Employees, in letters to the state department employees, the committee threatened witnesses that if they insist on having Agency Council president to protect the executive branch and the confidentiality interests or if they make any effort to protect confidentiality interests at all, these officials will have their salaries withheld. Withholding of salaries. The committees have not afforded the president basic protections, such as the right to see all evidence, the right to present evidence, the right to call witnesses, the right to have counsel present at hearings, the right to cross examine all witnesses, the right to make objections relating to the examination of witnesses, or the admissibility of testimony in the evidence, and did, not for the president the right to respond to evidence and testimony presented. Thank, you i yield a reminder of my time. Gentleman yields back. For what purpose does mr. Swalwell seek recognition . To strike the last word. The gentlemans recognized. My, colleagues the urgency of this moment is the grave risk that the president will again abuse his power of the presidency to try to secure his reelection we have reason to be concerned. The presidency give some 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 asked why move on this right now, it is a crime spree in progress and as chairman schiff said earlier this week what are we supposed to do . Just let him sheet one more time . Expect him to eventually do the right thing . And here is 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 there is an urgency to act. This president is not only being impeached because of what he has done, its because of what he continues to do. We know what he has done. Not really disputed. Abused his power, asked a Foreign Government to help him cheat, jeopardizing our National Security and our elections for his own personal gain. But this was not a oneoff, weve come to learn, as misdemeanors explained, this is what he does in this is what he will keep doing. In 2016, as he said, russia, if you are listening, to my opponents emails, you will be rewarded. It turns out russia was listening. It turns out, russia hacked his opponents emails. That day, they sought to hack his opponents emails. In that investigation, he went to great lakes 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, i am not meddling in an election. We, know i, donald trump and i are meddling in an investigation. And that meddling continues today. But the president s own words tell us about his current intent. On october 2nd, the president said and you know weve been investigating on a personal basis rudy and others in the 2016 election. I think if they were honest about it they should start a Major Investigation to the bidens, that simple. On october, third the president s from the white house lawn and confirm that he wanted ukraine to investigate the bidens. But then he out of the country because that is what he does russia, ukraine, he said china should also investigate the bidens. My colleagues, we should not have to hope or to pray that china was not listening when he said that. 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 and in fact, we know that the courage to act is the only thing that has stopped this president and that is not a leap of faith. You see, it was the courage of doctor fiona hill, and Lieutenant Colonel vindman to go to the lawyers when they heard the president was conditioning a white house visit for investigations. It was the courage of the whistleblower to come forward. That is what got ukraine the aid. The president got caught and then ukraine got the aid. If those people were not courageous then ukraine would not have the aid today so, we must follow their pattern of conduct an act. We have pattern evidence that not only donald trump acts corruptly but that when you show courage an act against him, you can stop him. It is 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 cannot wait until the next election to hold them accountable. Not what he is trying to rig the next election. So we must act, protect our National Security, the integrity of our elections and honor our oath of the constitution. I yield back. The gentleman yields back. Discussion goes on the amendment, doesnt favor, say aye . We have someone asking for time. I didnt see a request. You see it now. You now recognize it. Do not recognize it. I recognize mr. Gates. Thank you mister chairman, i mean to strike the last word. The gentleman is recognized. Well, they are right, they cant wait to the next election but it is not the reason they say. The reason they cannot wait until the next election is because theyre taking a look at their candidate field and they have fundamentally changed every standard but they have set for themselves for impeachment for the American People. What do 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 for the critical needs of American People who probably wonder why we are not focused on them right now. First, they told, us it has to be bipartisan. Now, i get folks watching at home might think but im somebody like the president , i will probably be a hard vote for them to get for impeachment, but its not some justify cannot convince the president supported not to abandon, him they can even convince the president s critics to abandon him. I mean, jeff and, we call him, peterson to members of congress, to democrats, they are not fans of the president , their critics of the president , and yet, they did not vote with democrats but with republicans. Weve got some