December 19, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 206 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1631-E1633]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




IMPEACHING DONALD JOHN TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, FOR HIGH 
                        CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, December 18, 2019

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, last Friday, the 13th of December, 
the Judiciary Committee voted Articles of Impeachment against Donald 
John Trump, the 45th and current President of the United States and the 
House of Representatives debated and will vote on those articles of 
impeachment on December 18, 2019.
  The Judiciary Committee considered a voluminous amount of powerful, 
probative, and compelling evidence demonstrating that the President 
violated his oath of office, disregarded the nation's security, 
endeavored to corrupt the 2020 presidential election, and then launched 
a cover-up to prevent Congress from learning the full extent of his 
transgressions and acting to prevent their recurrence.
  Separately, I will discuss and evaluate in detail the evidence that 
supports the articles of impeachment, as well the evidence offered in 
defense of the President's conduct, but I rise today for the limited 
purpose of explaining briefly the reasons why the conduct described in 
the resolution of impeachment is of the utmost seriousness.
  On December 3, 2019, in the first of my Notes on Impeachment, I 
discussed and explained the enduring principles that I believe should 
guide consideration of any articles of impeachment.
  In this, the second part of my Notes on Impeachment, I will discuss 
why obstruction of the Congress, particularly the House of 
Representatives when it is exercising the powers vested in it 
exclusively by the Constitution in Article 1, Section 2, clause 5, is 
one of the grave transgressions that can be committed in this 
democratic republic.
  In February 2014, the military of the Russia Federation, without 
merit or cause, invaded the eastern part of the free and independent 
country of Ukraine, including the Donbass region and the Crimean 
Peninsula.
  The United States, a strategic ally of Ukraine, reacted swiftly to 
the Russian invasion, condemning the military action in strong and 
bipartisan fashion, and providing military, humanitarian, and non-
military financial assistance to the determined but beleaguered nation 
of Ukraine, which since 2014 has totaled approximately $1.5 billion.
  In September 2019, members of the House of Representatives were 
alerted to a complaint filed by a whistleblower within the Intelligence 
Community alleging that on a July 25, 2019, call with the President of 
Ukraine, the current President of the United States sought to withhold 
$391 million in foreign military aid to Ukraine unless and until it 
announced publicly that it was currently conducting corruption 
investigations against the American president's perceived chief 
election rival.
  On September 24, 2019, the Speaker of the House announced that the 
House of Representatives would commence an impeachment inquiry pursuant 
to its constitutional authority under article I, section 2, clause 5 to 
determine whether in connection with the July 25, 2019 telephone 
conversation with the President of Ukraine, the President of the United 
States has engaged in conduct constituting ``Treason, Bribery, or other 
High Crimes or Misdemeanors'' as specified in article II, section 4.
  On September 25, 2019, the White House released a Memorandum of 
Conversation in which the July 25, 2019 telephone conversation between 
the presidents of the United States and of Ukraine was memorialized and 
which corroborated in all material respects the allegations of the 
whistle blower.
  The Memorandum of Conversation released by the White House confirms 
that the President of the United States put his personal interests over 
the interests of the nation, engaged in behavior that undermines the 
integrity of American elections, demeans the dignity of the office of 
the President of the United States, and jeopardizes the security of the 
United States.
  Rather than denying the material allegations raised or expressing any 
regret, contrition, or apology for the serious breach of conduct, a 
week later, on October 3, 2019, the President of the United States went 
before national television cameras and confirmed that he desired for 
President Zelensky's Government of Ukraine to launch the investigations 
he requested, stating:
  ``If they were honest about it, they would start a major 
investigation into the Bidens . . . Likewise, China should start an 
investigation into the Bidens, because what happened in China is just 
about as bad as what happened with Ukraine.''
  On October 22, 2019, bemoaning his fate, but not regretting his 
conduct, the President of the United States tweeted that ``All 
Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here--a lynching,'' 
thus falsely drawing a moral equivalence between the exercise of the 
impeachment power expressly and solely conferred on the House of 
Representatives by the Constitution and lynching, the most heinous act 
of domestic terrorism and symbolic of one of the darkest and most 
shameful periods in America's past.
  From the moment Speaker Pelosi announced the House would commence 
investigation of the President's conduct, the President responded by 
initiating and orchestrating unprecedented defiance of Congress and 
impeding its ability to learn the facts and impose accountability by 
disregarding subpoenas, refusing all requests for the production of 
documents, directing his political appointees and other Executive 
Branch employees from testifying before or cooperating with Congress, 
and resorting to dilatory litigation in the pursuit of pursuing 
frivolous and specious claims, such as Article II empowers the 
President can do whatever he wants or that he is absolutely immune from 
congressional investigation.
  Madam Speaker, I am reminded that 21 years ago I served on the 
Judiciary Committee during the impeachment of a president, as did one 
of my predecessors, the late Barbara Jordan, who reminded the nation 
that our country depends on us to be big in the biggest moments.
  This generational passing of the torch is not unique but rather an 
indelible feature of the American Experience passed down to us from the 
Framers who met in Philadelphia 232 years ago to craft a Constitution 
forming a more perfect union, establishing justice, ensuring domestic 
tranquility, providing for the common defense, promoting the general 
welfare, and securing the blessing of liberty to them and their 
posterity.
  More than two centuries ago, in 1776, this country was founded on the 
basis of a bedrock belief in the revolutionary ideas that all men are 
created equal and are endowed with the inalienable right to life, 
liberty, and property; are entitled to live free of arbitrary rule; and 
most important, are endowed with the right to govern themselves.
  Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that ``all 
Experience has sh[o]wn that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while 
Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by taking'' immediate 
action against their oppressors.
  But, Jefferson continued, ``when a long Train of Abuses and 
Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to 
reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is there 
duty'' to take immediate action to repel the danger.
  Madam Speaker, the Framers had first-hand experience with the types 
of abuses and usurpations committed by political leaders who ruled them 
but were not accountable to them and detailed many of those wrongs in 
the Declaration of Independence.
  The Framers understood and declared to the world that democratic 
governors derived

