Democrats attempted to pass a motion in an attempt to uncover what President Donald Trump said in his private meeting to Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin.
Here's what the Democrats were attempting
Democrats and other critics of the president were suspicious of what promises Trump might have made in the private one-on-one meeting in Helsinki with the Russian leader.
In an attempt to uncover what was said in the meeting, Democrats hatched a plan to subpoena the interpreter in the meeting. Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.) the ranking Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee called for the motion Thursday.
“It is our motion that the interpreter be subpoenaed to come and testify in closed session before our committee,” Schiff said in an open meeting Thursday.
"This may be our last opportunity before we go into an extended recess to vote to subpoena the interpreter and find out if there are any other national security problems that arose from this meeting,” he added.
"[Rep. Swalwell (D-Calif.)] and I just made a motion in House Intel Committee to subpoena the American interpreter during the summit," Schiff tweeted later, "the only witness to Trump’s meeting with Putin."
"This is an extraordinary remedy, but Trump’s actions necessitate it," Schiff explained. "Republicans voted it down."
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also decried the action in a tweet, saying, "Unsurprisingly, Republicans rejected the idea."
A partisan proxy war
The House Intelligence Committee has been the field of battle for a proxy war between Trump and his Democrat critics. The president and his allies have used the committee to investigate accusations of bias and corruption at the FBI and the Department of Justice, while Democrats have alleged that Republicans are covering up malfeasance on the part of the president and his administration.
