He serves the ninth district. That includes houston and here to talk about his efforts on impeachment of the president. Good morning to you. Good morning. Its an honor to be with you. Pleased to receive your 40year mug. 40 years of allowing the loyal opposition to have a voice. Thank you. Thank you for joining us. The third attempt at this. What makes this different than the previous two times . Well, its different this time because were now engaged in a bifurcated process. Yesterday there was a vote of condemnation. The president was condemned. Today well have a vote to punish. You see, when you go to court, this is similar to going to court, not the same. The first phase is to determine whether a person is guilty or not. Clearly 240 votes, he was found guilty. Today we have the opportunity to punish. Yesterday there was no fine imposed. The president is not going to lose his job. You and i might lose our jobs if we did such a thing. But the president wont lose his job. So we have to punish the president and impeachment is the means by which he can be punished in the house and then it goes to the senate for a trial. There are those who say its not designed to punish. But when youre impeached and you have that stain on your record for the rest of your life, thats punishment. I think this president merits that for his behavior, because he is stoking hate and fear in this country. And for those who say this is disconnected, just remember this. He associated himself with those persons in charlottesville who were screaming blood and soil, yous will not replace us. And then a lady lost her life. She lost her life at the hands of one of the bigots. This is serious business. And we ought to take it as such, and we ought to impeach this president for his bigotry which we have condemned. Bifurcated process yesterday found guilty, today we punish. And when it comes to house leadership, then, how did they react to this third attempt of yours . Well, the leadership hasnt said anything to me about what im doing. They understand that this is what is permitted. These are votes of conscious. Every member of the house can do what im doing, and leadership has not said one word to me about the position im taking. Does that surprise me . Not at all. They know my position. I assume that if they wanted to know more, theyd ask. Ive not found leadership to be shy about talking to me. I assume they would. I see them every day. We greet each other. Opportunities are there for us to talk. Are you disappointed they dont support this effort more . Well, i am disappointed that we, not the leadership, but that we have not moved forward on impeaching this president. What were doing tomorrow, today, by the way, interferes in no way with the ongoing investigation. The investigation has nothing to do with bigotry. It has to do with obstruction of justice. So im disappointed we have not impeached this president. The Mueller Report was enough for us to impeach. We need not call mr. Mueller again. Hes already testified by way of giving his statements before the press. We can impeach him. We should have impeached him. I do do believe we have a moral imperative to do so. If we dont do so, heres what will happen. The president will say they could have impeached me and they didnt. Im innocent. I have been vindicated by virtue of the inaction of the house of representatives. We have more than 230 members of the house who happen to be democrats. 235, there about. Democrats alone could impeach this president. I see no reason for us to conclude that we have to cause people who are not going to come over to our side and understand that the president should be impeached. Why would we say we have to have them before we act . Theres nothing in the constitution that requires it. If you read federal list 65 youll understand whats expected. Some will say the house will impeach but the senate wont convict. Theres no requirement that the senate convict, but you never know what the senate will do until you give them the opportunity to do. I believe we ought to afford them the opportunity. If they choose not to, the stain of having been impeached will still be upon this president. I believe that history ought to show that i took the affirmative step after having condemned him to take the next step and impeach him. I represent a good many people of color. I represent members of the lgbtq community. I represent a lot of women. I believe that i ought to vote for them. I ought to vote in their best interest. And its in their best interest to remove this person from the white house who has made it clear that he has little respect for women, that he will say almost anything about people of color, a he disrespects religion, tried to ban mislums from the country. This isnt a president this president is out of control and the means by which you bring him under control is the house of representatives and impeachment. You can tweet us at cspan wj. The House Majority leader spoke yesterday and talked act the president s comments. Reporter were the president s tweets that said go back racist . No. And i dont believe the speaker of the house was racist own the individuals. I believe this is about ideology. This is about socialism versus freedom. Its very clear what the debate is happening. I understand when i listen to their press conference yesterday, it talked more about impeachment than anything else. Even one of those individuals, this wasnt the first time they talked about impeachment. On the night of the being sworn in, they brought all their supporters together. They spoke about impeachment in words that i will not use here. This is more from their basis about politics. Its unfortunate. We should get back to the business of america. Reporter a couple things you said. You said this is politics. Yes. Reporter you said that this is one more chance to go after the president. Do you have a resolution like this on the floor today, though . I will vote against this resolution. Reporter youre going to encourage your members to vote against it . Yes. If you look at the resolution and the rules of the house, you cant even name the resolution on the floor. If this is the case of what they of what they are concerned most about, lets go through every comment individuals who have made on the other side of the aisle, are we bringing a resolution up