ABC This Week interviews during 2019: on Principles & Values
Andrew Yang:
Impeachment: Open to pardoning Trump if elected
Q: You've suggested that you would be open to pardoning Donald Trump if you were elected.YANG: My focus is on solving the problems that got Donald Trump elected and moving the country forward. If you look around the world, unfortunately,
it's developing countries that have fallen into a pattern of the new president or the new leader prosecuting and sometimes imprisoning the former leader. That's not a precedent that's been set here in the U.S.
Source: ABC This Week 2019 interview on impeaching Trump
Dec 29, 2019
Doug Jones:
Impeachment should include witnesses & documentary evidence
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI): I don't think the Senate should be making the case that the House should have made in their presentation. My guess is they weren't able to make the case. The charges are pretty thin gruel. I don't see anything impeachable in
that. So, it's not the job of the Senate to make the case that the House should have made in their impeachment clause, or in their articles of impeachment.Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL): Senator Johnson just made the case of why we should have witnesses.
If he really believes it's thin, it's thin because the president of the United States ordered his top people who were in the room who have firsthand knowledge not to testify. He ordered documents not to be turned over.
The American people and the United States Senate deserve to have a full, fair, and complete trial. That means witnesses. It means documents. It means getting the information out now.
Source: ABC This Week 2019 interview on impeaching Trump
Dec 22, 2019
Ron Johnson:
Impeachment charges are "pretty thin gruel"
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI): I don't think the Senate should be making the case that the House should have made in their presentation. My guess is they weren't able to make the case. The charges are pretty thin gruel. I don't see anything impeachable in
that. So, it's not the job of the Senate to make the case that the House should have made in their impeachment clause, or in their articles of impeachment.Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL): Senator Johnson just made the case of why we should have witnesses.
If he really believes it's thin, it's thin because the president of the United States ordered his top people who were in the room who have firsthand knowledge not to testify. He ordered documents not to be turned over.
The American people and the United States Senate deserve to have a full, fair, and complete trial. That means witnesses. It means documents. It means getting the information out now.
Source: ABC This Week 2019 interview on impeaching Trump
Dec 22, 2019
Adam Schiff:
Impeachment: Can't turn away from cheating in next election
It was one thing when the president invited foreign interference as a candidate [referencing Trump's public invitation that Russia should investigate Hillary Clinton], when he couldn't use the power of his office to make it so. It was another when, as
president, he withheld hundreds of millions of dollars to coerce an ally, betray our national security, and try to cheat in the next election. That was not something we could turn away from. This president believes he is above the law and accountable to
no one; this road was necessary.They don't want the American people to see the facts. They realize what's been presented in the House is already overwhelming, but there's more damning evidence to be had, and they don't want the American people to see
that, and I think that's disgraceful. I hope that the senators will insist on getting the documents, on hearing from the witnesses, on making up their own mind even if there are some senators who have decided this president can do nothing wrong.
Source: ABC This Week 2019 interview on impeaching Trump
Dec 15, 2019
Doug Collins:
Impeachment started with tears in Brooklyn in 2016
On impeachment: "You know what's driving this? " Collins says. "Two things, it's called the clock and the calendar. They want to do it before the end of the year. Why? Because we're scared of the elections last year that we'll lose again.
So we got to do this now. The clock and the calendar are what's driving impeachment. Not the facts,""It didn't start with Mueller, it didn't' start with a phone call--it started with tears in Brooklyn in November 2016," he says.
Source: ABC This Week interview: 2019-20 Georgia 2-year Senate race
Dec 4, 2019
Val Demings:
Trump failed to bribe Ukraine, but still accountable
Q: The president was ultimately unsuccessful in the quid pro quo.,p>DEMINGS: I had an opportunity in 27 years to deal with a lot of people who attempted to rob a bank, attempted to burglarize a house, attempted to carjack an individual,
we didn't say since you weren't successful, we just let you go and forget it. The fact that the president got caught in the act does not relieve him of being held accountable for the wrongdoing that he has engaged in.
Source: ABC This Week 2019 interview on impeaching Trump
Dec 1, 2019
Cory Booker:
It's not who's racist; it's what are you doing about it
This impotent simplicity of who is and who isn't a racist is really not the question. If we have racism in our country and we believe that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, what are you doing about that?
