When we fight we win I'm here today to tell you I intend again to bring articles of impeachment to the floor of the House of Representatives

I'd like to from the very outset I acknowledge that I love my country that I believe in what my country stands for and because I love my country.

I'm here today to indicate to the world that to tolerate bigotry is to perpetuate bigotry especially when you can do something about it to tolerate bigotry when you can do something about it is to perpetuate bigotry. 

I'm a member of the House of Representatives and me, as a member can do something about it each member of the House of Representatives can bring articles of impeachment to the floor of the House of Representatives.

I'm here today to tell you I intend again to bring articles of impeachment to the floor of the House of Representatives I will do so by the end of this month before the end of this month there will be another vote on the floor of the House of Representatives to impeach this president who has demonstrated clearly that he is unfit to hold the office he has demonstrated that he has little respect for members of the opposite sex in my case that would be women but he also has demonstrated that he has little respect for persons who are not of the same sex as he has demonstrated that he is willing to say any and everything to demean people and the last thing that he has said that has caused me a good deal of consternation and a good deal of consternation for our country is that person should go back to another country.

I'm 71 years of age I lived through the era of going back to Africa I had people to tell me to go back to Africa if you don't like America leave America go back to Africa I wasn't born in Africa I was born in Louisiana and I plan to stay here and I believe that those who desire to stay should be able to stay and be critical of any aspect of the country that they so choose to criticize this is what free speech is all about the ability to criticize the ability to let people know where you stand on issues even when they disagree with you so this is not about the people themselves and comments that they have made me for colleagues it's about the president's belief that we can send them back to Africa or some other place simply because he differs with what they have said or things that they may have done I am a person who believes that if free speech is to mean anything it has to be such that people that you differ with can have the right to impose their free speech upon us but free speech doesn't mean that you can put into policy bigotry the president has put his bigotry into policy he has been engaging in bigoted practices for some time now bigoted policies and he has done so without an apology.

He has never apologized for his bigotry for the things that he has said and done this is the president who all but said the President of the United States of America Barack Obama was born in another country indicating that he was not fit constitutionally to hold the office of President of the United States of America this is the president who took out an ad in a newspaper that would not only encourage the prosecution of the Central Park five but also the persecution of the Central Park five he never recanted he never apologized the Central Park five.

All were exonerated by virtue of DNA evidence not some fluke of circumstance DNA evidence exonerated them the Central Park five are free people now but this president did not free them of his hate he did not apologize this is the president who concluded that in Africa there are whole countries and thereafter he immediately went forward to fashion and immigration policy that would people from some African countries and by the way there were countries in this hemisphere as well that he would include as whole countries this is the president who said that there were some very fine people among the racists the biggest the homophones Islamophobes the xenophobes the persons who in Charlottesville proclaimed that blood and soil was a part of their mantra these were the persons who were there when a woman was killed as a result of the hate that was in the heart of a given person and she was but a protester using her constitutional rights to try to bring about change and impact society.

This is the president who told law enforcement officers when you take persons into custody you don't have to be nice knowing the history of this country and law enforcement as a relates to African Americans he would use this type of language with law enforcement officers in a sense encouraging or at least indicating that he has their back in the event they should say something or do something that may cause someone to challenge their behavior. 

This is the president who decided that he would now call these ladies to these members of Congress to have to somehow answer for they're simply saying that they have views that may not be such that all would agree with them but he is the president who would now have them have to suffer probably some harm by virtue of someone in the public who may be demented who may take his comments out of context who may decide that they want to impose some sort of sanctions on these members of Congress all of whom were were sworn in as members of Congress all of whom are citizens of the United States own

But, one of whom was born someplace else so with all of this said I want to encourage you to know this is not about the Muller report these articles of impeachment will not be about the Muller report the Muller report deals principally with obscure this is not about obstruction there is no need for anyone to cease with any aspect of what's going on with the Muller report we can impeach this president for his bigotry in policy that is harming our society and it will in no way impact what's happening with the Muller report, as a matter of fact, a president can be impeached multiple times there's nothing in the Constitution that says the president can only be impeached once a president can be impeached multiple times because if the Senate does not convict the first time he can be impeached again and he can be impeached again and again

This the House of Representatives has a duty, the responsibility, and the obligation to bring articles of impeachment for multiplicity of reasons one of which is to deter a president from behaving such that he is harming society if the House of Representatives fails to bring a president to the bar of justice then what we are doing and the House of Representatives is allowing the president to understand that there are no sanctions that will be imposed, there are no guardrails we upset the balance of power we are surrendering the power of the House of Representatives the only place in the universe where a president can be brought to justice we're surrendering that power when we allow a president to go unchallenged when he commits impeachable acts and this president has committed impeachable acts. 

