GOP lawmakers argued against impeachment on voting day (Dec 18, 2019)

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The House of Representatives impeached a president of the United States for only the third time in American history. In this Dec. 18, 2019 impeachment voting day video, GOP lawmakers Chris Stewart, Carol Miller, Doug Collins, Tom Cole, Vern Buchanan, Clay Higgins, Bradley Byrne, John Rutherford, Liz Cheney, Jeff Fortenberry, Steve Scalise, Kevin Nunes, Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan, Steve King, Tom McClintock argued against impeachment.

Steve Scalise said: This has been about a political vendetta. A political vendetta that didn’t just start with the Zelensky call, it started long before that. Just listen to some of the quotes from Democrats in this chamber. Speaker Pelosi, quote, ‘it’s been going on for 22 months. Two and a half years, actually. We cannot accept a second term for Donald Trump. What’s more serious is that he can’t win.’ This isn’t about some crime that was committed. It’s about fear that he might win re-election. That’s not why you impeach a President. [Representative Al Green], quote, ‘I’m concerned that if we don’t impeach this President, he will get re-elected.’ The list goes on, Madame Speaker. In fact, there are some quotes that I can’t even read on this House Floor that some of our colleagues made.

“Keep in mind, more than 100 Democrats on this House Floor voted to impeach this President before the Zelensky phone call. Just look at some of these articles of impeachment that they voted for. Two years ago, 58 democrats voted to impeach the President over comments he made about NFL players kneeling for the Pledge of Allegiance – impeaching the President – over 50 Democrats voted to impeach him for that. Just this summer, over 90 Democrats voted to impeach the President for comments he made about the Squad. So, he makes comments about some other Members of Congress who make a lot of comments about him, and 95 members vote to impeach the President of the United States. This is a political vendetta. It has nothing to do with the crime committed. There was no crime.

You don’t impeach a president because you don’t like his foreign policy. But this isn’t just about Donald Trump. They don’t just hate Donald Trump. They hate the 63 million Americans who voted for this president, the forgotten men and women of this country who have been left behind. Impeachment will not just be a stain on this Democrat majority, impeachment will be their legacy.”

Rep. Liz Cheney requested a motion for a manual roll call vote on impeachment: “Madame Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to…provide for voting by a manual call of the roll so the American people can see precisely who is supporting the impeachment of a duly elected president. Members should be required to stand and identify themselves openly and on camera on the question of the adoption of these articles of impeachment.” Cheney’s motion was denied.

Rep. Clay Higgins: “America is being severely injured by this betrayal, by this unjust and weaponized impeachment brought upon us by the same socialists who threaten unborn life in the womb. Who threaten First Amendment rights of conservatives, who threaten Second Amendment protections of every American patriot, and who long ago determined that they would organize and conspire to overthrow President Trump. We don’t face this horror because these Democrats have all of the sudden become constitutionalists! We’re not being devoured from within because of surreal assertion of the socialists’ new found love for the very flag they tread upon! We face this horror because of THIS MAP! This is what the Democrats fear. They fear the true will of ‘We the People.’ They are deep establishment DC. They fear, they call this Republican map “flyover country.” They call us deplorables. They fear our faith. They fear our strength. They fear our unity. They fear our vote and they fear our president. We will NEVER surrender our nation to career establishment DC politicians!”

Rep. Tom McClintock: “This is a stunning abuse of power and a shameless travesty of justice that will stain the reputations of those responsible for generations to come.”
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Steve Scalise’s full transcript:
“Impeaching a President of the United States. This isn’t about some solemn duty tonight. Let’s talk about what this is really about. This has been about a political vendetta. A political vendetta that didn’t just start with the Zelensky call, it started long before that. Just listen to some of the quotes from Democrats in this chamber. Speaker Pelosi, quote, ‘it’s been going on for 22 months. Two and a half years, actually. We cannot accept a second term for Donald Trump. What’s more serious is that he can’t win.’ This isn’t about some crime that was committed. It’s about fear that he might win re-election. That’s not why you impeach a President. [Representative Al Green], quote, ‘I’m concerned that if we don’t impeach this President, he will get re-elected.’ The list goes on, Madam Speaker. In fact, there are some quotes that I can’t even read on this House Floor that some of our colleagues made.

“Why don’t we listen to some of the witnesses? Obviously, [Republicans] weren’t able to call all of the witnesses we wanted, but there were witnesses. In fact, Gordon Sondland, U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, he’s mentioned over 600 times in the Schiff report. He was their star witness. And what did he say when asked? Quote, ‘Did President Trump ever tell you personally about any preconditions for anything?’ His answer, ‘no.’ ‘Any preconditions for the aid to be released?’ ‘No.’ ‘Any preconditions for a White House meeting? Under oath, he testified ‘no.’

