Transcripts For CSPAN Washington 20240703

And go on journeys in Significant Locations across the country to celebrate these authors and unforgettable books. Among the featured books, common sense, huckle berry fin. , their eyes were watching god. And free to choose. Watch our 10 part series, books that shaped america, starting 9 30 p. M. Eastern. Cspan and cspan now, our free mobile video app or online at cspan. Org. Wall street reporting makes the comment that the white house has said President Biden, the Presumptive Democratic nominee from 2024 wasnt a party to his sons Business Affairs and has done nothing wrong. White house spokesman ian scams said theyve turned up no evidence of wrongdoing and impeachment probe marks extreme politics at its worst and the story says labeling a probe of the president as a impeachment inquiry is seen as giving the house more power as it conducts investigation. A 2019 report by the Congressional Research association said a investigation could help congress in several ways including by improving the likelihood a court would authorize access to grand jury material and improving the likelihood of overcoming assertions such as executive privilege. Thats the sum of the setup from yesterdays announcement with more and you can see it on our website at cspan and our app at cspan now but heres a portion from the House Speaker yesterday. [video plays] these are allegations of abuse of power, obstruction and corruption. And further investigation by the house of representatives. Thats why today i am directing our House Committee to open a formal impeachment inquiry into president joe biden. This logical next step will give our committees the full power to gather all the facts and answers for the american public. Its exactly what we want to know. The answers. I believe the president would want to answer these allegations as well. It will be led by chairman james comer along with chairman jim jordan for the Judiciary Committee and chairman jason smith on ways and means. I would expect them to have full transparency. Were committed to getting the answers for the american public, nothing more, nothing less. We will go wherever the evidence takes us. Host thats a portion from the announcement yesterday launching this inquiry, impeachment inquiry by House Republicans against the president s son and looking at the president himself. Again, if you support this effort, 2027488000 and if you oppose it, 2027488001. The Washington Post reports that mr. Mccarthys calculation on how to launch a impeachment inquiry changed after his Leadership Team surveyed a change over the past week and recognized there would not be enough votes to open an inquiry on the house floor according to republican lawmakers and aides familiar with conversations like others who spoke on condition of anonymity who spoke private deliberations and people going on to say unilateral rally launching a inquiry showed vulnerable incumbents especially those districts who voted for President Biden put on record for impeachment this early in the process and though some republicans and aides warn far right lawmakers could demand a Impeachment Vote for political purposes. Thats some of the background heading into yesterdays decision by the House Speaker to launch this impeachment inquiry, some of you supporting this and opposing this. Melinda says she supports iand its a good thing and weve had too much little of that from President Biden. From bonnie off facebook, saying i would support it if it went to a vote if they thought there was enough evidence the vote would have passed. And then cory lynn from facebook saying, support, no one is above the law. Caller Kevin Mccarthy is a joke. This guy, so far appears theres no evidenc that biden has done anything wrong to be impeached. If he has, then he should be impeached. But so far, as far as i can see they havent found anything. But mccarthy, those people like that, Marjorie Taylor greene and that other one there, i cant remember his name from yesterday that dressed him down. Theyve got him right by the throat and he conceded so much of his powers away just to get that position. He wanted that position so bad. It took 15 votes for him to get in there. Hes powerless and they know it and have him right where he wants it. He knows it and running scared and doesnt dare to do anything what they tell him or else theyre going to can him and think its a total joke. Host duke from maine. Also on our opposed line from philadelphia well hear from horace, go ahead. Horace in philadelphia, good morning. One more time for horace. And then well go to sheila, cherylton georgia on our opposed line. Sheila from georgia, go ahead, youre on. Caller i agree with the last caller. This is just ridiculous. And hes right about mccarthy. Theyve got him so hamstrung it just isnt funny. Hannah why do you oppose it specifically . Caller why . Host uhhuh. Caller because theres nothing there. Yes, hunter biden, well, its a bad screwup. But that is joes son. Once kids become 17, 18 years old, you cant control them anymore. So i just dont see that theres anything there at all. Host sheila on our opposed line. Axios on their website takes a look at how we got to this point, tying them to words that the president spoke in 2020 while campaigning, or was during the second president ial debate, they write mr. Biden was