[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 121 (Thursday, July 21, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H7063-H7064]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
STILL I RISE
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Torres of New York). Under the Speaker's
announced policy of January 4, 2021, the gentleman from Texas (Mr.
Green) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority
leader.
Mr. GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, still I rise. And I rise today to
address the unfortunate circumstances that took the lives of 19
children and 2 teachers in Uvalde, Texas, at Robb Elementary School.
I rise to address this because the families are still suffering.
Children did not return home from school. This should never happen in
our country.
I will never forget the baby, the child who indicated that she took
the blood from a friend who was lying on the floor, and she took that
blood, and she put it on her body and on her face so that the gunman
wouldn't shoot her. She will have to live with this for the rest of her
life.
I rise because there have been many conflicting stories about what
happened. Almost daily there was a different story, a different
narrative. And at some point, the families deserve the truth about what
happened in Uvalde, what happened at Robb Elementary School.
They deserve the truth.
And they deserve the truth because the pain and suffering may not
immediately leave them, but it will give them some hope that one day
they will be able to wake up one morning and be relieved of some of the
pain and suffering that they are enduring currently.
And to get to this truth, which some persons have tried to crush to
earth, of course, we know that William Cullen Bryant is right: ``Truth,
crushed to earth, shall rise again.''
They tried to crush the truth to earth, and they used--someone did--
the Governor of the State of Texas because, wittingly or unwittingly,
the Governor of the State of Texas laid a foundation for a coverup.
Some things bear repeating. Wittingly or unwittingly, the Governor of
the State of Texas laid the foundation for a coverup. For, you see, the
Governor took to the stage shortly after the shooting, perhaps a day
later, he took to the stage, and he had with him persons with great
credibility.
He had with him the Lieutenant Governor of the State of Texas, two
U.S. Senators from the State of Texas; he had with him a State
Representative and a State senator; with them, the Director of the
Texas Department of Public Safety, all on the stage with the Governor.
With them, the Chief Patrol Agent for the Del Rio sector of the U.S.
Border Patrol. He had with him the Uvalde mayor, the Uvalde County
Judge, the chief of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School
District, the Superintendent for the Uvalde Consolidated Independent
School District, and the Commissioner for the Texas Education Agency,
all on the stage with the Governor.
While on the stage with the Governor, and in their presence, the
Governor made the following statement--I had my staff give me the
statement. I want to read the statement that the Governor made because
the Governor, whether wittingly or unwittingly, laid the foundation for
a coverup.
Here is what the Governor said: ``The reality is, as horrible as what
happened, it could have been worse.
``The reason it was not worse is because law enforcement officials
did what they do.''
They did what they do. This is the Governor speaking. And he goes on
to say: ``They showed amazing courage by running toward gunfire for the
singular purpose of trying to save lives.''
And these are the Governor's words.
``And it is a fact that because of their quick response, getting on
the scene of being able to respond to the gunman, and eliminating the
gunman, they were able to save lives.''
Well, Governor, you and I know that it is not a fact that this
occurred, as you articulated. And we know, not because some righteous
person came forward to share the truth; not because there was an
investigation and as a result of the investigation truths crushed to
earth are now alive again.
No, it is because a news source released a video. It was a George
Floyd moment. But for the video, there probably would not have been a
successful prosecution in the George Floyd case.
It was an Edmund Pettus Bridge moment. But for--at that time, the
tape, I suppose--the actual showing of what happened at the Edmund
Pettus Bridge, on Bloody Sunday, I wouldn't be in Congress.
The video spoke truth to power. When power was attempting to cover up
the truth, the video spoke truth. The video is available for the world
to see.
And upon seeing this video, the Governor indicated that he was
misled, deceived, if you will. That is what the Governor says.
Well, before we go on, I think it is important for us to expose the
definition of coverup, because there are many persons who have their
own definition. But I like the one that Oxford gives. This is the
Oxford definition. The Oxford definition of coverup. Coverup per
Oxford: An attempt to prevent people's discovering the truth about a
serious mistake, a serious mistake, or a crime.
