I don't know what members, if any, have had any problems with substance abuse been busted in, Do you?

Why?

I don't know.

But if I did, I wouldn't raise it against anyone on this committee.

I don't think it's proper.

And, um and, you know, I think we've got to get back down to what is most important here.

This is something.

This is a question that stands out like a big, throbbing sore toe inside of a shoe that's too small.

And that is this question. 00:00:56.840 --> 00:01:8.010 Is it ever OK for a president of the United States of America to invite foreign interference in an upcoming presidential election campaign?

Silence is silent, silent.

It'll be destitute, the silence waas and is deafening.

And there'll be plenty of time for you to respond to that question.

And I would invite you to do so.

I gave you an opportunity of about 10 of 15 seconds while you could get your story together and nobody came up with a story.

So I'm gonna let you move to strike the last word and explain that to the American people. 00:01:57.240 --> 00:02:1.980 It's never proper for a United States president toe. 00:02:1.980 --> 00:02:23.310 Hold a foreign country over a barrel to make them do that President's personal bidding and holding needed security assistance, dangling it, um, and dangling the fact that I'll give it to you if you do this.

I mean, that's exactly what happened.

It's like the American people understand what happened.

Those are that those are the facts.

The president said it when he released the transcript of the summary of of that phone call on July 25th. 00:02:44.740 --> 00:03:0.300 The summary of the president's own words shows that the president tried to get President's Alinsky to interfere in the upcoming presidential election that is established by the fax. 00:03:0.540 --> 00:03:14.750 So this is not about Hunter Biden, and they've said that on the other side, repeatedly up until they start talking about Hunter Biden having some substance abuse problems, you can't have it both ways.

Let's be honest.

This is about our conscience, the conscience of the nation, the conscience of my friends on the other side of the aisle.

Do you believe that we should allow this to go unaddressed.

What the president did, because we are a country, a precedent.

We are a country of rule of law.

We are a country of norms and traditions.

Are we going to allow the violation of our norms, our traditions, our legal precedent?

Because after all, bribery was not a crime. 00:03:56.380 --> 00:04:2.130 There was no criminal code when the framers past the Constitution. 00:04:2.340 --> 00:04:9.300 But they said bribery in there and what bribery meant was, I'm offering you something. 00:04:9.310 --> 00:04:12.490 If you do something for me, I'll give you this.

In other words, you give me this, I'll give you that.

That's what we had in this case.

That's what bribery means.

It doesn't depend on a statute.

It depends on what we know was done.

And so let's not get bogged down in technicalities and in character assassination.

Let's keep our eye on what really happened in this case, and whether or not our conscious consciences dictate that we do something about it, we can't let it go unaddressed.

And the way that we deal with this grave abuse of the public trust is with the drastic action that it requires because this is a drastic circumstance. 00:04:59.140 --> 00:05:3.890 The drastic action is impeachment, and that's why we're here today. 00:05:4.220 --> 00:05:7.480 And I asked my colleagues to let your conscience be your guide. 00:05:8.280 --> 00:05:10.200 Are you back seven years back?