republicans, my colleague will hurt from texas. He does not mind being a critic for the president , and he was honest with democrats, you told them that it this is not impeachable conduct. He told us that the process would be fair and yet even when members of this committee sought the opportunity not to read a transcript are see someone second performance of their testimony but to see their first hand account, how they reacted, did they fidget when they responded, we wanted to see those things, and we were excluded by the Intelligence Committee. Democrats said lets put our country through this would require compelling an overwhelming evidence and each and every time they tried to pass it out on the president s conduct we are able to show a legitimate concern the president had in corruption. We are able to side the transcript demonstrates no conditionality, time and again. Democrats said look, there is just no factual debate about what the president did. The factual debate comes from president zelensky. This president zelensky who said, i was not passionate they said well, zelensky might not have known but yermak, he knew, so i want to talk to your mark and this shake down, and the very day introduced articles of impeachment, youre moccasin interview and says, he never really perceive this as an exchange of military for aid for any one thing, time and again, they let us down in their claim so one thing they know for certain is that this was a side inevitability. Had someone asked me recently do you feel some sense of history, do some sense of moment you are 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 did not lay out a plan to appropriate for the budget, or work with us on critical generational issues. They set out a plan for impeachment. How do we know that . Well, the chairman himself campaign for the lead democrat role in the Judiciary Committee. He did not say pick me because im a great legislator, around some particular issues that. He said, pick me because i will be the person they can best lead our caucus through a potential impeachment. They have had a bloodlust for impeachment. It has been their obsession and it is deeply saddening to us. We take absolutely no joy in the fact that it is so consuming, but here we stand on the verge of it and my expectation is that this new standard and this second article with just the notion of obstruction of congress is their excuse for not being able to prove obstruction of justice. Public reporting has been saying the chairman went to the Democratic Caucus and sought support to bring an article for obstruction of justice and could not get their support so here we are now with obstruction of congress, sort of the low Energy Version of the obstruction of justice claim that they wanted. They hope they were going to be able to convict and accuse and evidence some claim on bribery. That is what theyre pollsters and pundits told them would be best as they solemnly tell us this is sad for them, they were out polling what lexicon, what word choice would help to make the case to the American Public and so they settle on bribery. You all in the media heard it. You heard on every show, talking about this is the new standard, Speaker Pelosi speaking in this new language and then we asked the witnesses, were you a part of bribery . Did you say bribery . The evidence was not there so instead of bribery, instead of treason, extortion, you have abuse of power, the low Energy Version. Im disappointed in my colleagues but probably even those who dont support the president we share the disappointment in this very moment and i yield back. The gentleman yields back. Mister chairman, have unanimous consent request. I recognize mr. Russians all for the purpose of unanimous consent request. Thank you, mister, present i ask unanimous consent to enter the letter i referenced which is the letter from chairman angle to john solomon in which chairman angles says that officials who insist on council how their salary. No objection. Thank you. The question now occurs on the amendment, those in favor say aye, there is a pose, no, snow, in the opinion of the chair the nose have it in the amendment is not agreed. A real cause requested. The clerk will call the role. Mr. Nadler . No. Mr. Nadler votes no. Its lofgren . No. Miss jacksonlee . No. Mr. Cohen . No. Mr. Johnson of georgia . No. Mr. Joy . No. Miss pass . No. Mr. Richmond . No. Mr. Jeffries . No. Mr. Jeffries . No. Mr. Cicilline . No. Mr. Swalwell . No. Mr. Lieu . Mr. Raskin . Mr. Raskin votes no. Miss jayapal . No. Miss demings . No. Mr. Korea . No. Miss scanlon . No. Mr. Siya this garcia . No. Mr. Neguse . No. Mister mcqueen missed mcbath . No. Mr. Stanton . No. Miss dean . No. Miss because of how . No. Mr. Collins . I. It is escobar . No. Mr. Sensenbrenner . I. Mr. Chabot . I. Mr. Gohmert . A big old i. Mr. Jordan . I. . Mr. Buck . I. Miss roby . I. Mr. Gates . I. Mr. Johnson of louisiana . I. Mr. Big . I. Mr. Mcclintock . I. Miss lets go . Miss glasgow votes i. Mr. Reschenthaler . I. Mr. . Klein i. Missed . Mr. Armstrong . I . Mr. Stew be . I. The clerical report . Was german, there 17 eyes and 23 knows. The amendment is not agreed to. Are there any further amendments . For what purpose is mr. Jordan seek recognition . I have him at the desk. I reserve a point of order. The gentlelady reserve the point of order. And then into the amendment in the nature of the substitute, a trust 7 55 offered by mr. Jordan if ohio, page for, strike 1 23 and all that follows through page five line five, page eight, strike lines ten