[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 28 (Saturday, February 13, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S734-S735]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              IMPEACHMENT

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, the case of Donald Trump's second 
impeachment trial was open and shut.
  President Trump told a lie--a big lie--that the election was stolen 
and that he was the rightful winner. He laid the groundwork for this 
big lie in the months before the election. He told the big lie on 
election night, and he repeated the big lie more than 100 times in the 
weeks afterward.
  He summoned his supporters to Washington, assembled them on the 
Ellipse, whipped them into a frenzy, and directed them at the Capitol. 
Then he watched as the violence unfolded and the Capitol was breached 
and his own Vice President fled for his life, and President Trump did 
nothing.
  None of these facts were up for debate. We saw it. We heard it. We 
lived it. This was the first Presidential impeachment trial in history 
in which all Senators were not only judges and jurors but witnesses to 
the constitutional crime that was committed. The former President 
inspired, directed, and propelled a mob to violently prevent the 
peaceful transfer of power, subvert the will of the people, and 
illegally keep that President in power. There is nothing--nothing--more 
un-American than that. There is nothing--nothing--more antithetical to 
our democracy. There is nothing--nothing--more insulting to the 
generations of American patriots who gave their lives to defend our 
form of government.
  This was the most egregious violation of the Presidential oath of 
office and a textbook example, a classic example of an impeachable 
offense, worthy of the Constitution's most severe remedy.
  In response to the incontrovertible fact of Donald Trump's guilt, the 
Senate was subject to a feeble and sometimes incomprehensible defense 
of the former President. Unable to dispute the case on the merits, the 
former President's counsel treated us to partisan vitriol, false 
equivalence, and outright falsehoods.
  We heard the roundly debunked jurisdictional argument that the Senate 
cannot try a former official, a position that would mean that any 
President could simply resign to avoid accountability for an 
impeachable offense, a position which, in effect, would render the 
Senate powerless to ever enforce the disqualification clause in the 
Constitution. Essentially, the President's counsel told the Senate that 
the Constitution was unconstitutional. Thankfully, the Senate took a 
firm stance, set a firm precedent with a bipartisan vote in favor of 
our power to try former officials for acts they committed while in 
office.
  We heard the preposterous claim that the former President's 
incitement to violence was protected by the First Amendment. The First 
Amendment right to free speech protects Americans from jail, not 
Presidents from impeachment. If the President had said during World War 
II, ``Germany should attack the United States on Long Island; we have 
left it undefended,'' I suspect Congress would have considered that an 
impeachable offense.
  Finally, defense counsel said that President Trump was not directly 
responsible for the violence at the Capitol:

       His words were merely a metaphor; his directions were 
     merely suggestions; and the violent mob was just a 
     spontaneous demonstration.