[[Page E1632]]

their powers from the knowing and voluntary consent of the governed as 
expressed in free, fair, and unfettered elections unmarred by the 
influence or sabotage of any foreign country or entity not a member of 
the political community.
  The Framers understood that if elections are influenced by foreign 
actors, then voters are reduced from the great role of citizens to mere 
subjects, and government for and by the people is a sham.
  The most important feature of a democracy is that it is the voters 
who alone can confer the legitimate consent and authorization necessary 
to govern upon the governors who are then duty-bound to represent the 
voters' interests, and only their interests.
  Madam Speaker, the fundamental democratic compact between the 
governed and the governors is that the latter's authority and 
continuance in office comes exclusively from the governed and 
allegiance is owed exclusively to the governed.
  This agreement can only be reached through free and fair elections, a 
breach of which threatens the vitality and viability of the social 
contract upon which democratic self-rule of, by, and for the people 
depends.
  Based on their personal experiences, the Framers understood the 
importance of a president's allegiance being always and only to the 
nation.
  President Lincoln called the United States the ``last best hope of 
man on earth'' and stated at Gettysburg the importance of finishing the 
work we are in to ensure that ``government of the people, for the 
people, by the people does not perish from the earth.''
  The first of the two serious allegations before us is that President 
Donald John Trump concocted and masterminded a scheme to coerce 
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to conspire with him to 
sabotage an American election by announcing an investigation into false 
charges against his perceived chief political rival so that he could 
retain his office and continue to abuse his power.
  This is without doubt the most serious transgression that can be 
committed by a President who, as Lincoln said, has taken an oath 
``registered in Heaven'' to preserve, protect, and defend the 
Constitution of the United States.
  The second charge leveled against the President in the article of 
impeachment is that once the Congress and people of the United States 
learned of his perfidious scheme, the President responded by 
orchestrating another campaign to obstruct the ability of the House of 
Representatives to learn the full depth of the betrayal of his oath and 
his office by refusing to provide required information or to make 
witnesses available.
  Instead, the President reverted to his prior habit and practice of 
ignoring subpoenas, asserting specious privileges, intimidating 
witnesses, hiding evidence, suborning perjury, questioning the loyalty 
of dedicated career professionals, and pursuing frivolous litigation in 
the courts.
  The alleged misconduct of President Trump is a trifecta in America 
history because it involves the commission of the three serious 
offenses against the system most feared by the Framers.
  First, President Trump violated his oath of office by placing his 
personal and political interest above by the national interest by 
scheming to get Ukraine to investigate a potential election opponent.
  Second, President Trump betrayed the national interest by withholding 
vital, congressionally appropriated security assistance to a 
beleaguered and besieged ally facing armed aggression from Russia, 
America's implacable foe.
  Third, the essential purpose of the scheme concocted by President 
Trump was to enlist a foreign country to help him fix the 2020 
presidential election in his favor, the very type of interference most 
feared by the Framers.
  If American elections are not free, fair, and uninfluenced by foreign 
actors, then the democracy is extinguished and citizens are reduced to 
subjects ruled by an authority dependent not on the consent of the 
governed, but on the assistance and beneficence of unaccountable 
foreign actors.
  Such a state of affairs inevitably leads to actions taken by the 
ruler that are not in the interests of the nation, like dishonoring 
treaty agreements, abandoning allies, impugning the independent 
judiciary and the free press, disregarding fundamental rights and 
liberties of the people, abrogating civic norms and virtues, pursuing 
acts of personal enrichment, and currying favor with foreign despots 
and authoritarians.
  Although President Lincoln said in his First Inaugural Address that 
``while the people retain their virtue and vigilance no Administration 
by any extreme of wickedness or folly can very seriously injure the 
Government in the short space of four years,'' the Framers anticipated 
that the day may come when the actions of a Chief Magistrate would 
constitute a clear and present danger to the security and survival of 
the Republic.
