| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
Testified before a House subcommittee. | |
| Watch the Senate hearing this evening at 9 o'clock Eastern on C-SPAN. | ||
| C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app, or online at c-span.org. | ||
| Back to the universe for C-SPAN. | ||
| It's the one essential news network. | ||
| You and C-SPAN show the truth. | ||
| Thank you for C-SPAN. | ||
| Appreciate you guys' non-biased coverage. | ||
| You're free for C-SPAN that lets ordinary citizens participate in the national dialogue. | ||
| What's so great about C-SPAN is that you hit every side. | ||
| C-SPAN truly is an unbiased channel. | ||
| You're doing a great service for the nation. | ||
| I've been watching the Washington Journal and using C-SPAN for 35 years, so appreciate you guys. | ||
| Thumbs up to C-SPAN. | ||
| The real news source for me is C-SPAN. | ||
| When they say they're unfiltered, they're unfiltered. | ||
| Welcome back to the program. | ||
| We're joined now by Representative Al Green, a Democrat of Texas's 9th District, also a member of the Financial Services Committee. | ||
| Representative Green, welcome back to the program. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you for having me. | |
| And this is the first time you've been back here since the censure for disrupting President Trump's address to Congress back in February. | ||
| Ten of your Democratic colleagues joined all Republicans in that censure. | ||
| Do you still stand by your actions that night? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, absolutely. | |
| I didn't go there to make the stand that I took. | ||
| I went there because I wanted to be present. | ||
| But I did want to protest, and my protest was to simply exit the premises while the president was speaking. | ||
| But he started to talk about his mandate. | ||
| And when he did so, I was collecting my portable items. | ||
| And as I was moving, I just felt compelled to say something. | ||
| It was really done spontaneously. | ||
| And I indicated to him, you don't have a mandate to cut Medicaid. | ||
| And a second time, I said Medicare and Social Security. | ||
| My colleagues were extremely loud on the other side, so I was trying to speak louder so that he could hear me. | ||
| And I was removed from the chamber. | ||
| And I hold no animus toward the officers who removed me. | ||
| They were very kind. | ||
| The speaker did what he was supposed to do. | ||
| And my colleagues who voted the way they voted, I don't blame them in any way. | ||
| I told everyone, vote your conscience. | ||
| Vote your conscience. | ||
| And they apparently voted what their consciences dictated. | ||
| And I respect them for it. | ||
| No harm, no foul with me. | ||
| At a rally in Washington last month, you said that you'd be bringing articles of impeachment against President Trump within 30 days. | ||
| It's been 30 days. | ||
| Where does that effort stand? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I have the articles of impeachment in my hand. | |
| On the 30th day, I believe I previewed them in Congress to let people get some sense of what they're about. | ||
| I have them here. | ||
| They will be introduced within the very near future. | ||
| But before I introduce them in Congress, I think I'm going to expose them to the public. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think the public needs to see what these articles of impeachment are all about. | |
| Because according to these articles, and my belief, and what I hear from many persons, many of them newscasters, the president is not honoring the Constitution, his oath of office to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. | ||
|
unidentified
|
He is not respecting the rule of law, the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. | |
| He doesn't respect Marlbury versus Madison, the right for judicial review. | ||
| All of these things add up to a president who is now, at this moment in time, what I call a de facto dictator. | ||
| He literally, literally, has moved into an area where he believes he can rule with executive orders. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And these executive orders are being overturned. | |
| But what the president is doing is, by his command, the courts should either be impeached or follow his lead. | ||
| By his command, colleges and universities should do as he says, or they will lose their tax exemptions. | ||
| By his command, law firms have to obey his commands or they will be sued. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And he has the power of the United States government, a coffer within it, and a Justice Department that has unlimited amounts of money to spend. | |
| And as a result of these unlimited amounts of money, he can take you to court all the way to the Supreme Court with any issue that you raise. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And he does it at no cost to him. | |
| But if you are fighting him, it's going to be at extreme cost to you. | ||
| And do you think filing articles of impeachment is the best way to counter the issues that you mentioned? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No, absolutely not. | |
| The best way is for the president to honor the Constitution. | ||
| The president should do as the judges indicate, and many judges have told him that he is to facilitate the return of someone that was taken from the country in error, and that person has not been facilitated by way of the court's order. | ||
