Statement on the Articles of Impeachment

Mr. Chairman: I rise to give my statement on the articles of impeachment.

Earlier today, we heard the beginning of the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States: “We, the people.” It’s a very eloquent beginning. But when that document was completed on the seventeenth of September in 1787, I was not included in that “We, the people.” I felt somehow for many years that George Washington and Alexander Hamilton just left me out by mistake. But through the process of amendment, interpretation, and court decision, I have been consumed into the entity for which the Constitution of the United States was framed.

My faith in the Constitution is whole; it is complete; it is total. And I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction, of the Constitution.

“Reason” is the only thing we have left to guide us. It’s the only thing that’s going to hold this country together. If the society standing tall cannot encroach upon the Constitution, then a President cannot encroach upon the Constitution.

The Constitution’s executive inquiry is not an inquiry into a ordinary citizen; it is an inquiry into a President. It is reason, not passion, which must guide our deliberations, guide our debate, and guide our decision.