The next steps in their investigations. That comes as theres a lot of heat on nancy pelosi to begin the impeachment proceedings. The impeachment process is going to be inevitable. Its just a question of when, not if. Reporter more than two dozen House Democrats are now calling for the House Speaker to begin impeachment proceedings. You know, i think the case gets stronger the more they stonewall the congress. Reporter but nancy pelosi is still not convinced, standing by her cautious approach, even after a heated meeting with democratic leadership behind closed doors on monday. Are you under pressure to impeach the president . No. From your caucus . No. Reporter pelosi believes impeaching the president should be an evidencebased bipartisan decision. A growing number of democratic lawmakers disagree, saying the stonewalling from the white house leaves them no choice. It would be terrible if the fact of protecting the constitution by starting an impeachment inquiry somehow led to, you know, him being able to defy the law even more. And of course thats a real fear. But you cant let Political Considerations get in the way of your duty and the truth. Reporter meantime, the House Judiciary Committee issuing two new subpoenas to former White House Communications director hope hicks and the former white house counsels chief of staff annie donaldson. Hicks speaking to special Counsel Robert Mueller about key conversations with President Trump, including emails donald trump jr. Sent to set up the june 16th meeting at trump tower. And donaldson, whose detailed notes are cited throughout the mueller report. Yet, theres growing uncertainty if mueller will testify in public. A source telling cnn mueller does not want to appear political after staying silent about his twoyearlong investigation. All of this comes as the Washington Post obtains an irs confidential draft memo that directly contradicts the trump administrations refusal to hand over President Trumps tax returns to lawmakers. The tenpage document says the agency must provide congress with trumps tax returns unless he opts to assert executive privilege. Mr. Trump has not done so. Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin instead blocking the request, arguing it, quote, lacks a legitimate legislative purpose. So lauren, at this point what is the next step in the fight over the president s tax returns . Reporter when ive spoke within the chairman of the house ways and Means Committee, he says theres just one way forward and that is going to court. But there are some members on the house ways and Means Committee who believe they should exhaust more of their congressional power, and that includes holding the treasury secretary and the irs commissioner in contempt of congress. Thats something that richard neil has said is not necessary. His plan to move this fight to the courts, he wants to move on. He has a lot of other priorities he wants to get through, including infrastructure, something hes been talking about for several months now. He wants to get this fight, this partisan fight off of his plate so he can move on to some of the priorities of the ways and Means Committee. Lauren fox with the latest this morning. Thank you. All right. This morning were learning of an intriguing meeting behind closed doors that took place in relative secret. Former secretary of state Rex Tillerson, who had more than his share of issues with the president , sat down with the top democrat and republican in the House Foreign Affairs committee for several hours. Cnns joe johns live at the white house for us on what this meeting was all about. Reporter well, john, whats striking about this meeting is while the president and the legal apparatus here at the white house is spending so much time trying to stonewall the democratically controlled house of representatives on the information theyre seeking, the president s former secretary of state literally slips in the back door and spends hours on end having a conversation with Elliott Engle and michael mccaul, the chairman and Ranking Member of the committee. What they talked about, among other things, russia and the relationship between the president s soninlaw Jared Kushner to United States foreign policy. Apparently they did have quite a lot to talk about. It went on, were told, for about seven hours. Were also told members of the committee were somewhat surprised to hear about this actually happening. Now the question will be what all did Rex Tillerson talk to these people about, simply because he had, at times, a stormy relationship with the president while he was serving as secretary of state. Yeah, im interested to find out what were the topics of discussion. Another interesting moment on capitol hill yesterday, joe, ben carson, whos the secretary of housing and urban development, was asked questions about housing. It had some real problems. What went on here . Reporter yeah, well, this was a question that was raised by congresswoman katy porter. Shes a former law professor. She asked carson, whos the secretary of housing and urban development, about things that are referred to as reos. These are acronyms for real estate owned, which is how you describe a property thats gone into foreclosure and reverted back to the lender. The secretary of housing apparently misunderstood the question. Listen. Id also like you to get back to me, if you dont mind, to explain the disparity in reo rates. Do you know what reaso is . An oreo . No, not an oreo. An reo. Real estate whats the o stand for . Organization. Real estate owned. Thats what happens when a property goes to foreclosure. We call it an reo. Reporter on twitter, the secretary later made fun of that exchange. Of course, its also important to point out that he is trained as a surgeon. Nonetheless, the secretary of housing and the congresswoman said she wanted a serious answer to a serious question, which she never got. John . Yeah, secretary trying to make the best of a situation with that sight gag on twitter. But he is the secretary of housing and was asked a question about that. Joe johns, thank you very much. Erica . Flash floods continue to grip the midwest. Folks in the region also reeling from at least 30 reported tornadoes on tuesday. First responders working around the clock to rescue people stuck in rushing flood waters, including this woman hanging from a tree. Cnns ed lavandera is live in Oklahoma City with more. Reporter good morning, erica. Its been a rough couple of days here in the central part of the country, and even though the rain has stopped for a good 24 hours, the threat of the flooding is still a concern. One person died last night in oklahoma after driving around a road barricade, getting stuck in flood waters, and drowned. I spent 36 years here. Its probably as bad a flood as ive ever seen. Reporter historic flooding sweeps through the central United States, prompting dozens of water rescues over the past two days. Its scary. Scary, especially when you got grand babies. When are they going to get here . You hear the choppers and youre like, come on. But i just want to go. Reporter vicious weather has dumped heavy rain on to the area along with 30 preliminary reports of tornadoes on tuesday. Oh, my gosh. Theres a storm chaser. Reporter some in texas were caught in the middle of a hailstorm, pelted with chunks of ice, some the size of