Billingsley and lapere in the lobby, talking and getting on an elevator together. Police say they do not think they knew one another. Thats it for us. The news continues. Ill see you tomorrow. The source with kaitlan the source with Kaitlan Collins starts now. Captions by vitac www. Vitac. Com tonight straight from the source, President Biden rebuking republicans for their, quote, silence on threats to kmok si, calling out his predecessor by name. Well be joined by kindi and plus the first Biden Impeachment inquiry not off to a strong start. One senior republican aide calling it, quote, an unmitigated disastor, as every republican witness agreed with democrats. All with nearly 48 hours left before the government is set to shut down and run out of funding and millions of americans are set to stop getting their paychecks, including members of the u. S. Military. Im Kaitlan Collins, and this is the source. Were live from capitol hill tonight. The citadel of our democracy, where democracy is not exactly working as it should be. The government is on the brink of shutting down tonight, with House Republicans voting in this hour on some of these stand alone Spending Bills. Though, even if they can get these votes passed tonight. And that is still an open question, as we are speaking right now that alone would not prevent a Government Shutdown. A shutdown, of course, is not just a formality or something procedural. It would actually create a lot of pain for a lot of regular americans. Tonight, House Republicans are essentially at war with one another not just over funding the government, though. Even with no agreement in sight on funding the government, House Republicans held their first hearing in the Impeachment Inquiry into President Biden today. But it did not quite go as they expected or at least had planned for it to go, as the hearing was deemed by even their own republican colleagues an unmitigated disaser, maybely because of things like this. We are going to present evidence. Theres no evidence. Just sit back and let the American People see the hearing. Are you present anything firsthand witness account of crimes committed by the president of the United States . No, im not. I am not. I have not. I do not believe that the Current Evidence would support articles of impeachment. Im not here today to even suggest that there was corruption, fraud, or any wrong doing. This is an embarrassment. Democrats like congresswoman alexandria ocasiocortez were not the only ones who felt way. Some inside the Republican Party on capitol hill also voiced their frustration to cnn in realtime, saying, it was, quote, mind blowing for republicans to pick witnesses. And several of those witnesses were republican witnesses, that they rebuked their own case. One senior republican aide, as i noted, called it an unmitigated disastor. President biden was laying out the stakes for democracy, focusing on his predecessors grip on the Republican Party, and warning that democracies can die in silence. The days Republican Party is driven and intimidated by maga republican extremists, more determined to shut down the government, to burn the place down, than to let the peoples business be done. Heres what you hear from maga extremists about the retiring patriot general honoring his oath to the constitution, quote, hes a traitor, end of quote. Quote, times gone by, the punishment would have been death, end of quote. And although i dont believe even a majority of republicans think that, the silence is deafening. Well have more on that speech in just a moment. But for the Impeachment Inquiry that we saw today, i want to get straight to the source tonight with the Ranking Member on the House Oversight committee, Maryland Democratic congressman jamie raskin. Thank you for being here. We saw you sitting there next to the chairman, james comer. Do you think anything was accomplished in that courtroom today . I think it demonstrated to the whole country that there really is no evidence at all supporting the idea Of ImpeachingPresident Biden. They cant even really name what the purported high crime and misdemeanor is. They dont even have a low crime and misdemeanor. They have no crime at all. And today, for their very first impeachment hearing, they had no fact witnesses. They had no eyewitnesses. They put on several experts, who agreed with us that theres not remotely sufficient evidence to justify an impeachment. So, we saw a meltdown on the republican side of the aisle, where the republican members were fleeing the Committee Room in droves, embarrassed and humiliated by what was going on. But of course the democrats were there because we would like to put an end to this nonsense right now and get back to the work of america. The government is about to shut down in two days because of the chaos of this clown show im quoting republicans here on republicans because they cant develop any focus on what they want to do. So, youve got a small extremist maga faction, maybe 15 or 20 or 25 members, which is essentially driving the train. And Kevin Mccarthy has continually catered to them and appeased them, and were all paying the bitter price of that. Right now theyre about to shut down the government of the United States, although the senate republicans, the senate