In a floor speech today, U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) laid out his rationale for voting to impeach President Donald J. Trump.

“The framers knew this day would come,” said New Jersey’s senior senator.

They designed the foundation of the country alert to the possibility of foreign intrusion into our country’s affairs. However, he noted, “They could never envision a day when the country” would shrink from pursuing justice against a president caught subverting U.S. national security interests  by appealing to foreign interference in our elections.

“This is not an exoneration,” Menendez said, referring to Republicans’ opposition to impeachment. “It is the coronation of a king.”

This day will live on, he said, as a “day of constitutional infamy.”

“I will vote guilt ‘yes’ on articles of impeachment not because I hate this president, because I don’t, but because I love this country more,” Menendez added. “I took a vote to uphold the Constitution.”