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By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief

CLEVELANDURBANNEWS.COM-WASHINGTON D.C.- Ohio Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), a Toledo Democrat whose ninth congressional district extends to Cleveland and co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, today delivered remarks at a House Ukraine Caucus press conference on President Trump's withholding of vital military and developmental aid from Ukraine and his reported effort to coerce Ukrainian leadership into helping him win reelection.

Her remarks come as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced yesterday that the House would pursue an impeachment inquiry against the president after he urged Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to target Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden, the vice president under former president Barack Obama, and his son Hunter Biden in a smear campaign, an effort, they say, to enhance his election capabilities in 2020.

Pelosi and other congressional Democrats, including U.S. Rep Marcia Fudge, Joyce Beatty and Tim Ryan, all of Ohio, say Trump needs to be impeached for illegal activity across the spectrum.

The longest serving woman in Congress, Kaptur's remarks at a House Ukraine Caucus press conference on President Trump's withholding of vital military and developmental aid from Ukraine and his reported effort to coerce Ukrainian leadership into helping him win reelection are as follows:

Good afternoon everybody.

As co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, I thank you for being here.

The Ukraine Caucus called this press conference today to express our grave concerns regarding President Trump's withholding of vital aid from Ukraine.

According to the highly redacted White House memo released this morning:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was "ready to buy more anti-tank missiles" and Trump immediately responded "I would like you to do us a favor though." A favor.

This is our president explicitly expecting a favor in return for funds that were passed and appropriated by this Congress - funds meant to assist Ukraine in its defense against sever Russian aggression. Russian aggression that has killed over 13,000 Ukrainians, military and civilian, wounded over 30,000, and displaced upwards of 2 million Ukrainians.

That abuse of power by our president undermines our national security.

On July 18, President Trump purposefully directed his administration to withhold nearly 400 million dollars in defense assistance for Ukraine from the State and Defense Department budgets, funds that members of the House have since pushed to release. Members of Congress were told it was part of an inter agency delay. In reading the memo today, that does seem to be the case.

The President cannot make the release of funds passed and appropriated by the Congress of the United States, surely for national security, contingent on asking a foreign leader for a "favor" prior to the release of those funds.

Congress must compel the release of the full whistle blower complaint as it was originally submitted to the Office of Inspector General. The document we were provided today was not a complete transcript of the conversation the president had with President Zelensky. It was about 11 minutes of a conversation that lasted upward of 30 minutes. We want the full transcript. And we must hold executive branch officials in contempt if they refuse to give us the full document.

Congress must uphold its duties as set out in the Constitution. No one is above the law.

By Democratic Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, 9th congressional district.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, and who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.