through 17. Gentleman is recognized for the purpose of explaining. I withdraw my point of order. Whatever is withdrawn. Miss chairman, the simply strikes the last eight lines in article one and the last eight lines in article two. Look, we have a rigged and brushed process. You dont have the facts on your side. Weve been through these facts many times. Ukraine did not 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 did not even know was on hold. That is their argument. By the way, down the road, president zelensky says there was no pressure on the call, no pushing, no linkage whatsoever. But you have a rigged and rush process where you dont have the facts. You have a written rushed process where you cannot accept the will of the American People. Speaker of the house pelosi, nancy pelosi called the president an impostor just three weeks ago. The democrats have never accepted the will of the American People and that is why they have been out to get this president since even before he was elected and of course you have a written rush process when you are afraid that you cannot beat the president at the ballot box, when you are nervous about asks false election, you have this kind of process, a rigged and rushed process. This is not about the concern, is not about the concern mr. Swalwell talked about earlier, that somehow the president is going to do something wrong and try to influence the election. No, this is about their concern that they cannot win next year based on what the president has accomplished in the past three years. I mean, it is an amazing record despite of democrats being completely against the president , despite the democrats being against the president , frankly, its part of a few republicans being against a president it is amazing what has been accomplished, taxes have been, cut regulations, reduce the economy growing at an unbelievable right, lowest unemployment in 50 years, 266,000 jobs i did last month alone, 54,000 in the manufacturing sector, mr. Gore search, mr. Kavanaugh on the court, a lot of other vulnerable judges confirmed out of the iran deal, embassy in jerusalem, and a new nafta agreement going to be voted on next week. Yeah, you guys are in a rigged and rush process because you are nervous about next november. Mr. Green says we have to impeach him because hes going to win the election. You know what this is about. I think about this president. I think this is why the American People like him so, much because he is doing what he said he would do. Every president ial election ive been able to participate in, both candidates, republican and democrat candidate, when the campaign for the job they tell the country if you elect me im going to move the embassy to jerusalem. Republicans, democrats, they all campaigned on, it then they get elected, they come up with 1 million reasons why they say they cannot do what they were going to do, more importantly what the American People looking to do even to the same people, same inter Agency Consensus that weve heard over the last few months impeachment choir, even though that same inter Agency Consensus was probably against that, this president said, im glad to do it, and its been a good thing, that is what the American People appreciate, and that is why we got this region rush process because it is really about next november. They are all afraid. Some of their colleagues have said it straight up, they are afraid they cannot beat him at the ballot box so theyre going to do this rigged, rushed and wrong impeachment process. I yield the remainder of my time. I just want to ask the gentleman from ohio question. Based on the standards the democrats are starting 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 to being expelled or for abusing their position . Im just curious. I think i will let my colleague answer that question, but what i do know is that i think my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are, as i, said nervous about their prospects next november against President Trump based on his amazing record of leadership in the last two years. That i would yield back, thank you. The gentleman yields back. I will recognize myself,. I think that the facts amply demonstrate the charges in these two articles of impeachment, namely the president put his own interest in front of the interest of the country, that he sought to use the power of the presidency to withhold aid, military aid from an ally and to extort that ally into making an announcement, a bogus investigation of a political opponent of his for his own personal benefit and that he obstructed congress by refusing a cooperation and struck in the executive branch not to cooperate with congress in the executive in the impeachment inquiry. This amendment, this amendment simply takes the last two paragraphs out of each article, take the paragraphs has where for the president should be impeached, it renders the two articles simply a catalog of various bad act by the president , and takes the force and a fact of 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 simply renders the articles catalogues 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. Mister chairman. What purposes mr. Collins seek recognition . Strike last. Word gentleman is recognized. I think it is interesting how you just described this because really this is what we have seen this entire time, at the facts here is really all that you have. You keep throwing around these bad facts you dont like it is interesting to me also that to cataloguing, it finally got to, it the catalan