[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 148 (Thursday, September 6, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H7874-H7875]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      IMPEACHMENT IS THE SOLUTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Al Green) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, and still I rise. I am always 
proud to stand in the well. It is an honor to have the preeminent 
privilege to speak to the Nation from this point, from this very place 
in Congress.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call to the attention of the American 
public, the American people, an article that was printed in The New 
York Times yesterday. It is styled: ``I Am Part of the Resistance 
Inside the Trump Administration.''
  I cannot vouch for this article, but there is one passage that I can 
speak of with some degree of credibility. It reads: `` . . . we believe 
our first duty is to our country. . . . `'
  Regardless as to what else in this article may or may not be true, 
this is true: Our country should come first.
  I love my country, and I stand here today because I do.
  It goes on to say: ``and the President continues to act in a manner 
that is detrimental to the health of our Republic.''
  This is true. I think there is little debate about some aspects of 
the things that the President has done that are detrimental to the 
health of the Republic.
  We know that it was detrimental to the health of the Republic for the 
President to say there were some nice people among the racists and 
bigots in Charlottesville where a person lost her life.
  We know that it is detrimental to the Republic for the President to 
institute a policy that separates babies from their mothers and not 
find a way, to this day, to put them back together. We know that that 
is detrimental to the Republic.
  But what we also know is that there are great talking points about 
what the President has done, great talking points about how he is 
harming society, great talking points about how he is unfit to be 
President--great talking points.
  But here is the question: Where are the action items?
  It is not enough to have great talking points. I hear them all the 
time, if you will, on various shows on television. You hear people 
talking about how this is not American; this is un-American--great 
talking points.
  But at some point, we have to go from talking points to action items. 
At some point, we have to deal with the problem. It is not enough to 
identify it. We have got to also identify the solution.
  There is a solution to an unfit President. I thank God for giving me 
this opportunity to be in Congress, and I will not let my record show 
that I was here, and when there was a scourge, if you will, on the 
country by virtue of the way the President is behaving, I will not let 
my record show that I didn't take advantage of this opportunity to 
stand in the well and denounce what this President has done.
  There is a solution. Everybody knows it. And we are going to get 
there. But I will say this to you. We cannot allow political expediency 
to stand in the way of the moral imperative to remove a President who 
is doing things that are detrimental to the country.

[[Page H7875]]

  This is not about Democrats. This is about democracy. It is not about 
Republicans. It is about the Republic. And if we are going to save this 
Republic, we have got to remove this President from office.
  I have filed Articles of Impeachment to do so. I stand on what I have 
done, and I stand on this: I will not allow this to continue without a 
challenge. I will challenge him again. I will challenge this House. I 
will challenge us because this is our country that is in jeopardy, and 
we are doing very little to stop it. And we have the power. The Framers 
gave us the means.

                              {time}  1015

  It is not a question of whether there is a way. The question is, do 
we have the will to stand up for justice and stand up for our country?
  There is one solution. Article II, Section 4 speaks to it. There will 
be an impeachment of this President, or at least an attempt to get him 
out of office by way of impeachment. I stand on it.

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