Chris Coons: “I come to the floor as a proud Member of this Chamber of the Senate and as someone who believes earnestly in our role in…”

“I come to the floor as a proud Member of this Chamber of the Senate and as someone who believes earnestly in our role in our country's constitutional order. I am on the floor because a real and significant challenge to this body and each of our Members is potentially in the very near future. Right now, the House of Representatives is holding an impeachment inquiry, focused on grave and significant charges against our President related to the very threats to our democracy of foreign interference that our Founders feared the most. I am not here to argue over whether President Trump's actions deserve impeachment or perhaps even removal from office. It is, I think, inappropriate to reach that point. Instead, I am here today, as the inquiry proceeds in the House, to urge my colleagues in the Senate--Republicans, Independents, and Democrats-- to take seriously the moment we are in and the tests we may have soon ahead as a Senate when we will need to uphold and defend the role of this institution. I am on the floor to issue a challenge to all of my colleagues. If an impeachment trial does take place in the Senate, all of us must decide to approach it as Americans--less as people representing any parochial or partisan or particular interest, less as Democrats or Republicans or Independents, and instead as Senators.…”