[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 205 (Wednesday, December 18, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7146-S7147]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Impeachment

  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, it is a historic day and busy week in 
the Senate. The historic day happening is happening just south of us 
right now. There is debate in the House of Representatives over 
impeaching the President of the United States. It is only the third 
time that has ever occurred in our Nation's multicentury history.
  Current impeachment conversation is an interpretation of a phone call 
President Trump had with President Zelensky; that if you twist that 
phone call just the right way, it sounds like he is trying to influence 
the President of Ukraine, except the President of Ukraine never said he 
felt influenced by that, and they never took any action President Trump 
is being accused of. Five different meetings happened in the days after 
that phone call and none of those meetings ever included any 
conversation about Rudy Giuliani or Hunter Biden or Joe Biden. The 
money did go to Ukraine in time. It was the 11th of September, and the 
deadline for it to arrive was the 30th of December. The whole time the 
Ukrainians, who apparently were threatened by President Trump according 
to the Articles of Impeachment, said they never knew they were 
threatened.
  I have a feeling that if President Trump wanted to threaten somebody, 
they would know it, but apparently, in this situation, the House is 
currently impeaching the President because they perceived the President 
meant to do something he didn't actually do, when the whole time the 
President said that, no, that was never his intent. The only one fact 
witness the House called through the entire process--the one fact 
witness they called--said they actually talked to the President, and 
the President said: No, there is not any quid pro quo; of course I 
don't want to do that.
  But they are going through impeachment anyway. That will then come to 
the Senate in January, and all of January will be consumed with walking 
through the two Articles of Impeachment the House is choosing to send 
over.
  It is ironic to me that earlier today, Michael Horowitz, who is the 
inspector general for the Department of Justice, was in a hearing in 
the Senate, talking about the process on the Russia investigation. I 
happened to be on that committee as we went through the process. It was 
very ironic to me today, in the line of questions and the issues and 
things that were coming up in the Horowitz report, one of the things 
that probably the media will never report on, but Michael Horowitz, the 
inspector general, pulled out through this process, was, in October of 
2016, Christopher Steele--famous for the dossier that was an opposition 
research project from the Democratic National Committee on President 
Trump leading up to the election that was supposedly all this dirty 
information about Russia. Christopher Steele was contacted by someone 
in the State Department, the Obama-led State Department. In October of 
2016, Christopher Steele was invited to the State Department where,

[[Page S7147]]

at that time, State Department officials gave Christopher Steele 
information that they said was from a Turkish businessman who had been 
visiting with a Russian member of the FSB that was derogatory to 
President Trump, and they were encouraging Steele to take that back and 
then use it before the election.
  The irony of the day today for me is, while the House is impeaching 
the President, at the same time that is being debated, Michael 
Horowitz, the inspector general, is giving testimony about individuals 
in the Obama-era State Department getting information from foreign 
individuals, slipping it to individuals working on the Clinton 
campaign, and literally using foreign sources to fight against 
Candidate Trump from Hillary Clinton's staff at the State Department.
  Sometimes the world feels more upside down than others. This is one 
of those weeks. A year ago today, the Senate was working in a 
bipartisan fashion to be able to pass the criminal justice reform bill, 
called the FIRST STEP Act. It was a landmark piece of legislation 
dealing with helping us in Federal prisons deal with recidivism. That 
was a good day for us in Congress.
  We started getting more job training to people who are in prison, 
more opportunities for faith-based programs in our Federal 
penitentiaries--just like they are in our State penitentiaries--more 
opportunities for prisoners to connect with their families because the 
vast majority of prisoners in our Federal prisons will be released one 
day, and it would be helpful if they had job training and if they had a 
faith-based background, if they choose to, and if they have connections 
to make with their families. It helps us bring down the crime rate in 
the days ahead. That was a year ago today in the Senate, instead of 
fighting through the impeachment process that is happening now.
  There are a lot of people who said to me recently that nothing is 
getting done. That was true for the past couple of months while we have 
been waiting on the House to be able to move on other issues, but this 
week has been a pretty busy week moving through pieces of legislation.