You can have a coverup and not have a crime. You can have a coverup,
and there is only an attempt, an attempt to prevent the discovery.
So our discovering by way of the video does not eviscerate the fact
that a coverup was taking place. They were trying to hide the truth.
They were engaging in insidious prevarication.
`` . . . because Carlyle is right, `No lie can live forever.' ''
``Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again,'' William Cullen Bryant.
The video is the truth. And now, Governor, you have a duty,
responsibility, and an obligation to the people of the State of Texas
and to those babies who lost their lives, you have got a responsibility
to come forward and tell us who told you that all of these heroic
actions took place. The people need to know, but those parents need to
know because of their suffering.
Who was it that was trying to cover up the truth? You know who the
person is, Governor. You have the responsibility to bring it to the
attention of the public.
And if that person received that intelligence, or lack of
intelligence, flawed information, fallacious commentary, if that person
received it from another person, then we need to know who that person
is. And we need to know until we get to the person who initiated this
fabrication, this prevarication. We need to know who initiated it.
Who was the genesis of the coverup? That is the Governor's
responsibility.
You need to do this, Governor, and you need to do it immediately, if
not sooner. You need to do it because you are the Chief Executive
Officer of the State of Texas. You are the person who can assemble all
of these high-profile persons.
You are the person who gave credibility to the insidious
prevarication. You are the person, Governor. All of these high-profile
people were there because you were there. That was your call.
All of your credibility is on the line now. You need to expose the
person who brought this fabrication to you such that you would then
present it to the world.
And I say to the public at large, and anybody who is listening, my
dear friends and colleagues, I say to you, it has to be somebody the
Governor trusts.
{time} 1345
It has to be somebody that he believes in. It has to be somebody that
he was willing to accept that person's word and go on national TV and
repeat, echo, what that person told him.
Governor, you have got to do it. You have got to expose the person
who brought this to you, and it has to be, in my opinion, somebody that
you trust. Somebody that you believe would vet the information before
sharing it with you. Somebody that has been with you. Somebody that you
have confidence in.
It is not somebody that just walked off the street. It is not
somebody that you just happened to meet as you were coming to the press
conference. No, Governor. It is somebody that you know and trust, and
you've got to expose that person.
That person doesn't deserve to be secreted. That is not something
that we would accord a person who would present such a prevarication.
You have got to reveal the name of that person.
If there is a person that told this person that you are secreting so
far or you
[[Page H7064]]
are not telling us about, then we need to know who that was. We have
got to get back to the source, the genesis, of this misinformation that
you claim you received.
Governor, I will give you this admonition. If you do not go back to
the genesis, at some point, Governor, the eye of suspicion will be on
you. At some point, Governor, this will no longer be a question of who
told you. At some point, this will become a question of why did you do
this? Why did you do this to these families?
Why would you further a prevarication that would cause them to
embrace the people who behaved in a pusillanimous fashion; timid,
cowardly. Why would you want them to embrace them as heroes?
I support law enforcement. My uncle was a deputy sheriff. I am in
Congress because of my uncle. One day he told me I was going to be a
lawyer, and I believed him. I went on the rest of my life trying to
become a lawyer because my uncle said it was such that I would do.
Well, I support law enforcement, but I don't support what happened
that I saw on that video. You can be opposed and antithetical to what
happened on the video and not be antithetical to law enforcement. That
is just a fact.
You don't have to be antithetical to every law enforcement officer
because you see something that you find distasteful on the video, that
is disdainful. No.
I support law enforcement, but I will never support what I saw on
that video, and those babies deserve justice, Governor. So it is up to
you, Governor. It is up to you now to do that which righteousness
requires. Righteousness.
I am also saddened because the officers who appeared, they were in
body armor. Some of them; not all, but some of them. They had shields;
not all, but some of them. They had long guns; not all, but some of
them.
