know, they are trying to pull things out of these people to try to create something. it was really funny to hear adam schiff parse words, the ambassador, different and i should quit pressure this president has a right to jews in ambassador that he wants. they serve at the pleasure of the sitting president at the time. it was -- jody hice sitting beside me and and i said this a joke. this is an insult for all these congressmen, the ones excluded and wouldn't let him but we had about 25 that were in there, to get a paycheck and listen to this kind of parsing of words. we have so much work to do. >> host: you were there for the entire day all day yesterday? >> guest: i stayed about an hour, you would for an hour and i was the first day you have gone for all of these days. why not participate more recs if republicans have an argument they don't like the procedure, why haven't you been there to participate more?

>> guest: i will go to some of the seven coming up, go to some of them. we have different committees in place. we have other events that all of us have but it ought to be opened up to everybody. and not just -- i got, my name is on the list because i was on the oversight committee. why not let louis gohmert in? why not let andy biggs in? they wouldn't let him in. they stopped in. what are the democrats hiding that the don't want to be seen? let's have an open and fair process. let's have the president, let's cross examination, let's have have witnesses on both sides. let mckinley, and ambassador i saw yesterday, he got exacerbated with adam schiff trying to create smoke or trying to find every little word to indicate a donald trump was doing a bad job and receive got fired. he resigned because he's an older gentleman and he didn't

want to do in more. >> host: mckinley testified yesterday. yesterday was gordon sondland. did you go to any of that? >> no. i had another event. >> host: we want to thank you for your time this morning. delicate stacey plaskett outer table again this morning. we want to be with your thoughts on the passing of congressman elijah cummings and what it's like to serve with him on the oversight committee. >> guest: this would've been my third term with mr., cut oversight. he would was a mentor to me in many ways. you've heard so many reflections from individuals over the past day, and i think the thing that stands out so much about it was that he really was a man of god. people talk a lot about the fact both of his parents were sharecroppers and they came to baltimore. he was born and raised there but i think what's more important to note about his paris is they

were both preachers. so he was raised in that it really demonstrate it so many people talk it actually walked in. across the aisle all parties everyone has to say elijah cummings was a fair person. even if he didn't agree with him he always stood for what's right. often times i sat right below him in this congress, and oftentimes felt like, he's such a judgment, he needs somebody who's loaded top to be there, not that he really needed the protection but i felt that was in some ways my role because he was so kind. you felt oftentimes people were taking advantage of that on the other side, that he would want to be so fair that, and i would say to them, i would like, chairman, they're not going to be as fair to you as you are to them. let's use this rule, let me make a motion. he's like no, no, i don't want

to degenerate to that. these are tough issues we are working on and let's try to do it in a fair manner so that at the end of the day when people look back on it, they can't ever say we didn't give the other side a chance. >> host: do you think that should be prescribed to the impeachment inquiry? republicans are saying without holding a full house vote, that the democrats are not being fair to republicans and the president and the are ignoring precedent. >> guest: i don't think this is really the same precedent as was in some of the others. for example, in the clinton impeachment, remember that it was a special prosecutor who had worked on this for quite a while and then brought the information to the congress at which point we took a boat. we have not had a special prosecutor working on the issues of ukraine and somebody's others. we have done to investigation ourselves. and after that investigation

there may be a point in time in which we take a vote to say yes, we're going to bring this to the public and let them see what we have. >> host: why not allow cross examination by white house lawyers in these depositions? it's another issue where republican say democrats are not being fair to the president. >> guest: this is not a criminal investigation. the president is conflating -- under criminal law there are things that individuals would have to have any would have to cross examination. under criminal investigation we would be taking away his liberty in terms of being able to put someone to jail. here this is not in the same manner. where having an impeachment inquiry which is something that the the legislature, the congress is allowed to do. there are no rules with regard to that. and the president has his party there in the room at every one of these depositions. they are very much asking

