In an MSNBC panel discussion, former ethics chief to President George W. Bush, Richard Painter, said that it is clear Donald Trump has "been caught red-handed," and it's time to act.
"Well, this president is psychologically deranged and it will get worse," Painter cautioned. "We're already dealing with a president who refers to the press as the enemy of the people. That is the language that was used by Adolf Hitler in his campaigns in 1932. And this is a dangerous man, Donald Trump, and he will get more dangerous. He is referring to a whistleblower as a spy. He refers to Democrats as enemies of the people. He continues to violate the Constitution. And now he will try to drag Mike Pence into this and Mike Pence may very well be culpable, but Donald Trump is turning on his vice president and pointing to him and maybe sending a message to the Senate Republicans that if he is asked to resign, he may take Pence with him."
He went on to call it a dangerous situation for our country to be in and he can't believe Trump is still in charge of the nuclear weapons. He also urged the House to examine the computer system that is guarding international communications with the president that are normally not considered top secret.
"And start drafting articles of impeachment so this can go over to the Senate," Painter continued. "We have a president who has been caught red-handed and now he is saying that whistleblowers should be shot. This is the man who is in charge of our military. This is a very dangerous situation unless the House of Representatives moves quickly to impeach him and the Senate has a trial, we need to find out the facts. It is right there in the records."
He also noted that people like Rudy Giuliani, Attorney General Bill Barr and others involved in this scandal need to testify before Congress.
"And by the way, this transcript of the call needs to be released -- the entire transcript," he also demanded. "That is not classified. There is no national security interest in that. Ukraine has a copy, certainly a recording of that phone call. This is not a conversation between Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill during World War II. This is a transcript of a call in which our president thought to extort assistance for his election from a foreign power. We need the entire transcript, all the backup records those need to be sent to the Senate."
Watch his take below:
