Equal treatment by our government, if the heart of countless laws passed with welldeserved fanfare by our congress over many decades. That right is inscribed on a monument on our National Mall to the reverend Martin Luther king jr. Who would be shocked and disgusted if he watched susan rice on television today. Susan rice is joe bidens chief domestic policy advisor in charge of changing our country to conform to the orthodoxies of the Democratic Party. How do susan rice plan to do that . Going forward, she announced this afternoon every agency in the u. S. Government, the government that is the largest and most lavishly funded organization in human history, every one of them will place equity at the core of its policy design, specifically in for the benefit of marginalized communities. It was carried live by news outlets but as far as we know, not a single one of them paused to ask what exactly she was talking about, and they should have. The federal government is above all an enormous
[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2013] sarah polk was on diplomacy and her strong suit is intelligence and political discussion. She made no bones about the fact she took an interest in politics. And that she was her husbands partner. She grew naup political household in tennessee. Her father was a local politician so she grew up loving politics. She married james after he won a seat in the legislature. Because she would not have married him if he had unfortunately for james k. Polk he died three months after leaving the white house. And sarah began a 42year widowhood. Polk place became a shrine to her husband and she would invite anybody who wanted to to come to visit and see the objects she had collected through her long and illustrious political career. To live there for many years on her own. During the civil war, generals on both sides would come and visit her to pay respects. It is an interesting commentary
To have very different worlds. We certainly will. This is a moment that a lot of people have been waiting for. Well see what happens. We will have special live coverage throughout the night, of course. Thanks very much for watching. Im wolf blitzer in the situation room. Our special impeachment coverage continues right now with erin burnett out front. This is cnn breaking news. Good evening. Im erin burnett. Out front tonight, the breaking news, just moments from now, you see the room. The House Judiciary Committee will begin debate on two articles of impeachment against donald j. Trump. This is only the fourth time in American History that a president has faced articles of impeachment and this is live what is happening in that room. Members are getting seated. This is prime time, the first time that any of these hearings have happened during this time. This is the debate and this is how they are choosing to start it. The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee jerry nadler is about
Evidence. This will set a dangerous precedent where impeachment becomes the norm rather than the exception. Thats not what our Founding Fathers intended. They wanted impeachment to be rare. They set a high bar for impeachment, treason, bribery, high crimes and misdemeanors. Alleged abuse of power. The first article is not a high crime and misdemeanor. In fact, its not even a crime. And since there is no concise Legal Definition of abuse of power, the Majority Party in the house can designate nearly any disagreement with the president from now on in impeachment offense. The second article alleged obstruction of congress would produce a similarly dangerous precedent. Asserting executive privilege a practice that began with George Washington is not obstruction of congress. Rather, its a function of the essential checks and balances contemplated under the constitution. Heres what nearly every Grade School Student in america knows, but apparently House Democrats
do not. If congress disagree
Office, no members of the president s party would cast a vote to actually convict him of the articles of impeachment and remove him from office. No senator from the president s party would vote to convict him. That was the one president ial impeachment we had in the 1800s. In the 19th century. Then we had one president ial impeachment in the next century. In the 1900s, the impeachment of president bill clinton. And again, like when Andrew Johnson, it was mostly a Party Line Vote in the house. When the house voted to impeach him. When they passed the articles of impeachment against president clinton. Mostly party line. Just a few crossovers. But when those articles of impeachment went over to the u. S. Senate and they had to vote there on whether or not to convict him and remove him from office, just like it was with president Andrew Johnson in the previous century, the exact same pattern helped. No member of president clintons own party would cast a vote to actually convict him on any