{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://dean.house.gov/2019/12/rep-dean-offers-remarks-during-house-debate-impeachment", "Rep. Dean Offers Remarks During House Debate on Impeachment", "2019-12-18", "2019", "2019-12", "Democrat", "House", "PA", "Madeleine Dean", "D000631", "dean.house.gov", "dean", "https://dean.house.gov/press-releases", "scraper", "Today, Rep. Madeleine Dean (PA-04) offered remarks on the House floor during the debate on articles of impeachment. Her remarks were as follows:\n\n\"Madame Speaker,\n\nWords matter.\n\nWe\u2019ve heard many words over the course of these last weeks.\n\nStill, what strikes me are the words that are missing from my colleagues on the other side of the aisle \u2014 a gaping hole in the conversation, the words they cannot or will not mouth, defending a President\u2019s conduct. Conduct that threatens our constitutional order.\n\nAnd so Madame Speaker, I ask,\n\n\u2014 When is it ever right for a President to coerce a foreign power to interfere in our elections?\n\n\u2014 When is it ever right for a President to intimidate a foreign leader into announcing false investigations against a political rival?\n\n\u2014 When is it ever right for that President to withhold congressionally appropriated aid to that country \u2014 at the expense of its national security and our own?\n\n\u2014 And when is it ever right for a President to block a co-equal branch of government from investigating this scheme to cheat an election?\n\nThe answer, of course, is Never.\n\nBut that word does not come \u201ctrippingly from the tongue\u201d of those who are making the choice to stand behind a man whose behavior is not worthy of their tortured words.\n\n* ?* *\n\nBy our vote today, we are speaking to future Presidents \u2014 and most importantly, to future generations.\n\nWe are declaring that:\n\nwe will not tolerate foreign interference in our presidential elections \u2013 Americans alone will determine the outcome; and\n\nwe will not permit a President to order the complete defiance of a co-equal branch of government.\n\nRegardless of the outcome of this impeachment, the President\u2019s tenure will end \u2014 and this body and our grandchildren will be left with what we did here today.\n\nOurs is a generational duty, and about the love of country \u2014 and lifting our Constitution to its gravest protections, and highest aspirations.\n\nOur Democracy is a matter of conscience, and by voting to safeguard our Constitution, mine is clear.\"\n\nRep. Madeleine Dean is a mother, grandmother, attorney, professor, former four-term member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, and U.S. Representative for the Fourth District of Pennsylvania.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-27T23:45:33Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://dean.house.gov/2019/12/rep-dean-offers-remarks-during-house-debate-impeachment"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9398912079632282, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}