December 3, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 192 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session
PRINCIPLES GOVERNING CONSIDERATION OF ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT OF A PRESIDENT; Congressional Record Vol. 165, No. 192
(Extensions of Remarks - December 03, 2019)
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[Extensions of Remarks] [Pages E1525-E1526] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] PRINCIPLES GOVERNING CONSIDERATION OF ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT OF A PRESIDENT ______ HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE of texas in the house of representatives Tuesday, December 3, 2019 Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, as a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee and one who served on the Committee during the last impeachment proceeding, I rise to share some of the fundamental principles that will guide my deliberations on the momentous task before the Committee. In 1776, the Framers founded this country and created this government on the basis of a [[Page E1526]] bedrock belief in a revolutionary assumption: that all men are created equal and have 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 their duty'' to take immediate action to repel the danger. 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 that democratic governors derived 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 entity not a member of the political community. If elections are influenced by foreign actors, then voters are reduced from citizens to 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. 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 depends. Based on their personal experiences, the Framers understood the importance of a president's allegiance being always and only to the nation. That is why they included the Emoluments Clause in the Constitution as Article I, section 9, clause 8, which bans Presidents from accepting titles of nobility and strictly prohibits the acceptance of any emolument of any kind from any king, prince, or foreign state. 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 serious allegation before us is that the President extorted or bribed the head of a foreign nation to conspire with him to sabotage an American election by manufacturing false charges against his political rival so that he could retain his office and continue to abuse his power. This is undoubtedly the most serious transgression that could 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. If American elections are not free, fair, and uninfluenced by foreign actors, then the democracy is extinguished, and the people do not rule. Instead, 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 would lead 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. 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 Constitution of the United States, Article I, section 2, clause 5, which vests the sole power of impeachment in the House of Representatives. As a Member of Congress who has taken an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, these are the principles to which I am in fidelity and against which I will evaluate the actions of the President of the United States. ____________________