Providing for Consideration of H. Res. Impeaching Donald John Trump, President of the United States, for High Crimes and Misdemeanors

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman of the Rules Committee for yielding. I congratulate him for his efforts down at the Rules Committee in acting and acting swiftly.

I appreciate the remarks of Mr. Cole, for whom I have great respect, but I disagree with his sense of a lack of urgency in action. I do agree with him of the consequences of our action. There are consequences to actions, and the actions of the President of the United States demand urgent and clear action by the Congress of the United States.

The chairman of the committee introduced the remarks and put them in the Record, but I want to reference the remarks of the chair of the Republican Conference, which is the analog to the Democratic Caucus. It is all the Republicans elected to the Congress of the United States in the House of Representatives. And they elected Liz Cheney, the daughter of the Vice President of the United States, the former whip of this House, Dick Cheney, with whom I served in the eighties.

Representative Cheney, from Wyoming, a conservative Republican, said this: ``The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack.''

That is not some irresponsible new Member of the Congress of the United States. This is the daughter of the former Republican whip and former Vice President of the United States of America. She knows of what she speaks.

She said this as well: ``There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.''

This is not, as Liz Cheney says, just some action. She characterized it as the biggest betrayal of any President of the United States in our history.

Mr. John Katko--not a backbench Republican who just got here and doesn't know what is going on--Mr. John Katko, who is the ranking Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, says this: ``To allow the President of the United States to incite this attack without consequence is a direct threat to the future of our democracy.''

This is not some backbencher on their side of the aisle, Mr. Speaker. It reflects the sense of outrage and the sense of historic dissimilarity from the actions of any previous President.

Then Mr. Adam Kinzinger, a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and a senior Member from Illinois--so we have a Member from Wyoming, a Member from Illinois, and a Member from New York. There will be others on this vote who will join them. Mr. Kinzinger said this: ``If these actions''--he hasn't had any hearings; he doesn't need any long, drawn-out consideration--``If these actions are not worthy of impeachment, then what is an impeachable offense?''

There is no doubt in my mind that the President of the United States broke his oath and incited this insurrection.

I tell my friend, Mr. Speaker, a gentleman for whom I have great respect--he is my friend, and I say that honestly, not just as rhetoric that we say on this floor, because there are some that I don't consider friends, whose values I do not share. That is not Mr. Cole. We have a difference. Liz Cheney, John Katko, Adam Kinzinger, and other Republicans whom I have talked to within the last 24 hours believe this action is required.

Mr. Speaker, I see the gentleman from Ohio is on the floor. He likes to say that we Democrats were elected and the first thing we wanted to do was impeach this President. He is shaking his head in agreement because, like the President of the United States, he denies the facts. Trump-like. Fake news.

Mr. Speaker, December 6, 2017, Mr. Green, who I am going to refer to, offered a motion because he saw the danger that confronted our country, and he filed a resolution of impeachment. On December 6, 2017, we had a vote on that, and the majority of Democrats voted ``no''--actually, they voted ``yes'' to table--so that we did not proceed in 2017.

The gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green) thought, however, the next year that there was still a danger to our country. Some of us shared that view, but we were not confident that the case could be made or that the transactions that preceded would lead to conviction. So, on January 19 of 2018, we had a motion to table Mr. Green's resolution, and the majority of Democrats voted to table that resolution.

What a rush to judgment.

And then, on July 17, 2019, 9 days before the call to Ukraine to get the Ukrainian leader to act on the political behalf of the President of the United States and where he withheld money to defend the Ukrainian people from Russian involvement and offered that as a bribe, on July 17, the majority of Democrats voted to table that resolution.

Mr. Speaker, there was no rush to judgment.

Then that call to which I just referred was on July 26, 9 days later. I call that the ``a-ha moment.'' Yes, I knew what I thought, but that was proof.

Some gentlemen have lamented that we didn't know the whistleblower, because, after all, if we knew the whistleblower, we could intimidate everybody else from coming forward. This President has done everything he can to intimidate whistleblowers, people who came forward and told the truth. And we had witness after witness after witness who confirmed what the whistleblower brought to our attention.

