Unanimous Consent Request--S. 2644

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I am proud to once again join the Senators from Arizona and New Jersey on the floor to ask for a vote on the Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act.

We have come three times now to ask for a vote--just a vote--on this bipartisan legislation to protect the special counsel and support the rule of law, a bill which passed the Senate Judiciary Committee by a vote of 14 to 7, including with the support of Chairman Grassley, to be considered on the floor.

Each time we have come here, there has been an objection from a Republican colleague. Each time, we have heard a reason or an excuse-- something like: This legislation just isn't needed. The President is not imminently going to fire the special counsel. To those who believe this bill is still unnecessary, I could give a thorough survey of the landscape of recent days, but let me simply summarize.

There have been a whole series of filings and actions and developments in the Mueller investigation that have made clear that the President or his National Security Advisor or his personal attorney lied to the FBI or lied to the American people, misrepresented the scope and depth of the President's business contacts in Russia during the campaign or misrepresented to the FBI ongoing contacts with Russians. This is an effective and ongoing Federal investigation that must be allowed to reach its conclusion.

Meanwhile, the President continues to spread misinformation and undermine the investigation into Russian attacks on our election. He recently suggested, with no evidence, that the special counsel and his team are bullying witnesses into lying about collusion, tweeting, the ``Angry Mueller Gang of Dems is viciously telling witnesses to lie about facts & they will get relief.''

I know many of us have begun to shrug our shoulders at the President's tweets, ignoring the ways in which his messages publicly undermine the rule of law or discredit and attack Federal prosecutors. I know some Members of this body have proved willing to dismiss each new piece of information the special counsel uncovers as if it is no big deal.

Folks, this is not politics as usual. This is not something we should be sweeping under the rug. This is about the integrity of our democracy, our national security, and the President of the United States.

It is critical that this body demonstrate our ability to come together in a mature and responsible bipartisan way to do something about it--not to sit by and watch a potential constitutional crisis barreling toward us and refuse to step up and act.

Our job as Members of the Senate, sworn to uphold the Constitution, is to take reasonable, responsible, preventive action to avoid this sort of crisis that we can see coming. I am so grateful to my colleagues, both Republicans and Democrats--Senators Graham, Tillis, Booker, Grassley, Feinstein, and Flake--who have worked to craft this bill, to get it a hearing, to get it a vote, and to get it to the floor. Yet I am so frustrated with those who continue to block the last step, a vote on the floor.

Just last night, we saw the broadest possible coalition of Senators-- from Senator Booker and Senator Lee to Senator Durbin, Senator Graham, and Senator Grassley--come to this floor and lead a successful final vote on criminal justice reform. If we can do that, overcoming decades of divisive politics on race and criminal justice, why can't we do this? This cannot wait. The moment to act is now. The American people deserve an explanation as to why we can't act on this most important point.

When we look back at the history of this time, with the hindsight of history, it is my hope and it is my belief that Senator Flake will be recognized as someone who put country over party at a moment when it mattered. He follows a long line of Republicans whose mettle has been tested by the turmoil of their times--names I was raised on, such as Wendell Willkie, the Republican's nominee for President, who agreed to support President Roosevelt's controversial plan to send aid to Britain at a turning point in World War II, even though it was the height of a Presidential campaign. Without his support, the plan would have failed. FDR called him a godsend to our country.

Margaret Chase Smith, of Maine, stood up to Joe McCarthy in 1950, a decade later. When she issued her ``Declaration of Conscience,'' she was just a freshman.

Last, Barry Goldwater, also from Arizona, along with Republican leaders went to the White House in August of 1974 to make it clear to the President that he had lost their support and needed to resign.

I am a proud Democrat, but I know that no party has a monopoly on courage or conscience. Our system only works when Members of both parties take risks for the good of us all. I have been deeply blessed to serve alongside and to work with Senator Flake. It is my hope that his example will inspire others in the Congress ahead to come together and to meet the demands of our time--protecting the rule of law, protecting the investigation of the special counsel. Taking up and passing this law is exactly one of those demands on which he has stood up and for which I am grateful for his leadership.

With that, I yield to my colleague from New Jersey.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source