The full house could vote on the articles of impeachment as soon as next week. Coming up fast. Nancy cordes is on capitol hill for us covering the impeachment investigation for us from the beginning. Nancy, good morning. We have two articles, abuse of power and obstruction of congress. Were used to hearing obstruction of justice. This is obstruction of congress. Can you walk us through the two articles and tell us what they mean. Reporter absolutely. Abuse of power, democrats say, has to do with the president s attempt to use miss office for personal gain contrary to national interest. They say when the president asked the president of ukraine to investigate joe biden at the same time mr. Trump was withholding 400 million worth of military aid to ukraine that that hurt u. S. National security and it was meant to benefit mr. Trump and his reelection effort and solely mr. Trump. Moving on from there, obstruction of congress. That has to do with all of the ways in which democrats say this president tried to block the impeachment inquiry, refusing to allow top aides to testify, refusing to hand over documents despite all of the subpoenas that were issued to the white house and the state department and the Defense Department. Democrats believe these two articles of impeachment, which are a focus that is more narrow than some had initially wanted, makes this case easy to prove, easy to understand, easy to sell to the American People. So does that mean now that theyve decided not to include any of the evidence from the russia investigation . We all know it was a debate within the party. Reporter that was a fierce debate. There were some democrats who felt that Robert Mueller in his report laid out all of these instances of potential obstruction of justice when the president blocked the investigation from getting information that it wanted. Democrats felt if weve got that impeachment, wouldnt that make the case even stronger. But you had a number of other democrats, a lot of moderates, nancy pelosi herself which is a big factor who felt that keeping impeachment more narrowly focused would give them a more airtight case, a case backed up with a great deal of evidence, a case focused solely on this ukraine controversy and nothing else. It appears thats the side that won out, gayle. Thanks, nancy. Chief washington correspondent Major Garrett has covered the Trump Administration since it began. He also covered the last president ial impeachment where bill clinton was put on trial 20 years ago. Major, good morning. Good morning. Why do you think that the democrats have backed away from a word that they used quite prominently not so long ago, bribery. Right. And also extortion. What is the reason behind that . They clearly dont believe they have the evidence to make that case ick. Bribery, thosee words that had great power and force about a week ago, maybe two weeks ago. Absent from this docket, if you will, of impeachment articles. Something else is conspicuously missing, obstruction of justice. As gayle noted thats what were typically hearing when congress decides whether or not a president has done something so bad it must impeach the president. Obstructing justice was part and parcel of the clinton and nixon kbreech impeachment procedures. Not so this time . Why . Theyve accelerate tuesday this process, so theyve not gone through what other challenges have, Court Challenges to disputed documents or witnesses. If a white house defies a court order for a subpoena you can propound an article of obstruction. Democrats dont want to wait for the court procedures, in some cases havent engaged them to test it in court. Theyve left with obstruction of congress, which is in the history lessen forcible or less strident accusation against the white house. In both cases House Democrats thiny wereing quite iew some oft loudly two weeks ago. Major, you mentioned the timing and pace of this. It is going quite quickly. What is the timing and the pace and also the pattern of voting with party line votes all the way, what does it say about politics in the age of trump and going into 2020 . One of the most fascinating things about this procedure, tony, is the things that are most contested are the things in full public view. It is not an impeachment argument about something that happened in secret thats been unearthed. Democrats say, read the transcript, the president is quite clearly using a quid pro quo leverage power of the United States over a weaker ally, the ukraine. The white house looks at it and says, we released the transcript, it is completely exonerated. Democrats say look at the videotape on the south china, ie bidens. The white house looks at that and says it is the president being a hardball transactional leader forcing a way to deal with corruption. That in sit self exemplifies the differences of selfsame evidence. Here are the chairman of the relevant House Committees approaching the microphones. Good morning, everyone. On this solemn day i recall that the first order of business for members of congress is the solemn act to take an oath to protect and defend the constitution of the unitedstat with g res a gde that i thank the chaitheommitt always want to thank the staff of those committees and the Committee Members for all of their work over this period of time to help us protect and defend. I want to thank the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, mr. Nadler, the chair of the Intelligence Committee, mr. Schiff, the chair of the ways and means committee, chairman all of these chairmen, chairman