- Okay.
- When we're done,
we believe that we will have made the case
overwhelmingly of the president's guilt.
That is, he has done what he is charged with.
He withheld the money, he withheld the meeting,
he used it to coerce Ukraine to do
these political investigations,
he covered it up, he obstructed us,
he is trying to obstruct you,
and he's violated the constitution.
But I want to address one other thing tonight.
Okay, he's guilty.
Does he really need to be removed?
We have an election coming up,
does he really need to be removed?
He is guilty,
you know, is there really any doubt about this?
Do we really have any doubt about the facts here?
Does anybody really question whether the president
is capable of what he's charged with?
No one is really making the argument
Donald Trump would never do such a thing,
because of course we know that he would
and of course we know that he did.
It's a somewhat different question though to ask
okay, isn't pretty obvious whether we can say it publicly
or we can't say it publicly,
we all know what we're dealing here with this president,
but does he really need to be removed?
And this is why he needs to be removed.
Donald Trump chose Rudy Giuliani
over his own intelligence agencies.
He chose Rudy Giuliani over his own FBI director.
He chose Rudy Giuliani over his own
national security advisors.
When all of them were telling him
this Ukraine 2016 stuff is kooky crazy Russian propaganda,
he chose not to believe them,
he chose to believe Rudy Giuliani.
That makes him dangerous to us, to our country.
That was Donald Trump's choice.
Now why would Donald Trump believe a man like Rudy Giuliani
over a man like Christopher Wray?
Okay, why would anyone in their right mind
believe Rudy Giuliani over Christopher Wray?
Because he wanted to
and because what Rudy was offering him
was something that would help him personally,
and what Christopher Wray was offering him
was merely the truth.
What Christopher Wray was offering him
was merely the information he needed
to protect his country and its elections,
but that's not good enough,
what's in it for him?
What's in it for Donald Trump?
This is why he needs to be removed.
Now you may be asking how much damage can he really do
in the next several months until the election?
A lot, a lot of damage.
Now we just saw last week a report that Russia
tried to hack or maybe did hack Burisma, okay.
I don't know if they got in, I'm trying to find out,
my colleagues on the intel committee,
House and Senate were trying to find out
did the Russians get in,
what are the Russian plans and intentions?
Well let's say they got in,
and let's say they started dumping documents
to interfere in the next election.
Let's say they started dumping
some real things they hacked from Burisma,
let's say they started dumping some fake things
they didn't hack from Burisma,
but they want you to believe they did.
Let's say they start blatantly interfering
in our election again to help Donald Trump.
Can you have the least bit of confidence
that Donald Trump will stand up to them
and protect our national interest
over his own personal interest?
You know you can't,
which makes him dangerous to this country.
You know you can't.
You know you can't count on him, none of us can.
None of us can.
What happens if China got the message?
Now you can say "well, he's just joking, of course,
"he didn't really mean China should investigate
"the Bidens," you know that's no joke.
Now maybe you could have argued three years ago
when he said "hey Russia, if you're listening,
"hack Hillary's emails."
Maybe you could give him a freebie
and say he was joking.
But now we know better.
Hours after he did that,
Russia did in fact try to hack Hillary's emails.
There's no mulligan here
when it comes to our national security.
So what if China does,
overtly or covertly start to help the Trump campaign?
You think he's gonna call them out on it?
Or you think he's gonna give them a better trade deal on it?
Can any of us really have the confidence
that Donald Trump will put his personal interests
ahead of the national interest?
Is there really any evidence in this presidency
that should give us the ironclad confidence
that he would do so?
You know you can't count on him to do that.
That's the sad truth,
you know you can't count on him to do that.
The American people deserve a president they can count on
to put their interests first,
to put their interests first.
Colonel Vindman said "here right matters."
Here right matters.
Well let me tell you something.
If right doesn't matter,
if right doesn't matter,
it doesn't matter how good the constitution is,
it doesn't matter how brilliant the framers were,
it doesn't matter how good or bad
our advocacy in this trial is,
it doesn't matter how well-written
the oath of impartiality is.
If right doesn't matter, we're lost.
If the truth doesn't matter, we're lost.
Framers couldn't protect us from ourselves
if right and truth don't matter,
and you know that what he did was not right.
You know, that's what they do in the old country
that Colonel Vindman's father came from,
or the old country that my great grandfather came from,
or the old countries that your ancestors come from
or maybe you came from.
But here right is supposed to matter.
It's what's made us the greatest nation on Earth.
No constitution can protect us
if right doesn't matter anymore,
and you know you can't trust this president
to do what's right for this country.
You can trust he will do what's right for Donald Trump.
He'll do it now, he's done it before,
he'll do it for the next several months,
he'll do it in the election if he's allowed to.
This is why, if you find him guilty,
you must find that he should be removed,
because right matters.
Because right matters,
and the truth matters,
otherwise we are lost.
- Wow, holy sh.