[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 9 (Friday, January 15, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E39]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




IMPEACHING DONALD JOHN TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, FOR HIGH 
                        CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS

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                               speech of

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, January 13, 2021

  Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I strongly support the impeachment of 
President Donald J. Trump, who has violated his oath of office by 
calling for and causing an insurrection at the Capitol. This House 
would be complicit if it did nothing with the available responses. One, 
however, has been taken off the table. Vice President Pence has said he 
will not call the Cabinet together to remove the president on the 
grounds of disability. Besides, the use of the 25th Amendment would 
raise its own set of questions for most, such as whether Trump is 
disabled. That amendment is usually invoked when a President is 
hospitalized. Many would argue that Trump's actions show himself in 
true form.
  Impeachment is not without its problems, especially with only seven 
days left before Trump is out of office. The proposal to delay the 
Senate trial to when President-elect Biden hopes to reinvigorate the 
urgently needed program to vaccinate Americans against the coronavirus 
and focus on other priorities is also problematic. There is also no 
precedent of an impeachment trial for a former president.
  There are issues surrounding the most discussed remedies. I say this 
not because I do not support these remedies, but to draw attention to 
the need for Congress to go on record--to go on record immediately 
against the insurrection of January 6, 2021. The only way to do that 
before Biden takes office is to pass my concurrent resolution censuring 
the President for his attempted coup, even after votes had been counted 
and recounted and had been certified for Biden, and for inciting an 
insurrection at the Capitol. Moreover, my resolution, which, unlike 
impeachment and conviction, would require only a majority vote of the 
House and Senate, and, under the 14th Amendment, would prohibit Trump 
from holding office again, unless a supermajority of both chambers 
voted to allow him to serve again. My resolution, therefore, to censure 
the President has the possibility of being accepted in both Houses 
since it does not have the high vote threshold in the Senate as 
conviction after impeachment does. It also points to the President's 
admonition to Georgia's Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, to find 
11,779 votes.
  I believe my resolution can obtain bipartisan and bicameral support 
given the strongly expressed views of Members of the House and Senate 
about the incitement. My resolution is not all that the President 
deserves. This resolution, however, will put the Congress on record 
against the Trump-inspired insurrection before the next President takes 
office.

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