Official Congressional Record
Mr. Speaker, and still I rise. And I rise today as I always did, censured but not silenced, a very proud, unbossed, unbought, liberated, and unelected Democrat. And I rise today to bring two things to the attention of the House and to the people of the United States of America. The first is a brief update on ICE, and the second is an explanation related to crypto crony capitalism. Let us begin. With reference to ICE, Mr. Speaker, we had a briefing just yesterday, and at that briefing some things were discovered and other things were uncovered. What we found, of course, we knew, and that is that there was not a body camera on the ICE officers who took the life of Mr. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. Officers did not have body cameras on, and there was not a dash camera in the vehicle. The video that we have seen was taken by some public device, and that video, of course, has given us reason to understand that Mr. Salgado Araujo was not committing what I perceive as an infraction related to the law. He was not. The evidence that we heard yesterday gave us good reason to believe that there would be body cameras. And these body cameras would be in place on all officers who are performing this type of activity where they are taking people into custody or desire to take people into custody for various reasons associated with immigration, that these officers will all have body cameras. I brought up the question of dash cameras, and they indicated to me that that would be given consideration. So I am very proud that the persons who were available indicated that they would not only give us the body cameras in 60 days, but they would also consider dash cameras in the vehicle itself. I think these things will help not only the public but also the officers because the officers can immediately have the evidence to exonerate themselves when there is some question as to whether or not the officers have committed an infraction of the law. I am very proud to know these things will happen, but there will be a follow up to make sure they do happen. I am also proud to tell you that tomorrow there will be in Houston, Texas, a forum, a forum wherein we will have an opportunity to have a discussion about these issues associated with Mr. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo's death. We will have an opportunity to ask questions of people who can give us more information. These things are important. Finally, on this question of ICE, I would only make this point that we will get the body cameras. I believe we will get the dash cameras in time. Here is what I know: I know that we will have them because lives were lost. And I regret that it has taken the loss of lives--the loss of lives--to have us do what ICE should have been asking us to do. We should not have been asking that these things be done. One would think that the officers would say: These body cameras are going to benefit us, would you please, Congress, give us body cameras? That was not the case. And because it was not the case and because Mr. Pretti lost his life, Ms. Good lost her life, Mr. Salgado Araujo lost his life, and we have a person in Maine who lost life, these four persons, all of these things occurring within this year, these issues, these persons losing their lives will now give us the opportunity to have body cameras. It is a disgrace, a shame, and a sin to have to conclude that lives have to be lost for us to do the right thing. I want the world to know that I will never, ever stop the challenge that is before us to make sure that ICE is an institution, as it were, an organization, if you will, that will treat people fairly and justly. Not all of the ICE officers are engaged in illegal activities, and some of the activities are illegal when they engage in extrajudicial killings, but not all of the officers are doing this, so I am not painting everybody with the same brush. I am saying that enough of them are doing it for us to demand some additional reforms with ICE. Of course, we are still demanding that they have uniforms that are indicative of the work that they do, that their names be displayed on those uniforms, and that they not enter property without a proper warrant. These are the things that we would just take for granted that the Constitution would afford us and would be recognized by officers of the law. I promise you, Mr. Speaker, I am going to stay in this fight, and we are going to get positive results. Now, moving on to the crony crypto capitalism. For those who do not know, the President has a meme coin, and the President's meme coin has done quite well. The President's meme coin, the dollar sign Trump meme coin, that meme coin has made $1.64 million per day over a 1-year period of time. Over that same 1-year period of time, nearly 1 million people lost $3.8 billion. Let me repeat that: Over that same period of time, nearly 1 million people lost $3.8 billion. How did this happen? It happened because the meme coin that the President has is a part of a Ponzi scheme. A Ponzi scheme is a means by which a person can convince people that they should buy something that does not have any worth except for the purchase of that thing itself, which is nothing in this case. Mr. Speaker, you purchase nothing with the belief that someone is willing to pay more for nothing than you paid for nothing, and, as a result, the value is increased for you if you paid nothing at a lower price than someone else is going to pay for this same thing for nothing. The President has sold nothing to nearly 1 million people who lost $3.8 billion. The President made $1.74 million per day on the deal, pumped it up, took his $1.74 million per day and left nearly 1 million people to lose $3.8 billion. That, Mr. Speaker, is the President's Ponzi scheme. One would ask: How can this be? It exists because we have a President who lives without the law by causing certain persons to believe that things should be legal that clearly have not been and should not be. Ponzi schemes have been illegal in this country. The President has managed to get his persons who are in charge to indicate that