The gaets amendment says that president sought to have you publicly announce the investigation es s into the bid and is it your position that the president did not ask for the investigation into bidens . No, the position is what is in the transcript which is undoubtedly very difficult for the democrats to read, but it is Hunter Bidens corruption, and this is the issue that the president has felt all along that the corruption in the ukraine is a problem, and so in the call he is asking for well, it is going back, and it did not say to it is. I did not dispute you there. I said, yes. Okay. Why remove nancy. So, it is still your contention that he did not bring up corruption in ooet of the calls that corruption is what he was focused on and not joe biden . It has been and nothing to change there, because it is the facts. Even in the misquoted transcript which we keep doing all of the time, because they have to make it salacious to believe it is a personal favor and he said us and the country, because remember the context, it is the day after the mueller report, and the day after everything had happened up here and the country was torn apart and no work with the collusion that was gone, and the whole issue of corruption, and we are still dealing with it. And again, another thing brought up, and this is not the only time. In early 2017, and 2018, we had other stuff brought up, and these are things that are not brought up, because they dont have anything else to go on. And how many times have you reported on the fact of quid pro quo or extortion or bribery and they did the focus groups and now we dont have those charges in the articles of impeachment, and that is a travesty. What have you thought about joe biden . I think that the phone call is fine. It is a conversation taken at a point in time that the president is expressing concerns as we move forward. This afternoon rg y, you will se same thing, and this is my last statement before we go to votes. They tried the best to make the articles look good and as we started to poke holes in the story, you saw them step back and a couple will come forward saying this is what we tried to say, but this is all over the map, and this is why the American People need to look at the articles for what they are, a partisan impeachment. And basically, with hunter biden, does need to be called as a witness in the senate . I am anxious to see what the senate does at all with this, and believe me, and make no bones about this, this is what the democrats have been intending to do since january and they had to find the right opportunity, and if the senate wants to call those votes, it is up to the senate. How many more amendments do you have . A good many. A good many. And we are going back to your calls 202 is the area 7488941 and 8942 for independents for 8922. Up next on the independent line is marvin in brooklyn. Hi, marvin. Caller hi there. Yeah, i dont get what is so difficult to grasp, because if the president was so concerned about corruption, he had an apparatus of the state department and the department of defense and if he is setting up the back channels and setting up a lawyer or the private citizen, that is screaming corruption. So i dont see what is difficult to grasp about that. If i, you know, it is boggles the mind that we are going to go to the mat defending him on things like process and the abuse of power and not being a crime, and might, and i would remind the American People that nixon was to be impeached on abuse of power and obstruction of justice and those are the very thing that the republicans are not saying are crimes, but they have not been established to be gross violations of the office. So nizra on the independent line in baton rouge. Caller oh, hi. Can you hear me . Please. Go ahead. Caller can you hear me . We are listening. Caller oh, okay. Thank you. Okay. When president clinton got impeached, i became an independent, because i wanted to remain in a state to give whoever was the best the benefit of the doubt. So, i was really undecided when these two candidates ran against each other, trump and hillary. I was okay. Nizra, give us the bullet point assessment of this morning. Caller okay. My bullet point is that i think that the republicans are in denial. I think that they are like an ostrich with the head stuck in the hand and the body is exposed to the truth. Thank you, maam. Sharon is a democrat and gastonia, north carolina, and you are on cspan. Caller hey. How are you doing . I wanted to say that i watch this all of the time and Everybody Knows me, that i dont do anything but to watch the news and all of the channels and they bug me out. But anyway, this hearing is the republicans that they are playing the country like, you know, they are lying in front of people, and they are taking everything out of context, and if you cant defend anything, well, that is law 101 and bang on the table and scream, scream, scream, and they have yet to find anything that they can fight with, and hunter biden, i thought that 45 was supposed to be the president for everybody. They dont talk about his daughter, and all of her trademarks she got from china or jared and saudi and his businesses. So i just think that Everybody Needs to stop, and they need to get it together or resign. As an army vet, i will tell you now that i hate to tell people that i served my country. And now, percy in memphis. On the republican line. Caller hello. How are you . Caller well, it is simple and it seems like a double standard. When you have got the specific wording in one case and then they say, well, look, the president didnt say that it was a demand, but you can read into it, but then you are looking into the mentality of what the president was doing. And as the individual that is his job to essentially take care of the foreign policies, what was going on with hunter and burisma and even argumentatively that something was not officially wrong that it looked shay dirdy and it is his job to least look into things that are shady. And he did not say right off of the bat that they have done this