Campaign 2020. As always, we will take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter as well. Washington journal is next. Is next. Host as Congress Returns from its thanksgiving break, House Committees get back to work on the impeachment inquiry. House Intelligence Committee releasing its report to members, voting on it on tuesday and the House Judiciary Committee holding its first public hearing on wednesday. Good morning and welcome to washington journal on monday, december 2, 2019. We would like to ask you what is your message to your member of congress on impeachment . Republicans, call 2027488001. Democrats, 2027488000. Independents and others, 2027488002. You can send us a text. Make sure you include your name and where you are texting from. 2027488003. On twitter, we are at cspanwj on facebook, you can post at facebook. Com cspan. We heard from the administration from the white house in particular. A letter from the president s council and we will show you that a minute ago, a fivepage letter released yesterday and the reporting of the Washington Times on the Administration Response with their headline trump will not take part in Judiciary Committees impeachment hearing. The white house said the president will not participate in the next phase of house attempts to impeach him saying directions from democrats only exacerbate the lack of due process and fairness according to the president. The Top Republican on the committee, debt doug collins said he will demand testimony from house Intelligence Committee chairman adam schiff as the impeachment inquiry heads towards its next phase. Republicans are indicating they will focus on a process they dismiss as a partisan attack on mr. Trump and you can read more. Com. Shingtontimes letter coming out yesterday, part of which reads as the hearing scheduled for december 4, we cannot be expected to participate while witnesses are yet to be named and while it remains unclear whether the Judiciary Committee will afford the president a fair process through additional hearings. More important, an invitation to an academic discussion does not begin to provide the president with fair process. Under the current circumstances, todo not print intend participate. What would you 10 what do you tell your member of congress on impeachment . 2027488001 for republicans. Democrats, 2027488000. Independents and others, 2027488002. On twitter and facebook, people weighing in already. The libertarian tweets if we dont hold the executive responsible, we have entered a dictatorship. If the rule becomes as long as the president Party Controls the senate, they can do what they want, we are a dictatorship. Peggy, start issuing indictments for those who refuse invitations to testify. You have plenty of evidence. On facebook, chris saying we must have a leader accountability to the law, get the facts clearly in view. We have the impeachment process for a reason, use it. Do not vote for impeachment as you will not be reelected. This is an attempted coup to relieve a duly elected president. Sherry says do your job and find out the truth and if he did things we think he did, impeach and remove. Take the time to do your due diligence. Do what is right, not what is expected of you. Back to that letter from the president counsel, headline in the New York Times this money. Judiciary panel will step back into the spotlight. Trump keeps his distance. It is not yet clear whether you will afford the president fundamental rights were continue to deny them. Mr. Nadler in consultation with pelosi will have to decide how to handle these requests, weighing eight is asked her to maintain Forward Momentum in the proceedings. It is one of the delicate tasks fraught with political list and legal intricacy that have fallen to the Judiciary Panel as the impeachment inquiry enters a critical phase. The first milestone will calm in the form of a written report, which is to be approved tuesday. Muchandoff which will for of the basis for articles of impeachment against President Trump will be stylistic and a substantive turning point that will inflame a debate that has will yield congress and divided the country. In particular, what would you want your members to do, to say on impeachment . Democrats line, first is jeff in indianapolis. Caller how are you doing . Host fine, thank you. Caller good and thank you all for cspan. Cspan is truly fair and. Alanced unlike fox i am never going to live to see today where i hear republicans membersn an exkgb talking points. Putin is now head of the republican party. They come out with all these can searcy conspiracy theories and throw everything in the air, which doesnt make sense. The evidence and the facts dont mean nothing. I never thought the party of the dwight d. Eisenhower would be taking the talking points of Vladimir Putin. I know what andre carson is going to do. I wish republicans would do their job. Onned and been c had. From supporters crawl back to the cage you came from and leave civilization alone. Host lets go to our independent line. Llo. He caller everybody is worried about putin, but what about the video of president obama speaking to putins foreign minister he was overheard saying wait until after the election . Mr. Trump is going to be reelected. It democrats are throwing anything they can at him and there is a majority of people that will reelect this president and they want to prepare the democrats for this second nervous breakdown because it is in evitable. Line,georgia, democrats what would you say to your member of congress . What would you tell them . Caller i have to correct the previous caller. The president of president obama was the video of president obama was from 2012. That is bananas. My congressman is buddy carter and i called his office last week to let them know i was not the way it seems all the republicans are in lockstep and not reading the evidence