on the floor about their comments . No. So representative green, a couple things. This was all about politics, thats what he said. Not at all. About politics in the sense that whatever we do in the house is political. But this really is about bigotry emanating from the presidency. Much of which has been instilled in policy. When the president talked about the shole countries, he was talking about pushing a policy that would thwart the persons of africa coming to this country. The president has talked about banning muslims from the country. Thats policy. He does it by way of a tweet but its still policy, and banning religions is something we dont do in this country. So the point is this. It can be political in the sense that we deal in politics, but the truth is this is about the soul of our country. And its about the soul of the house of representatives as well. Before we lose the country, we will lose the house, and the house is in the hands of democrats. Democrats have the mantle. We must do that which is right. This has nothing to do with obstruction of justice. Those who say this is going to hinder the obstruction investigation, not true. It will not hinder it just as what we did yesterday with condemnation did not hinder it. It is an opportunity for us to go on record for history purposes to show our children, our grandchildren q and generations unborn that we have the courage and the spirit of 1868 when the same issue was before the house of representatives with andrew johnson, and in article ten of those impeachment articles against him, they impeached him for his bigotry. For his haranguing congress as it was called but it was all about allowing slaves to have the opportunity to live and breathe freely in the United States of america. Our first call for you comes from south carolina. This is don on our line for democrats for representative al green. Don, youre on. Go ahead. Caller good morning. Thank you, congressman green for your leadership. Im a retired air force Master Sergeant democrat my whole life, and im about ready to resign from the party. I do not ive contacted Jerry Nadlers office, Nancy Pelosis office and my congressman, congressman clyburn to relay that we need to start impeachment procedures against this guy. It is written in the declaration of independence, its the duty of the house of representatives, their duty to low this bum out. And i told a fundraiser yesterday that no more money, no more support from me as a democrat until we move on this issue. I dont know what else to say to nancy pelosi who i love dearly, but shes wrong on this issue. And i greatly appreciate your leadership, and i take my hat off to you, congressman green. Thank you very much. Don from south carolina. Well, thank you for your call, and i especially thank you for your service to your country. It means a lot to know that there are people who are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice so we can have liberty and justy for all in the United States of america. My hope is that our efforts will succeed today. But if they dont, i am convinced that they are causing the party to move in the direction of impeachment. I believe that this president will be impeached and i believe that what we are doing is going to help push us to the point of doing it. Its just a matter of time. I really believe this. And my hope is that democrats will understand as we should that we dont have to wait for the perfect storm of republicans supporting impeachment, have some sort of rock solid case, have a means by which it is irrefutable. Have someone else tell us that we should. It was never intended that the executive branch investigate itself. Thats what we caused to happen when we brought in this independent as you might see it, person, mr. Mueller, who was a part of the executive branch. This is why we cant get the information we want. It goes to the president. It doesnt come to us. The founders, the framers of the constitution never intended for this to happen. This is the responsibility of the congress. We have to have a backbone. Weve got to stand up. Weve got to make it clear that this president has guardrails around him, and they are called the congress of the United States of america by virtue of our impeachment authority. If we do nothing, it is only going to get worse. Weve seen what has happened to people in this country, the fiber and fabric of the social order is degenerating. Its time for us to take a stand. From ocean city, new jersey, republican line, diane, hi. Yes. Hi. Good morning. I want to say its very sad on two points that the democrats want to impeach him, and they havent they arent able to see the worth work of god in this. God raised donald trump up for this job from before he was born. He knew that donald trump was going to have this job. Okay . And the democrats arent seeing that. Thats the saddest part about it, and theyre obsessed with this impeachment. Theyre wasting their time, money, and energy on this. And im just so all this time, they still cant see it. They cannot see it. Okay. Thanks, caller. Well, i appreciate your religious view. My point of view is theres something called free will, and my belief is that John F Kennedy was right when he stated in his inaugural address that here on earth gods work must be our own. We are all tools of god and we all have the opportunity to do what is right. Dr. King said there are times one has to do cha what is not politic nor popular, but we do it because its right. I believe were doing the right thing removing a lawless person from the white house. Why would i say hes reckless, ruthless and lawless . Because this president , this president does not respect the judiciary. He has called a judge, a person who was unfair, cannot fairly judge him because of his race. This president does not respect the congress. There are Committee Hearings taking place. He will not provide information. He does not honor subpoenas. He encourages other persons to disrespect the hearings by not attending. He disrespects law and believes hes above the law. No person is above the law, and the law is article two section four of the constitution. He ought to be impeached. If we dont do it, we are putting a stain on ourselves. Were at a cross roads of accountability now. Cross roads of accountability. Either we will hold him accountable