- 6/6/2025
On the House floor, Rep. Al Green (D-TX) discussed impeachment actions against President Trump.
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00:00And still I rise, Mr. Speaker, and still I rise, proud to be an American, proud of what this
00:14country stands for, but I also rise as a person who is censured. I have been censured, but I
00:24have not been silenced. So I rise as an unbought, unbossed, unafraid, liberated Democrat. And
00:37as such, I rise to speak on a topic today that I believe to be most important to the American
00:45people, most important to posterity, most important to the direction of the country, most important
00:53to who we are. The topic is about Congress and why Congress is the court of last resort
01:07for an authoritarian president. Why Congress is the court of last resort for an authoritarian
01:15president. Let me start by saying this, that I think is exceedingly important. There are
01:23many among us who would manage authoritarianism. They would want to find a way to work with
01:32it, to become a part of it if it benefits them, to make it something that is acceptable to many
01:44of the people in the classes and perhaps some of the people in the masses. I am not one of
01:51the persons who would do this. I believe that authoritarianism, Mr. Speaker, must not be managed. It must be eliminated.
02:03This country was founded upon the basic premise that it would be a democratic republic where you
02:11elect your representatives to vote for you. This is a democracy. And as such, in this democratic republic, I choose to stand and fight this movement toward authoritarianism.
02:28I stand to do so because the greatness of America is not going to be found among a very few who have power concentrated in their hands or in a single person who has power concentrated in his hands.
02:44That's not where the greatness of America is achieved. The greatness of America is achieved by the people having the power and the people making the decisions, by having a Supreme Court that is respected, that is honored, by having a judiciary that is respected, by having a Congress that is respected,
03:10by avoiding what could become authoritarianism that metamorphoses into something even greater in harm to this country than the authoritarianism we face today.
03:27So I rise to indicate that Congress is the court of last resort for an authoritarian president. And here's why. It's the court of last resort because when an authoritarian issues executive orders and expects them to be honored, even when the courts disagree,
03:56when an authoritarian believes that his orders supersede, supplant, if you will, the rule of law, supersede what has become commonplace in terms of understanding the rule of law in this country,
04:21when an authoritarian will defy federal courts and including the Supreme Court, then we have to conclude that the Supreme Court may not be the court of last resort as it should be for an authoritarian president, someone who is assuming power that he should not assume.
04:46With executive orders that cannot change the Constitution. When you have a president who by executive order believes that he can remove people from the country without due process. And when this president is told that due process must be accorded people before you can take this extreme action.
05:15And when this president is told not only must there be due process, but if you believe that the court has made a ruling that is inappropriate, that the court has made a mistake, that you must still honor that court order and appeal, that the appellate courts will then take charge of what you believe to be an incorrect decision by the courts.
05:40And when you see a president saying to the country that a court that has issued an order that he does not agree with, but contends is inappropriate for various and sundry reasons.
06:04When you see that president say that when you see that president say that the judge that issued that order should be impeached.
06:11You're now moving into authoritarianism.
06:16But when that president then sits with others in his cabinet and they are caught on national TV indicating why they can defy the federal court's orders.
06:31After having been told that you have to appeal after having been told that you cannot do what you have done after having been told that you have to facilitate the return of someone that you have improperly.
06:47And according to what members of this administration have said.
06:52Move removed removed removed from the country by mistake.
06:57Then you have to bring that person the relief necessary for that person to raise his hand and say you got the wrong person.
07:06But that person to say, I want my rights of due process under the law in this country.
07:13So we have a president who believes that his his orders, his executive orders exceed and supersede the orders of federal courts.
07:25How do I know?
07:27Because he has not returned a person to this country that he was told to facilitate the return of such that he could receive due process.
07:41Or just facilitate such that this person could get due process.
07:46It hasn't happened.
07:48The lower courts have told him at the federal level.
07:51The Supreme Court has told him.
07:53And the evidence now exists that he understands what facilitate means because there was a second person who was removed without due process.
08:06Removed to another country without due process.
08:10And that person is being brought back because the judge in a federal court said you have to facilitate the return.
08:22So they know what facilitate means.
08:25They are just being defiant.
08:28They're just ignoring the orders of the federal courts.
08:32They are flouting the orders of the Supreme Court of the United States of America.
08:39Make no mistake about it.
08:41We are now dealing with an authoritarian president that I choose not to manage.
08:49I choose to eliminate the authoritarianism.
08:54I don't want us to try to find a way to get along with an authoritarian.
09:00And if the Supreme Court cannot manage this authoritarian president to the extent that he would cease and desist and obey the court's orders.
09:12And if an authoritarian president now has total control of the Republicans who represent this House and the Senate.
09:24Total control of them.
