in our society particularly in these times cannot be overstated. but there s also something called separation of powers and checks and balances, and our system is constructed on the premise that we have three coequal branches of government. and that requires that each of the three branches uphold their constitutional responsibilities, and i think that the greatest weakness in the system apart from, of course, what we see in the white house and throughout the executive branch is the failure of the president s party in congress to uphold its obligations to accountability, to oversight, to truth and decency. and in that context, what we re learning is that when one branch falls down on its responsibilities and another branch doesn t step up to do its job, our system is in fact not as strong as we perhaps thought
and i think that the greatest weakness in the system apart from, of course, what we see in the white house and throughout the executive branch is the failure of the president s party in congress to uphold its obligations to accountability, to oversight, to truth and decency. and in that context, what we re learning is that when one branch falls down on its responsibilities and another branch doesn t step up to do its job, our system is in fact not as strong as we perhaps thought it was. i d like to ask you a process question here that i think there s a factual answer to it, and i think you can tell me. i don t think it s a secret. and i think for me it helps me understand how the lines of accountability should work here. if, for example, in 2020 some country, some adversary somewhere or some country that has interests in the united states and wants its way with