{"articles":[{"reaction_config":[{"text":"Yes","color":"#624960","stance":"yes"},{"text":"Maybe","color":"#edb723","stance":"maybe"},{"text":"No","color":"#4ac6ec","stance":"no"}],"id":38902,"title":"Should the White House Participate in the Impeachment Hearings?","html_content":"

by Countable's Trump Impeachment Coverage | 12.2.19

What’s the story?

The White House has announced that neither President Donald Trump nor his attorneys will participate in Wednesday's House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearing, titled \"Constitutional Grounds for Presidential Impeachment.”
Democrats are trying to build a case that Trump leveraged military and diplomatic aid to Ukraine in exchange for investigations into 1) former vice president Joe Biden and his son, Hunter 2) a debunked conspiracy theory alleging Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election.
In a letter to Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY), White House counsel to the president, Pat Cipollone, wrote:

\"We cannot fairly be expected to participate in a hearing while the witnesses are yet to be named and while it remains unclear whether the Judiciary Committee will afford the President a fair process through additional hearings. More importantly, an invitation to an academic discussion with law professors does not begin to provide the President with an semblance of a fair process. Accordingly, under the current circumstances, we do not intend to participate in your Wednesday hearing.\"

As he departed the White House en route to London Monday, Trump complained of the Democrats holding hearings while he was attending a NATO conference.
“The Democrats, the radical leftist Democrats, the do-nothing Democrats decided when I’m going to NATO — this was set up a year ago — that when I’m going to NATO, that was the exact time,” Trump told reporters.

“This is one of the most important journeys that we make as president, and for them to be doing this and saying this and putting impeachment on the table, which is a hoax to begin with…”

A reporter asked Trump why he wasn’t sending his lawyers to the hearing, as they weren’t heading to a NATO conference.

“Because the whole thing is a hoax. Everybody knows it.”

During Wednesday’s hearing, four constitutional scholars — three chosen by Democrats, one by Republicans — will testify on the standards for impeachment.

What do you think?

Should the White House participate in impeachment hearings? Take action and tell your reps, then share your thoughts below.

