WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Elaine Luria (VA-02) issued the following statement after she voted with a majority of Congress to provide a path forward for public hearings as part of the next phase of the House impeachment inquiry.
“I did not come to Washington to impeach the President, but his actions have brought Congress to this vote today,” Congresswoman Luria said. “As part of my duty to defend our oath to the Constitution, I continue to support the ongoing investigation of the President’s decision to withhold critical aid from our partner, Ukraine, in exchange for information to detract from a political opponent. The President’s own words threatened our national security, undermined the integrity of our elections, and constituted an abuse of power. This investigation will bring out the truth, something every American deserves.”
H.Res 660 provides rules for the format of open hearings in the House Intelligence Committee and it authorizes the public release of deposition transcripts. The resolution also establishes procedures for the transfer of evidence to the Judiciary Committee as it considers potential articles of impeachment, and it sets forth due process rights for the President and his Counsel in the Judiciary Committee proceedings.
Ray Otton says
The sound of the IG’s report and Mr. Dunham’s investigation into the roots of the Russian collusion hoax –
duunnn dunnn… duuuunnnn duun… duuunnnnnnnn dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dunnnnnnnnnnn dunnnn!
Dems gonna need a bigger boat than this impeachment folly.
Shhhhhhh, whatever you do, don’t tell them, OK?
Todd Holden says
I no longer view them as my fellow Americans…
MJM says
Luria is a partisan Dem Party Hump. This entire anti Trump deal is the perfect tale of why we all have so much trouble trying to appreciate our seriously flawed 2 party system.
I’m an independent.
She’s an idiot and, well I’d like to say much worse for going this way. But I hold my vote and tongue like she should have. She did not get my vote and never will. We lost Taylor for her ? He was not perfect, but this is lower than low.
Paul Plante says
In all truth, and this is speaking as a combat veteran who took an oath to defend OUR Constitution as former Navy vet Luria did, as well as an American citizen who believes that Constitution protects us from empty-headed politicians like Congresswoman Luria who clearly has no idea of what the Constitution says, about anything from the looks of it, Congresswoman Luria comes across as an empty-head who is nothing more than a walking propaganda outlet for BOSS DEMOCRAT Nancy Pelosi, which is who Congresswoman Luria’s loyalty to, despite her oath of office as a congressperson, to wit:
From Title 5, Section 3331 of the United States Code:
“I, AB, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”
And under that Constitution https://www.state.gov/duties-of-the-secretary-of-state/ it is the President of the United States determines U.S. foreign policy, not Congresswoman Luria or Nancy Pelosi or some Lt. Colonel for that matter, end of story.
And all that business with Ukraine is FOREIGN POLICY!
So when Congresswoman Luria says “I did not come to Washington to impeach the President, but his actions have brought Congress to this vote today,” she is talking like an idiot, because Trump’s actions with respect to Ukraine, a corrupt ****hole if there ever was one, were his responsibility, not Congresswoman Luria, who has absolutely no business whatsoever sticking her long, pointy nose into the affairs of the executive branch with respect to carrying out our foreign policy, which would have to include why we are sending American tax dollars to a corrupt ****hole like Ukraine, which takes us back to the witless blather of Conbgresswoman Luria, as follows:
Congresswoman Luria said. “As part of my duty to defend our oath to the Constitution, I continue to support the ongoing investigation of the President’s decision to withhold critical aid from our partner, Ukraine, in exchange for information to detract from a political opponent.”
“The President’s own words threatened our national security, undermined the integrity of our elections, and constituted an abuse of power.”
“This investigation will bring out the truth, something every American deserves.”
end quotes
What rot!
The only truth that can be brought out is that the Democrats are a complete waste of time and taxpayer dollars with all of these STUPID “investigations” of theirs, and Congresswoman Luria thinks we are all stupid.