It has been reported that more than 300 officers appeared--300. Long
guns, short guns, body armor, shields, helmets.
In Texas, there are those who want a teacher with a pistol to do what
more than 300 persons armed with long guns, protected by body armor,
some with shields, what they could not do or did not do within an hour.
More than 70 minutes lapsed before the gunman was taken out, but we
expect a teacher in the State of Texas to be prepared to take out a
gunman with an AR-15-type weapon.
This is a level of inanity that borders on insanity, something that
is totally unacceptable among people of good will. Teachers ought to be
allowed to teach. Let teachers teach.
We train the constabulary to deal with these kinds of issues, the
police, the Department of Public Safety officers, the Texas Rangers.
They get paid to deal with these issues. Let teachers teach.
Let's secure schools. Let's make sure every school has locks that
lock--locks that lock--doors that shut, and that there is a culture in
the school that prohibits the use of emergency exits for routine visits
to your automobile or some other place outside of the school. That
would be important for the protection of life.
But there is something else that could have been done, because,
Governor, those babies shouldn't have lost their lives. There is
something that you and I and other persons who hold public trust, who
can pass laws, could have done to save the lives of those babies.
Governor, 18-year-olds should not be able to purchase weapons of war.
Weapons of war belong in Ukraine, not Uvalde.
Babies shouldn't die in school because someone has a weapon of war.
He should not have been able to purchase that long gun, that weapon of
war. If he had not been able to purchase it, they wouldn't have died at
the hands of a person with a weapon of war. So I say to you: They
shouldn't have died as a result of that long gun, that weapon of war.
But there is a way for you to vindicate yourself. Here is how you can
vindicate yourself, Governor. You have the authority, the awesome
power. By virtue of the office you hold, you have the power to call a
special session of the State legislature in the State of Texas.
When you call that special session, Governor, you have the power, the
awesome power, to have on the agenda legislation that will prohibit the
sale of an AR-15-style weapon, a long gun, to an 18-year-old in the
State of Texas. It shouldn't happen. It shouldn't have happened.
We can prevent it from happening again, but it takes will more than
way. The way is there. We have the power. Do we have the will is the
question.
I haven't seen the will. There ought to be the will because we have
seen this circumstance before. This is not the first time. We have seen
it in the Tops grocery store; 10 people murdered. Walmart store, people
murdered. We have the power.
At some point, the American public, which believes that there should
not be long guns of this type in the hands of persons who are under 21,
at some point, the American public is going to turn on somebody, and I
don't mean in a violent way--I mean at the polls on election day. The
American public is going to announce its position at some point. At
some point, some persons are going to find themselves making an early
exit, if you will.
So I am going to ask that we cease and desist with this fabrication
or belief that there is nothing we can do, that the Constitution
doesn't allow it. Yes, it does.
The Constitution doesn't say you can't have some regulations. The
Constitution doesn't say you can have a bazooka. You can't have a
switchblade drone; you can't have a predator. And if you are under 21,
you ought not be able to have a weapon of war.
Mr. Speaker, I'm going to close with this commentary. It is not
enough for things to be right. They must also look right.
While it may be right for the Governor to have had a press conference
with all of these outstanding personalities with great credibility, it
may have been right. It may have been right for the Governor to receive
what he perceives at the time to be credible information and find out
later that it is not credible and to just ignore this. I don't say that
it is, but maybe it is right.
But it is not enough for things to be right, they must also look
right; and it doesn't look right for the Governor to know who gave him
this insidious prevarication and to secret the name of the person.
It is not enough for things to be right, they must also look right;
this does not look right.
Because I believe it isn't right, I am calling on the Governor to act
expeditiously, reveal the name of the person, and to do so with the
understanding that if this person is under your command, under your
office, then there has to be some sanctions imposed.
Mr. Speaker, the babies and the people of the State of Texas deserve
no less.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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