Expected to get underway in about seven minutes. Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. Test. Captioning performed by vitac the committee will come to order. Without objection, the chair reserves the right to reassess 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. 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 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 what if this 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 th
Some of it is redacted as you can see the black marks here. We dont know what it is. There is a reference to military aid that was suspended, essentially, or put on hold to ukraine that is raised in the whistleblower complaint. That is at the heart of what some have described as potential quid pro quo, one the president has denied. Let me explain what that is. The United States had been set to deliver this military assistance to ukraine. The president did ask for that to be reviewed. That was not because of anything nefarious, per se, the president wanted to get other allies onboard but it is notable it is raised in the complaint as we take a look inside the hearing room. This issue of Rudy Giuliani repeatedly being mentioned is of concern. The president , when i asked him about his personal attorney over the last 24 hours fiercely defended Rudy Giuliani. He did not try to distance himself from his lawyer who, as this complaint describes and as giuliani himself acknowledges, talked wit
States would result in an extraordinary threat to National Security and Foreign Policy. So, the Inspector General is saying, heres why you have to investigate this thoroughly, is because this potentially affects National Security and Foreign Policy. Also goes on to state that he wants this to be further investigated. We now know as of yesterdays reporting that he not only referred it to the Justice Department for a possible criminal investigation of the president of the United States, he also referred it to the fbi director. So the tension within the government, the Inspector General saying get this done, get this investigated, the Justice Department looking at it and saying, no, there is a direct conflict between those two points of view, george. That is likely to come up in this hearing. Were looking at the hearing where admiral joseph maguire, the retired general, now acting director of National Intelligence expected to testify on why he withheld it from congress and why he believes
House in their back and forth exchanges with the acting director of National Intelligence. Nancy, what, if anything, do we know about the author of this report . Theres no name on this document. Reporter correct. We know very little aside from the fact that this is someone who is in the Intelligence Community, and apparently had been detailed to the National Security council at the white house, and in that capacity had a lot of interaction with white house officials. We also know that this whistleblowers ha s havvery mu to come to capitol hill and be interviewed by lawmakers. Youll hear from a number of democrats from the National Director of intelligence are you going to let this whistleblower come and talk to us and speak expansively to us. The Inspector General of the Intelligence Community did determine that this whistleblower had a potential political bias. Perhaps didnt want President Trump to be reelected. You will hear republicans talk about that today. However, the icig also n
Problematic ok kimberly sorry to cut you off that said Joseph Maguire just about to start speaking more crosscuts you know 2nd for now lets head over to capitol hill and listen in to this i beg your pardon this is adam schiff who were looking at now he is about to open this testimony about 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 2 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 1st 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 what of this 2nd responsibility to defend the constitution what does that really mean the found