Rep. Cline remarks during floor debate on Articles of Impeachment

WASHINGTON – Congressman Ben Cline (VA-06) made the following statement on the House Floor during today’s debate on H. Res. 755 – Impeaching Donald John Trump, President of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors:

 “Madam Speaker,

 Today is a sad day for this body, for the voters who sent me here last November, and for our Nation. 

 Benjamin Franklin cautioned when asked what he had given us, “A Republic, if you can keep it.”  Today we take a step further toward losing the Republic that our Founding Fathers envisioned by engaging in activity that they specifically warned against – the misuse of the Constitutional power of impeachment for one party’s political gain.

 Our Constitution is the very foundation of our Republic. Its assurance of self-determination has been the shining beacon by which our Nation has chartered its course over the last two centuries. From a new democratic experiment struggling to survive to the greatest Nation on Earth, America has been powered over the years – not by Government – but by the ingenuity, the bravery, and the faith of its people, confident in their place as one Nation, under God, Indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.  

 And so it is “We the People” who determine our President, not “We the Judiciary Committee,” or “We the Congress.”  The Constitution is clear – it is only when we see clear proof of the impeachable offenses outlined in Article II, Section 4 – treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors – that we are to challenge the decision of the voters, break the figurative glass, and pull the emergency rip-cord that is impeachment. We do not have that proof today.

 Thomas Jefferson said, “I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education.” 

 But rather than educate, this majority has chosen today to obfuscate with hearsay, innuendo, and speculation. 

 And when history looks back on this shameful period for this House, it will judge it for what it truly is – the ugly hijacking by the Majority of our Constitution and the powers it so solemnly entrusts to us to engage in a blatantly political process designed to finally achieve what they could not achieve at the ballot box: the removal of a duly elected president. 

 Compelled by my sworn duty to uphold this Constitution and for the people, I vote no on impeachment today.

 I yield back.”