Nydia M. Velazquez: “I rise today not only in opposition to these impeachment articles, but to express my outrage and sadness over a process…”

“I rise today not only in opposition to these impeachment articles, but to express my outrage and sadness over a process driven not by fairness, but by a small minority obsessed with impeachment. Instead of putting politics aside and coming together in a bipartisan manner to do what is right for our Nation, today we begin the final steps in a process that, from the start, has never been about fairness. Rather, it has been to accomplish a predetermined result, to impeach the President of the United States. No one is disputing that what the President did was wrong and he should be held accountable. That is why an overwhelming majority on both sides of the aisle want to vote on censure. But we will not be given the opportunity to vote on that today. To bar this body from that option is inexcusable and it is outrageous. The majority has said that they are simply voting their conscience. But what about the conscience of the American people, who overwhelmingly said that the President should not be impeached, but be censured? I ask myself, how did this body get to the point where the conscience of so many Members is so different from the conscience of the American people?”