On the recordDecember 20, 2017
I thank the gentleman for that excellent and indispensable discussion about what is really at stake here, which is democracy itself. If we can't rely on the integrity of our elections and the authenticity of the results, then democracy is in danger, in deep peril. I thank the gentleman for his leadership and for his outspokenness. Mr. Speaker, to recap, we are here in this Special Order hour to defend Robert Mueller, because, in America, we live and die by the rule of law under democracy. The rule of law is the revolutionary idea, the one that our forebears fought for in the 18th century, that the most powerful officials in the land will be governed just like everybody else: by constitutional and statutory boundaries fixed in writing in the law in order to protect democracy and the rights of the people. Ever since he whipped up chants of ``Lock her up'' in the 2016 campaign, Donald Trump has displayed complete ignorance of the difference between a constitutional democracy and a banana republic, a complete ignorance of the role of judges and the Justice Department. The men and women who work at the Department of Justice for us, they inhabit a world of law, facts, and evidence. They cannot be forced to execute the President's personal vendettas or prosecute his enemies, real or imagined, or provide support for his propaganda and delusional alternative facts. President Trump has been on a collision course with the rule of law for a long time.…





