University of baltimore law professor discusses the articles of impeachment introduced by house democrats. Brooks i, congressman mo discusses impeachment and afghanistan. Host this is the washington journal for december 11, the Senate JudiciaryCommittee Hearing with the Justice Departments Inspector General on the report released this week will start at 10 00. You can watch that on cspan 3. Also look at it at cspan. Org. If you want to download the radio app, follow along and listen to the hearing. The house Judiciary Committee which will mark up two articles of impeachment starts at 7 00 this evening. You can see that on cspan 2. You can watch at the. Org and listen on our radio app. We will take your calls on the two articles of impeachment laid against President Trump, one on abuse of power and the other on obstruction of justice. Here is how you can let us know what you think. 2027488001 for republicans. 2027488000 for democrats. And independents, 2027488002. If you want to text us your thoughts, do so at 2027488003. Cant us at cspanwj and you post on our Facebook Page at facebook. Com cspan. The events of yesterday on capitol hill resonating in papers across the United States, Kansas City Star with a picture of the 5 Committee Chairman chair then with the headline impeachment articles, trump abused his power, this is the Dallas Morning News with the same picture, different angle, trump charges unveiled. When you look at the miami herald, was a for that paper betrayed u. S. They highlighted the events with a picture of Speaker Pelosi and that is how it is playing out internationally and domestically. When it comes to the events of today, the markup, the Washington Times highlights what progressives are looking for when it comes to the end results. Liberal firebrand and longtime impeachment advocate alexandria ocasiocortez said the articles of impeachment do not go far enough. I am in the camp where i feel there should have been more articles. Obstruction of justice should have been an article and i am supportive of emoluments being included. You can read more of that in the washington this morning and politico highlights the work of a small group of moderate democrats making an effort within other democrats within the house about not going the route of impeachment, but going the route of censure saying a group of 10 lawmakers including josh gottheimer, kurt schrader, anthony of new york, and ben mcadams of utah amongst those working on that, i think it is appropriate and might be more bipartisan, who knows when asked about the possibility of a censure resolution. He acknowledged time slipping by. More of that in politico. Yesterdayaker pelosi at event in washington, d. C. Sponsored by politico talked about yesterdays articles of impeachment and address the issue of the timeline. [video clip] criticismshe biggest has been the speed. Seriously. It has been 22 months, 4. 5 years. There has been criticism about whether or not you should move forward before the end of the year or wait for the courts. Why do you think now is the time to move . We are not moving with speed. 2. 5 years ago they investigate initiated the mueller investigation. It is about urgency. The president of the United States was violating his oath of office by asking a Foreign Government to intervene in our election. If we did not hold him accountable, he would continue to undermine our election, nothing less is at stake than the Central Point of our democracy, a free and fair election, not disrupted by foreign powers and our founders were concerned about that and in their wisdom, they Gave Congress the house of representatives not the opportunity, because i dont see it that way, the path to correcting that. This has been going on for a very long time. There is a sense of urgency. We saw the facts presented in the hearing with the Foreign Service officers, the facts made known to the public. The facts made known, the constitution as presented by the. Onstitutional experts we dare if we allow one path,ent to go down this we are saying goodbye to the republic and hello to a president king. Host we will show you the statements from President Trump in a few minutes. We will take some calls looking at the articles of impeachment. We will start on the line for democrats, james in iowa. Caller good morning. Guy. F the morning to you, i think it is high time for all the senators andk representatives to take a oath toation path the constitution. We will find out who is loyal to the constitution and who is loyal to the ussr. Host how does that relate to yesterday . Caller it says it all. Host you tell me, how does it relate to yesterday . Caller it says it all. Host independent line, hi. Caller good morning to you. The United States president should be accountable, but the trump ishere is donald being accused of something he never did before. All these things with russia. When the russia collusion did not work out, they came to ukraine. There must be some improper things happen. Trump says whatever he wants, but this is not breaking any law. President impeach the it shows it is politically motivated. I think the congress has abused their power and they are not doing the right thing. Let the American People decide if this president is breaking the law or not. This is just a circus for me. Host we will go to new jersey, brenda up next. Caller good morning, america. I just have to say this about President Trump, he is doing a wonderful job for the americans and i am so proud. I was always a democrat and now i am switching to republican. I am so disappointed on how they are going about hurting the president. He did nothing wrong. He is doing everything right for us right from the beginning when he became president. Host what about the articles of impeachment laid against the president yesterday . Caller i think it is wrong. They are impeaching the president and it is wrong. They are out to get him and they are trying