Page 10 - Oversight Function News Today

Writer and analyst for the new yorker. carolyn i was bugging you as this was playing out before we came to air. what is your perspective on the question of -- look, if the white house wanted to have full transparency theyre not saying because you didnt follow this written rule in in step in this process were not going to hand it over. they could hand over information if they wanted to. >> yeah, absolutely to be clear there is no rule. >> what is the rule on -- you have to have a formal vote on i...

Martha raddatz asked. ten days later he says i was on the phone call to matt lee. doesnt tell us anything he thought or what he thought. definitely did not talk about any of the details that might come up in the impeachment investigation. >> i agree that matt lee is a good questioner to go to. and hes a real reporter and he asked tough questions. but i took it frankly as a recognition that pompeo knew he could not avoid this anymore after what happened with martha raddatz. but he didnt answer th...

Time what he did to us in 2016. it must stop. no matter what the political consequences are. i think that is, we now have the answer, thats what it took. donald trump trying to pull the same lawless unethical, immoral thing a second time. >> and heidi, let me bring -- >> the same thing. >> let me bring heidi back into this because shes standing on capitol hill for us. heidi, i wanted to ask you how much of this, to john heilemanns point, is from a defensive posture, this daily drumbeat that cong...

>> right. >> in f this ends up being whatt apparently is, this could have that effect where it becomes impossible for the democrats in the house to avoid a serious out in the open no messing around impeachment, not just mee impeachment proceedings immediately. just think how theyre handling this whistleblower complaint. they are essentially saying that whistle blowers in the government, if they follow proper procedures have no expectation of protection. >> right. >> and that the president should...

Oversight function as an equal branch of government, and even if they dont wind up drawing up articles of impeachment, that they are doing something. whether thats enough to satisfy the democratic base as salena said and i think shes right, remains to be seen. thats this delicate balance now between the sort of core of the democratic caucus and the leadership including speaker pelosi who is trying to protect a majority going into a presidential election year. >> and then salena, president trump ...

Were back. youve seen this letter from elijah cummings to the department of homeland security and secretary kevin mca lean than complaining that theyre refusing to allow members from the house oversight committee to engage in the second round of visits to several detention facilities. in the first round hes documented whats seen as extremely troubling conditions. what do you make of this? >> i make of it that the administration doesnt want congress, a, to perform its over sight function, which i...

Name." jessica, i -- >> jessica: [whispering] do they know he was confirmed? im wildly aware. >> melissa: was upside to doing that? >> jessica: the argument chairman nadler has made is that they havent given all the documents they asked for during the confirmation. i think they could impeach him, but im not sure thats what the game plan is. >> kennedy: what is the game plan? with the end game? >> jessica: even though i read that outtro like that, im not a member of the committee pre[laughter] i ...

President accountable is whether future presidents can be held accountable. if this president can show that congress oversight function is a paper tiger it means that any future president can be as corrupt as they want and presid corrupt as they want and know they cant be held to account. >> chairman adam schiff, thank you for joining us tonight. i appreciate it. >> thank you. up next, trump inspired terrorism. thats what one expert calls the massacre in el paso. that expert, professor david s...

Witness testimony that was summarized in that report and the documents that were summarized. thats exactly what were trying to obtain. if we liken this to a criminal proceeding, id like to bring these witnesses before the grand jury and hear what they have to say directly, not rely on the fbi 302 summary of what they had to say. but if were deprived of that, if the administration games it out and deprives us of the ability to do that then we may have to think about whether the obstruction itself...

Documents and the court, so i think theyre just using the obstruction measure to pursue a legal case. >> so how do they respond to this case without a formal impeachment inquiry? what do they consider in this petition? >> i think kurt is generally right. i agree with him. you dont need a formal impeachment inquiry open in the house. congress has an important oversight function. in fact, in order to open an impeachment proceeding, its completely legitimate for them to inquire as to whether or not...