Expressing Sense of the House with Respect to Whistleblower Complaint Made to Inspector General of Intelligence Community
Floor Speech
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Mr. WOODALL. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Wenstrup) for yielding the time.
I listened to what my friend just came to the well to say, and it sounds as if we are not working on a nonbinding House Resolution today. It sounds as if we are working on Articles of Impeachment today. If folks want to get on to Articles of Impeachment, get on with it.
I want to associate myself with my friend from Vermont who said this is an Article I, Article II question. And I want to ask my colleagues, again, if you are ready to get going with impeachment articles, bring them, and let's have that debate on the floor.
This is a nonbinding resolution that says to our coequal branch of government, we have an oversight responsibility, and we want to see some paperwork. Now, the Senate already passed the same nonbinding resolution yesterday. We are not breaking any new ground here.
But, yes, if the Intelligence Committee wants to review documents in a closed session, they ought to have access to those documents. That is not a complicated question.
I want to ask my colleagues how we are advantaged as an institution by turning this into an us against them.
Again, when you get ready to go down the Articles of Impeachment, it is going to be an us against them. I have seen no crimes and lots of hearings. I have heard lots of promises and absolutely no there, there.
But we have an opportunity, I dare say, an obligation, to conduct ourselves in a way that, forbid the thought, should one day our Nation have to go down that path, we have the credibility to lead that discussion.
You have an hour of debate here that we can absolutely use, and the Speaker can continue to admonish Members not to engage in personalities with the President. We can absolutely conduct ourselves in that way if that is what we would like.
Or we could follow the pathway of the United States; do this in a bipartisan way to say we have got a coequal branch of government that has a right to see these documents and be done with it.
I will remind my colleagues who are raising their constitutional ire today that this institution held President Obama's Attorney General in both civil and criminal contempt, and we got no support, save 17 Members, to make that happen.
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