Live from Washington, D.C. on Tuesday’s Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – Leahy welcomed weekly guest, One America News Network’s, Neil McCabe to the show to talk about this week’s upcoming judiciary hearings.
During the show, McCabe explained how the hearings could play out and what articles of impeachment the House Intel Committee may charge President Trump with. He noted that the initial article of quid pro quo would be changed to a charge of bribery because focus groups were uncertain of the Latin phrase meaning.
Leahy: Live from the iHeart Media studios in Washington, D.C. Joined now by our good friend and also in Washington, D.C. but not at the iHeart Studios, Neil McCabe of One America News Network. Good morning Neil.
McCabe: Well, Michael! I didn’t know you were in town. I’m also live, but I’m not with you.
Leahy: (Laughs) Well, as Jimmy can attest it all came together fairly quickly and don’t you just love it when a plan comes together? Speaking of plans, there is a plan to put a coup together to take down a duly elected president. What can you tell us about what’s going on in the judiciary committee? Does Adam Schiff apparently today is releasing his report from the intelligence committee and giving it to the judiciary? Is that what’s happening?
McCabe: OK. So today, the House Intelligence Committee votes to approve the report that Schiff and his staff have been drafting over the weekend based on the two weeks of public and private testimony. And the feeling now is that the actual charges or the articles of impeachment will pretty much be spelled out in that report because House Democrats are running out of runway.
The end of the session is December 12 but they’ve now pushed that to December 20. But on the judiciary side traditionally with the committee is in charge of all impeachment. And that’s the impeachment of judges. When conservatives wanted to impeach the IRS commissioner under Obama.
A move that was blocked by Speaker Paul Ryan. That of course was done in the judiciary committee. And so what’s going to happen today is that the intel committee votes today to approve that report. Tomorrow (Inaudible talk) with House judiciary and you’re going to have three professors on the democratic side. One professor on the Republican side and they’re going to talk about the impeachment theory and whatnot of the framers of the Constitution.
And it looks like somebody put the touch on Nadler because that’s the only hearing he is going to get. And so they’re really trying to jump-start this process. I did some quick math on this. There are 22 members of the House Intel Committee. There are 41 members of the judiciary.
If each one of those guys takes their full five minutes, that 205 minutes Mike that’s three hours, 42 minutes. That doesn’t even count the opening statements from the top Republican Doug Collins of Georgia or Jerry Nadler and witness statements. You can see why that from Nadler, you only get one hearing.
Leahy: So you think that the intelligence committee report which is supposed to be made public after they vote on it today that it will outline specifics? So they’re going to take over the job of the judiciary committee and outline articles of impeachment. Do you have a sense of what the articles will be?
McCabe: The dynamics that influence across the Democratic caucus are that Pelosi has very tight control over Schiff and his contributors. She does not have control over Nadler so much because he has his own contributor base. And the other problem is with Nadler is the Cory Lewandowski hearings. The Michael Cohen hearing.
You look at Robert Mueller. Nadler pressured Mueller to testify before even checking to see if this guy had even read the report let alone write the Mueller report. Mueller shows up like Mr. Magoo. Nobody trusts Nadler to run these hearings. They’re going to come out with probably bribery and maybe…
Leahy: Bribery? Really? Unbelievable.
McCabe: It was going to be quid pro quo but they did a focus group and nobody knew what that meant because they don’t teach Latin like they used to. And so they said people know what bribery is so we’ll charge him with that. We’ll charge him with obstruction of Congress. We might add some Russian collusion.
Leahy: A little abuse of power thrown in for dessert. (Chuckles)
McCabe: Right, but remember last night the Republicans came out a pre-buttal which is 123 pages where they basically anticipate the articles of impeachment and the charges. And they just go step by step about how much stuff, compared to headlines what we were told was going to be the testimony.
And then you find out what the actual testimony was. There are so few people who knew so little. And there were these grandiose charges like bombshells, right? And then they ask the guy, well did you actually hear anyone say that? And they’re like no.
Leahy: So that was a very smart move on the part of Republicans I think again in terms of setting the narrative and pushing the idea that this is an unfair and a violation of due process rights.
McCabe: Richard Nixon never had a guy like Jim Jordan or Matt Gaetz or Mark Meadows. There were defenders of Bill Clinton but they weren’t like upfront. A lot of Democrats during the Bill Clinton impeachment were frankly embarrassed by the cadre details of what went on in that oval office. But you know, there is no shyness when it comes to House Republicans defending this President.
They are giving no quarter and it’s absolutely unbelievable. Even if the Republican senator was contemplating voting to remove the president now they’ve got to worry about a mob of Republican congressmen coming into their office. Forget protesters. I mean these Republicans are absolutely motivated.
Leahy: I don’t see how the timeline works because let’s say they begin these hearings Wednesday and Nadler has said our first task is to explore the framework put in place and to respond to serious allegations of impeachable misconduct. OK. So they’ve got four professors.
Noah Feldman, leftie. Pamela S. Karlan, leftie. Michael Gerhardt, leftie. And Jonathan Turley, kind of a center guy. They have 41 members of the committee. Just each one of them with each witness, you’re talking about two days of testimony just for that.
McCabe: They are absolutely running out of time. And we’ve talked before about how Iowa is February 3. New Hampshire is February 11. The NFC football playoffs are January 19. The Superbowl is on February 2. You’re also going to have a trial to ouster the President. What? You’re going to have a trial during the two weeks leading up to the Superbowl.
Leahy: Apparently. Here’s the big question Neil in our last minute. Will the House actually hold a vote on the floor of the House to impeach the President before the end of December?
McCabe: Yes.
Leahy: They will?
McCabe: They have to.
Leahy: Wow. And it’s going to look worse and worse because it’s just going to be jamming all this through I think.
McCabe: It’s going to be brutal. And the other problem you run into on the Senate side. They will say that as soon as the impeachment arrives if the Senate votes to accept it and not dismiss it out of hand. McConnell said he would accept the impeachment when it arrives. They have to begin the trial immediately.
So are you going to force the Senate into a trial during Christmas? So then what if the Senate says we’re going to adjourn so they don’t hit us for the trial through Christmas. Well, if the Senate has been in continuous session for like a decade to avoid recess appointments.
So if the Senate actually adjourns and goes into a real legal recess all of a sudden Trump can do recess appointments (Leahy laughs) and all these and everybody else the Senate Republicans has been very good in putting their friends and law partners and contributors on the bench. The Senate Republicans have done nothing to get regular administration officials confirmed.
Leahy: Neil McCabe, thanks so much. We’re running out of time here. But you’ll be back a week from today with an update on the ongoing ‘sham wow’ impeachment going on in Washington, D.C. Thanks for joining us, Neil.
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 am to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
