. ♪ good morning, everyone. this morning, new details about the police reaction to last week's deadly school shooting in florida. we've learned an armed school resource deputy resigned after failing to confront the shooter. plus, president trump goes into his details about school safety including arming school teachers. and a new indictment hits paul manafort and rick gates with tax and bank fraud charges. it's just the latest in robert mueller's russia investigation. ♪ snoelths ♪ good morning, everyone. it's friday, february 23rd. i'm ayman mohyeldin.
police, a failure if in communication led police to believe they were tracking the shooter realtime when they were watching footage delayed by about 20 minutes. in the wake of the shooting, the fbi says it is trying to rebuild public trust after failing to pass on a tip about cruz to agents in florida. president trump is backing a series of new gun control measures during a white house meeting about school safety yesterday. the president gave new details the about a controversial proposal to train and arm some teachers to carry guns in the classroom. for president trump, more guns, not fewer, could be what stops students from getting shot if those weapons are in the hands of some teachers. >> we have to harden our schools, not soften them up. a gun free zone to a killer or somebody that want to be a killer, that's like a going in for the ice cream.
that's like here i am, take me. >> in his second school safety session this week, the president is pushing a concept that certainly properly trained educators should be allowed to carry concealed weapons. >> these are experts. these would be people that actually would want them. they're not going to walk into a school if 20% of the teachers have guns. it may be 10% or it may be 40%. what i'd recommend doing is the people that do carry, we give them a bonus. we give them a little bit of a bonus. >> if 20% of public school teachers were armed, that would work out to more than 600,000 teachers nationwide. >> how are are schools supposed to pay for bonuses for armed teachers? >> i think if we find the policy solutions that make the most sense, we can get by in four. we'll figure out these other pieces that you outline. >> right now, eight states as cross the country let teachers carry concealed weapons, including oklahoma where this sign warns people have staff members can be armed.
but the national education association opposes this. in parkland, florida, where 17 people were killed last week, stoneman douglas teacher greg pitman who owns a gun but keeps it at home he worries about arming teachers. >> the president wants to raise the age when people can buy semi automatic weapons. >> we're going to work on getting the age up to 21 instead of 18. >> but that pits the president against the national rival association who says this will deprive people of their constitutional right to self-protection. >> thank you very much. i don't think i'll be going up against them. i really think the nra wants to do what's right. >> some republicans are now signaling support for raising the age limit of certain gun pure casss, but the white house says a more sweeping proposal to ban semi automatic weapons altogether is not something president trump would back right
conference. >> legacy media. >> game comey and loretta lynch, the people at think progress, dianne feinstein. >> nancy pelosi, bernie.sanders, camala harris, bill de blasio, andrew como. >> these intellectual leads -- black lives matter -- cory booker, christopher murphy and keith ellison. george soros, michael bloomberg, tom steier. young democratic socialists, carl marx. the national media. save speech songs. berkeley. some hollywood gala, nbc, the "new york times," "the washington post." >> i think it might have been shorter just to say who was not on that list. in his remarks, lapiere declared the nra for law enforcement and spoke about government agencies
get so close to the president even though he had all these pre-existing issues through his work in the ukraine, but now i think the perception is sort of baked in that manafort did a lot of bad things before he joined the trump team and some slight tweaks to the indictments against him doesn't change that perception. >> let's switch gears and talk about this national debate taking place around gun control, gun policy, what have you. and obviously, a lot of vocal voices there, a lot of new proposals being bounced around, some even wanting to go back to the assault weapons ban. is legislative action possible, given the nra's strong stance on this issue? >> i think that you are seeing more opportunities for legislative action right now than you have a lot of times before. you've seen more republicans open to at least a debate about bipartisan legislation that addressed background checks and efficiencies that addresses age
limits, that looks at different kinds of proposals that have usually been confined to the left. that's why president trump's voice is so important on this because there's a lot of overlap between members of his base who are going to listen to the president and support whatever positions he takes and the kinds of people who would resist those bipartisan measures. so president trump coming out and saying, you know, on the issue of age limits, we may not support what the nra does here on some of these background check issues. we're going to press ahead whether or not the nra is with us. that's a key component of this discussion. >> we know that on the first day of cpac, guns dominated the agenda, many focussing in on that. but what are we expected to hear? what are some of the other big topics that we're expected to hear on the agenda for cpac this weekend? >> well, i think that cpac is something of a victory lap for the trump administration touting what it perceives as its biggest accomplishments over the past year, whether that's
deregulation, tax reform, revealing the obamacare mandate. this is a conference that this year is all about the trump agenda. there are 12 administration officials that will be speaking at the conference nearly all the major speaking slots have gone to people affiliated with president trump and it just shows the extent to which president trump now controls the conservative movement. >> yeah. a lot more news will be coming out of cpac over the next couple of days. we'll check back in with you a little bit later on in the program. stick around for us. still ahead, we're following new report background whether national security adviser h.r. mcmaster may be on his way out of the trump white house. plus, in the south and the midwest, flash flooding alerts as heavy rains cause rivers to rise. we'll have a full check on the weekend forecast when we come back. stay with us.
could soon be on his way out. a cnn report says the pentagon is considering options to move the three-star general out of his current role at the white house and back into the military possibly with a promotion to become a four-star general. nbc has not confirmed this reporting, but other outlets have reported that president trump has been irritated with mcmaster for months now culminating with mcmaster's statement regarding the 2016 election that happened last weekend. trump rebuke mcmaster on twitter. a pentagon spokesperson responds in the quote, quote, general mcmaster works for president trump. any decision with regards to staff, the white house will make those determinations. let's switch gears for a moment and talk about weather with meteorologist bill karins. we're back in a cold swing, right?
and and it's soggy. a lot of rain out there this morning and into the weekends. this morning, heaviest rains continue to be northeast texas. the state of arkansas is soaked. there is river flooding ongoing. we have a wintry mess up around minneapolis, wisconsin and a little bit on of ice in central wisconsin, too. now some of that rain is trying to push its way to the great lakes. eventually all of this rain is going to head into the northeast today. for today, 33 million people still under a flash flood watch. where you see the balloon along interstate 10, we have a flash flood warning. southwest of little rock and right along the ohio river, we are expecting some major flooding on the ohio river as it snakes its way through west virginia a as we go into sunday and monday. keep that in mind. so additional rainfall. keep in mind, it's rained 4 to 6 inches in these places. another 1 to 3 inches from dallas through louisville, columbus, back to pittsburgh, we'll get about an inch of rain around new york city as we go throughout friday and saturday. sunday looks better.
today's forecast, heavy rain, north texas to the ohio valley. temperatures cold and chilly in the 40s with that rain. upstate new york could get wintry weather with this. still the warmth going on in florida. very warm. saturday, watch out. we could get some severe thunderstorms. if the flooding is not bad enough, severe thunderstorms on top the of that in areas of arkansas to the ohio valley, maybe heavy snow for areas like omaha. watch out in des moines, minneapolis as we go through saturday night and then into sunday, that soggy mess on the eastern seaboard. so we still are continuing with our active weather pattern. but no signs of any, like, real brutal cold, but not exactly enjoyable. >> but a messi weekend nonetheless on the east coast. bill karins, thanks for that. evangelist and presidential pastor billy graham will lie in honor at the u.s. capital next week. house speaker paul ryan announced the decision yesterday saying he and senate majority leader mitch mcconnell will take part in a service honoring the
late preacher. the tradition of using their tribute started in 1972. reverend graham's casket is set to to remain in the rotunda through march 1st. we have much more ahead. stay with us. but now that she's taking osteo bi-flex, she's noticing a real difference in her joint comfort. with continued use, it supports increased flexibility over time. karen: "she's single." it also supports wonderfully high levels of humiliation in her daughter. karen: "she's a little bit shy." in just 7 days, your joint comfort can be your kid's discomfort. osteo bi-flex. you were made to move. so move. hnew litter?lled this no. nobody has! it's unscented! (vo) new tidy cats free & clean unscented. powerful odor control with activated charcoal. free of dyes. free of fragrances. tidy cats free & clean. when no scents makes sense.
starting with the latest from the olympics, team usa led by john schuster is now poised for a medal after upsetting canada yesterday. it looks like usa has a chance to claim the gold. they will square off this morning against sweden. despite the loss, our neighbors to the north had a good day. they claimed six medals overall, including figure skater kaitlin osland. meanwhile, the three u.s. skaters in the same competition, they did not reach the podium. we knew that was going to happen after a bad short program. they finished 9 through 11 overall with this struggles in the previous round carrying into yesterday. the stars of the ice, the russians. alina zagitova barely bested her
training partner edging out for the gold. imagine that, 15 years old. she was only in like fifth grade in the last olympics. norway leads in the overall medal count, canada second, germany and then usa with 21 medals total. for a drexel university story, it might be impressive. they were losing 53-19. before the end of the first half against delaware. with our math wizards out there, that's -- >> 34. >> 34-point deficit. the drexel players must have thought, that's a nice lead that you have there, delaware. it would be a shame if something really bad happened and we made a huge comeback. they began the second half with an 18-point run. they came back and they won. 85-83. now, the reason we're telling you all this, that sets the record for the largest comeback victory in men's division 1
history. caps off to drexel. and capping off our sports coverage, the reigning nba champions, the golden state warriors, are set to visit the nation's capital. president trump withdrew the now traditional invitation after several players, including steph curry were critical of his administration. instead, the warriors head coach steve kerr let the players determine how they wanted to spend their visit. the players decided they wanted to spend time with local kids, according to es the pn. making a powerful statement there. to be fair, steph curry came out and said he would not go to the white house before president trump withdrew that invitation. how about alina zigatova. she could be dominating that sport for years to come. >> she could easily go to two
more olympics. still ahead, what is being done to fight gun violence in the wake of last week's shooting in florida. plus, just how serious are the charges against paul manafort and rick gates in the russia probe? we'll tell you about that coming up next. puts me at greater risk for heart attack or stroke. can one medicine help treat both blood sugar and cardiovascular risk? i asked my doctor. she told me about non-insulin victoza®. victoza® is not only proven to lower a1c and blood sugar, but for people with type 2 diabetes treating their cardiovascular disease, victoza® is also approved to lower the risk of major cv events such as heart attack, stroke, or death. while not for weight loss, victoza® may help you lose some weight. (announcer) victoza® is not for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. do not take victoza® if you have a personal or family history of medullary thyroid cancer, multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2,
or if you are allergic to victoza® or any of its ingredients. stop taking victoza® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck or symptoms of a serious allergic reaction such as rash, swelling, difficulty breathing, or swallowing. serious side effects may happen, including pancreatitis. so stop taking victoza® and call your doctor right away if you have severe pain in your stomach area. tell your doctor your medical history. gallbladder problems have happened in some people. tell your doctor right away if you get symptoms. taking victoza® with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. common side effects are nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, decreased appetite, indigestion, and constipation. side effects can lead to dehydration, which may cause kidney problems. change the course of your treatment. ask your doctor about victoza®.
yesterday in the wake of last week's deadly high school shooting. the president listened to a series of proposals. i will tell you, background checks, i've called many senators last night, many congressmen, and jeff and pam and everybody in this room, i can tell you, curtis, they're into doing background checks that they wouldn't be the thinking about maybe two weeks ago. we're going to do strong background checks. we're going to work on getting the age up to 21 instead of 18. and we're getting rid of the bump stocks and we're going to be focussing very strongly on mental health. because here is a case of mental health. now, on the issue of raising the age limit on gun purchases, the president said that he and the nra are on the same page. >> so they buy a revolver, a handgun, they buy at the age of
21. yesterday these oth yet these other weapons we talk about, they're allowed to buy them at 18. how does that make sense? how does that make sense? i say it should all be at 21. but we're not really talking the about money. we're talking about common sense. and it's a great thing. and the nra will back it. i really feel very confident. the nra will back it and so will congress and so will the senate. >> but on wednesday, the nra released a statement reading in part, legislative proposal toes that prevent law-abiding adults age 18 to 20 years old from acquire rifles and shotguns effectively prohibits them for purchasing any firearm, thus depriving them of their constitutional right to self-protection. the notion of arming schools originated with the nra. now the president is giving that idea a new military and monetary twist. watch this. >> frankly, you have teachers that are marines for 20 years, they retire and they become a
teacher. they're army, navy, air force, they're coast guard, they're people that have -- the they want certain highly adept people, people that understand weaponry, guns, if they really have that aptitude. because not everybody has an aptitude for a gun, but if they have the aptitude, i think a concealed permit for having teachers and letting people know that there are people in the building with guns, in my opinion, you won't have these shootings because these people are cowards. and what i'd recommend doing is the people that do carry, we give them a bonus. we give them a little bit of a bonus. frankly, they would feel more comfortable having the gun, anyway. but you give them a little bit of a bonus. so practically for free, you have now made the school into a hardened target. >> all right. so wile the president wants to arm properly trained educators, he does not supportive shooter drills inside schools.
the president met with local and state officials at the white house yesterday to discuss school safety and had this exchange of the commissioner of the florida department of education. >> we are required to have a fire drill in schools once a month. we are not required to have active shooter drills. and so a practice like that where you put something like that into place -- >> but active shooter drills is a very negative thing, i'll be honest with you. if i'm a child and i'm 10 years old and they say we're going to have an active shooter drill, i say what's that? people may come in and shoot you. i think that's a very negative thing to be talking about, to be honest with you. i don't like it. i'd much rather have a hardened school. i don't like it. i wouldn't want to tell my son that you're going to participate in an active shooter drill. >> well, president trump defended the national rifle
association yesterday writing what many people don't understand or don't want to understand is that wayne, chris cox and the folks who work so hard at the nra are great people and great american patriots. they love our country and will do the right thing. now, in their remarks, the president and the nra ceo appeared to be on on the same page. watch this. >> we must immediately harden our schools. >> we have to harden our schools. >> so-called gun-free zones that are wide open targets. >> it is such a target for the killer. they look for gun-free zones. >> it should not be easier for a madman to shoot up a school than a bank -- >> i want my schools protected just like my banks are protected, just like everything else. >> the national rifle association originated the national instant check system. >> they actually came up with certain of the rules and regulations that we have now. >> similar talking points there. so the governors of four
northeast states say they are banning together to stop gun violence. new jersey, new york, rhode island and connecticut banned together allow states to share data on gun suspects and gun registries and to create new research to fill what they call a vacuum of federal action. new york governor andrew cuomo had this to say about why the states created the coalition. >> the recognition is we're not going to wait for the federal government. i don't believe they're going to do anything meaningful. i think at best they take some ip k incremental measures which are just political crumbs to throw out to the crowd. meanwhile, yesterday a bill was passed in oregon banning anyone from stalking convictions to own a firearm. the loophole allowed abusers who
weren't married or living with their abuser to own a gun. the bill will head to the desk of kate brown who tweeted yesterday she will sign it into law. coming up, we're going to be joined by governor kate law and governor john hick.enlooper to discuss this year. robert mueller files news charge against robert manafort and rick gates. julie ansley has more now. how big of of a deal are these new charges against these two men? >> so yes, this was a big development. rm, there were already charges against robert mueller and his deputy, rick gates. so this came as a surprise that mueller would be going back and adding even more charges against them. this stems from money laundering where $75 million were funneled through off-shore accounts and brought into the united states through real estate dealings. robert gates helped his boss,
paul manafort, hide a lot of that money and now it's clear that robert mueller is trying to come back and get more because of those charges. this puts us in an interesting place in the timeline of the investigation. we sort of thought robert mueller was working from the outside in from people inside the trump campaign and he would flip them and once he had already gotten them on an indictment or gotten them to cooperate, he would be moving forward to the next fish. well, now he's circling back. so what this says to us is a few things. one is that it doesn't seem that rick gates is about to plead guilty or cooperate like we thought he was last week and it also shows that robert mueller might not just be after this to get inside to the inner circle of the white house. he's also really in the interest of trying to find justice here. he wants to make sure that everyone who he has investigated faces their day in court and is
investigated for all of the crimes that they may have committed. >> all right. julia, thank you very much for that. and back with us now from washington is white house reporter for the washington examiner, sarah westwood. good to have you back with us. let's talk about these indictments with, talk about what president trump might do, somehow floated the idea that the president could pardon manafort, gates, even michael flynn, as well. is this something the white house is seriously considering? how much support do you think there is out there for a presidential pardon? and if so, what would it mean, really, for -- what kind of message would it send to the mueller investigation? >> i don't think there's a serious discussion in the white house right now going on about a pardoning any of the people so far who have been charged in the mueller probe. that's because we don't know if mueller is finished with these people. you look at what's happening just this week.the the we're having new charges filed against paul manafort and rick gates, even though they were charged initially weeks ago. and i think there's a recognition in the white house
that if president trump were to use his pardon authority to spare people who clearly did something wrong from the legal troubles that most people out there think they deserve, that could be disastrous politically and it is not easy to see what the gain would be for president trump, particularly because someone like paul manafort is not someone swo a long time loyalist or a personal friends, but someone briefly affiliated with the trump campaign. let's switch gears for a moment and ask you about cpac. you've noted something that's pretty interesting, one of the most notable absences this year from the cpac meeting is steve bannon. it seems like he's fallen out of grace among the conservative movement, certainly the white house. walk us through that. what's behind that? >> well, steve bannon is an interesting case when it comes to cpac. he's not someone who was a regular cpac presence before last year. when, as you probably remember, he was a headliner sitting on the stage with reince priebus
and matt schlapp. this year, he will not be at cpac at all. he won't even set foot in the building. and it just shows the shifts that the president's team has gone through in the past year, that many of the people who represented the president's agenda in an official capacity last year at cpac are to longer affiliated with the administration. >> that's pretty interesting to see his fall from grace there, especially ahead of the midterm elections and what that means for the political party. let's talk about security clearances at the white house. jared kushner is still reportedly being held up the by the white house. the white house is saying that will not impact his role, the fact that he does not have that security clearance. what is the outlook for kushner's role as a top adviser? he deals with the middle east. there's a lot of sensitive intelligence reports that come out of the middle east. he's not going to have access to those according to john kelly. it's going to have an impact on his ability to do the role at least in the middle east peace negotiations department. >> absolutely. we could see a reduction in his
portfolio, scaling it back to perhaps some of his items day-to-day that don't involve classified information, how government operates is something that kushner initially took on presumably that wouldn't involve so much classified information. and this may just be a temporary setback for kushner. obviously, his influence comes from his proximity to the trump family in a lot of ways. he's also considered to be a very competent aide, as well. i think this could be a temporary setback until his security clearance is adjudicated, but it's not clear that's even possible given how long it's taken so far. >> that's a good point. even more than a year and still no security clearance on that particular front. thanks. and turning overseas, the bloodshed in the syrian city of eastern ghouta continues among the bombing. moscow has halted a temporary stop to the violence. the u.n. security council unable yet to pass a resolution that would have imposed a 30-day
cease-fire in syria thanks to steadfast opposition by russia. now, if it had passed, the resolution would have allowed humanitarian aid to reach viflans trapped in that city. war planes continued to besiege the city. it claimed the lives of 42 people there with the death toll now closing in on 400 people in less than a week. this is new video from volunteer rescue workers known as the white helmets. it shows members of the group work to go save those injured in the attacks in the remnants of an absolutely ravaged city. there were so many images that were heartbreaking and coming out on social media yesterday. we're going to switch gears for a moment and talk about the business world. here is an interesting story for you. kylie jenner proving just how powerful she is on social media, erasing $1 billion from snapchat's stock value with a single tweet. plus, widespread flooding
across the southern u.s. and midwest has brought widespread flooding and deaths. we're going to have the forecast for the days ahead. stay with us. it's 6 am. 40 million americans are waking up to a gillette shave. and at our factory in boston, more than a thousand workers are starting their day building on over a hundred years of heritage, craftsmanship and innovation. today we're bringing you america's number one shave at lower prices every day. putting money back in the pockets of millions of americans.
