Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I have written a letter to the President of the United States, which I am sending today, that carries a simple message on behalf of the American people: Mr. President, it is time for you to resign the office of the Presidency for the good of the United States and her people.

It has become clear to Congress and the American people, especially those of us who do not exclusively watch sanitized versions on the President's most supported media outlets, that, for decades, the President led a vast criminal enterprise that went on to engage in criminal activity during the 2016 campaign for the White House and engaged in criminal activity since taking the office of President. The fact is clear.

The President is the target of multiple criminal investigations on several fronts:

Number one, the violation of Federal election laws, including the failure to report payments and contributions as required under campaign finance law;

Number two, the violation of tax, banking, and fraud laws related to The Trump Organization and immediate business associates and family members of the President;

Number three, apparent involvement and encouragement of the illegal hacking of political opponents during the 2016 campaign and efforts to derail investigations and inquiries since taking the office of President; and

Number four, working and encouraging and collaborating with a foreign government, Russia, to interfere in the 2016 election in order to help the President's campaign, combined with efforts, while in office, to obstruct justice in the investigation of the campaign.

Those are just four of the criminal conspiracies that point directly to the President of the United States and compromise his ability to continue leading the Nation.

I have only 5 minutes to speak, so I don't have the time to enumerate the convictions in Federal court of close associates of the President's business interests and campaign, nor the guilty

pleas, the plea bargains, or the immunity granted to the President's employees, friends, and business associates, including those directly managing his political operation and serving in his White House.

And, yes, the investigations are still going on, as are the prosecutions, guilty pleas, and sentencing of the President's coconspirators in each of these four criminal matters. And we don't know; there may be many more shoes to drop from local, State, and Federal prosecutors, because when you start looking under the rocks piled around this President, you find ample evidence of systematic fraud, criminal activity, and coverup.

For me, this has nothing to do with the President's racism, his misogyny, his homophobia and Islamophobia. It is different than his ties to and support for white supremacy or the voice he lends to the wildest and most discredited conspiracy theories the dark right web and talk radio can come up with.

And as ugly as it was to hear, even his stark admission of sexual assault against women is separate from the systematic criminal activity he has clearly engaged in, much of which he, himself, has admitted unwittingly in television interviews.

His policies are clearly damaging to the moral fabric of the American people, but this goes beyond the President's attacks on law enforcement, his giveaways to big polluters and operations, his defense of the superrich, his assault on Federal workers, the plundering of the economy, and the lasting damage he is doing on a daily basis to our most important international relationships with allies and foes alike.

Vice President Pence, with whom I served in this body, is someone I disagree with on almost every issue of importance, especially his offensive views on homosexuality, women's rights, abortion, race relations, immigration, and almost anything else; but by comparison, he is better, even if he is wrong on many, many policy issues. Therefore, while I do not relish a Pence Presidency, at this point, I feel it is an absolute necessity for the good of the country, for the good of our people, for the good of the world, and America's place in that world.

Mr. Speaker, in my letter, I humbly ask, as a proud American, patriot, public servant, a dad, a granddad, and a fellow human being, I ask the President to resign immediately.

Please resign and spare the Nation from this ongoing nightmare. Don't do this to us. Don't make us go down with you. Step aside, sir, for the good of our country and for the good of the world.

Mr. Speaker, I will include in the Record my letter to the President of the United States asking him to resign.

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably absent in the House chamber for Roll Call votes 366 and 367 on Monday, July 23, 2018. Had I been present, I would have voted ``Yea.''

Mr. Speaker, on Monday, the world witnessed the single worst performance by an American President on the world stage in world history. It was a culmination of the worst week an American President has ever had. As a citizen, I am shocked and embarrassed for our Nation.

Given evidence, indictments, and facts, the President was given the choice of taking America's side or taking President Putin's side. The President chose Putin. I believe the American people, our Armed Forces, our allies, our lawmakers, and the President's own Cabinet deserve an immediate apology from the President for his actions.

Having insulted and demeaned our closest military allies and trading partners, the President doubled down by insulting world leaders individually and in public, especially those who are most friendly to the United States. It was disgraceful.

The President even went as far as to say that Germany is totally controlled by Russia, a comment that makes the President quite literally the laughing stock of the world. To then go on and take President Putin's side in defending the Kremlin's attack on the United States--an attack which this Congress, our intelligence and law enforcement agencies, our allies, and the American people know in fact took place--was nothing short of treasonous.