asked whether his son made money from abroad including china. Quote, my son has not made money in terms of this thing in what youre talking about china, and goes on to report, in federal court biden acknowledged he was paid several hundreds of thousands with business firms in 2017 and 2018 and led the Washington Post fact checker to give joe bidens original claim four pinocchios and in 2017, biden now Vice President talked to burisma where he was a board member reported he emailed hunter in 2015 saying thank you for inviting me to d. C. Giving me an opportunity to meet your father and spend time together. It goes on from there with the president s words and how it leads to where we are at this point. You can make your thoughts known off the phone line and facebook and x, sect us 2027488003. If you support it, 2027488000 and if you op toes it, 2027488002. Lets hear from timothy in illinois on our support line. Timothy, go ahead. Caller yes, im calling to support the impeachment for the most incompetent president. Host timothy on the support line and now ethan in las vegas. Caller i just want to say i support the impeachment. Host why is that . Hes dropped. Again, you can continue calling on and giving your thoughts whether you support the impeachment or oppose it, 2027488000 and if you oppose it, 2027488001. Lets hear from Chuck Schumer on the senate side after the announcement from the house on the impeachment inquiry. [video play play plays of theweek [video plays] senator schumer the americans want us to do something to make their life better and not go on these witchhunts. You can only accomplish keeping the government open in a bipartisan way. I have sympathy with Speaker Mccarthy. Hes in a difficult position. Sometimes youve got to tell these people way off the deepened who have no interest in helping the American People who want to pursue their own witchhunts that they cant go forward with it. Im disappointed and think its absurd but not going to let it stop us in the senate from keeping the government open and working in a bipartisan way. Host Chuck Schumer commenting on the launch of this inquiry. Susan on our oppose line. Good morning. Youre next. Caller good morning. Im very much against the whole idea of this impeachment thing because the evidence inclined biden in any way but more towards his son, on hunter. The one thing that would bring biden down, in my opinion, is it he could prove hes in cahoots with one of the countries hes done business with might bring him down but they dont want to do that. They cant do that because it just doesnt exist. Host you dont think an inquiry would prove that definitively, what you just said . Caller no, i really dont. They have to have concrete evidence to prove it. And i dont think it exists, i really dont. Perhaps for the son but not the president himself. Its an incredible waste of time. Host lets hear from rick in florida on our support line. Hello. Caller if nothing to hide, its fine. And they should clear it up and say theres nothing to look at and move on. Host from carol in new jersey. Carol on our oppose line. Go ahead. Caller yes, good morning. I do oppose this because of the fact that it is based on what his son did there. We have many people in this country that have children living in our homes and they dont know what theyre doing. Look at these young people who have these guns and kill. They know nothing about them. And in addition to that, we have a president , if you ask the expresident or a Major Company to hire him, he would not qualify. And i dont feel as though we should have him as the leader, and i do oppose this. Thank you. Host carol from new jersey on this impeachment launched yesterday by House Republicans. Tip calling if you want to give your comment, 2027488000 if you support this impeachment inquiry and if you oppose it, 2027488001 and post on x and facebook and text us, too. If youre on the line, stay on it and you can continue calling in and well take those calls momentarily. This event taking place yesterday comes also on top of activities in the house in an attempt to keep the government funded after the end of september. In an effort to keep you updated on whats going on with that, we invited Aiden Quigley of c. U. Roll call who serves as the budget reporter. Thanks for your time this morning. Guest thanks very much for having me. Host at this point are we still on the path of a possible lack of funding for the government . Guest i think so and i do thinking that yesterdays announcement from Speaker Mccarthy does complicate the next 2 1 2 weeks when it comes to Government Spending. The government needs to pass a stopgap spending bill by the end of the month to avoid a partial Government Shutdown and right now its looking more questionable than ever, especially with yesterdays news. 7 because any end game or resolution discussions would need bipartisan support in the house. It appears because there are some House Republicans who dot want to vote for my Government Spending measures at all and they really, you know, its going to be complicated and democrats wont feel obliged to help Speaker Mccarthy, i think, after yesterdays dish. Host when you talk about the continuing resolution, explain what it means and what it means to the whole funding process. Guest last december, Congress Passed, right before the new Congress Took