and what i want all republicans to do is close their eyes and imagine if this was obama or if this was clinton and do what they would do if it was them and that would be listen to the evidence and remove that person from office. That is the reality of this. I think the russians have something on the republicans for them to be acting this way. I dont understand why they are doing this. The only explanation is there is something on them, the money they received through the rnc, the fact they spent years going over there for conferences and received money through the nra, that is the only thing i can think of that they are willing to betray us and walk with putin, it makes no sense. Host Tom Mcclintock was on yesterday, this was before the letter came out from the president passat attorney saying the president would not participate. Here is what Tom Mcclintock said yesterday. [video clip] i think it would be to the president s advantage to have his attorneys there, but i understand how he is upset at the illegitimate process we saw unfold. The big question will be whether jerry nadler continues that or or he respects the Due Process Rights of the president not only to be represented, but have the unrestricted right to call witnesses in his defense and call his accuser. You think they should bring in lawyers . I think it is to his advantage. Send thisn nadler did letter. Will your party submit written questions . I expect they will. I know the discussions are ongoing as to the witnesses we would like to call. You will recall in the intelligence hearings, republicans asked for 9 witnesses. 6 of those. Vetoed the question is going to be whether jerry nadler continues that sham. When he goes to the senate, that will play a big role. They will insist on full Due Process Rights. We have been talking about the decision all morning. We know it is being appealed, but if the courts ruled senior officials like john bolton, Mick Mulvaney could testify, do you believe they should . Absolutely. I think it would be to the president passat advantage to have them testify now. He has to way that against the damage that would go to the doctrine of executive privilege that assures when policy is being developed, those discussions are unfettered, candid, thinking outside of the box, that is why the doctrine of executive privilege exists. He has to weigh those elements and i understand why he is making the decision to defend that doctrine not only for his administration, but future administrations. Host your message to your member of congress. Call 2027488001 if you are a republican. Democrats, 2027488000. All others, 2027488002. President trump a number of tweets this morning, he is up early headed to joint base andrews and then london for the nato summit. Saying thent quoting process has been unfair, republicans cannot even get their own witnesses. Adam schiff is not punishable for lying in anyway. From usa today, their lead opinion piece by the former secretary under george w. Bush, sense or trump, dont impeach him. Impeachment hearings proved a point almost everyone knows, trump did it. Democrats and the news media say the meetings were full of bombshells and smoking guns, but the smoking guns were bbs. In football terms, trump deserves a flag for a false start for unnecessary roughness. Democrats want to add up all the penalty flags and they see the ukrainian phone call as proof the president should be thrown out of the game. I heard nothing that rises to the level of impeachment. If democrats were smart, they would drop impeachment and vote to censure the president or his phone call and his attempts to link an investigation to military aid or oval office visit. I expect many republicans would vote for it. Kenneth in missouri, good morning. Caller good morning. I am wondering when this process gets done, they impeach him in the house, goes to the senate guilty i found not want to know what have democrats gained . They have gained nothing because he will get reelected and i allk the investigation into the lies against the president 2016 and the people need to go to prison if they are found guilty and all these democrats call in and think they are going to get him thrown out of office. There is not going to be 22 senators. You are living in a pipe dream. That is all i have to say this morning. Detroitvid is next in on our democrats line. Caller i am so happy and believed i came behind mr. Missouri. Let me start by saying brenda housece happens to be my of representatives and she is pointing in a direction toward censorship. I think the majority of people who live in this district will probably be opposed to censorship. Enough there has been advanced to support why we are impeaching trump because of the violations toward our democracy, that is what is on trial and mr. Missouri and all the old white men that keep calling and it seems they knows everyone else does not know, that 45 is going to be reelected, i have one thing for you, i dont think so. Bob is next, independent line in New Hampshire. Caller i would like to see congress, the Judiciary Committee call the chairman and the ranking member. I would like to see shift schiff and nunes at the same table. T what should the caller process, how they selected witnesses, if it gets into namecalling, they are both there and they can answer questions. Host robert, independent line as well. In brooklyn. Good morning. Caller i would like to inject one thought into this. I keep hearing this is not a normal judicial proceeding, that it is a political action. Trumpmplies to me that if gets impeached and the senate not remove does him from office, he is not protected by the constitutional berhow bish and against double jeopardy prohibition of double jeopardy. Reimpeachhey could him on the same articles. Host that is a very good question. Our next guest is Jeffrey Rosen, that, youk him about are talking about the same