  So, to protect the republic, the Framers equipped the representatives 
chosen directly by the people with the necessary means of protecting 
their liberty by wisely including in the supreme law of the land, the 
Constitution of the United States, Article I, Section 2, Clause 5, 
which vests the sole power of impeachment in the House of 
Representatives.
  Madam Speaker, it is no accident or coincidence that the Framers 
established Congress first in the Constitution as Article I.
  This is because unlike a monarchy or autocracy where the ``King is 
Law,'' in a democratic republic, the ``Law is King,'' and no man is 
above the law.
  In addition to making the legislative branch the preeminent but co-
equal branch, the Framers established the House of Representatives as 
the first of the two branches of the Congress.
  Members of the House are directly elected by citizen voters and 
unlike the Senate, no person can be appointed to the House; all Members 
of the House must be elected.
  Until the 17th Amendment was ratified in 1913, Senators were 
appointed by the State Legislature and even today a Senate vacancy can 
be filled by gubernatorial appointment.
  Presidents, of course, are selected by electors chosen by voters.
  This explains why the Framers understood the House would enjoy a 
``natural superiority'' over the Senate and other branches of 
government.
  Madam Speaker, in a democracy the People are the ultimate repository 
of political power and authority and the Framers created the House of 
Representatives to be the direct representative of the People.
  This is why the most powerful of all governmental prerogatives, the 
Power of the Purse, is vested solely in the House of Representatives by 
the Constitution which provides in Article I, Section 7 that ``[A]ll 
bills for the raising of revenue shall originate in the House of 
Representatives.''
  Madam Speaker, the Preamble explains that the reason ``We, The People 
of the United States,'' established the Constitution was to create a 
more perfect union where justice reigned and the law protected 
everyone, where the general welfare of the community was a paramount 
objective and liberty was secured for everyone, now and for the 
generations to come.
  Our form of government was created to secure the self-evident and 
inalienable right of The People to live free of arbitrary rule or 
despotism or tyranny.
  And that is why the Constitution necessarily includes a provision to 
remove from office any civil officer, including the President and Vice 
President, whose conduct and actions pose a clear and present threat to 
the system created by the People to secure their happiness.
  The purpose of the Impeachment Clause is to protect The People, not 
punish the person and that is why the Framers vested the sole power of 
impeachment in the institutional embodiment of The People, the House of 
Representatives.
  And that is why a refusal to cooperate or provide information 
requested by the House of Representatives in furtherance of its 
impeachment power is different in degree and kind from other inter-
branch policy disputes.
  When the Chief Executive undertakes a wide-spread, full-scale, across 
the board campaign to impede and frustrate the House of Representatives 
in the exercise of its Impeachment Power, he is putting his interests 
and his desires above the interests of The People, the gravest offense 
that can be committed in a democratic republic.
  The impeachment power is vested solely in the House of 
Representatives because no one can tell the People how to go about 
protecting themselves; if they are required to obtain the permission or 
consent of another body, then the People are not in charge of 
determining their fate, and that means our system can be called many 
things but not a democratic republic.
  Madam Speaker, in 1862, at another moment of national crisis, 
President Lincoln said:

     ``The fiery trial through which we pass,
     will light us down,
     in honor or dishonor,
     to the latest generation.''

  And I say to the Members of the House that:

     In honoring and defending the Constitution,
     We defend and honor ourselves,
     Precious alike in what we give
     and what we receive.

     For in honoring and defending the Constitution,
     We keep faith with the Framers to whom we are heir, and
     Are worthy of the esteem of our countrymen,
     Now, and in the generations to come.

  Madam Speaker, as a Member of Congress, I have taken an oath to 
preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States 
against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and I do not shrink from 
this duty.
  So, with love and reverence for this country and its people, I stand 
with the Constitution and that is why I supported the resolution 
impeaching Donald John Trump, President of the

[[Page E1633]]

United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors.

                          ____________________