Rep. Collins’ full opening statement in hearing with legal experts | Trump’s first impeachment

Trump's first impeachment - 2020 Rep. Doug Collins, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, said "this impeachment is not really about facts." Collins criticized the Democrats for pursuing impeachment proceedings, following a string of investigations into President Donald Trump, including the Mueller report, which looked into Russia's investigation into the 2016 presidential election. "But if you want to know what's really driving this? There's two things. It's called a clock and a calendar," Collins said. "[The Democrats] want to do it before the end of the year. Why? Because the chairman said it just a second ago, 'Because we're scared of the elections next year. We're scared of the elections; we'll lose again,'" he added. Collins spoke ahead of testimony from Noah Feldman, a Harvard law professor, Pamela S. Karlan, a Stanford law professor, Michael Gerhardt, a University of North Carolina law professor, and Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor. The Dec. 4 questioning came on the first day of public hearings by the House Judiciary Committee as part of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. The focus of the Judiciary hearing, which came after the House Intelligence Committee had hearings in late November, is to define the grounds for a presidential impeachment. For more on who’s who in the Trump impeachment inquiry, read: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/whos-who-in-the-trump-impeachment-inquiry Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6 Follow us: Facebook: http://www.pbs.org/newshour Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/newshour Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/newshour Snapchat: @pbsnews Subscribe: PBS NewsHour podcasts: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/podcasts Newsletters: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/subscribe