WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer have called on President Donald Trump to come to the floor of the House and testify at the public hearing of the impeachment inquiry against him.
In an interview with CBS that aired on Sunday, Pelosi said if the president has information that demonstrates his innocence in the allegations, 'if he has information that is exculpatory, that means ex, taking away, culpable, blame, then we look forward to seeing it'.
'His transcript of a phone call (with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky) is tucked away in a highly sensitive, compartmentalized intelligence server so that we can't see that,' Pelosi said on CBS's 'Face the Nation' program.
'The President could come right before the committee and talk, speak all the truth that he wants if he wants,' she told CBS' Margaret Brennan.
Bill Taylor, the Acting U.S. Ambassador in Ukraine, told the House Intelligence Committee last week that he learned a member of his staff overheard Trump asking about 'investigations' against his potential presidential rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden the day after the president's call with Zelensky on July 25.
George Kent, a top State Department official overseeing Ukraine, said Trump's lawyer and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's campaign was not part of official U.S. foreign policy but instead a personal mission to get the president damaging information on a political rival ahead of an election.
In the second public hearing held on Friday, Tim Morrison, a top White House national security aide, told impeachment panel that U.S. ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland claimed to be acting on Trump's orders, and that he was regularly in touch with him.
On Friday, as former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch was testifying against the President, Trump's real time remarks on Twitter turned controversial.
'Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad,' he tweeted, specifically referring to her term in Somalia.
Pelosi accused Trump of insulting Yovanovitch 'especially when they're giving testimony before the Congress of the United States'.
'I think part of it is his own insecurity as an impostor,' according to Pelosi.
Referring to Trump's demand for the Ukraine controversy whistle blower to reveal his identity, Pelosi vowed to protect him.'I will make sure he does not intimidate the whistle blower,' Pelosi said.
Also on Sunday, Chuck Schumer said, 'If Donald Trump doesn't agree with what he's hearing, doesn't like what he's hearing, he shouldn't tweet'.
'He should come to the committee and testify under oath. And he should allow all those around him to come to the committee and testify under oath,' the Senate Democratic leader told reporters.
A second week of public hearings as part of Trump impeachment inquiry by the House Intelligence Committee will begin on Wednesday.
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