Temperature rises to $1.00 degrees Celsius scientific consensus is that to have a 2 thirds chance of holding to that figure we can only emit carbon at the current rate for another 80 years reports from Nice shares say suspected Islam is militants have attacked 2 Army bases over the past 72 hours in what analysts are calling an alarming escalation of insurgency it's not known how many people were killed in the assaults that happened on Monday and Tuesday in the south of the country no group has said it carried out the attacks but Boko Haram fighters are active in the area were news from the b.b.c. Kosovo and the Bosnian capital Sarajevo have separately barred this year's Nobel Laureate in literature pater hand from entering their territory for his denial of Serbian war crimes Kosovo and Sarajevo were both under siege from Bosnian Serb nationalist forces for around 3 and a half years they've declared Peter had kept persona non-grata for denying this reverend It's a massacre in 9095 and for his support for the late Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. The International Criminal Court has confirmed war crimes charges against an ex minister and a former militia man from the Central African Republic Patrice Eduardo guy sauna and Alfred yet had Tomer into tension in the Hague they were accused of leading mainly Christian militias during years of communal violence the South African presidents are all ram oppose a says the power company Eskom is investigating acts of sabotage which have had to serious actress a tieback outside of the past week Mr m. a Poser who cut short a trip to Egypt to address the crisis said Trencher rains and flooding had contributed to the problem Norm summer circle reports from Johannesburg president also said that according to eskimoes explanation the power supply had been strained by floods would submerged whole neighborhoods and flooded coal mines unpoliced stations he also said eds of sabotage led to about 2000 megawatts being lost but no arrests have been made the country's struggling public utility has come under severe criticism after the biggest power outage in more than a decade caused fears that they call me could be pushed into a recession Ok ologists in northern Ethiopia I have unearthed the remains of an ancient city the earliest parts of which dates back to the 8th century b.c. a Large 4th century a.d. Basilica was found to scribe as the earliest physical evidence for a church in Ethiopia that's the latest b.b.c. News. This is one day I'm Joshua Johnson in Washington my name is Barbara I've been listening and watching the impeachment hearings and I have never been so disheartened in my life I'm just so saddened distraught frustrated with how our country is being governed never in my 73 years have I been so upset my name is Stephanie I'm calling from Oakland City Oklahoma it's 1st conversations here in Oklahoma most of the people who are willing to open up for Talk to me they're either attorneys or they work in law enforcement expander and they can see very clearly that he's broken the law and violated constipation This is Bob. The inquiry as well as the articles of impeachment I think it's awful to drag the country through this. Always been a registered b. And I don't really believe the evidence is there and I just think it's it's quite frankly a sham My name is a lie so I don't think that the impeachment is necessarily going to change anything at all the way it will be done by the very adequate people on the right that this is the miscarriage of justice and the way that it will be done by the very adequate people on the left that should not pursue this is a miscarriage. So can you relate maybe to how distraught Barbara is to the conversation Stephanie is hearing to Bob skepticism to allies this expectation of a lot of political spin Congress is preparing to formally vote on 2 articles of impeachment against President Trump soon we'll find out what they really think of these accusations right now let's talk through what you think and what you want to know Joining us from Kay R.V.'s in Lafayette Louisiana is Angie Holan the editor of Politico fact Angie welcome to the program thank you for having me joining us from Houston is Josh Blackman associate professor of law at the South Texas College of Law Professor Blackman welcome. Thanks for having me and here with us in studio is a list with Wydra president of the constitutional accountability center a progressive think tank based here in Washington Elizabeth glad to have you back great to be here we're glad to get in your questions and thoughts about impeachment the process the politics what you think will happen how you've been discussing this where you are basically the point of today is to give you a chance to feedback we know that the last month has felt kind of like a data dump with hearing after hearing after hearing after hearing nonstop coverage continuing coverage and analysis and soundbites and talking points and so on and we just haven't had a chance to hear from you that's what today is all about so please do chime in and sound off e-mail us one a x.w. A.m.u. Dot org comment on our Facebook page or tweet us at 1 am and you let me start with you would say some basic basic information so yesterday morning House Democrats announced the articles of impeachment against President Trump what were they and what did they actually mean. Well there were 2 articles the 1st one is labeled abuse of power and that one outlines president Trump's actions in regards to Ukraine asking for investigations into Joe Biden and investigations into what's called the Crowd Strike theory that Ukraine potentially meddled in the 2016 election I should add that that theory is pretty discredited the 1st article then says Trump asked for this and he withheld aid and the purpose the article says is that he wanted to affect the 2020 Alexion So that's the 1st article The 2nd article is about his what they say is his obstruction of Congress so this is President Trump's direction to. The executive agency not to cooperate with impeachment so the White House directed people not. To testify and they said documents should not be released and this 2nd article outlines this and says Congress has the power of impeachment it should not have been impeded in its impeachment inquiries and so that's the 2nd article no obstruction of Congress elaborate on that a little bit of structure of Justice is a phrase we've heard a lot during the Muller investigation for a variety of reasons is that kind of in the same ballpark as obstruction of Congress or is that something else it's somewhat in the same ballpark