[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 115 (Tuesday, June 23, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3153-S3154]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                Protests

  Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, Mr. Floyd's horrific murder at the hands of 
a man sworn to uphold the law, our Nation has seen justified anger. As 
I said here 2 weeks ago, it is a moment that calls for not just police 
reform, it calls for a full reckoning with racial inequities that still 
plague our Nation.
  There is, in my mind, nothing more un-American than racial 
discrimination. Our Nation was founded on the revolutionary truth that 
every human being is created equal and that our rights do not come from 
our government or from our leaders or even our laws; our rights come 
from our Creator.
  It is true that the man who authored these words and gave birth to 
the young Nation did not fully live up to these principles, but it is 
also true that every single great fight for equality in this country's 
history has come from a direct appeal to those powerful principles. 
Slavery, segregation, discriminatory impediments to voting--all of 
these came to an end, not from efforts to overthrow our values but from 
demands that we fulfill them, for these evils could not exist in a 
country, in a nation, built upon the idea that all people are created 
equal with rights granted to them by God.
  Slavery and racial discrimination are, indeed, a tragic part of our 
history, but the long and the steady and

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the perpetual march toward equality, that is part of our heritage as 
well.
  Today, a new generation of Americans is reminding us that while we 
have traveled far on the quest for a more perfect Union, the final 
miles of that journey still lie ahead. The overwhelming and vast 
majority of these Americans on our streets are peacefully reminding us 
that, yes, Black lives matter. They are not asking that we destroy 
America; they are demanding that we be more American; that we more 
fully become a nation with liberty and justice for all. But it is now 
also clear that there are others with a different agenda who have taken 
to our streets as well.
  They are the ones who argue that because the men who wrote our 
Declaration of Independence and our Constitution were imperfect and, in 
some cases, racists, that the Nation their words gave birth to is 
beyond redemption; that America cannot be improved or saved; and that 
therefore it must come to an end.
  These radical views are not new. From the crazy professor whom no one 
took seriously to the nut job running for office with no chance of 
winning, they have operated on the fringes of our politics for decades. 
The difference is that, in recent years, they have begun to move out 
from the fringes, and now these radicals are capitalizing on a 
legitimate movement to force their madness even further into the 
mainstream. Now their violence, their vandalism, their anarchy are 
excused, tolerated, sometimes even celebrated by some, and their 
radical agenda is shielded, increasingly, from scrutiny by an emerging 
speech code that condemns as hate speech and as racism any criticism of 
these anti-lynching American radicals.
  The self-proclaimed guardians of free speech in media now apologize 
for printing the opinions of a U.S. Senator and actively cajoled tech 
companies to censor conservative voices. Social media companies, which 
owe their very existence to freedom of expression, now threaten to 
block the accounts of American politicians in publications here at 
home, while eagerly complying with the demands of totalitarian racist 
regimes abroad.
  Online mobs not only decide what is acceptable speech but are 
empowered to destroy the reputation and career of anyone they believe 
has violated their standards. Celebrities and large corporations are so 
eager to proactively shield themselves from being canceled that they 
raise money to bail out arsonists, but they do not raise a single cent 
to help the small business owners, oftentimes minorities themselves, 
whose life work was looted and burned to the ground by the radicals
  This radicalism, this anarchy, isn't just annoying; it is 
destructive, and it is dangerous. It is destructive to bedrock 
institutions in our country and their legitimacy in the eyes of our 
people.
  Why would people trust public health experts who told them they had 
to lose their job or their business, that their kids couldn't have a 
graduation, that their grandmother couldn't have a funeral but are 
afraid to say anything about crowds of people setting fires and looting 
businesses?
  Why would people trust local leaders who will close your business for 
having too many customers or threaten to arrest you for going to a park 
or to a church but who stand by and do nothing when a mob vandalizes a 
monument, tears down a statue, or takes over an entire section of a 
city?
  Why would people trust the media that will shame them for going to 
the beach, for not wearing a mask in public but portrays a mob of White 
anarchists attacking African-American police officers as just 
frustrated racial justice activists?
  This radicalism is also dangerous because, if it is OK for a violent 
mob to tear down a statue, then what is to stop another violent mob 
from showing up to defend it? If it is OK to set a police car on fire, 
what is going to stop someone upset at activist judges from burning 
down a courtroom? Where does it end? It will not end because there is 
no way to satisfy radicals who only seek destruction.
  Just ask a clergy at the historical St. John's Episcopal Church. 
Three weeks ago, they expressed their support for and solidarity with 
the protesters, even after some agitator tried to burn down the church. 
Last night, radicals vandalized their church, calling for an autonomous 
zone here in Washington.
  Just ask the mayor of Seattle. Just a few days ago on national TV, 
she was saying that the so-called autonomous zone in her city would 
lead to a ``summer of love.'' Now they have announced that they are 
going to move in and retake the area after multiple people were shot 
over the weekend.
  The anti-American radicals don't care about racial equality, and they 
will not stop as long as everyone is afraid to call them out for who 
and for what they are. As long as we fail to point out that those 
seeking racial equality and these radicals are not the same people; 
that the people committing this violence and carrying out this anarchy 
and this chaos are not the same people as the people who are rightfully 
asking for us to address racial inequality, as long as we fail to point 
that out, they will continue to hide behind this important and 
legitimate movement.
  It is time we stop--we stop being afraid to express the common sense 
of Americans of every race, of every background. Yes, we must address 
racial inequality. Yes, Black lives must matter. But the vandalism, the 
arson, and the anarchy on our streets have nothing to do with this 
important cause.
  Yes, some police departments need to be reformed, and bad police 
officers need to be fired. And if they committed crimes, they need to 
be arrested, and they need to be prosecuted. But, no, we are not going 
to abolish or defund police departments.
  Yes, racial disparities must be acknowledged, and they must be 
addressed but not by giving in to a bunch of crazy radicals who hate 
and want to destroy this country of ours. This is what the overwhelming 
majority of Americans of every race and background believe, and this is 
what so many are afraid to say for fear of being destroyed by an online 
mob and their accomplices.
  For over 200 years, each generation of America has moved us ever 
closer to fulfilling the powerful truths upon which this Nation was 
founded. Now it is our turn to do the same, not by destroying America 
but by becoming more fully American, not by abandoning our founding 
principles but by moving us closer to becoming the one Nation under God 
with liberty and justice for all that we have pledged our allegiance 
to.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cramer). The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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