86R10670 BPG-D
By: Reynolds H.C.R. No. 66
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, President Donald J. Trump has departed frequently
from the norms and ethical standards long established for his
office, but while the number of scandals clouding his
administration is unprecedented, their nature was anticipated by
the framers of the United States Constitution; and
WHEREAS, Newly liberated from the tyranny of King George III,
the founding fathers were determined to strengthen their new
republic against any chief executive who should prove unfit or
evince despotic tendencies; during the Constitutional Convention,
James Madison warned against "incapacity, negligence, or perfidy,"
and said that simply enduring a reprobate until the next election
would be unwise, for "He might pervert his administration into a
scheme of peculation"--the theft of public funds--"or oppression.
He might betray his trust to foreign powers"; his fellow Virginian,
George Mason, feared "attempts to subvert the Constitution" and
cautioned against a chief executive who "might engage in the
corrupting of electors" or use the power of the pardon "to stop
inquiry and prevent detection"; and
WHEREAS, Still another Virginian, Edmund Randolph,
championed a clause forbidding the president from "receiving
emoluments from foreign powers"; Abraham Baldwin of Georgia worried
that the head of the executive branch might fail in his
constitutional duty to properly staff that branch of government, or
that "in a fit of passion," he might discharge "all the good
officers of government"; and
WHEREAS, Resolved to discourage malfeasance or monarchical
behavior by the executive while maintaining a rigorous system of
checks and balances, after much discussion and parsing of language,
the framers established impeachment as a mechanism for Congress to
investigate "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and
Misdemeanors," the last echoing a similar phrase used in the
English Parliament since 1450 to describe both criminal and
noncriminal offenses against the state; and
WHEREAS, In the excesses of the Trump administration, the
framers would recognize grotesque illustrations of their greatest
fears; although our intelligence agencies have confirmed that
Russia interfered extensively in the 2016 election to support
President Trump, he has tried to deny the attack on our democracy
and failed to muster a credible response; he hid his efforts to
conduct business in Moscow during his campaign, and he has gone to
extraordinary lengths to conceal from even his closest advisors the
nature of his many private conversations with his Russian
counterpart, Vladimir Putin; moreover, he has taken actions and
adopted positions favorable to the Kremlin while undermining our
NATO allies and Western values; his efforts to stymie the
investigation into Russian intervention so alarmed the FBI that it
opened a counterintelligence investigation to determine whether he
was trying to assist our adversary, and the special counsel is
considering whether the president has obstructed justice; despite
warnings from his own lawyers, he has dangled a pardon for his
former campaign manager, although just such an offense set Richard
Nixon on the path to impeachment; and
WHEREAS, President Trump's personal lawyer has pleaded
guilty to the felonious violation of campaign finance laws on his
behalf and at his direction; the president's failure to divest his
business interests, including investments abroad, almost certainly
violates the Emoluments Clause, and as he has used his office to
publicize his properties, not only foreign nations, but also
domestic actors, have curried favor through lavish spending, a
matter now before the courts; while he refused to release his tax
returns, unlike all his predecessors in the modern era, exhaustive
reporting by the New York Times found an elaborate pattern of
deception over the course of decades and concluded that he had
evaded more than $400 million in taxes and engaged in "instances of
outright fraud"; more troubling still, the president has ignored
his constitutional duty to appropriately staff the government with
"good officers," forcing out experienced professionals and leaving
a quarter of his cabinet posts to mere placeholders, including the
acting secretary of defense, who has little experience of either
diplomacy or military administration; and
WHEREAS, Other outrageous acts by this president constitute
attempts to erode the separation of powers, trample on civil
liberties, and ignore the rule of law, all while setting Americans
against each other with lies and ugly rhetoric; the dizzying number
of transgressions against his duty under the constitution has
tended to obscure the central fact that citizens cannot trust that
the president is acting in their interest, rather than his own; with
great moral clarity, however, the late John Dingell, our
longest-serving member of congress, in his final message to the
nation reminded us: "In democratic government, elected officials do
not have power. They hold power in trust for the people who elected
them. If they misuse or abuse that public trust, it is quite
properly revoked"; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the 86th Legislature of the State of Texas
hereby respectfully urge the United States Congress to impeach
President Donald J. Trump; and, be it further
RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to
the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of
Representatives of the United States Congress, and to all the
members of the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that
this resolution be entered in the Congressional Record as a
memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.