Facilities across the country. The administration has worked with the Committee Staff to observe 11 cpb, 13 i. C. E. Detention activities to contract with hhs. Contrary to the assertions from the democrats, the Trump Administration has cooperated substantially in matters related to the border and elsewhere, but lets just contrast that with the democrats combative posture. In letters to the state Department Employees the committee threatened witnesses that, and i quote, any failure to appear, any failure to appear in response to a mere letter requesting their presence for deposition shall, and i quote, constitute evidence of obstruction. This is just letter, not subpoenas. In letters the state Department Employees in letters to the state Department Employees the committee threatened witnesses that if they insist on having
agency counsel present to protect the Executive Branch in their Confidentiality Interest or if they make any effort to protect Confidentiality Interest at all, these officials will have their salaries helped, Weld Withholding of salaries. The committees have not afforded the president basic protection such as the right to seal evidence, the right to save evidence and the right to counsel witnesses, the right to make objections related to the examination of witnesses or the admissibility of testimony and evidence and did not afford the president the right to afford the testimony presented. Thank you. I yield back the remainder of my time. The gentleman yields back. To move to strike the last word. The urgency of this moment is the grave risk that the
president will again abuse his power of the precedensidency to and secure his reelection. We have reason to be concerned. The presidency gives him great powers to cause others to interfere in our elections and the only protection we have is to act now because the president is cheating right now, and to any of my colleagues who ask why move on this right now . Its a crime spree in progress, and as chairman schiff said earlier this week, what are we supposed to do . Just let him cheat one more time, expect him to eventually do the right thing, and heres what my colleagues logic amounts to if we wait. It amounts to this, allow the building to burn, collapse, fall to the ground and then you should call the fire department. This president has set our democracy on fire and we must act to save it and theres an urgency to act and this president is not only being impeached for what he has done. Its because of what he continues to do. He abused his power and asked a Foreign Government to help him cheat, jeopardize our National Security and integrity of our elections for his own personal gain, but this was not a one off. Weve come to learn as miss demings just explained. This is what he does ask this is what he will keep doing. In 2016, he said, russia, if youre listening, hack my opponents emails. Youll be rewarreded. Russia was liss edge. It turns out russia hacked its opponents emails and that day he sought to hack his opponents
email and in that investigation he went to Great Lengths to obstruct it. So why is it so urgent that we act right now . The president s lawyer was just in ukraine. The president s lawyer said in may im not meddling in an election. We, not i, we, donald trump and i are meddling in an investdation and that continues today. The president s own words tell us about intent. On october 2nd, the president said, and you know weve been on investigating on a personal basis corruption, i think if were honest about it they should start a Major Investigation into the bidens. That simple. The president stood on the white house lawn and confirmed that he wanted ukraine to investigate the bidens, but then he added a country because thats what he
does. Russia, ukraine. He said china should also investigate the bidens. My colleagues, we should not have to hope or pray that china wasnt listening when he said that, but fortunately, people on this committee are listening. Americans are listening. People who know right from wrong, our children are listening. Are you listening . And what we hear deeply concerns us about what the president will do next and we are not helpless. Thats not a leap of faith. You see, it was the courage of dr. Fiona hill and Lieutenant Colonel vindman to, quote, go to the lawyers when they heard that the president was conditioning a white house visit for investigations. It was the courage of the whistleblower to come forward. Thats what got ukraine the aid. The president got caught. Then ukraine got the aid, if those people were not courageous and acted, ukraine would not have the aid today. So we must follow their Pattern Conduct and act. We have pattern evidence that not only donald trump acts corruptly, but that when you show courage and act against him you can stop him. Its actually the only way to extinguish his corrupt ways. If unchecked, my colleagues, donald trump does not get better, he gets worse. He gets more corrupt and we cant wait until the next election to hold him accountable. Not when hes trying to rig the next election. So we must act to protect our National Security, the integrity of our locations and honor our oath to the constitution. I yield back. Those in favor say aye. We have someone asking for time. I didnt see a request. Now recognize it. Youve now recognized it. I recognize mr. Gates. Thank you, mr. Chairman, move to strike the last word. The gentleman is recognized. They were right they cant wait until the next election, but its not the reason they say. The reason they cant wait until the next election is because theyve taken a look at their Candidate Field and they have fundamentally changed every standard that theyve set for themselves for impeachment for the American People. Whether you like President Trump or dont like President Trump it would at least be worth acknowledging the democrats have moved the goalposts on what it would require to bring us to this point and to harm our nation and to distract us so much from the critical needs of American People who probably wonder why were not focused on them right now. First they told us it has to be bipartisan. Now, i get folks watching at home might think im someone who really likes the president and i would be a hard vote for him to get for impeachment, but its not just that they cant convince the president s supporters not to abandon him. They cant convince the critics to abandon him, two members of congress and two democrats. Theyre not fans of the president and theyre critics of the president and they didnt vote with democrats. They voted with republicans. Weve even got some republicans and my colleague will herd from texas, he doesnt mine being a critic of the president and he was honest with democrats. He told them this is not impeachable conduct. They told us that the process would be fair. Yet when even members of the community sought the opportunity not to read a transcript and the second performance of their testimony and to see their firsthand account, how they were reacting and how they were
