Remarks by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ)

in the House of Representatives 1/13/21

   With just seven days remaining in his term, today’s highly partisan rush to impeach the President is being done without knowing the whole truth which takes time, effort and serious scrutiny to establish.

   Today’s snap impeachment vote alleging President Trump’s “incitement of insurrection” lacks an objective and thorough investigation of the facts.

   Astonishingly, there have been no congressional hearings on H. Res. 24—the impeachment resolution—which was only introduced two days ago on January 11^th.

   The fact that the U.S. Senate won’t even consider the impeachment resolution passed by the House until after the January 20^th inauguration begs the question as to why the debate and vote isn’t postponed until we have all the facts. 

   Our Nation is in desperate need of unity and civility as it prepares for the inauguration of President-elect Biden.

   Impeachment of President Trump—without a thorough analysis of the facts which takes time, effort and serious scrutiny to establish—will not in any way help to heal a divided America.

   Let me state again that I unequivocally condemn the assault on the Capitol last week and those who committed murder, violence, vandalism and other crimes should be prosecuted to the greatest extent of the law.  

   We must be committed to zero-tolerance towards violence in any form.

   I strongly support and have cosponsored H.R . 275 to create a national bipartisan commission to comprehensively investigate the January 6^th deadly attack on the Capitol.