At Staten Island Town Hall, Rose Announces Support of Impeachment Inquiry

Press Release

At a Commuting Town Hall on Staten Island tonight, Congressman Max Rose announced in opening remarks that he supports the ongoing impeachment inquiry into allegations regarding the President of the United States and his Administration abusing power and threatening national security to further political interests.

"So while the President of the United States may be willing to violate the constitution to get re-elected, I will not," Rose said. "I will not shirk my duty and I will not violate my oath. I will support and I will defend the United States Constitution. And it is for that reason that I intend to fully support this impeachment inquiry and follow the facts.

"We have got to follow these facts where they lead us--and where we find ourselves today the President has no one to blame but himself. Today, there are soldiers throughout the world putting their life on the line--Afghanistan, Iraq, so many other nations. I was just one of them eight years ago and some of my buddies are still amongst them. There's no way with them in mind that we can let any type of corruption stand."

Since the whistleblower's report first arose last week, Rose has been steadfast that the American people deserve the truth and Congress needs the facts--and that the investigation must proceed in a deliberate and transparent way.

Rose continued, "But, I want to make something else very, very clear: nothing, nothing at all--impeachment or otherwise--will distract us, will distract me from my work fighting for you. I will not let this or anything else detract us from our focus on ending the opioid epidemic, holding pharmaceutical companies accountable, making sure that we have the backs of our cops and our firefighters and our first responders, and yes--ending our commuting nightmare."

Rose has made improving infrastructure and commuting times for Staten Island and South Brooklyn a top priority. This summer, Rose passed legislation through the House to bring split tolling to the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, which would crack down on out-of-state toll shoppers, decrease congestion, and increase transportation investments on Staten Island and in South Brooklyn.

Additionally, Rose has worked with elected officials at the state and local level to develop creative solutions to our commuting nightmare, including a microtransit pilot program on Staten Island, and led the Brooklyn congressional delegation in calling on the federal government to support a project to improve bus safety and accessibility in South Brooklyn.

Transcript of Rose's remarks as delivered:

First of all, thank you all for being here tonight. I know the commute was likely a nightmare to get here.

Before we get started, let me just say that I ran for Congress because I believed, and I still believe, that Washington is fundamentally broken. Washington is corrupt, and that's the fault of truly a generation of politicians. And we set out to prove that you can win without the special interests.

So, I told corporate PACs and federal lobbyists, if you all remember, to "keep your damn money." We vowed to take on the drug lobby, the NRA, City Hall, special interests and anyone else who has screwed us over and over again.

And for the past 9 months we have certainly kept our promises.

Now though, as I'm sure many of you have seen we're in the middle of an impeachment inquiry. So I want to quickly speak on this so we can spend the evening talking about how to end our commuting nightmare.

I know when the majority of you look at the television you just want to scream. If I had hair, I'd want to rip it out. On the one hand, we have Democrats, who before having sworn the oath of office, are saying that we should impeach the President of the United States.

On the other side though, we have Republicans, who swore the same oath to the Constitution that I did, but suddenly they've become deaf, mute, blind whenever allegations against the President are brought up. That's an even greater threat to our democracy.

To some of you, though, I'm sure all of this seems like the same old nonsense--just more of the same. Now, I have opposed a rush to judgment to date because the American people deserve to know that when this country is in crisis, we're going react responsibly and deliberately--especially when it involves impeachment. But instead of allaying our concerns, the President and his administration have poured gasoline on the fire.

The American people have a right to know if their President used the power of his or her office to get a foreign power to interfere in our elections.

The American people have a right to know if--based off of credible allegations--the President used his office to advance his own self-interest. And the stonewalling, the obfuscation by the Administration is absolutely unacceptable.

The President and his advisors including Rudy Giuliani and Secretary Pompeo are no longer showing any interest whatsoever in cooperating. They are ignoring legitimate subpoenas. They have chosen to serve their party, and at a moment like this, that's just absolutely unacceptable.

So while the President of the United States may be willing to violate the constitution to get re-elected, I will not. I will not shirk my duty and I will not violate my oath. I will support and I will defend the United States Constitution.

And it is for that reason that I intend to fully support this impeachment inquiry and follow the facts. We have got to follow these facts where they lead us--and where we find ourselves today the President has no one to blame but himself.

Today, there are soldiers throughout the world putting their life on the line--Afghanistan, Iraq, so many other nations. I was just one of them eight years ago and some of my buddies are still amongst them. There's no way with them in mind that we can let any type of corruption stand.

So I will not let politics interfere with my decision making and I will take on either my fellow Democrats or Republicans if they try to score cheap points at this sad moment in our history. This process must be conducted in the open, it must be focused on evidence not speculation, and most of all, it must earn the trust of the American people.

If the President is right and he has nothing to hide, then all we ask today is that he proves it. I'm going to follow these facts wherever they lead, no matter the consequences, because that north star of mine is always those soldiers who are willing to risk it all, just like I saw people I love willing to risk it all in Afghanistan. And you know what, today we're still willing to risk it all in support of this country.

But, I want to make something else very, very clear: Nothing, nothing at all--impeachment or otherwise--will distract us, will distract me from my work fighting for you.

I will not let this or anything else detract us from our focus on ending the opioid epidemic, holding pharmaceutical companies accountable, making sure that we have the backs of our cops and our firefighters and our first responders, and yes--ending our commuting nightmare.

And we've made incredible progress on that front. Just last week, after hearing loudly from our fellow Staten Islanders, a bipartisan team of myself, Jimmy Oddo, Andrew Lanza, Diane Savino, and Mike Cusick, successfully lobbied the Port Authority to repeal their outrageous proposal to eviscerate the resident discount on our outer bridges.

And I'm continuing to work with Assemblyman Cusick to get money for the expressway expansion and with Borough President Oddo on the east shore sea wall ferry. Because Despite partisanship being at its absolute worst, we're going continue calling on both parties to get something done, both parties to finally, finally god dammit pass a meaningful transportation infrastructure bill.

I'll pursue innovative transit options for Staten Island, such as microtransit, a proposal which was just requested by the MTA after lobbying by myself, Borough Predsident Oddo, Diane Savino, Mike Cusick, Mike Reilly, Charles Fall, Joe Borelli, and Debi Rose. And I'm fighting to make sure that when large projects become shovel ready, like the North Shore Bus Rapid Transit and West Shore Rapid Transit, federal funding is going to be available. It's got to be to make sure they become a reality.

And finally, with split tolling for the Verrazano Bridge on the way, we're going to see congestion eased without costing you a cent, all the while the MTA's new capital plan includes billions of dollars in investment for projects right here on Staten Island and in South Brooklyn.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are getting the job done and we are only getting started. So, with that, I'm sure you have questions so let's get started.

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