[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 193 (Wednesday, December 4, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S6831]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Impeachment

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, yesterday afternoon, the majority on the 
House Intelligence Committee released a report on the evidence it has 
examined thus far in the impeachment inquiry into President Trump. The 
report asserted that the inquiry has ``uncovered a months-long effort 
by President Trump to use the powers of his office to solicit foreign 
interference on his behalf in the 2020 election,'' going on to say that 
the ``President placed his own personal and political interests above 
the national interests of the United States.''
  Those are extremely serious charges, and the conduct they describe is 
undoubtedly worthy of congressional investigation, which is precisely 
what the House impeachment inquiry is designed to do.
  Whatever your party affiliation, it is up to us in Congress--and 
particularly in the Senate--to examine the evidence, remain impartial, 
and treat this matter with the seriousness it deserves. But at the 
moment, too many Members of the President's party are stretching the 
bounds of truth in an attempt to defend the President's behavior. 
Certain Members on the other side have parroted the fiction invented by 
Vladimir Putin's intelligence services that Ukraine, not just Putin, 
interfered in the 2016 elections. One Member repeated this falsehood, 
recanted on live television, and then went back to making similar 
comments a few days later.
  Yesterday, Leader McConnell, when asked to set the record straight, 
said that it was a matter for the intelligence committees to look into.
  Well, Leader McConnell, the intelligence committees have looked at 
it. In fact, according to reports, the Republican-led Senate 
Intelligence Committee investigated the allegations that Ukraine 
interfered in the 2016 election and found no evidence to support the 
claims. The Republican-led Intelligence Committee found no evidence, 
and Leader McConnell and so many of our Republican friends, in febrile 
obeisance to Donald Trump and his falsehoods and lies, have refused to 
even rebut that.
  It is a dark day for America when a foreign leader who is our enemy 
can spread a false truth and is either defended or there is a lack of 
rebuttal from our Republican colleagues. What the heck is going on here 
in this America?
  David Hale, the No. 3 official at President Trump's State Department, 
was asked by Senator Menendez yesterday whether he was aware of any 
evidence of Ukrainian interference in 2016. He said: I am not. He was 
not aware. Fiona Hill, another Trump appointee and a former NSC 
official, testified under oath that it was ``a fictional narrative.''
  There is no doubt that the idea of Ukrainian interference in 2016 is 
a hoax perpetrated by Putin's intelligence services, echoed by FOX News 
and acolytes of President Trump's, who similarly have shown no regard 
for truth--none.
  The fact that Republican Senators are repeating and amplifying this 
fiction or playing coy about it, as Leader McConnell is, is just wrong 
for America, wrong for the future of our country--a turning point, a 
dark point, in our history. And in my view, it shows the extreme 
depths--the febrile depths--to which certain Members on the other side 
will stoop to provide cover to a President accused of serious 
wrongdoing--a President who almost no American believes is credible any 
longer.