questions. i was in one of the depositions and the republicans and their counsel had numerous questions for the witness at that time. >> host: how many have you attended and for how long? >> guest: i was at the deposition with the former ambassador to ukraine, and i was in there for several hours. >> host: did you go yesterday? >> guest: no, i had a drink the time. .. -- i had a hearing at the time. .. and the last deposition happening during the day, we have witnesses with them. >> who was conducting interviews in the depositions? >> guest: individuals who tell me with their own counsel and

then counsel on both sides that are doing the primary question. >> host: what was your reaction to the news briefing yesterday where he said politics plays a role in foreign-policy? >> it is an interesting statement. when an individual comes into office their policies are the ones that are being acted on and those policies, republicans policy is a different person's policy. i agree in some manner, political leanings dictate, the difference between politics and campaign related to a campaign in the statements. and some of the statements he has made because they seem to

go against campaign finance laws and the emoluments clause the other discussion he had about durell so those are things we have to look at. i as a democrat may have a different view how we should act in other countries but that does not allow me to bring my campaign or political election activities in that foreign-policy. >> the chief of staff after the news briefing put out a statement to clarify his remarks. he said let me be clear, there was absolutely no quid pro quo between ukrainian military aid and any investigation in the 2016 election. >> that is a word they love putting out, quid pro quo, but what we do have is them saying if you do this, the allegation we are looking at this impeachment inquiry is saying

we are holding taxpayer dollars in an amount that congress, bipartisan, both chambers have agreed are supposed to go to a foreign country that is our ally, fighting against the flow of ours, russia. many people don't realize russia is our foe. we will hold that money back from you unless you do something that will benefit me personally in a political election. that is wrong and that is what we are hearing the president said, make more veiny say as well as many other individuals who are coming forward. >> host: jack in tennessee is up first. >> caller: they pick the right person to go after trump, he is a very crooked person and this riled up the base for trump.

as an independent i'm a 79-year-old vietnam veteran. i can't have any trouble -- i hope they vote to impeach him to show him what this has got for him. >> host: i will have a delegate respond. he talked about adam schiff. he did that parody at the top of the hearing. any concerns with what he said at the hearing? second, the whistleblower met with committee staff, adam schiff's committee staff before he launched it. >> guest: i do not agree. thank you for your service to this country, you were a vietnam vet and we appreciate what you did to continue to keep america free.

i do not agree with you that adam schiff is crooked. there has never been any allegation of misconduct by adam schiff and i think you have to give some kind of evidence for why you are feeling that way. whether you dislike him or not or dislike his politics does not make an individual crooked. i don't think adam schiff made a parody, that was what he felt he wanted to say at the hearing and members of congress make lots of statements during hearings. i don't think it was crooked for the whistleblower to come and talk to members of the committee. that individual is free to talk to whomever they want to speak with, a republican member, republican staffer, whatever. as for impeachment, this is something many of us have not wanted to come into.

i have not been one, since the president was elected, saying we need to impeach him, that was ridiculous. there was an election, he won the election, he is the president of the united states. i don't have to agree with you to respect the office and the fact that you were elected. many of us have come to a point where there are allegations that have been made that have been substantiated by several people that are credible that are building on what we already know, that leads us to the point that we have a constitutional duty to make an inquiry and investigate those allegations and that is what we are doing. it is said we have come to this point, but what is really sad is the president has taken us to this place. >> host: adam schiff is part of the censure they want to put on the house floor. real clear politics, they say congressman schiff light on

multiple occasions when he told reporters for 3 news outlets that he and his committee staff had no contact with the so-called whistleblower when in fact they had. >> guest: that is something procedurally we will have to take up. the democrats are in the majority at this point. the floor is being managed by the speaker and mister hoyer and mister clyburn and they will make decisions what votes should come forward. >> host: debbie in pennsylvania, republican. >> caller: my daughter swears into the united states air force today and i'm so proud i wanted to share. >> guest: tell your daughter we are so grateful for her service to this country and that is an amazing feeling you must be having today. >> caller: it truly is.