09:26So they're not going to be able to do anything because he manages their affairs.
09:31They have become people who look for a sense of direction.
09:37He's become their North Star.
09:39He's become the means by which they conclude that they will go this way or they'll move in that direction.
09:48So they can't do anything because they have surrendered, surrendered their sovereignty.
09:58They've surrendered their power to make judicious decisions to an authoritarian president.
10:05Supreme Court can't stop him.
10:08Republicans who control the House and Senate won't stop him.
10:13We have an authoritarian president.
10:17And when you have an authoritarian president, you do have a court of last resort.
10:24The Constitution, Article 2, Section 4 of the Constitution makes it explicitly clear that we can impeach.
10:36And we can impeach for this type of behavior, not in these exact words, uses language that we're all familiar with, high crimes or misdemeanors, treason, bribery.
10:51But we have an authoritarian president.
10:54An authoritarian president who is defying the courts, who does not respect the separation of powers.
11:00An authoritarian president who would demean and minimize the role of the judiciary in our system of governance.
11:10With such an authoritarian president.
11:13With such an authoritarian president.
11:14Impeachment.
11:15Impeachment.
11:16Impeachment.
11:17And this congressional court of last resort is within the power of all 435 members of the House.
11:35Because the Congressional Court of last resort has to have a prosecutor.
11:40A prosecutor, any one of the 435 can become the prosecutor.
11:45Once you see that impeachable actions are taking place.
11:50Any one of us can become the prosecutor.
11:54The prosecutor will have what we will have called the equivalent of a grand jury.
12:01That will be the rest of the members of the House of Representatives.
12:05435 of us.
12:08Some of us can act as prosecutors.
12:11Doesn't have to be one.
12:12Can be more than one.
12:13Can be many.
12:14As many as would want to sign a resolution to impeach.
12:21Impeachment.
12:24Congressional Court of last resort.
12:27That's where we are now.
12:29This is the room where the Congressional Court of last resort will be convened.
12:35And it is convened here to hear a prosecutor, a member of this august body.
12:43Not known as a prosecutor, but I'm saying it to you such that you can understand this process.
12:48And see that it is akin to something else that you really do understand.
12:54So this prosecutor, this person, this member of Congress, will have to stand and read these articles of impeachment.
13:03And this is done now because, remember, the Supreme Court can't control this authoritarian president.
13:13And my colleagues on the other side of the aisle won't control this authoritarian president.
13:19They have the power, but they won't.
13:22So impeachment in this Congressional Court of last resort.
13:28Congress is where the Court of last resort lies.
13:34I'm familiar with impeachment.
13:37I understand the process.
13:39And I want you to know that it is imminent.
13:43A vote takes place with this grand jury that I call to your attention, which would be the members of Congress.
13:51We need but only a majority of the member of Congress to vote in favor of impeachment.
13:57And a president can be removed from office.
14:01An authoritarian president can be removed from office.
14:05If you don't like authoritarianism and you believe that you have an authoritarian president, then you would vote for the articles of impeachment.
14:14Now, is there any proof that there are people who don't like authoritarianism and who would vote in theory for impeachment?
14:26For impeachment?
14:27Well, yes.
14:29Before the election that brought Donald John Trump to the presidency this time,
14:38before he was sworn in by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court,
14:43there were many among us, and I am one of the many, who talked about this very topic, prognosticated this very behavior that we're seeing.
14:54Not the exact behavior, but behavior that would be indicative of a person becoming an authoritarian.
15:02There were some who said he would be a fascist.
15:05There were some who said he would be a dictator.
15:07The point is, there are many people who are members of this House who made this prognostication.
15:16And what is absolutely amazing is that many of them, many of them who made these prognostications,
15:29who have seen their prognostications become a reality, many of them may not vote to impeach.
15:38But I'm going to give you what I believe is a rationale.
15:42I think this is a vote of conscience.
15:45People have to vote their conscience.
15:47If your conscience tells you no, then I think you should follow your conscience.
15:53I cannot in good conscience say the things that I've said about this authoritarian president,
16:02see it become a reality, and then take no action.
16:07I cannot in good conscience.
16:09But there are people who can in good conscience do this.
16:12And I have no ill feelings toward them.
16:16I don't count the votes.
16:20I count what is necessary to be done.
16:23And it is necessary for us to take action to remove an authoritarian president from office.
16:29And the only way it can be done is right here in this chamber.
16:33Someone has to act as a prosecutor and bring the articles of impeachment to the attention of this august body,
16:40at which time there will be a vote on these articles.
16:44And as some people will vote to table, there's always going to be a vote to table.
16:48Now, my colleagues on the other side, some of them have alleged that this is a great thing.
16:56This is a great thing.
16:58We're going to have impeachment again.
17:00This is a great thing.
