Zoe Lofgren: “under our constitution, the House of Representatives has the sole power of impeachment. This is perhaps our single most…”

“under our constitution, the House of Representatives has the sole power of impeachment. This is perhaps our single most serious responsibility short of a declaration of war. Given the gravity and magnitude of this undertaking, only a fair and bipartisan approach to this question will ensure that truth is discovered, honest judgments rendered, and the constitutional requirement observed. Our best yardstick on whether we are meeting those standards, whether we are yielding fair results, is to look at the historical experience, to look at the precedents. Twenty-four years ago this House went through a gripping, grueling experience where a Democratic House investigated a Republican President. And I think that if we hold the procedures adopted at that time as our yardstick for fairness, we will be able to measure whether or not we are meeting the bipartisan necessity of these procedures. I have heard wonderful rhetoric today and yesterday about the need for bipartisanship. Regretfully, the behavior embodied in the resolution before us falls short of the standard set 24 years ago. It is not as good, it is not as fair as what occurred 24 years ago.”