Allegations of a white house coverup. Today ive got five questions. Question number one. How will the whistleblower withstand the scrutiny . Now, you would think anybody cleared to have worked in the white house in an Intelligence Capacity and his complaint suggests he relied on multiple sources for the information. Again, there is that opinion solicited by acting dni maguire, which had a sentence focusing on indicia of political bias and favoritism toward a rival political candidate. But the complaints and allegations are credible. Question two, can Congressional Democrats resist the temptation to focus on more than ukraine . Speaker pelosi has suggested that the House Intel Committee will take the lead, but there are some strong personalities who chair the other five committees working toward impeachment. Figuratively speaking, if Democrats Use a shotgun approach instead of a finely focused lens, if this becomes about the cost of jet fuel in scotland or even the Mueller Report, it might play right into the president s charge of witchh t witchhunt. My question number three, what does senator richard burr think . With with regard to Senate Republicans this case wont hinge on mitt romney, ben sasse, or susan collins, but if the chair of the Intel Committee regards the president s actions as troublesome, the president will immediately be vulnerable. Question nourfour. How will the media cover the continued attacks on hunter biden where the president defends himself with former Vice President biden and his son raises an interesting question for journalists, how much to dw delve into those. And question five, how is this playing in the heart land . The impeachment inquiry is a fivealarm fire in the Nations Capital and along the acela corrid corridor, but its too soon to know how impactful this is in middle america. One early indicator, an npr marist poll just released say 49 of americans approve, 46 disapprove of the house beginning an impeachment inquiry. House members, they represent districts drawn largely along partisan lines. Their votes are predictable. The senate is where the battle will be won or lost and no doubt its members will pay close attention to the will of the people. Go to my website, smerconish. Com and answer how does this impeachment inquiry end. Donald trump will not be impeached by the house. Donald trump will be impeached by the house and convicted by the senate. Mike pence will become president or donald trump will be impeached by the house but not convicted by the senate. With me now is someone whos been pushing for trumps impeachment for two years, tom steyer, also a democratic president ial candidate and will be one of the candidates on stage at the next cnn New York Times democratic debate on okt 15th. You got what you want but are you concerned that if hes not impeached you will hasten his reelection . Well, michael, i believe at this point that hes going to be impeached. When you see over 220 house members pursuing an impeachment inquiry, i think that theres a strong likelihood that they will vote to impeach and in fact that the movement which i started two years ago to get the American People to understand how corrupt this president is and to try to hold him to account will in fact take that important step of impeaching him and sending him to trial in the senate. So i should be more precise. What if hes impeached by the house but hes not convicted by the senate just on the cusp of the 2020 election in the same way that arguably bill clinton was strengthened after the intern scandal and the impeachment process . Might the same ham with donald trump . Well, michael, i think the important thing to remember in this case is the court that matters is the court of Public Opinion, that, in fact, what the American People learn and how they judge what they learn is really what is at stake here, that, in fact, youre asking about these senators, if the American People get the evidence and see how corrupt this president is and come out with that decision, then it is going to be very, very hard for any senator to go against the will of the American People. And i can tell you after two years of talking to people around the country about impeachment, when you show them the evidence, they all say the same thing. They say i didnt know that, hes a liar and a crook, if i did that, id go to jail. I think the key thing here is get the evidence in front of the American People, the grassroots. Thats what ive been pushing for. Thats why 8 Million People signed up. Let the people of america decide. Weve been leading the people inside d. C. For two years. The reason this happened is the grassroo grassroots. Thats where the action will be Going Forward too. Should the impeachment inquiry focus only on ukraine or on the issues youve been speaking of for two years . Obviously, we only learned of the ukraine issue recently. Well, michael, to me, obviously two years ago, i thought it was extremely clear this is the most corrupt president in American History and that the evidence was there. I also said if you dont believe me, just read tomorrows paper, because its only going to get worse, and thats exactly what the ukraine scandal says. It only got worse. When you ask how much should you include in the inquiry or in the presentation, i agree, the most important thing is to make a presentation to the American People that is clear and that goes right to the heart of his corruption and let us decide. That is going to be the key question about what to include. I agree with you, it should be