17:02Let them bring it on.
17:04Well, if you truly believe this, then you vote for the articles.
17:10You vote against tabling, because there will be a motion to table.
17:15So you vote against tabling.
17:19All of all of my Republican colleagues who are saying this, you vote against tabling and then see what the other side does.
17:26Since you are absolutely convinced that this is going to be a benefit to an authoritarian president.
17:33It is not going to be a benefit.
17:38We will take that vote.
17:40Those who vote to table will be voting against the articles of impeachment.
17:47Those who vote against tabling will be voting for the articles of impeachment.
17:55I said to you, I have some experience in dealing with this.
17:59I am the person who laid the foundation for President Donald John Trump's impeachment when he was impeached the first time around.
18:09I am using a personal pronoun only to communicate.
18:13But the truth is there were other persons who engaged in this process with me.
18:17I want to tell you about these other persons.
18:23I have here something that has been removed from the wall of my office.
18:30It is something that indicates who the persons were that participated favorably, meaning indicating there should be an impeachment when the first articles of impeachment were filed.
18:49This is on the wall in my office.
18:52The press assumed that it would be only Al Green.
18:56They were wrong.
18:58They may be right this time.
18:59It may just be only Al Green.
19:01I will stand alone.
19:03Because when it's a question of conscience, it's better to stand alone than not stand at all.
19:08So the press thought that it would be probably Al Green and maybe one or two others, which may be the case this time.
19:15But believe me, it will not deter me.
19:18But what is interesting is I have this on my wall.
19:21And by the way, many of the people who are listed here as persons who supported HREZ 646, many of the people who supported HREZ 646, many of them were listed here.
19:35They have a similar document in their offices and they will have it on their coffee tables.
19:41And when people would come in because this became such an important issue, they were proud to display this and say, yes, I voted to impeach.
19:50Yes, I did.
19:51That was important.
19:52It's going to become important again.
19:54Make no mistake about it.
19:56It will be important again.
19:58And I'm not going to name all of the persons on this first set of this first article of a resolution for impeachment.
20:08But I would tell you that there were 58.
20:10They were known as the first 58.
20:13And there's one person that I will mention because I'm proud and and he was proud to have associated with these articles of impeachment.
20:22And I remember talking to him right in this area about impeachment.
20:30I will not divulge the entirety of the conversation, but I'm proud to say this.
20:36The Honorable John Lewis has his name on these articles of impeachment.
20:43The Honorable John Lewis.
20:46The first 58.
20:49But the first 58 was not sufficient and I knew that it wouldn't be.
20:54By the way, whenever I say I assume that I'm saying we, because there were persons who were engaged in helping me.
21:01I knew that it would not be enough.
21:05And I knew that we would have to continue to build on this to generate a mass such that impeachment could no longer be ignored.
21:18Because many of the people who were opposed to impeachment were making it clear that certain things would have to happen before there could be impeachment.
21:33You'd have to have bipartisan support for impeachment.
21:37You'd have to have.
21:39Well, let's just say certain things.
21:41If I say more, I'll probably say enough such that you'll know who I'm talking about.
21:45And I don't care to mention names at this time, but if I'm forced to, I will.
21:49But so we move forward with a second impeachment.
21:54This was H. Res. 705.
21:57Many members of Congress had something similar to this in their offices.
22:02It could have been a very large display that would unfold.
22:09And it was on coffee tables.
22:11It was placed in various places in congressional offices.
22:14I placed this on the wall in my congressional office, along with the other article that I just called to your attention.
22:20And this was H. Res. 705.
22:23It did not grow by what some would consider a very large number, but it did move to 66 members of Congress.
22:3266 with H. Res. 705.
22:36And the reason I know members are in possession of these documents that I've called to your attention that were displayed
22:49is because I sent them to the members.
22:53I sent members a thank you, as we customarily do here.
22:57And it was something that they could display in the office.
23:01And I had many members and many people to say that it was a good idea.
23:05Continuing.
23:10Knowing that 66 was not enough, we brought articles before the Congress again.
23:18And this time, the number hit what I call a critical mass.
23:25It caused people who were antithetical to the idea to embrace the idea.
23:31And by the way, I never thought that it had to be the exact articles that I presented.
23:38I never thought it had to be that, but I knew that there had to be an impeachment.
23:44And these articles that I presented had to do very much with invidious discrimination.
23:49Something I'll say more about later.
23:53So this time, we had 95 people.
23:5995 people who supported the articles.
24:04H. Res. 498.
24:06Now, what's important about H. Res. 498 is this.
24:10When you add the persons who supported H. Res. 498 with the persons who supported the other articles,
24:19you then move beyond 100 people, well beyond 100 people who are supporting impeachment.