| But as far as what you can do in Congress, is this the best way? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm going to get to that. | |
| But the best way is for him to follow the court's orders. | ||
| He declines to do that. | ||
| Then the next best way would be for his party to go to him and say, Mr. President, what you're doing is wrong. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Carl Rove has done this on many occasions. | |
| He said, Mr. President, you ought to return the person. | ||
| You ought to go ahead and get this behind you. | ||
| But the president wants to make sure we understand that he can remove people from this country and even American citizens if he has his way and send them to a foreign place with an indeterminate amount of time. | ||
| So if these things fail, if the courts fail and his party won't do it, then that's the only thing left is impeachment. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So I'm doing what's left. | |
| And I'm doing it because we have to build the momentum for it. | ||
| People don't always understand it, which is why I'm here today to say to people, impeachment is a means by which we can remove a president or we can deter him. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Impeachment is a process for removal or to stop a president. | |
| If he sees that this momentum is building, perhaps he will mend his ways and do the right thing. | ||
| I want to show you Representative Pete Aguilar. | ||
| He's chair of the House Democratic Caucus, so he is your colleague there and was asked if anything President Trump had done in this presidency rises to the level of impeachable offenses, and then I'll get your response. | ||
|
unidentified
|
In the first 100 days, has the president done anything that rises to the level of impeachable defenses? | |
| What the president has done is he sought to erode the fabric of our country by stoking chaos, fear, division. | ||
| This is not unlike behavior he has done in the past. | ||
| But right now, we will deal with the tools in front of us and the policies that he and House Republicans have placed forward, which are reckless cuts to the health care system, to our supplemental nutrition that is relied on by women and children and families across this country. | ||
| Those are the policies that we're going to push back against. | ||
| And those are the items that the American public is paying attention to. | ||
| Impeachment is at times a tool that can be used. | ||
| This president is no stranger to that. | ||
| He's been impeached twice. | ||
| But we don't have any confidence that House and Senate Republicans would do their jobs. | ||
| And so this is not an exercise that we're willing to undertake. | ||
| What do you think of that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I don't know that I differ with him. | |
| And by the way, he's a nice guy. | ||
| And I have no reason to simply say things that are inappropriate as it relates to him. | ||
| I don't think the Senate would engage in impeachment right now, actually the trial. | ||
| I don't think House Republicans are going to necessarily agree with us. | ||
| But I do believe this. | ||
| There has to be a genesis for this process. | ||
| In the last Congress, I introduced the Articles of Impeachment that built the momentum that caused him to eventually get impeached. | ||
| We have to do this again. | ||
| And again, it involves the public. | ||
| And those who don't feel that this is impeachment can vote not to do so. | ||
| But there are many who do believe that this is what he's doing is worthy of impeachment. | ||
| Do you think that this could actually help President Trump politically? | ||
| Because some of his advisors are saying that this is a former Trump attorney, David Schoen, saying, I think that Trump would recognize that while some on the far left would cheer impeachment, it would likely help him politically on the backdrop of the previous two efforts and the other attacks of the past four years, which I believe propelled many voters to vote for him. | ||
|
unidentified
|
To complete my answer to your last question before this one, impeachment is what the House says it is. | |
| So anyone who says that this is not impeachment, anything that comes before the House can be thought to be not impeachment. | ||
| Every member has the right to decide for himself or herself, for their selves, what impeachment is. | ||
| Andrew Johnson was impeached in 1868, Article 10, for simply speaking ill of Congress. | ||
| So for a person to say that dishonoring court orders, to say that the president somehow is honoring his pledge to uphold and protect and defend the Constitution, that that's not impeachment, then everybody's entitled to say that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
But there are a good many people who believe that it is worthy of impeachment. | |
| They just don't think that they want to do it now. | ||
| Now, with reference to this notion of helping the president, I believe that the president lost in part last time because he was impeached. | ||
| I think that that made a difference in that election. | ||
| And I believe that if he tries to make this the issue in an election wherein we have a bad economy and he's saying, well, keep me because if you keep me, then I can continue this bad economy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I don't think that's going to go over well. | |
| I think the president is in a very difficult position with his tariffs, with his behavior as it relates to the federal judges saying that they should be impeached because they don't agree with him. | ||
|
