Mr. Richmond votes no. Mr. Jeffries votes no. Mr. Cicilliny votes no. Thank you for joining us tonight. This is Roll Call Vote under way right now. Were watching this historic impeachment proceeding under way in congress. If youve been watching today and into tonight you know that in technical terms this is what tay call a markup which means the Judiciary Committee is there to change or fine tune the articles of impeachment against President Trump before a final vote. In reality what todays proceedings have been is an opportunity for democrats to make the case for impeaching President Trump, and its been an opportunity for republicans to criticize democrats for that and to try to derail the proceedings however they can. This committee started work at 9 00 this morning. We expect that a final vote on the Impeachment Articles could come as soon as this hour, but we really dont know just when itll happen. Tonight republicans are
continuing to offer up what are basically sort of stunt amendments, which Everybody Knows will be voted down party lines, which is exactly whats happening right now. They have reached the second article of impeachment, the article that says the president committed obstruction. They are now voting on republican amendment number five. Republican amendment number five will fail just like all the others have but thats the process were going through right now. Were hearing they may be about to take a vote on the actual articles of impeachment some time soon, in which case we will jump right back in. But this is history right now in the making. Lets get right back in now. Lets watch. Are there any members of the committee who wish to vote who havent voted . Clerical report. Mr. Chairman there are 17 ayes and 23 nos. The amendment is not agreed to. The committee will now stand in recess for half an hour. This is break that we had been advised might be coming around this time. Now, this is not the end of the proceedings. You heard jerry nadler there saying going into recess. Again, this has been a marathon session. This has been 12 hours already. They are breaking right now. We expect them not to be breaking for the night but to be reconvening within this hour. And this, of course, is, you know, this is history. We are living through this. Tomorrow is one of those days where youre going to want to buy the physical newspaper in case youre a sentimental old sap about the news like i am and in case like me youre also a bit of a hoarder, tomorrow is the day to have the physical paper. Tomorrows page one led hines in countries across the country its going to be a keeper. Starting at 9 00 a. M. Eastern, all day long in this Judiciary Committee that you see here has
been debating the two articles of impeachment that the committee has proposed against President Trump. The first one is abuse of power. The second one is obstruction. Now, as i mentioned the vote on these articles is expected some time tonight before they all collapse from exhaustion. It could be within this hour. They have gone through this series of procedural motions that there isnt like a Table Of Contents in advance that tells us exactly how many more of these procedural things they have to get to before they get to the final vote, so its hard for us to predict. If i want to sort of break the law a bit about our reporting process, we have been in contact with some members of congress and many congressional staffers over the course of it day today trying to get just for our own Planning Purposes some sense of what the timing is going to be, when breaks are going to happen, when theyre going to wrap, what theyre goal is, what other members of Congress Might want to be leaving congress to go do
and might see themselves a having a selfimposed deadline. And i will tell you over the course of the day as weve been having those conversations weve been getting directly contradictory evidence all day long from different members. And not even just from republicans and democrats telling us Different Things in some cases its members and staffers from the same party that just have different information or who are gaming it out differently. Its very, very unpredictable. But again this is recess weve sort of had word might be coming close to the top of this hour. Now, i dont know how much of this youve been able to watch today. If youve seen any of it, youll recognize or ill describe whats happening. All day long republicans have been offering amendments to the two Impeachment Articles. Again, the first one is abuse of power, the second is obstruction. In terms of what these amendments are, some of them i could summarize for you in watching the proceedings today. Some of them, not to be mean, but some of the articles the
republicans proposed werent all that coherent, so itd be hard to say exactly what those were about. But regardless whether those were coherent arguments or not, all of the republican amendments have been designed to basically stop the Impeachment Process or at least to slow it down. Republicans have Due Process Rights here, but theyre not going to win any of these votes as long as what theyre votes are about is trying to undo the process of bringing these Impeachment Articles against the president. So all the republican amendments thus far have all suffered the same fate. Thats what weve seen the same basic shampoo routine all day long. Speeches, then more speeches then more speeches, then occasionally a little excitement but theres an interpretation and that precipitates some arguing and a republican member of the committee would propose a coherent or not particularly coherent amendment to the Impeachment Art Krls and more
