Family knows something about the sacrifice of serving us into a my brothers served in the navy and vietnam war. My brother bob serving sue terms in vietnam. Im lucky to serve with those who have served on my own staff. Lieutenant colin my lawn who was called to service to active duty and david carr again and now as members of congress its our turn to stand up and doctor king one said the ultimate measure of man is not where he stands on moments of comfort its where he stands in times of challenge and controversy. This is a time of great challenge and some of my colleagues do not want to face the reality of a president s wrongdoing. So i asked my colleagues tonight, what are you afraid of . This country was built by those who are brave enough to stand up against king george. We are called to stand up against donald j trump. What are you afraid of . Look to our framers, look to our patriots for courage because this is about courage. The courage to honor my oath, your oath. Mister chairman, i will with somber this purpose and have congress be boating no on this amendment and voting yes on these articles of impeachment. And with that i yield back. They generally 80 wields back. What purpose do you seek recognition . You are now recognized. Thank you mister chairman. I support the amendment and i offer this to you. Charging the president with obstruction is unprecedented. In an of itself threatens our system of government and the principles of powers and checks and balances demanded they permit to resist demands of overly broad and burdensome and otherwise violent method of its constitutional privileges. Its with uncertain to came and to congress on the sole power of impeachment that implies to cooperate in any of all requests no matter their merit. Disputes between the branches are a feature they are a feature of our system and they are not a bug in the system. The branches are required to have accommodation to reach an agreement that takes into account the relative equities on both sides. Both branches have rights and interest to protect and we do and the executive does. Those disputes cannot be resolved and the courts are to step in. Anything left that threatens the separately of powers and the foundation of this constitution. This majority has taken the position and quite frankly the dubious position at the spike there president to the contrary, the full house is not required to open an impeachment proceeding. Think of the implication of that. Any Road Committee chairman can on his or her own have impeachment proceedings against the chairman and that could be whatever subpoena and document requests they wished and under these articles that they have no choice but to comply with a single Road Committee chairman because of this failure to do so would be impeachable. How does that comport with the separation of powers . The house should not be able to artificially create an Impeachable Offense through his own actions and President Trumps actions are not unprecedented. Many president s have defied congressional subpoenas, including obama on many occasions as my colleague from louisiana pointed out a minute ago. They have to cooperate with cooperations as well and i will give you three historical cases that are not artifacts but are actual cases where for instance president jackson said in 1837, he called a house subpoena illegal and unconstitutional and stating that he would repel all such attempts as an invasion of the principles of justice as in the constitution. He had is duty to the people of the United States to resist as the establishment of a spanish inquisition. That is from andrew jackson. Later, president coolidge said in a New York Times article from april 24th, that he sent a message in that oped piece to the senate saying that he would seize to participate in their unwarranted intrusion and questioning the legitimacy of the investigation. In 1948, president truman and the executive order in the registry ordered executive departments to decline any subpoena pertaining to the investigation into it the executive branch personnel. Then we have, the reason obama example. If you had a problem, you dont the chairman said that he didnt exert privilege but actually he claimed executive privilege in a very broad way and were all very disgusted about it when he did. Typically what would happen, we issued disappear and had it served and the person doesnt show up. Guess what we do . We go into court and we proved the prominence of our subpoena. The court issues an additional order for arrest, maybe its a find, maybe its a citation but we unveil ourselves to the process and you havent done that. You havent done that because mr. Schiff said so last week because he didnt want to take the time to unveil himself of the process that you claim you are defending. That is precisely why professor turley and all of us look at this with objective eyes and say that you are the ones abusing the process, you are abusing congress and are abusing the president and executive branch. But im afraid of what happens is we denigrate our body and we denigrate the very process that we claim to be protecting today and i yield back. The gentleman yields back and why does miss escobar seek recognition . The young lady is recognized. We heard our colleagues argue that obstruction of congress has not happened. One of our colleagues called the charge ridiculous. Another colleague said quote, the president has consistently cooperated with democrats. A stunning statement. Ive had the incredible privilege of serving on the House Judiciary Committee now for almost a year. The freshman were sworn in january 3rd and weve had many hearings. There is a thread that runs through all of those hearings and especially those hearings where we are trying to provide proper