[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 36 (Wednesday, March 1, 2017)]
[House]
[Page H1397]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





                            CONNECT THE DOTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Jeffries) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JEFFRIES. Mr. Speaker, we have a reality show host masquerading 
as President of the United States of America who came to this Chamber 
yesterday in a Hollywood-style production and pretended to act 
Presidential.
  But the question that we confront is one that Richard Nixon actually 
first raised, in November of 1973, when he said that the American 
people deserve to know whether or not the President is a crook. That 
was an observation that Richard Nixon made in the context of the 
Watergate scandal which began as a nickel-and-dime break-in at the 
Democratic National Committee headquarters in the summer of 1972, and, 
obviously, concluded with impeachment proceedings and the ultimate 
resignation of a President in disgrace.
  Nixon made the observation that the American people deserve to know 
whether or not the President is a crook, and many people across the 
country are raising a similar question because 17 different 
intelligence agencies have concluded that the Russians, at the explicit 
direction of Vladimir Putin, interfered in our election for the purpose 
of helping Donald Trump. Yet, it is hard to get an independent 
investigation going in this place because my friends on the other side 
of the aisle continue to put party ahead of the country.
  But that is just the beginning. We know that, as early as December of 
2015, at least four different cronies of Donald Trump were in regular 
communication with Russian intelligence agents at the same time these 
individuals were hacking into the DNC, the DCCC, and the Clinton 
campaign, interfering with our democracy. These individuals were 
Michael Flynn, who came to become Trump's first national security 
adviser; Carter Page, who was his former foreign policy adviser; Paul 
Manafort, who was the chairman of the Trump campaign; and Roger Stone, 
a longtime affiliate.
  If they were having these conversations at this time, we know they 
probably weren't talking about Russian vodka. What were they talking 
about? The American people deserve to know.
  We also are aware that Michael Flynn had an illegal conversation, in 
December of 2016, with the Russian Ambassador where he discussed 
sanctions that were imposed on Russia because of their hacking. He then 
apparently lied about this conversation to the Vice President who then 
went out and misrepresented facts to the American people, and then 
Michael Flynn resigned in disgrace. But we still can't get an 
independent, nonpartisan investigation in this place.
  But that is not all. We know that Donald Trump has not been bashful 
when going after our allies like Mexico or Australia or NATO or the 
European Union or, this past weekend, France. He is not bashful about 
being critical, but he can't say a negative word about Vladimir Putin, 
a brutal dictator. It appears that this President is more determined to 
make the Kremlin great again.
  But that is not all. He refuses to release his taxes despite 
promising the American people that he was going to do so prior to 
November of last year. What exactly is he hiding in these tax 
documents? Yet, we still can't get an independent investigation.
  We also know that the White House Chief of Staff engaged in 
potentially unlawful conversations with the FBI, perhaps trying to get 
them to obstruct justice in the public sphere in the midst of an 
ongoing investigation.
  All we are saying is connect the dots. This should not be a 
Democratic issue or a Republican issue. The American people deserve to 
know whether or not the President is a crook.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from 
engaging in personalities toward the President.

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