—Josh Herman

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Veteran, CSU and UC alum, retired from technology field. My Hispanic partner of 15 years and I left California forever in 2018 and settled down in rural Indiana (yeah, the middle of Trump country, but the trade-off for making my home here is in the peace and beauty of the land). LGBT friendly, I believe in the goodness of people even when it can’t be readily seen; I’m a common sense gun owner with two handguns in the house and a prayer that I never have to use either. Classing myself as a progressive liberal, my awakening and introduction to the America of today came while walking home from 2nd grade on November 22, 1963 as I watched traffic stopped, car radios on, and drivers, passengers and pedestrians crying in their cars and in the streets. I have voted in each and every election since I was able to vote. I fault our founders for a failure to specify that public service in an elected capacity should be a privilege rather than a career and I fault a partisan Supreme Court for bringing unlimited private funding into our elections. Through all of my parents’ differing political and other opinions, the one thing that stands out in my memory of growing up... Mom and Dad disagreed often, however I never once heard them fight or argue.","twitter_id":null,"facebook_id":null,"youtube_id":null,"google_plus_id":null,"website":null,"slug":"bradford","issue_count":13,"is_following":null,"influence_score":1380,"influence_level":30,"follower_count":49,"following_count":89,"position_count":41,"id":"jZB7ybYm","partner_id":null},{"name":"Dicr","vote_count":221,"photos":{"large":"https://assets.causes.com/user/avatar/e9XBdlXZ/large_e9xbdlxz-1538070422.jpg","small":"https://assets.causes.com/user/avatar/e9XBdlXZ/small_e9xbdlxz-1538070422.jpg","tiny":"https://assets.causes.com/user/avatar/e9XBdlXZ/tiny_e9xbdlxz-1538070422.jpg"},"links":{"following":"/api/users/e9XBdlXZ/following","followers":"/api/users/e9XBdlXZ/followers"},"about_me":"Concerned American who wants to leave a better America for our children and a better world for all.","twitter_id":null,"facebook_id":null,"youtube_id":null,"google_plus_id":null,"website":null,"slug":"dicr","issue_count":25,"is_following":null,"influence_score":6120,"influence_level":40,"follower_count":222,"following_count":2,"position_count":159,"id":"e9XBdlXZ","partner_id":null},{"name":"Irving","vote_count":660,"photos":{"large":"https://assets.causes.com/user/avatar/W56w5VxK/large_w56w5vxk-1556296152.jpg","small":"https://assets.causes.com/user/avatar/W56w5VxK/small_w56w5vxk-1556296152.jpg","tiny":"https://assets.causes.com/user/avatar/W56w5VxK/tiny_w56w5vxk-1556296152.jpg"},"links":{"following":"/api/users/W56w5VxK/following","followers":"/api/users/W56w5VxK/followers"},"about_me":null,"twitter_id":null,"facebook_id":null,"youtube_id":null,"google_plus_id":null,"website":null,"slug":null,"issue_count":134,"is_following":null,"influence_score":570,"influence_level":30,"follower_count":18,"following_count":0,"position_count":10,"id":"W56w5VxK","partner_id":null},{"name":"jimK","vote_count":568,"photos":{"large":"https://assets.causes.com/user/avatar/9odrQBnb/large_9odrqbnb-1557000969.jpg","small":"https://assets.causes.com/user/avatar/9odrQBnb/small_9odrqbnb-1557000969.jpg","tiny":"https://assets.causes.com/user/avatar/9odrQBnb/tiny_9odrqbnb-1557000969.jpg"},"links":{"following":"/api/users/9odrQBnb/following","followers":"/api/users/9odrQBnb/followers"},"about_me":"Retired, Politically Independent. Won’t listen to slogans, chanted mantras or generally any kind of marketing spin or “rebranding” crap. I firmly believe that everyone else is entitled to their erroneous opinions. Citizen vigilance and due diligence is price we must pay to live in a thriving, functional democracy.\nI fear that our citizens are too easily swayed by politician’s pablum about “babies”, “jobs” and now, in particular, perceived “enemies”. I fear that a citizenry focused on the “here-and-now” is easily tricked by short term benefits that have negative long-term consequences. I fear that our legislators are more concerned about buffing their constituents than looking out for the long-term welfare of our country- and are way too eager to provide those short-term benefits to the “here-and-now” crowd.\nI fear that honor is generally being sacrificed/replaced by expediency. I hear politicians eloquently argue for one side of an issue and later, when it’s to their benefit, just as eloquently argue for the opposite side. OK, so they are good at arguing- but what is that they actually believe? What is it that they actually stand for? An honorable person has values that persist even when it is not convenient or expedient. An honorable person has a moral compass that stops them from doing something wrong even if it is not illegal. A foul is a foul- even if the referee doesn’t catch you.\nI fear that each of our federal governmental branches have devised or discovered shortcuts which tend to protect them from the checks and balances our founders intended.","twitter_id":null,"facebook_id":null,"youtube_id":null,"google_plus_id":null,"website":null,"slug":"jimk","issue_count":4,"is_following":null,"influence_score":48240,"influence_level":40,"follower_count":1632,"following_count":88,"position_count":565,"id":"9odrQBnb","partner_id":null}],"article_comment":{"flagged":false,"id":1123619,"body":"If you were innocent wouldn’t you cooperate and provide testimony and documents that proved your innocence?","parent_type":"Article","parent_id":38902,"created_at":"2019-12-02T20:54:40.710Z","liked":false,"like_count":4,"links":{"self":"https://www.causes.com/comments/1123619","likers":"https://www.causes.com/api/v1/likers?likeable_id=1123619&likeable_type=Comment"},"article_id":38902,"shareable_image_url":"https://n.causes.com/share-images/comments/1123619.png","note":{"text":"Yes","color":"#624960","stance":"yes"},"note_text":"Yes","note_color":"#624960","user_id":"Z76Eqeko","liker_ids":["jZB7ybYm","e9XBdlXZ","W56w5VxK","9odrQBnb"]}}

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