breathing and did they finget when responding . We were excluded by the Intelligence Committee. Democrats said that to put our country through this it would require compelling and overwhelming evidence, and each and every time they tried to cast doubt on the president s conduct and we were able to show a legitimate concern the president had in corruption. We were able to cite the transcript that demonstrates no conditionality and time and again, democrats say theres just no factual debate about what the president did. The factual debate comes from president zelensky. Its president zelensky who said i wasnt pressured and zelensky might not have known and yermak, he knew and simon talked to yermak and conveyed the shakedown and the very day they introduced articles of Impeachment Yermak gives an interview and says we never really perceived this as an exchange of military for aid for any one thing. Time and again they let us down in their claim, but one thing we know for certain is that this was a sad inevitability. I had someone ask me recently, do you feel some sense of history, some sense of moment that youre about to vote on impeachment and sadly, i knew this time was coming since the democrats took control of the House Of Representatives because they didnt lay out a plan to appropriate for the budget, work with us On Critical Generational Issues and they set out a plan for impeachment. How do we know that when the chairman himself campaigned for the lead democrat role in the Judiciary Committee. He didnt say pick me because im a great issue set. He said pick me because i will be the person to have an obsession. We take absolutely no joy in the fact that it is so consume, but here we stand on the verge of it
and my expectation is that this new standard and this second article with just the, you know, the notion of obstruction of congress is their exkicuse for being able to prove Obstruction Of Justice. The chairman went to the democratic cau Democratic Caucus and sought support and couldnt get their support and here we are with obstruction of congress, sort of the lowenergy version of the Obstruction Of Justice claim that they wanted. They hoped they were going to be able to convict and accuse and evidence some claim on bribery. Thats what their pollsters and pundits would request and they were out polling e what lexicon and what word choice would help them make the choice to the American Public and they settle on bribery. You all in the media heard it. You heard it on every show say this is the new standard and Speaker Pelosi speaking in this new language and we asked the
witnesses, were you a part of bribery . Instead of bribery, treason, extortion, you have abuse of power. The lowenergy version. Im disappointed in my colleague, but probably even those Who Doeb Support the president would share that disappointment in this very moment, and i yield back. Mr. Chairman, i have unanimous consent request. I have the unanimous consent request to enter the letter i referenced which is the letter from Chairman Engle to John Sullivan in which Chairman Engle says officials who insist on counsel without objection. Thank you. The question now occurs on the amendment. Those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed no. In the opinion of the chair, the noes have it and the amendment is not agreed to. The roll call is requested. The clerk will call the roll. Mr. Nadler . No. Mr. Nadler votes no. Miss lofgren . No. Miss lofgren votes no. Miss jacksonlee . No. Mr. Cohen . Mr. Cohen votes no. Mr. Johnson of georgia. No. Mr. Johnson of georgia votes no. Mr. Deutsche . No. Mr. Deutsche votes no. Mr. Richmond . No. Mr. Richmond votes no. Mr. Cicilline . No. Mr. Swalwell votes no. Mr. Liue. Miss jayapal votes no. Mr. Correa votes no. Miss scanlon . No. Miss scanlon votes no. Miss garcia. No. Miss garcia votes no. Mr. Nagoose . No. Miss mcbath votes no. Mr. Stanton . No. Mr. Stanton votes no. No. Miss mccarsel powell . No. Miss mccarsel powell votes no. Miss escobar votes no. Mr. Collins votes aye. Mr. Sensenbrenner votes aye. Mr. Chabot . Mr. Chabot votes aye. Mr. Gohmert votes aye. Mr. Buck . Mr. Buck votes aye. Mr. Ratcliffe votes yes. Miss roby votes aye. Mr. Gates . Mr. Gates votes aye. Mr. Johnson of louisiana . Aye. Mr. Johnson of louisiana votes aye. Mr. Biggs . Mr. Biggs votes aye. Mr. Mcclintock votes aye. Miss lesko votes aye. Mr. Klein votes aye. Mr. Armstrong votes yes. Mr. Stuby votes yes. Has every member voted who wishes to vote . The clerk will report. Mr. Chairman there are 17 ayes and, nos. What purpose does mr. Jordan seek . I have an amendment at the desk. I have a point of order. The clerk will report the amendment. Amendment to the amendment in the nature of a substitute hres 755 offered by mr. Jordan of ohio, page 4, strike line 23 and all that follows through page 5 line 5, page 8 strike lines 10 through 17. The gentleman is recognized for the purpose of explaining his amendment. I went through my point of order. Thank you, mr. Chairman. This simply strikes the last eight lines in article one and the last eight lines in article 2. You have a rushed process when you dont have the facts on