Paul Plante says
By way of necessary background here with respect to corruption in Ukraine that Trump as president had every right to be concerned about, as well as an affirmative duty to WE, THE AMERICAN PEOPLE to be concerned about that corruption, especially if it involved Democrat Joe Biden, let’s go to a Voice of America article entitled “US Urges Ukraine to Jail Corrupt Officials” by Isabela Cocoli on April 27, 2016, seven (7) months before Trump was elected president, where we have as follows:
The United States is urging Ukraine to start jailing corrupt officials, after months of political turmoil that has delayed billions of dollars in foreign loans.
end quotes
WHOA, people, what is that saying?
Obama held up billions of dollars in foreign loans unless Ukraine would start jailing corrupt officials?
Hmmmmm.
So, Congresswoman Luria, tell us, how is that any different from what Trump is said to have done?
OH!
Right, I forgot – Obama was a Democrat, and Trump is not.
Moving right along here:
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland said in Kyiv Wednesday that she was encouraged by Ukraine’s commitment to reforms but stressed that steps must be taken to counter corruption.
“Overall, I go home encouraged by the commitment of all the political forces to continuing and accelerating reform, economic reform, anti-corruption reform, in particular judicial reform…”
“It’s time to start locking up people who have ripped off the Ukrainian population for too long and it is time to eradicate the cancer of corruption,” she said.
end quotes
Ah, yes, people – it is time to eradicate the cancer of corruption in Ukraine, but not if your name is Donald Trump – then it is an impeachable offense.
And getting back to that story:
Nuland called for greater political unity, saying Ukraine must “stay the course” with a $17.5 billion bailout program from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a $1.7 billion third installment of which has been delayed since last October.
A third $1 billion loan guarantee is in the offing from the U.S., she said, but it all depends on the government adhering to the terms of the IMF program.
end quotes
So, a Democrat quid pro quo – get rid of the corruption and we will send you some money.
But as we can clearly see here, what is alright for a Democrat to do is not alright for a Republican to do, at least to Virginia Congresswoman Luria who wants to impeach Trump for daring to do what Obama was free to do as president.
Does that make sense to anyone who is not a Democrat?
Paul Plante says
In the “Anti-Cincinnatus” political essay in support of ratification of the United States Constitution that was posted in the Northampton Hampshire Gazette on December 19, 1787, the author mstated thusly, to wit:
Mr. Printer, An antifederal piece, in No. 66, purporting to be an answer to Mr. Wilson, under the signature of Cincinnatus, “appears to me to abound” with misrepresentation, misconstruction “and sophistry, and so dangerous” to the uninformed and less discerning readers, as for their sakes and theirs only, “to require” reprehension and “refutation.”
end quotes
And such it is with this press release above from the Office of Congresswoman Luria as it too, appears to me to abound with misrepresentation, misconstruction and sophistry so dangerous to the uninformed and less discerning readers as for their sakes to require reprehension and refutation.
In fact, this Democrat Congresswoman seems to choose to treat us all as gullible fools that she can manipulate at will.
So, to provide some more essential background here with respect to the Democrat meddling in the internal political affairs of Ukraine during the Obama administration which has given us the corrupt mess that Trump then inherited, let’s go back to a BBC article entitled “Ukraine crisis: Transcript of leaked Nuland-Pyatt call” on 7 February 2014, where we have as follows, keeping in mind that Victoria Nuland, who in 2016 urged Ukraine to start prosecuting corrupt officials, saying, “It’s time to start locking up people who have ripped off the Ukrainian population for too long and it is time to eradicate the cancer of corruption,” was working for Obama at the time of this transcript in question, to wit:
An apparently bugged phone conversation in which a senior US diplomat disparages the EU over the Ukraine crisis has been posted online.
The alleged conversation between Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and the US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, appeared on YouTube on Thursday.
It is not clearly when the alleged conversation took place.
Here is a transcript, with analysis by BBC diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus:
Warning: This transcript contains swearing.
Voice thought to be Nuland’s: What do you think?
