Impeachment

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, on one final matter, today, almost 3 years in the House Democrats' quest to impeach the President and 7 weeks into the inquiry that Speaker Pelosi proclaimed in a press conference, House Democrats will hold their first public hearing on impeachment.

This hearing was mandated by the strange resolution House Democrats passed a couple of weeks ago. That resolution did not provide President Trump with important rights, which the House afforded to Presidents of both parties during past impeachment inquiries. It didn't even afford their own House Republican colleagues the same rights that House Republicans gave Democrats during the Clinton inquiry. No; House Democrats' resolution just codified their unfair approach: no due process now, maybe some later, but only if we feel like it. That is what it establishes.

The American people know that many Washington Democrats have had their minds made up on impeachment for years. It was clear on election day 2016, and it became undeniable by Inauguration Day. That is when the Washington Post, before he was sworn in, ran this headline: ``The Campaign to Impeach President Trump has Begun.''

The whole country saw a prominent House Democrat state publicly in April of 2017: ``I'm going to fight every day until he's impeached.'' That is the chairwoman of one of the committees the Speaker has given responsibility for this inquiry, promising impeachment 3 months into his Presidency.

It is hardly surprising that this partisan journey is not yielding a neutral process. Unfortunately, it is also crowding out important legislation for the American people. In the House, Speaker Pelosi is more interested in taking away President Trump's job than in creating 176,000 new jobs for American workers by passing the USMCA. She is blocking this landmark trade agreement.

In the Senate, our Democratic colleagues have filibustered the funding of our Armed Forces. Despite promising to forgo the poison pills a few months back, Democratic leadership has run the appropriations process aground so they can fight over immigration policy with the White House.

Speaking of our Armed Forces, House Democrats are also slow-walking the National Defense Authorization Act. That is an essential bill that Congress has passed every year--every year since 1961 like clockwork-- every year, on a bipartisan basis, for almost six decades, but this year House Democrats broke with precedent and passed their own partisan version and are now stalling the conference committee. These are the priorities that are languishing as impeachment marches on.

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