as one of those workers, i'm proud to bring you gillette quality for less, because nobody can beat the men and women of gillette. gillette - the best a man can get. don't we need that cable box to watch tv? nope. don't we need to run? nope. it just explodes in a high pitched 'yeahhh.' yeahhh! try directv now for $10 a month for 3 months. no satellite needed.
we're going to extend the heavy rain along the ohio river valley back towards pittsburgh as we go through the weekend. the ohio river is going to start going into major flood stage as it borders west virginia and ohio as we head into sunday and monday. that will be a developing story to see how high it gets and how much damage is done to the properties along it. this is the rainfall forecast through sunday morning. there's one bull's eye. that will extend today up through areas around the mississippi river where it meets the ohio river, louisville, lexington, columbus. even new york city gets about an inch of rain out of this. friday into the feast, another one saturday afternoon and saturday evening. a lot of people will have a wet weekend. this heavier rain down here through the georgia mountains, at all be as we head towards saturday night into sunday. so the different seasons, it's still winter in the west. they've been very cold. it continues that way. feels like early spring still in the east. temperatures very warm today. chicago, 47. pittsburgh, 62.
atlanta, 77 today. while we're only 16 in rapid city, even phoenix is only going to be 60 degrees. by their standards, that's chilly. saturday, the same thing. nashville, 74. mississippi, 79. new york city up to 56. again, the eastern half of the country is still much warmer than the west. and into next week, it still stays mild. 60s into philadelphia. jacksonville, florida, mid 80s on sunday. so ayman, you know, it's not as crazy warm in the east as it was, but considering how it's still mid to end of february, still well above normal. >> hopefully we'll get some clear skies in the days ahead. >> that's the problem. rainy. taking a look at some of the morning's business headlines for you, toys r us is reportedly planning to close another 200 stores. the anticipated positive by the retailer would follow the announcement last month that it was closing 180 locations. the journal says a disthe aa pointing holiday sales season was part of the reasoning for the additional store closings. the paper adds layoffs could be
in excess of 9,000 and that the company has now walked back from a promise to provide severance to its employees. and check this story out. talk about the power of social media. shares of snapchat shed as much as $1..7 billion in market value in after hours trading yesterday on the heels of a single tweet from kylie jenner. the whole message posing a simple question to her 24.5 million followers, ran just 18 words. she wrote, so does anyone else not open snapchat any more or is it just me. ugh, this is so sad. we hear you, kylie. that equated to more than $72 million lost per word for the company that jenner actively uses to market her businesses and sponsored partnerships. this is according to ink.com. the 20-year-old's musings were met from replies which meant more bad news for snapchat. shares were on track forrer their worst week since november
of 2017. the app received widespread user backlash. snapchat did rebound slightly, but only after the reality tv star clarified that the app was still her first the app was still her first love. a missouri governor is indicted over an extramarital affair. what he's saying about his future in office amid growing calls to resign. plus, remember when president trump lashed out against oprah winfrey? oprah is speaking out on his tweet saying she's insecure and biased. the action she took following his criticism. trails are covered. paths aren't what they used to be. roads nowhere to be found. ( ♪ ) and it's exactly what you're looking for. ( ♪ )
and it's exactly what you're looking for. nahelps protect eyes fromue damaging blue light, filtering it out to help you continue enjoying your screens. or... you could just put your phones down and talk to each other. [laughing] nature's bounty lutein blue. because you're better off healthy. we all want restful sleep. that's why nature's bounty melatonin is made to help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer. so you'll be ready for whatever tomorrow brings. because mom's love is unconditional. even at 6am. nature's bounty melatonin. we're all better off healthy.
welcome back, everyone. the governor of missouri has been formally charged in blackmail allegations. he was indicted by a grand jury yesterday for felony invasion of privacy for allegedly taking a compromising photo of a woman with whom he had an affair back in 2015 before he was elected. the attorney launched a criminal investigation of the allegations last month shortly after they became public and following their indictment slamming the prosecutor. he wrote in part as i i have said before i made a personal mistake before i was governor. i did not commit a crime. my confidence in our system is shattered but not broken. the people of missouri deserve better than a reckless liberal
prosecutor who uses her office to score points. as he continues to defy calls for his resignation a number of lawmakers are renewing the potential for impeachment that would force the governor out of office. the house will begin investigation against him. and oprah winfrey is responding to the president's recent tweet calling her insecure and biased. >> i woke up and just like -- >> yeah. >> and i don't -- i don't like giving negativity power so i just thought, what? what i actually really did was i went back and looked at the tape to see if there was any place that that could be true, did i feel like --
>> like i was slanted or biased. >> i went back and looked at every tape. i called the producer. >> the late tweet following 60 minutes report in which oprah moderated a panel of voters. she fielded the discussion including the me too movement, immigration and trump's stability and fitness for office. speculation that winfrey might run for office reached a fevered pitch earlier this year and the mogul insists she is not running. in defending her segment winfrey also said she doesn't like giving negativity power as you heard in that segment. >> coming up, president trump seeks to find solution in the latest school shooting in this country as he defends the idea of arming teachers with guns. and zem cattdemocratic sena weigh in on what they say needs to happen. and kate brown of oregon discuss
the steps they're taking in their steps to stop gun violence. live from washington, d.c., "morning joe" is just moments away. you might take something for your heart... or joints. but do you take something for your brain. with an ingredient originally found in jellyfish,
prevagen is the number one selling brain-health supplement in drug stores nationwide. prevagen. the name to remember. if you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, little things can be a big deal. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats psoriasis differently. with otezla, 75% clearer skin is achievable after just 4 months, ... with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. and the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. otezla may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. tell your doctor if these occur. otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts, or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. other side effects include upper respiratory tract infection and headache. tell your doctor about all the medicines you take
and if you're pregnant or planning to be. ♪ otezla. show more of you. 7joining her daughter'st tyoga class.ut she was thinking about her joints. but now that she's taking osteo bi-flex, she's noticing a real difference in her joint comfort. with continued use, it supports increased flexibility over time. karen: "she's single." it also supports wonderfully high levels of humiliation in her daughter. karen: "she's a little bit shy." in just 7 days, your joint comfort can be your kid's discomfort. osteo bi-flex. you were made to move. so move.
welcome back. let's get a check on the stories i'm going to be watching throughout the day. president trump is set to address a crowd this morning. the president's speech follows one by vice president mike pence at the annual gathering yesterday and after he speaks the president will hold a joint news conference at the white house this afternoon. in florida, first responders on the scene of last week's school shooting will speak to the community of parkland, florida. police officers and medical technicians will be amongst those to share their stories. meanwhile teachers and staff members have the option of returning to the school today for the first time since the shooting. students are scheduled to be back on wednesday. that does it for us on this friday morning. "morning joe" starts right now.
the pet did not survive the flight. and what the airline is now saying tonight. good evening. and it's great to have you with us here on a very busy tuesday night. that massive storm hitting at this hour, but first tonight, the storm swirling inside president trump's cabinet. president trump firing secretary of state rex tillerson, and doing so in a tweet. the president firing tillerson, then calling him several hours later from air force one. the president naming cia director mike pompeo as the new secretary of state. and look at the wall tonight. at the top there, tillerson fired. he was not the only one fired at the state department today. the undersecretary of state, steve goldstein, who tweeted that tillerson did not know the firing was coming, he was then fired, too. in addition to all of the vacancies that already exist at the top of the state department. and so, we begin tonight with abc's chief white house correspondent jonathan karl. >> reporter: president trump is in california today, reviewing prototypes of the border wall he
hopes to build. a trip overshadowed by what he did early this morning, firing his secretary of state, on twitter, no less. "mike pompeo, director of the cia, will become our new secretary of state," the president declared. "thank you to rex tillerson for his service!" as he left the white house, the president explained he just didn't see eye-to-eye with his secretary of state. >> rex and i have been talking about this for a long time. we got along actually quite well but we disagreed on things. >> reporter: as for his new choice for top diplomat? >> tremendous energy, tremendous intellect. we're always on the same wavelength. >> reporter: tillerson's day began flying back from africa, landing in washington at 4:00 a.m. at 8:44, seeing the tweet that the president had fired him. and minutes after that, his spokesman putting out a statement saying tillerson had wanted to stay on the job, adding, "the secretary did not speak to the president and is
a moron, and then refused to deny making the comment. >> i'm not going to deal with petty stuff like that. >> reporter: that prompted trump to call tillerson weak. >> sometimes i'd like him to be a little bit tougher, but other than that, we have a very good relationship. >> reporter: and the president even suggested, quote, "i guess we'll have to compare iq tests. and i can tell you who is going to win." adding to all the drama, the president today hinted there may be more firings to come. >> i'm really at a point where we're getting very close to having the cabinet and other things that i want. >> so, let's get to jon karl with us live tonight from the white house. and jon, as you know, tillerson today did not mention president trump by name other than mentioning that phone call from air force one. but he did urge state department officials to move forward with, quote, honesty and integrity, were the words he chose today. but jon, while we have you, there's another shakeup to get to tonight, after the departures of hope hicks, rob porter, two very close aides, a third aide, you've learned, escorted out of the white house? >> reporter: this was one of the
confirmed assistant secretary for east asia, no ambassador to south korea, and no special representative for north korea policy. he left just before the meeting was announced. so, all of the key people at state responsible for the region are in acting or interim positions. but maybe mike pompeo can change all that, david. >> speaking of mike pompeo, the choice to succeed him, to run the cia, will be gina haspel, the first woman to run the spy agency. but martha, she didn't come without controversy, either. >> reporter: she doesn't. gina haspel was in charge of one of the cia black sites, where they did so-called enhanced interrogation, including waterboarding of al qaeda operative abu zubaydah, who was waterboarded nearly 80 times. she is no doubt going to be asked about that during confirmation hearings. david? >> all right, martha raddatz live at our washington bureau tonight. martha, thank you. also at this hour, the massive storm hitting right now. the third nor'easter to slam into the east coast in less than two weeks. blizzard conditions across new england at this hour, several
big rig accidents blocking highways, including i-290 near shrewsbury, massachusetts. first philly and new york, the system now slamming new england tonight, where up to two feet of snow is possible. winds gusting more than 80 miles per hour. blizzard conditions. and abc's adrienne bankert is in marshfield tonight. >> reporter: tonight, wicked weather. the third nor'easter in less than two weeks arrives in boston, as a full blown blizzard. >> if you're out there traveling on the streets of boston today, be very careful. >> look at the pile of the snow that these snow plows are pushing already. and it takes up lane and a half. >> reporter: in marshfield, the storm surge nearly swallows the few drivers daring to risk venturing out in these coastal towns. live power lines dance in the wind. gusts above 80 miles an hour in some places. power lines arc in orleans, starting fires in sandwich. >> reporter: we are on the south side of sandwich. this giant pine tree has actually fallen over and it was
caught by the power lines. >> reporter: outages hit nearly a quarter of a million customers across the commonwealth. troopers urge residents to stay off the roads. >> not much traffic out here. if you are home, stay there. if you have to go out, take it slow. >> reporter: tractor trailers jackknife on multiple interstates. on the mass pike, the speed limit reduced to just 20 miles per hour. >> that is a truck that has flipped onto its side, right on the pike. obviously, a scary situation out here and a testament to just how slippery the roads are. >> reporter: air travel not any easier. boston's airport, a ghost town. about 75% of flights canceled. crews use fire to keep commuter rail switches from freezing. and plow trains to keep the tracks clear. >> so, let's get to adrienne, she's live tonight in a very windy and wet marshfield, massachusetts. we're really thinking about the people of new england tonight, because we know officials have told you, it could be once again several days before the power comes back.