your side. Weve been through these facts many times. Ukraine didnt know aid was held up at the time of the call, but the democrats assert that President Trump was Pressuring Zelensky on the call to investigate the bidens in order to get the aid that he didnt even know was on hold. Thats their argument and oh, by the way, down the road, president zelensky says there was no pressure the call. No pushing, no linkage whatsoever, but you have a rigged and rushed process when you dont have the facts. You have a rigged and rushed process when you cant accept the will of the American People. Speaker of the house pelosi, nancy pelosi called the president an Imposter Just three weeks ago. The democrats have never accepted the will of the American People and thats why theyve been out to get this president since even before he was elected and of course, you have a rigged and rushed process when youre afraid that you cant beat the president at the
ballot box. When youre nervous about next falls election, you have this kind of process, a rigged and rushed process. This is not about the concern. This is not really about the concern mr. Swalwell talked about earlier concerned that somehow the president was going to do something wrong and would influence the election and this is the concern about that they cant win next year based on what the president has accomplished in three years and its an amazing record in spite of the democrats being completely against the president and frankly, in spite of the republicans being against the president. Taxes have been cut and regulations reduced and the economy is growing at an unbelievable rate. Lowest unemployment in 50 years. 266,000 jobs added last month alone, 54,000 in the manufacturing sector, and mr. Gorsuch and mr. Kavanaugh on the court and a lot of other judges confirmed and out of the iran
deal in jerusalem, and hostages released and new Nafta Agreement will be voted on next week. You guys you guys, its a rigged and rushed process because youre nervous about next november. Mr. Green says we have to impeach him because hes going to win the election. We know what this is about. I think about this president. Think about this is why the American People like him so much because hes doing what he said he would do and every president ial election ive been able to participate in, both candidates, republican and democrat candidate when they campaigned for the job, they tell the country, if you elect me im going to move the embassy to jerusalem, republicans and democrats they all campaign on it and then they get elected and they come up with a million reasons why they said they couldnt do and they never get it done, but this president said, no, im going to do it even though the same people and
the same inner Agency Consensus that weve heard so much about over the last three months in this Impeachment Inquiry, and even though the inner Agency Consensus was probably with him on that move this president said im going to do it and its been a good thing and thats what the American People appreciate and thats why we have this rigged and rushed process because its really about next november. Theyre all afraid. Some of their colleagues have said it straight up. Theyre all afraid that they cant beat him at the ballot box so they will do this rigged, rushed and wrong Impeachment Process. I would yield the remainder of my time. I just wanted to ask the gentleman from ohio a question. Based on the standards the democrats are asserting here, if somebody is in the house or Senate Running for president and they support or push impeachment of the president , would they be
subject for being expelled for their position . I think ill let my colleague to answer that question, but i think my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, as i said, nervous about their prospects next november on President Trump and based on that leadership, with that i would yield back. The gentleman yields back. I will recognize myself to speak in opposition to the amendment. I think that the facts amply demonstrate the charges of these two articles of impeachment that he put his own interest in front of the interest of the country and he used the power of the presidency to withhold military aid from an ally and to extort that ally into making an
announcement of a bogus investigation of a political opponent of his for his own personal and not to cooperate with congress in the Impeachment Inquiry. This amendment this amendment simply takes the last two paragraphs out of each article. It takes out the Paragraph Wherefore the president should be impeached and it renders the two articles a catalog of bad acts of the president that takes the articles entirely away. It is silly. If you believe that the president is guilty of what the articles charge him with you should vote for the articles of impeachment. If you believe he is not, you should vote against the articles of impeachment, but to try to have this amendment that simply renders the Articles Catting loss of bad acts and takes out the effective sentences is
silly. So i urge a no vote on this amendment and i would then urge, of course, that we adopt the articles of impeachment. I yield back the balance of my time. Mr. Chair . What Purpose Interest does mr. Collins seek recognition . Move to strike the last word. The gentleman is recognized. Think its interesting how you just described this because this is what weve seen this entire time. The facts here is really all that you have. You just keep throwing around the bad facts that you dont like and its interesting to me also that the catalog, and you finally got to it. It took a little bit, but the catalog of bad acts that you dont like and it simply takes away the punish not was or what the surprise should be and this is not what theyve done all year. In fact, they did it when the Speaker Of The House broke the rules of the house on the floor and instead of owning up to breaking the rules of decorum on the floor she had everybody come back down on the majority side
