December 18, 2019

United States Representative Emanuel Cleaver, II (D-MO) released the following statement after voting to support both articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump.

Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, II

Impeachment, at least for me, is a stomach-churning experience. I do not hate this President. In fact, in my faith tradition, we are taught to pray for “kings and all those in authority.” Therefore, I pray for President Trump. When the day is spent, I kneel beside my bed and pray for our leaders and for the reconciliation of our nation.

My votes to support the articles of impeachment were not based out of hate for the President, but rather out of love for this country and the values imbued in our constitution. Sadly, the President perverted the powers granted to him by the constitution in an effort to coerce a foreign government into interfering in our sacred elections. When this was discovered and courageously reported by a nonpartisan career service official, the President stonewalled Congress and our constitutional right to provide oversight of the Executive Branch, seemingly, to cover up his misdeeds.

In the United States of America, no one is above the law. Not you, not I, and, as our founders made unequivocally clear, not the President. In the aftermath of this impeachment vote, I am praying that all Americans will dedicate themselves to the proposition that we will not allow our future to bear any resemblance to our present.

Emanuel Cleaver, II is the U.S. Representative for Missouri’s Fifth Congressional District, which includes Kansas City, Independence, Lee’s Summit, Raytown, Grandview, Sugar Creek, Blue Springs, Grain Valley, Oak Grove, North Kansas City, Gladstone, Claycomo, and all of Ray, Lafayette, and Saline Counties. He is a member of the exclusive House Financial Services Committee; Chairman of the House Subcommittee on National Security, International Development, and Monetary Policy; member of the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress; member of the Committee on Homeland Security; and a Senior Whip of the Democratic Caucus.

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