IV 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 731 

Condemning the inflammatory and racially offensive statement of the President of the United States suggesting falsely a moral equivalence between 

the domestic terrorist act of lynching and the constitutionally provided 

congressional impeachment power. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

NOVEMBER 22, 2019 

Ms. JACKSON LEE submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 

the Committee on the Judiciary 

RESOLUTION 

Condemning the inflammatory and racially offensive statement of the President of the United States suggesting 

falsely a moral equivalence between the domestic terrorist 

act of lynching and the constitutionally provided congressional impeachment power. 

Whereas in February 2014, the military of the Russia Federation, without merit or cause, invaded the eastern part 

of the free and independent country of Ukraine, including 

the Donbass region and the Crimean Peninsula; 

Whereas the United States, a strategic ally of Ukraine, reacted swiftly to the Russian invasion, condemning the 

military action in strong and bipartisan fashion, and providing military, humanitarian, and non-military financial 

assistance to the determined but beleaguered nation of 


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•HRES 731 IH 

Ukraine, which since 2014 has totaled approximately 

$1.5 billion; 

Whereas in September 2019, members of the House of Representatives were alerted to a complaint filed by a whistleblower within the Intelligence Community alleging that 

on a July 25, 2019, call with the President of Ukraine, 

the current President of the United States sought to 

withhold $391 million in foreign military aid to Ukraine 

unless and until it announced publicly that it was currently conducting corruption investigations against one of 

the American president’s political rivals; 

Whereas, on September 25, 2019, the White House released 

a Memorandum of Conversation in which the July 25, 

2019, telephone conversation between the presidents of 

the United States and of Ukraine was memorialized and 

which corroborated in all material respects the allegations 

of the whistleblower; 

Whereas the Memorandum of Conversation released by the 

White House confirms that the President of the United 

States engaged in behavior that undermines the integrity 

of American elections, demeans the dignity of the office 

of the President of the United States, and jeopardizes the 

security of the United States; 

Whereas, on September 24, 2019, the Speaker of the House 

announced that the House of Representatives would commence an impeachment inquiry pursuant to its constitutional authority under article I, section 2, clause 5 to determine whether in connection with the July 25, 2019, 

telephone conversation with the President of Ukraine, the 

President of the United States has engaged in conduct 

constituting ‘‘Treason, Bribery, or other High Crimes or 

Misdemeanors’’ as specified in article II, section 4; 


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Whereas, on October 22, 2019, bemoaning his fate, but not 

regretting his conduct, the President of the United States 

tweeted that ‘‘All Republicans must remember what they 

are witnessing here—a lynching,’’ thus falsely drawing a 

moral equivalence between the exercise of the impeachment power expressly and solely conferred on the House 

of Representatives by the Constitution and lynching, the 

most heinous act of domestic terrorism and symbolic of 

one of the darkest and most shameful periods in America’s past; 

Whereas the statement asserted in the President’s tweet is 

false, inflammatory, racially offensive, unbecoming the 

Nation’s Chief Magistrate but consistent with prior statements the President has made to stoke to division, discord, and disharmony among the American people; 

Whereas the current President of the United States burnished his political reputation by claiming falsely for 

more than 5 years that his predecessor was born in 

Kenya and not the United States and thus was an illegitimate President; 

Whereas the current President of the United States launched 

his 2016 campaign for the Presidency said of persons 

from Mexico seeking to immigrate to the United States: 

‘‘They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re 

rapists.’’; 

Whereas the current President of the United States claimed 

that a Hispanic Federal jurist could not preside over a 

court proceeding to which he was a defendant accused of 

civil fraud because ‘‘He’s a Mexican.’’; 

Whereas in January 2018 the current President of the 

United States is reported to have inquired of his adviVerDate Sep 11 2014 21:21 Nov 22, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR731.IH HR731

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sors: ‘‘Why are we having all these people from shithole 

countries come here?’’, referring to persons from countries in Africa, the Caribbean, and Central and South 

America; 

Whereas, on August 15, 2017, the current President of the 

United States said he regarded as some ‘‘very fine people,’’ the neo-Nazis, White supremacists, and Ku Klux 

Klansmen who descended on the peaceful community of 

Charlottesville, Virginia, to advocate racism and were met 

by peaceful counter-protestors; 

Whereas in his continuous and determined effort to exacerbate ethnic tensions and racial divisions in the body politic, the current President of the United States is revealing himself to be an unwitting instrument of the plan 

hatched in Moscow by Russian Federation President 

Vladimir Putin to interfere in the 2016 presidential campaign to help elect his preferred candidate and sow discord and division among the American people; and 

Whereas statements and actions of the current President of 

the United States demean the office he holds and falls 

short of the standard set by the 16th President, whose 

administration was devoted to unity, healing, and ending 

racial division and who famously foretold in his March 4, 

1861, Inaugural Address the reasons why the efforts of 

the current President of the United States are destined 

to fail: ‘‘We are not enemies, but friends. We must not 

be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must 

not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of 

memory, stretching from every battlefield, and patriot 

grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this 

broad land, will swell when again touched, as surely they 


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will be, by the better angels of our nature.’’: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 

2 (1) strongly condemns the false, inflammatory, 

3 and racially offensive tweet made by the President 

4 of the United States on October 22, 2019, falsely 

5 drawing a moral equivalence between the exercise of 

6 the impeachment power expressly and solely con7 ferred on the House of Representatives by the Con8 stitution and lynching, the most heinous act of do9 mestic terrorism and symbolic of one of the darkest 

10 and most shameful periods in America’s past; and 

11 (2) calls upon all Americans to read, celebrate, 

12 and revere the Constitution of the United States, fi13 delity to which is the surest best means of forming 

14 a more perfect union, establishing justice, ensuring 

15 domestic tranquility, providing for the common de16 fense, promoting the general welfare, and securing 

17 the blessing of liberty to them and their posterity. 

Æ 


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