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JAYAPAL DELIVERS REMARKS ON HOUSE FLOOR AHEAD OF HISTORIC VOTE TO IMPEACH PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), a member of the House Judiciary Committee and Co-Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, delivered the following remarks on the House Floor ahead of today’s historic vote on House Resolution 755, Articles of Impeachment against President Donald J. Trump.

“This is a day of accountability and defending our democracy,” said Jayapal. “Our founders entrusted us with the awesome responsibility of protecting our democracy, which gets its power not from the bloodlines of monarchs but from the votes of ‘We, the People.’ Without that, we are no longer a democracy, we are a monarchy or a dictatorship. And so today, to uphold my oath to Constitution and country, I will vote to impeach Donald J. Trump.”

Last week, Jayapal announced her intention to vote for the Articles of Impeachment against President Trump during the House Judiciary Committee’s markup of the Articles. Those remarks are available here. When she voted in Committee to send the Articles of Impeachment to the full House for consideration, Jayapal held up her copy of the U.S. Constitution.

Jayapal’s remarks as delivered today are pasted below.

“Mr. Speaker, this is a day of accountability and defending our democracy. The facts in front of us are clear. This president, Donald J. Trump, coerced a fragile, foreign ally to investigate his political opponent and interfere in our elections. And he leveraged critically needed, Congressionally approved military aid to Ukraine.

The President’s allies want to claim that he did this because he cared about corruption.

But if President Trump truly cared about corruption, then he would have listened to the talking points that were prepared by the National Security Council on anti-corruption. He did not. In fact, on those two calls with President Zelensky, he never mentioned the word ‘corruption.’

He did not abide by the Department of Defense’s own recommendation that Ukraine had passed all the anti-corruption benchmarks; and he did not listen to the unanimous conclusion of all his top advisors that he must release that aid to Ukraine. 

He did release the aid in 2017 and 2018—but not in 2019.

Why? 

Because in 2019, Vice President Biden was running for President.

Because this is not hearsay, we have a responsibility—the President told us himself on national television exactly what he wanted from the phone call with President Zelensky. He came onto the White House lawn and he said, ‘I wanted President Zelensky to open an investigation into the Bidens.’

He solicited foreign interference before. He is doing it now, and he will do it again. The President is the smoking gun.

Our founders entrusted us with the awesome responsibility of protecting our democracy, which gets its power not from the bloodlines of monarchs but from the votes of ‘We, the People.’ Without that, we are no longer a democracy, we are a monarchy or a dictatorship.

And so today, to uphold my oath to Constitution and country, I will vote to impeach Donald J. Trump.”

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