focussed, because too much is going to be too confusing. Okay. What then is the specific high crime or misdemeanor . Well, i think its clear that he was implicitly using the money of the American People, the aid to the ukraine as a lure to get a foreign power to wade into american politics on his behalf. So he was putting himself above the American People. He was using his position for his own personal benefit, which is absolutely wrong. And let me say that, it is absolutely consistent with what this very corrupt president has done since day one. And then he tried to cover it up, which is very consistent with the obstruction of justice that mr. Mueller showed characterized his whole presidency. So i think this is a very clear example of the corruption and the coverups that have characterized this most corrupt president , and i think the American People need to see it because i trust the American People will do the right thing, will draw the right judgments. And, michael, if that happens, this is a triumph for democracy. This is the American Peoples will being recognized. Thats really what were seeing. The American People are what counts, that we go back to of, by, and for the people. If we can do this with this corrupt president , theres no telling what we can do. We can break the stranglehold of the government. This is a great time for america. Thank you, tom steyer. Michael, thank you for having me. What are your thoughts . Tweet me smerconish or go to my facebook page. What do we have, katherine . Come at the king and you best not miss does not describe a situation where the president is betraying his country. Well, look, the clinton reference that i just made to tom steyer i think is indisputable. The impeachment process that we went through in the mid90s had the impact of strengthening his hand politically, and i think omar, some would say shakespeare, got it right when they said when you aim for the top, you best not miss or there will be ramifications, in this case, perhaps emboldening, perhaps emboldening the president headed into the 2020 election. Just time out when this all will likely resolve. One more if we have time for it. If democrats did not cry wolf since 2016, maybe the heartland might have cared about this. Just another witchhunt. Rudy, when everything is an Impeachable Offense then its much harder or what i mean to say is cast as an Impeachable Offense, then no doubt youre right thashg it right, that its harder to get peoples attention focused on one set of circumstances. Theres truth in your assertion that the democratic opponents of the president need to convince people, wait a minute, this is really serious, even compared to the other things weve been telling you about. Listen, Everybody Needs to go vote at my website right now, smerconish. Com. Answer the survey question. How does it all end . How does this impeachment process end . Donald trump will not be impeached by the house. Donald trump will be impeached by the house, convicted by the senate, mike pence becomes president. Or the president will be impeached by the house but not convicted by the senate. Up ahead, how does legendary executive editor of the Washington Post, marty baron, navigate this media climate . I asked him at Lehigh University where he once was editor of the student newspaper. And the president s obsession with hunter and joe biden ignited an impeachment inquiry. The Biden Campaign has demanded that the media refer to the story as debunked. Is that definitive tily the cas . Heres what bill maher said about it last night. I dont think he was doing something terrible in ukraine, but why cant politicians tell their [ bleep ] kids get a job, get a damn job . This kid was paid 600,000 because his name is biden by a gas company in ukraine, this super corrupt country, that just had a revolution to get rid of corruption. It just looks bad. If youre 65 or older, even if youre healthy, you may be at increased risk for Pneumococcal Pneumonia a potentially serious bacterial lung disease that can disrupt your life for weeks. In severe cases, Pneumococcal Pneumonia can put you in the hospital. It can hit quickly, without warning, making you miss out on what matters most. Just one dose of the prevnar 13® vaccine can help protect you from Pneumococcal Pneumonia. Its not a yearly shot. Prevnar 13® is approved for adults to help prevent infections from 13 strains of the bacteria that cause Pneumococcal Pneumonia. Dont get prevnar 13® if you have had a severe allergic reaction to the vaccine or its ingredients. Adults with weakened immune systems may have a lower response to the vaccine. The most common side effects were pain, redness and swelling at the injection site, limited arm movement, fatigue, headache, muscle pain, joint pain, less appetite, vomiting, fever, chills, and rash. Ask about prevention. Ask your doctor or pharmacist about prevnar 13®. Where President Trump defends himself by pointing a finger in the direction of former Vice President biden and his son, hunter, it raises an sxwr interesting question for journalists, how much to delve into those Business Practices . This was joe bidens reaction about it when he was asked last week. Mr. Vice president , how many times have you ever spoke on the your son about his overseas business dealings . Ive never spocken to my son about his overseas business dealings. So how do you know heres what i know. I know trump deserves to be investigated. He is violating every basic norm of a president. You should be asking him the question, why is he on the