richie kneel richie neal. Eliot engel, chair of the Financial Services committee. Maxine waters of california, the chair of the committee on government reform and oversight. Congress woman carolyn maloney. I always want to acknowledge the important work that was done by our dear and departed, may he rest in peace, elijah cummings, as chair of the oversight committee. Now im pleased to yield to the distinguished chair of the Judiciary Committee, mr. Nadler. Thank you, madam speaker. Over the last several months the investigative committees of the house have been engaged in an impeachment inquiry into president Donald Trumps efforts to solicit foreign interference in the 2020 elections. Efforts that compromised our National Security and threatened the integrity of our elections. Throughout this inquiry he has attempted to conceal the evidence from congress and from the American People. Our president holds the ultimate public trust. When he betrays that trust and puts himself before country, he endangers the constitution, he endangers our democracy and he endangers our National Security. The framers of the constitution prescribed a clear remedy for president s who so violate their oath of office. That is the power of impeachment. Today in service to our duty to the constitution and to our country, the House Committee on the judiciary is introducing two articles of impeachment charging the president of the United States, donald j. Trump, with committing high crimes and misdemeanors. The first article is for abuse of power. It is an Impeachable Offense for the president to exercise the powers of his Public Office to obtain an improper personal benefit while ignoring or injuring the national interest. That is exactly what President Trump did when he solicited and pressured ukraine to interfere in our 2020 president ial election. Thus, damaging our National Security, undermining the integrity of the next election and violating his oath to the American People. These actions, moreover, are consistent with President Trumps previous invitations of foreign interference in our 2016 president ial election. And when he was caught, when the house investigated and opened an impeachment inquiry, President Trump engaged in unprecedented, categorical and indiscriminate defiance of the impeachment inquiry. This gives rise to the second article of impeachment for obstruction of congress. Here too we see a familiar pattern in President Trumps misconduct. A president who declares himself above accountability, above the American People and above congresss power of impeachment, which is meant to protect against threats to our democratic institutions, is a president who sees himself as above the law. We must be clear. No one, not even the president , is above the law. I want to recognize the great contributions of the investigative chairs, particularly Intelligence Committee chairman adam schiff, Foreign Affairs chairman eliot engel, committee on oversight and reforms forever chairman, the late elijah cummings, and its new chairwoman carolyn maloney, Financial Services chairwoman Maxine Waters and ways and means chairman richard neal who helped lay the foundation for the articles we are introducing today. I always want to thank my Judiciary Committee colleagues who were critical in our work to hold the president accountable and in the drafting of these articles. Later this week the Judiciary Committee will meet to consider these articles of impeachment and to make a recommendation to the full house of representatives. We do not take this action lightly, but we have taken an oath to defend the constitution. And, unlike President Trump, we understand that our duty first and foremost is to protect the constitution and to protect the interests of the American People. That is why we must take this solemn step today. Elections are the cornerstone of democracy and are foundational to the rule of law, but the integrity of our next election is at risk from a president who has already sought foreign interference in the 2016 and 2020 elections and who consistently puts himself above country. That is why we must act now. I want to turn now to chairman schiff who will explain the evidence that supports these articles and the need for us to act with such urgency today. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, madam speaker. And to my colleagues, good morning. The framers of the constitution recognized that some day a president might come to office who would abuse that office, betray the public trust and undermine National Security to security foreign help in his reelection, and who would seek to abrogate the power of congress to hold him accountable. They recognized this danger and prescribed a remedy and that remedy is impeachment. It is an extraordinary remedy and one that ive been reluctant to recommend until the actions of President TrumpGave Congress no alternative. We stand here today because the president s continuing abuse of his power has left us no choice. To do nothing would make ourselves complicit in the president s abuse of his high office, the public trust and our National Security. The president s misconduct is as simple and as terrible as this. President trump solicited a foreign nation ukraine to public announce investigations into his opponent and a baseless Conspiracy Theory promoted by russia to help his reelection campaign. President trump used the power of his office by conditioning two official acts to get yu juke to help his reelection, the release of hundreds of millions of dollars