[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 153 (Thursday, September 18, 2025)]
[House]
[Pages H4450-H4451]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         WHY I CAME TO CONGRESS

  (Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, Mr. Crow of 
Colorado was recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority 
leader.)


                             General Leave

  Mr. CROW. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and 
include extraneous material thereon.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Goldman of Texas). Is there objection to 
the request of the gentleman from Colorado?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. CROW. Mr. Speaker, almost 7 years ago, I came to Congress to 
serve my community, my State, my fellow veterans, and the country that 
I deeply love in a different way than I served it on the battlefield. 
When I put the uniform on as a teenager, I swore an oath to the 
Constitution, and I stand here today to uphold that oath.
  I came here to represent a State that has been racked with trauma: 
Columbine, Aurora Theater, Club Q, Boulder, and, most recently, 
Evergreen High.
  I came here because, like so many of my fellow veterans, I harbor 
deep resentment for our wars that cost thousands of lives, trillions of 
dollars, and decades of lost opportunity.

                              {time}  1800

  Mr. Speaker, I came here because the American working class has been 
gutted, left behind, and excluded from the American Dream, while the 
elites grow wealthier than ever.
  Together with my colleagues from both sides of the aisle, I came to 
Congress, assuming that we could solve these problems together. We 
could have open and safe debates in a free society.
  Instead, I have seen two impeachments, an insurrection, a pandemic, 
cyberattacks, social unrest, political assassinations, mass shooting 
after mass shooting, wars, tumultuous elections, and a rapid collapse 
of our social fabric.
  In the last 9 months, the Republican majority has given up the power 
and the responsibility of Congress to serve the American people and has 
turned this Congress into nothing more than a rubber stamp for Donald 
Trump.
  We should do what we were sent here to do. We should make people's 
lives better, but the Republican majority has stopped that. The lives 
of average Americans everywhere are getting much worse.
  Prices are skyrocketing. Homes are unaffordable. Consumer debt is 
surging. Unemployment is rising. Credit scores are plummeting. Family 
farms are going under. Gun violence continues to devastate our schools 
and our towns.
  While Americans struggle, Donald Trump and his family are cashing in 
at our expense. They accept endless gifts from businesses and foreign 
nations, including a $400 million jet. Individuals are charged $500,000 
to join a private club for access to Trump officials.
  Mar-a-Lago and the White House Rose Garden have been turned into a 
pay-to-play destination for the wealthy and well-connected. Meme coins 
are issued so investors and foreign individuals can buy influence and 
personally enrich the President and his family. All of this has added 
billions of dollars to Trump's wealth since becoming President.
  While Americans get poorer and Trump gets richer, something darker is 
happening. The walls of our democracy are being disassembled brick by 
brick. Federal troops are patrolling our streets to intimate and 
instill fear. Senators and Members of Congress are thrown to the 
ground, handcuffed, arrested, and intimidated. They are firing our most 
experienced generals and admirals who may simply disagree with the 
President.
  They are purging military officials who find themselves on the wrong 
side of the President's cronies. They are threatening American cities 
with war and violence. They are attacking civil society, journalists, 
and public servants who show independence or speak freely.
  They are censoring media because someone dares to question or make a 
joke about the President. They are snatching people off the streets 
with masked agents in unmarked vehicles. They are forcing American 
troops to get on their knees and roll out the red carpet for a brutal 
dictator. They are now using a terrible tragedy to pit Americans 
against one another and grab power.
  Mr. Speaker, political violence in every form is abhorrent. I condemn 
every single act of political violence, regardless of its source or its 
motivation.
  I went to war three times for this country to defend the Constitution 
and the rights of people to say things I might disagree with. The right 
of every American to speak freely, peacefully, organize, and protest is 
fundamental to who we are. After all, what is more American than the 
ability to question authority? Questioning authority is, in fact, how 
we came to be a Nation.
  We all lose when free and open debate is replaced with violence or 
threats. We must not lose our right and our responsibility to speak up 
against abuses of authority.
  Power in America has always been cyclical. At one time, one party is 
in power. The next moment, another is. That is why we must all protect 
it all of the time and not just when it is convenient for us.
  Everyone must defend the ability of a minority, Republican or 
Democrat, to question and protest, because at some point, we will need 
that right. That is why an attack on one person's freedom is an attack 
on all of us.
  That is exactly what Donald Trump is doing. He is attacking all of 
our rights. Donald Trump and his cronies are now labeling those who 
disagree with him terrorists, scum, and enemies of the State. Only they 
will decide what is hateful. Only they will decide what poses a threat. 
Only they will decide who can speak and who will be silenced.
  If anyone thinks they are safe just because it is happening to 
someone else this time, they are not paying attention to history. 
Donald Trump and his cronies have attacked anyone, including rightwing 
media and politicians, simply for questioning them.
  The point for Trump is not to advance an ideology. It is to silence 
dissent and anyone who would dare speak up. When dissent is silenced, 
they can turn our government and weaponize it into an institution that 
serves only Donald Trump and enriches those who are loyal to him.
  In a system where the rule of law is replaced with raw power and 
governed by grievance, greed, cruelty, and impunity, nobody is safe.
  This is not just a story of a Presidential power grab because that 
was envisioned by our Constitution. That is why it was written the way 
it was. It was written to prevent power grabs. There are people with 
power right now allowing this to happen.
  As Trump tramples on the Constitution, some of our most elite and 
powerful individuals and institutions are