democrats, the house democrats, and the president of the United States are all united. We need a clean, continuing resolution to get through this, along with disaster aid and aid to people of Ukraine Fighting Russian imperialism, violence against their society. But it is the protrump, proputin, maga wing of the republicans which is having their way over Kevin Mccarthy. So far hes not been willing to stand up to them, and the government of the United States might shut down. This is something that no Enemy Government has ever been able to do to us in america, and maga is about to do it to us right now. It seems that we are on the verge of that. Even if republicans do get those bills passed tonight. In the hearing today, Chairman Comer said they will be subpoenaing hunter biden and President Bidens brother, james biden. Do you think hes going to take the step to subpoena the president himself here . I dont know. This has been going on for nine months. Weve had 12,000 pages of bank records, 2,000 suspicious activity reports. Weve had tons of witnesses coming in and testifying. And all of them say and all of the evidence shows that joe biden wasnt involved in any of this stuff. So, whatever you think about hunter biden and what he was up to, leave that to the special counsel, whos been appointed, who was the u. S. Attorney in delaware, who was Donald Trumps appointment as u. S. Attorney. And hes already charged hunter biden with several gun offenses, and its clear that the system of justice and the rule of law is working for him. Why use that to try to bring down the president of the United States, whos been in public life for 50 years and has no convictions and no indictments . And their leader, donald trump, whos calling the shots over there, now has 91 criminal charges outstanding all over the country on everything from trying to overthrow a president ial election to stealing government documents to Obstructing Justice and so on. And i dont even want to get into his civil litigation, where hes been deemed to be an abuser of women and so on. Well, and the other trial that well see on monday in new york. But on this today, what you heard from republican witnesses there in the room today saying that they dont believe theres the evidence there to impeach President Biden yet. But do you ultimately think that House Republicans will move forward with Impeachment Articles even if nothing new emerges . Do you really see them turning back from an Impeachment Inquiry . Well, i dont see them moving forward right now because youve got Something Like 15 or 20 republicans at least who are not going along with it. Now, ken buck, for example, is a member of the freedom caucus. We had him on last night. The former chief of the criminal Divisions Office in colorado. Hes a smart lawyer. And he says, theres nothing there. Its ludicrous. Hes saying its ridiculous for them to proceed. I feel very good about him and other members who are saying, you dont impeach someone over nothing. We understand why donald trump wants to trivialize the meaning of impeachment and confuse everybody about what it is, but theres no reason anybody else should do it. Its an extraordinary remedy that is the peoples last line of selfdefense against a president who acts like a king and abuses the public trust. Do you think there will be more Impeachment Hearings after what we saw today . I kind of doubt it after what we saw today or at least it will be a while. Do you think theyll second guess it . I know there was a lot of consternation and alarm on the republican side to see how weak the case was . You heard that from republicans . Directly on the floor. Like what . Several republicans were saying to me that the right wing is now saying that Kevin Mccarthy actually set it up to be a failure because he didnt want to proceed with impeachment. They couldnt believe that such a disaster would just happen by accident. I think that attributes a lot more organization and foresight what i mean is that it is now taken for granted over there that their Impeachment Inquiry is going nowhere and that they dont have any evidence after nine months of this. One thing that they have said, Chairman Comer, is they deemed the work of the Impeachment Inquiry team, these committees, to be essential. So, if there is a Government Shutdown come saturday night, they will continue with that work. Do you think thats appropriate. I cant think of anything less essential than this Sham Impeachment that they are running against joe biden just because donald trump sent out some social Media Communications saying, well, they impeached me, so weve got to impeach joe biden. They did it to me, lets do it to him. Thats not the constitutional standard, whether youre mad at the other team. The constitutional standard is whether theres treason, high crimes and misdemeanors. They havent assembled one iota or morsel of evidence suggesting joe biden has created an impeachable event. One thing that is threaten second degreeed here is Kevin Mccarthys job. If that comes to a vote, how will you vote . I havent even thought about that. And of course, you know, i used the tip oneill rule which is i dont vote for anybody unless they ask me to vote for them. I havent heard from Kevin Mccarthy about it. Were