Rick Scott, FL
“I object to this resolution to sue the President. Democrats are playing politics and misusing the Constitution. The courts have already rejected these claims about gifts. The Senate should focus on funding the government, securing our elections, and lowering the national debt instead of attacking the President.”
“Mr. President, reserving the right to object. Mr. President, at a time when we are seeing the Democrat Party embrace the hellish evils of socialism and ideologies that hate the founding ideals of America, Democrats are hoping to pass a resolution to direct this Chamber to sue the President of the United States on a very false premise. The emoluments clause reads: I don’t think that is happening. Now, the obvious answer is that these accusations by my colleague do not support the constitutional threshold of an emolument, and my Democrat colleagues are just playing politics. This resolution seeks to authorize litigation rather than legislation. This issue has already been litigated, and, as my colleague said, they lost. The Democrats just like don’t like the answer. Now, the President isn’t taking a plane or any gifts for personal use, and the United States has long accepted diplomatic gifts pursuant to Federal law, with such gifts generally becoming property of the United States rather than any individual officeholder. Now, what is going on here is the Democrats are putting their hatred for President Trump before the law. But aside from the obvious facts, this is the agenda Democrats want from this Chamber. They don’t want to fund government; they want to shut it down. They walked away from government funding negotiations. They don’t want to secure elections. They want systematic fraud because it benefits their elected incumbents. Department of Homeland Security just found 278,000 noncitizens on voter rolls for Federal elections. Are Democrats talking about that? Just last week, President Trump exposed foreign adversaries like China and Cuba for interfering in our elections. Did my Democratic colleagues talk about that? Leader Schumer responded to the facts about voter fraud by declaring the SAVE America Act, an election security bill--even though Democrats, Republicans, Independents all across the country believe in it--said it is ``dead on arrival.’’ Unfortunately, my Democratic colleagues don’t want fixes; they want to ignore the fraud because it benefits them. They are trying to distract the American people with platitudes while they defraud them of their vote. Have you looked at what Olive Garden is doing, OK? You can buy a pasta pass--an unlimited pasta pass, but guess what you have to do? You have to show an ID. So Olive Garden has a voter ID, but my Democratic colleagues don’t want to do it for Federal elections. This bill proves that the Democrats’ goal right now is to attack President Trump instead of fixing problems Americans expect us to deal with. They don’t want to reduce the cost of living, lower inflation, balance the budget. They do want to tax working Americans so they can spend more of it on special interests and run bigger deficits--already spending $2 trillion in deficits. They want to use the Senate’s time--the precious time we have--to attack President Trump by twisting the words of the Constitution. The resolution is moot. The accusations: Purely political. We all know it is political. It is a waste of time. And this Chamber only works 2-and-a-half days a week. I think we need to spend every time doing something like pass the SAVE America Act, fund our government, lower the debt, lower the deficit. Unfortunately, my Democratic colleagues aren’t coming to the table. Why don’t we spend some time on real issues rather than attacking the President? For those reasons, I object to passage of this resolution and hope my colleagues can reject the anti-American socialists capturing the Democratic Party before it is too late for all of us. I yield the floor.”
Mr. President, reserving the right to object. Mr. President, at a time when we are seeing the Democrat Party embrace the hellish evils of socialism and ideologies that hate the founding ideals of America, Democrats are hoping to pass a resolution to direct this Chamber to sue the President of the United States on a very false premise. The emoluments clause reads: I don’t think that is happening. Now, the obvious answer is that these accusations by my colleague do not support the constitutional threshold of an emolument, and my Democrat colleagues are just playing politics. This resolution seeks to authorize litigation rather than legislation. This issue has already been litigated, and, as my colleague said, they lost. The Democrats just like don’t like the answer. Now, the President isn’t taking a plane or any gifts for personal use, and the United States has long accepted diplomatic gifts pursuant to Federal law, with such gifts generally becoming property of the United States rather than any individual officeholder. Now, what is going on here is the Democrats are putting their hatred for President Trump before the law. But aside from the obvious facts, this is the agenda Democrats want from this Chamber. They don’t want to fund government; they want to shut it down. They walked away from government funding negotiations. They don’t want to secure elections. They want systematic fraud because it benefits their elected incumbents. Department of Homeland Security just found 278,000 noncitizens on voter rolls for Federal elections. Are Democrats talking about that? Just last week, President Trump exposed foreign adversaries like China and Cuba for interfering in our elections. Did my Democratic colleagues talk about that? Leader Schumer responded to the facts about voter fraud by declaring the SAVE America Act, an election security bill--even though Democrats, Republicans, Independents all across the country believe in it--said it is ``dead on arrival.’’ Unfortunately, my Democratic colleagues don’t want fixes; they want to ignore the fraud because it benefits them. They are trying to distract the American people with platitudes while they defraud them of their vote. Have you looked at what Olive Garden is doing, OK? You can buy a pasta pass--an unlimited pasta pass, but guess what you have to do? You have to show an ID. So Olive Garden has a voter ID, but my Democratic colleagues don’t want to do it for Federal elections. This bill proves that the Democrats’ goal right now is to attack President Trump instead of fixing problems Americans expect us to deal with. They don’t want to reduce the cost of living, lower inflation, balance the budget. They do want to tax working Americans so they can spend more of it on special interests and run bigger deficits--already spending $2 trillion in deficits. They want to use the Senate’s time--the precious time we have--to attack President Trump by twisting the words of the Constitution. The resolution is moot. The accusations: Purely political. We all know it is political. It is a waste of time. And this Chamber only works 2-and-a-half days a week. I think we need to spend every time doing something like pass the SAVE America Act, fund our government, lower the debt, lower the deficit. Unfortunately, my Democratic colleagues aren’t coming to the table. Why don’t we spend some time on real issues rather than attacking the President? For those reasons, I object to passage of this resolution and hope my colleagues can reject the anti-American socialists capturing the Democratic Party before it is too late for all of us. I yield the floor.