and vote to restore her right to speak even though she blatantly broke the rules. So dont give me this High And Mighty and oh, were taking away the list of ideas here. Thats what weve been doing all year. I told the audience the other day, i told the group the other day, that you can only judge many things by what you spend time on any spend money on. Spend time on and spend money on. Ive said this is an impeachment of clocking calendar and i believe that to be true because were seeing it tonight and were seeing it in the whole process. Three hearings two hearings, im sorry, two hearings and a markup. The rubberstamp in this committee is out so its a time issue because theyve been told, and i understand that the leadership wants this to happen. This is why its happening. Theyve got no choice. I feel for the chairman in that regard because he doesnt have a choice in this. The speaker and others have told him this is whats going to happen and we see how its playing out and he goes back further in the first of the year
and this is a time and money issue and this is a calendar and clock issue because the committees, the Intelligence Commitet and Judiciary Committee decided early on to spend money to bring outside help in to prepare for tonight. They didnt know it was going to be like this in january or november and december when they hired the extra help to come in, but they knew they would get to it somehow. They just didnt know how and they kept waiting and waiting and they hired extra outside counsel and they did it on the Intelligence Committee and they wanted it because all they would do was investigate the president and they did. The only thing i can say on that part is congratulations, theyve finally made it to what they want to do, and thats what were seeing right here, but to describe it as it was just described is simply taking away the americanment, and i can do that all year in these committees and these investigations. Weve had more hearings that
they basically good to to scream at witnesses and its mindboggling and i called them out, when i talk immigration and again and its interesting what my colleague from florida said, there is a purpose to see people win to see how they would actually answer questions and in this committee this would be a good thing. We dont have that, but to say with a straight face and i appreciate this, to say if at the end of the day were taking away the punishment because you have a list of bad actors when the majority have done that all year and especially the chasic case of the speaker on the floor of the house breaking the law of the rules of the floor and then having the majority come down and restore her rights just simply because they didnt like the fact that she had broke the rules. You see, this is this is where were at. Its a money and time issue. It would be nice if it was high and noble. It would have been nice except for the crimes they talked about, extortion, bribery, fraud. It would have been nice if they could have found actual facts to put that into an article. They couldnt. They wont. Why . Maybe its because also theyre having trouble because it wasnt good enough and they have members who need to go back to their district and say oh, my, i was forced to do this and its an abuse of power. Again, say it long enough and someone might believe it, but this is where were at and its really interesting again from obstruction of congress to watch this congress and this majority work is just truly, truly amazing, and to say this, when no facts put together abuse of power and obstruction of congress, this is all theyve got and all they have to make this excuse . Good luck. That Dog Aint Hunting anymore. Nobody is. It just aint working. With that, i yield back. The gentleman yields back. Do you seek recognition . Mr. Chair . What purpose does miss lesko seek recognition . Thank you, mr. Chair. I think its an appropriate time. I move to strike the the last word. The gentle lady is recognized. Thank you, mr. Chair. I think its an appropriate time to remind you again of your own words that were stated just a few months ago last year. During an interview on msnbcs morning joe on november 2018, Chairman Nadler outlined a threepronged test that he said would allow for a legitimate impeachment proceeding and now i quote Chairman Nadlers remarks. There really are three question, i think. First, has the president committed Impeachable Offenses . Second, did those offenses rise
to the gravity thats worth putting the country through the drama of impeachment, and number three, because you dont want to tear the country apart, you dont want half of the country to say to the other half for the next 30 years we won the election, you stole it from us . You have to be able to think at the beginning of the Impeachment Process that the evidence is so clear of offenses so grave that once youve laid out all of the evidence a good fraction of the opposition, voters will reluctantly admit to themselves they had to do it, otherwise you have a partisan impeachment which will tear the country apart. If you meet these three tests then i think you do the impeachment now lets see if Chairman Nadlers threepronged test has been met. First, has the president committed an Impeachable Offense . No. There has been no democrat
witness, and no fact witness that can prove that fact. Second, do those offenses rise to the gravity thats put it through the dram of a impeachment . Absolutely not and third, have the democrats laid it out so clear that each the opposition have to agree . No. Youre tearing the country apart. You said the evidence needs to be clear. It is not. You said offenses need to be grave. They are not. You said once the evidence is laid out that the opposition would admit they had to do it, well that hasnt happened and in fact, polling and the fact that not one single republican voted on the Impeachment Inquiry resolution or the schiff report and i doubt that one single republican will vote on the articles of impeachment tonight or on the House Of Representatives reveals that the opposite is, in fact, true. In fact, what you and your democratic colleagues have done is the opposite of what you said had to be done. This is a partisan impeachment, and it is tearing the country apart. And