For democrats. 202 7488001 is online for republicans. If you are an independent, 202 7488002. You can also send us a text message at 202 7480003. Be sure to tell us your first name and where you are texting from. Be sure the you are not driving. Send us a tweet at cspan wj send us a tweet cspanwj. We want to begin with the front page story of the Washington Post, focusing on the republican strategy as hearings get underway this wednesday and friday. Republicans trying to steer the inquiry away from President Trump. House republicans on saturday pressing ahead with their efforts to move the impeachment inquiry away from President Trump, calling on democrats to add witnesses to the probe, and theg hunter biden whistleblower, whose initial complaint kicked off the investigation the storyn, thats this morning. Frontpage, also Available Online at Washington Post. Com washingtonpost. Com. Joining us this morning, a reporter for bloomberg news. What do you expect to happen before wednesdays hearing . Be criticalgoing to for democrats. They need to make the case. No quid pro quo has been the trump rally mantra. Democrats have William Taylor and george kent, state Department Officials who have given compelling testimony, according to democrats, as well as the linkage to the vikings. Friday we have the ousted chief ambassador to the ukraine, maria ovich. Its marie yvonne of what we have seen so far is republicans trying to make this an issue about hunter biden. Adam schiff is rejecting that. We will see that talking pressure from republicans continuing in the days headed up to this hearing. Host it really is this intersection of two events. Public impeachment inquiry, the potential of a Government Shutdown. To have been reporting on this as well. What have you learned in recent days and what, potentially, could happen . There is talk of december 13. Initially, richard shelby, the incorporators in charge of the issue, talked about kicking the can to february or march. We dont see congress having the bandwidth to deal with media spending with spending and impeachment. Nancy pelosi says this is the lets try. It done, floated the idea of a shortterm resolution to continue to try to talk. The problem still remains to be that remains trumps border wall , the problem still remains trumps border wall, its a real obstacle. Democrats do not want to pay for this. Allowing a little bit more money , but preventing future transfers. It could be a more calm or stable environment. In terms of an speech and in terms of impeachment inflaming everything, it will be difficult. Host is there the possibility that we could see the president forcing a Government Shutdown just at the time these public hearings are reaching a nexus . Thought the president would not be impeached, then this ukraine matter to me by surprised. Engaged innt becomes actions that keep surprising the pundits. Theres a possibility. Republicans tell me that would be foolish. His numbers are in jeopardy. He didnt benefit from the previous Government Shutdown. The 35 day at the beginning of the year did not include the pentagon or other agencies, because the government was artie half funded. This year there is no funding bill that has been passed. It would be a much bigger scale shutdown. Republicans feel this would be damaging to the president and he wouldnt gain the border wall money. He was only able to fund it through a contentious act of shifting money around. Host we are talking with erik wasson, who covers capitol hill for limburg news. News. Esident bloomberg addressedtrump reporters yesterday. [video clip] it should be public. What i said, it was misreported as usual. I said there shouldnt be anything. Impeachmentnt be hearings. I say read the transcript. Its all about the transcript. They are having people, i have never even heard of some of these people, i dont know who they are. By the way, its all thirdhand knowledge. Regardless of what anyone says, read the transcript. They want to have a transcript of the second call. Im willing to provide that. We will probably give it to you by tuesday. Another one coming out that is very important. They ask for it and i grip i gladly give it. There has never been it president this transparent. Its a witchhunt. Heres the deal, read the transcript. Read the call. Now i will give you a second transcript. I had two calls with the president of ukraine. You will tell me if you think anything is wrong with it. Never in history has anybody gone through this. Its a witchhunt and it should never happen to another president. Host thats President Trump. He spoke to reporters yesterday. Erik wasson, i want to go back to what the white house had to say about the transcript. It was a verbatim, it was a thats, correct . Guest right. Lieutenant colonel lindemann talks about how in this memo, there were words left out, other references that he tried to get back into the memo. Ellipses inlot of this. Its not a verbatim transcript. The other issues that democrats have a transcript that shows what they are talking about. President talks about the president of ukraine doing a favor for the u. S. Republicans say that the part about the favor comes earlier in the transcript. Democrats say that with witnesses testifying that they went and told ukraine that there would be linkage between the aid thethe biden investigation, phone call and policy limitation matching, there was a linkage. Trump continues to say read the transcript. Democrats say that that is their strongest piece of evidence. Calendarking about the , the hearing begins this week on wednesday. Congress in session. Then we move into thanksgiving and the December Christmas holiday. What are we expecting a terms of the timeline for the next six to thats ans . Guest important question. The previous impeachments you mentioned took place in the House Judiciary Committee. With the clinton impeachment, referred his