Page:Impeachment of Donald J. Trump, President of the United States — Report of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives.pdf/340

 Congressman Mike Johnson (LA-04)

Dissenting Views to H. Res. 755

December 13, 2019

WHY THIS IMPEACHMENT IS A SHAM

The founders of this country warned against a single party impeachment because they feared it would bitterly, and perhaps irreparably, divide our nation. This risk was openly acknowledged in years past by the very Democrats who are leading the single party impeachment charade today. Our radical liberal colleagues have vowed to impeach President Donald J. Trump since the day of his election, they have desperately created a fraudulent, unprecedented process to pursue that goal, and now they are pulling the trigger on what was described by the Minority's expert witness in our House Judiciary Committee as "the shortest proceeding, with the thinnest evidentiary record, and the narrowest grounds ever used to impeach a president." This impeachment is a sham, and here is why.

Although every previous U.S. President has made unpopular decisions and even, at times, infuriated his political opponents, impeachments are—for good reason and by specific design—exceedingly rare. In the 243-year history of our nation, only two previous presidents (Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998) have been impeached by the House. Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 to avoid it. In each of those three previous impeachments, that  were committed.

 That is NOT the case here. 

House Democrats began efforts to impeach President Trump immediately upon his election. They introduced four separate impeachment resolutions while they were in the minority in 2017 and 2018, and a new resolution in January 2019. In all, as many as 95 House Democrats-including 17 of 24 Democrats serving on the Judiciary Committee-had voted to proceed with impeachment well before the famous phone call between Presidents Trump and Zelensky ever took place on July 25, 2019.