Debbie Dingell: “what the President did was wrong, and what we are doing today is equally wrong. The process before us is unfair. The…”

“what the President did was wrong, and what we are doing today is equally wrong. The process before us is unfair. The rights of the minority to offer necessary amendments or proper motions to recommit are being disregarded by the majority. It is an exercise of abuse of power by the majority on the rights of the minority. We are taking here and creating a rule of law which does not exist. The rule of law says that we should exercise our proper conscience and do what is right. It says we should impeach the President if he has done that which is wrong, and which rises to the level of an impeachable offense. Clearly, this is not an impeachable offense, because impeachable offenses were defined to mean great and dangerous offenses by George Mason, not ordinary offenses. They were attempts to, and again in the words of one of the Framers, subvert the Constitution. They constituted acts which were a danger to the office, a danger to the society, a danger to the Nation, a danger to the people. Clearly that is not so. The President's behavior, as I said, is wrong; tawdry. The best thing that could be said, it is not a great event but it is a very small and small-minded set of events. This behavior should not initiate the impeachment processes. There are a lot of points that need to be made today. They have historical and constitutional importance. Impeachment is for matters that involve a threat to the Nation, the Constitution, and the office.…”