charges, if the senate trial acquits him of articles of impeachment, the charges, could they bring it up again. That is your question . Caller right. It sounds like he is not protected by the constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy. Host we will find out. In detroit, democrats line, your message to your member of congress on impeachment. Caller i hope she is going to impeach trump. This deal going on in the united it is proof putin is what to do. P 79 years old. I remember when tried to overthrow this country and if john f. Kennedy had not been up on it, we would have been down the drain and if you are not will slipussia through the backdoor. They need to get rid of trump and stop letting him ruled them. Host we mentioned earlier today the president departing today for london for the nato summit getting underway tomorrow. The wall street journal headline, President Trump shifts tone. Catherine lucy saying the president had to a meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization seeking to showcase his work on the world stage as the impeachment inquiry continues at home. Mr. Trump, who labeled the Alliance Obsolete has upended gatherings with complaints members must spend more on defense, but his white house conciliatory tone, taking credit for increased military spending and declaring that the transatlantic relationship is in a very healthy place. Stephen is next, democrats line in new york. Good morning. Caller good morning from frozen new york. A problem withe impeachment because they said they had no firsthand witnesses. They bring in firsthand witnesses and they dont like it. Then they say they want hearings and public. They make the hearings public, they dont like it and then they say they want trump to have a chance to question witnesses. They do that and they dont like it and trump says he is not coming. They keep changing the story. Trump wont testify because he is a walking lie. He is perjury walking. Only putin and Trump Supporters believe him and my congressman from new york, whose name i just now forgot already said he is going to vote to hear the evidence and way everything and about andnd though that is reasonable. What are we electing people for . . O pretend nothing is going on like Lindsey Graham said, i am not going to look at any evidence . Everyone have a wonderful day. Host sean in baltimore, maryland. Myler i would tell congressman to take a step back and listen to the article you today. Om usa i do think trump should be impeached. The unfortunate thing is he has brainwashed all the republicans and they are not going to get on board. I am thinking longterm. When i mean longterm, i am thinking about the election. If democrats move forward and they dont get any republicans on board with impeachment, i think it will hurt them. Somebody needs to tell democrats you should impeach, but how will this affect the election . If you look at the swing states, the polls have not really moved. It is like smack down the middle. Some people want trump to get impeached, but the same amount dont. Maybe that is not a bad idea. I think there is a democratic congresswoman out of ohio or michigan. I cannot think of her name, but she went on tv and spoke about maybe we should censure trump. I would like to see him get impeached, but i dont think that is a bad idea because the end game should be to get him out either through bipartisan impeachment hearings or when the election. People need to be careful what they ask for. As much as i dont like trump, pence is a million times worse. Ne last thing i want to say republicans want to bring hunter biden on. They want him to testify. I am fine with that. It democrats, they need to say we will bring on hunter biden. When you tell mike pompeo to stop dodging subpoenas when you tell the acting Communications HostMick Mulvaney . Caller yeah, him, Mick Mulvaney. All of them. Democrats need to say we will bring hunter biden when you tell your witnesses to obey subpoenas. Lets make this bipartisan. We will bring hunter biden and you bring all those people. We have talked about this morning already flasher in usa today, we read part of his opinion piece on opting for censure over impeachment. We invite your comments on text. You can send us a text. This is chris in alabama who says i agree with ari fleischer. My member of congress recommended censure over impeachment. We will vote trump out instead of impeaching him. Kathleen on twitter. It is bad enough the Democratic Party destroyed black america, now you want to impeach a president who has the lowest unemployment for black americans. Anytime i see that hit at against my representative, it serves as a reminder to show my support and let her know we will be supporting her with the same energy as last year. Want to show you an ad by the American Action network referred to in that text. This is part of a blitz against representative Joe Cunningham in South Carolina. [video clip] this is about preventing a potentially disastrous outcome. There partisan impeachment is a politically motivated charade. Joe cunningham promised to be different, but he is not. Instead of working to secure our border and pass a trade deal with our neighbors, he supported the partisan impeachment investigation. Tell congressman cunningham let the Voters Decide impeachment. Vote no on impeachment and get to work. Host what would you tell your member of congress on impeachment . Epublicans, 2027488001 democrats, 2027488000. Independents and all others, 2027488002. Caller good morning. Thanks for taking my call. Wondering. Some of the comments i have heard from independents and democrats, they all think putin is telling trump what to do and i was wondering where they are getting their information from of exactly what trump is doing for russia . As far as i understand, trump has put more sanctions on russia than previous president s and has also given