thing. It seemed that he was trying to find out if something had happened and as soon as it was mentioned that they jumped on the president whether he is going to be reelected or joe biden is biggest competitor. My eyes joe biden is pretty much put himself out at this point. And this is kind of playing into what the president tweeted out a little bit earlier today with regard to the morning hearing. Dems for veronica and escobar purposely misled my call. I said i want to do us a favor, our country and not me, and they know that and decided to lie in order to make a fraudulent point. Very sad. Up next is even in glast totong connecticut on the independent line. Caller i have called, because i have walked away from the Democratic Party years ago. I thought that when i voted for trump, i was literally giving the finger for the democrat and republican establishment and i see that he has reformed the Republican Party and the mindset of the country. A right now, you can see why these democrats are in panic mode. You can see why they are just making things up for the last three years that they have been putting this country through all kinds of propaganda and all types of lies and just harassment to the president. He has been doing a great job. When i am looking at the hearings and even todays hearing, they have nothing but hearsay, and they keep saying that they have evidence, be all of the evidence is on the presumption and hearsay. It just seems that they are way too far and losing their house and their power over the country. Democrats currently have 233 members in the house, and the republicans have 197. 218 makes up a majority. David in watumka, alaska, or is that alabama . I am sorry about that. David a david, are you on . Caller yes. I am from central alabama. Im A Martha Robey fan, but id like to know how much money has been spent by the democrats for this witch hunt for trump. No, he doesnt speak like a polished politician. Because he is not a politician. He is a businessman of sorts, but at the same time he has made more changes and helped the United States more than any president since 1934 as far as im concerned. And i wish that the democrats would quit with their witch hunt. I wish they would quit wasting the taxpayers money, and i wish that we could move on the Something LikeVeterans Issues which i support here in central alabama. I am tired of veterans being treated like secondclass citizens. That is david in alabama and this is john in San Francisco on the independent line. John, you are on cspan. Caller yes. You know, i used to be a democrat and i have moved to the independent, and i cant associate with either party. It has come down to a bloods and the crips type of situation where you have two rival gangs, and the country is not being served by our present system. I think that we need to look outside of the box. And ukraine, it was actually a violent coup de tat that occurred there in 2014, and we made a regime change in the ukraine, and Neither Party wants to recognize it, and they call it the revolution of dignity, but i would ask the folks at home to look up the azov brigade. It is a neonazi Prototype Group that we are giving our money to, and our tax dollars are going them, and if people knew about that, id imagine they would have a different perspective on this. John in San Francisco. Susan fericcio tweeted out that impeachment articles markup in the Judiciary Committee might take a while this afternoon, and onward. Republican Ranking Member doug collins just said that the gop has a good many amendments, and republicans plan to introduce today. Now, lets hear from dan in kalamazoo, michigan, on the democrats line. Dan, good afternoon. Caller well, hi. Im sitting here watching the markups, and it is sort of amazing watching the republicans try to keep shifting the goalposts at every possible opportunity, and especially when, you know, the articles of impeachment that are actually introduced by the democrats were really narrow in scope. We have not even talked about Donald Trumps taxes or any sort of the emoluments issues that the man has, and i only hope that stuff comes to light as we continue to progress. How would that be related, dan, to the two articles of impeachment . Abuse of power and obstruction of congress that have been discussed . Caller for one hand, the abuse of power, and that is clearly happening with his continued access as far as people in trump tower and the use of trump tower is basically sort of a lobby for foreign lobbyists who do want to actually gain influence with donald trump, because obviously, money is the only language that the man speaks, and as far as abuse of power, well, i mean, that is a obvious corollary from the whole emoluments thing, because any president up to this point has not done that sort of thing. Phillips in middletown, new york, and so, philip, what is your comment on this mornings hearing . Caller yes. My comment is that i feel that our streets should be flooded with indignation. In afghanistan and tortures and saudi arabia and the 9 11 involvement, and 2008 financial crisis, yemen, 13,435 lives by this president , and the involvement in the bribery that he has been getting impeached for. I mean, impeachments are overdue and underused and sign of poor judgment in electing president s and representatives. That is my view. Thank you for calling in. Mark in philadelphia calling in for the democrats. Caller how you doing . I feel like the republicans look like a clown up there trying to justify what donald trump is doing. And as far as experience go, donald trump never held any office. He was not elected for anything, and so he has no experience and another thing, nobody likes a bully, and when you are a bully, you always get what you deserve and so the president is getting what he deserves and that is it. I feel like the republicans should just, i mean, look at it for what it is, and suck it up, and get somebody new. Republican whip in house Steve Scalise tweeted out earlier that, or this is tweeted out about Steve Scalise, that he is whipping a no vote on the