ukraine desperately needed and a white house meeting with an ally trying to fend off russian aggression. In so doing he undermined our National Security and jeopardized the integrity of our next election, and he does so still. The evidence of the president s misconduct is overwhelming and uncontested and how could it not be with the president as own words of july 25th, i would like you to do us a favor though lay so bare his intention, his willingness to sacrifice the National Security for his own personal interests. And when the president got caught he committed his second impeachable act, obstruction of congress of the very ability to make sure that no one is above the law, not even the president of the United States. The evidence is every bit as strong that President Trump has obstructed congress fully, without precedent and without basis in law. If allowed to stand it would decimate congresss ability to conduct oversight of this president or any other in the future, leaving this president and those who follow to be free to be as corrupt, malfeasant as they would like with no prospect of discovery or accountability. Some would argue, why dont you just wait . Why dont you just wait until you get these witnesses the white house refuses to produce . Why dont you just wait until you get the documents the white house refuses to turn over . People should understand what that argument really means. It has taken us eight months to get a Lower Court Ruling that don mcgahn has no absolute right to defy congress. Eight months. For one court decision. If it takes us another eight months to get a second court or maybe a Supreme Court decision, people need to understand that is not the end of the process. It comes back to us and questions because he no longer has absolute immunity and then another eight or 16 mont dont t wait amounts to this. Why dont you just let him cheat in one more election . Why not let him cheat just one more time . Why not let him have foreign help just one more time . That is what that argument amounts to. The president s misconduct goes to the heart of whether we can conduct a free and Fair Election in 2020. It is bad enough for a candidate to invite foreign interference in our political process, but it is far more corrosive for a president to do so, and to abuse his power to make it so. Despite everything we have uncovered, the president s misconduct continues to this day, unapologetically and right now. As we saw when he stood on the white house lawn and he was asked, what did you want in that july 25th call and he said the answer was a simple one. And not just a simple one on july 25th, but a simple one today. He still wants ukraine to interfere in our election to help his campaign. Even this week the president s lawyer was back in ukraine seeking to revive the same debunked Conspiracy Theory promoted at the president s behest, which gets to the final and most pernicious of the arguments that we have heard in the president s defense, that the president can do whatever he wants under article 2 including get foreigners involved in our elections, and we should just, to quote the president s chief of staff, get over it. Ben franklin said we have a republic if we can keep it. The president and his men say, you cant keep it and americans should just get over it. Americans dont get to decide american elections anymore, not by themselves, not without foreign help. For the members of congress this is not a question of fact because the facts are not seriously contested. It is, rather, a question of duty. The president s oath of Office Appears to mean very little to him, but the articles put forward today will give us a chance to show that we will defend the constitution and that our oath means something to us. I thank you, mr. Chairman. Madam speaker. Madam speaker. Madam speaker. Mueller report, obstruction of justice, why not do that . Thank you well, you have just heard from House Democratic leaders announcing two articles of impeachment against President Trump. The articles accuse him of abuse of power and obstruction of congress in connection with the efforts to push ukraine to investigate the president as political rivals. If the democratic are going to impeach, the president said do it now and do it fast so there can be a fair trial in the senate. It appears theyre giving the president exactly what he asked for. It is sobering i have to say to hear jerry nadler say we are accusing the president of violating his oath to the office of the American People and charging donald j. Trump with high crimes and miss yedemeanor . How is the white house preparing for all of this . Reporter theyve been preparing for quite sometime because they anticipated it would come. First is engulfing the existing record, make sure they go through all of the evidence out here. Theyre pouring through witness testimony and other testimony so they know that. The other part is preparing witnesses and Senior Administration officials told us they couldnt hone in on that part until this very moment when they knew the exact articles of impeachment because that will drive who they hope to call. Of course, President Trump himself has said that he wants to see live witnesses on the stand instead of taped depositions like we saw during the clinton impeachment. He even has a wish list that includes the bidens, adam schiff, how speaker pelosi, the whistleblower. That really just goes back to what the president continues to argue. That goes to his attempt to show that this entire process has been illegitimate, and so