Transcripts For FOXNEWSW Americas Newsroom With Bill Hemmer

For your time. What do you think you got through yesterday . At the moment it does not appear that republicans can stop this train, sir. Weve never thought we could stop this train, bill. Theyve been on this train since november of 2016. They had to find the motives, means and opportunities. Look what theyre riding now. Abuse of power, so ambiguous and gray. They can make it up on the fly. Obstruction of congress. Are you kidding me after 70 days theyll charge the president with obstruction of congress . That isnt the way the place works. What isnt there is interesting. Weve heard quid pro quo, bribery, those arent going to be in the articles of impeachment. I think thats significant in what theyre trying to spin to the American People and show how theyve failed. Bill some of your quotes from yesterday. A race against the clock and calendar you said. Are you here to say the house of representatives will impeach President Trump before christmas . Yes. They will. Because this is a clock and calendar issue. This isnt about a fact. The fact they dont like this president , last friday the economic jobs report was incredible. They dont like the fact were stronger in military and doing things he said he was going to do. The tax act and the polls continue to free fall on the fact they cant prove impeachment and why theyre doing this and they have no legislative agenda of their own. Its a clock and calendar issue. Every american ought to be scared about this. The political impeachment that the founders warned us about. Bill you know your history on that. However, what they seem to have narrowed down is only two articles of impeachment. How do you believe that will placate the 31 democrats who won in swing districts. Bill clinton and nixon impeachment had real crimes. The president has not committed a crime. Thats the big difference in what im saying is a partisan impeachment. The only bipartisan issue is to not impeach or start the inquiry. For the 31 in prime districts have to be saying what did i get myself into . Bill lets wait for the news on that. Nothing in regard to the Mueller Report. A lot of talk they would dip back into the report. It doesnt appear theyll do that. What would explain that, sir . It was an abject failure in what theyre trying to prove. Even when they tried to get the russian collusion hoax and also with obstruction issues, every time they tried in the mueller hearing to get mr. Mueller to say there was obstruction and lay out their case and mr. Mueller would say i disagree with your premise and conclusion. For many of the moderates you spoke of earlier they did not want to revisit what they view as a complete disaster and the American People view as a complete disaster. I think thats why they arent dealing with it and why they went to abuse of power. Lets be honest. Abuse of power gives them cover to say anything they want to say. This is what really should disturb most of us when we look at this. I dont care what political persuasion you with. What is to keep a future congress and president saying i dont like this way they talk to congress. Thats an abuse of power. Weve had Eric Swalwell say firing an ambassador is an Impeachable Offense. I dont know what planet he is on. They serve at the pleasure and discretion of the president. Abuse of power is ambiguous. It is easy because they can fit anything they want to into that. Bill whats the difference between obstruction of justice and obstruction of congress . I think the interesting thing here is obstruction of congress are you keeping congress from doing its job. Obstruction of justice the way theyre trying to interpret it, because thats against an investigation official when i say criminal investigation. Obstruction of congress is saying we didnt get what we wanted in the time frame. This is 20 times faster than the starr and clinton impeachment. They refused to negotiate to find a proper and fair way to do this. Again obstruction in 70 days . Mr. Turley brought it out last week. It should disturb people. Why to overturn 63 million votes in a timetable. The clock and calendar shouldnt be. 20 times faster than 1998 . Have you done the math on that . We have. Bill yesterday you said bang the gavel harder doesnt make it right. Give america a sense of what your conversations are like when you arent on the camera. The comments and off many understand the process is going way too fast. Minority hearing day theyre concerned about. The complete trashing of the rules of minority hearing day and minority rights we have emphasized part of this impeachment process or not. Many senior democrats on the dais yesterday and when i talked to them on the floor are concerned that chairman nadler and Speaker Pelosi said we arent getting a minority hearing today. Thats the trashing of the house rules. Bill were seeing the democrats come to the room now. Want to ask you about the i. G. Report. Another significant story that will go front and Center Tomorrow on the senate side. Speaker pelosi at the microphone. On this solemn day i recall that the first order of business for members of congress was the solemn act to take an oath to protect and defend the constitution of the United States. Its with gratitude that i thank the chairs of the committees, the six committees that have been working to help us honor our oath of office. I also want to thank the staff of those committees and the Committee Members for all of their