Jared Huffman: “I want to thank my friend from Oregon for his leadership and advocacy and calling us together for this important…”

“I want to thank my friend from Oregon for his leadership and advocacy and calling us together for this important discussion tonight. I want to thank him also for bringing up our great conservation hero, Teddy Roosevelt, a Republican President who I can't help but think is rolling in his grave over the fact that cornerstones of his legacy--the protection of public lands, the protection of wildlife--are under constant assault by too many of our friends across the aisle and, for the last 2 weeks, by some very wrong-headed individuals who are heavily armed at a wildlife refuge in southern Oregon. Many Americans who turned on their TVs last week I think were probably surprised to see that this heavily armed extremist group had taken over a national wildlife refuge and that they were threatening to kill anyone who stands in their way. They were led, of course, by Ammon Bundy, the son of the infamous Cliven Bundy, that great philosopher who romanticizes slavery, refuses to pay legally required grazing fees, and organized his own armed insurrection in Nevada a couple of years ago. Americans were surprised to see that this group, which was part of a larger protest against Federal authority, public land policy, and environmental land violations, was so violent and so heavily armed and so extreme in their demands.…”