,ncluding the president s taxes aspects of the Mueller Report. How would you like to see this play out . Rep. Pocan we want to get this done expeditiously. That means taking the bombshell allegations and the confession by the president this week to what happened in the dealing with it very promptly. That will be the focus. We have had adam schiff and jerry nadler just yesterday had a great conversation about next steps. I think you will see the Intelligence Committee with what happened this week, the president asking another government, a Foreign Government to essentially get dirt on his political opponent. The fact he withheld money from a country just days prior that Congress Approved. And the fact now that after we have seen the whistleblower, there could be a coverup within the white house. Very serious allegations. That alone is what people are focused on right now. We want to deal with this as quickly as possible. Timeline fora wrapping up this investigation and bringing articles of impeachment to the house floor look like for you . We have heard from some of your democratic colleagues, maxine waters, barbara lee saying impeachment now. Any to happen now while you have momentum. Others are saying this could take anywhere between six weeks to the end of 2019. Perhaps heading into the 2020 Election Year. What does, in your estimation, how long will this process take . Rep. Pocan it will depend on a number of things. I dont think that amount of time matters. What matters is the thoroughness. The whistleblower has to come before the committee but thanks to the president this week essentially saying the person was guilty of treason, which is punishable by death, we now have all sorts of concerns for the whistleblower, protection to make sure they are in good safety. First, you have to have that witness come. As was in the whistleblower report, and number of other things from the attorney general to the vice president. I dont exactly care about the amount of time it will take, but what is important is it is thorough enough. If the white house starts to do what they did throughout the whole Mueller Report which is blackening witnesses from coming forward. We will not let them to continue to stonewall getting information to us. We have right now essentially a smoking gun and that smoking gun is called donald trump. We have him saying he did the call and we have the notes from the call that very clearly show that he did something illegal. Now it is a matter of getting those key witnesses in. Whatever time that takes is what it takes. Scott how confident are you that it will reach the point where articles of impeachment are brought to the house floor and there will be a formal vote on impeachment and you guys do have 218 votes needed to advance that to the senate . Rep. Pocan if i was in vegas right now, i would bet there is going to be potential articles of impeachment given that this is a unique situation. We know another government interfered with our election and the president denied any interaction. Yet, the Mueller Report had 10 instances of possible obstruction. Because the president did not admit to it, you need to have witnesses. In this case, he will streamline the process. He admitted he made the call. He has given us the notes of the call which said he asked for a favor, a personal favor from a Foreign Government. To get dirt on a political opponents family. He admits he withheld the funding that Congress Approved to a country just days prior. In many ways, part of the process is already resolved by the president being as brazen as he has been and admitting his guilt. I think you will see a very likely chance that you will have articles of impeachment. John scott just brought up the idea of timelines. Looking back at the timeline the , congressional progressive caucus put out a statement back on september 10 supporting the impeachment inquiry. Can you remind folks what was can you just remind folks why out that statement then . Obviously its been ongoing. Since the Mueller Report came out, anybody who has read it, it was very clear that there were 10 possible charges of obstruction. Some very serious. Youi think, you know, if had don mcgahn come and be a witness, you would have gotten toormation about him trying get mr. Mueller fired during the process. That clearly would have been an for impeachment. But the fact that this president hasnt cooperated has made this difficult. This point, weve got the president sharing notes that he asked a government to interfere in the election. We know he withheld the funding. Of an i did it tattoo on his forehead, we already have a lot of move forward. And i think whats important now schiff andhave adam the Intelligence Committee do their due diligence. Tries white house again to stone wall, were going to keep moving forward, faster. At the end of the day, the American Public gets this. It doesnt take a ph. D. To understand whats in the report. Blowers and i think when people actually hear from the whistleblower and beer people, its going to quite damning for the president. How many members do you have in the congressional progressive caucus . About 100, give or take. When you put out that statement, back before this story broke last week, was there a vote taken . Can you say what the vote was in terms of supporting the move . Its our normal process we have for any approval of legislation. And how does that process work . People wouldow if be thrilled with the process but town lovethis process. People back home like results. Raised thing in a meeting where theres a motion and a it. Nd to approve at that point, we go to membership and ask for input. We do a gauge of the number of votes weve got on any given issue. One of the turning points on caucusthe democratic toward impeachment this week thats being pointed to is that the Washington Post by seven freshmen democrats. Wonder your thoughts on the turning point on this, and who theld get credit for