The committee will come to order. Without objection, the chair reserve the right to reset 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 old, of course, cannot be honored if the president does not first defend the country. Our National Security is jeopardized, in our country is then thefended, ability to faithfully execute the office becomes smooth. The duty to defend the nations foundational to the responsibilities. But what of the second responsibility to defend the constitution . What does that really mean . The founders were not speaking of course of a piece of parchment, rather they were expressing the obligation of the president to defend the. Nstitution to defend the rule of law, a principle on which the idea of america was born that we are a nation of laws, not men. If we do not defend the nation, there is no constitution.
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
Effort over two weeks. If you we were first told about it a week and a half ago and we were told very specifically that the whistleblower did not want to get any of this information out, they didnt want to leak out. So there were only a few potential groups of people that woulhave known about this complaint. You and your people within your office. Yes, sir. The people within the Inspector Generals office. And the whistleblower and whoever that whistleblower gave this information to. So what im trying to ascertain is, how would it run in all the Mainstream Media outlets . Even though they got a lot of it wrong, but they had the basics of it that 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 do into the kno. But as you said, it has been repo
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