Recommending That the House of Representatives Find Peter K. Navarro and Daniel Scavino, Jr., in Contempt of Congress
Floor Speech
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Mr. RASKIN. Madam Speaker, I want to underscore first the point that was just made by Ms. Cheney. The distinguished ranking member of the House Administration Committee was appointed to this committee, or the appointment was accepted by Speaker Pelosi, but it was withdrawn by the minority leader. It was not rejected by the majority; it was rejected by the minority.
Madam Speaker, we are here in the broadest sense to defend American democratic institutions and the rule of law. And our colleague said before that if this investigation were valid, then we would be talking to officials from the Sergeant at Arms Office and the National Guard.
Well, I have got good news for my friends. First, every court that has looked at their claim that this is an invalid investigation either because of its composition or because it was intrinsically flawed in its pursuit of the facts about January 6, has rejected those arguments. Every court that looked at it has rejected the precise arguments our colleagues are floating on the floor today.
But I will go even further than that. We have, in fact, interviewed precisely the people that they set up as a test for the validity of our investigation from the Sergeant at Arms and the National Guard. And as patriotic public officials living out their oaths of office and not bowing down to the humiliating cult of Donald Trump, they didn't need a subpoena from this committee; they came voluntarily. They not only understood their legal duty to testify, a duty our colleagues, like my friend, the gentleman from Ohio, clearly understands when they wield the gavel, but they have come forward and said that it is a patriotic honor for them. It is not just a legal duty, it is a patriotic honor for them to render truthful testimony on this horrific attack against America, which interrupted the counting of electoral college votes for the first time in American history.
This is mandated in the 12th Amendment to the Constitution, which says that the House and the Senate must meet in joint session in order to count electoral college votes the first week of January, on the Wednesday following a Presidential election.
What is remarkable to me is that the caucus that is now so drenched in the Trump-Putin propaganda is not just trying to denounce the Democrats for searching the truth right now. Today, they have begun the utterly cannibalistic process of vilifying and castigating Republicans just because they disagree with the orthodoxy, the dogma handed down by Donald Trump.
Ms. Cheney is the former chair of the House Republican Conference, and it is left to Democrats to defend her against the vilification and the castigating that we hear.
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Mr. RASKIN. It is up to us to defend Mr. Kinzinger and to defend Ms. Cheney, because if you don't go along with what Donald Trump says, if you don't act like you are a robot, or a member of a religious cult, they will attack you, they will vilify you, they will denounce you.
These people, Mr. Kinzinger and Ms. Cheney, are constitutional heroes, and they don't deserve your contempt. The insurrectionists and the lawbreakers deserve your contempt because they are acting in contempt of the rule of law and the Constitution of the United States.
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