As the House Judiciary Committee unveils articles of impeachment against President Trump, we’re sharing a fascinating two-part conversation on impeachment hosted here at the National Constitution Center on December 2nd. The first panel features leading constitutional scholars including NCC Scholar-in-Residence Professor Michael Gerhardt who testified as an impeachment expert before the House Judiciary Committee. The next panel (starting at 37 minutes) features current and former members of congress, including Vice Chair of the House Judiciary Committee Representative Mary Gay Scanlon. They share their candid takes on the current impeachment inquiry, how it’s been handled, and what the Framers might think.
This program was originally shared on our companion podcast, Live at America’s Town Hall, in two parts. You can listen at these links: part one featuring the impeachment scholars and part two featuring the current and former members of Congress.
FULL PODCAST
PARTICIPANTS
Panel One:
Michael Gerhardt is the Scholar-in-Residence at the National Constitution Center, the Burton Craige Distinguished Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of North Carolina Law School, and the Richard Beeman Visiting Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He frequently appears on CNN as an expert and commentator on the impeachment process.
Keith Whittington is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Politics at Princeton University. He is the author of Repugnant Laws: Judicial Review of Acts of Congress from the Founding to the Present which won the Thomas M. Cooley Book Prize and Speak Freely: Why Universities Must Defend Free Speech among other works.
Kimberly Wehle is a law professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law, a CBS News legal analyst, and a contributor to both the BBC and The Bulwark. Prior to her academic career, Wehle served as an assistant U.S. attorney and was an associate independent counsel in the Whitewater investigation. She is the author of How to Read the Constitution and Why among other works.
John Malcolm is the Vice President of the Institute for Constitutional Government and Director of the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation. In 2019, he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve on the Board of Directors of the Legal Services Corporation, the largest funder of civil legal aid for low-income Americans.
Panel Two:
Rep. Dwight Evans represents Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District, which includes Northwest and West Philadelphia and parts of North, South and Center City Philadelphia. He was first elected in a special election in November 2016. Before that, he served as a state representative in Pennsylvania for 36 years. Evans serves on the House Ways and Means Committee, the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, and as vice chair of the House Small Business Committee. He is also an at-large member of the executive committee of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, an education and human rights advocate, represents Pennsylvania’s 5th Congressional District and was elected in 2018. Congresswoman Scanlon previously served as national pro bono counsel at a major U.S. law firm, where she directed and supervised over 600 lawyers in 15 offices in providing more than 50,000 hours of pro bono legal services annually to low-income clients and non-profit organizations. She serves as Vice Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, on the House Rules Committee, and on the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress.
Fmr. Rep. Charlie Dent currently serves as a Senior Policy Advisor to DLA Piper where he provides strategic advice and counsel to clients on the federal, state and local levels on issues ranging from appropriations, healthcare, defense and veterans, homeland security, infrastructure and energy to international investment, trade and commerce. In addition to his role with DLA Piper, Dent is a Political Analyst for CNN, a Visiting Fellow for the University of Pennsylvania, and a Distinguished Advisor for Pew Charitable Trusts. Dent served 7 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives representing the 15th Congressional District of Pennsylvania.
Fmr. Rep. Ryan Costello is the founder of Ryan Costello Strategies, a firm which helps organizations seeking to advance their objectives in the legislative and regulatory policy process before the federal government. Costello also serves as Managing Director of Americans for Carbon Dividends, an organization that advocates on behalf of the Baker-Schultz carbon pricing plan, a market-based solution to aggressively address the climate challenge. Costello previously spent 16 years in public service and private law practice. As a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 2015 to 2019, he represented a portion of the Philadelphia suburbs in Pennsylvania’s 6th District, while also serving on the Republican Party’s Whip Team.
Moderator:
Jeffrey Rosen is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Constitution Center, the only institution in America chartered by Congress “to disseminate information about the United States Constitution on a nonpartisan basis.”
Additional Resources
- What Does the Constitution Say About Impeachment? We the People episode
This episode was engineered by Greg Scheckler and Jackie McDermott and produced by Jackie McDermott. Research was provided by Lana Ulrich.
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TRANSCRIPT: Download the transcript here.
This transcript may not be in its final form, accuracy may vary, and it may be updated or revised in the future.
