[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 201 (Monday, November 30, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7102-S7103]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I see nobody within 15 or 20 feet of me, so 
I will take the mask off, and I appreciate the fact the distinguished 
Presiding Officer recognized who it was even with the mask.
  I have a couple of things that concern me. I was going through the 
history and looking at transitions between Presidents. I was struck 
by--even Presidents who did not like their successor--how hard they 
worked to make sure that everything was done properly for the good of 
the country. No matter how they might feel about themselves personally, 
they set the country first and foremost. I contrast that with what is 
happening now.
  Former Vice President, former U.S. Senator--I served with him--Joe 
Biden, got the most votes of any Democratic nominee for President in 
the history of this country--millions more than what President Trump 
got. He has an insurmountable lead in certified electoral votes. Yet 
the President, for weeks, refused even to carry out the law that we all 
voted for--Republicans and Democrats alike--to provide for transition 
whenever there is a transition, a law that was used quickly when 
President Trump was elected. Even though Hillary Clinton had millions 
more votes than he did, she conceded the election, and within a day, 
the transition began.
  The idea is, whoever is President must know what is going on. 
Certainly, the distinguished Presiding Officer, like all of us, has 
access to and gets intelligence briefings on what is happening around 
the world. I think it discloses nothing to say we live in perilous 
times, and there are decisions any President must make, even if it is 5 
minutes after they are inaugurated, as was the potential when President 
Obama was inaugurated the first time. He actually had talking points to 
alert people to clear the malls in case there was an attack.
  Instead, today is only the first day that President-Elect Biden is 
getting the Presidential briefing. Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris, 
of course, has the advantage as a member of the Senate Intelligence 
Committee to have a lot of that material anyway, but now they both do.
  But we look so foolish in the eyes of the rest of the world. We 
lecture dictatorships when they have rigged an election so they can 
stay. We lecture them for doing that. We lecture those people who 
refuse to give up their office. Yet now they see the United States, the 
leading democratic country in the world, the country that always 
espouses democracy, saying: Well, we are not going to follow our 
Constitution. We are not going to follow our laws. We will allow a lot 
of tweets from the incumbent, but we are not going to follow our law.
  What kind of example is that?
  Then the President does even worse by saying: Well, I am getting 
these calls from all these world leaders saying to stick it out. But, 
of course, when asked ``Well, who were they?'' suddenly he can't seem 
to remember who it was who called--if there were any such calls; I 
suspect there weren't.
  Let's stop the charade. Let's make more of an effort to have a smooth 
transition. There are enough things that face this country. We should 
not have, for the first time in our history, this kind of foolishness.
  I applaud those few members of the Republican Party who have been 
honest enough to say: It is over. We know it is over.
  I think when you go back in history, when Richard Nixon faced 
impeachment and ultimate conviction here in the Senate, some of the 
most respected Republican Senators went down to see him quietly--people 
like Hugh Scott, the Republican leader, whom I got to know well, and 
Barry Goldwater, ``Mr. Conservative,'' whom I got to know well. They 
went down--not with any happiness in doing this, as one of them told me 
subsequently there was actually sorrow in their hearts--to tell the 
President he had to leave; the time had come.
  The President did, and the Republicans and Democrats came together to 
help install the next President, Jerry Ford, and the next Vice 
President, Nelson Rockefeller. The two of them became the first 
President and Vice President never to have been elected. Jerry Ford and 
Nelson Rockefeller were the first President and Vice President never to 
be elected but to be appointed. That was about the time I came to the 
Senate.
  I remember hearing Republicans and Democrats alike saying: We might 
not like to say what happened, but we knew the government had to keep 
going, and we had to show credibility to the rest of the world. So long 
as we pretend that we have a Presidency by tweet, we don't show that 
integrity to the rest of the world.
  I was there for the inauguration of President Trump. Even though I 
had a different candidate and voted for her, Secretary and former 
Senator Hillary Clinton, I was there--as was Secretary Clinton and her 
husband, former President Clinton, and outgoing President Obama and 
outgoing Vice President Biden--to show the world that we have 
continuity. Even though there is a vast difference of opinion, we have 
continuity.
  That is not the image we are showing now. With everything that is 
happening, whether it is in Iran or, economically, with Brexit and the 
United Kingdom or a COVID epidemic around the world, we, the United 
States of America, should show unity, at least under our Constitution.
  Of course, Republicans should be supporting Republicans and, of 
course, Democrats should be supporting Democrats. But the one thing we 
should all be supportive of is our Constitution and our laws.
  We stand down there--the proudest moments of my life were standing 
down here and taking my oath to uphold the Constitution as United 
States Senator, just as I did when I became President pro tempore. I 
did it to uphold the Constitution of the United States, not the 
Constitution of the Democratic Party, not the Constitution of the 
Republican Party, but the Constitution of the United States of America.
  Let's get on with the transition. Let's make America strong again. 
Let's do what is necessary to be done to fight this COVID epidemic.
  In that regard, we have two matters that should be the most important 
matters before us. One is getting an omnibus because, after all, in a 
couple of weeks, funding for the United States of America will run out, 
and we don't want to have one of those foolish shutdowns that we had 
before that cost the taxpayers billions and billions of dollars. Only 
four of us--Senator Shelby and myself and our counterparts in the House 
just down the hall--met in my office and worked out a bipartisan 
resolution and passed the spending bill so that we could put the 
government back in order. Ironically, it was exactly what we had 
offered weeks before. For some reason the White House didn't want to 
accept it, and billions of dollars of taxpayers' money were lost.
  Now we have a life-or-death issue that goes beyond even the spending, 
and that is COVID. The House of Representatives, back in June, I 
believe it was, passed the Heroes Act to have money, equipment, and so 
forth for those who are suffering because of the COVID epidemic, like 
the small stores, inns, restaurants, and so forth in my

