The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“ISSUES OF THE WEEK” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H967-H972 on Feb. 7, 2020.
The State Department is responsibly for international relations with a budget of more than $50 billion. Tenure at the State Dept. is increasingly tenuous and it's seen as an extension of the President's will, ambitions and flaws.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
ISSUES OF THE WEEK
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2019, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, under the new rules of this Congress, since the rules have been changed that only allow one Special Order per week, and despite for years my having encouraged members of our conference to sign up for Special Orders, it is our chance to get messages out that we feel need to be out.
As I have said for years to our conference, you need to sign up for the Special Orders because you don't want my face to be the face of the party. And I am very encouraged, we have got more people signing up now.
But under the Speaker's new rules, as of this Congress, only one per week per person, so I am pleased, Mr. Speaker, to be here for my one Special Order of the week.
And what a week it was. Wow. The impeachment proceedings came to the conclusion that most everybody who had studied the situation knew that they would; no matter how long it got drug out, it was going to be this conclusion.
The State of the Union address Tuesday night; most people, or at least around here, most people know the Constitution requires a State of the Union report or address, but it doesn't require that it be done orally. And originally, the very first were provided in writing.
But it is an opportunity for us to come together, even though it has not been quite as homogenous a body as it has been at times when it comes to the State of the Union.
It has just been interesting. You know, some call it Trump Derangement Syndrome, some call it PTSD, President Trump Stress Disorder. But apparently, he causes stress, in some cases derangement, so people that normally think straight just have trouble reaching the same wise conclusions that they used to. So that has been an interesting thing to observe.
But here we are, end of the week of impeachment, end of the week after a State of the Union address.
I was honored to have my friend, Nigel Farage, who has been fighting for about a decade, actually, to make the point that President Trump has been making here in America; that unless our country is strong, we cannot take care of other countries' disasters and problems or assaults on freedom around the world. We can't. We have to make sure we are strong first.
And the example that has been given before of being on a jet plane, and the instructions, for good reason, say that the adult must put the mask on in the event of a loss of cabin pressure, which means there will be a loss of oxygen. So put your mask on first, so that you will be conscious and helpful to your children and others who are not able to put the mask on themselves.
If we are not strong, if we don't take care of the United States of America, as our oath should require us to do, then we are not able to be that shining light on a hill. We are not able to be that hope for freedom.
There are a lot of countries around the world that don't care for the United States. Some of it is simple jealousy.
But some call the United States imperialist pigs, which is no reflection on the United States. It is a reflection on their ignorance of what imperialism means, as well as exactly what the history of the United States is.
We have gone and fought and sacrificed our greatest treasure, American lives--you are hard-pressed to find any place in history where a country sacrificed that precious treasure, in our case, American lives--for other people's freedom. And we don't require that they learn our language; that they begin to get permission from our government here in order to conduct affairs in their own country.
We are not imperialists. We are not seeking a hegemony. That is not the case at all. We are about freedom.
{time} 1300
We have so many friends in France. We have, of course, a painting over here. It is the only painting in the whole Capitol full length of a foreigner, and here it is. It has been here in the House for so many decades, a friend of George Washington that is over here on my right, Lafayette.
We have had great help from the French. In fact, they helped ensure the final victory at Yorktown with their ships and their military. The French military was there at the surrender, where Cornwallis cowardly said he was ill and couldn't come out and surrender, so he sent out a subordinate. We owe the French people a great deal.
Historians have wrestled with how, after the American Revolution, we came about having freedom without the thousands of heads being separated from bodies, as occurred after the French Revolution that began 10 or so years after we got our Constitution. The French Revolution ended up ultimately resulting in an Emperor named Napoleon. Before Napoleon even took charge, so many people were killed, so much bloodshed.
Historians have wrestled with that. How did the American Revolution result in freedom without the tremendous beheadings and hangings that occurred in other places like after the French Revolution? What made the difference? I believe those who point to the First Great Awakening around the 1730s and 1740s, a recognition of Biblical principles and of just who Almighty God was and is and this desire for freedom that our Creator has provided.
Some say, well, if we are endowed with it, why doesn't everyone have freedom around the world? Well, like anything you inherit, if you are not willing to fight for it, there will be evil people who will take it from you, and you won't have it. Thank God for all of those who have served in our military and fought for freedom.
