Pelosi tells Trump to testify at impeachment hearings
Offer is made to appear live before House panel or give answers in writing
WASHINGTON — Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi invited President Donald Trump to testify in front of investigators in the House impeachment inquiry ahead of a week that will see several key witnesses appear publicly.
Pushing back against accusations from the president that the process has been stacked against him, Pelosi said Trump is welcome to appear or answer questions in writing, if he chooses.
“If he has information that is exculpatory, that means ex, taking away, culpable, blame, then we look forward to seeing it,” she said in an interview that aired Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” Trump “could come right before the committee and talk, speak all the truth that he wants if he wants,” she said.
Senate Democratic l eader Chuck Schumer echoed that suggestion.
“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,” Schumer said.
The comments come as the House Intelligence Committee prepares for a second week of public hearings as part of its inquiry, including with the man who is arguably the most important witness. Gordon Sondland, Trump’s ambassador to the European Union, is the only person interviewed to date who had conversations directly with the president because the White House has blocked others from
Washington and has worshiped at Beth Am for about five years. “It’s great for the neighborhood. It’s great for the congregation. It’s an investment in Baltimore city and in the community.”
As Appleby and others looked on, Rabbi Daniel Cotzin Burg and longtime congregant Mark Joseph attached a mezuza outside the West Baltimore synagogue’s refurbished Chauncey Avenue entrance. In Jewish tradition, the case containing parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah is attached to the doorpost of a Jewish home.
The multimillion- dollar renovation project, which began in January and was completed in September, ensures that Beth Am’s “impact on the city will endure for generations to come,” 7th District Councilman Leon F. Pinkett III told the 200 or so people in attendance.
Calling the synagogue “a beacon of light for so many,” Pinkett praised the congregation for remaining in Baltimore “when you could have retreated” to another location.
Added U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, who grew up in nearby Ashburton and also spoke Sunday, the renovations are a promise “that the Jewish community’s presence will remain strong in Reservoir Hill.”
Perhaps the most visible result of the project is the staircase connecting the lower floor to the sanctuary level. Its handrails, designed by local artists David and Eli Hess, are made of 129 balusters and newel posts, some new and some reclaimed from other buildings, but each different.
The idea, according to a plaque at the foot of the staircase, is to represent “the diversity of Beth Am’s congregation — a community of individuals from across Baltimore.”
Located on Eutaw Place and opened in 1922, the building that houses Beth Am began its life as home to Chizuk Amuno, a congregation that worshiped there until 1968, when it moved to its current Baltimore County location, on Stevenson Road in Pikesville.
Six years later, a new congregation, led by a retired president of Baltimore Hebrew University, bought the building, taking the name Beth Am, Hebrew for “House of the People.”
By locating in the city, Beth Am was bucking a trend. As recently as 1950, the majority of Baltimore-area Jews lived within the city limits.
By 1970, three-quarters of the population had relocated to the northwest sections of the city or to Baltimore County. In 2010, just 30% of the area’s 93,400 Jews lived in the city, according to a study from the Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore.
“In 1974, remaining in the city and in our neighborhood was a big deal,” Burg,