>> reporter: yes, david. they're calling this a multi-day restoration. residents are weary, so are crews. they've been working nonstop through these three nor'easters. now, residents in coastal towns like marshfield, they are watching the tide here and it is still snowing. we could see another half a foot of snow overnight. david? >> wow. those waving churning water behind you. get back inside, adrienne. thank you. let's get right to senior meteorologist rob marciano, he's live along new york's west side highway tonight. a bit of different scene, as people head home here, rob. >> reporter: certainly is, new york relatively unscathed, but eastern new england, as you saw, still getting pounded with that blizzard right now. the radar still thick with snow, the winds are howling, in some cases, gusting over 80 miles an hour. we'll get another 6 to 12 inches, as adrienne said, tonight, and behind that, cold, blustery, snow showers all day long for much of the northeast. and that cold air goes all the way down into the deep south once again. freeze watches and warnings with temps getting down near freezing. teens for wind chills. and this active pattern continues. dare i say, the potential for
another nor'easter, the beginning of next week. david? >> all right, we'll be tracking that, as well, unfortunately. rob, thank you. we're going to turn next tonight to the deadly bus crash in alabama. a high school band traveling back home from disney world to houston. police say the driver of the charter bus was killed when the bus veered off interstate 10 there, plunging down a 50-foot ravine. there are multiple injuries tonight, and here's abc's steve osunsami. >> i'm going to need some help. we got a full charter bus, multiple, multiple injuries. >> reporter: police and fire who raced to the scene are still trying to figure out tonight why the driver of this tour bus lost control. add screaming children to this image of tossed pillows and stuffed animals, and this is what they saw. >> we need some blankets and some gloves. anything warm. we're getting hypothermia setting in. >> reporter: the bus was on the way home to texas, carrying the channelview high school band, seen here. they had just finished a trip to disney world, when police say their driver ran over a median
and fell 50 feet down a ravine on i-10 near the alabama/florida state line. the driver, seen here, was killed. 37 people, most of them students, had to be rushed to the closest hospitals. some had to be physically cut out of the bus. >> i don't know exactly how many, maybe two or three, that had to be cut out. >> reporter: our station in houston was there when one of the students called home. >> some students were stuck under seats, some were on top of other students. >> reporter: federal investigators have a team looking into this tonight. the tour bus operator says that their driver, who died here, was a long-time employee and that they're cooperating with authorities. david? >> steve osunsami again tonight. we also have new developments here in the urgent search for a possible serial bomber in austin, texas. as we reported last night, three package bombs exploding, two people killed. those packages left on doorsteps. and what we learned late today. abc's alex perez in austin. >> reporter: investigators in austin tonight desperately
chasing a suspected serial bomber. >> we are going to follow up on every lead. >> reporter: anxiety gripping the city after three packages exploded, killing two. >> everybody's on guard, everybody's real suspicious if there's any packages. >> reporter: emergency officials flooded with more than 265 calls of suspicious packages. >> package near the ground, or on the ground near the mailboxes. >> please advise her not to mess with it. >> reporter: this is the home where the first bombing occurred back on march 2nd. you can see the impact, the power, ripping right through this wall, blowing out the door. authorities tell abc news the explosive devices were constructed with nuts, bolts and nails, generating shrapnel. and were triggered to explode when picked up. >> the fact that they have been able to not only build these bombs, but then travel with them and deploy them to the target locations without them exploding shows they do have a certain level of sophistication. >> reporter: and tonight, the youngest victim identified. 17-year-old draylon mason, a
dedicated student with a passion for music. the reward for any information leading to an arrest in this case, now up to $65,000. david? >> alex perez tonight. alex, thank you. overseas at this hour, to england, and 24 hours after british prime minister theresa may demanded that russia answer for the nerve agent attack on a former russian spy and his daughter, a new mystery unfolding tonight. another person dead. authorities say russian exile nikolai glushkov was found dead in his home in london. police listing his death as unexplained. counterterrorism officers have taken charge of the investigation as a precaution tonight. back home now, and to tonight's pivotal special election in pennsylvania. the high stakes battle for a congressional seat in a swing state and in a district won by president trump by double digits. the president campaigning for the republican, former vice president joe biden for the democrat. and what this could all mean for november. abc's chief national correspondent tom llamas is there tonight. >> reporter: tonight, a house race in this southwest pennsylvania district could set the tone for the midterms.
polls show the race between republican rick saccone and democrat connor lamb neck and neck, even though republicans have held this seat for 15 years. >> i hate to put this pressure on you, rick, they're all watching. because i won this district, like, by 22 points. it's a lot. >> go out and make sure he wins! >> reporter: on lamb's side, former vice president joe biden. i asked lamb today about his sudden rise. do you think this is because people really like you or do you think they're really upset with the president? >> hopefully, it's because they like me, and they believe what i've told them, which is that i'm going to work really hard for every single one of them, no matter what party they are. >> reporter: in the last hours of this campaign, saccone delivering this baseless claim about democrats. >> they have a hatred for our president. i tell you, many of them have a hatred for our country. and i tell you some more, my wife and i saw it again today, they have a hatred for god. >> reporter: i asked saccone about this after he voted today. do you believe democrats hate this country and hate god? he wouldn't answer. >> no answer to you, tom.
but you did catch up with both candidates today in this high stakes election? >> reporter: that's right, saccone did answer my question about president trump. he says he's doing a great job and they love him in western pennsylvania. as for lamb, for his part, he told me he's not afraid of the word compromise. he will work with republicans if it helps the people in his district. david? >> tom llamas with us live from pennsylvania. thank you, tom. and to florida tonight. and news this evening about high school shooting suspect nikolas cruz. prosecutors filing formal notice to seek the death penalty for the shooting rampage, killing 17 people at stoneman douglas high school. cruz is scheduled to be arraigned tomorrow. his attorney says cruz is still willing to plead guilty to avoid the death penalty. there is still much more ahead on "world news tonight" this tuesday. the bail bond agent opening fire, shooting a man she was trying to take into custody. her son was right there in the room. and what a court has now ruled. also, the family horror on board a united flight. what happened after a flight attendant told them to put the family dog in the overhead. that pet did not survive. how the airline is responding
tonight. and then, the new surveillance footage. an armed home invasion. a mother and child inside this house. the boy there running for safety. safety. a lot more news ahead. ead. ed non-small cell lung cancer, safety. a lotpreviously treated with platinum-based chemotherapy, including those with an abnormal alk or egfr gene who've tried an fda-approved targeted therapy, who wouldn't want a chance for another...? who'd say no to a...? who wouldn't want a chance to live longer. opdivo (nivolumab). over 40,000 patients have been prescribed opdivo immunotherapy. opdivo can cause your immune system to attack normal organs and tissues in your body and affect how they work. this may happen during or after treatment has ended, and may become serious and lead to death. see your doctor right away if you experience new or worsening cough; chest pain; shortness of breath; diarrhea; severe stomach pain or tenderness; severe nausea or vomiting; extreme fatigue; constipation; excessive thirst or urine; swollen ankles; loss of appetite; rash; itching; headache; confusion;
hallucinations; muscle or joint pain; flushing; fever; or weakness, as this may keep these problems from becoming more serious. these are not all the possible side effect of opdivo. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions, including immune em s,yan organ transplant, or lung, breathing, or liver problems. a chance to live longer. because who wouldn't want...that? ask your doctor about opdivo. thank you to all involved in opdivo clinical trials. vojimmy (shouting): james!as been jimmy's longest. he's survived record rain and a supplier that went belly up. so while he's proud to have helped put a roof over the heads of hundreds of families, he's most proud of the one he's kept over his own. brand vo: get the most out of your money, whether you're using quickbooks smart invoicing to get paid twice as fast or automatically tracking your mileage. smarter business tools for the world's hardest workers. quickbooks. backing you. dinner date...meeting his parents dinner date. why did i want a crest 3d white smile?
so i used crest. crest 3d white removes... ...95% of surface stains in just 3 days... ...for a whiter smile... that will win them over. crest. healthy, beautiful smiles for life. next this evening, united airlines apologizing tonight after a flight attendant told a family to put their dog in the overhead. the dog did not survive the flight. and here's abc's david kerley. >> reporter: kokito was a 10-month-old puppy, a family member. this distraught mother with her two children, forced to carry her dead dog off a jet liner. they were told to put their pet in an overhead bin for the three-hour united flight from houston to new york. another passenger writing on facebook, saying flight attendants "insisted" the carrier with the pup be put in the overhead bin, assuring the dog's safety. >> in all my years of flying, i have never heard of a flight attendant asking or forcing somebody to put an animal in the overhead bin. >> reporter: united appears to agree, in a contrite statement
offering condolences. saying this, quote, "never should have occurred. pets should never be placed in the overhead bin. we assume full responsibility." 18 animals died while being transported by united airlines last year. it carried 138,000. its rate of animals dying, hurt or lost, more than twice that of any of its competitors. experts say, if you want to travel with a pet, know the rules, and talk to the airline before you arrive at the airport. david? >> just an awful story. all right, david kerley, thanks. when we come back here tonight, it's not just the nor'easter hitting tonight. a solar storm set to hit. what you'll see. and that mother, she was a bail bond agent. she opened fire, shooting a man she was trying to take into custody. her son right there next to her. what he then says to his mother, in a moment. standing right next to her. what he then says to his mother, ent. moment. stopping for more pills right now. only aleve has the strength to stop tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill.
tylenol can't do that. aleve. all day strong. all day long. and for pain relief and a good night's rest, try aleve pm for a better am. so lionel, what does 24/5 mean to you?rade well, it means i can trade after the market closes. it's true. so all... evening long. ooh, so close. yes, but also all... night through its entirety. come on, all... the time from sunset to sunrise. right. but you can trade... from, from... from darkness to light. ♪ you're not gonna say it are you? (vo) more "dper rollres for mom" more "doing chores for dad" per roll more "earning something you love" per roll
bounty is more absorbent, so the roll can last 50% longer than the leading ordinary brand. so you get more "life" per roll. bounty the quicker picker upper.
her. she then shoots. >> ow! >> mom! you just shot. >> i did. >> prosecutors charged her with first degree murder. her attorney successfully arguing it was self-defense. a frightening home invasion in milwaukee. three armed men kicking in the door. a mother and her son inside. the child seen on surveillance running to hide. the trio swiping several items including a laptop. they are still on the run tonight. and stargazers, take note. a solar storm, which occurs when charged particles and the sun interact with the earth's magnetic field, could amp up the northern lights tomorrow. residents in northern states like michigan and maine could be in for quite a show. when we come back tonight, the new and revealing images out tonight of the pope. and that moment we remember when we met him. what is the power of pacific? it's life insurance and retirement solutions to help you reach your goals.
it's having the confidence to create the future that's most meaningful to you. it's protection for generations of families, and 150 years of strength and stability. and when you're able to harness all of that, that's the power of pacific. ask a financial advisor about pacific life. your body was made for better things than rheumatiod arthritis. before you and your rheumatologist move to another treatment, ask if xeljanz xr is right for you. xeljanz xr is a once-daily pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well. it can reduce pain, swelling and further joint damage, even without methotrexate. xeljanz xr can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections, lymphoma and other cancers have happened. don't start xeljanz xr if you have an infection. tears in the stomach or intestines, low blood cell counts and higher liver tests
and cholesterol levels have happened. your doctor should perform blood tests before you start and while taking xeljanz xr, and monitor certain liver tests. tell your doctor if you were in a region where fungal infections are common and if you have had tb, hepatitis b or c, or are prone to infections. xeljanz xr can reduce the symptoms of ra, even without methotrexate. ask your rheumatologist about xeljanz xr. we know that when you're >> tspending time with thelass grandkids... ♪ music >> tech: ...every minute counts. and you don't have time for a cracked windshield. that's why at safelite, we'll show you exactly when we'll be there. with a replacement you can trust. all done sir. >> grandpa: looks great! >> tech: thanks for choosing safelite. >> grandpa: thank you! >> child: bye! >> tech: bye! saving you time... so you can keep saving the world. >> kids: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace ♪ with tough food, your dentures may slip and fall. new fixodent ultra-max hold gives you the strongest hold ever to lock your dentures.
so now you can eat tough food without worry. fixodent and forget it. oscar mayer deli fresh ham has no added nitrates, nitrites or artificial preservatives. now deli fresh flavor is for everyone. like those who like... sweet. those who prefer heat. and those who just love meat. oscar mayer deli fresh. a fresh way to deli. you or joints. something for your heart... oscar mayer deli fresh. but do you take something for your brain. with an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is the number one selling brain-health supplement in drug stores nationwide. prevagen. the name to remember.
finally tonight, what happened five years ago today. it was five years ago today, pope francis chosen as the next pope. we remember that night, a limo waiting, but he instead chose the van, riding with the cardinals who had just named him pope. returning to the hotel he'd be staying at to pay the bill himself. tonight, in a new documentary, pope francis addressing questions of inequality, war and peace. there are the more personal moments, visiting the sick, visiting the forgotten. celebrating mass. and speaking directly to the camera, he urges everyone to learn to listen. the people's pope showing his humor when it comes to families, he says there are those disagreements.
laughter when talking about the in-laws. it was that humor and that kindness we remember during our trip to the vatican three years ago. the pope ready to answer questions from americans back home. we told him we were honored and we remember asking him this before his historic trip to the u.s. do you have a message for america before your visit, a parting message? he told me, "i'm filled with hope to meet you all. i ask you, please pray for me." and in this new documentary, turning the corner in our nation's capital. in his trademark compact car. "pope francis: a man of his word", in theaters may 18th.
california couple. >> i am spencer christian, our stormy week of weather continues. i will have a special look at what is happening now. >> announcer: this is abc7 news. president trump is in california for the first time since taking office. just a few hours ago he landed in lax after touring border wall prototypes in san diego. i am dan ashley. >> and i am dion lim. he will attend a fundrai fundrai >> the president's trip started in san diego. >> mr. trump sees a wall as a key national security asset.
mr. buck votes aye. mr. ratcliffe? yes. ms. roby votes aye. mr. gaetz votes aye. mr. johnson of louisiana votes aye. mr. biggs votes aye. mr. mcclintock votes aye. ms. lesko votes aye. mr. reschenthaler votes aye. mr. cline votes aye. ms. armstrong votes yes. >> any members wish to vote who haven't voted? the clerkve will report. >> mr. richmond, you are not recorded. >> no. >> mr. richmond votes no. >> ared there any other member who haven't voted who wish to vote? the clerk will report.
>> mr. chairman there are 17 ayes and 23 nos. >> the agreement is not agreed to. any substitute? mr. gates? >> i have an amendment at the desk. >> the gentleman has an amendment at thetl desk. the clerk will report the amendment. the gentlelady reserves point of order. >> amendment to thein amendmentn the nature of a substitute offered by mr. gates of florida page three strike lines 10 through 11 and insert the following. a, aer well-known corrupt compa burisma and corrupt hiring of hunter biden. >> the gentleman is recognized to explain his amendment. >> thank you, mr. chairman, this strikes the reference to joe biden as thefe center of the proposed investigation and replaces itga with the true top of the investigation, burisma and hunter biden. an essential element of the democrats' case on abuse of power is that the bidens did nothing wrong. it can only be an abuse of power and not a correct use of power
if the president was pursuing something under which there was no reasonable basis to ask a question about hunter biden and burisma. hunter biden and burisma, that's an interesting story. i think just about every americank knows there's somethg up with that. $86,000 a month, no experience, working for some foreign government while your dad is the vice president of the united states. is there anybody who believes this is okay? i know a few of my democratic colleague who is might run for president one day, would you let your vice president have their son or daughter or family member out moonlighting for some foreign company? maybe i'll use language familiar to the former president. come on, man, this looks derty as it is. hunter biden was making five times more than a board member for exxon mobil. i've heard of that company. i found this very extensive
profile in the new yorker. hunter said at that point he had not slept for several days driving east on interstate 10 beyond palm springs he lost control of his car which jumped the median and skidded to a stop on the shoulder of the wnd side. he called herts which came and gave him a second rental. they found a line of white powder residue. hertz called the prescott police department and officers filed a narcotics offense report listing items seized including a plastic bag containing white powdery substance, a secret service business secard, credit cards a hunter biden's driver's license. that is what we would call evidence. i don't want to make light of substance abuse issues. it's a little hard to believe that burisma hired hunter biden
to resolve their international disputes when he could not resolve his own n dispute with hertz rental car over leaving cocaine and a crack pipe in the car. it continues, hunter stayed in los angeles for about a week. he said that he needed to get awayo and forget soon after hi arrival in l.a. he asked a homeless man where he could buy crack. he took him to a homeless encampment where a narrow passageway someone putro a gun his head before realizing he was the buyer. he returned to buy more crack a fewuy times that week. not casting any judgment on any challenges someone goes through in their personal life but it is hard to believe this is the guy wandering through homeless encampments buying crack. that may be why when abc asked hunter biden do you think you would have gotten this job in the g absence of your dad being
the vice president, well, he said, probably not. and then i looked to the record evidence and ioo looked to the testimony of mr. kent. one of the witnesses they called on the first day said burisma was so dirty our own embassy had to joint out after joint sponsorship wither them. when ambassador yovanovitch was being prepped the obama administration was so worried around the corruption of burisma and hunter biden they held special prep moments to get ready for m the inevitable questions about this obvious corruption the president asked about. mr.sk kent, again, one of their witnesses from the first day, gave testimony that burisma had -- that the head of burisma had stolen $23 million in the u.s. and the uk and he paid a bribe to gethe off the hook. it's not as if burisma is pulling out new plays. their playbook is to do dirty stuff and go and pay bribes and
hire the people necessary. you wonder why republicans are so angry and you may wonder why if they feel so good about their case why did they block our ability to put in evidence? we have the ability to show that burisma is corrupt. that hunter biden is corrupt and that exculpates the president because there is no way in the united states of america that honestly pursuing actual corruption is an impeachable offense. that's why i i offer the amendmt and i encourage my colleagues to vote for it. >> mr. chairman, i withdraw my point of order. >> mr. chairman. >> the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does mr. johnson -- >> i rise in opposition to this
amendment and i would say that the pot calling the kettle black is not something we should do. i don't know -- [ laughter ] i don't know what members, if any, have had problems with substanceha abuse, been busted r dui, i don't know. butdu if i did, i wouldn't rais it against anyone on this committee. i don't think it's proper. and, you know, i think we have to get back down to what is most important here. this is a question that stands out like a big, throbbing sore toe inside of a shoe that's too small and that is this question. is it ever okay for a president of the united states of america tod invite foreign interferenc
in an upcoming presidential election campaign? >> is the gentleman seeking an answer?an does the gentleman yield? >> the silence -- >> the gentleman has the time. >> -- was and is deafening. and there will be plenty of time for you toe respond to that question, and i would invite to youi do so. i gave you an opportunity of about 10 or 15 seconds while could you get your story together and nobody came up with a story, so i will let you move to strikewi the last word and explain that to the american people. it's never proper for a united states president to hold a
foreign country over a barrel to make them do that president's personal bidding and dangling security assistance and dangling the facte that i'll give it to you if you do this. i mean, that's exactly what happened. it's like the american people understand what happened. those are the facts. the president said it when he released theid transcript of th summary ofcr that phone call on july 25th, the summary of the president's own words shows that the president tried to get president zelensky to interfere in the upcoming presidential election. that is established by the facts. so this is not about hunter
biden, and they've said that on the other side repeatedly up until they start talking about hunter biden having some substance abuse problems. you can'tsu have it both ways. let's be honest. this is about our conscience. the conscience of the nation. the conscience of my friends on the other side of the aisle. do youai believe we should allo this to go unaddressed what the president did because we are a countrywe of precedent. we are a country of rule of law. we are a country of norms and traditions. are we going to allow the violation of our norms, our traditions, our legal precedent because, after all, bribery was not a crime. there was no criminal code when the framers passed the constitution but they said
bribery in there and what bribery meant was i'm offering you something if you do something for me. i'll give you this. in other words, you give g me this, i'll giveu you that. that's what we had in this case. that's what bribery means. it doesn't depend on a statute. it depends on what we know was done. and so let's not get bogged down in technicalities and character assassination. let's keep our eye on what really happened in this case and whether or not our consciences dictate we do something about it. we can't let it go unaddressed, and the way we deal with this grave abuse of the public trust is with the drastic action that it requires because this is a drastic circumstance. the drastic action is impeachment, and that's why we're here today.
