Airstrike Against General Soleimani

Floor Speech

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Mr. MARSHALL. Mr. Speaker, in response to a successful, precise United States airstrike against Iranian terrorist General Soleimani, a strike that was carefully thought out, that was vetted, that was carefully planned by our President, the Secretary of State, White House leadership, and the Pentagon, my Democrat colleagues are threatening to force a vote to restrict our President's ability to exercise his constitutional powers as Commander in Chief and, thus, place more American lives at risk.

Listen, I don't want a war. The President doesn't want a war. Many, many Kansans I have talked to, they don't want any more American lives lost in an endless war in the Middle East. But what Kansans do want is a President who draws a red line and actually means it, that if you harm an American or any American interests, we will respond swiftly, decisively, and, yes, disproportionately.

For Kansans, it is pure and simple common sense that the American President protect our country, protect our people from imminent threats posed by those who seek to do us harm. If you are a known terrorist who has brutality murdered hundreds of American soldiers and is actively planning to kill more Americans, our leaders, our President has the authority to quickly stop that threat by any means necessary. This power is a core executive function of the Commander in Chief under Article II of the Constitution.

This resolution that may be offered by Democrats today--and I say ``may.'' It sounds like now they are back-walking it, that they have probably done some type of a polling or some type of a study group that says this is not going to poll very well. But they have been threatening to offer a resolution that would undermine the President's ability to swiftly respond to Iran and its proxies' acts of aggression against our Nation and our interests. In other words, it would undermine the President's ability to protect our homeland and protect the American people.

By eliminating Soleimani, President Trump took decisive action to protect Americans and to rid the world of an evil terrorist who was actively planning more death and destruction. The President was doing his job to deescalate a very tense situation, to save American lives, and was damn right to do so. We are all safer today.

Speaker Pelosi's Refusal to Transmit Articles of Impeachment

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Mr. MARSHALL. Mr. Speaker, after the unprecedented impeachment witch hunt conducted in the Chamber this past year, Speaker Pelosi has still not transmitted the sham Articles of Impeachment to the Senate. This would seem to fly in the face of common sense, the Constitution, and precedent.

It is not just Republicans who have been saying how ridiculous this is. Speaker Pelosi's refusal to transmit the articles is now coming under scrutiny from her own fellow Democrats in the Senate. One Senator said, ``She should send the articles over''; another, ``Let us do what we have to do over here''; and, finally, a third Democratic Senator, ``I'm hoping they will come over here soon. I think most people are ready to get this moving on.''

The only thing that Speaker Pelosi's 3-week charade has done is show the public the weakness of Democrats' case and show, indeed, he has not been given a safe political process and it is all for theater.

Please, Ms. Pelosi, please, Speaker Pelosi, allow the Senate to get on with the people's work: to pass USMCA, to lower healthcare costs, and to improve our infrastructure.

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