Executive Session
Floor Speech
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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, just when you think things couldn't get any stranger here in Washington, DC, a few weeks ago, Speaker Pelosi announced that the House was officially beginning proceedings to impeach the President of the United States. While the left has been dreaming of impeachment ever since the President was first elected in 2016, the timing of this was quite a surprise. In fact, last January the Speaker led the effort to table an impeachment resolution, and she and Chairman Nadler and Chairman Schiff and other House leaders had said that they recognized that this would never be successful unless it is bipartisan, and I think they were right then and they are wrong now.
We know that the announcement of the Speaker came at a time when the only thing the public knew was about rumors of a whistleblower complaint about a call over which virtually no one knew any details.
But the facts didn't really matter. This was about grabbing ahold of something and using this as a vehicle to do what the left has wanted to do since the President was inaugurated.
Were the initial reports a reason to look into the matter further? Absolutely. That is what the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that I have the privilege of serving on did. We had the Acting Director of National Intelligence come testify. We had the inspector general come testify about his report.
But that is not the approach that House Democrats have taken. They made no honest effort to investigate before deciding to impeach.
Prior to the Speaker's press conference, in fact, we hadn't seen the complaint. We hadn't seen the transcript or heard from the leaders of the intelligence community. But regardless of the lack of any evidence at the time, they jumped into impeachment feet first. It is almost as if they were waiting for anything--any excuse, any reason at all--to do what they have wanted to do since day one in opposing President Trump.
This confirms to me that this is really not about the facts so much as it is a search-and-destroy mission.
Removing a President from office is no small matter. In fact, the Senate has never done so in American history. You would think that with so much at stake, our House Democrat friends would make every effort to lay out a careful, logical, fact-based case for the American people.
In fact, they said they knew they couldn't be successful unless this was a bipartisan effort, but they made zero effort to make it bipartisan by laying out the facts, by making it transparent, by letting the American people see exactly what was going on.
Ordinarily, you would expect hearings on every major network, witnesses presenting their testimony, subject to questioning by both Republicans and Democrats, and detailed reports of investigations. That is what you would expect, but that is not what we got.
Instead, we got secret hearings, secret witnesses, secret interviews, and secret meetings. But you know what goes along with that kind of secrecy--leaks and more leaks.
Chairman Schiff and his cohorts in the House have drawn the cloak of secrecy around this entire proceeding and then proceeded to drip, drip, drip a narrative to the press through leaks that would seem to justify their arguments, but that is not fair. That is not fair to the President. That is not fair to the 65 million American people who voted for President Trump. To try to negate an election through this sort of inappropriate process just defies logic and sense.
We have some idea of whom they are meeting with, but we have no idea as to the details they are talking about. That is because, instead of going through the Judiciary Committee, which would have been an open proceeding, ordinarily, Speaker Pelosi has grabbed this topic from Chairman Nadler and given it to Chairman Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, so as to have some sort of justification, as thin as it may seem, for doing things behind closed doors and in secret.
As I said, I am on the Senate Intelligence Committee. I understand that if there is classified information that can't be made public, that is a reason to have closed-door hearings, but there should be some effort to separate the classified information, if there is any, from the nonclassified information and have a public hearing on that part of the information the committee is given, not just closing the door, locking it, and throwing away the key, and keeping it all secret. This is really unjustified.
Well, we know that they have been busy. Chairman Schiff has been busy. We know he has been particularly busy on the TV talk shows and giving interviews to the media all day long, every day, and we know that there are bits of information being strategically leaked to the media, which conveniently align with their overall plan, and that is impeachment.
There have been no real and credible details about what has happened behind those closed-door meetings, and I would suggest that every American should be concerned. This is entirely contrary to our basic concepts of fairness and due process--to have secret witnesses, secret interviews, secret hearings, and then use that information to take one of the most dramatic actions that the Constitution provides for, and that is the removal of a President.
This is contrary to any concept of fair play and due process, as guaranteed by the Bill of Rights and our Constitution. You could be charged with a traffic offense and get more transparency and more due process than what the House Democrats are providing to President Trump, because that is what the Constitution requires.
Because the Speaker made a decision to impeach President Trump based at the time solely on rumors and secondhand information, I am left with very little optimism for the way this impeachment inquiry so far has been handled.