you seem like you are so educated and so polite. i am a conservative and that means i respect god, i respect the united states, respect life. adam schiff didn't do a parody. he was lying and he got caught lying so he changed his tactics. my bottom line is everybody i know are no longer falling for the democrats tricks and lies and whether you think you are doing this honestly out of what is the right thing to do, most people i know, democrats will do nothing, stop at nothing, the ends justify the means. the american people elected donald trump and they will again in a landslide because we now see through the democrats dirty tactics. >> guest: we are demonizing one person, you're attempting to demonize one person, that being adam schiff. that was a decision made by

multiple individuals and having multiple caucus meetings, many of us came to this conclusion that we needed to go about impeachment very reluctantly because we do not want to do something that will, by the american people stand is be purely political. some of us were reluctant to come to this position. i don't know if you have seen the editorial done by moderate democrats who had either military or national intelligence throughout their careers before coming to congress who reluctantly came to the conclusion that what the whistleblower said is something we need to look into and it would appear unfortunately that each of the witnesses and other individuals coming forward and the president's own admission on television is in fact he

used taxpayer dollars to attempt to get the president of ukraine to do something that would personally benefit him. that is not something the constitution allows and not something we as members of congress can all allow the president to continue to do. if it were a democrat i would hope the congress would also see that that person was doing something wrong and potentially having an abuse of their power, the ability to hold and use foreign policy. i think that is the concern we have. we have to be fair across the board whether the president is a republican or democrat. i know in watching the transcript and seeing what happened in watergate many republicans reluctantly came to the conclusion after hearing the evidence that in fact there president, there republican president had committed high

crimes and treason and high misdemeanors against the united states and in this instance i think as we move along we may see other republicans come to the same conclusion and i would hope we would all rise above that and this is an american no matter who is the president, something we need to protect. >> host: democrat a are in colorado. >> caller: good morning, representative. i am thinking about your beautiful home in the virgin islands, you are under threat of climate change. >> guest: thanks for your concern. >> caller: some of these republican calls you are getting about adam schiff line, first of all, trump loves the uneducated. they don't understand the

distinction between paraphrasing and parody. he clearly paraphrased what the president wrote in the memo, the exact same context, it sounded to a common person like a mafia shakedown. keep it in the context of mafia characters saying the same thing. that is paraphrasing and it is done every day even on c-span. when they are not quoting an article verbatim they paraphrase. okay? let's get that out of the way. the president -- is mentally unfit. it became apparently clear in the session where pelosi had to walk out and the pictures he tweeted out of generals hanging

their head in shame. everything show signs of a mental decline. we went through this with reagan, i am not a doctor but i have studied psychology. we all know when someone in our family is mentally sick. we can't make a diagnosis. we know when something is wrong and i am ashamed of his children because they know something is clearly wrong with the leader of the free world. >> guest: thank you for your comments. i think at this point what members of congress are looking at in this impeachment inquiry is the actions of the president and not his mental state. i wouldn't want to go into that area at all. you talk about the virgin

islands. the virgin islands is still recovering after a hurricane, we have hundreds of millions, billions of dollars we are waiting for from the federal government. it is difficult for me to be talking about this knowing the federal agencies are holding the pursestrings on hundreds of millions of dollars for people in my territory. i believe we should not make the inquiry, history would not look kind on us and leadership requires us to do difficult things, i said in the oversight and government reform committee which is until yesterday ably chaired by elijah cummings and we have a duty in this investigation to do this job. and we have these depositions and having them behind closed

doors. we are trying to get real information and evidence and not allow members to be grandstanding or using talking points not to do the right thing. >> host: another issue is the supreme court cases, insular cases. >> this is really important and thanks for bringing it up. this week the supreme court heard arguments on the insular cases. the insular cases are set of cases that were decided in the early 1900s at the supreme court and the decisionmaker who wrote the decisions was the same justice who wrote plessy versus ferguson, separate but equal and in these cases he said people who live in the territory are alien races who

