[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 4 (Wednesday, January 8, 2020)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E11-E13]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
LETTER FROM PRESIDENT TRUMP
______
HON. W. GREGORY STEUBE
of florida
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, January 8, 2020
Mr. STEUBE. Madam Speaker, in light of how the House concluded 2019
with the passage of Articles of Impeachment, and the current state of
the process, the constituents of Florida's 17th Congressional District
and all Americans must be informed about the truth of this process as
accurately conveyed in this letter from President Trump to Speaker
Pelosi.
The White House,
Washington, December 17, 2019.
Hon. Nancy Pelosi,
Speaker of the House of Representatives,
Washington, DC.
Dear Madam Speaker: I write to express my strongest and
most powerful protest against the partisan impeachment
crusade being pursued by the Democrats in the House of
Representatives. This impeachment represents an unprecedented
and unconstitutional abuse of power by Democrat Lawmakers,
unequaled in nearly two and a half centuries of American
legislative history.
The Articles of Impeachment introduced by the House
Judiciary Committee are not recognizable under any standard
of Constitutional theory, interpretation, or jurisprudence.
They include no crimes, no misdemeanors, and no offenses
whatsoever. You have cheapened the importance of the very
ugly word, impeachment!
By proceeding with your invalid impeachment, you are
violating your oaths of office, you are breaking your
allegiance to the Constitution, and you are declaring open
war on American Democracy. You dare to invoke the Founding
Fathers in pursuit of this election-nullification scheme--yet
your spiteful actions display unfettered contempt for
America's founding and your egregious conduct threatens to
destroy that which our Founders pledged their very lives to
build. Even worse than offending the Founding Fathers, you
are offending Americans of faith by continually saying ``I
pray for the President,'' when you know this statement is not
true, unless it is meant in a negative sense. It is a
terrible thing you are doing, but you will have to live with
it, not I!
Your first claim, ``Abuse of Power,'' is a completely
disingenuous, meritless, and baseless invention of your
imagination. You know that I had a totally innocent
conversation with the President of Ukraine. I then had a
second conversation that has been misquoted,
mischaracterized, and fraudulently misrepresented.
Fortunately, there was a transcript of the conversation
taken, and you know from the transcript (which was
immediately made available) that the paragraph in question
was perfect. I said to President Zelensky: ``I would like you
to do us a favor, though, because our country has been
through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it.'' I said do
us a favor, not me, and our country, not a campaign. I then
mentioned the Attorney General of the United States. Every
time I talk with a foreign leader, I put America's interests
first, just as I did with President Zelensky.
You are turning a policy disagreement between two branches
of government into an impeachable offense--it is no more
legitimate than the Executive Branch charging members of
Congress with crimes for the lawful exercise of legislative
power.
You know full well that Vice President Biden used his
office and $1 billion dollars of U.S. aid money to coerce
Ukraine into firing the prosecutor who was digging into the
company paying his son millions of dollars. You know this
because Biden bragged about it on video. Biden openly stated:
``I said, `I'm telling you, you're not getting the billion
dollars' . . . I looked at them and said: `I'm leaving in six
hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you're not getting the
money.' Well, son of a bitch. He got fired.'' Even Joe Biden
admitted just days ago in an interview with NPR that it
``looked bad.'' Now you are trying to impeach me by falsely
accusing me of doing what Joe Biden has admitted he actually
did.
President Zelensky has repeatedly declared that I did
nothing wrong, and that there was No Pressure. He further
emphasized that it was a ``good phone call,'' that ``I don't
feel pressure,'' and explicitly stressed that ``nobody pushed
me.'' The Ukrainian Foreign Minister stated very Clearly: ``I
have never seen a direct link between investigations and
security assistance.'' He also said there was ``No
Pressure.'' Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, a supporter of
Ukraine who met privately with President Zelensky, has said:
``At no time during this meeting . . . was there any mention
by Zelensky or any Ukrainian that they were feeling pressure
to do anything in return for the military aid.'' Many
meetings have been held between representatives of Ukraine
and our country. Never once did Ukraine complain about
pressure being applied--not once! Ambassador Sandland
testified that I told him: ``No quid pro quo. I want nothing.
I want nothing. I want President Zelensky to do the right
thing, do what he ran on.''
The second claim, so-called ``Obstruction of Congress,'' is
preposterous and dangerous. House Democrats are trying to
impeach the duly elected President of the United States for
asserting Constitutionally based privileges that have been
asserted on a bipartisan basis by administrations of both
political parties throughout our Nation's history. Under that
standard, every American president would have been impeached
many times over. As liberal law professor Jonathan Turley
warned when addressing Congressional Democrats: ``I can't
emphasize this enough . . . if you impeach a president, if
you make a high crime and misdemeanor out of going to the
courts, it is an abuse of power. It's your abuse of power.
