Facilities across the country. The administration has worked with the Committee Staff to observe 11 cpb, 13 i. C. E. Detention activities to contract with hhs. Contrary to the assertions from the democrats, the Trump Administration has cooperated substantially in matters related to the border and elsewhere, but lets just contrast that with the democrats combative posture. In letters to the state Department Employees the committee threatened witnesses that, and i quote, any failure to appear, any failure to appear in response to a mere letter requesting their presence for deposition shall, and i quote, constitute evidence of obstruction. This is just letter, not subpoenas. In letters the state Department Employees in letters to the state Department Employees the committee threatened witnesses that if they insist on having
agency counsel present to protect the Executive Branch in their Confidentiality Interest or if they make any effort to protect Confidentiality Interest at all, these officials will have their salaries helped, Weld Withholding of salaries. The committees have not afforded the president basic protection such as the right to seal evidence, the right to save evidence and the right to counsel witnesses, the right to make objections related to the examination of witnesses or the admissibility of testimony and evidence and did not afford the president the right to afford the testimony presented. Thank you. I yield back the remainder of my time. The gentleman yields back. To move to strike the last word. The urgency of this moment is the grave risk that the
president will again abuse his power of the precedensidency to and secure his reelection. We have reason to be concerned. The presidency gives him great powers to cause others to interfere in our elections and the only protection we have is to act now because the president is cheating right now, and to any of my colleagues who ask why move on this right now . Its a crime spree in progress, and as chairman schiff said earlier this week, what are we supposed to do . Just let him cheat one more time, expect him to eventually do the right thing, and heres what my colleagues logic amounts to if we wait. It amounts to this, allow the building to burn, collapse, fall to the ground and then you should call the fire department. This president has set our democracy on fire and we must act to save it and theres an urgency to act and this president is not only being impeached for what he has done. Its because of what he continues to do. He abused his power and asked a Foreign Government to help him cheat, jeopardize our National Security and integrity of our elections for his own personal gain, but this was not a one off. Weve come to learn as miss demings just explained. This is what he does ask this is what he will keep doing. In 2016, he said, russia, if youre listening, hack my opponents emails. Youll be rewarreded. Russia was liss edge. It turns out russia hacked its opponents emails and that day he sought to hack his opponents
email and in that investigation he went to Great Lengths to obstruct it. So why is it so urgent that we act right now . The president s lawyer was just in ukraine. The president s lawyer said in may im not meddling in an election. We, not i, we, donald trump and i are meddling in an investdation and that continues today. The president s own words tell us about intent. On october 2nd, the president said, and you know weve been on investigating on a personal basis corruption, i think if were honest about it they should start a Major Investigation into the bidens. That simple. The president stood on the white house lawn and confirmed that he wanted ukraine to investigate the bidens, but then he added a country because thats what he
does. Russia, ukraine. He said china should also investigate the bidens. My colleagues, we should not have to hope or pray that china wasnt listening when he said that, but fortunately, people on this committee are listening. Americans are listening. People who know right from wrong, our children are listening. Are you listening . And what we hear deeply concerns us about what the president will do next and we are not helpless. Thats not a leap of faith. You see, it was the courage of dr. Fiona hill and Lieutenant Colonel vindman to, quote, go to the lawyers when they heard that the president was conditioning a white house visit for investigations. It was the courage of the whistleblower to come forward. Thats what got ukraine the aid. The president got caught. Then ukraine got the aid, if those people were not courageous and acted, ukraine would not have the aid today. So we must follow their Pattern Conduct and act. We have pattern evidence that not only donald trump acts corruptly, but that when you show courage and act against him you can stop him. Its actually the only way to extinguish his corrupt ways. If unchecked, my colleagues, donald trump does not get better, he gets worse. He gets more corrupt and we cant wait until the next election to hold him accountable. Not when hes trying to rig the next election. So we must act to protect our National Security, the integrity of our locations and honor our oath to the constitution. I yield back. Those in favor say aye. We have someone asking for time. I didnt see a request. Now recognize it. Youve now recognized it. I recognize mr. Gates. Thank you, mr. Chairman, move to strike the last word. The gentleman is recognized. They were right they cant wait until the next election, but its not the reason they say. The reason they cant wait until the next election is because theyve taken a look at their Candidate Field and they have fundamentally changed every standard that theyve set for themselves for impeachment for the American People. Whether you like President Trump or dont like President Trump it would at least be worth acknowledging the democrats have moved the goalposts on what it would require to bring us to this point and to harm our nation and to distract us so much from the critical needs of American People who probably wonder why were not focused on them right now. First they told us it has to be bipartisan. Now, i get folks watching at home might think im someone who really likes the president and i would be a hard vote for him to get for impeachment, but its not just that they cant convince the president s supporters not to abandon him. They cant convince the critics to abandon him, two members of congress and two democrats. Theyre not fans of the president and theyre critics of the president and they didnt vote with democrats. They voted with republicans. Weve even got some republicans and my colleague will herd from texas, he doesnt mine being a critic of the president and he was honest with democrats. He told them this is not impeachable conduct. They told us that the process would be fair. Yet when even members of the community sought the opportunity not to read a transcript and the second performance of their testimony and to see their firsthand account, how they were reacting and how they were
breathing and did they finget when responding . We were excluded by the Intelligence Committee. Democrats said that to put our country through this it would require compelling and overwhelming evidence, and each and every time they tried to cast doubt on the president s conduct and we were able to show a legitimate concern the president had in corruption. We were able to cite the transcript that demonstrates no conditionality and time and again, democrats say theres just no factual debate about what the president did. The factual debate comes from president zelensky. Its president zelensky who said i wasnt pressured and zelensky might not have known and yermak, he knew and simon talked to yermak and conveyed the shakedown and the very day they introduced articles of Impeachment Yermak gives an interview and says we never really perceived this as an exchange of military for aid for any one thing. Time and again they let us down in their claim, but one thing we know for certain is that this was a sad inevitability. I had someone ask me recently, do you feel some sense of history, some sense of moment that youre about to vote on impeachment and sadly, i knew this time was coming since the democrats took control of the House Of Representatives because they didnt lay out a plan to appropriate for the budget, work with us On Critical Generational Issues and they set out a plan for impeachment. How do we know that when the chairman himself campaigned for the lead democrat role in the Judiciary Committee. He didnt say pick me because im a great issue set. He said pick me because i will be the person to have an obsession. We take absolutely no joy in the fact that it is so consume, but here we stand on the verge of it
and my expectation is that this new standard and this second article with just the, you know, the notion of obstruction of congress is their exkicuse for being able to prove Obstruction Of Justice. The chairman went to the democratic cau Democratic Caucus and sought support and couldnt get their support and here we are with obstruction of congress, sort of the lowenergy version of the Obstruction Of Justice claim that they wanted. They hoped they were going to be able to convict and accuse and evidence some claim on bribery. Thats what their pollsters and pundits would request and they were out polling e what lexicon and what word choice would help them make the choice to the American Public and they settle on bribery. You all in the media heard it. You heard it on every show say this is the new standard and Speaker Pelosi speaking in this new language and we asked the
witnesses, were you a part of bribery . Instead of bribery, treason, extortion, you have abuse of power. The lowenergy version. Im disappointed in my colleague, but probably even those Who Doeb Support the president would share that disappointment in this very moment, and i yield back. Mr. Chairman, i have unanimous consent request. I have the unanimous consent request to enter the letter i referenced which is the letter from Chairman Engle to John Sullivan in which Chairman Engle says officials who insist on counsel without objection. Thank you. The question now occurs on the amendment. Those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed no. In the opinion of the chair, the noes have it and the amendment is not agreed to. The roll call is requested. The clerk will call the roll. Mr. Nadler . No. Mr. Nadler votes no. Miss lofgren . No. Miss lofgren votes no. Miss jacksonlee . No. Mr. Cohen . Mr. Cohen votes no. Mr. Johnson of georgia. No. Mr. Johnson of georgia votes no. Mr. Deutsche . No. Mr. Deutsche votes no. Mr. Richmond . No. Mr. Richmond votes no. Mr. Cicilline . No. Mr. Swalwell votes no. Mr. Liue. Miss jayapal votes no. Mr. Correa votes no. Miss scanlon . No. Miss scanlon votes no. Miss garcia. No. Miss garcia votes no. Mr. Nagoose . No. Miss mcbath votes no. Mr. Stanton . No. Mr. Stanton votes no. No. Miss mccarsel powell . No. Miss mccarsel powell votes no. Miss escobar votes no. Mr. Collins votes aye. Mr. Sensenbrenner votes aye. Mr. Chabot . Mr. Chabot votes aye. Mr. Gohmert votes aye. Mr. Buck . Mr. Buck votes aye. Mr. Ratcliffe votes yes. Miss roby votes aye. Mr. Gates . Mr. Gates votes aye. Mr. Johnson of louisiana . Aye. Mr. Johnson of louisiana votes aye. Mr. Biggs . Mr. Biggs votes aye. Mr. Mcclintock votes aye. Miss lesko votes aye. Mr. Klein votes aye. Mr. Armstrong votes yes. Mr. Stuby votes yes. Has every member voted who wishes to vote . The clerk will report. Mr. Chairman there are 17 ayes and, nos. What purpose does mr. Jordan seek . I have an amendment at the desk. I have a point of order. The clerk will report the amendment. Amendment to the amendment in the nature of a substitute hres 755 offered by mr. Jordan of ohio, page 4, strike line 23 and all that follows through page 5 line 5, page 8 strike lines 10 through 17. The gentleman is recognized for the purpose of explaining his amendment. I went through my point of order. Thank you, mr. Chairman. This simply strikes the last eight lines in article one and the last eight lines in article 2. You have a rushed process when you dont have the facts on
your side. Weve been through these facts many times. Ukraine didnt know aid was held up at the time of the call, but the democrats assert that President Trump was Pressuring Zelensky on the call to investigate the bidens in order to get the aid that he didnt even know was on hold. Thats their argument and oh, by the way, down the road, president zelensky says there was no pressure the call. No pushing, no linkage whatsoever, but you have a rigged and rushed process when you dont have the facts. You have a rigged and rushed process when you cant accept the will of the American People. Speaker of the house pelosi, nancy pelosi called the president an Imposter Just three weeks ago. The democrats have never accepted the will of the American People and thats why theyve been out to get this president since even before he was elected and of course, you have a rigged and rushed process when youre afraid that you cant beat the president at the
ballot box. When youre nervous about next falls election, you have this kind of process, a rigged and rushed process. This is not about the concern. This is not really about the concern mr. Swalwell talked about earlier concerned that somehow the president was going to do something wrong and would influence the election and this is the concern about that they cant win next year based on what the president has accomplished in three years and its an amazing record in spite of the democrats being completely against the president and frankly, in spite of the republicans being against the president. Taxes have been cut and regulations reduced and the economy is growing at an unbelievable rate. Lowest unemployment in 50 years. 266,000 jobs added last month alone, 54,000 in the manufacturing sector, and mr. Gorsuch and mr. Kavanaugh on the court and a lot of other judges confirmed and out of the iran
deal in jerusalem, and hostages released and new Nafta Agreement will be voted on next week. You guys you guys, its a rigged and rushed process because youre nervous about next november. Mr. Green says we have to impeach him because hes going to win the election. We know what this is about. I think about this president. Think about this is why the American People like him so much because hes doing what he said he would do and every president ial election ive been able to participate in, both candidates, republican and democrat candidate when they campaigned for the job, they tell the country, if you elect me im going to move the embassy to jerusalem, republicans and democrats they all campaign on it and then they get elected and they come up with a million reasons why they said they couldnt do and they never get it done, but this president said, no, im going to do it even though the same people and
the same inner Agency Consensus that weve heard so much about over the last three months in this Impeachment Inquiry, and even though the inner Agency Consensus was probably with him on that move this president said im going to do it and its been a good thing and thats what the American People appreciate and thats why we have this rigged and rushed process because its really about next november. Theyre all afraid. Some of their colleagues have said it straight up. Theyre all afraid that they cant beat him at the ballot box so they will do this rigged, rushed and wrong Impeachment Process. I would yield the remainder of my time. I just wanted to ask the gentleman from ohio a question. Based on the standards the democrats are asserting here, if somebody is in the house or Senate Running for president and they support or push impeachment of the president , would they be
subject for being expelled for their position . I think ill let my colleague to answer that question, but i think my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, as i said, nervous about their prospects next november on President Trump and based on that leadership, with that i would yield back. The gentleman yields back. I will recognize myself to speak in opposition to the amendment. I think that the facts amply demonstrate the charges of these two articles of impeachment that he put his own interest in front of the interest of the country and he used the power of the presidency to withhold military aid from an ally and to extort that ally into making an
announcement of a bogus investigation of a political opponent of his for his own personal and not to cooperate with congress in the Impeachment Inquiry. This amendment this amendment simply takes the last two paragraphs out of each article. It takes out the Paragraph Wherefore the president should be impeached and it renders the two articles a catalog of bad acts of the presid