WATCH: Impeachment hearings led by House Judiciary Committee

WASHINGTON, D.C. (NBC) – Wednesday marks a pivotal day for President Trump with the impeachment inquiry now in the hands of the Judiciary Committee.

Hearings began Wednesday with Democrats making their case that President Trump deserves impeachment.

It’s all happening with the president out of the country, watching from London where he’s attending the NATO summit.

Republicans are prepared to make their own moves to hinder their efforts, and protect the president.

The House Judiciary Committee is taking the reigns of the impeachment inquiry, laying the constitutional groundwork for impeaching President Trump.

Representative Jerry Nadler (D-NY) said, “The president did not just merely seek to benefit from foreign interference in our elections, he directly and explicitly invited foreign interference into our elections.”

In the committee’s first public hearing, constitutional scholars explain “high crimes and misdemeanors” and whether the president’s actions rise to that benchmark.

Harvard law professor Noah Feldman testified, “On the basis of testimony and evidence before the House, President Trump Has committed impeachable high crimes and misdemeanors, abusing the off of presidency.”

Wednesday’s focus is a report from the House Intelligence Committee concluding the president abused the power of his office to solicit a foreign power to help him in 2020, asking Ukraine to publicly announce investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and 2016 election interference, all while withholding military aid from Ukraine.

The report also says the president obstructed the congressional investigation of his actions.

Republicans continue to argue the president has done nothing wrong. Representative Doug Collins (R-GA) said, “Because you just don’t like the guy! You haven’t since November 2016.”

But Democrats are alleging a scheme including officials at the highest levels of government, including the vice president and secretary of state. And the intel report names the president’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, hundreds of times, showing he played a role in pressuring Ukraine.

Overseas at the NATO summit, the president asked about Giuliani’s calls. “They’re after him because he’s done such a good job,” President Trump said. “He was very effective against the Mueller hoax.”

The president is insisting Americans wont’ be watching the hearings.

Should the committee conclude the president’s actions constitute high crimes and misdemeanors, it would draw up articles of impeachment to be voted on in the House.

If even one article of impeachment is approved by a simple House majority, the president will be impeached and the president would then go on trial in the Senate to face those charges.

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