Of what we watched yesterday. Five hours in the u. S. Senate. It went like this. Do you expect to change your mind about the bottom line conclusions of the Mueller Report . No. Do you know bob mueller . Yes. Do you trust him . Yes. That we have those notes . No. Why not . Why should you have them . You still have a situation where a president essentially tries to change the lawyers account in order to prevent further criticism of himself. Thats not a crime. Mr. Attorney general giving for credit for knowing what the hell is going on with you. Not really. This line of questioning. Listen, you slandered this man. What i want to know is how do we get to this point . How do we get to the point bill a sample of yesterday. Well go to jerry nadler in a moment. Sarah sanders is with me now on the north lawn of the white house. We may have to interrupt this interview. Has the president told bill barr what he should do, sarah . Im not aware that he has instructed him to do anything. What i am aware of is how much the democrats embarrassed themselves yesterday. The outrageous questioning that they laid out to the attorney general frankly was astonishing. You showed a clip of senator hirono. The outrage that she came to the attorney general who came there and sat for five hours of questioning was just unbelievable. The hearing that you mentioned that we may have to cut away for with jerry nadler where there is no witness is because the democrats saw what happened yesterday and theyve decided they are incapable of actually asking questions of the attorney general. I lost confidence in jerry nadler a long time ago. I was unaware he had lost confidence in himself and his ability to do his job. That is to ask questions. The fact that he needs to staff that out is unbelievable. Frankly its pathetic. Democrats have to step up. Bill they determined this format before yesterday to have some members of the Committee Staff, lawyers, ask the questions. Apparently it wont happen. Bill barr wont be there. A question on this. Why not go ahead and appear at the hearing and get it over with . Look, the attorney general sat for five hours yesterday, bill and answered every question put in front of him. He was willing to sit down again with the house. Naturally the democrats have changed the rules in the middle of the game. They took a vote yesterday, a special vote in order to allow staff to question the attorney general. He is a cabinet member for the president of the United States. And this is a straightforward oversight hearing in which members of congress should be able to ask those questions. They shouldnt need to staff that out. In fact, a number of these members are attorneys themselves and should be perfectly fine making those asks and doing that all on their own without having somebody else do that. Bill its rare but not unprecedented to do this. 1987 irancontra. Its pathetic they cant do their job. Bill it happened during watergate. Will the white house try to prevent don mcgahn and others from appearing before a house or Senate Hearing . Weve been transparent from this entire process. Weve put forward dozens of people to talk with the special counsel. 1. 4 million pages of documents. Weve been fully transparent. This thing is over. Time for democrats to move on. They cant continue to drag this thing out and continue to put the American People through this. Look, there was no collusion, there was no obstruction. Now they need to come together and work with the president to actually fix real problems. Theyve shown they arent capable of working with us on immigration but maybe they could help on infrastructure or lowering Prescription Drug prices. There are a lot of things we have to be able to look the American People in the eye and say were working for you and doing things to help you. Not just continuing to attack the president. They have to get to a point where they love this country more than they hate this president and so far were not seeing that from them at any point particularly on what theyre doing on display today. Bill if they file a subpoena later today against barr at some point or mcgahn or whoever, take your pick in the administration, are you willing to fight that in court as long as it takes to prevent them from appearing . Well see what happens. I wont get ahead of the process. Well play those cards as they come. At this point i think weve been very clear and i think that the information that is in front of the entire public that attorney general bill barr has put forward because he put that report out, has shown there is no collusion or obstruction and it is time to move on and focus on some real problems that face our country. Bill bill barr left his house. Probably going to the office at the department of justice. Well see where he ends up today. On Venezuela Maduro has proven to be a pretty stubborn man. Has he won . Not at all. This is something that we knew wasnt going to be a oneday process. It is something that is going to take some time. Maduro is a fighter, no question about that. But the people of venezuela are hurting. Many of them are without food, without water, without the needed medical supplies, life threatening illnesses that some of these people have. Theyre fleeing by the millions. Something has to be done and maduro needs to step down and allow the people of his country to thrive and to survive and live in freedom. Bill i apologize for interrupting our conversation here. I hope you come back, Sarah Sanders from the white house. Jerry nadler Opening Statement now underway. Lets see what happens. I believe my colleagues nld i were right to insist on the extended questioning. To my knowledge not even the Ranking Member was opposed to the idea of moving into closed session if necessary. But even if democrats and republicans disagree on the format of this hearing we must come together to protect the integrity of this chamber. The Administration May not dictate the terms of a hearing in this hearing room. The challenge we face is bigger than a single witness. Late last night the department of justice