Some historians say the big difference, they believe, between the results of the American Revolution and the French Revolution was that the American Revolution was about liberty, and the French Revolution was about revenge. As long as this country has been about liberty, it has soared, and people have done well.
Of course, in the second century of our country, there was another great awakening in the decades before the Civil War, and some would indicate actually the second great awakening, an awakening of something Daniel Webster, John Quincy Adams, of course, Frederick Douglass knew better than anybody. But how can you be a Christian and follow the teachings of Jesus and at the same time put brothers and sisters in chains and bondage? They are inconsistent. They are incongruent. You can't have those two things working together. Sure, slavery is talked about in the Bible, and it has always been around, and it grieves me greatly.
We heard a year ago, at the National Prayer Breakfast, there are now more slaves in the world than there have ever been at any time in the world's history. Tragic. Some say, well, that points to our own disgusting history here in the United States, like Columbus coming over and establishing slavery. Again, a lot of people don't know their history, but there were Indian tribes that had captured and enslaved other Indian tribes. I used to say Native Americans, but we have had so many Native Americans testify before our committee, and they normally say I am an Indian from the such and such Indian Tribe, so that has been a revelation.
Nonetheless, slavery has existed since the fall of man. It is an evil that exists in this world, and I am glad we were rid of it in the United States. It is tragic that it took a Civil War and the loss of a half-million lives, but, again, it took a second great awakening. And that was about liberty; it wasn't about revenge.
We get to the 20th century, helped in two world wars. We haven't had a great awakening in over 100 years. I think it shows in the activity here in this body, and I think it shows in activities across the country. I think it is something that would serve us well and help refine the country if we were to have a third great awakening. Instead, we see tremendous partisanship.
I really appreciated the majority leader explaining for our Speaker what she really meant by things she had said. Of course, she had said that the State of the Union Address had no connection with reality. She said the speech was a pack of lies. She said the President was selling a bill of goods, like a snake oil salesman. And I appreciated our minority whip, my friend Steve Scalise, asking about that. It certainly appears there were a lot of truthful things.
Just to highlight some of the President's guests, this should have been a feel-good event across the aisle. And I wasn't a personal fan of President Obama, but when he would tell a story that touched the heart, as there were so many of those stories in the State of the Union, how could you not be moved? How could you not applaud and stand and cheer for some of those heroic situations? So I thought it was like a good movie. You laugh, you cry, you cheer. And there were those events.
I have run into this myself. One lady told me she was so sensitive to the Holy Spirit after she finished saying some really nasty things about me. She said, when you came up, the Holy Spirit left, and I realized she was completely consumed with hate. So, yes, you can't be consumed with that kind of hate and still feel the presence, as you say you have, of the Holy Spirit. If you can set those kinds of feelings of hate aside long enough, then it is easier to find areas of mutual agreement.
Stephanie and Janiyah Davis from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she was the fourth grade student who loves art and math. For too long, she has been assigned to low-performing schools. Her mom, Stephanie, is a hardworking, single mom who tried to apply for a tax credit scholarship. But since the Governor had vetoed the school choice legislation, Janiyah remained among the estimated 50,000 students on a wait list.
As was announced here in this body--I was sitting right up there--she was getting a scholarship. How could we not all cheer this child with so much promise having the chance to pursue her dreams and get the best education, just like children of Presidents of both parties have here in Washington as they send their child or children to private schools? Why not give a poor minority a chance that the President's children have?
Juan Guaido from Caracas, Venezuela, of course, he was the interim President of Venezuela. I thought it was inspirational to have him here and allow us to pay tribute to whom many of us believe is the actual, legitimate Venezuelan President. But as the President pointed out, the U.S. is supporting the Venezuelan people in their struggle for freedom and democracy.
Kelli and Gage Hake from Stillwater, Oklahoma, Kelli was at home with her 1-year-old son, Gage, when she learned that her husband, Army Staff Sergeant Christopher, had been killed while serving his second tour of duty in Iraq. He was killed by the explosive devices designed and produced under the auspices of a guy named Soleimani, whom President Trump had ordered taken out. Such an irony, too, he was killed.
It shouldn't have been a partisan thing over someone being killed by a drone strike because I am not aware of any of my friends across the aisle who expressed any concern when President Obama had a father and son, two American citizens, killed without arrest or trial with a drone strike. I don't remember anybody on the other side of the aisle being upset or expressing that outrage that President Obama had father and son killed--the son, apparently, a minor--had them both taken out by a drone strike. But I could understand why President Obama would do that. This al-Awlaki, he was an American citizen.
