Eric Swalwell: “I thank the gentleman from Florida for yielding. I urge my colleagues to defeat the previous question and allow an…”

“I thank the gentleman from Florida for yielding. I urge my colleagues to defeat the previous question and allow an amendment to come forward so that we can debate having an independent commission on Russia's interference in our past election. The events over the past few weeks have demonstrated that there is a high cost--a cost that is too high to bear with regard to the White House and its ties with Russia. What is the cost exactly? What is the cost of alleged abuses and the President's firing of Acting Attorney General Sally Yates and Director James Comey? What is the cost of the question swirling around the President's ties to Russia? Well, the cost, clearly, with the leaking that occurred in the Oval Office, is now our national security. The cost is our democracy has been left in ruins. It is a mess right now here in Washington. The cost is that this House is unable to bring forward legislation to do anything to help people put food on the table, to seek to put a roof over their home, and to provide opportunity to their children. It is a high cost that we are paying right now for all these questions. It is too much for us to bear. The best thing we can do is to charter an independent commission to take this outside of Congress so that they can follow the facts and the evidence and report back to the American people just exactly how we were so vulnerable this last election. What was our response? Were any U.S. persons involved?…”