baseballs. Others grateful they were able to survive the twisters and floods that followed. I was freaking out. I am still freaking out. It was a nightmare. I was worried about my daughter and my best friend and her kids. Reporter rescuers in oklahoma worked around the clock to save stranded locals from the raging waters, like this woman who grabbed a branch, hoping desperately not to be swept away. After some time, rescuers were finally able to pull her to safety. Or this man, who had been clinging to a fence post for more than five hours before a passerby was able to call emergency crews to save him. At least 200 people in hominy, oklahoma, had to be evacuated because of rising flood waters. As long as its raining, as long as we see flooding on this end of town like weve never seen before, well be out here all night getting people out of these houses. Reporter roads turned into rivers, people stranded on top of cars. This home in edmond, oklahoma, now an island. The first floor was almost completely under water. Others found themselves without homes anymore. I texted brandon like, im going to have to swim in the house. Hes like, what do you mean . I was like, open the front door. It was already up to our porch. Reporter but oklahomans remain resilient. You can always replace stuff like that, but a life you cant replace. Reporter vowing to rebuild what theyve lost. Our family is okay. My moms okay. Were all right here together as far as family, and it can all be put back together. We have each other. Reporter most of the flood waters here in the central oklahoma area that weve seen really started to recede, but many First Responders will tell you that you still need to be very cautious. They say that as flood waters recede from most areas, it does tend to rise in other areas as the water makes its way back into the creeks where it belongs. And that can cause problems in certain lowlying areas. So they still caution people to be extremely careful. Dont drive through standing water, as you well know. Ed lavandera for us in Oklahoma City, thank you very much. And this threat of Severe Weather is pushing east today. Lets go to cnn meteorologist chad myers with the forecast. Thats where the warm air is going, john, to the east. Over the past five days, 132 tornadoes. Thats more than 10 of the entire yearly supply of tornadoes just in the past five. In fact, yesterday, 33. More than the high risk day the day before. So the weather moves through indianapolis for today, all the way back down into evansville. There will be storms today from tulsa back to joplin. Some of them may contain more tornadoes as well. As you said, this is going to move to the east. This is eventually going to slide all the way into pennsylvania and maybe even into the i95 corridor as we work our way into the next couple days. Even for indianapolis, st. Louis st. Louis had tornado warnings yesterday. They may have another one today. Heres the problem. For thursday, that weather does move toward the northeast, even though there will be more Severe Weather in oklahoma. Many more People Living in that circle here than that circle back out to the west. Yes, more flooding possible. Two to four more inches on top of the already saturated ground. But it does begin to warm up for memorial day. Guys, back to you. Just in time. Chad myers, thank you very much. Overnight, beto orourke holding his First National town hall here on cnn. 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He made his case at a cnn town hall. Our leila santiago was there. She joins us now from des moines, iowa. Leila, how did it go . Reporter well, you know, this was really where beto orourke was in his element. Hes done more than 150 town halls. You could really see how that prepared him for our stage last night here in des moines. This is where he says he feels good, and now hes using it, hoping to get that momentum to turn into dollars for fundraising. Already his campaign has sent out an email asking for money based on the performance at the town hall. Lets go ahead and look at one of his really big moments last night. We should begin impeachment proceedings against donald trump. [ applause ] i understand the political implications of this, but i think this moment calls for us to look beyond the politics and the polling and even the next election. Its the very sanctity of the ballot box and the very future of the worlds greatest democracy. And if this is important to us, and i think it is, then we need to look past those shortterm consequences. Reporter and while orourke has said before he believes that congress should begin impeachment proceedings, this is a big deal because hes sort of breaking with House Speaker nancy pelosi a bit here, who is saying lets be careful about this. Shes concerned this could energize trumps base. So this is him really sort of taking a stand, saying lets not think short term, lets think long term. This is where i stand. He also had another big moment when it came to abortion, laying out his policy for that, saying he wants women to have access legal and safe abortions, wants to get rid of the hyde amendment. Not only did the question in the audience get a lot of applause, but so did his answer. Of course, hes from el paso, texas. So you should also expect him to talk immigration. Thats something he really, really is passionate about. You can really tell that that means a lot to him when hes talking to people in the crowd, be it in texas or here in iowa. Heres what he had to say about that. You ask what i would do differently, i would never again separate another family when they come here at their most vulnerable and desperate moment. Lets reflect our values. The best interest and traditions of this country is comprised of immigrants and Asylum Seekers and refugees. Free every one of the more than 1 million dreamers from any fear of deportation by making them citizens here in their home country. Reporter you know, he did get quite a bit of applause for his big moments last night in the crowd. The big question, though, will that resonate with voters outside of that town hall who were watching at home, and will that be reflected in the polls . All right. Leyla from des moines, thank you. Lawmakers in congress divided after a briefing on the threat iran poses. Irans foreign minister tells cnn he has no interest in speaking with President Trump unless President Trump shows respect. Cnns Nic Robertson joins us from abu dhabi with more. Reporter yeah, what we heard from the secretary of state before he went into those briefings, he said it was too soon to say what definitive role iran had played in the latest rise in tensions here, but he did say those attacks on shipping just off the coast of the emirates here was quite likely iranian involved somehow. We heard from the acting secretary of defense also say that right now iran is the threat. That threat is being managed. Republicans, when they came out of that briefing, mostly the takeaway seemed to be that iran, they understood that iran had been responsible not for the attack on those vessels but for an attack on an old pipeline in saudi arabia and for an attack in the green zone in baghdad. Democrats critical of what they heard, saying they believe there wasnt sort of interdepartmental thinking and strategy about how to get iran to the place the United States wants to get them to in terms of