Impeachment

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. CANTWELL. Madam President, I come to the floor to join my colleagues speaking about what has transpired over the last several weeks and also to say something that I think is maybe not as obvious as what people realize, and that is that election interference is the issue of our day. It is not because we just spent 11 days talking about it, and what might have happened in the Oval Office about interference in the upcoming 2020 election. It is the issue of our day because we live in an information age, and weaponizing misinformation has become a lethal campaign tool. That is to say that, if you tarnish your opponent enough with misinformation, accuse them of corruption, then you can either score by wounding them fatally--that is, by getting people not to vote for them or by disincentivizing people to vote at all.

Claiming corruption seems to be a pretty good tool these days to wound anybody, to wound institutions, the free press, legitimate government oversight, but most seriously, it wounds our democracy by sowing doubt into free and fair elections. Once voters believe the election results are corrupt, it is hard for them to have faith in the results, and it is hard to make tough decisions that we need to make as a society to move forward. Voting, in and of itself, does give us confidence as a nation, unless we know there are free and fair elections, we know the public has spoken and the results are legitimate.

I am personally grateful to my predecessor, Senator Slade Gorton, for how he handled the 2000 election. After a 3-week recount and a margin of less than one half of 1 percent, with control of the Senate, a 50-50 split to be decided, he conceded. Since then--and even at that time-- some States tried to suppress provisional ballots. But Senator Gorton not only believed that provisional ballots were legitimate, but he believed that the election was correctly decided. That must have been a tough moment for him as he saw a shift in public sentiment in the State of Washington, as we have moved more toward a different direction.

But today we live in a world of disinformation, where distrust can be served up like your own personal cocktail. After consuming and analyzing endless amounts of personal data about you, someone knows exactly what disinformation tactic will work best with you. It is almost like disinformation on steroids.

Our adversaries, the Russians, are especially sowing these seeds of distrust into our democracy trying to dissuade people from even voting and more seriously trying to divide us as a Nation and tarnish our democracy. I don't know if this is some payback from President Putin, who believes that the United States helped in the demise of the Soviet Union, or if Russia is just trying to undermine American and European trust and free and open democratic systems; or if Russia is trying to divide Europe so it can dominate European energy supplies and exert its influence over European policies. I just know this: We are not the first act of this play.

This has been going on for many years and in many places. They have interfered in European elections. A 2018 report shows, ``the Europeans launched several multilateral and regional initiatives to improve Europe's reliance to improve Europe's resilience to building collective defenses against disinformation and cyber-attacks, improving cross- border cooperation . . . and applying sanctions against malicious actors.''

The Russians interfered in our 2016 election, our own intelligence agencies agreed.

The Special Counsel's investigation ``established Russia interfered in the 2016 election principally through two operations. First, a Russian entity carried out a social media campaign that favored Presidential candidate Donald J. Trump and disparaged Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and second, a Russian intelligence service conducted computer intrusions and operations against entities, employees, and volunteers working for the Hillary Clinton campaign and released stolen documents.''

We must fight back against Russia or anyone who interferes in our elections. Protecting our elections should be a bipartisan effort. We should listen to what the intelligence community says, because they are warning us now that Russia will interfere again in the 2020 elections.

That is why I take so seriously the House charges that President Trump was involved in a scheme, over a long period of time, involving many people, to ask the Ukrainians to interfere in our election.

As Federal Election Commissioner Ellen Weintraub said, ``let me make something 100% clear to the American people and anyone running for office. It is illegal for any person to solicit, accept, or receive anything of value from a foreign national in connection with a U.S. election. This is not a novel concept.''

So why has President Trump continued to sow distrust in our elections? He thought it was okay to ask the Russians to interfere in 2016, and he seems to be inviting Ukrainian interference in 2020.

As one of my former campaign staffers asked last weekend, ``are campaigns now going to be communications directors, fundraising directors, and foreign operations directors? You know, those people who go around and seek influence, perhaps dark money or endorsements from foreign governments? Will this become some sort of norm because we're not acting?''

We already know what the dark, murky world of Paul Manafort looks like. That is why it is so important for us to be clear here. Seeking, requesting, and accepting interference in a U.S. election campaign is wrong. It is not just inappropriate, it is not just improper, it is illegal. By calling it improper or turning a blind eye in this case, is enabling more election interference.

What is not clear is who are all the President's men in this administration who are helping him abuse his power. He is using his office for political gain. How are they accomplishing this task for him?

It is so disappointing to see that this might be happening in our Nation. Where will the abuse stop? I know this. As a young girl, I remember the Saturday Night Massacre, the time when Bill Ruckelshaus and Elliot Richardson stood up to illegal behavior. My father, at the time was definitely a Democrat, but he wanted me to understand this lesson. People of the other party might not share the same philosophy, but they did share the same Constitution, and the scales of justice are balanced.

Yes, there is probably no harder task than to stand up to the President of your own party, but that is what Bill Ruckelshaus and Elliot Richardson did.

I remember that lesson and called Bill Ruckelshaus after Jeff Sessions recused himself and was fired. Bill's advice was prophetic. He said, ``You should use this opportunity now to make sure the next Attorney General will be an independent and help rein in this president's abuse of power.'' Well, we obviously did not get that done, and we all know what that outcome has been.

It occurred to me last weekend that maybe the Saturday Night Massacre in this case has happened. Maybe John Bolton and Fiona Hill will turn out to be those people who stood up to the abuse of power. I know this: It is important to have listened to them.

Twice in this gallery over the last several weeks I heard a young baby cry. I thought how unusual that somebody would bring a child to an event like this. Probably their parents wanted to be part of history. And then I thought about what that child would say, probably over the rest of their life: that they had been at this impeachment trial.

But what I want to know is about the reflections 30 or 40 years from now. Will we be remembered for rooting out illegal activity, stopping interference in our elections or not, or will this moment have been forgotten?

I know my constituents have been clear about this--and I don't mean my constituents that support the President or my constituents that don't support the President. I mean my constituents who want to know that we are going to enforce the law. They don't care about what the outcome is in the next election or how it might benefit either party. And it is clear that either party could overstep in this situation. They want to know if we are going to uphold the oath of office and hold people accountable for wrongdoings that they pursue.

I hope that we have taken this election interference issue seriously. I plan to work with my colleagues, on a bipartisan basis, to get more laws passed on election security and to stop interference. I have been a loud and consistent spokesperson for better cybersecurity in our Nation. I am not going to let our democracy be eroded by foreign interests that want to harm what is so precious in our Nation. I will be voting for both articles, and for impeachment.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source