over, Congress Passed an omnibus which lasts until the end of september and at that time the fiscal 2023 spending rolls out and time for fiscal 2024 spending to get passed and thats because that is the turn of the fiscal year is the end of this month so when that happens, Congress Needs to step in and pass appropriations. Ideally that would be the full year appropriations but year nowhere close to an agreement on those so needs to be a stopgap measure. Host what are the discussions taking place in the background on this, who is leading those discussions . Guest were seeing two very different paths here from the house and the senate. In the senate well have a bipartisanship appropriations that thought there was a big procedural vote yesterday for the first package of appropriation bills in the senate, huge bipartisan support and theyre working together and are working in the debt limit negotiations this summer. The senate is moving forward with bipartisan bills. On the house side, youre looking at a more partisan process and that is somewhat normal that the house will go on a more partisan route at this point but theyre really running into some issues when it comes to passing appropriation bills on the floor of the house. You have some house conservatives who want significant more cuts to the bills that are appropriated already that are already underneath the cap and moderates who are concerned about some policy provisions the conservatives put in those bills in the house and will be interesting the next few weeks. Were still at the point both chambers are working on their individual appropriations process and continuing resolution negotiations have not quite started. At least at the high level of what we expect to see in the next two weeks but at this point theyre still kind of working on their own processes. Very important vote today in the house potentially. Theyre trying to pass their defense appropriations bill but it does appear theres opposition from some conservatives that could take down the rule vote for that bill. So well have to wait and see what happens today but will be a busy day on the hill. Host if i understand opposition from the bill from the president himself. Guests democrats are very much against this bill largely because of the culture war provisions the House Republicans put in during the appropriations process. Thisthere are some polit this bill mostly because of the cultural implications the conservatives added. Address a wide variety of issues that democrats cannot get on board with. You will not see any democratic votes on this. Host in the days ahead what are the things to look out host in the days ahead, what should we look out for for current breaks in the impasse . He eye on negotiations. We will see the senate move forward in the house may be stalling out. May be stalling out. The next two weeks is when we get into the negotiations between the house and senate and keeping the government open. There is a lot of work going behindthescenes to avoid a shut down but this year, it looks questionable. Host mr. Quigley reports on budget and appropriations issues. His work is on roll call. Com. Thank you for this update. Host you heard i guess talk about the complication of the impeachment inquiry and belies the budget that needs to be passed. We pose the question, do you support the impeachment inquiry. . If he supported 202 7488000, if you oppose 202 7488001. Caller i oppose it, its a waste of time and money. We need to keep going on. We need Social Security and relief from inflation. Host when you say is so waste of time and money what you mean . Caller there is no smoke, no fire. When trump went through this they said beware of what you do because this could come back on you. Host when lets hear from sarahn the support line. Caller i am calling to say is supported. I think the Mainstream Media has had a lot of evidence with joe biden. There are Text Messages from his son that he is directly connected to his business dealings. His family members have millions of dollars. We need this inquiry. It is inevitable that bidens problems. Host what do you think they will find . Guest i read the prosecutor that was over at burisma was fired and they discovered the guy was not as corrupt. There are things that the mainstream med if people could see the good side coming out of Mainstream Media, they definitely would say they need this inquiry. Host sarah from georgia. The Washington Post highlights the fact about an aboutface of the decision made yesterday. Mr. Mccarthy cited former House Speaker nancy pelosi establishing precedent after she launched a impeachment inquiry without holding a vote in 2019 on President Trump the day after pelosi wanted that impeachment inquiry, mr. Mccarthy, minority leader at the time drafted a resolution condemning pelosi for her actions and well take you to 2019 after that decision was made by then Speaker Nancy Pelosi launching that inquiry against President Trump and heres what mr. Mccarthy had to say at the time. Mr. Mccarthy ms. Pelosi happens to be the speaker of the house but does not speak for america and cant decide unilaterally what happens here. They have been investigating this president before he even got elected. They have voted three times on impeachment on this floor. Twice they voted before one word, the muller report came back. Our job here