or well be held accountable. From for collin, independent line. Reporter i couldnt agree more that you should impeach the president. You strongly believe it and talk about it all the time. And im an exdemocrat, though, sadly. I love and respect you and the party, but i think you guys have become the word police. And i just cant believe all this money. This is the taxpayers money you guys are spending to tell each other what to say. So yeah, go ahead and impeach the American People will judge you guys talking about talking about talking. Well, thank you for your comments in terms of a thought police, but you and i know that you cannot yell fire in a crowded theater. This country is dealing with the theatrics of the president. His theatrics incite people. You cant incite people to the extent that other people can be harmed. When you walk into my con depression gnat office in houston texas, the first thing you see is a person with a gun. Thats there because people would do harm to me and my staff and other persons. When im at a parade, i have to have Police Officers around me. This is not america. This is not the way we expect people to respond to free speech. This is free speech that i am exercising. And im going to exercise it, and i appreciate you saying you believe that i believe what im doing, because im a liberated democrat. No one is telling me what to say. Im going to vote to impeach the president today, and im going to do it for not only myself but im going to do it for Harriet Tubman and Martin Luther king and many unnamed persons who have lost their lives in the quest for freedom and liberty and justice for all. He should not occupy the white house with the racest mentality he has. He will weaponize. Steve saying i want to hear the representatives impeachment resolution. But not now. The time to impeach donald is about this time next year. He adds timing is important. Thats called political expediency. There is some belief that it would be expedient to do so at a time near the election such that it would be difficult for republicans to have a response, an appropriate response. I know that exists. But dr. King said the time is always right to do that what is right. What if we wait until next year and as a result of some of these comments, someone is hurt . Would you want the harm that was done to that person to endure to you in some way by virtue of not having acted. Im in a position to act. I dont remember a member of congress to be hurt when we could do something now. His words incite people. I want to prevent someone from hurting someone else. Another point. This president has the nuclear button. You see that he is volatile. You see that he does things in a visceral way. Do we really want to allow this to continue when we have grounds to impeach him . He has obstructed. We have grounds to impeach him. He has created a climate in this country where hate is being legitimized by him, by the way. So we dont want to legitimize hate and we dont want a president who thinks hes above the law, and if we dont do something about it, he will say he was vindicated by our inaction, because we did nothing, he obviously was guilty of nothing. And as a result, he will then campaign on that very premise. I dont say impeach him for campaign purposes. I say impeach him because its the right thing to do, but i know how we will exploit our inaction. Amber, bay city, texas. Go ahead. Reporter good morning. Thank you, congressman green for standing up for americans and for what the majority of us i believe have as our core values as far as race and ideology, and i would just like to talk a little bit about what trump said and agree that he does need impeached. Hes obviously uneducated. The idea that whites are not from immigrant descendents is uneducated, and me being a little girl from texas, if i know and someone sitting in the white house doesnt know that, thats a problem. Obviously he got there from shady ways. I think the faster the better. I think also hes exposing the Republican Party underbelly as racist and also everything that he says out of his mouth and them ignoring it and not directly commenting on what he says and just spinning it and pointing the finger at somebody else, i think everyone in this country hopefully can see that the republicans are obviously just sheep herding toward his way because hes a republican. It puts more money in his pockets because hes changing policies for their ideas which is to put money in our pocket, not for human rights, not for what we all believe that each human being has a right to. All right. Well let you get a response. I thank you for your call, and i will simply say that my desire is for us today to do what i believe the constitution requires of us. And that is having condemned the president yesterday, found him guilty of his bigotry that is causing harm to society. Today take the opportunity to punish him. Punishment today. We can do this by simply taking the card that we have, that we vote with, putting it in a slot and voting to move forward with impeachment. If we do not do this, history is not going to be kind to us. This is our opportunity to make a difference, and i appreciate your commentary. From indiana, republican line, dennis, go ahead. Dennis from indiana . In my opinion, he is a racist bigot. Obama spewed his racist bigoted comments like quote, my grandmother is grandmother is a typical white woman. The republicans could come along, but they have to ride on the back of the bus. Well, thank you for your comments. Youre obviously entitled to them. I will not dare try to refute what you have said because my record speaks for itself, but lets talk about the president because the president happens to have the awesome amount of power that no member of the house has, the president has an army at his disposal. The president can issue executive orders and cause babies to be separated from their mothers at the border. The president can ban people from the country because of religious beliefs and has been successful at getting it done after having altered his initial position. So the president has this awesome authority and we ought to be concerned about a reckless, ruthless president because if he can talk about people of color and incite violence against them, he can do similar things to other people. It doesnt get better, my f