[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 35 (Wednesday, February 24, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S852-S853]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              IMPEACHMENT

  Mr. ROMNEY. Mr. President, once again, I have listened to the 
arguments of the respective counsel, studied briefs, and weighed 
evidence in an impeachment trial of President Donald Trump. This is not 
a responsibility I sought or expected. I certainly did not anticipate 
having to serve a second time as a Senator-juror in an impeachment 
trial.
  An initial question shaping the context of this trial was whether or 
not the Senate has constitutional jurisdiction to try a President who 
is no longer in office. The Constitution gives the Senate the power to 
try all impeachments. In this case, where the House impeached the 
President while he was in office, it is particularly clear that the 
impeachment is constitutional and therefore that this trial is 
constitutional. The weight of legal opinion and historical precedent 
affirms this conclusion. Further, the Senate decided this question in 
the affirmative. I believe its decision was correct: The Senate must 
not surrender its power to hold accountable those who abuse their 
office or threaten our Republic, even in their final days in office.
  In following the oath in an impeachment trial and in our 
deliberations on the final question, I believe it is up to every 
Senator to determine what to consider and what the Constitution and 
their conscience require of them. The conclusion I reached on the final 
verdict will not surprise anyone who read my reasoning in the first 
impeachment trial: I consider an attempt to corrupt an election to keep 
oneself in power one of the most reprehensible acts that can be taken 
by a sitting President. The second impeachment resulted from the 
President's continued effort to do just that.
  His attempt to pressure Georgia's secretary of state to falsify the 
electoral results was itself a heinous act that merited impeachment. 
President Trump summoned his supporters to Washington on the very day 
of the electoral vote count, knowing that among the people he gathered 
were many who had committed violence in the past and who had violent 
intent. Despite the obvious and well-known threat of violence, he 
incited and directed thousands to descend upon the seat of Congress as 
it was undertaking the constitutionally prescribed process to certify 
his successor. And then he not only failed to defend the Vice President 
and the others at the Capitol who he saw were in mortal danger, he also 
incited further violence against the Vice President.
  The President's conduct represented an unprecedented violation of his 
oath of office and of the public trust.
  There is a thin line that separates our democratic republic from an 
autocracy: It is a free and fair election and the peaceful transfer of 
power that follows it. President Trump attempted to breach that line, 
again. What he attempted is what was most feared by the Founders. It is 
the reason they invested Congress with the power to impeach.
  Accordingly, I voted to convict President Trump.
  We must also consider how we came to a point where a President felt 
he could do as he did without suffering meaningful consequence.
  It has become almost cliche to say that America is divided as never 
before in modern history. So, too, is the observation that this 
division is the product of a decline in trust in our governing 
institutions, of a decline in the social bonds forged in churches and 
charities and communities, of expanding income inequality, and of 
trusted

[[Page S853]]

news sources replaced by cable and internet algorithms calculated to 
inflame our prejudices.
  Less unanimous are the predictions of where this division will lead. 
Even so, no one suggests that it will lead to a better future. Some 
envision an economy buffeted by policies drafted by the extreme wings 
of the political parties. Others claim that authoritarianism will 
replace democracy. Some anticipate social unrest and violence. A few 
even predict civil war. Still others fear that a weakened America will 
become vulnerable to an opportunistic foreign foe.
  We instinctively know that the growing division represents a growing 
danger. Academics and pundits may promote cures, but in our hearts, we 
know that their bromides won't heal the rift. People aren't going to 
return to mainstream media, churches aren't going to experience a 
resurgence, and income inequality will remain a persistent feature of 
the global digital economy.
  Throughout history, only one thing has been able to unite a divided 
nation: great leaders--leaders like Churchill who inspired a fearful 
nation; leaders like Lincoln who mustered the national will to save the 
Union; and leaders like Reagan who raised our spirits from suffocating 
malaise. Leaders like these also have been essential in our churches 
and universities and businesses and charities, and just as importantly, 
in our homes.
  With our Nation so divided, so vulnerable to economic distress or to 
civil violence or even to foreign adversaries, the need for leadership 
that unites and uplifts, that calls on our better angels, is as great 
as we have ever known. The corollary is that the failure of leaders to 
unite, to speak truth, to place duty above self, is as dangerous as we 
have ever known.
  With the country as divided as it assuredly is, a person in a 
position of leadership who inflames passions with the purpose of 
perpetuating untruth commits a singularly dangerous sin against the 
Republic.
  We Senator-jurors did not all vote in the same way in this 
impeachment trial. Differences in perception of the facts that were 
presented are to be expected. So, too, are the differences in our 
respective estimations of the impact of the outcome of the trial. 
People of conscience reached different conclusions. National unity does 
not require unanimity of opinion.
  But civic unity does require truth. There is one untruth that divides 
the Nation today like none other: it is that the election was stolen, 
that there was a massive conspiracy, more secret and widespread than 
any in human history, so brilliant in execution that no evidence can be 
found of it and no observer among the tens of thousands in our 
intelligence agencies will speak of it.
  That lie brought our Nation to a dark and dangerous place. Invented 
and disseminated by the President, it poisoned our politics and our 
public discourse.
  Like you, I hear many calls for unity. It is apparent that calling 
for unity while at the same time appeasing the big lie of a stolen 
election is a fraud. It is the lie that caused the division. It is in 
the service of that lie that a mob invaded the Capitol on January 6.
  Now that the impeachment trial is behind us, it falls to each of us 
to affirm what we all know: President Biden won the election through 
the legitimate vote of the American people. The division in America 
will only begin to heal in the light of this truth, a truth which must 
now be affirmed by each of us in this Chamber.

                          ____________________