oversight over the president of the United States. That thread is that my colleagues complain about our efforts to be a check, our efforts to perform our obligations under the constitution and our efforts to provide oversight. We hear it time and time again. This idea that the president has cooperated, that is the claim that is actually absurd. In fact, during some of our oversight hearings we heard that the president say that he was covered under absolute immunity. Without listing the documents or the reasons why he deserved absolute immunity. No president not even richard nixon, no president has refused to honor subpoenas during impeachment. If you can imagine, this president has achieved a new low and lowered the bar significantly. If it were not for the patriots and i associate myself with the statement by representative dean who thanked them. They are heroes, they put their reputations, their names, their safety and their security at risk so that they can defend this country and defend the constitution and uphold the oath of office and the oath that they took under public servants. Lets find out just how cooperative this president has been during this investigation. Id like to ask representative swalwell, my colleague who serves and representative swalwell, how many deck of documents did you request during this investigation . 71. On page 30 and 31 it was 71 documents. How many witnesses . 12 witnesses, we asked to show up and the president directed not to show up. Just saw the American Public understands. You requested 72 documents, 12 witnesses. How many documents and how many witnesses did the president provide . 12 were asked to show up and zero of the 71 documents were provided. Thank you so much representative swallow. I want to ask the American People, what is the president trying to hide from you . Why is he trying to keep you in the dark . If he has nothing to hide, then let him come forward with those documents and those witnesses. I want to conclude by touching a little bit on something that i mentioned last night. Unfortunately, we have come to expect this kind of behavior from the president. This really is a very tragic moment in American History, a very dark moment in American History. Its made even more tragic by enablers who seek to make sure that they protect one man at any cost, one man who is not for america and one man who is for himself. This is a reckoning for us and this is a moment where we should be standing with the patriots. I am very proud, as dark as this moment is, im very proud to stand with the patriots here on this committee. I will continue to stand with the patriots who stand with this country and i yield back. The gentle lady yields back. Does what purpose does mister ben cline seek recognition . The gentleman is recognized. Thank you mister chairman. We already talked today about the lack of evidence and support of the first article of impeachment. The abuse of power article. They cant prove bribery, extortion and be Campaign Finance distortion cars they dont have the proof to create one. There was no higher crime, there are higher crimes than actual crimes but since the president didnt commit one here we are. It is laughable if it wasnt so sad. We do know a few things though, the same for facts that have been repute repeated throughout with President Trump and president zelensky there was no pressure on the phone call and no conditionality of aid and ukrainians were not overt aware that they spoke and we have the time article involving Andrew Yermak and in fourth, ukraine didnt have an investigation but received aid in a meeting with President Trump. My colleague said earlier, we cant prove any of it so will call it abuse of power and that is to a point. We have an article and a second article of obstruction of congress and democrats have alleged that they directed the unprecedented kara global issues subpoenaed by the house of representatives. The facts dont match up with these claims. They have a legitimate constitutional privilege and the courts can and should determine the boundaries of these privileges. The white house released to call transcripts for reviewing in this process. Ambassador sondland said, go tell the truth when the ambassador told the president he was asked to testify before congress. In addition, to the obstruction annoyed the third branch of government to review congress in congress. The majority of the impeachment of the president for yielding to their demand of oversight and impeachment investigation, fails to distinguish where prior president saw a very same review while withholding testifying and documents. They ignored instances of the two branch had it in good faith but after the failure of the majority to negotiate in good faith over the rules and is very impeachment proceeding, why would we think that there would be an effort by the president to acknowledge in working with faith to solve such a dispute . Its in their minds a better way to let the courts resolve it and they are right. President obama during the fast and furious administration invoked executive privilege on those documents. During its litigation, the Obama Administration said they had no way in their way to congress and the federal court and theyre committee on oversight in their form versus order disagreed. Professor turley and his testimony testified that he thinks the democrats impeachment process and abuse of power. He said, what im saying is, if you want a well based legitimate impeachment case to set this abbreviated schedule and demanded documents and then impeach. Because they have not been turned over when they go to a court and the president goes to a court, i think that is an abuse of power. If you make a high crime and misdemeanor out of going to the courts, its an abuse of power, it