[[Page S7103]]

State, to say nothing about our hospitals that are overwhelmed.
  We had money in there. The Republican leader refused to even bring 
the bill up for a vote. I can't say why. The Republicans are in the 
majority. Bring it up. Have four or five amendments on both sides. Have 
four or five Republican amendments and four or five Democratic 
amendments. Vote them up or down. What are we afraid of? Why would we 
refuse to vote? If the Republican leader doesn't like the bill, instead 
of blocking it and not even having a vote on it, vote it up or down. 
The Republicans are in the majority. They could vote down any aid for 
the States that are suffering with COVID, but vote it up or down.
  I have heard some Senators say: But they are nervous. Whichever way 
they vote, it might be uncomfortable back home. It might not be 
politically good for them back home.
  Balderdash. The fact is that we were sent here to vote. I have voted 
more than any Senator in the history of this country, save one. I have 
cast well over 16,000 votes. If people were to go back to those votes 
and ask: ``What were you thinking on this vote in 1978 or 1986 or 
1995,'' I would probably look at it and say, ``Hmm. In retrospect, I 
think I probably screwed up.'' Yet I was willing to vote. I was willing 
to vote.
  When I was the key vote in the Armed Services Committee to stop the 
war in Vietnam, I knew that our State's largest newspaper would attack 
me mercilessly, and it did for months after that. It would be hard 
today to find anybody who would be in favor of continuing that war in 
Vietnam, but we had five votes in a row in the Armed Services 
Committee, and each one failed by one vote. I was its newest member, 
but I was there to vote, which is what we have to do.
  I look at some of my friends on the Republican side who have joined 
me on some very tough votes. I don't want to embarrass the senior 
Senator from Texas, but he is on the floor. With regard to the Freedom 
of Information Act, we stood up against both Republicans and Democrats 
and said: No, we are standing up for the people of America, and we are 
going to have votes on this so they can see what their government is 
doing. That is what we have to go back to. We have to go back to the 
time when we could do that.
  What I would urge of the Republican leadership is to bring up a COVID 
bill--a real COVID bill. Have a few amendments on both sides. Vote them 
up or down. If you don't like an amendment somebody has, vote against 
it. If you like it, vote for it. Let the American people at least have 
some hope that we are doing something for them.
  Too many businesses are going out of business. Too many families 
don't know what they are going to do when the schools close. Too many 
small hospitals, especially in rural areas, wonder what they are going 
to do as COVID sweeps through. Let's give them some hope. Let's say to 
the people: No, you are not going to be kicked out of your home. No, 
you are not going to be living in your car. We will give you money to 
get through this, knowing that the economy can be much stronger 
afterward if you do. Certainly, it is going to be much stronger for 
those in our labor force if they are still in their homes, as the jobs 
open back up, than if they are homeless.
  So let's do that. Let's bring it up and vote. Senator Shelby and I 
have worked very, very hard on bipartisan legislation for the omnibus. 
We probably have, maybe, 95 to 98 percent of it agreed on. Bring it up. 
Then, on the 2 or 3 or 4 percent, bring votes up. Vote it up or vote it 
down. After all, the Republicans are in the majority. If they don't 
like it, vote it down, but let's get the vast bulk of it through, which 
is something that both Republicans and Democrats have worked together 
on. My staff has worked together with the Republicans' staff, and we 
have something we can do there. So vote it up or vote it down. Let's 
just vote on it.
  Then let's let people leave here. Let our staffs, the people who work 
in the hallway, and the people who are here on the floor go where it is 
safe. I am glad to see the distinguished Presiding Officer has gotten 
over his own bout of COVID. He and everybody else here who has suffered 
from it have been in my prayers, but there are millions of others who 
are suffering from it, and in the highest number we have ever had, they 
are dying from it.
  Let's get together. Let's do what the American people want. Let's do 
what we were elected to do. Let's not be afraid to vote. Don't be 
afraid to vote. Certainly, I may have thought long and hard about some 
of those 16,000 votes I have cast, but I have never been afraid to 
vote. I have never been afraid to vote.
  I see my colleague and friend waiting for the chance to speak, so I 
yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Scott of Florida). The Senator from Texas.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, first, while he is still on the floor, let 
me say that I agree with the senior Senator from Vermont. If you don't 
want to vote, you probably ought to look for another line of work. 
Congress is a bad place to come if you don't want to actually vote and 
be on record

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