[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 33 (Monday, February 22, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S768-S769]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              IMPEACHMENT

  Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, every President swears an oath to 
preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. 
Every President has a solemn duty to uphold the rule of law and to 
preserve our democratic system. No one is above the law, not even a 
President.
  President Trump violated his oath. He promulgated lies about the 
election, used his office to try to interfere with election officials 
doing their job, and failed to protect our Capitol from a mob that 
clearly intended to cause physical harm to elected officials and to 
stop the lawful certification of election results.
  For months, President Trump used his platform as President--at 
rallies, on Twitter, and in press interviews--to spread disinformation, 
making unsubstantiated and false claims about voting by mail, vote 
rigging, and fraud in counting ballots. President Trump pressured State 
and local officials across the country to reject election results 
without evidence. He called Georgia Secretary of State Brad 
Raffensperger to pressure him to find the votes he needed to win the 
State. Even after President Trump lost 61 election-related cases in 
State and Federal courts, he continued to insist the election was 
stolen from him. In the process, President Trump sowed doubt and 
provoked his supporters.
  President Trump summoned his supporters to Washington, DC, on January 
6. They included known domestic violent extremists, including the Proud 
Boys, the Oath Keepers, and other White supremacists and far-right 
militia groups. Federal law enforcement had warned about the threat of 
violence from armed members of these groups. Nevertheless, President 
Trump urged his supporters to march to the U.S. Capitol and to fight 
and told them they will ``never take back our country with weakness.'' 
He said he would march with them.
  Instead of trying to stop them, President Trump continued to support 
actions by the insurrectionists even after they breached the Capitol 
Building, overwhelmed and unleashed violence against law enforcement, 
and put at risk the lives of the Vice President, Members of Congress, 
Capitol Police officers, and staff members. Four insurrectionists died. 
In all, 140 law enforcement personnel were injured and 1 police 
officer, Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, was killed. Two more 
police officers later died as a result of the insurrection.
  Many of the insurrectionists said they were there at the direction of 
President Trump. And the President did not call on his followers to 
stand down or send reinforcements to help the overwhelmed law 
enforcement at the Capitol. Instead, we know from a statement from 
Washington Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler entered into the trial 
record that President Trump refused to help bring an end to the 
insurrection even after House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy urged 
him to act.
  In this moment and in the weeks and months leading up to the 
insurrection, President Trump violated his duty to the Constitution and 
his oath of office. There must be accountability. Without 
accountability, we are setting a dangerous precedent--one that says 
that the President is above the law and did not uphold his oath to 
ensure the peaceful transfer of power.
  It is also important to recognize that the events that unfolded on 
January 6 did not occur in isolation. They were the culmination of 
years of President Trump stoking the flames of racial tension and 
division, as the House impeachment managers have concisely laid out.
  Throughout President Trump's time in office, hate crimes rose to 
levels not seen in over a decade. The rise in domestic violent 
extremism has been publicly acknowledged by President Trump's own FBI 
Director, Christopher Wray, who identified it as the most severe threat 
to the homeland. Director Wray has testified that racially-motivated 
violent extremists make up the largest aspect of domestic violent 
extremist cases, often involving militia groups, such as the ones who 
were present during the January 6th insurrection.
  In the Northwest we have faced threats from racially-motived 
extremists and armed anti-government militia groups for decades, 
including the siege of Ruby Ridge, ID, in 1992, the Aryan Nations 
compound near Hayden Lake, ID, and the attempted bombing of Spokane's 
Martin Luther King, Jr., memorial march in 2011. Groups that were among 
the insurrectionists on January 6, including the Three Percenters, the 
Proud Boys, and the Oath Keepers, all have a significant presence in my 
State. In the last 4 years, their activity has been on the rise. 
Following the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, they threatened State 
capitals around our country, including in my State. An armed mob 
breached the gates outside of the Governor's mansion in Olympia, 
surrounding Governor Inslee's residence on the capitol complex while 
his family was inside. This wasn't the first time, however, that these 
armed extremist groups have showed up to demonstrations in my State.
  As this Senate trial has clearly shown, President Trump has 
repeatedly inflamed these groups and others. He encouraged violence at 
his rallies, called White nationalists and neo-Nazis in Charlottesville 
``very fine people,'' refused to clearly condemn White supremacy during 
a Presidential debate, told the Proud Boys hate group to ``stand back 
and stand by,'' and told the January 6th insurrectionists that he 
``loves them and they are very special'' after they had already laid 
siege to our Capitol and committed heinous acts of violence. That 
encouragement has had consequences, as we saw in Charlottesville and on 
January 6.
  President Trump's responsibility is clear. He violated his oath of 
office and tried to overturn the results of the election. Free and fair 
elections are the bedrock of democracy. Generations of Americans gave 
their lives for our freedom, for our right to vote, and for the 
peaceful transfer of power. I voted to hold President Trump accountable 
for committing a high crime against our governmental system and to 
safeguard the future of democracy in the United States of America.
  Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, 1 year ago, I said upon the conclusion of 
President Trump's first impeachment trial,``Unchallenged evil spreads 
like a virus,'' and that acquittal would lead to worse behavior. The 
events of January 6--seven dead, the first siege of our Capitol in over 
200 years, the disruption of the peaceful transfer of power--are the 
direct result of that first acquittal. I voted to convict because seven 
needlessly died and hundreds were injured by a former President's 
egregious lies. So many risked all to protect us. The least we can do 
is protect them by voting to condemn and thus prevent behavior that 
should never be repeated.
  Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, just minutes after the attack of January 6 
began, I said it was not only unpatriotic, it was un-American. I do not 
need to be convinced that what happened on that day was the disgraceful 
work of a treasonous criminal mob. But seeing images of that attack 
stirred up anger in me, anger that our Nation was embarrassed in the 
eyes of the world by our own citizen; anger that Capitol Police 
officers that my family and I know personally had to deal with these 
low-lives; anger that janitorial and food service staff I have gotten 
to know--many who came to America to get away from countries with 
political violence--had to clean up the mess left behind by these 
cretins.
  But, if we have learned anything this week, it should be how 
dangerous it is to allow anger to influence actions.
  The lead House Manager argued today that this trial isn't about 
Donald