As I pointed out before, it is a flaw that has occurred in our citizenship system, where there was no act of Congress. We can't find that there was even an executive order. But somewhere along the way, despite the language during debate of the 14th Amendment that made clear, no, they were not anticipating that if you were--and they didn't say alien. They said foreigner or a diplomat here. Well, of course, your children are not going to be American citizens, and they weren't for years. But somewhere, in the decades following the adoption, the ratification of the 14th Amendment--and like I say, I can't even find an executive order--some bureaucrats apparently in the State Department, I guess, just decided it would be easier to start bestowing citizenship on children of people who were here illegally, or as the ratifiers of the 14th Amendment called them, foreigners. They didn't even care if they were legally here or illegally here. They certainly did not anticipate that children of foreigners here would be American citizens.
Like I say, I have been trying to find out who made that decision to start giving citizenship to people who are born here. Our friend Judge Andrew Napolitano, I have heard him say on FOX News before that, basically, people need to get over it. It doesn't matter who you are. If you are born here, you are an American citizen.
But he was just ignorant of the fact that if you are a diplomat's child born here, you are not an American citizen. So those were the two areas. If you are a foreigner's child, a diplomat's child, you weren't to be an American citizen.
{time} 1315
But it would be very interesting if we could ever find out who made that call and how do we go about curing it now.
But I think the President is right. If that was done by just some bureaucrat's decision, no act of Congress, no executive order, just somebody just started giving out American citizenship to people who were born here to foreigners, then you should be able to retract it with a President's executive order overruling whatever desk jockey or bureaucrat decided it was too difficult to assess whether somebody was here legally or not, and so just start giving out American citizenship.
But the name al-Awlaki, he is one of many people that we know--at one point, I only knew a couple. I wasn't willing to give those names out because they were given to me in a personal request not to give them out until others were known so that that person's identity wasn't in jeopardy of being learned.
But al-Awlaki, his parents came over on a student visa. He was born here. They take him back to Yemen. They teach him to hate America.
Apparently, there may have been people in the Bush administration; certainly there were in the Obama administration. They apparently thought he was being a double agent and helping the U.S., when, actually, he was fomenting violence against Americans here and abroad.
So it is understandable that President Obama or people in his administration who had tried to work with al-Awlaki, they wouldn't want him coming back and having a big trial where he revealed the different people he had worked with in different administrations, so the answer is take him out with a drone strike. Never mind his minor son is in there. We don't know if he was guilty of fomenting violence or not, but he was a juvenile, as I understand it.
We hear all these allegations about President Trump but not so much about the murders ordered by President Obama, whether we call them murders or killings. I don't think they actually meet the criminal requirements of being murder because they were people normally that he took out by order of a strike. They were enemy combatants who were killing Americans.
So I didn't have a problem with him protecting American interests in doing what President Obama did, nor do I have a problem with President Trump protecting our country doing the same thing.
Again, I appreciate the majority leader saying: No. No. When the Speaker was talking about all the lies, just the whole speech was a pack of lies. He was selling a bill of goods like a snake oil salesman. The whole speech had no connection with reality.
He was explaining that she actually wasn't talking about all these people who were introduced. I look forward to the Speaker pointing that out.
Jody Jones from Farmersville, California: On December 17, 2018, Jody's brother, Rocky Jones, was shot and killed by an illegal immigrant in California. The criminal alien who had committed this brutal murder was previously arrested for violent crimes and twice deported.
The criminal alien was arrested in December 2018 for the sixth time, but because of California's sanctuary State policy, he was released from jail. A few days later, he went on a 24-hour reign of terror, injuring several people, robbing a gas station, leading law enforcement on a high-speed chase, and killing 51-year-old Rocky, who was known as a kind and gentle soul. He left behind a precious daughter and four brothers.
I don't see anything in any of these that should have been considered lies. These are touching stories.
I realize we have a disagreement here, as many do across the country. I think there is a bill proposed with a new way forward where we even provide airfare to people who have been deported to bring them to the United States.
I think the Trump administration is doing a good job getting rid of people who are criminal threats to this country, and I applaud those efforts. I think it is part of our keeping our oath to our Constitution that we take here.
