[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 172 (Wednesday, October 30, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6261-S6262]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              IMPEACHMENT

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I know you aren't going to believe 
this--what happened in addition to President Trump being sworn in--but 
on January 20, 2017, President Trump was sworn into office and became 
our Nation's 45th President. Most Presidents enjoy what political 
scientists refer to as a ``honeymoon'' period. During that honeymoon 
period, these new Presidents are given a chance to push their agenda, 
and partisan politics usually takes a back seat--but not for this 
President.
  On his Inauguration Day, January 20, 2017, a Washington Post headline 
read--so it had to be coming out even before he was sworn in--``The 
campaign to impeach President Trump has begun.'' That campaign has been 
in full swing ever since. Let's make no mistake: This process about 
concerns over alleged high crimes and misdemeanors, as the Constitution 
speaks about the reasons for impeachment, doesn't really mean much 
compared to an effort to impeach this President that started before he 
ever was sworn in. No, instead, this is about the Democratic Party, 
still bitter years later, trying to undo the 2016 election.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record 
that article in the Washington Post, dated January 20, 2017.
   There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                [From the Washington Post, Jan. 20, 2017]

            The Campaign to Impeach President Trump Has Begun

                             (By Matea Gold)

        The effort to impeach President Donald John Trump is 
     already underway.
        At the moment the new commander in chief was sworn in, a 
     campaign to build public support for his impeachment went 
     live at ImpeachDonaldTrumpNow.org, spearheaded by two liberal 
     advocacy groups aiming to lay the groundwork for his eventual 
     ejection from the White House.
        The organizers behind the campaign, Free Speech for People 
     and RootsAction, are hinging their case on Trump's insistence 
     on maintaining ownership of his luxury hotel and golf course 
     business while in office. Ethics experts have warned that his 
     financial holdings could potentially lead to constitutional 
     violations and undermine public faith in his decision-making.
        Their effort is early, strategists admit. But they insist 
     it is not premature--even if it triggers an angry backlash 
     from those who will argue that they are not giving the new 
     president a chance.
        ``If we were to wait for all the ill effects that could 
     come from this, too much damage to our democracy would 
     occur,'' said Ron Fein, legal director at Free Speech for 
     People. ``It will undermine faith in basic institutions. If 
     nothing else, it's important for Americans to trust that the 
     president is doing what he thinks is the right thing . . . 
     not that it would help jump-start a stalled casino project in 
     another country.''
        The impeachment drive comes as Democrats and liberal 
     activists are mounting broad opposition to stymie Trump's 
     agenda. Among the groups organizing challenges to the Trump 
     administration is the American

[[Page S6262]]

     Civil Liberties Union, which plans to wield public-records 
     requests and lawsuits as part of an aggressive action plan 
     aimed at protecting immigrants and pushing for government 
     transparency, among other issues.
        ``We think that President Trump will be in violation of 
     the Constitution and federal statutes on day one, and we plan 
     a vigorous offense to ensure the worst of the constitutional 
     violations do not occur,'' said Anthony D. Romero, the ACLU's 
     executive director.
        ``We may have a new president, but we have the same old 
     system of checks and balances,'' he added.
        Strategists behind the campaign for impeachment said they 
     are confident that other groups will soon join their cause. 
     They argue that Trump will immediately be in violation of the 
     U.S. Constitution's Foreign Emoluments Clause, which 
     prohibits a president from accepting a gift or benefit from a 
     foreign leader or government.
        Fein cited several examples, including rent paid by the 
     Industrial & Commercial Bank of China for its space in Trump 
     Tower in New York and potential ongoing spending by foreign 
     diplomats at the Trump International Hotel in Washington and 
     other Trump properties. In addition, he said, royalties 
     collected by the Trump organization from the president's 
     business partner in the Philippines, who was recently named 
     special envoy to the United States, could violate the clause.
        Trump said this month that he would donate ``profits'' 
     from foreign business clients to the U.S. Treasury. However, 
     neither Trump nor representatives of the Trump Organization 
     have provided details on how such payments would be tracked, 
     collected and disbursed.
        The foreign emoluments clause has never been tested in the 
     courts, and some scholars argue that violating it would not 
     qualify as ``treason, bribery or other high crimes and 
     misdemeanors,'' the grounds for impeachment of a federal 
     official.
        But Fein noted that former Virginia governor Edmund 
     Jennings Randolph, a delegate to the Constitutional 
     Convention and later the first U.S. attorney general, argued 
     during Virginia's debate over ratifying the constitution that 
     a president who was found to have taken a foreign emolument 
     ``may be impeached.''
        His group has mapped out a long-shot political strategy to 
     build support for a vote in the House on articles of 
     impeachment.
        The first step is fairly simple: getting a resolution 
     introduced that calls for the House Judiciary Committee to 
     investigate whether there are grounds to impeach Trump--a 
     move that Fein said a number of members of Congress are 
     interested in taking. ``Getting it introduced is not going to 
     be a problem,'' he said.
        Still, the idea that a majority of the GOP-controlled 
     House members would ultimately vote to launch an 
     investigation of the new president seems highly improbable. 
     Fein said he is confident the political climate will change 
     and lawmakers will eventually support the effort.
        ``I think that at a certain point, the combination of new 
     revelations coming out and, importantly, calls and pressure 
     from constituents in their own districts will be a deciding 
     factor,'' he said. ``And at some point, they will decide it 
     is in their own interests to support this.''
        While half a dozen federal judges in American history have 
     been impeached by the House and successfully convicted in the 
     Senate, no U.S. president has ever been removed from office 
     through such a process. The closest was Andrew Johnson, who 
     narrowly avoided conviction in the Senate in 1868 after the 
     House charged him with removing the secretary of war in 
     violation of the Tenure of Office Act.
        In 1974, the House Judiciary Committee approved articles 
     of impeachment against then-President Richard Nixon, but he 
     resigned before they could be voted on by the full House. 
     President Bill Clinton was impeached by the House on charges 
     of perjury and obstruction of justice, but the articles of 
     impeachment were defeated in the Senate in 1999.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. I yield the floor.

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