is your abuse of power. I urge my colleagues to support to submit and i yield back the balance of my time. Gentleman yields back. What way does the lady is recognized. My republican colleagues have been putting forward a lot of excuses today. I want to go through the ones that weve heard the most. First, they have said that the president s behavior was all about his legitimate concerns about corruption. But what we know, is that all of President Trumps agencies, all of his advisers, everyone unanimously told him that ukraine had passed all the Anti Corruption bench works. What we know, the department of defense said no further review on you craig corruption it was necessary. What we know was that the President Trumps budget cut aid for ukraine was designed to fight ukraine and corruption. What we know, President Trump before both the calls with president zelensky in april in july, was given official talking points, official talking points on corruption in ukraine and yet, he never used those talking points. He never mentioned the word corruption on either call. The only two names the President Trump mentioned were joe and hunter biden on july 25th. Second excuse the republicans put forward. They suggest that this was all about the president s desire to put the European Union and to share more of the burden of foreign assistance. Well, lets look at that. Mr. Holmes told us, that europe provides four times as much assistance, more aid to ukraine then we do. Actually, the United States aid gets paid back. On top of that, ambassador sondland, President Trumps ambassador to the European Union testified clearly that nobody ever told him to go to the European Union and actually asked for more military aid to be provided. That is simply not the case. The only thing that President Trump told ambassador sondland to communicate to ukraine, or was that . He told us that presumption of aid would likely not occur unless president ial and ski announced the investigations. And ambassador sondland, being clear, and this is a, quote unless zelensky went to the mic and announced these investigations there would be a stalemate over the aid. So, what were these investigations . 2016 election interference and burisma. Meaning, the bidens. So finally, left with no other defenses, my republican colleagues say that President Trump had a legitimate reason to investigate Vice President biden. Now lets look at the fact that make no sense whatsoever. The minorities own report states the allegations against biden where from 2015, 2015. But President Trump readily gave military aid to ukraine in 2017 and then again in 2018. President trumps own aides told him that there was no merit to these investigations. So, what changed . What led to the sudden push to hold out congressionally approved, desperately needed military aid . Without telling anybody the reason . Vice President Biden began beating President Trump in the polls. The evidence is clear. When President Trump said, do us a favor, though, who is the us . They know. We know who the ice was because he said it. President trump told the president zelensky that his personal attorney, his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, quote, very much knows whats going on. President trump couldve gone through official channels if he wanted. He couldve asked the attorney general to conduct investigation, couldve conducted all sorts of legitimate investigations but he did not, and we know that as well because the department of justice said that President Trump never asked them to do any investigations or even talk to ukraine. Instead, President Trump asked his personal attorney because us, but was not about america, the president was not putting america first, this was not official policy, this was not what was right for our country. Every witness told us that as well. This was personal. It was all for President Trumps personal political gain to benefit his own campaign and his reelection and that is why he used his personal attorney to do that. He abused his power. He abused the power interested to him by we the people and he placed our safety, millions of dollars of taxpayer money on the table. That is an abuse of power. We must impeach donald j trump. I yield back. The gentlelady yields back. For what purpose is mr. Armstrong beat recognition . I want to strike the last word. The gentleman is recognized. We talk about obstruction of congress and subpoenas and id like to talk about the subpoenas for a little bit, on the democratic majorities abuse of subpoenas and how it started. I started in this committee with a subpoena to the attorney general, bill barr. Compliance with that subpoena wouldve required him to violate the law. So, like a reasonable, rational, deliberative body, we are, what did we do . We held him in contempt. We held the attorney general of the United States in contempt of congress for not violating the law. But it gets better, because after, that we held a hearing in the judiciary about whether or not we should have held him in contempt. Oversight democrats subpoenaed documents from commerce, legal documents relating directly to a case that was pending in front of the Supreme Court. And as i stated earlier, those same democrats on oversight subpoena the personal emails of President Trumps children. Democrats on ways and means have subpoenaed President Trumps tax returns for purely political purposes. Speaking of politics, adam schiff use the subpoena power of the Intelligence Committee to obtain phone records. He then released the phone records of a member of the press, and then the Ranking Member and his political opponent. You know who we you cannot weaponize the subpoena power of congress in order to harass the executive branch and then not expect the executive branch to us