[[Page H4451]]

failing to defend our democracy. Some of our Nation's most powerful law 
firms have bent the knee. Some of our finest universities are buckling. 
Some of our most powerful CEOs have capitulated. Some of our largest 
media companies are simply surrendering.
  If those with power and influence want to sell off our rights and 
freedoms to enrich themselves, then Americans should make it clear that 
cowardice and greed will fail. We will not shop at their stores. We 
will not tune in to their TV and radio stations. We won't send our kids 
and our money to their universities. We won't use their services if 
they are going to enable our slide to authoritarianism. What makes 
their cowardice and greed so stark is the courage we have seen from 
everyday Americans.
  When ICE agents started interrogating kids on a baseball diamond in 
Harlem, Coach Youman Wilder was the only thing that stood between those 
agents and his young players. Despite threats, he stood up and told the 
agents that they had no right to speak to those kids. The agents left. 
In the moment, Wilder told himself he was willing to die to make sure 
those kids got home.
  In Twisp, Washington, a small, rural town that Trump won last 
November, hundreds of residents gather every Saturday to protest cuts 
to Medicaid and SNAP. These are cuts that will devastate their 
community. One resident, a school teacher of over 30 years, said they 
protest because: ``Democracy only works if we work it.''

                              {time}  1810

  In April, millions took to the streets to peacefully protest. We saw 
massive demonstrations nationwide in cities big and small. In Cortez, 
Colorado, a population of 9,000, 600 people showed up. In Gardiner, 
Montana, a population of 800, 75 people made their voices heard. In 
Daleville, Alabama, home to 5,000, 100 members of the community showed 
up and spoke out.
  Here in Washington, D.C., as the National Guard is patrolling, and 
ICE agents are dramatically ramping up raids across the city, citizens 
are starting Instagram pages and Facebook groups to inform fellow 
citizens of their rights. Parents are patrolling schoolyards to protect 
the rights of students and other parents. Around the country 
journalists are investigating and relentlessly searching for and 
reporting the truth, despite threats to them and their family.
  There is courage everywhere we look. We have not yet lost our power. 
So many Americans have been sounding the alarm bell for a long time, 
and they have been right.
  We have now reached the inflection point.
  Now is the time for us to stand firm and for us to stand with them, 
and for all of us to stand with those defending democracy, defending 
free speech, defending freedom of religion, defending due process, 
defending the rule of law, defending the right of schoolchildren to 
learn without fear of being shot, and defending government of the 
people, by the people, and for the people.
  I have taken many oaths to protect and defend our country and our 
Constitution, first as a soldier and now as a Member of Congress.
  I often think back to the start of my service to this Nation as a 
young paratrooper leading an infantry platoon in the invasion of Iraq. 
I think about the faces of those young men whom I was responsible for, 
Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, from the North, from the South, East, 
and West, from farms and from cities, rich and poor.
  When I think of America, I still think of those young paratroopers 
and how we came together despite our differences. We served together, 
we fought together, and we found great strength in one another.
  That is America.
  There is a tradition in the paratroopers that the leader of the unit 
jumps out of the plane first and then the others follow.
  Mr. Speaker, I am ready to jump.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Messmer). Members are reminded to 
refrain from engaging in personalities toward the President.

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