[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 29 (Wednesday, February 12, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1002-S1003]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Impeachment

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, in voting to acquit President Trump of 
an abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, Senate Republicans 
sought to justify their vote by claiming that the President had 
``learned his lesson.'' The implication was that the ordeal of 
impeachment and its permanent stain on his reputation that can never be 
erased would chasten President Trump's future behavior--a toddler 
scolded into compliance.
  The explanation, frankly, looked like an excuse. It was unconvincing 
the moment it was uttered. No serious person believes President Trump 
has learned any lesson. He doesn't learn any lessons. He does just what 
he wants and what suits his ego at the moment. Observers of the 
President would question whether he is even capable of learning a 
lesson, and, unsurprisingly, the flimsy rationalization by some Senate 
Republicans, desperate to have an excuse because they were so afraid of 
doing the right thing, was disproven within a matter of days.
  President Trump was acquitted by Senate Republicans last Wednesday. 
On Friday, he began dismissing members of his administration who 
testified in the impeachment inquiry, including the patriot, LTC 
Alexander Vindman and Ambassador Gordon Sondland, a clear and obvious 
act of retaliation--very simply, that is all it was--against witnesses 
who told the truth under oath.
  President Trump hates the truth, time and time again, because he 
knows he lies, and when other people tell the truth, he hates it, so he 
fired them. The President even fired the brother of Lieutenant Colonel 
Vindman for the crime of being related to someone the President wanted 
out. How vindictive,

[[Page S1003]]

how petty, how nasty, and yet there are rumors now that the President 
might dismiss the inspector general of the intelligence community, the 
official who received the whistleblower report. These are patriots all. 
President Trump can't stand patriots because they stand for country, 
not for what he wants.
  Yesterday, once again and typically, the White House reportedly 
decided to withdraw the nomination of Elaine McCusker, who was in line 
to serve as the Pentagon Comptroller and Chief Financial Officer. Why 
did he dismiss her--a longtime serving, very capable woman? Because 
over the summer, Ms. McCusker advised--merely advised--members of the 
administration about the legal ramifications of denying assistance to 
Ukraine. Her crime, in the eyes of President Trump and his so many 
acolytes--henchmen--in the administration, was attempting to follow the 
law. How dare she try to follow the law. How dare she even voice this 
is what the law is in this kind of administration.
  Of course, yesterday, after career prosecutors recommended that Roger 
Stone be sentenced to 7 to 9 years in Federal prison for witness 
tampering and lying abjectly to Congress, the President tweeted that 
his former confidant was being treated extremely unfair. It appears the 
Attorney General of the United States and other political appointees of 
the Justice Department intervened to countermand the sentencing 
recommendation. As a result, in an unprecedented but brave, courageous, 
and patriotic move, four career prosecutors working on the Roger Stone 
case--all four of them--withdrew from the case or resigned from the 
Justice Department.
  When asked about the clear impropriety of intervening in a Federal 
case, the President said he has an ``absolute right'' to order the 
Justice Department to do whatever he wants. This morning, the President 
congratulated the Attorney General, amazingly enough, for taking charge 
of the case.
  The President ran against the swamp in Washington, a place where the 
game is rigged by the powerful to benefit them personally. I ask my 
fellow Americans: What is more swampy, what is more fetid, and what is 
more stinking than the most powerful person in the country literally 
changing the rules to benefit a crony guilty of breaking the law?
  As a result, I have formally requested that the inspector general of 
the Justice Department investigate this matter immediately. This 
morning, I call on Judiciary Committee Chairman Graham to convene an 
emergency hearing of the Judiciary Committee to do the same--to conduct 
oversight and hold hearings. That is the job of the Judiciary 
Committee, no matter who is President and whether the President is from 
your party or not. Something egregious like this demands that the 
inspector general investigate and demands that the chairman of the 
Judiciary Committee hold a hearing now.
  The President is claiming that rigging the rules is perfectly 
legitimate. He claims an absolute right to order the Justice Department 
to do anything he wants. The President has, as his Attorney General, an 
enabler--and that is a kind word--who actually supports this view. Does 
anyone think it is out of the question that President Trump might order 
the FBI to investigate Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, or anyone else 
without any evidence to support such an arbitrary violation of 
individual rights? Oh, I know, some far-right conspiratorial writer, 
who has no credibility, who just makes things up, writes it, FOX News 
puts it on, Sean Hannity or someone talks about it, and then the 
President says ``investigate.'' That is third-world behavior, not 
American behavior. That kind of behavior defiles that great flag that 
is standing above us. This is not ordinary stuff. I have never seen it 
before with any President--Democratic, Republican, liberal or 
conservative.
  Does any serious person believe the President's abuse would be 
limited to the Justice Department? Does any serious person think that 
Trump might not order the Justice Department to treat his friends, 
associates, and family members differently than it treats ordinary 
citizens and that Attorney General Barr would just carry out these 
orders?
  Of course, none of this is out of the question. The President 
asserted his absolute right to do whatever he wants yesterday. We are 
witnessing a crisis in the rule of law in America, unlike one we have 
ever seen before. It is a crisis of President Trump's making, but it 
was enabled and emboldened by every Senate Republican who was too 
afraid to stand up to him and say the simple word ``no'' when the vast 
majority of them knew that was the right thing to do.
  Republicans thought the President would learn his lesson. It turned 
out that the lesson he learned was not that he went too far and not 
that he needed to rein it in. The lesson the President learned was that 
the Republican Party will not hold him accountable, no matter how 
egregious his behavior--not now, not ever.
  Senate Republicans voted to excuse President Trump's abuses of power. 
They voted to abdicate the constitutional authority of Congress to 
check on an overreaching Executive. Senate Republicans now own this 
crisis, and they are responsible for every new abuse of power President 
Trump commits. John Adams famously described our grand Republic that he 
helped create as a government of laws, not of men. Our Founding 
Fathers' foremost concern, of course, was to escape the tyranny of a 
government of men--more specifically, a King. That is why the Founders 
created a republic in America. That is why the patriots died for the 
freedom we are now blessed with.
  Yet, after almost 2\1/2\ centuries of experience in self-government 
as a republic, we are, once again, faced with a very serious and 
looming question: Do we want a government of laws or of men? Do we want 
to be governed by the laws of the United States or by the whims of one 
man?
  I don't think my Republican colleagues fully appreciated what they 
were unleashing when they voted in the impeachment trial to excuse the 
President's conduct--although, maybe they did. They were just afraid, 
fearful, shaking in their boots because Trump might take vengeance out 
on them as he did on Senators Flake and Corker. They voted to acquit 
the President after he used his immense power to pressure a foreign 
leader to announce an investigation to smear a rival.
  What we have seen in the hours and days since that fateful acquittal 
vote last Wednesday is so disturbing. In a parade of horribles, this is 
one of the most horrible things President Trump has done. In a parade 
of horribles, this is one of the most feeble and servile actions of 
Republicans, just no one saying a peep about it. We are seeing the 
behavior of a man who has contempt for the rule of law beginning to try 
out the new unrestrained power conferred on him by 52, 53--well, 52 
Republican Senators, 1 brave one.
  Left to his own devices, President Trump would turn America into a 
banana republic with a dictator who can do whatever he wants, and the 
Justice Department is the President's personal law firm, not a defender 
of the rule of law. It is a sad day in America--a sad day.
  The Founding Fathers created something brand new, a republic, because 
they were afraid of monarchy. The Senate Republicans aided and abetted 
President Trump to get much closer to that monarchy than we have been 
in a long time. Senate Republicans have created something very close to 
a monarchy, if they can keep it.