Barbara Boxer & Elie Honig on the Trump Impeachment Inquiry

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: President Zelensky says, “I would like to thank you for your great support in the area of defense. We are ready to continue to cooperate for the next steps, specifically, we are almost ready to buy more javelins from the United States for defense purposes.” Now, Trump responds immediately, I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it. And then the U.S., as we know, froze. The Trump administration froze over the summer. Hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of aid — of military aid. So, just from those two graphs, what do you make of it?

ELIE HONIG, CNN LEGAL ANALYST AND FORMER FEDERAL AND STATE PROSECUTOR: That is as close to a quid pro quo as you will get in real life. I’ve charged and tried bribery cases on less clear conversations than this. They’re both laying the stakes out on the table. The president of Ukraine says, your aid, foreign aid is invaluable to us. We need it for our defense and we’re getting ready to buy more equipment from the United States. And then Donald Trump’s response, this is the most important line in the whole thing, right after that, Donald Trump says, I would like you to do us a favor though. So, I’m laying it on the line. And what is that favor? There is no mincing words, I want you to look into Hillary Clinton. I want you to look into the Bidens.

AMANPOUR: OK. We’re going to get to the Biden graph in a moment.

HONIG: Yes.

AMANPOUR: But first, I want to go to Senator Boxer, who is a long-time former senator now. A long-time senator. A close colleague of Nancy Pelosi. And you’re very, obviously, well aware of the politics that is going on. Let me play for you — well, let me ask you whether you are surprised that having sat on, I guess, the fence, maybe not the right word, but Nancy Pelosi is famous for not wanting to go the impeachment route.

FMR. SEN. BARBARA BOXER (D-CA): Right.

AMANPOUR: She was sort of holding off the most virulent pro impeachment members of her caucus. And yesterday, she basically said, now, we’ve got to start this inquiry. What do you make of her position? Is she being pushed into it or do you believe this is the right thing at the right time?

BOXER: I know Nancy for so many years, since the 1980s, and I can tell you, she doesn’t get pushed into anything. This is so serious. And I am so pleased that your guest looked at this and saw it, frankly, the way I see it, as a nonlawyer. And that is, when you say these words, and I wrote them down, I would like you to do us a favor though, right after there’s talk about the military aid. It’s pretty, obvious, to me, a quid pro quo. But, you know, frankly, just the relationships between the two parties here, the powerful one with all the money, you know, Trump and the supplicant who needs this funding in order to defend against, guest who, Vladimir Putin and Russia. This is very clearly, on its face, you know, if it wasn’t so explicit, it still would be implicit.