phone with a foreign leader trying to intimidate a foreign leader . Everybody looked at this and everybodys looked at it said theres nothing there. Ask the right questions. Just hours after that, the campaign released a memo dictating how the media should frame the story, saying any coverage would be misleading if it didnt point out that trumps claims of bidens influence were unsubstantiated. And youve heard it reported here that cnns reporting shows no evidence of wrongdoing by either joe biden or his son. Sunday the Biden Campaign released a fundraising appeal on twitter asking, quote, will media see through trumps sleazy playbook or fall for it again . I spoke to the director of the school of media and Public Affairs at George Washington universi university, the author of ask more. Hey, frank, lets remind folks, you were the cnn bureau chief during the intern scandal. So youve had some dealing with this type of an issue. Sure. We heard from the Clinton House all the time. They had a special adviser in to dump documents on fridays when we were trying to ride the news cycle. I got calls from people at the white house screaming that we were covering something in the wrong way or unfairly. Look, candidates and politicians want to spin their message. And its gotten harsher and more public. But you have to go where the story goes and sometimes that means asking or reasking questions that the politicians and others would like you to leave alone other wise. You cant do that. So how specifically should members of the media respond to the allegations about hunter biden . Look, the president of the United States is going to keep that out there. Jewel jew rudygiuliani will keep that out there. All media have a responsibility to look at it, the record, what is known. There are legitimate questions this raises. The Biden Campaigns comment about, you know, insisting that coverage should show that there was no connection or no connection thats been revealed between what the then Vice President did when he went to ukraine with respect to the aid and the role of his son. Thats fair. There needs to be accurate coverage and the coverage should be proportionate in its nature. You dont harp on this hour after hour. The story is trump and his call to the ukrainian president. The story is not fundamentally biden. But those elements are there, and ignoring them would not be responsible either. I can already hear the tiptapping on computer keys right now of people tweeting at me, tweeting at you perhaps and saying its a false equivalency. It could be a false equivalency if its done wrong. But, look, ask john kerry about swift boat. Ask Hillary Clinton about benghazi or the computer. Trying to ignore something and make it go away doesnt make it go away. If theres an issue out there, candidates and the media need to confront it. They need to be able to answer the questions and answer them well. That doesnt let the media off the hook, though, michael. Heres where i agree about those who would scream about false equivalency. If youre going to harp on this and fall into someone elses narrative because they want to distract you from the real story, thats another issue. These are impeachment investigations and theyre about donald trump, not about joe biden. The story is there and no one should lose sight of it. But this is an element of the story and we shouldnt lose sight of that either. Have the questions about joe biden and his son hunter on this issue been asked and answered . They appear to have been asked and answered. They appear the main connection about whether this was sort of a quid pro quo e when biden goes to ukraine and is leaning on the government there to fire the attorney general because the attorney general is investigating his son and the gas company where he sits on the board. There has been no indication in any of the reporting or any of the Public Comments or documentation except for the former attorney general, who is largely discredited, although that still raises questions, but that theres a there there. That doesnt mean there arent additional places to look and probe, but good responsible reporters will look, probe, investigate, dig. If theres something, they add it. If theres not, you dont. Getting deniability is not justification for putting a story out there. Long way of saying, yes, i think theyve been asked. I think most of them appear to have been answered but that doesnt mean we dont continue to see if theres more. Thank you, frank. That was excellent. Appreciate it, michael. Good luck. Lets see what youre saying on my smerconish twitter and facebook pages. Facebook. What do we have, katherine . Hunter broke no laws. Why destroy him . Very sad and unfortunate. Sonja, i think frank just said it right, which is to be accurate and be prorer portion gnat, but you cant ignore it. Most of the issues with hunter fall in the cheap shot category. Were one degree of separation from those same issues. Be accurate and proportionate. Up ahead, theres an elephant in the room for 2020 democrats and it isnt a republican one. The president s actions concerning one of their leading candidates, joe biden, spur the impeachment scandal. How are they to address this issue with a debate upcoming . You can get a satisfaction guarantee. You can also wonder why our competitors dont offer that. Schwab, a modern approach to wealth management. I felt i couldnt be at my best for my family. In only 8 weeks with mavyret, i was cured and left those doubts behind. 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