It's not enough to say "I'm not a racist." If racism exists, you need to be anti-racist. Same with anti-Semitism. I can't sit idly by if my Jewish brothers and sisters are facing that kind of violence and that kind of evil. We are all in this together.
Source: ABC This Week interview for 2019 Democratic primary
Aug 11, 2019
Justin Amash:
People want open, honest representation
People want open, honest representation. They want people to come to Congress and work with integrity. What the president is doing is lowering the tone across the country. He's harming civil discourse. He's creating a lot of partisan divide.
He's enhancing it. I think that's very dangerous for our country. I don't think a lot of people appreciate it. I think a lot of people put up with it because the economy is good right now. But I don't think they'd put up with it if things went south.
Source: ABC This Week 2019 interview on impeaching Trump
Jul 7, 2019
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez:
Presidential nominee must fight for transformational change
We have a very real risk of losing the presidency if we do not have a presidential candidate fighting for true transformational change in the lives of working people. If we elect a president that says we're fighting for higher wages but we don't want a
$15 minimum wage, fighting for education but we don't to make colleges tuition-free, fighting for women's rights, et cetera, but we don't want to go all the way with that, then I think we have a very real risk of losing the presidency.
Source: ABC This Week 2019 interview for Congress NY-14 election
Jun 16, 2019
Donald Trump:
Foreign-provided opposition info? Read it; maybe call FBI
STEPHANOPOULOS: Your campaign this time around, if foreigners, if Russia, if China, if someone else offers you information on opponents, should they accept it or should they call the FBI?TRUMP: I think maybe you do both. I think you might want to
listen. There's nothing wrong with listening. If somebody called from a country, Norway, "We have information on your opponent." Oh, I think I'd want to hear it.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You want that kind of interference in our elections?
TRUMP: It's not an interference. They have information. I think I'd take it. If I thought there was something wrong, I'd go maybe to the FBI. If I thought there was something wrong. But when somebody comes up with oppo research, right, that they come
up with oppo research. "Oh, let's call the FBI." The FBI doesn't have enough agents to take care of it, but you go and talk honestly to congressmen, they all do it, they always have. And that's the way it is. It's called oppo research.
Source: ABC This Week 2019 interview on impeaching Trump
Jun 16, 2019
Donald Trump:
No collusion, if you read the Mueller Report as I did
TRUMP: He found no collusion. And they didn't find anything having to do with obstruction because they made a ruling based on his findings and they said no obstruction.STEPHANOPOULOS: They didn't examine collusion.
He laid out evidence of obstruction.
TRUMP: Oh, are you trying to say now that there was collusion even though he said there was no collusion?
STEPHANOPOULOS: He didn't say there's no collusion.
TRUMP: He said no collusion.
STEPHANOPOULOS: He said he didn't look at collusion.
TRUMP: George, the report said no collusion.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Did you read the report?
TRUMP: Uh, yes I did, and you should read it, too.
STEPHANOPOULOS: I read every word.
TRUMP: Alright, let's go. You should read it, too, George.
Source: ABC This Week 2019 interview on Mueller Report
Jun 16, 2019
Beto O`Rourke:
Future Justice Dept. should follow facts on Trump
Q: [Since President Trump cannot be indicted for obstruction of justice while a sitting president, but could be indicted after leaving office,] would you want your Justice Department to pursue charges against President Trump?
O'Rourke: I would want my Justice Department, any future administration's Justice Department to follow the facts and the truth and to make sure at the end of the day that there is accountability and justice without this idea, this experiment of
American Democracy comes to a close. We were attacked unlike any other time in our 243 year history.
We have a president who has yet to acknowledge it and a president who has yet to be brought to justice. So yes, at the end of the day, justice is important.
Source: ABC This Week 2019 interview on impeaching Trump
Jun 9, 2019
Cory Booker:
We succeed by showing the best of who we are
To be strong, you don't have to be mean. To be tough, you don't have to be cruel. You beat demagogues by expanding the moral imagination of the country. A guy put his arm around me and said, "I want you to punch Trump in the face." I just smiled and
said, "hey man that's a felony, and us black guys, we don't get away with that that often." Trump wants us to fight him on his turf. He wants to pull our party down. We will not succeed by showing the worst of who we are, but the best of who we are.
Source: ABC This Week 2019 interview of presidential hopefuls
May 12, 2019
Page last updated: Nov 17, 2021