And i thought the threat to our nation was well articulated earlier today by Professor Feldman when you said, if we cannot impeach a president who abuses his office for personal advantage, we no longer live in a democracy, we live in a monarchy or we live under a districtatorship. My view is if people cannot depend on the fairness of our elections, then what people are calling divisive today will be absolutely nothing compared to the shredding of our democracy. After the events of ukraine unfolded, the president claimed that the reason he requested an investigation into his political opponents and withheld desperately needed military aid for ukraine was supposedly because he was worried about corruption. However, contrary to president s statements, various witnesses, including Vice President pences special adviser jennifer williams, testified that the president s request was political. Take a listen. I found the july 25th phone call unusual because in contrast to other president ial ca
Other important things that are going undone. Within this committees own jurisdiction we should be addressed in the opioid epidemic. We could be working together to find a solution to our immigration and asylum challenges on our southern border. We could be protecting americans for having their intellectual property and jobs stolen by Chinese Companies and we could be enhancing Election Security just to name a few things. Congress as a whole could be working on rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure. Providing additional tax relief to the nations middle class families and providing additional security to our people here at home and abroad. Instead, here we are spinning our wheels once again on impeachment. What a waste. The American People deserve so much better. I yield back. The Gentleman Yield back. Thank you, mr. Chair. I take no pleasure in the fact that we are here today. As a patriot who loves america,
it pains me that the circumstances forced us to undertake this grave and sol
real-time, in the middle of ambassador yovanovitch s live testimony the president tweeted about the ambassador discrediting her service in somalia and the ukraine. ambassador yovanovitch testified that the president s tweet was, and i quote, very intimidating. professor gerhart, these attacks on a career public servant are deeply upsetting, but how do they fit into our understanding whether the president has committed high crimes and misdemeanor and how do they fit into our broader pattern of behavior by this president to cover up and obstruct his misconduct? one way in which it contributes to the obstruction of congress is it doesn t just defame ambassador yovanovitch, by every other account, she s been an exemplary public servant. what he s suggesting there may
unquote. we discussed here today the obstruction of congress articles of impeachment against president nixon. i think i d like go a little bit deeper into that discussion and juxtapose it with president trump s actions. professor gerhart, can you elaborate how president nixon obstructed congress and how it compares to president trump s actions? i was discussing earlier including in my written statement, president nixon ultimately refused to comply with four legislative subpoenas. these were zeroing in on the evidence in his possession. the basis for that third article and he resigned a few days later. professor feldman, what are the consequences of this unprecedented obstruction of congress to our democracy? for the president to refuse to participate in any way in the house s constitutional
there is testimony by ambassador volker to this extent that what he wants was simply public information to damage joe biden. he didn t care whether joe biden was found guilty or exonerated. professor feldman, do you agree? my emphasis would be on the fact that the president held up aid to an ally that is fighting a war in direct contravention of the unanimous recommendation of the national security community. that seems to have placed his own interests in personal advantage ahead of the interests. and a bill passed by congress. professor gerhart. i agree with what my colleagues instead and i would add that i m concerned about the president s obstruction of congress. the structure of this inquiry, refusal to comply with the number of subpoenas ordering many high-level officials and the government not to comply with subpoenas and ordering the entire executive branch not to cooperate with congress. it s useful to remember the constitution has the house has