Page 11 - House Process News Today

Capitol, it was on cable news on sean hannitys show. senator mitch mcconnell went out and said there is no chance this president is going to be impeached. i tell you in my conversations and i had several with white house sources overnight who said, yeah, the public tone is were deferring to mcconnell. mcconnell says were deferring to the white house. everybody publicly is playing very nice in this process. you heard the congressman say senator mcconnell is supposed to be a juror so how can he be...

Voted for these articles of impeachment, the articles were going to likely pass. the question then became the opportunity for both parties to make their case to the american public, and thats the relevance of the cameras as well. obviously it was pretty clear from what we have been hearing during the impeachment debates that the republicans were making absolute and justified, meaning that is their right as a party, to try to make sure that they can make their case. i think the problem here is it...

I hope that is still the case. i dont know anything more about those discussions. but lets see going forward. >> before i let you go, were now approaching the end of the house process. you have a series of recent polls that show public opinion really hasnt moved that much as this has all unfolded. why do you think that is and is it a concern politically for your party? >> at this point i think that we have to put the constitution over politics and our country over party. i think we just have to ...

The president at the ballot box, so that is why theyre taking these actions. but you heard adam schiff today say that they feel as though they need to act quickly to make sure that the president doesnt cheat in another election. so the election is a key theme here. also in this statement from the prerve press secretary, stephanie grisham, she says, the president will address these charges in the senate and expects to be full yip exonerated because he did nothing wrong. im told at this point that...

In any of this. do republican lawmakers think that is a good strategy? >> yeah. i think the republicans generally think the senate is going to be a better forum in which trump can get a chance to make his defense in a more sympathetic atmosphere. the senate is led by the gop. i think the gop members of the house have been basically ready to write it off since the get-go. theyve been arguing it is illegitimate, biased, procedurally questionable. i dont think there is any sore feelings on the repu...

The white house is not going to participate in the impeachment hearing process happening now in the house. they rejected an offer from democrats to present any type of defense for president trump during the house process. >> yeah. in a strongly-worded letter. the white house counsel called the proceedings baseless, reckless, and a charade. joining us now is kristin holmes. no one expected the white house to participate. so no big surprise here. >> reporter: thats right. we have to keep two thing...

Deadline. >> i dont know why they would want to participate at this stage. the process from their viewpoint has not been fair, why legitimate it right now? why not get back to what they consider be a level playing field where they can punch back with some strength. >> everybody is watching, why not go out and make your case? >> why not make your case in territory that is fair to you, that is familiar to you come over you think you can get a fair shake. theyre not going to get that on the house p...

Us about it. we want to hear your explanation. >> absolutely. and the president has argued all along that he has done nothing wrong here, that it was totally legitimate. but he and his colleagues have received to participate in this process and theyve thrown up all these procedural complaints, closed-door hearings. then we had open hearings. now his lawyers have a chance to participate. every time they have procedural objections, he declines to meet them. >> this is an interesting point. our pol...

Thats not fair if we dont from the point of view of the white house. again they feel like this. if you read pat cipollones letter look back at the president and he and the white house laid out. they are making the argument how this is not how things were done and thats how they are giving themselves a leg up on democrats here and putting themselves in position to make that argument. >> the intelligence committee expected to view chairman schiffs report later today. what does that process going t...

You cant block anything from us. the president seizing on something a little different than what zelensky has to say. the complaint from the president is that dems are moving forward even while hes out of the country, despite, as jeff points out, these things have been moving on parallel tracks. >> youre exactly right and theres no sense that the president is going to go to congress, to capitol hill. he has lots of aides, he has attorneys. some of those people obviously are not going to nato wit...