With Sacha Pfeiffer As the impeachment inquiry intensifies, President Trump hits back and the State Department watchdog briefs Congress. Guests John Bresnahan, congressional bureau chief for Politico. (@BresPolitico) Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Democrat representing Washington's 7th Congressional District, which includes Seattle. Member of the Judiciary Committee who supports the impeachment inquiry. (@RepJayapal) Interview Highlights On the timeline for the impeachment inquiry Rep. Pramila Jayapal: "I don't think we we know exactly what the timeline will be, but what we do know is that we are going to do a thorough and fair investigation, and we are going to make sure that we have all the facts in hand. I think one of the things that is very different about this than the work we were doing before, is that this is a level of lawlessness that has unfolded in front of the public. We have evidence in hand that the president endangered our national security, and the White House's record of the call shows President Trump asking President Zelensky to 'do us a favor though.' And those are very, very important words. "I think now what you see in the subpoenas, different from what we were doing before, is that if the president, the White House, the administration continues to not allow information to come to the committees that have oversight, then that will be construed as obstruction of Congress, and that is laid out in the subpoenas in all the materials that we are sending. Because that has been, I think, this administration's playbook is tie things up in the court, refuse to send information, claim fake privilege. That's not going to be allowed to happen anymore."

"If the president, the White House, the administration continues to not allow information to come to the committees that have oversight, then that will be construed as obstruction of Congress." Rep. Pramila Jayapal

President Trump continues to frame the inquiry as Democrats being unwilling to accept the election results of 2016. How will you respond if you hear that from constituents? Jayapal: "I think, actually, the majority of Americans are starting to see this, as well, is that this president has endangered our national security. It is a new level of lawlessness. He withheld critical military aid to counter Russian aggression that Congress had authorized. He abused his power by pressuring a foreign country to interfere in the 2020 election and then he used the levers of government to try to cover it up. "And this is not an isolated instance. It is actually what we have been investigating for the last several months. The difference is it is in plain view. He bragged about it. It is unfolding in front of us. Everything that we see so far is not only corroborating that single charge around Ukraine, but is also telling us that we have other things that we also need to be looking int,o other call records that, perhaps, were put into confidential safes that should not be there. Not that calls can't be confidential between world leaders, but if they're being scrubbed for things that the president was saying that abused his power, that is a problem. "So most of our constituents, I would say, understand that, and understand that nobody came into office to try to impeach the president. That's not what we want to do. In fact, we have spent the last nine months that we've been in the majority, passing over 135 bills that have to do with the real issues that face Americans today. However, the fact is we have a president who refuses to respect the Constitution and who is betraying his oath and betraying the very essence of our democracy. That's why the founders gave us Article 1 powers and we intend to take them very very seriously."

"This administration's playbook is tie things up in the court, refuse to send information, claim fake privilege. That's not going to be allowed to happen anymore." Rep. Pramila Jayapal