Power of the office to obtain an improper personal benefit while ignoring and injuring the national interest. Or acts in ways that are grossly inconsistent with and undermine the separation of powers that is the foundation of our democratic system. Now, these this question of whether president engaged in abuse of power came up before when this congress considered the impeachment of president nixon. And after action was taken, president nixon famously said if the president does it, it is not illegal. And this body rejected that because thats not so. That goes directly contrary to what the founders said. But President Trump has said the same thing in responding to the prior investigation by Department Of Justice and defending his conduct. Here is what he said then i have an article, too, where i have to write to do whatever i want as president. That he has the right to do
whatever he wants as president. That is as wrong as when president nixon said a similar thing. That is not what the c
midterm elections to prepare for the onslaught of investigations by the opposition party. and listen, even as president biden was campaigning over the summer to try and save that house democratic majority a small team of officials here at the white house, legislative affairs specialists, lawyers, as well as communications strategists have all been preparing, mapping out where these gop investigative targets might lead and also preparing the response and the strategy behind how the white house is going to handle those. they ve been listening very closely to congressman jim jordan and congressman jim comey the heads of the house judiciary and oversight committees. and paying attention to how they ve been telegraphing what they re doing. also sifting through hundreds of requests from republican members for information on various lines of inquiry. one of the examples of how the administration has also been preparing is convening these meetings with agency lawyers.
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 attempt to negotiate with the administration for the production of documents and witnesses. democrats did not exhaust all their options to entice witnesses or agencies to cooperate, such as allowing witnesses to appear with agency lawyers. or initiating contempt
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 in disputes between congress and the executive. they declined to attempt to negotiate with the administration for the production of documents and witnesses. democrats did not exhaust all their options to entice witnesses or agencies to cooperate such as allowing witnesses to appear with agency
example of the courageous people that have come forward. people who worked for dr. kupperman, people who worked for john bolton, people who have in their careers much more at risk have shown the courage to come forward. they have not hidden behind litigation. they have not hidden behind the white house as the witnesses today have. they ve shown enormous courage and patriotism, and i would urge others to follow their example, not follow the corrupt example out of the white house, which is seeking to obstruct this investigation. reporter: is it your understanding that some of these individuals say they would be willing to come if they would be allowed to bring agency lawyers. why not let them do that? it has been the consistent house rule that we do not permit agency counsel, particularly when we have concerns about those agencies. the state department, for example, and this you ll also see in the transcripts i m trying to think if it s in the transcripts yes, it s in the