You're doing precisely what you're criticizing the President
for doing.''
Everyone, you included, knows what is really happening.
Your chosen candidate lost the election in 2016, in an
Electoral College landslide (306-227), and you and your party
have never recovered from this defeat. You have developed a
full-fledged case of what many in the media call Trump
Derangement Syndrome and sadly, you will never get over it!
You are unwilling and unable to accept the verdict issued at
the ballot box during the great Election of 2016. So you have
spent three straight years attempting to overturn the will of
the American people and nullify their votes. You view
democracy as your enemy!
Speaker Pelosi, you admitted just last week at a public
forum that your party's impeachment effort has been going on
for ``two and a half years,'' long before you ever heard
[[Page E12]]
about a phone call with Ukraine. Nineteen minutes after I
took the oath of office, the Washington Post published a
story headlined, ``The Campaign to Impeach President Trump
Has Begun.'' Less than three months after my inauguration,
Representative Maxine Waters stated, ``I'm going to fight
every day until he's impeached.'' House Democrats introduced
the first impeachment resolution against me within months of
my inauguration, for what will be regarded as one of our
country's best decisions, the firing of James Cormey (see
Inspector General Reports)--who the world now knows is one of
the dirtiest cops our Nation has ever seen. A ranting and
raving Congresswoman, Rashida Tlaib, declared just hours
after she was sworn into office, ``We're gonna go in there
and we're gonna impeach the motherf****r.'' Representative Al
Green said in May, ``I'm concerned that if we don't impeach
this president, he will get re-elected.'' Again, you and your
allies said, and did, all of these things long before you
ever heard of President Zelensky or anything related to
Ukraine. As you know very well, this impeachment drive has
nothing to do with Ukraine, or the totally appropriate
conversation I had with its new president. It only has to do
with your attempt to undo the election of 2016 and steal the
election of 2020!
Congressman Adam Schiff cheated and lied all the way up to
the present day, even going so far as to fraudulently make
up, out of thin air, my conversation with President Zelensky
of Ukraine and read this fantasy language to Congress as
though it were said by me. His shameless lies and deceptions,
dating all the way back to the Russia Hoax, is one of the
main reasons we are here today.
You and your party are desperate to distract from America's
extraordinary economy, incredible jobs boom, record stock
market, soaring confidence, and flourishing citizens. Your
party simply cannot compete with our record: 7 million new
jobs; the lowest-ever unemployment for African Americans,
Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans; a rebuilt military;
a completely reformed VA with Choice and Accountability for
our great veterans; more than 170 new federal judges and two
Supreme Court Justices: historic tax and regulation cuts; the
elimination of the individual mandate; the first decline in
prescription drug prices in half a century; the first new
branch of the United States Military since 1947, the Space
Force; strong protection of the Second Amendment; criminal
justice reform; a defeated ISIS caliphate and the killing of
the world's number one terrorist leader, al-Baghdadi; the
replacement of the disastrous NAFTA trade deal with the
wonderful USMCA (Mexico and Canada); a breakthrough Phase One
trade deal with China; massive new trade deals with Japan and
South Korea; withdrawal from the terrible Iran Nuclear Deal;
cancellation of the unfair and costly Paris Climate Accord;
becoming the world's top energy producer; recognition of
Israel's capital, opening the American Embassy in Jerusalem,
and recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights; a
colossal reduction in illegal border crossings, the ending of
Catch-and-Release, and the building of the Southern Border
Wall--and that is just the beginning, there is so much more.
You cannot defend your extreme policies--open borders, mass
migration, high crime, crippling taxes, socialized
healthcare, destruction of American energy, late-term
taxpayer-funded abortion, elimination of the Second
Amendment, radical far-left theories of law and justice, and
constant partisan obstruction of both common sense and common
good.
There is nothing I would rather do than stop referring to
your party as the Do-Nothing Democrats. Unfortunately, I
don't know that you will ever give me a chance to do so.
After three years of unfair and unwarranted investigations,
45 million dollars spent, 18 angry Democrat prosecutors, the
entire force of the FBI, headed by leadership now proven to
be totally incompetent and corrupt, you have found NOTHING!
Few people in high position could have endured or passed this
test. You do not know, nor do you care, the great damage and
hurt you have inflicted upon wonderful and loving members of
my family. You conducted a fake investigation upon the
democratically elected President of the United States, and
you are doing it yet again.
There are not many people who could have taken the
punishment inflicted during this period of time, and yet done
so much for the success of America and its citizens. But
instead of putting our country first, you have decided to
disgrace our country still further. You completely failed
with the Mueller report because there was nothing to find, so
you decided to take the next hoax that came along, the phone
call with Ukraine--even though it was a perfect call. And by
the way, when I speak to foreign countries, there are many
people, with permission, listening to the call on both sides
of the conversation.
