Rice Votes to Impeach President Donald J. Trump

Statement

U.S. Representative Kathleen Rice (NY-04) issued the following statement today after voting in favor of both articles of impeachment against President Donald J. Trump:
"Today I voted to impeach President Trump for both abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. While I took no pleasure in casting these votes, I believe they were necessary to hold the President accountable for his actions. As a career prosecutor, I spent more than 20 years fighting to combat corruption and uphold the rule of law in our country. During that time, I never made a single decision that was not based on evidence and facts. This is the same approach I've taken throughout the House's impeachment inquiry. While I have been supportive of the investigation, I have been careful to reserve judgment until it was completed, and all the evidence made public. But having now reviewed both articles of impeachment carefully, as well as the underlying evidence, it is clear that President Trump committed impeachable acts that directly threatened our security and undermined democracy.
"Earlier this year, the President deliberately withheld congressionally-appropriated military aid to a critical American ally at war with Russia. And through the testimony of various fact witnesses, we learned that he did so not as a matter of U.S. foreign policy or because it was in the best interest of our national security, but to extract a personal and political favor that would benefit his reelection campaign. This was a gross abuse of power. And when a whistleblower reported his actions, the President and his associates engaged in an unprecedented effort to derail a legitimate investigation by the House of Representatives, a co-equal branch of government. That is clearly obstruction of Congress.
"Voting to impeach our President was a difficult decision -- one which I did not come to lightly. However, it is the only course of action that honors the oath I took as a Member of Congress to defend the Constitution. We are a country governed by laws. And if we wish to remain that way, then we need to send a clear message to the American people and to the world that no one, not even the President of the United States, is above those laws. For me, these articles are not about politics or about impeaching a President with whom I often disagree, they are about upholding a system of accountability and justice that I have dedicated my entire life to protecting."

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