Barbara Comstock

The Chair announces that 13 former Members have responded to their names. The Chair now calls on the Honorable L.F. Payne of Virginia, president of the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress, to address the Members.

I now ask the clerk to call the roll of all former and retiring Members. The Clerk called the roll and the following Members answered ``present'': Mr. Altmire of Pennsylvania Mr. Carnahan of Missouri Mrs. Comstock of Virginia Mr. Davis of…

You are not going to win Pennsylvania suburbs, you know, Michigan suburbs, you know, in Nevada, Arizona, or Georgia by supporting -- Trump.

Donald Trump being president is just morally aberrant, and this should be opposed on moral grounds, but it's also politically stupid.

This is disqualifying. And if Republicans don't wake up and say, you know, let's find somebody else, they are going to lose the general election, and rightfully so.

I said, you know, Donald Trump was vile, disgusting, and the tape was disqualifying. Now he's doubled down on it.

We've got to deal with this cancer that is Donald Trump on the party, and we've got to cut it out. I mean, he is just killing the party.

Well, I think it tells you that extreme Republicans or extreme positions are not winners.

And look who's not talking. I was going to point out, you know, look, you're not getting -- you know, remember Elise Stefanik was going to be leading the charge in these hearings and defending Donald Trump, she's nowhere to be found.

I mean, while literally the Capitol was under siege and being attacked, while Cassidy Hutchison is going around the White House saying 'Please, grownups here, do something, do something,' Donald Trump is doing nothing.

I think this entire effort by the Committee has been impressive and I think Liz Cheney in particular is showing us that courage is contagious.

Well, I usually can't get through some of the ridiculous interviews that Donald Trump does. He's such a sore loser. But the little I saw of it made clear that this they were frightened by what Cassidy Hutchison did.

His grip is slipping, because there are competent conservatives, out there, who are focused, on people, in the kitchen table issues, not the Trump grievances, of the past.

I do think the walls are closing in on Donald Trump. I think people are moving away, from him, slowly. They're still afraid.

Youngkin is winning without Trump. He is winning despite Trump, and he's winning because he brought diverse parts of the party together.

I hope they are already writing the contempt report. ... if they don't, then take it to the Justice Department and ask them to expedite it because it's important that this be done swiftly because you really have obstruction going on here…

I thank all of the people who stopped this President from his unconstitutional actions and we need -- that's why this January 6th commission is going to be so important.

I think history will reward them. And a party that keeps trying to hitch itself to this sore loser who is a dangerous, but a very diminished and unpopular politician is going to be a losing party.

It would be better for Republicans to engage in this truth telling process be out there in front, rip the band aid off fast and get the information out. Because that`s going to come out. Our democracy was built to last. It`s lasted through…

The problem is, with Trumpism, it’s sore loserism. It is dividing not just the country, but our party.

That`s why we should put country first not Trump first.

But first and foremost, morally, particularly after January 6th, there`s no case for keeping this person who incited that violence, you know, in any way in any type of leader of the party.

Well, first, I think January 6th changed everything. There were certainly lots of reasons to oppose Donald Trump before that. I opposed him in 16 when I was on the ticket with him, and certainly opposed him in 2020. But I think after…

If it were a secret ballot, most Republicans would vote for conviction. It will be the most bipartisan impeachment conviction in history, because there will be more than one.