investigation to the Judiciary Committee, where they examined it. In this case we have the Intelligence Committee performing the role of factfinding. There is going to be a limited role of the president to participate. That is going to change in the House Judiciary Committee. There will be an opportunity for himself,dent to defend present evidence that would clear him. At that point the House Judiciary Committee markup, it will probably be multiday and televised. That is going to be a very important decision for House Democrats. Are they going to try to bring in the mother investigation. Allegations that trump has emoluments,om the of all a violation of the constitution. And if not, why not . Some say that if you dont, you are basically saying the mueller matter was not impeachable. House democrats tell me they are going to try to stay focused on the ukraine matter. When mueller testified, it was what widely viewed as a dud for democrats. The House Democrats are going to move into Judiciary Committee hearing the markups. We are looking at and him peach schmidt vote on the floor by christmas. That appears to be the general feeling. That could slip into january, is the timeline i am seeing january. Its another opportunity for the president and his lawyers to present the case and read much more like a courtroom trial. The senators will be at their desks acting as a jury. Every day except sunday until the matter is resolved. Host erik wasson of bloomberg news, thank you for being with us on this sunday, we appreciate this. Guest thank you, steve. Cover the one oracle entire process, gavel to gavel as it unfolds. We have a page set up at cspan. Org impeachment that is basically gathering all of the information on the inquiry. You can check it out anytime. Now to your phone calls and the story that we will be the missing on this week, the wednesday hearings getting underway. Republicans trying to steer the inquiry away from President Trump. The Washington Post, writing the following host on our facebook page, mark has this point. Line,on the democrats beverly is joining us from ohio. Your thoughts, beverly . Good morning. We missed the first part. Go ahead. Like to know the difference between the impeachment and the inquiry. A couple of weeks ago, didnt . Hey vote for the inquiry 200 and 32 to 192 . What was that about . Has the president been impeached or not . The inquiry began the formal process that included a series of formal closeddoor hearings. Members of congress and that committee responding to whats been happening behind closed doors. The public phase gets underway this week. The articles of impeachment will be drafted by the House Judiciary Committee and they will then go to the full house for a vote by the house of. Epresentatives if congress approves, it goes to the senate for a trial which, isrding to erik wasson likely to take place sometime in early in january. Its a series of steps in the public phase that are getting underway this week. Lily, joining us next from niagara falls. Good morning. Good morning. Im nervous, but this is the first time. Im a firsttime caller. I just want to know or why did President Trump even call ukraine . He called them to congratulate him. And then he took it to a whole level. Whole other if he hadnt made the call, this wouldnt be happening. I think he started the whole ball rolling. I think hes corrupt. He had corrupt intent. And now hes going to have to pay for it. Host thank you for the call. This is from lisa simmons host that, from lisa on our facebook age. This s to foxnews. Com. This headline, adam schiff denies gop request. Host walter, indiana, republican line. Good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. Remember the movie, groundhog . Y for three years it has been groundhog day. When President Trump was the winner, they said they had to impeach him or he would win again. Al green said that. Stormy daniels. Remember, everybody. As soon as the information came out about russia, hes gone. Everybody stopped talking about that. Now it is the phone call, the phone call. You might not have gotten every single perfect word of the phone call, but the general gist of the phone call was there. What did he say . He said hey i would like you to look into some possible corruption with the bidens. That is legal, that is what you are supposed to do. If you want a quid pro quo, it was when biden on television sons oft he told the guns that if they didnt look into the lawyer host lets deal with the facts. He did not make reference to his son in that case. As you rightly point out, he mentioned the u. S. Withheld aid. We need to be clear, i just want to deal with the facts. In that case he was talking about the pressure from European Countries and the Obama Administration to get rid of what they called a corrupt solicitor in the ukraine. It had nothing to do with his son in his comments. The solicitor was the one looking into bidens son. They got rid of him. That was one of the things of corruption he was looking into. I will end it on this thing. The greatest thing the democrats can do is what they are doing now. The average person is so fed up with them. They dont past ills on the table. They dont pass the trade bill. They dont do anything on immigration. Its the greatest thing. Trump is going to win in a landslide. These people, they never stop. What did they say . We had better impeach him or he is going to win again . Have a great day. Master bill taylor, coming wednesday morning to testify. Live coverage gets underway on cspan three at 10 00 eastern time. You can listen to it live on cspan radio, stream it on the web at cspan. Org. The house and senate will be in session at the same time. You can watch on cspan three and on the other cspan platforms and it will of course reenter in the primetime schedule. Willy is joining us on the independent line from annapolis, maryland. Good morning. Caller