unidentified
|
But finally, on this point, I think the American people have to see where we are. | |
| We said he was a threat to democracy. | ||
| He's a threat, and he's becoming now that dictator. | ||
|
unidentified
|
In fact, in some instances, he is because he's refusing to honor orders of the court. | |
| It was on April the 10th that the Supreme Court ordered him to facilitate the return of Mr. Abrago Garcia. | ||
|
unidentified
|
He has not done it to date, and he's demeaned the courts for even asking him to do it or requiring him, I should say. | |
| And we'll take your calls for Representative Al Green, Democrat of Texas, until the end of the program in about 15 minutes when the House gavels in. | ||
| And we'll start with Richard, a Republican in Savannah, Georgia. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Maby. | |
| Mr. Green, I talked to you on February 6th this year, and Greta was speaking. | ||
| I would like for you to look at a camera and tell us why you didn't attend Jocelyn Ngri's funeral. | ||
| She was a 12-year-old girl in your district who was murdered by illegals, and it was disgusting. | ||
| And then, of course, you haven't mentioned anything about her, and the park was renamed in her memory for the brutal murder, which she didn't attend either. | ||
| And all this impeachment with you and the Democrats is ridiculous. | ||
| And I think you're just on the wrong side of history, as usual. | ||
| But to not acknowledge Jocelyn Ngungri. | ||
| All right, let's get a response, Richard. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, thank you. | |
| I have indicated not just for this person, but for anyone who's lost life under similar circumstances and under other circumstances, I have great sympathy for the parents, the friends, the persons who are suffering, and of course for the loss of that life. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I don't attend funerals that I'm not invited to. | |
| There are some people who have things that are private. | ||
| And if they invite me, I attend. | ||
| I was not invited. | ||
| So when I'm invited, I attend. | ||
| But even if I'm not invited, it doesn't change how I feel about what happened to her. | ||
|
unidentified
|
People who do these dastardly deeds should be punished. | |
| I have no problems seeing people who commit crimes being punished. | ||
| This is Michael in Gainesville, Florida, Independent. | ||
| Go ahead, Michael. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, hi. | |
| Children in Gaza are starving, and here in the U.S., we have a constitutional crisis. | ||
| I think it's time to grab our keys, not our shoes, and start a rolling march and a tailgate parade of protesters to block traffic in and around McDonald's, Walmart's, and Tesla's, and move over for emergency vehicles because not everyone can march at one of the organized marches, but everyone has one of those three establishments in their town. | ||
| And let's face it, it's the dollar that counts. | ||
| And if traffic is blocked, you're illegal. | ||
| You're trying to get to an establishment. | ||
| If anyone pulls up and asks you to move over and it's an emergency vehicle, pull over. | ||
| And if it's a policeman, tell them you're hungry and you want to go to McDonald's or you want to go to Walmart or you want to buy a car at Tesla's and put a stop to traffic in your town and put a stop to traffic nationwide and just get out and drive when the time comes. | ||
| Any time of the day, it doesn't matter. | ||
| You're not pick a time. | ||
| If you start feeling antsy, what's the benefit of that, Michael? | ||
| What you're asking for? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Marches don't do it. | |
| I noticed that we didn't have, we didn't, I think it's March or May the 14th. | ||
| You know, when the children got the gun law passed, they got together and they announced on, I think it was a Saturday morning, along with the teachers' union, that they were going to go on strike. | ||
| That Saturday night, before that next Sunday news cycle, Congress somehow got together and announced so they could interrupt the news cycle that there was going to be a bill so that no one heard that the students and the teachers union had potentially gotten together and were going to go on a get-out or stop. | ||
| Scott, got it. | ||
| Congressman Green. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, the president uses his incivility to take advantage of our civility. | |
| He did that at the joint session of Congress where I protested I was removed and I was censured. | ||
| He at his, while speaking, called the members of Congress lunatics. | ||
| He's not been censured. | ||
| He called another member of Congress Pocahontas. | ||
| He's not been censured. | ||
| So yes, I believe that peaceful protest is a solution. | ||
| I salute all of the peaceful protest that's taking place, but I do not salute any form of violence. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That is violence to property or people. | |
| I don't support that. | ||
| It's peaceful protest that I believe can make the difference. | ||
| And you have to be prepared to suffer the consequences, as I was when I was censured. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Censured, but not silenced. | |
| And I didn't have any idea when I did it that it was going to have the impact on Medicare that it's had. | ||
| Medicare has been a topic around the world now, topic for what's going on in Congress. | ||
| It started with that act of conscience. | ||
