Dispute. Now turning attention to the ron johnson letter if i may. Yes. On august 31st, Senator Johnson is getting ready to travel to ukraine on September 5th with senator with murphy. And he wanted johnson wanted the aid released so he calls the president and sought permission to be the bearer of good news. Right. The president said im not ready to lift the aid. They had this Senator Johnson, he writes a tenpage letter, very detailed, and he gives some remarkable detail and i would like to read it. Its on page 6. I this is Senator Johnson speaking, he said i asked him whether there was some kind of
arran arrangement where ukraine would take some action and the hold would be lifted. Without hesitation, Senator Johnson says, President Trump immediately denied such an arrangement existed and he started cursing. He said, no way. President trump said no way. I would never do that. Who told you that . And Senator Johnson goes on to say that President Trumps reactionnt here was adamant, vehe
Charge. The truth is in the history of this republic, theres never been a single party fraudulent Impeachment Process deployed against a president like the one thats being used against donald trump. Thats whats unprecedented here. Its not the claim that a president doesnt want to turn over witnesses or documents. That, as weve said many times today, is actually quite common. And by the way, lets remember it needs to be noted again that President Trump has consistently cooperated with this congress in fulfilling its oversight you are listening to one of the many hours of todays very Historic House Judiciary Committee hearing on the articles of impeachment against president donald trump. Our live continuing coverage will take place over this hour and further hours as needed. But we want to let you know how were going to cover this. Were keeping an eye on this hearing. We have reason to believe there could be a vote on the current amendment soon. The committees obviously been going full s
Whether you think thats good or bad and matches the abuse of powers is an open question. And then he goes through and argues he doesnt see what he calls a statutory crime. And well see that debate as well. There are people youre going to hear from who are going to say its got to be an actual felony and then there are going to be other people pointing out the constitution doesnt require that. It has words like treason, bribery and high crimes. So were going to get into the weeds here, but the big picture is keep your eye on which witnesses and exchanges are talking about the serious question of whats impeachable. The other noise you can try and tune out as with any hearing. Mr. Wiesman, your last words of advice as we settle in to watch the legal experts. I think its very important to keep your eye on the facts and the law. And i think one of the things that the public is rightly upset about is the rule of law not being applied. And so i think the quote you read is fun, its sort of catc
To exclude from trial . Therefore, from the American Public evidence. I mean, were prosecutors, we are used to evidence. Thats how we measure our cases, measure our progress. And if Senator Mcconnell has decided in coordination with the white house that its going to be run in a particular way to exclude facts and evidence and witnesses an documents what does that make the senate . It is just an amazing point for you to be making. Americas history is being an advocate around the world for the i think it is fair to call that a banana court, a banana republic, a kangaroo court. We used to be a country that helped bring the rule of law to other countries. So impeachment wasnt designed to be a trial like in an article 3 court but it was designed to be a process and a high mined one in which facts mattered. Right . The framers had this fascinating
trial. You could have put an Impeachment Trial in the judiciary. They didnt want to. Theoretically, the house, the house had the other job of sort
Elect the american president . The citizens of this country and no one else. Men and women have died on the battlefield to protect our democracy. The least we can do is show the courage to stand up tonight and do our part, to protect our democracy. With that, i yield back. The gentleman yields back. Does anyone else seek recognition on the amendment . Armstrong. Armstrong. For what purposes buzz mr. Armstrong seek recognition . Move to strike is the last word. And im going to go back to the initial language of the amendment, and particularly the removal from office and disqualification to hold any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States. So at numerous points in times during todays debate have they my Friends On The Other Side of the aisle held up a pocket constitution, waved it around. I think its interesting nobody has read from it yet, and i think there is a reason for that. But im going to read from the constitution. And if we want to talk about
article one, which