The President has proven himself unable to separate his own personal interests from his current job as leader of the free world and has consistently, repeatedly, and now, in full view of the world, definitively put his own interests above those of the United States and the free world by siding with the petty, antidemocratic dictator of our international rival.

The campaign of repression and the straight-up murder of political and business rivals by President Putin is well established. It is not something any American leader can or should debate. Using foreign agents to murder people overseas is the Kremlin's MO, and the President seems to feel that is okay.

Let us not forget that Russia, on more than one occasion, has allowed paranoia, fear, and impunity to escalate to such a level that they have literally shot passenger airliners out of the sky, killing all on board.

Invading other countries and using the pretext of national security to expand the Russian empire is not only condoned by this President, apparently, in some ways, he is seeking to emulate Putin's behavior by using national security as a pretext for trade wars with our closest allies and for policies to take babies, toddlers, and other children from people lawfully seeking asylum in the United States.

Russia is not a government to be condoned; it is a government to be contained. Yet our President was unable to be critical of the dictator of our greatest rival in public--and God knows what he did in private.

Mr. Speaker, it is well established that I believe our current President is a threat to American democracy, which is why I was one of the first Members of Congress to sign on to Articles of Impeachment last year. I have already begun consulting with my colleagues about whether those Articles of Impeachment can be expanded and updated to include the betrayal witnessed by the American people in the world this week.

While it is already a full-time job, I will redouble my efforts to prevent the House of Representatives from taking actions to actively obstruct justice and undermine law enforcement and the FBI, while seeking to give the President cover and relief from a genuine, thorough investigation into the attack on our country by the Russians in 2016 and the attacks that are continuing to this day.

This body, the House, the institution that I love so much and have served for more than 25 years, cannot be sullied or diminished by this President or his inability to see the facts about the attack on the United States.

As a body, we must take action to relieve the President of his duties. Most Americans probably doubt that the House of Representatives is even up to the task of being fair, being honest, being impartial enough to call a spade a spade when it comes to Russian aggression.

But I call on my fellow Democrats and my fellow Members on the other side of the aisle: If you still believe in truth, if you believe in democracy, if you believe in the rule of law and our Constitution, you will join me in holding this President accountable for his actions, in holding Russia accountable for the attacks on the United States and her people, and will stand up to defend your country and not just your party or your own income and career.

This is a moment of destiny when the House as an institution must rise to the occasion. Mr. Speaker, the whole world is watching.

Mr. Speaker, when Democrats talk about immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, this is the mom and her children whom we are talking about. She is fleeing Central America to save the life of her children from violence, systematic corruption, extortion--yes-- rape, and kidnapping.

But the other side wants to change the subject. On every TV screen this fall, Republicans will show pictures of tattooed gang members flashing gang signs, looking like murderers. We know. We get your strategy.

You take your marching orders from Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson quicker than the President takes his marching orders from the Kremlin.

In the same week that the President insulted the intelligence community of the United States, we are not going to let you insult the intelligence of the American voter. Immigrants, refugees, outsiders and outcasts, freed slaves, and survivors, just like this woman and her children, built this country.

Some of us had our land stolen; some of us were stolen from our land; and some of us made a very smart decision that we had to get away from the land we were in so that we could survive. That is who we are. That is what America is.

Every generation of Americans has had to withstand people in positions of power labeling the poor, the weak, the outsiders, and people of different races and ethnicities as criminals, threats, and the cause of all our problems, as the majority does today. Every generation of Americans has had to stand up to bullies and racists and power-hungry politicians and overcome their efforts to divide us as Americans.

That is also the story of America's greatness: our resilience and our ability as a nation to overcome the worst instincts of some of our leaders. That is the story of America, and that is what we are doing today.

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably absent in the House chamber for Roll Call votes 329 and 330 on Monday, July 16, 2018. Had I been present, I would have voted ``Yea'' on both votes.

Mr. Speaker, earlier this week, I sent a bouquet of flowers and a big Puerto Rican flag to Mia Irizarry, a young Puerto Rican woman who lives in Chicago who celebrated her 24th birthday last month.

My wife and I wanted to let her know that we support her and we admire her. You see, her birthday party at a park in Cook County, Illinois, didn't turn out the way she expected. By now, most of us have seen the video of that incident. A 62-year-old man, whom police have identified as Timothy Trybus, verbally abused and harassed Ms. Irizarry because she was wearing a shirt that depicts the flag of our U.S. colony, Puerto Rico.