Our devotion is not to citizens of the world. It is like President Trump has pointed out: We can't help the world if we are not strong as a nation.
That is what Nigel Farage has been successful in promoting, a removal of the U.K. from the European Union. You have got some bureaucrats making decisions who are not residents of England, and yet they are making decisions that have adversely affected the lives of the British people, and I can understand them being upset.
Yes, there are those who say, if we had a one-world government, then there is no need for war, the same argument that was made for the European Union: Look, if we are all one country, then we can't have another world war started between Germany and France or anybody else because we are all one government.
Orwell would probably acknowledge that as a great basis for creating Big Brother that watched over everybody, which seems to be where we continue to move in this country, into a great socialist, communist, progressive society.
As Whittaker Chambers quoted Dostoevsky:
The problem with communism is not economic. The problem with communism is atheism.
I will never forget, before the fall of the Soviet Union, going into the only authorized seminary, Christian seminary in the whole Soviet Union at a place called Zagorsk. As you turned in the gate, there was a big building there, and the building had a picture of Lenin's face, and it said, in Russian: ``Lenin is with us.''
The message was clear: You may be going into this Christian seminary, but just understand, this is a communist country--or a socialist country, as they called themselves--and here, it isn't Christianity that is good. It is important you know Lenin is the one who is with us.
It was interesting visiting Lenin's tomb in those days. The rumor was that his ear had deteriorated to the point that they replaced it with a rubber one. I never knew if that was true or not, but his ear didn't really look real.
But, nonetheless, that was their message: This dead Lenin is with us and not some God you Christians think you should worship.
But we are moving toward a time in this country, unless it is interrupted--and I think the election of President Trump helped interrupt it--where Christians are really the only identifiable group in America where it is politically correct to condemn them, to belittle them, to persecute them. And we are still seeing that grow.
It is interesting that it grows at a time when anti-Semitism continues to grow here, as in Europe.
We had, from Scottsdale, Arizona, Iain Lanphier. I didn't realize his great-grandfather was going to be right there and that he was a 100-
year-old Tuskegee Airman, one of those heroic airmen who were segregated but had incredible courage, incredible ability, and they flew missions that were just incredible. They showed such courage in helping protect freedom even though they were fighting segregation, or had to deal with it back then. What a heroic group.
This young man is the great-grandson of Tuskegee Airman Charles McGee. Of course, Iain wanted to be, and still wants to be, a member of the United States Space Force.
Those were all inspirational.
Now, I know, and I think the majority leader referred to it, they disagreed with Rush Limbaugh being recognized.
He is an incredible man, an extraordinary man. I recall back when I was on the bench as a judge in Texas seeing that the Republican majority elected in November of 1994 recognized Rush as an honorary member of their class. They paid tribute. Without him, they didn't think Republicans, for the first time in 40 years, would have gotten the majority back.
Of course, Newt Gingrich was leading that charge from a congressional standpoint.
But he is an amazing guy. Even when I get really frustrated and depressed about some of the things going on here, I can listen to Rush, and he has such an amazing sense of humor. So it has been interesting.
As his producer--Bo Snerdley is his radio name--can verify, as he has to me many times--I love the guy--he can personally testify that Rush Limbaugh is not a racist. James can verify that, has verified that.
Anyway, I know Rush. I just think the world of Rush and what he has tried to do. I thought now that he has been diagnosed with stage IV cancer, it was a great tribute.
We see it here in this body. We have people in this body who have made arguments staunchly against the things we really believe in, and we find out they have got cancer. In our Thursday morning Prayer Breakfast, we pray for each other. It doesn't matter about party.
Sometimes in that Prayer Breakfast you hear testimonials from people and you had no idea the things they have gone through, but we set aside the political things to pray for each other and care about each other.
So I have been a bit burdened to see people so angry about Rush Limbaugh's recognition for the things that he has been amazing and done. I think the slurs about him being a racist, they are absolutely absurd. Talk to James.
Rush did not hire James because he was Black. He hired him because he is an amazing guy, and he has been helpful to Rush. But, like I say, I love James. He is just great guy.
I am so pleased the President recognized Rush. I got up to the gallery up there, Rush was there, and it meant a lot to me to hug Rush Limbaugh and encourage him, and I will continue to pray for him as well.
I am just sorry that people can't take a step back when somebody is going through what Rush is and at least drop some of the outrageous slander.