even harder and they want to get this done before christmas, rushing it through is not right. Everying to the debates day, which i have when it was on democratsterrible, should be ashamed of themselves and i will tell you something, i am voting republican and he will get in for another 4 years because he is a good president. Host the process continues today with the house Judiciary Committee on proposed articles of impeachment. They mark them up. That process tonight starting at 7 00 on cspan 2 and you can listen on the cspan radio app for cspan radio and you can follow along at cspan. Org. New york, penny, good morning. Aller good morning, pedro i think he should be impeached and i think what the democrats. Id yesterday was right i dont know if people can remember, but when he was a running candidate, he offered barack obama at the time was a sitting president 1 million to ,roduce his birth certificate which was crazy because he was born in hawaii. These are the things this man is known for. I do believe there is a lot we do not know that he has done. He is corrupt and the whole Republican Party is a nightmare. Host particularly to the articles of impeachment yesterday, why do you support it . Especially in light of the ukraine call . Caller for one thing, he tried to hide it. Constitution, he has blocked every type of subpoena that came his way. He has told people not to come forward. That does not show innocence at all. Why would you suppress anything if you are so innocent . People need to open up their eyes and realize what we have as a leader. We need to go ahead and have a happy life. Host that is penny in new york. The hill picks up upon republican senators as far as their crafting strategy to what could end up as a trial in the senate and the possibility of not calling witnesses. Republican senators and allies and members of leadership appear reluctant to drag themselves to a drawnout trial with messy, procedural votes when the outcome become that the outcome appears prebaked. Not going to be terribly popular with either side, i think this will be a desire to wrap this up in a timely way. That is senator john soon telling reporters. He added while a final decision will not be made until closer to the trial, there will be a lot of people who will say i really dont want this to drag on. You can read more of that at the hill. From new york, we will hear from tom, independent line on the articles of impeachment. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host you are on. Caller i wanted to say i believe we should keep trump because i believe the democrats have got something to hide. I think the reason they have been trying to get rid of them in the first place, right from the getgo. They have not had any facts or anything like that, it is all opinion and speculation and crap. I believe the only reason they trumping this is because they ought to investigate pelosi and her impeachment crew and see what they have got to hide and i bet they will come up with something. Trump as i am concerned, has been doing a heckuva job for this country. Better economy, better jobs, everything is better. Host tom in new york. We will go to jerry in michigan. Caller good morning, pedro. Crapnly speculation and has been coming from donald trump. What donald trump has been doing in a desperate attempt to hang in the airesidency this guy has. He tried to use a foreign power to spy on political rivals in order to keep the presidency and i would like to add one other thing if i may, if you allow me. All of these white people are complaining about how donald selectiveeem to have amnesia. They seem to forget how he trashed barack obama. Host the president of the United States at a rally in hershey, pennsylvania, yesterday as part of his reelection efforts addressed the articles of impeachment. [video clip] announcedse democrats these two flimsy, politico, ridiculous articles of impeachment. House democrats are walking back from everything they claimed announcement. They are admitting there was no collusion, no obstruction of justice, and no crimes whatsoever. They are impeaching me and there are no crimes. This has to be a first in history. They want to win an election and that is the only way they can do it. And they have nothing have turned the somber process of impeachment and impeachment word the good news is we are having the best times in history in our country. Is word impeachment, to me, a very ugly word. I is a dark, ugly word, but have to tell you, as bad as it is, it meant something. When you had serious high crimes and misdemeanors, it is impeachment that would happen every 50 years, 40 years, 100 years, this was a big deal. They are making it like lets do it every 6 months. They have cheapened the process. Host usa today lays out how the impeachment charges against president drumm compared to president clinton and president nixon. The charges against President Trump, abuse of power pressuring ukraine to investigate a political rival, lack of cooperation with the house increase into the ukraine matter. When it comes to bill clinton, perjury for lying under owes about an affair with a white house intern and instruction of justice adding president clinton was acquitted by the senate and richard nixon, three charges in 1974, obstruction of justice, abuse for the watergate breakin surveillance of private citizens and campaignfinance practices contempt of congress adding that president nixon resigned before the full house voted on the charges. This is bob in michigan adding to the conversation on obstruction of justice and abuse of power are not a high crime or misdemeanor. Vicki saying if the president s office would release the call archived on a separate server outside the white house and allow his inner circle to testify, this whole thing would go away if he is really speaking the truth. You can text us at 2027488003 and if you do, add your name, your city, and your