Now, there have been some silly hearings in the House of Representatives this year, but the American people should have the benefit of being able to watch these proceedings and draw their own conclusions. They don't have to believe what the press tells them based on strategic leaks. They don't have to believe what Chairman Schiff and Speaker Pelosi say. They can judge the facts for themselves.
When it comes to impeachment, arguably one of the most serious responsibilities under our Constitution for Congress, House Democrats have simply drawn the cloak of secrecy around their investigation. Of course, you know what the logical questions are to this sort of bizarre proceeding--questions like this: What are they hiding? What are they afraid of? What is it that they don't want the American people to see?
Of course, as I said, there are going to be some sensitivities and, perhaps, even some classified information, particularly when you are talking about foreign policy.
But the President has already made the key documents public. He has declassified the conversation he had with President Zelensky, and we have seen the report of the inspector general.
This secrecy veil seems to be more of a necessary tool to cloak information that doesn't align with their narrative. They simply don't want people to hear all sides of the story.
I have no doubt that if the facts were on their side, they would allow this process to be in the open. If they actually thought that transparency would benefit them, they would throw the doors wide open and do it out in public and let the American people judge it for themselves, and if facts were on their side, they would then hold a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives authorizing this impeachment inquiry, which has been done each time in the past. But from what we read, Speaker Pelosi is trying to protect her vulnerable House Members from being held accountable for their vote, particularly those in swing districts that won in 2018. So this is more another part of the political calculation at work here.
Instead, what they are doing is constructing this narrative behind closed doors and handpicking which information to leak and which to keep secret.
A true and honest investigation means following the facts where they may lead, gathering evidence, and giving the American people access to that information at every step, but that is a far cry from what is happening today.
While House Democrats are freely leaking the details of the impeachment process to the media, they are being unfair to the American people, particularly the 65 million people who voted for President Trump in the first place--but not just them. We all understand that in elections you win some and you lose some. Even the people who didn't vote for President Trump, I believe, would be committed to a fair process, particularly when going through something as serious as the potential impeachment and removal of a duly elected President of the United States.
What they want to do is to undo the 2016 election, but they should at least have the courage to do it out in the open.
We know what is happening as a result of the Democrats devoting 100 percent of their time and energy to reversing the results of the 2016 election by impeaching President Trump. Their constituents sitting at home are wondering what it is they are actually going to be able to accomplish.
When we have elections, ordinarily candidates run for office and say: If you elect me, I will do this, this, and this. The House Democrats have given up on that. Forget their campaign promises. Forget what they told their voters in the 2018 election. They are all in on the impeachment and removal of the President. The rest of that stuff is just talk--at least that is how it appears.
There are a lot of important things we can and should be doing in Washington as opposed to this political side show. We have had many productive hearings and efforts on such important items as trying to reduce mass violence, which is something we are all concerned about, how to bring down costs and increase choice when it comes to our healthcare system, how to improve trade so we can sell the things we grow and make in America to markets around the world, and how we can continue this incredible trend line when it comes to our economy, where unemployment is at historically low levels and particularly African- American and Hispanic unemployment is at historically the lowest level in recorded history. Forget all of that. House Democrats are full steam ahead on impeachment, which will make it virtually impossible for us to pass productive, bipartisan legislation. It will make it virtually impossible for them to keep the promises they themselves made to their constituents when they ran for election in 2018, and that is a crying shame.
This is the final point I want to make. We are 13 months--13 months-- from a general election. President Trump will be on the ballot. These folks, who apparently have never gotten over their loss in 2016, will have a chance to cast their votes again. So will the American people. We will be able to take a look at the Democratic nominee, along with President Trump, the Republican nominee, and we will be able to vote 13 months from now. But, to me, it says the Democrats are not particularly optimistic about the outcome of the 2020 election, given that choice, because they are not going to wait for the election to occur; they want to divide the country, they want to paralyze Congress, and they want to impeach President Trump 13 months before the election.
I hope cooler heads will prevail. Democrats should work with us to pass bipartisan legislation that will actually make our country better off rather than pursuing this purely political agenda of impeachment.
I think it is disgraceful the way the House Democrats have chosen to pursue this clandestine impeachment process rather than focus on what is best for the American people. Let the voters cast their ballots 13 months from now rather than put our country through this divisive and ultimately futile effort to impeach and remove President Trump.
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