with that, i yield back. The gentle lady yields back. Does anyone else seek recognition. I seek recognition. For what purpose . Strike the last word. The gentleman is recognized. I am just rising to speak in support of this amendment for mr. Jordan, and i think its really appropriate. I dont think were asking for anything extraordinary here because im reading this resolution as its drafted and the language just jumps off the page. I mean, this is really personal. The lines that he is seeking to strike with this amendment should be struck. The vitriol, the hatred just drips from the pleading here. It sounds like it came from the exchanges and the vitriol and hatred of donald trump. This is right here on the page and it says in part, President Trump, removal from office and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor or trust or profit under the United States. I mean, look. They dont just want to remove him from the oval office, okay . They want to crush him and they want to destroy donald trump. They want to banish him from the marketplace. I mean, its just so over the top. Its so over the top. Professor turley, again, the only witness and i remind everybody, this is the only witness thats been allowed, the committee who has appropriate jurisdiction over the issue and we have one witness in the process and he was not a donald trump supporter and he said i didnt vote for him, I Dont Support Imand i gave objective analysis because my allegiance is to the constitution and you know what he got for the objective analysis that he
delivered to this committee so well and articulately . He got Death Threats and he had to publish an op ed, an Outcry Calli Calling for him to be removed from his school. Death threats. The vitriol and the devcon scale, and its pushing this. Let me tell you what Professor Turley said in a couple of excerpts and he said, quote, and this is in his Written Report that he submitted to us, it is possible to establish a case for impeachment based on allegation of abuse of power. Although criminality is not required in such a case, clarity is necessary and that comes from a complete and comprehensive record that exculpates e limb nails and this is a narrow impeachment resting on the thinnest, possible evidentiary
record. Even under the most flexible impeachment model, impeachments can be based on presumption or speculation on key elements that the underlying allegation could be noncriminal, the Early English impeachments followed a format similar to a criminal trial including Calling Witnesses and the rest. He said the history of an impeachment shows restraint even when there are substantive complaints. Some of them could be impeached by acts with the constitutional vote of office and this misuse of impeachment has been playing during the trump of objection and representative al green followed a resolution after trump called the players kneeling for the national apthen be fired. Come on, you cant impeach a
president because you dont like him. Thats not how the system works. We are in a constitutional republic. There are rules here and standards. You dont get to make the decision. The voters in this country do, and we have an election coming up in about 11 months. Let the people decide. Dont put yourselves in their place. You dont have the right to do it. Youre not following the proper procedure. Youre not doing this the right way and its a rarely used controversial device and it should be. Despite my disagreement with many of President Trumps policies and statements impeachment was never intended to be used as a midterm corrective option for a device over an unpopular leader. Look, we get it. You dont like him. That doesnt mean you can banish him from the marketplace. You cant send him out of Hiss Businesses and say you cant hold a position of honor or trust. You dont have the right to do that. The people i yield back. Mr. Jordan . You want the time . I have 30 seconds. 30 seconds. Look, in 2016 the democrats had the insurance policy. Peter strzok and lisa page, that was their deal in 2016, the fbi, 2020, its impeachment. 2020, theyre going to use impeachment. Insurance policy didnt work in 2016, impeachments not going to work in 2020 because the American People appreciate what this president is getting done on their behalf. I yield back. The gentleman yields back. Anyone else seek recognition . For what purposes strike last words. Strike the last word. The gentlemans recognized. Which one . Thank you. It truly is amazing. Weve heard over and over that this was all about the bidens and all about getting information on a president ial candidate, the bidens and if you
look at what the president said, hes talking about this country and our country has been through a lot and ukraine knows a lot about it and i would like you to find out what happened with the whole situation with ukraine. They say crowd strike. Its news to me, but my Democrat Friends will know better. I Didnt Know Biden was involved with crowd strike. I didnt know he was involved with the dnc server being hacked. I didnt know that was all part of his thing, but thats what the president s asking about because theres been information that there were some people in ukraine that knew something about that, and thats what hes asking about, so i appreciate the ref laegz from our frienrev friends across the aisle. The server said ukraine has it. I Didnt Know Biden was all up to his eyeballs in that, but
there are a lot of things that went on. The whole situation, and i think youre surrounding yourself with some of the same people. I would like to have the Attorney General call you and your people and id like to get to the bottom of it. So that was the whole thing about the 2015, 2016 election, but according to our friend, biden was in the middle of all of this mess. So, anyway, its interesting, but my friend from ohio has a brilliant amendment. They say its not personal, that this isnt just about an election that this is trying to undo the unfairness of the prior election even though it turns out there was no russia collusion and it sounds like that there was, despite what the media is saying that we know the Ukrainian Ambassador came out