We must go forward we must get beyond allowing this bigotry to be talking points on the various news outlets we see persons talking about his hate and his bigotry quite regularly we must get beyond allowing this to simply be talking points we must make these things an action item we cannot allow political expediency to prevent us from going forward political expediency says let's defeat him at the next election as opposed to impeaching him now

It's the moral imperative that dr. King called to our attention that we must enforce the moral imperative to do that which is right and he said the time to do right is always right now is the time to do that which is right we cannot allow ourselves to fail to do this because we believe that the Senate may not impeach if this were the case the framers of the Constitution wouldn't have given the House of Representatives the authority to impeach that indelible stain will be with the president forever it is with Andrew Johnson who was impeached in 1868 it is with Bill Clinton who was P impeached in 1998 it's an indelible stain and it should stay with the president forever it will stay with this president he can be impeached for his bigotry

There is no requirement that a president commits a crime to be impeached if there were a crime requirement that a president commits a crime to be impeached Andrew Johnson would not have been impeached in article 10 of the articles of impeachment against him for speaking ill of Congress for speaking ill of Congress he was impeached for the harm that President Trump is causing to society he must be impeached there is no reason for us to allow this articles of impeachment these articles of impeachment that I will bring to be simply placed on the table to table them when we have the opportunity to debate them is going to be an injustice in and of itself to do so is going to cause many people in this country to question why we would not take up the challenge of dealing with bigotry.

Whether we are going to tolerate it and perpetuate it this bigotry, this hate, this homophobia Islamophobia xenophobia is a part of our original sin we in the Congress of the United States of America have an opportunity now to do something about the original sin we can do so by simply allowing these articles of impeachment that I will file and bring to the floor of the House of Representatives this month to be debated and voted upon there are those who would say that you must have Republican support to do this when Andrew Johnson was impeached there was no broad bipartisan support when Bill Clinton was impeached there was no broad bipartisan support.

Impeachment does not require bipartisan support, impeachment requires people who are willing to act except a moral imperative to assure that this country will move forward when it comes issues comes to issues of injustice associated with invidious discrimination we can do this and we should do this and finally I'd like to remind us of this the question before the house will be whether the president has committed impeachable offenses and the question will be where will we stand in history will we as members of Congress allowed the record to show that when we had an opportunity to vote to impeach a racist bigot a person who has demonstrated that he is in league with the homophobes the xenophobes Islamophobes he has given them succor he has provided them with some degree of cover. 

Will we vote to impeach as we should or will we let history show that we duly sworn members of Congress sworn to uphold the Constitution that we will somehow decide that we will not impeach for political expediency or other reasons I would say to you this is a defining moment in time for the members of this Congress this is a moment in time that will impact the rest of our time we must not allow ourselves to become persons who are swayed by opinions that do not relate to the law and do not relate to a vote of conscience because this will be a vote of conscience for us and the question is whose conscience will we allow to cast the vote will it be our personal conscience or will it be someone else's as someone else convinces us that there's something about impeaching this president that's unacceptable when we talk about it in terms that are clearly manifesting a belief that he is a person who's not fit for office and we have the opportunity to remove him from office all that is required is a majority of the people who are in Congress and voting a majority of them vote to impeach it will not be appealed to any court. 

There is no friendly court out there that can hear these articles of impeachment and then decide oh they should be overturned we decide whether the impeachment articles are valid legitimate and should be voted upon to the extent that we pass upon them positively we are the people who will determine what the standard of proof is there is no standard of proof that any of us must adhere to there is no requirement that it be guilt beyond the reasonable doubt, no requirement of clear and convincing evidence, no requirement of preponderance of the evidence the requirement is each member decide for yourself based upon your conscience and what you believe whether or not bigotry and policy emanating from the presidency is impeachable. 

I believe that it is I believe we can get 218 people to agree but if 218 people should not agree let them do what they may I will do what I must this is not something that I chose to do because I wanted to come to Congress and impeach a president this is something that has been imposed upon me as because I have a sense of duty for my country I care about our democracy I care about our Republic so it's not about the Democrats it's about the democracy, it's not about Republicans, it's about the Republic and it's about whether or not we will have the courage to stand up to a ruthless reckless president who knows no boundaries and let him know that this Congress will stand up to him it's time for this Congress to get a backbone and stand up to this president for the behavior that he has imposed upon our society he clearly can and should be impeached. 

I will bring the articles this month so that all may show the world where they stand we all have to go on record there must be a record for posterity for those who will look through the vista of time to find out where we stood on the great issues of our time this is one of the great issues of our time people have to know where we stand this is our opportunity and Begg that we would take advantage of it and that history know that when we had a chance to do something about the original sin of the United States of America the sin that caused us to have a civil war the sin that took dr. King's life that sin that took Abraham Lincoln's life when we had an opportunity to do something about the original sin we took the opportunity and we did that which was the most honorable thing to do and that is to impeach this president let the Senate do what they may and the house should do what it must and that is here the articles of impeachment and take a vote