Impeaching Donald John Trump, President of the United States, for High Crimes and Misdemeanors

Floor Speech

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Mr. DesJARLAIS. Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition to today's impeachment resolution, H. Res. 24, against President Trump.

First, it is a tragedy that we are here once again with this body, the United States House of Representatives, moving forward with impeaching President Trump.

This body impeached the president during the 116th Congress which resulted in his acquittal in the Senate. Before President Trump, there have only been two presidents impeached by the House of Representatives.

Now, after the majority party in the House did not get what they wanted the first time with impeachment, they are at it again a second time.

Their blind hatred of the President and four years of denying the results of the election have led them to one final moment of doing this again.

This impeachment is being held in the court of public opinion. I have found no constitutional grounding for President Trump's impeachment.

If Democratic leadership wanted us to take their stunt seriously, the least they could have done was attempted to present some sort of evidence in a formal trial.

Make no mistake, this is not the way the House should be conducting business.

The nation and world have been through a global pandemic this past year which has destroyed many small businesses and jobs across our county.

Yet, the House majority leadership could not be bothered to compromise on much-needed relief. They focused on playing politics with people's lives and making sure the president had one less accomplishment on his record ahead of the November 2020 election.

So why is the House spending its time on impeachment with H. Res. 24? Simply there are many who never liked President Trump, never gave him a chance, and have only sought to remove him from office since day one.

With just days left before the president leaves office, House Democrats have decided to implement their double standard yet again.

Many of my House colleagues from the other side of the aisle have spent an incredible amount of energy on fanning the flames of political unrest. They have called for riots and said peaceful protests are not enough.

President Trump called for his supporters to protest peacefully. When things got out of hand, he called on them to stand down and listen to law enforcement officials.

When violent protests got out of hand across the country this past summer you did not see the same type of condemnation from the Democratic Party.

President Trump has already said there will be an orderly transition on January 20, 2021. We need to move forward and help to ensure that the incoming Biden-Harris administration has everything they need to assume office on day one.

We are deeply divided in this country right now. Impeachment without constitutional grounding does nothing but disenfranchise the 74 million people that voted for President Trump.

I strongly oppose these impeachment efforts in the House and do not wish to create a further divide in our country.

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