Stephanie Ruhle on the breaking news that Trump's White House will not cooperate with the House impeachment inquiry. (Big shocker, huh?)
"It is Wednesday, October 9th, a critical day in the showdown between President Trump and Democrats in Congress. That is because the White House has now made it crystal clear they have zero intention of cooperating with the impeachment inquiry in any way, shape or form," she said.
"On Tuesday, the administration sent a stunning eight-page letter to House Democratic leaders criticizing the whole process as unconstitutional and unfair, arguing it violates the president's right to due process. And because they view the inquiry as illegitimate, the letter says the executive branch cannot be expected to participate. In other words, no documents will be handed over and no witnesses will be allowed to testify. Now it is up to Democrats to figure out exactly how they're going to respond. After the U.S. ambassador to the EU, Gordon Sondland, was blocked from speaking to investigators Tuesday, the house issued a subpoena, one of many, but there is no indication that that's going to change anything.
"Last night, Speaker Pelosi released an official statement saying this --
"The reality for the Democrats here is they now have to do essentially two things -- they have to take all these acts, which they consider to be obstructive to their investigation, and start making the public case that that's potentially another article of impeachment, the idea that by refusing to cooperate with Congress, the president is committing some other further impeachable act.
"And the second is, as they pursue this investigation, they're going to have to do it assuming they will get no help from the White House. That means relying, perhaps, more heavily on some of the information that we already have and relying more heavily on the testimony of the whistle-blower and those who might corroborate his or her testimony, if they can secure it."
