the world, in the words of my great colleague, we are better than that. adjourned. >> congressman, how -- how dire do you think the stakes are in terms of the message that is sent both to this president and future presidents if it is essentially deemed fine to do what the president did? >> if he normalizes this, chris, absolutely. we have an opportunity here to hold the president accountable. and if we do not, pretty clearly he would have established the base that any future president can get away with, the kinds of things that he did. and that there will be no way to hold them accountable. i've always thought this about the rule of law and whether or not the president was above it. he's not. >> one of your colleagues today, republican will hurd, he's a retiring member of congress, he