Impeachment

Floor Speech

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Ms. DUCKWORTH. Mr. President, from the first words in the Constitution, the weight that lies on every American's shoulders has been clear: We the people are the ones who dreamed up this wild experiment that we call America, and we the people are the ones charged with ensuring its survival.

That is the tension--the push and the pull--behind our democracy because, while there is no greater privilege than living in a country whose Constitution guarantees our rights, there is no greater burden than knowing that our actions could sap that very same Constitution of its power; that our inaction risks allowing it to wither like any other piece of parchment from some bygone era.

For the past few weeks, it has been my sworn duty as a U.S. Senator to sit as an impartial juror in the impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump. While I wish the President had not put our Nation in this position, after having listened closely with an open mind to both sides, it is now my duty as an American to vote on whether to remove him from office. Other than sending our troops into harm's way, I cannot think of a more serious, more somber vote to take in this Chamber, but as sobering as it is, the right path forward is clear.

Throughout this trial, we have seen unprecedented obstruction from the Trump administration--obstruction so flagrant that it makes Nixon, when in the thick of Watergate, look like the model of transparency. Yet the facts uncovered still prove the truth of the matter: Trump abused his power when he secretly withheld security aid and a White House meeting to try to force Ukraine to announce investigations into a political rival in order to help him swing November's election. He put his political self-interest ahead of our national security. He smeared the name of an American Ambassador, even seemingly risking her safety because she was simply too principled to further his corruption, because she was too clean to help him strong-arm Ukraine into that favor he demanded.

When the reports first emerged about what he had done, he denied it. Then his explanation changed to: Well, maybe I did do it, but it was only because I was trying to root out corruption.

If that were true, there would be some documentary record to prove that, and we have seen absolutely none, even after I asked for it during the questioning period.

Now his defense team has gone so far as to claim that, well, it doesn't matter if he did it because he is the President, and the President can do anything he wants if it will help him get reelected. Breathtaking. To put it another way, when he got caught, he lied. Then, when that lie was found out, he lied again, then again, then again.

Along the way, his own defense counsel could not papier-mache together even the most basic argument to actually exonerate him. The best case they could muster boiled down to: When the President does it, it is not illegal. Nixon already tried that defense. It did not work then, and it does not work now because--here is the thing--in America, we believe not in rulers but in the rule of law.

Through all we have seen over the past few months, the truth has never changed. It is what National Security Council officials and decades-long diplomats testified to under oath. It is what foreign policy experts and Trump administration staffers--and, yes, an American warrior with a Purple Heart--have raised their right hands to tell us, time after time, since the House hearings had begun.

Even some of my Republican colleagues have admitted that Trump ``cross[ed] a line.'' Some said it as recently as this weekend, but many more said months ago that, if Trump did do what he is accused of, then it would, indeed, be wrong. Well, it is now obvious that those allegations were true, and it is pretty clear that Trump's defense team knows that also. If they actually believe Trump did nothing wrong--that his call was ``perfect''--then why would they fight so hard to block the witnesses and the documents from coming to light that could exonerate him? The only reason they would have done so is if they had known that he was guilty. The only reason for one to vote to acquit Trump today is if one is OK with his trying to cover it up.

Now, I know that some folks have been saying that we should acquit him--that we should ignore our constitutional duty and leave him in office--because we are in an election year and that the voters should decide his fate. That is an argument that rings hollow because this trial was about Trump's trying to cheat in the next election and rob the voters of their ability to decide. Any action other than voting to remove him would give him the license and the power to keep tampering with that race, to keep trying to turn that election into as much of a sham as an impeachment trial without witnesses.

You know, I spent 23 years in the military, and one of the most critical lessons anyone who serves learns is of the damage that can be done when troops don't oppose illegal orders, when fealty becomes blind and ignorance becomes intentional. Just as it is the duty of military officers to oppose unlawful orders, it is the responsibility of public servants to hold those in power accountable.

Former NSC official Fiona Hill understood that when she testified before Congress because she knew that politics must never eclipse national security.

Ambassador Bill Taylor understood that as well. The veteran who has served in every administration since Reagan's answered the question that is at the heart of the impeachment inquiry. He said under oath that, yes, there was a ``clear understanding'' of a quid pro quo-- exactly the sort of abuse of power no President should be allowed to get away with.

LTC Alexander Vindman--the Purple Heart recipient who dedicated decades of his life to our Armed Forces--understood the lessons of the past, too, in his saying that, here in America, right matters.

My colleagues in this Chamber who have attacked Lieutenant Colonel Vindman or who have provided a platform for others to tear him down just for his doing what he believes is right should be ashamed of themselves.

We should all be aware of the example we set and always seek to elevate the national discourse. We should be thoughtful about our own conduct both in terms of respecting the rule of law and the sacrifices our troops make to keep us safe because, at the end of the day, our Constitution is really just a set of rules on some pieces of paper. It is only as strong as our will to uphold its ideals and hold up the scales of justice.

So I am asking each of us today to muster up just an ounce of the courage shown by Fiona Hill, Ambassador Taylor, and Lieutenant Colonel Vindman. When our names are called from the dais in a few hours, each of us will either pass or fail the most elementary, yet most important, test any elected official will ever take--whether to put country over party or party over country.

It may be a politically difficult vote for some of us, but it should not be a morally difficult vote for any of us because, while I know that voting to acquit would make the lives of some of my colleagues simpler come election day, I also know that America would have never been born if the heroes of centuries past made decisions based on political expediency.

It would have been easier to have kept bowing down to King George III than to have pushed 342 chests of tea into the Boston Harbor, and it would have been easier to have kept paying taxes to the Crown than to have waged a revolution. Yet those patriots knew the importance of rejecting what was easy if it were in conflict with what was right. They knew that the courage of just a few could change history.

So, when it is time to vote this afternoon, we cannot think of political convenience. If we say abuse of power doesn't warrant removal from office today, we will be paving the way for future Presidents to do even worse tomorrow--to keep breaking the law and to keep endangering our country--one ``perfect'' call, one ``favor,'' one high crime and misdemeanor at a time.

Time and again, over these past few months, we have heard one story about our Founders, perhaps, more than any other. It was the time when Benjamin Franklin walked out of Independence Hall after the Constitutional Convention and someone asked: ``What have we got--a republic or a monarchy?''

We all know what he said: ``A Republic if you can keep it.''

Keeping it may very well come down to the 100 of us in this very Chamber. We are the ones the Constitution vests with the power to hold the President accountable, and through our actions, we are the ones who vest the Constitution with its power.

In this moment, let's think not just of today but of tomorrow too. In this moment, let's remember that, here, right matters; truth matters. The truth is that Donald Trump is guilty of these Articles of Impeachment. I will vote to do the right thing, and I hope my colleagues will as well. For the sake of tomorrow and the tomorrow after that, we must.

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