Impeaching Donald John Trump, President of the United States, for High Crimes and Misdemeanors

Floor Speech

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Mr. KEATING. Madam Speaker, the United States is based on a principle that our second President, John Adams of Massachusetts, so eloquently summed up long ago: we are a `government of laws, not of men.'

No one, absolutely no one, stands above the law.

Over a century after President Adams uttered those words, another Massachusetts statesman, John F. Kennedy, delivered his famous ``City on a Hill'' speech before the General Court of Massachusetts prior to the start of his administration in 1961. President Kennedy powerfully proclaimed that `we must always consider that we shall be a city upon a hill [and that] the eyes of all people are upon us.'

He continued, explaining that:

For of those to whom much is given, much is required. And when at some future date the high court of history sits in judgment on each one of us--recording whether in our brief span of service we fulfilled our responsibilities to the state--our success or failure, in whatever office we may hold, will be measured by the answers to four questions:

First, were we truly men of courage--with the courage to stand up to one's enemies--and the courage to stand up, when necessary, to one's associates--the courage to resist public pressure, as well as private greed?

Secondly, were we truly men of judgment--with perceptive judgment of the future as well as the past--of our own mistakes as well as the mistakes of others--with enough wisdom to know that we did not know, and enough candor to admit it?

Third, were we truly men of integrity--men who never ran out on either the principles in which they believed or the people who believed in them--men who believed in us--men whom neither financial gain nor political ambition could ever divert from the fulfillment of our sacred trust?

Finally, were we truly men of dedication--with an honor mortgaged to no single individual or group, and compromised by no private obligation or aim, but devoted solely to serving the public good and the national interest.

Courage--judgment--integrity--dedication--these are the historic qualities of the Bay Colony and the Bay State--the qualities which this state has consistently sent to this chamber on Beacon Hill here in Boston and to Capitol Hill back in Washington.

Madam Speaker, we are called to serve in this great country with courage, judgement, integrity, and dedication. And when those among us--those in the highest positions of public trust--willingly corrupt those values for personal benefit, it is incumbent upon us to act, however reluctantly.

I believe that it has become undeniably clear that the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, has engaged in a pattern of behavior designed to extract personal and political benefit from the Office of the President. In doing so, President Trump irreparably violated his oath to preserve--to protect--and to defend--the Constitution of the United States of America. It is with a heavy heart, and a deep reverence to that same oath that I refuse to abandon mine.

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