i ask my colleagues to let your conscience be your guide. i yield back. >> the gentleman yields back. for what purposes does mr. sensenbrenner -- >> i move to strike the last word. >> the gentleman is recognized. >> my mind is boggled by the gentleman from georgia saying that bribery was okay until 1787 when the constitution was adopted and two years later when congress passed the first criminal code, first of all, there is a common law definition of bribery. i think people long before 1787 realized bribery was no good. but we also had criminal codes in each of the 13 independent states,pe colonies, before the declaration of independence. >>io will the gentleman answer question? >> no, i'm -- i didn't interrupt you. >> the gentleman suspends. the gentlemantl has the time. >> okay. the second thing is that if you
on the other side of the aisle believe that joe biden is a man who tells the truth, you ought to support this amendment. because joe biden, ever since hunter's involvement with burisma, has been repeatedly asked whether he made any arrangements to get hunter this really t cushy job. and he said, no, or my son's business vochlts are my son's and not involved in that. so you put joe biden's name in your articles of impeachment when the real factor is hundredhundred hunter biden. he's no running for anything. i guess your claim that the president was trying to influence theng 2020 election. would go out the window.
if you think joe biden is a man whoen tells the truth and i'll give him the benefit of the doubt because i think he deserves e it, let's get rid of joe biden, substitute his son's name in there and proceed. anyone who votes no on this amendment is saying i think joe biden is a liar. if you don't think that joe biden is a liar, vote yes. i yield the balance of my time to mr. gates. >> it's the democrats who are saying any question about the biden situation, burisma, it could only be an abuse of power. this reflects how the president was using his power entirely appropriately and shows how scared they are of the facts.
if we are able to bring in hunter biden, to demonstrate the bias of the whistle-blower, the american people would see we are not in this debate and discussion because the president did anything wrong, impeachable or criminal. we're here fundamentally because they cannot accept that he won the 2016 election. i think all americans know the president has a different approach. but to accept their standard would mean if someone announces they're running for office it's like an instant immunity deal for anything they would do. are they really saying that if joe biden,hunter biden and burisma, that that ought to absolve him of the criminal activity? it's a ludicrous.
maybe you got lucky on the hillary clinton stuff. she thought because she was in a presidential election that her crimes didn't have to be held to account and,a way, that turned out to be the case. you know what, it shouldn't be the standard in the united states of america. and i'm glad we have a president who is at times skeptical of foreign aid, who does put america first, who understands that in corrupt places the resources we provide don't always make it to an area of need. were conclude with this. once the meetings happened, that demonstrated president zelensky was a true reformer, that he wasn't corrupt, that he was honest -- honest from the point of his campaign all the way up to the point where he said there was no pressure put on him or his government for this aid, if you accept that proposition, it's very clear the president was entirely appropriate in those questions, and i have to say on the last amendment now we have reached the point in time
president trump isn't the only president being attacked in this hearing. i heard the gentleman from tennessee goth after zelensky a well, an actor, a politician. and they presume he's a liar whens he says there was nothin wrong. you know yswhat, they can't mak the case against the president. they're attacking zelensky and it just shows the absurdity. >> the gentleman's time is expired. for what purpose does ms. jackson-lee seek recognition? >> ile wanted to respond since name was called. >> no. >> i rise to strike the last word. >> the gentlelady is recognized. >> i thank the chairman. this is about distraction, distraction,di distraction. our good friend spent three hours saying the president did not target the bidens. now they're saying that he did. so which is it? i'm holding the classified/unclassified conversation, and let me just clarify a certain point, and that point is that i did read
the transcript, and it did say us. but there's nothing in the president's notes that even suggested that the question that he asked was for the american people. in testimony by mr. goldman who obviously went through every aspect of this, i asked a question about whether or not the president said anything from thein notes that are given, the briefing that is given by those representatives of the united states government. the staff of the national security council, the state department, the defense department, on corruption. he didn't speak anything about corruption that he was briefed on. and if you go through the call, he continues to mention the bidens. and so this, again, is about ukraine. the president did ask ukraine. the president of ukraine, a
vulnerable leader of a country that is fledgling and trying to survive. now let me say that i intend to introduce into the record an article thatan indicated very clearly that people did die. trump froze military aid as ukrainian soldiers battled. i ask unanimous consent to submit that into the record. >> without objection. >> but the facts are the -- the facts are president trump provided $510 million in aid in 2017 and $359 million in 2018, but he wanted to stop in 2019 the year or months before the 2020 election. in addition president trump's advisers confirmed that president trump's investigations, 2016 election
interference and the bidens were not u.s. policy and as well they have debunked any association there was anything to the impropriety of the former vice president and his service as related to ukraine. i think it is also important the department of defense and the state department confirm they have met all the anti-corruption benchmarks and the aid should be released. that's the policy of the united states of america. there was no need for this president to, in essence, try to make up his own policy. in his own statement of administrative policies, and i ask unanimousnd consent to ask have those in the record this is from the white house. nothing in this said to discuss corruption. why? because ukraine had already met the standards of independent executive agencies that they met that standard of corruption, their money should have been
released, and we well know as the process of the whistle-blower t and the timing that president zelensky desperate for money, people dying in the field, was asked to do a cnn announcement. and he was going to be on one of cnn's well-known shows dealing with international politics. but it was stopped in its tracks as testified by witnesses under oath because of the whistle-blower statement. let me be very clear there is some representation of crime, crime, crime. first of all our scholars indicated that these are impeachable offenses, the conduct of the president is impeachable and there's enough evidence to show. as i indicated yesterday this, my friends, is a legal document, the constitution. it is a legal document. you can breach and violate the law of the constitution.
there are constitutional crimes. and the vastness of the impeachment process does include the abuse of power by the president of the united states. i knew barbara jordan and my friends wanted to quote her. she also saido the framers confided in the congress of power if need be to remove a president in order to strike a delicate balance between a president swollen with power and grown tyrannical. you can violate the crimes of the constitution, abuse of power includes, that. this amendment should be defeated. >> the gentle lady's time has expired. >> mr. chairman? >>re for what purpose does mr. ratcliffe seek recognition? >> move totc strike the last wo. >> thee gentleman is recognize. >> i thank the chair. i want to answer my colleague from georgia's question that he asked gbefore. is it ever okay to invite a
foreign government to become involved in an election involving a political opponent? the answer is yes. it better be. we do it all the time. have you that quickly forgotten how the trump/russia investigation proceeded? the obama administration asked great britain and italy and australia and other countries to assist in its investigation of a person who was a political opponent from the opposite party. i keep hearing over and over again you can't investigate political opponents. we have ali member of this committee who as a member of this committee and the intelligence committee investigating his politicalte opponent, donald trump, at the very moment he was running to replace him as president. my colleague on the intel committee, mr. castro, was
investigating president trump at the very same moment his brother was running to replace president trump. president trumpce is the only o with the really legitimate reason to be doing it. he is the chief executive. the chief executive. we are in the judiciary committee, right? we do understand the constitution. we do understandta that the president as the executive is the executive branch and all power? the executive branch drives from the president, and the president can and should ask for assistance from foreign governments inan ongoing crimin investigations. there was an riongoing criminal investigation into what happened in 2016. the attorney general barr at the time of the july 25th call had long before that appointed u.s. attorney john durham to investigate exactly that issue. it wasn't just appropriate. it was absolutely the president's constitutional duty.
and hunter biden, the president has, as the chief executive, the ability to ask about matters where there is a prima facie case of corruption. what do we have with respect to hunter biden? tons of money for a position where he has no ukrainian experience, where he has no experience with ukraine or with energy and at the same time that the ukrainians were deciding hunter biden was the perfect person to get that sweetheart deal, the chinese were deciding hunter biden was the perfect person to get a sweetheart deal to manage $1.5 billion in financial assets. and when these ukrainian government wanted to investigate corruption, likete we all keep talking about they need to, well, they start investigating burisma andga what happens?
joe biden says you'd better fire that prosecutor investigating corruption into burisma or you're not going to get a billion dollars. and six hours later that's what happened. that's called's influence peddling. that is a crime.th and there is a prima facie case of that. and it's absolutely appropriate for a president to ask about that. i yield to my friend. >> i thank the gentleman for yielding. i want to respond to the comments from the gentlelady from texas saying the president made up his own policy. that's how itow works in our country. you get your name on a ballot, you run for office, you go talk to the american people. they evaluate it all and on election day decide who they want making the policy. that's how it works in our country. it's not the o unelected people telling the elected individual how we do things. they are accountable to we, the
people. it's what makes our system the best, the greatest. and when you turn that on its head, that's when you get problems. and we saw it happen because we heard chuck schumer say on january 3rd, 2017, when you mess with 2 the intelligence committ they have six ways from sunday at getting back at you. that is a scary statement because that is saying the unelected people can get back at the person who put their name on a ballot and elected to the highest office in this situation. so for someone in the united states congress to say the president made up his own policy and somehow that is wrong, that should be a frightening position to take but i guess that's where the democrats are today in their quest to go after this president making statements like that, statements by our colleague and statements by senator schumer. i yield back. >> the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does ms. lofgren seek recognition? >> to strike the last words.
there are issues for the election and then there are issues for this committee. the behavior of vice president's biden's son and, frankly, the behavior of president trump's two sons and daughter may be discussed in the election. but here we're talking about the abuse of presidential authority, the president must take care that the laws be faithfully executed. we know from the emails from the state department to the department of defense that the ukrainians knew that the aid was beinghe withheld. that's documentary evidence. we also know whatever was going on that people might not like with the vice president's son and the vice president, that was known in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018. it wasn't until vice president
biden was beating president trump in the polls that this issue was raised to try and force a foreign country to invent an investigation to be used politically. that is not seeing that the laws are faithfully executed. that is an abuse of presidential authority. and i would yield now to the gentleman fromd florida, mr. deutch. >> i thank my friend from california. m it's been about three hours since in made this point. i guess it needs to be made from time to time. we just can't simply allow the mischaracterization and misstatement of the rules and house resolutions to advance politicals arguments here. we can't stand for it. and i want to address again these statements that there are some rights to have witnesses
come in. it istn absolutely true that's e case. over 50 years ago when the rule was written, when rule six was written, it set it to give both sides at committee hearings. that's what happened at the december 4th meeting and the december 9th meeting. let's be honest about the rules. and houseth resolution 660 i wod point out again provides an opportunity for the president of thefo united states to come. he could haveto come on decembe 4th. he could have sent any of his witnesses, and he didn't. but no one should be surprised because that's beened the president's approach throughout is to refuse to allow anyone -- anyone -- with the kind of information my colleagues claim they're interested in from coming to testify, from coming to answer questions directly. with that i yield to my friend from new york, mr. jeffries. >> i thank the distinguished gentleman --
>> it's my time.he i would be happy to yield. >> there were 12 fact witnesses who testified during the intel hearing. 12. and we don't hear a thing about thoseth witnesses from my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. a thing. those witnesses were not political operatives. they were patriots. in fact, they were trump appointees. ambassador taylor, trump appointee. ambassador sondland, trump appointee. dr. fiona hill, trump appointee. jennifer williams, trump appointee. lieutenant colonel vindman, trump appointee. ambassador volker, trump appointee. they all confirmed that donald trump pressured a foreign government to target an american citizen for political gain and at the same time withheld, without justification, $391
million in military aid. undermining america's national security. ambassador volker's testimony, he testified about the issue of raising the 2016 elections on vice president biden, all these things i consider to be conspiracy theories. what wascy his response? it was pretty simple. quote, i think the allegations against vice president biden are self-serving and not credible. that's what this is all about. i yield back. >> mr. chairman, i yield back. >> the gentlelady yields back. for what purposes do you seek recognition? >> support of the amendment. >> does the gentleman desire to strike the last word? >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> thenk gentleman is recognize. >> it's amazing we're hear from
the same people accusing us of covering up, not willing to face the truth.th they're the same arguments that we've been hearing for three years now. first it was accusing us of not being willing to face the facts about russia collusion and the president scheming with russia and that turned out to be lies. we were right and those accusing us of not facing the truth were the ones not facing the truth. we heard all kinds of other allegation allegations and said that doesn' appear to be supported. there was a lot of media support for those positions. but we still persisted that we were the ones that were right. and this week these things are all beinges born out. we were right, they were wrong,
and now we're not hearing anybody come in and say, hey, we're really sorry when we accused youwe all of being craz and not facing the truth. you were t right. there was no russia collusion. you were right, there was no extortion. and my friends across the aisle keep changing the subject, what the calle made clear is we're interested in finding out about if there was ukrainian collusion or interference in our election. now it's amazing how the majority can take two positions that counter indicate each other. first ofch all they say there w no effort by republicans, including president trump to stop interference from foreign countries. we hear that over and over including yesterday and today.
and yet the only way to step up and do what president obama refused to do, if you remember president obama belittled president trump, candidate trump, for saying he was concerned about outside interference. and, in fact, president obama made a mockery of anybody that was so stupid they thought somebody like russia or others might interfere and affect our election. he made fun of them. he wouldn't do anything about outside interference. because apparently he must have thought the outside interference was going to help hillary clinton, as we've heard apparently there are some people that are accusing ukraine to help hillary clinton. it was unheard of to have a foreignal bass dore in our country step up and come out with support for hillary clinton. so what we continue to see is projecting. somebody on their side engages
in illegal or improper conduct and that's what they accuse president trump or us of doing. all of this self-righteousness about, you know, for political purposes, i mean, this is from a transcript from a december 1st, 1943, when president roosevelt was talking to marshall stalin, talking with stalin -- this is apparently in tehran they're meeting. he wanted to talk to him about internal american politics. and from stenographers they say president roosevelt said they were in the united states 6 million to 7 million extraction, he didn't want to lose their vote and was explaining he couldn't go public. he didn't care when basically the soviet union took over
poland. he didn'ter care if they cut do poland's borders from the east and from the west and he goes on to say, they say jokingly, that when the soviet army occupied lithuania orie latvia, estonia,e did not intend to go to war with the soviet union on this point but continues to emphasize some of the things he can't go public with. these kinds of things have gone on byhi democrats for many decades. here they come after the one guy who wants to get to the bottom of 2016 foreign interference and what dore they accuse him of? of getting foreign interference. no, you can't root out foreign interference until you know what it was. you can'til have it both ways. it guess the democratic party n have it both ways but this has to stop before it goes too much further. i yield back. >> the gentleman yields back.