24:25Some supported one set of articles and some did not.
24:31But then they supported another.
24:33So you have H. Res. 498 with 95 persons supporting the articles of impeachment.
24:44Friends, there is but one solution to an authoritarian president that cannot be controlled by the Supreme Court
24:56because he flouts the orders of the Supreme Court.
24:59That won't be controlled by members of his party because he has control over the party.
25:06There's but one solution and there's but one place where that solution can manifest itself.
25:14And that is the House of Representatives.
25:18So Congress has become the court of last resort for an authoritarian president.
25:27And as such, I pledged to many before today.
25:33And I pledge to the nation today that in this month, in this month, there will be a vote on the floor of this House.
25:46A vote to advance articles of impeachment this month.
25:54It is necessary and it will be done.
25:59I truly believe in what the country stands for.
26:04I know that it has not always lived up to the expectations written in the great documents that support what the country stands for.
26:15I know that it has not always lived up to these expectations.
26:19But I also know this.
26:22It's a country where I can, with due process, with free speech, with freedom of religion.
26:29It's a country where I can vote.
26:32And it's a country where I can fight to make the difference so that it can live up to these great ideals expressed in these great documents.
26:44The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution.
26:48And I'm going to fight to maintain the right to fight.
26:52That's what this is all about.
26:54Not fighting in the sense that I'm going to go out and harm someone.
26:58Not fighting in the sense that I'm going to use some means of using physicality.
27:06No, that's not what I'm talking about.
27:09I'm going to fight with peaceful protest.
27:13I believe in peaceful protest.
27:15I do not in any way condone persons who go out and harm other people.
27:22And I have said as much.
27:24And yes, I get all of the backlash that others get when they say as much.
27:29But I absolutely will continue to say peaceful protest is the way to make change that can make the difference.
27:38So I can do it through peaceful protest.
27:40And I'm going to do it.
27:41That's the kind of fighting that I'm talking about.
27:43Peaceful protesting.
27:44But I can also do it with litigation.
27:47So we have protestation, litigation.
27:50I've signed on to many briefs.
27:53And I will continue to do so.
27:55Protestation, litigation.
27:58But we also have something else.
28:01We have legislation.
28:04That's what articles of impeachment are.
28:07Legislation.
28:09Protestation.
28:11Absolutely.
28:13I will never give up my right to protest.
28:16I'm going to fight to maintain that right to protest.
28:19Protestation.
28:21Litigation.
28:22I believe in the court system.
28:25And then, of course, this whole notion of legislation.
28:31These are the means by which we can make the difference.
28:34I assure my friends, my colleagues, persons, this is official notice.
28:40There will be a vote on articles to impeach Donald John Trump, who is now President of the United States.
28:52I do it because conscious dictates that this be done and it has become a moral imperative that we have to proceed with.
29:03Now, I close with this.
29:06This is something that came to my attention just recently.
29:12There are people who believe, I think, that I will be intimidated.
29:18They believe that I will be intimidated.
29:20Now, these are people other than those who have already made their many threats that have not intimidated me.
29:27But there's a new movement afoot.
29:30There's a movement afoot now to do what cannot be done as they see it fast enough through the electoral process, meaning my removal from office.
29:45They don't think that the electoral process works efficaciously, effectively, if you will, for them.
29:51I was saying efficaciously, but let's just say effectively for them.
29:56And the governor of my state, while I am in trial, I am in trial currently defending the ninth congressional district.
30:06I've been in trial for many years, so this is nothing unusual to defend this district, to keep this district.
30:13It has been difficult.
30:14Lots of money has been spent just fighting to maintain the ninth congressional district.
30:19But the governor of my state has now decided that it is appropriate, according to the sources that have called it to my attention, and many have.
30:31Many persons in the legislative body in the state of Texas have called this to my attention, has established what's called a redistricting commission or committee.
30:42And with this redistricting commission or committee, the governor is going to try, as I'm being told, to draw the lines for these congressional districts so that it would be either difficult or impossible for me to get reelected.
31:00So here's my message to those who would stoop to this level of political shenanigans as I see it.
31:10Here's my message to you.
31:13The people who elected me are more important than my being reelected.
31:19I'm going to stand up for the people who elected me.
31:23My re-election is not the issue.
31:26You can take me out.
31:28There'll be another Al Green.
31:30There's always going to be one more.
31:33The world seems to be put together such that there's always someone who will stand up.
31:41So you can take me out.
31:43But you're not going to intimidate me.
31:46And I'm saying this to the governor of the state of Texas.
31:49Do what you may.
31:52Redraw the lines such that I can never get reelected.
31:56But I guarantee you this.
31:58As long as I'm here, I may be censured, but I won't be silenced.
32:04I yield back the balance of my time.
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