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DPCC Co-Chair Lieu: Whistleblowers Work on Behalf of the United States

September 30, 2019

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Ted Lieu, Co-Chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, appeared on Shepard Smith Reporting on FOX News to discuss the whistleblower complaint and congressional oversight responsibilities. Rep. Lieu underscored Congress' commitment to protecting the whistleblower, pursuing the facts without partisan considerations and fighting For the People to root out official corruption wherever it may be found. Below are excerpts of the interview. Click here to watch the video.

"Now let me first say that I served on active duty in the United States military because I believe America is an exceptional country. One of the things that makes us great is our shared understanding [that] we are all Americans, and it is wrong, and no American President should ever solicit a foreign government to target an American political opponent. The whistleblower absolutely did the right thing by bringing this to the inspector general. The whistleblower is an American, we are all Americans. This is not a partisan issue. And the American public is watching how Congress responds, and how we protect whistleblowers."

"Impeachment is one of the gravest powers of Congress, second only to the power to declare war. It should never be our first option. It always has to be the last option. We should never want to do it. We have to follow the facts where it may lead. We should not be doing this for political reasons [and] we also should not not do this for political reasons. It has to be based on the facts."

"I'm a former prosecutor. You don't just look at individual items in isolation. You have to look at the entire context. So the whistleblower complaint reveals that this was a month's long campaign to get Ukraine to investigate Trump's political opponent, that Donald Trump had secretly blocked military aid to Ukraine, which Congress appropriated because Ukraine was fighting back against one of our adversaries. And then a week later, Donald Trump has a phone call where he requests the Ukrainian leader to investigate Biden and his son right after the Ukrainian leader raises the issue of military aid. When you put this in context together, it appears that the President of the United States abused his power and leveraged the cut off of military aid to get Ukraine to investigate his political opponent."

"I'm pleased that the acting DNI director today said the whistleblower acted in good faith and that the inspector general, who Trump appointed, had deemed that this complaint was urgent and credible. I think we now need to hear from the whistleblower. In addition, the whistleblower also identified a number of other U.S. officials who [have] expressed similar concerns that the President was soliciting foreign interference in our election."

"A spy works on behalf of a foreign power. Whistleblowers work on behalf of the United States. I hope the President of the United States understands that. In this case, the whistleblower is an American who followed the laws. The DNI director said he acted in good faith. He followed all the appropriate channels, and the information that he or she provided has now been validated by the rough transcript that the White House itself released yesterday."

"So, I am disappointed that the media would release a name of the whistleblower. The whole point of the whistleblower protection law that Congress passed is to protect whistleblowers. In this case, the facts have come out from the whistleblower have essentially been verified either because the White House released the rough transcript that showed that the President requested the Ukrainian leader to investigate Joe Biden, also because Donald Trump admitted on national TV that he essentially said the same thing to the Ukrainian leader. And no one disputes that Trump halted critical military aid to Ukraine."