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Turley: Impeachment is wrong because it's being rushed, not because Trump is right George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, the Republicans' witness, said the impeachment of Trump is about the "opacity of evidence" and the "abundance of anger," comparing it to the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson in the 1860s. He said then, like now, Congress created a "trap-door crime" to impeach the president. "I get it. You're mad. The president's mad," Turley said. "My Republican friends are mad. My Democratic friends are mad. My wife is mad. My kids are mad." He said he thought perhaps even his goldendoodle was "mad," though he said that it is supposed to be a happy dog. Turley said this impeachment process would harm every future president. He said impeachment was not wrong because Trump acted properly or because Congress had no legitimate reason to investigate, but rather because it was being rushed. Of note, Turley, who made clear at the outset that he did not support Trump in 2016, testified before the House Judiciary Committee in 1998 in support of impeaching President Bill Clinton. Republican witness Jonathan Turley: ‘This is not how you impeach an American president’ Dec. 4, 2019 09:20 Share this -







Staff questions begin after another GOP motion tabled The Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to kill a motion from GOP Rep. Guy Reschenthaler of Pennsylvania to subpoena the whistleblower. Two witnesses got up during this vote. Now, the staff question round is starting. Nadler and the Democratic counsel have 45 minutes to ask questions of the witnesses followed by Collins and the GOP counsel who will also have 45 minutes to ask questions. Share this -







House Democrats united, discusses articles in closed door meeting House Democrats are unified on moving forward with impeachment, according to multiple Democrats who attended a closed-door meeting Wednesday morning. Schiff received a raucous standing ovation as he stepped up to the microphone, before he uttered a single word, according to two lawmakers in the room. It was “a powerful moment,” one lawmaker said, noting that their phones were confiscated to prevent leaks and allow members to speak openly. After Schiff summarized the report that was released on Tuesday, he said articles of impeachment would likely center on abuse of power as it relates to Ukraine and cover-up, according to three lawmakers at the meeting. But all three members note that they were told no final decisions have been made. As for including articles that involve the Mueller report, two lawmakers said there was no discussion on it and again noted that no decisions have been made. The implication was that the House would vote on articles before the Dec. 20 recess, according to two members. But one member notes that they were told to "not make plans" on Dec. 21 and Dec. 22. Democrats were also told that they will not wait for other witnesses to come forward, such as John Bolton, according to two lawmakers in the room. And Speaker Pelosi reminded the members of the seriousness of the endeavor and she noted that she has never whipped or asked members where they stand on the issue, according to a lawmaker and confirmed by a senior Democratic aid. Share this -







ANALYSIS: A master class in the Framers’ thinking on impeachment The opening statements made for a master class in the Framers’ thinking in creating a democratic republic that limited the power of its president. The witnesses smoothly synthesized American history, Western political thought and the Constitution, and in applying Trump’s conduct to the latter, three of the four of them concluded that he not only has met the bar for impeachment, but far exceeded it (Jonathan Turley, of George Washington University, disagreed). The president has “attacked each of the Constitution’s safeguards against establishing a monarchy in this country,” Michael Gerhardt, a law professor from the University of North Carolina, testified, adding that if the House fails to impeach Trump, impeachment has “lost all meaning.” And Democrats are hopeful that part of the challenge for them in convincing more of the public to support Trump’s impeachment is simply one of a shared understanding of how his actions fit into the Framers’ intentions when only about one-quarter of the citizenry can identify the three branches of government. Share this -







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Gerhardt: If you don't impeach Trump, impeachment has no meaning whatsoever Michael Gerhardt, a University of North Carolina law professor and Democratic witness, said that if Congress doesn't impeach Trump, impeachment has no meaning at all. "No misconduct is more antithetical to our democracy, and nothing injures the American people more than a president who uses his power to weaken their authority under the Constitution as well as the authority of the Constitution itself," he said. "No member of this House should ever want his or her legacy to be having left unchecked a president’s assaults on our Constitution." "If Congress fails to impeach here, then the impeachment process has lost all meaning, and, along with that, our Constitution’s carefully crafted safeguards against the establishment of a king on American soil," he added. "No one, not even the president, is beyond the reach of our Constitution and our laws." Prof. Gerhardt describes Trump's 'defiance of congress' in opening statement Dec. 4, 2019 10:34 Share this -







White House goes after Feldman, Karlan during opening statements An official working on White House impeachment strategy is, as expected, going after Feldman and Karlan for their past comments on impeachment. In the midst of Karlan’s fiery opening statement, the official said her "commentary is clouded by anti-Trump bias," saying she "has made no effort to hide her clear partisan bias against the President." And on Feldman, the focus is on what he’s said before about presidential misconduct, including his issue with the president’s controversial pardon of Joe Arpaio. Share this -







Texas Rep. Green disappointed no persons of color testifying Dem Rep Al Green comes to tell press that he is disappointed there is not a person of color testifying before the Judiciary Committee impeachment inquiry hearing pic.twitter.com/ahCLrlBrEc — Alex Moe (@AlexNBCNews) December 4, 2019 Share this -







Karlan compares Trump's Ukraine efforts to holding hurricane aid hostage In her fiery opening statement, Karlan suggested that Trump's withholding of aid from Ukraine was akin to holding back hurricane aid from a governor until he or she did Trump's bidding. "What happened in 2016 was bad enough: there is widespread agreement that Russian operatives intervened to manipulate our political process," Karlan said. "But that distortion is magnified if a sitting president abuses the powers of his office actually to invite foreign intervention. To see why, imagine living in a part of Louisiana or Texas that’s prone to devastating hurricanes and flooding. What would you think if, when your governor asked the federal government for the disaster assistance that Congress has provided, the president responded: 'I would like you to do us a favor. I’ll meet with you and send the disaster relief once you brand my opponent a criminal.'?" "Wouldn’t you know in your gut that such a president had abused his office, betrayed the national interest, and tried to corrupt the electoral process?" she added. "I believe the evidentiary record shows wrongful acts on that scale here." Trump "did this to strong-arm a foreign leader into smearing one of the president’s opponents in our ongoing election season," she said. "That is not politics as usual — at least not in the United States or any other mature democracy. It is, instead, a cardinal reason why the Constitution contains an impeachment power. Put simply, a candidate for president should resist foreign interference in our elections, not demand it." Share this -