fighting and arguing and then thered be a voice vote in which the republican amendment would inevitably fail to pass, and then a republican would demand the voice vote Wasnt Good Enough and then the republican member of congress wanted a Roll Call Vote. And then thered be a Roll Call Vote and the amendment once again would clearly be shown to have failed and again more speeches. Rinse, repeat, dont forget the conditioner. So it has been sort of a recursive process all day long. If you didnt get it the first time, you definitely started to get the hang of it when they did it the fourth time and by the fifth time you could sing along. Theres a lot about the Impeachment Process its not exactly aggravating but it is definitely repetitive when you watch it in realtime. But number one, its all important. It is all heading towards a very specific ending. It is all heading towards a vote on articles of impeachment
against President Trump. And number two, for all of the aggravation and the repetition, the debate and the statements by the member of this committee sometimes is pretty good. I mean, if you havent been watching all day heres an example. There were a lot of good moments today. Actually theres members on the republican side or democratic side whether you agree or disagree with their arguments, there are members making arguments rational and interesting and thought provoking. But heres just an example, one of several we could have chosen that i think shows today at its best and shows the proceedings at its best. As long they are and occasionally aggravating as they are maryland congressman jamie raskin happens to be a Constitutional Law Professor which on days like this helps. And you will see him here
engaging with the arguments from the republican side. He definitely puts his shoulder into it a little bit. You can see he is feeling it, right . But hes not just out there picking fights and trying to obfuscate, trying to score points on his rivals across the aisle. Hes making a clear emphatic case for why the other side thats against impeachment is wrong and why he is going to vote yes. Just watch this. You didnt care about the russian waroon the people on t ukraine. He didnt care about corruption. They invite us to believe that donald trump is an anticorruption crusader who was shaking down president zelensky about corruption, when he doesnt raise any corruption on that call except for what he believed was going on with the bidens. Except he reduced anticorruption funding for
ukraine. Except he doesnt raise it anywhere else that we can find. And what do you know, you pick up the New York Times yesterday, President Trump had to pay 2 million to charities because he ripped off his own charity for millions of dollars. This is the anticorruption crusader they want us to believe in. The guy who had to pay 25 million to students at the phony trump university, which the Attorney General of new york called a classic bait and switch operation. This is the guy that they want us to believe was shaking down the president of ukraine because he had some secret anticorruption agenda that actually wasnt related to it the bidens, that wasnt related to rehabilitating the totally discredited russian Conspiracy Theory that it was ukraine and not russia that interfered in our campaign in 2016. Come on, get real. Be serious. We know exactly what happened
here. 17 witnesses. Its uncontradicted. Theres no rival story. No rival story at all. And our colleagues will not even tell us whether in theory they think it would be wrong for the president of the United States to shakedown Foreign Governments to come and get involved in our president ial campaigns in order to harm our republican opponents. Because its too dangerous at that point. We know they dont accept the facts. We know they dont accept the evidence. They dont like the fact that the depositions took place in the basement. Where should they have been . On the first floor, the second floor where they accept the facts if we found some other room . Would that be all right . Because their people were there. I was in that room. There were democrats, there were republicans. It was even on both sides. Enough of these phony process objects. Lets get back to the facts of what happened. The president of the united
states shook down a foreign power to come get involved in our election. Thats wrong. I yield back. Thats wrong. I yield back and you see his exasperation there at the end. Congressman jamie raskin of maryland. These Marathon Proceedings of the house as they pursue these Impeachment Proceedings, it is trying at times, i know. 12 hours and counting on this hearing already, and we dont know if this is going to end on todays calendar date or if this is going to go into the wee hours. It could very easily roll into dawn. I know its hard to take in that kind of volume of this activity but the Judiciary Committee really does have a bunch of members who do know what theyre talking about and who do make good arguments and are meaningfully contributing to this process in a way that is designed to help us, the public, understand the stakes here. And its all going down as part
