Political Quotes

“I have been in the Senate now for two Presidential impeachment trials, and I can tell you that this is never a situation I want to find our country in--not back then and certainly not today--when the odds of bipartisan cooperation, even on responsibilities as solemn as these, are brutally low. In spite of this, I called for impeachment proceedings to begin in the House in July of this past year, and I did so because of the gravity of the threats to our democracy that has been outlined in Mueller's report. At the time, I felt, if we did not fully explore those threats, we would fall short of our constitutional duty and set a precedent of congressional indifference to potentially flagrant violations of our Constitution--ones that could jeopardize our core democratic institutions. After hearing both sides' presentations and after reviewing every available source of information and testimony, I believe it is painfully clear that the President of the United States has abused his power and obstructed Congress and that he should be removed from office. I want to talk about how I reached this conclusion, which I did not do lightly, and take a few minutes to reflect on the consequence of the decision each of us is individually about to make. Throughout the trial, the contrast between the presentations by the House managers and the President's defense team could not have been starker or more damning for the President.…”