What unfolds over the 30 minutes is a man physically and verbally intimidating a very polite and poised 24-year-old American woman while a uniformed police officer stands by and does nothing to intervene or help. The officer has been identified as Patrick

Connor of the Forest Preserve District of the Cook County Police Department.

So an older racist yells at a young Latina because he doesn't like what she and other Puerto Ricans living in ``his'' community represent.

Is that news? No. Sadly, no.

While most police officers would have done the right thing in that incident, this guy was caught on tape doing the wrong thing or, more accurately, doing nothing at all.

For me, this was very personal, because something similar happened to me, and something similar has happened to most Puerto Ricans, most Latinos, most people of color, and most people who are somehow different in this country, at one point or another in their lives.

Twenty-two years ago, when I was a sophomore in Congress, I was entering one of the Capitol office buildings with my daughter, Omaira, and my niece, Maritza. I was new, and I was dressed somewhat casually, because we were just returning from a Puerto Rican celebration, and my daughter was carrying a Puerto Rican flag. The flag came unfurled as it went through the X-ray machine, and one of the officers wanted to stop us from coming in.

I showed my official ID as a Member of Congress, to which the officer said: ``I don't think so,'' indicating that she thought my ID was a fake and that I couldn't possibly be a Member of Congress. She stated my ID was fake, in fact.

There was also the comment at the end: Why don't you and your people go back where you came from?

Twenty-two years after that incident, we are still seeing the same kind of bigotry, the same kind of misunderstanding about who Latinos and Puerto Ricans are, and the same fear that we are outsiders who don't belong here.

Sadly, the same fear and otherness is extended to other people: the handicapped, gay and lesbians, transgender Americans, immigrants, Muslims, and people of color. The list just goes on.

This is certainly not the first time, but, right now, we are in a moment in history when Americans are being told to fear other Americans. One of the reasons I think the video went viral is because it is emblematic of our times.

Bullies who do not understand the first thing about their fellow human beings--Latinos, people of color, immigrants, or Muslims--are being taught to fear that something they have is being taken away from them. Some now feel it is their right, their privilege, and maybe even their duty to go off in public and take action.

I wonder where they get such an idea.

When our President calls Puerto Ricans lazy and expensive to help, it hurts our Nation. When he calls Mexicans rapists and murderers, or calls refugees fleeing violence with their children illegal immigrants, or calls transgender soldiers a threat to our country, and says good people on both sides of a racist rally where a woman was killed are the same, it filters down.

Maybe the President is just reflecting back the fear, anger, and misunderstanding of the voters he wants to mobilize. But all the lying, hostility, and racism are clearly taking a toll on our country.

I just hope that we are all as poised as Ms. Irizarry was, if and when someone gets in your face, whether you are wearing a pussy hat, or a hijab, or a rainbow flag, or a Black lives matter T-shirt.

I hope we are all more willing than Officer Connor to take action when someone is trying to bully someone else. I know most Americans are not like Mr. Trybus, who is afflicted with fear, ignorance, and probably a substance abuse problem.

But the video makes it clear that we all have to step up to defend the United States from this tide of misogyny, homophobia, and xenophobia, and stand up for what America is really all about.

Please, let's just do it all together. If you see hate, stand up and speak.

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record my letter to the Civil Rights Division at Main Justice for an investigation into this matter.

House of Representatives,

Washington, DC, July 10, 2018.

Hon. John M. Gore,

Acting Assistant Attorney General, Department of Justice,

Civil Rights Division, Washington, DC.

Dear Acting Assistant Attorney General Gore: I watched

video footage of a woman being harassed by an intoxicated

male at a forest preserve in Cook County and I write to

express my outrage and demand that the Civil Rights Division

does all it can to investigate this incident.

This past June, Mia Irizzary recorded her unfortunate

encounter with an intoxicated male while at a Forest Preserve

of Cook County park outside Chicago. An officer with the

Forest Preserve looked on, avoided responding to the man and

ignored the pleas for help from the woman who was being

harassed. It is clear from the video that she was accosted by

the man because of her ethnicity and wearing a Puerto Rican

flag T-shirt. The man makes reference to his fear that

Hispanics are coming to the United States to change him.

What is even more unacceptable than the man's behavior is

the unwillingness of a uniformed officer to intervene when

the woman's civil rights were being challenged and the man

used physical and verbal intimidation. I have learned that

the man was eventually arrested by a different uniformed

officer and the initial officer has been consigned to ``desk

duty'' pending an investigation.

