Rules committee will come to order. Ill now yield to the gentleman from texas, dr. Burgess. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I thank our witnesses for staying with us throughout all of this. I know youve been through a lot alread already, but i cant help but be struck by the fact that this does seem to be proceeding rather rapidly. It did, after all, all start with a phone call. No, not with a phone call in july but with a phone call in november when Molly Hemingway overheard incoming chairman nadler talking to constituents on the telephone and said that impeachment of the president was going to be of the highest order so although theres not a transcript of that call, it was well documented in social media and that seems to be one of the things that we can now use as evidence that can be introduced. Mr. Collins, correct me if im wrong, but it does seem like this is an exercise i think this is reflected in your dissenting views you submitted, this seems like impeachment first, build a case seco
Years now. We watched this in the aftermath of exposures about a collection by nsa itself, the agency unfamiliar to most americans and as we take off our 2019 conference, we find now even intelligence oversight is very much in public headlines. We have an impeachment proceeding kick off by reports from the Intelligence Community Inspector General. You have forthcoming next week, allegations and misuse of the surveillance act during the 2016 president ial campaign. We have proceedings from the house Intelligence Committee. Even intelligent overseers now are the center in the way that the intelligence agencies began earlier. In a way that was unprecedented. So we have a special focus this year on not just the Intelligent Agency the self but the messages in place to oversee them. One of the classic problems of Intelligence Surveillance is how to balance the need for operations that are secret. Surveillance that is done publicly in surveillance. How do you balance the need to conduct certa
Witnesses, yes. Thank you. And also another thing that i want to clear up for the record, mr. Ras kin said previously that the same process that were doing now, its the same process that was used in the clinton impeachment, mr. Collins, do you agree with that, because i sure dont. No, i do not. Would you care to expand . I think there are a lot of Different Things and it goes back to the inherent nature of what were doing here today and that is, frankly, the only bipartisan nature of this impeachment is no. Its not bipartisan in the sense of seeing it should go forward. Its bipartisan and no and that is the only bipartisan that you will see. My friends across the aisle say theyre standing for true and thats fine. Thats their argument and my argument is everything that weve talked about so far and thats also why at a certain point in time we continue to go on here, but i think when you look at the actual things that are going on the issues of how witnesses are called and how you deal wi
You dont think that affects our National Security, if you think ukraine is our ally as i believe you do and i do . I just dont accept the premise of your premises of thoughts. All right. What value for ukraine do you see in the oval office visit that was being sought . Youd have to ask ukraine. Do you recognize that such a visit would send a strong message to russia sort of like lavrov being in the Oval Office Last week and the rest of the world that the United States supported ukraine and was ready to defend it against russian aggression. I think a better statement was when mr. Trump sent russian weapons to shoot down russian assets. That ignored the fact that the aid was withhold and hot war was going. All due respect were going in circles. I do not believe there was anything wrong for the reasons stated. And mr. Trump did more for the ukrainians in the hot war than was previously done. You know, ive heard that before. Im not going to elaborate. But i can assure you if they point as
And. Nato leaders wrap up a contentious meeting in london with a show of unity but agreed to spend more on defense and they agreed that china is the new major risk of divisions within the alliance for mind and frustration with the u. S. President trump would like big. A math anyhow thanks for joining us a Murder Investigation here in berlin is now a full blown diplomatic storm between germany and russia it began with the killing of former Chechen Rebel commander identified as. He was shot twice in the head as he walked to a mosque German Authorities have now expelled 2 Russian Diplomats over the killing believing russian intelligence to be responsible moscow denies involvement and says it will retaliate for the expulsions. This decision could mark a new escalation in relations between russia and western countries german chancellor Angela Merkel has defended the expulsion of Russian Diplomats after germanys federal prosecutor general said evidence points to russian state involvement. Il