work over this period of time to help us protect and defend. I want to thank the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, mr. Nadler, chair of the Intelligence Committee mr. Schiff. Chair of the ways and means committee, chairman ritchie neil of massachusettsment the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee Eliot Engel of new york. The chair of the Financial Services Committee Maxine Waters of california. The chair of the committee on government reform and oversight, congresswoman carolyn maloney. I also want to acknowledge the important work that was done by our dear and departed may he rest in peace Elijah Cummings as chair of the oversight committee. Now please to yield to distinguished chair of the Judiciary Committee mr. Nadler. Thank you, madam speaker. Over the last several months, the investigative committees of the house have been engaged in an impeachment inquiry into president Donald Trumps efforts to solicit foreign interference in the 2020 elections. Efforts that compromised our National Security and threatened the integrity of our elections. Throughout this inquiry he has attempted to conceal the evidence from congress and from the American People. Our president holds the ultimate public trust. When he betrays that trust and puts himself before country, he endangers the constitution, he endangers our democracy, and he endangers our National Security. The framers of the constitution prescribed a clear remedy for president s who so violate their oath of office. That is the power of impeachment. Today in service to our duty to the constitution and to our country, the House Committee on the judiciary is introducing two articles of impeachment charging the president of the United States, donald j. Trump, with committing high crimes and misdemeanors. The first article is for abuse of power. It is an Impeachable Offense for the president to exercise the powers of his Public Office to obtain an improper personal benefit while ignoring or injuring the national interest. That is exactly what President Trump did when he solicited and pressured ukraine to interfere in our 2020 president ial election. Thus damaging our National Security, undermining the integrity of the next election, and violating his oath to the American People. These actions moreover are consistent with President Trumps previous invitations of foreign interference in our 2016 president ial election. And when he was caught, when the house investigated and opened an impeachment inquiry, President Trump engaged in unprecedented, categorical, and indiscriminate defiance of the impeachment inquiry. This gives rise to the second article of impeachment for obstruction of congress. Here, too, we see a familiar pattern in President Trumps misconduct. A president who declares himself above accountability, above the American People, and above congresss power of impeachment which is meant to protect against threats to our Democratic Institutions is a president who sees himself as above the law. We must be clear, no one, not even the president , is above the law. I want to recognize the great contributions of the investigative chairs particularly Intelligence Committee chairman adam schiff, Foreign Affairs chairman eliot engel, committee on oversight chairman Elijah Cummings and new chairwoman carolyn maloney. Financial services chairwoman Maxine Waters and ways and means chairman richard neil who helped lay the foundation for the articles were introducing today. I also want to thank my Judiciary Committee colleagues who were critical in our work to hold the president accountable and in the drafting of these articles. Later this week, the Judiciary Committee will meet to consider these articles of impeachment and to make a recommendation to the full house of representatives. We do not take this action lightly, but we have taken an oath to defend the constitution and unlike President Trump, we understand that our duty first and foremost is to protect the constitution and to protect the interests of the American People. That is why we must take this solemn step today. Elections are the cornerstone of democracy and our foundational to the rule of law but the integrity of our next election is at risk from a president who has already sought foreign interference in the 2016 and 2020 elections and who consistently puts himself above country. That is why we must act now. I want to turn now to chairman schiff who will explain the evidence that supports these articles and the need to us to act with such urgency today. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, madam speaker and to my colleagues, good morning. The framers of the constitution recognized that someday a president might come to office who would abuse that office, betray the public trust, and undermine National Security to secure foreign help in his reelection. And who would seek to abry gait the power of congress to hold him accountable. They recognized this danger and prescribed a remedy and that remedy is impeachment. It is an extraordinary remedy and one that ive been reluctant to recommend until the actions of President Trump Gave Congress no alternative. We stand here today because the president s continuing abuse of his power has left us no choice. To do nothing would make ourselves complicit in the president s abuse of his high office t public trust and our National Security. The president s misconduct is as simple and as terrible as this, President Trump solicited