lambasting trump. Clearly that would not have been done without official okay. They were all in for Hillary Clinton and thats why it was reported that they were figuring it out after the election and maybe we better try to warm up to trump, but theres been so much made of the fact that President Trump did not ask the former corrupt administration for help in rooting out corruption. That is just almost unfathomable that that point would continue to be made all day today in 2019 you had the election of a man in ukraine, zelensky that said he was going fight corruption, and President Trump heard from our own people, we think hes sincere. We really think hes going to try to fight corruption, so of course, this is the first time that he talks to ukrainian leader because he knew he Couldnt Trust the other ones. They were supporting corrupt, why would they talk to them about rooting out corruption. My friend from ohios amendment puts our friends to the test and is it really about trying to correct what you say was an unfair electionwhich we know now from the horowitz report it was unfair, but it was from the democrats side and the trump haters side. So if thats really the case then lets just strike the part where he cant run for office again and be reelected again. Wouldnt that help the vulnerable democrats if you made it more reasonable or do you want to continue to persist in making it so personal that its walk off the plank time for anybody that wants to try to be reasonable about whats going on here . So we will see, but its a good amendment. I would encourage my colleagues
on both sides of the aisle. Help some people out. Vote for mr. Jordans amendment. Youll be better off. The country would be better off because i feel sure hell be reelected and the scary part for me, though is that bar has been set so low i am really afraid no matter what party is in the white house, go there is an opposing party in congress they will use this tactic to try to take him down. One silver lining, though. Its been hard to know who all of the deep state people were especially in the state department. By our friends going through this, we now know who the people are that dont want the swamp drained and we can deal with that. I yield back. The gentleman yields back. I now recognize myself. Mr. Chairman . I recognize myself oh, im sorry. For what purposes mr. Swalwell
seek recognition . Yield to the chairman. Thank you. Impeachment was put into the constitution because the framers recognized that a president might arise who posed such a threat to the country to our democratic system and oury from elections that we couldnt wait until the next election to cure it. Thats why impeachment was put into the constitution. Lets look at now, weve heard a lot of very distracting facts about what huntered by know may or may not have done about what the members said three or four years ago. All of that is irrelevant. Whats relevant is that ample facts demonstrate that President Trump put his personal interests above the interest of the country, its citizens and the constitution. This is the highest of constitutional crimes and the abuse of power and the abuse of
power is the preeminent crime that the framers talked about as high crimes and misdemeanors for the purpose of impeachment. In President Trumps abuse of power he did it in two ways. Number one, endangered our free elections by inviting foreign powers to interfere to influence our elections twice. He invited the russians in 2016 and remember, russians, if youre listen, please find the emails. That was a direct solicitation and in fact, they tried to hack into the emails of the democrats that very night and then he tried to cover it up, and then for 2020, he invited in the he asked the ukrainians to announce a bogus investigation of the person he perceived as his Major Political opponent in the 2020 election and has basically admitted mick
mulvaney said we did it. The president is on the transcript shows very clearly that he did it. The circumstances of withheld aid shows very clearly it was a quid pro quo. Yes, we know that eventually the aid was released and he said that the president said there was no quid pro quo. Both of those things happened after he was caught and it was public. Obviously, the Bank Robber Caught in the act afterwards says i didnt mean to rob the bank, but he was, in fact, caught in the act. He tried to cover it up again. He obstructed congress by directing the entire administration, and everybody in the Executive Branch do not answer any questions. Do not testify and do not give any documents and fundamentally different from what other visits have done on occasion which is to oppose certain subpoenas and
privilege. He just said nobody should cooperate. I will decide whether its a valid Impeachment Inquiry. I will take the function of congress to myself because i dont recognize congress right. That is a threat to the separation of powers and a threat to our liberty. The members speak about every other subject and hardly bother to dispute the facts of the case which are clear and thats why weve heard so much of today with distracting and irrelevant issues. Even i would say other things. It is clear that it is an abuse of power for the president or any member of congress for that matter to condition official actions on their own personal gain, and i was startled. I was startled to hear mr. Ratcliffe say, i was impressed with his honesty, that it is okay for the president to invite foreign interference in our
