[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 24 (Wednesday, February 5, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S871-S872]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
IMPEACHMENT
Mr. MERKLEY. Madam President, as Senators, our decisions build the
foundation for future generations. I want those generations to know
that I stood here on the floor of this Chamber fighting for equal
justice under law. I stood here to defend our Senate's responsibility
to provide a fair trial with witnesses and documents. I stood here to
say that when our President invites and pressures a foreign government
to smear a political opponent and corrupt the integrity of our 2020
Presidential election, he must be removed from office.
As a number of my Republican colleagues have confessed, the House
managers have proven their case. President Trump did sanction a corrupt
conspiracy to smear a political opponent, former Vice President Joe
Biden. President Trump assigned Rudy Giuliani, his personal lawyer, to
accomplish that goal by arranging sham investigations by the Government
of Ukraine. President Trump advanced his corrupt scheme by instructing
the three amigos--Ambassador Volker, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry,
and Ambassador Gordon Sondland--to work with Rudy for this goal.
President Trump did use the resources of America, including an Oval
Office meeting and security assistance to pressure Ukraine, which was
at war with Russia, to participate in this corrupt conspiracy. The
facts are clear.
But do President Trump's acts rise to the level the Framers
envisioned for removal of a President, or are they, as some colleagues
in this Chamber have said, simply ``inappropriate,'' but not
``impeachable''? With respect to those colleagues, ``inappropriate'' is
lying to the public; ``inappropriate'' is shunning our allies or
failing to put your personal assets into a blind trust or encouraging
foreign governments to patronize your properties. That is something you
might call ``inappropriate,'' but that word does not begin to encompass
President Trump's actions in this case--a corrupt conspiracy comprising
a fundamental assault on our Constitution.
This conspiracy is far worse than Watergate. Watergate was about a
break-in to spy on the Democratic National Committee--bad, yes; wrong,
definitely. But Watergate didn't involve soliciting foreign
interference to destroy the integrity of an election. It didn't involve
an effort to smear a political opponent. Watergate did not involve an
across-the-board blockade of access by Congress to witnesses and
documents.
[[Page S872]]
If you believe that Congress was right to conclude that President
Nixon's abuse of power merited expulsion from office, you have no
choice but to conclude that President Trump's corrupt conspiracy merits
his expulsion from office.
President Trump should be removed from office this very day by action
in this very Chamber, but he will not be removed because this Senate
has failed to conduct a full and fair trial to reveal the extensive
dimensions of his conspiracy and because the siren call to party
loyalty over country has infected this Chamber.
Every American understands what constitutes a full and fair trial. A
full and fair trial has witnesses. A full and fair trial has documents.
A full and fair trial does not begin with the jury foreman declaring
that he is working hand-in-glove with the defendant. When discussing
why the Senate tries impeachments, Alexander Hamilton stated: ``Where
else than in the Senate could have been found a tribunal sufficiently
dignified, or sufficiently independent'' for that daunting
responsibility?
Every American should feel the sadness, the darkness, the tragedy of
this moment in which this Senate is neither sufficiently dignified nor
sufficiently independent for that responsibility.
The Senate trial became a coverup when the majority voted on January
22 and again on January 31 to block all access to witnesses and
documents. If this coverup goes forward, it will be the latest in a set
of corrupt firsts this Senate has achieved under Republican leadership.
It has been the first Senate to ignore our constitutional
responsibilities to debate and vote on a Supreme Court nominee in 2016.
It became the first Senate to complete the theft of a Supreme Court
seat from one administration giving it to another in 2017.
And now, it becomes the first Senate in American history to replace
an impeachment trial with a coverup. President Trump might want to
consider this: With a coverup in lieu of a trial, there is no
``exoneration,'' no matter how badly President Trump might want it. No
matter how boldly he might claim it, there is no ``exoneration'' from a
coverup.
If this Senate fails to convict President Trump when we vote later
today, we destroy our constitutional responsibility to serve as a check
against the abuses of a runaway President. It is a devastating blow to
the checks and balances which have stood at the heart of our
Constitution.
Our tripartite system is like a three-legged stool, where each leg
works in balance with the others. If one leg is cracked or weakened,
well, that stool topples over. If the Senate's responsibility is gutted
and the limits on Presidential power are undermined, then, there is
lasting damage to the checks and balances our Founders so carefully
crafted.
Let's also be clear. The situation that we find ourselves in today
didn't spring out of nowhere. With respect to the Chief Justice, the
road to this moment has been paved by decisions made in the Supreme
Court undermining the ``We the People'' Republic, while Justice Roberts
has led the Court--decisions like Citizens United in 2010, which
corrupted our political campaigns with a flood of dark money, the
equivalent of a stadium sound system drowning out the voice of the
people; decisions like Shelby County in 2013, which gutted the Voting
Rights Act, opening the door to voter suppression and voter
intimidation--if you believe in our Republic, you believe in voter
empowerment, not voter supression--decisions like Rucho V. Common Cause
in 2019, giving the green light to extreme partisan gerrymandering, in
which politicians choose their voters rather than voters choosing their
politicians. It is one blow after another giving more power to the
powerful and undermining the vision of government of, by, and for the
people--blow after blow making officials more responsive to the rich
and wealthy donors than the people they are elected to represent.
These Supreme Court decisions have elevated government by and for the
powerful, and trampled government by and for the people, paving the
path for this dark moment in which the U.S. Senate chooses to defend a
corrupt President by converting a trial into a coverup. A trial without
access to witnesses and documents is what one expects of a corrupted
court in Russia or China, not the United States of America.
We know what democracy looks like, and it is not just about having
the Constitution or holding elections. Our democracy is not set in
stone. It is not guaranteed by anything other than the good will and
good faith of the people of this country. Keeping a democracy takes
courage and commitment. As the saying goes, ``freedom isn't free.'' It
is an inheritance bequeathed to us by those who have fought and bled
and died to ensure that government ``of the people, by the people, for
the people shall not perish from the Earth.''
Fighting for that inheritance doesn't only happen on the battlefield.
It happens when Americans everywhere go to the polls to cast a ballot.
It happens when ordinary citizens, distraught at what they are seeing,
speak up, join a march, or run for office to make a difference. And it
happens here in this Chamber--in this Senate Chamber--when Senators put
addressing the challenges of our country over the pressures from their
party.
Before casting their votes today, I urge each and every one of my
colleagues to ask themselves: Will you defend the integrity of our
elections? Will you deliver impartial justice? Will you protect the
separation of powers--the heart of our Constitution? Will you uphold
the rule of law and the inspiring words carved above the doors of our
Supreme Court, ``Equal Justice Under Law''?
I stand here today in support of our Constitution, which has made our
Nation that shining city on a hill. I stand here today for equal
justice under law. I stand here today for a full and fair trial as our
Constitution demands. I stand here today to say that a President who
has abused this office by soliciting a foreign country to intervene in
the election of 2020 and bias the outcome--betraying the trust of the
American people and undermining the strength of our Constitution--must
be removed from office.
I yield the floor.
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