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Trump, that it was about our country, and that those who refuse to vote 
to convict are condoning the actions of a violent mob and failing to 
defend the honor of our Capitol and the people who work here. This is a 
ridiculous and insulting argument.
  Impeachment is not a way of sending a message or taking symbolic 
action. Impeachment exists for one principal reason: to remove from 
office an officeholder guilty of wrongdoing. And claiming that anyone 
who doesn't vote to convict someone no longer in office is the 
equivalent of supporting a criminal mob is nothing but hyperpartisan 
politicians masquerading as highminded prosecutors trying to smear 
their political opponents.
  The Senate does not have the constitutional power to convict a former 
official, and even if we did, we should be very reluctant to use it. In 
the 244-year history of our Republic, we have never convicted and 
disqualified a former official in an impeachment trial. Doing so now 
would create a new precedent, and it would weaponize impeachment in a 
way we will come to regret.
  The day will come when a future Congress, one with a new majority in 
the House filled with new Members elected on the promise of holding 
accountable leaders of the opposite part, will give in to these 
passions and impeach a former official. The Senate will then find 
itself conducting a trial of that former official, a trial justified by 
the precedent we are asked to set here today, and a Senate tempted to 
convict by the tantalizing opportunity to disqualify that official from 
future public office.
  My fear of creating dangerous precedents is not new. Two years ago, I 
was accused by some in my party of being a traitor because I opposed 
using an emergency declaration to fund a border wall that I supported. 
I warned then that a future Democratic President would do the same 
thing to fund a Green New Deal. And now, just 2 years later, leading 
Democrats are calling for that very thing.
  The lead manager admitted today that, for the Democrats and their 
enablers working in the legacy media, the purpose of this trial was not 
to hold the former President accountable. The real purpose of this 
trial was to tar and feather not just the rioters, but anyone who 
supported the former President and any Senator who refuses to vote to 
convict.
  I voted to acquit former President Trump because I will not allow my 
anger over the criminal attack of January 6 nor the political 
intimidation from the left to lead me into supporting a dangerous 
constitutional precedent.
  The election is over. A new President is in the White House, and a 
new Congress has been sworn in. Let history and, if necessary, the 
courts judge the events of the past. We should be focused on the 
serious challenges of the present and preparing our country to confront 
the serious tests it will face in the future.
  Ms. HASSAN. Mr. President, during this impeachment trial, our country 
has re-lived the chilling and un-American assault on the foundations of 
our democracy. New video footage reinforced both the brutality of the 
rioters and also the heroism of members of law enforcement who--just 
barely--prevented further loss of life. The personal threat of that 
day, however, is not nearly as troubling as the threat to our 
democracy.
  After listening to the arguments from the House Managers and former 
President Donald Trump's defense, I voted to convict the former 
President. As dangerous as Donald Trump's actions were over the course 
of the months, days, and hours leading up to the violent insurrection, 
my vote was less about holding Trump as an individual accountable than 
it was about protecting our country from similar threats in the future, 
at his hands or at the hands of others.
  Impeachment is not designed to punish--it was included in our 
Constitution to protect the Republic from abuses of power and tyranny. 
I voted to protect the America that we know and love because January 6, 
2021, will be our future if we tolerate what the impeachment trial 
showed was Trump's concerted campaign to prevent the peaceful 
transition of power.
  Of all the things former President Trump did, it is actually what he 
did not do once he knew the Capitol was being attacked and his own Vice 
President, among others, was being threatened that was most troubling.
  Should there be any doubt that Trump intended to disrupt the 
certification of votes and encourage the violence that desecrated the 
Capitol, his decision to allow it to continue for hours should dispel 
that uncertainty.
  If he had not intended the violence when it began, his failure to 
exercise his power to secure the Capitol and protect those inside was 
itself a violation of his oath of office and merits conviction and 
disqualification from holding future office.
  Before Trump's refusal to engage in the peaceful transfer of power, 
the public could gather outside the Capitol; families could play soccer 
on the weekends, and tourists could take photos of this temple of 
democracy. Before COVID, the public could even walk right in, after 
being properly screened. But throughout the impeachment trial, we came 
to work through fences and barbed wire. There was no open space for the 
public because we have lost the common understanding that the Capitol 
is place where we spar with words, not physical violence.
  It is fitting that the trial concluded right before we mark the 
birthday of George Washington, who helped establish some of the bedrock 
principles of our democracy not simply through his service as our first 
President, but by voluntarily surrendering the office, peacefully.
  Our union that Washington helped birth and that Lincoln managed to 
preserve is still fragile, and it cannot be taken for granted. We will 
need to continue the work of investigating what led to the grim events 
of January 6 as well as what happened on that day, and we will need to 
take steps to make clear that acts of tyranny will not be tolerated in 
our country.
  We have considerable work ahead to bring our country together and 
strive for greater opportunity for all, both in the face of this 
pandemic and beyond. I am committed to continuing that work and showing 
the American people and the world that we are resilient, strong, and 
willing to renew our commitment to government of, for, and by the 
people.
  Thank you.

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