  Yet wind the clock back, and ask yourself, if at any point Donald 
Trump did not do the things he did, would the attack on the Capitol 
have happened? There is only one answer to this question: Of course 
not. If President Trump hadn't told his supporters to march to the 
Capitol, if he hadn't implored them to come to Washington on January 6 
in the first place, if he hadn't repeatedly lied to them that the 
election was stolen and their country was being taken from them, the 
attack would not have happened, could not have happened. January 6 
would not have happened but for the actions of Donald Trump.
  Here is what the Republican leader of the Senate said: The mob that 
perpetrated the ``failed insurrection'' on January 6 ``was provoked by 
President Trump.'' Do you want another word for ``provoke''? How about 
``incite''? Yet still--still--the vast majority of the Senate 
Republican caucus, including the Republican leader, voted to acquit 
former President Trump, signing their names in the columns of history 
alongside his name forever.
  January 6 will live as a day of infamy in the history of the United 
States of America. The failure to convict Donald Trump will live as a 
vote of infamy in the history of the U.S. Senate.
  Five years ago, Republican Senators lamented what might become of 
their party if Donald Trump became their Presidential nominee and 
standard-bearer. Just look at what has happened. Look at what 
Republicans have been forced to defend. Look at what Republicans have 
chosen to forgive. The former President tried to overturn the results 
of a legitimate election and provoked an assault on our own government, 
and well over half the Senate Republican conference decided to condone 
it--the most despicable act that any President has ever committed, and 
the majority of Republicans cannot summon the courage or the morality 
to condemn it.
  This trial wasn't about choosing country over party, even not that; 
this was about choosing country over Donald Trump, and 43 Republican 
Members chose Trump. They chose Trump. It should be a weight on their 
conscience today, and it shall be a weight on their conscience in the 
future.
  As sad as that fact is, as condemnable as the decision was, it is 
still true that the final vote on Donald Trump's conviction was the 
largest and most bipartisan vote of any Presidential impeachment trial 
in American history.
  I salute those Republican patriots who did the right thing. It wasn't 
easy. We know that. Let their votes be a message to the American people 
because, my fellow Americans, if this Nation is going to long endure, 
we as a people cannot sanction the former President's conduct, because 
if lying about the results of an election is acceptable, if instigating 
a mob against the government is considered permissible, if encouraging 
political violence becomes the norm, it will be open season--open 
season--on our democracy, and everything will be up for grabs by 
whoever has the biggest clubs, the sharpest spears, the most powerful 
guns. By not recognizing the heinous crime that Donald Trump committed 
against the Constitution, Republican Senators have not only risked but 
potentially invited the same danger that was just visited upon us.
  So let me say this: Despite the results of the vote on Donald Trump's 
conviction in the Court of Impeachment, he deserves to be convicted, 
and I believe he will be convicted in the court of public opinion. He 
deserves to be permanently discredited, and I believe he has been 
discredited in the eyes of the American people and in the judgment of 
history.
  Even though Republican Senators prevented the Senate from 
disqualifying Donald Trump for any office of honor, trust, or profit 
under these United States, there is no question Donald Trump has 
disqualified himself. I hope, I pray, and I believe that the American 
people will make sure of that. If Donald Trump ever stands for

[[Page S735]]

public office again, and after everything we have seen this week, I 
hope, I pray, and I believe that he will meet the unambiguous rejection 
by the American people.
  Six hours after the attack on January 6, after the carnage and mayhem 
was shown on every television screen in America, President Trump told 
his supporters to ``Remember this day forever.'' I ask the American 
people to heed his words. Remember that day forever but not for the 
reasons the former President intended. Remember the panic in the voices 
over the radio dispatch, the rhythmic pounding of fists and flags at 
the Chamber doors. Remember the crack of a solitary gunshot. Remember 
the hateful and racist Confederate flag flying through the halls of our 
Union. Remember the screams of the bloody officer crushed between the 
onrushing mob and a doorway to the Capitol, his body trapped in the 
breach. Remember three Capitol Police officers who lost their lives. 
Remember that those rioters actually succeeded in delaying Congress 
from certifying the election. Remember how close our democracy came to 
ruin.
  My fellow Americans, remember that day, January 6, forever, the 
final, terrible legacy of the 45th President of the United States and 
undoubtedly our worst. Let it live on in infamy, a stain on Donald John 
Trump that can never, never be washed away.
  On Monday we will recognize Presidents Day. Part of the commemoration 
in the Senate will be the annual reading of Washington's Farewell 
Address. Aside from winning the Revolutionary War, I consider it his 
greatest contribution to American civil life, and it had nothing to do 
with the words he spoke but the example it set.
  Washington's Farewell Address established for all time that no one 
had the right to the Office of the Presidency, that it belonged to the 
people. What an amazing legacy. What an amazing gift to the future 
generations, the knowledge that this country will always be greater 
than any one person, even our most renowned. That is why Members of 
both parties take turns reading Washington's address once a year in 
full into the Record, to pledge common attachment to the selflessness 
at the core of our democratic system.
  This trial was about the final acts of a President who represents the 
very antithesis of our first President and sought to place one man 
before the entire country: himself.
  Let the record show--let the record show before God, history, and the 
solemn oath we swear to the Constitution that there was only one 
correct verdict in this trial: guilty. And I pray that while justice 
was not done in this trial, it will be carried forward by the American 
people, who, above any of us in this Chamber, determine the destiny of 
our great Nation
  I yield the floor.
  (Mr. PADILLA assumed the Chair.)

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