elections. It is okay for a president to cheat and try to rig the election. The urgency of this impeachment, the reason why we cannot wait for the next election is that the president has tried to rig these two the last election and this one, too, and hes repeating it. He goes out on the white house lawn and said china wanted to come in and rig the election. He had mr. Giuliani in the ukraine this past week trying to enlist assistance to rig the election. So the president must be impeached to safeguard the security of our elections and to safeguard the separation of powers, both of which are essential to safeguard our liberties. I thank the gentleman for yielding. I yield my time back to him. Mr. Chairman, since ive been referenced, may i respond . Its mr. Swalwells time. I do not yield. I yield back. You dont want to correct the false statement . The gentleman yields back. I move to mr. Sensenbrenner . Mr. Chairman i move to strike the last word. The gentleman is recognized. I yield to the gentleman from texas. I appreciate my colleague yielding to correct the record where the chairman of the house Judiciary Committee just made a false statement and said that i said that it was okay to solicit foreign interference in an election. I never used the word interference. Okay. I said foreign involvement in investigations and i used it as an example for that the obama administration. It was just a few hours ago, you may not remember, ive i cant believe were sitting here at the end of this, an Impeachment Inquiry in the house of Raptives Aepresentatives andt how all of this started. It started with a phone call, a
congratulatory phone call between two president s, and the very next day someone contacted someone and a week later someone walked into the office of chairman schiff, and that person walked out a week later, a whistleblower went to the Inspector General and filed a complaint where they falsely claimed that President Trump had made a demand of president zelensky. They made a false statement in writing and then they made a false statement verbally in the course of what should have been an investigation. We sit here today about to vote on impeaching a president where neither the house Judiciary Committee, the house Intelligence Committee or any House Committee where the democrats are in charge has asked a single question of a
single witness about how this started because you go back to that phone call, and the two people that were on it, the only two people that know not just what they said, but what they meant when they said it, and they both said it was a great call. So first, let me say im sorry. Let me say im sorry to the president of the ukraine. Im sorry that as a result of all of this, youve been labeled a pathological liar by my democratic colleagues, and im sorry that they pretend to care about the ukraine, but theyve just made it incredibly hard and more difficult for your country ever to get military assistance. Im also sorry to the other person that was on that call who knew what he said when he meant
it. President trump. Im sorry, President Trump, that youve tried to keep every promise. Youve given us a great economy and you did it against incredible headwinds where you were falsely accused of treason and you were accused of being a russian agent by the folks in this room, and when that failed, we sit here today because now theyre framing you because you said id like you to do us a favor, though, because our country has been through a lot. My last apology is to the American People. Im sorry. Im sorry that youve had to view this spectacle. Im sorry to the 63 million of you that are so deplorable that as a result of this you are being told your votes dont count. I yield back. I yield back, as well. The gentleman yields back. Does anyone else seek recognition on this amendment . Strike the last word, mr. Chairman. The gentleman is recognized. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Speak being of this amendment and speaking of my colleague jordans amendment and we are getting way too caught up in the weeds in particular and we have to zoom out and think about why were here. Were here because the democrats again are terrified will win the President Trump is going to win reelection. President trump signed the largest Legislation Reform in decades, in decades. And i should add if it werent for this waste of time with impeachment, we would be working on more bipartisan Criminal Justice reform, particularly i
have a Criminal Justice bill called clean slate that would expunge nonviolent Felony Offenses for hundreds of thousands of individuals. Lisa Blunt Rochester is working with me on that. She is a democrat, as you know. But i digress again. Donald trump is ensuring our war fighters can be war fighters. I actually defended a navy s. E. A. L. Who is falsely accused of covering up abuse on a wellknown terrorist. And i can tell you that when our war fighters are dragged into the courtmartial process, they have to constantly then second guess themselves on the battlefield, and finally, we have a president that is recognizing that war fighters should be war fighters, and they should be focused on capturing and killing targets, not worrying about wrongful prosecutions back at home. Additionally, the president has
placed two conservative justices on the Supreme Court who will uphold the constitution. Additionally, under this administration, we are seeing a natural gas renaissance just come to us from pennsylvania and just see how the economy is roaring, because were finally taking advantage of the Natural Resources we have, and we can use this natural gas for energy. We can use it for manufacturing. We can use it for petrochemicals. It is fantastic that were finally taking advantage of the Natural Resources we have. Additionally, this president has done a lot for manufacturing, particularly the steel industry, which can coming back. Again, just come to Western Pennsylvania where Steel Manufacturing is coming back. Donald trump is also investigating and focused on our Border Security and building a wall. Under this president s leadership, we are enhancing our National Security and going after terrorists and others who wish to do us harm. But again, were hear because the democrats dont want the talk about the Red Hot Trump economy. They dont want to talk about the lowest unemployment rates in 50 years. Were here because democrats dont want to talk about how President Trump is finally held china accountable for currency manipulation, for dumping steel and aluminum in american markets. Someone is finally Holding China accountable for ip theft and forced ip transfers. Thats President Trump who is doing that. President trump is also renegotiate trade deals to benefit American Workers and farmers. We should have passed usmca months ago, months ago. But again, we havent done it because were dealing with impeachment. The president has also worked on Free Trade Agreements with japan. He has worked on Free Trade Agreements across south america. President trump is also reduced regulations. You know, there is only one
