Recent investigations or i should say to the recent revelations regarding the president s dealing with ukraine, and its president , evidence indicates that the president is not only willing to take actions which amount, in my judgment, to an abuse of power, in fact, i think the behavior of the president on the phone call with the ukrainian president was a textbook case of abuse of power, but apparently, he wants to enlist others to defend the indefensible, this behavior and has said other things which are troubling to so many americans. I think its important to provide some Historical Perspective on impeachment. Ill seek to do some of that today. This is by no means a full review of the history, but i think its important to talk about some of the questions that our founders were wrestling with. Our founders grapple will many p different questions, particularly the nature and the power of the office of the president of the united states. As our founders debated how to hold the president accountable during the 1787 Constitutional Convention in philadelphia, Eldridge Gary said as follows regarding the issue of impeachment. Quote, a good magistrate will not fear impeachments. A bad one ought to be kept in fear of them, unquote. Consistent with garys remarks, our constitution provides an impeachment process for quote, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors, unquote. At the time of the drafting our founders understanding of quote, high crimes and misdemeanors, unquote was informed by centuries of english legal precedence. We know that as Alexander Hamilton explained in federalist number 65, impeachment should stem from a, quote, abuse or a violation of some public trust, unquote. Ill say it again, quote, abuse or violation of some public trust, unquote. So informed by this history, congress has consistently interpreted the phrase broadly to mean, quote, serious violations of the public trust, unquote. That was one understanding and has explained that quote, the phrase refers to misconduct that damages the state and operations of government institutions and is not limited to criminal misconduct, unquote. Thats an important distinction. Not limited to criminal misconduct. There is no requirement for a president to engage in a quote, quid pro quo, unquote. Any kind of quid pro quo arrangement is not required for impeachment. Although its certainly an Impeachable Offense to engage in that kind of conduct. Rather, our constitution merely requires, quote, abuse or violation of some public trust, as hamilton spoke to. Ever since special counselor mueller issued his report on russian interference in the 2015 election 2016 election, ive assessed how President Trumps actions, in historic, and current, high crimes and misdemeanors, what that means. This is an undertaking that must be done in a considered manner and after reviewing the he will vant information available, but im increasingly convinced that speaker mroep pelosi was correct. A failure by congress to pursue inquiry would be insulting to our constitution and insulting to our values. Lets talk about the ukraine example for a moment. Over the past several weeks our nation has been confronted by credible and Detailed Press reports as well as exhaustive testimony, some cases lasting eight hours, nine hours, ten hours at a time, just for one witness. And this testimony has come from both career diplomates and state Department Officials indicating the president has been employing his personal attorney to manage a shadow diplomacy agenda, focused on personal vendettas and unfounded conspiracy theories in ukraine. In a telephone call with president zelenskiy of ukraine, President Trump immediately after the ukrainian president raised the issue of purchasing javelins to defend his country from russian aggression, the president then asked the ukrainian president to quote, to do us a favor though, unquote. By working with his lawyer Rudy Guiliani and launching an investigation into a discredited Conspiracy Theory regarding a dnc server in ukraine. To say that that theory is discredited is an understatement. Its been debunked, so said a Homeland Security advisor, former Homeland Security advisor to President Trump, among others. President trump also asked president zelenskiy to quote, look into, unquote, joe bidens son and explain that, quote, a lot of people want to find out, unquote, about biden, a political rival who of course is running for president. After a memorandum of the phone call was released to the public, the House Intelligence Committee released a text message from the top u. S. Diplomate in ukraine, who indicated that he thought it was quote, crazy for the president to withhold Security Assistance for help with a political campaign, unquote. Other officials have since come forward, some even resigning because of their serious concerns over the white houses handling of ukraine policy. And the u. S. Senate is about to gavel in. Senators will be voting today