We also had retired Brigadier General Charles McGee. He is the great-
grandfather of Iain Lanphier.
I know comments were made that the whole speech was a pack of lies, but these were extraordinary people. As their stories were told, there was cheering. There were tears. It was just a feel-good time.
It should have been for all Americans, when we could see the things that brought us together and made us strong, and yet there were people who were not about to stand up and acknowledge and applaud some of these folks.
{time} 1330
That is really tragic. And it wasn't just Rush Limbaugh.
Paul Morrow, a United States Army veteran, but he started a successful contracting business. Today he is building a new concrete plant in an opportunity zone in Montgomery.
Carl and Marsha Mueller from Prescott, Arizona, as far as I know, no relationship to Bob who cost us $30 million or so when he knew immediately that his investigation was a sham. There was no collusion or conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, even though there are people who continue, after 2 years and 30 or so million dollars, establishing no conspiracy or collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, people still keep wanting to bring up that as if the lie is truth.
But Bob Mueller--I regret the damage that he has done to the name
``Mueller.'' These folks were wonderful.
Kayla was a devoted humanitarian aid worker. I knew the story. My heart broke for these people. It is just horrendous to think about what al-Baghdadi did to their daughter, a loving, caring, dedicated person of faith trying to help others, and al-Baghdadi repeatedly raped her. It is more than a parent should ever have to deal with to think about.
But we also heard those stories about Boko Haram after they attacked a Christian school. I was invited over there. We didn't have people from the Obama administration that appeared to want to help initially, even though there was a hashtag, #bringbackourgirls. That didn't bring back anybody.
But then I secretly met with dozens of the mothers of girls who were kidnapped and were enslaved and being raped, that was a very emotional evening. But I asked their pastor privately, I said: ``Where are all of the fathers?''
And he said: ``That is part of all of this tragedy. The fathers know their daughters are being raped daily. They don't feel like they should be sleeping in a bed comfortable when they were not able to protect their daughters.'' So they have gone to the bush, jungle, rainforest, whatever you want to call it, and they are living out there and many have already died out there.
There was a quote from a Catholic bishop and I was told when I was over there: ``Yeah, the Obama administration is saying that if you want some real help with Boko Haram''--not just a hashtag--``but you want some real help that will make a difference and stop Boko Haram, you have got to do a couple of things. You have got to legalize same-sex marriage, and you have got to start funding abortions, and then we will be able to be of more help to you.''
Of course, that kind of reminds you of asking Ukraine to help with the investigations into corruption.
But, anyway, President Obama obviously wasn't impeached and nor did anybody that I am aware of think we should have tried to impeach him because he wasn't helping these Christian girls the way we could have by helping take out Boko Haram, even with drone strikes, or more.
I understand there was some intelligence provided to the Nigerians, but according to the people I met with, they weren't getting the help because they weren't going to change their laws to adopt same-sex marriage or legalize abortion.
But what a tragedy. And I don't know, maybe people, some of the ones that didn't stand and applaud for that couple that has endured so much, maybe it was that they didn't want to applaud because al-Baghdadi was killed, even though he was responsible for the killing of so many Americans, so many Christians, so many Jews, and actually, Muslims as well.
Maybe they did not approve of a terrorist thug like al-Baghdadi being killed. And I know President Obama had said that ISIS is not true Islam. Well, it was a radical form of Islam. Al-Baghdadi had a Ph.D. in Islam, so I always kind of felt like he at least knew something about Islam, perhaps more than people who did not have a Ph.D. in Islamic studies.
I was very grateful that President Trump took the actions he did to eliminate the person who could do the kind of things that he did to Carl and Marsha Mueller's daughter. But, again, I would have thought that we could have celebrated the taking out of just a thug, an enemy combatant, a person who wanted to see America destroyed, that we might have had more community, or camaraderie in relieving the world of somebody that did so much damage to people in it.
We had Deputy Chief Raul Ortiz. I mean, the guy is a hero. I have met him before. It was good to see him here. He is with the U.S. Border Patrol. He joined them in 1991. He had served in the United States Army, and he has got a lot of responsibility down on the border trying to protect our country, because there are people trying to come in with drugs, that are killing Americans, they are enslaving Americans, or people who don't like us.
Fortunately, the majority of people coming in, they do like America and want to live here, but we can't know who wants to help and who wants to hurt unless we have a secure border and can control who comes in.