good morning. Gentlemanening to the defending trump, sometimes i tche,him little dud because he reminds me of him. What this man is doing is more serious than what bill clinton did. Its about espionage. Its a serious matter. Why are the republicans doing this . Its deeper than we think. Certain members of the Republican Party are in it as much as trump. Seems like when the shoe is on the other foot, the republicans do more squealing. When it was bill clinton, they were fools to move ahead. That is what i have to say. Host thank you for the call. We will have live coverage this week on cspan two, on the web, and on cspan radio. The ambassador for step by the Trump Administration will be telling her story live this a. M. Eastern time, all of it available on her homepage. You can find all the information related to the impeachment inquiry and President Trump. I have a question. Whats the definition of a thetleblower . Host definition of a whistleblower . It dates back to the 1700s and it allows anyone in the government to be protected to point out wrongdoing. To be protected for pointing out wrongdoing. What is your point . Aller to be protected i work for the federal government. They are to be protected in their employment. Not in their anonymity. Up have a man who is heading ,n investigation, adam schiff who is saying that this man needs to be protected. His anonymity needs to be protected. Hes a cia analyst, is he not . Host that is what they reported. They are not releasing his name. Thats fine, you dont have to release it. The drudge report released it. My point is, dont play games with anonymity. Other whistleblowers didnt get anonymity. This person does not deserve anonymity. Especially since he got information secondhand and possibly that information was stuff that should not have been given to him. Think theou information, the role of the whistleblower, is still relevant when you have people on the account who are cooperating corroborating what was reported in july . Caller im trying to finish my thought. Host sure. Caller my point is when you try to bend the law to cover a whistleblower through anonymity, this should be dismissed in the senate. And of story. Have a nice morning. Lets go toost tony, joining us from clifton. Good morning, tony. Couple of quick things. First, what we know and what has been revealed through the depositions is clear. Donald trump has committed an Impeachable Offense. It is almost unbelievable, no to to too low to go defend the sky. Disparage anybody. Out the whistleblower, break any law, it doesnt matter. Its amazing that we went from eight years of a president who was decent, intelligent, thoughtful, always talked about the decency and goodness of americans. Naively, i think. Now to someone who is breathtakingly ignorant, dangerous lee dangerously in a, unfit to be in office, people defend him no matter what. It tells you its not about facts or truth. Its about this notion that somehow a certain number of white people believe that white people are victims and donald trump makes them feel good about it. Thanks. This is from john host on the republican line, janet, ohio. Caller good morning. Host you are on the air. Go ahead. Caller well, i just want to tell you that im going from wisp whistleblower to whistle whistleblower to whisper for 2020. Host and that means what . Caller exactly what i said. Host doug, good morning. Caller good morning. This is a big scam, like the rush investigation was. They are just bringing in witnesses, like they did in the kavanaugh hearings. Everything they are trying to accuse trump of his everything that happened under the Obama Administration. Just going to empower him even more on the 2020 election. Host thank you, doug. Carolyn, democrats line. The hearing is this week. Will you be watching . Caller yes, i will. Host your thoughts about the inquiry . It is prettynk well lined up. Well organized. I think they have enough to impeach him. I dont understand why it wouldnt be. , itslearly, you know clearly an event, a breach of power. We have got to put a stop to in mean it he and stuff, this total immunity for everybody. I mean, he thinks he can do anything he wants. Its got to be stopped. The powers, the senate, i mean the congress, the judiciary and the executive. If you dont have that, you dont have a democracy. Hes making a mockery of the whole thing. Thats all i had to say, i guess. Host thank you for the call. A perspectivey, from democratic and republican staffers, including this poll, ans the president committed Impeachable Offense . Online. Ats available this is a text message from lone patriot, in florida. Lets go to steve, joining us from corpus christi, texas. Good morning. Caller people keep hollering about this whistleblower thing. Impeachment, he didnt get impeached, but nobody knows who deep throat was. The guy is supposed to be protected. On this thing where they keep that ukraine was doing , Joe Joe Biden or whatever bidens son and all of this and stuff. Those, those people have already corroborated what the whistleblower has stated to congress. They are saying that, you know, those are career people. Career people. These people have worked in different administrations. Bush, obama, trump. Trump is making a mockery of the United States. The republicans are going to go along with him. They all have a monkey up there as long has as long as he has behind his name. Its plain extortion. If you dont understand someone extorting somebody, god, what else can you do . He actually can go out on pennsylvania avenue and shoot somebody and they would justify that, to. Host thank you for the call. This is from tina, saying host a look at the cover of cq weekly. What nbc news reporting on the gop wants in terms of its requests. It was sent yesterday to the chair of the house Intelligence Committee, adam schiff, who is undertaking the hearings this week, beginning on w