cannot understand anglo-saxon principles of law and therefore they cannot have the same rights as americans living in the contiguous united states. we know that theory not to be true. however the federal government has been relying on them both in democrat and republican administrations in their treatment of the terrorists, we are asking the supreme court to overturn these cases which congress has the ability to turn on and turn off citizenship and rights of people living in the territories. we believe they should be following the anglo-saxon principle of law which says wherever the flag is citizenship goes with it and an individual's citizenship and rights go with the land. it is important the supreme court was willing to hear the use cases at this time. members of the territories introduced a resolution

condemning the insular cases and we hope members on both sides of the aisle, members of the territories, we think the territories, they think we are democrats, that is not the case. in my own islands, the virgin islands and other territories interestingly the top two elected officials, the governor and the member of congress are usually members of opposite parties, republican and democrat, our country and we w have the responsibilities as well as the benefits. >> have you been assured of the house vote by nancy pelosi? >> we introduced this weekend we will be coming to her, cosponsors bring it to the floor.

>> host: bill in new york, independent. >> caller: do you hear me? i don't believe there's enough evidence to impeach the president and get him out of office, that's not going to happen. i think he will remain in office. if he gets reelected he will do a lot for this country. democrats and republicans both screw the poor people and all of us when they passed the free-trade agreement, george bush started it, clinton passed it into law and made the free-trade agreement and they started all the richer they will move the company's south, cheap labor and nobody sees what happens, the guy wants to do away with the free-trade agreement and get the country

great again. >> host: that is a trade issue. >> guest: interesting he brings the trade issue up. and we get concrete principles in the new trade agreement at this time to make an assessment about what it is and does not look like. i disagree with the collar because the president is in favor. this is another form of nafta he has been working on. just because you rip up a contract if you write it the same weight is the same agreement and we have yet to see what this will look like. >> host: mike in texas republican. >> good morning.

i don't know what you democrats are up to but it is not going to work. there is no way you will impeach donald trump, and elected at the next election, so why waste your time with it. the job you are supposed to be doing. >> the house is about to come in early today at 9:00 am eastern time. >> guest: most respectfully, you may be -- impeachment is the house, what the house does, determines that an individual has in fact done things which could allow them to be removed from office and it is a vote the house takes which then goes to the senate and the senate holds trial to determine if in fact the president should be removed from office or somebody

else should be removed from office. it is a 2-part process. the house is doing our part because we believe we have a constitutional duty to do that to make sure the president has not abused his power and we will see where it goes. we don't know if we are going to vote to impeach him. we are viewing the evidence right now and doing the work we are, the house passed innumerable bills, we have over 100 bills that were passed in the house related to healthcare, to education, voting rights, campaign-finance reform and we are waiting for the senate to take that up so you should ask mitch mcconnell to take up and bring to the floor of the senate the bills we have been working on. >> host: the house is about to gavel in so thank you very much.

>> the house radio tv gallery, we expect to hear from house minority leader kevin mccarthy. he was expected at 10:45 to give his weekly briefing obviously delayed a little bit as the house is just wrapped up voting for the day and for the week. members have been considering a bill looking to curb the practice of outsourcing american jobs. the bill would require publicly traded companies to disclose where certain employees are located to each state, territory and foreign country. the bill was just approved in the house and with that business done we are expected the minor leaders who arrive shortly. this is live coverage on c-span2. [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] >> while we wait for leader mccarthy to arrive we look at our campaign 2020 coverage coming up. later today elizabeth warren will hold a townhall in norfork, virginia at 6:00 eastern. it will be on our companion network c-span and tomorrow more from the campaign trail with democratic presidential candidate bernie sanders with a rally in new york city with alexandria ocasio cortez.

live coverage at 6:00 eastern. and the free c-span radio apps. >> we got the 2-minute warning. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]