moving Democratic Caucus towards supporting the impeachment inquiry. Yeah. Know if i need a signed assignanywhere to credit anywhere. But when a president admits he asked a Foreign Government to get dirt on an opponent, and note confirming, that smoking gun right now is donald trump. I think that had a tremendous impact for people saying, you know, the process that we had in theying to go through Mueller Report to get witnesses, to verify what happened, is someonely separate than providing you a confession. Thats what the president has essentially done. So congressman, from the way youre describing it, we have very clear evidence. From reading the transcripts, whistleblowere complaint, it looks like a pretty clearcut case. But you know once this gets out into the American Public, its going to be filtered through different sources of information be received the same way. How do you make the message to the American People that this is to protectve to do the constitution or this is the best thing for the country right now at this point . Think youre already seeing it in polling. People already understand. The muellerd all report with the he said, she said, so to speak, of the report, but in this case, you have once again someone trying to work with a Foreign Government to interfere in our elections. The dinners is, the president is, the president admits he did it. People are getting it quickly that the president likely did something thats wrong. And the fact that the white house immediately went into coverup mode once this realize, because they what he did in that call was likely a violation of his oath mean, again, people can read that very simple report and see whats happening. To what add that happened through the Mueller Report, suddenly when, you know, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me, i think in that case. Do you plan to do outreach to your republican colleagues . To pass articles of impeachment to actually impeach the president , but how to yourreach out colleagues across the aisle and kind of communicate your concern conduct . President s and even beyond that, reach out to republicans in the senate who would be needed to actually president from office . I think the first and most important step is people who live in districts need to contact their elected officials and express their support or opposition to whats happening. I think, again, youre going to find the public does support this, because theyre looking at outright admitting to breaking the law. At that point, well have conversations with members who the fence or who may be persuadable. Some people already this week 100 defense mode. Yeah. I dont know if youre going to get to all of them. But i think if people in districts contact their elected officials and have this in arsation, we will be much stronger spot to move forward. Pelosi had warned all year that, you know, the American Public was not for impeachment. The polling sort of beared that out and was not with people like who were endorsing impeachment or calling for impeachment. But a recent poll this week seemed to show a slight uptick in support among the american for impeachment. What do you attribute that to . Is that, you know, congress and sort of, you know, informing the public and sort of showing the public that this needs to happen . Or is it sort of the developments of this week that whistleblower . Yeah. I mean, clearly i think this having all of is the impact. I dont think people care if congress, you know, are raising this issue one way or the other. People are just looking at it, saying, the whistleblower said he did something potentially asking a Foreign Government to get involved with an election by getting dirt on a political opponent. President then shared a transcript that confirmed exactly what the whistleblower said. Just days finding out prior that they held up funding to the country that he was dirt. To get them to get then when you read the whistleblower report, you also see there was a coverup and how this within the white house. Really, you know, anyone who has canhed, you know, csi follow very easy steps like that, that this is something wrong. The president broke the law. And yet he thinks hes above the very comments, and the American People, again, are way smarter than people in washington. When someone broke the law. Thats why i think youre seeing that support for impeachment. One concern brought up by some of your republican colleagues. This whistleblower is a member of the Intelligence Community. The Intelligence Community is supposed to inform and not create policy. Does it hinder a future president , democratic or republican, if that president has to worry that somebody in Intelligence Community might read a transcript of a phone think that they crossed the line and then they have to answer questions to congress and public . Ican thats why we have a whistleblower law, for this very reason. If you read the whistleblower know you all i have, he said its on multiple peoples reports. A single a hearing about a single phone call. Its multiple reports. Be moretheres going to that comes out as this process happens. Its really going to be even clear, if you need it more clear than it already is. I completely support law. Leblower anyone who is president , first thing id recommend, dont break law. As long as you dont break the law, you dont have to worry about a whistleblower. Thisngressman, obviously week weve focused a lot on this process, what it means and, you tow, how youre going communicate with your colleagues and constituents back home. There were other things kind of beforeay in congress this came out, especially looking at drug pricing and the usnca. I was wondering what you think this process means for actually getting anything done. Start with drug pricing, how nancy pelosi had introduced a bill that would be the democratic proposal for addressing the price of u. S. Ription drugs in the the senate also has its own