So, Mr. Speaker, the reason I rise today--and I am going to speak on the resolution itself at some later time--is to recognize the contributions that Al Green from Texas has made to getting us to this place.

I am not going to read all of the resolution, but I want to read some excerpts from the resolution he has introduced. We won't be considering his resolution. We will be considering Mr. Cicilline's resolution which over 200 others have signed on to.

Mr. Green had a resolution be introduced: ``Resolved, that Donald Trump, President of the United States'' . . . `'is impeached for high misdemeanors, and that the following Articles of Impeachment be exhibited to the Senate.''

Article I says, ``In his capacity as President of the United States, unmindful of the high duties of his high office and the dignity and proprieties thereof, and of the harmony and courtesies necessary for stability''--to which my friend spoke, the gentleman from Oklahoma-- Donald John Trump, in violation of his constitutional oath to faithfully execute the Office of President ``has harmed the society of the United States, brought shame and dishonor to the Office of President of the United States, sowing discord among the people of the United States'' by weaponizing hate for political gain.

He went on to say, ``On January 6, 2021, in a speech at the National Mall, President Donald Trump weaponized the hate that resulted in violence, the deaths of multiple people, an assault on democracy, and an insurrection against the Capitol of the United States of America by inciting a mob''--who said that? Liz Cheney said it, and Al Green said it--infected with white supremacists carrying a rebel flag, erecting a gallows structure with a noose, wearing shirts and hateful messages such as ``Camp Auschwitz: Work Brings Freedom'' and ``MAGA Civil War, January 6, 2021.'' ``MAGA Civil War.''

They had the hats on of the army of MAGA, which I refer to as ``Make America Grieve Again.'' We grieved at Fort Sumter; we grieved on December 7, 1941; and we grieved on 9/11. And, yes, we grieved on January 6 of this year.

He goes on to say what the President told this mob that Liz Cheney said was recruited by the President of the United States. This is the President talking to this mob:

``All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by bold and radical left Democrats''--like the Secretary of State in Georgia and the Governor of Georgia--``which is what they are doing, and stolen by the fake news media.''

Inciting, riling up, creating anger with the fake news and lies that the President of the United States said to these folks.

``That is what they have done and what they are doing,'' the President continued. ``We will never give up. We will never concede. It doesn't happen. You don't concede when there is theft involved.''

And so what did they do? Incited by this President, as Liz Cheney said, as John Katko said, as Adam Kinzinger said, and, frankly, what Secretary Chao acted upon and what the Secretary of Homeland Security acted upon and what so many others in the administration have acted upon--disgusted, dismayed, and disheartened by what their President had done, they got out. They quit.

The President further emboldened them, saying--this is the Green resolution. We are not considering it, but it is the Green resolution. The President further emboldened them, saying, ``You will never take back our country with weakness.''

We had a display of non-weakness, criminal insurrection-like conduct, recruited by and deployed by the President of the United States to come to this Capitol and ``stop the steal.''

The ``steal,'' of course, was: We assembled, accepting what all the courts that considered it said was a fair and accurate election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as President and Vice President of the United States.

After his National Mall speech, a mob of his supporters proceeded to the Capitol complex. We know that.

And so Mr. Green's resolution ends with, ``Wherefore, to prevent national harm to our society, Donald John Trump, by such conduct, warrants an immediate impeachment trial and removal from office and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States Constitution and the 14th Amendment.''

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Green is going to speak after me, but, in conclusion, let me tell my friend Mr. Cole: I have been here some time; he has as well. I served with Ronald Reagan, with George H.W. Bush, and George Bush. I had respect for all of those Presidents. They cared about our country, they honored our Constitution, and they executed the duties of their office consistent with the Constitution and laws of our country.

That is not true of this President, and, therefore, he ought to be removed. We have that opportunity to do so. Is there little time left? Yes. But it is never too late to do the right thing.

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