EXTRA: Is the firing of James Comey a constitutional crisis?

We the People

National Constitution Center

News, News Commentary, History

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 11 May 2017

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In a special bonus episode, Josh Blackman of the South Texas College of Law in Houston and David Cole of the American Civil Liberties Union discuss what President Trump's firing of the FBI director means for our constitutional system. If you like what we did today - a shorter episode on breaking constitutional news - let us know at editor@constitutioncenter.org. Continue today’s conversation on Facebook and Twitter using @ConstitutionCtr. Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate, at bit.ly/constitutionweekly. Please subscribe to We the People and our companion podcast, Live at America’s Town Hall, on iTunes, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app. We the People is a member of Slate’s Panoply network. Check out the full roster of podcasts at Panoply.fm. Despite our congressional charter, the National Constitution Center is a private nonprofit; we receive little government support, and we rely on the generosity of people around the country who are inspired by our nonpartisan mission of constitutional debate and education. Please consider becoming a member to support our work, including this podcast. Visit constitutioncenter.org to learn more. This show was engineered by Jason Gregory and produced by Nicandro Iannacci. Research was provided by Lana Ulrich and Tom Donnelly. The host of We the People is Jeffrey Rosen.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I'm Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, and welcome
0:07.7	to We The People, a weekly show of constitutional debate.
0:11.4	The National Constitution Center is the only institution in America, chartered by Congress,
0:16.2	to disseminate information about the U.S. Constitution on a nonpartisan basis.
0:21.4	And this is a We The People podcast, Extra Edition.
0:25.4	In addition to this week's regular show, which is about sanctuary cities, please check
0:28.8	it out.
0:29.8	We're bringing you a brief conversation on breaking constitutional news.
0:33.6	On Tuesday President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comi,
0:37.9	apparently at the recommendation of the Justice Department.
0:40.7	In an open letter to Comi, the president said the director was not able to effectively lead the bureau and new leadership is needed to restore public trust and confidence in the agency.
0:50.0	There are lots of questions about the situation, but today we'll focus on one.
0:53.9	Are we now in a constitutional crisis?
0:56.4	And joining we the people to discuss this important question are two of America's leading
1:00.4	constitutional commentators.
1:02.1	Josh Blackman,
1:03.4	our returning champion, is an associate professor of law
1:05.8	at the South Texas College of Law in Houston,
1:08.3	and I'm thrilled and honored to welcome to the podcast,
1:11.3	my old friend David Cole, the National Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union Josh David thank you so much for joining
1:18.8	Thanks for happening
1:19.8	Thank you. Okay let's jump in right away.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from National Constitution Center, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of National Constitution Center and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.