{time} 2230

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H. Res. 21, calling on Vice President Pence to invoke his powers under the 25th Amendment. We are in the midst of a national emergency and President Trump must be removed from office immediately, before any further damage to this Capitol--or to our Republic--can be done.

Last week's violent attack on the Capitol took root more than 5 years ago when Donald Trump first descended the escalator at Trump Tower to announce his run for President.

The hateful rhetoric, baseless accusations, and contempt for the democratic process were all on display that day. Later, they formed the foundation of his presidency. Last week, they reached a violent crescendo.

After losing his bid for reelection--in decisive fashion--President Trump embarked on a campaign of misinformation aimed at delegitimizing the results of a free and fair election. When this failed, he tried to intimidate local election officials into reversing the results. When those brave public servants refused to do his bidding, he made one final desperate attempt to hold onto power by attacking the constitutionally mandated process of counting and certifying the electoral votes in a Joint Session of Congress.

Although the President had willing volunteers to join him, Vice President Pence refused to exceed his limited authority and reject the results of the election. That is when the President unleashed his supporters to storm the Capitol. And the result--an armed insurrection--left in its wake lost lives, property destroyed, desecration of hallowed ground, and physical and emotional scars that may never fully heal.

Vice President Pence upheld his constitutional duty and his oath of office that day. It is time for him to do so once more.

Under the 25th Amendment, the Vice President, along with a majority of the members of the Cabinet, may inform Congress ``that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,'' upon which ``the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.''

This is not a step to be taken lightly--but it is the step that must be taken today.

The President is clearly incapacitated and unable to exercise the powers of the presidency to protect the United States, as witnessed by the attack on the Capitol itself. Rather than immediately calling for an end to the violence and calling on his supporters to withdraw, the President waited several hours before releasing a half-hearted video that also expressed his ``love'' for the rioters who were ``special people''. All the while, he continued his efforts to subvert the election, seeking Senators who would object to the certification of as many as ten states' electoral votes, without a shred of evidence that there was any reason to doubt their authenticity.

And reports indicate that the threat that our country faced on January 6th--from a president who would do anything to hold onto power--is ongoing. It is a national crisis. It demands immediate action.

I thank the Gentleman from Maryland, Mr. Raskin--a constitutional scholar and a valuable member of the Judiciary Committee--for bringing forward this important resolution, and I call upon the Vice President to do his constitutional duty and to protect the American people from one more day of a dangerous presidency.

Mr. MICHAEL F. DOYLE of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the resolution urging Vice President Pence and the Cabinet to remove President Trump from office.

In the interest of full disclosure, I want to make it clear that I've always thought that President Trump was unstable and unfit to hold the highest office in the land. But since the election, I believe that his actions have become more erratic and angry and dangerous.

He has developed an alternative worldview with no basis in reality in which he won more votes than Joe Biden, but the election was `stolen' from him. I suspect that he may actually believe that.

But the facts are clear. The 2020 Presidential election was one of the most open and transparent elections in our nation's history according to election officials and observers, both Republican and Democratic. The FBI said that it found no evidence of widespread voter fraud. The Attorney General, chosen by the President, said that there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud. And the chairman of the bipartisan U.S. Election Assistance Commission said that there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

Nevertheless, Donald Trump has widely repeated this message in speeches and over social media in the months before and after the election, which has led to its widespread acceptance by thousands and perhaps millions of Americans.

In August, for example, he said ``the only way we're going to lose this election is if the election is rigged. Remember that. It's the only way we're going to lose this election.''

Subsequently, he said ``This is a case where they're trying to steal an election . . . . They're trying to rig an election, and we can't let that happen.''

After the election, he said, ``If you count the legal votes, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us.''

And on Christmas Eve, he wrote on Facebook, in all capital letters, ``VOTER FRAUD IS NOT A CONSPIRACY THEORY, IT IS A FACT!!!''

What's even more disturbing is that his actions have displayed a similar unhinged quality. On election night, for example, he urged his supporters to harass workers counting votes in Arizona and Michigan. He had his campaign file over 60 lawsuits challenging the election processes in a number of states, nearly all of which were rejected by state and federal courts--including several which were rejected by the Supreme Court, He called Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers in Michigan and pressured them to derail the certification of the state's election results. More recently, he called Georgia elections officials and pressured them to ``find votes'' to overturn the presidential election results in Georgia. And just last week, he reportedly ignored requests to mobilize the National Guard in the midst of the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

I believe that his false, misleading claims over an extended period of time, culminating in his speech on the morning of January 6-- repeated and validated on conservative cable shows and social media--is the root cause of the assault on the Capitol last week.

President Trump has spent months and months undermining the American people's faith in the November presidential election. I believe part of it may be a coping mechanism for him because he's totally unwilling to accept that he was defeated by someone else. But I also believe that parts of it are criminal and a deliberate, lengthy effort to undermine and overturn what are, by all credible accounts, legitimate election results in order to stay in office.

Regardless of the motivation for his actions, the President currently appears to be unstable, unfit, and unable to carry out his duties as President of the United States. Moreover, his instability raises concerns for many, myself included, that in his last few days in office, he might take some dangerous action or pursue some policy that will harm the American people in a significant way.

This man currently controls the entire federal government, including the U.S. military, and he has the U.S. nuclear codes at his fingertips.

I fear for our nation as long as he remains in office under these circumstances.

That's why I'm supporting this resolution today to urge Vice President Pence, and a majority of the Cabinet to remove him from office as soon as humanly possible. I believe that the future of our nation may be at stake.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source