but this particular article goes to the fact that Congress conducted the inquiry into this Ukraine matter so it wasn't a Department of Justice lawyer it wasn't a special counsel it was Congress itself the House Intelligence Committee that investigated the matter so the obstruction was against Congress itself and that seems to be the primary reason it's obstruction of Congress that not obstruction of justice I'd be interested in hearing from your legal guests on this point as well but from my reading of materials that's the reason for it for sure and we're going to work our way into the conversation with Elizabeth impressive Blackman in just one second with regards to these 2 articles and do we know why House Democrats chose them I mean for a long time we heard the phrase quid pro quo which speaks to bribery which is specified by name in the Constitution as one of 2 specific crimes that can get someone impeached the other one being treason why not go after bribery specifically it's pretty interesting that they settled on only 2 articles because there was a lot of discussion among Democrats in the House and among the pundits commenting on this that they could come up with more articles of impeachment so bribery that you mentioned or there's the a mole human clause that's I won't get into too much detail there but it's about. Accepting benefits from foreign governments there is the Mueller ripoff. There were potential charges of obstruction of justice that Democrats discussed from that at the end of the day they decided on just these 2 and it seems to be they did it to. Keep things simple and to stay unified I want to get into some perspective on whether or not the pa case is strong enough for the president's impeachment refers to live with just by way of setting the groundwork for this and Professor feel free to disagree in just a minute but I think just to boil it all the way down Elizabeth the central question seems to be at least the way the Democrats have articulated it do the actions of President Trump in the Trump administration disqualify him from running for reelection that seems to be what this is about particularly the comments that Adam Schiff made yesterday about you know should we let him she one more time at least on the Democratic side Elizabeth I think that's the overarching question is one of disqualification well so I think I would slightly tweak that and bring it back to the founders who put impeachment as a remedy in the Constitution in the 1st place now one of the things that they talked about in putting impeachment as a remedy in and you know some people say oh you should let the people decide it cetera well the founders obviously knew that there were elections for a present in the United States and still put impeachment in the Constitution as a remedy and part of the reason they did that specifically can look back to comments from William Davy for example of the Constitutional Convention and they worried that a president who was corrupt in office might use the vast powers of his office as president in order to corruptly get himself reelected that was a specific concern of the founders and so I think that that over arches the entire impeachment inquiry in this particular case where you know as opposed to the impeachment context of Clinton or Nixon you have the specific situation of a president using the leverage of his office and the interest. The American people to get a benefit that could help him get reelected and so that is why I think this idea of the ballot box which is a routine measure of checking our elected leaders is not sufficient in this case it's also just a matter of standing up for the Constitution as one of the professors who testified said if this is not an impeachable offense if these are not impeachable offenses what are with regards to standing for the contribution constitution one of our listeners tweeted It's my opinion that the president forced the Dems hand the Democrats hand if we stand in the Constitution and stand for it they had no choice will anything come of it no but history will be on the side of democracy and the Democrats Professor Blackman another issue that's come up in terms of this whole process is the standard of impeachment and the difference between let's say a court of law versus this kind of constitutional congressional trial and they're not quite the same standard I think that's been one of the big arguments that's hovered over all of us that's right in courts of law people can be charged with specific statutory offenses that is crimes are defined by the legislature. But the Constitution doesn't limit impeachment to crimes that are spelled out this phrase uses high crimes or misdemeanors and that can include some offenses that have not been ever prosecuted before and what makes this entire process very different from a court proceeding is the offenses are drawn up by the Congress seeking to move the president it's you know the same person is based the judge jury and executioner they get to decide what the offenses and then they get to decide whether peace going to her perpetrator. I know that you and Elizabeth have differing views on whether the president can be impeached based on the evidence thus far press or black and what do you think. I think a few things can be said the 1st thing is that this these 2 articles of impeachment are unique I think it's the 1st time in American history of an article of impeachment that's not grounded in some specific violation of law I don't think that's disqualifying or being impeached an article may still be proper but I think at that point the House has a bigger burden to show that the crime a defined abuse of power is in fact a high crime or Mr meaner in this case I think by not picking up a structure of justice by not taking bribery there challenges little bit more difficult to prove that this this article judgment started this article of impeachment is proper. List with what you yeah I mean you know as Josh himself would acknowledge you don't have to have violated a specific statute in order to be impeached and you know I think if you look at the degree of the abuse of office that we're talking about it squarely fits within the reason for impeachment being a remedy in the 1st place the idea that an elected leader would abuse their office would do something that was so detrimental to the fundamentals of American democracy that this serious and sober remedy of removing a duly elected official was appropriate we'll continue in just a moment with Elizabeth winder of the constitutional accountability Center just Blackman associate professor of law at South Texas