Impeachment

Floor Speech

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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam President, before I begin, I really want to take a moment to thank our friend and Majority Leader McConnell for the manner in which he has worked to make this trial run so smoothly. I also thank our colleagues for their perseverance and, of course, the staff that has worked so diligently and has been so patient as we have worked through this process.

The impeachment trial of President Donald J. Trump was a moment in history that should have been shrouded in the gravity of its potential consequences. Instead, day by day, we endured hyperbole in its most unserious form.

It is easy to forget that America's appetite for scandal fades quickly once you exit the beltway around Washington, DC, but I encourage my colleagues to recognize that the enthusiasm with which the House managers have sought President Trump's removal is completely and inarguably divorced from reality in the heartland.

As it appeared to my fellow Tennesseans, the intentional mishandling of the House of Representatives' constitutional duty was nothing more than an attempt to prelitigate the 2020 election. That is correct--to prelitigate the 2020 election and to remove President Trump from office and thereby remove him from the ballot.

Our partisan friends had decided on the outcome that was necessary for them. They just needed to find a path that was going to get them there. So they had their outcome. They needed a path.

We saw House Democrats freeze out the President's counsel, refusing them an opportunity to fairly participate in the House Intelligence Committee's investigation.

House Manager Schiff created the supposed conversations he falsely attributed to the President and waited to see if his assertions would be questioned or if they were going to be accepted as fact.

Let me tell you something. I am a mom and I am a grandmother. I will tell you this. I don't think there is any mother on Earth who would stand for it if her child did such a thing to a coach or a teacher or a Scout leader or a minister. They would not stand for it, and yet the Senate was expected to indulge this unseemly behavior. This is something that is appropriate that we question.

The House managers relied heavily on the assertions of a whistleblower but refused to reveal anything about the circumstances that led to the whistleblower's report. So here we are at the end of the trial. Do we know if the whistleblower is a person or if it is a group of people? Does the report represent a consensus of ideas or just biased opinion? Was it prepared by an individual or prepared by a committee?

No one can answer that question except House Manager Schiff and his staff from the House Intel Committee, but that is not something they wanted to come down and talk about.

When it became clear that the White House would push back on witness subpoenas seeking testimony protected by executive privilege, House Democrats chose to move on rather than fight as hard as they could for their case. They looked at those subpoenas, thought about the evidence that might come from them, and decided: not worth the trouble. Instead, they tried to rely on the pandemonium created by a historic moment to convince their colleagues and the American people that justice demanded a do-over--a do-over for the House impeachment.

When that strategy failed, they blamed the Members of the U.S. Senate for our unwillingness to go in and clean up their mess. This wasn't a pressure tactic; it was a manipulation tactic aimed right at the hearts of the American people.

Unfortunately for the House managers, the people see with dazzling clarity what has transpired within the four walls of this Chamber. The House managers have asked us to go on the record and rubberstamp history's first--history's first--impeachment inquiry to be filed solely on the basis of partisan politics--first one. They have asked us to ignore how quickly they moved to impeach President Trump and to not compare their timeline to the timelines from the Nixon or the Clinton impeachment.

Colleagues, I did my constitutional due diligence. I have read the House managers' brief and those reports prepared by the House Republicans and the President's counsel. I saw it all in black and white, and it was my due diligence that has led me to support acquittal.

Now, when I was serving in the House, there were times when I became frustrated with President Bush or, then, with President Obama. And when we, as Members of the House, at that point in time were faced with President Obama's apology tour, his senseless pursuit of government-run healthcare, and his involvement in the Fast and Furious scandal or the DACA executive memo, my colleagues and I discussed the possibilities of impeachment: What are we going to do about this? We looked at all the facts, and ultimately we chose a different path, a different path that respected the American people. We litigated our policy differences in the courts, where those battles belong.

So, Madam President, I ask my colleagues that, when the time comes, they exercise the same restraint. I implore every Member of this body to recognize the supremacy of the Constitution over partisan spin. Vote to acquit. Vote to reject the two Articles of Impeachment.

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