of the historical record here tonight. But as these articles get their vote some time tonight and head to the full house for a vote there that looks like itll be next week, and as we then anticipate that the articles having at least one of them pass the house that will then be conveyed over to the senate for the trial of the president for his potential removal from office, as that is now happening, as we are now in the middle of that, if we are honest about it, if we are realistic about whats really happening here and how this is all going to end, honestly perhaps the most important place this impeachment is playing out is not on capitol hill at all. But its the fight for Public Opinion. And, yeah, those speeches and these fights that are happening on capitol hill, thats part of it. But thats also why this kind of stuff a really important to keep an eye on now, too. Both reuters and the Washington Post reporting in recent days on trump and republican ad blitzes on impeachment. The Trump Campaign and the
republican party have been buying up all the real estate online in terms of online ads about impeachment while these proceedings have been under way on capitol hill. They have particularly monopolized the ad space on facebook. Theyve run millions of dollars of facebook ads alone all against impeachment. Democrats have largely seated that territory to the antiimpeachment republican and Trump Campaign folks. Democrats and proimpeachment ads are not competing in that space at all. Facebook ads are all antiimpeachment. That said in terms of tv ads against democratic members of congress, republican ads that have been targeting House Democrats for voting for impeachment, Democratic Forces did just get a 10 million boost yesterday when billionaire president ial candidate Mike Bloomberg said he would donate 10 million to a democratic pac specifically to run ads
supporting House Democrats who have been targeted for their support for impeachment. Mike bloombergs approach to his president ial campaign is to spend a lot of money and run a lot of ads in support of his own dan candidacy. That is strategy that has given him a big bump in the polls. In addition to spending on himself to get up his poll numbers and to boost his own chances in the democratic primary, hes also spending considerable money now to boost democrats who are coming under fire for supporting impeachment. And with that that means at least democrats are thinking about rebutting the antiimpeachment messages that have been running on tv, even if theyre still not going there with the online ads, which trump and the republicans have to themselves. That said a Republican Group in support of trumps impeachment, a Republican Group that is critical of President Trump, a group called republicans for the rule of law, theyre now running bill boards, like roadside bill
boards in support of impeachment. And theyre running them in the home districts of a bunch of republican members of the house who might be feeling some heat at home in their swing districts about their support for the president in their impeachment fight. The Billboard ShowsPresident Trump holding a finger up to his lips like hes saying shh and theres four would becould be Impeachment Witnesses who have been told not to testify. That same group, republicans for the rule of law,have been running tv ads including on the Fox News Channel supporting the Impeachment Effort, slaining the Impeachment Effort these ads theyve been Running On Fox have been specifically targeted to run during some of the president s favorite tv programs there. Was there a quid pro quo . The answer is yes. President trump held up military aid to ukraine in exchange for an investigation into the bidens. Withholding security
assistance in exchange for help in a domestic Political Campaign in the United States would be crazy. Republicans know that a quid pro quo is wrong. If you can show me that trump actually was engaging in a quid pro quo outside the phone call, that would be very disturbing. Was there a quid pro quo . The answer is yes. Republicans must stand up to trumps abuse of power. So the battle over the impeachment of President Trump isnt just happening at these Marathon Hearings including the one we are continuing to cover tonight. That is very, very important part of this process. That is what the historical record will be all about at this moment in american history. But beyond whats happening on capitol hill, the battle for Public Opinion also happens on the air waves and online, and that costs money. And it takes organization and effort. And the republicans in the Trump Campaign were definitely there first with their torrent of
antiimpeachment online advertising. Trying to turn the public against the Impeachment Effort. Theo other side, the proImpeachment Effort is at least showing signs of life and the proimpeachment side has also been strongly bolstered over the past week since the house released its report on impeachment, the report on the president s conduct. Its interesting i didnt necessarily expect that at this point in the president s process but when the house Impeachment Report about what President Trump did, when that 300 page report came out last week, one of the unexpected effects of that was that it setoff a cascade of major newspapers across the country all starting to run strong editorials in favor of impeachment. Even from Editorial Boards that had previously said they were against impeachment. And that recent t