When you heard the news yesterday that the phase would switch to a public phase, what were your thoughts about your expectations for those hearings . Guest first and foremost i was surprised how quickly they are coming. This timeline is moving so fast and is surprising a lot of us who follow this on a daytoday basis. How fast this is proceeding and how fast emigrants want to make their case publicly. Host people they were interview next week have all testified behind closed doors. What do you suppose the committee hopes to draw out to public that they did not enclosed door hearings . Guest democrats want to hear what they have heard behind closed doors. They are willing to move on this quickly because they are confident in the case they have, the testimony they have received in those depositions. Republicans are hopeful that they can use the public opportunity to show confusion or armor between the corroborating witnesses about what they remember to try and get some confusion and chunks that case. Host based on the resolution that passed last week in the full house, what is your understanding of the process of how those hearings will take place . Guest Intelligence Committee is going to take the lead which is different from investigations four impeachment inquiries of the past which is typically of thehe jurisdiction hub of the house Judiciary Committee. Adam schiff was tapped to lead these inquiries. He is mostly able to bring this intelligence perspective to the proceedings. It is going to transition into a public setting where there is going to be more of a back and forth and the cameras are going to be on it. It is going to look more like a courtroom than what the behindthescenes deposition looked like, or atypical committee hearing, but it is going to be public and for all eyes to see. Host there have been reports of republicans wanting jim jordan from oversight to sent temporarily on intelligence and mark meadows as well. What is behind their thinking . Guest they want public defenders of the president and mr. Meadows and jordan are exactly that. They are forceful and smart as a whip they are not shy to get combative with witnesses and republicans by think they. Host casey burgat is our guest. For democrats, 202 7488000. Or republicans, 202 7488001 for independents and everyone else, 202 7488002. This is in the new york post, the headline says pelosis impeachment rules guarantee partisan circus but i wanted to democrats she says are boasting about the impeachment inquiry protections offered to trump, claiming they are the same rules for president nixon and clinton but that is a boldfaced lie. Section f quietly divides by Judiciary Committee siblings that unless the president surrenders his executive privilege, a power even the Supreme Court has ruled vital to his office, he and his lawyers will be denied any ability to call or answer or call or question witnesses. What is this section . Guest two things come to mind. This was guaranteed to be a partisan circus no matter what happened. Ofre going to get a lot partisan warfare undercutting the process. Democrats saying one thing, republicans saying another. This section is important to talk about. It was passed by the Judiciary Committee independent of that House Resolution we saw last week which set the broad procedures of the impeachment inquiry. It gives the power to the Judiciary Committee to basically have the president forfeit his impeachment rights if he does not comply with the investigations of any committee referenced in that impeachment resolution last week. It is basically a sign that democrats are ready to play hardball, that if the president does not comply with their congressional subpoenas and provide witnesses and documents as he has not done, they will take away some of his rights within those impeachment proceedings. Host this was language that just the judiciary discussed and approved of, this was not voted on by the full house. Here is what that language says. Should the president unlawfully refused to make witnesses available for testimony or produce documents requested by the investigating committees , ined in the first section furtherance of the investigations described in this section, the chair shall have the discretion to impose appropriate remedies including denying sims denying specific requests by the president or his counsel, or to call or question witnesses. It seems like they are just setting it up because the president and the administration have withheld witnesses, they have withheld testimony so far. Guest exactly. It is a preemptive measure to warn the administration that as we transition into a more public phase, as we are still requesting information and documents, if you continue to stonewall, then you are setting yourself up for some denial of rights you are going to want when these proceedings begin. Host lets get to the calls. Our guest is casey burgat. Public hearings beginning next week. Bill is in hazelwood, missouri on our republican line. Caller i am calling from the first Congressional District which is very democratically gerrymandered and i would like i am wondering is a member of the public, what are the procedures and what access what i have two attending the hearing as a member of the public . Guest sr as i understand right now, like most other committee hearings, these will be public hearings both in person and on television. I would recommend you show up early. These are going to be well attended by the public and everyone within the bubble. This is not a common thing so people are going to get in line early. Host i think our earlier guest from the hill reported that they are having these in the ways and means, a bigger room to accommodate a larger audience. Michael is in florida on our democrats line. Caller thank you. I am a democrat. The American People need to study and evaluate the situation of the impeachment proceedings to check either the right or the left and tried to find the happy medium ground in the middle but my main concern is why if these proceedings continue on, will trump have the advantage of refusal or obstructing the process, and the representatives , jordan