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Congressional Record United States Th of America PROCEEDINGS and DEBATES of the 116 CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION

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Congressional Record United States Th of America PROCEEDINGS and DEBATES of the 116 CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 116 CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION Vol. 166 WASHINGTON, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2020 No. 13 House of Representatives The House was not in session today. Its next meeting will be held on Friday, January 24, 2020, at 2 p.m. Senate WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2020 The Senate met at 1 p.m. and was I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the The Senate will now hear you. called to order by the Chief Justice of United States of America, and to the Repub- OPENING STATEMENT the United States. lic for which it stands, one nation under God, Mr. Manager SCHIFF. Mr. Chief Jus- indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. f tice, Senators, counsel for the Presi- f dent, and my fellow House managers: I TRIAL OF DONALD J. TRUMP, want to begin by thanking you, Chief PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED THE JOURNAL Justice, for a very long day, for the STATES The CHIEF JUSTICE. Senators, will way you have presided over these pro- The CHIEF JUSTICE. The Senate you please be seated. ceedings. I want to thank the Senators will convene as a Court of Impeach- If there is no objection, the Journal also. We went well into the morning, as ment. of the proceedings of the trial are ap- you know, until I believe around 2 in The Chaplain will lead us in prayer. proved to date. the morning. You paid attention to f Without objection, it is so ordered. every word and argument you heard The Sergeant at Arms will make the PRAYER from both sides in this impeachment proclamation. trial, and I know we are both deeply The Chaplain, Dr. Barry C. Black, of- The Sergeant at Arms, Michael C. grateful for that. fered the following prayer: Stenger, made proclamation as follows: It was an exhausting day for us, cer- Let us pray. Sovereign God, author of liberty, we Hear ye! Hear ye! Hear ye! All persons are tainly, but we have adrenaline going commanded to keep silence, on pain of im- gather in this historic Chamber for the through our veins. For those who are prisonment, while the Senate of the United required to sit and listen, it is a much solemn responsibility of these im- States is sitting for the trial of the articles peachment proceedings. Give wisdom more difficult task. Of course, we know of impeachment exhibited by the House of our positions. You have the added dif- to the distinguished Chief Justice, Representatives against Donald John Trump, John Roberts, as he presides. President of the United States. ficulty of having to weigh the facts and Lord, You are all-powerful and know the law. So I want to begin today by The CHIEF JUSTICE. The majority thanking you for the conduct of the our thoughts before we form them. As leader is recognized. our lawmakers have become jurors, re- proceedings yesterday and inviting mind them of Your admonition in 1 Co- f your patience as we go forward. We rinthians 10:31, that whatever they do ORDER OF PROCEDURE have some very long days yet to come. should be done for Your glory. Help So let us begin. Mr. MCCONNELL. Mr. Chief Justice, them remember that patriots reside on ‘‘When a man unprincipled in private for the information of all of our col- both sides of the aisle, that words have life, desperate in his fortune, bold in consequences, and that how something leagues, no motions—no motions—were his temper, possessed of considerable is said can be as important as what is filed this morning, so we will proceed talents, having the advantage of mili- said. Give them a civility built upon to the House managers’ presentation. tary habits, despotic in his ordinary integrity that brings consistency in We will go for approximately 2 hours demeanor, known to have scoffed in their beliefs and actions. and take a short recess when there is private at the principles of liberty— We pray in Your powerful Name. an appropriate break time between pre- when such a man is seen to mount the Amen. senters. hobby horse of popularity, to join in The CHIEF JUSTICE. Pursuant to f the cry of danger to liberty, to take the provisions of S. Res. 483, the man- every opportunity of embarrassing the PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE agers for the House of Representatives general government and bringing it The Chief Justice led the Pledge of have 24 hours to make the presentation under suspicion, to flatter and fall in Allegiance, as follows: of their case. with all the nonsense of the zealots of ∑ This ‘‘bullet’’ symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor. S443 . VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:29 Feb 11, 2020 Jkt 099060 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 4637 Sfmt 0634 E:\RECORD20\JANUARY\S22JA0.REC S22JA0 sradovich on DSKJLST7X2PROD with CONG-REC-ONLINE S444 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE January 22, 2020 the day, it may justly be suspected for a man who believed that he was wanted the corrupt prosecutor removed that his object is to throw things into above the law and beholden to no one; from power in order to stop an inves- confusion that he may ride the storm for a man, in short, who would be a tigation into Burisma Holdings, a com- and direct the whirlwind.’’ King. pany on whose board Biden’s son Hun- Those words were written by Alex- We are here today in this hallowed ter sat. ander Hamilton in a letter to President Chamber undertaking this solemn ac- This allegation is simply untrue. It George Washington at the height of the tion for only the third time in history has been widely debunked by Ukrain- panic of 1792, a financial credit crisis because Donald J. Trump, the 45th ian and American experts alike. That that shook our young Nation. Ham- President of the United States, has reality mattered not to President ilton was responding to sentiments re- acted precisely as Hamilton and his Trump. To him, the value in promoting layed to Washington as he traveled the contemporaries feared. President a negative tale about former Vice country that America, in the face of Trump solicited foreign interference in President Biden—true or false—was its that crisis, might descend from a re- our democratic elections, abusing the usefulness to his reelection campaign. publican form of government, plunging power of his office, to seek help from It was a smear tactic against a polit- instead into that of monarchy. abroad to improve his reelection pros- ical opponent that President Trump The Framers of the Constitution wor- pects at home. When he was caught, he apparently feared. ried then, as we worry today, that a used the powers of that office to ob- Remarkably but predictably, Russia, leader might come to power not to struct the investigation into his own too, has sought to support this effort to carry out the will of the people he was misconduct. smear Mr. Biden, reportedly hacking elected to represent but to pursue his To implement this corrupt scheme, into the Ukraine energy company at own interests. They feared that a President Trump pressured the Presi- the center of the President’s President would subvert our democracy dent of Ukraine to publicly announce disinformation campaign only last by abusing the awesome power of his investigations into two discredited al- week. office for his own personal or political legations that would benefit President Russia almost certainly was looking gain. And so they devised a remedy as Trump’s 2020 Presidential campaign. for information related to the former powerful as the evil it was meant to When the Ukrainian President did not Vice President’s son so that the Krem- combat: impeachment. immediately assent, President Trump lin could also weaponize it against Mr. As centuries have passed, our Found- withheld two official acts to induce the Biden, just like it did against Hillary ers achieved an almost mythical char- Ukrainian leader to comply: a head-of- Clinton in 2016, when Russia hacked acter. We are aware of their flaws, cer- state meeting in the Oval Office and and released emails from her Presi- tainly some very painful and pro- military funding. Both were of bright dential campaign. President Trump has made it abun- nounced indeed. Yet, when it came to consequence to Ukraine and to our na- dantly clear that he would like nothing the drafting of the new system of gov- tional interests in security, but one ernment never seen before and with no more than to make use of such dirt looms largest. President Trump with- against Mr. Biden, just as he made use guarantee it would succeed, we cannot held hundreds of millions of dollars in help but be in awe of their genius, their of Secretary Clinton’s hacked and re- military aid to a strategic partner at leased emails in his previous Presi- prescience even, vindicated time and war with Russia to secure foreign help dential campaign. again. with his reelection—in other words, to That brings us to the other sham in- Still, maybe because of their bril- cheat. vestigation that President Trump de- liance and the brilliance of their words, In this way, the President used offi- manded the Ukrainian leader an- we find year after year it more difficult cial state powers available only to him nounce. This investigation was related to imagine them as human beings. This and unavailable to any political oppo- to a debunked conspiracy theory, alleg- is no less true of Alexander Hamilton, nent to advantage himself in a demo- ing that Ukraine, not Russia, inter- notwithstanding his recent return to cratic election.
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