for what purposes does mr. cicilline seek recognition? i'mek sorry. for what purpose does mr. chabot seek recognition? >> strike the last word. >> theik gentleman is recognize. >> thank you. i said that you were investigating the wrong guy, that it should have been biden or bidens, that ukraine was the third most corrupt nation on earth and that hunter biden had just put himself right smack dab in the middle of that corruption and that even though democrats and many of their friends in the media would have you believe that this burisma/biden corruption, that this was all
just the vast right-wing conspiracy when in actuality it was the obama administration thatam raised this issue first. in 2015 george kent reported his concerns about hunter biden to the vice president's office. the former ambassador to ukraine, marie yovanovitch was asked pesky questions on hunter biden and burisma that might arise in her senate confirmation process. nearly every single witness who testified at the intelligence committee impeachment inquiry agreedqu that hunter biden's burisma deal created at the very least the appearance of a conflict of interest. yet the democrats on the intelligence committee under chairmanen schiff and now democrats on this committee are determined to sweep all of this
under the rug, ignore it, not let us call witnesses on it. instead are rushed to impeach this president. you have the vice president, joe biden, in charge of overseeing our ukrainian policy and his son, hunter biden, receiving $50,000 a month, even though he had no identifiable expertise in energy or in ukraine, yet the democrats wouldn't let us call witnesses or delve into this and it was interesting that joe biden got in an argument with a man that one of his events in iowa recently. called the man a liar and challenged him to a push-up contest and spouted off a bunch of other malarkey and now this committee is conducting an impeachment investigation against presidentim trump based on, as professor turley put it,
wafer thin evidence and ignoring evidence of something that truly doesn't smell right. wafer thin evidence. and thiswa was a professor who acknowledged that he had not voted forot president trump. in fact, all four witnesses who testified, none of them had voted for him, but he said wafer thin evidence. while they're doing that there are so many things getting ignored. it looks like one thing the usmca, a trade deal, which is very important to replace nafta, we might get that across the finish line. i certainly hope so because it would be good for thenl country. it's bipartisan. but i think if there's anything good to come out of this impeachment it's probably that that actually will get passed because the g democrats will sh we did something. very little has passed into law. we had 68,000 americans who died from opioid overdoses last year
alone. i think it was 70,000 the year before that. even though the numbers have gone down a bit it's not necessarily because we're doing a whole lot better. it's because of narcan. there are just as many people involved with this scourge, these opioids and other drugs. our southern border is still a sieve. that's something we ought to be able toom work on in a bipartis manner in this committee to do something about that and our asylum law that is need to be reformed. a $22 trillion debt hanging over our head. this committee has jurisdiction over all these things and isn't doing a thing because we've been spending all'v our time for the last year on impeachment in one form or another. i have a bill, a balanced budget, something we should have done years ago. those are all in our jurisdiction. other things like infrastructure not in our jurisdiction but the
united states congress ought to act on it. we have highways and our bridges are crumbling in this country. it's something we generally agree on but the democrats probably don't want the president to take any credit for that, so that's not likely to happen. it's unfortunate taking up all this time on impeachment when there are so many other things we ought to bey working on for the benefit of the american people. >> for what purpose does mr. jordan seek recognition? >> i yield to the ranking member. >> i want to say it is amazing, though, to hear they've gotten sensitive about process oney th majority side whenon we pointed out the tragedy and the travesty of being a rubber stamp in this committee and the gentleman fro florida brought out a couple things. let me remindout as he said a minutes ago the white house is going to send everything, no, it all goes through the whim of the chairman and the majority. they can't send anybody they want. it all goes through their majority opinion. i give back to the gentleman.
>> i yield to the gentleman from florida. >> i thanke the gentleman for yielding. if democrats can't prove the bidens are clean president trump can't be guilty of abusing power. they cannot prove the questions into the bidens are unreasonable. the gentleman from new york said, well, you just aren't listening to the witnesses. i listened very closely. i heard mr. kent say they were so concerned about s burisma we had to pull out of a partnership with the embassy. so if it's okay for our embassy to ask the questions, why isn't it okay for the president? i listened to ambassador yovanovitch when she gave testimony. she said she was having to do special preparation to have to answerto these sticky questions about why the vice president's son was off moonlighting for some foreign energy company. if it's okay for yovanovitch to ask those questions, okay for the obama administration to ask those questions, why isn't it okay for president trump to ask the questions? one thing i know, corrupt people, they don't just steal once. theyea get into this cycle and
culture ofyc corruption, and it disappointing it. i go back to this "new yorker" article, i'm reading directly from it. one of kathleen's motions this is regarding hunter biden's divorce, contains a reference to a large diamond that had come into hunter's possession. when ir' asked him about it, he told me he had been given the diamond byn chinese energy tycn ming. he told me two associates accompanied him to his first meeting with xi and they surprised him by giving him a rare vintage of scotch worth thousands of o dollars. he wasn't justof taking these weird jobs from the ukrainians, he was taking diamonds and scotch from the chinese. i think it's entirely appropriate for the president of the united states to figure out why that's the case. the american people know this is an impeachment movement that is losing steam. cnn on the way into the hearing this morning.
maybe one of the only folks but i was watching. and i heard gloria borger say the polling on impeachment is bad for democrats. i heard jim sciutto say nadler had gone on air and said once we havenc these public hearings we will animate all this public support for impeachment. now you've had the hearings. you've called the witnesses and, you know what, you're losing ground. you're losing ground with the media. you're losing ground with the voters. and you're even losing ground among your own democratic colleagues. i believe the public reporting i've seene your moderate membe in districts president trump won are begging you to pursue something other than impeachment. this blood lust for impeachment is not going to be visited on us or president trump. it's goingsi to be visited on yr own members and they're asking you not to do this. the only standard that speaker pelosi, chairman nadler and schiff said was a bipartisan
standard. thisan has to be bipartisan. they said it all throughout the 2018 calendar year. now the only thing that has changed not a strengthening of the evidence. they've realized that they have to create this impeachment platform because their candidates are incapable of defeating president trump inap fair fight. we know that. the american people know that and so the only bipartisan vote that has incurred is a bipartisan vote against opening thepa inquiry. and the only possibility for movement from that vote to now despite wasting all our time, despite having all these hearings,ll despite all the dame to our institutions through this very weird and aberrational investigation you've run, the onlyat risk you'll lose more vos than youll started with. you lost two of your members the first time. you're not going to lose less than t two of yours members. and, you know what, republicans
are united. we see this for what it is. and we know just as mr. jordan said, this is not just an attack on president trump politically, though it is the election that motivates them for this bizarre behavior. it's not just an attack on the presidency. it's an attack on us. it's an attack on those of us who believe in this president, who understand very well who we voted for, and has some nontraditional ways of doing business but we see the great success of this country. more jobs, more opportunity. they have no answer for that in the weupcoming election and it' why we're here. >> the gentleman's time has expired.y mr. biggs, for what purpose do you seek recognition? >> move to strike the last word. >> the gentleman is recognized. >> thank you. i mentioned before that looking at the evidence, i'm stunned that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle perpetually
read every inference you can make in the like most negative to the president and yet this whole proceedings and the way this has been shaped up indicates there's an incredible inference against their credibility because of the way they've stacked the cards against the president. so i want to read -- i support the gentleman's amendment, and i want to read this from a ukrainian source who was named and cited in a recent publication. it says, quote, by inviting influential foreigners ukrainian business wants to get additional protection. pr and lobby mechanisms to grasp additional spheres of interest. having hunter biden onboard the owner of burisma wanted to correct the image and get cover because authorities are scared by the u.s. embassy in ukraine. hunter biden using the political capabilities of his family acted as a rescue buffer between burisma and ukraine and law enforcementan agencies. working of a corrupt official
smells. now, so, let's take a look at the actual document, the transcript, our colleagues keep referring to. page four. the other thing president trump says there's a lot of talk about biden's son that biden stop the prosecution. a lot of people want to find out about that. so whatever you can do with the attorney general would be greato biden went around bragging that he stopped thent prosecution, s if you can look into it, it sounds horrible to me. that is the essence of what they want to impeach president trump for.ha do you get immunity. is it an immunity event to have a relative run for public office? do you get immunity let's flip it on this end, does the president have the authority to request an investigation? >> most assuredly.
he mentions the attorn it isey clear he would like an investigationld into the corruption surrounding ukraine. what does president zelensky go on to say? trying to restore the honesty in this country. is talking he about. you have the attorney general, you have the president of both countries, let's get it fixed up, and at least you're back to this whole question of did the democrats want to impeach president trump for these abuse of power issues? these abuse of congress, or -- issues. obstruction of congress. it is just bizarre. so hunter biden is blased on the board of buresma in 2014.
in the meantime, evidence is clear that the company paid about $3.4 million to a company called rosemont cinica. that is really intriguing. the investigations around buresma stop and the reputation in ukraine is low and it was dubious even before this impeachment inquiry raised it. according to sources, buresma is not on everybody's front burner in the ukraine, but it is here. because we were providing hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid to ukraine. and the president said we need to stop construction. he mentioned specifically the corruption that he heard about.
is that impeachable? no. you do not get immunity just because your father is running for a public office. just because anyone related to you is running for public office. and i will tell you this president has done a remarkable job in spite of three years of constant harassment by the democrats in this country. we have a great economy, he is trying to bringe order to the border. more people working than ever before. this president has restored the military and actually prestige around the uaworld. there are no more apology tours on the foreign policy side that we saw in the previous administration. he has really worked to make america's esteem and greatness
repriese. >> i want to quickly respond to the gentleman from ohio's la mea lamenting. 275 of the bills are bipartisan. they range in legislation to drive down the cost of transcription drugs tot protec coverage for precysting kpns, equal pay for equal work. raising thewo minimal wage, the biggest, anticorruption bill since watergate. and we recently completed negotiations on the new trade deal. the list is exhaustive. 80% of those are laying on mitch mcconnell's desk waiting for action. we ought to assert some energy
in persuading mitch mcconnell to get back to doing his job. there is a real effort to confuse what this is about in is about the president of the united states using the power of his office to spear a political o point to corrupt the elections and leverage hahns of millions of dollars to accomplish that continuative. this amendment would like to wish ouaway the motive of the president, but you can't wish it away or amend it away. the facts were originated in 2015. that is according to the minority report as well in 2017 and 2018, foreign assistance was provided by ukraine. whated happened in 2019? what changed? the president is losing in a national poll by double digits
to joe biden. third, multiple witnesses, trump administration officials, testified that the vice president did nothing wrong including mr. holmente meholmes. the firing of the prior prosecutor was done in accordance with official u.s. policy. it was approved by the just decide. and a bipartisan coalition in congress. this isti a corrupt prosecutor. it was official u.s. policy that the cbs was executing. by contrast what we have in this case, the base sis of this is t opposite. what president trump was doing was notmp official u.s. policy d all of the witnesses confirm that. it was not done through the justice didn't, and it was done
against the advice of all of his advisors. that is what is very different about what we're confronting today. this is work not done by the apparatus of the state department, this was don't by rudy giuliani. let's not confuse these things. the facts matter, the truth matters, you cannot continue to make assertions when the record is the opposite, i would like to yield to mr. swalwell. >> if president trump and my republican colleagues were so interested in rooting out construction in ukraine there was touch they could do that they never did. for many years the vice president's son was on this board and they never investigated this. their concern came about once
vice president biden became the political opponent. president trump called president zelensky to congratulate him. they were told to bring up rooting out corruption in you cane, but the white house and their talking points lied to the american people and said the president had. july pr25, again, national security council members worked really hard to tell the president, impress upon the ukrainian president that he needs to root out corruption in his country. there is a formal process to go through. the president never asked the attorney general to do this. the president was never interested in fighting corruption in ukraine. he was only interested in weaponizing corruption for his own personal benefit.
>> the question man yields back. >> thank you, i ask this article, just two weeks before the call to president zelensky. he asks political advisors if he should worry about running against joe biden. >> theree is now a number of votes on the floor, we will be inil recess until after the vot. pleasee reconvene immediately after the votes. >> good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. you have been wooching all m of thewo drama playing out as the house judiciary committee meets again today after a four hour opening session late into the evening on wednesday night.
there is a -- it's interesting, they're talking almost exclusively about the abuse of power, they're not talking much about the obstruction of congress. but i think this has been a civil he had kageducation here,e can decide whether this has been an impeachable offense here, because the issues have been aired out well on both sides. >> they're about to finish the roll call. the republicans will lose the democrats who will win, and then a second one will be introduced. >> mr. richmond, you are not reported. >> no. >> mr. richmond votes no. >> are there any other members that haven't voted who wish to vote? >> mr. chairman, there are 17
ayes and 23 no's. >> the amendment is not agreed to. is there any further amendment. mr. gates? >> i amend to the desk. the gentlelady reserves a point of order. >> amendment to the amendment in the nature of a substitute to hr 755 offered by mr. gates of florida, page 3, strike out lines 10 and 11 and enter the following. a known company named burisma and. >> this amendment strikes the reference of joe biden as the center of the investigation and replaces it with the true topic of the investigation, burisma and hunter biden. an essential element of the abuse of power is that the bidens did nothing wrong. it can only be an abuse of power and not a correct use of power if the president was pursuing
something under which there was no reasonable basis to ask a question about hunter biden and burisma. hunter biden and burisma, that's an interesting story. and i think just about every american knows there's something up with that. $86,000 a month, no experience, working for some foreign government while your dad is the vice president of the united states? is there anyone who believes this is okay? i know we got a few of my democratic colleagues running for president or might run for president one day. would you let your vice president have their son or daughter or family member out moonlighting for some foreign company? maybe i'll use language familiar to the former vice president. come on, man. this looks dirty as it is. hunter biden was making more than five times more than a board member for exxonmobil. i've heard of that company. so i wanted to read up on hunter biden, learn a little more about him. i found this extensive profile
in "the new yorker." hunter said at that point he had not slept for several days, driving east on interstate 10 just beyond palm springs. he lost control of his car which jumped the median and skidded to a stop on the shoulder of the westbound side. he called hertz which came to take his car and give him another rental. hertz said they found a powder residue. hertz called the prescott elite department and officers filed a narcotics offense report, listing a white, powdery substance, credit cards and hunter biden's driver's license. that is what we would call evidence. i don't want to make light of anybody's substance abuse issues. i know the president is working real hard to solve those throughout the country, but it's a little hard to believe that burisma hired hunter biden to
resolve their international disputes when he could not resolve his own dispute with hertz rental car leaving cocaine and a crack pipe in the car. it continues. hunter stayed in los angeles for about a week. he said he needed to get away and forget soon after his arrival in l.a. he said he asked a homeless man where he could buy crack. hunter said that the man took him to a nearby homeless encampment where a narrow pa passageway took him to crack. it was hard to believe this was the guy who was wandering through homeless areas buying crack releasing money of burisma holdings. that's why he was asked, hey, do you think you would have gotten this job absent your dad being
vice president? well, he said, probably not. then i look to the record evidence. and i looked at the testimony of mr. kent. mr. kent was one of the witnesses they called on the first day. they said burisma was so dirty that our own embassy had to pull out of a joint sponsorship with them. when ambassador yavonovitch was being prepped for her conversation, they were so worried about burisma and hunter biden that they held special prep moments to try to get ready for the inevitable questions about this obvious corruption that the president asked about. mr. kent, again, one of the witnesses from the first day, also gave testimony that burisma -- the head of burisma had stolen $23 million in the u.s. and the u.k., and that he paid a bribe to get off the hook. so, again, it's not as if burisma is pulling out new plays. their playbook is to do dirty stuff and then go and pay bribes and hire the people necessary to make those problems go away.