| I had no idea it was going to happen, but I'm glad I did it because we've got to protect Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid. | ||
| Tony in West Bloomfield, Michigan, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, Reverend. | |
| I'm sorry, Congressman Green. | ||
| I love listening to you when you do your special orders, and you're very concise and precise with language. | ||
| So I have a couple questions for you. | ||
| In terms of Gaza and Israel, Ariel Sharon left Gaza. | ||
| He made all the Israelis, Jews that were there move out. | ||
| So why did Hamas build tunnels, arm themselves? | ||
| No one was going to attack them. | ||
| The Israelis left them to live there. | ||
| What do you think the slogan from the river to the sea means? | ||
| To me, it means something different than what they claim. | ||
| In terms of starvation, when food is being given to the people of Gaza, why is it being sold in marketplaces? | ||
| The people don't look like they're starving when I see them walking around. | ||
| They don't look emaciated like Holocaust survivors that were in concentration camps or skin and bones. | ||
| All right, Tony, we'll get our response. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Let's start with Hamas. | |
| I don't defend Hamas. | ||
| Hamas committed a dastardly deed, and that is something that I think we cannot overlook. | ||
| But I do believe that even under the circumstances that exist, that people should not be collectively punished, that you should not withhold food. | ||
| You should not hold water, withhold water. | ||
| You should not withhold the necessities of life. | ||
| Because after all, war was declared on Hamas, not on the children, the babies in Israel. | ||
| Thousands have been killed. | ||
| Not on the innocent people in Israel, pardon me, in Gaza, the innocent Palestinians in Gaza, the innocent Palestinian babies in Gaza. | ||
| War wasn't declared on them. | ||
| So as a result, I think you see a form of collective punishment taking place, and that's not acceptable. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Israel should not become what it has despised. | |
| Do not become what you despise. | ||
| This is something that Israel would never appreciate if it was being imposed by another country, probably, especially if it was imposed by a country that we had a relationship with, this collective punishment. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And as for what happened to cause all of this to continue, I can't really address that. | |
| But I can tell you this, Mr. Netanyahu was part and parcel to it. | ||
| Mr. Netanyahu used Hamas as a foil. | ||
| He never wanted to have peace in Gaza. | ||
| He wanted all of Gaza, not just a piece of Gaza. | ||
| He wants all of it. | ||
| He wants the West Bank. | ||
| He wants all of what at one time was Palestine. | ||
| That is unacceptable. | ||
| There has to be a state for Palestinians. | ||
| And there has to be a state with Palestinians. | ||
| And you should not have what I see as ethnic cleansing taking place in Gaza. | ||
| As we speak, there is an effort to drive the Palestinians into some small corner of what was at one time Gaza, take over the land again. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Now at this point, you become a force that has not only invaded, but you are a force that is going to be there. | |
| It seems to me for some period of time that's unacceptable. | ||
| We need to talk about peace, not allow Netanyahu and President Trump, I might add, who wants to see Gaza become some sort of resort for people other than the Palestinians who were there in Gaza. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This is just unbelievable that this is unfolding before our very eyes, and we won't say what it is. | |
| It is collective punishment, and it is ethnic cleansing in Gaza. | ||
| Here's Maria in Atlanta, Georgia, Independent Line. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Limi, Mr. Green, C-SMAN family. | |
| I'd just like to mention a couple things. | ||
| Mr. Green, a long time follower of you, and I heard you were Roland Martin Monday night, and we kind of felt heartfelt for you because you told Roland that if anything happens to you, just record it. | ||
| And I hope nothing happened to you and we appreciate it. | ||
| And I'm also concerned about Medicare because I'm a Lucas advocate and I just wrote a book about Lucas. | ||
| And I hope they don't do anything because we really need that. | ||
| And I like to leave my name and number for you to read my book and to C-SPAN Family. | ||
| It's called My Lucas Journal while learning of other autoimmune diseases. | ||
| And I just wish you well and I hope nothing happens to you. | ||
| Well, thank you. | ||
| Believe it or not, many people have said to me what you've just said. | ||
| There really is a belief in this country that persons who get out front on these issues, some of these issues that the president, for example, is promoting, and the president says that I ought to be removed from Congress. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Anybody that opposes him, he wants them either removed if you're a congressperson, or if you're a judge, he wants you impeached. | |
| This is one of the symptoms of having a dictator. | ||
| A dictator wants no opposition to be viewed as legitimate. | ||
|
unidentified
|
A dictator wants total control. | |
| And yes, I did say to Roland, who's a fraternity brother, that I would hope that if something happens to me, because this comes up as it's coming up now, I would want it to be thoroughly investigated. |