February 5, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 24 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session

[Pages S871-S872]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              IMPEACHMENT

  Mr. MERKLEY. Madam President, as Senators, our decisions build the 
foundation for future generations. I want those generations to know 
that I stood here on the floor of this Chamber fighting for equal 
justice under law. I stood here to defend our Senate's responsibility 
to provide a fair trial with witnesses and documents. I stood here to 
say that when our President invites and pressures a foreign government 
to smear a political opponent and corrupt the integrity of our 2020 
Presidential election, he must be removed from office.
  As a number of my Republican colleagues have confessed, the House 
managers have proven their case. President Trump did sanction a corrupt 
conspiracy to smear a political opponent, former Vice President Joe 
Biden. President Trump assigned Rudy Giuliani, his personal lawyer, to 
accomplish that goal by arranging sham investigations by the Government 
of Ukraine. President Trump advanced his corrupt scheme by instructing 
the three amigos--Ambassador Volker, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, 
and Ambassador Gordon Sondland--to work with Rudy for this goal. 
President Trump did use the resources of America, including an Oval 
Office meeting and security assistance to pressure Ukraine, which was 
at war with Russia, to participate in this corrupt conspiracy. The 
facts are clear.
  But do President Trump's acts rise to the level the Framers 
envisioned for removal of a President, or are they, as some colleagues 
in this Chamber have said, simply ``inappropriate,'' but not 
``impeachable''? With respect to those colleagues, ``inappropriate'' is 
lying to the public; ``inappropriate'' is shunning our allies or 
failing to put your personal assets into a blind trust or encouraging 
foreign governments to patronize your properties. That is something you 
might call ``inappropriate,'' but that word does not begin to encompass 
President Trump's actions in this case--a corrupt conspiracy comprising 
a fundamental assault on our Constitution.
  This conspiracy is far worse than Watergate. Watergate was about a 
break-in to spy on the Democratic National Committee--bad, yes; wrong, 
definitely. But Watergate didn't involve soliciting foreign 
interference to destroy the integrity of an election. It didn't involve 
an effort to smear a political opponent. Watergate did not involve an 
across-the-board blockade of access by Congress to witnesses and 
documents.

[[Page S872]]

  If you believe that Congress was right to conclude that President 
Nixon's abuse of power merited expulsion from office, you have no 
choice but to conclude that President Trump's corrupt conspiracy merits 
his expulsion from office.
  President Trump should be removed from office this very day by action 
in this very Chamber, but he will not be removed because this Senate 
has failed to conduct a full and fair trial to reveal the extensive 
dimensions of his conspiracy and because the siren call to party 
loyalty over country has infected this Chamber.
  Every American understands what constitutes a full and fair trial. A 
full and fair trial has witnesses. A full and fair trial has documents. 
A full and fair trial does not begin with the jury foreman declaring 
that he is working hand-in-glove with the defendant. When discussing 
why the Senate tries impeachments, Alexander Hamilton stated: ``Where 
else than in the Senate could have been found a tribunal sufficiently 
dignified, or sufficiently independent'' for that daunting 
responsibility?
  Every American should feel the sadness, the darkness, the tragedy of 
this moment in which this Senate is neither sufficiently dignified nor 
sufficiently independent for that responsibility.
  The Senate trial became a coverup when the majority voted on January 
22 and again on January 31 to block all access to witnesses and 
documents. If this coverup goes forward, it will be the latest in a set 
of corrupt firsts this Senate has achieved under Republican leadership.
  It has been the first Senate to ignore our constitutional 
responsibilities to debate and vote on a Supreme Court nominee in 2016. 
It became the first Senate to complete the theft of a Supreme Court 
seat from one administration giving it to another in 2017.
  And now, it becomes the first Senate in American history to replace 
an impeachment trial with a coverup. President Trump might want to 
consider this: With a coverup in lieu of a trial, there is no 
``exoneration,'' no matter how badly President Trump might want it. No 
matter how boldly he might claim it, there is no ``exoneration'' from a 
coverup.
  If this Senate fails to convict President Trump when we vote later 
today, we destroy our constitutional responsibility to serve as a check 
against the abuses of a runaway President. It is a devastating blow to 
the checks and balances which have stood at the heart of our 
Constitution.
  Our tripartite system is like a three-legged stool, where each leg 
works in balance with the others. If one leg is cracked or weakened, 
well, that stool topples over. If the Senate's responsibility is gutted 
and the limits on Presidential power are undermined, then, there is 
lasting damage to the checks and balances our Founders so carefully 
crafted.
  Let's also be clear. The situation that we find ourselves in today 
didn't spring out of nowhere. With respect to the Chief Justice, the 
road to this moment has been paved by decisions made in the Supreme 
Court undermining the ``We the People'' Republic, while Justice Roberts 
has led the Court--decisions like Citizens United in 2010, which 
corrupted our political campaigns with a flood of dark money, the 
equivalent of a stadium sound system drowning out the voice of the 
people; decisions like Shelby County in 2013, which gutted the Voting 
Rights Act, opening the door to voter suppression and voter 
intimidation--if you believe in our Republic, you believe in voter 
empowerment, not voter supression--decisions like Rucho V. Common Cause 
in 2019, giving the green light to extreme partisan gerrymandering, in 
which politicians choose their voters rather than voters choosing their 
politicians. It is one blow after another giving more power to the 
powerful and undermining the vision of government of, by, and for the 
people--blow after blow making officials more responsive to the rich 
and wealthy donors than the people they are elected to represent.
  These Supreme Court decisions have elevated government by and for the 
powerful, and trampled government by and for the people, paving the 
path for this dark moment in which the U.S. Senate chooses to defend a 
corrupt President by converting a trial into a coverup. A trial without 
access to witnesses and documents is what one expects of a corrupted 
court in Russia or China, not the United States of America.
  We know what democracy looks like, and it is not just about having 
the Constitution or holding elections. Our democracy is not set in 
stone. It is not guaranteed by anything other than the good will and 
good faith of the people of this country. Keeping a democracy takes 
courage and commitment. As the saying goes, ``freedom isn't free.'' It 
is an inheritance bequeathed to us by those who have fought and bled 
and died to ensure that government ``of the people, by the people, for 
the people shall not perish from the Earth.''
  Fighting for that inheritance doesn't only happen on the battlefield. 
It happens when Americans everywhere go to the polls to cast a ballot. 
It happens when ordinary citizens, distraught at what they are seeing, 
speak up, join a march, or run for office to make a difference. And it 
happens here in this Chamber--in this Senate Chamber--when Senators put 
addressing the challenges of our country over the pressures from their 
party.
  Before casting their votes today, I urge each and every one of my 
colleagues to ask themselves: Will you defend the integrity of our 
elections? Will you deliver impartial justice? Will you protect the 
separation of powers--the heart of our Constitution? Will you uphold 
the rule of law and the inspiring words carved above the doors of our 
Supreme Court, ``Equal Justice Under Law''?
  I stand here today in support of our Constitution, which has made our 
Nation that shining city on a hill. I stand here today for equal 
justice under law. I stand here today for a full and fair trial as our 
Constitution demands. I stand here today to say that a President who 
has abused this office by soliciting a foreign country to intervene in 
the election of 2020 and bias the outcome--betraying the trust of the 
American people and undermining the strength of our Constitution--must 
be removed from office.
  I yield the floor.

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