this is why the minority hearing issue is so important, by the way. you wonder why republicans are so angry that we didn't have a hearing, put on our own witnesses and own evidence. you may wonder why, if they feel so good about their case, why did they block our ability to put in evidence? it's because we have the ability to show that burisma is corrupt. we have the ability to show that hunter biden is corrupt. and that totally exculpates the president. there is no way in the united states of america that honestly pursuing actual corruption is an impeachable offense. that's why i offer the amendment and i encourage my colleagues to vote for it. >> mr. chairman, i withdraw my point of order. >> mr. chairman? >> the gentleman yields back. >> i move to strike the last word. mr. chairman, i rise in opposition to this amendment, and i would say that the pot
calling the kettle black is not something that we should do. i don't know what members, if any, have had any problems with substance abuse, been busted in dui, i don't know. but if i did, i wouldn't raise it against anyone on this committee. i don't think it's proper. i think we have to get back down to what is most important here. this is a question that stands out like a big, throbbing, sore toe inside of a shoe that's too small. and that is this question. is it ever okay for a president of the united states of america to invite foreign interference in an upcoming presidential
election campaign? >> the silence was and is deafening. and there will be plenty of time for you to respond to that question, and i would invite you to do so. i gave you an opportunity of about 10 or 15 seconds while you could get your story together, and nobody came up with a story. so i'm going to let you move to strike the last word and explain that to the american people. it's never proper for a united states president to hold a foreign country over a barrel to
make them do that president's personal bidding and holding needed security assistance, dangling it and dangling the fact that i'll give it to you if you do this. i mean, that's exactly what happened. it's like the american people understand what happened. those are the facts. the president said it when he released the transcript of the summary of that phone call on july 25th. the summary of the president's own words shows that the president tried to get president zelensky to interfere in the upcoming presidential election. that is established by the facts. so this is not about hunter biden, and they've said that on
the other side repeatedly, up until they start talking about hunter biden having some substance abuse problems. you can't have it both ways. let's be honest. this is about our conscience, the conscience of the nation, the conscience of my friends on the other side of the aisle. do you believe that we should allow this to go unaddressed, what the president did? because we are a country of precedent, we are a country of rule of law, we are a country of norms and traditions. are we going to allow the violation of our norms, our traditions, our legal precedent? because after all, bribery was not a crime. there was no criminal code when the framers passed the constitution, but they said bribery in there, and what
bribery meant was i'm offering you something if you do something for me. i'll give you this. in other words, you give me this, i'll give you that. that's what we had in this case. that's what bribery means. it doesn't depend on a statute, it depends on what we know was done. and so let's not get bogged down in technicalities and in character assassination. let's keep our eye on what really happened in this case and whether or not our consciences dictate that we do something about it. we can't let it go unaddressed. and the way that we deal with this grave abuse of the public trust is with the drastic action that it requires, because this is a drastic circumstance. the drastic action is impeachment, and that's why we're here today. i asked my colleagues to let your conscience be your guide.
i yield back. >> the gentleman yields back. >> i move to strike the last word. mr. chairman, my mind is boggled by the gentleman from georgia saying that bribery was okay until 1787 when the constitution was adopted and two years later when congress passed the first criminal code. first of all, there is a common law definition of bribery. i think people long before 1787 realized that bribery was no good, but we also had criminal codes in each of the 13 independent states, colonies, before the declaration of independence. >> will the gentleman answer my question? >> no, i'm -- >> gentlemen! the gentleman has the time. >> the second thing is that if
you on the other side of the aisle believe that joe biden is a man who tells the truth, you ought to support this amendment. because joe biden's son hunter's involvement with burisma was asked many times if he helped his son get this cushy job. he said, no, my son's business involvements are my son's and i'm not involved in that. so you put joe biden's name on the articles of impeachment when the real factor is hunter biden. hunter is not running for anything. and if the real issue a hunter biden, then i guess your claim that the president was trying to influence the 2020 election would go out the window. but if you think that joe biden is a man who tells the truth, and i'll give him the benefit of
the doubt because i think he deserves it, then let's get rid of joe biden in this article of impeachment, substitute his son's name in there, and proceed. i challenge you, because every one of you that will vote no on this amendment is going to be saying, i think that joe biden is a liar. if you don't think joe biden is a liar, vote yes. i yield the balance of my time to mr. gates. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and again, it's important to analyze the burden of proof here. it's the democrats who are saying any question about the biden situation, burisma, it could only be an abuse of power. and i think this amendment really reflects how the president was using his power perfectly. entirely appropriately. and it also shows how scared they are of the facts. if we had the opportunity to
call in those who were engaged in, worked with the ukranian embassy, folks like alex chalupa. if we were to have the identity of the whistleblower, americans would see we are not in this debate or discussion because the president did anything wrong or impeachable or criminal. we're here, fundamentally, because they cannot accept the fact that he won the 2016 election. and i think all americans know the president has a different approach. but to accept their standard would mean that if someone announces that they're running for office, it's kind of like an instant immunity deal for anything they would ever do. are they really saying that if joe biden, hunter biden, burisma, were engaged in some corrupt act that just because joe biden announced for the presidency that that somehow ought to absolve him of that criminal activity? it's a ludicrous position. maybe it's informed by the fact that you all got a little lucky
on the hillary clinton stuff. she thought that because she was in a presidential election that her crimes didn't have to be held to account, and in a way, that turned out to be the case. but you know what, it shouldn't be the standard in the united states of america, and i'm glad we have a president who is at times skeptical of foreign aid, who does put america first, who understands that in corrupt places, the resources we provide don't always make it to an area of need. but we conclude with this. once the meeting has happened that demonstrated president zelensky was a true reformer, that he wasn't corrupt, that he was honest, honest from it the point of his campaign all the way up to the point where he said there was no pressure put on him from this government for his aid. if you put that in perspective, it's very clear that the president was appropriate in his questions. now we have reached point in time that president trump isn't
the only president being attacked in this hearing. i heard the governor of tennessee go after zelensky as an actor, a politician. they presume he's a liar when he said there was nothing wrong. they're attacking zelensky and it just shows the absurdity. >> the gentleman's time has expired. >> i was asked if i could respond as i was called. >> i'd like to strike the last word. >> the lady is recognized. >> i thank the chairman. sdp this is about distraction, distraction, distraction. our good friend spent three hours saying the president did not target the bidens, now they're saying that he did. which is it? i'm holding the classified/unclassified conversation, and let me just clarify a certain point, and that point is that i did read the transcript, and it did say
us. but there is nothing in the president's notes that even suggested that the question that he asked was for the american people. in testimony by mr. goldman, who obviously went through every aspect of this, i asked a question about whether or not the president said anything from the notes that are given, the briefing that is given by those representatives of the united states government. the staff of the national security council, the state department, the defense department, on corruption. he didn't speak anything about corruption that he was briefed on. and if you go through the call, he continues to mention the bidens. and so this, again, is about ukraine. the president did ask ukraine, the president of ukraine, a vulnerable leader of a country
that is fledgling and trying to survive. now, let me say that i intend to introduce into the record an article that indicated very clearly that people did die. trump froze military aid as ukranian soldiers purged in battle. l.a. times, i ask admission of that into the record. but the facts are -- the facts are president trump provided 510 million in aid in 2017 and 359 million in 2018. but he wanted to stop in 2019, the year or months before the 2020 election. in addition, president trump's advisers confirmed that president trump's investigations of the 2016 election
interference and the bindens wee not u.s. policy. and as well, they have debunked any association that there was anything to the impropriety of the former vice president and the president of ukraine. the president of ukraine met all of the benchmarks and the aid should have been released. there was no need for this president, in essence, to try to make up his own policy. in his own statement of administrative policies, and i ask unanimous consent to have those in the record, this is from the white house. nothing in this said to discuss corruption. why? because ukraine had already met the standards of independent executive agencies that they had met that standard of corruption, their money should have been released. and we well know, as the process
of the whistleblower and the timing, that president zelensky was desperate for money, people dying in the field, was asked to do a cnn announcement. and he was going to be on one of cnn's well-known shows dealing with international politics, but it was stopped in its tracks as testified by witnesses under oath because of the whistleblower statement. let me be very clear. there is some representation of crime, crime, crime. first of all, our scholars indicated that these are impeachable offenses. the conduct of the president is impeachable and there is enough evidence to show. but as i indicated yesterday, this, my friends, is a legal document, the constitution. it is a legal document. you can breach and violate the law of the constitution. there are constitutional crimes.
and the vastness of the impeachment process does include the excess of power by the president of the united states. now, i knew barbara jordan. and my friends wanted to quote her. she also said, the framers confided in the congress of power if need be to remove a president in order to strike a delicate balance between a president swollen with power and preservation of the independence of the executive. you can violate the crimes of the constitution, abuse of power includes that. this amendment should be defeated. >> the gentlelady's time is expired. >> mr. chair? >> for what purpose is mr. ratcliffe's recognition? >> i move to strike the last word. i want to recognize my colleague from georgia, mr. johnson's question, that he asked before. is it ever okay to invite a foreign government to become
involved in an election involving a political opponent? the answer is yes. it better be. we do it all the time. have you that quickly forgotten how the trump/russia investigation proceeded? the obama administration asked great britain and italy and australia and other countries to assist in its investigation of a person who was a political opponent from the opposite party. i keep hearing over and over again, you can't investigate political opponents. we have a member of this committee who was -- as a member of this committee and the intelligence committee investigating his political opponent, donald trump, at the very moment he was running to replace him as president. my colleague on the intel committee, mr. castro, was
investigating president trump at the same time his brother was running to replace mr. trump. mr. trump is the only legitimate reason to be doing it. he is the chief executive. we are? t -- we are in the judiciary committee, right? we do understand that the president as the intuitive executive is the executive branch. and all power of the executive branch derives from the president. and the president can and should ask for assistance from foreign governments in ongoing criminal investigations. there was an ongoing criminal investigation into what happened in 2016. attorney general william barr at the time of the july 25th call had long before that appointed u.s. attorney john durham to investigate exactly that issue. it wasn't just appropriate, it was absolutely the president's constitutional duty. and hunter biden, the president
has, as the chief executive, the ability to ask about matters where there is a prima facie case of corruption. what do we have with hunter biden? tons of money in a position where he has no ukranian experience, where he has no experience with ukraine or with energy, and at the very same time that the ukranians were deciding that hunter biden was the perfect person to get that sweet, hard deal, the chinese were deciding that hunter biden was the perfect person to get a sweetheart deal to manage $1.75 billion in financial assets. and when the ukranian government wanted to investigate corruption, like we all keep talking about they need to, well, they start investigating burisma, and what happens? joe biden says, you better fire
that prosecutor investigating corruption into burisma or you're not going to get a billion dollars. and six hours later, that's what happened. that's called influence peddling. that is a crime. and there is a prima facie case for that, and it is absolutely appropriate for a president to ask about that. i yield to my friend -- >> i thank the gentleman for the yield. i want to respond to the gentlewoman from texas. she said the president makes up his own policy. that's how it is in our country. you get your name on the ballot, you run for office, you go talk to the american people. they evaluated on election day who they want making the policy. that's how it works in our country. it's not the unelected people telling the elected individual how to do things, because the unelected people aren't directly accountable to we, the people. it's what makes our system the
best, the greatest. and when you turn that on its head, that's when you get problems. we saw it happen, because we heard chuck schumer say on january 3rd, 2017, when you mess with the intelligence community, they have six ways from sunday at getting back at you. now, that is a scary statement because that is saying the unelected people can get back at the person who put their name on a ballot and got elected to high office, the highest office in this situation. so for someone in the united states congress to say the president made up his own policy and somehow that is wrong? that should be a frightening position to take. but i guess that's where the democrats are today in their quest to go after this president, making statements like that, statements by our colleague and statements by senator schumer. i yield back. >> the gentleman yields back. >> i'd like to strike the last word. >> the gentlewoman is
recognized. >> there are issues to be recognized and there are issues of this committee. the behavior of joe biden's son and the behavior of the president's son and daughter may be discussed in the election. but here we're talking about the abuse of presidential authority. the president must take care that the laws be faithfully executed. we know from the emails from the state department to the department of defense that the ukranians knew the aid was being withheld. that's documented evidence. we also know that whatever was going on that people might not like with the vice president's son and the vice president, that was known in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018. it wasn't until vice president biden was beating president trump in the polls that this
issue was raised to try and force a foreign government to raise something politically. that is an abuse and i would yield now to the gentleman from florida, mr. deutsch. >> i thank my friend from california. it's been about three hours since i made this point. i guess it needs to be made from time to time. we just can't simply allow the mischaracterization and the misstatement of the rules, the history of the rules and house resolutions to advance political arguments here. we can't stand for it. and so i want to address again the statements that there was some right to have witnesses come in. it is absolutely true that
that's the case over 50 years ago when the rule was written, when rule 6 was written. it said its normal procedure for witnesses representing both sides of the issue to give testimony at committee hearings. and that's what happened at the december 4th meeting. and that's what happened at the december 9th meeting. let's be honest about the rules. and house resolution 660, i would point out again, provides an opportunity for the president of the united states to come. he could have come on december 4th. he could have sent any of his witnesses. and he didn't. but no one should be surprised. because that's been the president's approach throughout, is to refuse to allow anyone -- anyone -- with the kind of information my colleagues claim they're interested in from coming to testify and answer questions directly. with that i yield to the gentleman from new york, mr. jeffries. >> it's my time. i'd be happy to yield to the
gentleman from new york. >> thank you, distinguished gentlelady from california. there were fact witnesses who testified during the intel hearing, 12. and we don't hear a thing about those witnesses from my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, a thing. those witnesses were not political operatives. they were patriots. in fact, they were trump appointees. ambassador taylor, trump appointee. ambassador sondland, trump appointee. dr. fiona hill, trump appointee. jennifer williams, trump appointee. lieutenant colonel vindman, trump appointee. ambassador yavonovitch, trump appointee. at the same time they held without justification $391
million in military aid, undermining america's national security. let's look at ambassador volker's testimony. he testified about the issue of raising the 2016 elections of vice president biden, all these things that are considered to be conspiracy theories. what was his response? it was pretty simple. quote, i think the allegations against vice president biden are self-serving and not credible. that's what this is all about. i yield back. >> mr. chairman, i yield back. >> the gentlelady yields back. >> does the gentleman wish to strike the last word? >> thank you, mr. chairman.
>> the gentleman is recognized. >> it's amazing, we're hearing from the same people accusing us of covering up, not willing to face the truth. they're the same arguments that we've been hearing for three years now. first it was accusing us of not being willing to face the facts about russian collusion and the president scheming with russia, and that turned out all to be lies. we were right, and those accusing us of not facing the truth were the ones who were not facing the truth. we heard about all kinds of other allegations. we said, wait, those don't seem to be supported. there was a lot of media support for those positions. but we still persisted that we were the ones that were right. and this week, these things are all being borne out. we were right, they were wrong,
and now we're not hearing anybody come in and say, hey, we're really sorry when we accused you all of being crazy and not facing the truth, you were right, there was no russia collusion. you were right, there was no extortion. and my friends across the aisle keep changing the subject. what the call made clear is we're interested in finding out about if there was ukranian collusion or interference in our election. now, it's amazing how the majority can take two positions that counterindicate each other. first of all, they say there was no effort by republicans, including president trump, to stop foreign interference. we heard that yesterday and
today. yet the only way to step up and do what president obama refused to do -- if you remember, president obama belittled president trump, candidate trump, for saying he was concerned about outside interference. and, in fact, president obama made a mockery of anybody that was so stupid that they thought somebody like russia and others might interfere and affect our election. he made fun of them. he wouldn't do anything about outside interference, because apparently he must have thought the outside interference was going to help hillary clinton. as we've heard there apparently are some people who certainly are accused in ukraine of doing all they could to help hillary clinton. in fact, it was unheard of to have a foreign ambassador in our country step up and come out with support for hillary clinton. so what we continue to see is projecting. somebody on their side engages in illegal or improper conduct,
and that's what they accuse president trump or us of doing. and all of this self-righteousness about, you know, for political purposes, i mean, this is from a transcript from december 1st, 1943 when president roosevelt was talking to marshall stalin. this was in tehran they were apparently meeting. but he wanted to talk to him about internal american politics. and from stenographers, they say that president roosevelt said they were in the united states. six to seven million of polish extractions. he didn't want to lose their vote. as a result he was going public. he didn't care, basically, when the soviet union took over
poland, they didn't care if they cut down poland's borders from the east and the west. they say jokingly that when the soviet armies invade and occupy these areas of lithuania, latvia, estonia, he did not plan to go against them on this. this has been going on for many decades, and here they come up on the one guy who wants to get to the bottom of 2016 foreign interference, and what do they accuse him of, of getting foreign interference. no, you can't root out foreign interference until you know what it was. you can't have it both ways -- well, i guess the democratic party can't ha have it both wayt this has got to stop before it goes too much further. i yield back.