articles of impeachment against President Trump and his office informed the gop lawmakers last night that the whip team is going to be speaking with them today. Speaker pelosi also talked about the whipping and voting process. What is your message to the moderate democrats who are undecided and concerned that a vote forward for impeachment could backfire on them politically. We are not going whip this legislation and nor would we. The people have to come to their own conclusion ashs and they have seen the facts as presented by the Intelligence Committee and they have taken an oath to protect the constitution, but they can see the constitutional experts speak about it, they will make their own decisions about it, and i wont say anything to them. And so the president is calling this impeachment light, because there are only two articles and there is no crimes in here. The president is wrong. You know, what can i say . We have put forth our articles of impeachment, and im very proud of all of the committees and six committees have been working on this for a very long time. This is nothing swift about it. But it is urgent. And so we will be bringing the articles, and the committee will work on it today as you know, and i dont know if it is this morning or this afternoon and that depends upon the pace of the committee and then next week we will take up Something Else. And so, you have accused him of bribery and why did you decide not to make bribery one of the articles . I, myself, i am not a lawyer, and sometimes i act as one, but not as often as i am a doctor, because i Practice Medicine on the side without benefit of the diploma, too, and this is a decision that is recommended by our working together with our Committee Chairs and the attorneys and the rest. So the articles are what they are. They are very powerful. They are very strong. They are a continuation of the pattern of misbehavior on the part of the president. People are realizing and seeing what that was. They think that the public thinks that they should be determining who the president of the United States is and not some foreign power. They think that nobody is above the law, and we think that as they that the president should be held accountable for abuse of power, obstruction of congress, and this is the form that we will take. It is no use of having a discussion here. This is a discussion that we will take to the floor of the senate. And while we are in this break, and the house Judiciary Committee, we want to hear your voices, and a reminder 2027489020 for democrats and then 9021 for republicans and 9022 for independents. Robert, what is your opinion of this process . Have. Caller well, either side, and it is undoubted that fairness is not an option here. It is very partisan. I think that is concerning for a lot of people whether the republicans or the democrats, because it really hurts the democrats goal in the end if they get there in an unfair way, and it makes them look bad. I would say that there is a lot of presumptions that go into all of this for the democrats and there is facts that are on the republican side, and there is just multiple things that are not sitting right with a lot of people, and i know that i have watched. Just like yesterday, they had the one individual questioning and was a witness at the same time. And another thing that did not sit right with me in the committee, and adam schiffs committee is you have swalwell sitting on the board and inquiry now to impeach him. So they are doing what they are accusing trump of doing. All right. Rob, we want to leave it there and hear from isaac from acadia, california, and on the independent line. Go ahead. Caller first, i am thinking that the republicans are unwilling to think that trump did anything wrong and on the other side the democrats are st wanting to kans ing ting to con did something wrong, because then it would be that trump was after corruption, but it is the idea that he wanted a Public Statement by the president that makes it not just about corruption, because if he wanted the corruption investigated it could have been routed out and done and more covertly and disclosed, but he wanted the announcement because he wanted to smear bidens name, and so while we are watching this trial, the republicans are taking every chance to smear bidens name. And so during this whole time, we are seeing the republicans get exactly what they wanted from extorting the or if we call it extortion and we dont know yet, but on the other hand, the democrats while impeaching him are getting what they want in that they are kind of smears trumps name, and so they are all doing the smears on each other. Isaac, it seems that you have been following this process closely. Caller very. Very. I have been watching all of these proceedings, and it is absolutely and i wish that more often the republicans would ask the people that they dont agree with what they think, and the democrats would ask the people they dont agree with what they think when we had the scholars, there because if they wanted to learn something they would have asked the questions that would challenge the world view, but they are asking that confirm the world view, because this is simply about smearing the next candidate in the next election. That is isaac in acadia, california and now we have kelly on the democratic line. Caller hello. We are listening. Caller if the republicans would like to defend themselves, they should allow the testimony, and come in and testify. Who you mean by the republicans . Caller the republicans meaning trumps people, pompeo, all of the people that are refusing to come in, they should come in. If they want to get their point across, and if they want to say their peace, they should come in and testify. That is kelly in rockland, california. Up next is cleo up in st. Paul, minnesota, the republican line. Cleo. Caller hello. Thank you for taking my call. Uhhuh. Caller so, i was raised in congressman no maman nunes dis i think that he has done a horrible job of giving the facts for the republicans and i dont understand