state. From south carolina. As you have been requesting the other callers, about the charges yesterday of withchment having to do what he did to cause this, which as we all know, was asking a foreign power to help him finding the evidence against his once he wasval and discovered denying it, trying to id hide evidence, but refusing congressional subpoenas for evidence and for people to come in from the white house who had firsthand knowledge of what he did. Republicans are using the fact these people were not able to testify. To ss has not been able these articles of impeachment republicans but the and mr. Trump are downplaying it. Last night, he had this rally and he was saying it is a light impeachment, not real, congress has not proved anything, this is typical for him to do this, he is manipulating the truth or out and out lying. The thing that bothers me most is watching this the rally, it appears people in the audience think they are witnessing a reality show. They dont realize this is the president of the United States and he is controlling their whole future, not only their whole future, but their children. Host if you want to watch the rally, you can go to our website and do that. From daytona beach, craig. Caller how are you doing . Host go ahead, you are on. Caller i am on. Good. I am totally on. Host you are on cspan, go ahead with your comment. Caller thank you, it is about time because this is a scam, this is all a scam. Why dont we talk about the chemtrails going on in life . Host diane is next from kansas, hello brian is next from kansas, hello. Presumingrst of all, the articles of impeachment past the house and go on to the senate, i view the decision to use articles of impeachment as opposed to obstruction of justice. I see that as political genius on Speaker Pelosis part. Senators, i think, love power above all else and in our division of government, when it ,omes time to hold the trial that puts republican senators in a position of defending congress potentially more power to the executive branch. That is my thought on that, basically. Is in washington bill is in washington state. Caller thank you for taking my call. And i be kind of quick completely take all the air out of the democrat case. Some on disputable facts. Number one, biden is not neither one of them above the law. It just because they are running for president does not put them above the law. Second on disputable fact, the president is the chief Law Enforcement officer. Third, the president is also the chief diplomat. Is favors andacy quid pro quos. Get over it. May, somebody needs to read the treaty on cspan between the u. S. And ukraine regarding corruption. Host with those five points in mind, how does that specifically relate to yesterday . Caller there is no case, it is all a nonstarter. I dont even want to save pelosi because she is not smart enough, she gets her strategy from strategists and focus groups. She is trying to make the senate look bad for the next election, that is all eight is. You will of the names hear if you watch the Senate JudiciaryCommittee Hearing job is thebecause my vp of quality for a fortune 500 company. If you bring the elites from universities, they have no handson experience. Job have never worked a basically in the intellect type ivory tower colleges and universities, you just lost 80 going overour family to vote for trump, we love him. He has been rude, crude, and vulgar, but he is draining the swamp. Int that is andrea pennsylvania. Barbara in california calling on the independent line, hello. Caller good morning. I do support the articles of impeachment although initially i was disappointed they did not include the obstruction of Justice Charges made clear in the Mueller Report. I am one of the oddballs in the nation that read the entire report. I understand why they left it off because if you cannot get the people cited in the report to testify, there is really no point. Have toine, democrats do what they are doing because you simply cannot reward bad behavior. If you do, you are facilitating more bad behavior. The house, they dont have the luxury of being lazy parents, they must do their duty, they must hold him accountable even foregone is a conclusion he will be removed. Host do you think the democrats have a sound case from what you have seen and heard . Caller absolutely. And i have listened to every word of all the hearings. I am a retired lady of leisure and i have the luxury of being able to absorb this information. Host what do you think is the strongest aspect of their case . Caller both articles are strong. They would be stronger if they could get people to testify, that people the people the trump are blocking from testifying. The facts are the facts even if they cannot get people to show up. They have got a good case just to say he did wrong, he did wrong enough to justify him no longer being president and he should move forward because it is the right thing to do. Host jodi in ohio, good morning. Caller good morning and i love cspan. I think people may be forgetting joe biden was Vice President when this was happening, not a candidate. If my Democrat Friends would consider, joe does not really have a shot at being the democrat candidate and these investigations may be why he is running so he can run with his political rival. With the it is a sham articles yesterday, but the Silver Lining is the usmca was passed and that will help everybody in america. Host that announced yesterday, ratification having to take place in the senate and the house, but that was also an event that took place yesterday. In north carolina, you will be the last call for this segment, democrats line. Caller good morning. With the two articles of impeachment, i think they are broad enough to cover exactly what was done and the messaging was there is no bribery, no this, know that. I cant recall the two. Obstruction of congress was one of them and the first one was you st