>> the gentleman yields back. for what purposes does mrs. cical cicallini seek recognition? for what purpose does mr. shavitz seek word? >> to strike the last word. >> i said previously in this committee that you are going against the wrong guy. it should be joe biden or hunter biden. that hunter biden had just put himself smack dab in the middle of that corruption, and that even though democrats and many of their friends in the media would have you believe that bth burisma/biden corruption, this was all just a vast right wing
conspiracy allegation, when in actuality, it was the obama administration that raised this issue first. back in 2015, george kent reported his concerns about hunter biden to the vice president's office, and the former ambassador to ukraine, marie yavonovitch, said she was coached by the obama administration on how to answer pesky questions related to hunter biden and burisma that might arise during her senate confirmation process. and nearly every single witness who testified at the intelligence committee impeachment inquiry agreed that hunter biden's burisma deal created, at the very least, an appearance of a conflict of interest. yet the democrats on the intelligence committee under chairman schiff and now democrats in this committee are determined to sweep all this under the rug, ignore it, not
let us call witnesses on it. instead a rush to impeach this president. you've got the vice president, joe biden, in charge of overseeing our ukranian policy, and his son, hunter biden, receiving $50,000 a month, even though he had no identifiable expertise and energy or in ukraine, yet the democrats wouldn't let us call witnesses or delve into this. and it was interesting that joe biden got in an argument with a man at one of his events in iowa recently. he called the man a liar and cal len -- challenged him to a push-up contest and spouted off a bunch of other malarkey, and now this country is conducting an impeachment against the
president and they're ignoring something that truly doesn't smell right. wa wafer-thin evidence. this is a man who confessed they didn't vote for president trump. all four witnesses hadn't voted for him. wafer-thin evidence, that's what we're being called to vote on impeachment on. it looks like one thing, usmca trade deal, very important to replace nafta, it looks like we're about to get that across the finish line. i certainly hope so. that would be good for the country. it's bipartisan. i think if there's anything good to come out of this impeachment, it's that that probably will be passed -- we did something. we had 16,000 americans who died from opioid overdoses last year alone, i think it was 70,000 the
year before that. even though the number has gone down a bit, it's not necessarily because we're doing a whole lot better, it's because in narcan, not quite as many people were dying, it was people involved in these drugs. we have far too many people coming across our southern border. that's something we ought to be able to work on in a bipartisan manner in this committee to do something about that, and our lauds th laws that need to be reformed. we have a $23 million debt over our head. the reason i mention these is this committee hasn't been doing a thing because we spent all our last year on impeachment in one form or another. i have a bill, a balanced amendment, moving in the right direction to do something about that. we should have done it years ago. other things like infrastructure not in our jurisdiction, but the
united states congress ought to act on it. our highways and bridges are crumbling in this country. it's actually something we generally agree on, but the democrats probably don't want the president to take any credit for that, so that's not likely to happen. it's unfortunate taking up all this time on impeachment when there are so many other things we ought to be working on for the benefit of the american people. >> what purpose does mr. jordan seek recognition? >> i yield to the ranking member. >> it is amazing, though, they've gotten really sensitive about process on the majority side when we pointed out the tragedy and travesty of being a rubber stamp in this committee. let me remind, as he said a few minutes ago, it all goes to the whim of the chairman and the majority. they can't send anybody they want. it all goes to their majority opinion. i give it back to the gentleman.
>> if democrat can't prove that the bidens are clean, then president trump can't be found guilty of abusing power if he's asking a reasonable question. they cannot prove that the questions into the bidens are unreasonable. now, the gentleman from new york said, you just aren't listening to the witnesses. i listen very closely to the witnesses. what i heard from mr. kent was they were so concerned about burisma they had to pull out the party of the embassy. i listened to ambassador yavonovitch when she gave testimony. she said she had to do special preparation when having to ask questions about why joe biden's son was off with some energy company. if it's okay for the obama administration to ask those questions, why isn't it okay for president trump to ask those questions? here's one thing i know. corrupt people, they don't just deal once. they get into this cycle and
culture of corruption, and it's disappointing. i go back to this new yorker article. one of kathleen's motions, this is regarding hunter biden's divorce, came into reference with a large diamond that came into hunter's possession. when i asked him about it, he said he had been given the diamond by chinese energy tycoon yi yen. he met yi in chicago, and they surprised him by giving him vintage scotch worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. he wasn't just taking weird jobs from out crathe ukranians. the american people know this is an impeachment that is losing steam. i was watching cnn on the way in
this morning, and i heard gloria bulger say this is bad for democrats. and once we ever these public hearings, we'll have the basis for impeachment. well, you had the hearings, you called witnesses, and you know what? you're losing ground. you're losing ground with the media, you're losing ground with the voters and you're even losing ground with your own democratic colleagues. i believe the republican reporting i've seen are begging you to pursue something other than impeachment. this blood lust for impeachment is not going to be visited on us or president trump. it's going to be visited on your own members and they're asking you not to do this. the only standard that speaker pelosi, chairman nadler and chairman schiff set was a bipartisan standard. they said, this has to be
bipartisan. they said it all throughout the 2018 calendar year. but now the only thing that's changed is not a strengthening of the evidence, it's that we're going into a new election. they have taken a look at the candidates they have in the democratic field, and they realize they have to have this impeachment platform because president trump is incapable of fighting a fair fight. we know that. the american people know that. so the only bipartisan vote that occurred on impeachment was a bipartisan vote against opening the inquiry. and the only possibility for movement from that vote to now, despite wasting all of our time, despite having all these hearings, despite the damage to our institutions through this very weird and aberrational investigation is that you'll lose voters that you started with. you have risk of losing more than two of your members. you know what?
republicans are united. we see this fofr whr what it is. we know that what my colleague from ohio said is what it is. it is what motivates them for this bizarre behavior. it's not just an attack on the presidency. it's an attack on us. it's an attack on those of us who believe in this president, who understand very well who we voted for, and he's got some nontraditional ways of doing business, but we also see the great success of this country. more jobs, more opportunity. they have no answer for that in the upcoming election and it's why we're here. >> the gentleman's time is expired. what's the purpose of mr. biggs' recognition? >> move to strike the last word. >> it is recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i mentioned before that looking at the evidence, i'm stunned that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle perpetually read every interference you can make in the light most negative
to the president, and yet this whole proceedings and the way this has been shaped up indicates that there is an incredible inference against their credibility because of the way they've stacked the cards against the president. so i want to revisit -- i support the gentleman's amendment and i want to read this from a ukranian source who is named and cited in a recent publication. it says, quote, by inviting influential foreigners, ukranian business wants to get additional protection. pr allow mechanisms to grab additional issues of interest. by having hunter biden on board, they wanted to get cover because americans are scared by the u.s. presidency and ukraine. hunter biden, using capabilities from his family, acted as a buffer between ukraine and law enforcement agencies. his work of a corrupt official
smells. let's take a look at the transcript our colleagues keep referring to. page 4. the other thing, president trump says, there is a lot of talk about biden's son, that biden stopped the prosecution. a lot of people want to find out about that. so whatever you can do with the attorney general would be great. biden went around saying he could stop the prosecution. that's the evidence they want to impeach president trump for. it begs the question, really, do you get immunity? is it an immunity-granting event to have a relative run for public office? do you get immunity for that? let's flip it on its end. the question is, does the president have the authority to request an investigation? most assuredly. he mentions the attorney general
here. it is clear he would like an investigation into the corruption surrounding ukraine. because what does president zelensky go on to say? he goes on talking about trying to restore the honesty in his country. that's what he's talking about. you've got the attorney general, you got the president of both countries acknowledging that there is corruption, let's get it fixed up. it leads you back to the whole question of the democrats wanting to impeach president trump for these amorphous abuse of power issues, these amorphou srs obstruction of congress issues. it's just bizarre. hunter biden is placed on the board of burisma in 2014. joe biden calls for the removal of the chief prosecutor in 2016. in the meantime, evidence is
clear that burisma paid about $3.4 million to the company of hunter and his partner archer. that is really intriguing the investigations surrounding burisma stock, and burisma's reputation around ukraine is low, and it was dubious even before this impeachment inquiry raised it to new attention. let's face it, according to ukranian sources, burisma is not on everyone's front burner in ukraine. but it is here. because we were providing hundreds of millions of dollars to tukraine in foreign aid. and this president said, we need to stop corruption. he mentions specifically the corruption he had heard about. is that impeachable? no. it's asking for an investigation to get to the bottom of it
because you do not get immunity just because your father is running for public office. just because anyone related to you is running for public office. and i will tell you, this president has done a remarkable job in spite of three years of constant harassment by the democrats of this body and the media on the left of this country. we have a great economy. he's trying to bring order to the border. we have more people working than ever before. this president has restored the military and actually prestige around the world. there are no more apology tours on the foreign policy side that we saw in the previous administration. he has really worked to make america's esteem and greatness. >> ms. ci irks krrkscica caline.
i wish to strike the last word. we have passed nearly 400 bills since the president took office. they range from prescription drugs, to provide equal pay for equal work, to raise the minimum work for 33 million americans, the biggest watergate, to respond to neutrality, climate crisis, universal background checks, and we recently completed negotiations on the new trade deal. sadly, 88% of those bills are lying on mitch mcconnell's desk awaiting action. so i urge my colleagues on trying to mischaracterize one of the most ridiculous conversations in history. we ask that they bring those
jobs to the floor. there's been this effort to really confuse what this is about, what this impeachment is about. it is about the president of the united states using the power of his office to smear a political opponent, to drag a foreign power into our elections, to corrupt the elections and leverage hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money to accomplish that objective. so this amendment would like to wish away the motive of the president to engage this this corrupt scheme, but you can't wish it away, you can't amend it away. the facts are the facts. the allegations we're talking about here originated in 2015. that's according to the minority report as well. in 2017 and 2018, foreign assistance was provided by ukraine. what happened in 2019? what changed? the president is losing in a national poll by double digits to joe biden. we also -- those are the facts.
third, multiple witnesses. trump administration officials testified that vice president biden did nothing wrong, including mr. kent, ambassador yavonovitch, mr. holmes, ambassador volker. vice president biden's firing of the prior prosecutor was done in accordance with official u.s. policy. it was approved by the justice department. it was the policy of the united states. it was supported by the european union and many countries throughout europe, and a bipartisan coalition in congress. this was a corrupt prosecutor. it was official u.s. policy that the vice president was executing. by contrast, what we have in this case, the basis of this impeachment proceeding, is exactly the opposite. what president trump was doing was not official u.s. policy and all the witnesses confirmed that. it was not done through the justice department and it was done again the advice of all of his advisers.
that's what's very different with what we're confronting today and this is work that was not done by the apparatus of the state department, this was an effort led by the president's personal attorney, rudolph giuliani. the scheme was led by this whole apparatus outside the state department. let's not confuse these two things. facts maerkts the truth matters. you cannot continue just to make assertions when the record is completely the opposite. i'd like to yield to the gentleman from california, mr. swalwell. >> i thank the gentleman. if president trump and my republican colleagues were so interested in rooting out corruption in ukraine, there was so much they could do that they never did. my republican colleagues for many years were in the majority. for many years the vice president's son was on this board. they never investigated this. their concern only came about once vice president biden became president trump's chief political opponent.
on april 21 of this year, president trump called president zelensky to congratulate him. in his talking points, president trump was told to bring uprootiuproot i -- up rooting out corruption in ukraine. the president never did it, but they said the president had. july 25th again, national security councilmembers worked really hard to tell the president, impress upon the ukranian president he needs to root out corruption in his country. the president never brings up corruption. the president wanted to investigate any individual u.s. citizen. there is a formal process we go through. the president never asked the attorney general to do this. the president was never interested in fighting corruption in ukraine. he was only interested in weaponizing corruption in ukraine for his own personal benefit, and that's why we must hold him accountable for an abuse of power. and i yield back.
>> the gentleman yields back. i recognize the gentleman for his request. >> this article came out july 12, 2019, two weeks before the call to president zelensky, where he asked if he should worry about running against joe biden. >> no objection. there are votes on the floor, a number of votes on the floor. the committee will stand in recess until after the votes. please reconvene immediately after the votes. the committee stands in recess. >> all right, they started at 9:00 this morning eastern time. it's now approaching 1:00 p.m. here on the east coast. four hours of this hearing. they've been reviewing amendments, two amendments specifically so far, two of the articles of impeachment, two articles of impeachment against the president of the united states, abuse of power, obstruction of congress. they're getting through the second amendment. the democrats are in the
tonight, the final hours of 2020. america celebrating the new year in the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic. an unprecedented new year's eve tonight, the final hours of 2020. america celebrating the new year in the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic. an unprecedented new year's eve across the u.s. new york's times square, normally packed with 1 million people, will be mostly empty when the ball drops at midnight. police officials telling everyone, don't even attempt to come down here. authorities in cities across the country cracking down on large parties, asking people to stay home this year. and news tonight about a new year's eve celebration in las vegas that was expected to draw thousands. we're also tracking the frustration growing over the slow covid vaccine rollout. thousands of people waiting hours in their cars for vaccinations in tennessee. traffic backed up for four miles. states trying to speed up the
process. and late today, police arresting a pharmacist in wisconsin, accusing him of intentionally spoiling dozens of vials. also, health officials with new worries about that highly contagious variant of covid-19 found in california and colorado. dr. fauci warning to expect more cases across the country. the virus still hitting records. more than 3,700 deaths in 24 hours. hospitalizations topping 125,000 patients. also tonight, the major winter blast heading into the new year. weather alerts from texas to maine. snow, ice, rain and possible tornadoes. drivers stranded overnight on a texas highway. ginger zee with the timing and the track. plus, the race to rescue an 8-year-old boy falling through the ice. police and the boy's father forming a human chain. also, news tonight about bicyclists attacking drivers on the streets of new york. new images and now word of at least one arrest.
