Page 1123 - Leverage News Today

The news comes after several current and former white house and state department officials defied previous white house efforts to stonewall the inquiry and testified anyway. telling lawmakers at the president froze military aid to ukraine to pressure its leaders to launch investigations that were sought by president trump. >> all right, "the washington post" is also reporting that a growing number of senate republicans are ready to acknowledge that the president used military aid as leverage to ...

Not just a political divide in this country but also a deep cultural divide. and as long as republicans in any part of the country see the president under attack and they think of him as stand-in for themselves if they identify with him, hes just like me, they are going to feel personally attacked and they are going to double down on their support of this president. and how you get at that is as much a cultural issue as a political one. >> david, let me talk to you a little bit about the republi...

>> thanks for having us. >> congressman, what does it mean when people go to the house floor as you say you did really knowing it is a big, important vote but it also might literally end their house career. >> well, this is a very, very serious event. any time you are talking about impeachment it is serious because this involves national security and the abuse of power. this is something i think members on both sides will live with the rest of their life and i hope they all take it with that lev...

Voters may be. but this has only happened a few times in history for a reason. thats because its serious. weve seen you have to meet a high threshold. it appears thats been met to proceed with the inquiry. these are serious charges. obstruction of justice is a serious charge. we dont know what the articles will be. again, when you are talking about loosing the leverage of the presidency in national security situations, as a former diplomat, i can tell you thats what presidents use on a daily bas...

The other thing thats so important, nicole, in reading that, rudy giuliani is not a u.s. official. he has no role in american foreign policy. he has no business interacting with american foreign policy. he is just the presidents private attorney. yet he is more empowered than our ambassador in the country. and this is a country that we have enormous leverage over. they depend on the assistance. the assistance that was used as leverage in the quid pro quo in exchange for dirt on biden or an inves...

These individuals back for public hearings? >> at this point, im not going to comment on who our witnesses will be in the open hearings. but we will endeavor to make the decision about who the most important witnesses are and try to provide testimony in an orderly way in which the american people can understand the nature of the allegations and the facts involving what is at the heart of this investigation. that is the presidents abuse of his office to coerce an ally that is fighting off russian...

When i was chairman of a committee when a member of the administration was reluctant to come and testify, but we insisted. on a few occasions, somebody -- >> and whats the leverage on insistence that should be applied, because there is defiance or stonewalling and really nothing happens after that. >> yes, fredricka, this is a practical problem. and its this. the leverage is for congress to enforce a subpoena by first vote of congress and then in court. but a government employee who really doesn...

Coverage through the rest of the process. might not necessarily deserve that. howard: "the washington post" has a report growing number of republicans are ready to acknowledge that, yes, donald trump used military aid as leverage to get an investigation going of the bidens in the ukraine, but its not an impeachable offense, it doesnt rise to that level. nothing happened in the end. if they do acknowledge that and the stories reporting this are not fake. >> well, they have -- senators have been t...

Oil fields. when the president revised his decision, this is absolutely critical to making certain that those oil fields are going to stay in u.s.-led coalition hands and syrian hands in terms of the syrian democratic forces. paul: general, we dont have a lot of time but what changed the presidents mind here? he seemed very intent on getting out. >> well, i think just the realization that if the iranians got the oil fields, it would reduce the impact of his maximum sanction campaign on iran. tha...

Consistency with respect to whether or not that the president has violated his oath of office, whether or not he has invoked the constitution and whether or not he has abused his power. i think there has been consistent evidence in that regard and we will continue to move forward. >> i want to ask you, sir, about this reporting from "politico" that says the president is now rewarding republican senators by tapping his fundraising network for members facing tough reelection bid. the report goes o...