* Jonathan Marcus: At the outset it should be clear that this is a fragment of what may well be a larger phone conversation.
But the US has not denied its veracity and has been quick to point a finger at the Russian authorities for being behind its interception and leak.
Voice thought to be Pyatt’s: I think we’re in play.
The Klitschko [Vitaly Klitschko, one of three main opposition leaders] piece is obviously the complicated electron here.
Especially the announcement of him as deputy prime minister and you’ve seen some of my notes on the troubles in the marriage right now so we’re trying to get a read really fast on where he is on this stuff.
But I think your argument to him, which you’ll need to make, I think that’s the next phone call you want to set up, is exactly the one you made to Yats [Arseniy Yatseniuk, another opposition leader].
And I’m glad you sort of put him on the spot on where he fits in this scenario.
And I’m very glad that he said what he said in response.
* Jonathan Marcus: The US says that it is working with all sides in the crisis to reach a peaceful solution, noting that “ultimately it is up to the Ukrainian people to decide their future”.
However this transcript suggests that the US has very clear ideas about what the outcome should be and is striving to achieve these goals.
Russian spokesmen have insisted that the US is meddling in Ukraine’s affairs – no more than Moscow, the cynic might say – but Washington clearly has its own game-plan.
The clear purpose in leaking this conversation is to embarrass Washington and for audiences susceptible to Moscow’s message to portray the US as interfering in Ukraine’s domestic affairs.
end quotes
But, it is not the US that was interfering in Ukraine’s domestic affairs – it was the Obama Democrats who were doing the interfering!
Getting back to that Democrat meddling which has caused the mess that Trump then inherited, the transcript continues as follows:
Nuland: Good.
I don’t think Klitsch should go into the government.
I don’t think it’s necessary, I don’t think it’s a good idea.
Pyatt: Yeah.
I guess… in terms of him not going into the government, just let him stay out and do his political homework and stuff.
I’m just thinking in terms of sort of the process moving ahead we want to keep the moderate democrats together.
The problem is going to be Tyahnybok [Oleh Tyahnybok, the other opposition leader] and his guys and I’m sure that’s part of what [President Viktor] Yanukovych is calculating on all this.
end quotes
I don’t know about anyone else, but I have to chuckle when I read that line by Pyatt where he tells “Potty-Mouth Vickie” that “I’m just thinking in terms of sort of the process moving ahead we want to keep the moderate democrats together.”
And of course they want to keep the Democrats together, which is why they are meddling in Ukraine’s domestic affairs, which takes us back to the transcript as follows:
Nuland: [Breaks in] I think Yats is the guy who’s got the economic experience, the governing experience.
He’s the… what he needs is Klitsch and Tyahnybok on the outside.
He needs to be talking to them four times a week, you know.
I just think Klitsch going in… he’s going to be at that level working for Yatseniuk, it’s just not going to work.
Pyatt: Yeah, no, I think that’s right.
OK.
Good.
Do you want us to set up a call with him as the next step?
Nuland: My understanding from that call – but you tell me – was that the big three were going into their own meeting and that Yats was going to offer in that context a… three-plus-one conversation or three-plus-two with you.
Is that not how you understood it?
Pyatt: No.
I think… I mean that’s what he proposed but I think, just knowing the dynamic that’s been with them where Klitschko has been the top dog, he’s going to take a while to show up for whatever meeting they’ve got and he’s probably talking to his guys at this point, so I think you reaching out directly to him helps with the personality management among the three and it gives you also a chance to move fast on all this stuff and put us behind it before they all sit down and he explains why he doesn’t like it.
Nuland: OK, good.
I’m happy.
Why don’t you reach out to him and see if he wants to talk before or after.
Pyatt: OK, will do.
Thanks.
Nuland: OK… one more wrinkle for you Geoff.
I can’t remember if I told you this, or if I only told Washington this, that when I talked to Jeff Feltman [United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs] this morning, he had a new name for the UN guy Robert Serry did I write you that this morning?
