Impeachment

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, it took 4 weeks--4 weeks, but the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives is finally ready-- finally ready--to defend their impeachment of the President of the United States.

After weeks of delay, the Speaker of the House decided yesterday that a trial could finally go forward. She signed the impeachment papers. That took place at a table with a political slogan stuck onto it. And they posed--they posed--afterward for smiling photos. And the Speaker distributed souvenir pens--souvenir pens--to her own colleagues, emblazoned with her golden signature that literally came in on silver platters. The pens literally came in on silver platters. There were golden pens on silver platters, a souvenir to celebrate the moment.

I seem to remember Democrats falling over themselves to say they did not see impeachment as a long-sought political win. House Democrats said over and over that they recognized the gravity and the seriousness of this action, and, of course, they had only come to it reluctantly. Well, nothing says seriousness and sobriety like handing out souvenirs, as though this were a happy bill-signing instead of the gravest process in our Constitution.

This final display neatly distilled the House's partisan process into one perfect visual. It was a transparently partisan performance from beginning to end.

That is why they sped through a slapdash inquiry in 12 weeks, when previous Presidential impeachments came after months, if not years, of investigations and hearings. That is why the House cut short their own inquiry, declined to pursue their own subpoenas, and denied the President due process, but now--now they want the Senate to redo their homework and rerun the investigation.

That is why our colleague the Democratic leader told the press that whatever happens next, as long as he can weaponize the trial to hurt the Republicans in the 2020 election, ``it's a win-win.'' That is what the Democratic leader of the Senate said.

That is why the Speaker of the House apparently saw nothing strange about celebrating the third Presidential impeachment in American history with souvenirs and posed for photographs--souvenirs and posed photographs.

That pretty well sums it up. That is what the process has been thus far, but it is not what this process will be going forward.

The Founding Fathers who crafted and ratified our Constitution knew that our Nation might sometimes fall prey to the kind of dangerous factualism and partisanship that has consumed--literally consumed the House of Representatives.

The Framers set up the Senate specifically to act as a check against the short-termism and the runaway passions to which the House of Representatives might fall victim.

Alexander Hamilton worried that ``the demon of faction'' would ``extend his scepter'' over the House majorities ``at certain seasons.'' That is what Alexander Hamilton said. He feared for the viability of the government established by the Constitution if, blinded by factualism, the House of Representatives would abuse the power of impeachment to serve nakedly partisan goals rather than long-term interests of the American people and their Republic, but, fortunately, they did something about it.

They did not give both the power to impeach and the power to remove to the House. They divided the power and placed the final decision on removal over here in the Senate.

This body, this Chamber, exists precisely--precisely so we can look past the daily dramas and understand how our actions will reverberate for generations; so we can put aside animal reflexes and animosity and coolly consider how to best serve our country in the long run; so we can break factional fevers before they jeopardize the core institutions of our government.

As Hamilton put it, only the Senate, with ``confidence enough in its own situation,'' can ``preserve, unawed and uninfluenced, the necessary impartiality between an individual accused, and the representatives of the people, his accusers.''

The House's hour is over. The Senate's time is at hand. It is time for this proud body to honor our founding purpose.

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