“Abuse of power, let’s talk about that article of impeachment, Madam Speaker. George Washington law professor [Jonathan Turley], who admitted under oath that he voted against Trump, spoke to this claim of abuse of power. In fact, he said, quote, ‘If you make a high crime and misdemeanor out of going to the courts, it is an abuse of power, it’s your abuse of power.’ ‘You are doing precisely what you are criticizing the President of doing.’ Abuse of power. There’s a House Rule, Madam Speaker, that requires, not allows, but requires that the minority get a day of hearing, which we asked for multiple times. They broke this rule. They didn’t allow us to have a minority day of hearing. They didn’t want to hear the facts about this case because it was never about the facts. Because there was no crime. It is about a personal, political vendetta.

“Now, let’s talk about obstruction of Congress. As they make up these terms to impeach a President because they didn’t find a crime and they were looking. It’s been an impeachment in search of a crime. But they talk about obstruction of Congress, saying the President defied subpoenas. Subpoena after subpoena. Let’s go through the departments. The Department of State they subpoenaed. Do you know that literally just four days after the subpoena, the Secretary of State himself responded to your subpoena? The Department of Defense, a week later, responded to the subpoena. The Department of Energy responded to the subpoena. We can go on and on with all of these agencies. That’s an abuse of power, that’s an obstruction of Congress? Responding to your subpoena? That’s what they did. They responded. You might not have liked the answer, but that’s not the way this works. You don’t impeach a President because you don’t like his foreign policy. As so many of those foreign policy experts came and testified. But this isn’t just about Donald Trump. They don’t just hate Donald Trump, Madam Speaker, they hate the 63 million Americans who voted for this President.

“The forgotten men and women of this country who have been left behind. It’s those forgotten men and women of this country that Washington had left behind. And what’s this President doing for them? He’s delivering for them. 600 jobs in Pennsylvania. 1,000 jobs, workers in Mingo Junction, Ohio. $750 million-dollar investment for 600 new jobs across this country. Detroit News, Chrysler, 6,500 new jobs. That’s what this President is doing to deliver for those men and women of this country who had been left behind. It’s about time somebody stands up from them, and President Trump is. So, it is a political vendetta. But if they’re going to go through with this, Madam Speaker, impeachment will not just be a stain on this Democrat majority, impeachment will be their legacy.”

Rep. Steve King: This is the largest and most massive cover-up of such a list of crimes in our country and to go so far as to bring impeachment hearings to try to cover all of this up… You’re accusing Donald Trump of doing what Joe Biden has confessed of doing!. Joe Biden was not the opponent of Donald Trump. He’s in a 21 way primary and he’s running third in that race! His opponents are the other 20 Democrats. How would anyone dig into that mess of 21 people and decide he’s going to go overseas and pull some maneuver like this. You have to sign him a motive… But the reality is it was Biden who was doing the extortion of pay for play in order to protect his own son. And it was Donald Trump who was following the law.

Rep. Tom McClintock: Nullifying a national election requires an overwhelming case of high crimes supported by indisputable evidence that the vast majority of the nation finds compelling,” he said in the opening of his remarks.

Now Article One is a made-up crime called abuse of office. It does not charge that the president broke any law, but that Congress doesn’t like the way that he lawfully discharged his constitutional duties. This would reduce the presidency to that of a minister serving at the pleasure of Congress, destroying the separation of powers at the heart of our Constitution.

Article Two is another made-up crime, called obstruction of Congress. It means the president sought to defend his constitutional rights and those of his office. It removes the judiciary from our Constitution and places Congress alone in the position of defining the limits of its own powers, relative to the president.

Our Bill of Rights guarantees every American the right to confront their accuser, to call witnesses in their defense, to be protected from hearsay, and to defend these rights in court. The Democrats have trampled them all in their stampede to impeach.

Even in this kangaroo court, the Democrats’ hand-picked witnesses provided no firsthand knowledge the president linked aid to action. In fact, two witnesses provide first-hand knowledge that he specifically order no quid pro quo. Any case that charged no actual crime, and offered no legally admissible evidence, would be laughed out of court in a heartbeat.

That’s the case before us today. It would redefine the grounds for impeachment in such a way that assures that it will become a constant presence in our national life. Now we know just how reckless is the Democrats’ chant of resist by any means necessary.

This is a stunning abuse of power and a shameless travesty of justice that will stain the reputations of those responsible for generations to come.
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GOP lawmakers argued against impeachment on voting day (Dec 18, 2019) https://t.co/EoADL8dzsU

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