* Jonathan Marcus: An intriguing insight into the foreign policy process with work going on at a number of levels: Various officials attempting to marshal the Ukrainian opposition; efforts to get the UN to play an active role in bolstering a deal; and (as you can see below) the big guns waiting in the wings – US Vice-President Joe Biden clearly being lined up to give private words of encouragement at the appropriate moment.
end quotes
WHOA, roll that back just a bit – that’s it – stop right there a minute – US Vice-President Joe Biden clearly being lined up to give private words of encouragement at the appropriate moment?
Hmmmmmm.
Interesting.
Private words of encouragement.
Now, does that sound like there might be some kind of quid pro quo involving Joe Biden that we are not being told about by Congresswoman Luria?
Getting back to the transcript of the Democrat meddling in Ukraine’s internal affairs, we have:
Pyatt: Yeah I saw that.
Nuland: OK.
He’s now gotten both Serry and [UN Secretary General] Ban Ki-moon to agree that Serry could come in Monday or Tuesday.
So that would be great, I think, to help glue this thing and to have the UN help glue it and, you know, Fu*k the EU.
end quotes
That, by the way, is why she is known as “Potty-Mouth Vickie,” and one has to wonder if she eats with that same mouth without washing it out, first, which again takes us back to the Democrat meddling, to wit:
* Jonathan Marcus: Not for the first time in an international crisis, the US expresses frustration at the EU’s efforts.
Washington and Brussels have not been completely in step during the Ukraine crisis.
The EU is divided and to some extent hesitant about picking a fight with Moscow.
It certainly cannot win a short-term battle for Ukraine’s affections with Moscow – it just does not have the cash inducements available.
The EU has sought to play a longer game; banking on its attraction over time.
But the US clearly is determined to take a much more activist role.
Pyatt: No, exactly.
And I think we’ve got to do something to make it stick together because you can be pretty sure that if it does start to gain altitude, that the Russians will be working behind the scenes to try to torpedo it.
And again the fact that this is out there right now, I’m still trying to figure out in my mind why Yanukovych (garbled) that.
In the meantime there’s a Party of Regions faction meeting going on right now and I’m sure there’s a lively argument going on in that group at this point.
But anyway we could land jelly side up on this one if we move fast.
So let me work on Klitschko and if you can just keep… we want to try to get somebody with an international personality to come out here and help to midwife this thing.
The other issue is some kind of outreach to Yanukovych but we probably regroup on that tomorrow as we see how things start to fall into place.
Nuland: So on that piece Geoff, when I wrote the note [US vice-president’s national security adviser Jake] Sullivan’s come back to me VFR [direct to me], saying you need [US Vice-President Joe] Biden and I said probably tomorrow for an atta-boy and to get the deets [details] to stick.
So Biden’s willing.
Pyatt: OK.
Great.
Thanks.
end quotes
Yes, people, that is the same Joe Biden that Trump is being impeached today for trying to find out what kind of quid pro quo Joe Biden got back then for getting himself involved in that Democrat meddling effort.
Why is Congresswoman Luria trying to keep that all covered over by going after Trump, instead?
David Moore says
These dumber than dumb Democrats have been wanting to impeach him since he raised his right hand. They make me sick! They accuse Republicans of the exact same thing they are doing! They must think everyone else is as ignorant as they are. They make me sick! Now that both houses are controlled by these hypocritical, anti America socialist you can expect things in the state of Virginia to further decline. Let everyone out of prison, sanctuary for all illegal criminals, continued crumbling of our roads & bridges, no accountability at the top for a Governor/Lt. Governor rightly accused. Yes, they make me sick!
Nioaka Marshall says
Luria is nothing but a puppet for Nancy Pelosi!
Paul Plante says
As are each and every other Democrat in the House of Representatives with the exception of Tulsi Gabbard. mere fobs hanging off of Nancy Pelosi’s gold watch chain, or charms on her charm bracelet.
