- Title: House committee debates rules for impeachment vote
- Date: 17th December 2019
- Summary: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (DECEMBER 17, 2019) (UNRESTRICTED POOL) WIDE SHOT U.S. HOUSE RULES COMMITTEE HEARING IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) HOUSE RULES COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN, JIM MCGOVERN (DEMOCRAT), SAYING: "I admired President Clinton when he was president of the United States - and I still do today. But when this House impeached him, which I didn't agree with, I went to the House floor and I said I thought what President Clinton did was wrong. Because moments like this call for more than just reflexive partisanship. They require honesty, and they require courage. Are any Republicans today willing to muster the strength to say that what this president did was wrong?" WIDE SHOT MCGOVERN LISTENING AS RANKING MEMBER, REPUBLICAN REPRESENTATIVE TOM COLE, GIVING OPENING STATEMENT (SOUNDBITE) (English) REPUBLICAN REPRESENTATIVE, TOM COLE, SAYING: "And though even though the majority has not proven its case, and even though there's no basis for impeachment, they're still moving forward today. What I cannot discern is a legitimate reason why: why the majority is moving forward when the process is so partisan; why they're moving forward when the American people are not with them; why they are moving forward when they haven't proven their case; and why they are moving forward when there is no basis for impeachment. Why? Why put the country through all this?" WIDE SHOT HEARING IN PROGRESS REPRESENTATIVES JAMIE RASKIN (LEFT) AND DOUG COLLINS (RIGHT) LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (English) REPUBLICAN REPRESENTATIVE, DOUG COLLINS, SAYING: "When you're the tyranny of a clock and a calendar, nothing else matters. It's like what's going to happen here in the holidays is you're getting closed to that day and you're supposed to give that gift. Nothing else matters and you just have to go get it. And if at the last minute you don't have anything...I bet you've done this - you go out and you just buy the first thing you get. And this is what was happening. The clock was running out so they found a phone call they didn't like. They didn't like this administration. They didn't like what the president did. They tried to make up claims of there was pressure and all these other things that they've so outlined in the report. But at the end of the day it's just last minute Christmas shopping. They ran and found something and said, 'We can do it!' But no crimes - none in the articles - abuse of power, in which any member can make up anything they want to and call it an abuse of power." REPUBLICAN REPRESENTATIVE DEBBIE LESKO LISTENING AND NODDING (SOUNDBITE) (English) DEMOCRATIC REPRESENTATIVE, JAMIE RASKIN, SAYING: "We all know what they teach you in law school, which is: if the facts are against you, you pound the law. If the laws are against you, you pound the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, you talk about process and you pound the table. And I'm afraid I've seen a little bit of that in the performance of our colleagues here. And I don't blame them, because they're dealing with the hand that they were dealt. We have 17 fact witnesses, and all of their depositions, all of their testimony was published and all part of the report. Everybody - everybody can find it. And all of their testimony is essentially un-refuted and un-contradicted. It tells one story, which is the president of the United States conducted a shake-down of a foreign power." MCGOVERN AND COLE LISTENING WIDE SHOT HEARING IN PROGRESS
- Embargoed: 31st December 2019 18:27
- Keywords: Doug Collins Jamie Raskin U.S. House Rules Committee articles of impeachment impeachment vote
- Location: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES
- City: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA001BAD847B
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Members of the House Rules Committee met on Tuesday (December 17) over the rules for the debate before a historic vote set for Wednesday in the chamber in which Donald Trump is likely to become the third U.S. president to be impeached.
If the House approves articles of impeachment - formal charges - as expected, it would set the stage for a trial in the Senate, controlled by Trump's fellow Republicans - on whether to convict him and remove him from office. No president has ever been removed from office via the impeachment process set out in the U.S. Constitution, and Republican senators have given little indication of changing that.
In what is expected to be a marathon meeting, the Rules Committee will decide how much time to set aside for debate on Wednesday before lawmakers vote on the articles of impeachment.
Representative Jerry Nadler - the Democratic chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which approved the articles of impeachment last week - missed the Rules Committee meeting because of a family emergency, and Representative Jamie Raskin represented the Democrats in his place. Nadler is expected to be back at the Capitol on Wednesday.
Raskin said the Judiciary Committee amassed overwhelming evidence that Trump committed the "high crimes and misdemeanors" set as the standard for impeachment in the Constitution.
The Judiciary Committee's top Republican Doug Collins said the Democratic-led process felt like a "kangaroo court." - Copyright Holder: POOL (CAN SELL)
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