[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 104 (Thursday, June 4, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2725-S2726]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                PROTESTS

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, on Monday I watched the shameful scene a 
block from the White House as the President of the United States 
ordered U.S. Park Police, backed by the D.C. National Guard and 
following threats throughout the day, to use the U.S. military against 
peaceful American protesters so he could have his photograph taken in 
front of St. John's Church, holding a Bible. It was an appalling, 
almost surreal, abuse of power that showed a flagrant disregard not 
only for our Constitution but for those who have devoted their lives to 
defend it.
  Several of those patriots have spoken out forcefully and eloquently 
to reject the President's grotesque display of force and the way he has 
abused the Office of the Presidency, day after day, year after year, to 
stoke divisions in this country. I am grateful to them for doing so, 
and I want to highlight in particular two of those voices, former 
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, and former 
Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. In pieces, one published in the 
Atlantic and one released as a statement, both laid out an alternate 
vision for our country, a vision that so many Americans who were 
similarly outraged share and that I also share.
  I ask unanimous consent that these statements from Admiral Mullen and 
former Defense Secretary Mattis, be inserted in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                   [From The Atlantic, June 2, 2020]

I Cannot Remain Silent: Our Fellow Citizens Are Not the Enemy, and Must 
                            Never Become So

                            (By Mike Mullen)

       It sickened me yesterday to see security personnel--
     including members of the National Guard--forcibly and 
     violently clear a path through Lafayette Square to 
     accommodate the president's visit outside St. John's Church. 
     I have to date been reticent to speak out on issues 
     surrounding President Trump's leadership, but we are at an 
     inflection point, and the events of the past few weeks have 
     made it impossible to remain silent.
       Whatever Trump's goal in conducting his visit, he laid bare 
     his disdain for the rights of peaceful protest in this 
     country, gave succor to the leaders of other countries who 
     take comfort in our domestic strife, and risked further 
     politicizing the men and women of our armed forces.
       There was little good in the stunt.
       While no one should ever condone the violence, vandalism, 
     and looting that has exploded across our city streets, 
     neither should anyone lose sight of the larger and deeper 
     concerns about institutional racism that have ignited this 
     rage.
       As a white man, I cannot claim perfect understanding of the 
     fear and anger that African Americans feel today. But as 
     someone who has been around for a while, I know enough--and 
     I've seen enough--to understand that those feelings are real 
     and that they are all too painfully founded.
       We must, as citizens, address head-on the issue of police 
     brutality and sustained injustices against the African 
     American community. We must, as citizens, support and defend 
     the right--indeed, the solemn obligation--to peacefully 
     assemble and to be heard. These are not mutually exclusive 
     pursuits.

[[Page S2726]]

       And neither of these pursuits will be made easier or safer 
     by an overly aggressive use of our military, active duty or 
     National Guard. The United States has a long and, to be fair, 
     sometimes troubled history of using the armed forces to 
     enforce domestic laws. The issue for us today is not whether 
     this authority exists, but whether it will be wisely 
     administered.
       I remain confident in the professionalism of our men and 
     women in uniform. They will serve with skill and with 
     compassion. They will obey lawful orders. But I am less 
     confident in the soundness of the orders they will be given 
     by this commander in chief, and I am not convinced that the 
     conditions on our streets, as bad as they are, have risen to 
     the level that justifies a heavy reliance on military troops. 
     Certainly, we have not crossed the threshold that would make 
     it appropriate to invoke the provisions of the Insurrection 
     Act.
       Furthermore, I am deeply worried that as they execute their 
     orders, the members of our military will be co-opted for 
     political purposes.
       Even in the midst of the carnage we are witnessing, we must 
     endeavor to see American cities and towns as our homes and 
     our neighborhoods. They are not ``battle spaces'' to be 
     dominated, and must never become so.
       We must ensure that African Americans--indeed, all 
     Americans--are given the same rights under the Constitution, 
     the same justice under the law, and the same consideration we 
     give to members of our own family. Our fellow citizens are 
     not the enemy, and must never become so.
       Too many foreign and domestic policy choices have become 
     militarized; too many military missions have become 
     politicized.
       This is not the time for stunts. This is the time for 
     leadership.
                                  ____


                       In Union There Is Strength

                           (By James Mattis)

       I have watched this week's unfolding events, angry and 
     appalled. The words ``Equal Justice Under Law'' are carved in 
     the pediment of the United States Supreme Court. This is 
     precisely what protesters are rightly demanding. It is a 
     wholesome and unifying demand--one that all of us should be 
     able to get behind. We must not be distracted by a small 
     number of lawbreakers. The protests are defined by tens of 
     thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we 
     live up to our values--our values as people and our values as 
     a nation.
       When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an 
     oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I 
     dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered 
     under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights 
     of their fellow citizens--much less to provide a bizarre 
     photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military 
     leadership standing alongside.
       We must reject any thinking of our cities as a 
     ``battlespace'' that our uniformed military is called upon to 
     ``dominate.'' At home, we should use our military only when 
     requested to do so, on very rare occasions, by state 
     governors. Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in 
     Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict--a false conflict--
     between the military and civilian society. It erodes the 
     moral ground that ensures a trusted bond between men and 
     women in uniform and the society they are sworn to protect, 
     and of which they themselves are a part. Keeping public order 
     rests with civilian state and local leaders who best 
     understand their communities and are answerable to them.
       James Madison wrote in Federalist 14 that ``America united 
     with a handful of troops, or without a single soldier, 
     exhibits a more forbidding posture to foreign ambition than 
     America disunited, with a hundred thousand veterans ready for 
     combat.'' We do not need to militarize our response to 
     protests. We need to unite around a common purpose. And it 
     starts by guaranteeing that all of us are equal before the 
     law.
       Instructions given by the military departments to our 
     troops before the Normandy invasion reminded soldiers that 
     ``The Nazi slogan for destroying us . . . was `Divide and 
     Conquer.' Our American answer is `In Union there is 
     Strength.' '' We must summon that unity to surmount this 
     crisis--confident that we are better than our politics.
       Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does 
     not try to unite the American people--does not even pretend 
     to try. Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the 
     consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are 
     witnessing the consequences of three years without mature 
     leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the 
     strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be 
     easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our 
     fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our 
     promise; and to our children.
       We can come through this trying time stronger, and with a 
     renewed sense of purpose and respect for one another. The 
     pandemic has shown us that it is not only our troops who are 
     willing to offer the ultimate sacrifice for the safety of the 
     community. Americans in hospitals, grocery stores, post 
     offices, and elsewhere have put their lives on the line in 
     order to serve their fellow citizens and their country. We 
     know that we are better than the abuse of executive authority 
     that we witnessed in Lafayette Park. We must reject and hold 
     accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our 
     Constitution. At the same time, we must remember Lincoln's 
     ``better angels,'' and listen to them, as we work to unite.
       Only by adopting a new path--which means, in truth, 
     returning to the original path of our founding ideals--will 
     we again be a country admired and respected at home and 
     abroad.

  (At the request of Mr. Durbin, the following statement was ordered to 
be printed in the Record.)
 Mr. TESTER. Mr. President, I was absent when the Senate voted 
on vote number 112 to invoke cloture on Executive Calendar #697, 
Michael Pack, of Maryland, to be Chief Executive Officer of the 
Broadcasting Board of Governors. On vote number 112, had I been 
present, I would have voted no on the motion to invoke cloture on Mr. 
Pack.

                          ____________________