I have never seen a more useless pack of imbeciles wasting our time and tax dollars in OUR House of Representatives in my lifetime than these congressional Democrats we are stuck with in the House now.
They have made a mockery of it, which raises the question of why we bother to have a House of Representatives anymore, given that they don’t represent us, nor perform any useful services.
Time to amend the Constitution to get rid of them.
Nioaka Marshall says
I totally agree Sir.
Paul Plante says
What is absurd here, and serves to show off the Congresswoman’s complete ignorance of OUR Constitutional frame of government, is that like it or not, OUR foreign policy is the sole province responsibility of the PRESIDENT of the United States of America; not lt. colonels in the Army, no matter how many decorations they have pinned to their blouse, nor diplomats, nor any body else, for that matter, which includes the smarmy and unctuous Adam Schiff, the Democrat congressman from Hollywood, California, whose water Congresswoman Luria is carrying here as a GOOD DEMOCRAT, regardless of what that might mean with respect to compliance with her oath of office – party before country, afterall, is that Congresswoman Luria is carrying water for Adam Schiff, instead of standing up for Constitutional separation of powers.
With respect to foreign policy being the sole province of the president, for those of us with memories, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, a Democrat, was his own secretary of state, and he ran foreign policy as he saw fit, and if the diplomats in the State Department didn’t like it, they could go pound sand.
And during the period between the end of WWII, including Chiang Kai-Shek’s loss to Mao Tse Tung, and the Korean War, and then the VEET NAM war, there were diplomats who strongly disagreed with foreign policy, but so what?
Because diplomats in the United States of America do not make foreign policy; the president does, and here we have a case very similar to before where some diplomats do not like Trump’s foreign policy, except this time, it is the diplomats who are taking foreign policy away from Trump, and instead, are handing the responsibility to little Adam Schiff of Hollywood, California, despite the fact that he is only a congressman.
And Democrat Luria is backing that action, which means her oath to the Constitution ain’t worth spit.
And who are these self-righteous Democrats to be complaining about suspending aid to a CORRUPT ****-hole like Ukraine, when these same Democrats sold out the people of South Viet Nam back in 1974, as we see from the following excerpt from pp.366,367 of “A BETTER WAR, The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America’s Last Years in Vietnam” by Lewis Sorley, as follows:
In 1974 (Vietnamese) President Thieu sent General Cao Van Vien to Washington to make the case for continued U.S. aid to South Vietnam.
At the Pentagon, where Vien briefed on the current military situation, complete with photographic evidence of mounting enemy violations and massive movement into South Vietnam, he was assured of full support.
On 6 May 1974 a legislative amendment proposed by Senator Edward Kennedy – one of those members of Congress most determined to pull the plug on South Vietnam – was accepted.
It cut $266 million for South Vietnam from a supplementary military aid bill and signified, suggested (Sir Robert) Thompson, “that perhaps the major lesson of the Vietnam war is: do not rely on the United States as an ally.”
end quotes
There is how the Democrats conduct foreign policy, which is why we don’t want their hands on it today; elsewise we would have elected Hillary Clinton instead of Trump, but who in their right mind wanted four more years of Obama?
Paul Plante says
When I enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1967, we were given a booklet titled “The Soldier’s Handbook,” and at p. 5 of that booklet, it stated thusly with respect to the Constitution Democrat Congresswoman Luria wants us to believe she took an oath to, as follows:
The Constitution basically establishes a government of three brnches:
1. Executive – the President.
2. Legislative – the Senate and House of Representatives.
3. Judicial – The court system, headed by the Supreme Court
The three branches are controlled through a system of checks and balances such as a Presidential veto power, Senate approval of Presidential appointments to office and a Judicial review as to the constitutionality of laws.
end quotes
Now, that basic knowledge of how our federal government works did not include anything anywhere giving the House of Representatives “oversight” of the Office of the Executive, and one would think that one claiming to have been a commissioned officer of this nation as Congresswoman Luria does would know that, if I a mere dog soldier, am aware of it.