Because of the seriousness of the encounter, the fact that

it targeted the Puerto Rican community in and around my

District, and growing number of anti-Latino and anti-

immigrant hate crimes being reported, I demand the Civil

Rights Division investigate to see if federal civil rights

charges are warranted.

I would like to remind you of your division's

responsibilities which are to enforce federal statutes

prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex,

disability, religion, familial status and national origin.

I understand this incident on a gut level because almost

exactly the same thing happened to me when I was a freshman

in Congress. I was denied entry into the Capitol complex by

U.S. Capitol Police despite being a Congressman with

identification, because my daughter was carrying a Puerto

Rican flag and the officer doubted that I could possibly be a

Member of Congress. So this kind of incident is unfortunately

not unusual and though we did not have viral videos 25 years

ago, I wish I had done more then to stop the kind of behavior

on display in Ms. Irizarry's video, so that we can prevent

the cycles of hatred and bigotry that often repeat themselves

today.

Thank you and I look forward to your response. If you have

any questions please contact me or Rafael Hurtado of my

staff.

Sincerely,

Luis V. Gutierrez,

Member of Congress.

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably absent in the House chamber for Roll Call votes 314 and 315 on Tuesday, July 10, 2018. Had I been present, I would have voted Yea.

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably absent in the House chamber for Roll Call votes 291, 292, 293, 294 and 295 on Tuesday, June 26, 2018. Had I been present, I would have voted Nay on Roll Call votes 291, 292, 294 and 295. I would have voted Yea on Roll Call vote 293.

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably absent in the House chamber for Roll Call votes 289 and 290 on Monday, June 25, 2018. Had I been present, I would have voted Yea.

Madam Speaker, the reelection strategy for every single Republican Member of the House is to stand strong with a President willing to take children from their parents in order to look mean and nasty and cruel to children who are fleeing for their lives. You own that. That is your campaign strategy.

As of today, Republicans want to put the children in the same jails as the parents and fight to hold them indefinitely and demand we charge asylum seekers as criminals and jail them with their children. The more than 2,300 children who have been taken from their parents and put in a vast system spread over thousands of miles, we just don't know if those children will ever see their families again. You own that, too. That is what you are campaigning on to save your jobs this coming November.

Taking DACA away from Dreamers: that is your policy, too. And then putting bills on the floor to cu legal immigration and build a wall are your strategies to blame Democrats for what you are doing.

Republicans want to be both the arsonists and the firefighters, and you can't be both.

I don't blame Speaker Ryan and Chairman Goodlatte. They are not bad people. They are both decent men of faith who have been put in a position of defending policies that are cruel, inhumane, and run deeply contrary to the will of the American people and the values of our Nation.

This must be morally wrenching for them. But honestly, I have little sympathy. Each has made a devil's bargain to trade their reputation for Stephen Miller's agenda and Donald Trump's name.

Legal immigration? No.

An asylum policy that protects human lives? No.

DACA to protect Dreamers? No.

Policies that treat wife-beating, rape, and human trafficking as matters that require us to protect women? No.

A nation of immigrants? No.

All they want is a wall.

Even though both are leaving office because the Republican Party is no longer home for decent men and women of values, faith, and conscience, both are leaving us with one last commitment: to put the needs of this erratic President above the will of the people and above the good of our Nation.

At some point, someone needs to stop complimenting the emperor on his new set of clothes and start telling the President he is naked. Covering his rear end from all the lies, the deceit, and the soullessness is no longer sustainable.

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably absent in the House chamber for Roll Call votes 269, 270 and 271 on Tuesday, June 19, 2018. Had I been present, I would have voted Yea on Roll Call votes 269 and 270, and Nay on Roll Call vote 271.

Madam Speaker, I want to thank all of my colleagues from all over the United States. I would like to ask them all to please step forward and bring your guests. Every Member of Congress is allowed two children under the age of 12. Please bring them forward with you.

I think more powerful than anything I could say is to stand with children. Please. Please. We only have 5 minutes, but let's take the minutes so the children can step forward. Please bring them forward. All of the Members of Congress, you are all allowed under our rules to have two children.

Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

Madam Speaker, under the protection of Members of the U.S. House of Representatives, we are here with the children because we believe that this is what is important.

I want to thank all of my colleagues, I know that the rules do not allow all of you to speak. But I think you speak with your presence here and with these children in your arms.

I want to tell you something. I know this is a tragic moment, but this weekend, I couldn't have felt prouder to be an American. I couldn't have felt prouder about just what our exceptionalism is.