College of Law and she Holen editor of Politico Fact we want to hear from you to your questions thoughts about impeachment. I'm Joshua Johnson and you're listening to one from w.a.m. You and n.p.r. . On the next open air Noah Griffin is guest host for conversations with actors from the epic production of Harry Potter and the curse a child at the current theater and from the new musical Pride and Prejudice at Silicon Valley plus a celebration of 75 years of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker at the San Francisco Ballet I'm David La to leave its open air Thursday afternoon at one join us. And you special from the Kitchen Sisters are. Stories of archivists rogue library curators collectors and historians keepers of the culture and the cultures and collections that. Frances McDormand. Thursday night special 7 o'clock Thursday evening here on. Support for n.p.r. Comes from this station and from c.f.a. Institute c.f.a. Charter holders are wealth managers committed to helping unlock opportunities for their clients ambitious wealth goals learn more at the right question dot org from the n.p.r. Wine club where every bottle tells a story and n.p.r. Shows become wines like Wait Wait Don't Tell me are available to adults 21 Years or Older learn more at n.p.r. Wine Club dot org And from the sustaining members of this n.p.r. Station. This is one essay I'm Joshua Johnson we are spending this hour listening to you and getting your thoughts on the articles of impeachment announced by House Democrats yesterday with Angie Holan editor of Politico fact Josh Blackman an associate professor of law at South Texas College of Law and Elizabeth Wydra president of the constitutional accountability center Pete tweeted the heart of the impeachment charges is clear Trump putting personal gain above our country's interests but so much media coverage including on n.p.r. Loses this with endless babble about events rather than clear insights that could help more Americans understand it's disheartening while peace hopefully this hour will not dishearten you further because that's kind of the whole point of this conversation so if you could use more clear insights on this impeachment thing or if you just want to be heard clearly haven't heard from the American people that much about this we haven't heard from you very much now's a good time to speak up please leave the battle out of course and certainly don't make an endless but do comments on our Facebook page tweet us at one essay which is impossible to battle endlessly I think you've only got 280 characters or e-mail us one a x. W. Am you dot org One of our listeners thought that the Democrats are just being too narrow with the 2 articles of impeachment that we mentioned earlier here's what they left in our inbox Hi My name is camera and I think that the Democrats of being 2 now in the a scope on these impeachment clauses I think a lot of Americans don't really care what happens in foreign countries like Ukraine and I also think that they should have bring in the Emoluments Clause where the president is making millions of dollars off of our tax dollars Tema Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us and we've already kind of talked about the Emoluments Clause I wonder what you think about that other part in terms of Americans not really caring what happens in foreign countries like Ukraine that's pretty much the basis of those of the genesis of these impeachment complaints how do you see that Angie. Well in our coverage of elections I think it's pretty obvious that Americans care more about domestic policy than foreign policy when you ask voters what are your most important issues for any given election they usually say the economy or health care sometimes they say education or the environment but those are. Primarily domestic concerns foreign policy I think is a heavier lift for a lot of Americans when they are thinking about their elected officials now of course you can't say it's not important it's it's really important it's always discussed a lot every election cycle but I think we'd be naive to say that most Americans are really super interested in what's going on in foreign countries and the u.s. Positions there and a lot of the discussion in this impeachment inquiry was about the United States its relationship with Russia Russia's aggression toward Ukraine and Ukraine's position as this kind of a pivotal country that had a history with Russia but is now trying to move more toward Western Europe and honestly I think some Americans are bored by those issues Elizabeth what about the assertion tell me that the Democrats might be too narrow in their scope on these impeachment clauses Yeah I mean 1st you know I think this isn't actually about foreign policy it's about American democracy and the point is that whether you're talking about the Emoluments Clause or the president leveraging his office on the global stage with respect to Ukraine the idea is that he should always be acting with unclouded loyalty to the American people who put him that office and with whether it's the Emoluments Clause or the Ukraine what we're seeing and what the evidence shows is that he has acted with respect to his personal his president trumps interest in his bottom line with respect to his finances or his. Political bottom line trying to get himself reelected by bullying and bribing a foreign official So I think that's the main thing you know are there. Will offenses to the Constitution that President Trump has committed since he's gotten into office I would say yes as a constitutional lawyer it's you know but it's a judgment that the Democrats have made in the House about what is going to be most salient and I think where you have here unequivocal evidence that the president did these actions with respect to Ukraine you might think they're impeachable or not but the facts are there and it's unquestionable that he refused to let his officials testified he obstructed the impeachment inquiry I think because those are so clear and so simple That's probably why they went with them although it's interesting Elizabeth a lot of the things that Democrats have complained about with regard to President Trump have had to do with his dealings around the world whether it's the way he's treated NATO right whether it's the crisis at the southern border the rewriting of NAFTA his dealings with Kim Jong un North Korea his dealings with China his dealings with Russia you know cozying up to strong men around the world like it seems like the Democrats complaints about President Trump are all these foreign policy things that Americans don't pay as m