way there is only one way to increase revenue, and thats to increase gdp. There is only two ways to increase gdp. You either cut taxes or reduce regulations. You can do both. But this president supports both. Thats why you have such a strong economy. But again, the democrats dont want to talk about this. So instead, were talking about appointment. Because it distracts from their real agenda, which includes such ludicrous ideas as banning airplane, giving Illegal Immigrants taxpayerfund health care, abolishing or defunding i. C. E. , banning fracking, banning fossil fuels. Good luck making a cell phone without cell phone without petrochemicals. They also dont want to talk about taking private Health Care Away from private citizens. So again, thats really why were here. This whole process is a distraction. Its an attempt to hide a radical far left agenda. Its also an attempt to hide the fax. Again, the facts indicate that there was no quid pro and no
obstruction of congress. With that i yield. The gentleman yields back for our purposes. I move the strike the last word. The gentleman is recognized. It seems important to remind my republican colleagues why we are here. While of course we have Policy Disagreements with the president , this is not about a policy disagreement. This is about an obligation we have to protect and defend the constitution of the United States. We all began on a term of office by raising our right hand and promising to protect and defend the constitution, and were here because the president of the United States engaged in a scheme to drag a foreign power into our elections to corrupt our elections for his own personal benefit, and he used hundreds of millions of dollars of Taxpayer Money to attempt to achieve that objective. And think about this. There is nothing more sacred than protecting the right to free and Fair Elections in this country. Its the Heart And Soul of our
democracy. The president of the United States reached out to a foreign power and attempt to drag them in to corrupting our elections to help him cheat and win in the election in 2020. So when my republican colleagues say were worried about the election, we are worried. But the person who is really worried about the outcome is clearly President Trump, because hes reaching out to a foreign power, asking them to help him cheat in the 2020 election. And we have a solemn responsibility to stand up and protect our democracy and prevent this president or any president for attempting to corrupt our elections. And so if we dont do that, if we allow President Trump to get away with trying to cheat in 2020, particularly in light of what he did in 2016, we wont have a democracy. Well have a king or a nonnarcotic. The American People will lose their voice and their right to selfdetermination and the right
to elect their own leaders. So my republican colleagues should remember that Trump Administration official, many of them saw this scheme and became very alarmed. The president s own ambassador, mr. Bolton, ambassador bolton called it a drug deal. Dr. Fiona hill called ate domestic political errand. The investigation began by the Intelligence Committee. 17 witnesses, 100 hours of testimony, 260 Text Messages examined. Transcripts of the president s own words on the call, emails exchanged between high level trump officials. And we know the direct evidence. The president put his the three amigos, ambassador sondland, perry and volker in charge of this. The president refused to have a meeting or to release the funds that were put on hold until a public announcement of a bogus investigation against his chief political rival. He told the Vice President dont go to the inauguration. He spoke to ambassador sondland. Ambassador sondland testified it was a quid pro quo. The president hired his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to lead this effort. He smeared ambassador yovanovitch and then fired her because she stood in the way. She was an anticorruption champion, and she ensenada the way of the president s scheme. And the president and those acting on on his behalf demanded that zelensky, president zelensky publicly announce investigation of his chief political rival. And it should be remembered the American People should know that president zelensky the evidence is filled with examples of Trump Administration officials who say things like president zelensky is sensitive about ukraine being taken seriously, not merely as an instrument in washington Domestic Reelection politics. That ambassador taylor has a call with ambassador sondland saying during our call sondland tried to explain to me that President Trump is a businessman when a businessman is about to
sign the check to someone who owes him. The businessman asked that person to pay up before signing the check and i argued to both ambassador volker and ambassador taylor that donald trump isnt owed anything by the ukrainians. And i quote, holding up Security Assistance for domestic political gain is crazy. And so there is tremendous evidence in the record. The president of the United States attempted to leverage Foreign Military assistance to ukraine to drag a foreign power to corrupt our elections and to allow him to cheat in 2020. We cant allow this to happen. If we dont hold this president accountable and move forward with impeachment we can have ever confidence the president will continue to do this. He is continuing to do it. Giuliani was in ukraine last week. This is a crime in progress. Either were going do something about it and protect the rights of the American People to decide their own future and elect their own president or were going to let some foreign power do it. You know who has the right to