Tony Rankins from Cincinnati, Ohio, had suffered from PTSD, post-
traumatic stress disorder. He had become addicted to drugs. Anyway, Tony's story kind of reminded me of a friend from Texas, Curtis Brown, who is a Christian and who has been able to conquer some of these same demons, is doing great in helping others.
So I have great appreciation for Tony Rankins and what he has overcome. And now the company he started, R Investments, today he is working in an opportunity zone in Cincinnati, but the new job has helped him overcome his drug addiction.
But there is more that has to be done to keep someone from falling back into drugs. It is a daily battle, and people should be applauded for being able to do that. I regret that we didn't have more stimulating applause and recognition.
Robin and Ellie Schneider--Ellie was the one born at 21 weeks and 6 days, one of the youngest babies to survive in America at the time. It is an amazing story. How could you not applaud that little child in her mother's arms. It was very touching, very moving.
It wasn't a lie. These weren't lies. These were real American stories that, again, should have made us all laugh, all cry, and all cheer over the good things.
Ivan Simonovis from Caracas, Venezuela, he was the chief of police there in Venezuela's capital city. He was esteemed as the nation's top cop. But he was imprisoned in 2004 for protecting protesters. He was held in captivity for nearly 15 years by Chavez and the Maduro regimes, but he escaped in 2019, got to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and was welcomed in the United States.
That ought to be a story we could all cheer for on both sides of the aisle. That is a good thing.
I regret we were not even more laudatory for a guy who had overcome all of that. I guess for some people, if you applaud his escaping Venezuela in the Chavez and Maduro era, maybe it was thought that applauding that might be some recognition of just how brutal socialism, progressivism, and communism becomes.
Natan Sharansky, it was my privilege to have a long conversation with him and Sheldon and Miriam Adelson years ago. The guy is brilliant. He served 12 years, though, in a Russian gulag because he wanted freedom of speech.
As Natan points out, you have fear societies and you have free societies, and you can test which you are in. Are you free to say absolutely anything you want to in the town square without fear of harm or arrest? If you are able to do that, you are in a free society.
And, unfortunately, for Natan, he was in a fear society. And that is where communist systems go. They don't feel they can allow widespread Christianity. They suppress. They keep people in fear.
It is amazing, too, as I have traveled around the United States, it seems like some of our best citizens who understand the threats against America, they are from the former Soviet bloc countries, and they say: We are hearing all of this great stuff about socialism. We heard all of that before, and we know that it leads to a loss of freedom. It leads to our lives being dictated by people above. It leads to the loss of parental rights because the government is going to tell you what you are allowed to talk to your children about.
I was shocked to find out years ago that in the Soviet Union, they made very clear--I heard the presentation--that these children do not belong to the parents. The parents are temporary caretakers. And if they ever found out that a parent has ever said anything negative about the Soviet Union, the Soviet Government, those children will be removed and they will be put in the hands of other temporary caretakers who the government likes and who will not say anything negative about their government.
That is, as Sharansky would say, a fear society. And I fear we have moved in that direction dramatically.
Joshua Smith from Paducah, Kentucky was up here. His 16-year-old brother, Channing, committed suicide last September in Tennessee. He had suffered from cyber assault on social media by students in his high school. Joshua described Channing as ``the sweetest kid on Earth'' who loved playing musical instruments. But he was bullied, cyberbullied.
The Williams family from Fort Bragg, that was so touching. And I was surprised. How could you not cheer this father coming back into the lives of his wife and two children? I mean, most of us were moved to tears. Some were not. I don't really understand how everybody was not totally moved by what went on there.
Anyway, I was pleased that the majority leader clarified the Speaker's comments about those being, as she said, no connection with reality, a pack of lies, selling a bill of goods like a snake oil salesman.
I was glad he clarified that she wasn't really talking about all of those human-interest stories, and things that should have brought us together. But unfortunately, they didn't, as they should have.
{time} 1345
For those who love justice, I am hopeful that now that this 3-year pursuit of impeachment is behind us, now we are told: Oh, that is just the beginning. We are not stopping impeachment. We are going to keep going forward.
A court was told: Oh, yeah, we are going to keep going forward with impeachment. We are not done. We are going to keep trying to find something.