wrote to inform us that they will ignore our subpoena for the unredacted Mueller Report and the underlying evidence. They have made no meaningful attempt at accommodating that subpoena which was due yesterday. The letter references the attorney generals offer to 12 members of congress, 12 out of 435, to look behind some but not all of the redactions provided that we agree not to discuss what we see with our colleagues, that we leave our notes behind at the department of justice. It is urgent that we see the documents we have subpoenaed and i cannot agree to conditions that prevent me from talking about it to my colleagues and acting on the report in any meaningful way. Accommodation designed to prevent this official action is no accommodation at all. Every member of this committee, democrat and republican alike, should understand the consequences when the executive branch tells us they will simply ignore a lawful subpoena from congress. If left unchecked, this act of obstruction will make it that much harder for us to hold the executive Branch Accountable for waste, fraud, abuse or tone act legislation to prevent that kind of misconduct no matter which party holds this chamber or the white house at a given moment. The challenge we face is also bigger than the Mueller Report. If all we knew about President Trump were contained in the four corners of that report there would be good reason to question his fitness for office. The report is not where the story ends. In the days since the department of justice released the redacted version of the report, President Trump has told congress that he plans to fight all of our subpoenas. The average person is not free to ignore a congressional subpoena nor is the president. His promise to obstruct our work is far beyond the contacts with the russian government and allegations of obstruction of justice. The president has prevented us from obtaining information about voting rights, aca litigation and cruel family separation policy among other matters. The challenge we face is also not limited to this committee. In recent weeks administration witnesses have simply failed to show for properly noticed depositions. The secretary of the treasury continues to ignore this clear statutory obligation to produce the president s tax returns. The president s private attorneys sued chairman cummings in his personal capacity in an attempt to block the release of certain financial documents. Ladies and gentlemen, the challenge we face is that the president of the United States wants desperately to prevent congress, a coequal branch of government, from providing any check whatsoever to his most reckless decisions. He is trying to render congress inert as a separate and coequal branch of government. The challenge we face is that if we dont stand up to him together today, we risk forever losing the power to stand up to any president in the future. The very system of government of the United States, the system of limited power, the system of not having a president as a dictator is very much at stake. Attorney general of the United States is sworn to uphold the constitution as our nations chief Law Enforcement officer. He has an obligation to do everything in his power to warn the president of the damage he risks and the liability he assumes by directly threatening our system of checks and balances and of limited government. Sadly, the attorney general has failed in that responsibility. He has failed to check the president s worst instincts. He has not only misrepresented the findings of the special counsel, he has failed to protect the special counsels investigation from unfair political attacks. He has himself unfairly attacked the special counsels investigation. He has failed the men and women of the department of justice by placing the needs of the president over the Fair Administration of justice. He has even failed to show up today. Yes, we will continue to negotiate for access to the full report. For another couple of days. And yes, we will have no choice but to move quickly to hold the attorney general in contempt if he stalls or fails to negotiate in good faith. The attorney general must make a choice. Every one of us must make the same choice. That choice is now an obligation of our office. The choice is simple. We can stand up to this president in defense of the country and the constitution and the liberty we love, or we can let the moment pass us by. I do not and we have seen in other countries what happens when you allow such moments to pass by. I do not know what attorney general barr will choose. I do not know what my republican colleagues will choose. But i am certain that there is no way forward for this country that does not include a reckoning with this clear and present danger to our constitutional order. History will judge us for how we face this challenge. We will all be held accountable in one way or the other. And if he does not provide this committee with the information it demands and the respect it deserves, mr. Barrs moment of accountability will come soon enough. And now recognize the Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee for his Opening Statement. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Lets be very clear. There is only one reason and one reason only at this point we are not being able to fulfill our constitutional role of oversight, that is the chairmans demands that were played out yesterday. We could have had a hearing today, what bothers me the most about this is not only did in standing for the questions that were discussed an the issues that were discussed between me and the chairman, not only did he take the ability for the American People to hear from bill barr he took our ability to hear from bill barr today. To protect, maybe. Because some didnt feel like they could ask proper questions. Maybe they wanted more staff questions, who knows . But yesterday he claims he wants staff to question the attorney general because the fiveminute per member is not enough. Yet we spent and approved a motion yesterday that said we could do a