[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 30 (Thursday, March 7, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H1969-H1970]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        THE ALAN KEYES INCIDENT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Gekas] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GEKAS. Madam Speaker, last week the whole world was horrified by 
the spectacle of Ambassador Alan Keyes being handcuffed or otherwise 
restrained and forcibly prevented from entering into a television area 
for a debate among candidates.
  I feel personally outraged by that entire incident. I feel the insult 
that Ambassador Keyes must have felt. I feel the dismay that must have 
flowed through his veins at that time. Then not only was he prevented 
from entering into the premises, but then carried off like he himself 
was a criminal and taken to a remote part of the territory there and 
dumped off like an unwanted citizen. Double outrage, double affront, as 
it were, more of an insult.
  Now, I think that everyone in America has shared that feeling of 
insult along with Ambassador Keyes, and I suppose many have expressed 
their regrets. I did and sent a personal note to him expressing my 
regrets and expressing that I felt with him the range of insults that 
he must have felt.
  But I must tell my colleagues that I have even more reason to 
associate myself with that insult, because I experienced almost exactly 
the same thing in the year 1966 in my first venture into politics when 
I myself was blockaded by constables, as it was at that time, from 
entering into a public political meeting place where I should not have 
been excluded, but I was.
  So I, in viewing the Keyes incident, of course had flashes in front 
of me of what had happened to me many years ago. There is no way to 
express this indignation which we are attempting to do here this 
evening, but I must tell my colleagues I am going to write a letter to 
the FEC, to the FCC, to the television station in question, to the law 
enforcement community of that area, to find out exactly what happened 
and why.
  Madam Speaker, I am not sure that Federal laws were violated by those 
people who strong-armed Mr. Keyes, but equal time always enters into 
these

[[Page H1970]]

dimensions of public broadcast, especially about political debates. I 
want to see whether he was unfairly kept from the debate even. After 
all, he had participated in several debates before, television debates. 
As I recall, he was given very high ratings by the viewing public and 
by commentators and by pollsters and others who would evaluate those 
debates. He was given high marks.

                              {time}  1915

  So I want to find out did equal time apply? I want to find out did 
Federal election laws come into play? How about Federal communications 
laws? And I am going to compile the answers here and see whether or not 
my committee, the Subcommittee on Administrative and Commercial Law of 
the Committee of the Judiciary, whether my committee has jurisdiction 
to further look into this outrage or whether some other committee might 
be invited to review the events of that evening.
  But no matter what the outcome, I now know that the Congressional 
Record at least records the feelings of the Members of the House of 
Representatives, and, as I said in my note to Ambassador Keyes, we hope 
that this will not deter him one moment, as apparently it is the case 
that it is not deterring him, not one moment from pursuing his goals, 
from uttering his message and from registering his rights to speak out 
on any issue at any time.

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