Impeachment
Floor Speech
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Ms. BALDWIN. Madam President, in 2012, the good people of Wisconsin elected me to work for them in the Senate. Like every one of my fellow Senators, I took an oath of office. In 2018, I was reelected and I took that same oath. We have all taken that oath. It is not to support and defend the President--this President or any other. Our oath is to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. That is our job every day that we come to work, and it certainly is our job here today.
Just over 2 weeks ago, we all stood together right here and we took another oath given to us by Chief Justice Roberts to do impartial judgment in this impeachment trial. I have taken this responsibility very seriously. I have listened to both sides make their case. I have reviewed the evidence presented and I have carefully considered the facts.
From the beginning, I have supported a full, fair, and honest impeachment trial. A majority of this Senate has failed to allow it. I supported the release of critical evidence that was concealed by the White House. The other side of the aisle let President Trump hide it from us, and they voted to keep it a secret from the American people. I voted for testimony of relevant witnesses with direct, firsthand evidence about the President's conduct. Senate Republicans blocked witness testimony because they didn't want to be bothered with the truth.
Every Senate impeachment trial in our Nation's history has included witnesses, and this Senate trial should have been no different. Unfortunately, it was. A majority of the Senate has taken the unprecedented step of refusing to hear all the evidence, declining all the facts, denying the full truth about this President's corrupt abuse of power. President Trump has obstructed Congress, and this Senate will let him.
Last month, President Trump's former National Security Advisor, John Bolton, provided an unpublished manuscript to the White House. The recent media reports about what Ambassador Bolton could have testified to, had he not been blocked as a witness, go to the heart of this impeachment trial--abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
As reported, in early May 2019, there was an Oval Office meeting that included President Trump, Mick Mulvaney, Pat Cipollone, Rudy Giuliani, and John Bolton. According to Mr. Bolton, the President directed him to help with his pressure campaign to solicit assistance from Ukraine to pursue investigations that would not only benefit President Trump politically but would act to exonerate Russia from their interference in our 2016 elections.
Several weeks later, the U.S. Department of Defense certified the release of military aid to Ukraine, concluding that they had taken substantial actions to decrease corruption. This was part of the security assistance we approved in Congress with bipartisan support to help Ukraine fight Russian aggression. However, President Trump blocked it and covered it up from Congress.
On July 25, 2019, as President Trump was withholding the support for Ukraine, he had a telephone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky. Based on a White House call summary memo that was released 2 months later, we all know the President put his own political interest ahead of our national security and the integrity of our elections.
Based on the clear and convincing evidence presented in this trial, we know President Trump used American taxpayer dollars in security assistance in order to get Ukraine to interfere in our elections to help him politically. We know the President solicited assistance from Ukraine to pursue an investigation of phony conspiracy theories about our 2016 U.S. elections that are a part of a Russian disinformation campaign. We know the President solicited assistance from Ukraine to discredit the conclusion by American law enforcement, the U.S. intelligence community, and confirmed by a bipartisan Senate report that Russia interfered with our 2016 elections. We also know President Trump solicited foreign interference in the upcoming election by pressuring Ukraine to publicly announce investigations to help him politically.
I ask my friends to consider the fact that the Ukrainian President was pressured and prepared to go on an American cable television network to announce these political investigations.
To those who are making the argument to acquit the President because to convict would create further division in our country, I ask you to acknowledge the fact that President Trump's corrupt scheme has given Russia another opening to attack our democracy, interfere in our elections, and further divide our already divided country. We know this to be true, but the Senate is choosing to ignore the truth.
As reported just weeks after the Zelensky call, President Trump told Ambassador Bolton in August that he wanted to continue freezing $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine until it helped with the political investigations. Had Ambassador Bolton testified to these facts in this trial, it would have directly contradicted what the President told Senator Johnson in a phone call on August 31, 2019, in which, according to Senator Johnson, the President said:
I would never do that. Who told you that?
John Bolton not only has direct evidence that implicates President Trump in a corrupt abuse of power, but he has direct evidence that President Trump lied to one of our colleagues in an attempt to cover it up. It may not matter to this Senate, but I can tell you that it matters to the people of the State of Wisconsin that this President did not tell their Senator the truth.
Based on the facts presented to us, I refuse to join this President's coverup, and I refuse to conclude that the President's abuse of power doesn't matter, that it is OK, and that we should just get over it.
I recognize the courageous public servants who did what this Senate has failed to do--to put our country first. In the House impeachment inquiry, brave government servants came forward and told the truth. They put their jobs on the line. Instead of inspiring us to do our duty--to do our jobs--they have faced character assassination from this President, the White House, and some of my colleagues here in the Senate. It is a disgrace to this institution that they have been treated as anything less than the patriots they are.
As Army LTC Alexander Vindman said, ``This is America. Here, right matters.''
My judgment is inspired by these words, and I am guided to my commitment to put country before party and our Constitution first.
My vote on the President's abuse of power and obstruction of Congress is a vote to uphold my oath of office and to support and defend the Constitution. My vote is a vote to uphold the rule of law and our uniquely American principle that no one--not even the President--is above the law. I only have 1 of 100 votes in the U.S. Senate, and I am afraid that the majority is putting this President above the law by not convicting him of these impeachable offenses.
Let's be clear. This is not an exoneration of President Trump. It is a failure to show moral courage and hold this President accountable.
Now every American will have the power to make his or her own judgment. Every American gets to decide what is in our public interest. We the people get to choose what is in our national interest. I trust the American people. I know they will be guided by our common good and the truth. The people we work for know what the truth is, and they know, in America, it matters.
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