Prince mohammed bin solomon that unless the organization of the Petroleum Exporting countries opec started Cutting Oil Production he would be powerless to stop lawmakers from passing legislation to withdraw u. S. Troops in the kingdom for sources familiar say yeah well i dont really understand this all saudi relationship anymore i mean why are we why do we have troops there and saudi arabia anyway why do we have troops and cutter so huge military bases its a waste of money. Why do we have troops in south korea thats a waste of money why do we have troops in germany 50000 american troops in germany thats a waste i want to you know we cause we have is huge military presence all over the world we have a huge cia n. S. A. All these intelligence agencies that we pay you know as taxpayers theyre funded with 1. 00 to 1. 00 trillion dollars a year and when this covert money team thing hits trump is like. We dont know or we think its from china we think its from ohio but what in my opinion the
Committee will come to order. Without objection, the chair reserves the right to recess the hearing at any time. The president ial oath of office requires the president of the United States to do two things, faithfully execute his or her office and protect and defend the constitution. That oath cannot be honored if the president does not first defend the country. If our National Security is jeopardized, if our country is left undefended, the necessity to faithfully execute the office becomes moot. Where there is no country, there is no office to execute. And so the duty to defend the nation is foundational to the president s responsibilities. But the second responsibility to defend the constitution, what does that really mean . The founders were not speaking, of course, of a piece of parchment, they were speaking of the president to defend our system of checks and balances that the constitution enshrines, to defend the rule of law, a principle on which the idea of america was born that
So to another point, you know, one of the issues that arose out of the russia investigation last congress was a question over the latitude provided to the u. S. President to conduct foreign affairs. In 2017, i asked then cia director brennan how he viewed statements made by president obama to russian president medvedev regarding more flexibility to negotiate after his 2012 election. And president medvedev replied he would transmit the information to vladimir and that medvedev stood with president obama. That was in an open hearing. Director brennan wouldnt entertain my question and insisted on not answering, due to the fact that the conversation was between the heads of government. Thats what he said. He further claimed he was avoiding getting involved in political partisan issues, which brings me to a similar question related to this whistleblower complaint. One, you said this executive privilege is unwaverable. I think thats consistent with cia director brennan. Congressman, only the
The. We were first told about it a week and a half ago and told very specifically that the whistleblower did not want to get any of this information out. They didnt want it to leak out, so there were only a few potential groups of people that would have known about this complaint. Is. Too people within the Inspector Generals Office and the whistleblower and whoever that was whistleblower gave this information to. So what im trying to ascertain, how it would run in the Mainstream Media. They have the basics of it it involved the president of the United States talking to a foreign leader. So, did anybody, you or anybody in your office leak this to the Washington Post or nbc news . Ranking member, i lead the Intelligence Community we know how to keep a secret. As far as how that got into the press i really dont know. I know its all over the place. Its been reported by different media for the past several weeks. Where they get their information from i dont know. So it was not from the Inte
Program. We do want to remind you that all of our video that weve covered today available at cspan. Org. Up next, well show you the hearing beginning with the Opening Statements from the chairman and Ranking Member. The committee will come to order. Without objection, the chair reserves the right to recess the hearing at any time. The president ial oath of office requires the president of the United States to do two things, faithfully execute his or her office, and protect and defend the constitution. That oath, of course, cannot be honored if the president does not first defend the country. If our National Security is jeopardized, if our country is left undefended, the necessary sesity to faithfully execute the office becomes moot. Where there is no country, there is no office to execute. And so the duty to defend the nation is foundational to the president s responsibilities. But what of this second responsibility to defend the constitution . What does that really mean . The founders