[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 169 (Thursday, October 24, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6136-S6137]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Trump Administration

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, over the past few weeks, the House of 
Representatives has continued to hear testimony as part of its 
impeachment inquiry, which stems from allegations that President Trump 
pressured a foreign leader to investigate a domestic political rival. 
These allegations were deemed ``credible'' and an ``urgent concern'' by 
the inspector general of the intelligence community, who is a Trump 
appointee. That is how this all started, not with some Democrat 
stirring the pot but with a Trump appointee, a very well-respected man, 
saying that these allegations were credible and urgent.
  The public record--the public record--shows that the White House 
delayed more than $391 million in crucial security assistance to 
Ukraine to help the country stave off Russian aggression. In a 
memorandum of the President's phone call with Ukrainian President 
Zelensky, released by the White House itself, the President requested 
Ukraine undertake investigations that would benefit him politically.
  Only a few days ago, as we all know, the Chief of Staff to the 
President, Mick Mulvaney, admitted publicly that the administration 
held up security assistance for the same political reasons. Mr. 
Mulvaney, of course, later attempted to retract his comments, but his 
original statements were quite clear, and I would say that anyone who 
is not biased believed the original.
  The White House continues to claim that fighting corruption in 
Ukraine was its only intent, but that is belied by the fact that it has 
proposed massive cuts to the State Department's budget to fight 
corruption around the world. On the one hand they say we

[[Page S6137]]

want Ukraine to fight corruption, and, on the other hand, they cut in 
the budget huge amounts of money aimed at fighting corruption.
  No one believes the President these days on so many things, but this 
issue is pretty clear. If you believe in fighting corruption, you don't 
cut the funds to fight corruption and at the same time pick out one 
country.
  The facts are part of the public record. They are deeply troubling, 
and they come before Ambassador Taylor's testimony this week. By all 
accounts, Mr. Taylor's testimony was explosive and undeniably credible, 
detailing a pattern of activity that corroborated the account provided 
by the whistleblower--this time from a career diplomat, a West Point 
graduate who has served every administration, Democrat and Republican, 
since 1985.
  Taylor is the kind of person Americans admire--down the road, 
nonpolitical, served the country, West Point, served Democrat and 
Republican administrations ably well. But all of a sudden, of course, 
he is an anathema because he spoke truth to power. President Trump 
doesn't like that, and our Republican friends who cower before 
President Trump don't like it, but Americans know what is going on.
  Mr. Taylor's written statement referred to additional documentation 
for the events he described in his testimony, notes and memos that are 
in the custody of the State Department. These records are part of a 
broader set of documents that is under subpoena by the House of 
Representatives, which the State Department is refusing to turn over to 
Congress. Yesterday, the House issued a new request for Mr. Taylor's 
documents.
  What is it, Trump administration? What is it, Republicans? On the one 
hand, you say you want everything to be public when it comes to the 
hearings, but you will not give up any documents. Pompeo will not come 
and testify. Again, the hypocrisy, the self-serving nature of the 
President's statements and his Republican allies' here in the House and 
Senate are glaring: We don't want any sunlight when it comes to 
documents, when it comes to even bringing Secretary Pompeo here. But 
all of a sudden, because they don't like what is being heard in the 
hearings, we need everything public.
  Well, one way or the other, I would like to see everything public--
these documents--and the House has said that they will have public 
testimony. But the hypocrisy of our Republican friends and of the 
President is glaring on these issues.
  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo--usually very eager to state what he 
thinks boldly, he is ducking, he is running. He hasn't explained this 
brazen disregard for the law and defiance of congressional oversight. 
Where is Secretary Pompeo? The pattern of Presidential misconduct 
alleged in the whistleblower complaint runs straight through his 
Department. It concerns the most sensitive diplomatic interests of the 
United States, our national security, and the potential corruption of 
foreign policy. Where is Representative Pompeo?
  We know people have disagreed and had the guts to disagree with the 
President. General Mattis is at the top of the list. We heard from 
Brett McGurk yesterday. He is there. Probably John Bolton is, too, even 
though I don't agree with his views on a whole lot of stuff. We all 
know that Representative Pompeo, when he was in the House, would be 
incensed with this defiance of congressional prerogatives. When he ran 
the Benghazi hearings--many believe extremely unfairly, in a partisan 
and biased way--he wanted everything to come out. Now he is ducking. 
Now he is hiding. We need Representative Pompeo back here, the one who 
said things should be made public, when it was a different 
administration.
  To make matters worse, not only is Secretary Pompeo ducking, but 
maybe he is complicit in all of this, because his name has surfaced on 
multiple occasions in the tale of the administration's very 
questionable dealings with Ukraine. For instance, Ambassador Taylor's 
written statement indicates that on August 29, at the suggestion of 
National Security Advisor John Bolton, Mr. Taylor sent a first-person 
cable directly to Secretary Pompeo relaying his concerns about the 
delay in security aid. The State Department's stonewalling creates the 
appearance that the Secretary is covering up not only for the President 
but also for himself.
  Without question, the State Department documents described by Mr. 
Taylor must be provided to Congress and the stonewalling of Congress 
must end. Secretary Pompeo must explain himself. He has too many 
questions to answer about events that concern his Department, his 
subordinates, and his actions. If he has any--any--regard for his own 
reputation, he would do these things.
  Ideally, all Members of the House and Senate would agree on the need 
for Congress to see the full records here, but yesterday, as we know, a 
rump group of House Republicans stormed the secure facility in the 
Capitol--many with their cell phones in hand, even though that is 
against the rules--in an attempt to highlight the purported secrecy of 
the process. Some Representatives reportedly asked--let me repeat: 
asked--to be arrested.
  It was an obvious and outrageous breach of House rules and of the 
security measures that exist to protect sensitive information from our 
adversaries, even more so because it was so transparently a stunt--a 
puerile, childish stunt. It is not the kind of thing that the House of 
Representatives--any Member of the House of Representatives--should 
stand for. The hypocrisy of those who stormed the Chamber is glaring. 
According to the reports, more than one-third of the House Republicans 
who stormed the SCIF--the closed-off place that is secured--are Members 
who were already allowed in the closed hearings. They are allowed to 
ask questions of witnesses and participate in the factfinding. They 
know as well as I do that there will be public hearings in the future 
once the evidence is gathered.
  This is not about process; this is a diversion. That is certain. This 
is because House Republicans do not like the facts and want to suppress 
them. That is the reason they are storming, trying to create this 
childish, infantile fuss. They don't want to open up the process; they 
want to shut it down.
  If the White House and its congressional allies truly wanted an open 
and transparent process, the White House would provide the documents 
Congress requested. It wouldn't defy subpoenas. It wouldn't forbid 
executive branch employees from testifying. You can't just flip a 
switch--one day, suppress evidence, and the next, argue for a 
transparent and open process. The hypocrisy, the self-interested 
dealing, is self-evident.
  Rather than stomp their feet in a fit of staged political theater, 
House Republicans--all Republicans--should join us in getting all the 
facts. That is what we ask for in this Chamber. We are not prejudging 
the facts. We may be a jury, but we want the facts to come out, not 
some but all. That is our responsibility, to get the facts out, all of 
us. Matters as grave as the ones that form the basis of the House 
impeachment inquiry require us to put country over party. That is what 
Democrats will do. That is what Republicans must do as well.
  All the facts must come out. Those who are attempting to obstruct 
this factfinding inquiry may regret the day they said all they want to 
do is open up the process. Our Republican friends may get what they 
wished for--all the facts coming out. They will regret it because, at 
least from reports, the facts are very troubling.