together with Kevin Mccarthy if we abide by the agreement we made back in may. We foresaw that the extreme maga republicans would try to shut down the government, and we set up an actual budget agreement. And now Kevin Mccarthy has stepped away from it because the maga republicans are threatening to vacate the chair, which means overthrow the speaker of the house. So, i hope that he can get it together to organize his caucus. If not, weve got a great leader in hakeem jeffries, and weve been making Real Progress for america with the infrastructure act, with inflation reduction act. The democrats are ready to lead. But is there a chance that you would potentially vote for Speaker Mccarthy if his job was on the line . You know, it never occurred to me to vote for Kevin Mccarthy. But i have heard conversations among some of my democratic colleagues who come from states where there are crossparty coalitions to form to try to isolate the extreme right. And that happens. And they say they share 50 of the committees go to republicans, 50 of the committees go to democrats. They alternate weeks in which theres a republican speaker, a democratic speaker. I suppose anything is possible in the land of hypotheticals. But the real point is, what are we going to do to continue to make Progress For America . And the first thing weve got to do is keep the government open. Thats massive pain and a hardship that theyre threatening for millions of people in the wic program, the s. N. A. P. Program, federal workers across the country. Im going to mark you down as a maybe for that. I dont even know what i said maybe for. I want to make Progress For America. Thats why im a progressive. Thank you for joining us tonight. Coming up, President Biden is warning that democracy is in danger. He is invoking the late republican senator john mccain to make his point in arizona today. I spoke with his wife kincey and his wife jack. Plus a surprise move by Donald Trumps legal team just in in the state of georgia. Thats next. Within a matter of minutes, the house is scheduled to vote in an attempt to find a way to keep the government open past saturday night. Lawmakers have been scrambling to find their way out of this. Meshes are facing basic questions tonight like how they could pay rent or Credit Card Debt theyll incur, or what bills they can skip. A shutdown means if you are about to buy a home, getting a mortgage is going to be tougher. If you have travel plans, there could be longer Security Lines and longer delays at the airport. And of the 33 million Small Businesses in this country, 93 of them say that a shutdown will cost them more money. As we speak, though, tonight there are Big Questions about whether this latest plan, what is happening, can even pass the house. For answers on that, hopefully, i am joined by Pennsylvania Republican congressman brian fitzpatrick. Thank you, congressman, for being here. There are these Appropriations Bills that republicans are voting on tonight. Are those going to pass . Some might. Its hard to predict whats going on on the floor these days. Sometimes roles are taken down and the vote count hasnt gone as expected. At least one, possible two, definitely not four. The ag appropriations bill is not going to pass, way too many problems with it. A lot of people are approaching this the same as the debt negotiations, knowing that what comes out of the house is never going to become law. Its necessarily a mechanism to get two people to sit down. That was the case with the debt ceiling and the outcome was good. Speaker mccarthy, President Biden sat down, they came up with a twoparty solution, it got signed into law, and america is better for it. The volleys shouldnt be judged as the final product, but were coming close to the deadline. Is there an overall plan . I think thats what people are curious about tonight. We have a plan. I lead the bipartisan problem solvers, as you know. Were 64 members, 32 democrats, 32 republicans, and we believe in twoparty solutions. What we do, like we do with debt ceiling, infrastructure, chips and science act, we do our work in the background. We prep a remedy, and if things collapse at the last minute amongst talks with the other four corners, as they call them, the republican and democrat leaders of the house and senate, then we step forward with our solution. That was certainly the case with infrastructure. We provided the votes to get that across the finish line. We also drafted it. Last friday we introduced a way to keep the government open, a twoparty solution. Nobody got everything they wanted, but thats, kind of, how government operates. But this shortterm plan that Speaker Mccarthy says will be put on the floor for a vote tomorrow, even though there are not votes to pass it, why vote on it if they know its not going to pass . I think they at least need to give it a try, right . I am a plan of putting everybodys bill on the floor and letting democracy take hold. What i dont like is not putting bills on the floor because some member threatens to take a bill down. Thats democracy. Let the individual members cast their vote, go back home and explain their vote to should Speaker Mccarthy cut a deal with democrats to get that pass snd. Its not cutting a deal with democrats. We beli