a foreign nation, ukraine, to publicly announce investigations into his opponent and a baseless Conspiracy Theory promoted by russia to help his reelection campaign. President trump abused the power of his office by conditioning two official acts to get ukraine to help his reelection. The release of hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid that nation desperately needed, and a white house meeting with an ally trying to fend off russian aggression. In so doing he undermined our National Security and jeopardized the integrity of our next election. And he does so still. The evidence of the president s misconduct is overwhelming and uncontested and how could it not be when the president s own words on july 25th i would like to you do us a favor, though, lay so bare his intentions, its willingness to sacrifice the National Security for his own personal interests. And when the president got caught, he committed his second impeachable act, obstruction of congress of the very ability to make sure that no one is above the law, not even the president of the United States. The evidence is every bit as strong that President Trump has obstructed congress fully, without precedent and without basisinlaw. If allowed to stand it would decimate congresss ability to conduct oversight of this president or any other in the future. Leaving this president and those who follow to be free to be as corrupt, malfees ant or incompetent as they would like for no accountability. Some would argue, why dont you just wait . Why dont you just wait until you get these witnesses the white house refuses to produce . Why dont you just wait until you get the documents the white house refuses to turn over . And people should understand what that argument really means. It has taken us eight months to get a Lower Court Ruling that don mcgahn has no absolute right to defy congress, eight months. For one court decision. If it takes us another eight months to get a second court or maybe a Supreme Court decision, people need to understand that is not the end of the process. It comes back to us and we ask questions because he no longer has absolute immunity and then he claims Something Else, that his answers are privileged and we have to go back to court for another 8 or 16 months. The argument why dont you just wait amounts to this why dont you just let him cheat in one more election . Why not let him cheat just one more time . Why not let him have foreign help just one more time . That is what that argument amounts to. The president s misconduct goes to the heart of whether we can conduct a free and Fair Election in 2020. It is bad enough for a candidate to invite foreign interference in our political process but far more core osive for a president to do so and to abuse his power to make it so. Despite everything weve uncovered the president s misconduct continues to this day unapologetically and right now. As we saw when he stood on the white house lawn and he was asked what did you want in that july 25th call and he said the answer was a simple one. And not just a simple one on july 25th but a simple one today and that is he still wants ukraine to interfere in our election to help his campaign. Even this week the president s lawyer was back in ukraine seeking to revive the same debunked Conspiracy Theory promoted at the president s behest. Which gets to the final and most pernicious of the arguments weve heard in the president s defense. That the president can do whatever he wants under article 2, including get foreigners involved in our elections and we should just to quote the president s chief of staff, get over it. Ben franklin said we have a republic if we can keep it. The president and his men say you cant keep it and americans should just get over it. Americans dont get to decide american elections anymore, not by themselves, not without foreign help. For the members of congress this is not a question of fact because the facts are not seriously contested. It is, rather, a question of duty. The president s oath of Office Appears to mean very little to him but the articles put forward today will give us a chance to show that we will defend the constitution and that our oath means something to us. I thank you, mr. Chairman. Bill choosing to speak. Lets see if we can get one more question in here and possibly more before they all exit the room. It appears we will not. Here is the headline. Two articles of impeachment to be pursued. One abuse of power resulting in pressure on ukraine to undermine the next election. Thats the allegation. Number two obstruction of congress. He is not above the law, says chairman nadler. Back to doug collins. You were listening and your reaction on the republican side. Its just amazing. It is very telling they all walk offstage and didnt answer a question. That to me is telling. Why would the speaker of the house, you just filed articles of impeachment, you had all the chairs and they wouldnt take questions . That tells me they really have not inherently comfortable with what theyre doing. This is a problem we have. Adam schiff has heard his own voice for so long he believes what he is saying without any evidence of truth or any evidence of fact here. They simply want to get the clock and calendar because theyre so obsessed and fearful that President Trump is going to win against next november. They dont perceive the problems they have. It is telling to me mueller didnt come up, neither did the fact that the quid pro