Really, this kind of sounds like basically, since it has been made very clear as of this week the Senate is not going to buy into some bogus group of allegations that are not impeachable offenses, which makes clear, then, you are pursuing it, apparently using taxpayer dollars, to try to besmirch a candidate for November 2020, to try to defeat him by using taxpayer dollars to make all kinds of allegations that you know will not result in removal from office but you are hoping will result in his defeat in November.
It is amazing the effect President Trump has on people. You can call it Trump derangement syndrome or whatever, but for so long as we have had deep state people, they felt like, as unelected bureaucrats, they were supposed to be in charge. It appeared pretty clear to me Lieutenant Colonel Vindman was offended. You could tell by his body language and the things he said. He was really bothered that President Trump didn't do exactly what he told him to do in his talking points.
How dare the elected President of the United States who embodies foreign policy--President Obama, agree or disagree, when he was President, as he had said before, elections have consequences. So many of us disagreed with his foreign policy. He was President. He could have whatever foreign policy he cared to pursue.
But you have people like Lieutenant Colonel Vindman who didn't think that President Trump should do what he felt appropriate. He felt he should do what Lieutenant Colonel Vindman thought was appropriate. After all, he saw himself as the be-all and end-all resource on all things to do with Ukraine. From the things we found out he said to the Ukrainian leaders, it struck me from his testimony, my gosh, he is being more loyal to Ukraine and the Ukrainian President than he is to his own oath of office and his own Commander in Chief. He is advising them not to listen to his Commander in Chief, which is totally consistent with his activity in Moscow, apparently, when he was overheard belittling America and doing so to Russians.
Anyway, hopefully, he won't be there much longer. But just think about it: If we hadn't gone through impeachment, then we wouldn't have known about all these people who are unelected bureaucrats who thought they ought to be in charge of everything.
So looking for a silver lining, I think there is a great silver lining because these people have now raised their heads and made themselves known that they think, as bureaucrats, they should run everything, and they will do everything they can to undermine the President of the United States. Now we know who they are so we can start getting rid of those people. That will be a good thing for the country.
We had Christopher Wray, the Director of the FBI, before our Judiciary Committee this week. I was hoping when he was appointed Director of the FBI that he would come in and would clean house here in Washington, and he would help restore the FBI's sterling reputation that it had built over time. It seemed that he had a habit, though, if you pointed out problems in the Washington FBI office, he would defend by saying: You are basically casting aspersions on these 37,000 fine employees of the FBI.
That is why I had to make clear to him this week that we are not casting any aspersions on anybody around the country who are part of the FBI because I have known too many FBI agents. I still do. I know, as a felony judge, they would never have come and lied to me in seeking a warrant. They would never have created an untruthful document by changing information, like we are told Clinesmith did. I still have some concern they may make him the one fall guy.
In my opinion, if you seek to get a warrant to spy on a Presidential campaign that you don't want to win, Mr. Speaker, and you take information that says that Carter Page was an agent for our intelligence sources and spying on Russia, and you change that to say he was not so it helps you get a warrant to spy on a campaign you don't like, to me, he ought to be in jail for committing a fraud upon the FISA court. I think he ought to be in jail for any other crimes that were committed in the process of seeking to provide false information to violate American citizens' civil rights. I hope Carter Page is very successful in his legal efforts.
Instead, we find out, the one guy I thought, oh, well, they will make him the fall guy, when there are a lot of people who probably should be going to jail.
But under Christopher Wray's leadership, what have they done to Mr. Clinesmith? They let him resign, retire early, go get employment elsewhere, and make a good living somewhere else. Really?
As I said to Christopher Wray: You are in law enforcement. You have to know how important deterrence is, and when somebody does acts like he did, in essence, there is no punishment.
It is just one of many things that seems to indicate to me that Christopher Wray thinks the way to get the FBI's reputation back is to cover up much of the problem, not punish people. They need to be punished publicly so that it is a deterrence to any other FBI agents who might be tempted to act similarly as Clinesmith or Comey or McCabe or Strzok. These are people who ought to be required to answer for their wrongdoing.
Yes, I still have significant problems with Inspector General Horowitz. He did a lot of investigation, but it is very clear that Strzok and Page had tremendous bias.
His original report, in effect, said there is no indication that it affected the outcomes. How about the fact that every outcome was consistent with their bias? Not one single outcome was inconsistent with their bias for Hillary Clinton and their hatred for Donald Trump. When it is 100 percent consistent, then it means it is time to do something. Christopher Wray needs to go, too.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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