and collins from georgia and several others, i thehed very seriously and Committee Meetings they have had when representative cummings was of theand head point i am making, those particular congressmen have done nothing but obstruct and break up the meeting as much as they can in reference to supporting President Trump. I think the democrats were able to end a lot of these in these meetings were able to proceed with the meeting and make a conclusion and a proper evaluation. What we are having to deal with is that jordan was in one of the closed meetings. He came out and was leaking information on what was going on. We dont need this trash talking back and forth which has been ongoing. The democrats have had the opportunity to do a lot of things. They passed a lot of legislation in the house that has been forwarded to the senate. I think there are 400 pieces of legislation that has not been acted upon. I hear these comments from callers coming in on the donothing democrats from republicans, that the democrats are not doing anything. Host we will let you go there. Guest there was a lot but i think that it is important to recognize that as we transition to this more public side that we should be conscious of what we are about to see. Their case very forcefully, they are going to say the president did wrong and that anyone who is defending him is breaking their oat to the constitution. On the republican side, they are going to attack with just a moment with just the opposite. We should look to this is going to be a contentious process. Easy thing to pass and it wont be, so we should go into that with eyes wide open and try to make the best judgment we can. By the lot has been said president and his supporters by the lack of due process in the impeachment inquiry so far. Do you think these public hearings will help clarify what is due process in an impeachment hearing . Guest this is one of the biggest pieces of confusion right now and that is relating what we know about the courtroom, a familiar process. We know a jury and trial and what rights we are supposed to have, but we have not reached the court stage of this yet. The investigation so far is in the fact gathering stage. It is happening behind closed doors. In previous proceedings, it was done by special counsel behind closed doors. Begin todent will receive his rights because we are transitioning into that relative court stage where he will be able to call witnesses and be represented by counsel and be able to crossexamine witnesses once they take the stage. Its important to know that we have not reached that court stage a matter what you have been hearing about due process, we are not there yet and next weeks hearing is the first start of that where you will see the defendant be able to be represented and able to crossexamine and present evidence. Host always helpful to go back to the constitution. So little is said about impeachment. It is article one, section two, clause five. The house of representatives sell choose their speaker and other offices and have and will have the sole power of impeachment. We go to florida. Joanne on the republican line. The republican line. Caller hi. My feelings are that there is not set not any such thing as a whistleblower. I think the whole thing is made up. The first thing that convinced me was when adam schiff was lying about what trump had said on the call. I heard it with my own ears. He talked about the phone call that he had with the you cant the ukraine Prime Minister and it was totally false. It was totally different than the actual call and people need to read the transcript of the call. I believe that everything has been set up just like the russian collusion and just like the Mueller Report and i have heard no facts yet. All i have heard is interpretations. I think, i believe. I want to welcome President Trump to florida. Have a wonderful morning. Host casey burgat, tell us about what the democrats are focusing on and what they hope to establish. Guest the constitution says so precious little about what impeachment is and how it is supposed to be carried out. Ofdoes give some threshold what high crimes and misdemeanors, treason and bribery, qualified to meet the threshold but even that is broad. There have been 60 impeachment efforts in the house of representatives, 16 have been voted for but 11 of those 16 have no criminal act within their articles of impeachment, meaning they were impeached without committing a criminal act. We think of this as a criminal act, something had something has to be done that broke a law but it doesnt necessarily have to be true. Impeachment is what the political actors in the house of representatives say is impeachable right now and democrats are trying to say that it is going to likely revolve around abuse of power, a deep commitment from the oath of office from the oval office and probably an obstruction of congress, obstruction of the proceedings. I am anxious to see what articles they will come out and say but they are trying to make this case fast and publicly. Host a reminder for some historical perspective, on cspan. Org impeachment, not only current video from the current impeachment inquiry we have links to all of our coverage from the bill clinton impeachment inquiry, all of our coverage from the impeachment of a number of judges over the course of 40 years plus of cspans history. Youll find all of that at cspan. Org impeachment. We go to pennsylvania, rosemary on the independent line. Caller when adam schiff interviewed the people, i think it was their opinion. They disagree with the president s policy. There are three branches of government and the president is entitled to determine his foreign policy. What is happening with the ig report and durhams report. We have not heard anything about that. That should tell us the ,eginnings of what happened before 2016 and 2015. Host just to let you know, we wrote a story yesterday that that ig report will likely come out in the next week or so. You can find that from the hill. Senators push for deal on impeachment trial rules to avoid a political brawl. Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell was asked yesterday how long a senate trial would take and whether President Trump would be convicted and removed from office. Here is what he had to say. [video clip] how long it goes on depends on how long the senate wants to spend on it. I will say im pretty sure how it is likely to end if it were today. I dont think there is any question it would not lead to a removal. The question is, how long does the senate want to take . How long do the president ial candidates want to be here on the floor of the senate instead of in iowa or New Hampshire and all of these related issues that may be going on at the same time. Hows difficult to ascertain long this takes. I would be surprised if it twot end the way the previous ones did with the president not being removed from office. Host how difficult is it for Republican Leadership in the senate not to give away or say things that may prejudice and and eventual trial of President Trump . Guest that applies to Democratic Senators who may be potential jurors. I am so pathetic to the argument that they like all of us should wait for the evidence to become public. Even members of the senate are not privy to the emperor information that has been deposed behind closed doors. We are all using a lot of speculation, we are using leaks, public testimonies that are starting to drip out. We do not have the full picture. I dont think the committees investigating this have the full picture by evidence of them still asking witnesses and asking for documents. This is the consequence of moving so fast. If you look back at nixon, the watergate breakins were done in july of 72 and it was not until july 74, two full years later that the public hearings started to happen. January 94n it was that the special prosecutor started his operation and it was not until december 98 and clinton was actually impeached. Right now we are three months out. A very compressed timeline. Host back to calls. From minnesota on our democrats line. Caller good morning. Is, is it really legal for the president to andhold all his documents other things that should be available in any investigation . Question we are about to see a ton of lawsuits in the Supreme Court likely get involved to excite to itemize exactly what the prerogatives of congress are relative to the executive branch, particularly when he has an ability to invoke executive privilege. Right now there was a famous court case going on were someone within the executive branch was subpoenaed by congress but he was directed by the executive branch not to testify. He is literally asking do i listen to congress or to the president and surprisingly, that has not been decided, so clearly we are waiting for court cases, waiting for a back and forth of negotiations between the two branches and it signals that a lot of this and previous efforts were done sometimes by the court and sometimes when it got to the final stages but a lot of this is done by norms of what is expected between the two branches but nothing is set in stone so a lot of us are looking for clarity. Host you pointed out the pace of this impeachment inquiry could outpace results from the court. The impeachment inquiry could certainly wrap up before any decision by the court, that alone even a hearing in court on the issues of executive privilege. Guest even the courts right now are moving fast relative to other court cases and House Democrats have decided they might not necessarily need that to be decided for them to make a strong case. They are moving on with or without that. I think they would like to get the hearing as soon as possible assuming it is one that provides information but they are moving on under the assumption that they wont. Host our next caller on the independent line in texas. Caller i am calling to say let the facts flow. What isfacts show us there that is what that is from the testimony of the witnesses have given. I have independent and friends from all walks of life and they dont wait for the many of these diehard trumpeters are saying i wont listen to the facts, but you have to listen. This is trying to preserve our constitution. Unlawful acts, corrupt conduct, abuse of power. This could go on. Independents have to realize that we have to be open and listen to those facts. Republican saying that they are not going to listen to anything, that is already a sign that the republic is in jeopardy. A president can be impeached and removed for his or her for his or her actions even if they are consistent with president ial duties. The oath of office for a while with the emoluments clause. Americans and do what is right. For our country, not ourselves but for our children. Host casey burgat. Guest you are obviously well informed. I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment that the facts should reign supreme and we are about ready to transition into a phase where those facts are going to become available to all americans. I am not going to be naive enough to say that everyone from both extinct both extremes are going to accept them equally but at least they will be presented before us and they will have to make their case and members of Congress Face the unfortunate duty of deciding whether that warrants impeachment and ultimately removal. That is the path we are on right now. Pittsburgh texts this to us. Why doesnt trump testify himself in an open hearing . Guest i think his lawyers would not love that. Everything i understand says he has that prerogative if his lawyers allow it and the house wants to hear from him. That is the right of someone facing a charge like this but i cannot imagine the president taking the stand within the house or senate. Host where would that come . But that come in a house hearing or an Eventual Senate trial . Guest it could come at any point. I cant even get my head around him showing up and taking the oath to respond personally to these questions. Host lets hear from joel in maryland on the republican line. Caller good morning. Thank you for this forum. I just want to remind everybody. Hat as americans we voted the process of the elections doesnt seem fair sometimes but it is what it is. Republicans have t