But apparently that is not knowledge the commissioned officers in the United States of America are required to know – just the grunts who do the actual fighting and bleeding and dying to defend that Constitution pretends to support.
And at p. 4, the Soldier’s Handbook states that, “(T)oday, communism is the major threat to our nation.”
And that was and is because Communism is a coercive system.
There is no true personal liberty in a communist system, because if there was personal liberty of choice, communism could not work, as in communism, the liberty of the individual must be suppressed, which brings us to today and this farce in Washington we are witnessing, which is really now a struggle session, which is a form of public humiliation and torture that was used by the Communist Party of China in the Mao era, particularly during the Cultural Revolution, to shape public opinion and humiliate, persecute, or execute political rivals and those deemed class enemies.
In this case, all those labels of political rival and class enemy now apply to Trump, and we have a seeming never-ending stream of people coming in from everywhere to give the smarmy and unctuous Adam Schiff their opinions of what U.S. foreign policy with respect to the corrupt **** hole Ukraine should be, which is democratization of our foreign policy, and that is the action Congresswoman Luria is backing, Constitutional oath of office notwithstanding.
Yes, the Constitution does give the responsibility for foreign policy to the president, but that is just so un-democratic, so it should be shared out to as many people as possible, starting with Adam Schiff, of course, the now-de facto President of the United States of America who is using the struggle session as a tool to impeach Trump based on all the bad things that are being said about Trump in these struggle sessions, the transcripts of which are being released to the media, so the media in turn can share all the idle gossip in them with us to make us mad at Trump so we will vote Democrat come November 2020, which takes us back to the struggle session, as follows (from Wikipedia):
In general, the victim of a struggle session (in this case Trump) was forced to admit various crimes before a crowd of people who would verbally and physically abuse the victim until he or she confessed.
end quotes
In this case, the crowd of people who are presently verbally abusing Trump are using these sham hearings held by Adam Schiff with the blessings of Congresswoman Luria as their venue, which brings us back to Wikipedia, as follows:
Struggle sessions were often held at the workplace of the accused, but they were sometimes conducted in sports stadiums where large crowds would gather if the target was well-known.
end quotes
We, being more civilized, perhaps, or maybe not as civilized, are using congressional hearings, instead of holding these struggle sessions in say, Yankee Stadium, although Adam may yet get them into that venue.
These struggle sessions being employed in the United States of America today by Adam Schiff with the blessing of Democrat Luria developed from similar ideas of criticism and self-criticism in the Soviet Union from the 1920s.
As Wikipedia tells us, and it never was a secret, the term refers to class struggle; the session is held, ostensibly, to benefit the target, by eliminating all traces of counterrevolutionary, reactionary thinking.
end quotes
So, people, as Adam Schiff and Congresswoman Luria see things here, this humiliation of Trump by this endless stream of gossip-mongers (“Oh, I heard him say something and really, it shocked me to my core!”) coming to Adam’s closed-door hearings is really good for Trump, and in the end, it will make Trump just as good a Democrat as Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi, or Congresswoman Luria, who is as good a Democrat as they come.
Getting back to the struggle session, they became commonplace at Communist Party meetings during the 1930s due to public popularity, and here we are seeing that same thing happening in America today, with these ridiculous hearings where everybody under the sun who doesn’t like Trump’s foreign policy gets to come before Adam Schiff to whine about it.
Incredible, is all I can say.
It’s like being stuck inside some weird movie that is like a cross between “Blazing Saddles” and “Clockwork Orange.”
Dave says
I am sure that when the facts come out and the public sees how the Democrats have mounted a Coup against a duly elected president that she will be silent. Instead she should show some courage and integrity and apologize for her blind support of the corrupt Democrat Party.