally had markups on bills, most of which so partisan they cannot even go forward in the senate. Most of which they do not address any issue that weve talked about, but it is amazing to me that were taking it now as such a solemn oath that weve made up something to now come to this point and say this is very solemn like it snuck up on you. Its like the holiday season. It doesnt sneak up on you when youve been expecting it the whole time and thats what weve been doing. What has been amazing to me was is some things that we have seen, so lets take some perspective here for a little while. What has our committee, this Great Committee, come to . Thats the question for us. Lets just take it for just a moment inside these Impeachment Hearings. This is our third, ill count it into tomorrow for three. Three hearings in this committee of impeachment and thats all were having. What did we get out of those three hearings . We had a bunch of law professor, three of which who Cannot Stand The President , who cannot stand his voters and cannot stand the fact that hes still in office telling us why he should be impeached and that inferences were okay to find impeachment. We had a hearing just two days ago from staff lecturing us on whats relevant and not relevant and what they found in the report while the member that
wrote the report hid in his closet somewhere, i guess, or in his office not wanting to come face the questions of this committee. That should be abhorrent to everyone here. So lets think about what weve seen and what weve not seen and again, Chairman Schiff is nowhere to be found. We understand this. We look forward. Tonight it has started again. We talk about a tearing down of National Institutions and we Start Talking about putting our security at risk that even in the chairmans Opening Statement we s. T. A. R. T. With the most amazing takedowns ive ever seen when they cant make the argument that the president pressured mr. Zelensky, they then attack mr. Zelensky and then say that he was pressured when mr. Zelensky on numerous occasions said ive not been pressured. Ive not being used and ive not been pressured to do anything and heres what the majority is saying. The majority is saying mr. Zelensky is a liar and we, in
this body, the democrats are tearing down a world leader in the eyes of those that dont like him and his own country and russia who is attacking him. Think about that one for just a second. Let that sink in when we cant make our case we tear down not only try to tear down the leader of the free world, President Trump, were tearing down the newly elected leader of the ukraine. This is amazing to me. You cant make your case against the president because Nothing Happened and when president zelensky confirms Nothing Happened we start tearing him down. I never thought we had crossed outside of the ocean to try to basically impugn the integrity of a world leader like we have been for the last two hearings. We have also found other things that we have found in our very minimal hearings in this body is that weve seen that other committees have used political vendettas against Ranking Members and others including
members of the press that are here tonight by putting Phone Records in. Naming names, you talk about getting nails. Mr. Sal minute on the four numbers that we looked at. Mr. Goldman and mr. Schiff, and they could have simply put in the record, congressman one, congressman two, reporter one, no they got what they wanted. They got their drive by and they got their political smear. Not a record of facts against this president a record of a Democratic Party who has lost all moorings of fairness and good taste. Thats what were seeing here, and we can have all of the flowery Opening Statements we want, but they cant get away from that fact. What is the big lie that is being perpetrated h