whole hour, an extra hour between the chairman and myself. He could have said one of these fabulous members he has. He has some excellent attorneys on his side. Some of the best. He could have given them all 30 minutes. And they could have questioned the attorney general any way they wanted to. Instead, we go back to a circus political stunt. To say we want it to look like an impeachment hearing. Because they wont bring impeachment proceedings. Thats the reason. Take whatever you want to take. Go out and have press conferences and say whatever you want, but the reason bill barr is not here today is because the democrats decided they didnt want him here today. Thats the reason he is not here. You could have done anything else you wanted. What is amazing to me is to say that he is scared of answering questions, scared you can disagree with the attorney general all you want but for yesterday he said for six hours in the senate voluntarily answering questions even on the second round that was taken up by democrats who wanted to ask more questions. Did he do good or bad . It doesnt matter. Were not getting that opportunity today because the stunt and the circus continues over here. All we had to do we agreed to more time. We can talk about executive session but no, for some reason for some purpose except the optics of something they cant do or dont want to do right now, they wanted to have a staff member ask questions. I said before if that staff member wants to ask questions, run for congress. Put a pin on, find a committee. But i can continue on and on and on about the issues that we have here and the impeachment attorney and saying he is terrified coming before the committee. Yesterday he is not terrified to sit before anybody. The senate they he asked the question. My chairman told me yesterday not a matter of whether we agree or disagree we do the motion. You can agree with the attorney general or disagree with the attorney general but not hearing from him is a travesty for this committee today. But i would be remiss if i also did not mention the largest tragedy of this day. That actually was from yesterday. The chairman just stated a few moments ago we cant let moments pass, i agree completely. Because what happened yesterday on this dais was a travesty. When you do not recognize members for valid motions. When you call things dill tory questioning the motives of what members are doing it for. I have sat on this committee for six years. And i have sat through hours of motions to strike the last word, of giving other members on the Minority Side more time, more time. One of my biggest concerns i ever had with chairman goodlatte is why do you let it continue . Just call the previous questions. Two occasions last congress he did on a resolutions of inquiry after almost six to seven hours of debate. The question i have here is not what bill barr is scared of. What are the democrats scared of . They dont bant bill barr here today. They have read the report. The chairman wont go look at what the attorney general offered him. Amazing to me he wants to go in executive session and ask questions about it but he wont go read it. Go read it and ask some more. But here is the problem today and this problem from yesterday is not over. If the majority wants to run a committee in which minority rights do not matter, parliamentary procedure does not matter, we saw it on full display yesterday. It will not continue. We will continue this exercise and we will exercise what we have as minority, which is the minority rights to ask questions, to make motions. Because at the end of the day unless weve forgotten, mr. Chairman, you have more votes than we do. You will get what you want. But just like we sat on this side and you got to spend hours talking about whatever you wanted to talk about while chairman goodlatte sat there and let you do it. And all you want to do the question that bothered me the most yesterday. We have time, we have to get onto another bill. Timing doesnt trump minority rights. Freshman members or anybody else for first time thats not how this committee works. If you dont believe me, ask chairman sensenbrenner for three times was chairman of this committee and laid it out clearly yesterday. When we deg regait members of my side calling the amendment ridiculous. Calling ours dilatory is wrong and should offend everybody on this dais. Mr. Chairman, this is wrong. The tragedy of the day is not that you have an empty chair and have props. Im reminded of sticks and stones quote. What bothers me today is the travesty of what happened in the minority rights yesterday. Democrats cant honestly look me in the face and say you all were not treated much better than a chairman who followed the rules than how we were treated yesterday. I yield back. Thank you, mr. Collins. I would introduce the witness ordinarily at this point. But instead we will conclude this proceedings. I just want to say we didnt choose not to have mr. Barr come. He chose. We cannot permit him or anybody in the administration to dictate the manner in which we function. This does not include our inquiry into the attorney generals handling of the Mueller Report. Parliamentary inquiry. Nor does it conclude our efforts. I seek recognition. For the entire report. We will not hear from the attorney general today but this committee intends to obtain the information that it needs to conduct its constitutional oversight and legislative responsibilities. We will defend the prerogatives of congress. Well defend the rights of the American People to know whats going on. We will defend the constitutional scheme of equal and coordinated branches of government and we will make sure that no president becomes a monarch. We need the information without delay. The hearing is adjourned. And well do so with trampling minority rights. There wont be a recognition of members who seek legitimate inquiries as to the procedures. That may happen in washington, d. C. But it does not happen often on live television. That was matt gaetz trying to interject at the end. It is playing out wh