this is not illegal, that this Ponzi scheme is not, and others still are. I am mentioning this to you, Mr. Speaker, because this scheme, this whole scam, is having an impact on capitalism. There are people who are now starting to see this as a part of capitalism, the Ponzi scheme, a means of making money on what is called a free market. They believe that the free market is designed in certain places to benefit very wealthy people. They have breaks in benefits from capitalism by having laws passed to benefit them and by engaging in things such as this Ponzi scheme that benefit them. In a sense, this is harming the concept of capitalism. One should be able to understand why some people are looking at other options. If this is the way we are going to manage capitalism, by having your cronies do quite well while millions of others are taken advantage of, this is one example of why people would say: Maybe this is not working well enough, and we will try something else. My hope is that we can correct these things, especially this thing associated with the President and his Ponzi scheme. My hope is that we can correct these things and let people see that truly we can have an economic order that treats people with the kind of justice that they deserve. This is an unjust system, the Ponzi scheme, and we have to bring justice to it. Probably the best way to bring justice to it is going to be to see this President walk away and then, thereafter, do some serious investigations, serious hearings, and get to the bottom of things, not only associated with the Ponzi scheme but other things, as well. I regret that some people are not going to get their money back. My hope is that there would be some way to reverse it, but my belief is that a good many people are just going to suffer and will not get their money back. I also know this: That, as I am speaking now--and I am telling people this is the case--the Ponzi scheme continues. People are going to buy into nothing and expect to get something. You have been noticed. Please understand that the President is just taking advantage of you. He is. Not only is he doing it in this area, there are many others. I am just talking about this today. I will talk about others at a later time. He is taking advantage of you. You can stop it by not buying into this Ponzi scheme. Capitalism is taking a hit, and it is for many reasons but the chief reason, I think, being the President who is doing things to aid and abet his friends, allowing people to make contributions and then have certain benefits. A President who clearly has lived beneath the law and above the law. Beneath it in the sense that he doesn't believe it exists so he pushes it aside. Above it in the sense that he doesn't get charged for his criminality the same way other people would be charged if they were doing similar things. My belief is that we have time to cure some of the harm, but time is not on our side. Every day the President continues to find new ways to take advantage of the economic order that has been in place in this country since its inception, for the most part. I would only say to you this: One of the remedies that we have available to us is one that I will pursue. I said we needed to wait until we could get control of the House, the Senate, and the Presidency, yes. People want to know: What are you going to do now? I have said, and I continue to say, that we are in a countdown to impeachment. My desire will be to do this: When next we are in session, for all to know, Articles of Impeachment will be filed. The countdown will continue, but it will become that which will be brought to the floor of the House of Representatives when next we are in session. When next the House of Representatives is in session, I will take the Articles over to the clerk, they will be filed, and at some time thereafter--a reasonable amount of time thereafter, to give Members a chance to see exactly what I have filed, although I plan to publish the articles before they are filed so people will know what we are going to file--file these Articles of Impeachment. That will give them plenty of time to prepare the defense of, well, it is too soon. The Senate won't take up the articles seriously. You don't have enough senators there to convict. Let's see, what else will people say? Always, whatever it is, is not impeachable until maybe they decide that they want to file Articles, and then it becomes an impeachable offense. Let's be reminded of what President Ford said: An impeachable offense--meaning impeachment--is whatever Congress says at a given time. Whatever given Congress says at a given time. It is not appealable. It is not something that will require you to report how you came to your conclusions. Really, it is a matter of conscience for me, and I hope for others, as well. We will file the Articles of Impeachment. We will notice them prior to them being filed. People can start preparing now your arguments for why you can't support the Articles of Impeachment. Here is what I do know: Posterity is not going to look favorably upon us for allowing a President to commit impeachable offenses and do nothing. Of course, someone would say, but we will do something when we are in the majority. Now, that is another interesting question, as I close. I have been out on the campaign trail, and I hear the people talking about all of these things that they are going to do when they get to Congress. Well, I have seen at least one example of the person getting to Congress and concluding: I will be doing something next year when we have the majority. Run on doing something great now but get here and realize that you don't have the power to do what you thought, so you will do it next year. Well, I am going to do things now. I am not going to wait until next year. I am a right-now kind of guy. As a right-now kind of person, I will bring the Articles of Impeachment. Mr. Speaker, this is what the Constitution requires. It is what I will do because, again, I am an unbought, unbossed, unafraid, unelected, liberated Democrat. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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