and we'll take you around the world to the countries celebrating new year's tonight, happily flipping the calendar to 2021. and good evening. it's great to have you with us on this final day of 2020. i'm tom llamas, in for david. and we begin tonight with america and much of the world sharing an unprecedented new year's eve in the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic. take a look at this. this new year's eve like no other. you're looking at new york's times square, which will be almost entirely empty when the ball drops at midnight. 1 million people normally packed into the crossroads of the world, told to stay home. the nypd insisting there will be no spectators allowed. the number of officers normally deployed to the area cut by 80%. police in los angeles county on patrol, cracking down on large
gatherings and potential superspreader evens. a last-minute change in plans for a controversial celebration on las vegas' fremont street. organizers drastically reducing the crowd size from a reported 14,000 people. it was one year ago today when that the first warning about a mysterious virus in wuhan was reported to the w.h.o. abc's trevor ault in times square tonight to lead us off. >> reporter: tonight, preparations for restricted new year's eve celebrations under way, as the worst month of the pandemic comes to a close. new york's times square will be nearly empty when the ball drops. the celebration only open to a small number of front line workers. >> do not come to the area. if you think you're going to be able to stand there and watch the ball, you're mistaken. >> reporter: and with cases surging across the country, officials are sounding the alarm about potential superspreader events. as many as 14,000 people were expected to gather in part of downtown las vegas. the state's governor warning -- >> the larger the group of people, the larger the number that will get sick. >> reporter: tonight, that area now restricted to hotel guests
only. and in california, where many icus are at capacity, the famed santa monica pier has been shut down. the cdc and cities like san francisco urging people to stay home. >> do not celebrate with folks or people outside of your family or people that you do not live together with. >> all right, trevor ault is live from times square. and trevor, as i look at your shot right now, i've reported down there in times square on other new year's eve, and it is incredible how quiet, how empty it is. we have never, ever seen anything like this. trevor, what is the celebration or lack there of, going to be tonight? >> reporter: well, tom, to be perfectly honest, aside from a few hundred police officers, it is eerily empty out here. a surreal scene to cap off what has been a surreal year. now, there is a small stage for concerts for those special guests, a few dozen front line workers, but even they have their own individual areas because officials do not want a crowd of any kind. tom? >> everyone told to watch the celebration on television. all right, trevor, thank you for that. and news tonight about the slow rollout of the coronavirus
vaccines across the u.s. the cdc reporting nearly 3 million people receiving shots, far short of the trump administration's goal of 20 million by today. thousands of people, look at this, lining up for vaccinations in chattanooga, waiting hours in their cars. traffic backed up for four miles. from one state to the next, calls now growing to pick up the pace. here's abc's elwyn lopez. >> reporter: tonight, thousands in miles-long lines waiting hours on new year's eve in tennessee to get the covid-19 vaccine. >> a lot less fear. a lot less anxiety and just a lot of hope. >> reporter: the long awaited vaccine's finally here. but states are now struggling to get those life-saving shots into arms. >> they don't have the people. they don't have the funding, and there isn't an overarching plan that we really need to ensure that we get this done quickly. >> reporter: in arizona, out of the more than 300,000 vaccines the state has received, only 18% have been used. vaccination sites in florida
overwhelmed. calls for the national guard to come in and help. some people say they can't get an appointment. >> i have called more than 200 times. nothing. >> reporter: operation warp speed now crawling. only 2.7 million vaccinations recorded. far short of the initial goal of 20 million by the end of the year. >> there really has to be a lot more effort, in the sense of resources for the locals, namely the states, the cities, the counties. >> reporter: some health care workers refusing to take the vaccine. >> what i'm worried about is people who aren't taking it, frankly. >> reporter: ohio, kansas, mississippi, and georgia have the lowest vaccination rates in the country. >> in many parts of rural georgia, both in the north and the south, there's vaccine available and literally sitting in freezers. that's unacceptable. we have lives to save. >> reporter: in west virginia, more than 40 people accidentally given an antibody treatment
instead of the vaccine. and tonight in wisconsin, a fired pharmacist arrested, after police say he admitted to intentionally removing 570 vaccine doses from the freezer, then putting them back in hours later. but it was too late for 57 people who already got those doses. now possibly ineffective. >> this was a situation involving a bad actor, as opposed to a bad process. >> a disturbing headline there. elwyn joins us now from cdc headquarters in atlanta. and elwyn, i do want to go back to what's happened in wisconsin. i understand you have some new reporting on that suspect? >> reporter: yeah, that's right, tom. investigators claim that the former employee knew that those spoiled doses would be useless to the people receiving those vaccines and that they would think that they had been vaccinated against the virus when they had been not vaccinated against that virus, putting them at higher risk. tom. >> elwyn lopez on the vaccine rollout and the frustrations that are growing. elwyn, thank you. covid-19 still with a tight
grip on the u.s. for most of the year, and here we are now -- the country with more than 345,000 american lives lost. more than 73,000 deaths reported in december alone, a record of more than 3,700 deaths in just 24 hours. hospitalizations hitting a new record high. more than 125,000 patients. health officials now worrying about the spread of that covid-19 variant found in california and colorado that came from the uk. now more cases are out there. abc's kaylee hartung is in los angeles. >> reporter: tonight, experts bracing for the spread of that highly contagious variant of covid. >> you're going to be hearing about reports from other states and more cases in the states that have already reported. >> reporter: some labs across the country now screening for the variant. cases confirmed in colorado and california as the country hits grim records in deaths and hospitalizations. l.a. county tweeting the profiles of victims. the tweets posted once every ten minutes to mirror how often the virus claims lives here.
funeral homes now being forced to turn families away. >> i have to say, i'm sorry, i can't help you right now. that's a very difficult thing to tell people. >> reporter: across the u.s., hospitals scrambling. in alabama, doctors warning of shortages. >> if you have a heart attack and you come to the hospital, we now have no place to put you because all the icu beds are occupied. and it's not just here. any place that we would transfer you, they also are full. >> reporter: even surgeon general jerome adams, unable to visit his wife who is battling cancer in the hospital because of covid restrictions, tweeting, i'm hoping she doesn't have to spend new year's in a hallway because the beds are full. and tonight, a new study reporting over 2 million children have had covid. more than a million just since november. in texas, 11-year-old cason abbott now battling that rare multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children linked to the virus. his mother sharing this urgent message. >> if your child has covid and they -- and afterwards, you know, they're over the covid, they come to you within the
next, like, four to five weeks afterwards complaining of symptoms, please take them very seriously, because i didn't even know this existed. >> all right, kaylee hartung joins us now from downtown los angeles tonight. and health officials mentioned that we should expect more cases in the areas where the variant has been detected. what more do we know tonight about that most recent california case? >> reporter: well, tom, that man has not needed to be hospitalized, and now contact tracing is under way. someone who he lives with has shown symptoms and has been tested. officials say they do not believe this is an isolated case and, like you said, expect there will be more. tom? >> kaylee hartung continuing her reporting from that crisis in southern california. kaylee, thank you. now to the new year's storm. alerts up tonight from texas to maine. snow, ice, rain and possible tornadoes. heavy snow stranding drivers, look at this, for hours on interstate 10 near van horn, texas. many having to sleep in their vehicles overnight.
let's get right to abc's chief meteorologist ginger zee. ginger, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, tom. 2020 does not want to go out quietly. look at this. a tornado watch up as we speak. parts of louisiana, including lake charles that was hit so hard this year. but it is the snow -- alpine, texas, had close to a foot and you can see it's still wrapping around that low. it's the ice right in the middle that's going to make for a lot of these alerts, including that ice storm warning in central illinois. kansas city to indianapolis overnight tonight into early tomorrow, you've got slip and slide on i-70. chicago to detroit, you're going to get into it tomorrow, too. so, let's all take this low and time it out for you. it's really the overnight hours for the plains and parts of the ozarks. and then it moves through, and you can see that pink color, that's what you want to watch out for, western new york and pennsylvania going to get sloppy by tomorrow night, too. tom, happy new year. >> happy new year, ginger. we turn to politics now and a major headline just days before georgia's two senate runoff elections. control of the senate at stake.
republican senator david perdue going into quarantine after being exposed to covid-19. nearly 3 million people already voting early in person or by mail. here's abc's alex presha. >> reporter: tonight, david georgia republican senator david perdue sidelined ahead of that crucial runoff that will determine control of the u.s. senate, after coming into close contact with someone on his campaign who tested positive for covid-19. his team saying perdue and his wife are quarantining and both the senator and his wife tested negative today. [ cheers and applause ] perdue on the trail just yesterday. >> what i'm here doing is trying to fight for the people of georgia. >> reporter: the 71-year-old senator is facing a tough challenge from democratic candidate jon ossoff. >> the whole country is watching georgia voters to see what we will do at this historic moment. >> reporter: already, nearly 3 million georgians have voted early. some reporting wait times up to four hours. the other republican senator trying to keep her seat, senator kelly loeffler, leaving the door
open to joining a large number of house republicans and missouri senator josh hawley's efforts to challenge the electoral college results, which congress is set to certify next week. >> look, everything is on the table right now. >> reporter: and tom, perdue was set to join loffler at a rally on monday, the day before election day, headlined by president trump and now that's in jeopardy. tom? >> alex presha covering everything out of georgia for us tonight. alex, thank you for that. and around the world tonight, many countries already changing the calendar to 2021. in wuhan, china, the source of this pandemic, residents packing the streets to celebrate the new year. new zealand declaring itself covid free. thousands turning out to ring in the new year there. sydney, australia, with a stunning celebration. only a few hundred people allow into the harbor, though. fireworks shooting from the world's tallest building in dubai, as well. so many welcoming the new year and happy to see 2020 go. that is for sure. there's still much more ahead on "world news tonight" this thursday night. the latest on those bicyclists attacking drivers on the streets of new york. news tonight of a second
incident and an arrest. plus this -- the rush to save a child, you see him there, from an icy river. how several officers and the boy's father pulled him to safety. stay with us. boy's father pulled him to safety. stay with us.
♪ ocean spray works with nature every day to keep you healthy who've got their eczema under control. with less eczema, you can show more skin. so roll up those sleeves. and help heal your skin from within with dupixent. dupixent is the first treatment of its kind that continuously treats moderate-to-severe eczema, or atopic dermatitis, even between flare ups. dupixent is a biologic, and not a cream or steroid. many people taking dupixent saw clear or almost clear skin, and, had significantly less itch. don't use if you're allergic to dupixent. serious allergic reactions can occur, including anaphylaxis, which is severe. tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems, such as eye pain or vision changes, or a parasitic infection. if you take asthma medicines, don't change or stop them
without talking to your doctor. so help heal your skin from within, and talk to your eczema specialist about dupixent. if your financial situation has changed, we may be able to help. back now with the rush to save an 8-year-old boy from freezing waters. back now with the rush to save an 8-year-old boy from freezing waters. new video from police in eau claire, wisconsin, showing the child after he plunged through an icy river. his father attempting to save him, but struggling. several police officers showed up and a bystander then forming a human chain to pull the father and child to safety. when we come back, the violent end to a college football game. dozens of players rushing the field. this video just coming in. we'll have it for you after this break. ewww. dead skin cells? gross! so now, i grab my swiffer heavy duty sweeper and dusters. dusters extends to 6 feet to reach way up high... to grab, trap and lock away gross dust. nice! for dust on my floors, i switch to sweeper.
the heavy duty cloths reach deep in grooves to grab, trap and lock dust bunnies... no matter where they hide. no more heebie jeebies. phhhhew. glad i stopped cleaning and started swiffering. always have been.er. and always will be. never letting anything get in my way. not the doubts, distractions, or voice in my head. and certainly not arthritis. voltaren provides powerful arthritis pain relief to help me keep moving. and it can help you too. feel the joy of movement with voltaren. to give you the protein you need with less of the sugar you don't. [grunting noise] i'll take that. woohoo! 30 grams of protein and 1 gram of sugar. ensure max protein. with nutrients to support immune health.
which is breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body, are living in the moment and taking ibrance. ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor is for postmenopausal women or for men with hr+/her2- metastatic breast cancer, as the first hormonal based therapy. ibrance plus letrozole significantly delayed disease progression versus letrozole, and shrank tumors in over half of patients. patients taking ibrance can develop low white blood cell counts, which may cause serious infections that can lead to death. ibrance may cause severe inflammation of the lungs that can lead to death. tell your doctor right away if you have new or worsening symptoms, including trouble breathing, shortness of breath, cough, or chest pain. before taking ibrance, tell your doctor if you have fever, chills, or other signs of infection, liver or kidney problems, are pregnant, breastfeeding, or plan to become pregnant. common side effects include low red blood cell and low platelet counts, infections, tiredness, nausea, sore mouth, abnormalities in liver blood tests,
diarrhea, hair thinning or loss, vomiting, rash, and loss of appetite. be in your moment. ask your doctor about ibrance. but these days, i'm not getting out as much as i'd like to. that's why i take osteo bi-flex. it helps with occasional joint stiffness, while it nourishes & strengthens my joints for the long term. osteo bi-flex, find our coupon in sunday's paper. osteo bi-flex, find our coupon honey honey? new nyquil severe honey is maximum strength cold and flu medicine with soothing honey-licious taste. nyquil honey. the nighttime, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, fever best sleep with a cold medicine. time now for the index and
time now for the index and an update on the bicyclists wanted for attacking drivers on the streets of new york. new video showing the group swarming and smashing a yellow taxi on fifth avenue as the driver attempted to fight them off. police say it's the same group behind this attack on an suv we first showed you last night. a 15-year-old has been arrested. more arrests are expected. and new surveillance emerging of that woman who falsely accused a black teenager of stealing her iphone. police now looking for the woman seen wrestling 14-year-old keyon harrold jr. to the ground inside a new york city hotel. police say she could face charges including attempted robbery and assault. and the massive brawl breaking out after a college football game. the violent scene erupting after mississippi state's win over tulsa in the armed forces bowl. one player kicked while on the ground. coaches and police attempting to break this one up. it appears to have started during the postgame handshake. clearly out of control right there. all right, david muir is coming up next. happy new year from me.
a very special segment right after this break. what if your clothes could stay fresh for weeks?t smell clean? now they can! this towel has already been used and it still smells fresh. pour a cap of downy unstopables into your washing machine before each load
and enjoy fresher smelling laundry for up to 12-weeks. so get relief fast. only tylenol rapid release gels have laser-drilled holes. they release medicine fast for fast pain relief. tylenol rapid release gels. (burke)stomer) happy anniversary. they release medicine fast for fast pain relief. (customer) for what? (burke) every year you're with us, you get fifty dollars toward your home deductible. it's a policy perk for being a farmers customer. (customer) do i have to do anything? (burke) nothing. (customer) nothing? (burke) nothing. (customer) nothing? (burke) nothing. (customer) hmm, that is really something. (burke) you get a whole lot of something with farmers policy perks. see ya. (kid) may i have a balloon, too? (burke) sure. your parents have maintained a farmers home policy for twelve consecutive months, right? ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ (burke) start with a quote at 1-800-farmers. are you ready to join the duers? those who du more with less asthma. thanks to dupixent. the add-on treatment
for specific types of moderate-to-severe asthma. dupixent isn't for sudden breathing problems. it can improve lung function for better breathing in as little as 2 weeks and help prevent severe asthma attacks. it's not a steroid but can help reduce or eliminate oral steroids. dupixent can cause serious allergic reactions including anaphylaxis. get help right away if you have rash, shortness of breath, chest pain, tingling or numbness in your limbs. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection and don't change or stop your asthma treatments, including steroids, without talking to your doctor. du more with less asthma. talk to your asthma specialist about dupixent. if your financial situation has changed, we may be able to help. try nature's bounty hair, skin and nails gummies. the number one brand to support beautiful hair, glowing skin, and healthy nails. and try advanced,
now with two times more biotin. twto treat acute, non-low back stmuscle and joint pain doctors with topical nsaids first. a formulation they recommend can be found in salonpas. a formulation they recommend can be found in salonpas. salonpas. it's good medicine. hisamitsu. i'm ama daetz. next, at 6:00. a whistle-blower tells how her former agency misled the and finally tonight here on this new year's eve, i just wanted to take a moment to offer my thanks. thank you to all of you at home. we know this has been a heavy year, but you've been here, even when the news has been difficult. and we are getting through this together. and of course, the team here at work. there are no words, really, to fully express my gratitude. so many have been working from home. and of course the brave few who have been coming in from the
very start of this pandemic. i couldn't do it without them. and of course, we couldn't do this without all of you. i wish you a happy and safe new year and a more hopeful one. from all of us here at abc news, good night. ♪ ♪ should auld acquaintance be forgot and never thought upon ♪ ♪ the flames of love extinguished ♪ ♪ and fully past and gone ♪ for auld lang syne my jo ♪ for auld lang syne ♪ we'll take a cup of kindness yet for auld lang syne ♪
♪ should auld acquaintance be forgot ♪ ♪ and never brought to mind ♪ should auld acquaintance be forgot ♪ ♪ and auld lang syne ♪ for auld lang syne my jo ♪ for auld lang syne ♪ we'll take a cup of kindness yet ♪ ♪ for auld lang syne ♪ should auld acquaintance be forgot ♪ ♪ and never thought upon ♪ the flames of love extinguished ♪ ♪ and fully past and gone ♪ for auld lang syne my jo
♪ for auld lang syne ♪ we'll take a cup of kindness yet ♪ ♪ for auld lang syne ♪ should auld acquaintance be forgot ♪ ♪ and never brought to mind ♪ should auld acquaintance be forgot ♪ ♪ and auld lang syne ♪ for auld lang syne my jo ♪ for auld lang syne ♪ we'll take a cup of kindness yet ♪ ♪ for auld lang syne ♪
♪ la la la la la ♪ la la la la la la ♪ la la la la la la ♪ la la la la la la la la la ♪ la la la la la la la la new year but the same rules.
a look at the damper the pandemic is putting on new year's parties in the bay area >> it's not true everywhere. see how people are ringing up the new year at the start of the pandemic. how about that for energy. if down got money, 2020 leaves you with something to celebrate. >> happy new year, almost for us. as we countdown the final few hours of 2020 around the world, hard to believe what we've been through in the past 36 five days. this empty view of times square is a reminder what this year has been and taken from us. good evening and thank you for joining us. i'm ama daetz. >> i'm dan ashley. six minutes remain here.
download the experian app. of brush fire goes past interstate 10 in phoenix in smoke causing delays during the friday rush hour commute. officials say no injuries reported and no structures damaged. alicia the and a oh oh wording that extremely warm see temperatures could make this hurricane season a wild one. >> day one of hurricane season is today june 1st typically this is a historic look at when hurricanes are most active the first couple of months is quiet
It’s another round of major closures on the far Northwest Side as the Texas Department of Transportation will once again close Loop 1604 and parts of Interstate 10 this weekend to continue construction on the Loop 1604 North Expansion Project.
SAN ANTONIO - A man is hospitalized after police say he was stabbed at a stop light by a homeless man on the North Side.The stabbing happened just before 12:20
MOBILE – The Alabama Department of Transportation, along with the chairmen of the Eastern Shore Metropolitan Planning Organization and the Mobile Metropolitan P