You are the ones interfering in America's elections. You
are the ones subverting America's Democracy. You are the ones
Obstructing Justice. You are the ones bringing pain and
suffering to our Republic for your own selfish personal,
political, and partisan gain.
Before the Impeachment Hoax, it was the Russian Witch Hunt.
Against all evidence, and regardless of the truth, you and
your deputies claimed that my campaign colluded with the
Russians--a grave, malicious, and slanderous lie, a falsehood
like no other. You forced our Nation through turmoil and
torment over a wholly fabricated story, illegally purchased
from a foreign spy by Hillary Clinton and the DNC in order to
assault our democracy. Yet, when the monstrous lie was
debunked and this Democrat conspiracy dissolved into dust,
you did not apologize. You did not recant. You did not ask to
be forgiven. You showed no remorse, no capacity for self-
reflection. Instead, you pursued your next libelous and
vicious crusade--you engineered an attempt to frame and
defame an innocent person. All of this was motivated by
personal political calculation. Your Speakership and your
party are held hostage by your most deranged and radical
representatives of the far left. Each one of your members
lives in fear of a socialist primary challenger--this is what
is driving impeachment. Look at Congressman Nadler's
challenger. Look at yourself and others. Do not take our
country down with your party.
If you truly cared about freedom and liberty for our
Nation, then you would be devoting your vast investigative
resources to exposing the full truth concerning the FBI's
horrifying abuses of power before, during, and after the 2016
election--including the use of spies against my campaign, the
submission of false evidence to a FISA court, and the
concealment of exculpatory evidence in order to frame the
innocent. The FBI has great and honorable people, but the
leadership was inept and corrupt. I would think that you
would personally be appalled by these revelations, because in
your press conference the day you announced impeachment, you
tied the impeachment effort directly to the completely
discredited Russia Hoax, declaring twice that ``all roads
lead to Putin,'' when you know that is an abject lie. I have
been far tougher on Russia than President Obama ever even
thought to be.
Any member of Congress who votes in support of
impeachment--against every shred of truth, fact, evidence,
and legal principle--is showing how deeply they revile the
voters and how truly they detest America's Constitutional
order. Our Founders feared the tribalization of partisan
politics, and you are bringing their worst fears to life.
Worse still, I have been deprived of basic Constitutional
Due Process from the beginning of this impeachment scam right
up until the present. I have been denied the most fundamental
rights afforded by the Constitution, including the right to
present evidence, to have my own counsel present, to confront
accusers, and to call and cross-examine witnesses, like the
so-called whistleblower who started this entire hoax with a
false report of the phone call that bears no relationship to
the actual phone call that was made. Once I presented the
transcribed call, which surprised and shocked the fraudsters
(they never thought that such evidence would be presented),
the so-called whistleblower, and the second whistleblower,
disappeared because they got caught, their report was a
fraud, and they were no longer going to be made available to
us. In other words, once the phone call was made public, your
whole plot blew up, but that didn't stop you from continuing.
More due process was afforded to those accused in the Salem
Witch Trials.
You and others on your committees have long said
impeachment must be bipartisan--it is not. You said it was
very divisive--it certainly is, even far more than you ever
thought possible-and it will only get worse!
This is nothing more than an illegal, partisan attempted
coup that will, based on recent sentiment, badly fail at the
voting booth. You are not just after me, as President, you
are after the entire Republican Party. But because of this
colossal injustice, our party is more united than it has ever
been before. History will judge you harshly as you proceed
with this impeachment charade. Your legacy will be that of
turning the House of Representatives from a revered
legislative body into a Star Chamber of partisan persecution.
Perhaps most insulting of all is your false display of
solemnity. You apparently have so little respect for the
American People that you expect them to believe that you are
approaching this impeachment somberly, reservedly, and
reluctantly. No intelligent person believes what you are
saying. Since the moment I won the election, the Democrat
Party has been possessed by Impeachment Fever. There is no
reticence. This is not a somber affair. You are making a
mockery of impeachment and you are scarcely concealing your
hatred of me, of the Republican Party, and tens of millions
of patriotic Americans. The voters are wise, and they are
seeing straight through this empty, hollow, and dangerous
game you are playing.
I have no doubt the American people will hold you and the
Democrats fully responsible in the upcoming 2020 election.
They will not soon forgive your perversion of justice and
abuse of power.
There is far too much that needs to be done to improve the
lives of our citizens. It is time for you and the highly
partisan Democrats in Congress to immediately cease this
impeachment fantasy and get back to work for the American
People. While I have no expectation that you will do so, I
write this letter to you for the purpose of history and to
put my thoughts on a permanent and indelible record.
One hundred years from now, when people look back at this
affair, I want them to understand it and learn from it. so
that it can never happen to another President again.
Sincerely yours,
Donald J. Trump,
President of the United States of America.
[[Page E13]]
____________________