I saw Americans everywhere across this country standing up for children, standing up for those who are in need, and standing up for moms and dads who are being separated.

Let's celebrate, too, that America sees this injustice, sees this cruelty, sees this evil, and did not remain silent. That is the America that I am so happy I was born into.

We have a great country. Let's remember that. So let's keep the fight. Let's keep the fight for these children who are here. They are so beautiful.

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably absent in the House chamber for Roll Call votes 267 and 268 on Friday, June 15, 2018. Had I been present, I would have voted Nay.

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably absent in the House chamber for roll call votes 261 and 262 on Wednesday, June

13, 2018. Had I been present, I would have voted ``Nay.''

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, a group of about 30 of us, including 10 Members of Congress, decided we had had enough of this administration's policy to scar children for life by taking them away from their parents when they turn themselves in to American authorities and ask for asylum.

We went down to the Ronald Reagan Building on 14th Street because we had not heard from the three Cabinet Members we had written last week to give us answers about where the children at the border have been taken to and what our government was going to do to reunite them with their parents.

So John Lewis, Joe Crowley, Jan Schakowsky, Al Green, Raul Grijalva, Adriano Espaillat, and I, joined by hundreds of allies, went down to the CBP headquarters to protest their action and their secrecy.

And when we blocked the entrance to the building--ironically, a building named for the man who gave the famous shining city on a hill speech, who spoke so eloquently about immigrants, and was no fan of walls--yes, we blocked the entrance to the Ronald Reagan Building, but the Border Patrol did not arrest us.

No, they feel comfortable arresting 10-year-olds and taking 10-month- old babies from their moms and dads, but when 10 Members of Congress show up to demand answers they get a little camera shy, a little weak- kneed. But we will be back and we will do it again and again if we have to.

Right now, today, there are people who lawfully enter the United States and ask for asylum under our laws and international law, and then they are taken straight to jail to await Federal prosecution. And if they have children, the officers think of some pretext, maybe telling the parents that they are taking the child for food or for a bath, and then the kids never return, simply disappear, kidnapped. Many are taken to facilities that are hundreds or thousands of miles away.

The parent is given a mass trial, so their individual case may never be heard or evaluated, and most are deported back to the country they fled to face continuing violence and rape again and again.

And are their children given back to them? Well, we don't know. We can't get answers, which is why we went yesterday.

Then on Monday Attorney General Sessions had one of the most stunning, newspeak, 1984, mind-control moments we have ever heard. He said that if a man beats a woman, or if a family is systematically extorted, threatened, targeted by a gang, that that is a private matter and cannot be the basis of an asylum claim.

Rape and abuse, that is just a private matter, according to the Attorney General, between a man and a woman. According to the chief law enforcement officer of our country, that is just a private matter between a man and a woman, between the family and the gang of terrorists they are facing.

Only in the Trump administration could someone say something so thoroughly and utterly wrong, dangerous, ridiculous.

My friend, Trey Gowdy, is a Republican who is known around here on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the Judiciary Committee as a pretty no-nonsense former prosecutor. I went to his website to look at his biography. You can all Google it. It says it right there: ``As 7th Circuit Solicitor, Trey led an office of 25 attorneys and 65 total employees. During his tenure, he started a Violence Against Women Task Force.'' Right there in his official bio.

So wife beating isn't a private matter in South Carolina. If you are being beaten, raped, or tortured by your domestic partner, your husband, the police, the prosecutor, the judge will get involved because it isn't a private matter in South Carolina or anywhere in the United States of America.

Go listen to Trey Gowdy's speeches on the YouTube channel or his Facebook. Watch the video of his speech on the House floor in support of the Violence Against Women Act. Trey Gowdy will move you to tears no matter what your political party or ideological persuasion.

But according to the Attorney General, it is a private matter between a

man and a woman. He expects every domestic violence victim to hire their own lawyer and sue their husband to get a court order and be protected.

We have a prosecutor for domestic violence in Cook County and probably every county in the United States of America. This is a matter of public health, law enforcement and, come on, this is a matter of good men and women living by a moral code that says we should help those in danger when the weak are being preyed upon by the strong.

But apparently not to our Attorney General or President. To them, those are private matters. That is just wrong.

Sleeping with an adult film star and then paying thousands of dollars to keep it quiet, that is a private matter to be worked out between private attorneys. Fleeing death, and violence, and rape, and torture, that is a public matter, and our leaders should know better.