According to the Judiciary Committee lawyer during the Watergate investigation, today's Republican Party sees a freight train coming at them as the impeachment trials begin.
In an MSNBC panel discussion, former Judiciary counsel Michael Conway said that it's important that the committees have taken the next steps to make the hearings public because the American people should be aware of what witnesses are revealing.
"Public hearings are going to be crucial," Conway said. "You will notice what Republicans were saying, they were demanding everything should be public. Now they;re saying, 'No public hearings! No public hearings!' Everything should be behind closed doors. They recognize what’s coming. A freight train is coming of information that’s going to sway public opinions that the president did something jeopardizing the national security and frankly was illegal."
Friday, two transcripts were released, from national security official Fiona Hill and Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, both of whom revealed that President Donald Trump's actions weren't merely about his own self-interest and another erratic policy, but it was actually dangerous for American national security.
Ned Price, former senior director of the national security council told MSNBC host Ali Velshi that since 2014 Ukraine has come "under threat from an increasingly assertive Moscow," except this is not supposed to be the Cold War, but an ongoing and active conflict.
"The other way you can think about this, Ali, is going beyond Ukraine and remembering that Ukraine is a front line state," said Price. "If Ukraine did not have the resources to defend itself, that would be seen as a green light to Vladimir Putin, not to push further into Ukraine but to look into places like Georgia and catastrophically for us to take aim at our Nato allies. It is catastrophic for us because NATO allies all subscribe to Article 5 of the NATO treaty. That would suggest if Moscow is aggressive towards them, the United States NATO would call to defend one of our allies up to and include in a military form. It is not only abusive power. It is not only improper. It is actually a national security threat that President Trump subjected us to, in a sense."
Watch the full discussion below: