Mr. Buck votes aye. Mr. Ratcliffe . Yes. Ms. Roby votes aye. Mr. Gaetz votes aye. Mr. Johnson of louisiana votes aye. Mr. Biggs votes aye. Mr. Mcclintock votes aye. Ms. Lesko votes aye. Mr. Reschenthaler votes aye. Mr. Cline votes aye. Ms. Armstrong votes yes. Any members wish to vote who havent voted . The clerkve will report. Mr. Richmond, you are not recorded. No. Mr. Richmond votes no. Ared there any other member who havent voted who wish to vote . The clerk will report. Mr. Chairman there are 17 ayes and 23 nos. The agreement is not agreed to. Any substitute . Mr. Gates . I have an amendment at the desk. The gentleman has an amendment at thetl desk. The clerk will report the amendment. The gentlelady reserves point of order. Amendment to Thein Amendmentn the nature of a substitute offered by mr. Gates of florida page three strike lines 10 through 11 and insert the following. A, aer wellknown Corrupt Compa Burisma and corrupt hiring of hunter biden. The gentleman is recognized to explain his amendment. Thank you, mr. Chairman, this strikes the reference to joe biden as thefe center of the proposed investigation and replaces itga with the true top of the investigation, burisma and hunter biden. An essential element of the democrats case on abuse of power is that the bidens did nothing wrong. It can only be an abuse of power and not a correct use of power
if the president was pursuing something under which there was no reasonable basis to ask a question about hunter biden and burisma. Hunter biden and burisma, thats an interesting story. I think just about every americank knows theres somethg up with that. 86,000 a month, no experience, working for some Foreign Government while your dad is the Vice President of the United States. Is there anybody who believes this is okay . I know a few of my democratic colleague who is might run for president one day, would you let your Vice President have their son or daughter or Family Member out moonlighting for some Foreign Company . Maybe ill use language familiar to the former president. Come on, man, this looks derty as it is. Hunter biden was making five times more than a board member for exxon mobil. Ive heard of that company. I found this very extensive
profile in the new yorker. Hunter said at that point he had not slept for several days driving east on Interstate 10 beyond palm springs he lost control of his car which jumped the median and skidded to a stop on the shoulder of the wnd side. He called herts which came and gave him a second rental. They found a line of white powder residue. Hertz called the Prescott Police department and officers filed a Narcotics Offense report listing items seized including a plastic bag containing white powdery substance, a secret Service Business secard, credit cards a Hunter Bidens drivers license. That is what we would call evidence. I dont want to make light of Substance Abuse issues. Its a little hard to believe that burisma hired hunter biden
to resolve their International Disputes when he could not resolve his own n dispute with hertz rental car over leaving cocaine and a crack pipe in the car. It continues, hunter stayed in los angeles for about a week. He said that he needed to get awayo and forget soon after hi arrival in l. A. He asked a homeless man where he could buy crack. He took him to a Homeless Encampment where a narrow passageway someone putro a gun his head before realizing he was the buyer. He returned to buy more crack a fewuy times that week. Not casting any judgment on any challenges someone goes through in their personal life but it is hard to believe this is the guy wandering through Homeless Encampments buying crack. That may be why when abc asked hunter biden do you think you would have gotten this job in the g absence of your dad being
the Vice President , well, he said, probably not. And then i looked to the record evidence and ioo looked to the testimony of mr. Kent. One of the witnesses they called on the first day said burisma was so dirty our own embassy had to joint out after joint sponsorship wither them. When ambassador yovanovitch was being prepped the Obama Administration was so worried around the corruption of burisma and hunter biden they held special prep moments to get ready for m the inevitable questions about this obvious corruption the president asked about. Mr. Sk kent, again, one of their witnesses from the first day, gave testimony that burisma had that the head of burisma had stolen 23 million in the u. S. And the uk and he paid a bribe to gethe off the hook. Its not as if burisma is pulling out new plays. Their playbook is to do dirty stuff and go and pay bribes and
hire the people necessary. You wonder why republicans are so angry and you may wonder why if they feel so good about their case why did they block our ability to put in evidence . We have the ability to show that burisma is corrupt. That hunter biden is corrupt and that exculpates the president because there is no way in the United States of america that honestly pursuing actual corruption is an impeachable offense. Thats why i i offer the amendmt and i encourage my colleagues to vote for it. Mr. Chairman, i withdraw my point of order. Mr. Chairman. The gentleman yields back. For what purpose does mr. Johnson i rise in opposition to this
amendment and i would say that the Pot Calling The Kettle Black is not something we should do. I dont know [ laughter ] i dont know what members, if any, have had problems with substanceha abuse, been busted r dui, i dont know. Butdu if i did, i wouldnt rais it against anyone on this committee. I dont think its proper. And, you know, i think we have to get back down to what is most important here. This is a question that stands out like a big, Throbbing Sore Toe Inside of a shoe thats too small and that is this question. Is it ever okay for a president of the United States of america tod invite foreign interferenc
in an upcoming president ial Election Campaign . Is the gentleman seeking an answer . An does the gentleman yield . The silence the gentleman has the time. Was and is deafening. And there will be plenty of time for you toe respond to that question, and i would invite to youi do so. I gave you an opportunity of about 10 or 15 seconds while could you get your story together and nobody came up with a story, so i will let you move to strikewi the last word and explain that to the American People. Its never proper for a United States president to hold a
foreign country over a barrel to make them do that president s personal bidding and dangling Security Assistance and dangling the facte that ill give it to you if you do this. I mean, thats exactly what happened. Its like the American People understand what happened. Those are the facts. The president said it when he released theid Transcript Of Th Summary Ofcr that phone call on july 25th, the summary of the president s own words shows that the president tried to get president zelensky to interfere in the upcoming president ial election. That is established by the facts. So this is not about hunter
biden, and theyve said that on the other side repeatedly up until they Start Talking about hunter biden having some Substance Abuse problems. You cantsu have it both ways. Lets be honest. This is about our conscience. The conscience of the nation. The conscience of my Friends On The Other Side of the aisle. Do youai believe we should allo this to go unaddressed what the president did because we are a countrywe of precedent. We are a country of rule of law. We are a country of norms and traditions. Are we going to allow the violation of our norms, our traditions, our legal precedent because, after all, bribery was not a crime. There was no Criminal Code when the framers passed the constitution but they said
bribery in there and what bribery meant was im offering you something if you do something for me. Ill give you this. In other words, you give g me this, ill giveu you that. Thats what we had in this case. Thats what bribery means. It doesnt depend on a statute. It depends on what we know was done. And so lets not get bogged down in technicalities and character assassination. Lets keep our eye on what really happened in this case and whether or not our consciences dictate we do something about it. We cant let it go unaddressed, and the way we deal with this grave abuse of the public trust is with the drastic action that it requires because this is a drastic circumstance. The drastic action is impeachment, and thats why were here today. I ask my colleagues to let your conscience be your guide. I yield back. The gentleman yields back. For what purposes does mr. Sensenbrenner i move to strike the last word. The gentleman is recognized. My mind is boggled by the gentleman from georgia saying that bribery was okay until 1787 when the constitution was adopted and two years later when Congress Passed the first Criminal Code, first of all, there is a common law definition of bribery. I think people long before 1787 realized bribery was no good. But we also had Criminal Codes in each of the 13 independent states,pe colonies, before the declaration of independence. Io will the gentleman answer question . No, im i didnt interrupt you. The gentleman suspends. The gentlemantl has the time. Okay. The second thing is that if you
on the other side of the aisle believe that joe biden is a man who tells the truth, you ought to support this amendment. Because joe biden, ever since hunters involvement with burisma, has been repeatedly asked whether he made any arrangements to get hunter this really t cushy job. And he said, no, or my sons Business Vochlts are my sons and not involved in that. So you put joe bidens name in your articles of impeachment when the real factor is hundredhundred hunter biden. Hes no running for anything. I guess your claim that the president was trying to influence theng 2020 election. Would go out the window. If you think joe biden is a man whoen tells the truth and ill give him the benefit of the doubt because i think he deserves e it, lets get rid of joe biden, substitute his sons name in there and proceed. Anyone who votes no on this amendment is saying i think joe biden is a liar. If you dont think that joe biden is a liar, vote yes. I yield the balance of my time to mr. Gates. Its the democrats who are saying any question about the biden situation, burisma, it could only be an abuse of power. This reflects how the president was using his power entirely appropriately and shows how scared they are of the facts. If we are able to bring in hunter biden, to demonstrate the bias of the whistleblower, the American People would see we are not in this debate and discussion because the president did anything wrong, impeachable or criminal. Were here fundamentally because they cannot accept that he won the 2016 election. I think all americans know the president has a different approach. But to accept their standard would mean if someone announces theyre running for office its like an instant Immunity Deal for anything they would do. Are they really saying that if joe biden,hunter biden and burisma, that that ought to absolve him of the Criminal Activity . Its a ludicrous. Maybe you got lucky on the Hillary Clinton stuff. She thought because she was in a president ial election that her crimes didnt have to be held to account and,a way, that turned out to be the case. You know what, it shouldnt be the standard in the United States of america. And im glad we have a president who is at times skeptical of foreign aid, who does put america first, who understands that in corrupt places the resources we provide dont always make it to an area of need. Were conclude with this. Once the meetings happened, that demonstrated president zelensky was a true reformer, that he wasnt corrupt, that he was honest honest from the point of his campaign all the way up to the point where he said there was no pressure put on him or his government for this aid, if you accept that proposition, its very clear the president was entirely appropriate in those questions, and i have to say on the last amendment now we have reached the point in timePresident Trump isnt the only president being attacked in this hearing. I heard the gentleman from tennessee goth after zelensky a well, an actor, a politician. And they presume hes a liar whens he says there was nothin wrong. You know yswhat, they cant mak the case against the president. Theyre attacking zelensky and it just shows the absurdity. The gentlemans time is expired. For what purpose does ms. Jacksonlee seek recognition . Ile wanted to respond since name was called. No. I rise to strike the last word. The gentlelady is recognized. I thank the chairman. This is about distraction, distraction,di distraction. Our good friend spent three hours saying the president did not target the bidens. Now theyre saying that he did. So which is it . Im holding the classified unclassified conversation, and let me just clarify a certain point, and that point is that i did read
the transcript, and it did say us. But theres nothing in the president s notes that even suggested that the question that he asked was for the American People. In testimony by mr. Goldman who obviously went through every aspect of this, i asked a question about whether or not the president said anything from thein notes that are given, the briefing that is given by those representatives of the United States government. The staff of the National Security council, the State Department, the defense department, on corruption. He didnt speak anything about corruption that he was briefed on. And if you go through the call, he continues to mention the bidens. And so this, again, is about ukraine. The president did ask ukraine. The president of ukraine, a
vulnerable leader of a country that is fledgling and trying to survive. Now let me say that i intend to introduce into the record an article thatan indicated very clearly that people did die. Trump froze military aid as ukrainian soldiers battled. I ask unanimous consent to submit that into the record. Without objection. But the facts are the the facts are President Trump provided 510 million in aid in 2017 and 359 million in 2018, but he wanted to stop in 2019 the year or months before the 2020 election. In addition President Trumps advisers confirmed that President Trumps investigations, 2016 election
interference and the bidens were not u. S. Policy and as well they have debunked any association there was anything to the impropriety of the former Vice President and his service as related to ukraine. I think it is also important the Department Of Defense and the State Department confirm they have met all the anticorruption benchmarks and the aid should be released. Thats the policy of the United States of america. There was no need for this president to, in essence, try to make up his own policy. In his own statement of administrative policies, and i ask unanimousnd consent to ask have those in the record this is from the white house. Nothing in this said to discuss corruption. Why . Because ukraine had already met the standards of independent Executive Agencies that they met that standard of corruption, their money should have been
released, and we well know as the process of the whistleblower t and the timing that president zelensky desperate for money, people dying in the field, was asked to do a cnn announcement. And he was going to be on one of cnns wellknown shows dealing with international politics. But it was stopped in its tracks as testified by witnesses under oath because of the whistleblower statement. Let me be very clear there is some representation of crime, crime, crime. First of all our scholars indicated that these are impeachable offenses, the conduct of the president is impeachable and theres enough evidence to show. As i indicated yesterday this, my friends, is a legal document, the constitution. It is a legal document. You can breach and violate the law of the constitution. There are constitutional crimes. And the vastness of the Impeachment Process does include the abuse of power by the president of the United States. I knew Barbara Jordan and my friends wanted to quote her. She also saido the framers confided in the congress of power if need be to remove a president in order to strike a delicate balance between a president swollen with power and grown tyrannical. You can violate the crimes of the constitution, abuse of power includes, that. This amendment should be defeated. The g