Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA) called on President Donald Trump to be impeached because he committed a crime by when he “attempted to obstruct justice.”
Partial transcript as follows:
MARGARET BRENNAN: Lindsey Graham was on this program as you heard, and he called it absolutely absurd to accuse the president of obstruction of justice. He says this is a closed matter. You possibly will get to ask questions of Attorney General Barr this week. Is it a closed matter for you?
RICHMOND: Absolutely not. This president has attempted to collude, if that’s the word he wants to use. He’s attempted to obstruct justice at the least. At the worst, he’s obstructed justice and I believe that is the Judiciary Committee’s responsibility to dig into it. Now, Senator Graham points to President Clinton who sat down, put his hand on a Bible took an oath, and testified under oath. This president did not do that and it’s clear why he didn’t do that. His counsel has said over and over again, they just don’t believe in his ability to tell the truth. And we see that during his presidency, so you can’t compare this to other reports or other hearings or other impeachment process. We have not heard from this president under oath. So the best person we can hear from is Attorney General Barr to find out why, one, his summary, a Cliff Notes version was so different from the facts and two, why won’t he just release the unredacted report?
BRENNAN: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has said though that to move forward with impeachment proceedings it needs to be bipartisan. You haven’t seen a single Republican come out and say that they would support an impeachment. So is this a closed matter for you? Do you personally think impeachment should be considered?
RICHMOND: I think it should. I think it’s the best way to get all of the facts out. I also believe that at some point we have to hear from this president whether he’s lying to us or not. We need to hear from him under oath. But look my sole for- focus right now is to make sure that he’s not the president next term. And what we do this term we need to one, learn from the facts what Russia did, make sure that the president has not obstructed justice. But more importantly, we need to make sure that he- he does not win re-election and that’s part of the reason why I’m here is because I’m supporting Vice President Joe Biden to beat him.
BRENNAN: And to be clear you support impeachment, now?
RICHMOND: Look, it’s Chairman Nadler’s decision how far we go with impeachment. I would just tell you I’m comfortable going either way. I am a lawyer by trade. I am very concerned about this president’s fitness for office. I’m very concerned about the crimes that I believe that he has committed or that the report certainly suggests that he has committed. So I’m fine going either way but my goal is for him not to be president next term.
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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