version. How do you reconcile those, and with the white house to actually make these proposals become a law . Assume, based on, you know, practical politics, the white house is looking for some now, especially given this week. A few of the areas that weve some agreement on at least the general conversations about trying to do something is around prescription infrastructure, and i think you could argue trade also fall in that category. The president hopefully will be looking for some wins. Want to work with congress, both the senate and the house in getting things done. On prescription drugs, this has been one of the Top Priorities for democrats. Is very likelyat voted on in the next month or two, its thing that the white senatend hopefully the republicans will be looking at closely. Trade is something weve been what changes we need that i think theres a pretty 390plus to getting votes but the white house has to be willing to listen to who is the majority. Paul ryan is not the speaker anymore. Nancy pelosi is. Theres certain things weve clear that we need changed. I think theres still lots of opportunities. Just from a political the president should want some wins but more importantly, its the right all work us to together on these issues and hopefully we can accomplish these things. On someou still hopeful kind of agreement or compromise on gun control . The story, you know, gun violence, the mass shootings, had been the story of this summer. Process hasachment sort of overtaken that. Do you see any chance that something on guns gets done this fall . Im hopeful for a lot of reasons. One, i think i saw six senate were supportive of the background check bill. Were getting close to that magic number where we can move something. But what im hoping doesnt happen is that we have to wait for yet another mass shooting to trigger members of congress to realize that we have an obligation to deal with this issue in some way. I am so tired of, after a mass moment ofhaving a silence on the floor of congress and not a moment of action. Its beyond past due for us to deal with this. When you have public support at and congresssue cant get it done, we have some explaining to do back home if we done. Get it weve past that passed that and many other bills in the senate. This i we passed about 15 were acted on. Mcconnell to mitch get those out of whatever backyard he buried them in back to and bring them the senate floor and get those things passed. Overdo. G on your work on the house we sawiations committee, Congress Work to pass this resolution. Tinuing res i wonder if you think theres going to be enough time when you that to come up with all the funding bills a governmentve off shutdown come november 21. I would hope so, although i one of the things im most disappointed about, since i came inabilityess, was our to do the 101 of government which is the appropriations in a normal way. Not passing continuous omnibus bills. It doesnt really get full input from members. The right thing on the house side. The 12 we passed 10 of appropriation bills. But the senate didnt do squat really in september and thats been our biggest problem once again. Remaining, thats hopefully theyll get all their stuff done. A place able to get to that we can get this done. I really am looking forward to back to then we get way its supposed to work, how a becomes a law saturday cartoon, where everybody can put onndments up, have a vote them. We did that in the house this time. Having these shortterm resolutions, omnibus bills where all kinds of things get thrown in is not good for this country. Withshowing whats wrong how washington operates in that area. Leftss than 10 minutes with congressman mark pocan, our guest this week. Weve been talking a lot on inwhats going congress. Its been just a fascinating week to watch. Asks wondering if i could about the democratic party. Weve kind of seen this shift in the ideology and the desire of some of the most excited democratic voters. You and i have spoken before about how the American People are even more open to progressive ideas than people in washington realize. Of the most far left, so to say, proposals from the really takingty center stage in the 2020 campaign, talking about medicare free college and higher education, is that a test case for this . Proving the case by kind of giving those ideas a spotlight . He i would disagree with one aspect of what you said, which is these ideas are some of the left. Ar i think these are actually issues that are at the center of where the American People are at. Look at medicare for all, the support is like 60 plus. Gun violence prevention, in some plus. Its t 0 90 now, the Political Class and the two verylass are different things. People in washington, i think, theyre so used to having special interests in their ear that theyre not normal when it comes to these issues. Polling you look at the on so many of the issues that you see the Democratic Candidates talking about, it is of where the American People are at. I think thats a good thing. Great place to win the white house in 2020, and onn our real job is to act those values that the American People want us to do. I dont believe that youve endorsed yet in the 2020 president ial race. But tell me your time line for that. Do you expect to endorse . And when will you do that . And also, can i get your to some of your democratic colleagues who are supporters or surrogates who say that joe biden is the only candidate in party who can win some of these swing states like north carolina, like florida and pennsylvania . First of all, i mean, i think i will endorse. Becausee i didnt through the progressive caucus, we were trying to help all the candidates look at issues that were important. This time, i think, as you said, i see more of those issues many candidates. Our wisconsin primary isnt until early april. Whats mosthats important to me. Im not sure what my time line will be, but im going to continue tal